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Lotus Sutra — Saddharma Pundarika

c. 100 BCE–200 CE (Sanskrit redaction) · Early Mahayana Buddhism (1st century BCE–1st century CE) · Northwestern India (Gandhara region, probable)

Chapter II — Skillful Means (Upaya)

1At that time the World-Honoured One calmly arose from his Samadhi

2and addressed Sariputra:

3"The wisdom of the Buddhas is infinitely deep and immeasurable.

4The door to this wisdom is difficult to understand and difficult to enter.

5Not one of the Shravakas or Pratyekabuddhas is able to comprehend it."

6"Wherefore? A Buddha has personally attended a hundred thousand myriads of Buddhas,

7fully practicing the infinite Law of those Buddhas.

8He has made strenuous and unflinching progress and his fame is universally known.

9He has accomplished a very deep Law, never heard before,

10and delivers it according to what is opportune, yet the purport is hard to understand."

11"Sariputra, since I attained Buddhahood, I have widely discoursed

12and taught by various reasonings and various parables

13and led innumerable living beings to give up all attachments.

14Wherefore? Because the Tathagata is fully possessed of all kinds of expedient methods."

Chapter III — The Parable of the Burning House

15"Sariputra, suppose in a certain village there is a great elder

16who has a large house, and this house has one gate and is full of people—

17two, three, or even five hundred people living in it.

18The rooms are old and decayed, the walls crumbling to ruin.

19Suddenly a fire breaks out on all sides, and the children of the elder,

20ten, twenty, or thirty in number, are inside the house.

21The elder, seeing the great fire breaking out,

22is very frightened and is filled with terror.

23He thinks to himself: 'I am able to get out of this burning house,

24but my children are absorbed in amusement and do not perceive this fire.

25They are not frightened, not alarmed, the fire is coming upon them,

26the pain will shortly reach them, but their mind is not troubled;

27they do not think of escaping.'"

28"Sariputra, this elder considers how, since the house has but one gate

29and moreover it is narrow, he shall use some expedient.

30He calls to the children: 'Here outside are rare toys for you—

31bullock carts, deer carts, goat carts.

32Come out quickly! I have prepared them for each of you!'

33On hearing the elder speak thus of the rare playthings,

34because these suited their desires, the children eagerly pushing

35and racing with each other, all come tumbling out of the burning house.

36Then the elder, seeing that his children have safely escaped

37and are all in the open square, breathes freely."

38"Sariputra, what do you think? Has that elder, in giving the children

39equally great carts, been guilty of any falsehood?"

40Sariputra said: "No, World-Honoured One. That elder only caused his children to escape the peril of fire

41and preserved their bodies and lives. He committed no falsehood.

42Wherefore? If they were thus able to preserve their bodies and lives,

43they had already received a plaything of sorts."

44"Rightly so, Sariputra. You are right. The Tathagata, too, is like this.

45He is the father of all the worlds. He has long ago, perfectly, in the three domains,

46exhausted his fear, dread and terror, confusion and ignorance.

47He is fully possessed of Buddha-knowledge and powers,

48bestowing the great vehicle of the Law to the three domains."

Chapter XVI — The Eternal Life of the Tathagata

49"Since I became Buddha, the number of kalpas that have passed

50is immeasurable, boundless, hundreds of thousands of myriads of kotis of asamkhyeyas."

51"Suppose a man ground to powder five hundred thousand myriad kotis of worlds,

52and all of them were turned to ink, and he carried these worlds in the eastern direction,

53and after passing five hundred thousand myriad kotis of worlds

54dropped one speck of ink—

55and he so proceeded until all that ink was exhausted.

56What is your opinion, Sariputra? Are all those worlds possible to conceive of or reckon?"

57Sariputra replied: "World-Honoured One, those worlds are immeasurable, boundless,

58beyond the reach of thought."

59"Good man, from all those worlds, whether a speck was dropped or not,

60take all as atoms. One atom is one kalpa. Since I became Buddha,

61the time that has elapsed surpasses even these by hundreds of thousands of myriads of kotis of asamkhyeyas."

62"Yet though I truly became Buddha long ago, I declared 'I have but recently attained Buddhahood.'

63And this was my skillful means of teaching living beings."

64"If living beings come to me, I perceive with a Buddha's eyes

65all their faculties—keen or dull—and according to the requirements of salvation

66I appear in different places and preach to them under different names

67and with different lifetimes.

68And also at the end I say I will enter Nirvana.

69And again, with various reasonings and parables and narratives

70I preach the Law to the living beings,

71lest they should become slack and indolent,

72and cherish feelings of attachment and clinging."

notes

The Lotus Sutra (Saddharma Pundarika — "White Lotus of the True Dharma") is the most revered text in East Asian Buddhism, especially in Tiantai, Tendai, Zen, and Nichiren traditions. The Japanese monk Nichiren (1222–1282) taught that the Lotus Sutra alone contained the complete teaching of the Buddha for the current age. The sutra's central doctrines include: the teaching of upaya (skillful means) — the idea that all the Buddha's earlier teachings were expedient adaptations for different audiences; the "one vehicle" (ekayana) — all three vehicles of Buddhism ultimately resolve into one; and the eternal life of the Buddha — Shakyamuni is not a historical figure who died but an eternal presence who appears and disappears as needed. The parable of the burning house (Chapter III) is the most celebrated passage: a father lures his children from a burning house by promising them carts. The world is the burning house; the children are sentient beings; the father is the Buddha; the carts are the provisional teachings. Translation: H. Kern, "Saddharma-Pundarika, or the Lotus of the True Law," Sacred Books of the East, vol. 21, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1884. Public domain.

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