Having reached Chapter 12 of the Lotus Sutra, Roshi wondered aloud whether we had yet asked ourselves an important question: was the author, the person who actually wrote down all of this dramatic, fantastical material, on drugs?

Roshi offered four states of mind that he thought could have inspired the Lotus Sutra.

First, it could be drug-induced. Some might object to this idea, saying that we have vowed not to abuse intoxicants. But it’s possible the author felt justified doing so, since they were not harming themselves or others — rather, they were using external substances as a form of inspiration. 

Another possibility, if we rule out intoxicants, is that the author reached this state of mind through specialized, ritualistic practice. The Tibetans, for example, have very advanced forms of meditation and fasting that could potentially induce these kinds of visions.

Third, the author could have been in a dream state. We have all had dreams that were very imaginative but felt completely real. A person who experienced this might feel compelled to write their dream vision down.

The fourth category is that of the artist. An artist’s job is to use their creativity to look at reality and interpret it in such a way to share the truth, but in a different form. These expressions are as boundless as the human imagination.

All four of these states share a seeking of fundamental truth.

Roshi told a story about going to the movies with his family. After seeing a fantastical movie like the Avengers or Harry Potter, Roshi will playfully complain about how unrealistic the movie was. People cannot fly on brooms! he will complain. This will exasperate his family, who walk away shaking their heads.

Why are they exasperated? Nobody goes into these movies expecting realism. This should be obvious. These films are meant to be entertaining, but the only way for them to be entertaining is to have a core of emotional truth. If they were just special effects, people would get bored. The emotional truth of a movie is what connects with an audience.

This is also true of the Lotus Sutra. We can get swept away by the fantasy of it, by the pomp and circumstance. But at the end of the day, it is our responsibility to look for the truth behind all these incredible things that are happening, without being distracted by the special effects. What am I, as the participant, taking out of this? 

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So, at the beginning of Chapter 12, a new character appears: Devadatta. You may not know about Devadatta, but people reading the Lotus Sutra in the past would have had a strong opinion about him. Roshi explained why they would have had this opinion.

After Shakyamuni became enlightened, and was teaching, he eventually came back to his hometown to reconnect with his old family and friends. One of those friends was a well-developed young man, a member of the castle, named Devadatta. 

Devadatta was impressed with Shakyamuni’s practice, and community, and decided to become a disciple of Shakyamuni. He took training very seriously, and quickly become one of his best students. But at some point, something started to gnaw at Devadatta. He started to feel jealous.

Why was everyone coming to learn with Shakyamuni, and not me? he wondered. Why am I not the leader? 

He really thought he would be a better teacher. So one day he approached Shakyamuni and told him he should give up teaching and let him take over. Shakyamuni said no, I think I’m okay. I think I’ll continue.

So Devadatta became angry, and decided that if Shakyamuni wouldn’t stop teaching the sangha, Devadatta would simply bring the sangha over to him. He would start a new sangha, with new rules. For instance, Shakyamuni allowed rich and powerful people to practice with the sangha, and to bring him meals. Devadatta’s sangha would forbid that. Devadatta’s sangha would have more severe rules, like restricting meals and sleeping outside.

He told all of this to Shakyamuni, who said: these are not bad rules. If you want to practice this way, go for it. But we’re not going to make this mandatory, we’re going to let people do these things on a volunteer basis.

In fact many of the younger members of the sangha did leave Shakyamuni and join Devadatta. But after a while, they lost their enthusiasm, and came back to Shakyamuni. This angered Devadatta even more.

So, at the time, one of the rich and powerful people that was a friend of Shakyamuni was the king of the area, and this king had a son named Ajatashatru. Devadatta approached Ajatashatru and proposed that Ajatashatru kill his father to become king, while Devadatta would kill Shakyamuni and become head of the sangha. Ajatashatru agreed with the plan.

To keep his end of the bargain, Devadatta hired a poweful swordsman. He told the swordsman to go into the encampment at night, and chop off Shakyamuni’s head. So the swordsman took the money, and came to Shakyamuni in the middle of the night, who was sitting in a peaceful state. The swordsman raised his sword, but seeing this incredible, peaceful being, he could not go through with it. He was struck by a terrible feeling, dropped his sword, and bowed in front of Shakyamuni, begging forgiveness. 

Shakyamuni said, of course. Now go home. But do not take the route home you were planning to take. Take a different path. So the swordsman left, following Shakyamuni’s advice.

If he had taken his original path home, he would have been killed, for Devadatta had planted people to kill the swordsman, to remove the only witness to the death of Shakyamuni. The killers were waiting for him, but the swordsman took a different path, and lived.

This angered Devadatta even further, so he came up with a different plan. This time, he would climb to the top of a hill, and when Shakyamuni passed below, his plan was to push a boulder over and crush Shakyamuni. So he went to the top of the hill, waited for Shakyamuni to pass, and pushed the boulder. The boulder came down the hill towards Shakyamuni, but it hit a protrusion in the hill, splitting the boulder into pieces which flew all over the place. One of the pieces hit Shakyamuni in the foot, drawing blood. But it didn’t kill him.

By this time, Devadatta was very frustrated. So he came up with a different plan.

In India at the time, armies would have elephants, and these elephants had names and personalities. They were considered great warriors. So Devadatta approached one of these elephants and got him drunk. After the elephant was drunk, he told the elephant to storm the encampment and trample Shakyamuni. So the elephant headed into the encampment, trampling on everything and destroying everything in his path. But he came to Shakyamuni and stopped in his tracks. And because he was drunk, the elephant just fell asleep, and Shakyamuni patted him on his head.

This devastated Devadatta. He just could not figure out a way to kill Shakyamuni. As a result, Devadatta’s health deteriorated. 

There are a couple of versions of what happened next. Some books say that Devadatta fell into a deep remorse, and that he wanted to go to Shakyamuni to apologize. Other versions say that no, Devadatta was going to pretend to apologize, but actually kill him in person.

We don’t know which it is exactly, but on his way to see Shakyamuni, Devadatta took a break. He sat next to a riverbank to rest, and as he did, his feet started to sink into the ground. Then his legs were absorbed, then his body, and then he disappeared.

And that was the last we saw of Devadatta. Meanwhile, Ajatashatru was more successful. 

He actually did capture his father, the king. He put him in prison, to starve him. But his mother, the queen, would sneak into the prison and give her husband food, which kept him going for a while. But when Ajatashatru heard about this, he became very angry, and threw his mother in prison as well. Just long enough for his father to starve, and for him to become king, when she was released.

But something ate at Ajatashatru, just as it did Devadatta, and he became ill. He couldn’t live with himself, and his health started to decline. He called the physicians to the castle, who said there’s only one cure for this: you need to see Shakyamuni and talk to him. 

Ajatashatru said no, that’s impossible, I killed his friend, my father, the king. He knows I was working with Devadatta, who was trying to kill him. It’s too much shame, I can’t go.

He continued to refuse for a while, but his health declined to such an extent that he eventually went to Shakyamuni, admitted everything, and apologized. At which point Shakyamuni forgave him, and Ajatashatru became his disciple.

So, historically, listeners of the Lotus Sutra would have heard the name Devadatta, and would understand this to be a very bad person. The evil anti-hero. The worst person in Shakyamuni’s life, who tried to kill him.

There is an idea that, while most things are forgiveable, a few things are not. The person who commits these acts has transgressed their karma so deeply that they’ll never recover, no matter how many lifetimes they live. They’ll never be liberated because this act will haunt their karma forever.

These acts include killing your parents, drawing blood from a Buddha, and creating a schism in a sangha. Devadatta did two of these things, and Ajatashatru did the other. So it seems like they would be deemed to be in hell forever, through every reincarnation.

So if you were reading Chapter 12 back then, and you see Devadatta appear, you would think, where did he come from? It would be like seeing Hitler at the Last Supper.

And so Chapter 12 begins with Devadatta appearing, and Shakyamuni telling a story. 

He says: in my previous incarnations, way back, I was also a king. Many generations ago. And many generations ago, I was also seeking Truth. And I wanted to hear the Lotus Sutra, even back then. No one could teach it to me. But I found someone back then, and I was so pleased, I studied with this person for 1000 years. 

And I supported this teacher, I made sure that he wanted for nothing so that he could just teach me nonstop for 1000 years. And this experience in a previous life is what has set me up to become a Buddha in this life. And that person who taught me the Lotus Sutra so many generations ago was Devadatta. He is the one responsible for me being here now. And I will tell you that in a future life, Devadatta will become a great Buddha himself. 

So, this is really shocking.

We talked before about the bond, the important relationship, between Ananda and Shakyamuni. We see this here too.

And it really challenges us to ask: what is evil?

In our own lives, we have a really good sense of what that is. All of us have something in our life that gnaws at us, that makes us unhappy. It could be a person, or a situation. Something that makes us depressed, angry, unhappy. We have a hard time forgiving, letting go. There’s a darkness in our heart.

And what we all share about this is an absolute certainty about this thing or person. We play the tape over and over again. They did this, they said that. We are absolutely certain that they’re wrong and we’re right. We are all certain about it.

And this certainty is what creates the negativity in our life. Just the certainty. 

We could be right, or not. That’s not the issue. The issue is our certainty about it. And this is what we see when Devadatta appears.

We are all certain this person is evil. We are certain he is the worst thing to happen in Shakyamuni’s life. Until we’re not. Until Shakyamuni says it’s actuallly the opposite. We just don’t see it.

This reversal is a lot to process, but if we take even a little piece of it to process on our own personal path, it is this idea of certainty being the cause of so much that we’re struggling with. 

What would happen if we let that go?