Wishes Fulfilled
It would be incorrect to think that all the Buddha’s previous teachings were somehow invalidated or somehow to abandoned just because he taught the Lotus Sutra. I say this because some practice as though none of the Buddha’s important teachings apply because of the Lotus Sutra.
Because we believe in the Lotus Sutra we are bound to follow various teachings such as the Four Noble Truths, The Eightfold Path, Dependent Origination and so forth. Nowhere within the Lotus Sutra is any hint that those teachings somehow are no longer important.
In fact each of them can be found within the words of the Lotus Sutra. So to ignore them or to not even learn them is actually going against the five practices of keep, read, recite, copy and expound the Lotus Sutra.
“But those who hear or keep my teachings or read or recite the sutras in which my teachings are expounded, or act according to my teachings, do not know the merits which they will be able to obtain by these practices.” (Lotus Sutra, Chapter V)
The merits one can attain by doing these five practices of this complete teaching, the Lotus Sutra, are incalculable; the merits cannot be measured.
This does not mean that we will become rich, have big houses, fancy cars, fame or so forth. Here is why I believe this, and of course you are free to disagree, but I think there is no proof otherwise.
If we follow the Eight Right Teachings then we will come to embrace the truth of not clinging to earthly desires as the means to become happy.
“Happiness resides not in possessions and not in gold; the feeling of happiness dwells in the soul.” (Democritus)
There is a trend of ‘prosperity’ religions. The teachings go roughly like this: the proof of our belief lies in manifestation of wealth. Wealth is non-transferable from this life to the next; it is impermanent. The only wealth that can last indestructibly in the future is that which wells up from within our lives.
“Anyone who keeps, reads and recites this sutra in the later five hundred years after my extinction, will not be attached to clothing, bedding, food or drink, or any other thing for living. What he wishes will not remain unfulfilled. He will be able to obtain the rewards of his merits in his present life. (Lotus Sutra, Chapter XXVIII)
