This story [of the arrival of the Stupa of Treasures] presents us with an interesting image of the universe as a place in which Shakyamuni and his world, which is our world, is central, and yet Shakyamuni is far from being the only buddha. First of all, there is the buddha named Abundant Treasures, who comes out of the distant past in a dramatic way in order to praise Shakyamuni Buddha for teaching the Dharma Flower Sutra. The resulting image of two buddhas sitting side by side on a single seat is a unique one. But this image is dependent on another, which reaches not into the distant past, but into distant reaches of contemporary space to reveal the innumerable buddhas in all directions. In other words, it is only after all the worlds have been integrated into a single buddha land that the congregation is able to see Abundant Treasures Buddha and the two buddhas sitting together in the stupa.

Up to this [Chapter 10] in the Sutra the term bodhisattva has been used in at least two distinctly different ways. On the one hand, it is used as a kind of title or rank for great, well-known, and basically mythical bodhisattvas such as Maitreya and Manjushri. Such great bodhisattvas, often called bodhisattva great ones, are very important in Buddhism, as they can symbolize great virtues such as compassion and wisdom, and serve as ideal models of what we can be.

We have seen in earlier chapters that shravakas, beginning with Shariputra, are actually bodhisattvas – they are on the way to becoming buddhas. But we never find such expressions as “Shariputra Bodhisattva.” A somewhat different use of “bodhisattva” is being made, one in which the term does not represent a rank and status but a kind of relational activity. Accordingly, anyone can be a bodhisattva for someone else. The primary meaning of this is, of course, that we ourselves, the hearers or readers of the Dharma Flower Sutra, can be bodhisattvas and indeed sometimes are.

Let’s turn our attention to the brief simile found in this chapter: the extremely thirsty man digging in the soil for water. Unlike some parables, this simile is not fully interpreted for us, but it can nonetheless readily be understood in accord with the previous discussion.

The man, a bodhisattva, digs for water on a “high plain.” We do not know exactly what this “high plain” means, but presumably it means that he is digging in a place where water is quite deep down but where there is at least a reasonable possibility of water being found. If he dug in a rocky place, for example, he might die of thirst before finding any water at all.

Digging, he comes to damp earth, then mud, and knows that he is getting closer to water. Actually, the dampness itself is water. That is, seeing damp earth, while he cannot yet drink, he is seeing a promise of water he’ll be able to drink soon, a promise that he knows is good because the dampness and the water he seeks are the same water.

The text interprets this parable in terms of hearing the Dharma:

Medicine King, you should know
That this is the way people are.
Those who do not hear the Dharma Flower Sutra
Are far from buddha-wisdom.
But if they hear
This profound sutra…,
And hearing it
Truly ponder over it,
You should know that those people
Are near the wisdom of a buddha. (LS 232)

So too all sixteen simple practices – any of them and many others as well, while not the ultimate goal, can be a kind of taste of the life of a bodhisattva. If we practice one or more of them seriously, we will experience a taste of riches to come and know that we too are nearer to the water after which we thirst: the wisdom of a buddha.

Here as well, we should notice that a kind of relational activity is going on. On the one hand, the man is using his own effort to dig for water. He is motivated, even driven, by something within himself, namely, his thirst. His very life depends on finding water to drink and so he exerts a great effort. On the other hand, the promise of water, the increasingly damp earth, comes to him. As a result of making an effort, he receives a promise. The water is something he finds.

While there is no guarantee that by digging we will find water, at least in this lifetime, we, too, if we make an effort to follow the bodhisattva way, may receive a promise of riches to come. Along the way we too may receive some help from the Buddha. In Chapter 10 we are told that the Buddha will send various people to hear the Dharma taught and to help the teacher when he needs it. We should be prepared to meet such people.

The most important thing about [Chapter 10] is its emphasis on the Dharma teacher. Here we can see that the Sutra attempts to break through the limitations of the threefold shravaka-pratyekabuddha-bodhisattva distinction that had been prominent in earlier chapters of this Sutra and elsewhere in Mahayana Buddhism. According to Chapter 10, anyone – bodhisattva, pratyekabuddha, shravaka, or layperson, man or woman – can be a Dharma teacher.

This important point is certainly not unique to this chapter, but it is emphasized here in a special way: it is not only great bodhisattvas, great leaders, or great people who can teach the Dharma and do the Buddha’s work, but very ordinary people with even a limited understanding and even of limited faith can join in the Buddha’s work, if only by understanding and teaching a little. The point is, of course, that you and I can be Dharma teachers.

Thus the Buddha tells Medicine King Bodhisattva that if anyone wants to know what sort of living beings will become buddhas in the future, he should tell them that the very people before him, that is, all sorts of people, including very ordinary people, will become buddhas.