In Rev. Ryusho Jeffus’ Lecture on the Lotus Sutra he sets the stage for discussing Chapter 15, The Appearance of Bodhisattvas from Underground, with this observation:

“We each may think we are rather ordinary people, not capable of great things. Yet our ordinariness is in fact a disguise for our true self, Bodhisattvas from beneath the ground, the disciples of the Buddha from the infinite past, and beings perfectly endowed with Buddhahood.”

Lecture on the Lotus Sutra


As the Buddha explains to the four great leaders of those Bodhisattvas:

“The living beings are ready to be saved. They do not fatigue me because I already taught them in their consecutive previous existences, and also because they have already honored the past Buddhas respectfully and planted the roots of good. As soon as they saw me and heard my teachings, they received my teachings by faith and entered into the wisdom of the Tathāgata.”

We are those Bodhisattvas who have been studying and practicing with the Eternal Śākyamuni since the remotest past. Since we have forgotten we are asked today to have faith:

“Arouse your power of faith,
And do good patiently!
You will be able to hear the Dharma
That you have never heard before.

“Now I will relieve you.
Do not doubt me! Do not be afraid!
I do not tell a lie.
My wisdom is immeasurable.
The highest Dharma that I attained
Is profound and difficult to understand.
Now I will expound it.
Listen to me with all your hearts!”

And here we need faith to understand and to act. As Rev. Ryusho Jeffus argues:

“This is our relationship with the Eternal Buddha, not with the historical Buddha. As Bodhisattvas from underground we read the Lotus Sutra from the perspective of an infinite bond with the Buddha, as lifelong practitioners of the Eternal Buddha who have in this lifetime manifested as the beings we currently are but who underneath it all are in fact golden-hued Bodhisattvas. We have received training and are eminently qualified to carry out the lives we have and attain enlightenment in our present form. Everything we need is within us, and the Lotus Sutra is our activation code to actualize our true identities.”

Lecture on the Lotus Sutra

As we faithfully chant the daimoku we join our brethren.

“At first only I, Nichiren, started chanting the daimoku, Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō, but then two, three, then one hundred people, gradually began chanting it. This will continue in the future. Isn’t this what emerging from the earth means? When an innumerable number of people emerge from the earth and this Wonderful Dharma spreads extensively, there will be no mistake, just as a shooting arrow never misses the earth, Japan will be filled with people chanting Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō. You should therefore establish your fame as the practicer of the Lotus Sūtra and devote your life to it.”

Shohō Jisso-shō, Treatise on All Phenomena as Ultimate Reality, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Faith and Practice, Volume 4, Page 78

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