In the light of the analysis of the Buddha's teachings by the great master of Tendai Zhiyi, we understand that among the multitude of sutras preached by the Venerable Shakya, only the Lotus Sutra contains the perfect teaching. The other sutras also contain part of this perfect teaching, but they also contain what are called "Means", intended to raise the abilities of the disciples to be able to hear and understand the only perfect teaching of the Lotus Sutra.

These Means were the teachings of the Baskets, common and particular. In the chapter Preaching the Infinite Sense Sutra, which is part of the Lotus-Nirvana period and introduces the Lotus Sutra, we read:

"Thanks to the vision of Enlightenment, I considered that the whole of the teachings could not be expounded. Why was this? I realised that the nature and desires of beings are dissimilar. Since natures and desires are not similar, I preached the Dharma in various ways and, in order to preach it in various ways, I resorted to the power of salvific means.

After which he adds this terribly significant sentence:

"For more than forty years, I did not reveal the truth, that is why there were discriminations in the attainment of the Way by beings and that they could not promptly achieve enlightenment without a superior.

Then, at the end of the second chapter of the Lotus Sutra, which follows the Sutra of the Infinite Senses, he states:

"I will simply reject the means and preach only the Way without a superior; the bodhisattvas, hearing this teaching, will all be freed from the nets of doubt; the one thousand two hundred Meritorious Ones will also all be called to become Buddhas".

And yet, until then, in the Sutras prior to the Lotus, these one thousand two hundred Meritorious Ones, headed by the wisest of them, Shariputra (Sharihotsu), were never to become Buddhas, even though they had attained the supreme awakening of the four degrees of listeners. For the record, the four degrees of auditors are :

1)     The one who enters the stream (sk. srota apatti, jp. shudaon 須陀洹 or Yoru - 預流): the first degree of enlightenment attained by practitioners of the Small Vehicle. It involves entering the stream of emancipation by going against the stream of lives and deaths. This fruit can be obtained when one has shed the illusions of erroneous views.

2)     The one who returns once more (sk. sakṛdāgāmin, jp. Shidagon - 斯陀含or ichirai - 一来): the second degree of enlightenment attained by practitioners of the Small Vehicle. The destruction of six of the nine illusions of the world of desires allows one to be reborn only once in the world of humans and the heavens before obtaining total emancipation.

3)     The one who does not return (sk. Anagamin, jp. anagon - 阿那含or fugen - 不還): the third degree of enlightenment attained by practitioners of the Small Vehicle. This level can be attained by removing oneself from the defilements of the world of desires, including wrong views and practices. At this level, one is reborn in the material world or in the spiritual world, but there is "no return" to the world of desires.

4)   The Meritorious One (sk. Arhat, jp. Arakan 阿羅漢ou Ōgu - 応供): the fourth and final degree of enlightenment attained by practitioners of the Small Vehicle. Such a saint has rid himself of all rebirth, desires and delusions. He has obtained perfect knowledge, has learned everything so that he has nothing more to study. He is worthy of respect and offerings (Ōgu).

It goes without saying that if these beings of the four holy paths could not become Buddha with the help of the pre-Lotus sutras, then even less so could ordinary beings.

And yet, wasn't the one and only purpose for which the Buddha preached his teaching that, as he himself says in chapter 16 of the Lotus, "all beings quickly realise the enlightened body"? This is because all these sutras prior to the Lotus were merely a preparation for being able to hear the Lotus Sutra and achieve enlightenment without a superior. In other words, these earlier sutras, which do not teach Buddhahood, have no meaning without the illumination of the Lotus Sutra, thanks to which they take on their full meaning.

For example, for the School of the Nature of Dharmas (jp. Hossō - 法相), Alaya consciousness (8th consciousness) is our primitive field containing the sum of our physical, verbal and mental actions from the beginningless, affecting our psychological functions (subjectivity) and thus our way of seeing things and causing the objective conditions of our environment.

During the process of practice leading to awakening, the Alaya consciousness changes its name twice. Between the beginningless stage and the stage where the bodhisattva has reached the 7th degree of Earth, i.e. the 47th of the 52 degrees leading to awakening, the eighth consciousness is called Alaya (warehouse consciousness). Asceticism continues after the 7th degree of Earth to reach Diamond Minds (j. Kongō-shin - 金剛心), an expression manifesting the firmness of the bodhisattva's decision in his or her quest for enlightenment. Up to this point, the bodhisattva has interrupted the evil passions one by one.

From the beginningless to the diamond mind, the eighth consciousness is called "different maturation" (ijuku - 異熟), denoting the period during which the fundamental consciousness continues as the effects of the good and bad causes realized since the beginningless.

The third name for the eighth consciousness is 'Adana consciousness' or pure consciousness, which refers to the moment from which the bodhisattva becomes Buddha.

Needless to say, this process takes an infinite number of eons until the eighth consciousness is completely purified. However, the great master of the Tendai affirms that this pure consciousness is present from the beginning in the heart of each person and is called the Amara consciousness (immaculate consciousness). It is the ninth consciousness.

Whereas the Nature of Dharmas school teaches only the eighth consciousness, saying that everything, both illusion and awakening, is produced conditionally by this Alaya consciousness. In contrast, the Tendai school speaks of the "matrix of the Thus-Being". This expression refers to that which remains as the Tathāgata in the fetal state. It is the affirmation that all beings carry the Buddha-nature within them like a foetus.

This ninth consciousness, called "Amara" or "King of the mind" is none other than the Buddha nature, similar to a fertile field. It remains to plant the seed of Buddhahood. This is called sowing (Geshu- 下種). There are two kinds of sowing: sowing by listening to the Dharma (Monpō Geshu-聞法下種) and sowing by awakening the aspiration to Buddhahood (Hosshin Geshu-発心下種). In his Explanatory Plaques of the Mysterious Meaning of the Lotus, the great Tendai Master Miaolè wrote on this subject: "Listening to the Dharma (Monpō - 聞法) constitutes the sowing, while the awakening of aspiration to Buddhahood (Hosshin - 発心), in other words, the beginning of the practice, represents the bud.

Now, incensing can only be done with the hearing and practice of the Lotus Sutra, for only the Lotus Sutra is the perfectly pure and perfect teaching. Imagine a fertile field where corrupted, modified, obsolete seeds are planted and watered with pesticides, rotten and poisoned water, and the result is a crop that is unfit for consumption and even harmful to health.

It is the same with the various teachings of the Buddha. Insofar as he himself said that only the Lotus Sutra represents his true teaching and that he implicitly asked to abandon the other sutras, the schools that are not based on the Lotus Sutra, namely the schools of Zen, of the Pure Land, of Shingon, of Tibet, of the Buddhist tradition, of the Buddhist tradition, of the Buddhist tradition and of the Buddhist tradition, Shingon, Tibetan, Vietnamese and all South East Asian schools distil corrupt teachings which are not that of the Buddha and which even offend the Buddha's Dharma leading to anything but Buddhahood, the goal of Buddhist practice.

Specificities of the Lotus Sutra

Mutual presence of the ten worlds

In exploring the doctrinal specifics of the Lotus Sutra, the one that deserves to be mentioned as the most important element is "the mutual presence of the ten worlds". This doctrine, called the theory of the mutual presence of the ten worlds, is a very astute description of the nature of the human being and its structural mechanisms and exists only in the Lotus Sutra.

With the advent of Mahayana Buddhism came the idea of grouping the various forms of beings, including human beings, into ten categories and interpreting them according to their value in a hierarchical relationship. These ten categories are the ten worlds of the hells, the hungry spirits, the animals, the Ashuras, the human beings, the heavens, the listeners, the conditionally awakened, the bodhisattvas and the Buddha. Before the establishment of Mahayana Buddhism, the six worlds from hell to heaven were already considered, and after the establishment of Mahayana Buddhism, the four worlds, the auditors and the sequel were added to these six worlds, giving rise to the view that there are ten worlds.

According to the traditional interpretation of Buddhism, the six worlds, from the hells to the celestial worlds, are the worlds of wandering and samsara, i.e. the cycle of transmigrations into the life states of the six worlds. The heavenly world is divided into three levels, lower, middle and upper. The states of life from the underworld to the lower level of the celestial world are grouped together as the "world of desires" because it is a world obsessed with physical desires. The middle celestial world is called the world of matter because it is no longer attached to desires but is not yet free from the constraints of the body, while the upper celestial world is called the world of non-matter because it is free from physical desires and their constraints. However, since here the constraints of the mind have not yet been fully resolved, this world cannot be considered the world of enlightenment and is still part of the world of illusion. The six worlds, from the hells to the heavenly worlds, are also called the three worlds because they belong either to the world of desires, the world of matter, or the world of non-matter. Only when one has reached the world of the auditors is one finally considered to have entered the world of enlightenment, which is classified into four kinds of states of life, up to the Buddha, according to the content of that enlightenment.

This is the general character of each of the ten worlds, but in fact Zhiyi relied on this theory of the ten worlds to understand analytically the structural mechanism of the way of being of human beings. In other words, he does not conceive the ten worlds as mere distinctions based on the values of living beings, but as the ten different ways of being of human beings themselves. The human is not just the fifth intermediate being in a hierarchy of ten different types of beings, but is understood as a being who can be anywhere from the lower worlds of the underworld to the higher world of the Buddha. The human being, who occupies one of the ten worlds, can be seen as having the other nine worlds 'present' in him. Of course, this does not only apply to human beings. The ten worlds are 'present' within the other nine worlds.

Thus, all beings live in a relationship of "mutual presence of the ten worlds".

Therefore, all beings in the ten worlds can be considered equally capable of becoming any being from the hells to the Buddha. But what is the direct cause that determines whether each being is in the hell or in the Buddha world? Zhiyi sees this cause in seeing or not seeing the true aspect of the dharmas, or, more precisely, in the attitude of understanding the relationship to the true aspect according to four types of attitude. The first attitude is to understand the dharmas as 'existing', while the second attitude is to understand them in the aspect of 'non-existence' (emptiness). The third is the attitude of seeing things in terms of the "temporary" (conditionality). The fourth and final attitude is that of understanding all dharmas from the aspect of the 'middle'. The first attitude of understanding is the essence of not seeing the true aspect of the dharmas, which are specific to the outer path. Progressing to the second and third, the degree of vision increases, until the fourth attitude of understanding is the state of seeing the true aspect of the dharmas itself. Thus, each being is understood as a being with the potential to transform itself in various ways according to its vision of the dharmas.

The human is not outside this relationship. Even if he is completely submerged in the midst of evil, this is only one type of existence as a person who has fallen into the non-vision of the true aspect, and all he has to do is make efforts to move from the non-vision of the true aspect to the vision of the true aspect, based on the theoretical guarantee of the possibility of moving from suffering to Buddhahood. The theoretical basis for the requirement of practice for lost beings is founded on this relationship between seeing and not seeing the true aspect of the dharmas and on the circumstances of the establishment of the different aspects of existence which are established on the basis of this relationship.

However, it is necessary to clarify here a point which seems to me of the utmost importance. The "mutual presence of the ten worlds" is the most profound principle of Buddhism. However, certain philistines trying to popularise this principle, without apparently having understood it, have demoted it to a simple change of state of mind in the course of a day. "I wake up with a toothache, it's the state of hell", "I won the lottery, I enter the world of heaven (which they call the state of temporary joy)", "I read a book, I enter the "state of study" (which doesn't exist but which would mean the world of listeners)" and so on. Now, if this were the "mutual presence of the ten worlds", then Buddhism would have no reason to exist. The real mutual presence of the ten worlds is quite different. According to the other Mahayana sutras, each world is perfectly distinct from the others. Imagine ten aquariums lined up, all different shapes, with tenants all different from one jar to the next, unable to change aquariums. This is the view of the earlier sutras on the ten worlds. This is also our view of things as ordinary beings. For example, one person occupies a certain space in a room and we cannot imagine that another person occupies the same space at the same time. But this is what is meant by "the mutual presence of the ten worlds". Only the Buddha, through his wisdom and enlightened vision which he expresses in the Lotus Sutra, "having forever cut off erratic reasoning such as dreaming", has erased all notions of differences and equality and "has a knowledge and vision of the aspects of the three worlds that conforms to reality" (Lotus chapter 16), which Vasubandhu comments on in his Treatise on the Lotus (Hokke-ron - 『法華論) with: "the aspect of the three worlds is actually the identity of the world of sentient beings and the world of Nirvana".

Thus, with our vision as ordinary humans, we see the ten worlds as quite distinct, whereas the Buddha sees them as mutually present. Only by practising the Lotus Sutra can we ordinary beings become Buddhas in this body, in this lifetime, and see the true aspect of things, the mutual presence of the ten worlds.

The key to entering this vision of the mutual presence of the ten worlds is the Ten Thus's preached in the second chapter of the Lotus Sutra, the Means.

The Ten Thus

The Ten Thus's explain the way things exist and the mutual presence of the ten worlds.

The direct ideological impulse that leads the practising subject - the practitioner of the bodhisattva path - to the state of life of Buddhahood is, of course, the fulfilment of the practical task of discerning the true aspect of all dharmas in their immediate aspect for all existences. How, then, did Zhiyi understand the true aspect of things? This explanation is part of a series that uses the Ten Thus's as a clue.

Things that appear to us as external are not non-existent, but appear as objects of our perception. Therefore, they must be entities that somehow support objective recognition. Zhiyi sees this characterisation of existence and tries to explain it in this aspect, which is nothing other than the doctrine of the 'Ten Thus's'.

He says: "In the present Sutra, ten elements are used to fix the completeness of the dharmas. So that for all dharmas, Thus is aspect (Nyoze sō), Thus is nature (Nyoze shō), Thus is substance (Nyoze tai), Thus is energy (Nyoze riki), Thus is production (Nyoze sa), Thus is the cause (Nyoze in), Thus is the condition (Nyoze en), Thus is the effect (Nyoze ka), Thus is the retribution (Nyoze hō), Thus is the total equality from the origin to the end (Nyoze hon mak'kūkyō-tō),"

Let us review the meaning of the Ten Thus's and determine the main purposes of their explanation.

To answer this question, we must first determine the meaning of the ten components, including aspect, nature and substance, etc., as the basis on which the ten types of Thus are constructed. The first component, aspect, is the aspect that manifests itself externally. It is our own aspect, but also that of others and of the world in which we live. For example, hell has a different appearance from the human world. Similarly, ethnic groups in Africa and Asia do not look the same, just as I do not look the same as my neighbour. The second component, nature, is the nature that resides within and characterises us, the environment and others. Substance is the main constituent of the individual being. Energy is its latent capacity. Production is the external manifestation of energy. Cause is the direct cause that leads to the appearance of things. Condition is the auxiliary cause that helps the direct cause. Effect is the result of causes and conditions. Retribution is the consequence of effects. The total equality from the origin to the end is that all, from the first component, the aspect to the ninth, the retribution, are linked to each other without discontinuity. The meaning of these ten elements can be understood in this way.

Now, if these ten elements from the aspect contain these meanings, then the meaning of the Ten Thus's can also be roughly deduced. The meaning of the Ten Elements becomes even clearer when they are interpreted in conjunction with the sentence quoted above, "In the present Sutra, the Ten Elements are used to fix the completeness of the dharmas". The fact that the ten elements, beginning with aspect have such meanings and that the Ten Thus's are in a relationship that permeates all the dharmas, seems to imply that what exists can be structurally grasped in terms of external manifestations, nature, capacity or action, relationships with other beings, and relations of occurrence, so to speak, from ten predefined perspectives. The Ten Thus's can be said to be a category that indicates the way of being of things that exist. The entirety of the dharmas is revealed as it is, when illuminated by the Ten Thus's.

Therefore, the Ten Thus's are categories that express the nature of all dharmas in an objective way, and by following them, we can look at the dharmas from the outside. However, according to Zhiyi, the form and manner of being of all dharmas that can be grasped in the light of the Ten Thus's are not purely objective, with a concrete aspect, form, as we usually think. Such a situation is illustrated by the so-called "triple permutation reading" of the Ten Thus's, which is seen as a clearer revelation of the wholeness of the dharmas in all their aspects. We too must pay attention to this.

Expression through the Three Truths - Identity of Emptiness, Conditionality and Mediality

Let us first present concretely the explanation of the "triple permutation reading".

In Zhiyi's Mysterious Meaning of the Lotus, we read, "reading the sentences according to their meaning, I see three ways of reading them by permuting them. Firstly "Ze sō nyo, Ze shō nyo, Ze tai nyo...ze hō nyo" (this aspect is so, this nature is so, this substance is so and so on until this retribution is so). Secondly "Nyoze sō, Nyoze shō, Nyoze tai...nyoze hō" (So is the aspect, so is the nature, so is the substance and so on until so is the retribution). Thirdly, "Sō nyo ze, shō nyo ze, tai nyo ze...hō nyo ze" (aspect so is, nature so is, substance so is and so on until retribution so is).

When all (elements) are qualified as Thus (Nyo, which is also synonymous with "ultimate reality"), thus denoting undifferentiation, then this reading has the meaning of the truth of emptiness. When we read "So is the aspect, so is the nature", then we denote the aspect and the nature, emphasising their difference and get the meaning of conditionality. When we read "the aspect thus is" then it is the perfection of the real aspect of medianity.

The Ten Thus's clearly define what the wholeness of all dharmas is. However, reading them alone leads only to a superficial view of these phenomena. Indeed, as we see here, the threefold permutation of reading allows a more fundamental view of these dharmas, considered then in terms of the three truths: emptiness, conditionality and medianity.

In fact, it is not clear why such an explanation should be given. To be more precise, it is not clear why the threefold reading of the Ten Thus's has to be done, nor why it is said that the dharmas are more clearly revealed by the three truths of emptiness, conditionality and medianity, rather than simply by the Ten Thus's. These questions will be resolved if we also examine the series of explanations given immediately after the text quoted above.

"Making the distinction makes it easier to understand. Therefore, emptiness, conditionality and medianity should be explained separately. Although these truths are divided into three, there is only one. Although there is only one, there are three. That which is neither vertical nor horizontal is called the true aspect. The Buddha and only the Buddha is the only one who knows this Dharma.

This sentence also suggests that the reason why the threefold reading of the Ten Thus's is carried out is its character of eliminating the norms of all dharmas. If in their entirety the dharmas themselves had a nature of their own, their essence could be grasped ontologically, e.g. in terms of aspects, nature, energy, causes, condition, etc., but as it says: 'Although these truths are divided into three, there is only one. Although there is only one, there are three", they are not defined and have no nature of their own. However, as long as the dharmas in their entirety are undefined and have no nature of their own, they can only be understood in terms of how they manifest themselves in the pragmatics they imply. The central operation of the threefold reading of the Ten Thus, for example, the attempt to consider the entirety of the dharmas from the point of view of 'Nyo', 'Sō' and 'Nyoze', was probably adopted with this very situation in mind. Thus, it is understood that the wholeness of the dharmas can only manifest as emptiness, as conditionality, and then as medianity.

Let us now consider the meaning of emptiness, conditionality and medianity.

We can roughly understand their meaning from the explanation of the sentence quoted earlier, but we can take other explanations. Firstly, in Zhiyi's Great Halting and Contemplation we read that emptiness defines "that which is produced by conditions. Production in dependence is the absence of essence, and the absence of essence is emptiness". As stated here, emptiness is understood to mean the way things exist that are based on dependent origination and therefore have no inherent nature. Secondly, with regard to conditionality, it is said "the name is a facility involving difference". This means that defining a name creates a form of existence that can assert its individuality. Finally, with regard to the third truth, the concept of 'medianity' was introduced to actively convey the fact that emptiness and conditionality do not independently represent the state of things that exist, but are in a relationship in which they both equally represent the state of the same being. According to this explanation, it is medianity that reveals the true nature of all dharmas, which is empty and temporary. The concepts of emptiness, conditionality and medianity also express the form of all dharmas and therefore, in accordance with the three truths, the form of all dharmas is expressed as the identity of emptiness, conditionality and medianity.

In conclusion, only the Lotus Sutra teaches the possibility of becoming Buddha from this body, i.e. during this life, without having to be reborn multiple times in another world, and this for all beings, through the principle of the mutual presence of the ten worlds, induced by the triple reading of the Ten Thus, prefiguring the principle of One Thought Three Thousand (ichinen sanzen), the ultimate teaching of Buddhism, which we will see in the next episode.

Documentary sources for this chapter:

Yuishiki shisō Nyūmon - Yokoyama Kōitsu

Tendai tetsugaku Nyūmon - Nitta Masaaki

Le Sutra du Lotus – Jean-Noël Robert