I am told that in some schools of Nichiren Buddhism in Japan, instruction in the Lotus Sutra begins with Chapter 10, The Teacher of the Dharma. Skip that boring stuff about who is in the crowd or the endless predictions for the śrāvakas and get right to what we are promised:

“Medicine-King! Do you see the innumerable gods, dragon­kings, yakṣas, gandharvas, asuras, garuḍas, kiṃnaras, mahoragas, men, and nonhuman beings, and the four kinds of devotees: bhikṣus, bhikṣunīs, upāsakās, and upāsikās, and those who are seeking Śrāvakahood or Pratyekabuddhahood or the enlightenment of the Buddha in this great multitude? If in my presence any of them rejoices, even on a moment’s thought, at hearing even a gāthā or a phrase of the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma, I will assure him of his future Buddhahood, saying to him, ‘You will be able to attain Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi.’ ”

“The Buddha said to Medicine-King:

“ ‘If after my extinction anyone rejoices, even on a moment’s thought, at hearing even a gāthā or a phrase of the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma, I also will assure him of his future attainment of Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi.’ ”

I didn’t start with Chapter 10 when I began my 32 Days of the Lotus Sutra practice in 2015. Instead, my awareness of the beauty of the sutra and my faith in its promise began with Chapter 1 and grew with each cycle through all 28 chapters. Today, more than 75 times through that cycle, I am not sure whether I can endorse the idea of starting with Chapter 10 any more than I can condone the practice of studying only Chapters 2 and 16.

But I also can’t advocate my own practice, at least not for someone who is unfamiliar with Mahayana Buddhism and the Lotus Sutra. It takes a certain dedication to devote that much time to personal practice, and I don’t believe it is essential.

Still, I certainly understand why Chapter 10 is considered a gateway to the promise of the Lotus Sutra:

“The good men or women who expound even a phrase of the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma even to one person even in secret after my extinction, know this, are my messengers. They are dispatched by me. They do my work. It is needless to say this of those who expound this sūtra to many people in a great multitude.”

If nothing else, we should celebrate and welcome Chapter 10’s promise for those who combine faith and practice:

“Medicine-King, know this! Anyone who copies, keeps, reads and recites this sūtra, makes offerings to it, and expounds it to others after my extinction, will be covered by my robe. He also will be protected by the present Buddhas of the other worlds. He will have the great power of truth, the power of vows, and the power of roots of good. Know this! He will live with me. I will pat him on the head.”

In reviewing Buddhism for Today as part of a 34-week Rissho Kosei-kai in North America (RKINA) advance course on the Threefold Lotus Sutra, I was struck by how Nikkyō Niwano speaks of faith in his observations on Chapter 10, The Teacher of the Dharma.

If we delight in a single verse or a single word of the Lotus Sutra by a single thought but become no better than we were before, it is of no use. The assurance of our becoming buddhas is conditional on the result of practice over a long period of time. Why then did the Buddha say that he would predict Perfect Enlightenment for anyone who by a single thought delights in a single verse or a single word of the Lotus Sutra? This is because the mind that one raises through delighting in the Lotus Sutra by a single thought will become the seed of his attaining buddhahood. One must incessantly nurture this seed, making it bud by watering it diligently, making it grow, flower, and bear fruit.

The “mind that one raises” is our faith, the seed of our buddhahood.

The reason that this sutra is the most difficult to believe and to understand is that the fundamental teaching of the Lotus Sutra, that everybody becomes a buddha according to the accumulation of his practice, is so difficult to believe and to understand.

We can understand the Lotus Sutra in theory, but this kind of understanding is liable to be shaken by any adverse change in our circumstances. The person who can truly understand and believe the sutra from the bottom of his heart is one who is spiritually sensitive to the teaching and who is ripe to bear the fruit of the accumulated karma of his former lives. For that reason, we must continually strive to grasp the teaching of the Lotus Sutra more deeply and must patiently receive and keep it regardless of whatever doubts we may have in our minds or whatever persecution and slander we may suffer from outsiders.

The “mind that one raises” is nourished by the five practices of the Lotus Sutra.

Receiving and keeping the sutra (juji), reading and reciting it (doku-ju), expounding it (gesetsu), and copying it (Shosha) are called the five practices of teachers of the Law (goshu hosshi). These are most important practices for those who spread the Lotus Sutra. …

Of these five practices of the teacher, “receiving and keeping” (juji) is called “the intensive practice” (shōgyō), while the other four practices are called “the assisting practices” (jogyō). The reason we must set apart receiving and keeping” as the intensive practice is that this is the most important and fundamental practice of the five; without it, the other four practices mean little. “Receiving” (ju) indicates believing deeply in the teachings of the Buddha, and “keeping” (ji) means to adhere firmly to that belief.

The “mind that one raises” receives deeply the teachings and keeping that belief is the practice that allows our faith to grow.

Source elements of the Lotus Sutra lists Rahula, the Buddha’s son, as foremost of all who loved learning. Lotus World has him foremost in inconspicuous practice. Either way, he is an example to follow for those who take faith in the Lotus Sutra.

In his Lecture on the Lotus Sutra, Rev. Ryusho Jeffus offers this explanation of what the Buddha calls Rāhula’s “secret practices”:

“It is the ordinary day-to-day practice that each of us performs that is actually the great secret practice of Rāhula. It isn’t fame or acquiring a big name that is required to attain enlightenment. It isn’t being famous that will lead others to practice the Lotus Sutra. It is our practice of the Lotus Sutra in our everyday lives that will enable countless others just like us to ultimately take faith in the Lotus Sutra. We should not be discouraged, instead we can look at Rāhula who will become Walking-On-Flowers-Of-Seven-Treasures Buddha and we too can walk on the flowers of the seven treasures of Myoho-Renge-Kyo.”

Here is another place where Nikkyō Niwano’s principle of half a step fits. We must lead by example, but not from far in front, acting superior, but a measured half-step ahead, showing what’s possible.

While everyone who takes faith in the Lotus Sutra is declared a child of the Buddha, one can imagine that it wasn’t easy for Rāhula to be inconspicuous when his father was Śākyamuni. As Gene Reeves points out in Stories of the Lotus Sutra:

“While the name Ananda means ‘bliss’ or ‘joy,’ the name Rāhula means ‘obstruction,’ ‘bond,’ or ‘fetter.’ Born just shortly before the future Buddha left home to pursue enlightenment, it is said that he was named Rāhula by his grandfather after the future Buddha announced immediately after the birth of his son that an ‘obstruction’ (rāhula) had been born. Like many sons of noble Shakya families of the time, the future Buddha apparently had been thinking of leaving home from a fairly young age. It is said that his own father, the king, had arranged for his marriage to Yaśodharā when he was nineteen in order to discourage him from leaving home. Ten years later, Rāhula was born, and it was said that Shakyamuni called him Rāhula because he created “bonds” of affection. This story would later be used to show how a bond of love can be an impediment or hindrance to one who wants to follow the life of a monk.”

As Reeves explains, Rāhula was about 7 when his father returned home for the first time. As the child of divorced parents, I have always favored the story that Rāhula’s mother pushed her son to go ask his father, whom he’d never met, to give him his inheritance and his wealth. Divorced parents are like that. That the Buddha made Rāhula the heir to his spiritual wealth by taking him on as a novice monk says all we need to know about the Buddha’s love for all his children.

Chapter 9 offers an important lesson on the need for those who take faith in the Lotus Sutra to put that faith into practice in their lives.

This lesson comes in response to a complaint from a group of newly minted bodhisattvas who want to know why the Buddha is focusing so much attention on lowly śrāvakas.

The Buddha replies:

“Good men! Ānanda and I resolved to aspire for Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi under the Void-King Buddha at the same time in our previous existence. At that time Ānanda always wished to hear much while I always practiced strenuously. Therefore, I have already attained Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi, but he has not yet.”

Ānanda loved hearing about the Dharma but did nothing with that knowledge. Śākyamuni practiced strenuously and in doing so achieved his goal.

Our faith requires that we keep our gaze on the horizon, on the goal at the end, the goal beyond the daily needs. And in order to reach those goals we must act, moving one step at a time toward that horizon. Faith is the key to the gate of the teaching, but we must put the key in the lock and enter the storehouse of the Buddha’s teaching and walk the path to reach our goal.

The idea of vows and how they should shape our goals is another important lesson of the Lotus Sutra. As Gene Reeves explains in Stories of the Lotus Sutra:

“In Mahayana Buddhism there is a distinction between two kinds of vows, special vows (betsugan in Japanese) and general vows (sogan). Special vows, which might better be termed ‘resolutions,’ are relative to time and circumstance, individual ability, and so on. They may change. Here, however, we are talking of the Buddha’s original general vow, a vow that is said to be taken by all buddhas and to be good for all. It is sometimes taken to be a four-part vow: to save everyone, to remove all hindrances to awakening, to study all the teachings, and to attain the Buddha Way of supreme awakening. These four are sometimes known as the four great vows of followers of the bodhisattva way.

“The idea of making a vow that will last for uncountable eons, a vow that is to be the very basis of one’s life, stresses the importance of perseverance, persistence, or diligence. It is a fundamental teaching of the Dharma Flower Sutra that we should set goals for ourselves, such as saving all the living, or world peace, goals that we know very well may never be fully realized. Having set such a goal, we should be devoted to pursuing it. This is why perseverance in the face of difficulties is one of the six transcendental practices or perfections of bodhisattvas. Following this way, we will not easily become discouraged, want to give up, or turn back. Defeats and losses can be expected, but even small victories in the struggle for world peace and human happiness can be a cause for great joy.”

In the Lotus Sutra, the Buddha does not say, “You are a Buddha.” Instead, we are invited to open a gate and enter a wonderous path. Faith is the requisite of the Assurance of Future Buddhahood in Chapter 6 and elsewhere in the Lotus Sutra. Faith is the minimum qualification to unlock the gate.

In Buddhism for Today, Nikkyō Niwano explains it this way:

“ ‘Prediction’ means that the Buddha gives us the assurance, “You will surely become buddhas.” The term ‘prediction’ (juki) includes three meanings of great importance and subtlety, which it is essential that we understand. The first important point is that Sakyamuni Buddha says not ‘You are buddhas’ but ‘You will become buddhas.’ In the sight of the Buddha, all living beings have the buddha-nature, and any one of them can definitely become a buddha. But if the Buddha says merely, “You are buddhas,” this statement will be greatly misunderstood by ordinary people. They will be liable to take these words to mean that they are already perfected as buddhas while in a state of illusion and will have the idea that they can become buddhas without any effort, like riding an escalator.

“The prediction given by the Buddha is often compared to an admission permit to a school, and this comparison is quite just. It is not a diploma but only an admission permit. This assurance signifies, ‘You have passed the entrance examination of the highest university, which leads to the degree of buddhahood. If you study here for some years, you will surely graduate and will become buddhas.’ Having this assurance, ordinary people must hereafter practice all the more, and must make ever greater efforts to realize this goal.

“What a joyful thing it is for ordinary people to have obtained admission to the Buddha’s university — to have received the Buddha’s prediction, ‘You will become buddhas.’ ”

Just as we are certain to face obstacles to graduating from a university, as we practice and study the path to buddhahood we face many obstacles. In Misawa-shō, A Letter to Lord Misawa of Suruga, Nichiren warns of the three hindrances and four devils, the last of which is the King of Devils in the Sixth Heaven.

“Upon the sight of one within the reach of Buddhahood, the King of Devils in the Sixth Heaven would be stirred to say: ‘If one is an entity of this world, he (one) not only strives to depart from the illusion of life and death and become Buddha but also tries to lead as many as possible into Buddhism, controls this world, and transforms this defiled world into a paradise. What ought to be done?’”

Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Doctrine 2, Page 239-240

We are fortunate to be attending the great university of the Lotus Sutra in this Latter Age for we have Namu-Myōhō-Renge-Kyō to drive back the henchmen of the King of Devils. With the Daimoku we can overcome their efforts to distract us from our goal.