MindYourBuddha

This chapter is all about sowing the seeds of buddhahood.  The story starts with a Buddha-sized exaggeration regarding the length of time between the occurrence of a Buddha.  Take the earth and grind it into a pool of ink, then travel to a thousand countries and let spill a drop a fine as a grain of dust, continue in this way until the ink is spent.  

The theme of time continues throughout the parable, picking up in the realm of the Universal Surpassing Wisdom Buddha who in that incarnation is Shakyamuni Buddha's father and Shakyamuni Buddha is the youngest of his sixteen sons.  Keep in mind that this setting is a former reincarnation of Shakyamuni Buddha a very, very long time before the current story.  The shravakas present who heard the Universal Surpassing Wisdom Buddha's teaching of the Lotus Sutra could be divided into three groups: those who heard it, took faith, and attained buddhahood; those who heard it and took faith but then fell away from their initial faith to follow lesser teachings; and finally those who did not take faith.  Shakyamuni Buddha reveals that he was the sixteenth prince in that remote age, and that his present day disciples are those who first heard the Lotus Sutra taught by him in that past age. Of those who initially took faith and fell away, they will be able to recover that faith and attain buddhahood upon hearing the Lotus Sutra presently taught by Shakyamuni Buddha. Of those who did not take faith at that time, Shakyamuni Buddha’s present teaching of the Lotus Sutra provides them with another chance to sow the seed of faith so that they may enjoy the harvest of buddhahood in the future.

Having been requested to teach the Universal Surpassing Wisdom Buddha thereupon three times turned the Dharma Wheel of twelve parts.  The Law of The Twelve Causes is a core Buddhist doctrine that I wrote about earlier.  It speaks of the growth cycles we pass through, karma, rebirth, and the origin of suffering. It's important to recognize that as humans we suffer because of our mind and body.  Over time our body deteriorates and becomes subject to injury, sickness, age and death.  Our mind develops naturally to discriminate between likes and dislikes, which both cause suffering.  

The need to persevere in our practice underpins the Parable of the Magic City.

This parable is about the immense length of time and difficulty, involving many rebirths, that are involved in making the journey through many states of suffering to the ultimate state of Buddhahood he is promoting in the Lotus Sutra. Shakyamuni himself is the guide and the magical city is said to be the state attained by Pratyekabuddhas, that is, of those who seek Buddhahood for their own benefit. The ultimate state represented by the Isle of Jewels is that of those who seek Buddhahood for the benefit of others, the Buddha Vehicle or Buddhayana chosen by those who pursue the path of bodhisattvas. Here the Lotus Sutra clearly illustrates how Mahayana Buddhism is presented as a higher form of Buddhism because it is deemed to be less self-seeking than Theravada Buddhism.