Suppose in the great manifold cosmos there are mountains, rivers, valleys, and plains where many kinds of grasses, trees, shrubs, and herbs of different names and colors grow.
Dense clouds thoroughly cover this great manifold cosmos and rain falls at the same time everywhere, moistening the small, medium, and large roots, stems, branches, and leaves of all the grasses, trees, shrubs, and herbs.
Regenerative Remedies
An influential, core scripture of Mahāyāna Buddhism, the Lotus Sūtra is perhaps best known for its use of parables. It is also among the strata of Buddhist texts responsible for introducing the doctrine of the "single vehicle" (ekayāna, 一乘) describing the sole path to liberation upon which all beings ride to awakening. This single vehicle, depicted through diverse contemplative metaphors, comprises an all-inclusive path of regenerative remedies for social and ecological disease.
While not always immediately evident in the Lotus Sūtra due to its frequent parables and analogies, the path to awakening is intended to be as inclusive as possible. As such, the parables of the Lotus Sūtra, including the chapter on "grasses, trees, shrubs, and herbs of different names and colors," draw out, through analogy, the diversity of beings who are included on the single vehicle as it winds its course. During times of divisive rhetoric, growing separation due to panic, pandemic, and pandemonium, and, sadly, mistrust of that which is deemed "other," such teachings of inclusivity are especially pertinent.
We therefore examine the implications of the Lotus Sūtra and its discussion of diverse herbs for our present circumstances, finding a place for unity in plurality in forging ecologically and socially regenerative remedies for our present ills.
Diverse Herbs
An image by no means exclusive to Buddhism, we find in the parable of the herbs an elaborate plant-based illustration of society and ecology at large. Though only a handful of pages in length, the parable describes in vivid detail the social and ecological plurality that characterizes a flourishing global community, which given our present circumstances, is placed under dire threat.
As a collective human organism embedded in the plurality that is our ecosystem, we must adapt and evolve, especially given rapidly accelerating societal and ecological disruption. Due to long-coming, on-going environmental degradation and the recent outbreak of the novel coronavirus, we presently inhabit what may appear to be sheer chaos. Offering a contemplative metaphor for the broad means by which our climate crisis and the coronavirus pandemic may be resolved, however, the Lotus Sūtra situates us among a world of diverse herbs. Especially striking are the chapter's verses:
Everywhere, equal, and immeasurable
The rain pours down and moistens the earth.
Grasses, herbs, large and small trees,
All kinds of crops, seedlings, sugarcane, and grapes
Growing in the depths of the mountains,
In rivers and in precipitous valleys,
Are all watered and completely nourished by the rain.
The dry earth is moistened everywhere
And the herbs and trees grow up thickly.
Out of this cloud the same rain
Waters these grasses, trees, and shrubs
Each according to their capacities.
All the trees, small, medium, or large
Are able to grow in accordance with their capacities.
The luster and colors of the roots, stems,
Branches, leaves, and flowers
Are all freshened by the same rain.
Each of these, although receiving the same moisture,
Reaches a greater or lesser size
In accordance with their different
Dispositions, characteristics, and natures.
Each being, whether plant or animal, is metaphorically one of these crops. Each must be handled according to their growing conditions. Indeed, in addition to its multifaceted ecological and social parables, the Lotus Sūtra also consistently interweaves the theme of "skillful means," from the Sanskrit upāya, rendered 方便 in Chinese. Such skillful means are an essential pedagogical tool, an adaptable teaching device, intended to wisely package and compassionately deliver much-needed lessons in a context-appropriate manner, suited to the audience and setting.
In order to effectively apply skillful means, one must have cultivated a refined contemplative discernment. The same teaching, packaged and delivered in the same way, will not be equally effective for all beings. Given their unique conditions, the amount of rain and sun each requires in order to flourish must be adapted accordingly. Multiple routes to regeneration exist. Rather than a "one size fits all" vehicle, there exist countlessly diverse iterations and adaptations, varied grasses, trees, shrubs, herbs — all included on-board the single vehicle — quite viscerally, a form of unity in plurality.
The Same Rain
Perhaps most significantly, the Lotus Sūtra invokes rain as the necessary ingredient — a panacea — for the flourishing of all herbs.
Such rain falls equally on all. Even so, while all receive the same rain, the diversity of beings receive it in different quantities, by different means, and grow to different sizes. We may perhaps conceive of rain as medicine, a remedy for the ills that afflict us, leaving us parched and brittle like dried plants. Medicinally, rain restores our vitality. This, then, begs the question: What in our present situation offers us medicinal rain?
Our present circumstances offer an invaluable training ground for regenerative efforts and ongoing lifestyle adaptations in preparation for forthcoming existential shocks, which will inevitably continue in the years to come. These regenerative remedies, in their various forms — including contemplative varities of inner and outer cultivation, both of psychosocial mindscapes and bioregional landscapes, both of which are detailed in the Lotus Sūtra — serve as sources of rain and relief, crafting the conditions for a sustainable future. For such a future to even be possible, we must undergo a global, societal, ecological paradigm shift in every act of body, speech, and mind in the days, weeks, months, and years to come, which the Lotus Sūtra and other classics anticipated well in advance of our present crisis, describing the means to do so at length.
Although brief, we hope these reflections, inspired by the Lotus Sūtra — whose name itself conveys the potential for infinite beauty to emerge from the most putrid and muddy of conditions — will contribute to ongoing efforts at seeding the solutions through a plurality of regenerative revolutions.
To be continued.
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