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Opening the Heart of the Cosmos: Insights on the Lotus Sutra

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In this book, Nhat Hanh turns his eye towards the Lotus Sutra, one of the most important sutras for Mahayana Buddhists. Despite its importance, the Lotus Sutra is very difficult to read straight-out, although good translations exist (see Hurvitz and the recent edition "The Threefold Lotus Sutra" put out by Kosei). Just diving into a translation may leave you feeling a bit confused, and some early commentaries are just as inaccessible to beginners.

Hence the value of this book. Placing the Lotus sutra in its historical context (around the time when Mahayana Buddhism was just emerging, and had to distinguish itself from non-Mahayana schools, which it terms "Hinayana" or "Lesser Vehicle"), Nhat Hanh illuminates why this sutra is so important and revelational. In short, this is the sutra in which it was firmly proclaimed that _everyone_ could become a fully enlightened buddha.

Previously, the primary goal of early Buddhism had been to become a saint ("arhat"), liberated from samsara, with the joy of nirvana, but not an actual buddha oneself. Moreover, this path was restricted to renunciant monks, and not open to everyone. In this sutra, the Buddha proclaims that he taught this as a skillful means, because if he had said right away that people could attain buddhahood, no one would believe it. Now, however, the time being right, and people having understood the basics of the Four Noble Truths, etc., he could give this profound teaching. All the teachings and vehicles (Sravakayana, Pratyekabuddhayana, Bodhisattvayana, etc.) point to the one single vehicle: the buddhayana, the path to full buddhahood for all sentinent beings.

Because the language of the sutra itself is quite difficult and full of very elaborate imagery that can confuse or mystify the reader, the commentary provided in this book by Nhat Hanh is essential to clarifying the points and getting at the essence of what the sutra is saying. He explains how one can read the sutra along two dimensions -- the historical dimension, and the ultimate dimension. If one does not read it in such a way, and takes everything as literal (historical), it will result in a whole lot of confusion.

So, this book is for students of Buddhism who are interested in reading some actual sutras, but who are not so intellectually hard-core that they feel they are "above" reading this commetnary by a monk who seems, on the surface, very simple and non-academic. (Actually, he is a great scholar himself -- see "The Heart of the Buddha's Understanding" for the best introduction to Mahayana Buddhism around). Note that this book does _not_ contain the actual text of the Lotus Sutra, which is very long. Find one of the translations (noted above) and read it along with this commentary, and you will find it very beneficial, I am sure!

Enjoy.

In Opening The Heart Of The Cosmos: Insights On The Lotus Sutra, Vietnamese Buddhist monk, poet, teacher, writer, peace and human rights activist Thich Nhat Hanh draws upon his more than 30 years of study and experience to focus upon one of the most important of the sutras and reveal how it can be of invaluable service in transforming ourselves and the world around us. By way of illustration, Hanh provides commentary on a number of current issues and enduring world problems ranging from the Palestinian-Israeli impasse, to the threats posed by international terrorism, to the continuing degradation of our planetary environment. Opening The Heart Of The Cosmos is a superbly articulated and presented contribution to the growing body of Buddhist literature for western readers.

If you really want to read and understand the Lotus Sutra on a deeper level I highly recommend this commentary of Thay's(Thich Nhat Hanh). For the actual Sutra this is a good translation: The Lotus Sutra

The Lotus Sutra is an essential buddhist sutra, and Thay provides an excellent commentary, delving into the history of the sutra and explaining how we can view it on several levels and apply its teachings to today. Highly recommended.

I've read the Lotus Sutra a number of times over the years, but found it's vivid, bombastic language and metaphors difficult to understand. The importance of the Lotus Sutra to East Asian Buddhism is easy to underestimate, so I am really glad I read Thich Nhat Hanh's commentaries. The commentaries do not contain a copy of the Lotus Sutra itself, though it does delve into each chapter with a summary and important points to note. For me, I read them concurrently with Bunno Kato's translation of the Lotus Sutra, chapter by chapter, and it helped immensely, especially in the later chapters of the Sutra, which delve into difficult teachings, and stories of various Bodhisattvas.

The commentaries take a somewhat unusual approach to group certain disparate chapters into a single commentary if they have a common theme, while some chapters, such as the 25th chapter on Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva span several chapters. This can be confusing initially, especially if like me, you are trying to read chapter by chapter, but I think Thich Nhat Hanh's approach has a good flow overall, and really gets the message of the Sutra across to readers. I really found myself appreciating the Sutra a lot more than I did before.

Given that the sutra plays such an integral part culturally and religiously in East Asian Buddhism (including Zen, Pure Land, esoteric Buddhism and so on), it's worth the time and effort to explore the teaching and absorb some of the metaphors and similes. I believe it helps demystify some aspects East Asian Buddhism and culture.

I must admit that I havn't gotten around to reading this book. Not that the topic doesn't interest me; but there are just too many words and thoughts - and less feeling - in this book, at least for my taste. Love, Juri.