Rightly named for Maha-prajapati, the first bhiksuni (Buddhist nun), this sutra depicts the story of how the Buddha's foster-mother, in her sixties at Kapilavatthu (the Buddha's birthplace), begged the Buddha earnestly and continually to admit her and five hundred other lay women of the Sakya tribe into the monastic order. Viewed from the "Buddha-Only Vehicle" perspective of The Lotus Sutra, The Maha-prajapati Bhiksuni Sutra reveals the Buddha's compassionate will and vow to help the female practitioners consummate their quest for the ultimate nirvana-becoming a Buddha. In addition, He thus...