Translated by Jan Henrich Kern, 1884 – full text at http://www.sacred-texts.com/bud/lotus/
(Excerpted by R. C. Swain for World Religions class, 2004, with much of the repetitiveness of the original eliminated)
The Lord [Buddha] then rose with recollection and consciousness from his meditation, and forthwith addressed the venerable Sâriputra: The Buddha knowledge, Sâriputra, is profound, difficult to understand, difficult to comprehend. It is difficult for all disciples and Pratyekabuddhas [i.e., Buddhas for themselves] to fathom the knowledge arrived at by the Tathâgatas, &c., and that, Sâriputra, because the Tathâgatas have worshipped many hundred thousand myriads of kotis of Buddhas; because they have fulfilled their course for supreme, complete enlightenment, during many hundred thousand myriads of kotis of Ćons; because they have wandered far, displaying energy and possessed of wonderful and marvellous properties; possessed of properties difficult to understand; because they have found out things difficult to understand.
The mystery of the Tathâgatas, &c.[i.e., Buddhas], is difficult to understand, Sâriputra, because when they explain the laws (or phenomena, things) that have their causes in themselves they do so by means of skillfulness, by the display of knowledge, by arguments, reasons, fundamental ideas, interpretations, and suggestions. By a variety of skillfulness they are able to release creatures that are attached to one point or another…..
In a certain village, there was a certain housekeeper, old, [and quite] wealthy, opulent; he had a great house, high, spacious, built a long time ago, inhabited by some two, three, four, or five hundred living beings. The house had but one door, and a thatch; its terraces were tottering, the bases of its pillars rotten, the coverings and plaster of the walls loose. On a sudden the whole house was from every side put in conflagration by a mass of fire. Let us suppose that the man had many little boys, say five, or ten, or even twenty, and that he himself had come out of the house.
Now, seeing the house from every side wrapt in a great mass of fire, was frightened, anxious, and made the following reflection: I myself am able to come out from the burning house through the door, quickly and safely, without being scorched by that great mass of fire; but my children, those young boys, are staying in the burning house, playing at all sorts of sports. They do understand that the house is on fire, and are not afraid. Though scorched by that great fire, they do not feel any pain, nor even conceive the idea of escaping.
The man reflects thus: I am strong; let me gather up all my little boys and escape with them from the house. [On second thought, he considered:] This house has but one opening; the door is shut; and those boys, childlike as they are, will, I fear, run hither and thither and come to grief in this mass of fire. Therefore I will warn them.
So he calls to the boys: Come, my children; the house is burning; come, lest you be burnt in that mass of fire, and come to grief and disaster. But the ignorant boys do not heed the words of their father; they are not afraid; they do not care, nor fly, nor even understand the word ‘burning;’ on the contrary, they [simply go about their play] because they are so ignorant.
Then the man thinks: The house is burning, is blazing with fire. …. Let me therefore by some skilful means get the boys out of the house. … The man, knowing the minds of the boys, says to them: My children, your toys, which are so pretty, precious, and admirable, which you love – [your] bullock-carts, goat-carts, deer-carts, which are so nice and dear to you, I have put outside here for you to play with. Come, run out, leave the house; and each of you [can have] what he wants. Come right away. Come out for your toys. And the boys, on hearing the names mentioned of such playthings as are agreeable to their taste, quickly rush out from the burning house eagerly and with great alacrity, one having no time to wait for the other, and pushing each other on with the cry of ‘Who shall arrive first, the very first?’
The man, seeing that his children have safely and happily escaped, and knowing that they are free from danger, goes and sits down in the open air on the square of the village, his heart filled with joy and delight – quite at ease. The boys come to where their father is sitting and say: ‘Father, give us our toys to play with, those bullock-carts, goat-carts, and deer-carts.’ Then the man gives to his sons only bullock-carts – but ones made of seven precious substances, provided with benches, hung with small bells, lofty, adorned with rare and wonderful jewels, embellished with jewel wreaths, decorated with garlands of flowers, carpeted with cotton mattresses and woolen coverlets, covered with white cloth and silk, having on both sides rosy cushions, yoked with white, very fair and fleet bullocks, led by a multitude of men. To each of his children he gives several bullock carts, provided with flags, and swift as the wind. He does so because, being rich, why should he give his sons inferior carts? …. Now, Sâriputra, what is thy opinion? Has that man made himself guilty of a falsehood by first holding out to his children the prospect of three vehicles and afterwards giving to each of them only the greatest, the most magnificent vehicles?
Sâriputra answered: By no means, Lord; by no means, Sugata. That is not sufficient, O Lord, to qualify the man as a speaker of falsehood, since it only was a skilful device to persuade his children to go out of the burning house and save their lives. Nay, besides recovering their very body, O Lord, they have received all those toys. If that man, O Lord, had given no single cart, even then he would not have been a speaker of falsehood, for he had previously been meditating on saving the little boys from a great mass of pain by some able device. Even in this case, O Lord, the man would not have been guilty of falsehood, and far less now that he, considering his having plenty of treasures and prompted by no other motive but the love of his children, gives to all, to coax them, vehicles of one kind, and those the greatest vehicles. That man, Lord, is not guilty of falsehood. ….
Even as that man, Sâriputra, cannot be said to have told a falsehood for having held out to those boys the prospect of three vehicles and given to all of them but one great vehicle – a magnificent vehicle made of seven precious substances, decorated with all sorts of ornaments, a vehicle of one kind, the most egregious of all – so, too, Sâriputra, the Tathâgata, the Arhat, &c., tells no falsehood when by an able device he first holds forth three vehicles and afterwards leads all to complete Nirvâna by the one great vehicle.
And those, Bhaishagyarâga, who approach a Tathâgata-shrine to salute or see it, must be held to be near supreme and perfect enlightenment. For, Bhaishagyarâga, there are many laymen as well as priests who observe the course of a Bodhisattva without, however, coming so far as to see, hear, write or worship this Dharmaparyâya. So long as they do not hear this Dharmaparyâya, they are not yet proficient in the course of a Bodhisattva. But those who hear this Dharmaparyâya and thereupon accept, penetrate, understand, comprehend it, are at the time near supreme, perfect enlightenment, so to say, immediately near it.
It is a case, Bhaishagyarâga, similar to that of a certain man, who in need and in quest of water, in order to get water, causes a well to be dug in an and tract of land. So long as he sees that the sand being dug out is dry and white, he thinks: the water is still far off. After some time he sees that the sand being dug out is moist, mixed with water, muddy, with trickling drops, and that the working men who are engaged in digging the well are bespattered with mire and mud. On seeing that foretoken, Bhaishagyarâga, the man will be convinced and certain that water is near. In the same manner, Bhaishagyarâga, will these Bodhisattvas Mahâsattvas be far away from supreme and perfect enlightenment so long as they do not hear, nor catch, nor penetrate, nor fathom, nor mind this Dharmaparyâya. But when the Bodhisattvas Mahasattvas shall hear, catch, penetrate, study, and mind this Dharmaparyâya, then, Bhaishagyarâga, they will be, so to say, immediately near supreme, perfect enlightenment.
Thereupon the Lord addressed the Bodhisattva Mahâsattva Maitreya: Those beings, Agita, who during the exposition of this Dharmaparyâya [i.e., “this exposition of the Buddha Law] in which the duration of the Tathâgata’s [i.e., “a Buddha’s”] life is revealed have entertained, were it but a single thought of trust, or have put belief in it, how great a merit are they to produce, be they young men and young ladies of good family? Listen then, and mind it well, how great the merit is they shall produce. Let us suppose the case, Agita, that some young man or young lady of good family, desirous of supreme, perfect enlightenment, for eight hundred thousand myriads of kotis of Ćons practices the five perfections of virtue (Pâramitâs), to wit, perfect charity in alms, perfect morality, perfect forbearance, perfect energy, perfect meditation-perfect wisdom being excepted; let us, on the other hand, suppose the case, Agita, that a young man or young lady of good family, on hearing this Dharmaparyâya containing the exposition of the duration of the Tathâgata’s life, conceives were it but a single thought of trust or puts belief in it; then that former accumulation of merit, that accumulation of good connected with the five perfections of virtue, (that accumulation) which has come to full accomplishment in eight hundred thousand myriads of kotis of Ćons, does not equal one hundredth part of the accumulation of merit in the second case….