Here is one version of the surprising revelation that shravakas may indeed be bodhisattvas.

Monks, listen carefully!
Because they have learned skillful means well,
The way followed by children of the Buddha [bodhisattvas]
Is unthinkably wonderful.

Knowing that most delight in lesser teachings
And are overawed by great wisdom,
Bodhisattvas become
Shravakas or pratyekabuddhas.

Using innumerable skillful means,
They transform all kinds of beings
By proclaiming themselves to be shravakas,
Far removed from the Buddha Way.

They save innumerable beings,
Enabling them to succeed.
Though most people are complacent and lazy,
In this way they are finally led to become buddhas.

Keeping their bodhisattva actions
As inward secrets,
Outwardly
They appear as shravakas.

They appear to have little desire
And to be tired of birth and death,
But in truth
They are purifying buddha lands. (LS 210—11)

The point is in part to emphasize the importance of embodying the Dharma in our lives, in our actions and behavior toward others. But equally important is the idea that anyone can be a bodhisattva for us, if we are open to seeing and experiencing the other as a bodhisattva. As is so often the case, this teaching, the idea that a shravaka can be seen to actually be a bodhisattva, is both about how we should regard ourselves and about how we should regard others, an idea that will be developed and emphasized over and over again in subsequent chapters of the Dharma Flower Sutra.

In [Chapter 8: The Assurance of Future Buddhahood of the Five Hundred Disciples], as in others, when the Buddha describes the future buddha land of Purna after he has become the buddha named Dharma Radiance, he says that his land will be without women, that men will have no sexual desire, and that they will be born without having mothers. Historically, such a misanthropic attitude toward women probably reflects the experience of celibate monks living in India twenty centuries ago. Sexuality and gender has been an ongoing problem for Buddhism. This is in large part because sexual desire in men can be seen as the prime embodiment of desire and greed – everything that Buddhism, especially traditional Indian Buddhism, opposed and sought to abolish. Women were seen as the cause of men’s sexual desires, and thus as embodiments of evil.

With respect to attitudes toward women, Buddhism was something of an improvement over Hinduism. Women were, for example, admitted into the community as ordained nuns, as was true in Jainism. But nuns were radically subordinated to monks and it was believed that only through rebirth as a man could a woman have any possibility of awakening fully.

The Dharma Flower Sutra often reflects such attitudes, as appears to be the case in this chapter. But, as we will see later, it sometimes takes a more generous view of women and of their potential to be Dharma teachers and become buddhas in the future. Thus the Sutra is consistent in teaching that every living being has the potential to become a buddha in this world. In doing this, in maintaining the consistent teaching of universal buddha-nature, the Sutra takes an important step toward teaching the equality of men and women.

Yet while the Dharma Flower Sutra does take a step forward with respect to equality, going beyond Hinduism, beyond traditional Buddhism, and even beyond many Mahayana sutras, it only takes a step, and not a very large one at that, falling far short of today’s standards. We can, I believe, love the Dharma Flower Sutra and seek to follow its important teachings while still recognizing that, like everything else, it has limitations. We should not forget that the Sutra itself teaches that all Buddhist teachings are skillful means, relative to their time and circumstance, including the details of the Dharma Flower Sutra. In this sense, though ahead of its time in most ways, in some other ways the Lotus Sutra reflects the limitations of the culture and time in which it arose.

Purna, we are told in the first section of this chapter, while seeming to be a shravaka, is actually a bodhisattva in disguise. The Dharma Flower Sutra both retains the classical meaning of bodhisattva as one who is very high in status, on the way to becoming a buddha, and it gives new meaning to the term by proposing that all are, to some degree, bodhisattvas. This means that the title “bodhisattva” should be seen, not so much as a mark of status, but rather as a term used to name a kind of activity. Just as a teacher who does not teach is not really a teacher, a bodhisattva who does not do the work of the Buddha is not truly a bodhisattva. On the other hand, anyone who does do the work of the Buddha, regardless of title or status, is – to that degree – a bodhisattva. I sometimes like to say that we should regard the word “bodhisattva” not so much as a noun, but as a verb. Unfortunately, this is much easier to do in Chinese than it is in English!

Specially in early chapters of the Lotus Sutra, one major concern is to understand or explain how the older shravaka way is related to the newer bodhisattva way. What was especially important was to try to explain why the great early disciples of the Buddha, that is, the Buddha’s closest disciples, were shravakas and apparently had not taken the path of the bodhisattva. The authors and compilers of Mahayana sutras were trying to create a new tradition, but this new tradition could not be a complete break from the old tradition, symbolized in the Lotus Sutra as the shravaka way. While critical of that older tradition, they wanted to incorporate it into the new.

In Chapter 8 of the Sutra (“Assurance for the Five Hundred Disciples”), the Buddha first explains that the disciple named Purna, son of Maitrayani, has been a most excellent teacher of the Dharma under thousands of buddhas. He has skillfully taught the Dharma in the past, is doing so in the present, and will continue to do so in the future. He is so skillful that innumerable people, supposing him to be a shravaka, have benefited from his teaching. In reality, however, this Purna is a bodhisattva who will eventually become a buddha named Dharma Radiance. By disguising themselves as shravakas in ways like this, bodhisattvas make it possible even for unmotivated people to enter the bodhisattva way, the way of becoming a buddha.

In this story [of the jewel in the robe], using the treasure clearly means using it to enjoy life. Life is difficult, but we are much freer, more able to appreciate, more able to cope with whatever difficulties life presents us if we have an appropriate attitude toward life and toward ourselves. Having a good attitude toward life, for the Dharma Flower Sutra, means seeing everything that comes to us as a gift, more especially as an opportunity, as what we call a “learning experience.” Yes, life can be very difficult, but if we approach the troubles and difficulties that come our way as opportunities for learning, we will enjoy life more fully.

In Mahayana Buddhism, the importance of helping others is often stressed. But we should know that even helping others is never merely helping others – it always contributes to our own enjoyment of life as well. The Dharma Flower Sutra encourages us to look for and cultivate the good both in ourselves and in others.