Lotus Sutra Study Class

Service Description

Join us every third Sunday of the month to deepen your knowledge and practice of Buddhism through lively discussion and readings. Requested donation per class: $5 We will read and discuss The Threefold Lotus Sutra together with Nikkyo Niwano’s analysis from Buddhism for Today. This class is led by participants and dharma teachers. We will read The Threefold Lotus Sutra from start to finish. Students may join at any time and do not need to be present for the beginning of the class. They can join at any time, but we request continued attendance in classes once started. The Lotus Sutra consists of a series of sermons delivered by the Buddha before a great multitude of disciples and countless others toward the end of his forty-five-year teaching ministry. The setting and scope are cosmic, but the sermons themselves, presented in both prose and verse, are replete with parables and graphic anecdotes. At the heart of the sutra are three major concepts of Mahayana Buddhism: 1.- All sentient beings can attain perfect enlightenment, or buddhahood, and nothing less than this is the appropriate final goal of believers; 2.-The Buddha is eternal, having existed from the infinite past and appearing in many forms throughout the ages to guide and assist living beings through the teaching of the Wondrous Dharma; and 3.-The noblest form of Buddhist practice is the way of the bodhisattvas, those who devote themselves to attaining enlightenment not only for themselves but for all sentient beings.