On three consecutive days this fall, CIIS’s Asian and Comparative Studies faculty held a study group of the Lotus Sutra with students. They examined Sanskrit, Tibetan, and Chinese versions of the sutras to compare and contrast the differing textual versions of this important text. Several translations were referenced. The readings took place on September 22 and 29, and October 6 at CIIS.

This is the fourth year that faculty in the Asian and Comparative Studies department have held extracurricular seminars that focus on different Buddhist texts. They have previously done similar readings with the Heart Sutra, the Dhammapada, and the Lotus Sutra.

The Lotus Sutra was most likely composed in the first century AD in Kashmir, during the fourth Buddhist Council of the newly founded Mahayana sect of Buddhism, more than 500 years after the death of Sakyamuni Buddha.

The Mahayana tradition states that the Lotus Sutra is a discourse delivered by Sakyamuni Buddha himself, as is mentioned in the Sutra itself. The Mahayana tradition also holds that the Lotus Sutra was written down at the time of the Buddha and stored for 500 years, then reintroduced at the time of the Fourth Buddhist Council in Kashmir. The tradition further claims that the teachings of the Lotus Sutra are higher than the teachings contained in the Agamas and the Sutta Pitaka, and that humankind was unable to understand the Lotus Sutra at the time of the Buddha (500 BC).