Secrets of the Lotus Sutra will take you on a 2,000-year journey — progressing in an easterly direction across the continent of Asia — from the cradle of civilization in Sumer to the exotic religious cultures of India, China and Japan. You’ll meet some of the wisest minds humankind has ever produced — sages who deciphered the ultimate meaning of life and how it works. Discover their lost secrets. Come and be transported to the time of the Buddha (India at approximately c. 500 B.C.E.) and hear him elucidate the epic Lotus Sutra — widely acknowledged today as one of the world’s literary wonders.

Experience Buddhism’s petals of wisdom as they slowly open to reveal to you the purpose of your life and that of all existence. Follow the visionary Lotus Sutra and you’ll learn the full spectrum of Buddhist thought and practice. Along the way you’ll encounter and learn to distinguish among Brahmanism, Taoism, Hinduism, Confucianism and Shintoism. Learn how they influenced Buddhism and in turn were influenced by it. Follow the Lotus Sutra and you’ll gain insight into the world’s major religions and cultures — both East and West. Learn where they differ and parallel each other and why. Moreover, you’ll find in the Lotus Sutra the earliest known examples of such religious themes as cosmic trinity, divine grace, healing, resurrection and salvation — concepts that are a staple of the Christian faith in a text that precedes the birth of Christ by several hundred years.

The Lotus Sutra is a poetic treatise that transcends time and space, but whose meaning and purpose are directed at the enlightenment of its audience in the here and now. More than any other work attributed to the Buddha, the Lotus Sutra is the definitive illustration of Perfect Enlightenment. That’s why for more than two millennia its surreal metaphysical insights have tested the greatest minds of the East. This sutra is so profound that through the ages a relative few have discerned its essence — although it has had a far-reaching affect on the shape of Buddhist ideas regarding eternity and the identity of the Buddha. This metaphysical fascination has been around for a long, long time. It’s won over emperors and survived their wrath. It’s been embraced, imitated, dismissed and misunderstood. Its stubborn staying power is ironic. Still today the Lotus Sutra has some unfinished business — waiting perhaps for the time when its legacy will be fulfilled.

The goal of this anthology is to provide an access road to the ancient wisdom imparted in the Buddha’s Lotus-vision some 2,500 years ago in India. Furthermore, this work pays homage to the conceptual insights extracted from the Lotus Sutra by the sage 6th Century Chinese scholar, Zhi-yi (also Chih-i or Xi Yee), founder of the Heavenly Terrace (Chi. Tian-tai) monastery, one of the most important cogs in the development of all Buddhist doctrines and practices. Finally, this work recognizes the critical contributions of the 13th Century Japanese Buddhist monk, Nichiren, founder of a latter-day Lotus Sutra revival movement. He was the foremost scholar ever to unearth the mystery of the Lotus Sutra and at the same time proved to be its most ardent practitioner. With reverence for the legacy these enlightened ones have fostered, this anthology will do its part to tell their story.

The first volume of The Secrets of the Lotus Sutra anthology is The Legacy of Perfect Enlightenment. Here you’ll be introduced to the Buddha at a grand, extraordinarily beautiful and imaginative convention that he has called together. The Lotus Sutra describes a large audience of listeners who have come to witness a metaphysical woodstock. They are awestruck by the appearance of a miles-high bejeweled structure that parks itself in the sky. The Buddha explains that this towering monolith is the sanctuary of Perfect Enlightenment.

More than a thousand years pass and the Lotus Sutra is translated and interpreted by sage Chinese scholars who extract from it an ontological blueprint revealing that Perfect Enlightenment is inherent in mortal existence. Centuries later, Nichiren, the sutra’s Japanese advocate identifies with the Lotus Sutra's messianic vision and hears its call to action. He sees in the sutra’s surreal and festive gathering a veiled prophecy regarding the eventual enlightenment of all humanity. Moreover, he crystallizes this vision into a practice that purportedly transforms human beings by unveiling within them the secret gift of Life inherently endowed to all the living, without exception.

The Cosmology of Buddhism, the second book in the anthology, is serialized exclusively here at the EverLife Library — as chapters become available.  It explores the origin of the gods and the doctrines of original sin that characterized the indiginous Indic religion of Brahmanism (forerunner of Hinduism) prior to the Buddha’s lifetime. It covers the 50-year course of the Buddha’s teachings as he redefined these cosmic views and then expanded upon them. In accomplishing enlightenment — an intuitive achievement analogous to grasping the truth regarding the reality of all existence — he acquires a vision of unsurpassed scope. The Buddha offers a series of progressively abstruse metaphysical theses that encompass the configuration of the universe, the ways of the mind, and fundamental laws governing the forces of Nature and the nature of life and death. His teachings promote hope and refuge from suffering, and encourage his growing numbers of disciples to apply compassion and selflessness toward all living beings. According to the Buddha acts of goodness are means for identifying a supreme reality that inherently exists in all phenomena. To that end he paints a compassionate yet challenging canvas of breathtaking cosmic scope which finally climaxes in the Lotus Sutra with the revelation that a fundamental, universal enlightenment of everlasting luminous quality is omnipresent in every facet of mortal existence.

Additional volumes in the Secrets of the Lotus Sutra anthology will challenge the common definition of self identity. Who are we in an ultimate sense? More than 2,000 years ago this philosophical question resounded across the Alexandrian Empire from Plato’s Greece to Buddhist India. Follow this issue as Buddhism splits as it attempts to justify itself to an intellectual community while it tries to fashion itself as a religion with the power to provide salvation to ordinary folk. Experience centuries of debate between Hinduism and Buddhism and the eventual decline of Buddhism in its homeland. Travel to China as Buddhism is reinvigorated in that land. While its arrival there has political ramifications — involving dynasties and emperors — its survival in China means that Buddhist philosophy in due course must adapt to indiginous Confucian and Taoist themes.

Eventually, Buddhism rediscovers its original theme: to decipher the source code of Life hidden below the cognitive level of mortal existence. The first theory attempting to explain everything in existence and how it all works was produced by China’s foremost expert on the Lotus Sutra — the sage Zhi-yi of the Heaven’s Terrace monastery (Chi. Tian-tai). His scholarly works extract from the Lotus scripture the solution to the gnawing enigma of fundamental identity. This sutra provides him with the last piece of a puzzle for an architronic model designed to explain Nature’s modus operandi. He proposes that a single, all-encompassing, active metaphysical matrix underlies the ever-changing dynamic of cause, effect, nature, behavior, instinct, thought, form and environment. Moreover, he finds that as Life’s active matrix provides universal access to all states of being, it potentially offers a state-of-being equal to Perfect Enlightenment as well. He realizes that the Lotus Sutra's legacy is the power to illuminate the darkness, turn suffering into happiness, cure the sick and beautify the universe. Zhi-yi even designs the first ritual practice for raising one’s awareness of the enlightened condition of Life hidden within the kinetic field of one’s mortal existence.

The anthology will also feature the story of Nichiren as he pursues a compelling mission to enlighten the world to the Supreme Treasure of the Lotus Sutra. While he is personally beset by a constant stream of difficult, life-threatening challenges, the enmity of religious and political authorities in Japan do not deter this heroic figure from his messianic desire to transform the land to an enlightened paradise — a goal reflecting the Buddha’s final wish. However, Nichiren’s call for the non-denominational unification of Buddhism based on the revival of the Lotus Sutra faces the scorn of popular Buddhist sects concerned with latter-day esoteric rituals and salvation beyond one’s death.

Nichiren introduces the practice of honoring the Lotus Sutra by chanting the sutra’s title — Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo — as a means for invoking fundamental happiness to arise in one’s present existence. He considers this chant to be the crystallization of a cosmic treasure imbedded between the lines of the sutra. He equates the name of the immortal identity hidden in mortality with the essence embodied in the epithet and its invocation with the raising of this primal essence — a practice he regards as the "direct vehicle of Perfect Enlightenment."

Nichiren preaches his message door-to-door and in public squares, but also writes extensively. He is a brilliant scholar whose manifold knowledge of Buddhist doctrines and practices is so complete that he soundly defeats anyone who debates him on the subject. His writings are loaded with documented doctrinal support for his conclusion that the Lotus Sutra contains the enlightenment which the Buddha bequeathed to future generations. Finally, Nichiren objectifies the vision of Perfect Enlightenment illustrated in the Lotus Sutra by inscribing a venerable calligraphic montage that he calls the Supreme Treasure mandala (Jpn. Gohonzon) It depicts the Buddha’s epochal vision in the Lotus Sutra — a mythic Treasure Tower in the sky representing the cosmic "gift of Life" inherently endowed in all the living.

Finally, the anthology will cover the sutra’s most subtle and profound prophecy — the eventual actualization of buddhahood on a universal scale. Nichiren envisions a time when countless individuals will transform the human realm by embracing the source of Perfect Enlightenment. With the goal of collective bliss and peace in mind, he dedicates his life to providing the human race with a practical means for illuminating the mind, body and environment. Ordinarily, what one says reflects one’s state of mind. Similarly, Nichiren sees the voicing of Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo as a reflection of one’s hidden enlightened mind. He contends that chanting the phrase — an acknowledgement of this mind — connects one with his ultimate state-of-being and causes it to come to the fore.

One’s body is the temple of desires. Therefore, what one desires (i.e., worships) determines the focus of his existence. By inscribing an object of veneration that embodies the cornucopia of enlightened wisdom and bliss, Nichiren puts the focus on the desire for Perfect Enlightenment. As one’s environment is a reflection of its inhabitants, Nichiren sees Buddhism as the means for transforming the mortal realm into a blissful buddha-land. Nichiren suggests that invoking the Lotus Sutra's revelatory powers infuses indestructible joy into one’s existence. He proposes that as more people entice their ultimate identity to emerge from its hidden core, they will affect the transformation of their world. He prophesies an Earth-to-be secure in peace and bliss by an enlightened populace.

This anthology is written from the vantage of an eyewitness reporter and commentator. The author believes that the essence and scope of Buddhism does not suffer in the slightest from this treatment. Hopefully, the sense of proximity readers feel as a result of this style will produce a scintillating front row experience.

A WORD TO THE WISE:

Don’t let yourself be overwhelmed by profundities you may encounter in this book. Take your time. Take in what you can. Many questions will arise in your mind. Keep going. They will be answered somewhere along the way. There are no trophies for finishing quickly or extra enlightenment to anyone who gets through first. Impatience will sink your desire to reach the other shore just as a ship overloaded with gold will sink as soon as it leaves port. When moving gold, it’s wiser to load smaller quantities and make more trips. But even that would make no difference, if the ship is docked in shallow waters.

If you are reading this as an introduction to Buddhism you could not have started in a better place. Nevertheless, do note that you are attempting here to deal with some of Life’s most difficult questions, so scanning the subject is pointless. Your comprehension will require a commitment to pay close attention. Patiently read on until the end — continuing even if there’s something you don’t immediately understand. Most of all, don’t be intimidated by the intensity of this philosophy. It’s all about life and life is supposed to be intense. People get overwhelmed when challenged beyond what they’re used to. Some will stop because they’re in unfamiliar territory. Keep in mind, however, there is a great reward for finishing anything. This is true here, as well.

If you already chant Nam-Myoho-Renge-Kyo, Secrets of the Lotus Sutra will help you put your experience into better perspective. Hopefully, you will find both clarity and inspiration within its pages. Moreover, this anthology should serve as a good foundation for reading available English translations of the Writings of Nichiren Daishonin (Jpn Gosho) and the text of the Lotus Sutra (please refer to the EverLife bibliography for a full list of sources).