[I]n the fourth chapter of the Lotus Sutra, “Faith and Understanding,” there appears the famous parable of the rich man and his poor son. The older rich man represents Shakyamuni Buddha and the poor son represents nihilistic Small Vehicle Buddhists. The story portrays the rich man as running a big business; when he is on his deathbed, even a king and his ministers gather around him. Some think that the fact that the man is very rich is intended as praise for the virtue and authority of Shakyamuni Buddha. But based on the fact that the Lotus Sutra portrays a man of wealth, we can imagine the kind of society to which its composers may have belonged: a society of commercial production. This, however, can be said not only of the group that produced the Lotus Sutra but of Mahayana Buddhists in general.

Small Vehicle Buddhists also had connections with men of property as sponsors or supporters, and maintained the sangha with their aid, but they rejected secular occupations personally, secluding themselves within monasticism. In contrast, Mahayana Buddhists situated themselves within society and probably affirmed the activities of everyday life. we can imagine the development of a commercial economy to have been the background for the rise of Mahayana Buddhism. From about 50 CE the Kushana dynasty, centered in northern India, prospered with the help of trade with Rome and had a money-based economy and commercial production. The Mahayana Buddhist movement developed aggressively during that time.

Thus, Mahayana Buddhism or Mahayana Buddhists were closely related to commercial production, and that relationship appears in the Lotus Sutra. One piece of evidence for this is the way in which the Buddha is described as being like a wealthy man of property in Chapter 4. Furthermore, although there are no direct references to commercial production in the Lotus Sutra, we might think of the words that affirm secular life in Chapter 19 and elsewhere from the same perspective.

The famous parable of the three vehicles and the burning house appears in chapter 3. The burning house represents human life, and the three vehicles— the goat, deer, and ox carts—represent the shravaka, pratyekabuddha, and bodhisattva ways. Without realizing that they are in the midst of and being consumed by the fire of life, human beings seek life’s pleasures. In order to save them the Buddha tries to get them to get out of the burning house by offering them things appropriate to their abilities and liking (i.e., the three vehicles, teachings of skillful means). When they go outside, all alike are given great white ox-carts (the One Buddha-Vehicle). The following passage is famous and often recited in Japanese:

The threefold world is not safe,
Just as a burning house
Full of all kinds of suffering
Is much to be feared.

Always there is the suffering of
Birth, old age, disease, and death.
They are like flames
Raging ceaselessly.

The Tathagata is already free
From the burning house of the threefold world.
He lives in tranquil peace,
As in the safety of a forest or field.

Now, this threefold world
Is all my domain,
And the living beings in it
Are all my children.

But now this place
Is filled with all kinds of dreadful troubles,
From which I alone
Can save and protect them.

Nichiren showed with this passage, which he greatly admired, that Shakyamuni Buddha is our lord, teacher, and parent (“the Three Beneficial Virtues”).

[T]he second chapter teaches that the nihilistic followers of the two vehicles, which it criticizes for not being able to become buddhas, are once again awakened to the unifying truth of the one vehicle and are reborn to the possibility of becoming buddhas like everyone else. This teaching, known as “the ability of the two vehicles to lead to becoming a buddha,” became one of the outstanding characteristics of the Lotus Sutra, which generally speaking, places emphasis on the equality of all people and all things under the unifying truth. From chapter 3 on, various parables and narratives tell the story of how, through this unifying truth, followers of the two vehicles can be saved from the abyss of nihilism, how all human beings can be saved from clinging to the world of illusion, and how they are, moreover, guaranteed to become buddhas in the future. Later generations often used these parables as literary material.