Stories of the Lotus Sutra - Chapter 1: The Enchanting World of the Lotus Sutra

[Bion]

Hello, friends.

Now we really dive into the Lotus Sutra, and we start with chapter 1, which we'll try to read and discuss during this week. This is the gate towards the world into which the Lotus Sutra invites us to enter.

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Reading Assignment: Chapter 1: The Enchanting World of the Lotus Sutralotus preachings.jpg

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During this week, please read this chapter slowly and notice what about it might be new to you. Is there something in the commentary that resonates, lingers, or troubles you? If so, let it, and spend some time reflecting on it. You can use the suggested questions on the Study Page to guide your reflections, or you can come up with your own.

As a special task, I would like to suggest an exercise for all of you. Make yourself a small card with two simple questions, which I’d love for you to share with the rest of us, perhaps at the end of your first reflection post. Ask yourselves: “What is one thing I’ve learned from this?” and “What is one question I would ask about this?”

Take your time with the reading and with posting your reflections, and feel free to interact with what others are sharing.

Enjoy the reading, and I can't wait to read your thoughts.

Gassho
sat lah

[Bob-Midwest]

Just read the first chapter a second time.
Two takeaways for me is a reminder of the importance of this world/life and the potential importance of imagination/creativity.
One question I would ask? Is there a limit to using this imagination on our journey? The question feels too early in the process. Hoping illumination is ahead in the Milky Way.

bob
sat/lah

[Onsho]

I got lost on a lake last week. It was snowing pretty hard, got turned around and found that everything i thought I knew was suddenly void. Where I knew the forest line was, the beaver den, the herons nests. They were just not there. Even though this is the perfect time to panic, I leaned into it. Although I was weary about what events were going to be unfolding i Not only stayed calm and open, but continued on my journey with blind eyes instead of finding my bearings.

I dont know who this book is for. I feel like an imposter at the table by not having a formal education in philosophy, or the ability to put my finger in whats being danced around. While at the same time I feel spoken down to, I have literally never been reminded not to take something literally so many times.

Reading this chapter makes me feel informed but sceptical. Engaged, but lost. I always have an adjustment period with new writers and im definitely not ready to retrace my tracks yet.

Such an interesting place to find myself.

gassho,
Onsho
satlah

ps. I didn't die on the lake

[Tenryu]

I feel like an imposter at the table by not having a formal education in philosophy, or the ability to put my finger in whats being danced around.

One of my favourite philosophers, Epicurus, said philosophy is about examining ourselves, not degrees or technical terms. By taking the Bodhisattva Precepts, you are already living this philosophy. Thank you for sharing your story - I found it deeply moving. Lost on the lake, snow falling, everything uncertain - you stayed present, calm, and attentive. In that moment, you were practicing philosophy: facing the unknown with awareness, reflection, and openness. That is wisdom in action, regardless of formal training. P.S. And I'm glad to hear you didn't die on the lake

Reading Chapter 1, I noticed how openly the Lotus Sutra presents itself as more than a literal story, without losing its sense of presence. Reeves mentions that Eagle Peak was far too small for the huge assembly, which caught my attention - the enchantment seems intentional, inviting us to see differently rather than believe literally. The two-truth theory reminded me of Jundo's "two things can be true at the same time" . Surface and depth aren't separate, and illustrations and what they show exist together. Ideas like ichinen sanzen, three thousand worlds in a single thought, and references to past and present buddhas loosen the usual sense of time and space. I also thought of our Eko: "All Buddhas throughout space and time."

I liked Reeves' sense of enchantment - not as escape, but as a way to see ordinary life as special. Imagination lets us enter these vast scenes and helps us live more fully here. The scene from Night on the Galactic Railroad stayed with me: after all the cosmic travel, Giovanni simply brings milk home to his mother, which felt very Lotus Sutra. By the way, I found the movie on YouTube with English subtitles for anyone who's interested: Night on the Galactic Railroad

This chapter left me noticing how the sutra quietly shifts how I see and live in this world, without needing to decide what is real or not.

One thing I've learned: the sutra reminds me to notice the depth already present in everyday life.
One question: how can I keep this sense of connection alive in small daily moments?

Gasshō,
Tenryū
sat&lah

[Jundo]

Just thought to drop this in ... sitting Zazen on Eagle (more commonly, "Vulture") Peak during my pilgrimage in India a few years ago. You can see how small it is ...

adv1.jpg

1280px-Vulturepeak1.jpg

A small taste of the atmosphere on Vulture Peak. Buddhist folks from many places, mostly in Asia.

Gassho, J
stlah

[Maro]

(Apologies but I have not figured out yet how to do this "quote" thingie so I will just do copy/paste!)

Tenryu wrote: The scene from Night on the Galactic Railroad stayed with me: after all the cosmic travel, Giovanni simply brings milk home to his mother

It stayed with me too as it brought to mind a poem with the title Kindness - these are some of the finishing lines:

Then it is only kindness that makes sense anymore,
only kindness that ties your shoes
and sends you out into the day to buy bread,


Onsho wrote: but continued on my journey with blind eyes instead of finding my bearings
No words, just a deep bow Onsho!

Gassho
Maro
sat/lah

[Bion]

(Apologies but I have not figured out yet how to do this "quote" thingie so I will just do copy/paste!)

Gassho
Maro
sat/lah

on the bottom of each post you will see a button that says Quote. If you click it it it will start a new post, quoting the thing you want to quoet To quote multple people at once, on the left side of each post you will see a little check box. You can select various posts, press quote on any of them and a new post will start, quoting all the selected ones!

gassho
sat lah

[Bion]

Just thought to drop this in ... sitting Zazen on Eagle (more commonly, "Vulture") Peak during my pilgrimage in India a few years ago. You can see how small it is ...
Gassho, J
stlah

You beat me to it I was going to respond with precisely your photos

One thing I've learned: the sutra reminds me to notice the depth already present in everyday life.
One question: how can I keep this sense of connection alive in small daily moments?

I think that question is something worth pursuing and investigating! It makes me think of master Dogen's very famous, to forget the self is to be actualized by the myriad things, which I take as a quite practical advice to be fully applied, like you say, in daily moments. How do we forget the self in small and big things?

I dont know who this book is for. I feel like an imposter at the table by not having a formal education in philosophy, or the ability to put my finger in whats being danced around. While at the same time I feel spoken down to, I have literally never been reminded not to take something literally so many times.

I think it is important that there is something challenging us. It leads to self-exploration and hopefully to some insights!

Gassho
sat lah

[Hokuu]

First off, it feels almost "illegal" to comment on a commentary on the Sutra. To properly form my point of view on the Sutra, though, I'd need to spend hours (if not years) studying ancient languages, history, etc., which is neither feasible nor appealing enough. That is to say, my reflections are merely reflections on Gene's reflections on the Sutra.

I liked the chapter and reference to the Night on the Galactic Railroad - I haven't read it, but I think it's beautiful. The way Gene described it reminded me of The Little Prince.
I was concerned about how Gene reached the conclusion that "for the Dharma Flower Sutra, however, this world, the world of things, is an ultimately real world" based on the text, which talks about flying bodhisattvas, other worlds, etc. There is a huge leap of assumptions and mental gymnastics to come from that to something like "this very world is THE world". Don't get me wrong, I like the conclusion, but I don't see how one can logically deduce it from the text of the first chapter of the Lotus Sutra as presented by the author of the commentary.

I'm generally sceptical about using the imagination as a tool. My main concern is probably my experience with people who imagine talking with god and making poor moral decisions, firmly believing god commanded this or that. What are the guardrails? When is it imagination in the service of buddhahood, and when is it just feeding my own ignorance?

Thing I learned - a bit of an insight into the practice of Nichiren Buddhism, which I'd dismissed previously. Not to say I like it now, not at all, but at least I understand their perspective a bit better now.

gassho
satlah

[Bion]

First off, it feels almost "illegal" to comment on a commentary on the Sutra. To properly form my point of view on the Sutra, though, I'd need to spend hours (if not years) studying ancient languages, history, etc., which is neither feasible nor appealing enough. That is to say, my reflections are merely reflections on Gene's reflections on the Sutra.

I liked the chapter and reference to the Night on the Galactic Railroad - I haven't read it, but I think it's beautiful. The way Gene described it reminded me of The Little Prince.
I was concerned about how Gene reached the conclusion that "for the Dharma Flower Sutra, however, this world, the world of things, is an ultimately real world" based on the text, which talks about flying bodhisattvas, other worlds, etc. There is a huge leap of assumptions and mental gymnastics to come from that to something like "this very world is THE world". Don't get me wrong, I like the conclusion, but I don't see how one can logically deduce it from the text of the first chapter of the Lotus Sutra as presented by the author of the commentary.

I'm generally sceptical about using the imagination as a tool. My main concern is probably my experience with people who imagine talking with god and making poor moral decisions, firmly believing god commanded this or that. What are the guardrails? When is it imagination in the service of buddhahood, and when is it just feeding my own ignorance?

Thing I learned - a bit of an insight into the practice of Nichiren Buddhism, which I'd dismissed previously. Not to say I like it now, not at all, but at least I understand their perspective a bit better now.

gassho
satlah

A good dose of skepticism is not all that bad. Critical thinking is important. I would say that we don't aim to comment on the sutra based on Reeves' commentary, but rather on what his take does to us, what it triggers and how it reshapes the way we want to relate to the text of the sutra itself. I think we can separate his commentary into the re-telling of the story, without all the details presented in the original and then what he makes of what he retells. Then, we can try to see where we stand.

Gassho
sat lah

[Taikyo]

I want to thank Jundo for the beautiful photos.

Reading the beginning of the first chapter, I was surprised by the author’s astonishment at the presence of such a large assembly gathered to hear the Lotus Sutra on a small mountain peak. In ancient India, at the same time when the Puranas were also composed, it was entirely natural within the cosmology of the people of that time that celestial beings would be present at important gatherings and events (as Gene Reeves himself enlists them). Their presence conferred great significance upon the occasion. According to the Puranic stories, such beings do not belong to this world and require no physical space—they hover somewhere above, with a perfect view.

But what intrigues me even more, as mentioned further in the reading, is the idea of a “two‑truth theory”: the distinction between conventional truth and ultimate truth. It is an idea I would like to explore—how to balance them in everyday life. On the one hand, imagination can be a powerful tool to open a broader view; on the other hand, there is always the danger of becoming lost in an imaginative world if it is mistaken for the truth.

Gassho
Taikyo
sat/lah

[Hosui]

Not unlike unlike my reaction to contemporary cultural works of “magical realism” (tangible profits made from Midnight’s Children, Santa Claus and The Polar Express), I embrace the opportunity to re-enchant the so-called real world of our making — the seemingly straightforward world Reeves describes as one of brute facts ordinarily perceived, of apparent historical and concrete reality — which I believe can easily be made strange again. Thanks Jundo for posting curtain-lifting photos revealing the “brute facts” and the “concrete reality” of Vulture Peak. But, IMHO, our world is not as finished and discoverable as we think it is, our actions and intentions not as unambiguous as we prefer them to appear; the leftovers of what’s unknown, unseen, contradictory, misunderstood, or even miscommunicated (call these everyday glitches in the Matrix supernatural if it helps) are just as fantastic as dragon kings, raining flowers, erupting stupas (or terracotta warriors emerging from the earth - as they did). I believe it’s via those confusing supernatural leftovers that we get a chance to meet our own unseen selves, the repressed halves of ourselves that emerge when we become fundamentally unsettled by the “truth”, which is what the Lotus Sutra does for me, by having me grasp at a conventional truth or an ultimate truth or even a third truth (which Tendai Buddhism tantalisingly interprets from the Lotus Sutra): just how unsettled are we prepared to become if we want to fulfil our bodhisattva vows? For me, the picture Reeves paints of the Lotus Sutra is one of extravagance in the truest sense: Latin "wandering" (vagare) "beyond" (extra) traditional limits, transgressing normal boundaries.

So I disagree with Reeve’s championing of LaFleur’s comfortable “ontological egalitarianism” between the real and the fantastical — an ontological parity which sanitises & dulls the rough ride between these truths — and prefer, as prefaced above, the Sutra’s white water function as leaving us washed-up in a state of “ontological ambiguity” the better to make us paddle harder to whichever shore. The inherently unsettling register Reeves & the Sutra leaves us in is the work I’m looking forward to: to understand what it is to be a buddha and how we manifest a one vehicle Dharma.

One thing I learned: I settle too easily on conclusions derived from locally coherent truths.
The question I’d ask: why should I continue to rely entirely on the sufficient reality of things in the present moment?

Gassho
Hosui
sat/lah today

[Hokuu]

I believe it’s via those confusing supernatural leftovers that we get a chance to meet our own unseen selves, the repressed halves of ourselves that emerge when we become fundamentally unsettled by the “truth”, which is what the Lotus Sutra does for me, by having me grasp at a conventional truth or an ultimate truth or even a third truth (which Tendai Buddhism tantalisingly interprets from the Lotus Sutra): just how unsettled are we prepared to become if we want to fulfil our bodhisattva vows?

Hosui I love it, sharp observation

gassho
satlah

[Bion]

But what intrigues me even more, as mentioned further in the reading, is the idea of a “two‑truth theory”: the distinction between conventional truth and ultimate truth. It is an idea I would like to explore—how to balance them in everyday life.

Well, think of the Sandokai, which we chant often: it speaks precisely of the identity of relative and absolute, or the harmony of difference and equality. Not two different things, not one either, in a conventional sense. Here's a talk from Jundo on it :

https://treeleaf.podbean.com/e/february-2018-zazenkai-talk-sandokai-the-identity-of-relative-and-absolute/

So I disagree with Reeve’s championing of LaFleur’s comfortable “ontological egalitarianism” between the real and the fantastical — an ontological parity which sanitises & dulls the rough ride between these truths — and prefer, as prefaced above, the Sutra’s white water function as leaving us washed-up in a state of “ontological ambiguity” the better to make us paddle harder to whichever shore. The inherently unsettling register Reeves & the Sutra leaves us in is the work I’m looking forward to: to understand what it is to be a buddha and how we manifest a one vehicle Dharma.

Gassho
Hosui
sat/lah today

Oh, I appreciate the way you eloquently put this, and the choice to tackle the unsettlling.

Gassho
sat lah

[Taikyo]

[QUOTE=Bion;n565014]

Well, think of the Sandokai, which we chant often: it speaks precisely of the identity of relative and absolute, or the harmony of difference and equality. Not two different things, not one either, in a conventional sense. Here's a talk from Jundo on it :

https://treeleaf.podbean.com/e/february-2018-zazenkai-talk-sandokai-the-identity-of-relative-and-absolute/

I would have to listen to Zazenkai's talk a few more times to grasp it better.

I chose one verse from Sandokai
"Light is also darkness, But do not think of it as darkness. Darkness is light; Do not see it as light. Light and darkness are not one, not two, Like the foot before and the foot behind in walking."

I tried to write my own verse. I hope that I understood the meaning behind the verse from Sandokai:

Illuminated by the light, I boldly step forward.
Shrouded in darkness, I surrender myself and trust.
Light and darkness caress my cheek,
Saying: everything is fine.