Having read this far, readers will notice that [Chapter 20, The Bodhisattva Never Despise] is very different from the previous chapters of the Lotus Sutra. The chapters so far have presented us with scenes of many lands as that are beautiful and dreamlike but quite unlike this world, as well as dreadful scenes of hell. Most personages, including the buddhas, have been introduced as superhuman and ideal beings. But this chapter is strongly characterized by the human touch. The setting of the Bodhisattva Never Despise makes us think of an ordinary town today, although no description of any particular place is given. The characters appearing in the story are ordinary people such as may be met with anywhere. The words “bhikṣus, bhikṣunīs, upāsakās, and upāsikās” do not necessarily mean Buddhist monks, nuns, and lay devotees, but include people of all kinds and classes: foppish minor officials, raffish young men, middle-aged merchants posing as seasoned men of mature judgment, good-natured but strong-willed women; mingling with such people, we also imagine learned priests who boast of having a complete knowledge of Buddhism, middle-aged monks who are proud of keeping the precepts, and old priests who come to town to beg for alms but do not preach any sermons, only standing silently on a street corner with an aloof and superior air. The Bodhisattva Never Despise conjures up the image of a young monk who has the air of an earnest, serious-minded man with something unusual and refined about him.

All the chapters of the Lotus Sutra can be said to be literary in style; but chapter 20 comes closest to the feeling of modern literature. It gives us a strong sense of humanity and of things familiar to us. This is quite natural because it states vividly how, by practicing only the virtue of paying respect to others, an ordinary man realizes his faith and finally attains the perfection of his character.