[T]he Buddha, having finally agreed to preach, tells Śāriputra that it is very rare that a buddha teaches the true dharma (saddharma) that he is about to teach, as rare as the udumbara flower (a flower said to bloom once every three thousand years). It is noteworthy that the Buddha says that he is going to teach the “true dharma.” This is the term that Mañjuśrī had used to describe what Candrasūryapradipa had taught so long ago. And this, of course, is the term that appears in the full Sanskrit title – a title rarely used in English – of the Lotus Sūtra: “White Lotus of the True Dharma.”

The teaching of the Buddha is of course called the dharma. The term saddharma means “true dharma” or “right dharma” and is widely used in Buddhist literature. Because dharma is a generic term for a doctrine or teaching, especially a religious doctrine, in ancient India, saddharma was sometimes used to distinguish the teaching of the Buddha from that of non-Buddhist teachers. Here, however, it means a doctrine that is more true, more correct, more real, than the doctrines that the Buddha has previously taught. The Buddha clearly implies that he is about to teach something new, although we know from the first chapter that it had also been taught by the buddhas of the distant past. It seems then, that this is the first time that Śākyamuni is going to teach the true dharma. In the Indian versions of the Buddha’s life story, Prince Siddhārtha leaves the palace at age twenty-nine and then practices asceticism for six years, finally achieving enlightenment at the age of thirty-five. In Chapter Fifteen of the Lotus Sūtra, Maitreya says that more than forty years have passed since the Buddha achieved enlightenment. Thus, he is more than seventy-five years old when he preaches the Lotus. His teaching of the “true dharma” occurs late in his life.