In order for the Lotus Sutra to be applied to actual life, its ideas had to be derived from the parables and stories that made the sutra so popular. These ideas were articulated in the interpretations of Chinese and Japanese commentators, many of whom were drawn to the sutra by its own merits and not simply through sectarian affiliation. Enhanced by these interpretations, the sutra took on greater meaning, for without the understanding of a positive view of emptiness, a unifying truth that embraces all life, an eternal Buddha who reigns throughout time, and the bodhisattva practices that must be carried out in society, the Lotus Sutra could not have had the wide influence and applications that it did.