What is meant by the statement that in comparison with the Buddha King Wisdom of the Pure Flower Constellation and the Bodhisattva Wonder Sound, the body of Sakyamuni Buddha is short and small and all the bodhisattvas are small of stature, not emitting rays of light from their bodies? This figure of speech points out the gulf between ideal and actuality. The domain where the Buddha King Wisdom of the Pure Flower Constellation dwells is an ideal world situated in the heavens. For this reason the bodies of the buddhas and the bodhisattvas in that domain are extraordinarily large and of a wonderful brightness.

On the other hand, what is the actuality? There is nothing impressive about it when compared with the ideal. The actuality appears to be far smaller, lower, and plainer than the ideal. A person who has perfected his character in such an actual world is far more sacred than an ideal form in the heavens, even if his body is small and has no apparent brightness. There is nothing more sacred than the attainment of the mental state of the Buddha in the actual world, where obstructions are often thrown up by evil-minded people. The Buddha King Wisdom of the Pure Flower Constellation preached this earnestly to the Bodhisattva Wonder Sound.

In the ten similes praising the Lotus Sutra, this sutra is repeatedly stated to be the supreme and the most sublime of all sutras. This illustrates the Buddha’s intention to cause us to write indelibly on our hearts that our practice of the Law is the first essential for the accomplishment of the way to buddhahood.

Noteworthy among these similes is the following: “Just as the Great Brahma Heavenly King is the father of all living beings, so is it also with this sutra; it is the father of all the wise and holy men, of those training and the trained, and of the bodhisattva-minded.” In India, for a long time before Sakyamuni Buddha appeared in this world, people believed that the Great Brahma Heavenly King is the father of all living beings and that this heavenly king governs all creatures. In the simile mentioned above the Buddha does not say specifically that this is a mistaken idea, but preaches: “Just as all living beings regard the Great Brahma Heavenly King as their father, so this sutra is the father of them all.” It is a characteristic of Buddhism to lead ordinary people to the path of the truth in the gentle way shown here by the Buddha. He preaches, gently but firmly, “The truth is the father of all living beings.”

Having finished preaching chapter 21, Sakyamuni Buddha rose from his Law seat and, through his supernatural power, laid his right hand on the heads of the innumerable bodhisattva-mahasattvas and spoke thus: “I, for incalculable hundreds of thousands of myriads of koṭis of asaṃkhyeyas of kalpas, have practiced this rare Law of Perfect Enlightenment. Now I entrust it to you. Do you wholeheartedly promulgate this Law and make it increase and prosper far and wide.”

To lay one’s hand on another’s head or to pat someone on the head is to praise him, according to Japanese custom. In the West it is usually a gesture of affection. In India, however, such an action means to put one’s trust in another, as if to say, “I leave it to you. Do your best.” It is said that Sūryasoma, who taught the Lotus Sutra to his favorite disciple, Kumārajīva, laid his hand on Kumārajīva’s head and said to him, “Reverently propagate this sutra.”

The Buddha’s action of laying his right hand on the heads of the innumerable bodhisattvas through his supernatural power represents his placing deep trust in them. They must have been deeply moved by the Buddha’s action.

There are indeed many different speeds in the process of the attainment of enlightenment. The difference in people’s capacity to understand the Buddha’s teachings exists only in the area encompassed by “this shore” (shigan), the world of birth and death. But people become buddhas equally when they reach “that shore” (higan), the realm of nirvana. Therefore, there is no essential difference in their capacity to understand the Buddha’s teachings. This is the teaching of mirai-ki’itsu, “man’s capacity to understand the Buddha’s teachings is one in the future.” The Buddhist term fugen-daie, “all creatures universally see the great assembly of the Buddha surrounded by many other buddhas,” indicates the idea that the Buddha has the divine power to lead all living beings equally to the realm of nirvana in the future.

The expression “all the gods in the sky sang with exalted voices” means that all living beings in the sahā-world received inspiration from all the gods. Such an expression is not limited to Buddhism. The phrase “a voice was heard from heaven” appears in Christian writings, and the words “I hear heaven’s voice” are often used in the teachings of Confucius and Mencius. These words imply that people receive revelations from heaven, that is, that they perceive the truth of faith as if an inspiration had flashed across their minds.

What did all the living beings in the sahā-world receive by inspiration from the exalted voices of all the gods in the sky? They realized that in the sahā-world, Sakyamuni Buddha preached the teaching called the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Law, the Law by which bodhisattvas are instructed and which the buddhas watch over and keep in mind. This is a true and peerless teaching, which causes all beings in the universe to live, bestows harmony on them, and brings about their peace of mind. This realization means that although the sahā-world is now a realm of suffering, it will surely become the most sacred land of the universe in the future, when all teaching and learning will be united into one in the Buddha’s teachings.

[Chapter 18] details the merits of a beginner, one who has just entered the teaching. [Chapter 19] expounds the merits of a preacher who has moved to a higher level. “Preacher” does not necessarily mean monk or nun but means any person – including Buddhist monks, nuns, laymen, and laywomen – who receives and keeps the Buddha’s teachings and endeavors to spread them. The practices of a preacher are of five kinds (goshu hosshi): receiving and keeping the sutra (juji), reading it (doku) and reciting it (ju), expounding it (gesetsu), and copying it (shosha). … In each of these five practices, the state of our gradually deepening faith is clearly shown.

If we believe and discern the teaching after hearing it, and if we raise the mind of joyful acceptance of it, we proceed first to keep it firmly, then, reading and reciting the sutra, to inscribe it on our memory. As a personal discipline, this practice is done to establish the foundation of our faith. When our faith reaches this stage, we cannot help transmitting the teaching to others. As a result, we expound the sutra (the teaching) and copy it. We cannot say we have attained true faith until we go through each process of the five kinds of practices of the preacher.

This chapter preaches in further detail the merits of first rejoicing over the Buddha’s teachings. The reason such merits are repeatedly preached is that our joyful acceptance of the Buddha’s teachings, our deep feeling of gratitude for them, is indispensable to faith. Even if we have read many sutras and have memorized all Buddhist doctrines, so long as we do not accept the Buddha’s teachings with heartfelt joy this means merely that we are knowledgeable in Buddhism; it does not indicate that we believe in the Buddha. To have a sense of joyful acceptance of the Buddha’s teachings is to have faith in them. Therefore the merits that we obtain by the joyful acceptance of his teachings are preached repeatedly in this chapter.

Almost all people who enter a religious faith have some form of suffering. It is natural for them to want to free themselves from such sufferings, and they are not to be blamed for this. But when they are concerned only with the desire to recover from illness or to be blessed with money, they are merely attaching themselves to the idea of “disease” or “poverty.” Though they wish to rid themselves of these problems, instead they become their victims because their minds grasp the idea of illness or poverty so tightly that they cannot let go.

People who believe in religion only in order to receive divine favors in this world easily retrogress from their stage of development in that faith. This is because they cannot truly understand the eternity of the Buddha’s life, and at the same time the eternity of man’s life. They think only of the present and begin to doubt the teaching or grow tired of it unless clear material merits are manifested. But there are some people who cannot receive such merits in this world because of deep and inextinguishable unfavorable karma from their former lives, even if they have faith in a true religion, purify their minds, and devote themselves to the bodhisattva practice for the benefit of others in society.

Nevertheless, people who can believe in the immortality of the Buddha’s life can also feel confident of their own eternal life. Therefore they can live with self-confidence, realizing, “If we only continue this way, we are sure to extinguish our former karma eventually and will approach the mental state of the Buddha step by step.” Even if they do not immediately recover from illness or become suddenly blessed with tangible wealth, their minds will be composed. Even if they seem to outsiders to be suffering, their minds are free of suffering. This is the attitude adopted by a real believer.

The Buddha never tries to force open our mouths and cram his excellent medicine down our throats. It is a sacred task for us to take it in our hands and put it into our mouths ourselves. The Buddha uses various means so tactfully that we quickly feel inclined to do so. That is, he indicates himself or indicates others, indicates his own affairs or the affairs of others. Of these indications, the greatest and the most urgent is that he himself has become extinct. Realizing that, those who have felt complacently that they can hear his teachings whenever they like or lazy people who have become tired of the teachings cannot help suddenly becoming serious. This is the most important reason that the Buddha’s extinction is a tactful means full of his great compassion.

[T]he four groups, also through the divine power of the Buddha, saw the bodhisattvas, who filled the space of innumerable domains. Among this host of bodhisattvas there were four leading teachers: Eminent Conduct (Jōgyō), Boundless Conduct (Muhengyō), Pure Conduct (Jōgyō), and Steadfast Conduct (Anryūgyō).

As explained in the discussion of the vow (gan) in chapter 9, the general vow (sōgan) that should be made by all who practice the Buddha-way consists of the following four great vows of the bodhisattva (shi gu-seigan), each of which is identified with one of the four great bodhisattvas mentioned above :

1. Shūjō muhen seigan-do. However innumerable living beings are, I vow to save them. (Steadfast Conduct)
2. Bonnō mushū seigan-dan. However inexhaustible the passions are, I vow to extinguish them. (Pure Conduct)
3. Hōmon mujin seigan-gaku. However limitless the Buddha’s teachings are, I vow to study them. (Boundless Conduct)
4. Butsudō mujō seigan-jō. However infinite the Buddha-truth is, I vow to attain it. (Eminent Conduct)

These four great fundamental vows are thus represented by the above four bodhisattvas. Conversely, the four bodhisattvas can be said to be the symbols of the fundamental vows of all Buddhists.

Buddhism differs distinctively from other religions. Though all have fine teachings, there is no clear evidence of another case in which the founder of a religion attained his own supreme enlightenment and established his own religion. Some religions proclaim that their founders were sent by God. Others declare that God gave a revelation to the founder or that God descended from heaven to this world.

Unlike these religions, the teaching of Buddhism is the truth that Lord Sakyamuni, who was born as a human being like all of us and experienced human suffering and worry, aspired to enlightenment, practiced ascetic disciplines, and attained enlightenment after six years of spiritual effort. The process through which he attained his enlightenment can be clearly seen. Therefore, we can feel confident that we are sure to reach supreme enlightenment eventually if only we follow the Buddha’s teachings and traverse the same path. It is also sure that because this teaching is one that sprang up out of the earth (actual life), we who actually live in this world can follow it. Chapter 15 makes this point emphatically.