"General Siha, do you have something you wish to say to me, or some question you wish to ask?" General Siha looked intently at the Buddha and said, "I have been told by teachers of other religions that the holy man Shakyamuni is one who preaches inaction, saying that people are pawns of fate and are incapable of free, self-determined action. Or that you are an annihilationist, who teaches that nothing remains after death; or that you are one who teaches hatred of this world.

But the Lotus Sutra was not so difficult for people to understand when the sutra first appeared. The person we call the Buddha, or Awakened One, was born Siddhartha Gautama, whom history knows as the Sage of the Shakya clan, or Shakyamuni. During his lifetime in the fifth to fourth centuries BCE, he was not a mysterious figure who spoke in riddles like an entranced medium; nor did he force dogmatic ideas on others. Shakyamuni was a conscientious person who thought long and ha

Ambapali trembled as she heard Shakyamuni explain the necessity of making offerings to gain release from the desire to grasp things that are by nature impermanent. Imbued with new hope, she wished she could be with Shakyamuni forever. Reverently, she approached him and asked, "World-honored One, I am Ambapali, the courtesan. Will you deign to grant the request of a lowly woman like me? I would be honored if you would visit my home tomorrow morning and allow me to present offe

My neighbor is driving me crazy. I am so mad at her. She called me up the other day and told me I was the worst neighbor because I don't mow often enough. I am not able to take care of the lawn myself and depend on others for help. Since my friends are volunteers, I don't feel that I can pressure them. I am just grateful when they can help me by mowing. My neighbor even went as far as to threaten me if I didn't do what she wanted. How can I resolve this?

That said, even in a world that appears shrouded in darkness and has a seemingly unforeseeable future, there is a powerful message that asserts every one of us can do something. This concept, articulated by the renowned Eastern philosopher Masahiro Yasuoka (1898–1983), is called “the practice of illuminating one corner [of the world] with one lamp—the practice of illuminating the world with ten thousand lamps.” “Rather than complaining about the darkness, light a lamp. / We s