In East Asian Buddhist temples and art one can find portrayals of many different bodhisattvas, but only five are found over and over again, in nearly all temples and museums. Their Indian names are Avalokiteshvara, Maitreya, Manjushri, Kshitigarbha, and Samantabhadra. In English they commonly called Kwan-yin (from Chinese), Maitreya, Manjushri (both from Sanskrit), Jizo (from Japanese), and Universal Sage. All except Jizo are prominent in the Lotus Sutra, though in different ways. While both Kwan-yin and Universal Sage have entire chapters devoted to them, except for a mention of Kwan-yin as present in the great assembly of Chapter 1, they do not otherwise appear in the rest of the text, while Manjushri and Maitreya appear often throughout the Sutra. In typical Chinese Buddhist temples, where the central figure is a buddha or buddhas, to the right one can see a statue of Manjushri mounted on a lion, and to the left Universal Sage riding on an elephant, usually a white elephant with six tusks.

While both Kwan-yin and Maitreya are said to symbolize compassion and Manjushri usually symbolizes wisdom, Universal Sage is often used to symbolize awakened action, embodying wisdom and compassion in everyday life. Above the main entrance to Rissho Kosei-kai’s Great Sacred Hall, for instance, there is a wonderful set of paintings depicting Manjushri and wisdom on the right, Maitreya and compassion on the left, and in the middle, the embodiment of these in life – Universal Sage Bodhisattva.