The Buddha’s suggestion in Chapter 23 that anyone who seeks enlightenment should burn a finger or a toe is an example of what Gene Reeves decries in The Stories of the Lotus Sutra as “literalism”:

“It can lead to extreme acts that benefit no one. Devotion is good; devotion to the Buddha is good; devotion to the Dharma Flower Sutra is good. But acts of devotion have to be examined with additional criteria to determine whether they are in accord with the Dharma as a whole, whether they promote or retard one’s progress along the way, and whether they are likely to lead to a reduction in suffering. There could be very exceptional circumstances, perhaps once in ten million eons, when such a sacrifice is called for. …

“Religious devotion not tempered by intelligence and wisdom can be dangerous, both to others and to oneself. Sound practice, skillful practice of the Buddha Way, requires that we develop to the fullest all of our capacities for doing good.”

Chapter 23 is not the only place in the Lotus Sutra where literalism can be problematic. Take for example World-Voice-Perceiver Bodhisattva’s promised interventions:

“If anyone, guilty or not, calls the name of World-Voice-Perceiver Bodhisattva when he is bound up in manacles, fetters, pillories or chains, those things in which he is bound up will break asunder, and he will be saved.”

Should we encourage the criminal who believes the Lotus Sutra is a “Get Out of Jail Free” card?

And then there are places where what’s literally promised might not be wanted. For example:

“Anyone who rejoices at hearing this chapter of the Previous Life of Medicine-King Bodhisattva and praises this chapter, saying, ‘Excellent,’ will be able to emit the fragrance of the blue lotus flower from his mouth and the fragrance of the candana of Mt. Ox-Head from his pores, and obtain these merits in his present life.”

I confess that I tend toward the literalist view. I want the promises of the Lotus Sutra to be true and therefore I want to do everything I can to have that come true, even burning a finger. I haven’t lit my finger on fire but I have developed a little ritual that pays homage the idea.

When I light incense at the start of my service I offer the light of the flaming incense stick to my statue of Kannon Bodhisattva, Jizo Bodhisattva, to the Seven Happy Gods, to the Buddhas in manifestation, to my Gohonzon and to Kishimon and the 10 rākṣasas daughters. I then extinguish the flame by pinching the incense between my thumb and forefinger.

Later in my service, when I burn a half-stick of incense for my final Daimoku, I say, “Offer the light thus produced” as I offer the light to my altar and conclude “by burning a finger” as I extinguish the flame between thumb and forefinger.

I have developed small patches of brown calluses on my thumb and forefinger. I cherish them as marks of my faith.

Does faith in the Lotus Sutra require burning a finger or a toe? After all, Chapter 23, which describes the previous life of Medicine-King Bodhisattva as Gladly-Seen-By-All-Beings Bodhisattva, states:

“Anyone who aspires for, and wishes to attain Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi, should offer a light to the stupa of the Buddha by burning a finger or a toe. Then he will be given more merits than the person who offers not only countries, cities, wives and children, but also the mountains, forests, rivers and ponds of the one thousand million Sumeru-worlds, and various kinds of treasures.”

Gene Reeves in The Stories of the Lotus Sutra openly admits that this is his least favorite chapter for this reason. The Introduction to the Lotus Sutra felt compelled to point out:

“The offering of burning the body, which plays such a prominent part of this chapter, should not be taken literally.”

I was 11 in 1963 when Thich Quang Duc, a Vietnamese Mahayana Buddhist monk, set himself ablaze in a busy Saigon intersection on June 11. Thich Quang Duc was protesting the Catholic leaders of the South Vietnamese government. Over the months more Buddhist monks immolated themselves until a US-backed coup overthrew the regime in November of that year. In the years of anti-war protests that followed in the late 1960s, the example of these Vietnamese Buddhist monks was a beacon.

Thich Nhat Hanh knew Thich Quang Duc personally and had practiced with him in Vietnam. In Peaceful Action, Open Heart, Thich Nhat Hanh stressed that Thich Quang Duc’s self-immolation was no more a suicide than Jesus’ death on the cross. It was an act of compassion:

“Because of his great compassion, he was able to sit very still as the flames engulfed him, in perfect samadhi, perfect concentration.”

In The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, Reeves offered a historical perspective on burning body parts as demonstrations of faith:

“A great many Chinese monks right down to the middle of the twentieth century followed the practice of burning off one or more of their fingers as a sign of dedication and devotion. Until very recently, virtually all Chinese monks and nuns, and I believe those in Vietnam as well, when receiving final ordination, used moxa, a kind of herb used in traditional Chinese medicine, to burn small places on their scalps, where the scars usually remained for life. This ritual burning was taken to be a sign of complete devotion to the three treasures – the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha.

“While deeply sympathetic with those who show such great devotion by sacrificing their bodies by fire, it is not a practice I can recommend to anyone. It is much better, I believe, to sacrifice our bodies through dedicated work, in a sense burning our bodies much more slowly.”

As the Introduction to the Lotus Sura stresses, the story Gladly-Seen-By-All-Beings Bodhisattva is meant to symbolize “the spirit of giving one’s whole self, believing wholeheartedly, embracing the Most-Venerable-One, and offering to serve the truth with all one’s body and soul.”

One overriding theme of the Lotus Sutra is that all of those who put their faith in the sutra are Bodhisattvas. Our practice is the Bodhisattva practice, and the final chapters of the Lotus Sutra explain how we accomplish that practice.

As Gene Reeves writes in The Stories of the Lotus Sutra:

“[W]hat is the job that needs to be done? The more general answer is that the Dharma needs to be widely shared – so, especially with the Buddha no longer able to do so directly, bodhisattvas are responsible for teaching, and thus perpetuating, Buddha Dharma. The Sutra is concerned not only with teaching the Dharma in the ordinary sense; it is concerned with having the Dharma be embodied, having it be a central part of the lives of people. Early in [Chapter 23], Shakyamuni Buddha says, ‘For incalculable hundreds of thousands of billions of eons, I have studied and practiced this rare Dharma of supreme awakening.’ Notice that he says both ‘studied’ and ‘practiced.’ Practicing the Dharma goes beyond studying it to embody it in one’s life. Thus bodhisattvas have a responsibility not only of teaching the Dharma by words, but also by demonstrating and exemplifying it in their actions.

“It is because of this role as exemplars of the Dharma that bodhisattvas, both mythical and human, can be models for us. Because they are said to have many marvelous powers, people may pray to a bodhisattva for relief from some kind of danger or suffering, but that is not the most useful way to understand our relationship to such bodhisattvas. … If various bodhisattvas have found skills and powers with which to help others, we too can develop skill in ways of helping others.”

And one who practices in this manner is a light to the world. As Nichiren writes in “Shijō Kingo-dono Nyōbō Gohenji”:

“The ten parables preached in the ‘Medicine King Bodhisattva’ chapter of the Lotus Sūtra seem to compare the relative merits of the Lotus Sūtra against all other Buddhist scriptures, though this is not the true intent of Śākyamuni Buddha. In actuality, what the Buddha is preaching is that when we compare the practicer of the Lotus Sūtra against the practicer of all other scriptures of Buddhism, the former is like the sun and moon while the latter is like stars and lights.

“How do we know this? We know this because of the most important statement in the eighth parable: ‘Likewise, one who is able to uphold this sūtra is the most superior of all living beings.’ These 22 Chinese characters are the foremost essence of the entire Lotus Sūtra. …

“Therefore, anyone in this world, male or female, laity or clergy, who upholds the Lotus Sūtra will be regarded by the Buddha to be the lord of all living beings and revered by the King of the Brahma Heaven and Indra. When I think of this, my joy is beyond expression.”

Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Volume 7, Followers II,
Pages 120-121

Chapter 21, The Supernatural Powers of the Tathāgatas, is considered the specific transmission of the daimoku in the Latter Age of Degeneration of the Dharma given to the bodhisattvas from underground led by Jōgyō. Chapter 22, Transmission, is the general transmission given to the rest of the gathering. Nichiren describes the scene in his letter “Nichinyo Gozen Gohenji”:

“[A]s Śākyamuni Buddha stepped out of the Stupa of Many Treasures and stood in the air, the original disciples of the Buddha such as Bodhisattva Superior Practice, disciples of the Buddhas in manifestation such as Bodhisattva Great Mañjuśrī, Great King of the Brahma Heaven, Indra, the sun, the moon, the Four Heavenly Kings, the Dragon King, the ten female rākṣasa demons, and others gathered in the vast world of four-trillion nayuta, as numerous as the pampas grass in the Musashino Field or trees on Mt. Fuji. They waited knelt side by side with their heads bowed to the ground, their hands together in gasshō, beads of perspiration forming from all the body-heat. Like an affectionate mother stroking the head of her child, Śākyamuni Buddha placed His hand upon their heads three times and entrusted them with the Lotus Sūtra. Then accepting the request of Śākyamuni Buddha, Bodhisattva Superior Practice, the sun and moon, and others vowed to spread the Lotus Sūtra in the Latter Age of Degeneration.

Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Faith and Practice, Volume 4,
Page 132-133

As Gene Reeves explains in Stories of the Lotus Sutra, the Buddha’s placing his hand on the heads of the bodhisattvas is a gesture of trust, but also something more:

“Though not in this chapter, in various places in the Dharma Flower Sutra, Shakyamuni Buddha has said that he is the father of this world. Further, bodhisattvas are regarded as children of the Buddha. There is, in other words, a kind of familial relation, a relation of affection between the Buddha and bodhisattvas. Here, the placing of his hand on the heads of bodhisattvas indicates that the relationship is not only one of trust in a formal sense but displays a religious faith which goes beyond calculations of ability and such. Just as in early chapters of the Sutra he has assured shravakas of becoming buddhas, here the Buddha assures bodhisattvas that they can do the job that needs to be done.

“The bodhisattvas, in turn, assure the Buddha that they will indeed carry on his ministry of spreading the Dharma. In other words, the relationship of trust between the Buddha and the bodhisattvas is a mutual one, based on personal assurance.

Whether we consider ourselves among the bodhisattvas who rose from unground or among the general gathering doesn’t matter. As the History and Teachings of Nichiren Buddhism explains:

“To answer the message of the Lotus Sūtra, we should think of this transmission as coming directly to us. Receiving this transmission, we must ourselves commit to becoming teachers of the Dharma and messengers of the Tathāgata and put this transmission into action.”

As we take faith and practice before our altar and our faith grows, we should keep in mind that we are practicing at the Place of Enlightenment. This is the place where we are taken when we study the Lotus Sutra.

In Chapter 3, Śāriputra sings:

“You lead all living beings
To the place of enlightenment
By the Dharma-without-āsravas, difficult to understand.”

And the Buddha points out that with the One Vehicle of his teaching in the Lotus Sutra:

“The Bodhisattvas and Śrāvakas
Will be able to go immediately
To the place of enlightenment
If they ride in this jeweled vehicle.”

Where is this place of enlightenment? As the Buddha reveals in Chapter 21, any place “where anyone keeps, reads, recites, expounds or copies this sūtra, or acts according to its teachings, or in any place where a copy of this sūtra is put, be it in a garden, in a forest, under a tree, in a monastery, in the house of a person in white robes, in a hall, in a mountain, in a valley, or in the wilderness, there should a stupa be erected and offerings be made to it because, know this, the place where the stupa is erected is the place of enlightenment. Here the Buddhas attained Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi. Here the Buddhas turned the wheel of the Dharma. Here the Buddhas entered into Parinirvana.”

As Rev. Ryusho Jeffus says in this Lecture on the Lotus Sutra:

“In the special transmission [Chapter 21] we have the revelation once again that this place, the very place where the Lotus Sutra is practiced, is the place of enlightenment. In other words, there is no greater place to be, there is no greater place to practice than the very place where you are. Through this practice in your life you erect a great treasure tower containing the two Buddhas and you purify your environment revealing the pure land that it already is. We may not be able to perceive the reality of the Buddha’s pure land in our environment, through our practice we begin to manifest our own Buddha life and with the eyes of the Buddha we become, we have the ability to see our world with a new perspective. As the Buddha says further on, when we practice exactly as the buddha instructs us in the Lotus Sutra we will be able to eliminate darkness in our lives.”

Our acceptance of the teaching of the Lotus Sutra and belief in the truth of that teaching is the measure of our faith. This is the practice of great Bodhisattvas. As Universal Sage says in Chapter 28:

“Anyone who keeps, reads and recites this sūtra, memorizes it correctly, understands the meanings of it, and acts according to it, know this, does the same practices that I do. He should be considered to have already planted deeply the roots of good under innumerable Buddhas in his previous existence. He will be caressed on the head by the hands of the Tathāgatas.”

In Chapter 21, in which the bodhisattvas who sprang up from underground vow to propagate the Lotus Sutra, we are told explicitly why we have been asked to have faith in this supreme sutra:

“Anyone who understands why the Buddhas expound [many] sūtras,
Who knows the position [of this sūtra in the series of sūtras],
And who expounds it after my extinction
According to its true meaning,
Will be able to eliminate the darkness
Of the living beings of the world where he walks about,
Just as the light of the sun and the moon
Eliminates all darkness.
He will be able to cause innumerable Bodhisattvas
To dwell finally in the One Vehicle.”

We are not asked to simply study these teachings. As Nikkyō Niwano says in Buddhism for Today:

“It is not enough to have understood the sutra intellectually. We cannot be saved in the true sense, nor save the whole of society, until we proceed from understanding to faith and reach the mental state of complete union of understanding and faith.”

Or as Thich Nhat Hanh puts it in Peaceful Action, Open Heart:

“The essential message of Chapter 21 is that our practice is to share in the Tathagata’s limitless lifespan and great spiritual power. Just as when we look deeply into a leaf, a cloud, or any phenomenon, we are able to see its infinite lifespan in the ultimate dimension, and we realize that we are the same. If we look deeply enough, we will discover our own nature of no birth, no death. Like the Buddha, we also exist and can function in a much greater capacity than the ordinary frame of time and space we perceive ourselves to be bounded by. …

“Many of us go around all the time feeling that we are as small as a grain of sand. We may feel that our one small human life doesn’t have very much meaning. We struggle to get through life, and at the end of our life we feel that we have accomplished very little. This is a kind of inferiority complex many people suffer from. If we see reality only in terms of the historical dimension, it may seem to us as if there is little one ordinary human being can do. But if we get in touch with the ultimate dimension of reality, we know that we are just like the Buddha. We share in the Buddha’s nature – we are Buddha nature. When we are able to see beyond the limitations of perceived time and space, beyond our own notions of inferiority and powerlessness, we find we have great stores of spiritual energy to share with the world.”

The promise of the Lotus Sutra – the object of our faith – is clearly stated at the conclusion of Chapter 21:

“Therefore, the man of wisdom
Who hears the benefits of these merits
And who keeps this sūtra after my extinction,
Will be able to attain
The enlightenment of the Buddha
Definitely and doubtlessly.”

In Chapter 21, The Supernatural Powers of the Tathāgatas, we are told:

“To sum up, all the teachings of the Tathāgata, all the unhindered, supernatural powers of the Tathāgata, all the treasury of the hidden core of the Tathāgata, and all the profound achievements of the Tathāgata are revealed and expounded explicitly in this sūtra. Therefore, keep, read, recite, expound and copy this sūtra, and act according to the teachings of it with all your hearts after my extinction!”

In Easy Readings of the Lotus Sutra, Chapter 21 is beautifully transformed into an ode to the Daimoku:

“The Odaimoku includes all the merits of the Buddha’s enlightenment.

“The Odaimoku contains all the supernatural powers of the Buddha to save all people.

“The Odaimoku is the crystallization of the Buddha’s boundless wisdom necessary to teach and lead all beings.

“The Odaimoku expresses all merits the Buddha has practiced.

“These four things showing the Buddha’s real image and spirit are explicitly revealed in the Lotus Sutra; the Buddha’s true mind is the Odaimoku.

“Especially after the Buddha’s extinction, you must keep in mind that you should believe, from the bottom of your heart, in the Lotus Sutra and the Odaimoku in which the entire mind of the Buddha is clearly explained, and that you should recite and study the Lotus Sutra and chant the Odaimoku in order to practice the Buddha’s teachings as instructed by the Buddha.

“Wherever the place might be, at the place where the teachings of the Lotus Sutra have spread and the faith in the Odaimoku is practiced in correct and proper ways, you must set up a place of prayer and spend a life with faith in the Sutra, be it in a village or countryside with farms, woods or groves, or in a monastery, or in the house of ordinary people, or a residence of higher status people, or in a mountain village or a vast plain.

“The reason for this is that nowhere else but a place where the Odaimoku is believed in and its teachings are expounded is the true place of prayer.

“It is this place of prayer to the Odaimoku where all Buddhas have become enlightened.

“Here, the Buddhas expound their teachings.

“In other words, this Sahā world in which we live, believing in the Odaimoku, is the very place where the Buddha’s true world lies.”

When we chant Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō we gather to ourselves “all the teachings of the Tathāgata, all the unhindered, supernatural powers of the Tathāgata, all the treasury of the hidden core of the Tathāgata, and all the profound achievements of the Tathāgata.” As Nichiren says in “Reply to My Lady, the Nun of Ueno”:

“In the case of the Lotus Sūtra, … when one touches it, one’s hands immediately become Buddhas, and when one chants it, one’s mouth instantly becomes a Buddha.”

Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Followers II, Volume 7, Page 58-59

This is how faith in the Lotus Sutra is rewarded.