Robin Beck

Who is the Eternal Buddha?

This is a topic Reverend Ryuei, myself, and others have discussed in some detail at various fora. I grasped the concepts first; then filled in the terminology via discussions with Reverend Eijo {Shingon} and some Theravdins at E-Sangha. I had also read all the positions of Lamont, the Honmon Shoshu people, and others. Another thing I did was to study the Kaimoku Sho without the Taisekiji / Soka Gakkai spin.

One word I coined was "Wheel Turning Buddha." I found out this is what Theravadins call a Sama-sam-buddha or Sam-yak-sam-buddha. That refers to a Buddha who appears at a time when there is no revealed Dharma or other srhats in the world. The Sam-yak-sam-buddha starts a new Dharma Dispensation that lasts for three stages; the Former, Middle, and Latter Days. There is no new Samyaksambuddha for each stage.

There are actually three kinds of Buddhas. The Enlightenment is the same in all cases; it is only the way they attain Enlightenment that differs. Sam-yak-sam- buddhas attain Arhatship; which is the same as Enlightenment or Nirvana, by their own efforts. They also work for the salvation of all beings, from their first stage of stream enterer. Therefore, they earn the merit of preaching, and can start a new Dharma Dispensation, when the time is ready. The next one for this world is said to be Mettaya a.k.a Maitreya, who appears in the distant future, only after Shakyamuni's revealed Dharma is completely vanished.

The next kind is the Pratyeka-Buddha. Like the Samyaksam buddhas, the Pratyekas enter the dharma stream, and eventually become arhats, by themselves. However, they only work for their own salvation, and do not earn the merit of preaching. If they teach at all, it is not the Buddha Dharma. The third kind are the Shravaka-Buddhas. They enter the stream via the Dharma Dispensation of a Samyaksambuddha a.k.a an historical Buddha.

The early Mahayana Sutras sort of distort these distinctions, by deliberately conflating the concept of the Samyaksambuddha with Enlightenment itself. The Shravakas in provisional Mahayana are shown to be sad, because they became stream enterers under Shakyamuni, and therefore can never become a [Samyaksam] Buddha; they can only become arhats {that also distorts the original meaning of arhat}.

The Lotus Sutra corrects that by pointing out, in the absolute sense, there are not three vehicles at all, just one. It makes absolutely no difference how one attains Buddhahood; by way of the path of Bodhisattva {in the specific sense of a future Sam yak sam buddha}, Pratyeka, or Shravaka. They all attain the same Awakening. The Lotus Sutra then goes beyond that. Rather than stressing the different ways of attaining Buddhahood, and the different kinds of Trace Buddhas; it talks about the nature of Enlightenment Itself, the earned merits {acquired enlightenment} and innate virtues {original enlightenment}.

The earned merits relate to the shakumon or trace gate, and are personified by the ascended Reward Body Shakyamuni and Great Being Bodhisattvas like Monju, Yakuo, Miroku, Fugen, Fukyo, Myo'on, Kan'non and so on. Innate virtues refer to the Honmon or Source Gate, and are personified by the Eternal Shakyamuni and the 4 Leaders of the Bodhisattvas from Underground. Nichiren sort of identified himself as an appearance of Superior Practices; the leader of these Bodhisattvas from Underground.

Earned or acquired merits are like skills that one must learn and cultivate over time. Innate or unattained virtues are like inborn talents, we are naturally endowed, and only need to discover them within and polish them. Innate Awakening also refers to our inherent Buddha Nature or Amala Consciousness. Acquired Awakening means to attain the highest conventional stage in the world, that of Arhat.

Now, the Eternal Shakyamuni, the Uncreated Always Existing Triple Bodied Tathagata, only appears in the Lotus Sutra, and only in "one Chapter and Two Halves {15, 16, & 17 in Kumarajiva's version}." He attained Awakening in the Remote Past, which Nichiren takes as meaning time without beginning or end -- eternity, constancy, timelessness. Reverend Ryuei explains this as indicating the unborn and deathless nature of our enlightenment, it is always here in the present.

The revealed Dharma Dispensations of historical Sam-yak-sam-buddhas appear in the world, stay quite a while, and eventually vanish. However, the Dharma Itself, of the "Eternal Shakyamuni," never comes or goes. In my experience, efforts to preempt Shakyamuni with some other 'truer' Buddha distort the picture and confuse the issues. Who is the big "B" Buddha is not so important. By convention, we should go with the original founder of Buddhism in our history, Shakyamuni.

Posted by rbeck at August 2, 2008 04:43 AM