A true teacher sets you free. They don’t keep you chained to them.

Lotus Sutra Buddhism is labor of love that I create for people like you. If it resonates, please share it and subscribe to get new episodes by email as soon as I drop them. So I don’t know about you, but I find the following conversation frightening. I found it on the Reddit Buddhism group. This is someone asking a question (  / discussion_of_the_sutras  ) . “I’ve been practicing and learning about Buddhism for a few years now, but I find great difficulty in reading and getting meaning from the sutras. Is there any group of people who meet to read a section and discuss or expound on it? Maybe the discipline of a group video meeting might make this more meaningful.” Okay, so that’s a sincere question from someone seeking support in reading the sutras, the teaching of the Buddha. Here’s the response this person got, and the moderators of the Buddhism group on Reddit didn’t delete this. “Have you tried looking into intro books from contemporary teachers? As a Tibetan Buddhism practitioner, I’ve barely ever looked at sutras. In fact, Thrangu Rinpoche, one of the top academic authorities in Tibetan Buddhism, recommended against reading sutras. The way he put it was that the Buddha taught many things to people of varying aptitudes and different times and places so that it needs to be interpreted by contemporary masters.” And here “masters” is used in the sense of slave and master. There is no other way to interpret that. Somebody telling you that instead of getting your information from the Buddha himself, from the person who originally taught Buddhism, you need to go to a contemporary master. I find this disgusting. And I had already written up something about it: Saying that you practice Buddhism when you don’t read sutras, the Buddhist teachings, is like saying you practice medicine because you’ve read some really good WebMD articles. Any teacher who leads you away from the Buddha’s own words has made you their spiritual slave. They’ve made you rely on them to get what you should be getting for yourself — the Buddha’s teaching. In the “Emerging from the Earth” chapter of the Lotus Sutra, the Buddha made it very clear what he wanted us to do in this age, the Latter Day of the Law, regarding the Lotus Sutra. He said (https://www.nichirenlibrary.org/en/ls...) : “After I enter extinction, these people will be able to protect, embrace, read, recite and widely preach this sutra.” The Buddha The Buddha was counting on us — on me and on you — to read the sutras ourselves. I’m a practitioner of the Lotus Sutra, and I read it every day. Free yourself. Throw off the chains that your so-called teacher has wrapped around your spirit. So I’ve been talking about sutras in plural regarding reading sutras because I’ve just been shocked to find out that Buddhists all over the world are not reading the sutras their type of Buddhism is based on. But I’m a Buddhist of the Lotus Sutra. And in the Lotus Sutra, the Buddha said it is his highest teaching, and that he waited until near the end of his life to preach it because people weren’t ready to hear that they are buddhas. So the sutra I recommend you read, even if you’re just starting out, is the Lotus Sutra. Here’s what the Buddha said about it (https://www.nichirenlibrary.org/en/ls...) : “If after the thus come one has passed into extinction, there should be someone who listens to the Lotus Sutra of the Wonderful Law, even one verse or one phrase, and for a moment thinks of it with joy. I will likewise bestow on him a prophecy that he will attain supreme perfect enlightenment.” The Buddha So unlike any other sutra, the Lotus Sutra promises that if you practice it, or like the Buddha said, just listen to it and respond with joy for a moment, you will attain supreme perfect enlightenment. So if you want to attain enlightenment in this lifetime, start reading the Lotus Sutra. Read the Lotus Sutra, Nichiren’s writings and a dictionary of Buddhism at nichirenlibrary.org (https://nichirenlibrary.org) . To support your study of the Lotus Sutra, use my Lotus Sutra study guide. You can download it and share it at bit.ly/lotus-sutra-resources (https://bit.ly/lotus-sutra-resources) . Lotus Sutra Buddhism provides honest study of the Lotus Sutra and Nichiren’s writings — whether you’re simply interested in Buddhism, questioning what the SGI taught you, or ready to quit. Get full access to Lotus Sutra Buddhism at lotussutrabuddhism.substack.com/subscribe (https://lotussutrabuddhism.substack.c...)