The main practice of Mahayana Buddhism, the Great Vehicle, is the Practice of a Bodhisattva: practice for helping others. The sutras in general give us many types of Bodhisattva-practices. In the Lotus Sutra, however, the principal Bodhisattva-practice is dissemination of the Sutra itself.

In Chapter Eleven, “Beholding the Stupa of Treasures,” and Chapter Eighteen, “Encouragement for Keeping the Sutra,” Sakyamuni asks Bodhisattvas to volunteer to disseminate the Sutra in the future. Answering his call, in Chapter Fifteen, “The Appearance of Bodhisattvas from Underground,” Bodhisattvas well up from beneath the earth, and in Chapter Twenty-one, “Supernatural Powers of the Tathagatas,” Sakyamuni transmits the Sutra to them. Then in Chapter Twenty-two, “Transmission,” he transmits it to all the Bodhisattvas. The mission of all of them, both the Original Bodhisattvas and the Temporal Bodhisattvas, is to disseminate the Lotus Sutra after the Buddha’s extinction.

A principal feature of the Lotus Sutra lies in showing us spiritual and practical ways by which Bodhisattvas disseminate it, overcoming all hardships in this evil world.