The Visitor

Shakyamuni Buddha, the Original Buddha

and the great life-force causing us to  live

  “The Divine Power of the Tathagata” – Chapter 21, the Lotus Sutra: one of my favorite chapters in the sutra, the verse section beginning with: All the buddhas saviors of the world, dwelling in mighty divine penetration, in order to save all creatures, reveal their infinite powers divine. . . I remember the time I was memorizing this verse section in 1984, standing in the small, elevated kitchen, in our single apartment, Martin Kain and I, in West Hollywood. (Martin was quite tolerant of my verbal “celebrations” although he would have none of it . . . except later, totally turned on by the parable of the man who saves his sons from the burning house in Chapter 3.

  Nikkyo Niwano in his “Guide to the Threefold Lotus Sutra” begins his interpretation of the “divine powers” with: “Here the mysterious powers of Shakyamuni Buddha and multitudes of other buddhas [perfectly enlightened ones] are displayed, and the point is powerfully made and impressed upon the assembled hearers that though until now the preaching in the Lotus Sutra has been various, there is just one single truth. . .

  “. . . at first Shakyamuni had appeared in the suffering world, and as an enlightened one inhabiting that world, taught a derived or apparent truth to guide human conduct. People had looked up to  him and had worshiped him with heartfelt devotion.

  “But then he taught the full original truth that he was the Eternal Buddha, which is to say, the great life-force of the universe, and true deliverance rested in firm awareness that this Original Buddha without beginning or end was the life-giving energy. . .”

  Thus it is in today’s world, here and now, in this and every moment, we may feel and become aware of the Buddha’s existence in our lives, every moment that we celebrate the life-force, the energy that exists eternally, causing us to live . . . without compromise, celebrating life in all of its manifestations.