According to Tendai’s “Branches of the Lotus Sutra,” the parables are divided into two portions, the exposition and the explanation of correspondences.

Correspondences to the Parable of the Rich Man and His Poor Son

Just as the very rich elder said, “This is my son,” the Tathāgata has declared that we are his sons.

Just as the son fainted from fear when taken by the messengers sent by his father, we have borne all kinds of torments in the midst of birth-death because of the three sufferings, and because of our delusion and ignorance we have enjoyed our attachment to inferior dharmas.

Just as the father sent two ill-looking messengers to get his son to work for him, the Tathāgata has caused us to remove the dirt of diverting discussions over the various dharmas. We have been diligent in our progress and have received the day’s hire of reaching nirvana.

Just as the father and the son for twenty years built up confidence, but the son remains in his original place, the Tathāgata, knowing that our minds were attached to desires and delighted in inferior dharmas, let us go our own way; he did not discriminate against us, saying: “You possess the treasury of Tathāgata knowledge.”

Just as when the elder, intending to give the son all his treasures, made him supervisor, but the son did not expect to receive even a single meal, the Buddha through his skillful means speaks of the Tathāgata wisdom but we, following the Buddha, accept the day’s hire of nirvana, are satisfied with that, and do not seek out the Great Vehicle. We have also declared and expounded the Tathāgata wisdom for the sake of bodhisattvas, but the Buddha, knowing that our minds delight in inferior things, has through his skillful means taught according to our capacity. We still did not perceive that we were really the sons of the Buddha.

Just as the elder, as death approached, called his relatives and the kings together and declared that this was his real son to whom he would bequeath all his wealth, the Tathāgata does not begrudge the Buddha wisdom; from old we have delighted in inferior things although we were the Buddha’s sons. If we had a mind to take pleasure in the Great Vehicle, the Buddha would have taught the Great Vehicle to us. Now in this sutra he preaches the sole One Vehicle.

Thus, just as the son was overjoyed hearing his father’s words and finding the treasures had come of themselves to him, we, though having no mind to hope or expect it, now have a great treasure of the king of the Dharma come of itself to us. Such things that Buddha-sons should obtain, we have obtained.

Because the Mahayana sutras all possess to some extent the underlying conviction that their task was to win others over to their belief, it is very difficult to distinguish, among the intermingling of intellectual influences, exactly which ideas were borrowed and which were lent. Further, unlike the treatises of the Abhidharma, the authors of the Mahayana sutras did not lend their names to their works, but put them in the mouth of Ānanda; it is therefore all the harder to clarify the actual circumstances of transmission.

The first half of the Lotus Sutra (the theoretical teachings, called the “secondary gate”; Jpn., shakumon) is concerned with giving concrete expression to the idea of “explaining the three and revealing the one” in the “Tactfulness” chapter, giving predictions of future buddhahood to the arhats and pratyekabuddhas and including all three vehicles in the one. This reflects a powerful new viewpoint. From the time of early Mahayana and the Perfection of Wisdom sutras, the bodhisattva vehicle had been praised as superior to the others, and the possibility of arhats and pratyekabuddhas gaining buddhahood was not acknowledged. The possibility of buddhahood for women and for Devadatta, who had fallen into hell for slandering the Dharma, remained unadmitted. When a movement grew up within Mahayana demanding the potential of enlightenment for all beings through the enlarged compassion of the Buddha, the formation of the “Devadatta” chapter became a necessity. This trend reached its culmination in the Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra, which taught that all beings without exception possess the buddha-nature and buddhahood is possible even for icchantikas (incorrigibles), even though they have no aspiration for enlightenment (bodhicitta). This is clearly in the line of Lotus thought.

The latter half of the Lotus Sutra (the essential teachings, called the “primary gate”; Jpn., honmon), deals with the true and expedient teachings of the Eternal Original Buddha, set forth in the chapter “Revelation of the [Eternal] Life of the Tathāgata.” This development may be traced as stemming from the monotheistic tendencies of the early Mahayana sutras coupled with the growth in Hinduism of faith in a supreme deity. The idea of an eternal, original Buddha exerted an influence on the concept of Amitābha/Amitāyus (characterized by eternal light and eternal life) in the Pure Land sutras, and on Vairocana Buddha (the Dharma Body of Wisdom) of the Avataṃsaka Sūtra.

These, then, are two aspects that portray the continuity and development of Lotus thought in Mahayana sutras.