Teaching and Converting the Boddhisattvas

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Jechan
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Teaching and Converting the Boddhisattvas

Post by Jechan »

Namu Myoho Renge Kyo
While reading the Lotus Sutra, the Burton Watson version to be specific, Ive come across a phrase which reoccurs in many sentences throughout the sutra:
"... Teaching and converting the Bodhisattvas and Mahasattvas..."
And
"...causing all Bodhisattvas to dwell in the One Vehicle..."
What does this wording mean? Does it mean to say that once a being has acheived the state of Bodhisattvahood or Mahasattvahood in whatever Dharama practise, they can still be converted to the One True Law of the Lotus Sutra?
Namu Myoho Renge Kyo
南無妙法蓮華経
南無妙法蓮華経
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Queequeg
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Re: Teaching and Converting the Boddhisattvas

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Need more context please.
There is no suffering to be severed. Ignorance and klesas are indivisible from bodhi. There is no cause of suffering to be abandoned. Since extremes and the false are the Middle and genuine, there is no path to be practiced. Samsara is nirvana. No severance achieved. No suffering nor its cause. No path, no end. There is no transcendent realm; there is only the one true aspect. There is nothing separate from the true aspect.
-Guanding, Perfect and Sudden Contemplation,
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Jechan
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Re: Teaching and Converting the Boddhisattvas

Post by Jechan »

The Buddha said to Shariputra, "The Buddhas, the Thus Come Ones, simply teach and convert the Bodhisattvas. All the things they do are at all times done for this one purpose. They simply wish to show the Buddha wisdom to living beings and enlighten them to it.
This is from the Expedient Means chapter.
As the light of the sun and moon
can vanish all obscurity and gloom,
so this person as he passes through the world
can wipe out the darkness of living beings,
causing immeasurable numbers of bodhisattvas
in the end to dwell in the single vehicle.
This is from the verse in Chapter 21, Supernatural Powers of the Tathagata.
Namu Myoho Renge Kyo
南無妙法蓮華経
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Queequeg
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Re: Teaching and Converting the Boddhisattvas

Post by Queequeg »

Jechan wrote:Does it mean to say that once a being has acheived the state of Bodhisattvahood or Mahasattvahood in whatever Dharama practise, they can still be converted to the One True Law of the Lotus Sutra?
More or less.

The Lotus Sutra's full import is difficult to gauge if you do not take into account the entire canon of Buddhist teachings. Throughout, the Lotus Sutra explains that what it expounds was not taught by the Buddha in the previous 40 years of his life (ie. all the other sutras he taught to that point) and that what he revealed in it was the true purpose of his appearance. Everything else other than the Lotus Sutra is expedient means meant to prepare the person to hear the Lotus Sutra. Some Bodhisattvas at the assembly were already awakened to the Lotus Sutra - for instance, Manjusri who explains in Chapter 1 that the auspicious signs exhibited by the Buddha indicated that he was about to teach the Lotus Sutra. Most bodhisattvas, however, had not heard the Lotus Sutra yet, at least that they could remember, and were being initiated into it for the first time in memory, ie. "converted to the One True Law of the Lotus Sutra."
There is no suffering to be severed. Ignorance and klesas are indivisible from bodhi. There is no cause of suffering to be abandoned. Since extremes and the false are the Middle and genuine, there is no path to be practiced. Samsara is nirvana. No severance achieved. No suffering nor its cause. No path, no end. There is no transcendent realm; there is only the one true aspect. There is nothing separate from the true aspect.
-Guanding, Perfect and Sudden Contemplation,
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Jechan
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Re: Teaching and Converting the Boddhisattvas

Post by Jechan »

Namu Myoho Renge Kyo
Thanks for the reply.
Is that to say that all those in this Dharma Ending Age who accept, uphold and spread the teachings of the Lotus Sutra were all previously Bodhisattvas of the Lesser Vehicles?
Namu Myoho Renge Kyo
南無妙法蓮華経
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Queequeg
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Re: Teaching and Converting the Boddhisattvas

Post by Queequeg »

Jechan wrote: Is that to say that all those in this Dharma Ending Age who accept, uphold and spread the teachings of the Lotus Sutra were all previously Bodhisattvas of the Lesser Vehicles?
No.

In Nichiren's view, those who embrace the Lotus Sutra in the Latter Day (Mappo) are Bodhisattvas of the Earth.

I'm going to warn against reading all this stuff too literally. As Nichiren remarked:

This [Lotus] sutra deals with the original mind [of enlightenment] in the waking state. But because living beings are accustomed to thinking in the mental terms appropriate to a dream state, it borrows the language of the dream state in order to teach the waking state of the original mind. However, though the language is that employed in a dream state, the intention behind it is to give instruction in the waking state of the original mind. This is the aim of both the text of the Lotus Sutra itself and of the commentaries on it. If one does not clearly understand this, one will invariably misunderstand the wording of both the sutra and its commentaries.

-The Unanimous Declaration by the Buddhas
There is no suffering to be severed. Ignorance and klesas are indivisible from bodhi. There is no cause of suffering to be abandoned. Since extremes and the false are the Middle and genuine, there is no path to be practiced. Samsara is nirvana. No severance achieved. No suffering nor its cause. No path, no end. There is no transcendent realm; there is only the one true aspect. There is nothing separate from the true aspect.
-Guanding, Perfect and Sudden Contemplation,
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