Chapter 16, the Duration of the Life of the Tathāgata, is without a doubt the most important in the Lotus Sutra. Therefore, it is no surprise that we learn in Chapter 17 that “Anyone who hears that my life is so long, and understands it by faith even at a moment’s thought, will be able to obtain innumerable merits.’ ”

It is Chapter 17 which establishes how to be true practitioners. As explained in Two Buddhas Seated Side by Side:

“Zhiyi enumerated ‘four stages of faith’ and ‘five stages of practice’ of the Lotus Sūtra. The four stages of faith are (1) to arouse even a single thought of willing acceptance (also translated as “a single moment’s faith and understanding”); (2) to understand the intent of the sūtra’s words; (3) to place deep faith in the sūtra and expound it widely for others; and (4) to perfect one’s own faith and insight. The “five stages of practice” are (1) to rejoice on hearing the Lotus Sūtra; (2) to read and recite it; (3) to explain it to others; (4) to practice it while cultivating the six perfections; and (5) to master the six perfections. …

“Within these two models of the path, Nichiren focused on the first stage of faith, arousing a single moment’s faith and understanding, and the first stage of practice, rejoicing on hearing the Lotus Sūtra.

The merit of generating this faith is immeasurable, as Nikkyō Niwano explains in Buddhism for Today:

“In brief, the Buddha teaches us that if we establish the basic idea of faith, we can infinitely generate the power both to deepen our own faith and to extend it to others. He also teaches us that we can expect to surely gain the supreme merit of attaining Perfect Enlightenment in the future if we thoroughly devote ourselves to deepening our own faith. …

“A person earns or loses money; he falls in love or is disappointed in love; he rises to a higher position in time or he loses his job because of a trifling mistake; he brings up his child successfully or loses it. If we pass through life in this way with no purpose, merely repeating vain feelings of joy and sorrow, even though each moment seems to be substantial and important, we will have an inexpressible sense of emptiness upon looking back over our life. But if our life has the strong backbone of a righteous faith running through it, and if we have a firm belief that we can advance to Perfect Enlightenment step by step even though life has its apparent ups and downs, its various joys and sorrows, we will be able to pass easily through whatever hardships may come, however long life’s journey may be and however many rebirths it may entail.”

As the Buddha promises:

“It cannot be that the good man who obtained merits by understanding my longevity by faith even at a moment’s thought falters in walking the Way to Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi.”

Of all the concepts found in the Lotus Sutra the most profound and difficult to understand is the concept raised in Chapter 16 that the Buddha is always present. He didn’t die and, since he has always been teaching here, he was never born.

“All that I say is true, not false, because I see the triple world as it is. I see that the triple world is the world in which the living beings have neither birth nor death, that is to say, do not appear or disappear, that it is the world in which I do not appear or from which l do not disappear, that it is not real or unreal, and that it is not as it seems or as it does not seem. I do not see the triple world in the same way as the living beings of the triple world do.”

In the Introduction to Buddhism for Today, Nikkyō Niwano offers a wonderful way to relate to the idea of an ever-present Original Buddha.

“The human form in which the Original Buddha appeared in this world is the historical Sakyamuni as the appearing Buddha. We can easily understand the relationship between the two when we consider the relationship between electric waves and television. The electric waves emitted by television transmitters fill our surroundings. We cannot see, hear, or touch them, but it is a fact that such electric waves fill the space around us. When we switch on our television sets and tune them to a particular channel, the same image appears and the same voice is heard through every set tuned to that wavelength. The Original Buddha is equivalent to the person who speaks from the television studio. He is manifest not only in the studio but also permeates our surroundings like electric waves. The appearing Buddha corresponds to the image of this person that appears on the television set and to the voice emanating from it. The appearing Buddha could not appear if the Original Buddha did not exist, just as no television image could appear and no voice be heard if electric waves did not exist. Conversely, we cannot see the Original Buddha except through the appearing Buddha, just as we cannot receive electric waves as images and voices except through the medium of a television set.”

In his Introduction, Nikkyō Niwano accuses the schools of Nichiren Buddhism of slipping into merely formalism and disparages those who say beating a drum or chanting the Daimoku is all that’s needed. I would argue that formalism and the drum and the Daimoku are each a valid means with which “to tune the wavelength of our own lives to that of the truth of the universe.” Yes, it is a mistake to say one is more essential than the other, as exclusivists do. Yet these are all beneficial devises. We need to recognize that we each have different causes and conditions, and so one device may be more effective than another for each of us.

Sometimes easy is better. That’s certainly true when attempting to judge the faith necessary to practice the Buddhism of the Lotus Sutra. Here’s a very useful translation of a portion of Chapter 16 from Rev. Jodo Kiyose’s Easy Readings of the Lotus Sutra:

“The reason why you are suffering as you are right now is because you have totally failed to reflect upon your half-hearted ways of life filled with worldly desires, without paying any attention to the right religion and the right faith, and not being mindful of making any efforts.

“Those who continue to conduct good deeds for the world, for its people – with the right faith at heart – are released from the binding of self-attachments and neither fool themselves nor others. People of these kinds will understand that I am expounding my teachings here all the time.

“To those who seek the Way of the Buddha in such states of mind, I teach them that the Buddha’s life is eternal. To those who do not seek the faith, I teach them to have faith in him.

“Thus my wisdom works at my own will. Since I have limitless wisdom and have gained an eternal life, I am capable of saving all people. And these incomparable powers can be obtained thanks to my own endeavor practiced day by day without rest.”

The Eternal Śākyamuni is always available to us. As Gene Reeves explains in his Stories of the Lotus Sutra:

“When the Dharma Flower Sutra says that the Buddha is somehow embodied or represented in all directions throughout time and space, it is not claiming that the Buddha is somehow beyond time and history – in fact, it is saying something that is nearly the opposite: namely, that no matter where we go, whether on foot or by spaceship, and no matter when in our lives, whether celebrating our eighteenth birthday or lying on our deathbed, there is no place and no time in which the Buddha is not available to us.

“The father returns home after the children have been shocked into taking the medicine and have recovered. The children are able to see him once again. By taking good medicine, the Dharma, people are able to see the Buddha, even though he died some twenty-five hundred years ago. To incorporate the Dharma into one’s life is to be able to see the Buddha. The Buddha can be found in anybody and anything at all. This is what it means for the Buddha to be universal: he is to be found whenever and wherever we look for him.”

And when our faith needs bolstering, we need only reflect on the Eternal Śākyamuni Buddha of Chapter 16, who knows “who is practicing the Way and who is not.” We are the beneficiaries of his great compassion and commitment as the father of the world:

“I am always thinking:
‘How shall I cause all living beings
To enter into the unsurpassed Way
And quickly become Buddhas?’ ”

Not since the 1918 influenza pandemic has the entire population of the Earth been at peril, and yet when physicians of great skill created a vaccine that promised to significantly reduce the death toll of COVID-19, people refused to take the medicine.

In the Lotus Sutra we have been left a medicine for the ills of the world. We are not forced to take it. As Nikkyō Niwano says in Buddhism for Today:

“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.”

With or without mandates, we are asked to have faith and take the medicine. As Gene Reeves explains in Stories of the Lotus Sutra:

“The medicine prepared for and given to the children is not really medicine at all for them until they actually take it. A medicine that is not taken, no matter how well prepared and no matter how good the intentions of the physician, is not effective, not skillful, not yet really medicine.

“The same is true of the Buddha Dharma. It has to be taken or embraced by somebody, has to become real spiritual nourishment for someone, in order to be effective. Again, this is why in the Dharma Flower Sutra teaching is always a two-way relationship. Dharma is not the Dharma until it is received and embraced by someone.”

Unfortunately, some of us have lost our right minds. As Nichiren writes in A Letter to the Ikegami Brothers:

“The reason why such śrāvaka disciples as Śāripūtra and Maudgalyāyana were in the Hell of Incessant Suffering for as long as 3,000 or 500 (million) dust-particle kalpa was not because they committed the crime of ten evil acts, five rebellious sins, or eight rebellious sins such as treason. It was simply because they met “evil friends,” abandoned the faith in the Lotus Sūtra, and moved to the faith in the expedient teachings. Grand Master T’ien-t’ai explains this in his Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sūtra, fascicle 6, “Upon meeting an ‘evil friend,’ people lose their right mind.” The right mind refers to the mind of putting faith in the Lotus Sūtra, and losing the right mind means abandoning the faith in the Lotus Sūtra and putting faith in other sūtras. Therefore, it is preached in the Lotus Sūtra, “The Life Span of the Buddha” chapter, “No matter how effective a medicine is, such a person will never take it.” This is explained by Grand Master T’ien-ta’i in his Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sūtra, fascicle 6, “A person who has lost his right mind will not take a good medicine, no matter how effective it is, choosing instead to roam about the street of life and death, and run away to foreign countries.”

Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Volume 6, Followers I, Page 75

In the Lotus Sutra many teachings emerge, but none has a deeper impact on our faith than the teaching that this world of suffering is indeed the Buddha’s Pure Land.

Nichiren explains in his Treatise on Protecting the Nation:

“QUESTION: Which “Pure Land” should practicers of the Lotus Sūtra pray to be reborn in?

“ANSWER: It is stated in the sixteenth chapter on “The Life Span of the Buddha,” the essence of the Lotus Sūtra consisting of 28 chapters, “I will always stay in this Sahā World;” “I reside here always;” and “This world of Mine is at peace.” According to these statements, the Eternal True Buddha, the origin of all Buddhas in manifestation, is always in this Sahā World. Then why should we wish to be anywhere other than this Sahā World? You should know that there is no Pure Land other than the very place where the practicer of the Lotus Sūtra resides. Why should we concern ourselves seeking a Pure Land in any other place?

Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 1, Pages 67-68

This is the dividing line between the provisional teachings and the essential. As Nichiren says in his A Treatise Revealing the Spiritual Contemplation and the Most Venerable One:

“[W]hen the Eternal Buddha was revealed in the essential section of the Lotus Sūtra, this world of endurance (Sahā World) became the Eternal Pure Land, indestructible even by the three calamities of conflagration, flooding, and strong winds, which are said to destroy the world. It transcends the four periods of cosmic change: the kalpa of construction, continuance, destruction, and emptiness. Śākyamuni Buddha, the Lord-preacher of this Pure Land, has never died in the past, nor will He be born in the future. He exists forever throughout the past, present, and future. All those who receive His guidance are one with this Eternal Buddha. It is because each of our minds is equipped with the “3,000 modes of existence” and the “three factors,” namely, all living beings, the land in which they live, and the five elements of living beings (matter, perception, conception, volition and consciousness).

“This truth was not made clear in the first fourteen chapters of the theoretical section of the Lotus Sūtra. Perhaps it was because the time was not ripe at this stage of preaching the Lotus Sūtra; and capacity of comprehension on the part of the listeners was not yet sufficient.”

Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 148

Only with faith can we imagine this. As the Introduction to the Lotus Sutra explains:

“[W]e find ourselves in a hostile environment, where the forces of nature seek only to destroy us. We see grief, pain, and fear everywhere we look. To us, this is the ‘real world.’ Because of our corrupted hearts, this world, which should be a paradise, is utter defilement. It is this world, however, which our Buddha-nature can transfigure and realize in all its original glory.”

With faith and practice, the world is transformed.

In Senchu Murano’s translation of the Lotus Sutra, Chapter 16 begins:

“Thereupon the Buddha said to the great multitude including Bodhisattvas and others, ‘Good men! Understand my sincere and infallible words by faith!’ ”

In considering the meaning of “Understand my sincere and infallible words by faith,” it is useful to see how other translators have rendered the Buddha’s words.

Hendrik Kern, working from an 11th century Sanskrit original in 1884, rendered the Buddha’s words opening the chapter of The Duration of the Life of the Tathāgata:

“Trust me, young men of good family, believe in the Tathāgata speaking a veracious word.”

In Risshō Kōsei Kai’s 1975 translation, working from the same Chinese translation as Murano used, we get:

“Believe and discern, all you good sons, the veracious word of the Tathāgata.”

Risshō Kōsei Kai’s 2019 undated translation offers:

“Good children, you should believe and understand the sincere and true words of the Tathagata.”

And so “Understand … by faith” can be seen to mean “Trust” and “believe” or “Believe and discern.” “Trust” and “believe” require faith. “Discern” is the process with which we come to understand. What we are not being told is to have unquestioning faith.

As explained in the Introduction to the Lotus Sutra:

“There is a Japanese saying that ‘even the head of a sardine seems blessed if you have faith in it.’ This is not what we mean by faith. We can maintain a belief that is inspired by the experience of something beyond our ordinary capacities. We can evaluate it by means of our intellect and reason and form our own mental attitudes.”

As Nikkyō Niwano observes in Buddhism for Today:

“The Buddha’s saying ‘Believe and discern it’ instead of commanding ‘Believe it’ has an important meaning. Śākyamuni Buddha never forced his ideas upon his disciples or other people. He preached the truth as it was and exhorted his listeners, saying, ‘You, too, behold it.’ He led them on the way of the truth and coaxed them, saying, ‘You, too, come to me.’ His exhortation to ‘behold the truth’ instead of saying only ‘Believe it’ is a very important point. This short phrase of the Buddha speaks for the character of his teachings. His words ‘Behold it’ are equivalent to the ‘scientific spirit’ in today’s parlance. The Buddha shows in these few words that if anyone thoroughly views the truth, studies it, and discerns it, he will surely be able to accept it to his satisfaction.

“His words ‘You, too, come to me’ include the same important idea. They mean: ‘Come to me and practice the Law as much as I do. Then you are sure to understand the value of the Law.’ The Buddha could never have uttered these words unless he had absolute confidence in the Law and the Way.

“Because Śākyamuni Buddha was a reasonable person, he did not say even to his leading disciples, ‘Believe the truth,’ but said, ‘Believe and discern it,’ that is, ‘Believe it after understanding it.’ ”