Hello, everyone. Welcome to this episode of the podcast provided by the Buddhas’ Practice Incorporated of Australia.
Today, we’ll be exploring Chapter Eight of the Lotus Sutra, “The Five Hundred Disciples Receive Their Predictions.”
1. Pūrṇa: The Foremost Dharma Teacher, a Bodhisattva in Secret
The Buddha tells the assembly: “Do you see Pūrṇa? I always praise him as the foremost among those who teach the Dharma. Not only does he diligently uphold and propagate my teachings now, but he was also the foremost Dharma teacher in the presence of ninety billion past buddhas.” Pūrṇa fully understands the teaching of emptiness and possesses the four unobstructed wisdoms, using his pure eloquence to benefit countless beings.
This prophecy reveals a profound truth: he secretly practices the bodhisattva path while outwardly appearing to be a śrāvaka. Pūrṇa, seemingly a disciple with little desire and a distaste for birth and death, is actually a bodhisattva who has awakened the aspiration for the highest enlightenment. He uses various skillful means to teach and transform beings, and he will eventually achieve Buddhahood in this very world, with the title Dharma Bright Tathāgata.
2. The Twelve Hundred Arhats: A Universal Prediction
Next, the Buddha announces to Mahākāśyapa: “I will now bestow a prediction of supreme perfect enlightenment on the twelve hundred arhats present here.” He first predicts that his great disciple Ājñātakauṇḍinya will pay homage to sixty-two billion buddhas before becoming a buddha named Universal Brightness Tathāgata.
Even more extraordinary, the Buddha then declares that the other five hundred arhats, including Uruvilvakāśyapa, Gayākāśyapa, Nadīkāśyapa, and others, will all share the same name: Universal Brightness. They will successively achieve Buddhahood. Their lands, transcendent powers, assemblies of bodhisattvas and śrāvakas, as well as the duration of their Dharma, will all be identical. The Buddha even instructs Mahākāśyapa to convey this supreme prediction to those arhats who are not in the assembly.
3. The Parable of the Jewel in the Garment
Upon receiving their predictions, the five hundred arhats are overjoyed and ecstatic. They rise from their seats, approach the Buddha, and express their regret, saying: “World-Honored One, we have always thought we had attained complete nirvana. But now we realize we were like ignorant fools.”
They then offer a parable: a man visits a wealthy friend’s house, gets drunk, and falls asleep. The friend, having to leave on business, secretly sews a priceless jewel into the inside of the man’s garment. Unaware of this gift, the man later wakes up and leaves. He wanders to another country, struggling for food and clothing, content with just a meager existence.
Later, the friend meets him and scolds him: “Why do you live in such poverty? I sewed a priceless jewel into your garment to ensure your ease and enjoyment. It is still there, yet you do not know it, and you suffer trying to make a living! How foolish you are! Sell this jewel and buy whatever you need. From now on, you will never lack anything.”
Friends, the jewel in the garment symbolizes our Buddha-nature. It has never left us, yet due to our ignorance and afflictions, we are like the “drunk” fool who forgets his inner treasure. We become satisfied with the small gains of life—even the limited achievement of the “Small Vehicle”—and lack the courage to pursue the supreme enlightenment of the One Buddha Vehicle.
Thank you.
