What is the significance of the revelation of the Buddha’s immeasurable “lifespan,” that is, the time that has elapsed since his original attainment of supreme enlightenment? English language scholarship on Lotus Sūtra often speaks of the primordial Śākyamuni of the “Lifespan” chapter as the “eternal buddha.” This term is easy to understand but carries Western philosophical overtones of abstract metaphysical truth; the sūtra’s emphasis lies rather in the Buddha’s “constant residing” here in the world. For the sūtra’s compilers, this claim refigured the Buddha in accordance with the Mahāyāna bodhisattva ideal: No longer was he a teacher of the past, forever departed into final nirvāṇa, but an awakened being perpetually active in this and other worlds for living beings’ sake.