Roshi continued with the second half of Chapter 12 of the Lotus Sutra, right after Shakyamuni’s revelation that Devadatta was once his teacher.

At this point Prajnakuta asks, “Well, are we done here now? We’ve been here a while, can we leave?”

Shakyamuni says, “Let’s stay, and talk about wisdom.” 

So he calls on Manjushri, the protector of wisdom, to come join the discussion. Manjushri lives at the bottom of the ocean, in the palace of King Sagara, surrounded by dragon-like creatures called nagas. He is in charge of keeping the Buddhist body of wisdom. 

Shakyamuni asks him, “Did you ever have anyone who heard the dharma for the first time and immediately got it?” 

Even Shakyamuni took many lifetimes to get to the stage he is at. Who was able to understand the dharma on the first try?

Manjushri tells him that King Sagara has a daughter who, at only eight years old, understood the dharma upon first hearing it, and immediately became at the same level as Shakyamuni. And unlike Shakyamuni and many others who have become enlightened, she is actually not a curmudgeon, but a sweetheart. She is delightful, kind, and compassionate, and communicates beautifully. She shares the dharma with grace and magnificence. 

The assembly is somewhat skeptical, so Manjushri says “don’t take my word for it” and summons this eight-year-old girl.

So they start asking her about the dharma, and she says “let me give you an example.” 

From her sleeve, she pulls out a jewel. She gives the jewel to Shakyamuni, who takes it.

“This is a perfect example of what the dharma should be,” she says. “I offered something, and it was immediately accepted. So many people reject it, or are skeptical, or go away. But the enlightened heart, the liberated heart, understands the beauty of the dharma and immediately accepts it.”

Prabhutaratna says “that’s interesting, can you tell us more?”

The girl responds, “I just showed you the dharma, but if you still don’t get it, maybe this will help.” At which point she transforms into a huge, magnificent Buddha, sitting on a jeweled throne. The sight of her makes everyone gasp and realize that yes, she is this incredible being. 

And Chapter 12 concludes.

Roshi wanted to make two points here. 

First, this section illustrates an interesting connection between the Buddhist and the Hindu worlds and how they rely on each other. At this time, early in the development of Buddhsim, the cosmology of Hinduism is very much intertwined with Buddhsim. 

Second, with many of the great teachers of wisdom, the teachers themselves generally did not write their teachings down. For example, the teachings of Jesus were written in the Gospels, by different people at different times with different perspectives. 

This is also the case with the Lotus Sutra. We have someone in the proximity of Shakyamuni writing these teachings down, but they themselves are not the Buddha, just as the people who wrote the Gospels are not Christ. 

Roshi paused to give credit to all those who, over the years, have taken on this job of trying to communicate this wisdom. He thanked those in our sangha who continue to fulfill those role, and who do it not for their own benefit, but for the benefit of others.

But, he said, in terms of the Lotus Sutra, that person doesn’t always get it right. We know from Shakyamuni’s teachings that he did not differentiate between man and woman, or different races. To Shakyamuni, that would be absurd. But if you look at the structure of the Lotus Sutra, we do find sexism in it. And some of us abandon the teachings because of this. 

We have to realize, however, that the person trying to capture these teachings is a person of their time. They were raised in a certain time and place, and they have an unconscious bias. It is not the teachings of Shakyamuni that have this bias.

Roshi said that this whole notion of sexism has recently touched him deeply. The hero of this part of the Sutra is an eight-year-old girl, and it is also an eight-year-old girl who brings Shakyamuni the porridge before his enlightenment. Dogen also talks about how children have the ability to understand the dharma in ways that experienced monks do not. 

In the heart of our teachings, there is no sexism. But as a species we have been cursed to deal with it. A venerated civil rights leader was just in the news this week, because of revelations that he had been an abuser of many of the women who followed him. 

We have to acknowledge that sexism exists in the Lotus Sutra, but also come back to the heart of the teachings, which rejects that sexism. Roshi is happy that Buddhsim is perhaps the first tradition to do so.