Hello, everyone. Welcome to this episode of the podcast provided by the Buddhas’ Practice Incorporated of Australia.
In our last session, we discussed how the Buddha entered samadhi at the Lotus Assembly and manifested various miraculous signs. Maitreya Bodhisattva, filled with doubt, asked Manjushri Bodhisattva for an explanation. Today, we’ll hear Manjushri’s reply.
Manjushri Bodhisattva told the great assembly, “Based on my understanding, the auspicious signs that the Buddha is now displaying indicate that he is about to preach a great Mahayana Dharma.”
How could Manjushri be so certain? He then began to recount an astonishing past event.
1. The Dharma Assembly of Sun Moon Lamp Buddha
Manjushri Bodhisattva recalled that in a past immeasurable number of eons, there was a Buddha named Sun Moon Lamp Tathagata. This Buddha also possessed the ten sacred titles of a Buddha. The Dharma he taught was excellent at the beginning, excellent in the middle, and excellent at the end; its meaning was profound, its words were skillful, and it was pure and undefiled.
Sun Moon Lamp Buddha taught the appropriate Dharma for beings of different capacities:
For Voice-Hearers who sought arhatship, he taught the Four Noble Truths to help them escape the cycle of birth and death and attain nirvana.
For Pratyekabuddhas who sought individual enlightenment, he taught the Twelve Links of Dependent Origination to help them awaken to the true nature of worldly conditions.
For Bodhisattvas who sought Buddhahood, he taught the Six Perfections, ultimately leading them to attain all-knowing wisdom.
Manjushri further explained that two thousand successive Buddhas were also named Sun Moon Lamp and had the same family name. Their teachings were also excellent from beginning to end. The last of these Buddhas had eight princes before he renounced his home. These princes were powerful and each ruled a continent. When they heard their father had become a Buddha, they resolutely gave up their thrones to follow him, generating the Mahayana mind and diligently practicing.
2. The Auspicious Sign and the Preaching of the Lotus Sutra
Next, Manjushri got to the main point: Sun Moon Lamp Buddha also preached the Sutra of Innumerable Meanings. After finishing the discourse, the Buddha similarly entered the samadhi of the state of Innumerable Meanings, his body and mind unmoving. At that time, auspicious signs appeared. Two hundred million bodhisattvas in the assembly, seeing these miraculous signs, were filled with doubt, just like Maitreya Bodhisattva, and wanted to know the reason for the light. There was a bodhisattva named Wonderful Light. When Sun Moon Lamp Buddha arose from his samadhi, he began to preach a great Mahayana sutra to this bodhisattva, named the Lotus Sutra of the Wonderful Dharma.
Sun Moon Lamp Buddha preached this sutra for sixty minor eons. After he finished, he announced that he would enter nirvana and gave a prophecy to a bodhisattva named Virtue Storehouse. Afterward, the Buddha entered nirvana without remainder.
After the Buddha’s passing, Wonderful Light Bodhisattva took on the responsibility of spreading the Lotus Sutra, preaching it for eighty minor eons. He taught the eight princes of Sun Moon Lamp Buddha, strengthening their resolve for the supreme path, and they all successively became Buddhas. The last of them to attain Buddhahood was Dipamkara Buddha.
3. Manjushri Bodhisattva Reveals the Answer
Manjushri continued, saying that Wonderful Light’s disciple at the time was named Seeking Fame. He was greedy for fame and gain and, although he recited sutras, he often forgot them. Yet, because he had planted good roots, he met countless Buddhas and made offerings to them with reverence.
At this point, Manjushri revealed the astonishing answer: “Maitreya, you should know that the Bodhisattva Wonderful Light was none other than myself in a past life! And the disciple named Seeking Fame was none other than you!“
Manjushri explained that he had personally witnessed Sun Moon Lamp Buddha and the auspicious signs that appeared then. Because the Buddha preached the Lotus Sutra after those signs appeared, he was confident that Shakyamuni Buddha was now doing the same. This light is a skillful means used by all Buddhas to help sentient beings enter the ultimate reality of all phenomena, so they can finally understand that there is only one Buddha vehicle, no two, and no three.
Thank you for listening.
