Chih-i’s exegesis of the sixteenth chapter of the Lotus Sutra in his Fa-hua wen-chu contains a criticism of previous interpretations of the meaning of “distant past,” and a discussion of different categorizations of the Tathāgata: the twofold Buddha-body and the threefold Buddha-body, the Buddha of the origin, and the Buddha of the trace. Here I will examine how Chih-i applies the theory of the threefold Buddha-body to the Buddha of the Lotus Sutra. The scripture does not mention the different bodies of the Buddha but Chih-i employs existent theories of Buddha-bodies to illustrate the meaning of the text and, at the same time, to present his solution to the conflict between a noumenal and a phenomenal Buddha.

The three bodies the Buddha is endowed with are the dharma body, the recompense body (saṃbhogakāya), and the transformation body (nirmāṇakāya). Chih-i explains the nature of each of these three bodies and the way in which their enlightenment is displayed, supporting his arguments with passages from chapter 16.

The dharma body is defined as a principle “without causes and without results, whether there is a Buddha or no Buddha, everywhere present but without difference, without movement and yet coming forth [i.e., enlightened].” Chih-i infers this from the sentence in the Lotus Sutra: “There is neither birth nor death, or going away or coming forth; neither living nor dead, neither reality nor unreality; neither thus nor otherwise.” The dharma body is therefore a principle which reveals the perfect suchness without distinctions. Its enlightenment is the unchangeable, pure-by-nature tathāgatagarbha (that is, the buddha-nature), which allows the Tathāgata to “know and see the aspect of the triple world as it is, in its real nature.” Since the dharma body is in accord with the principle of suchness, both its nature and its appearance are eternally as they are, whether it is manifested or not as a Buddha; therefore it is not relevant whether it is measurable or not, that is, whether it has duration or not. In another commentary on the Lotus Sutra, Chih-i refers the phrase “neither thus nor otherwise” to the Middle Way, which in Tendai philosophy is synonymous with the real truth.

The recompense body has its scriptural evidence in the passage which proclaims: “The power of my wisdom is such, the light of my wisdom shines infinitely, my life is of countless kalpas, from long-cultivated karma obtained.” Chih-i explains that wisdom (the Buddha-eyes) is the foundation of this aspect of the Tathāgata: it is through wisdom that the Tathāgata attains buddhahood, it is wisdom that allows the recompense body to partake of the ultimate reality. As we shall see, here the emphasis is on the practice which leads to buddhahood.

The third body, the nirmāṇakāya, is characterized by ever-changing form and colors, and by its continuous appearing in the world. This is the meaning of the passages in the sutra “…whether I show myself or others, my deeds or other’s,” and “…revealing myself extinct and not extinct.” The nirmāṇakāya appears in numerous lives and numerous extinctions, is endowed with names which are never the same, and has different ages (the Buddha gives different accounts of the duration of his life). The Tathāgata in this aspect attains enlightenment in a particular place, as shown by the scriptural assertion that “Śākyamuni Buddha left the palace of the Śākyas and entered the place of enlightenment, not far from the city of Gayā.” The life of the nirmāṇakāya is affected by the principle of causation. Being bound to causality, this body is measurable; hence it typifies Śākyamuni as a Buddha restricted in both temporal and spatial terms. Yet, Chih-i underlines the idea that, because finite impermanence cannot be the principle that informs the existence of a Buddha, the transformation body can be seen as partaking in the immeasurable if one does not speak of its activity.

According to Chih-i, in fact, the three bodies are both permanent and impermanent, and are all three inherent in the Buddha of the Lotus Sutra: “One body is three bodies; it is not one, it is not different.” Chih-i here employs the point of view of the “perfect teaching” and applies the principle of “one is three,” which characterizes this type of teaching, to the three Tathāgatas, thus introducing a perspective quite different from that of earlier interpretations. He calls the virtue of being neither one nor three a “secret” or “mysterious” quality and presents it as peculiar to the Buddha of the Lotus Sutra, which other scriptures do not reveal. He denies that the three bodies are either in a horizontal, that is, equal, relation (referring to their innate merits) or in a vertical, that is, hierarchical, relation (referring to the merits derived from practice).
A Buddhist Kaleidoscope; Lucia Dolce, Between Duration and Eternity: Hermeneutics of the ‘Ancient Buddha’ of the Lotus Sutra in Chih-i and Nichiren, Page 226-228

While the Lotus Sutra provides plenty of reason to be grateful to the past and thus was perhaps all too compatible with East Asian ancestor veneration, it is more adamant about the importance of bodhisattva practice as our contribution to the future.

The sutra is full of stories in which someone, usually a stand-in for the Buddha, tries to make things better for others in some way — a guide conjures up a rest facility so that his travelers will be able to continue their journey, a father-physician tricks his sons into taking an antidote for poison, another father entices his children out of their burning house by offering them rewards, still another father devises a way to gradually develop a sense of responsibility in his son.

In every case, appropriate action is a matter of being genuinely helpful toward others by somehow enabling them to be more responsible for their own lives and subsequently for the lives of others. Though Buddhist practice in East Asia has been concerned largely with the dead, the bodhisattva-way is primarily about the future and about future possibilities in the present.
A Buddhist Kaleidoscope; Gene Reeves, The Lotus Sutra as Radically World-affirming, Page 195

Use of the notion of emptiness (śūnya or śūnyāta) is not much in the Lotus Sutra. Of course, all things are empty. But undue emphasis on emptiness can too easily become a kind of nihilism in which nothing matters. In the Lotus Sutra everything matters.

The Buddha works to save all beings. Even poor Bodhisattva Never Disrespectful, who goes around telling everyone that they are to become buddhas, though initially not very successful eventually “converted a multitude of a thousand, ten thousand, millions, enabling them to live in the state of supreme enlightenment.” And he later became the Buddha Śākyamuni!
A Buddhist Kaleidoscope; Gene Reeves, The Lotus Sutra as Radically World-affirming, Page 195

The Dharma can be found embodied in concrete teachings, including actions which are instructive, just as the Buddha can be found embodied — in Śākyamuni, and in you and me.

Thus Lotus Sutra Buddhism is radically world-affirming. This sahā (suffering) world is Śākyamuni Buddha’s world. It is in this world that he is a bodhisattva and encourages us to be bodhisattvas. This world is our home, and it is the home of Śākyamuni Buddha precisely because he is embodied, not only as the historical Buddha, but as the buddha-nature in all things.

Thus, ordinary things, including ourselves and our neighbors, are not primarily to be seen as empty, though they are; not primarily to be seen as phenomenal, though they are; not primarily to be seen as illusions, though in one sense they are; not primarily to be seen as evil even though they may be in part. It is in dharmas (things/”conventional” existence) that the Dharma is. It is in transient, changing things that the Buddha is. All things are, therefore, to be treated with insight and compassion and respect.
A Buddhist Kaleidoscope; Gene Reeves, The Lotus Sutra as Radically World-affirming, Page 194-195

Yes, people do pray to Kwan-yin for help, and Kwan-yin takes on whatever form is needed to be helpful. But while that story may present the hope of divine blessing, it is there primarily to show us what we should be. If Kwan-yin has a thousand arms with a thousand different skills with which to help others, we too need to develop a thousand skills with which to help others. This is the chief significance of the inclusion of the Kwan-yin chapter in the Lotus Sutra. It is there to encourage bodhisattva practice.
A Buddhist Kaleidoscope; Gene Reeves, The Lotus Sutra as Radically World-affirming, Page 194

What, then, does it mean to be a bodhisattva? Basically, in the Lotus Sutra it means using appropriate means to help others. And that, finally, for the Lotus Sutra, is what Buddhism itself is. It is an enormous variety of means developed to help people live more fulfilling lives, which can be understood as lives lived in the light of their interdependence. This is what many of its stories are about: someone – a father-figure/buddha, or friend/buddha, or guide/buddha – helping someone else gain more responsibility for their own lives.

Even if you search in all directions,
There are no other vehicles,
Except the appropriate means preached by the Buddha.

Thus, the notion of appropriate means is at once both a description of what Buddhism is, or what Buddhist practice primarily is, and a prescription for what our lives should become. The Lotus Sutra, accordingly, is a prescription of a medicine or religious method for us — and, therefore, at once both extremely imaginative and extremely practical.

It is in this sense that appropriate means is an ethical teaching, a teaching about how we should behave in order to contribute to the good. It is prescriptive not in the sense of a precept or commandment, but in the sense of urging us, for the sake both of our own salvation and that of others, to be intelligent, imaginative, even clever, in finding ways to be helpful.
A Buddhist Kaleidoscope; Gene Reeves, The Lotus Sutra as Radically World-affirming, Page 194

While the term “buddha-nature” does not appear anywhere in the Lotus Sutra, the teaching of what would later be called buddha-nature runs through it like a cord, defining one of its central affirmations. It is a clear aim throughout the sutra to persuade the reader that every living being, including and most importantly the reader, has within a potential to become enlightened, to become a buddha.

One’s buddha-nature is developed by following the Buddha-way, doing what buddhas have always done, bodhisattva practice. Central to the Lotus Sutra is the idea that Śākyamuni Buddha himself is, first of all, a bodhisattva. He has been doing bodhisattva practice, helping and leading others, for innumerable kalpas, and will continue to do so into the boundless future.

Because all the living have various natures, various desires, various activities, various ideas and ways of making distinctions, and because I wanted to lead them to put down roots of goodness, I have used a variety of explanations, parables, and words and preach various teachings. Thus I have never for a moment neglected the Buddha’s work.

Thus it is, since I became Buddha a very long time has passed, a lifetime of unquantifiable asamkhyeya kalpas, of forever existing and never entering extinction. Good children, the lifetime which I have acquired pursuing the bodhisattva-way is not even finished yet, but will be twice the number of kalpas already passed.

While it is very important that the Buddha and the śrāvakas are also in some sense bodhisattvas, it is even more important that you and I are bodhisattvas — called to grow in bodhisattvahood by leading others to realize that potential in themselves. To develop one’s buddha-nature is to do bodhisattva practice, to follow the role model of the bodhisattvas.
A Buddhist Kaleidoscope; Gene Reeves, The Lotus Sutra as Radically World-affirming, Page 193

What the sutra condemns is not other people, and not the lesser vehicles, but arrogance — especially the arrogance of thinking one has arrived at the truth, at some final goal. Rather, we are called upon by this sutra to be “lifetime beginners,” people who know they have much to learn and always will. The five thousand who walk out of the assembly in the second chapter are said to be like twigs and leaves and not really needed, but in chapter 8 they too are to be told that they will become buddhas.

Thus śrāvakas are also bodhisattvas. In every paradise, or paradise-like Buddha-land, there are countless śrāvakas, indicating that the śrāvaka-way is not to be rejected or discarded, but relativized, seen within a larger context, which is the encompassing Buddha-way. Many śrāvakas, of course, do not know that they are bodhisattvas, but they are nonetheless. The Buddha says to the disciple Kāśyapa at the end of chapter 5:

What you are practicing Is the bodhisattva-way.
As you gradually practice and learn,
Every one of you should become a Buddha.