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The talk presents the Lotus Sutra’s prediction that 500 arhats will attain Buddhahood as a central teaching of the bodhisattva path. Its parable of the destitute child serves as the organizing paradigm for the bodhisattva path in Nothing to Attain.
- _The Lotus Sutra_ — author not specified. Chapter 4 recounts the 500 arhats’ prediction of Buddhahood and their response through the parable of the destitute child.
- _Nothing to Attain_ — author not specified. The book uses the parable of the destitute child as an overarching structure for presenting the bodhisattva path.
AI Suggested Title: The Destitute Childs Path to Buddhahood
It's a book of many stories. So I thought maybe I would tell some stories today. One of the stories I wanted to tell is a story that there were some people living in India in the time before the beginning of the Common Era. In other words, more than 2,000 years ago, some people were living in India and they aspired to be disciples of Shakyamuni Buddha. And they started to tell stories about Shakyamuni Buddha and his assembly. And these stories were recited over and over, and eventually they were written down in hybrid Sanskrit, Buddhist hybrid Sanskrit, a kind of Sanskrit which was the Sanskrit used in the Lotus Sutra.
[01:28]
So these people who were telling stories, their stories finally got written down, in hybrid Sanskrit, and got the name of the Sudharma Pundarika Sutra, the white lotus of the wondrous Dharma scripture, the Lotus Sutra, we say. And in that sutra, the Buddha predicts many, many beings will become Buddhas. And in one of the chapters, he's addressing 500 great sages, students of the Buddha, who were called arhats, or saints.
[02:31]
They had become freed. of their karma, and they were at peace to some extent. And then the Buddha addressed these 500 arhats and told them that they were bodhisattvas, and they had not known before that they were bodhisattvas. This was news to them. In other words, the Buddha told them that they were on the path to Buddhahood. They kind of knew they were saints and they were happy about that, but also they were kind of tired out and they didn't think that becoming Buddha was possible for them. But the Buddha said,
[03:36]
It's not just possible. You will become Buddhas, all of you. Chapter 4 of the Lotus Sutra has this prediction of the 500 Arhats. And after they have received this prediction, they are very joyful. and they say how joyful they are, and they say, now we have received something we never knew before. We never had before. We've received this prediction of Buddhahood. And to express our joy and how we feel, we like to tell the Buddha a parable. And the parable... is a parable which is called the parable of the destitute child.
[04:40]
And this parable is sort of the illustration of the bodhisattva path. And this parable is used in the new book, Nothing to Attain, as sort of the overall paradigm, the overall structure of the bodhisattva path as offered in the new book.
[05:16]
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