The Jewel in the Garment: A Pure Land Interpretation
Suppose there is a person who goes to the house of a close friend. The friend is rich and sets out many rare delicacies. He takes a priceless jewel and sews it inside his friend's garment, gives it to him and then departs, while the man lies asleep, knowing nothing of it.
When the man gets up, he wanders off to other lands, seeking food and clothing to keep himself alive, undergoing great hardship to sustain his life. He is content with what little he can get, and desires nothing better.
He does not realize that inside his garment he has a priceless jewel. The friend who gave him the jewel later happens to meet this man, and after sternly rebuking him, shows him the jewel sewn in his garment.
When the poor man sees this jewel, his heart is filled with great joy. He is rich, possessing wealth and goods, and can satisfy his five desires as he pleases.
— Watson, Burton, translator. The Lotus Sutra. Columbia University Press, 1993.
I recognize in my own practice a tendency to seek more. There must be a new bit of esoteric wisdom, a ritual I’ve yet to experience, that will finally get me all the way there. The clouds will part, dualities collapse, egos dissolve. Mujō-shōtō-shōgaku.
And yet here I sit (to borrow some words from Pink Floyd), “shorter of breath and one day closer to death.” Recognizing my folly is a step in the right direction, I suppose. In times like these, it’s a good idea to return to the Sutras.
The Parable of the Jewel in the Garment can be found in Chapter 8 of Watson’s translation of The Lotus Sutra. When I first read it, I thought it was a bit on the nose. The Mahayana tradition is full of parables essentially saying, “Wake up to what already is.” We continue to stumble around, drunk on sensation and looking for answers, when the precious gem of awakening is (and always has been) within our reach.
A Pure Land perspective
Such is the beauty of the Sutra that it allows more than one interpretation. I have my own unorthodox view. I view the rich friend as the Buddha, but not only Shakyamuni Buddha. The distinct forms of the Buddhas are an expedient. One Buddha is all Buddhas.
In this kalpa, it is Shakyamuni who sews the jewel (the Buddhadharma) in our coat. The vast majority of us then wander about like the poor seeker, barely making ends meet, looking for something we struggle to define.
Now here’s where I stretch it a bit. When we meet the rich friend again, it’s in the form of Amida Buddha. He says, “You never figured out how to use it, did you? Come with me, and we’ll change that.”
I’m no monastic. I’m a mere householder. I am fortunate to have attained a human life, but I must humbly admit that I can’t get a grip on that jewel. So I look instead to the West, to the Pure Land of Amida Buddha, where I’ll soon be able to grasp it in all its glory.
Namu Amida Butsu.