One of the most important and influential schools of Chinese Buddhism, the Tiantai school, divides the Lotus Sutra into two parts: the first fourteen chapters representing the historical dimension and the last fourteen chapters representing the ultimate dimension. But this method has some shortcomings. There are elements of the ultimate dimension in the first fourteen chapters and elements of the historical in the second. There is also a third very important dimension, the dimension of action.

These dimensions cannot be separated; they inter-are. Here is an example. When we look at a bell we can see that it is made of metal. The manifestation of the bell carries the substance of metal within. So within the historical dimension – the form of the bell – we can see its ultimate dimension, the ground from which it manifests. When the bell is struck, it creates a pleasant sound. The pleasant sound created by the bell is its function. The purpose of a bell is to offer sound in order for us to practice. That is its action. Function is the dimension of action, the third dimension along with, and inseparable from, the historical and ultimate dimensions.

We need to establish a third dimension of the Lotus Sutra to reveal its function, its action. How can we help people of the historical dimension get in touch with their ultimate nature so that they can live joyfully in peace and freedom? How can we help those who suffer open the door of the ultimate dimension so that the suffering brought about by fear, despair, and anxiety can be alleviated? I have gathered all the chapters on the great bodhisattvas into this third action dimension, the bodhisattva’s sphere of engaged practice.

We should not think that it is only the Buddha who has so many manifestation bodies. If we look deeply we will also see that we have many emanation bodies as well. In the 1960s, I wrote a book called The Miracle of Mindfulness to help people learn the practice of mindfulness. In writing the book I drew upon the Satipatthana Sutta. But it is a simple book, very practical and easy to understand. I wrote it in the form of a letter to the workers of the School of Youth for Social Service, a community of young people we had established in Vietnam to help rebuild communities that were destroyed by the war. The book was intended to help our students practice mindfulness as they went about the difficult and sometimes dangerous work of relieving the suffering of the Vietnamese people. I saw that the practice of mindfulness would be very useful in this kind of situation. If our students were able to maintain mindfulness, to breathe and smile and keep a fresh outlook when bringing relief to others, their practice of mindfulness would at the same time nourish their hearts of loving kindness and compassion so that they could continue to do such difficult work. If they worked under too much stress and difficulty all the time and were not able to maintain mindfulness, if they became angry or resentful or began to feel sorry for themselves, they would not be able to achieve anything in their work. So I wrote The Miracle of Mindfulness to help these students.

At the time I wrote that small book, I could not have imagined the effect it would have in the world. It has been translated into twenty-five languages, reprinted many times, distributed in countries throughout the world, and I still receive letters from people who have experienced tremendous transformations in their lives and work from reading this simple book and learning the practice of mindfulness. This shows that we are not able to measure or anticipate the full effect over time of the work we do. Our works, our actions, our very way of being are our emanation bodies that travel through the world widely and continue to have an effect on others for a long time.

Every one of us has many emanation bodies in all parts of the world, but the result of these emanation bodies is not something we can easily measure. If we, like Buddha Shakyamuni, were to realize the miracle of gathering together all our manifestation bodies in an instant in one place, we would feel such great happiness, joy of a kind that we rarely experience. So we need to remember that our studies and practice are not only for our individual benefit but also benefit our family, community, nation, and the entire Earth. Our mistakes cause others to suffer, and our success in the practice can benefit many others. This is why it is so important to practice the art of mindfulness, so that our emanation bodies offer only love and compassion and bring benefit, not harm, to others.

The Buddha shows great faith in us by entrusting the wonderful Dharma to us. We can repay this trust and faith by becoming the arms and hands of the Buddha and continuing the Tathagata’s great work of leading all beings to the shore of liberation.

When all these emanation bodies come together, it is a very joyful time. They drink tea together, eat biscuits, and have Dharma discussion. Then the Buddha entrusts the wonderful Dharma to the great bodhisattvas and asks them all to return to their worldspheres to continue the work of leading all beings to liberation. In this way, the Sutra says, they can repay the great kindness and compassion the Buddhas have shown by teaching the wonderful Lotus Dharma. This is the true meaning of entrusting. “This teaching is the highest of all teachings. I am now handing it on to you so that you may receive it and teach it widely to benefit all living beings.”

To complete our discussion of the ultimate dimension we skip ahead to Lotus Sutra Chapter 21, “The Supernatural Powers of the Thus Come One.” The supernatural power, or spiritual energy, of the Tathagata is his capacity to realize the practice. Naturally this spiritual power is based in the infinite life span of the Tathagata, the Buddha’s ultimate nature. We have already seen that the Tathagata cannot be placed in a frame of calculable space and time. The Tathagata is beyond our conception of the bounds of space and time. The Tathagata is not one but many; the Tathagata is not only here in this moment but everywhere at all times, in manifestation bodies as numerous as the sands of the Ganges. So, based on the foundation of his infinite life span and ultimate nature, we can see that the spiritual power of the Tathagata is very great, beyond our ability to imagine it.

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.

We participate in the Buddha’s infinite life span and limitless spiritual strength when we are able to get in touch with the ultimate dimension of everything we see. When we are in touch with the Tathagata’s life span and spiritual power, we are also in touch with our own ultimate nature and spiritual power. 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.

Having received this great merit, with our mind faculty transformed, any thought we have, any concept we entertain – all have the flavor of the Buddhadharma. Even though we may not yet have realized perfect wisdom or put an end to all our mental afflictions (kleshas), with a purified mind faculty every thought, every calculation, every deduction, every word we speak is in accord with the Buddhadharma. There is nothing we teach that is not the truth, and the value of what we teach is equivalent to that of the Dharma taught by all the Buddhas in the sutras. The far-reaching merit of the Lotus Sutra transforms all those who hear it, understand it, accept it in faith, and practice it into teachers of Dharma who share their insight and joy with others in order to help them realize the truth of the ultimate dimension and cross to the shore of freedom.

“Merit” here also has the meaning of “realization.” The merit of this teaching effects a great change in the field of our six sense organs (sadayatana) our eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and mind. When we are able to receive the truth of the Lotus Sutra our sense perceptions undergo a profound transformation. Automatically our eyes are able to see things that before we were not able to see. We attain the eyes of the Dharma that are able to look deeply and see the true nature and suchness of all dharmas, all phenomena in the world of our perceptions. With Dharma eyes we can look into a wilted and yellow autumn leaf and see its wonderful, fresh green nature. We can see that one leaf, whether old and yellow or green and fresh, contains all the merits, all the wonderful suchness of the universe. The eyes of someone who has received and who maintains the teaching of this Sutra, the truth of the ultimate, are able to see the limitless life span, the unborn and undying nature of everything. This is the first merit, the transformation of our sight perception into the eyes of the Dharma.

With the ears of the Dharma, we are now able to hear very deeply. We hear the music of the birds singing, the sound of the wind in the pine trees, and even the very subtle sound of a flower opening. And while we are listening to these sounds, we experience their wondrous ultimate nature. Bird song expresses the truth of the ultimate dimension of all phenomena. Listening deeply to the sound of the wind in the pine trees, we hear the teachings of the Lotus Sutra. In the same way, all of our senses are transformed. When each of our sense organs comes into contact with an object, we receive the truth of the Lotus Sutra, culminating in the transformation of the mind faculty (manaindrya), our mental perception.

When our mind faculty and our other sense faculties have been transformed and purified as a result of the merit we have received from hearing, understanding, and practicing this wonderful Dharma, then we need hear only one gatha or one line of the Sutra to understand all sutras and teachings. We do not need to study the entire Tripitaka in order to understand the Buddhadharma. One gatha contains all other gathas, one teaching reveals the deep meaning of all other teachings, just as the truth of impermanence contains the truth of no-self and the truth of interbeing.

Then the Buddha says to Bodhisattva Maitreya, “If a good man or woman should hear me teach about the infinite life span of the Tathagata and give rise to a feeling of faith and understanding, that person is already sitting in the great assembly on Mount The Gṛdhrakūṭa Mountain at this very moment.” This is the merit of receiving and practicing the Lotus Sutra. If you are able to hear this wonderful Dharma from a friend or teacher, from a bird singing or the sound of a flowing stream, if you read or hear the Sutra, understand and have faith in it, get in touch with the ultimate dimension of the Tathagata and of everything in the universe, then right in that moment you are sitting alongside the Buddha. You do not have to go back 2,600 years to be able to see and touch the Buddha. You are able to realize that profound happiness right away, in this very moment.

Chapters 17, 18, and 19 of the Lotus Sutra all have to do with the idea of merit. The word “merit” (Sanskrit: punya), when rendered in Chinese is made up of two characters. The first character means “daily practice or daily work,” and the second means “virtuous conduct.” Merit is a kind of spiritual energy that can be accumulated when we maintain a steady practice. This energy protects us and brings us joy and insight. Our practice helps us see, hear, and understand things clearly, and we can be present in a very deep way. When we can maintain our mindfulness and deep presence, we are able to touch the ultimate dimension. And when we get in touch with the ultimate, we know we are already in nirvana. This is the merit of the practice.

In terms of the ultimate dimension, the life span of the Tathagata is immeasurable and infinite. Yet even though in ultimate reality the Buddha is not born and does not die, nevertheless he pretends to be born, to exist for a while, and to enter nirvana to show living beings of the world how to take care of themselves. The Buddha gives us the spiritual medicine we need for the healing and transformation of our bodies and minds – the practice of mindfulness. Now it is up to us to take the medicine and practice diligently so that we too can get in touch with the ultimate dimension and recognize our true nature of no birth and no death.

We have to use mindfulness in order to touch the ultimate dimension. When we notice a yellow leaf underfoot during walking meditation, it is an opportunity to look deeply into its nature of no coming and no going. When we breathe mindfully, we are in touch with our breath and body and we already feel different than before. Using mindfulness, everything appears to us more clearly. The practice of mindfulness is the path that leads us to the ultimate dimension. When we practice mindfulness in our daily life activities – working, gardening, cooking, washing the dishes, greeting guests – we are in touch with the phenomenal world very deeply, much more deeply than when we do not have mindfulness. At that point the ultimate dimension can begin to show itself to us.

The ultimate dimension reveals itself either vaguely or clearly to us depending on the quality of our mindfulness. Sometimes we have mindfulness only for a moment; sometimes we can maintain it for two or three minutes. If we look at a cloud mindfully and are able to maintain our mindfulness for three minutes, for those three minutes we have concentration, samadhi. When our practice of mindfulness is solid and steady enough then we are able to keep the lamp of samadhi alight from moment to moment. Whether we are in the kitchen, bedroom, bathroom, or office, when we sweep the courtyard or drive our car, in all these actions we maintain the bright flame of samadhi. Practicing this way we get in touch with our own true nature, which is exactly the same as the Buddha’s, unborn and undying. Just like the yellow leaf and everything else we see around us in the world of appearances, we too are participating in the infinite life span of the Buddha.