The Law, not the Teacher

Chapter 10 of the Lotus Sutra is a short chapter, and easy to overlook, but there is a deep and subtle message there worth exploring. In Chapter 10, the Buddha talks about how anyone who reveres, read and teaches the Lotus Sutra is as worthy of praise as a Buddha himself. Or rather, in his own words:

The Buddha said to Medicine King: In addition, if after the Thus Come One has passed into extinction there should be someone who listens to the Lotus Sutra of the Wonderful Law, even one verse or one phrase, and for a moment thinks of it with joy, I will likewise bestow on him a prophesy that he will attain anuttara-samyak-sambodhi. [Full Buddha-hood]

At first glance this looks like just a promotion of the sutra itself. There are other sutras, such as the Golden Light Sutra or Diamond Sutra that similarly state that reverence of itself, the sutra, is important. However, in the case of the Golden Light Sutra, reverence of the sutra (by the king) will bring peace to the nation, and reverence of the Diamond Sutra will bring about great merit.

The Lotus Sutra, however, assures the readers that those who revere it are guaranteed of full Buddha-hood sometime far in the future. This is wonderful in one sense, but also reminds one of the enormity of the task as well.

While reading the commentaries of this Sutra, by Thich Nhat Hanh, he made an interesting observation: chapter 10 is telling listeners to revere the teaching, not the teacher.

This is actually a pretty profound, and something oft forgotten for us Buddhists. Buddhism often veers into a cult of the Buddha when we’re not paying attention. I’m not talking about Asian Buddhists who make offerings and show gratitude; that’s perfectly normal Buddhism, and reverence is a very wholesome practice. Instead, I am talking about people who obsess over what the Buddha said, or who he really was, and so on. There are movements in Buddhism to emulate the Buddha as much as possible, and I think this is good up to a point, but there is also a point when one should look beyond the Buddha to his teachings instead.

In the end, it doesn’t matter. The teachings he left behind were far more important. Consider the words of the Buddha in the last sutta of the Pali Canon, the Parinibbana Sutta (DN 16), emphasis added:

[2:33]. “Therefore, Ananda, be islands unto yourselves, refuges unto yourselves, seeking no external refuge; with the Dhamma as your island, the Dhamma as your refuge, seeking no other refuge.

So, the Lotus Sutra, which is supposed to be the ultimate and most comprehensive of all sutras and teachings of the Buddha (in the Mahayana tradition at least) is thus a refuge in its own right.

Namumyohorengekyo