Rooster Diagram of the Five Periods
of the Buddha’s Lifetime Teachings

THE Treatise on the Great Perfection of Wisdom says that Shakyamuni left household life at age nineteen and gained enlightenment at age thirty.

[Great Perfection of Wisdom comprises] a hundred treatises and a thousand volumes.¹

[Nāgārjuna] lived three hundred years.²

[Great Perfection of Wisdom] was translated by Kumārajīva.

[Nāgārjuna’s true identity was] the Thus Come One Dharma Clouds Freedom King; the Thus Come One Freely Perceiving King.³

[Nāgārjuna appeared] 678 years after the Buddha’s entry into nirvana.

300,000 volumes⁴

The Treatise on Expedient Means of Great Compassion, 100,000 volumes

The Treatise on the Great Mind, 100,000 volumes

The Treatise on Great Fearlessness, 100,000 volumes

Bodhisattva Nāgārjuna, disciple of Bodhisattva Ashvaghosha, the eleventh of Shakyamuni’s successors; he was the thirteenth successor. Also called Dragon Valor.

[The period of preaching the Correct and Equal sutras and the Wisdom sutras is] 30 years.

The Immeasurable Meanings Sutra states: “I made use of the power of expedient means. But in these more than forty years, I have not yet revealed the truth.”

The Flower Garland Sutra, 21 days; the Āgama sutras, 12 years; the Correct and Equal sutras and the Wisdom sutras, 30 years. The above come to 42 years. The Treatise on the Nature of the Phenomenal World says 42 years.

The Immeasurable Meanings Sutra also says: “Though immeasurable, boundless, inconceivable asamkhya kalpas may pass, they will in the end fail to gain unsurpassed enlightenment. Why? Because they will not know about the great direct way to enlightenment, but will travel perilous byways beset by numerous hindrances and trials.” And it also says: “Because, practicing it, one travels a great direct way free of hindrances and trials.”

The World-Honored One has long expounded his doctrines and now must reveal the truth.”¹³

Honestly discarding expedient means, I will preach only the unsurpassed way.”¹⁴

“Discarding” means “casting off.”

Some say “expedient means” refers to the first three teachings.¹⁵

Some say it refers to the teachings of the first four periods, or those of the first four flavors.

Some say that the unsurpassed way means the perfect teaching, which sublimates and merges the first three teachings into itself.

“Though they [the Buddhas] point out various different paths, in truth they do so for the sake of the Buddha vehicle.”¹⁶

One view regards “various different paths” as the teachings of the first four periods and the seven teachings¹⁷ [without the perfect teaching].

Another view regards them as five periods and eight teachings.

“The Buddha vehicle” means the one Buddha vehicle.

“Is this not a devil pretending to be the Buddha, trying to vex and confuse my mind? I thought.”¹⁸

“For long he remained silent regarding the essential, in no hurry to speak of it at once.”¹⁹

“The sutras I have preached number immeasurable thousands, ten thousands, millions. Among the sutras I have preached, now preach, and will preach, this Lotus Sutra is the most difficult to believe and the most difficult to understand.”²⁰

“Have preached”—Flower Garland Sutra, Mahāvairochana Sutra, Profound Secrets Sutra, Lankāvatāra Sutra, Larger Wisdom Sutra, Wisdom sutras, and other sutras

“Now preach”—Immeasurable Meanings Sutra

“Will preach”—Nirvana and other sutras

The Annotations on “The Words and Phrases of the Lotus Sutra,” volume six, states: “Though other sutras may call themselves the king among sutras, there is none that announces itself as foremost among all the sutras preached in the past, now being preached, or to be preached in the future. Thus one should understand them according to the principle of ‘combining, excluding, corresponding, and including.’”

The Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sutra, volume three, says: “That person’s tongue will fester in his mouth.”

The Annotations on “The Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sutra,” volume three, states: “Concerning the sutra passage that states that this wonderful sutra surpasses all those of past, present, and future, such a person persists in going astray. His tongue will fester unceasingly as an omen of what awaits him in the future. For the offense of slandering the Law, he will suffer for many long kalpas to come.”

1039 And it also says, “One persists in such a view even after one has been admonished for doing so.”

“But now this threefold world is all my domain, and the living beings in it are all my children.”²⁴

“But now this threefold world is all my domain”—[the domain of] the World-Honored One, the most honored in the threefold world

1040”domain”—twenty-five realms of existence

“my children”—children inherently endowed with the Buddha nature; [the Buddha’s] children because they have formed a bond with the Buddha’s teachings

The Words and Phrases of the Lotus Sutra, volume five, states: “All living beings equally possess the Buddha nature. And because all alike possess the Buddha nature, they are the Buddha’s children.”

“Now this place is beset by many pains and trials. I am the only person who can rescue and protect others.”²⁵

“I am the only person”—

Profound Meaning, volume six, states: “Originally one followed this Buddha and for the first time conceived the desire to seek the way. And by following this Buddha again, one will reach the stage where there is no retrogression.”

Words and Phrases, volume six, states: “An older text²⁶ asserts that Infinite Life [or Amida] Buddha of the western land corresponds to the wealthy man [in the parable of the wealthy man and his impoverished son], but I cannot accept this assertion. The Buddha of the western land is different [from the Buddha of this sahā world], and those who form a relationship with him are also different. And because the Buddha is different, it is impossible to assert that the wealthy man, when he hides the fact that he is the father of the impoverished son, corresponds to Shakyamuni, and when he reveals that he is the father, to Infinite Life Buddha. And because those who form a relationship with him are different, it is impossible to assert that the living beings of this sahā world are related to Infinite Life Buddha in the way that the father and son are related.

“Moreover, nowhere from its beginning to its end is there anything in this [Lotus] sutra that would support such a claim. Close your eyes and ponder the matter deeply. Vairochana Buddha is close by, though living beings do not understand that in the past he disguised his Dharma body and appeared in the form of a manifested body, and then later reverted to his Dharma body. But Amida Buddha resides far away in the western land. How could he have changed his form and taken on the form of Shakyamuni Buddha?”

On “The Words and Phrases, ” volume six, comments as follows: “With regard to the passage on Infinite Life Buddha of the western land, Amida and Shakyamuni are two different Buddhas to begin with. If [as Fa-yün argues] Amida hides his splendid garments [as the father did in the parable of the impoverished son] and appears as Shakyamuni Buddha dressed in ragged and soiled clothes, then this would mean that Shakyamuni has no splendid clothes to hide and only Amida Buddha is a superior and wonderful Buddha!

“Moreover, the living beings who in past existences formed a bond with these two respective Buddhas represent two different groups, and the methods used to convert and guide them are not the same. Forming a bond with a Buddha represents the process of birth, while the maturing of one’s Buddhist practice represents the process of upbringing. If the Buddha with whom one forms a bond and under whom one’s practice matures is different [from the Buddha of this sahā world], then one cannot establish the father and son relationship with the Buddha.

“To wear splendid clothes is one thing, and to wear ragged ones is quite another, and there is likewise a great difference between putting on clothes and taking them off. [Fa-yün] lacks any real understanding of what the sutra is saying, and his 1041assertion goes against the manner in which the Buddha guides living beings to maturity. Nowhere in the long text of the sutra is there anything to support his interpretation.

“When Vairochana puts on certain garments or removes them, he does not move from one place to another, though living beings fail to understand what has happened and suppose he has gone away. But nowhere in any of the sacred teachings is it stated that Amida puts on ragged clothes. And if one is to argue that all Buddhas are essentially equal [and that Shakyamuni and Amida are the same], then why do the various Buddhas speak with special pride about their own particular realms?

“If it were possible for one Buddha to take on the identity of another Buddha, that would mean that the first Buddha is capable of effectively propagating the teachings of the second Buddha. And if, conversely, the second Buddha could assume the form of the first Buddha and spread his teachings, it would mean that he could take over the task of leading to enlightenment those who had formed a bond with the first Buddha. But the beings who were being led and trained by these Buddhas, failing to understand all this, would become completely confused as to who was their true teacher and with which of the two Buddhas they had formed a bond.

“Therefore we know that when living beings form a bond with a Buddha, it must be with a Buddha of the manifested body. Hence Shakyamuni Buddha states: ‘In the past, under twenty thousand million Buddhas, for the sake of the unsurpassed way I have constantly taught and converted you.’²⁷

“This is even more obviously the case with the sixteen princes, who from past times to the present each acted in response to the capacities of the living beings related to them, and thus naturally led them to an understanding of teachings in accordance with their capacities. How then could one suppose that Amida could change his form and take on that of Shakyamuni?"

On “The Words and Phrases,” volume nine, says: “In the beginning one followed this Buddha or bodhisattva and formed a bond with him, and so it will be through this Buddha or bodhisattva that one will attain the way.”

Profound Meaning, volume six, states: “The Buddha chooses to enter the realm of transmigration with differences and limitations, and there he carries out the work of the Buddha. How, then, could those who formed a bond with the Buddha fail to come into his presence? Just as all the hundred rivers flow into the sea, so is one drawn by one’s connection with the Buddha and born in company with the Buddha.”

And the same text, same volume, says: “Originally one followed this Buddha and 1042for the first time conceived the desire to seek the way. And by following this Buddha again, one will reach the stage where there is no retrogression.”

The Treatise of Five Hundred Questions states: “If a son does not even know how old his father is, he will also be in doubt as to what lands his father presides over. Though he may be idly praised for his talent and ability, he cannot be counted as a son at all! It is like the age before the Three Sovereigns, when people did not know who their fathers were but all lived like birds and beasts.”

When the Flower Garland and True Word schools speak of the three bodies that have no beginning and have no end, they are stealing the terminology of the T’ien-t’ai school and applying it to the sutras that are the foundation of their own schools.