Various reasons are given in the Sutra as to why the Buddha has announced his entry into final nirvana when actually he is still alive in this world. For example: “If the Buddha lives for a long time in this world, people of little virtue will not plant roots of goodness, and those who are poor and of humble origins will become attached to the five desires and be caught in a net of assumptions and false views. If they see that the Tathagata is always alive and never extinct, they will become arrogant and selfish or discouraged and neglectful. Unable to realize how difficult it is to meet him, they will not have a respectful attitude toward him.” (LS 293)

It is useful to understand these terms through the vehicle of the parables. The children in the parable of the burning house are too absorbed in their play to notice what is going on around them, including their father’s attempts to warn them of the dangers. The son in the parable of the rich father and poor son is simply lacking in self-confidence and self-respect. The children in this parable are stricken by poison. All are in need of help and guidance, but what they need guidance for is to accept greater responsibility for the direction and quality of their own lives. In this way, they can, perhaps only very gradually, become bodhisattvas, and take responsibility for doing the Buddha’s work in this world.

And yet, even though stories have been told about the death of the Buddha, even now the Buddha is not really dead. He is still with us, alive in this world, living the bodhisattva way, doing the bodhisattva work of transforming people into bodhisattvas and purifying buddha lands. “From the beginning,” he says, “I have practiced the bodhisattva way, and that life is not yet finished. . . .” (LS 293)

It is important to recognize that the bodhisattvas who spring up from the earth are not merely historical beings of the past. They include ourselves. Shakyamuni Buddha was a historical person. He was born, lived, and died on earth. So too were the leading shravakas who appear in the Dharma Flower Sutra – Shariputra, Ananda, Subhuti, Katyayana, Kashyapa, Maudgalyayana, and others. These are the names of historical people. But the famous, and not so famous, bodhisattvas are not historical, at least not in the same sense. Manjushri, Maitreya, Universal Sage (Pǔxián/Fugen/Samantabhadra), Earth Store (Dìzàng/Jizo/Kshitigharba), and Kwan-yin (Kannon/Avalokiteshvara) are the five most prominent bodhisattvas in East Asian religion and art. Though all, especially Manjushri, Maitreya, and Kwan-yin, are believed to have been embodied in a variety of historical figures, none is an actual historical figure. The same is true of other bodhisattvas who have important roles in the Dharma Flower Sutra, bodhisattvas such as Never Disrespectful, Medicine King, and Wonderful Voice, and the four leading bodhisattvas who emerge from the earth in Chapter 15. Although some are believed to have been embodied in one or more historical figures, none is historical in the sense that Shakyamuni, Shariputra, and you and I are historical. Rather, they are models for us, setting examples of bodhisattva practices that we can follow.

But the enormous horde of bodhisattvas who well up from the earth with the four leaders are perhaps a little different. They appear, not in historical time, but in a powerful story. The text says that the four groups, the monks and nuns, laymen and laywomen, could see these bodhisattvas “by the divine powers of the Buddha.” This is another way of referring to the human imagination, to the power that we all have to transcend everyday life, the power to see the buddha in others. The bodhisattvas are nameless, and, except for greeting and showing respect to all the buddhas, in this story and in subsequent chapters of the Sutra they do nothing. We can understand this to mean that in a sense they are not yet. The emergence of bodhisattvas from the earth is not a one-time event in ordinary time, but an ongoing process – bodhisattvas are emerging from the earth still. And not only, of course, in India, but virtually everywhere there are human beings. If we use our own powers of imagination, we can see bodhisattvas emerging from the earth all around us! We ourselves can be among them.

While this story is about a king and his army, compared with many other religious texts, the Lotus Sutra is remarkably free of military imagery. Apart from this story, the only armies mentioned in the sutra are the armies of Mara, a sort of Indian version of the devil or Satan. Terms such as “soldier,” “general” (except for the “generals of heaven”), “war,” “military,” “battle,” and so on simply are not used in the Dharma Flower Sutra.

Even here, it is relevant to note that the powerful, holy, wheel-rolling king who is at the center of the parable is not primarily a warrior. He is a holy chakravartin-raja, an ideal ruler or king in Indian mythology, a king who rules not by force but by righteousness and doing good. Chakra is the Indian word for wheel and a chakravartin is a wheel-turner, a title that could be given to any powerful ruler, the idea being that, as the wheels of his chariot roll along, all obstacles in the ruler’s path are destroyed. In Buddhism, however, the wheel becomes the Dharma wheel, and the wheel-rolling king can become a symbol of one whose teachings are so powerful that they overcome all obstacles.

Today, when so many seem to think that the only way to safety and happiness for humanity is through war, and through constantly looking for evil in order to punish it, it is good to know that the Dharma Flower Sutra teaches that the way to peace is through seeking out and rewarding the good in others. For many, it is precisely this positive thrust of the Dharma Flower Sutra – its affirmation of the opportunities offered to us within this life, where suffering is pervasive – that makes it the supreme sutra. In this story, this parable of the jewel in the topknot, we can see both the idea that the Dharma Flower Sutra is supreme and the idea that it is supreme precisely because it directs us to seek out and reward the good that we can find everywhere.

After all, it is not only holy wheel-rolling kings who have jewels to give. Anyone, by seeking to reward others, can find their own life greatly enriched. Even if such a practice does not always lead to comfort, and you can be sure that there will be times when it will not, it can lead to a kind of equanimity that might be called “trouble-free.”

The chapter closes with the idea that those who read the Sutra will be rewarded in many ways and will have marvelous dreams assuring them of ultimately becoming buddhas. That is, receiving the Sutra not only changes our lives by making us more positive and happy, it even helps make our dreams more pleasant.

The Dharma Flower Sutra makes frequent reference to “upholding” the Sutra. What does it mean to “uphold” the Sutra? The Chinese character used here can mean such things as “keep,” “hold,” “uphold,” or “take care of.” Usually, when translating it in the Dharma Flower Sutra, I have used the term “embrace.” It occurs in several combinations that are important in the Sutra, especially (in Japanese pronunciation) as juji, “receive and embrace”; buji, “honor and embrace”; goji, “protect and embrace”; and jisetsu, “embrace and explain”; and there are many others. I like to use “embrace” because, for the Dharma Flower Sutra, what is involved is not a matter either of storage or of defending, but of following or adhering to the teachings of the Sutra by embodying them in one’s life.

But in Chapter 13, what is of most direct concern is propagating the Sutra in the face of great difficulties, spreading its teachings to others despite many obstacles, leading others to embrace it. So here, in the title of Chapter 13, it seems fitting to think of being encouraged to “uphold” the Sutra.

Some scholars believe that stories of Devadatta’s evil deeds were invented later to discredit the leader of a group that was a rival to the main Buddhist organization, a Buddhist saint whose rival organization lasted for several centuries and probably only died with the death of Buddhism in India, long after the time of the Buddha. (See Reginald A. Ray’s Buddhist Saints in India, pp 162-78)

Here it’s important to note that the Stupa does not come from some distant heaven, but springs up out of the earth. This means that this world and ourselves in it are affirmed, as this is where the truth about the nature of reality is to be found, and to be taught. In other words, this world has a kind of buddha-nature within it, here symbolized by the Stupa that comes up out of the earth with Abundant Treasures Buddha in it.

So, too, the fact that all of the buddhas throughout the entire universe come to this world, or at least to a purified version of this world, shows a powerful affirmation of our world. The Pure Land, this story implies, is to be found here. This is the land that Shakyamuni Buddha transforms into a Pure Land, even if only temporarily.

Such affirmations are not just sentiments; they are an indication of where our own energies should go – that is, into purifying this world and realizing the buddha-nature of things in this world, thus enabling us both to see this world as a Pure Land and to transform it into a Pure Land.

Like Shariputra in an earlier story, in this story Ananda recollects his original vow to teach and transform countless beings into bodhisattvas. This is basically the vow of buddhas and especially of bodhisattvas to save all living beings. Much earlier, in Chapter 2 of the Sutra, the Buddha said:

You should know, Shariputra,
I originally took a vow,
Wanting to enable all living beings to be equal to me,
Without any distinctions.

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.

Purna, we are told in the first section of this chapter, while seeming to be a shravaka, is actually a bodhisattva in disguise. The Dharma Flower Sutra both retains the classical meaning of bodhisattva as one who is very high in status, on the way to becoming a buddha, and it gives new meaning to the term by proposing that all are, to some degree, bodhisattvas. This means that the title “bodhisattva” should be seen, not so much as a mark of status, but rather as a term used to name a kind of activity. Just as a teacher who does not teach is not really a teacher, a bodhisattva who does not do the work of the Buddha is not truly a bodhisattva. On the other hand, anyone who does do the work of the Buddha, regardless of title or status, is – to that degree – a bodhisattva. I sometimes like to say that we should regard the word “bodhisattva” not so much as a noun, but as a verb. Unfortunately, this is much easier to do in Chinese than it is in English!