[Buddha-l] Aka-lika Forum

[Curt Steinmetz]

This latest book of Taigen's really does look like quite a gem. Here are 
some excerpts from his "paraphrase" (his word) of the "pivotal story" 
(his words) of chapters 15 and 16 of the Lotus Sutra:

"A group of bodhisattvas have been visiting from a distant world system 
in order to hear Sakyamuni preach the Lotus Sutra.... [T]hey ask the 
Buddha if he would like them to return in the future to maintain the 
Lotus Sutra teaching.... As soon as the visiting bodhisattvas make their 
offer, Sakyamuni declares their help unnecessary, whereupon, 'from out 
of the open space under the ground' simultaneously spring forth vast 
numbers of experienced, dedicated bodhisattvas.... Sakyamuni declares 
that for countless ages all of these numerous bodhisattvas have been 
diligently practicing under the ground, have been present to help and 
aid and awaken suffering beings, and will continue their beneficial 
practice and promulgation of the teaching even through the future evil 
age....

"Sakyamuni declares that he himself has trained all these underground 
bodhisattvas.... This ... leads to the climactic teaching of the whole 
[Lotus] Sutra, the revelation in chapter 16 by Sakyamuni Buddha that he 
only seems to be born, awaken, and pass away as a teaching expedient. He 
declares that, in actuality, he has been awakened and practicing through 
an inconceivably long life span, and for many ages past and future is 
present to awaken beings."

A little later, Leighton says this:

"This complex story of the underground bodhisattvas and the Buddha's 
inconceivable life span expresses the vastness and the immanence of the 
sacred in space as well as time and breaks open limited, conventional, 
linear perspectives of both space and time.... The visions portrayed in 
this story demonstrate a foundation for the development of East Asian 
Mahayana practices of transcendent faith and ritual enactment of 
buddhahood, dependent not on lifetimes of arduous practice, but rather 
on immediate, unmediated, and intuitional realization of the fundamental 
ground of awakening."

Personally I could nit-pick over the rather broad (vague) nature of 
pronouncements about "break[ing] open limited, conventional, linear 
perspectives...". But I haven't ready anything more than what amazon 
provides in their "preview" - so quite possibly he gets down to 
specifics later on.

Curt

Franz Metcalf wrote:
> Dear Curt et al.,
>
> Somehow I find I agree with everything you (and Taigen) wrote in your  
> post, and yet I don't think it contradicts what I was asserting.
>
> We do, as you say, indeed all enjoy absolving ourselves of past (and  
> current) sins. And Zen has, as Taigen says, been appropriated in the  
> West as various things that reduce or distort it. But it is precisely  
> scholars of Zen--such as Taigen himself--who have freed some of us  
> Western appropriators from some of our illusions and delusions about  
> Zen. Taigen should know, as he speaks with the greatest authority on  
> this, being simultaneously a top tier scholar and a genuine Zen master.
>
> Which leads me to thank you, Curt, for the link to Taigen's latest  
> book. Didn't know about this latest oeuvre.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Franz
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