Perfect Teachings of the Lotus Sutra (Part1/2)

Before elucidating the Lotus Sutra, all Buddhas must preach the Sutra of Innumerable Meanings (C.無量義經) to indicate the essential gist of the Lotus Sutra. After explaining that all the steps in the Path to Buddhahood must be stringed together through a single dharma to encapsulate the innumerable meanings in the Sutra of Innumerable Meanings, the Buddhas can immediately elucidate the Lotus Sutra. The Lotus Sutra can thus attest to the Sutra of Innumerable Meanings.

The Sutra of Innumerable Meanings embeds infinite principles in one dharma, demonstrating that the “tathāgatagarbha dharma” subsumes infinite definitions, which all point to the Reality. Only during the final propagation period are all the wondrous teachings broadly discussed in the scriptures, brought together through the one dharma – tathāgatagarbha. Still, the scope of teachings in the Sutra of Innumerable Meanings on “one dharma” covers only a minor portion of the Buddha’s teachings and is not comprehensive enough to encompass all of them (i.e., including the ten directions and three lifetimes). Hence, it is unable to perfect a generation of the Buddha’s teachings. For this reason, when the teaching of the Sutra of Innumerable Meanings has been finished, the Lotus Sutra must be taught. Only in this way can the perfect teachings of The World-Honored One be accomplished, and it is a general practice for all Buddhas.

The elucidation of the Lotus Sutra is called the Perfect Teaching. In the Five Periods and Three Teachings (C. 五時三教), the Five Periods started from the period of preaching the Avataṃsaka Sutra, followed by the period of Āgamas, then the period of prajñā, the period of the knowledge-of-all-aspects of Consciousness-Only Vaipulya, and finally, the period of teaching the Lotus Sutra and the Mahayana Mahāparinirvāṇa Sutra. All Buddhist sutras were expounded during these five periods. After the Buddha finished teaching all these sutras, He manifested (the phenomenon of) entering nirvāṇa.

The scriptures taught in the aforementioned five periods are divided into three teachings: Expedient Teaching (C.權教), Reality Teaching (C.實教), and Perfect Teaching (C.圓教). Expedient Teaching refers to a kind of convenient establishment set up by the World-Honored One. The aim is to help sound-hearers accelerate their practices toward the realization of nirvāṇa, enabling them to transcend the cyclic birth and death in the three realms. Practitioners develop complete faith in the Buddha after being able to transcend the three realms in one lifetime.

As for Reality Teaching, why did the Buddha specifically mention “Reality”? It is because the teachings falling under Reality Teaching connote the True Dharma (S. saddharma)  instead of a convenient establishment through skillful means. It refers to the truly existent mind, reality-suchness––the eighth vijñāna, which permanently exists and is immutable; it is the reality of the dharma realm. Reality Teaching covers all teachings that elucidate the subjects of prajñā and Vaipulya, the knowledge-of-all-aspects pertaining to Consciousness-Only. All the scriptures taught during this period focus on the insights of reality-suchness (C. 真如) and Buddha-nature, the cultivational sequences, the connotation of becoming a Buddha, and how to eventually and fully attain the knowledge-of-all-aspects. These teachings revolve around the subject of the True Dharma, so they are collectively called Reality Teaching.

Perfect Teaching refers to the period of teaching the Lotus Sutra and the Sutra of Innumerable Meanings. In other words, these two sutras perfectly incorporate all the dharma teachings into one single dharma—the tathāgatagarbha—and perfectly demonstrate and elucidate the Buddhist teachings in the ten directions and three lifetimes, which is why they are collectively called the Perfect Teaching.

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