Of the three sutras, the Meditation Sutra is the only one to be based on an actual historic event that discusses historic figures. The first of the three sutras, the Daimuryojukyo, the "Larger Sutra of Immeasurable Life" discusses the truth of enlightenment through a myth, a story. The Meditation Sutra focuses on a historic event, the tragedy at Rajagriha.

    First let me give the background leading up to this tragedy.

    During the time of the Buddha there dwelt a King named Bimbisara. King Bimbisara and his wife, Queen Vaidehi, wanted to have a child, but no child was born to them. The King sought out his wise men to advise him how he might be able to have a child. The wise man, or soothsayer then told the King that there was a hermit living in the mountains. When that hermit dies, three years later a son would be born to the King.

    The King was impatient and ordered a messenger to ask the hermit to kill himself so that he could have his son. The hermit refused, but the King was so desperate to have a child that he ordered the hermit killed. Just as the soothsayer had predicted, when the hermit was murdered, Queen Vaidehi became pregnant.

    The King and Queen were elated over her pregnancy. However, one of the wise men then predicted that someday in the future the child would turn against his father and harm him. The King thought he cannot have a son who would someday turn on him. He told the Queen to deliver the baby from the roof of a tower and have it drop to the ground.

    Amazingly, however, the baby survived. The only injury the baby incurred was a broken finger. Because the baby miraculously survived, the King decided to raise the child after all, and the child was named Ajatasatru.

    Many years later when Prince Ajatasatru became an adult, his friend the evil Devadatta disclosed the history of the Prince’s life. "Did you know that when you were an infant your father tried to have you killed? You somehow survived with only a broken finger."

    Sure enough, Prince Ajatasatru had one crooked finger that he had since birth.

    The Prince became enraged, and turned on his father, having him imprisoned with orders to starve him to death.

    This is the tragedy of Rajagriha, where this episode takes place, and is where the Meditation Sutra begins.

    Queen Vaidehi, unknown to her son Prince Ajatasatru, secretly worked to keep her husband alive in prison. She painted her body with a paste of honey and flour, and put fruit juice into her jewelry ornaments. When she visited the King in prison he was able to gain enough nourishment that way to keep himself alive.

    One day the Prince asked his soldiers, "Has my father died yet?"

    The soldiers said, "Your father has not died. It seems that your mother the Queen has been secretly sneaking in food and juice to keep him alive."

    The Prince was outraged, and then ordered his Mother to be killed.

    The Prince’s ministers or wise men began to plead with the Prince to spare her life. They said that in many cases a Prince has killed his father, but they knew of no history of a Prince killing his mother. Truly that would be too great a crime.

    The Prince then spared his mother her life, but imprisoned her.

    Queen Vaidehi, from her prison cell, pleaded with the Buddha to give her some kind of teaching in her tragic situation. Her own son has killed her husband and has imprisoned her. How much more tragic a situation can there be in life?

    One of my teachers in Japan once said that he felt the Meditation Sutra was one of the most important sutras for our present day world because it deals with tragedy. He used to say, "Just look at the newspaper everyday. It is filled with nothing but tragedies that are happening to people all over the world."

    This was over 15 years ago that I heard that lecture, but today those words ring ever loudly for me in my heart and mind in light of the September 11 tragedy. We have been thrown into the world of tragedy. How can we face such tragedy? How can we live through chaos and turmoil, pain and suffering? Is there some kind of teaching for those who face such tragedy in today’s world?

    Just as Queen Vaidehi pleaded for guidance, for a teaching from the Buddha in her desperate hour of need, the world today too cries out for help.

    When you think about it, Queen Vaidehi’s situation was truly tragic. She had lost her husband, which is a loss for anyone, even due to natural causes. However, her husband was killed, not by a thief, murderer, or terrorist, but by her own son. If her husband’s murderer was someone else, she could vent her anger towards that horrible person. But that horrible person was her own son, her own flesh and blood, the child she has raised.

    Queen Vaidehi asked the Buddha, "Isn’t there a place where there is no suffering or sorrow? I cannot stand this hellish world that we live in. Please show me a world free of such sufferings."

    The Buddha then showed Vaidehi the "Pure Land." Here I think the sutra teaches us symbolically. When the Buddha "showed" Vaidehi the "Pure Land", it meant that he showed her the world of truth or enlightenment, Nirvana, which is the world of true peace, free of sorrow. That is the "Pure Land". He showed her how to "see" that Pure Land through various meditations, thus the common name of the sutra as the "Meditation" sutra.

    The Buddha also taught Vaidehi the Nembutsu, Namuamidabutsu. Think on and recite the Buddha’s name, Namuamidabutsu. This is how the Pure Land, the world of truth or enlightenment is opened up to us, especially for those who face tragedy in their life.

    The other day in my Introduction to Buddhism and Jodo Shinshu course, we spent just a few minutes reciting the Nembutsu. One woman told me after class, "I don’t know what it is, but I just feel so peaceful when I recite the Nembutsu."

    In this day of turmoil and chaos, perhaps the real source of spiritual peace and tranquility can be found in the ancient texts that we call the sutras. The messages in the sutras are not archaic, ancient gibberish. They have a teaching for us today, 2500 years later. They speak to our suffering, to our fears and anxieties, to those even who have been thrown into great tragedy.

    Just as Queen Vaidehi received the teachings and the Nembutsu through the Buddha’s guidance and counseling, so too can we awaken to true peace and discover the teaching that enables us to live through these tragic times.

Namuamidabutsu,

Rev. Marvin Harada