Here is one version of the surprising revelation that shravakas may indeed be bodhisattvas.

Monks, listen carefully!
Because they have learned skillful means well,
The way followed by children of the Buddha [bodhisattvas]
Is unthinkably wonderful.

Knowing that most delight in lesser teachings
And are overawed by great wisdom,
Bodhisattvas become
Shravakas or pratyekabuddhas.

Using innumerable skillful means,
They transform all kinds of beings
By proclaiming themselves to be shravakas,
Far removed from the Buddha Way.

They save innumerable beings,
Enabling them to succeed.
Though most people are complacent and lazy,
In this way they are finally led to become buddhas.

Keeping their bodhisattva actions
As inward secrets,
Outwardly
They appear as shravakas.

They appear to have little desire
And to be tired of birth and death,
But in truth
They are purifying buddha lands. (LS 210—11)

The point is in part to emphasize the importance of embodying the Dharma in our lives, in our actions and behavior toward others. But equally important is the idea that anyone can be a bodhisattva for us, if we are open to seeing and experiencing the other as a bodhisattva. As is so often the case, this teaching, the idea that a shravaka can be seen to actually be a bodhisattva, is both about how we should regard ourselves and about how we should regard others, an idea that will be developed and emphasized over and over again in subsequent chapters of the Dharma Flower Sutra.