The Tathāgata's Power, and the Final Charge
如來神力品第二十一・囑累品第二十二
The bodhisattvas who rose from beneath the earth in Part 16 now vow to teach this sūtra after the Buddha's parinirvāṇa. In answer, the Buddha displays ten great signs at once — his tongue reaching to the Brahma heaven, light streaming from every pore, the whole gathering visible across ten directions as a single unbroken assembly — and then rises from his seat to place his own hand on the head of every bodhisattva present, formally entrusting this teaching to them before the visiting buddhas return to their own lands and Prabhūtaratna's stūpa closes once more.
- This part covers
- The bodhisattvas who rose from beneath the earth vowing to protect and teach this sūtra after the Buddha's parinirvāṇa; the Buddha's display of ten great signs at once, including his tongue reaching to the Brahma heaven, light streaming from every pore of his body, and the entire ten-directional assembly becoming visible to one another as a single unbroken gathering; his declaration that everything a buddha is or possesses is disclosed in this one sūtra, and that wherever it is kept should be honored as a stūpa; and, closing the two chapters together, his rising from his seat to personally place his hand on the head of every bodhisattva present, formally entrusting this teaching to them before the visiting emanation buddhas return to their own lands and the jeweled stūpa closes once more.
- Why it matters
- Zhiyi reads these two short chapters as the sūtra's own hinge between disclosure and transmission — everything from Part 1 through Part 22 has been the Buddha showing what this teaching is; here, for the first time, he formally hands it to someone else to carry forward. The physical gesture of a hand placed on the head, repeated three times, is this sūtra's most concrete image of what it means for a teaching to be entrusted rather than merely stated.
1. The Buddha's Ten Great Signs
爾時，千世界微塵等菩薩摩訶薩，從地踊出者，皆於佛前一心合掌，瞻仰尊顏，而白佛言：「世尊！我等於佛滅後，世尊分身所在國土滅度之處，當廣說此經。所以者何？我等亦自欲得是真淨大法，受持、讀誦、解說、書寫，而供養之。」 爾時世尊，於文殊師利等無量百千萬億舊住娑婆世界菩薩摩訶薩，及諸比丘、比丘尼、優婆塞、優婆夷，天、龍、夜叉、乾闥婆、阿修羅、迦樓羅、緊那羅、摩睺羅伽、人非人等，一切眾前，現大神力，出廣長舌上至梵世，一切毛孔放於無量無數色光，皆悉遍照十方世界。眾寶樹下、師子座上諸佛，亦復如是，出廣長舌，放無量光。釋迦牟尼佛及寶樹下諸佛現神力時，滿百千歲，然後還攝舌相。一時謦欬、俱共彈指，是二音聲，遍至十方諸佛世界，地皆六種震動。其中眾生，天、龍、夜叉、乾闥婆、阿修羅、迦樓羅、緊那羅、摩睺羅伽、人非人等，以佛神力故，皆見此娑婆世界，無量無邊百千萬億眾寶樹下、師子座上諸佛；及見釋迦牟尼佛共多寶如來，在寶塔中、坐師子座；又見無量無邊百千萬億菩薩摩訶薩及諸四眾，恭敬圍繞釋迦牟尼佛。既見是已，皆大歡喜，得未曾有。即時諸天、於虛空中、高聲唱言：「過此無量無邊百千萬億阿僧祇世界，有國名娑婆，是中有佛名釋迦牟尼，今為諸菩薩摩訶薩說大乘經，名妙法蓮華，教菩薩法，佛所護念。汝等當深心隨喜，亦當禮拜供養釋迦牟尼佛。」彼諸眾生，聞虛空中聲已，合掌向娑婆世界作如是言：「南無釋迦牟尼佛！南無釋迦牟尼佛！」以種種華、香、瓔珞、幡蓋，及諸嚴身之具、珍寶妙物，皆共遙散娑婆世界。所散諸物，從十方來，譬如雲集，變成寶帳，遍覆此間諸佛之上。于時十方世界，通達無礙，如一佛土。
At that time the bodhisattva-mahāsattvas equal in number to the fine dust of a thousand worlds, who had risen up from the earth, all joined their palms with a single mind before the Buddha, gazing up at his honored countenance, and said to him: "World-Honored One! After the Buddha's parinirvāṇa, in every land where the World-Honored One's own emanation buddhas have attained extinction, we shall broadly teach this sūtra. Why is this so? Because we ourselves also wish to attain this true and pure great Dharma, to uphold, read, recite, explain, and copy it, and to make offerings to it." At that time the World-Honored One, before Mañjuśrī and the immeasurable hundreds of thousands of myriads of koṭis of bodhisattva-mahāsattvas who had long dwelt in this sahā world, and before the monks, nuns, laymen, and laywomen, the gods, nāgas, yakṣas, gandharvas, asuras, garuḍas, kiṃnaras, mahoragas, humans and nonhumans — before this entire assembly, displayed a great spiritual power: he put forth his broad and long tongue, reaching up to the Brahma heaven, and from every pore of his body sent forth immeasurable, countless rays of colored light, illuminating the worlds of the ten directions entirely. The buddhas seated on lion thrones beneath the jeweled trees did exactly the same, putting forth their own broad and long tongues, and sending forth immeasurable light. When Śākyamuni Buddha and the buddhas beneath the jeweled trees had displayed this spiritual power for the span of a full hundred thousand years, they then withdrew the mark of the tongue once more. All at once they cleared their throats, and, together, snapped their fingers, and these two sounds reached throughout the buddha-worlds of the ten directions, and the earth everywhere shook in six ways. The beings within it — gods, nāgas, yakṣas, gandharvas, asuras, garuḍas, kiṃnaras, mahoragas, humans and nonhumans — by the Buddha's own spiritual power, all saw this sahā world, with its immeasurable, boundless hundreds of thousands of myriads of koṭis of buddhas seated on lion thrones beneath jeweled trees; and saw, too, Śākyamuni Buddha together with Prabhūtaratna Tathāgata, seated on a lion throne within the jeweled stūpa; and saw, further, immeasurable, boundless hundreds of thousands of myriads of koṭis of bodhisattva-mahāsattvas, and the fourfold assembly, reverently surrounding Śākyamuni Buddha. Having seen all this, they were filled with great joy, having gained what they had never known before. At once the gods, in the sky above, cried out in a loud voice: "Beyond this point, past immeasurable, boundless hundreds of thousands of myriads of koṭis of asaṃkhyeya worlds, there is a land named Sahā, and within it a buddha named Śākyamuni, who now teaches, for the sake of the bodhisattva-mahāsattvas, a Mahāyāna sūtra named the Wonderful Dharma Lotus Flower, a teaching for bodhisattvas, held in every buddha's own mindful protection. You should, with a deep heart, rejoice in this, and should bow and make offerings to Śākyamuni Buddha as well." Those beings, on hearing this voice from the sky, joined their palms toward the sahā world, and said: "Homage to Śākyamuni Buddha! Homage to Śākyamuni Buddha!" And with every kind of flower, incense, necklace, banner, and canopy, with every ornament for the body, and every kind of fine treasure, they scattered them all, from far away, toward the sahā world. These scattered offerings, coming from the ten directions, gathered like clouds, and transformed into a jeweled canopy, covering entirely every buddha present in this place. At that time the worlds of the ten directions became joined and unobstructed, as though they were a single buddha-land."
Zhiyi enumerates ten distinct signs in this display, each carrying its own meaning: the tongue reaching to the Brahma heaven signals that everything taught across this entire sūtra — the opening of the three vehicles into one, the disclosure of the Buddha's true lifespan — has been entirely true, no part of it exaggerated or false; the light from every pore signals that this wisdom now illuminates every land without exception; the throat-clearing signals a long-hidden truth about to be spoken plainly at last; the finger-snap signals the Buddha's own rejoicing in what this sūtra's future holders will accomplish; the sixfold earthquake signals the purification of every listener's six senses in miniature; the mutual visibility of the whole ten-directional assembly signals that every buddha, everywhere, teaches this identical one path; and the offerings gathering into a single canopy over the whole assembly signals the ten directions joined, for this moment, as though a single buddha-land. Zhiyi reads each sign as doing two things simultaneously — displaying something true in the present moment, and, at the same time, promising something about how this sūtra will be received in every future age.
2. "Everything I Am Is in This Sūtra"
爾時，佛告上行等菩薩大眾：「諸佛神力如是，無量無邊、不可思議，若我以是神力，於無量無邊百千萬億阿僧祇劫，為囑累故，說此經功德，猶不能盡。以要言之，如來一切所有之法、如來一切自在神力、如來一切祕要之藏、如來一切甚深之事，皆於此經宣示顯說。是故汝等於如來滅後，應一心受持、讀誦、解說、書寫、如說修行。所在國土，若有受持、讀誦、解說、書寫、如說修行，若經卷所住之處，若於園中、若於林中、若於樹下、若於僧坊、若白衣舍、若在殿堂、若山谷曠野，是中皆應起塔供養。所以者何？當知是處、即是道場，諸佛於此得阿耨多羅三藐三菩提，諸佛於此轉于法輪，諸佛於此而般涅槃。」
At that time the Buddha said to the great assembly of bodhisattvas headed by Viśiṣṭacāritra: "The spiritual power of every buddha is exactly as you have seen — immeasurable, boundless, beyond all conceiving. Yet were I to use this same power, for immeasurable, boundless hundreds of thousands of myriads of koṭis of asaṃkhyeya kalpas, to describe, for the sake of entrusting it to you, the merit of this sūtra, I still could not exhaust it. To speak of it in essence: every teaching the Tathāgata possesses, every sovereign spiritual power of the Tathāgata, every secret and essential treasury of the Tathāgata, every profound matter of the Tathāgata — all of it is proclaimed and made manifest in this very sūtra. For this reason, after the Tathāgata's own parinirvāṇa, you should, with a single mind, uphold, read, recite, explain, and copy it, and practice exactly as it teaches. In whatever land there is one who upholds, reads, recites, explains, or copies it, and practices exactly as it teaches, or wherever the sūtra scroll itself resides — whether in a garden, in a forest, beneath a tree, in a monastery, in a layperson's house, in a palace hall, or in a mountain valley or open wilderness — in every one of these places, a stūpa should be raised, and offerings made to it. Why is this so? Because you should know that this very place is itself a place of awakening: it is here that every buddha attains unsurpassed, perfect and complete awakening; it is here that every buddha turns the wheel of the Dharma; it is here that every buddha enters parinirvāṇa."
爾時世尊欲重宣此義，而說偈言： 「諸佛救世者， 住於大神通， 為悅眾生故， 現無量神力， 舌相至梵天， 身放無數光， 為求佛道者， 現此希有事。 諸佛謦欬聲， 及彈指之聲， 周聞十方國， 地皆六種動。 以佛滅度後， 能持是經故， 諸佛皆歡喜， 現無量神力。 囑累是經故， 讚美受持者， 於無量劫中， 猶故不能盡。 是人之功德， 無邊無有窮， 如十方虛空， 不可得邊際。 能持是經者， 則為已見我， 亦見多寶佛， 及諸分身者， 又見我今日， 教化諸菩薩。 能持是經者， 令我及分身， 滅度多寶佛， 一切皆歡喜。 十方現在佛， 并過去未來， 亦見亦供養， 亦令得歡喜。 諸佛坐道場， 所得祕要法， 能持是經者， 不久亦當得。 能持是經者， 於諸法之義， 名字及言辭， 樂說無窮盡， 如風於空中， 一切無障礙。 於如來滅後， 知佛所說經， 因緣及次第， 隨義如實說， 如日月光明， 能除諸幽冥。 斯人行世間， 能滅眾生闇， 教無量菩薩， 畢竟住一乘。 是故有智者， 聞此功德利， 於我滅度後， 應受持斯經， 是人於佛道， 決定無有疑。」
At that time the World-Honored One, wishing to proclaim this meaning once more, spoke in verse: "Every buddha, savior of the world, dwelling in great spiritual penetration, for the sake of delighting beings, displays immeasurable spiritual power — the mark of the tongue reaching to the Brahma heaven, the body sending forth countless rays of light — for the sake of those who seek the buddha-path, displaying this rare and wondrous event. The sound of every buddha clearing his throat, and the sound of snapping fingers, is heard throughout the lands of the ten directions, and the earth everywhere shakes in six ways. Because, after the Buddha's parinirvāṇa, there will be those able to uphold this sūtra, every buddha rejoices, and displays this immeasurable spiritual power. Entrusting this sūtra, and praising those who uphold it, even across immeasurable kalpas, this praise still could not be exhausted. This person's own merit is boundless, without limit, like the empty space of the ten directions, whose edge can never be found. Whoever is able to uphold this sūtra has, by that very fact, already seen me, and seen, too, Prabhūtaratna Buddha, and every one of my emanation buddhas, and seen, too, my teaching of the bodhisattvas this very day. Whoever is able to uphold this sūtra causes me, and my emanation buddhas, and the extinguished Prabhūtaratna Buddha, all to rejoice. The buddhas of the ten directions, present, past, and future, are also seen, also given offerings, and also caused to rejoice by this. The secret and essential Dharma every buddha attains, seated at the place of awakening, whoever is able to uphold this sūtra shall likewise attain before long. Whoever is able to uphold this sūtra, in the meaning of every teaching, in its very names and words, shall delight in expounding it without end, like the wind moving through open sky, meeting no obstruction anywhere. After the Tathāgata's parinirvāṇa, knowing the causes and conditions, and the true order, of what the Buddha has taught, speaking of it exactly as it truly is, according to its meaning — this is like the light of sun and moon, able to dispel every kind of darkness. Such a person, walking through the world, is able to dispel the darkness of beings, teaching immeasurable bodhisattvas, until, in the end, they abide in the one vehicle. For this reason, those with wisdom, hearing of this merit and benefit, should, after my own parinirvāṇa, uphold this very sūtra — such a person, in the buddha-path, holds no doubt at all."
Zhiyi reduces the Buddha's own summary — "every teaching," "every spiritual power," "every secret treasury," "every profound matter" — to four things that map directly onto the four reasons given, just after, for why any place holding this sūtra deserves a stūpa: attaining awakening at the place of practice corresponds to "every profound matter," turning the wheel of the Dharma corresponds to "every teaching," and entering parinirvāṇa corresponds to "every spiritual power," while the place of practice itself, as the site where all of this becomes possible, corresponds to "every secret treasury." He treats this as the sūtra handing over not a portion of what a buddha is, but a complete and sufficient key to the whole of it, in a single named text.
3. The Final Entrustment
爾時，釋迦牟尼佛從法座起，現大神力，以右手摩無量菩薩摩訶薩頂，而作是言：「我於無量百千萬億阿僧祇劫，修習是難得阿耨多羅三藐三菩提法，今以付囑汝等。汝等應當一心流布此法，廣令增益。」如是三摩諸菩薩摩訶薩頂，而作是言：「我於無量百千萬億阿僧祇劫，修習是難得阿耨多羅三藐三菩提法，今以付囑汝等。汝等當受持、讀誦、廣宣此法，令一切眾生普得聞知。所以者何？如來有大慈悲，無諸慳悋，亦無所畏，能與眾生，佛之智慧、如來智慧、自然智慧，如來是一切眾生之大施主。汝等亦應隨學如來之法，勿生慳悋。於未來世，若有善男子、善女人，信如來智慧者，當為演說此法華經，使得聞知，為令其人得佛慧故。若有眾生不信受者，當於如來餘深法中，示教利喜。汝等若能如是，則為已報諸佛之恩。」 時諸菩薩摩訶薩，聞佛作是說已，皆大歡喜遍滿其身，益加恭敬，曲躬、低頭，合掌向佛，俱發聲言：「如世尊勅，當具奉行。唯然，世尊！願不有慮。」諸菩薩摩訶薩眾，如是三反，俱發聲言：「如世尊勅，當具奉行。唯然，世尊！願不有慮。」 爾時釋迦牟尼佛令十方來諸分身佛各還本土，而作是言：「諸佛各隨所安，多寶佛塔還可如故。」說是語時，十方無量分身諸佛——坐寶樹下師子座上者，及多寶佛，并上行等無邊阿僧祇菩薩大眾，舍利弗等聲聞四眾，及一切世間天、人、阿修羅等，聞佛所說，皆大歡喜。
At that time Śākyamuni Buddha rose from his Dharma seat, displayed a great spiritual power, and with his right hand touched the crown of the heads of the immeasurable bodhisattva-mahāsattvas, saying: "For immeasurable hundreds of thousands of myriads of koṭis of asaṃkhyeya kalpas, I have cultivated and practiced this Dharma of unsurpassed, perfect and complete awakening, so difficult to attain — and now I entrust it to you. You should, with a single mind, spread and proclaim this Dharma, and broadly cause it to increase and flourish." In this way he touched the crown of every bodhisattva-mahāsattva's head three times, saying: "For immeasurable hundreds of thousands of myriads of koṭis of asaṃkhyeya kalpas, I have cultivated and practiced this Dharma of unsurpassed, perfect and complete awakening, so difficult to attain — and now I entrust it to you. You should uphold, read, recite, and broadly proclaim this Dharma, causing every being to hear and know it fully. Why is this so? Because the Tathāgata possesses great loving-kindness and compassion, entirely free of any stinginess, and entirely free of any fear, and is able to give to beings the Buddha's own wisdom, the Tathāgata's own wisdom, wisdom that arises of itself — the Tathāgata is the great benefactor of every being. You, too, should learn to follow the Tathāgata's own Dharma in this way, and give rise to no stinginess at all. In the age to come, should there be a good son or good daughter who believes in the Tathāgata's wisdom, you should teach this Lotus Sūtra for their sake, causing them to hear and know it, so that this person may attain the Buddha's own wisdom. Should there be beings who do not believe and accept it, you should, within the Tathāgata's other, profound teachings, reveal, teach, benefit, and delight them. If you are able to do all this, you shall have already repaid every buddha's own kindness." At that time the bodhisattva-mahāsattvas, having heard the Buddha speak in this way, were filled with great joy throughout their whole bodies, and, with even deeper reverence, bent their bodies, lowered their heads, joined their palms toward the Buddha, and together said with one voice: "Exactly as the World-Honored One has commanded, so shall we fully carry it out. Just so, World-Honored One! We beg you to have no further concern." The assembly of bodhisattva-mahāsattvas said this three times over, together with one voice: "Exactly as the World-Honored One has commanded, so shall we fully carry it out. Just so, World-Honored One! We beg you to have no further concern." At that time Śākyamuni Buddha caused the emanation buddhas who had come from the ten directions each to return to their own lands, saying: "Let each buddha go wherever he is at peace, and let Prabhūtaratna's own stūpa return to just as it was before." As he spoke these words, the immeasurable emanation buddhas of the ten directions, seated on lion thrones beneath the jeweled trees, and Prabhūtaratna Buddha, together with the boundless asaṃkhyeya assembly of bodhisattvas headed by Viśiṣṭacāritra, Śāriputra and the fourfold assembly of śrāvakas, and every being in the world — gods, humans, and asuras alike — hearing what the Buddha had taught, were all filled with great joy."
Zhiyi reads the Buddha's three qualities named here — great compassion, freedom from stinginess, and freedom from fear — as the same room, robe, and seat first named in Part 11, now offered a third time across this sūtra, each time in a slightly different key: there as instructions for how to teach after the Buddha's parinirvāṇa, in Part 22 as the disposition Never-Disparaging Bodhisattva actually lived out under persecution, and here as the Buddha's own stated reason for why he can entrust this teaching at all. The threefold hand-on-the-head gesture itself Zhiyi glosses in three parts: the physical touch is the entrustment in body, the meeting of the Buddha's own skillful wisdom with each bodhisattva's own genuine wisdom is the entrustment in mind, and the spoken charge is the entrustment in speech — a single act of transmission enacted, deliberately, through all three at once.
The chapter's close is worth noting as a narrative bookend, not merely an ending. The jeweled stūpa that rose from the earth to open in Part 12, drawing every emanation buddha across the ten directions into this single assembly, now closes again, and each buddha returns home — the frame that has held the sūtra's entire second half in place, from the origin gate's disclosure of the Buddha's true lifespan through this act of entrustment, quietly resolves back into the ordinary world it opened out of.