Stories of the Lotus Sutra - Chapter 11: Great Treasure is Very Near

[Bion]

image-17.jpg Hello, friends.

We turn a new page in our book and come across a familiar story: a gem, hidden inside a poor man's robe, makes him both rich and poor at the same time. This new chapter explores this parable in depth, along with other themes, and includes some interesting comments and interpretations by Reeves. It may be slightly longer than some of the earlier chapters, but nothing too intimidating.

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Reading Assignment: Chapter 11 – Great Treasure is Very Near

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Please read at your leisure, and when you're ready to share, come back here and let us know your thoughts. Do you feel we're circling the same topic, or are we discovering new facets of the Dharma Flower Sutra? Was the rich friend wise in the way he tried to help his friend? Do you also feel the poor man was too dumb, as Reeves says, to realize he had a gem all along? Is there something in this chapter that speaks to your own practice and life?

Last Saturday we had our Zoom meeting, and it was, as always, a wonderful gathering. If you’d like to watch the recording, you can find it on the Study Page. There is also a handout there with examples of traditional early Buddhist texts that are useful for understanding descriptions of arhats and nirvana that existed even before the Lotus Sutra was composed.

Enjoy the reading—I look forward to hearing your reflections on this chapter.

with metta, and in gassho
sat lah

[Chikyou]

The palatable of the jewel in the coat is one of the most famous parables of the Lotus Sutra (though perhaps not THE most famous - that distinction might go the the burning house). As such, it’s one that I heard long before I read the Lotus Sutra itself. I was well familiar with it, and loved it then, and more than once have shared it with my friends.

We often find ourselves searching for spiritual fulfillment - be it in the form of Buddhist enlightenment, God, or something else. We always look for it “out there” - wherever “there” is - anywhere but where we are. Because we are looking for it anywhere but where we are, we will never find it. We can only find it by realizing it’s been with us the entire time. (Like the spiritual version of looking all over for your glasses when they’re on top of your head.)

Gassho,
SatLah,
Chikyō

[MikeH]

My question about this parable of the "gem in the hem" is: what, exactly, is this gem in my life? What has the Buddha sewed into my garment that I'm not aware of? Reeves makes this treasure into many things, and I enjoyed reading this chapter of his book. It's inspiring for sure.

But it seems to me that the Lotus Sutra itself is very specific about the nature of this gem and provides a different picture than what Reeves paints. When the Sutra turns from the parable to the explanation of it, it says: "The Buddha is like this friend When he was a bodhisattva, he taught us to seek comprehensive wisdom, but we soon forgot, neither knowing nor perceiving...Finding it hard to make living, we contented ourselves with whatever we could find. Yet our aspiration for comprehensive wisdom was never lost" (Reeves translation, p. 215) When the Sutra gives its poetic repetition of this it says:

"This is how we were too.
For long, the World-Honored One
Constantly took pity on us and taught us
To cultivate the highest aspiration" (216).

The Sutra seems pretty clear that the gem in my hem is aspiration, and particularly aspiration for comprehensive wisdom. That's quite a different treasure from the things Reeves discusses in his chapter. It also makes for a different link between this parable and the castle-city than the link Reeves makes. Reeves seems to think the gem in our hem is a destination "beyond" or distinct from the castle city. But if the gem is aspiration, then it's not a destination at all, it's the will to keep on this path even if no destination ever comes our way.

Gassho,
SatLah,
Mike

[Maro]

How nice that you talked about aspiration Mike

Gassho
satlah
Maro

[Myojo]

Yes, the parable of the jewel.
We have it but we need someone or something to point it out as it is so close that we cannot see it.
Closer than the clothes we wear, the air we breathe...it is 'the eye trying to see itself'.
I always thought it was Nirvana that was the jewel but here it is Buddhahood.
The last point that is made about rebirth in an all male pureland is not so well thought through.
We are only temporarily born male or female. We might have been anything in the last life and might be anything in the next.
So it really doesn't matter if our form is male or female - we are not the body.
I think the sutra is saying that the pureland is non-sexual and therefore there is no neccessity for beings who can carry children.
I do also acknowledge - as a separate point - that it would be good to get rid of any status difference between monks and nuns. I think that mainly in the west - with the exception of strict Theravadin groups - we have done that already.
????????

[Ryūdō-Liúdào]

I view the treasure as the practice itself, as the capacity to live wisely and compassionately, which is already present in us. Having been given the practice is not the same as knowing it, and knowing it is not the same as living it. It’s all about recognition and use.

While I know it’s a parable, I wonder: how big or small was this “gem”? The poor man would be a fool indeed if the gem were large enough, but if it were very small, was he really a fool, or just unaware?

As for the limitations mentioned at the end, it feels like a reminder that humans tend to project and place blame when dealing with desire and attachment. Desire itself isn’t one-sided, nor is it a problem in itself. It’s our relationship to it, the craving and attachments that form, that seem to lead us astray. So rather than seeing it as something “they got wrong,” it also makes me consider where we might still be doing the same sort of thing in our own ways.

Gasshō,
流道-Ryūdō-Liúdào
Satlah

[Tenryu]

I keep landing on practice itself, too.

Not something we carry around and then later figure out. More like what is already happening when sitting, walking, getting distracted, coming back, forgetting again. If there’s a “treasure” here, I don’t really see it as something hidden in the fabric of life waiting to be found. I found myself circling back to Dōgen at this point—he keeps pointing to nothing outside this very activity.

To be fair, Reeves is pointing to something very real in lived experience: people do fail to embody what they “understand,” attitudes do shape how suffering is lived, practice does mature over time. Dōgen isn’t denying that. He’s just refusing to let you turn it into “I have it, but I’m not there yet.” In zazen especially, that framing starts to feel unnecessary. There is just sitting. Even when it’s messy or unclear. Nothing to add.

Reading Reeves, I can follow the idea that something can be “there” and still not really active until we bring it into use. But my own instinct leans the other way: if it’s truly this close, it wouldn’t wait to be activated. It would already be showing up as how we’re living, even in a very ordinary or uneven way.

Dōgen can sound a bit like he’s pounding the table here: if it’s here, it’s here. If not, no amount of thinking really helps much. There’s a kind of relief in that, too.

Anyway—checking my robes for unexpected mineral deposits. Just in case.

Gasshō,
Tenryū
st lah

[Bion]

Reading Reeves, I can follow the idea that something can be “there” and still not really active until we bring it into use. But my own instinct leans the other way: if it’s truly this close, it wouldn’t wait to be activated. It would already be showing up as how we’re living, even in a very ordinary or uneven way.

Dōgen can sound a bit like he’s pounding the table here: if it’s here, it’s here. If not, no amount of thinking really helps much. There’s a kind of relief in that, too.


Gasshō,
Tenryū
st lah

Actually, master Dogen's whole point about buddha nature, in Hotsu bodai shin, is that it needs to be manifested. He explicitly "ignores the more innovative interpretations of the bodhi-citta as an inherent buddha mind, rejects more radical claims that bringing forth this mind is equivalent to the ultimate awakening". (quoting the translators of the Soto Zen Text Project Shobogenzo).

gassho
sat lah

[Hokuu]

I mean, he could have just given the gem to the man and avoided all the drama
Seriously, though, I understand it's a metaphor, and the point here is that although the gem is here, I still need to discover it. There must be synergy between the availability of the gift and the willingness to discover it on the part of the receiver. We're already buddhas and bodhisattvas, but if we choose to act like jerks, we're just jerks.

gassho
satlah

[Tenryu]

Actually, master Dogen's whole point about buddha nature, in Hotsu bodai shin, is that it needs to be manifested. He explicitly "ignores the more innovative interpretations of the bodhi-citta as an inherent buddha mind, rejects more radical claims that bringing forth this mind is equivalent to the ultimate awakening". (quoting the translators of the Soto Zen Text Project Shobogenzo).

Thanks for pointing that out—that’s helpful.

I think I may have leaned a bit too close to sounding like “it’s already there, nothing to do,” which isn’t quite what I meant, and I can see why Hotsu Bodai Shin would push back on that.

What I was trying to get at (and maybe didn’t express clearly) is less that there is something complete sitting there, and more that whatever we call “buddha-nature” doesn’t really exist apart from its being brought forth. So not something latent that needs to be activated later—but also not something static that’s already fully accomplished either.

In that sense, practice isn’t using something we have, but the very way it shows up at all.

So when I say it doesn’t “wait to be activated,” I don’t mean nothing is required. More that there isn’t a gap between having it and enacting it. The enactment is the only place it’s real. That’s how I’ve been trying to hear Dōgen here—though I may still be off.

Gasshō,
Tenryū
st•lah

[Bion]

What I was trying to get at (and maybe didn’t express clearly) is less that there is something complete sitting there, and more that whatever we call “buddha-nature” doesn’t really exist apart from its being brought forth. So not something latent that needs to be activated later—but also not something static that’s already fully accomplished either.

In that sense, practice isn’t using something we have, but the very way it shows up at all.

So when I say it doesn’t “wait to be activated,” I don’t mean nothing is required. More that there isn’t a gap between having it and enacting it. The enactment is the only place it’s real. That’s how I’ve been trying to hear Dōgen here—though I may still be off.

Gasshō,
Tenryū
st•lah

Oh, ok, yeah. The elements are here for awakening because we are here, having had the good fortune of being born as humans. We are of the nature to awaken.
Master Dogen wisely points out the same as you: bodhi mind does not exist from before, is not eternal, nor not eternal. It is simply that when our suffering meets some sort of realization, bodhi-citta shows up, and from then on, we practice and simultaneously verify.

I understood you properly this time! Thank you

gassho
sat lah

[Shinkon]

What a time honored, oft-repeated story by teachers and students! What is the gem that someone had sewin into my clothing? And, I did not find it until I absolutely needed to?

As I have often perceived this parable, it is something that teaches me a continual lesson until I notice it with a facepalm reaction?

Today, as I begrudgingly awoke, my body ached with my cats scurrying at my feet, waiting to be fed. It is my chronicle illness: multiple sclerosis. Did I forget that I have this illness? Not really. However, where I chose to not acknowledge it, it appears to remind me that I have it. This time this hidden treasure manifest with my chronic fatigue and weakness slowiing me down to a hault. MS said, "No, you are not enjoying yourself today. You wll not write or even make dinner. Everything stops until you lie down, cooled down by a fan."

This is hard when I have a chapter to write, poems to edit, and students to teach. As I waddled around my apartment, I went into my bedroom to fetch my sliipers, subsequently falling asleep. When I awoke, I laughed out loud at my stubborness and futllity. By trying to push through my symptoms, my ailment took care of me.
This is one of the practice treasures that will not remain hidden anymore.

Also, I highly recommend Gene Reeves' The Lotus Sutra book, in addition to our commentary. There are other authors, but that is for another day.

Gassho,
Shinkon
satlah

[Chiko]

This parable makes me think of how my relationship to the practice can change from time to time. I’m not talking about progressing, but rather that it can feel anywhere from perfect to integral to healing all the way to tedious and cumbersome and downright painful.

My mental weather and physical ailments come and go, but the jewel of practice remains steadfast whether I accept it or not. Some days I’m flipping cushions and turning my clothing inside out trying to find it. But every time I do, it has not a speck of dust on it.

Gassho,
Chiko
st/lah

[Naiko]

I first heard the jewel in the robe parable in a talk by the head teacher of Siddha Yoga (Kashmir Shaivism/Vedanta) many years ago. She often drew from other traditions. I’m enjoying encountering these stories in place though, it gives them a different flavor.

Sewing the jewel in a hidden location (what, no pockets?) is maddening, right? This is very relatable, much like the lost son story is. This man was struggling for so long and relief was so close. How often have I perpetuated my suffering carrying around/wearing the same old thought patterns/behavior, when all along I had the means to see things anew? Sometimes I’m too in the mire and forget my practice.

I particularly enjoyed Reeve’s commentary in this chapter, especially his description of bodhisattva as a verb, not a title, but activity. This called to mind Dogen‘s practice-enlightenment. I remember that Jundo once said Zazen is a verb in one of his talks. I do appreciate when one little word creates a great space.

It’s appropriate to read his thoughts on the Earth as a jewel in Earth Month! I also appreciate that he tried to address the Pure Buddha Land without women. I have too much much to say about that and I think that means I shouldn’t say anything.
Gassho,
Naiko
stlah

[Bion]

I’m so glad to see how much insight you’re all drawing from this story! I’d really love to hear even more reflections. Those of you who haven’t shared yet, please don’t be shy—I warmly encourage you to express your thoughts, too.

Gassho
sat lah