Chapter 18 explains in detail the joy that is the first of the five kinds of faith in the previous chapter. Suppose someone rejoices upon hearing the sutra and passes it on to others, enabling them to pass it on with joy to still another person, until it has reached the fiftieth person. That joyous person’s blessings will be far greater than those of someone who has donated many treasures or achieved the highest mental state of Small Vehicle Buddhism, that of the arhat. How much greater, it says, are the blessings of the initial person who hears the sutra and rejoices. That person’s blessings are beyond comprehension. This has been called the joy of a fifty-person line of transmission.

In chapter 2 is a passage that reads:

The buddhas, the most honored of people,
Know that nothing exists independently,
And that buddha-seeds arise interdependently. This is why they teach the one vehicle.

Things are part of the everlasting Dharma,
And the character of the Dharma in the world endures forever.

These verses have been used from ancient times to show respect for that part of the explanation of the mental organ that appears in chapter 19, where it says:

And their many teachings will be in accord with the meanings, and never contrary to the true nature of reality. If they teach about some secular text, or speak about the political world or about matters related to livelihood, in every case they will do so in accord with the true Dharma.

Translated freely, chapter 17 emphasizes this world—with its land of lapis lazuli smooth and level, its eight roads marked off with Jambunada gold and lined with jeweled trees . . .” Tiantai Zhiyi absolutized this pure land as a world of ever tranquil light. And Nichiren, following the name given to it in the sutra, called it the pure land of Gṛdhrakūṭa, because that was the actual place where Shakyamuni preached.

Chapter 17 teaches the theory of practice that later came to be summarized as the “four forms and five kinds of faith.” The “four forms of faith” are: (1) having even a single moment of faith in and understanding of the sutra, (2) understanding its meaning, (3) being devoted to preaching it to others, and (4) continuing to maintain and develop profound faith and understanding. These were taken to have been taught during Shakyamuni Buddha’s lifetime and thus were called “four forms of faith for the present.” They involve developing a view of life and of the world in which one wholeheartedly accepts that the life of the Buddha is everlasting. In other words, it is to have faith instantly, understand its meaning, widely teach it to others, and in the process deepen one’s own faith.

The “five kinds of faith” include: (1) rejoicing from receiving the Lotus Sutra, (2) reading and reciting it, (3) preaching it, (4) concurrently practicing the six transcendental practices, and (5) intensively following the six transcendental practices. These faith practices benefit those who devotedly put them into actual practice after Shakyamuni is gone, and thus they were called “the five kinds of faith following the extinction of the Buddha.” They involve hearing the Lotus Sutra, rejoicing in and embracing it, reading and reciting it, teaching it to others and having them read it, and, at the same time, practicing the six transcendental practices—generosity, morality, patience, perseverance, concentration, and wisdom. Furthermore, one should be devoted to practice based on the six transcendental practices as the central focus of one’s life.

The chapter emphasizes the idea that the blessings that come from practicing these four forms and five kinds of faith are innumerable and boundless, far superior to building temples or stupas. Fundamental among them are the faith and joy that arise from hearing of the eternal life of the Buddha and the ultimate truth. No discipline or practice can bear fruit without them. In this sense, what is being taught is that these four forms and five kinds of faith are superior to the five transcendental practices (excluding the transcendental practice of wisdom), the most important Mahayana teaching about practice.

Faith is emphasized throughout the Lotus Sutra. The Sanskrit terms used for it are shraddha (faith) and adhimukti (faith and understanding). In addition, prasada (pure faith) is used once or twice. None of these words means the kind of absolute devotion to an absolute person indicated by the term bhakti. They signify entering the Buddha way, reforming oneself, setting one’s resolve, and purifying one’s heart. With this kind of preparation one can devote oneself to the discipline, grow in wisdom, and become awakened.

This conception of faith has consistently underlain Buddhism. There is a place in the first chapter of Nagarjuna’s Great Wisdom Discourse, that says, “Entering the great sea of Buddha-dharma is accomplished with the power of faith and attained by the power of wisdom.” The Lotus Sutra also keeps this basic principle. Chapter 17, for example, while emphasizing a single moment of faith (shraddha) or faith and understanding (adhimukti) says that they go beyond five of the six transcendental practices, but adds “except the perfection of wisdom.” That is, among the six practices for becoming awakened, only the last one, wisdom, or prajña, is put above faith.