“Good men, the first [great benefit] is that this sutra can cause bodhisattvas who have not yet conceived the desire for enlightenment to conceive such a desire.
It can cause those who are without compassion or benevolence to nurture compassionate minds.
It can cause those who delight in killing and slaughter to nurture minds of great pity.
It can cause those filled with envy and jealousy to nurture minds of joyful acceptance.
It can cause those who are begrudging and attached to things to nurture minds capable of relinquishing.
It can cause those who are close-fisted and greedy to nurture minds of almsgiving.
It can cause those of abundant arrogance and pride to nurture minds that uphold the precepts.
It can cause those much given to wrath and anger to nurture forbearing minds.
It can cause those who are indolent and lazy to nurture minds of diligence.
It can cause those who are scatterbrained and disordered to nurture minds devoted to meditation.
It can cause those with much ignorance and folly to nurture minds of wisdom.
It can cause those who are not yet capable of saving others to nurture minds set upon saving others.
It can cause those who practice the ten evil acts to nurture minds devoted to the ten good acts.
It can cause those who delight too much in the conditioned to strive for minds fixed on the unconditioned.
It can cause those whose minds are given to regression to cultivate minds of non-regression.
It can cause those given to outflows to nurture minds free of outflows.
It can cause those with many earthly desires to nurture minds that cleanse and extinguish such desires.
Good men, this is called the first benefit and inconceivable power of this sutra” (LSOC, p21-22)
Probably copied and pasted from:
ReplyDeletehttp://nichirenbuddhist.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/the-benefit-of-human-revolution.html
The rest of this chapter, including the other 9 benefits, can be found in Burton Watson's translation of the Lotus Sutra here:
http://www.nichirenlibrary.org/en/lsoc/Prologue/3
and are also summarised on my blog here:
http://openingthedoortowisdom.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/equal-benefits.html
This is from Chapter 3, Ten Merits of The Sutra of Infinite Meanings (or Innumerable Meanings), regarding the first of 10 merit powers of Bodhisattvas, and IMO there are better translations, e.g. "It turns a distracted mind, into a mind of meditation,it turns an ignorant mind into a mind of wisdom."
ReplyDeleteHi Ohgee, Which translation is this from? I had a quick look online and found the Bunno version and I've also seen the Gene Reeves version, but I do prefer the wording you have quoted.
DeleteThe fact that Mark often talks about better translations being available is why I was surprised that he had just copied and pasted what he sees as the inferior Watson version that the SGI uses.
I'm not a consummate blogger but I pasted a translation of the prose sutra which I rely on with a reference to where the verse can be found. It was given to me by a friend so not sure the author of translation. The verse portion was composed I believe by Shih Cheng Yen as an effort to simplify and make relevant in contemporary times.
Deletehttps://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=30858100#editor/target=post;postID=6664057004340605419;onPublishedMenu=posts;onClosedMenu=posts;postNum=0;src=postname
Cheers for this ohgee, but I think this is YOUR ADMIN access to the site as this page asks me to log off and sign in with the correct ID. Do you have the public link to it.
DeleteLotus Sutra takes precedence over a.y other book......
ReplyDeleteThen straight followed by the authentic writings of Nichiren.
:)
Hello "Nichiren" Buddhist. True about the copy and paste but I didn't like the rest of the things you have to offer, especially your promotion of Ikedaism.
ReplyDeleteThe major benefits of the Lotus Sutra are Buddhahood and the purification of the senses. Too bad Ikedaism doesn't supply such wondrous benefit..