Chapter 20: The Bodhisattva Never Disparaging

The Buddha tells the assembly about a past age called Awesome Sound King, during the period after the extinction of a Buddha named Awesome Sound King Tathagata. A monk of that age, instead of reciting sutras or studying doctrines, simply approached every person he met -- monk, nun, layman, or laywoman -- bowed deeply, and spoke these words: "I would never dare disparage you, for you are all practicing the bodhisattva way and will all become Buddhas." He did this regardless of their status, behavior, or response to him. Because this was his sole practice, he became known as the Bodhisattva Never Disparaging.

Many of those he addressed responded with anger, contempt, and violence. Arrogant monks and nuns cursed him, laypeople struck him with sticks and stones, and crowds chased him away. But he continued his practice undeterred, always retreating just far enough to avoid injury before calling out again, "I dare not disparage you, for you will all become Buddhas!" Over the course of many years, those who had persecuted him began to have a change of heart, and in the end they became his followers. When Never Disparaging neared death, he heard the Lotus Sutra preached by the Buddha Awesome Sound King from the heavens, gained all the purifications of the six senses, and had his life extended by two hundred trillion years.

The Buddha then reveals that he himself was that Bodhisattva Never Disparaging, and that those who persecuted him are present in the current assembly. Some of them spent a thousand kalpas in the deepest hells as a result of their slander, but eventually they too were led to the path of Buddhahood. This chapter teaches that the simple act of recognizing and affirming the Buddha-nature in every being is itself a profound practice, and that even the most reviled and seemingly foolish expression of faith can be the seed of supreme enlightenment.