The Lesser Vehicle of the “Sravaka” and “Pratyekabuddha” drew a sharp line between this world of sufferings and the pure world of spirit. Its followers renounced worldly concerns, devoted their lives to religious austerities, and made every effort to attain absolute tranquility. This made for a two-dimensional world view, esteeming the pure world of spirit and devaluating the everyday world in which we live.
Bodhisattvas, on the other hand, saw the two worlds as one. They saw this world as the center stage for their religious practice, and preached that spiritual enlightenment must be realized in our life in this world. In short, the Bodhisattva’s mission to deliver people from suffering is to be accomplished in this world of sufferings.
Traditionally, the small herbs are interpreted as humans and deities, the middle-sized herbs as “hearers” and “private Buddhas,” and the large herbs, stems, and branches as Bodhisattvas. The latter can be divided into three levels of accomplishment. The vast compassion of Sakyamuni is distributed equally to all living beings in order to lead them all to the enlightenment of the Buddha.
These allegorical descriptions [in the Lotus Sutra] can be understood as the development of the concept of the One Vehicle. Chapter Four described how the Buddha leads all beings by faith until they reach the final stage of enlightenment. Chapter 5, The Simile of Herbs, on the other hand, tells us that living beings are now at various levels of understanding, and the Buddha patiently and compassionately expounds the law to all of them equally, although in different ways.
This simile depicts the universal quality of the Buddha, who is like a large cloud that covers all the diverse beings of this world. Chapters Two and Three have introduced the teachings of the One Vehicle (the Truth), which unifies all kinds of philosophies and religions. The One Vehicle can also be understood as a manifestation of the Buddha’s personality, because he attained the Truth and manifested it in his very body. In the “Simile of Herbs,” the personality of the Buddha, the One Thus Come (Tathagata, the title by which he described himself after his enlightenment), is symbolized by the same kind of cloud, of rain, of content, or of taste.
The Buddhist faith often expounds difficult doctrines consisting of abstract philosophical ideas. When it comes to the Lotus Sutra, however, such complicated dogmas do not appear on the surface. For this reason, some critics have argued that there are no doctrines in the Lotus Sutra. But this is not true. The Lotus Sutra does contain profound philosophical thoughts. Instead of using tortuous logic, however, the Sutra explains its philosophy in the simplified form of stories, drawing on examples familiar to us from everyday life. This is why we find many parables in the text.
There are not different rains there is only the one rain falling from the single cloud. The Buddha in his skillful wisdom knew what each of his disciples was capable of understanding. He taught according to that capacity with the objective of eventually leading them deeper so they could partake of the complete Dharma. This is one reason why we say that previous to the Lotus Sutra the Buddha taught according to the minds of those he was teaching, and in the Lotus Sutra the Buddha teaches according to his own mind.
There is little that is obscured to us in interpreting The Simile of Herbs. The Buddha is pretty straightforward in saying that he is like the cloud. It seems simple enought to then think the rain represents the Dharma. The interesting thing is the Buddha, while explaining the Dharma is like the rain that falls evenly over all the plants, compares his different teachings to the different capacities of the people who have heard the Dharma.
In other words, the difference in Dharma is only as it applies to the person who takes nourishment from it. Fundamentally, there are not different Dharma teachings. There is only one teaching which appears to be different because of the capacity of the person hearing it.
