Chapter 12: Devadatta

In one of the sutra's most surprising passages, the Buddha reveals that in a past life, when he was a king seeking the Dharma, his teacher was a seer who is now Devadatta -- the very cousin who in this lifetime became the Buddha's fiercest enemy, attempting to kill him, splitting the sangha, and committing acts traditionally said to result in the deepest hell. Yet the Buddha declares that because of Devadatta's teaching in that former life, he was able to achieve his great compassion and wisdom. Devadatta, the Buddha prophesies, will in a future age become a Buddha named Heavenly King Tathagata.

The chapter then turns to an equally revolutionary episode. The Bodhisattva Manjushri has been preaching the Lotus Sutra in the dragon king's palace beneath the sea. He reports that the dragon king Sagara's daughter, only eight years old, has fully grasped the sutra and attained the stage of non-regression. The Bodhisattva Wisdom Accumulated expresses skepticism that anyone could achieve so much so quickly, and Shariputra voices the traditional objection that a female body cannot attain Buddhahood.

At that moment the dragon girl appears before the assembly, offers a priceless jewel to the Buddha, and in the time it takes the Buddha to accept it, she transforms her body and manifests as a Buddha in a world to the south, displaying all the thirty-two marks and eighty characteristics. The entire assembly witnesses her preaching the Dharma and leading countless beings to enlightenment. This episode shatters conventional assumptions about who can attain Buddhahood, demonstrating that neither gender, age, nor species constitutes a barrier. It stands as one of the most powerful statements of universal inclusion in all of Buddhist literature.