[I]n Chapter 10 there are several variations of the formula for five practices and many more throughout the Sutra, usually with five or six different practices being listed. By my count, at least sixteen such practices are cited in the Sutra, though never all in one place. Not all of them are entirely different perhaps, but they are different enough to be represented by different Chinese characters in Kumarajiva’s translation and therefore in my English translation.

Here are the sixteen practices with regard to the Sutra: to hear, receive, embrace or uphold, read, recite, study, memorize or learn by heart, remember it correctly, understand its meaning, explain it, teach it for the sake of others, copy it, honor it, make offerings to it, put it into practice, and practice the Sutra as taught or preached. What I want to portray with this list is that the Dharma Flower Sutra is richer and much more complex than standard formulas sometimes suggest. The reduction of the sixteen to a standard five is a useful device for aiding our learning – nothing more. By using a variety of such lists, even in the same chapter, we are being taught, I believe, to be flexible and open-minded when reading or studying the Dharma Flower Sutra.

Whether the list of such practices be five or seven or sixteen, these are practices that can be done by anyone, including you and me, and they can be done just about anywhere. They certainly are not the end of Buddhist practice, but they can be used as skillful means, as useful and important steps in the direction of the life of a true Dharma teacher or bodhisattva.