[A] central point of the story of Mahaprajapati and Yashodhara is related to the main doctrinal theme of the whole Sutra – universal salvation or the potential of all living beings to become a buddha. If, as many scholars believe, Chapter 12 with its story of the dragon princess was added to the Dharma Flower Sutra relatively late, this chapter would have been needed to make it quite clear that becoming a bodhisattva and eventually achieving full awakening is not something limited to men.

Not only Mahaprajapati and Yashodhara but Mahaprajapati’s six thousand nun followers as well, who are to become great Dharma teachers, gradually fulfilling the bodhisattva way, are assured of reaching supreme awakening as buddhas. In contrast with the story of the dragon princess, there is no mention of these nuns having to become male. Clearly, as Dharma teachers and bodhisattvas at least, they are female.

A related point of secondary interest in this story is the common courtesy in the greetings brought to Shakyamuni. After all the buddhas from all over the universe have assembled and seated themselves on their lion seats in the much expanded and purified world, each of them instructs his attending bodhisattva to go to Shakyamuni Buddha to ask to be included in witnessing the opening of the Stupa of Abundant Treasures Buddha. But first, they are told, they should inquire about Shakyamuni Buddha’s health, about whether he has any illnesses or worries, and similarly about the health and spirits of the bodhisattvas and shravakas of this world.

These greetings are not just about his physical condition, but about the Buddha’s mental or spiritual condition as well. This tells us something not only about common courtesy, but also about the nature of the Buddha in this Sutra. He is not indifferent to what happens in the world, but one who himself suffers, both physically and mentally.

In the Dharma Flower Sutra there are several ways in which the humanity, or what we would now call the “historicity,” of Shakyamuni Buddha is affirmed and even insisted upon. He is placed within fantastic stories, such as this one, in which he can be seen as much more than human, but from time to time we are reminded that this same Shakyamuni is a man. We are reminded that he is one who left his father’s castle, who became awakened under the bodhi tree, who went to Varanasi to teach, and so on, and, perhaps most importantly, a man who at the end of his life died and his body was cremated.

Let’s turn our attention to the brief simile found in this chapter: the extremely thirsty man digging in the soil for water. Unlike some parables, this simile is not fully interpreted for us, but it can nonetheless readily be understood in accord with the previous discussion.

The man, a bodhisattva, digs for water on a “high plain.” We do not know exactly what this “high plain” means, but presumably it means that he is digging in a place where water is quite deep down but where there is at least a reasonable possibility of water being found. If he dug in a rocky place, for example, he might die of thirst before finding any water at all.

Digging, he comes to damp earth, then mud, and knows that he is getting closer to water. Actually, the dampness itself is water. That is, seeing damp earth, while he cannot yet drink, he is seeing a promise of water he’ll be able to drink soon, a promise that he knows is good because the dampness and the water he seeks are the same water.

The text interprets this parable in terms of hearing the Dharma:

Medicine King, you should know
That this is the way people are.
Those who do not hear the Dharma Flower Sutra
Are far from buddha-wisdom.
But if they hear
This profound sutra…,
And hearing it
Truly ponder over it,
You should know that those people
Are near the wisdom of a buddha. (LS 232)

So too all sixteen simple practices – any of them and many others as well, while not the ultimate goal, can be a kind of taste of the life of a bodhisattva. If we practice one or more of them seriously, we will experience a taste of riches to come and know that we too are nearer to the water after which we thirst: the wisdom of a buddha.

Here as well, we should notice that a kind of relational activity is going on. On the one hand, the man is using his own effort to dig for water. He is motivated, even driven, by something within himself, namely, his thirst. His very life depends on finding water to drink and so he exerts a great effort. On the other hand, the promise of water, the increasingly damp earth, comes to him. As a result of making an effort, he receives a promise. The water is something he finds.

While there is no guarantee that by digging we will find water, at least in this lifetime, we, too, if we make an effort to follow the bodhisattva way, may receive a promise of riches to come. Along the way we too may receive some help from the Buddha. In Chapter 10 we are told that the Buddha will send various people to hear the Dharma taught and to help the teacher when he needs it. We should be prepared to meet such people.

The most important thing about [Chapter 10] is its emphasis on the Dharma teacher. Here we can see that the Sutra attempts to break through the limitations of the threefold shravaka-pratyekabuddha-bodhisattva distinction that had been prominent in earlier chapters of this Sutra and elsewhere in Mahayana Buddhism. According to Chapter 10, anyone – bodhisattva, pratyekabuddha, shravaka, or layperson, man or woman – can be a Dharma teacher.

This important point is certainly not unique to this chapter, but it is emphasized here in a special way: it is not only great bodhisattvas, great leaders, or great people who can teach the Dharma and do the Buddha’s work, but very ordinary people with even a limited understanding and even of limited faith can join in the Buddha’s work, if only by understanding and teaching a little. The point is, of course, that you and I can be Dharma teachers.

Thus the Buddha tells Medicine King Bodhisattva that if anyone wants to know what sort of living beings will become buddhas in the future, he should tell them that the very people before him, that is, all sorts of people, including very ordinary people, will become buddhas.

The kings of the Brahma heavens give up the pleasures of meditation to come down to earth and offer their flowers and palaces to the Buddha. This means that even a king of heaven, a god, cannot become a buddha without working in this world of human beings to benefit others. It does not mean that meditation is to be avoided. In this story it is through meditation that the prince became the Buddha Excellent in Great Penetrating Wisdom. But the story does suggest that meditation alone is not sufficient Buddhist practice.

The Lotus Sutra is sometimes said to disparage the shravaka way and its emphasis on nirvana. And it is indeed true that some passages in the Sutra can be cited to support this view. For example, in Chapter 2 we can read:

For those with dull minds
Who want lesser teachings,
Who greedily cling to existence,
Who, after encountering countless buddhas,

Still do not follow
The profound and wonderful way,
And are tormented by much suffering –
For them I teach nirvana. (LS 86-7)

But passages of this kind are rare and, while they are one way of looking at the matter, they do not represent the overall view of the Lotus Sutra, which is basically that shravaka teachings are an important step along the Buddha Way. Already in Chapter 1 we can find:

By various causal explanations
And innumerable parables,
[The buddhas] illuminate the Buddha-dharma And open understanding of it to all.

Or weary from age, disease, or death,
For them they teach nirvana
To bring all suffering to an end.

The shravaka way certainly is not being belittled or disparaged – after all, it brings suffering to an end. For those who sought to be shravakas he taught the Dharma of the four truths for overcoming birth, old age, disease, and death, and attaining nirvana.

Thus we find references to this shravaka nirvana as “incomplete nirvana, or as what shravakas “think is nirvana.” Not surprisingly, we find contrasting terms in the text as well, such as “ultimate nirvana.”

At one point in Chapter 7, the Buddha says, “the nirvana that you have attained is not the real one!” This implies, of course, that there is a greater nirvana of some kind. This greater nirvana is often characterized in the Dharma Flower Sutra as “buddha-wisdom.” The shravaka nirvana, the Buddha says, is “only close to buddha-wisdom.” (LS 199) Sometimes the text goes further, declaring that real nirvana is a matter of being a buddha. Thus, at the end of Chapter 7 we find:

When I know they have reached nirvana
And all have become arhats,
Then I gather everyone together
And teach the real Dharma.

Through their powers of skillful means,
Buddhas make distinctions and teach three vehicles.
But there is really only one Buddha-Vehicle.
It is for a resting place that the other two are taught.

Now I teach the truth for you:
What you have reached is not extinction.
To gain a buddha’s comprehensive wisdom, You have to make a great effort.

When you have gained comprehensive wisdom,
And the ten powers of the Buddha-dharma,
And acquired the thirty-two characteristics,
Then that is real extinction. (LS 206)

Thus, what is taught in the Dharma Flower Sutra, and in the parable of the fantastic castle-city, is that an experience of nirvana that leads you to think you have accomplished all that you need to accomplish is always an illusion. Yet, while it is an illusion, it is not necessarily a bad illusion, since, by providing a resting place along the way, it can enable people to pursue the greater goal of acquiring buddha-wisdom, of becoming a buddha. Resting places can be illusions and escapes, but they may be both useful and necessary. Without them many people, including ourselves, might not be able to continue on the way. We should not, then, be too critical of resting places, especially of the resting places of others.