Presented to the Riverview Dharma Centre on Sunday, October 1, 2017.

FOURTH TALK (Conclusion)

Appendix II

The Discourse of Contemplation of the Teaching Practice of Universal Sage Bodhisattva  (Samantabhadra)

The Samantabhadra Meditation Discourse (referred to hereinafter as the Meditation Discourse) is a Chinese discourse translated in the first half of the 5^th century by Dharmamitra. Two prior translations have been lost, and no Sanskrit original has been found. It is traditionally published as an epilogue to the Lotus Discourse proper, which is supported by the text of the Meditation Discourse itself. Unlike the other two discourses, it is not divided into chapters.

The Discourse opens with the Buddha at the Great Forest Monastery of Vaisali, three months before his passing. Vaisali was the capital of the Vajjian confederacy, an early quasi-democracy. The Buddha modelled the constitution of the order after the Vajjian confederacy. Vaisali was also the birthplace of the 24^th guide (tīrthankara) of Jainism, as well as the location of the Second Buddhist Council (ca.300 BCE). The Buddha announces to the monastics that he will die in three months.

Ananda, Mahakasyapa, and Maitreya all rise from their seats and, after circumambulating the Buddha, ask the Buddha how the awakening beings will be able to follow the path without the Buddha’s guidance. The Buddha replies that previously he has taught the way of one truth (ekayana), but now he will teach a method of meditation, beginning with an explanation of the Land of Pure Wonder, also taught in the Flower Garland Discourse (Avatamsaka Sutra), whereby one may see the material body of Universal Sage Awakening being  (Samantabhadra, the awakening being  of practice and meditation); the stupa of Prabhutaratna (Abundant Treasure) Buddha, which appears in the Lotus Discourse;  Shakyamuni Buddha and the buddhas who embody him; and purify the six senses.

An interesting point about this exercise is that it is available to householders, not just monastics. Ananda, Mahakasyapa, and Maitreya all ask, “Without cutting off their afflictions and renouncing the five desires, how can they purify their sense organs and completely rid themselves of their sins? With the natural pure eyes received at birth from their parents, and without leaving the world of the five desires, how can they see past their hindrances?” This corresponds to a similar passage in the Prajnaparamita: “Having given but a little gift, having guarded but a little morality, having developed but a little patience, having exerted but a little vigour, having entered trance but a little, having developed wisdom but a little, a Bodhisattva, a great being, who wants by skilful conversion to make this small amount for all beings on account of the knowledge of all modes into an immeasurable and incalculable one, should train in perfect wisdom.”

All awakening beings are essentially householders, since the Awakening being  himself, throughout all his past lives, is nowhere mentioned as having been ordained, including in his final rebirth (he was however reborn 83 out of 530 times [but only 16%] as an ascetic). Here we see an intimation of the fundamental premise of Tantra, that spiritual practice is reoriented toward the householders as the monastic age, which tradition says would be limited to one or two thousand years (specific estimates vary according to the text), recedes and the age of degeneration continues, using powerful compensatory techniques like seclusion, prostration, visualization, concentration, chanting, and invocations, vows, burning incense, scattering flowers, hanging paintings, flags, canopies, etc., etc. A thousand years after the Buddha’s passing on is about 600 CE. According to the Wikipedia, Buddhist Vajrayana tantras began to appear about the sixth or seventh centuries CE – right on schedule!

The Buddha states that those who practice for one day, 21 days, 49 days, or one to three lifetimes, will be able to see Samantabhadra, depending on their personal purity. However, Samantabhadra’s body is unlimited, manifesting in an infinite variety of different forms. He is represented as an enormous radiant white elephant with six tusks and seven legs moving through a field of seven lotus flowers. He holds a golden flower that has not yet blossomed in his trunk. The Discourse implies that this is the form in which people will see the body of Samantabhadra, but it also has the appearance of a visualization exercise, such as we find in the Tantric tradition, with incredibly elaborate symbolic details that we will not go into here. The highly ritualistic character of the Discourse confirms this interpretation. The golden flower is said to blossom because of the practice, suggesting the attainment of the clear light or Buddha nature. Compare the Secret of the Golden Flower, a 17^th century Taoist classic popularized by Wilhelm Baynes and Carl Gustav Jung.  Although nominally Taoist, the meditation technique described in the book has been described as “Zen with details.”

Samantabhadra is seated cross-legged on the back of the elephant that represents him, surrounded by a multicoloured aura. Every pore of his body radiates golden light.

The “follower” who wishes to see the physical body of Samantabhadra shows respect to the buddhas in all directions six times day and night, rather like the followers of Islam who pray five times a day. The Discourse states that all people are to be regarded as the Buddha, and all living beings as one’s parents. The follower entreats the awakening beings to teach them, and because of the merit (“wisdom-power”) of the former, they will realize the teaching. This is the first stage of the meditation.

Followers are enjoined to meditate on the Mahayana to the extent that they dream of it. Samantabhadra will inspire their minds and they will realize the teaching, until they see imaginary buddhas in all directions and experience bliss.

The followers are then enjoined to intensify their repentance, an interesting word with Judaeo-Christian associations. “Repentance” is achieved by meditating on “suchness” (tatha), “the true aspect of reality,” and the Mahayana discourses. In other words, “repentance” in this context is equated to the realization of the “true aspect of reality.”

Master Chi Yii (538–597 CE), the founder of the Tiantai sect, further expanded the idea of confession through discourses, by establishing a self-confessional ritual consisting of nine steps. This is called the “Dharma Blossom Meditative concentration Confessional Ritual.”

In any case, followers should prostrate to the buddhas in all directions, and then kneel with palms together and pray to the buddhas. Interestingly, this aspect of the practice implicit in the Meditation Discourse, in which the follower kneels and prays in the direction of Vulture Peak (Griddharaj Parvat) in India, anticipates the Muslim obeisance to the Qibla (7^th century). When completely purified, Samantabhadra will appear and teach them all the teaching in both waking and sleeping states. After 21 days of this, the follower will acquire the “revolving incantation.” Bunno translates this as “sacred utterance of revolution.” As we discussed in connection with the Lotus, a sacred utterance is a sort of mantra, inscribed on a charm, amulet, or talisman, often in circular or other geometric patterns similar to a mandala, by means of which the follower will acquire a perfect understanding of the teaching.

Because of their purification of the senses, the follower will develop clairaudience, clairvoyance, and other psychic powers, also described in the Pali Canon. As a result of this practice the follower will experience a vision of Shakyamuni Buddha emitting infinite rays of golden light from the pores of his body, in each of which are hundreds of millions of transformed buddhas, numerous as the grains of sand of the Ganges. It is also similar to a fractal, referring to the infinite divisibility of phenomena, i.e., the principle of differentiation or proliferation and continuity that is also the essential principle of existence. In other words, the teaching manifests in an infinite diversity of ways, corresponding to the doctrines of the 84,000 skilful means, “innumerable meanings,” infinite numbers of forms of Samantabhadra previously alluded to, etc.

Samantabhdara emits a ray of light from the centre of the forehead (ajna chakra) into the heart (anahata chakra) of the follower, resulting in a sudden and great awakening, including the memory of past lives. The follower will acquire the revolving sacred utterance and billions of other sacred utterances. 

The six methods to purify the sense organs are to meditate on the Buddha, the teaching, order, morality, generosity, and the higher planes of existence, which together express the aspiration to become a buddha, followed by confession and repentance. These concepts are also found in the Pali Canon of course, in connection with the lunar gathering, where the order meets and recites the rules of the order (a formulary for releasing monastics by penances, essentially a form of karma yoga). If anyone in the gathering has broken the rules, the order is purified by either the expulsion or confession of the monastic, by which the karma of the sin is expiated, with certain exceptions, like sex, stealing, murder, and lying, which result in automatic expulsion from the order. The Meditation Discourse is based on a similar premise for the individual and states that these six methods are essentially equivalent to the aspiration for enlightenment. Such a person becomes a “follower” and their mind will become orderly. This is called the mark of the first stage of the purification of the eyes.

You may recall that when the Buddha was considering not teaching, he decided to teach for the sake of those whose eyes are less covered with “dust.” In the Meditation Discourse there is a direct allusion to the “dust of the passions,” suggesting that what the Buddha meant originally is that some people are more or less (dis)passionate. “Dust” also refers to matter or materiality, and the process of objectification by which we become attached to the objects of our imagination. This is another example of how the Lotus Discourse and the rest interpret the Pali tradition. More passionate people, regardless of gender, are reborn as women. The feminine is the somatic polarity according to Jung, the principle of the body and matter, but this does not mean that women are incapable of attaining emancipation. The Buddha explicitly said that they are, and established the female monastic order on this basis, at a time and in a place where women were regarded as chattel and inferior, despite the fact that many ancient seers were women. In other words, he was restoring the ancient tradition.  The Buddha also said that an order that excludes women is incomplete and imperfect. Thus, the Buddha affirms reverence for the female, the essential principle of Tantra.

In addition, the Meditation Discourse teaches that the forms and bodies of buddhas do not become extinct. The Buddha taught this when he rejected nihilism, but misinterpreted by the Theravada, who equate emancipation with annihilation and the attainment of the Tathagata with literal extinction rather than with the transcendence of involuntary rebirth. Rather, their merit continues to inspire beings to purify themselves through aspiration. In the language of the Discourse, the “dharma water” of the “wisdom eyes” that cleanse and purify are the merciful and compassionate tears of Avalokiteshvara, who hears the cries of the world.

In what is now clearly a practice, the follower kneels on their right knee and repents six times a day. As a result, the stupa of Abundant Treasure Buddha springs out of the earth as in chapter XI of the Lotus Discourse. Here we clearly see that the Lotus Discourse is being interpreted esoterically as a metaphor for the attainment of a series of spiritual states, culminating in enlightenment that is represented in positive rather than in negative terms, i.e., from the perspective of enlightenment itself rather than from the perspective of suffering. This is indeed the essential difference between the Hinayana and the Mahayana. The stupa of enlightenment represents a primal force that shatters the inertia of matter and manifests a luminous celestial phenomenon. Shakyamuni opens the “door” of the stupa and the follower experiences a vision of Abundant Treasures Buddha, as a brilliant, fractally self-proliferating being who is the real body of the Buddha.

By recognizing that consciousness is defiled through the influence of the senses, one can free oneself from attachment to each of the senses in turn by the exercise of repentance. The process is repeated for each of the six senses – eyes, ears, nose, tongue, mind, and body – that are each purified thereby. Similarly, this exercise is repeated six times per day.

These teachings are attributed to a “voice in the sky,” which encourages and instructs the follower. The “voice in the sky” is frequently found in ancient literature. Before we discount it as purely mythical, we should remember the daemon of Socrates, which he actually heard. Even as recently as the 18^th century, we have the example of William Blake, showing that visions and clairaudient experiences are not inherently fictitious or symptomatic of mental illness. Julian Jaynes argues in The Breakdown of Consciousness in the Bicameral Mind that ancient people commonly experienced such phenomena. The UFO connection can also not be discounted, in view of other evidence in the Pali Canon and elsewhere.

The Discourse reiterates what I have mentioned frequently, that salvation is by the practice of wisdom. Wisdom, the cure for ignorance, is the inherently salvific principle. The Meditation Discourse’s teaching concerning mind is familiar:

If you contemplate your mind, you will find no mind, except the mind that comes from perverse conceptions. The mind with such conceptions arises from delusion. Like the wind in the sky, it has no grounding. Such a character of things neither appears nor disappears. … the thought of self is itself empty, nether sin nor virtue is our master. … all things are neither permanent nor destroyed. If one repents like this, meditating on one’s mind, one finds no mind. Things also do not dwell in things. All things are liberated, show the truth of extinction, and are calm and tranquil. Such a thing is called great repentance, sublime repentance, repentance without sin, the destruction of consciousness of mind. People who practice this repentance are pure in body and mind, like flowing water, not attached to things.

This language is worthy of Laozi or a Gnostic text. Previously we questioned the use of the word “repentance” in the Discourse. Here we learn that “repentance” is actually meditation on “no mind,” whereby body and mind are purified. Zen Buddhism was doubtlessly inspired by this passage. Later on the Discourse says that “If you want to repent, you should sit upright / And reflect on the true nature of things.” Clearly, what the Discourse means by repentance, while it may include the Christian connotation of confession, also goes beyond this conventional definition, analogous to the original meaning of metanoia, conventionally translated “repentance” (e.g., in the King James Bible), but which literally means “change of mind.” Note the adumbration of Tantra in the vaguely libertine reference to the Buddha being beyond good and evil, which one also finds in the Pali. The Buddha transcends morality, which he also disdains. Like the Taoist sage, he lives in a perfectly effortless and spontaneous accord with his environment. Note also that the enlightened mind’s perception of the world has subtly changed. Without attachment to phenomena, the Buddha sees no difference between the world and emancipation. The illusion of the world has disappeared like a mirage, revealing the true landscape of reality. For the “destruction of consciousness of mind,” Bunno has “destruction of discrimination.”  Postmodernism has caught up with the Buddha only after two and a half millennia.

“the mind is like a monkey,

Never resting for a moment.”

…

“The body, master of its organs,

Dances freely amongst these six harmful faculties

Without obstacle,

Like dust swirling in the wind.”

…

“The so-called six methods

Purify the six sense organs.”

The Buddha explains to Ananda how the discourses are the eyes of the Buddha, the reading and reciting of which are all that is needed to attain enlightenment (the salvific wisdom principle again). Five kinds of eyes and three kinds of bodies are distinguished but not explained. However, we know from other sources that the five eyes are the eyes of flesh; the divine eye, by means of which one perceives the operation of moral causality; the wisdom eye, which perceives the essentially empty nature of phenomenal existence; the dharma eye, which sees (i.e., realizes) reality; and the Buddha eye, which sees (i.e., accesses) infinite information. The eye itself is a symbol of the vector of attention or the quantum “act of observation.”

The three “‘body’ aspects of Buddhahood” are properly referred to as the emanation body (nirmāṇakāya), the enjoyment body (saṃmbhogakāya), and the truth or reality body (dharmakāya).

The Discourse recommends that the disciples meet in a graveyard or under the trees of a monastery. It alludes to “the strong power of reflecting,” i.e., sati, mindfulness, “remembering,” or reflexivity, and states that by this means they will see the body of the celestial buddhas and awakening beings and become buddhas themselves. The Mahayana has the power to destroy the karmic formations accumulated during “hundreds of myriads of thousands of billions of eons.” They should purify themselves by bathing, putting on clean clothes, burning incense, living in seclusion, and reading and meditating on the Mahayana discourses. One should meditate on Samantabhadra, the archetypal awakening being. This is, according to the Discourse, the one true meditation (see appendix).

Facility in this meditation confers perfection in the bodhisattva  precepts without the requirement of any special initiation, i.e., it is available to everyone, including monastics, householders, and those with or without a teacher. Through this powerful practice one will realize the fivefold truth body consisting of precepts, meditation, wisdom, liberation, and insight into liberation, which are distinguished.

The Discourse concludes with a recommendation to practise five repentances: meditation on emptiness, fulfilling one’s duty to one’s family, ruling justly, practising fasting and abstaining from killing, and believing in the law of moral causality, the “single” or “universal vehicle,” and the non-extinction of the buddhas.

The practice of the Meditation Discourse consists of (1) recitation, including invoking the name of the Buddha; (2) concentration or meditation; (3) repentance and confession; (4) making vows or affirmations, of which there are sixteen (see appendix); (5) respect and reverence (probably implying prostration, kneeling, and joining the palms together); (6) offerings, consisting of burning incense, scattering flowers, and hanging flags, paintings, and canopies; (7) celebration, devotion, praise, and aspiration; and  (perhaps separately) (8) circumambulating stupas. The rite implied is performed in the direction of Vulture Peak and is repeated six times daily. A period of isolation or seclusion, as in a spiritual retreat, is also implied. This rite or retirement is held to purify the six sense organs, cultivate wisdom, and ultimately result in the attainment of Buddhahood. The Tiantai have a rite of Dharma Confession that appears to be related to this.

I have appended the vows or affirmations.

The Vows or Affirmations

First Affirmation

If I have any blessings stored up, surely I should see Universal Sage soon. Honourable Universal Fortune please show me your physical body!

Second Affirmation

Great kind ones, great compassionate ones, out of pity for me, please teach the Teaching for me!

Third Affirmation

Thanks to the Great Vehicle, I have been able to see great leaders. Because of the powers of great leaders, I have also been able to see buddhas. Though I have seen these buddhas, still I have not seen them completely. When I close my eyes I see the buddhas, but when I open my eyes I lose sight of them.

Fourth Affirmation

The buddhas, the world-honoured ones have the ten powers, courage, the eighteen unique qualities, great compassion, great kindness, and the three kinds of mental stability. These buddhas, always living embodied in this world, have the finest form. What is the sin that makes me fail to see them?

Fifth Affirmation

Due to what sin have I only seen earth of jewels, seats of jewels, and jewel trees, but have not seen the buddhas?

Sixth Affirmation

The Tathagata, the World’s Hero, is always in this world. Out of pity for me, please reveal yourself to me.

Seventh Affirmation

May I be cleansed and purified by the Dharma water of the buddhas and awakening beings of the wisdom-eyes!

Eighth Affirmation

I now repent for the heavy sins of my eyes. My eyes are such an obstacle and are so tainted that I am blind and can see nothing at all. With your great kindness, may the Buddha have mercy on me and protect me! Universal Sage Awakening being , accompanied by countless awakening beings from all of the directions, rides the ship of the great Teaching, the ship that carries all beings to the other side. My one wish is that out of pity for me my no-good eyes will be purified of the hindrances that come from the bad and evil things that I have done in the past.

Ninth Affirmation

Why can I only see Shakyamuni Buddha and the buddhas who embody him, but not the stupa or remaining whole body of Abundant Treasures Buddha? The stupa of Abundant Treasures Buddha is always living, never extinct. My eyes are polluted by evil. This is why I cannot see the stupa.

Tenth Affirmation

Great Teacher, teach me to repent of my faults.

Eleventh Affirmation

Truly enlightened World Honoured One, reveal yourself and bear testimony for me. With the discourses of the Expansive Teaching you are the master of compassion. My one request is that you look upon me and hear what I say. For many eons, until I had this body, because of my ears I was deluded by sounds and attached to hearing them, just as lacquer sticks to grass. When I hear evil sounds, a pervasive poison of affliction arises, deluding me and attaching me to everything, without resting even a little. Bad sounds wear on my nerves and make me fall into the three destinies. Now, understanding this for the first time returning to the world-honoured ones I confess and repent of it.

Twelfth Affirmation

Praise to Shakyamuni Buddha! Praise to the stupa of Abundant Treasures Buddha! Praise to all the buddhas in the ten directions embodying Shakyamuni Buddha!

Thirteenth Affirmation

Praise to the Buddha Good Virtue in the eastern direction and to the buddhas who embody him!

Fourteenth Affirmation

During the innumerable eons of my previous lives, I craved aromas, tastes, and feelings from touch and did many evil things. For this reason, for innumerable lives I have always found myself born in various undesirable bodies, including those of beings in purgatories, hungry spirits, animals, beings in remote places, and people of wrong views.

Fifteenth Affirmation

The buddhas, the world-honored ones, are always alive in this world. Because of hindrances due to my actions in the past, even though I have faith in the Expansive Teaching, I cannot clearly see buddhas. Now I take refuge in the buddhas. Shakyamuni Buddha, truly enlightened, World-Honoured One, I beg you just to be my teacher. Manjushri, great compassionate one, I beg you to use your wisdom to instruct me in the pure teachings of awakening beings. Maitreya Bodhisattva, sun of superior and great kindness, out of sympathy for me, you should listen to my pleas to receive the teachings of awakening beings. Buddhas in all directions, reveal yourselves and testify for me. Great awakening beings, superior and great teachers, since we extol your names, protect all living beings. Help and protect us! Today I have received and embraced the discourses of the Expansive Teaching. Even if I should lose my life, fall into a purgatory, and suffer endlessly, I would never harm or slander the true Teaching of the buddhas. Therefore, Shakyamuni Buddha, for this reason and by the power of this blessing, be my teacher now! Manjushri, be my educator! Maitreya of the world to come, I beg you to instruct me in the Teaching! Buddhas in all directions, I beg you to teach me true wisdom! Awakening beings of great virtue I beg you to be my companions! Due to the profound and mysterious meanings of the Great Vehicle discourses, I now take refuge in the Buddha, take refuge in the Teaching, and take refuge in the monastic community.

Sixteenth Affirmation

Today I have aspired to awakening. May the blessings from this save all the living!

Glossary

100 billion	nayuta
Act of truth	sacca-kiriya
Aerial car, palace	vimana
Antigod, lord	asura
Arising	uppada
Aspiration to enlightenment, mind directed toward awakening	bodhicitta
Attention, mindfulness, remembrance, reflexivity	sati
Awakening being	bodhisattva
Buddha nature	tathagatagarbha
Buddha-land	buddhakalpa,  buddhadhatu
Buddha of Immeasurable Life and Light	Amitabha
Celestial bird being	garuda
Celestial musician	gandharva
Central mountain	Sumeru
Change, impermanence, transience	anicca
Concentration, one-pointedness	ekagrata
Degenerate age	mappo
Demerit	apunna
Detachment, non-attachment, indifference	viraga
Dharma eye	dharmacaksus
Dharma-teaching	dharmaparyaya
Disciple, listener, hearer	sravaka
Discourse	sutra
Dissolution	bhanga
Divine being	deva
Divine eye	divyacaksus
Emanation body	nirmanakaya
Emancipation, extinction, annihilation	nirvana
Energy, manliness	viriya
Enjoyment body	Sammbhogakaya
Eye of flesh	mamsacaksus
Female monastic order	bhikkhunisangha
Final emancipation	parinirvana
Five precepts	pansil
Four Great Kings	Caturmaharajika
Future Buddha	Maitreya
Gnosis	pratyaksa
Great mother, nature, earth	Aditi, Prajna, Maya, Bhavani, Durga
Great vehicle	Mahayana
Guide	tirthankara
Hermit buddha	pratyekabuddha
Ignorance	avidya
Insight	vipassana
Interconnectedness, law of 12 causes, chain of cause and effect, chain of causation	pratityasamutpada
Intermediate state	bardo
Karmic tendencies	samskara
“Lord Who Looks Down the Cries of the World”	Avalokitesvara
Lotus flower	pundarika
Loving-kindness	metta
Lunar observance, gathering	uposatha
Meditative attainment	jhana
Meditative concentration	samadhi
Merit, virtue, blessing	punya
Middle path	madhyama pratipad
Mindstream	santana
Momentariness	khanika-vado
Monk	bhikkhu
Moral causality	karma
Neither perception nor non-perception	akiccha-vimoksha
Nonduality, nondual	advaya
One Way, One Truth, universal vehicle, single teaching	ekayana
Order, assembly, community	sangha
Perfect wisdom	prajnaparamita
Perfection	paramita
Persistence	thiti
Pinnacle of existence	uttama-jiva
Posture	asana
Power of truth	satya
Primordial Buddha	Adibuddha
Proliferation	papanca
Psychic powers	siddhi
Pure land	sukhavati
Reality, truth body	dharmakaya
Realm of the 33	Triyastrimsa
Repentence	pascattapah
Sacred utterances, talisman, charm, amulet	dharani
Sage king, prince priest	Raja rishi
Seeker	sravaka
Self	atman
Selflessness, no-self, not-self, non-self, non-self-identity	anatta
Skilful means, method	upaya
Small, basic vehicle	Hinayana
Stages of a bodhisattva	bhumi
Suffering, unsatisfactoriness, angst, ennui, pain	dukkha
Supreme perfect enlightenment	anuttara-samyak-sambodhi
Sword interval, age of science	satthanatarakappa
Tactful, expedient means	upaya
Tathagata’s dwelling, abode	tathagatabhumi
Teaching, truth	dharma
Three characteristics	trilaksana
Thus Come One	Tathagata
Thusness, suchness, being	tatha
Transfer of merit	pratitya-dana
Treasure, treasure text	terma
Uninterrupted hell	avici
Verse	gatha
Void, emptiness, non-being, potentiality	shunyata
Vulture Peak	Grdhrakuta, Griddharaj Parvat
Western paradise	Sukhavati
Wisdom	prajna, jnana
Wisdom eye	prajnacaksus
Word of the Buddha, Buddhist philosophy	buddhavacana
World, worldliness, existence, rebirth, transmigration, time	samsara

Notes

^[1] The Sanskrit title is Bhaiṣajyarājapūrvayoga, from bhaisajya ‘medicine, drug’  + raja ‘king, chief’ + purvayoga ‘history, olden time.’  The Chinese title is 薬王菩薩本事品 ‘medicine’ + ‘king’ + ‘bodhisattva’ + ‘origin, source; foundation, basis’ + ‘chapter.’

[2] The Sanskrit word is bodhimanda, “seat of wisdom.” Manda is the root of mandala, referring to a celestial orb.

^[3] Cf. The Chaldean Oracles of Zoroaster: “The girders of the soul, which give her breathing, are easy to be unloosed” (Psel. 32 – Plet. 8).

^[4] Threefold Lotus Sutra, p. 310. Kern has “he will also receive the five transcendent faculties, as well as the acquiescence in the eternal law” (Saddharma-Pundarika, p. 390).

^[5] The major alternative date of 483 BCE would put the 2500th year of the Parinirvana circa 2017 CE. The traditional Theravadin date of 544 BCE, which would put the year 2500 BE circa 1956/57, corresponding to the Sixth Buddhist Council, is untenable.

[6] “To see a World in a Grain of Sand / And a Heaven in a Wild Flower / Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand / And Eternity in an hour.” “Auguries of Innocence,” in the Pickering Manuscript (1803).

[7] “With this pure mental faculty, by hearing so much as a single gatha or a single phrase, he shall penetrate incalculable, limitless meanings; and after having understood these meanings, he shall be able to expound a single phrase or a single gatha for as much as a month, or four months, or even for a year, and the dharmas that he preaches shall be in accord with the import of that meaning, standing in absolutely no contradiction to the marks of reality” (Hurvitz, Scripture of the Lotus Blossom of the Fine Dharma,  p. 276).

^[8] The Sanskrit title .of this chapter is Gadgadasvara, the name of a bodhisattva, meaning “stammering utterance.” The Chinese title is 妙音菩薩品, ‘clever, wonderful’ + ‘sound, noise, note, tone, news, syllable’ + ‘bodhisattva’ + ‘chapter.’ Therefore, the full translation might be ‘The Chapter of the Bodhisattva Subtle Sound.’

[9] “the two sons, taking thought for their father, danced in empty space at a height equal to that of seven tala-trees and displayed a variety of magical feats in empty space: walking, remaining still, sitting, lying down, emitting water from the upper part of their bodies, emitting fire from the lower part of their bodies, emitting water from the lower part of their bodies, emitting fire form the upper part of their bodies, or else displaying a body large enough to fill empty space, then displaying a small one, or a small one and then displaying a large one, vanishing in empty space and then suddenly appearing on the ground, sinking into the earth as if it were water, treading on the water as if it were earth.”

[10] Cf. SN 56.48. Kato et at. identify this as chapter 15 of the Samyutta Nikaya (p. 335 n. 4).

[11] The length of a yojana is about 8 miles (13 km). Thus, 80,000 yojanas is about 1.04 million km. For comparison, the average orbital distance of the moon from the earth is 384,402 km, about half of the distance to Tayastrimsa according to the Lotus Sutra. Other authorities say that Trayastrimsa is only eighty yojanas above the earth. However, the latter distance would put Trayasrimsa at 1,200 km, just inside the upper limit of the earth’s atmosphere. (Kato et al. say that a yojana is 64, 120, or 160 km!)