One of the hidden lessons of the Lotus Sutra is the 10 realms – the six realms of transmigration and the four higher realms of Śrāvaka, Pratyekabuddha, Bodhisattva and Buddha. We are first introduced to these by the light of the Buddha in Chapter 1 and in Chapter 4 we learn of the śrāvaka realm. As Nichiren writes in Kanjin Honzon-shō, A Treatise Revealing the Spiritual Contemplation and the Most Venerable One:

“[I]t is stated in the Lotus Sūtra (chapter four, “Understanding by Faith”) that four great Śrāvakas such as Kāśyapa rejoiced in their understanding of the teaching of the Lotus Sūtra enabling śrāvakas to attain Buddhahood, and reported to the Buddha that they had been given invaluable jewels without asking for them. This represents the attainment of Buddhahood by the śrāvaka realm contained in our minds.

“Not only the śrāvaka but also Śākyamuni Buddha is within us. For, we encounter such a statement like this in the second chapter of the Lotus Sūtra: “It was My (Śākyamuni’s) original vow to let all beings become like Myself. My vow has now been fulfilled. I have helped them all enter the way of the Buddha.” Does this not mean, that Śākyamuni Buddha, who has attained Perfect Enlightenment, is our flesh and blood, and all the merits He has accumulated before and after attaining Buddhahood are our bones?”

Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 146

With the revelation of the Buddha’s immeasurable lifespan in Chapter 16, the reader of the Lotus Sutra is brought to the realization that we all possess Buddha nature. As Gene Reeves explains in Stories of the Lotus Sutra:

“While the term ‘buddha-nature’ is never used in the Dharma Flower Sutra, this is a good example of the use of the basic idea behind the concept that would be developed after the Dharma Flower Sutra was compiled. One way we can understand the term is as a kind of ‘power’ that makes it possible for any one of us to be a bodhisattva for someone else, a strength that makes it possible for us to share in doing the Buddha’s work of awakening all the living, a strength that makes it possible for us to go far beyond our normal expectations.

“Buddha-nature, the potential to become a buddha, is not something we have to earn; it is something that all of us have received naturally, something that cannot be destroyed or taken away from us. It is, as the parable in Chapter 4 teaches, our inheritance.”

The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p104

As Reeves points out, “[T]here is no such thing as a ‘hopeless case.’ Everyone, without exception, has within himself or herself an inner strength, a great power, to flourish in some way.”

This is where faith grows. We are assured repeatedly that the hell we experience one day can be transformed into the heavenly realm, that we can gain great merit by being bodhisattvas helping others. With faith that we have no fixed nature, we gain unlimited freedom.

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