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Saddharma Pundarīka Sūtra - On plants
Identifier
016358
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
The Lotus Sūtra (Sanskrit: Saddharma Puṇḍarīka Sūtra) is one of the most popular and influential Mahāyāna sūtras, and the basis on which the Tiantai, Tendai, Cheontae, and Nichiren schools of Buddhism were established.
A description of the experience
Saddharma Puṇḍarīka Sūtra [Kern's English translation]
Then Kacyapa, the grasses, shrubs, herbs and wild trees in this universe, such as have young and tender stalks, twigs, leaves and foliage, and such as have middle sized stalks, twigs, leaves and foliage and such as have the same fully developed, all those grasses, shrubs, herbs and wild trees, smaller and greater trees will each, according to its faculty and power, suck the humid element from the water emitted by that great cloud, and by that water which, all of one essence, has been abundantly poured down by the cloud, they will each, according to its germ, acquire a regular development, growth, shooting up and bigness; and they will produce blossoms and fruits and will receive, each severally, their names. Rooted in one and the same soil, all those families of plants and germs are drenched and vivefied by water of one essence throughout.