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…

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…

Roshi started this week’s talk with some additional comments on faith in Buddhism.  Of the six paramitas, the first five are required to have faith. Why not the sixth? The sixth paramita is wisdom, which is in fact equal to faith. Faith and wisdom work hand in hand. A good way to illustrate faith…

This week Roshi continued our exploration of the Lotus Sutra. He began by returning to a moment from our previous discussion: the episode in which five thousand celestial beings leave the Buddha’s assembly after hearing that they will never attain full realization. Roshi emphasized this point, reminding us that skillful means can sometimes sound…