Myōhō-renge-kyō

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Myōhō-renge-kyō: The Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Law

Book

Translations of Sutras (Chi-Eng)

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Descriptionངོ་སྤྲོད།

The late Reverend Bunnō Katō, born in 1888, the translator of Myōhō-Renge-Kyō, The Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Law, was a priest-scholar of the Nichiren Sect of Japanese Buddhism. He completed this translation after three years of devoted work, when he was studying at Oxford University since 1922, with the help of Rev. William Soothill, professor of Chinese. On returning to Japan in 1925, he soon became a lecturer at Risshō University and editor of the Nisshū Shimpō, then a monthly bulletin of the Nichiren Sect. Afterwards he was appointed head of the doctrinal department at the headquarters of the Sect. Katō's hopes of having his English translation of the Lotus Sutra published failed to materialize several times because of the costs involved. After his death, the manuscript was donated by his widow to the library of Risshō University, where it was kept for 35 years until turned over to Dr. Wilhelm Schiffer, professor at Sophia University and director of the International Institute of the Study of Religions, in 1967 for further revision. His translation, indeed, saw the light of day after an elapse of 46 years since he completed the translation in Oxford. (Source: book jacket, Myōhō-Renge-Kyō, The Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Law)

Citation

Katō, Bunnō, trans. Myōhō-Renge-Kyō: The Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Law. Revised by W. E. Soothill and W. Schiffler. Tokyo: Kōsei Publishing, 1971.

Table of contents

Preface v
Introduction vii
Notes xii

1. Introductory 1
2. Tactfullness 32
3. A Parable 69
4. Faith-Discernment 116
5. The Parable of the Herbs 139
6. Prediction 152
7. Parable of the Magic City 165
8. The Five Hundred Disciples Receive the Prediction of Their Destiny 201
9. Prediction of the Destiny of Arhats, Training and Trained 215
10. A Teacher of the Law 222
11. Beholding the Precious Stupa 235
12. Devadatta 251
13. Exhortation to Hold Firm 262
14. A Happy Life 269
15. Springing up out of the Earth 291
16. Revelation of the (Eternal) Life of the Tathāgata 307
17. Discrimination of Merits 318
18. The Merits of Joyful Acceptance 334
19. The Merits of the Preacher 342
20. The Bodhisattva Never-Despise 361
21. The Divine Power of the Tathāgata 370
22. The Final Commission 377
23. The Story of the Bodhisattva Medicine-King 380
24. The Bodhisattva Wonder-Sound 393
25. The All-Sidedness of the Bodhisattva Regarder-of-the-Cries-of-the World 404
26. Dhāranīs 416
27. The Story of King Resplendent 423
28. Encouragement of the Bodhisattva Universal-Virtue 432

Interconnections

Works related to this item

1 Full translation of

Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra [सद्धर्मपुण्डरीकसूत्र]. dam pa'i chos pad ma dkar po zhes bya ba theg pa chen po'i mdo [དམ་པའི་ཆོས་པད་མ་དཀར་པོ་ཞེས་བྱ་བ་ཐེག་པ་ཆེན་པོའི་མདོ།]. [The Mahāyāna Sūtra "The White Lotus of the Good Dharma" (84000)]. Translated by Surendrabodhi, Ye shes sde, Kumārajīva, Dharmarakṣa, Dharmakṣema, Jñānagupta, Dharmagupta. Kangyur, RKTSK 113 http://www.rkts.org/cat.php?id=113&typ=1.

Classical WorksAbout this item

The White Lotus of the Good Dharma, popularly known as the Lotus Sūtra, is taught by Buddha Śākyamuni on Vulture Peak to an audience that includes bodhisattvas from countless realms, as well as bodhisattvas who emerge from under the ground, from the space below this world. Buddha Prabhūtaratna, who has long since passed into nirvāṇa, appears within a floating stūpa to hear the sūtra, and Śākyamuni enters the stūpa and sits beside him. The Lotus Sūtra is celebrated, particularly in East Asia, for its presentation of crucial elements of the Mahāyāna tradition, such as the doctrine that there is only one yāna, or "vehicle"; the distinction between expedient and definite teachings; and the notion that the Buddha's life, enlightenment, and parinirvāṇa were simply manifestations of his transcendent buddhahood, while he continues to teach eternally. A recurring theme in the sūtra is its own significance in teaching these points during past and future eons, with many passages in which the Buddha and bodhisattvas such as Samantabhadra describe the great benefits that come from devotion to it, the history of its past devotees, and how it is the Buddha's ultimate teaching, supreme over all other sūtras. (Source: 84000)