Ordinary people need actual models to help them practice what is good. Whom should they take as their model in their practice of the path of the Buddha’s teaching? It goes without saying that they should follow the model of Sakyamuni Buddha himself. The first thing they must do is tread the path that the Buddha has shown them. But they have no idea how to begin to emulate the Buddha because he is perfect and faultless and has accomplished all virtues. Ordinary people can much more easily aim at emulating a virtue possessed by a bodhisattva or a deed practiced by a bodhisattva. The closing chapters of the Lotus Sutra provide us with a series of such bodhisattva models. In these chapters, each virtue of the bodhisattva is described as the highest, ideal state of mind; by describing such virtues and urging us to attain such an ideal state, the Buddha admonishes us, who are apt to be arrogant. Our religious life is a continual process of trial and error, of taking two steps forward and one back. Whenever we read the last six chapters of the Lotus Sutra, we are encouraged and inspired anew not to be neglectful or arrogant. Here lies the importance of these chapters.