​Gate 106: Dharma of non-appearance

Attainment of realization of the Dharma of nonappearance is a gate of Dharma illumination; for [with it] we attain affirmation.
得無生法忍是法明門、得受記故

This gate statement is pointing to the last item in a list of four things called the four assurances of Buddhahood, and these come from the Surangama Samadhi Sutra.  In this sutra, Buddha describes fantastic powers or transformational abilities of practitioners who attain a state of meditation called surangama samadhi, or the samadhi of heroic progression, and he’s doing that in order to emphasize cause and effect.  If you do good things and practice sincerely, you will receive a prediction or an assurance from the Buddha that you will also become a Buddha.

The prediction or assurance of Buddhahood is a common theme throughout the Buddhist tradition.  We see it in sutras and also in the tale literature, where its one of the basic elements of story structure.  The context for these predictions or assurances within this sutra is that Mara has shown up while Buddha is preaching it, and his objective is to disrupt the teaching.  As soon as Buddha started preaching, Mara could hear the sutra but found himself bound and unable to come and make trouble.  One of the bodhisattvas asks why Buddha doesn’t keep him from hearing the sutra at all and prevent trouble that way.  Buddha says that’s the wrong approach; even hearing the name of the sutra is a cause of future awakening and buddhahood and that’s even true for Mara, so how much more should good people appreciate and practice what’s being taught!

One of the bodhisattvas asks whether he can go and help Mara to wake up, and Buddha says, OK, if you think so.  The bodhisattva goes to Mara and asks, "Who bound you?"  Mara says that as soon as he decided to go disrupt the Buddha, he was bound and couldn’t move.  The bodhisattva says that all beings are bound as soon as they’re caught up in their own ideas, delusions and false views, and at the same time, there is nothing that is bound or liberated because a) you’ve done this to yourself and b) there’s no difference between binding and liberation.  You won’t get free by destroying false views because true and false are your own idea and your own dichotomy.

Mara hatches a plan and tells the bodhisattva that he has aroused bodhicitta and wants to plant good roots, and immediately he’s freed from his bonds.  Of course, he doesn’t mean it -- he just wants to get to the Buddha and make trouble.  He takes his retinue and goes to the Buddha and demands he teach something else, because this sutra causes him to be bound up.  The Buddha asks, "Who untied your bonds?"  Mara says that the bodhisattva did.  Buddha asks, "What did you promise in return?"  Mara says he's promised to arouse bodhicitta.  Buddha knows that he’s done this with an ulterior motive and that the same thing is going to happen after he dies; a lot of practitioners are going to try to arouse bodhicitta in order to gain something or imitate others.  However, he also knows that this will still be the cause and condition of their awakening, just like Mara.

Mara says, "Wait a minute -- I came here with a bad intention, and you’re saying I’m still going to be a Buddha at some point?"  Yes -- and the joke's on him.  Mara and assembly are puzzled and dismayed by this, so Buddha talks some more about predictions and says that there are four kinds.  These are the four assurances of Buddhahood I mentioned earlier.  They are:

• prediction or assurance for someone who has not yet aroused bodhicitta
• prediction for someone who has just aroused bodhicitta
• prediction made unbeknownst to the practitioner himself
• prediction made in the presence of one who has attained  the realization of the Dharma of nonappearance 

Let’s take a brief look at each of them and then focus on the fourth one, which is our gate statement for today.

The prediction for someone who has not yet aroused bodhicitta is for the person who’s living every day transmigrating through the six realms of samsara but has his wits about him and wants to do the right thing.  After many, many lifetimes he’s going to become a bodhisattva and work to save all beings.  Buddha already knows what his name will be, what his buddha-fields are going to be like, and what kind of lifespan and legacy he’s going to have.

Shariputra points out that if that’s the case, then it doesn’t do for us ever to disparage anyone, because we have no idea where he or she is on the path and how close to Buddhahood someone may actually be.  Only Buddha can see that, and if we become judgemental, we can hurt ourselves.  Buddha says this is absolutely right.  You don’t know who’s in front of you.  It might be a Buddha.

As for the prediction for someone who has just aroused bodhicitta, Buddha says there are people who have established good roots and are practicing the paramitas.  At this point, their progress is irreversable and it’s an absolute certainty that they they will leap off the wheel of transmigration and be Buddhas.  Again, only the Buddha knows their names and fields and legacies.

The prediction made unbeknownst to the practitioner himself is what happens when others wonder what’s happening with someone.  The practitioner is steadily embodying the paramitas and moving towards Buddhahood, and has no doubts or reservations, but others want to know how long it will take and what his name will be and how many fields he will have.  In order to put their doubts to rest, Buddha makes a prediction, but not in front of this practitioner.

Finally, in the prediction made in the presence of one who has attained the realization of the Dharma of nonappearance, the practitioner has been practicing for a very long time, has established good roots and a lot of good karma, sees everything clearly and deeply, knows all about no-self and emptiness, and knows very well that ultimately, dharmas do not arise and perish.  Buddha knows that he’s perfected wisdom and gained all possible merit, so in front of everyone, all the bodhisattvas, devas and brahmas, he makes a public prediction that so and so will have this name, fields, legacy and timeframe.  Now even though this practitioner is overjoyed to get this prediction directly from Buddha, it seems it’s not actually for his own benefit.  When everyone else hears the prediction, they themselves wake up in imitation of him.

As we get close to the end of this list of 108 dharma gates, we can see some threads starting to come together in this number 106.  All the elements and practices that this sutra describes as being part of this path to awakening have been covered already by the rest of the 108 gates.  In just this summary, I’ve mentioned not having selfish or gaining ideas in undertaking practice, understanding that there’s no difference between samsara and nirvana, believing in cause and effect, that good things happen when we plant good roots, and practicing paramitas, like giving, making effort and cultivating wisdom.  This is all familiar territory for us.

Back at Gate 51, we also talked about the realization of non-apppearance: Realization of nonappearance is a gate of Dharma illumination; for[with it] we experience the truth of cessation.  We learned there that realization of nonappearance is the recognition and acceptance that nothing really arises or perishes, which is another way to say that all conditioned phenomena are empty, and the truth of cessation is another way to say Nirvana.  At Gate 51, "realization of the dharma of non-appearance" leads to Nirvana.  In this gate 106 it leads to assurance, or a prediction of Buddhahood.

Although this gate is referring only to the fourth of the Four Assurances, I think it’s really alluding to or including the whole set.  The first time I encountered prediction as an element of this tradition was on one of my earliest trips to Japan, when I was with a group visiting Hokyoji in Fukui.  As an aside, Hokyoji was founded by Jakuen, a Chinese monk who came to practice with Dogen at Eiheiji and left there after he died.  This is a really historically important temple.  When we arrived, the head of the temple came to give us a few remarks, and he predicted that we would all be Buddhas.  I was really struck by that at the time, given who he was and what temple he was running.  We were a bunch of straggly looking Westerners that had just arrived in his temple, but he seemed pretty confident!

It’s important to know that when we hear predictions that we or others will be Buddhas, that’s not a comment on our own virtue or worthiness.  That’s a comment on the efficacy of the Buddha’s wisdom and teaching.  According to the Lotus Sutra, someone who hears one phrase of dharma or arouses even a moment of aspiration will become a Buddha, and even Devadatta, a pretty evil character in the Buddhist tradition, receives this prediction.  Devadatta was Shakyamuni’s cousin, and these two had some karmic affinity lifetime after lifetime.  He specialized in opposing everything the Buddha did.  He tried to split the sangha and take it over, and even to murder the Buddha at one point, attacking him with poisoned thorns.  Yet somehow in the sutra, Devadatta is a bodhisattva who helps Shakyamuni to realize awakening.  The Buddha says that in a past life, Devadatta was his teacher.

This story is interpreted in various ways.  One is that it’s an illustration of the nonseparation of good and evil.  Shakyamuni and Devadatta are interconnected in some way life after life.  Each of them does both wholesome and unwholesome things over the course of time.  Another interpretation is that Devadatta was really a great bodhisattva because he was intentionally racking up bad karma in order to push Shakyamuni and others toward awakening.  If that’s the case, then we can see how Buddha can predict that he will become a Buddha in a future life.

Devadatta is just one example of the myriad predictions of Buddhahood in the Lotus Sutra.  Buddha starts with Mahakashyapa, his most accomplished disciple, and gives him a specific prediction:
In a future life, this disciple of mine, Maha-Kashyapa, will go before three million billion world-honored buddhas, making offerings to them, revering, honoring, and praising them, and proclaiming the innumerable great teachings of the buddhas everywhere. In his final incarnation he will be able to become a buddha whose name will be Radiance Tathagata, one worthy of offerings, truly awakened, fully clear in conduct, well gone, understanding the world, unexcelled leader, trainer of men, teacher of heavenly beings and people, buddha, world-honored one. His land will be called Radiant Virtue, and his eon will be named Magnificently Adorned.

The lifetime of this buddha will be twelve small eons…  His land will be magnificently adorned, free of all evil pollution, rubble, thorns or thistles, and filthy toilet waste. The land will be level and smooth, with no high or low places, hills or valleys. The ground will be lapis lazuli. Lines of jeweled trees and golden cords will mark off its roads. It will have precious flowers scattered over it. And the whole place will be pure and clean. The bodhisattvas of that land will be innumerable hundreds of billions, and there will be innumerable shravakas. There will be no deeds of the devil there, and, though the devil and the devil’s people will be there, they will all defend the Buddha-dharma.

It's pretty encouraging, not only for Mahakasyapa but for all the other beings who were listening.  On hearing this, each level and layer of beings all want their own prediction of Buddhahood, and now the point of all this becomes Buddha dispelling their doubts.  Another group of high-level disciples all plead sincerely for a prediction, and it's interesting that these aren’t beginners but really experienced practitioners.  Buddha makes another set of very specific predictions for them.

Next are 500 of the top arhats, then 1200 more arhats, then 2000 lesser disciples, including Ananda.  Then we get to Shakyamuni’s mother and 6000 nuns, and finally to his wife.  Now at last everyone is reassured and at peace.  Everyone knows that even though it’s going take many, many lifetimes, eventually they’ll have lovely buddha-lands, and names like Seen with Joy by All the Living Tathagathas, or Having Ten Million Shining Characteristics.

As I mentioned, predictions of Buddhahood are also an important element in Buddhist tale literature starting with the avadanas in India and carrying through to the bukkyo setsuwa genre in Japan.  These sometimes have their origins in the Vinaya or the sutras, but they’re not high-class literature aimed at scholars and clergy.  They’re designed to be accessable and to popularize the teachings, so some of these stories were written as stories, outside of the canon.

Buddhist miracle tales were a particular interest of mine in grad school, and in my experience these tales are really unexplored territory in North American dharma centers.  I get why, because they’re tales of the  fantastic, and we modern Westerners pride ourselves on not being superstitious.

In a broad sense, the avadanas fall into the ethics or sila element of prajna-sila-samadhi; they outline a sort of moral code.  They’re about good and bad deeds and the results of those actions, so there’s also a strong underlying theme of belief in cause and effect and that’s a foundational element for us and one of Dogen’s main themes.  Many avadanas have a three-part structure:

• a story in the present tense where the main characters meet the Buddha and experience the benefits of practice
• a story of the past in which the Buddha tells about actions and how those came to fruition
• and an intersection where the Buddha identifies the people in front of him as the people from that story of the past.

These stories were designed to teach and spread the dharma in a time and place where people didn’t read and study.  They had all they could do to raise families and farm and run businesses, but like all humans, they were suffering and they wanted that to stop.  There were any number of spiritual teachers and practices around, and I’m sure one of the purposes of the stories was to show how wonderful Buddhism was: do good and follow the teachings and you too will become a Buddha.  The people in the stories weren’t all rich and powerful; there were poor people, lepers, and folks who were deeply deluded.  Some were animals, particularly food animals who go to Buddha for refuge, and somehow, even a moment of good intention leads to a good outcome.

Here’s an example, though this one doesn’t exactly follow the 3-part structure.  The Buddha is going on his alms-round and a brahman’s daughter sees him.  She realizes who he is and offers some barley meal.  Buddha smiles and emits various rays of light; what these look like indicates what kind of prediction he’s going to make about someone.  He asks Ananda, "Did you see that girl who had a moment of faith and offered me this barley meal?"  Yes, he'd seen her.  "Because of this virtue, she will not suffer karmic downfall for 13 eons, and after transmigrating around and around in the highest three levels of samsara, in her last life she will become a buddha named Supra-ni-hita."

Meanwhile her husband comes back from the forest, where he’d been gathering flowers and firewood.  He hears that she’s made this offering and received a prediction of Buddhahood, and he’s infuriated.  He goes to the Buddha and accuses him of lying in order to get offerings.  Who’s going to believe that just giving this bit of meal is going to make you a buddha?

Well, the Buddha asks, how big is a seed?  As big as a tree?  No.  So isn’t it pretty amazing that a tiny seed can turn into a huge tree?  And see, he had the marks of Buddha -- would a Buddha tell lies, even for the sake of hundreds of thousands of kingdoms?  By the end of the conversation, the husband has heard a discourse on the four noble truths and aroused bodhicitta and become Buddha’s disciple.

In Japanese Buddhist tale literature, prediction takes the form of revelation.  Buddha is no longer on earth to give predictions personally.  The main character is often engaged in some kind of regular devout practice, sometimes while continuing to do other unwholesome things.  The arc of the story is usually that he has a strange dream or meets with an unusual being who gives instructions.  When the instructions are followed or the events of the dream come to pass, the being that has appeared is revealed to be a bodhisattva, usually either Kannon or Jizo.  The person ordains and when he dies, there are mysterious clouds and lovely fragrances and he’s reborn in the Pure Land and greeted by Amida.

Why do we care about predictions or assurance of Buddhahood, and how do we practice with that?  One way this comes down to us is through Dogen’s emphasis on practice and awakening not being two.  As soon as we sit down in zazen, Buddha is there, not next to us or floating around us, but right there in this body and mind.  There’s a saying that zazen is not a practice of human beings, it’s a practice of buddhas, so if someone does even a minute of zazen, Buddha shows up.  We can see this as a prediction and as a support to our faith in the three treasures and in the practice.  From this perspective, we don’t have to wait for myriad lifetimes for the prediction to come true.  We don’t have to be reborn in a special place or escape our current life circumstances.  

There’s a place in the ceremony of receiving lay precepts, after the 16 precepts have been received and the lineage papers have been bestowed, in which the preceptor says:  When living beings receive the Buddhas’ Precepts, they immediately join the Buddhas. When their state is identical to Great Enlightenment, they are truly the children of the Buddhas.

Simply wholeheartedly vowing to keep the precepts, even though we know we’re going to break them, is enough to let us join the Buddhas.  Mara aroused bodhicitta with an ulterior motive, with no intention of following through, and he still got a prediction.  Devadatta tried to murder the Buddha, so talk about not honoring the three treasures -- and he still got a prediction.  When we realize the dharma of non-appearance, when we understand emptiness and stop clinging to things.  We go straight to Nirvana as Buddhas, straight to our own buddha fields of peace and contentment, but that field isn’t somewhere else -- it’s right here.

If we can see with eyes of Buddha, we can see jewel trees and golden cords, and unpleasant, undesirable things also disappear from our buddha field.  Why?  Because we’re not labeling, judging, chasing and running away.  The message of this gate is simple: if we live wholesome lives and practice sincerely, none of us will fail to become Buddhas.

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Questions for reflection and discussion:

• What do you think about the teaching that even arousing bodhi mind with an ulterior motive, or without understanding the four noble truths, or without any particular intention to follow through is enough to assure that we will become buddhas?
• How might knowing that anyone you encounter could be a buddha, now or in the future, affect the way you move through the world?
  
• What effect does the understanding that you too will become a buddha have on your practice, and on your view of your practice?
• What does your ideal buddha field look like?  What does it contain, and what's at the center?