13. Exhortation to Hold Firm

There is a brief passage at the opening of this chapter where numbers of bodhisattvas declare their devotion and determination to keep the teaching alive down through the ages. Then Shakyamuni's foster mother, Mahaprajapati, and his erstwhile wife, Yashodhara, are both in turn assured of buddhahood. Here, then, following on the preceding chapter, the doctrine of women's attainment of buddhahood is fully stated. We may find two lessons in this situation. These two women were bhikshunis, or nuns, of high attainment and accumulated virtue; they had the direct instruction of the Buddha; and yet they were not given assurance of buddhahood until the last--even after the culturally backward little dragon girl, who was an indirect disciple, having been taught by Manjushri.

The first lesson we may find here is identical with the lesson of Ananda and Rahula, namely, that it is difficult to influence people who are very close--in this case the woman who had reared Shakyamuni from infancy and the woman who had been his wife and borne him a son.

Whereas with the dragon girl and Manjushri the simple student-teacher relationship meant direct acceptance of the Law, the physical involvement of people as close to Shakyamuni as his foster mother and wife meant a less smooth acceptance. This is often the case. We may thus see the deliberate delay in prediction here as a means of teaching this truth. There is no sense at all that the two nuns were inferior to the dragon girl.

The second lesson here is that so long as the teaching is rightly transmitted, it does not matter who imparts it. Nor, so long as the teaching is straightway accepted, does it matter how uneducated the person is who receives it, for all gain the same perception of the Buddha. We who are living today may be most grateful for this teaching. For salvation is at hand for whoever straightway accepts the Law with a clean mind, and it does not matter that we are not taught directly by Shakyamuni himself. Now, over two thousand years later, any person of any nation or any race may freely have all that is here.

The title of this chapter, "Exhortation to Hold Firm," applies to the vow that the assembled bodhisattvas made with great force: to protect, practice, and preach the illustrious teaching, even at the risk of their lives. They had been profoundly moved by the sermon of the Lotus Sutra, in particular the truth made clear in Devadatta that all humankind alike had the buddha-nature.

While the title means an urging of acceptance and retention of the teaching, it becomes clear from the actual content of the chapter that "urging" is not the meaning, for the language throughout is rather that of avowal of personal determination. Inasmuch as firm personal determination and personal practice are essential to leading others, and to urging others on, this title has deep significance.

The closing eighty-line verse section of the chapter is of particular importance. The Chinese original of this is in twenty lines, each consisting of four phrases, from which circumstance the passage is frequently referred to in Japanese as the "twenty lines of the chapter on holding firm." Many people are familiar with the great Japanese priest Nichiren's self-awakening and assertion that he was born into this world with the heaven-ordained mission of preaching the Lotus Sutra in the latter days of the Law (mappo) and that every particular of his own experience was described in this passage.

The meaning of the passage is that reverence for the Buddha and reverence for this sutra, in which the highest of his teachings are presented, are one and the same, and therefore any persecution or hardship attending protection and dissemination of the sutra is to be borne with courage. There is to be no concern for body or life, only concern lest there be a single person left untouched by the highest teaching. There shall be effort to preach this Law everywhere, without fear of contempt that comes from misunderstanding or of persecution arising from the enmity of those of other beliefs or of the power of false saints enjoying the protection of the mighty, who would consciously disregard the truth and strive to stamp it out. The apostles of the World-honored One thus vow rightly to preach the Law with all their strength, and the Buddha may therefore abide in peace.

Three potent enemies of the Lotus Sutra are cited here, and although in our time of freedom of religious belief they are not the source of the kind of persecution believers in the Lotus Sutra underwent in India two thousand years ago, or that Nichiren experienced in Japan seven hundred years ago, still today such enemies exist.

First are the herd, the arrogant of the world, who, neither knowing nor having read the Lotus Sutra, yet regard its teaching as fanatical and disparage its believers. In the past, half the fault on this account has lain with believers in the Lotus Sutra, and so we must reflect and exercise restraint lest we assume an attitude of self-righteousness, use the teaching for political ends, or preach only its material benefits in this life. Always we must model ourselves on the true and essential meaning and with inner force clothed in gentleness maintain the true believer's attitude as we preach and explain the teaching.

Second are the religious, the arrogant of religion, people of other religions and sects who are simply hostile and make no effort to see the truth of the Lotus Sutra. Tolerance is one of the most important qualities of religion, particularly Buddhism. It is for religion to forgive the errors people have made and to embrace all people. The so-called religious people who are immediately hostile to other religions and sects because of superficial differences in doctrine or different practices of belief are not religious at all. If we ourselves as practitioners of the Lotus Sutra are critical of such people and fight them, then we ourselves are trampling under foot the spirit of tolerance. Rather we must be forbearing to the last as we exert ourselves to the utmost extent in order that such people may awaken to the true meaning of religion.

Third are the pretenders, the arrogant of pretense, those people in high places in religion or the scholarly world who enjoy popular regard and who, intoxicated with their condition and to protect their own position, defame the true teaching. A really great person who sees the truth will boldly support it, but one of narrow mind is all too apt to turn flatly away from a newly found truth and to besmirch lofty teachings. The fact that such people are seen as high and mighty makes it easy for them to make use of the credit and regard they enjoy, and the very greatness of their influence means that the possessors of the third form of arrogance, the arrogance of pretense, are the most vicious.

We need not resist these forms of arrogance directly. It is enough to proclaim and spread the truth we believe as we tread the right Way. Truth will always triumph. Meanwhile, if any of us should reach high position, we need to be on guard against falling into such arrogance and always with freshness of mind, suppleness of heart, and youthful vigor maintain a receptive attitude. The watchword of practitioners of the Lotus Sutra, "Give no thought to body or life," is derived from the superb couplet in this passage:

We will not love body and life,
But only care for the supreme Way.

To the contemporary person, to give no thought to body or life does not of course mean to have no care for this life itself. It means, rather, not to dwell on personal benefit--to have no regrets for time and labor in the good cause and to have no fear of what others may think or say about what one does.

If one asks why a person should feel and do so, the answer is that he gives thought to the truth. So long as there is a single person as yet untouched by this highest teaching, he must care. Such a state of purity of feeling is the making of the true practitioner of the Lotus Sutra.