First of all, when we look at chapter 10, “Teachers of the Dharma,” the emphasis on bodhisattvas as apostles of the Buddha or Tathagata is remarkable. That is, those who receive and disseminate even a single phrase of Dharma after the death of the Buddha are regarded as apostles of the Buddha, commissioned by the Buddha to save all living beings in this world, and extolled as “apostles of the Tathagata.”

The latter part of the chapter promotes entering the Tathagata’s room, wearing the Tathagata’s robe, sitting on the Tathagata’s seat, and preaching Dharma without hesitation. The Tathagata’s room, robe, and seat are said to be compassion, patience, and realization of the emptiness of things. Compassion involves treating others with affection and kindness. Patience means enduring without holding things against others. And realization of the emptiness of things means being freed from attachments and placing oneself within the vast and infinite world. These concisely express the attitude a follower of the bodhisattva way holds toward life. Later these came to be valued as the three ways of propagating the sutra.

For some Small Vehicle Buddhists, compassion is an act of being engaged with this world, while the realization of emptiness is a state that goes beyond it, and so compassion should be discarded in order to realize emptiness. But chapter 10 of the Lotus Sutra teaches the unity of compassion and emptiness.

We can understand from this that realization of emptiness is taken positively as a norm for practice in this world. Here too we can see an example of the positive understanding of emptiness found in Mahayana Buddhism.

The number of disciples who are assured of becoming buddhas in the future increases from five hundred to twelve hundred in chapter 8, where we also find the parable of the priceless jewel in the lining of a robe. A good friend told a penniless man that he had sewn a priceless jewel into the lining of his robe when he was drunk. This story is thus about recovery. The poor, drunken man is likened to disciples who had fallen into nihilism, the friend is the Buddha, and the jewel in the lining of the robe is their hidden possibility of becoming buddhas through acts of compassion (bodhisattva practice). We are taught that:

Keeping their bodhisattva actions
As inward secrets,
Outwardly
They appear as shravakas.

Thus the disciples who had fallen into a nihilistic way of life, including the solitary practitioners, were all revived by the Buddha’s call. And they received assurance of becoming buddhas in the future. Chapter 9, which follows, is a summary of this.

Within this group of disciples were some who still had room to learn and some who were regarded as having no further need of study. Those who attained the stage of not having anything more to learn were called arhats. An arhat is a saint who deserves people’s respect and reverence. Essentially, it was another term for the Buddha, used with a positive connotation. But after the rise of Mahayana Buddhism it was often used as a pejorative term for Small Vehicle Buddhists who had become nihilistic because they thought there was nothing more they needed to learn in life.

Such Small Vehicle Buddhists can be regarded as being of two kinds: direct disciples of the Buddha and solitary practitioners. Later, in addition to “Small Vehicle,” it came to be called “the two vehicles.” Be that as it may, what we see in chapter 9 is that all the Small Vehicle Buddhists, both shravakas and pratyekabuddhas, are assured of becoming buddhas in the future whether they are in need of further learning or not. With this the chapter ends. As the text says, “Then the two thousand people in training and no longer in training, hearing the Buddha’s assurance, were ecstatic with joy.” The significance of this is that the form of the Lotus Sutra is such that, through this chapter, the Buddha speaks to his direct disciples, the shravakas. “Two thousand” is just a round number and can be taken to mean all followers of the Small Vehicle.

In chapter 6, “Assurance of Becoming a Buddha,” the Buddha reassures the four great disciples (the shravakas of chapter 5) and five hundred other disciples that they will become buddhas in the future. The basis of this assurance is given in chapter 7. Here we find the parable of the treasure and the fantastic (or temporary) castle-city. The way to the truth is steep; people become discouraged along the way. Then the Buddha provides a temporary truth (the three vehicles) according to the ability of people and lets them rest there. When they are rested, the Buddha encourages them to pursue ultimate truth (the one vehicle).

This is the truth taught in the parable of the fantastic castle-city. Temporary truth is likened to a castle-city, and ultimate truth to a great treasure. The four noble truths are taught to shravakas as temporary truths, the law of twelve causes to pratyekabuddhas, and the practice of the six transcendental practices (paramitas) to bodhisattvas. Finally, they are all led to and awakened by the one vehicle—that is, by ultimate truth.

This “opening, showing, becoming enlightened, and entering” is also in chapter 2. Tiantai Zhiyi thought very highly of these words and theorized about them in several ways. Many Buddhist sects very highly respect the following words from chapter 7 as a vow, and chant them in Buddhist services.

May these blessings
Extend to all,
That we with all the living
Together attain the Buddha way.

Chapter 5 has the simile of the plants. From a great cloud, rain falls equally on all, and from the great earth, blessings come equally to all. But just as various kinds of plants grow luxuriantly, the truth that the Buddha discovered and the things the Buddha taught, though one and the same for all, are different according to differences in listeners’ abilities to understand. Regarding “three plants and two trees,” “small plants” refers to the common thinking of human and heavenly beings, “medium-sized plants” to the thought of the two Small Vehicle vehicles, “large plants” to the thought of Mahayana bodhisattvas. “Small trees” refers to bodhisattvas who benefit only themselves, and “large trees” to bodhisattvas who benefit others.

This chapter emphasizes the oneness of the truth taught by the Buddha and the equality of his compassion. “The Dharma taught by the Tathagata is one and the same for all.” “The Buddha’s unbiased teaching is like the single flavor of the rain.” “I look upon all, without exception, as equal, without distinction, or any thought of love or hate.” “Constantly, for the sake of all, I teach the Dharma equally.”

Further, we find the following kind of expression: “Those who have not yet been saved will be saved; those who have not been set free will be set free; those who have had no rest will have rest; those who have not yet obtained nirvana will obtain nirvana. I understand both the present world and the worlds to come as they really are. I am one who knows all, one who sees all, one who knows the Way, one who opens the Way, one who teaches the Way.”

In chapter 4, “Faith and Understanding,” is found the parable of the rich man and the poor son, in which a rich man corresponds to the Buddha, and the poor son indicates the nihilism of Small Vehicle Buddhists. The great rich man had only one son, who had run away from home while still young. In extreme poverty, the son became a wandering beggar. The son, having become used to a life of begging, accidentally returned to a place in front of his father’s house, but fled in fear of the magnificent mansion. The father then thought about what to do and hired him to clean latrines. Since it suited him, he did this kind of work in his father’s house for twenty years. As the son gradually became used to this work, the father disclosed that he was his father and gave his incomparable wealth to him. When he realized this, the son was overjoyed.

This is a story about how very difficult it is for someone who has sunk to the bottom of nihilism to get out. At the same time it is a story of how, being skillfully led to the Wonderful Dharma of the One Vehicle, one can finally return to life. Furthermore, the mental state of the poor son—of the nihilistic followers of the Small Vehicle—is described in Kumarajiva’s translation as follows:

The World-honored One has been teaching the Dharma for a long time, and all the while we have been sitting in our places, weary in body and mindful only of emptiness, of formlessness, and of non-action. Neither the enjoyments nor divine powers of the bodhisattva-dharma—purifying buddha-lands and saving living beings—appealed to us.

Freely translated, the same words in verse are:

Even if we had heard
About purifying buddha-lands
Or teaching and transforming living beings,
We did not aspire to do them.

Why? Because all things are empty and tranquil
Without coming to be, without extinction,
And without existence.
Being without faith,
This is how we thought.