Do Not Preach the Lotus Sutra to These Six Types of People
And again, Shariputra: do not teach this sutra to those who are arrogant and indolent, who cling to a view of a self; to ordinary people with shallow understanding, deeply attached to the five sense desires, who cannot comprehend it even...
And again, Shariputra: do not teach this sutra to those who are arrogant and indolent, who cling to a view of a self; to ordinary people with shallow understanding, deeply attached to the five sense desires, who cannot comprehend it even when they hear it.
First, the Buddha enumerates six types of people to whom the Lotus Sutra should not be taught. You should instead guide them first using the expedient methods of the Three Vehicles, through teachings on karma and its fruition, and on emptiness. Who are these people?
First, arrogance. Arrogant people cling to their own perceived virtuous qualities and inflate their egos as a result. They may be of high birth, possess a dignified and striking appearance, be intelligent, or wealthy, and hold an extremely arrogant mindset. The Lotus Sutra should not be taught to such people immediately.
Second, indolence. Indolent people are content with small attainments and have narrow, limited aspirations. They are satisfied with their current state and have no desire to progress further.
Third, those who cling to a view of a self. This generally refers to adherents of non-Buddhist paths. These people have extremely strong attachment to the view of a self and the self-clinging that accompanies it, so the Lotus Sutra should not be taught to them.
Fourth, ordinary people with shallow understanding. This refers to worldly scholars with sharp debating skills who have read extensively. Some of these scholars have only superficial cleverness but are deeply attached to names and marks. The Lotus Sutra should also not be taught to such people.
Fifth, those deeply attached to the five sense desires. These people have extremely strong clinging minds, with coarse, heavy craving for the five sense desires. Their minds are prone to chasing outward after external objects, so they find it very difficult to turn their awareness inward to reflect on their true nature. The Lotus Sutra should not be taught to them.
Sixth, those who cannot understand even after hearing the teachings. These people have dull spiritual faculties and are unable to comprehend the meaning even after hearing the sutra.
These six types of people — the arrogant, the indolent, those who cling to a view of a self, ordinary people with shallow understanding, those deeply attached to the five sense desires, and those who cannot understand even after hearing the teachings — should not be taught the Lotus Sutra. To realize the Lotus Sutra, you must rely on faith as your foundation. Your attachment to the self and to dharmas must be lessened; in other words, your mind of clinging to attainments should be light.
People with a strong mind of clinging to attainments always have minds that chase after external objects. Ordinary people cling to the "self", while followers of the Two Vehicles (Śrāvakas and Pratyekabuddhas) and provisional Bodhisattvas cling to "dharmas", believing there is a real, substantial merit dharma and pursuing it accordingly. Anyone who can turn their awareness inward to correctly contemplate true suchness must have only light attachment to self and dharmas, and be humble and eager to learn.
If we spread the teachings of the Lotus Sutra without first assessing people's spiritual capacities, the consequences could be extremely severe, as we may cause them great harm. Later, we will explain the karmic causes and effects of slandering the Lotus Sutra. Therefore, when propagating the Lotus Sutra, we must take great care to consider whether people have fully matured Great Vehicle (Mahāyāna) wholesome roots.
This section is the final part of the Chapter of Parables, focused on encouraging faith and circulating the teachings. After completing the Chapter of Parables, why did the Buddha teach this section focused on encouraging faith and circulation? He wanted to emphasize two key points:
First, the Buddha said: "I teach this Dharma seal for the benefit of the world." The One Vehicle teaching of the Lotus Sutra can only be spread when the right conditions are present. When sentient beings practice the provisional teachings, whether they first practice teachings on karma and its fruition, or on emptiness, they are practicing centered on a single Dharma, and have not yet integrated these practices into the nature of mind. As a result, practicing centered on a single Dharma will inevitably lead to attachment to dharmas.
Attachment to dharmas has its limits, bound as it is by time and space. So when you practice centered on attachment to dharmas, you will eventually reach an impasse where you can no longer make progress. If a person feels they have reached an impasse in their practice of karma and fruition, or emptiness, bound by their own attachment to dharmas and seeking a breakthrough, this is exactly the moment when the conditions for them to engage with the Lotus Sutra have fully ripened. This is because the Lotus Sutra is the only path to break through attachment to dharmas, as the sutra itself says: "In all Buddha-lands of the ten directions, there is only the One Vehicle."
The other practices, such as the study of karma and fruition, or emptiness, are merely "provisional names used to guide sentient beings". They only teach you not to create evil, and not to cling to conditioned, phenomenal things, using "pure dharmas" to dispel deluded thoughts. From the perspective of the nature of mind in a single thought, all of these are "manifestations of mind alone". In other words, only when your Great Vehicle wholesome roots have fully matured can the Buddha teach you the Lotus Sutra. That is the first point.
Second, "when you travel to different places, do not propagate it recklessly." This is a reminder to us Bodhisattvas who spread the Dharma in the latter age: do not teach the One Vehicle Dharma to everyone you encounter, as they may develop doubt, or even slander the teachings and create negative karma. This instruction to "not propagate recklessly" means you must be careful and prudent when spreading the Lotus Sutra, and tailor your teachings to each person's spiritual capacity.
Comprehension of the Great Vehicle Dharma is termed "faith and understanding". A person can only comprehend the "wonderful, inconceivable Dharma" by first generating firm, confident reliance on it. This raises a question: if I have not studied it deeply over a long period of time, what basis do I have to believe in it? This is the key focus of our discussion today, which we call "encouraging faith and circulating the teachings".
Studying the Great Vehicle Dharma is not just about what you attain in this lifetime. This lifetime is only the start of your studies, laying a basic foundation. If you want to arouse genuine, immediate benefit from your practice, this depends on whether you have cultivated wholesome roots in past lives. Therefore, the Great Vehicle Dharma, especially its inconceivable realms, cannot be rushed or forced. If you lack these wholesome roots, it is very difficult to experience immediate benefit from it, so you should first study the provisional teachings of the Three Vehicles. The arising of this faith cannot be accounted for through mental speculation, intellectual debate, or logical proof. It tests whether you have cultivated the perfect, sudden wholesome roots of the Great Vehicle in past lives — in other words, whether you have been close to Buddhas in past lives and studied the Lotus Sutra in previous lifetimes.
If you do not have the foundation of such wholesome roots from past lives, the Buddha tells all of us Bodhisattvas who spread the Dharma: "when you travel to different places, do not propagate it recklessly." These inconceivable realms of "the single mind of true suchness" — such as the Pure Land path, or the Lotus Sutra itself — if you teach them to someone without the appropriate spiritual capacity, they may generate slander, which will cause them great harm. This is why these inconceivable teachings are called "faith and understanding", not just "intellectual understanding".
You must first generate faith through the power of your own cultivated wholesome roots. This faith cannot be justified by logic — it is simply a matter of believing and corresponding to it. The only way this kind of faith arises is if you have cultivated Great Vehicle wholesome roots in past lives, and your teacher's teaching of the Dharma has activated those roots, leading you to believe. That is how it works.
Here, we are discussing the "three carts" and "one cart" from the Chapter of Parables, the principle known as "integrating the provisional into the true". When the Buddha addressed the issue of circulating the teachings in the latter age, he specifically admonished us: "when you travel to different places, do not propagate it recklessly." You must assess whether the person you are teaching has fully matured wholesome roots, especially Great Vehicle wholesome roots.