Shundo David Haye – Zen Priest

‘Of these bodhisattvas there is none who is not a great saint of the Law-body. They have attained commands, meditation, wisdom, emancipation, and the knowledge of emancipation. With tranquil minds, and constantly in contemplation, they are paceful, indifferent, nonactive, and free from desires. They are immune from any kind of delusion and distraction. Their minds are calm and clear, profound and infinite. They remain in this state for hundreds of thousands of kotis of kalpas, and all the innumerable teachings have been revealed to them. Having obtained the great wisdom, they penetrate all things, completely understand the reality of their nature and form, and clearly discriminate existing and nonexisting, long and short.

Moreover, well knowing the capacities, natures, and inclinations of all, with dharanis and the unhindered power of discourse, they roll the Law-wheel just as buddhas do. First, dipping the dust of desire in a drop of the teachings, they remove the fever of the passions of life and realize the serenity of the Law by opening the gate of nirvana and fanning the wind of emancipation. Next, raining the profound Law of the Twelve Causes, they pour it on the violent and intense rays of sufferings -ignorance, old age, illness, death, and so on; then pouring abundantly the supreme Mahayana, they dip all the good roots of living beings in it, scatter the seeds of goodness over the field of merits, and make all put forth the sprout of buddhahood. With their wisdom [brilliant] as the sun and the moon, and their timely tactfulness, they promote the work of the Mahayana and make all accomplish Perfect Enlightenment speedily; and with eternal pleasure wonderful and true, and through infinite great compassion, they relieve all from suffering.’

Reading Hokke Ten Hokke in the Dogen sstudy group prompted me to pull my twenty-year old copy of the Lotus Sutra off my bookshelf. This edition starts with the Sutra of Innumerable Meanings, which, in the style of the time, starts with a nearly innumerable list of the bodhisattvas in attendance to the Buddha as he spoke.

When I read passages like this, I am moved by the lyricism, and also notice how far removed it seems – on one level at least – from later Zen texts.