Chapter XXII: ) is reintroduced calling on Wonder-Sound to reveal

himself. Then is told the story of his previous existences, how he had lived as a god or a demon, a king or a citizen, a monk or a woman. He is able to transform himself at will in order to save the living through The Lotus doctrine.

The importance of Chapter XXV lies chiefly in its being the oldest reference we have to the Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara, translated into Chinese as Kwan-yin, into Japanese as Kwannon, and commonly known among Occidentals as The Goddess of Mercy. Being asked by the Bodhisattva, Infinite Thought, why this Bodhisattva is known as Kwan-si-yin, “Regarder of the Cries of the World”, the Buddha replies, it is because whoever in pain and distress call upon Kwan-yin their cries will instantly be heard and answered. If they fall into fire it will not burn them, nor floods drown, nor gales destroy. The cry of one will save all the company. The menacing sword will be snapped, and the wicked demon be unable to see the suppliant; the prisoner, guilty or innocent, will be released; the jewel-trader in peril on the road will be protected; the sufferer from carnal passion, anger, infatuation or other moral difficulties will be freed from them; women desiring sons will bear them, happy, virtuous, and wise; or, if daughters, then good in looks and character, beloved by all. Whoever worships myriads of other Bodhisattvas has vast merit, but whoever only worships Kwan-yin equals the other in merit. Kwan-yin appears in infinite forms according to the need of those to be saved, and those forms are described without reserve.

Dharanis, or Spells, are the subject of Chapter XXVI. They are described as spells for the protection of preachers of The Lotus. The first are put into the mouth of the King of Healing, and the Buddha extols them. Some are spoken of as spells used by Buddhas numerous as the sands of sixty-two kotis of Ganges. Other spells are offered, even the demons bringing their contribution to protect the Preacher of The Lotus.

The story of King Resplendent is the burden of Chapter XXVII. He dwelt in the realm of the Buddha Thunder Voice. His wife named Pure Virtue had two sons, Pure Treasury and Pure Eyed. He himself at first was a heretic, though his wife and sons were devout Buddhists. The sons were earnestly desirous of going to hear The Lotus preached, but the mother urged them first to obtain their father’s permission. To convince him of their powers and fitness for the undertaking, they performed supernatural deeds, springing high into the sky, walking, sitting, lying there; the lower part of their bodies emitting fire, the upper water, or vice versa; vanishing, appearing, walking on water and so on. Convinced at last, the father decides to accompany them to hear the Buddha Thunder Voice, whereupon all the 84,000 ladies of the King’s court hail The Lotus truth. King Resplendent at once makes over his domain to his younger brother, while he, his queen, his two sons and all their retinue forsake home and follow the Way of the Buddha. The two sons who have done this Buddha-deed of converting their father are richly rewarded, one becomes the King of Healing, the other the Lord of Healing.

The final Chapter XXVIII is devoted to Encouragement of the Bodhisattva Universal Virtue. He had come from the eastern quarter with all his vast train of countless gods, dragons, yakshas, and all the beings of his realm, to hear The Lotus preached. On his arrival he vows to guard all who believe this Sutra, so that wherever any such a one walks or stands, reading or reciting this Sutra, he will at once mount his royal six-tusked elephant and with a host of great Bodhisattvas go to that place and, revealing himself, will protect him and comfort his mind; moreover, if any one forgets a single word or verse he will put it again into his memory. He will also give him dharanis, or magic spells, to ward off all foes, and to these spells he now gives utterance. All such disciples of The Lotus will ever do the works of Universal Virtue and their heads will be caressed by the Tathagatas. If any recite or copy the Sutra they will avoid every evil destiny and go straight to Maitreya’s heaven. To him the Buddha replies in similar terms, adding that any one who recites or copies this Sutra, is in reality attending on the Buddha; moreover is as if hearing him speak it with his lips, and as if covered with his robe. Such a one will later sit on a lion throne amid a great assembly of gods and men. By the power of this Sutra such disciples will no longer be attached to clothes, bed-covers, drink, food, or other transient things. If any one contemn them he will be blind for generation on generation, if he tells their faults, true or false, he will be smitten with leprosy; if he ridicules them, his teeth for generations will be sparse and missing, his lips vile, his nose flat, his hands and feet contorted, his eyes asquint, his body stinking and filthy with evil scabs and bloody pus, he will be dropsical and short of breath and have every evil disease. But those that bless and reverence him who reads or recites the Sutra will receive abundant rewards here and now.

_Doctrine_

Reverence for the Bible in the West has its counterpart among Far Eastern Buddhists in the reverence shown to the Sutras, especially to The Lotus. There is, perhaps, less restraint there in the expression of devotion. Such reverence is a natural consequence of the belief that The Lotus is the Ultimate Truth preached by every Buddha, once only in every Buddha-world, past, present, and to come. To the Mahayanist it is therefore the Eternal Gospel of Buddhism in all worlds and through all time. The Sutra is declared to be the last will and testament of Śakyamuni before his departure; it is his final bequest to this world. All his previous teaching is postulated as interim doctrine, that is, during the time of the disciples’ ignorance and while their minds were still bound by earth-ties and myopic vision. This final revelation is said to have been reserved by him until the eve of his Nirvana. In it he at last makes known the All-Truth, which confers Perfect Enlightenment and Final Nirvana, or Liberation. This supreme liberation cannot be attained by self-discipline and works; it can only be attained by faith and invocation. Salvation by Faith is then the fundamental doctrine of the Mahayana School. According to The Lotus teaching no sacrifice is required, no expiation, no atonement, no remorse, no repentance in the sense of contrition, nothing but faith in the infinite mercy and infinite power of the Infinite Buddha who lives and reigns for ever.

It is manifest, then, that the spiritual message of the book is revolutionary in its character. Not only are these doctrines of salvation given, but there is presented the panorama of unlimited universes, all of them ever-changing manifestations of the All-Buddha, of whom Śakyamuni is but one expression in one of infinite worlds; the assurance that the Eternal Buddha is both transcendent and immanent; the teaching that every world, every universe, is a flower of the Eternal Lotus; the call to faith as a greater force than disciplinary or ascetic works; the proclamation of the Eternal Buddha, and of his Salvation for all, even to the devils in hell; the assurance of the ultimate enlightenment of all; the universality of buddhahood for all, because all are potential buddhas, or enlightened ones—such is the inspiration of this masterpiece of literature.

The author is clearly conscious that he is boldly putting into the Buddha’s lips doctrines to which he never gave utterance, and which are not found in the orthodox scriptures. So eager is he to explain, or explain away, this fundamental discrepancy, that he devotes several chapters and parables to elucidation of and excuse for the Buddha’s complete reversal of his earlier teaching. At times he openly fears that the Buddha will be accused of having deceived his disciples and even lied to them. Unbiased minds, as well as the biased minds of the orthodox, cannot fail to recognize that the orthodox doctrines and those of The Lotus are diametrically opposed. There is, therefore, good reason why the author, who so skillfully foists the new doctrine on to Śakyamuni, should endeavour to defend his position by pretending that all the Buddha’s life had been spent in teaching an interim doctrine, using the methods of a tactician or a casuist. The author is indeed in serious difficulty. He wishes to father on to Śakyamuni, the founder of Buddhism, doctrines he would have repudiated, and to use Śakyamuni’s name and authority to change entirely the character of his religion. If this view be correct, then the pious fraud has been remarkably successful, for it is this form of Buddhism that has tamed savage tribes such as the Mongols and Tibetans, inspired people like the Chinese and Japanese to a higher spiritual and artistic development, established a cult with many resemblances to Christianity, and is now reacting, chiefly through theosophical publications, on certain lines of thought in the West. Orthodox Buddhism has had no such influence. It is the heterodox school that has prevailed.

Needless to say, the above explanation is not acceptable to the devout Mahayanist. Like the Fundamentalist in the West he refuses to have his faith shaken in the letter of the Law. The Lotus, in his estimate, was spoken by Śakyamuni on earth during his last years, all his previous teaching having been preparatory. Many disciples, who are represented as unable to receive his ultimate Truth, left him as is shown in Chapter II, where they turn away from the higher revelation.

Bound to the letter of his scripture, the devout Mahayanist refuses to see in this dramatic work a brilliant apocalypse, in which the earthly Buddha and his disciples are used as figures to portray a new religion of Salvation for all. That in reality is the term which indicates the character of the new and revolutionary doctrine. It accounts also for the division between Mahayanist and Hinayanist, the broad and the narrow schools, the believer in universal salvation by faith and the believer in the salvation of the few by works. It is self-evident that these two terms are not the creation of the orthodox, for they would never dub themselves Hinayanists, men of the “small cart”. That term is a Mahayanist creation, and the influence of The Lotus Sutra in fixing the contrasted terms is undoubted.

The author of The Lotus drama puts into the mouth of Śakyamuni the statement:

“In the Buddha-lands of the Universe
There is only the One-Vehicle Law, (Mahayana)
Neither a second, nor a third.”

The other ways, or wains, he says are only “provisional terms”, meant

“To lead all living beings
Toward the true Buddha-wisdom”;

because a Buddha

“Never by a small vehicle (Hinayana)
Really saves the living;”

for, being in the Great Vehicle (Mahayana) himself, he says:

“If by a small vehicle
I converted but one human being,
I should thereby fall into selfishness,
A thing that cannot be.”

Having vowed to lead all beings into perfect buddhahood along with himself, he must do so by the highest means, by the fullest enlightenment, by buddhahood; it was only as a temporary expedient that he had led his disciples by partial truths on the way to the All-Truth. This idea is especially brought out in the parables of The Burning House, Chapter III, and the Magic City, Chapter VII.

Leaving then “this pious fraud”, as the Orthodox believe, to implicate itself by its own excuses, let us turn to certain other doctrines of the book, which differentiate it from the orthodox school.

I. Buddhism, whose awakening is placed under the shelter of the bo or bodhi-tree (_ficus religiosa_), the Buddhist tree of knowledge, bases its existence on gnosis. Mental awakening, or awareness, intelligence, mind, knowledge, wisdom, are all implicit within the term. To what extent the Gnostics were indebted to Buddhism is not yet clearly elucidated. Mind to both was the supreme factor. But though mind was fundamental to his doctrine, Śakyamuni, according to the Orthodox school, recognized no Mind behind mind. Like Socrates he treated, and was justified in treating, the theistic conceptions of his day as of inferior value. He did not deny the existence of the gods, but placed them beneath the position attained by a Buddha, that is a truly enlightened man. This Mindless system is entirely changed in Mahayanism, in which the Eternal Buddha, who may be described as the Eternal Mind and Eternal Soul, becomes the very foundation of the new structure.

In The Lotus, when the Ancient Buddha appears, who resembles “The Ancient of Days”, it is evident that He is a Person and the devout see in him the Mind behind the All. The Lotus itself, in its complete aspect, is considered as but a metaphor for the Universe, each flower a world; it is used also for the nidus of a soul, as from the spiritual Lotus-flower springs a soul or a life. That the Mahayanists believe in the Mind behind The Lotus, or the All, is clear from the emphasis they lay on the Eternal Buddha. He is in and through all things, which in a sense is the Buddhist form of Pantheism, although, in fact, transcendence rather than immanence is the doctrine of our Sutra. It is manifest, for instance, that the Ancient Buddha is transcendent; when he appears all beings are shown to be his rather than in him; all must assemble to hear Śakyamuni, his earthly counterpart, proclaim The Lotus, with its gospel of universal salvation. It may be argued that the Ancient Buddha here revealed was only one form of the Eternal Buddha, but, even so, the accepted interpretation is that he is the Eternal Buddha. At any rate Nirvana, as extinction of existence, is demonstrated by Mahayanists to be a false doctrine of the Hinayana School.