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Vajra said: “This leads me to suspect that the Lotus Sutra “as a whole” was not composed by any one particular community, but rather was finally redacted by a whole series of scribes whose dominate membership favored “the text” as the sole-medium for salvation. ”
Excellent analysis and I must agree. Having read and studied countless spiritual texts and traditions, there are numerous claims to the supreme status and that has always seemed to me like a touching aspect of human nature, to try to point the way and illuminate the darkness, setting aside all doubts.
But I don’t really see it that way. Technically speaking, at least in Zen, it seems unlikely for there to be too much claim for ANY text to have exclusive privilege of pointing the way, at the same time there is nothing stopping anyone from gaining immeasurable benefit from the study of such texts.
As a personal anectdote, I once hit my head on a lamp in a stooped staircase while wandering the world. My companion at the time said: see, it’s a lesson. What’s the lesson, I asked, thinking there would be some hidden message there. My friend answered: You need to look where you are going.
“But I don’t really see it that way. Technically speaking, at least in Zen, it seems unlikely for there to be too much claim for ANY text to have exclusive privilege of pointing the way, at the same time there is nothing stopping anyone from gaining immeasurable benefit from the study of such texts.”
Am trying to see your point; technically speaking, the Lotus Sutra is not a Zen Text, although it has had a great influence on Zen, perhaps notably for Dogen who frequently derived elements from the Lotus for his own teachings.