Shakyamuni Tathagata, also known as Buddha, appeared in India about 2,500 years ago. He attained enlightenment and taught the way to eliminate the suffering and distress of sentient beings [humanity], offering salvation to all.
Shakyamuni was born as a prince of the Shakya clan. He grew up without any material wants and eventually married, having a son. However, upon facing the various sufferings of people and contemplating the fundamental sufferings of life, such as birth, aging, illness, and death, he deeply pondered how to resolve these sufferings. As a result, he left his family, renounced his right to the throne, and became a monk.
Despite engaging in severe and rigorous ascetic practices, he found that such extreme austerities only damaged his mind and body. Abandoning these harsh practices, he turned to meditation. At the age of 30, he attained enlightenment under the Bodhi tree. Following his enlightenment, Shakyamuni spent approximately 50 years teaching the Dharma to alleviate the suffering of various people.
The teachings of Shakyamuni were later compiled into sutras, each with its own content tailored to the specific needs, situations, and capacities of the individuals he taught. This method is known as “expedient means” (taiki seppō). During the last eight years of his life, he preached the Lotus Sutra [Myohō Renge Kyō], the supreme teaching that he had kept in his heart from the beginning.
The Lotus Sutra not only had the power to bring people of Shakyamuni’s time to the same state of enlightenment as him but also held the promise of saving future generations. The Lotus Sutra reveals that Shakyamuni’s true identity is the Buddha with eternal life called Primordial Buddha, who attained enlightenment in the unimaginably distant past and has been continually saving people since then. It further reveals that Shakyamuni appeared in India as a provisional figure, the historical Buddha, to teach and guide people. While the historical Shakyamuni would eventually pass away, his eternal essence, the Primordial Buddha, possesses an everlasting life, continuing to save sentient beings from the distant past into the infinite future.
As Shakyamuni concluded his 80-year life and prepared to leave this world, he entrusted the salvation of future generations to Jogyo Bosatsu, his most trusted disciple and the foremost among his disciples. He bestowed upon Jogyo Bodhisattva Odaimoku, revealed in the Honmon Happon of the Lotus Sutra, ensuring the continuation of the Dharma for the benefit of future sentient beings. The teachings of the Lotus Sutra are, as a whole, the most exalted compared to Shakyamuni’s provisional teachings in other sutras. However, within these teachings, the Daimoku of the Honmon Happon of the Lotus Sutra, entrusted to Jogyo Bosatsu, is the very “Law of Attaining Buddhahood.”
