The Lotus Sutra

THE LOTUS SUTRA This digital version of the original publication is distributed according to the Creative Commons “Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0” license agreement and the provisions stated on the website at http://www.numatacenter.com/. This PDF file may be printed and distributed according to the terms of use established on the website. The file itself is distributed with certain security provisions in place that disallow modification. However, if any Buddhist group or scholar of Buddhism has legitimate reason to modify and/or adapt the contents of any such file (such as for inclusion of the contents in a publically available online database of Buddhist sources), please contact us for permission and unrestricted files. dBET PDF Version © 2009 BDK English Tripiṭaka Series THE LOTUS SUTRA (Taishō Volume 9, Number 262) Translated from the Chinese of Kumārajiva by Tsugunari Kubo and Akira Yuyama Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research 2007 Copyright © 2007 by Bukkyō Dendō Kyōkai and Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transcribed in any form or by any means —electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise— without the prior written permission of the publisher. Revised Second Edition, 2007 ISBN: 978-1-886439-39-9 Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2006939375 Published by Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research 2620 Warring Street Berkeley, California 94704 Printed in the United States of America A Message on the Publication of the English Tripiṭaka The Buddhist canon is said to contain eighty-four thousand different teachings. I believe that this is because the Buddha’s basic approach was to prescribe a different treatment for every spiritual ailment, much as a doctor prescribes a different medicine for every medical ailment. Thus his teachings were always appropriate for the particular suffering individual and for the time at which the teaching was given, and over the ages not one of his prescriptions has failed to relieve the suffering to which it was addressed. Ever since the Buddha’s Great Demise over twenty-five hundred years ago, his message of wisdom and compassion has spread throughout the world. Yet no one has ever attempted to translate the entire Buddhist canon into English throughout the history of Japan. It is my greatest wish to see this done and to make the translations available to the many English-speaking people who have never had the opportunity to learn about the Buddha’s teachings. Of course, it would be impossible to translate all of the Buddha’s eightyfour thousand teachings in a few years. I have, therefore, had one hundred thirtynine of the scriptural texts in the prodigious Taishō edition of the Chinese Buddhist canon selected for inclusion in the First Series of this translation project. It is in the nature of this undertaking that the results are bound to be criticized. Nonetheless, I am convinced that unless someone takes it upon himself or herself to initiate this project, it will never be done. At the same time, I hope that an improved, revised edition will appear in the future. It is most gratifying that, thanks to the efforts of more than a hundred Buddhist scholars from the East and the West, this monumental project has finally gotten off the ground. May the rays of the Wisdom of the Compassionate One reach each and every person in the world. NUMATA Yehan Founder of the English Tripiṭaka Project August 7, 1991 v Editorial Foreword In January 1982, Dr. NUMATA Yehan, the founder of the Bukkyō Dendō Kyōkai (Society for the Promotion of Buddhism), decided to begin the monumental task of translating the complete Taishō edition of the Chinese Tripiṭaka (Buddhist canon) in