Innumerable Meanings Sutra

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The Innumerable Meanings Sutra

apocryphal Chinese text.[5][6][7] It is part of the Threefold Lotus Sutra, along with the Lotus Sutra and the Samantabhadra Meditation Sutra. As such, many Mahayana Buddhists consider it the prologue to the Lotus Sutra, and Chapter one of the Lotus Sutra states that the Buddha taught the Infinite Meanings just before expounding the Lotus Sutra.[8][9][10]

Title

For Buddhists, the term "Innumerable Meanings" or "Infinite Meanings" is used in two senses. The first, used in the singular, refers to the

Dharma
of "nonform").

Outline of the Sutra

Virtues

The Innumerable Meanings Sutra, gold, colour on blue paper, 13-14th century, Japan

This is the first chapter of the Innumerable Meanings

bhikṣuṇīs (nuns), upāsakas (male laymen), upāsikās
(female laymen), kings, princes, ministers, rich people, ordinary people, men and women alike.

The Bodhisattvas are thus called mahāsattvas in the Threefold Lotus Sutra, because they have a great goal of obtaining supreme enlightenment (

bodhi) and finally attaining Buddhahood by enlightening all beings. This chapter is called "Virtues" simply because all the beings in the assembly, no matter what "state" they were in, desired to praise the Buddha for his virtues (the precepts, meditation, wisdom, emancipation, and knowledge of emancipation) and excellence.[11]
In doing so, they could sow their knowledge of the Buddha deep into their minds.

Preaching

In this chapter, the Buddha addresses the Great Adornment Bodhisattva and the other eighty thousand bodhisattvas in the assembly and explains to them that this sutra makes unawakened bodhisattvas accomplish perfect enlightenment "quickly". If a bodhisattva wants to learn and master this doctrine of Innumerable Meanings, he "should observe that all [phenomena] were originally, will be, and are in themselves void in nature and form; they are neither great nor small, neither appearing nor disappearing, neither fixed nor movable, and neither advancing nor retreating; and they are nondualistic, just emptiness."[12]

In order to realize naturally what may emerge from all laws in the future, one must first penetrate and understand them deeply. By realizing this, one can realize that all laws remain settled for a vast number of

eons, but even after a vast amount of time, they change.[13]

Ten Merits

The essence of this chapter is the urgent advice to master and practice the teaching of the sutra for the spiritual merit to be gained from it, the good life it leads to, and the usefulness to mankind and the world that it makes possible.[14] Mentioned earlier in this sutra, the teachings of the Buddha are the truth of the universe. It is no wonder, and certainly no miracle, that if one lives according to the truth, his life works out well.[15]

Once again, Great Adornment Bodhisattva is present in the assembly and questions the Buddha about where the teaching comes from, its dwelling place, and what purpose it serves. The Buddha answered and said that the teaching originates in the innermost mind of all the buddhas; its purpose is to propel the minds of all man-kind to seek the wisdom of the buddhas; its dwelling place is in the performance of the Bodhisattva Path by all who seek perfect enlightenment.[16]

See also

References

  1. ISBN 4-333-00208-7. Archived from the original
  2. ISBN 978-1-886439-45-0.[permanent dead link
    ]
  3. ISBN 0875730787
  4. Taishō Tripiṭaka
    276)
  5. ^ Dolce,L. (1998). Buddhist Hermeneutics inn Medieval Japan. In A. Van der Kooij, Karel Van Der Toorn (eds.); Canonization and Decanonization, Leiden: Brill, p.235
  6. ^ Charles Muller (1998). East Asian Apocryphal Scriptures: Their Origin and Role in the Development of Sinitic Buddhism, Bulletin of Toyo Gakuen University, vol. 6, p. 69
  7. ISBN 9780691157863
    .
  8. ISBN 0875730787
    , p. 6
  9. ^ Apple, James B. (2012). The Structure and Content of the Avaivartikacakra Sutra and Its Relation to the Lotus Sutra, 東洋哲学研究所紀要 28, 162
  10. ^ Cole, Alan (2005). Text as Father: Paternal Seductions in Early Mahayana Buddhist Literature. University of California Press, p.59
  11. ISBN 0875730787
    ; pp. 6-7
  12. ISBN 4-333-00270-2
  13. ISBN 4-333-00270-2
  14. ISBN 433301025X
  15. ISBN 0834801477
  16. ISBN 433301025X
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