According to Tendai’s “Branches of the Lotus Sutra,” the parables are divided into two portions, the exposition and the explanation of correspondences.

Correspondences for the Simile of the Herbs

Just as the great cloud rises, the Tathāgata appears in the world.

Just as the great cloud everywhere covers the three-thousand-great-thousandfold world, the Tathāgata universally extends his great call over the world of gods, men, and asuras.

Just as the cloud pours down its rain equally at the same time, the Tathāgata sounds forth these words:

“I am the Tathāgata, the Worshipful, the All Wise, the Perfectly Enlightened in Conduct, the Well Departed, the Understander of the World, the Peerless Leader, the Controller, the Teacher of Gods and Men, the Buddha, the World-honored One. Those who have not yet been saved I cause to be saved; those who have not yet been set free to be set free; those who have not yet been comforted to be comforted; those who have not yet obtained nirvana to obtain nirvana. I know the present world and the world to come as they really are, I am the All Knowing, the All Seeing, the Knower of the Way, the Opener of the Way, the Preacher of the Way. Come to me, all you gods, men and asuras, to hear the Law.”

The mountains, rivers and streams, valleys, and land of the three-thousand-great-thousandfold world represent the uncountable thousands of millions of varieties of living beings who go where the Buddha is and hear his teachings. Just as there are plants, trees, thickets, forests, and medicinal herbs, of various and numerous kinds, with names and colors all different, the natural powers of living beings are keen or dull, zealous or indifferent; the Buddha therefore preaches the Dharma to them in various ways unstintingly, causing them to rejoice and joyfully gain good profit. Just as the dense cloud pours down its rain equally at the same time, and its moisture fertilizes every tree, big or little, according to its superior, middle, or lower capacity, and from the rain of one cloud, each according to the nature of its kind acquires its development, opening its blossoms and bearing its fruit, all the living beings, having heard the Dharma, are comforted in the present life and will afterward be reborn in happy states, made joyful by the truth and also enabled to hear the Dharma. Having heard the Dharma, they are freed from hindrances, and according to their capacity in all the laws, they gradually enter the way.

Just as these trees and plants are produced in one soil and moistened by the same rain, the Dharma preached by the Tathāgata is of one form and flavor, that is to say, deliverance, abandonment, extinction, and finally the attainment of perfect knowledge.

Just as what the trees and plants receive is different, if there are living beings who hear the Dharma of the Tathāgata and keep, read, recite, and practice it as he preaches, they cannot know the merits they have achieved. Why? Only the Tathāgata knows the seed, the form, the embodiment, and the nature of all these living things, what things they are reflecting over, what things they are thinking, what things practicing, how reflecting, how thinking, how practicing, by what laws reflecting, by what laws thinking, by what laws practicing, and by what laws attaining to what laws. Only the Tathāgata in reality sees, clearly and without hindrance, the stages in which all living beings are.

Just as those plants, trees, thickets, forests, medicinal herbs, and others do not know their own natures, superior, middle, or inferior, the Tathāgata knows the Dharma of one form and one taste, that is to say, deliverance, abandonment, extinction, final nirvana of eternal tranquility, ending in return to the void. The Buddha, knowing this and observing the dispositions of all living beings, supports and protects them. Therefore, he does not immediately declare to them the complete and perfect wisdom.