2. Tactfulness

This chapter, with chapter 16, "Revelation of the [Eternal] Life of the Tathagata," has long been regarded as the heart of the Lotus Sutra. It will be well to bear in mind the question of why this is so, but first we need to examine the plan of the chapter itself.

Near the beginning Shakyamuni concludes the meditation in which he has been engaged. Before anyone poses a question, he immediately begins to speak, addressing the disciple Shariputra. He explains that the wisdom of the buddhas is most profound, an awakening to the basic one truth of the universe. This basic truth is of such depth that ordinary people cannot understand it, and on this account, by using various ways of teaching within the capacity of their understanding, he has brought salvation to many. But the fact remains that they have not grasped the true meaning at the heart of the teaching. Having said this much, the Buddha suddenly stops, then resumes, again addressing Shariputra.

The reason no one has grasped the truth is that the perfected truth is such that only among buddhas can it be comprehended. The statement of this truth, known as the Ten Suchnesses, in briefest form is that everything in our world has its own appearance or visible aspect (form), its own character (nature), its own entity (embodiment), its own latent energy (potency), and its own working or functioning (function). The total of these four elements becomes a cause (primary cause), which, in contact with a condition (secondary cause), brings about myriad results (effect) and rewards (recompense)--that is, continuing effect. And although these nine elements seem different and multiple by appearance, all of them rest upon the universal truth and, in true substance, are from first to last a complete fundamental whole.

The statement in the sutra is swift and brief, and so we shall return to the point later. A difficult point of doctrine having thus been stated, the entire matter is reexplained in more memorable poetic form, embellished and further developed. The listeners, however, are puzzled at this new turn and do not know what to say.

Shariputra guesses the difficulty and begs Shakyamuni to go further and explain what he means by the tactful method of teaching: teaching in ways suitable to the occasion and to the people to be reached. This artful method is announced to be the kernel of the wisdom of the Buddha, and the great worth of tactfulness is praised.

Still, the listeners are all the more perplexed. While expecting to hear the supreme truth that the Buddha has seen, they are treated to words of praise for the everyday teaching of tact, and they are unable to see any connection.

Shariputra is not to be put off and is quite demanding as the Buddha three times declines to explain, on the grounds that what he has to say can only confuse and is thus better left unsaid.

Since, to begin with, the Buddha had of his own accord, with no prompting or questioning, begun to preach, we must suppose that this display of unwillingness had the purpose of creating in his hearers a suitable frame of mind to listen to what was to come. Then realizing, in response to Shariputra's pleading, that his hearers are ready, the Buddha is about to speak, when, in a body, five thousand of the assembly rise and depart. Shakyamuni simply watches, making no effort to stop them, and when all have left, he takes up his sermon again.

The continuation, first in prose, then in more memorable verse, can be summarized briefly. The aim and purpose for which buddhas have appeared on earth has been from first to last to awaken people to the truth that all people alike partake of the buddha-nature. Thus the object of the teachings of the buddhas is to lead all people alike to the state of buddhahood, but this does not mean that there are distinctions in the truth. The objective is always the same, although up to now Shakyamuni has turned to various ways of teaching as a matter of tact in order to achieve the objective.

The doctrine that all humankind could become buddhas had not been stated before, but the time had come to make it clear that whoever followed and practiced the teaching would become a buddha. This thought, though, is not to be taken to mean that all the earlier doctrine is useless. No matter how much it may appear that teachings adapted to need were only a temporary means of saving people close at hand, such teachings are part of the process leading to the wisdom of the buddhas, which is the true object. All the teachings are related to this supreme truth, and all ways are related to this supremely true Way.

One may look upon someone's standing before a pagoda saying a little prayer, or a child's drawing of a buddha on the ground, as things with no bearing on this, but actually even these are related to this supreme Way, the Way to buddhahood. One must by no means make light of the possible range of tactful means. We should remember that the tactful way as such is the truth.

The subject is developed at length, but in conclusion Shakyamuni states that whoever in simplicity and purity of heart gives attention to any of the multitude of tactful teachings, beginning with the explanation of the Law of Causation founded upon the supreme truth, that person is treading the Way to becoming a buddha. All will become bodhisattvas, will understand the truth, will rejoice exceedingly, and will become buddhas.

As we study this sutra, the first question that comes up is what in fact is meant by becoming a buddha. To attain buddhahood as a human being means to be an enlightened person, to attain the supreme knowledge that sees the real aspect of all things, to achieve perfection of character in which that knowledge is manifest in body and mind, to move in a state of perfect freedom, and to work for the salvation of all people.

We are bound to think that it must be almost impossible for ordinary people to attain such buddhahood, so remote is it from ourselves. But as is taught repeatedly after the Sutra of Innumerable Meanings, the real aspect of the universe is only a uniform void, and all being is alike in origin. In effect, then, this means that we ourselves are in ultimate substance uniform with the Buddha. And if we are uniform in ultimate substance, then it can only be that even in apparent form we are still uniform with that ultimate substance.

The general destiny of living things is evolution, which we may view as progress toward higher degrees of freedom. Those that are obedient to this destiny and strive toward a higher freedom evolve, while those that are thwarted by circumstances fail and devolve, or become extinct.

Yet people are different from all other living beings in having a spirit. It is in this spirit that their value lies, for otherwise in flesh and substance they are scarcely different from other animals. So it is truly human to walk the way of progress in quest of perfect freedom of this spirit. Or we might express it another way by saying that spiritual progress is humanity's noble destiny.

The goal of this spiritual progress is nothing other than the state of the buddhas. The ideal state for humankind, then, is the state of the buddhas that conveys supreme wisdom, perfect character, and spiritual freedom and leads to the salvation of all people. For this reason, to aspire to become a buddha and to practice with the objective of the buddha state before one is no impossible dream. Nor is it the special action of chosen persons. It is the one Way, apart from all others, that humanity should pursue.

All unconsciously we ourselves may be walking that Way, for to study the teachings of the Buddha, to try to be better people, to place our hands together in gratitude before the Buddha, to do any small kindness, to drop a single good word--all are part of the Way to buddhahood. It may be that we have not noted that such little things are the Way to buddhahood, having thought of them only as means toward being better people, toward being happy, or toward enjoying a more livable society. But when we learn that the tactful way as such is the truth, our eyes are opened to the fact that we are walking in the Way of the buddhas.

This is an incomparable joy. One may think of oneself as a person of no account. Then, hearing the teachings of the Buddha and seeking to put them into practice, one is likely to think that one is merely on the right road but that this is nothing much. But to realize that, far from being a person of no account, one is a worthy being who will become a buddha--that one is actually on that grand Way to becoming a buddha--is a thing for rejoicing and pride.

At this point one's natural course is to move quickly ahead, consciously and deliberately. Life takes on meaning, and one may boldly progress toward a new life. This is the great lesson of the chapter on tactfulness.

Another point of teaching in this chapter is the Ten Suchnesses, those of form, nature, embodiment, potency, function, primary cause, secondary cause, effect, recompense, and complete fundamental whole. We must see here that the last, the complete fundamental whole, in which root and branch are the same, is the uniform void. When manifest in apparent forms, the void assumes various forms. Each form has its nature, embodiment, potency, and function, and, with the unfailing operation of the laws of primary and secondary cause, effect and recompense follow. There is a great lesson here that we may draw about human life.

First, we human beings in our apparent forms have our own personalities, which is to say that each one of us has his own form, nature, embodiment, potency, and function. But since the origin from which all of them are derived is a uniform void and is always in a state of flux, it is possible to change our personalities.

We are accustomed to think of our personality as something we cannot help, but the lesson here is that this is not the case. Given a certain cause (primary cause) and condition (secondary cause), a suitable result (effect) and influence (recompense) follow, and since this is true, human nature may be changed.

Thus the heart of the human being has the inner capacity either to rise to the state of the buddha or to sink into hell. This idea is set forth in one of the commentaries by the T'ien-t'ai patriarch Chih-i (538--97) as the Three Thousand Realms in One Mind. A single human mind may become three thousand worlds.

The doctrine of the Three Thousand Realms in One Mind teaches us that we have the infinite possibility of moving both upward and downward. If we resolve firmly to practice the Buddha's teachings, we can go upward without fail. Secondly, this doctrine lets us realize clearly that in all the universe there is no individual existing apart from the whole and that all things are interconnected like the meshes of a net. Individual salvation alone is not true salvation.

Now, though we may think ourselves beyond change, if we realize that indeed we can change, that we can even become buddhas, then light may shine upon us and hope may well up in our breasts. With this we can only set ourselves to the task.

And, as we set ourselves to the task, if we also are awake to the teaching of the Ten Suchnesses, the way we look upon others changes. Above all, we become able to see the buddha-nature that underlies superficial personality in all people. With this our contempt for, and our passive acceptance of, the no-account and unreformable people around us may give rise to a sense of respect for them, because they too have the capacity to become buddhas. We hear much today of respect for humanity, but unless we mean by that what I have just described, it is not the real article. With a real sense of respect for humanity, when we see people floundering or in distress, a feeling wells up in us of wanting to help them to awaken to their real selves. We are filled with a sense of loving friendship and a desire to walk hand in hand along the true human way that is the Way to buddhahood. This is the spirit and mind of the bodhisattva.

To awaken this bodhisattva spirit in anyone, to bring even one more person into the same Way, is to raise the level of humanity. I daresay this is the only way to build a truly ideal society. This is what we must see clearly in the teaching of the chapter on tactfulness.