Hail to all the Buddhas! Three-bodied Thus Come One!
Open the door to, show me, cause me to awaken to and to enter into, the wisdom and insight of all the Buddhas. You who are like empty space by nature and free from dust. Cause me to enter into the Sutra of the White Lotus of the Correct Law, to dwell everywhere and to rejoice. You, Adamantine Protector, who are the entity of emptiness, aspect-free nature and desire-free nature.
This mantra, which expresses the heart of the Lotus Sutra, was found in the iron tower in southern India. In this mantra, the words saddharma mean "correct Law." Sad means sho or correct. Sho is the same as myo or wonderful, myo is the same as sho. Hence the titles Sho-hokke-kyo and Myoho-renge-kyo. And when the two characters namu are prefixed to the title Myoho-renge-kyo, we have the formula Nam-myoho-renge-kyo.
Myo means perfect endowment. Six refers to the six paramitas representing all the ten thousand practices. When the persons ask to hear the teaching of perfect endowment, they are asking how they may gain the perfect endowment of the six paramitas and ten thousand practices of the bodhisattvas. In the phrase "perfect endowment," endowment refers to the mutual possession of the Ten Worlds, while perfect means that, since there is mutual possession of the Ten Worlds, then any one world contains all the other worlds, indicating that this is "perfect." The Lotus Sutra is a single work consisting of eight volumes, twenty-eight chapters, and 69,384 characters. Each and every character is endowed with the character myo, each being a Buddha who has the thirty-two distinctive features and eighty characteristics. Each of the Ten Worlds manifests its own Buddhahood. As Miao-lo writes, "Since even Buddhahood is present in all living beings, then all the other worlds are of course present, too.''
The Buddha replied to the request of his listeners by saying that "the Buddhas wish to open the door of Buddha wisdom to all living beings.'' The term "all living beings" here refers to Shariputra and it also refers to icchantikas, persons of incorrigible disbelief. It also refers to the nine worlds. Thus the Buddha fulfilled his words, "Living beings are numberless. I vow to save them all," when he declares: "At the start I took a vow, hoping to make all persons equal to me, without any distinction between us, and what I long ago hoped for has now been fulfilled.''
All the great bodhisattvas, heavenly beings and others, when they had heard the doctrine of the Buddha and comprehended it, said: "Since times past often we have heard the World-Honored One's preaching, but we have never heard this kind of profound, wonderful and superior Law." One's preaching' refers to the fact that they had heard him preach the great doctrines of the Kegon Sutra and other sutras in the time previous to the preaching of the Lotus Sutra. 'We have never heard this kind of profound, wonderful and superior Law' means that they had never heard the teaching of the one vehicle of Buddhahood propounded in the Lotus Sutra."
They understood, that is, that none of the previous Mahayana sutras-including those of the Kegon, Hodo and Hannya periods, such as the Jimmitsu and Dainichi sutras- which are numerous as the sands of the Ganges, had ever made clear the great principle of the three thousand realms in a single moment of life, which is the core of all the teachings of the Buddha's lifetime, or the bone and marrow of those teachings, the doctrines that those in the two vehicles will achieve Buddhahood and that the Buddha attained enlightenment in the remote past.
Open the door to, show me, cause me to awaken to and to enter into, the wisdom and insight of all the Buddhas. You who are like empty space by nature and free from dust. Cause me to enter into the Sutra of the White Lotus of the Correct Law, to dwell everywhere and to rejoice. You, Adamantine Protector, who are the entity of emptiness, aspect-free nature and desire-free nature.
This mantra, which expresses the heart of the Lotus Sutra, was found in the iron tower in southern India. In this mantra, the words saddharma mean "correct Law." Sad means sho or correct. Sho is the same as myo or wonderful, myo is the same as sho. Hence the titles Sho-hokke-kyo and Myoho-renge-kyo. And when the two characters namu are prefixed to the title Myoho-renge-kyo, we have the formula Nam-myoho-renge-kyo.
Myo means perfect endowment. Six refers to the six paramitas representing all the ten thousand practices. When the persons ask to hear the teaching of perfect endowment, they are asking how they may gain the perfect endowment of the six paramitas and ten thousand practices of the bodhisattvas. In the phrase "perfect endowment," endowment refers to the mutual possession of the Ten Worlds, while perfect means that, since there is mutual possession of the Ten Worlds, then any one world contains all the other worlds, indicating that this is "perfect." The Lotus Sutra is a single work consisting of eight volumes, twenty-eight chapters, and 69,384 characters. Each and every character is endowed with the character myo, each being a Buddha who has the thirty-two distinctive features and eighty characteristics. Each of the Ten Worlds manifests its own Buddhahood. As Miao-lo writes, "Since even Buddhahood is present in all living beings, then all the other worlds are of course present, too.''
The Buddha replied to the request of his listeners by saying that "the Buddhas wish to open the door of Buddha wisdom to all living beings.'' The term "all living beings" here refers to Shariputra and it also refers to icchantikas, persons of incorrigible disbelief. It also refers to the nine worlds. Thus the Buddha fulfilled his words, "Living beings are numberless. I vow to save them all," when he declares: "At the start I took a vow, hoping to make all persons equal to me, without any distinction between us, and what I long ago hoped for has now been fulfilled.''
All the great bodhisattvas, heavenly beings and others, when they had heard the doctrine of the Buddha and comprehended it, said: "Since times past often we have heard the World-Honored One's preaching, but we have never heard this kind of profound, wonderful and superior Law." One's preaching' refers to the fact that they had heard him preach the great doctrines of the Kegon Sutra and other sutras in the time previous to the preaching of the Lotus Sutra. 'We have never heard this kind of profound, wonderful and superior Law' means that they had never heard the teaching of the one vehicle of Buddhahood propounded in the Lotus Sutra."
They understood, that is, that none of the previous Mahayana sutras-including those of the Kegon, Hodo and Hannya periods, such as the Jimmitsu and Dainichi sutras- which are numerous as the sands of the Ganges, had ever made clear the great principle of the three thousand realms in a single moment of life, which is the core of all the teachings of the Buddha's lifetime, or the bone and marrow of those teachings, the doctrines that those in the two vehicles will achieve Buddhahood and that the Buddha attained enlightenment in the remote past.
