8. Five Hundred Disciples Receive the Prediction of Their Destiny

discovering the jewel in the robe, our buddha-nature. the fifth parable in the Lotus Sutra. The chapter begins as Purna, son of Maitrayani, praised for his zealous teaching of the law, goes before the Buddha; “Purna-Maitrayani,” or “Full Moon,” because Purna is said to have been born on the fifteenth day of the Moon’s monthly cycle.

AT THAT TIME Purna, son of Maitrayani, having heard the Buddha preach in such wise, tactful, and opportune fashion, and having heard the prediction of the great disciples’ Perfect Enlightenment; having, moreover, heard the stories of their former destinies, and also having heard of the sovereign, transcendent powers of the buddhas; having received such unexampled teaching, his heart was purified and in ecstasy. Immediately he rose from his seat, went before the Buddha, prostrated himself at  his feet, then withdrew to one side, gazing upon his honored countenance without for a moment turning away his eyes, and reflected thus:

  “Wonderful is the World-honored One. Rare are his doings according to the many kinds of earthly dispositions. By tactful wisdom, he preaches the Law to and lifts all beings out of every condition to let them get rid of selfish attachment. No words of ours can declare the Buddha’s merits. Only the Buddha, the World-honored One, is able to know the natural inclinations of our inmost hearts.”

Thereupon the Buddha addressed the bhikshus, saying: “Do you see this Purna, son of Maitrayani? I have always styled him the very first among all the preachers of the Law and constantly praised his varied merits. He has been zealous in guarding and helping to proclaim my Law. Among the four groups he has been able to display and teach it to them with profit and delight. Perfectly interpreting the Righteous law of the Buddha, he has greatly benefited his fellow followers of brahma-conduct. Aside from the Tathagata, no one is able to equal the lucidity of his discourse.

  “Do not think that it is only my Law which Purna is able to guard and help to proclaim. He also under ninety countless buddhas in the past guarded and helped to proclaim the Righteous Law of the buddhas. Among those preachers of the Law he also was the foremost. And in regard to the law of the Void preached by the enlightened ones, he was clear-minded and penetrating; he attained the four degrees of unhindered wisdom; he has ever been able to preach the Law with judgment and purity, without doubt and perplexity. Perfect in transcendent bodhisattva-powers, he maintained brahma-conduct to the end of his life. All the people of those buddha-periods spoke of him as ‘the true shravaka disciple.’

  “Thus Purna, by such tactfulness, has benefited innumerable hundreds of thousands of living beings and converted innumerable asankhyeyas of people to achieve Perfect Enlightenment. For the sake of purifying his buddha-land, he has constantly done a buddha’s work and instructed the living. Bhikshus! Purna also was the foremost among the preachers of the Law under the Seven Buddhas and now again is the foremost among the preachers of the Law under me.

  “Among the preachers of the Law under future buddhas in this  kalpa of the Sages, he will also be the foremost and will guard and help to proclaim the Buddha-law. Also in the future he will guard and help to proclaim the Law of incalculable, infinite buddhas, instructing and benefiting innumerable living beings to cause them to achieve Perfect Enlightenment. For the sake of purifying his buddha-land he will ever diligently and zealously instruct the living. Gradually fulfilling the bodhisattva-course, after infinite asankhyeya kalpas, in that land he will attain Perfect Enlightenment and his title will be Radiance of the Law Tathagata, Worshipful, All Wise, Perfectly Enlightened in Conduct, Well Departed, Understander of the World, Peerless Leader, Controller, Teacher of Gods and Living Beings, Buddha, World-honored One. . .”

  The Buddha continues his lavish praise of Purna, describing the beautiful land Purna will create as “Excellent Purity” composed of the precious seven jewels, and his kalpa will be named “Jewel Radiance.” The Buddha continues:

“Thus do my disciples
tactfully save all beings.
If I fully explained
the varied future transformations,
beings who heard of them
would be perplexed and puzzled.”

  Hearing such praise, twelve hundred arhats of self-reliant mind reflect their delight that they gain “unprecedented experience,” but wish the World-honored One to predict their future destiny as he has for the other disciples. “How glad we should be!”

  Knowing their thoughts, the Buddha addresses Maha-Kashyapa: “These twelve hundred arhats: let me now in their presence and in order predict for them Perfect Enlightenment. Amongst this assembly, my great disciple Ajñata Kaundinya bhikshu, after paying homage to sixty-two thousand countless buddhas, will become a buddha whose title will be Universal Light Tathagata, Worshipful, All Wise, Perfectly Enlightened in Conduct, Well Departed, Understander of the World, Peerless Leader, Controller, Teacher of Gods and Living Beings, Buddha, World-honored One. Of the rest of those arhats, five hundred self-reliant ones, Divine Eye Aniruddha, Uruvilva-Kashyapa, Gaya-Kashyapa, Nadi-Kashyapa, Kalodayin, Udayin, Revata, Kapphinya, Vakkula, Cunda, Svagata, Precept keeping Upali, and others—all will attain to Perfect Enlightenment, all with the same title, Universal Light.

  Predictions are given for all, praised in extensive verse, the Buddha concluding:

“The splendid purity of their domain
and its transcendent powers,
in bodhisattvas and shravakas,
in Righteous Law and its Counterfeit,
the length of its kalpa period,
all will be as above stated.
Kashyapa! You now know
of these five hundred self-reliant ones.

“The other band of shravakas
will also be like them.
To these, who are not in this assembly,
do you proclaim my words.”

  Noting here that even those who chose not to hear the Buddha’s preaching of the Great Law, as told in Chapter 2, all will attain enlightenment in future worlds—an expression of the Buddha’s universal benevolence.

  The five hundred arhats present before the Buddha, receiving their prediction, are ecstatic with joy, but repent their errors, rebuking themselves: “World-honored One, we have constantly been thinking that we had attained final nirvana. Now we know that we were just like the foolish ones. Wherefore? Because we ought to have obtained the Tathagata-wisdom, and yet were content with inferior knowledge.”

  To further explain their regret, Ajñata and others tell the story of the poor man and the jewel in the robe, concluding the parable in verse:

“We, hearing his voice
predicting for us unsurpassed comfort
rejoice in our unexpected lot
and salute the all-wise Buddha.
Now before the World-honored One
we repent our errors;
though countless Buddha-treasures awaited,
with but a trifle of nirvana
we, like ignorant and foolish people,
were ready to be content.

“It is like a poor man
who goes to the house of a friend.
That friend, being very rich,
sets much fine food before him.
A priceless precious pearl
he ties in his inner garment,
secretly giving it and departing
while he sleeps on unaware.

“The man when he arises
travels on to another country
in search of food and clothes to keep alive,
suffering great hardships for his living,
contented with ever so little,
wishing for nothing better,
never perceiving that in his inner garment
there is a priceless jewel.

“The friend who gave him the jewel
afterward sees this poor man
and, bitterly rebuking him,
shows where the jewel is bound.
The poor man, seeing this jewel,
is filled with a great joy;
rich in possession of wealth,
he can satisfy his five senses.

“Such were also we.
For long has the World-honored One
always pitied and taught us
to cultivate the highest aspiration;
but because of our ignorance,
we neither perceived nor knew it;
gaining but a little of nirvana,
contented we sought no more.
Now the Buddha has awakened us,
saying this is not real nirvana;
only on attaining the highest Buddha-wisdom
is there real nirvana.

“Now, having heard from the Buddha
the prediction and its glory,
and the command we receive in turn,
body and soul are full of joy.”

  In The Guide to The Threefold Lotus Sutra, Nikkyo Niwano observes: “the Buddha who appeared in the world as Shakyamuni taught that all humankind alike have the buddha-nature—the precious jewel in the lining of the poor man’s clothes in the parable—and this teaching stirs our awareness of our ultimate substance—free life which is one with the great life-force of the universe. Because we don’t know this, we get caught up in the toils of life. . . We need only to make the discovery, to awaken to the fact that our ultimate substance is the buddha-nature, to see that beginning in this way, we are delivered.”

  This, only a first step, until ultimately we reach a state of mind in which we recognize existence of “the jewel in the robe,” in ourselves and all living beings. This realization can have a profound effect on our relations with others.