[King Wonderful-Adornment] follows the truth when it is shown to him, even though it is his own sons who lead him to the truth. This probably is the main point intended in the story. The Dharma Flower Sutra wants us to realize that we too must follow the truth, regardless of the source.

Following the truth means not only recognizing it, but also acting in accord with it. The King sees truth in the deeds of his sons and he follows them to see the Buddha.

In this sense, Buddhism can be seen as radically anti-authoritarian. We should follow the truth regardless of convention, regardless of from where or from whom it comes. But, at the same time, this final authority of the individual has to be kept in check by having good associations, good friends, and teachers.

Thus, Buddhism is here again a kind of middle way – saying follow the truth as you yourself see it, but be sure that you are looking in the right places, that you are looking critically, and that your perceptions are shared by good friends. Doing so makes you a “child of the Buddha.”

This teaching of universal salvation, of the potential in all living beings to become buddhas, is always also about us, the hearers and readers of the Dharma Flower Sutra. The focus of the chapter is the question of how the Dharma will survive in a hostile world without Shakyamuni Buddha to teach it. The answer is that it is a responsibility of bodhisattvas to teach and proclaim the Dharma everywhere. Among such bodhisattvas are women. This means that anyone can grow spiritually through encountering women and that one can meet the Buddha in a woman. This was very important in the development of Buddhism in China, and subsequently in the rest of East Asia, as it fostered the growth in devotion to Kwan-yin, in which the Buddha is encountered in female form.

Toward the end of Chapter 10, we find these words:

If people are to teach this sutra,
Let them enter the Tathagata’s room,
Put on the Tathagata’s robe,
And sit on the Tathagata’s seat.

Facing the multitude without fear,
Let them teach it clearly everywhere,
With great compassion as their room,
Gentleness and patience as their robe,
And the emptiness of all things as their seat.
Doing this, they should teach the Dharma. (LS 232)

In this beautiful poetic expression we have another indication of what it means to follow the bodhisattva way. It means nothing terribly complicated, just the very difficult matter of being compassionate, gentle, and patient and living from an understanding of the emptiness of all things. To enter the room of the Buddha, wear his robe, and sit on his seat is a wonderful metaphor for living the life of a bodhisattva, living the Dharma in a way that goes beyond our sixteen simple practices. This is what it means to be a teacher of the Dharma.

What Shariputra gains from realizing that he is a bodhisattva is not a safe quick trip directly to being a buddha, as on an elevator, but something more like admission to a long stairway. The stairway will be difficult. But the most important point is that there is a stairway, a way to overcome suffering from the unsatisfactoriness of life, and the Buddha’s teachings can lead us to such a stairway.

Is life really meaningful? That is what the story of Shariputra is about. And the Sutra’s answer is that life is and can be experienced as meaningful, or can be meaningful, because it is meaningful.

The Sutra understands itself to be good news for everyone – in one sense, a kind of wake-up call to enter a new world, or to experience the world in a new way; in another sense, it is a kind of public announcement that everyone is a bodhisattva and therefore that you are already a bodhisattva and are on your way to becoming a buddha. Hearing such an announcement, really hearing such an announcement, we should all be glad and full of joy!

The Lotus Sutra teaches that we should reflect the Dharma in our own lives, especially in relation to those who are close to us, such as other members of our family. Just thinking we are Buddhist, or saying we are Buddhist, or belonging to a Buddhist organization, or even regularly performing Buddhist practices such as meditation or recitation, is not enough. It doesn’t mean much unless it affects how we behave in everyday life.

And when this happens, all kinds of transformations are possible. When the King and Queen give their extremely valuable necklaces to the Buddha, the necklaces are transformed into a jeweled platform with a seat for the Buddha from which he emits light. The point of this, I think, is that when we devote ourselves to the Buddha, not only can our lives be transformed, but ordinary things as well. The necklaces can symbolize any gift to the Buddha. Here the necklaces are exceptionally valuable because they are from a king and queen. But every gift to the Buddha is valuable in its own way.

Purification of ourselves in preparation for sacrificing ourselves to the Buddha can still be an important part of Buddhist practice. For followers of the Dharma Flower Sutra, the highest act of devotion to the Buddha is not meditation or chanting or burning incense, though they may be helpful. The most important display of devotion is bodhisattva practice, the practice of helping others. And for this, preparation is often needed. One kind of preparation is the development of appropriate skills, perhaps especially skill in listening. But more foundational than the development of skills is the matter of purifying our selves of things that get in the way of our being actually helpful.

What we see in the case of Medicine King Bodhisattva is a kind of purification that is a masking. This might mean, for example, that rather than trying to pretend to ourselves that we are purely selfless, we need to recognize that we are actually interested in what we are doing and even expect to gain from it in some way. If we can recognize our own interest in everything we do, we might be able to avoid the kind of purely self-serving activity, selfishness, and self-centeredness that gets in the way of actually being helpful to others. Similarly, if we can recognize our own anger and the reasons for it, we need not express it in ways that lead others to become angry. We can wear the perfume of a smile!

Such purification is, of course, itself both for our benefit and for the benefit of the Buddha. By being aware of our desires and anger and confusions, and, at the same time, purifying ourselves of them with perfume, we can improve both our own lives and the lives of others.

It is significant that Never Disrespectful Bodhisattva tells everyone he meets, including those who are arrogant, angry, disrespectful, and mean-spirited, that they are bodhisattvas. Often in Buddhism, bodhisattvas are thought to be extremely high in rank, second only to buddhas. In typical Buddhist art this is expressed by showing bodhisattvas dressed in the fine clothes and wearing the jewelry of princes. But here we are to understand that everyone, including very ordinary people, is a bodhisattva. Though his appearance is not described, it is easy to imagine Never Disrespectful Bodhisattva himself as an ordinary monk. Of course we should respect great bodhisattvas and great people, but part of the message of this story is that there is a bodhisattva to be respected in everyone we meet.

In the context of the Dharma Flower Sutra, it is not surprising to find that a dragon or young person can become a buddha, but that someone can do so suddenly is quite surprising – because it goes against the Sutra’s often repeated assertion that the way to becoming a buddha is long and arduous. Indeed, this is the point of the tale of the weary travelers and the fantastic castle-city in Chapter 7. This story about the dragon princess is the only place in the Dharma Flower Sutra where it is said that one can become a buddha suddenly.

At least in Japan and China, and quite likely in India as well, there was controversy over whether or not sudden awakening is possible. What we find in the Dharma Flower Sutra can be taken as another example of its tolerance of diverse views. Taken as a whole, it seems to say that becoming a buddha is normally, perhaps almost always, a long and difficult path, but that there can be exceptions. Rather than articulating this exception as a kind of doctrine, however, the Sutra simply makes it part of a story, illustrating the exception without entering into debate on the subject.

True awakening is difficult and rare; sudden awakening is much rarer still. If profound awakening happens at all, and certainly if it happens suddenly – in ourselves or in others, like those at the end of this story – we too should be amazed and grateful. But let us not suppose that there is some shortcut to true awakening through the use of drugs or some other esoteric practices. True awakening takes much time and effort.