The Lotus Sutra and Western Culture and Spirituality
This is a translation of a Spanish lecture presented on 22 February 2013at the SGI-Spain Culture Center in Rivas-Vaciamadrid, near Madrid

Francesc Torradeflot

T

he Lotus Sutra is a Buddhist scripture, but what relationship does
Buddhism have with culture? In order to understand this, we need tomake a detour.

Religion is the Common Heritage of Humanity
General Comment 22 of the Human Rights Committee of the United
Nations describes Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights and of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights of
the United Nations. It says: “Article 18 protects theistic, non-theistic andatheistic beliefs, as well as the right not to profess any religion or belief.
The terms ‘belief’ and ‘religion’ are to be broadly construed. Article 18
is not limited in its application to traditional religions or to religions andbeliefs with institutional characteristics or practices analogous to thoseof traditional religions. The Committee, therefore, views with concern
any tendency to discriminate against any religion or belief for any
reason, including the fact that they are newly established, or represent
religious minorities that may be the subject of hostility on the part of apredominant religious community”.
Article 18 defends freedom of thought, conscience and religion. Most
countries of the world have signed this article, however, most of them do
not comply with it. For that reason, the Human Rights Committee had to
publish the General Comment which has to be followed by all the statesthat have signed the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rightsthat establishes freedom of thought, conscience and religion in the fieldof international law. In this comment, the UN describes the way a
religion should be interpreted. Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights and of the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights protects theistic, non-theistic and atheistic beliefs. Some might
think that Buddhism is atheistic, while others might not. Even if it is, or
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if it is not, it belongs to the semantic field of “beliefs”. So, the terms“belief” and “religion” are to be broadly construed and not narrowly. All
this is also in line with what the UNESCO states in the Universal
Declaration on Cultural Diversity. In this universal declaration, the
UNESCO, mother of all the UN organisations related to culture, defines
culture in quite an interesting way in order to prove that “beliefs”,
namely religions, are part of culture. This definition says that culture“should be regarded as the set of distinctive spiritual, material,
intellectual and emotional features of society or a social group, and thatit encompasses, in addition to art and literature, lifestyles, ways of living
together, value systems, traditions and beliefs”.
Religion is part of culture, religion is spirituality, religion works withthe emotional nature, religion belongs to the semantic field of traditions
and beliefs. Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Cultural Diversity
states that cultural diversity is as necessary to humankind as biodiversity
is to nature. It is the common heritage of humanity, and not only ofpeople belonging to a particular religion, or people who follow it.
Therefore, Buddhism is a heritage of all humanity and not only of
Buddhists. In this sense, we can also state that Judaism is heritage of
Buddhists. Human beings are able to appreciate different beliefs andconvictions even if they don’t agree with them. These are appreciated asculture or as a human quality device.
In the international debate, interfaith and intercultural are sometimes
seen as two separate but interrelated issues; whereas other times, like inthe case of the Council of Europe, it is stressed that religious beliefs andtraditions—like agnostic, atheist or secularist convictions—are one
dimension of culture.1
This said, can the Lotus Sutra have an influence on Western culture?
The answer is yes. The theory that allows us to see the way a Buddhist
text can bring human quality devices to culture is found, as we have justseen, in the definitions the UN and UNESCO give.

Institutional and Spiritual Aspect of Religion
At the same time, when we examine what a religion is, the first thingthat stands out, from a sociological approach, is that it is very institu­
tional. People can tell a religion exists because of the way people are
dressed and because of the temples. If we take a stroll along Madrid,and considering we are not religious, the first thing we would notice are
the temples, the places of worship or the clothes some religious people
wear, in other words, we would see the institutional aspect.

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The next thing that becomes apparent is the moral doctrine and ethics,
like for instance, the way the religious followers behave, what they say
is right and what is wrong. Catholics would say that divorced Catholics
cannot receive communion. But this is not spirituality, it is just morality.
Following that, if we keep examining a religion, we will then perceive
the symbolic aspect of the religious fact, in other words, the rituals andsymbols, because rituals and symbolisms are part of every religion.
Furthermore, we can also appreciate the formulation of faith or
beliefs. These are official formulations which are more or less dogmaticand are based on the history and structure of each particular tradition.
And following that and only at the end of the analysis we find theexperience.
Aspects of the religious or spiritual fact
Institutional
Moral doctrine and ethics
Rituals and symbolisms
Formulation and core beliefs
Experimental

Institutional
Moral doctrine and ethics
Rituals and symbolisms
Formulation and core beliefs
Experimental

In the first diagram, what we first see is the institutional aspect ofreligion; whereas the spiritual aspect almost doesn’t exist. How can I tell
the experience a Buddhist has when he meditates? All I can say is that
he is conducting a ritual. However, seen from the perspective of theexperience, i.e. the second diagram, the opposite happens. For someone
who has an experience or possesses a practice, the institution is not asimportant. But, if this institution didn’t exist, the experience wouldn’t
take place either. Nevertheless, the institution plays a secondary role andit is important to be aware of this. This idea is precisely what the Soka
Gakkai and the Lotus Sutra can bring to Western culture. The notion that

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the role of institutions can be played down, especially the role of themost embedded or clergical institutions. Diminishing the importance ofthem does not mean not accepting the role they play, it means putting
them into perspective. Sometimes, in religious traditions, institutions
have not helped spirituality as they have not been transparent and havenot allowed any light in. On the contrary, they have been an obstacle inthe spiritual path and have cast a shadow over the religious experience.
Unfortunately, this is what has happened. If we are aware of this, we canprevent similar situations in the present and the future.
The importance and pivotal role the experience plays in a religion,
inevitably leads us to talk about the religious experience. Raimon
Panikkar (1918–2010), an internationally renowned theologist andphilosopher, gives an explanation of the experience. At the end, the mostimportant thing for Panikkar is the “pure experience”, which is theexperience one has when one is meditating alone even though sur­rounded by a community. The bottom line is that this experience is nottransferable. The experience one has while meditating cannot be shared.
It can be shared through words, but it basically cannot be expressed.
But, at the end, language always wins and we have to end up sharing
what we have experienced. We feel we want to transmit this experience
we have in silence, even if it is ineffable and so we convert it into words.

Experience (pure)

RenewalLanguage

Reception

MemoryInterpretation

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This language is transmitted and slowly becomes a memory, so weremember the experience. Every time we memorize or remember theexperience, somehow we relive it again. Even though it is an experience
we only had once, it had an impact on us and is now a reference. The
experience does not have an axiological or motivational value alone, it
has a value of making me feel alive. I interpret the experience, I explain
it and give it a meaning. After that, the experience is shared within acommunity. I socialize it and share it with my friends, family, commu­
nity or neighbours. Finally, the experience will be refreshed. So, we
refresh the experience and renew it at each moment.

Displacement of Religious Facts in Various Ways
In any case, the way the religious experiences are manifested changes.
We are witnesses of important displacements of religious facts. It is noteasy to accept a definition for religion. We can find more than a hundreddefinitions and people don’t agree on one. One of the latest definitions
we find is given by an international law lawyer who defines religion
according to what one chases after: your religion will be judged by what
you pursue.
These displacements of religious facts appear in a variety of ways.
Many people do not want to follow any type of faith as the prevailingclimate nowadays is one where there is a certain indifference and evenallergy towards institutions. There is a certain aversion towards institu­
tions. Currently, institutions are not likeable and people do not want to
identify themselves with one.
What we also find is a proliferation of free spiritual search orinvestigation. People like to buy books, attend courses, go to therapies
and everyone seems to be seeking. Many seek their well-being, others
seek spending time with other people in a free and creative atmosphere.
In any case, generally speaking, there is a free spiritual search andpeople buy Buddhists books without being Buddhists and they read
Buddhist scriptures without being Buddhists.
There is another relatively new phenomenon which is the adhesion todifferent religions. We now come across people who say that they follow
various religions at the same time.
Another phenomenon we must be aware of is organized belligerent
secularism which is a pseudoreligion in every sense. Even in sociologyof religion books, people study anticlerical or antireligious belligerent
secularism as if it were a parareligious phenomenon. Even though thenumber of people choosing this aggressive secularism is decreasing,

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these bodies are better organized.
Another displacement is the religion without beliefs, where there isno end point to religion but a reinterpretation. Luc Ferry, a Frenchthinker, talks about this and in his opinion, religion is a type of new
humanism, but without beliefs. Other authors like Don Cupitt and Marià
Corbí follow the same thinking.
Another new phenomenon related to religion is spiritual coaching andtherapeutic spirituality which is becoming more and more popular. On
the other hand, psychoanalytic psychology is decreasing in popularity
and there are less psychoanalysts as people don’t believe in themanymore. Transpersonal psychology is also becoming more popular as it
contains other types of humanistic psychology which includes thespiritual realm.
Charles Taylor, a Canadian philosopher and expert in religion, talks
about a new phenomenon in his book entitled “A Secular Age”. Thisphenomenon is about the free release of the religious fact and basicallymeans the end of orthodoxies and the opening of a gradual space for
spiritual creativity.

Harmony of Wisdom, Love and Altruistic Action
After this detour, we arrive to the Lotus Sutra. In my opinion, it is a
spiritual example of harmony between knowledge and wisdom; love anddevotion; and altruistic action. The Lotus Sutra is one of the mostcommented Buddhist sutras. Its spiritual uniqueness is portrayed in thefollowing text by Nichiren:“Nevertheless, the Buddha managed to survive these various ordeals,
and, at the age of seventy-two, forty-two years after he first beganpreaching the Buddhist teachings, at a mountain called Gridhrakuta
northeast of the city of Rajagriha in central India, he began to preach the
Lotus Sutra. He preached it for a period of eight years. Then, on thebank of the Ajitavati River at the city of Kushinagara in eastern India, inthe middle of the night of the fifteenth day of the second month, when
he was eighty years of age, he entered nirvana.
But before that, he had revealed his enlightenment in the form of the
Lotus Sutra. Therefore, the words of this sutra are indeed the very soulof Shakyamuni Thus Come One.”2

The notions of “eight years” and the “heart” show that it is in no way asecondary revelation. In this sense, it brings together the principal

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Mahayana teachings.
At this point, I would like to outline these main Mahayana teachings.
The first one is the transcendental nature of the Buddha. The Buddha is
not only Shakyamuni, the historical character. It is one of the mostbeautiful insights that I believe Buddhism can bring to non-Buddhists
and to Western culture, which is that all living beings alike possess the
Buddha nature.
The second one is that everyone possess Buddhahood, wisdom andcompassion, including women and disciples like the dubious Devadatta
who is a funny and slightly crazy character. Sometimes it seems thatspirituality is made solely for “good” people, for people who have
evolved and who have matured. But it’s not. Spirituality is also made forpeople who have not evolved as much, who are not “good” and mature.
Devadatta is a clear example of this.
Going back to the transcendental nature of the Buddha, I would liketo highlight the concept of the symbol of the Lotus because the Buddha
nature is brought forth from Samsara, pain, suffering and everything thatconnects us to the phenomenal world, and stops us from having theconscience of knowledge and wisdom. The purity of the Buddha who
once it attains enlightment still lives in this world and does not leave isbrought forth. The Bodhisattva is one who does not leave this world andwho is not ashamed.

Methods to Teach One Single Way to Different Types of Beings
I would also like to highlight the concept of universal teaching, which I
believe is portrayed in the inclusive humanism of the Lotus Sutra. What
I find interesting about the Lotus Sutra is that it constitutes a series oflectures directed towards a diverse audience. Unlike many religious
texts, maybe only like a gospel, the Gospel of Matthew, in the Lotus
Sutra we see a method of communication with different levels anddifferent types of beings. In my opinion, this single message directed
towards different audiences comes under a pedagogy framework, more
specifically in the teaching of a mentor who sends a message to his
different types of disciples, who receive it each on their own way based
upon their own ability and possibilities. This curricular adaptation of themessage is done so using methods and expedient means. For instance, inthe parable of the burning house, the “lie” is actually good. Obviously,
when we understand the deeper meaning, which is the happiness of allliving beings, we discover that it is not a lie but a dosage of wisdom andknowledge. In this sense, in the Lotus Sutra we also find the notion of

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the 35 different forms he assumes according to who he is called by. Thisis an example of symbolism. In order for this single way to be shared
and attained by different living beings, it might be necessary that the
Buddhas preach an infinite number of doctrines. The Lotus Sutra reads:“The original vow of the Buddhas
was that the Buddha way, which they themselves practice,
should be shared universally among living beings
so that they too may attain this same way.
The Buddhas of future ages,
although they preach hundreds, thousands, millions,a countless number of doctrines,
in truth do so for the sake of the single vehicle.”3

I was also taken in by this when I read the Lotus Sutra and studied it
calmly. The Buddhas preach a countless number of doctrines, so thismeans that there isn’t only one doctrine. Neither this fix and static
dogmatism that certain spiritual mentors, who really are not mentors at
all, try to make us believe.
Another interesting aspect of the Lotus Sutra which I would like toshare with you is that it allows us to substitute faith and religious
practice for wisdom, which in turn makes Buddhism accessible for all
people and democratizes it. Before, it was excessively monastic. The
Lotus Sutra clearly states the concept of the one vehicle in Buddhism.
“The Lotus Sutra, wherein the Buddha honestly discarded expedientmeans, says that one can “gain entrance through faith alone.” And theNirvana Sutra, which the Buddha preached in the grove of sal trees on
the last day of his life, states, “Although there are innumerable practices
that lead to enlightenment, if one teaches faith, then that includes all
those practices.”Thus faith is the basic requirement for entering the way of the
Buddha. In the fifty-two stages of bodhisattva practice, the firstten stages, dealing with faith, are basic, and the first of these ten
stages is that of arousing pure faith. Though lacking in knowl­edge of Buddhism, a person of faith, even if dullwitted, is to be
reckoned as a person of correct views. But even though one hassome knowledge of Buddhism, if one is without faith, then one isto be considered a slanderer and an icchantika, or person ofincorrigible disbelief.”4

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And also:“Shariputra, the Thus Come Ones have only a single Buddha vehicle
which they employ in order to preach the Law to living beings. They do
not have any other vehicle, a second one or a third one. (…)
Shariputra, the Buddhas of the past used countless numbers ofexpedient means, various causes and conditions, and words of simile
and parable in order to expound the doctrines for the sake of living
beings. These doctrines are all for the sake of the one Buddha vehicle.”5

Like with any other tradition, Buddhist sometimes talk about interpreta­tion and there are many currents, schools and tendencies, which at times
can confuse practitioners: if there are so many schools, which one
should we follow? Is there one way, the Buddha way? Are the paths of
Shakyamuni and the Buddhas one way or several? The Lotus Sutra
provides the explanation that it is one path but that there is diversity.
Moreover, as we have already seen, this path is not a theoretical orconceptual one, nor it is a philosophical or wisdom path alone, it is alsoa praxis path in terms of faith and compromise.
Another key insight of the Lotus Sutra is the presence of love in thisscripture. There are some Buddhist scriptures where it is difficult toperceive and discover this love and it is hard to find the emotional
component of the spiritual path. In the Lotus Sutra, it is not difficult toperceive this love. If we take a Zen text, for example, we will not beable to find this love anywhere. I am sorry, but this is the reality. To
illustrate this, I have selected a number of parables, like the burning
house parable, where the Buddha is like a father:“a father to all the world. His fears, cares and anxieties, ignorance andmisunderstanding, have long come to an end, leaving no residue. He has
fully succeeded in acquiring measureless insight, power and freedom
from fear and gaining great supernatural powers and the power of
wisdom. He is endowed with expedient means and the paramita of
wisdom, his great pity and great compassion are constant andunflagging; at all time he seeks what is good and will bring benefit to
all.”6

A father to all the world. This is affection, kind heart and love. If it is
not love, I don’t know what else it could be. It is warm and affectionate,
not cold and curt. And it is neither austere like the path of knowledge. It
is the path of love. Another parable which depicts tenderness and116

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humanity is the parable of the wealthy man and his poor son. It truly
talks about the “Buddha’s sons”.
I would also like to mention the parable of the Sagara dragon king’s
daughter who is able to attain enlightment:“Her [the daughter of the dragon king] eloquence knows no hindrance,and she thinks of living beings with compassion as though they were
her own children. She is fully endowed with blessings, and when it
comes to conceiving in mind and expounding by mouth, she is subtle,
wonderful, comprehensive and great. Kind, compassionate, benevolent,yielding, she is gentle and refined in will, capable of attaining bodhi.”7

Women and feminity are symbolically the perfect example of the aspectof love and affection. We can substitute the word “women” by anima vs.
animus, as Jung would say, but feminity is the presence of the emotional
characteristics.

“Buddha Nature” is in harmony with “Human Rights” or“Children of God”
This said, what can the Lotus Sutra bring to Western culture and spiri­
tuality? The first thing to point out is the symbol of the Lotus, as the
symbolism of the Lotus is a mixture of the sacred and profane, of purity
and impurity. The Lotus Sutra can provide a perspective of the Absolute
being present in the phenomenal world. The Absolute goes beyond thisworld, i.e. transcendence, but is still present in this world, immanence.
The symbolism of the Lotus also brings up insights present inWestern culture, especially in Christianity. Western culture, which
typically comes from Judaism, Christianity and secularization, develops
the idea of embodiment which in turn is very present in certain contem­
porary ideologies such as Marxism.
Another notion to be aware of is the idea of Dharmakaya or thecosmic body of the Buddha that is made history through the words of
the Lotus Sutra but especially through the bodhisattvas, who help living
beings manifest their inherent divine nature. This is similar to the way inwhich in Western culture, the Absolute is made history (Judaism) andhuman being (Christianity).
I think it is important to see how in this sense the Lotus Sutra fits inperfectly well with Western culture but also with other categories of
Buddhist tradition. It can also help to strengthen, add and be an ally toWestern culture. In essence, the problem would arise if Buddhism werethe lotus sutra and western culture and spirituality

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an alienated and alienating religion, and was not committed to socialchange. It was actually one of the criticisms made to Buddhism at the
beginning. For years, Western Christian theology, especially Catholi­
cism, used apologetic language to discredit Buddhism by stating theidea that “Buddhist meditate a lot, but do nothing to change the world
for the better”.
The Lotus Sutra perfectly matches this Western Jewish and Christianmodel. Therefore, from the philosophical and conceptual viewpoint, theWest can open up to it with no problem.
We also find functional equivalents, which is a term acquired by
Panikkar that means that in different cultural or ideological contexts
there can be terms that have a similar function. For instance, a function­
al equivalent of the word “religion” in Buddhism would be the word
“dharma”. The term “religion” does not exist as such in Buddhism,
however in Hinduism and Buddhism a functional equivalent for the term
religion would be Dharma or cosmic order. Dharma cannot be translated
as religion and even though sometimes it is, it is not correct. We could
use it in a specific curricular adaptation but not in another context.
All living beings can manifest their Buddha nature. There are twoconcepts that stem from the West, that are in harmony with the notion of
the Buddha nature of all living beings. One of them is the universal andinalienable human dignity which is found in the Human Rights
Declaration of the UN. According to the human rights declaration, allhuman beings possess the same dignity, which is in perfect harmony
with the Buddha nature. Furthermore, Christianity expounds that all
beings are children of God. These are different words, terminologies andmeanings, but they are, as Panikkar would say, functional or
homeomorphic equivalents. Another concept in Christianity that is inharmony with the Buddha nature, is divinization, which is also
formulated by saying that all human beings are children of God. In
Christianity, all beings are christics as they have both love and Logos. In
Buddhism, all beings have compassion and knowledge, wisdom.

Web of Compassionate Interdependent Relationships
The Lotus Sutra Buddhism expounds the concept of subjectivity where
the individual embodies the fundamental power of the Law, the Dharma.
“Law” in this context is not equivalent to the jurisprudence or legislation
law, but to the Cosmic Law. Buddhism can contribute to the Westernworld by offering a web of compassionate interdependent relationships,
which are more suitable for knowledge societies than other Christian

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and Jewish social patterns. In other words, Buddhism of the Lotus Sutra
can offer Western culture a more harmonious vision with the current
knowledge societies, because it talks about interdependence andsymbiosis. Knowledge societies, which are based on science, technol­
ogy and innovation can only be symbiotic. They are different frominformation societies. For example, in information societies knowledge
does not necessarily need to be shared. On the other hand, in knowledge
societies it has to be shared, everyone has to share everything. Informa­tion societies brings about inequality and hierarchy is still present, whileknowledge societies rather than creating unevenness create interdepend­ence. Buddhism offers a model of adaptation to knowledge societies,
which in turn can be an example for other religions and even nonreligious beliefs.
Moreover, Buddhism has much in common with the current pattern ofglobalized, technical-scientific societies based on innovation andcontinuous growth. The contribution of Buddhism is necessary to somereligious traditions that are being left behind and are going to miss theboat and are having difficulties in being part of knowledge societies.
Buddhism affirms that this symbiosis and interdependence is alsowith nature and beings. This is another key contribution because inknowledge societies it will be essential to respect the environment,
because otherwise science and technology will destroy us all. If wecannot manage to respect the environment, science and technology will
destroy us all in no time at all.
Buddhism provides an axiological framework which will allow us to
avoid this destruction by recognizing and legitimizing this symbiotic
interdependence. This is quite an original contribution to Westernculture; it is an innovation to Western culture. The contribution of thisBuddhist dimension is an innovation in the Western culture.
Even though the environment and nature play an important role,
Buddhism expounds the priority of human beings over nature as we are
the only beings who are able to manifest cosmic subjectivity. This said,
Buddhism does not say that human beings are equal to other non-humanbeings, but that the first ones have a priority over the latter ones, but it
does not involve either one being dominant or submissive.

Personal Revolution as the Basis for a Social Revolution
Another concept expounded by Buddhism is the human-centred social
reform focused on the idea of one’s own personal revolution as the basis
for a social revolution. In the book “A New Humanism” by Daisaku

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Ikeda, we can read about the importance of the Dharma in therelationship between the mentor (mirror of the Dharma through histeachings and behaviour) and the disciple, given the lack of role models
in the West. It is possible to be a mentor and a disciple without losing
one’s freedom which is one of the things Buddhism makes possible.
On the contrary, in the West, the mentor and disciple relationship isalways seen as a dependent relationship involving a submission. This isan Abrahamic concept deriving from Abrahamic religions, but in
Buddhism, this relationship is not viewed in this way. The way
Buddhism perceives this relationship is the key to the West. There isalso the concept that the same doesn’t mean one identity and that unityof diversity is possible. Civilizations and cultures are irrepressible, but
this does not mean that we are heading toward conflict. Through thepower of dialogue, difficult relationships can be transformed into acreative inter-fertilization.
Buddhism can provide a non-dual view of anthropology to the West.
It is possible to go from this schizophrenic, extremist, dual anthropol­
ogy, where good and evil are in opposite poles to a harmonious andinterdependent interaction which in turn provides a new way of perceiv­
ing human beings full of possibilities.
The spiritual way is a long path and even though it is one path,everyone walks along it in their own way.
This is an outline of my humble vision of what Buddhism can bringto Western culture and Western spirituality.
Notes1
Preparing the “White Paper on intercultural dialogue” of the Council of Europe.
https://wcd.coe.int/ViewDoc.jsp?id=1081461
2
The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin. Soka Gakkai (1999) pp. 338–339
3
The Lotus Sutra, translated by Burton Watson. Columbia University Press, NewYork (1993), p. 41
4
The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin. pp. 141–142
5
The Lotus Sutra, p. 31
6Ibid., p. 59
7
Ibid., p. 187