FOREWORD:“THE SUTRA OF THE LOTUS BLOSSOM”―An Essential Key in the Study of
Buddhism
M. I. Vorobyova-Desyatovskaya
There are a great number of significant events on record that have taken place in thehistory of human cultures over the centuries. Though the initial periods of many
cultures remain unknown, the bright sun of one new culture in particular suddenly
appeared as if out of nowhere, illuminated the surface of its surroundings, crossed
borders and spread its influence around the world. That was how Indian culture wasbrought together when Buddhism was transmitted to China. It was very natural that
Buddhism had a great influence on the cultures of East Asia. O. O. Rosenberg(1888-1919) confirmed this in his assertion that, just as deep knowledge of Christianity
is needed to understand European culture, so too is a firm grasp of Buddhism necessary
to study Japan. According to official records, Buddhism arrived in Japan from Korea inthe 6th century AD, though the dates appear to need further discussion.
Another point of discussion relates to those who recorded Buddhist texts as written
documents. In Buddhist texts, as well as in early Indian texts such as the Vedas, theBrahmanas, and others, which formed the basis of Buddhism, there are references to thefact that discord and division have always existed. In the early stages of its development,
the Buddhist community had not established its religious and philosophical system. It
stood out as a community of people, free from society and all sorts of attachments,
leading a pure and simple way of life. Over time, however, the monks’ way of life split
into branches. In Pali literature, there are descriptions of the āraññaka monks, whosettled in the woods, and the gāmantavihārī, who lived in the villages or surrounding
countryside. The members of each group had to live by the rules they set forthemselves.
In Mahayana communities, in their initial stages, one could observe the same kindsof dichotomy. While some monks dwelled in the woods, others lived in villages among
local people or in the neighboring areas, and preached to the villagers. The question iswhich of the two groups was in a better position to compile Mahayana sutras for the
public. The most probable answer to this is that it was those who preached to the village
inhabitants. Their names are unknown and will probably remain so.
There is a famous Mahayana sutra widely venerated by Buddhists. In the sutra, theBuddha himself teaches it after informing the listeners that it was his first time to shareit, and that those who hear the Buddha’s voice will definitely achieve enlightenment
sooner or later, depending on their behavior. This magnificent sutra that hascontinuously spread its blessings through the ages is the Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra(Lotus Sutra of the Good Dharma). According to estimates by Japanese scholars, thetext of the Lotus Sutra was not compiled over a short period, but formed over a long
stretch of history. The verse (gāthā) portions belonging to the first half of the sutra arethought to have already existed before the common era. It is estimated that the verse text
was expanded into one with supplemented portions of prose, and that the latter half ofthe sutra was added later. Thus, the Sanskrit Lotus Sutra became a text containing 27
chapters.
The main ideas of sutras were orally transmitted in the Buddhist tradition startingfrom the 6th century BC, namely from the parinibbāna of Shakyamuni Buddha.
Various dates are referred to, depending on the traditions, but here we do not attempt tofind solutions to this issue. It is important to remember that, according to its tradition,
the Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra, or the Lotus Sutra, as it is usually referred to in Japanand elsewhere, was first heard by the Buddha’s disciples. They strived to transmit theteachings as faithfully as possible from the mentor to the disciples during a very long
period of many centuries.
As mentioned above, the Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra, like many other canonicaltexts of Buddhism, most likely originated in India, where it may also have been written.
In the 3rd century AD, the sutra crossed the Indian borders and was introduced toCentral Asia, China, and Korea. The direct proof of such developments is the first
Chinese translation of the sutra rendered in 286 AD (Zheng fahua jing, by Dharmarakṣa,or Zhu Fahu, Chn). From the moment the sutra arrived in the Far East―first in China,
later in Korea (in the 4th century AD), and finally in Japan―we can say that it started a
new cycle of its own history and the history of Buddhism in general. However, most of
the popularity the Lotus Sutra gained in China came only after being translated by
Kumarajiva (Jiumoluoshi, Chn) in 406 AD (Miaofa lianhua jing).
The Chinese manuscripts from Dunhuang and Khara-Khoto clearly show that thesutra owes its popularity in the 5th and 12th centuries AD to the Chinese version by
Kumarajiva. This version was translated to Tangut (Xixia) and later to Japanese, andthus created favorable conditions for the development of the Buddhist tradition in thoseregions. At the beginning of the 7th century (601), another Chinese version translatedby Jñānagupta and Dharmagupta was completed. That version of the Lotus Sutra
received the name Tianpin Miaofa lianhua jing (The Supplemented Lotus Sutra of the
Wonderful Dharma). It did not, however, gain as much popularity in Dunhuang as

Kumarajiva’s translation.
There is a Tibetan manuscript written in a Tibetan cursive script and stored in theMuseum of Ethnography in Stockholm as part of Sven Hedin’s collection. Japanesescholar Seishi Karashima deciphered the whole manuscript and made the results public.
He maintained that the manuscript is not only an original sample of one of the earliest
Tibetan Buddhist writings (7th–8th centuries), but also one of the earliest versions of
the Lotus Sutra translated into Tibetan. From this work, it becomes clear that the
Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra was not merely one of the initial texts of the Buddhist
tradition that was introduced to Tibetans at the time, but that it played a significant rolein the history of the propagation of Buddhism. Needless to say, this forgotten
manuscript, abandoned for so many years, was finally published and became a subjectof research.1
Many Sanskrit Lotus Sutra manuscript fragments were discovered in Central Asia
―Kashgar, Khotan, Khādaliq, and Farhād-Bēg. The full text concordances of all these
Central Asian Lotus Sutra manuscripts and fragments were prepared and published by
the German researcher Klaus Wille in Tokyo in 2000 as part of his book.2 The earliest
extant Sanskrit fragments found to date are currently stored in the Lüshun Museum in
China (Lüshun, People’s Republic of China, was once known as Port Arthur). Another
Sanskrit Lotus Sutra manuscript, which is more complete than others, is stored at theInstitute of Oriental Manuscripts in St. Petersburg. The manuscript was obtained by the
Russian consul in Kashgar, Nikolai Fedorovich Petrovsky (1837-1908), and presented
by him to the Asiatic Museum (today’s Institute of Oriental Manuscripts). It is thought
to have been found in the vicinity of Khotan, but the exact location of the discovery
remains unclear. In addition, there has been considerable controversy about the copy
date of the manuscript.
Academician Sergei Fedorovich Oldenburg (1863-1934) estimated that themanuscript was written in the 5th century AD, based on a palaeographic analysis.
However, Japanese scholar Hirofumi Toda (1936-2003), an authority on Lotus Sutra
manuscript studies, was convinced that the manuscript was copied somewhat later. Oneof the participants in the discussion on the topic was Ronald Emmerick (1937-2001),
who had just published the Khotanese version of The Book of Zambasta. Based on an
extended philological analysis of the manuscript’s colophon written in Khotanese Saka,
he came to the conclusion that the manuscript belonged to the period of the 9th and 10th
centuries.
The manuscript, which is widely formatted (18 x 57.5 cm), contains 396 folios,
while the full text of the Kashgar Lotus Sutra is thought to have originally consisted of

459 folios. The contents of the extant text show that approximately 12 folios (orfragments) were lost over the years. While describing the manuscript from St.
Petersburg, it is important to mention that the scribe had attached a colophon. To be
precise, half of a thin paper folio remains with part of the colophon text inscribed in a
Khotanese Saka (Eastern Iranian) cursive script. In addition, we find a colophon written
in Khotanese Saka at the end of each chapter.
Based on the facts referred to above, we can assume that the order of themanuscript was made by a Khotanese. The name, Jalapuña, remains in the manuscript.
The part of the colophon that remains shows that the copying was commissioned bysomeone for the sake of all of his (or her) deceased relatives. This evidence shows thatthe manuscript was copied in Khotan. The name it received and has since been known
by, the Kashgar Manuscript, was misnomer. The name was given based only on the factthat the manuscript was obtained by N. F. Petrovsky, who was the consul of Kashgar at
the time.
It is obvious that the changes in the Sanskrit text of the Lotus Sutra made during
the period in which it was popular in Central Asia were minor. This can bedemonstrated by comparing the text of this manuscript from Khotan with particularfragments of other manuscripts. In our collection in St. Petersburg, there are at least 10
fragments that can be used for such text comparison. Some of them are decorated withcolored miniatures.
The Lotus Sutra and Nichiren
Upon arrival in Japan in the 6th century AD, Buddhism had to face the local religious
traditions. Japan is in many ways a unique and amazing country. On the one hand, it isfamous for the innate courtesy and sincerity of its people. On the other hand, it isassociated with the sharp sword, courage, and boldness of the samurai. The Japaneseknew how to escape from the busy activity of everyday life and find peace of mind in
admiring the beauty of Japan’s majestic nature. From ancient times, the Japanese
worshipped supernatural gods and spirits. That religion was named Shinto or Shintoism.
The history of Shintoism is a very complex process of gradual fusion between culturesof local tribes and their special admiration for and love of nature. The ancient Japanese,
practicing pre-Buddhist Shintoism, respected the memory of their ancestors, protected
the unity and integrity of their kin, and at the same time, worshipped the gods andgoddesses of the land, rain, wind, forests, and mountains. While Shintoism experienced
several transformations as a result of its coexistence with the new Buddhist religion,
Buddhist teachings in Japan developed original features that turned them into unique ifnot phenomenal religious practices.
This was the religious situation in Japan until the reformist philosopher Nichiren(1222-1282) appeared. Even today, his name remains largely unfamiliar among
European philosophers and scholars. However, in the history of the spread of the Lotus
Sutra in Japan, it was Nichiren who took the lead in securing its status as a sacred text.
Today, many of the philosophical principles of the Soka Gakkai, the largest Buddhist
organization in Japan, are based on Nichiren’s interpretations of the Lotus Sutra. It
should be noted that his name itself, Nichren, means sun (nichi) and lotus (ren).
Nichiren had pursued many years of study before concluding that the Lotus Sutra
was the ultimate teaching. When he was young, he commenced learning Buddhism at
the Seicho-ji temple of the Tendai school. He then learned the doctrines of Tendai,
Shingon, and other schools at major Buddhist centers, including Mount Hiei, Mount
Koya, and Onjo-ji, and continued perusing as many of the available sutras as possible.
However, he was not satisfied with any of the teachings, and in 1253, he finally came tothe conclusion that the Lotus Sutra was the only sutra that correctly transmits the
Buddha’s words and his teachings on attaining enlightenment.
Nichiren’s life was filled with dramatic events. His interpretation of the sutra was
only accepted long after he had begun propagating it. In addition, he had to endure
considerable slander and false accusations. He suffered more than a few persecutions
and was even nearly excuted. However, the authorities were unable to kill him notbecause they had second thoughts, but because an unexpected natural phenomenon
interrupted this injustice. At the very moment of his execution, a flying object appearedin the dark sky above the heads of those present and approached the earth at a very highspeed. The guards thought it was a warning from above and ran away, leaving Nichirenbehind. After this incident, he was eventually exiled to Sado Island. Nichiren interpreted
the event as proof of his enlightenment and started his mission as a preacher of thecorrect teachings.
In the Lotus Sutra, he found the ultimate, most profound meaning of the Buddha’s
teachings. He preached the teachings in a way that enabled listeners to grasp the very
core of the sutra’s principles. It was essentially the first and most importantphilosophical interpretation that had ever appeared in Japan. His interpretation of the
Lotus Sutra was different in many respects from those of his contemporaries. Nichiren’s
works have since been published in English in Japan under the title of The Writings ofNichiren Daishonin, which contain 2,608 pages in two volumes. This publication helps
us to gain an overview of Nichiren’s basic teachings, showing how he embraced theLotus Sutra and made it into a religious symbol. He believed and explained to hisfollowers that every living being has the potential to attain enlightenment, that is, thatevery living being can become a Buddha.
This is one of the main ideas of Mahayana Buddhism, which Nichiren fully
supported. To achieve the goal of attaining enlightenment, he proposed a new andinnovative practice of repeating the words Nam-myohō-renge-kyō, which he considered
to be the universal Law that can be summoned as life force by the chanting of thisphrase. This phrase, meaning literally “Devotion to the Lotus Sutra of the Wonderful
Dharma,” was also inscribed in the form of a mandala called Gohonzon, an object of
devotion through which people revere the wisdom of the Buddha.
Nichiren was constantly engaged in correspondence with many different kinds ofpeople, explaining to them the meaning of enlightenment, and inscribing mandalas or
Gohonzon. In many religions, giving physical expression to deities is treated as a deeply
significant and sometimes controversial matter. In Japan, there were also numerous
sculptures and images of the Buddha that were worshiped as living entities. Nichiren
gave a lot of thought to this practice.
It is known that the Buddha has 32 extraordinary features attributed to him. Someof them can be replicated, but many of them can only be observed as part of the living
Buddha himself. For example, how can one convey the Buddha’s voice, understand his
chain of thoughts, or transmit the look in his eyes that reaches people’s hearts? None of
the images can fully convey the actual features of the Buddha. Sutras that claim that theimage of the Buddha is identical to the living Buddha himself are, therefore, obviously
misleading. But, if we place the Lotus Sutra beside an image of the Buddha with 31
features, we can find the Buddha himself who embodies the pure and perfect teaching.
Nichiren explains this as follows: “The written words of the Lotus Sutra express invisible and non-coextensive form the Buddha’s pure and far-reaching voice, which isitself invisible and coextensive, and so possess the two physical aspects of color andform. The Buddha’s pure and far-reaching voice, which had once vanished, hasreappeared in the visible form of written words to benefit the people” (“Opening of theEyes of Wooden and Painted Images”).3 For Nichiren, the words of the Buddha
expressed in the sutra were equal to the living voice of the Buddha himself. In a sense,
this is the 32nd of the Buddha’s extraordinary features that a simple statue would not beable to express or replace. The actual living voice of the Buddha, the Buddha’s words asrevealed in the Lotus Sutra, no doubt were of greater significance to Nichiren thantemple rituals.
This passage from Nichiren’s writings can serve as a commentary on chapter 16 of
the Lotus Sutra (“Tathāgatāyuṣpramāṇa-parivarta”) in which the Buddha makes it clear

that he is the universe itself and always present among the people. However, he is not
usually visible and rarely appears in the form of a human body, except in cases whenhuman beings need to be protected from harm. Rescuing people from harm andcalamities is related in chapter 25 of the sutra (“Samantamukha-parivarta”). A small
woodblock text of the chapter in the Tangut (Xixia) language that contains 32
illustrations of cases when people are rescued from various mortal dangers is stored in
the collection of the Institute of Oriental Manuscripts.
In elaborating on the extraordinary characteristics of the Lotus Sutra, Nichiren
explains that one realizes the thoughts of another person through speech or verbal
communication. In this way, physical phenomena, by their very nature, reflect their
spiritual dimension, and thus both dimensions together form a unity. The thoughts of the
Buddha, conveyed in the Lotus Sutra, appear to his listeners in an alternative physicalform. When reading the text of the Lotus Sutra, one does not see the words of the
Buddha, but rather feels his thoughts. Nichiren’s teachings correspond to the level ofconsciousness during a period when sincere belief in the mystical power of words wasprofessed. This belief in the mystical power of words still exists today.
It is known that Buddhist philosophy takes into consideration only the spiritual
aspect of living beings, their state of mind, and hardly touches upon the material realm.
Theory about the spiritual inner domain was developed in detail in the Tendai/Tiantai
school that Nichiren had first belonged to. China’s Great Teacher Tiantai, Zhiyi,(538-597) had established the theory of “three thousand realms in a single moment oflife.”
Nichiren used this concept to define the state of each human mind. The thoughts ofliving beings are never static, in every single moment they move within three thousand
realms. Such an understanding is characteristically described not only in the Lotus Sutra
but also in a variety of contemporary Buddhist philosophies. Every organ and cell ofliving beings simultaneously experience all sorts of conditions: joy, sorrow, suffering,and love, among others. One achieves growth and development, reaching a peak ofmental performance, after which one finds oneself in gradual wane, and then slows
down until finally experiencing extinction. Nichiren calls on us to be in control overthese processes at any given moment.
He underlines that the sutra cannot make one younger but can strengthen one’s
spirit. It will help the practitioner to stay mentally and spiritually strong regardless ofage. It does not encourage them to merely wait for the physical ending of life, but canlead to enlightenment, and can manifest the Buddha nature in every living being. Thiskind of explanation of mental and spiritual processes was definitely revolutionary inBuddhism, and became possible only as a result of Nichiren’s advent.
The sutra was praised after practitioners began to understand its main principle
correctly―that there is only One Vehicle, the Buddha Vehicle, which can save all living
beings, not the Small Vehicle, nor the Great Vehicle, nor the Pratyekabuddha Vehicle.
The Japanese scholar Seishi Karashima, however, made the observation that an error
occurred in the process of translating the Lotus Sutra from Prakrit into Sanskrit.
Sanskrit words yāna, meaning “vehicle,” and jñāna, meaning “knowledge,” areexpressed in the same word, jāna, in Prakrit, vernacular speech. From a logical point ofview, the terms “little knowledge” and “great knowledge” appear more rational than theterms “Small Vehicle” and “Great Vehicle.” As a matter of course, not all scholars
agree with this observation.
Chapter 5 (“Auṣadhī-parivarta”) of the Lotus Sutra relates that, as a great cloud
gives rain to grow plants and trees, Buddha leads living beings to enlightenment. He
preaches with a resounding voice to heavenly and human beings, and the asuras of theentire world. It is just like the great cloud that covers the whole thousand-millionfold
world (the major world system) and causes roaring thunders. The Buddha transfers
those to the other side of the river who have not yet been able to cross, liberates those
who have not found freedom, and brings those to nirvana who have not attained it.
The Research History of the Sanskrit Lotus Sutra
Here let us take a look at the history of research on the Sanskrit Lotus Sutra, whichbegan in Europe in the first half of the 19th century. Manuscript studies at the time hadalready flourished in Pali texts, India’s Sanskrit texts in Devanagari script, and Persianand Arabic texts. Early Sanskrit manuscripts written in ancient Indian Brāhmī script,
however, were unknown. In Europe, the textual study of the Lotus Sutra was initiatedby the French philologist Eugène Burnouf (1801-1852). He was attracted to the Indian
religions, Sanskrit, and in particular, Buddhism. He left a huge archive of letters to
relatives, classmates, and friends, in which he shared his research plans, discoveries,
and topics of interest.4
It was one of his British friends, Brian Houghton Hodgson (1800-1894), whoplayed an important role in the life of Burnouf by helping him obtain manuscripts in
Sanskrit. Hodgson was an employee of the East India Company, he worked in
Kathmandu and Darjeeling, and was later designated as the British Resident in Nepal.
Well-versed in Buddhism, he collected Buddhist manuscripts and works of art. He
ordered the copying of Nepalese Buddhist texts into Devanagari script and sent them to
Burnouf. These copied texts became part of Burnouf’s collection. Despite his young age

and poor health, Burnouf energetically worked as a specialist in Indian and Sanskrit
studies. In 1832, he was appointed secretary of the Société Asiatique in Paris. In 1836,
in the capacity of secretary, he wrote the first annual report on the activities of thesociété. At the same time, he lectured on general and comparative linguistics at the
École Normale Supérieure. His interests also included Buddhist philosophy andBuddhist culture. He considered it necessary to combine these disciplines into a single
general academic unit.
The Lotus Sutra, which had become familiar in Europe by that time thanks to
Chinese sources and Tibetan translation, was of a special interest to Burnouf. It was a
text that is a complex of general scientific values to which he had so aspired. In April
1837, he received a packet from Hodgson in Kathmandu, which included 34 Sanskrit
manuscripts copied in Devanagari script. Among them was the Lotus Sutra, now
preserved at the library of the Société Asiatique in Paris.
Burnouf began translating the Lotus Sutra immediately. Though he had only one
manuscript of the sutra at hand around April 20, 1837, he started his work during thisperiod. In 1845, Hodgson delivered two additional manuscripts of the sutra from
Kathmandu, which became part of Burnouf’s collection (later deposited in the collectionof the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris). Unfortunately, Burnouf was only able to view
them at a very late stage after the first manuscript had already been translated and partof it was ready to be printed. He was greatly shocked upon discovering the arrival of the
new manuscripts. The scholar, however, made every possible effort to utilize the variant
readings from the new texts and to include them in the very extensive notes andappendices to the new book, which became considerably longer than the translation
itself. Despite his poor health, Burnouf worked around the clock. As if he knew that his
time was limited, he rushed to finish the work that he had long dreamed of completing.
In October 1837, Burnouf reported to Hodgson that he had already translated 233 of the248 folios.
Even before the complete French version of the Lotus Sutra was published in 1852,
he distributed the translation of the sutra’s 5th chapter (Auṣadhī-parivarta) in 1843,
which was entitled “Herb.” Though the content of this chapter is fairly difficult in aphilosophical sense, a skillfully related parable helps Buddhists easily understand theexact meaning of the Buddha’s teaching. After submitting his translation to the printer,he thought the quality might be inadequate and he was very worried about whether hewould leave behind a bad impression as a scientist. He passed away on May 28, 1852,
before his book was released.
With extensive notes and appendices, Burnouf’s French version of the Lotus Sutra

(Le Lotus de la Bonne Loi, traduit du sanscrit, accompagné d’un commentaire et devingt et un mémoires relatifs au Buddhisme, 1852), despite the fact that it was publishedover one and half a centuries ago, is still considered to be one of the best translations.
In 1854, another French orientalist, Philippe-Édouard Foucaux (1811-1894), issued
chapter 4 of the Lotus Sutra, “Parable of the Prodigal Son,” presenting the comparative
texts in Sanskrit and Tibetan (Parabole de l’enfant égaré, chapitre IV du “Lotus de laBonne Loi”). His publication, however, did not enjoy the kind of success that Burnouf’stranslation did. In 1884, the Dutch Orientalist Johan Hendrik Caspar Kern (1833-1917),
published an English translation of the Lotus Sutra (Saddharma-Puṇḍarīka or The Lotusof the True Law) as volume 21 of the series, “The Sacred Books of the East,” which wascompleted under the editorship of Friedrich Max Müller (1823-1900).
In 1876, Bunyiu Nanjio (1849-1927) was dispatched by Japan’s Jōdo Shin
Buddhist school to Max Müller’s office in Oxford to study Sanskrit under the guidanceof the famous scholar. After returning home, Nanjio became the key figure in the fieldof Japanese Buddhology and the founder of modern Sanskritology in Japan. He hadaccess to the Nepalese Lotus Sutra manuscripts. He combined several Sanskrit texts into
one recension and passed it on to Kern for future publication. Their joint research
resulted in the publication of the first collated Lotus Sutra text in the famous“Bibliotheca Buddhica” series (vol. 10, St. Petersburg, 1908-1912) in Russia.
Since the Lotus Sutra manuscript that Petrovsky obtained in Kashgar was brought
to St. Petersburg, concerns about the sutra increased significantly. The manuscript
preserves the nearly complete text of the Lotus Sutra (though some fragments bear
traces of fire), and is the most complete among the Sanskrit texts from Central Asia
known to the world today. Most of the others, including fragments (10 units) in the
Russian collection, are small pieces that separated from various manuscripts.
Incidentally, manuscripts of a completely different lineage were found in 1931 at asite near Gilgit in the Kashmir region. They came to be called Gilgit Lotus Sutra
manuscripts. A color facsimile edition of the manuscripts was jointly published by the
National Archives of India, the Soka Gakkai, and the Institute of Oriental Philosophy in
2012.
The manuscript, which originated from Khotan and was sent to St. Petersburg byPetrovsky, was published twice as facsimile editions. In 1955, a microfilm of thismanuscript was presented to Raghu Vira (1902-1963), director of the newly foundedInternational Academy of Indian Culture, by the government of the Soviet Union. This
microfilm was used in 1976 when it was published as a facsimile edition of themanuscript in the “Śata-Piṭaka” series, but it was not entirely successful as somefragments were misplaced. In 1977, the same edition was reissued in Japan. The
Japanese specialist in Lotus Sutra manuscripts, Hirofumi Toda, transliterated thisCentral Asian text into Roman letters and published it as Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtra:Central Asian Manuscirpts: Romanized Text in 1981, a work that has since been highly
acclaimed within the international scientific community.
The Lotus Sutra and the Soka Gakkai
The Lotus Sutra is a key and fundamental text for the Soka Gakkai. Daisaku Ikeda, thehonorary president of the Soka Gakkai and president of the Soka Gakkai International,
has explained the meaning of what Buddhism teaches in extensive and contemporary
terms.
One of the books he has published in Russian is entitled Сокровенный закон
жизни и смерти: Беседы о “Сутре Лотоса” (The Secret Law of Life and Death:
Conversations on the “Lotus Sutra”). The title of this book speaks of the necessity ofachieving a harmonious world, kindness, wisdom, respect for all those who ask for help,
and enlightenment that helps people to take responsibility for their lives and to help
others do the same. While striving to manifest the Buddha nature in his own life, Ikeda
has dedicated himself to building a new world of good, without war, and without enmity
between peoples.
Earth, the planet on which we live, is a world filled with so much beauty andharmony. Is it really necessary to destroy this place of such beauty and harmony, or todestroy the verdurous ecosystem only to satisfy human greed? The Lotus Sutra relates
that relief and rescue are given to people when they suffer from the myriad problems
caused by the confusion of the world. As long as we put into practice various proposals
Ikeda has issued on contemporary issues based on concepts from the Lotus Sutra andBuddhism, humanity will be spared from extinction.5
Let us look up at the sky at night and see for ourselves. When the stars light up thenight sky, they tell us about the vast expanse of the universe and its harmony, and lead
us to imagine that the Buddhas of the ten directions and three existences (past, present
and future), and the bodhisattvas related in the Lotus Sutra, all hope for the happinessand prosperity of all living beings.
There is an unanswered question in the Lotus Sutra that the Buddha asks himself,
in effect, “How can one remaining in the human body support other living beings toattain enlightenment and discover the Buddha nature within oneself?” The noble way
Ikeda has lived his life is an exemplary reply to this question of the blessed teachings of
the Lotus Sutra.

Notes
1. Seishi Karashima, “An Old Tibetan Translation of the Lotus Sutra from Khotan:
The Romanized Text Collated with the Kanjur Versions” (1)-(4), Annual Report of The
International Research Institute for Advanced Buddhology at Soka University, vols.
8-11, 2005-2008.
2. Klaus Wille, ed., Fragments of a Manuscript of the Saddharmapuṇḍarīkasūtrafrom Khādaliq (Tokyo: Soka Gakkai, 2000), pp. 145-183, Concordances.
3.『日蓮大聖人御書全集』（東京:創価学会, 1952）, 468-469頁 / The Writingsof Nichiren Daishonin, vol. 1 (Tokyo: Soka Gakkai, 1999), p. 86.
4. These materials are preserved at the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris.
Unfortunately, however, the arranging of these materials remains incomplete. Henri
Léon Feer (1830-1902) was instrumental in the research and publication of Burnouf’s
letter. The Japanese scholar, Akira Yuyama published a voluminous book about
Burnouf. Akira Yuyama, Eugène Burnouf: The Background to His Research into the
Lotus Sutra, Tokyo 2000: International Research Institute for Advanced Buddhology,
Soka University (Bibliotheca philologica et philosophica Buddhica v. 3).
5. http://www.daisakuikeda.org/main/peacebuild/peace-proposals/pp2013.html.