As he promised last time, Roshi continued our exploration of the Lotus Sutra with a discussion of Shakyamuni’s cousin Ananda, whose role has gone largely underappreciated in the history of Buddhism.  Shakyamuni, in his prediction for Ananda, tells him that the two of them have been on this journey side by side for many lifetimes.…

Roshi spoke about Chapter 8 of the Lotus Sutra, which involves the prophecy of the 500 arhats. As the 500 arhats gather around Shakyamuni, he begins to make predictions about each one, and their futures as Buddhas. He comes to his devoted disciple Purna, to whom he says “you’ve been on the path of spiritual…

Roshi moved on to Chapter 7 of the Lotus Sutra. He began with a definition of the term kalpa.  A kalpa is a very long unit of time — originally 4.3 billion years in the Hindu tradition, then 16 million years in Buddhism. Other writings define a kalpa in terms of how long it would…