The Flower Ornament Scripture Read online

  Sixth, regarding the difference of the congregations in the introductions, in the assembly of the Saddharmapundarika, first it mentions the disciples of Buddha, who are twelve thousand in all, then the nun Mahaprajapati and her company of six thousand—she was the aunt of Buddha; then it mentions Yashodhara, who was one of the wives of Buddha, then eighty thousand enlightening beings, and then the gods and spirits and so on. The Flower Ornament Scripture is not like this: first it mentions the leaders of the enlightening beings, who are as numerous as atoms in ten buddha-worlds, and doesn’t talk about their followers; then it mentions the thunderbolt-bearing spirits, and after that the various spirits and gods, fifty-five groups in all. Each group is different, and each has as many individuals as atoms in a buddha-world, or in some cases it simply says they are innumerable. The overall meaning of this is the boundless cosmos of the ocean of embodiments of Buddha—each body includes all, ad infinitum, without bounds. One body thus has the cosmos for its measure; the borders of self and other are entirely gone. The cosmos, which is one’s own body, is all-pervasive; mental views of subject and object are obliterated.

  Seventh, regarding the difference of physical transformation and attainment of buddhahood by a girl, in the Saddharmapundarika Scripture a girl instantly transforms her female body, fulfills the conduct of enlightening beings, and attains buddhahood in the South. The Flower Ornament Scripture is not like this; it just causes one to have no emotional views, so great knowledge is clarified and myriad things are in essence real, without any sign of transformation. According to the Vimalakirti Scripture, Shariputra says to a goddess, “Why don’t you change your female body?” The goddess says to Shariputra, “I have been looking for the specific marks of ‘woman’ for twelve years but after all can’t find any—what should I change?” As another woman said to Shariputra, “Your maleness makes my femaleness.” You should know myriad things are fundamentally “thus”—what can be changed? In The Flower Ornament Scripture’s book on entry into the realm of reality, the teachers of the youth Sudhana—Manjushri and Samantabhadra (Universally Good), monks, nuns, householders, boys, laywomen, girls, wizards, and Hindus—fifty-three people, each are imbued with the conduct of enlightening beings, each are replete with the qualities of buddhahood; while they are seen to be physically dissimilar according to the people who perceive them, it is not said that there is transformation. If you see with the eye of truth, there is nothing mundane that is not true; if you look with the mundane eye, there is no truth that is not mundane. Because the Saddharmapundarika addresses those with lesser, middling, and greater faculties for the temporary teaching, whose views are not yet ended, to cause them to develop the seed of faith, it temporarily uses the image of a girl swiftly being transformed and becoming a Buddha, to cause them to conceive wonder, at which only will they be inspired to aim for true knowledge and vision. They are not ready for the fundamental truth, yet they develop roots of goodness. This illustrates inducing those in the three temporary vehicles back to the one true vehicle. Also it cuts through the fixed idea of time, the notion that enlightenment takes three eons, provoking instantaneous realization that past, present, and future are in essence fundamentally one time, without beginning or end, in accord with the equality of things. It rends the net of views of the three vehicles, demolishes the straw hut of the enlightening being, and causes them to wind up at the door of the realm of reality and enter the true abode of Buddhas. This is why it has that girl become Buddha, showing it is not a matter of long cultivation in the past; the fact that she is only eight years old also illustrates the present is not past study—the time of her transformation is no more than an instant, and she fully carries out the fruition of buddhahood without the slightest lack. Truth is fundamentally thus—there is no time in essence.

  Those involved in temporary studies block themselves with views and miss the truth by themselves—they call it a miracle that the girl attained buddhahood, and do not know they themselves are originally thus; completely in the world, how can they point to eons of practice outside? If they don’t get rid of this view, they will surely miss enlightenment forever; if they change their minds and their views vanish, only then will they realize their original abode. It would be best for them to stop the compulsion of views right now. They uselessly suffer through eons of pain and fatigue before they return.

  As for The Flower Ornament Scripture’s doctrine of the interdependent origination of the cosmos, it makes it clear that the ordinary person and the sage are one reality; if one still retains views, one is blocked from this one reality. If one retains views one is an ordinary person; if one forgets sentiments one is a Buddha. Looking downward and looking upward, advancing and withdrawing, contracting and expanding, humility and respect, are all naturally interdependent, and are all practices of enlightening beings—there is nothing at all with transformable characteristics having birth, subsistence, and extinction. Therefore this Flower Ornament teaching is not the same as the Saddharmapundarika’s girl being physically transformed and attaining buddhahood.

  Eighth, regarding the difference of the land in which the girl who becomes a Buddha dwells, in the Saddharmapundarika Scripture it says this is the world of nondefilement in the South, not this earth. This is interpreted to mean that nondefilement refers to the mind attaining harmony with reality, and “the South” is associated with clarity, emptiness, and detachment. However, if one abides in “the South” as a separate place, then self and other, “here” and “there” are still separate—this is still following the three vehicles to induce those with facility for the temporary teachings to develop resolution and finally come to the Buddha-vehicle. This is because the residual force of attachment to the three vehicles is hard to break. Yet there is some change of mind, and though the sense of self and other is not yet obliterated, the mind is suddenly impressed by the body of the cosmos. This is not the same as The Flower Ornament, in which self and other interpenetrate in each atom, standing in a universal relationship of mutual interdependence and interpenetration.

  Ninth, regarding the difference in inspirations, the Saddharmapundarika Scripture says that when the girl attained buddhahood, all the enlightening beings and disciples on earth, seeing her from afar becoming a Buddha and preaching to the congregation of the time, were delighted and paid respects to her from afar. Subsequently it says three thousand people on earth dwelt in the stage of nonregression, and three thousand people aroused the determination for enlightenment and received predictions of their future buddhahood. When these six thousand people paid honor to the girl from afar and were inspired, their discrimination between “there” and “here” was not gone—they just pursued the created enlightenment of the temporary studies of the three vehicles, and had not attained the enlightenment of fundamental awareness of the cosmos in its universal aspect, in which self and other are one being.

  The Flower Ornament is not like this: in terms of the cosmos of universality, the teaching of universal vision, the realm of absorption in the body of the matrix of enlightenment, and the teaching of the array of the cosmic net of Indra, the subtle knowledge of the interpenetration of the whirls of the oceans of worlds is all attained at once—because realization of one is realization of all, detachment from one is detachment from all. Therefore within one’s own body are the arrays of oceans of lands of the ten bodies of Buddha, and within the Buddha’s bodies is the realm of one’s own body. They mutually conceal and reveal each other, back and forth, over and over—all worlds everywhere are naturally this way. It is like myriad streams returning to the ocean: even when they have yet entered the ocean, the nature of moisture is no different; and once they enter the ocean, they all are of the same salty flavor. The same is true of all sentient beings—though delusion and enlightenment differ, the ocean of original buddhahood is basically not different.

  Tenth, regarding the difference of giving the prediction of enlightenment to the hearers, in the Saddharmapundarika Scripture, though the girl who beco
mes a Buddha reflects all at once the timelessness of the cosmos, completely revealing buddhahood, those in the temporary studies of the three vehicles, although they have faith, have not yet gotten rid of their residual tendencies and are not yet able to attain immediate realizations; because they can only ascend to enlightenment over a long period of time, they are given prediction of enlightenment in the distant future. This is not the same as The Flower Ornament Scripture, which teaches that when one is deluded one is in the realm of the ordinary, and when one is enlightened one is then a Buddha—even if there are residual habits, one uses the knowledge and insight of buddhahood to cure them. Without the knowledge and insight of buddhahood, one can only manage to analyze and subdue habits and cannot enter the rapids of buddhahood, but can only enter buddhahood after a long time.

  Because the faculty of faith of beginners in the three vehicles is inferior, they are not able to get rid of their bondage; they are fully wrapped up in their many ties and are obsessed with the vicissitudes of mundane life. Though they seek to transcend the world, their capacities are inferior and they get stuck and regress. This is why the Buddha has them contemplate such points as birth, aging, sickness, death, impermanence, impurity, instantaneous decay, and continual instability to cause them to become disillusioned. When they develop rejection of the world, their minds dwell on the distinction between purity and defilement; for the benefit of this type of people, who, though they cultivate compassion and knowledge in quest of buddhahood, still think of a pure land as elsewhere, and because they have not obliterated their partial views characteristic of the three vehicles and so always see this world as impure, the Buddha explains cause and effect and settles their doubts, and temporarily makes the world pure, and then withdraws his mystic power so they will again see defilement.

  Due to the habit of those in the three vehicles of viewing everything in terms of impermanence, selflessness, and emptiness, their minds are hard to change; though the girl in the Saddharmapundarika shows the Buddha-vehicle all at once, and though they believe in it, yet they cannot yet realize it immediately themselves. For this reason the predictions of full enlightenment in the Saddharmapundarika assembly all refer to long periods of time. The Saddharmapundarika gradually leads to The Flower Ornament, whereupon they are directly taught that the determination for enlightenment is itself buddhahood.

  There are two aspects of similarity between the Saddharmapundarika and The Flower Ornament Scriptures. One is that of riding the vehicle of buddhahood directly to the site of enlightenment. The vehicle of buddhahood is the one vehicle. As The Flower Ornament Scripture says, among all people there are few who seek the vehicle of hearers, Buddhism disciples, even fewer who seek the vehicle of individual illumination, while those who seek the great vehicle are very few; yet it is easy to seek the great vehicle compared to the great difficulty of believing in The Flower Ornament teaching. The scripture also says that if there are any people who are fed up and depressed or obsessed, they are taught the path of disciples to enable them to escape from suffering; to those who are somewhat clear and sharp in mind the principle of conditioning is explained, to enable them to attain individual illumination; to those who willingly practice benevolence and compassion for the benefit of many, the path of enlightening beings is explained; if there are any who are intent on the matter of greatest importance, putting the teachings of infinite enlightenment into operation, they are taught the path of the one vehicle. This is the distinction of four vehicles in The Flower Ornament Scripture; as for the Saddharmapundarika, it sets out three temporary vehicles and finally reveals the true teaching, which is the Buddha-vehicle—there is no real second or third vehicle. The four vehicles of these two scriptures coincide in their definitions, but the manner of teaching is different.

  Then again in the Saddharmapundarika it says that “Only this one thing is true—the other two are not real.” Going by this passage, it seems to be setting up three vehicles, but actually it is four teachings: the one thing which is true is the Buddha-vehicle, while the other two refers to the great vehicle of enlightening beings and the lesser vehicles of individual illuminates and hearers, the latter being considered together because they are alike in respect to their revulsion to suffering.

  Also, the girl in the Saddharmapundarika reflecting the nature of past, present, and future in one instant, and the statement that there is not the slightest shift from ordinary person to sage, are about the same as the teaching of the understanding and practice and entry into the Way by the youth Sudhana in the last book of The Flower Ornament Scripture. As for Sudhana’s attainment of buddhahood in one life, within an instant he realized the nature of past, present, and future is wholly equal. This and the girl’s instant transformation to buddhahood are both in accord with fundamental truth, because this is the way things are.

  As for the Nirvana Scripture, it is based on the buddha-nature. It has ten points of difference with The Flower Ornament Scripture, and one similarity. The differences are as follows: the location; the arrays of the realms; the audiences; the interlocutors of the teachings; the audiences’ hearing of the teaching; the purity or defilement of the lands of reward; the temporariness and reality of the Buddha-body; the patterns of birth and extinction; the forms of practice of the teachings; and the models of companionship. The one point of similarity is illustrated by the Nirvana Scripture’s image of an herb in the snowy mountains of such a nature that cows who eat it produce pure ghee with no tinge of blue, yellow, red, white, or black.

  Regarding the first difference, that of location, the Nirvana Scripture is preached between the twin trees on the bank of the Hiranyavati River in Kushinagara, whereas The Flower Ornament is preached under a jewel enlightenment tree at the sight of enlightenment in Magadha.

  Second, regarding the difference in array of the realm, when the Nirvana Scripture was expounded, the hallowed ground between the trees was thirty-two leagues in length and breadth, completely filled by a great congregation. At that time the places where the boundless hosts of enlightening beings and their companies sat were infinitesimal, like points: all the great enlightening beings from all buddha-lands came and assembled. Also it says that at that time, by the Buddha’s power, in all the worlds in that billion-world universe the ground was soft, level, uncluttered, free from brambles, and arrayed with myriad jewels like the western paradise of the Buddha of Infinite Life. Everyone in this great assembly saw all the buddha-lands, numerous as atoms, as clearly as seeing themselves in a mirror. Also it says that the trees suddenly turned white. This is all extensively described in the scripture.

  Now when The Flower Ornament Scripture was expounded, there were ten flower-treasury oceans of worlds, each with twenty layers above and below. On the bottom layer there are as many vast lands as atoms in one buddha-field, each with as many satellite lands as atoms in ten buddha-fields; this increases with each successive layer. All of the worlds in these oceans of worlds have adamantine soil, with trees, pavilions, palaces, mansions, lakes, seas, all adorned with precious substances. As the scripture says, “One time the Buddha was in the land of Magadha, at the site of enlightenment in a forest, having just realized true enlightenment: the ground was made of adamantine diamond, adorned with discs of exquisite jewels, flowers of myriad jewels, and clear crystals,” and so on, going on to say how all the adornments of inconceivable eons of all buddha-lands were included and revealed there. This is eulogizing the adornments of the sphere of Buddha. This is also extensively described in the book on the Flower Treasury universe: these are the adornments of the Buddha’s own body of true reward, not like in the Nirvana Scripture where Buddha uses mystic power to temporarily purify the world for the assembly. The reason for this is that in the Nirvana Scripture the audience is a mixture of those with the faculties of the three vehicles, so there would be no way for them to see this purity by themselves without the support of the Buddha’s spiritual power. In the case of The Flower Ornament the audience is pure and unmixed, being onl
y those with the faculty for the one vehicle; the disciples of the lesser vehicle who are in the crowd do not perceive these adornments of Buddha’s realm, because their faculties are different. Although the scripture says “by the spiritual power of Buddha,” afterwards it says, after all, that it is by the power of natural law being so, or it is so in principle. Here, “spiritual” or “mystic” means accord with reality; it doesn’t mean that someone who is actually an ordinary person is given a temporary vision. The Flower Ornament basically shows the true reward, while the spiritual power of the Nirvana Scripture is a temporary measure. Also, the Nirvana Scripture has Buddha’s pure land in the west, beyond as many buddha-lands as particles of sand in thirty-two Ganges Rivers—it is not here. This obviously is a projection, and not real.

  Third, regarding the difference in the audiences, all in the audience of the Nirvana Scripture are human or celestial in nature, with those of the three vehicles coming together: except for the great enlightening beings, when they remember the Buddha they weep; bringing fragrant firewood for the cremation, they grieve and lament, missing the days when they attended the Buddha. All such people are suited to hearing that the Buddha passes away; except for the enlightening beings of the one vehicle who have penetrated Buddha-knowledge, all the others are like this. The audience of The Flower Ornament Scripture consists of enlightening beings in the ranks of fruition of buddhahood, in the ocean of knowledge of essence, all of whom are on the one vehicle. The humans, celestials, spirits, etc. are all of the same faculties and enter the stream of Buddha-knowledge. In the first assembly it says that the enlightening beings, as many of them as atoms in ten buddha-worlds, are all born from the ocean of the roots of goodness of Buddha. The ocean of roots of goodness is the ocean of knowledge of the reality body of Buddha, born of great knowledge. All Buddhas have as their basis the fundamental knowledge of the body of reality—if enlightening beings were not born from this, all their practices would be fabricated. This congregation, from the first inspiration to the entry into the ocean of Buddha-knowledge, go through six levels, cultivating ten developments of faith, ten abodes, ten practices, ten dedications, ten stages, and equaling enlightenment, from shallow to deep, the forms of practice diverse. This is not like the Nirvana Scripture, in which the three vehicles are alike included, and the good types of humans and celestials come to the same assembly; in The Flower Ornament Scripture, those of the three vehicles are not in the congregation, or even if they are, they are as though deaf, not hearing. So you should know the assembly of those of the three vehicles in the Nirvana Scripture—enlightening beings, Buddha’s disciples, humans, celestials, etc.—is not the same as that of The Flower Ornament Scripture, which consists only of enlightening beings in the one vehicle, whose rank when they first set their minds on enlightenment is the same as the rank of Buddha, who enter the stream of knowledge of Buddha, share the same insight and vision as Buddha, and are true offspring of Buddha.