The assembled words written in the Lotus Sutra are in the thousands and they each have a meaning Independent of the Lotus Sutra. Additionally when they are assembled in the Lotus Sutra the now exist in relationship to other word and concepts. So the Lotus Sutra communicates to us in a variety of ways.
Each word or character communicates its meaning and the assembled words communicate their meaning. The assembled words are greater than and more complex than any individual word yet each word is crucial to the meaning of the entire assembly of words. Where else do we find assembly?
In the Lotus Sutra there is the assembly gathered around the Buddha sitting in meditation as the sutra opens. We also have an assembly in which 500 individuals have left, so it is now composed of fewer individuals and the Buddha says that the sticks and branches have departed.
At this point we can say that the assembly is at the perfect number. There are a perfect number of people to progress to the next phases of assembly. What happens next?
Suddenly a stupa appears above the earth, above the gathered assembly. We learn that inside the Stupa is a great Buddha from the infinite past. Now we have an assembly of one more person and an assembly that encompasses the present and the past.
Our next assembly which contains the original group minus 500 and plus one. The assembly contains the past and the present. This assembly is then raised above the earth. There are reasons for this. We are told that it was done so the assembly on the ground can view the two Buddhas who are sitting side by side. Yet there is another reason for the assembly occurring in the air.
It is to make space for yet another version of the assembly. We have an assembly that contains individuals, the two Buddhas, past and present, and earth and sky. The assembly no encompasses different realms and different times. Then next coming from the earth is the appearance of many great bodhisattvas. As they emerge from the ground the bring countless numbers in their various entourages. The number now is huge and has no numerical value. We could conjecture that the assembly now represents past and present, earth and sky, beneath the ground and on the ground and infinity. There is somethings else represented by this newly emerging group and that is the infinite life of the historical Buddha Shakyamuni. It also represents as we learn, the future of Buddhism.
We have past, present, future, we have below ground, ground, and sky and universe, we have if we recall from Chapter I various human and non-human beings. This is a complex assembly much as the word car is a complex thought.
Pondering this in its many faceted potentials we can see that just in this examination of assembly that the very word is much more than the meaning of the single word assembly. We may in our study of the Lotus Sutra fail to fully understand this if we focus on a literal meaning of a word which we think we understand. I mean few of us probably find the meaning and comprehension of assembly difficult to grasp.
This is how we can easily be deceived, or lulled into a false sense of understanding. A literal understanding while communicating an idea needs to be suspended and instead we need to transcend and embrace an un-communicated truth.
This may seem rather tedious, or too complicated, or even pointless. I caution against this type of thinking. While it may be difficult to hold all of those thoughts it is not impossible. The reason it becomes difficult is because we are thinking too literally. When we grow more competent in allowing the mind to transcend the literal meanings of words then we grow more skilled at approaching the hidden truth contained in the Lotus Sutra. In some ways the analogy of the blind men and the elephant is quite appropriate.
When we bore down on literal meaning, or even doctrinal comprehensions and ignore the deeper transcendental meanings that go beyond words we are only understanding the Lotus Sutra in a somewhat superficial way. It isn’t that it is unimportant, rather that it can limit us and inhibit our entry into the vast expanse of the mind and heart of the Buddha.
This is the beginning of entry into the mystical meaning of the Lotus Sutra, the spaces between the words.
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