The Lotus Sutra (2016) (BDK)

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The Lotus Sutra (Taishō Volume 9, Number 262)

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Translations of Sutras (Chi-Eng)

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Descriptionངོ་སྤྲོད།

Taishō 262

Volume 9

The Lotus Sūtra is one of the most important of all the Mahāyāna sūtras. The work has both literary and philosophical merit, combining verse and parables with clarity of insight, earning it a permanent spot in the history of Buddhism. In particular the concept of “One Vehicle,” which permeates the work, has had great influence on multiple schools of Japanese Buddhism.

Its notable contents (in 28 chapters) include:

Chapter 16, The Life Span of the Tathāgatā (Skt.: Tathāgatāyuṣpramāṇa-parivarta XV), especially important for its eulogy of Śākyamuni as the embodiment of the eternal life and as having attained enlightenment in the inconceivably remote past.
Chapter 25, The Universal Gate of the Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara (Skt.: Samantamukha-parivarta XXIV), describing the blessings of the bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara, was circulated in China and Japan as an independent sūtra and is still recited today.
Numerous popular parables including those of the three carts and the burning house, the wealthy man and his poor son, the three kinds of medicinal herbs and two kinds of trees, and the phantom city and the treasure land.

Source Skt. Saddharmapuṇḍarīka-sūtra, translated by Kumārajīva into the Chinese as Miaofa lianhua jing (妙法蓮華經). 8 fascicles. (Source: BDK America)

Citation

Kubo, Tsugunari, and Akira Yuyama, trans. The Lotus Sutra (Taishō Volume 9, Number 262). Rev. 2nd ed. Translated from the Chinese of Kumārajiva. Moraga, CA: BDK America, 2016.

Publisher Link

https://bdkamerica.org/product/the-lotus-sutra-revised-second-edition/

Table of contents

A Message on the Publication of the English Tripiṭaka
- NUMATA Yehanv

Editorial Foreword
- MAYEDA Sengakuvii

Publisher's Foreword
- John R. McRaeix

Translators' Introduction
- Tsugunari Kubo and Akira Yuyamaxiii

The Lotus Sutra
Chapter I. Introduction3
Chapter II. Skillful Means23
Chapter III. A Parable47
Chapter IV. Willing Acceptance79
Chapter V. Herbs95
Chapter VI. Prediction103
Chapter VII. The Apparitional City113
Chapter VIII. The Five Hundred Disciples Receive Their Predictions139
Chapter IX. The Predictions for Those Who Still Have More to Learn and for Those Who Do Not151
Chapter X. The Expounder of the Dharma157
Chapter XI. The Appearance of a Jeweled Stupa167
Chapter XII. Devadatta179
Chapter XIII. Perseverance187
Chapter XIV. Ease in Practice193
Chapter XV. Bodhisattvas Emerging from the Earth209
Chapter XVI. The Lifespan of the Tathāgata223
Chapter XVII. Description of Merits233
Chapter XVIII. The Merits of Joyful Acceptance245
Chapter XIX. The Benefits Obtained by an Expounder of the Dharma251
Chapter XX. Bodhisattva Sadāparibhūta265
Chapter XXI. The Transcendent Powers of the Tathāgata271
Chapter XXII. Entrustment277
Chapter XXIII. Ancient Accounts of Bodhisattva Bhaiṣajyarāja279
Chapter XXIV. Bodhisattva Gadgadasvara289
Chapter XXV. The Gateway to Every Direction (Manifested by Bodhisattva Avalokiteśvara)295
Chapter XXVI. Dhāraṇī303
Chapter XXVII. Ancient Accounts of King Śubhavyūha307
Chapter XXVIII. Encouragement of Bodhisattva Samantabhadra313

Glossary319

Bibliography325

Index327

A List of the Volumes of the BDK English Tripiṭaka (First Series)345

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)