What the sūtra is about
The sūtra opens on Vulture Peak near Rājagṛha, before a vast assembly. In the chapter on skilful means the Buddha tells Śāriputra that the Buddhas teach through countless means, causes and parables, and that all these teachings are one Buddha vehicle: the three vehicles are set out only for a time, to lead beings on. Many later chapters return to this idea through different parables.
The sūtra's well-known parables are all in the text: the burning house and the goat, deer and ox carts (chapter 3); the rich father and his wandering poor son (chapter 4); the medicinal herbs watered by one rain (chapter 5); the phantom city on a long road (chapter 7); the physician and his children who drank poison (chapter 16, on the Tathāgata's lifespan). Chapter 11 tells of the seven-jewelled stupa of the Buddha Prabhūtaratna rising from the earth; chapter 12 tells of the eight-year-old dragon king's daughter.
Later chapters are often read on their own: chapter 20 tells of the bodhisattva Never Disparaging, who bowed to everyone he met and said «I do not dare to disparage you; you will all become Buddhas»; chapter 23 tells the past deeds of the bodhisattva Medicine King; chapter 25 is the Universal Gate chapter on Avalokiteśvara; chapter 28 is Samantabhadra's encouragement to those who uphold the sūtra.
How the two translations differ
Translation 1 gives the chapters plain Vietnamese names («Faith and Understanding», «The Parable of the Medicinal Herbs», «Emerging from the Earth») and numbers its notes in square brackets. Translation 2 keeps the Sino-Vietnamese chapter names used in many chanting books, numbers its notes in round brackets and opens each scroll with a heading «Scroll I… Scroll VII». Both render the same sūtra in the same order of 28 chapters; pick the one that reads more naturally for you.
The library holds the Vietnamese translations only: no Sino-Vietnamese transliteration, recording or download yet. The source is shown under each scroll: Linh Sơn Pháp Bảo Đại Tạng Kinh (Vietnamese translation).
Besides the two Linh Sơn translations, the library holds a third Vietnamese translation with all 7 scrolls and 28 chapters on one page (in two parts), for those who want to read straight through; the translator and source are shown under the text. In the same Lotus group is the Sūtra of Innumerable Meanings, three chapters long, regarded as the opening sūtra of the Lotus.
Reading and chanting at home
Each scroll is long — reading slowly usually takes more than an hour — so many people take one chapter a day and finish the 28 chapters in about four weeks. Open the scroll that holds your chapter, press «Chant» and choose the slow speed the first time; tap the screen to pause at a passage. The Universal Gate chapter is often chanted on its own — the Universal Gate page points straight to the start of chapter 25 in scroll 7.
