XIII
Project Gutenberg EPUB edition
Soothill, William Edward and Kumārajīva
The King of Healing and another great Bodhisattva named Eloquent, are now introduced. Whether they are creations from the author’s own imagination, or of a preceding age is not known. The two seek to allay the Buddha’s anxiety in regard to the future of the Lotus Doctrine in this realm of Śakyamuni’s Buddhaship.
“Be pleased, World-honoured One, to be without anxiety! After the extinction of the Buddha we will keep, read, recite, and preach this Sutra. In the evil age to come, living beings will decrease in good qualities and increase in utter arrogance, coveting gain and honours, developing their evil qualities and being far removed from deliverance. Though it may be difficult to teach and convert them, we, exerting our utmost patience, will read and recite this Sutra, keep, preach, and copy it, pay every kind of homage to it, and be unsparing of body and life.”
Companies of disciples also approach to take the same vow. They are followed by the Buddha’s aunt, who was also his foster-mother. Standing before him with her six thousand nuns, she gazes into his face silently. In reply to her appealing look he says:
“Why, with sad countenance, do you gaze at the Tathagata? Are you not thinking that I have not mentioned your name nor predicted you to Perfect Enlightenment? Gautami! I have already inclusively announced that the future of all my disciples is predicted. Now you, who desire to know your future destiny, shall in the worlds to come become a great Teacher in the law of sixty-eight thousand kotis of Buddhas. And these your six thousand bikshunis, still in training and already trained, will become teachers of the Law. Thus you will gradually become perfect in the Bodhisattva-Way, and will become a Buddha entitled ‘Loveliness’ Tathagata.”
To Rahula’s mother is promised similarly the title of “The Perfect Myriad-rayed Tathagata”. These two and all their followers rejoice with great joy, and take the vow to preach the Lotus Truth.
After these the vast assembly of Great Bodhisattvas, who may be described as the angels and archangels of Buddhism, approach the Buddha and with folded hands, reflect thus:
“If the World-honoured One commands us to keep and expound this Sutra, we will proclaim abroad this Law as the Buddha has taught it.” Again they reflect thus: “The Buddha now is silent; we are not commanded. What shall we do?”
“Then these Bodhisattvas, respectfully obeying the Buddha’s will and themselves desiring to fulfil their original vow, before the Buddha raise a lion’s roar and utter a vow saying: ‘World-honoured One! After the extinction of the Tathagata we will compass and travel through the worlds in every direction, in order to lead all the living to copy this Sutra, receive and keep, read and recite it, expound its meaning, practise it as their law, and rightly keep it in mind; entirely by the Buddha’s might. Be pleased, World-honoured One, though in another quarter, to behold and guard us from afar!’”
The whole company now chant together a long poem from which the following stanzas are taken. It will be observed that the author shows he has already experienced the rejection of the new doctrine at the hands of the orthodox. He reveals his resentment against the Hinayanists in various ways, and especially against their calumny that his Sutra has been invented for gain or fame and to delude the people.
“Pray be without anxiety!
After the Buddha’s extinction,
In the last dread evil age,
We will proclaim this Sutra.
Though many ignorant men
Will with evil mouth abuse us,
And beat us with swords and staves,
We will endure it all.
Monks in that evil age,
Heretical, warped, suspicious,
Crying ‘attained’ when they have not,
Will have minds full of arrogance.
Others in the Aranya
Will wear the patched robe in seclusion,
Thinking they walk the true path,
And scorning dwellers among men.
Others greedy for gain,
Will preach the Law to laymen
And be revered by the world as Arhats
Of the Six Transcendent Powers;
These men cherishing evil minds,
Ever thinking of earthly things,
Assuming the name of Aranyas,
Will love to calumniate us,
Saying such words as these—
‘All these bhikshu-fellows,
Because of love of gain,
Preach an heretical doctrine;
Themselves have composed this Sutra
To delude the people of the world;
For the sake of acquiring fame,