Nichiren and his contemporaries accepted [the Lotus Sūtra] as a record of actual events in India at Vulture Peak. Today, we might have a little trouble accepting this testimony as valid simply because we do not view the Lotus Sūtra as a historical event or the verbatim record of a talk given by the historical Śākyamuni Buddha. Many people today may not even believe in rebirth, and so the dilemma of the two vehicles who cannot become bodhisattvas because they have cut themselves off from the cycle of birth and death may seem to be an imaginary or at least purely hypothetical problem. So what can we make of all of this if we do not accept these basic assumptions regarding the Mahāyāna sūtras as being the record of actual teachings and events or the metaphysical assumptions involved in the distinctions (or non-distinction) between the two vehicles and the One Vehicle?

I am of the opinion that those who wrote the Lotus Sūtra had themselves awakened to the highest truth that the Buddha had awakened to through their own faith and practice. They were monks (and perhaps nuns) who had awakened to a selfless compassion that went far beyond what they expected. Perhaps they had been striving to become arhats, or perhaps they were Mahāyānists who aspired to attain buddhahood in some distant time and place. In any case, when they attained awakening they realized that it cut through all their dualistic ideas, including the division between Hinayāna and Mahāyāna. They knew for themselves that all the teachings of the Buddha did not lead to lesser goals but to the very same awakening the Buddha had realized. I believe that the Lotus Sūtra is the literary expression of their insight and the supreme joy that they felt in the form of a great drama in which the Buddha reveals the One Vehicle teaching. When the sūtra says that Śāriputra “felt like dancing for joy” or that Śāriputra declares to the Buddha, “Today I have realized that I am your son, that I was born from your mouth, that I was born in [the world of] the Dharma, and that I have obtained the Dharma of the Buddha.” I hear the voice of those anonymous Mahāyāna monks (and perhaps nuns as well) voicing their joyful surprise at how they had awakened to the same truth to which the Buddha had awakened. All of the rhetorical flourishes and fantastic events of the Lotus Sūtra are by way of underscoring how momentous this awakening was, and how, for them, it surpassed any other teaching, whether Hinayāna or Mahāyāna, that they had heard. It does not worry me that the historical Buddha might not have spoken the exact words attributed to him in the Lotus Sūtra, nor do I worry that the Assembly in Space might not have literally occurred. What I think is marvelous is that more than 2,000 years ago the Buddha’s followers realized that all people were capable of attaining perfect and complete awakening of a Buddha and that all who heard the Dharma would embark upon the One Vehicle enabling them to do so. When we read, recite, ponder, and share the Lotus Sūtra I believe that we are reading, reciting, pondering and sharing the testimony of those long ago practitioners who had such a surprising and joyful awakening that surpassed every expectation and who furthermore had the conviction that their awakening was available to all people. More than two thousand years later the Lotus Sūtra enables us to share their faith, hope, and conviction regarding the true meaning of the Buddha’s teachings.

This is clearly the main point of the Trace Gate, or first half of the Lotus Sūtra. In chapter two of the Lotus Sūtra, the Buddha begins the teaching of the One Vehicle. In the very first part of that chapter he speaks of the “ten suchnesses” which are the ten factors” in Zhiyi’s teaching of the “three thousand realms in a single thought-moment.” … [T]hese ten factors show what the ten realms have in common that allows them to contain one another as different states in the ongoing dynamic process of interdependent becoming. Since they contain one another, the realm of buddhahood is embraced by and embraces the other nine realms. This means that buddhahood is an integral part of all and is realizable by all. Knowing this, the Buddha used various skillful means to teach people how to realize the different goals that appealed to them, but his true intention was that all those he taught would realize their own buddhahood. After being requested to do so three times by Śāriputra, the Buddha then clarifies that the three vehicles of the śrāvakas, pratyekabuddhas, and bodhisattvas were taught as a form of skillful means and that in fact there is only the One Vehicle that leads all to buddhahood. From chapter two to chapter nine the One Vehicle is expounded in terms of the parable of the burning house, the parable of the wealthy man and his poor son, the simile of the herbs, and others. In chapter seven, the Buddha tells the assembly how he has been teaching them the Lotus Sūtra in his capacity as a bodhisattva as long ago as “three thousand dust mote eons.” In these chapters, the Buddha gave predictions of buddhahood to major śrāvaka disciples such as Śāriputra, Maudgalyāyana, Mahākāśyapa, and many others, including his son Rāhula. In chapter thirteen he predicted buddhahood for his wife Yaśodharā, and his aunt Mahā-Prajāpatī who were also śrāvakas. Many of those the Buddha gave predictions too were arhats, those who had already cut off any ties to the world of birth and death and who therefore were not ever going to be reborn again. Throughout the Trace Gate the Buddha makes it very clear through plain statement, the use of parables, a past life story, and specific prophecies that even those who are following the way of the two vehicles will also attain buddhahood.