Letter to Horen
The Hosshi chapter in the fourth volume of the Lotus Sutra states: "If there should be an evil person who, his mind destitute of goodness, should for the space of a kalpa appear in the presence of the Buddha and constantly curse and revile the Buddha, that person's offense would still be rather light. But if there were a person who spoke only one evil word to curse or defame the lay persons or monks or nuns who read and recite the Lotus Sutra, then his offense would be very grave."
The Great Teacher Miao-lo comments on this: "The benefits conferred by this sutra are lofty and its principles are the highest. Therefore this statement is made with regard to it. Nothing like this is said about any other sutra."
With regard to the meaning of this sutra passage, the definition of a kalpa is as follows. Suppose that the span of human life is eighty thousand years, and that it decreases one year every hundred years, or ten years every thousand years. Let us suppose that it decreases at this rate until the life span has reached ten years.
At this point, a person ten years old would be like an eighty-year-old man of today. Then the process would reverse, and, after a hundred years, the life span would increase to eleven years, and, after another hundred years, to twelve years. After a thousand years it would have increased to twenty years, and this would continue until it once more reached eighty thousand years. The time required to complete this combined process of decrease and increase is called a kalpa. There are various other definitions of a kalpa, but, for the time being, I will use the word kalpa in the sense defined above.
There are persons who, throughout this period of a kalpa, manifest hatred toward the Buddha by carrying out various activities in the three categories of body, mouth and mind. Such a person was Devadatta.
The Buddha was the son and heir of King Shuddhodana, and Devadatta was a son of King Dronodana. These two kings were brothers, so Devadatta was a cousin of the Buddha.
In the present as in the past, among sages as among ordinary men, trouble arising over a woman has been one of the prime causes of enmity. When Shakyamuni Buddha was still known as Prince Siddhartha, and Devadatta had been designated prince and heir to his father, it happened that a high minister named Yasha had a daughter named Yashodhara. She was the most beautiful woman in all of the five regions of India, a veritable goddess whose fame was known throughout the four seas. Siddhartha and Devadatta vied with each other to win her hand in marriage; hence discord arose between them.
Later, Siddhartha left his family and became a Buddha, and Devadatta, taking the monk Sudaya as his teacher, left his family to become a monk.
The Buddha observed the two hundred and fifty precepts and abided by the three thousand rules of conduct, so that all heavenly and human beings looked up to him with admiration and the four kinds of believers honored and revered him. Devadatta, however, did not command such respect from others, so he began to consider whether there was not some way he could gain worldly fame that would surpass that of the Buddha. He came across five criteria by which he might surpass the Buddha and gain recognition from society. As noted in the Shibun ritsu, they were: (1) to wear robes of rags; (2) to seek food only by begging; (3) to eat only one meal a day; (4) to sit out always in the open; and (5) to take neither salt nor the five flavors. The Buddha would accept robes given to him by others, but Devadatta. wore only robes made of rags. The Buddha would accept meals that were served to him, but Devadatta lived on alms alone. The Buddha would eat once, twice or three times a day, but Devadatta would eat only once. The Buddha would take shelter in graveyards or under trees, but Devadatta sat out in the open all day long. The Buddha would on occasion consent to take salt or the five flavors, but Devadatta accepted none of them. And because Devadatta observed these rules, people came to believe that he was far superior to the Buddha, and that they were as far apart as clouds and mud.
In this way Devadatta sought to deprive the Buddha of his standing. The Buddha was supported by the lay believer King Bimbisara. Every day the king supplied five hundred cartloads of alms to the Buddha as well as to his disciples, doing so over a period of years without missing a single day. Devadatta, jealous of such devotion and hoping to secure it for himself, won Prince Enemy Before Birth over to his side and persuaded him to kill his father.
He himself set out to kill the Buddha, hurling a rock and striking the Buddha with it. Such was the deed he carried out with his body. In addition, he slandered and cursed the Buddha, calling him a liar and a deceiver; such was the deed he committed with his mouth. And, in his heart, he thought of the Buddha as a foe from his previous lifetime; such was the deed he engaged in with his mind. The great evil of these three interacting deeds has never been surpassed.
Suppose that a terribly evil man, like Devadatta, were to engage in these three types of deeds, and, for an entire medium kalpa, curse and revile Shakyamuni Buddha, striking him with staves and behaving toward him with jealousy and envy. The enormous guilt he would incur would be weighty indeed.
This great earth of ours is 168,000 yojana thick, and therefore it is capable of supporting the waters of the four great seas, the dirt and stones of the nine mountains, every kind of plant and tree, and all living creatures, without ever collapsing, tipping or breaking apart. And yet, when Devadatta, a human being whose body measured five feet, committed no more than three cardinal sins, the grea
The Hosshi chapter in the fourth volume of the Lotus Sutra states: "If there should be an evil person who, his mind destitute of goodness, should for the space of a kalpa appear in the presence of the Buddha and constantly curse and revile the Buddha, that person's offense would still be rather light. But if there were a person who spoke only one evil word to curse or defame the lay persons or monks or nuns who read and recite the Lotus Sutra, then his offense would be very grave."
The Great Teacher Miao-lo comments on this: "The benefits conferred by this sutra are lofty and its principles are the highest. Therefore this statement is made with regard to it. Nothing like this is said about any other sutra."
With regard to the meaning of this sutra passage, the definition of a kalpa is as follows. Suppose that the span of human life is eighty thousand years, and that it decreases one year every hundred years, or ten years every thousand years. Let us suppose that it decreases at this rate until the life span has reached ten years.
At this point, a person ten years old would be like an eighty-year-old man of today. Then the process would reverse, and, after a hundred years, the life span would increase to eleven years, and, after another hundred years, to twelve years. After a thousand years it would have increased to twenty years, and this would continue until it once more reached eighty thousand years. The time required to complete this combined process of decrease and increase is called a kalpa. There are various other definitions of a kalpa, but, for the time being, I will use the word kalpa in the sense defined above.
There are persons who, throughout this period of a kalpa, manifest hatred toward the Buddha by carrying out various activities in the three categories of body, mouth and mind. Such a person was Devadatta.
The Buddha was the son and heir of King Shuddhodana, and Devadatta was a son of King Dronodana. These two kings were brothers, so Devadatta was a cousin of the Buddha.
In the present as in the past, among sages as among ordinary men, trouble arising over a woman has been one of the prime causes of enmity. When Shakyamuni Buddha was still known as Prince Siddhartha, and Devadatta had been designated prince and heir to his father, it happened that a high minister named Yasha had a daughter named Yashodhara. She was the most beautiful woman in all of the five regions of India, a veritable goddess whose fame was known throughout the four seas. Siddhartha and Devadatta vied with each other to win her hand in marriage; hence discord arose between them.
Later, Siddhartha left his family and became a Buddha, and Devadatta, taking the monk Sudaya as his teacher, left his family to become a monk.
The Buddha observed the two hundred and fifty precepts and abided by the three thousand rules of conduct, so that all heavenly and human beings looked up to him with admiration and the four kinds of believers honored and revered him. Devadatta, however, did not command such respect from others, so he began to consider whether there was not some way he could gain worldly fame that would surpass that of the Buddha. He came across five criteria by which he might surpass the Buddha and gain recognition from society. As noted in the Shibun ritsu, they were: (1) to wear robes of rags; (2) to seek food only by begging; (3) to eat only one meal a day; (4) to sit out always in the open; and (5) to take neither salt nor the five flavors. The Buddha would accept robes given to him by others, but Devadatta. wore only robes made of rags. The Buddha would accept meals that were served to him, but Devadatta lived on alms alone. The Buddha would eat once, twice or three times a day, but Devadatta would eat only once. The Buddha would take shelter in graveyards or under trees, but Devadatta sat out in the open all day long. The Buddha would on occasion consent to take salt or the five flavors, but Devadatta accepted none of them. And because Devadatta observed these rules, people came to believe that he was far superior to the Buddha, and that they were as far apart as clouds and mud.
In this way Devadatta sought to deprive the Buddha of his standing. The Buddha was supported by the lay believer King Bimbisara. Every day the king supplied five hundred cartloads of alms to the Buddha as well as to his disciples, doing so over a period of years without missing a single day. Devadatta, jealous of such devotion and hoping to secure it for himself, won Prince Enemy Before Birth over to his side and persuaded him to kill his father.
He himself set out to kill the Buddha, hurling a rock and striking the Buddha with it. Such was the deed he carried out with his body. In addition, he slandered and cursed the Buddha, calling him a liar and a deceiver; such was the deed he committed with his mouth. And, in his heart, he thought of the Buddha as a foe from his previous lifetime; such was the deed he engaged in with his mind. The great evil of these three interacting deeds has never been surpassed.
Suppose that a terribly evil man, like Devadatta, were to engage in these three types of deeds, and, for an entire medium kalpa, curse and revile Shakyamuni Buddha, striking him with staves and behaving toward him with jealousy and envy. The enormous guilt he would incur would be weighty indeed.
This great earth of ours is 168,000 yojana thick, and therefore it is capable of supporting the waters of the four great seas, the dirt and stones of the nine mountains, every kind of plant and tree, and all living creatures, without ever collapsing, tipping or breaking apart. And yet, when Devadatta, a human being whose body measured five feet, committed no more than three cardinal sins, the grea