In Chapter 21, in which the bodhisattvas who sprang up from underground vow to propagate the Lotus Sutra, we are told explicitly why we have been asked to have faith in this supreme sutra:

“Anyone who understands why the Buddhas expound [many] sūtras,
Who knows the position [of this sūtra in the series of sūtras],
And who expounds it after my extinction
According to its true meaning,
Will be able to eliminate the darkness
Of the living beings of the world where he walks about,
Just as the light of the sun and the moon
Eliminates all darkness.
He will be able to cause innumerable Bodhisattvas
To dwell finally in the One Vehicle.”

We are not asked to simply study these teachings. As Nikkyō Niwano says in Buddhism for Today:

“It is not enough to have understood the sutra intellectually. We cannot be saved in the true sense, nor save the whole of society, until we proceed from understanding to faith and reach the mental state of complete union of understanding and faith.”

Or as Thich Nhat Hanh puts it in Peaceful Action, Open Heart:

“The essential message of Chapter 21 is that our practice is to share in the Tathagata’s limitless lifespan and great spiritual power. Just as when we look deeply into a leaf, a cloud, or any phenomenon, we are able to see its infinite lifespan in the ultimate dimension, and we realize that we are the same. If we look deeply enough, we will discover our own nature of no birth, no death. Like the Buddha, we also exist and can function in a much greater capacity than the ordinary frame of time and space we perceive ourselves to be bounded by. …

“Many of us go around all the time feeling that we are as small as a grain of sand. We may feel that our one small human life doesn’t have very much meaning. We struggle to get through life, and at the end of our life we feel that we have accomplished very little. This is a kind of inferiority complex many people suffer from. If we see reality only in terms of the historical dimension, it may seem to us as if there is little one ordinary human being can do. But if we get in touch with the ultimate dimension of reality, we know that we are just like the Buddha. We share in the Buddha’s nature – we are Buddha nature. When we are able to see beyond the limitations of perceived time and space, beyond our own notions of inferiority and powerlessness, we find we have great stores of spiritual energy to share with the world.”

The promise of the Lotus Sutra – the object of our faith – is clearly stated at the conclusion of Chapter 21:

“Therefore, the man of wisdom
Who hears the benefits of these merits
And who keeps this sūtra after my extinction,
Will be able to attain
The enlightenment of the Buddha
Definitely and doubtlessly.”

In Chapter 21, The Supernatural Powers of the Tathāgatas, we are told:

“To sum up, all the teachings of the Tathāgata, all the unhindered, supernatural powers of the Tathāgata, all the treasury of the hidden core of the Tathāgata, and all the profound achievements of the Tathāgata are revealed and expounded explicitly in this sūtra. Therefore, keep, read, recite, expound and copy this sūtra, and act according to the teachings of it with all your hearts after my extinction!”

In Easy Readings of the Lotus Sutra, Chapter 21 is beautifully transformed into an ode to the Daimoku:

“The Odaimoku includes all the merits of the Buddha’s enlightenment.

“The Odaimoku contains all the supernatural powers of the Buddha to save all people.

“The Odaimoku is the crystallization of the Buddha’s boundless wisdom necessary to teach and lead all beings.

“The Odaimoku expresses all merits the Buddha has practiced.

“These four things showing the Buddha’s real image and spirit are explicitly revealed in the Lotus Sutra; the Buddha’s true mind is the Odaimoku.

“Especially after the Buddha’s extinction, you must keep in mind that you should believe, from the bottom of your heart, in the Lotus Sutra and the Odaimoku in which the entire mind of the Buddha is clearly explained, and that you should recite and study the Lotus Sutra and chant the Odaimoku in order to practice the Buddha’s teachings as instructed by the Buddha.

“Wherever the place might be, at the place where the teachings of the Lotus Sutra have spread and the faith in the Odaimoku is practiced in correct and proper ways, you must set up a place of prayer and spend a life with faith in the Sutra, be it in a village or countryside with farms, woods or groves, or in a monastery, or in the house of ordinary people, or a residence of higher status people, or in a mountain village or a vast plain.

“The reason for this is that nowhere else but a place where the Odaimoku is believed in and its teachings are expounded is the true place of prayer.

“It is this place of prayer to the Odaimoku where all Buddhas have become enlightened.

“Here, the Buddhas expound their teachings.

“In other words, this Sahā world in which we live, believing in the Odaimoku, is the very place where the Buddha’s true world lies.”

When we chant Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō we gather to ourselves “all the teachings of the Tathāgata, all the unhindered, supernatural powers of the Tathāgata, all the treasury of the hidden core of the Tathāgata, and all the profound achievements of the Tathāgata.” As Nichiren says in “Reply to My Lady, the Nun of Ueno”:

“In the case of the Lotus Sūtra, … when one touches it, one’s hands immediately become Buddhas, and when one chants it, one’s mouth instantly becomes a Buddha.”

Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Followers II, Volume 7, Page 58-59

This is how faith in the Lotus Sutra is rewarded.

Chapter 20 and the tale of Bodhisattva Never-Despising raises again the issue raised in the Peaceful Practices Chapter of how one who has faith in the Lotus Sutra should approach those who hold opposing views. For Nichiren, the answer was clear:

“Now, two ways of propagation, the persuasive and aggressive, are incompatible with each other just as water and fire are. The fire dislikes the water, and the water hates the fire. Those who prefer the persuasive tend to laugh at those who practice the aggressive and vice versa. So, when the land is full of evil and ignorant people, the persuasive means should take precedence as preached in the ‘Peaceful Practices’ (14th) chapter of the Lotus Sūtra. However, when there are many cunning slanderers of the True Dharma, the aggressive means should take precedence as preached in the ‘Never-Despising Bodhisattva’ (20th) chapter.

“It is the same as using cold water when it is hot and fire when it is cold. Plants and trees are followers of the sun, so they dislike the cold moon. Bodies of water are followers of the moon, so they lose their true nature when it is hot. As there are lands of evil men as well as those of slanderers of the True Dharma in this Latter Age of Degeneration, there should be both aggressive and persuasive means of spreading the True Dharma. Therefore, we have to know whether Japan today is a land of evil men or that of slanderers in order to decide which of the two ways we should use.

Kaimoku-shō, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 111

But, as I mentioned in discussing Chapter 14, today we do not face “cunning slanderers of the True Dharma.” It can be said that behaving as if we face “cunning slanderers” ignores the real message offered by Never-Despising Bodhisattva.

In The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, Gene Reeves offers this prespective:

Teachers of the Lotus Sutra often say that it teaches the bodhisattva way of helping others. Unfortunately, this is sometimes understood to mean intruding where one is not wanted, interfering with the lives of others, in order to ‘do good.’ But the story of Never Disrespectful Bodhisattva may lead us to see that doing good for others begins with respecting them, seeing the buddha in them. If we sincerely look for the potential in someone else to be a buddha, rather than criticizing or complaining about negative factors, we will be encouraged by the positive things that we surely will find. And furthermore, by looking for the good in others, we can come to have a more positive attitude ourselves and thus move along our own bodhisattva path.

In earlier chapters of the Lotus Sutra, it is the Buddha who is able to see the potential to become a buddha in others. But here it becomes very clear that seeing the buddha or the buddha-potential in others is something we all should practice, both for the good of others and for our own good.

Is anything harder to believe than the idea that bad fortune is a good thing? It certainly plays havoc with one’s faith, especially when the Lotus Sutra promises divine protection. The story of Never-Despising Bodhisattva in Chapter 20 is a case in point.

According to Nichiren, Never-Despising Bodhisattva’s suffering at the hands of those angered by his constant promises of future Buddhahood lessened the weight of past bad actions in his previous lives and made possible his eventual enlightenment. As Nichiren explains in “Tenjū Kyōju Hōmon, Lightening the Karmic Retribution”:

“The Nirvana Sūtra preaches a doctrine called ‘lightening the karmic retribution.’ It proclaims that when a retribution accumulated from the evil karma in one’s previous lives is too heavy to be atoned for in this life, one will have to endure the suffering in hell in the future. One may, however, bear hell’s suffering in the present life instead so that one’s suffering in hell in a future life disappears instantly and one will instead be able to receive the blessings of the realm of humanity and that of heavenly beings, as well as the blessings of the Three Vehicles and attain Buddhahood after death. It was not without reason that Never-Despising Bodhisattva was spoken ill of, slandered, beaten with sticks and pieces of wood, or had rubble thrown at him. His persecution in this life seems to be the consequences of his slandering the True Dharma in his previous lives. Therefore it is stated in the sūtra, ‘His sins have been atoned.’ I believe it means that Never-Despising Bodhisattva’s past sin ceased to exist through his persecution.”

Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Followers I, Volume 6, Page 29

It can also be said that the evil done by those who abused Never-Despising Bodhisattva not only benefitted him but also benefited his abusers. According to Haiyan Shen’s interpretation of T’ien-t’ai Chih-i’s The Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sutra, Chih-I saw such evil as the source of good.

“Evil assists sentient beings in pursuing good deeds and in accumulating merits. This is exemplified through evidence from the Lotus Sūtra. One example is drawn from one of the previous lives of the Buddha, when he was known as Sadāparibhūta-bodhisattva [Never-Despising]. This bodhisattva bowed humbly to everyone, claiming that someday they would all become Buddhas. His actions infuriated many people, and they scolded and beat him. As a result, those beings had to suffer from their karman in hell. However, as soon as they paid their dues, the cause and condition of their previous meeting with the bodhisattva matured, and they were able to meet the Buddha in their present lifetime. Upon receiving the Buddha’s teaching in the Lotus Sūtra, they entered the stage of non-retrogression. This case shows that the evil karman of beings in the past gives rise to the opportunity for beings to be taught by the Buddha in the present. This benefit is produced by the evil karman from one’s former action.”[Vol. 2, Page 259-260]