Thich Nhat Hanh’s Peaceful Action, Open Heart strays far from the text of the Lotus Sutra in several places. This lack of fidelity to the sutra undermines his interpretation.
Some examples:
In Chapter 21, The Supernatural Powers of the Tathāgatas, the Buddha “stretched out his broad and long tongue upwards until the tip of it reached the World of Brahman. Then he emitted rays of light with an immeasurable variety of colors from his pores. The light illumined all the worlds of the ten quarters. The Buddhas who were sitting on the lion-like seats under the jeweled trees also stretched out their broad and long tongue and emitted innumerable rays of light.” (Murano, p298)
Here’s Thich Nhat Hanh’s retelling:
Peaceful Action, Open Heart, p128-129Now the Buddha realizes a very important miracle. He stretches out his tongue and his “long, broad tongue” is able to encompass the trichiliocosm. Then from each pore of his body he sends out innumerable rays of light of every color, which illuminate all the world-spheres in the ten directions. In all these realms can be seen a Buddha sitting on a lion throne under the bodhi tree, very dignified and beautiful. Each Buddha also puts out his tongue and emanates countless rays of light in the same way. As the Buddha’s light reaches them, all the innumerable Buddhas in turn illuminate all the world-spheres throughout incalculable trichiliocosms.
The Buddhas who join in stretching out their tongues and emanating light are in the purified Sahā world, seated under the jeweled trees, having arrived prior the the opening the Stupa of Treasures.
Another example concerns Chapter 22, Entrustment. In Hurvitz’s translation the chapter opens with:
Lotus Blossom of the Fine Dharma, p267At that time Śākyamunibuddha rose from his seat and, displaying great supernatural powers, with his right hand stroked incalculable bodhisattva-mahāsattvas on the crown of the head, then said: “For incalculable hundreds of thousands of myriads of millions of asamkhyeyakalpas, I practiced and cultivated this dharma of Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi, so hard to obtain. Now I entrust it to all of you. You must all single-mindedly propagate this dharma, broadly causing others to benefit from it.”
Three times the Buddha stroked the bodhisattva-mahāsattvas on the head.
In Thich Nhat Hanh’s retelling the Buddha strokes the Bodhisattvas heads but then Thich Nhat Hanh adds:
Peaceful Action, Open Heart, p133-134By gently stroking their heads, the Buddha gives thanks to all his emanation bodies who have gathered from infinite numberless worlds to open the door of the jeweled Stupa of Prabhutaratna. He thanks them for responding to his call and appearing in the skies above Mount The Gṛdhrakūṭa Mountain, combining their spiritual strength so that the door of the Stupa could be opened and the fourfold assembly on the ground below would be able to look into the ultimate dimension. This is an act of great compassion toward the assembly of shravakas, because of course the Buddhas and bodhisattvas do not need to open the Stupa of Prabhutaratna in order to see the ultimate dimension. But because the Sangha wants to see the ultimate Buddha, Shakyamuni Buddha, their teacher in the historical dimension, calls all his manifestation bodies back to help him open the door to the ultimate dimension.
This retelling falls apart on many levels. Where in the Lotus Sutra does it suggest that the spiritual strength of the emanation Buddhas were required in order to open the Stupa of Treasures?
As a final example, I offer this:
Peaceful Action, Open Heart, p206There is another bodhisattva mentioned in the Lotus Sutra, Earth Store (Kṣitigarbha). Kṣitigarbha [Jizo in Japanese] means “womb or storehouse of the Earth.” The Earth is very solid and contains and preserves many kinds of jewels. So this name describes the qualities of this bodhisattva: solid, long lasting, and preserving many virtues. Earth Store Bodhisattva represents a realm of action that is very much needed now. Earth Store has vowed that as long as the hells are not vacant he will not rest. He will not enter nirvana and enjoy being a Buddha. He will not stop working to lead all beings toward Buddhahood.
Fine as Kṣitigarbha’s attributes are, Kṣitigarbha does not appear in the Lotus Sutra. But Kṣitigarbha is a pivotal figure in Thich Nhat Hanh’s practice. He explains:
Peaceful Action, Open Heart, p228In the ceremony of transmission of the Fourteen Mindfulness Trainings, we bow to Manjushri, Avalokiteśvara, Samantabhadra, and Kṣitigarbha.
Again, this is an example of viewing the Lotus Sutra from the outside looking in rather than viewing the sutra as Nichiren and T’ien T’ai did from inside the perfect, looking out at the provisional and expedient teachings.