With each reading of Chapter 5, The Simile of Herbs, I am encouraged by the sutra’s embrace of diversity. One Dharma rains on all manner of different species, and as we take faith in the Lotus Sutra and practice and grow, nourished by that universal rain, we obtain different flowers and fruits.

We are not all the same. There is no reason to expect uniformity in those who take faith in the Lotus Sutra. We cannot expect flowering herbs to become towering oak trees. That’s just not going to happen.

When I was still a member of Soka Gakkai I would frequently hear whispers about this or that leader’s practice or, more often, lack of practice. Such gossip undermined everyone’s faith. Today, I’ve moved so far in the other direction that I now argue that any sincere practice will have the same benefit as any formal ritual.

In Nichiren’s Gassui Gosho, A Letter on Menstruation, Nichiren explains:

“You may chant the whole twenty-eight chapters, one chapter, one paragraph, one sentence or even one character of the Lotus Sūtra a day. Or, you may chant the daimoku, ‘Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō,’ just once in a day or once in your whole life. Even if you may never chant the daimoku yourself, you may rejoice at hearing others chant it just once in your whole life. Or you may rejoice with others who rejoice at hearing a voice chanting the daimoku. The joy of the daimoku chanting transmitted 50 times this way from person to person, will grow weaker steadily until in the last fiftieth person it will be as uncertain as the mind of a two- or three-year-old baby or as unpredictable as a horse or a cow, which cannot tell the difference between head and tail. Nevertheless, the merit of such people is one hundred thousand billion times greater than that of those whose wisdom is as great as Śāriputra, Maudgalyāyana, Mañjuśrī, and Maitreya, but put faith in sūtras other than the Lotus Sūtra and memorize them all.”

Nyonin Gosho, Letters Addressed to Female Followers, p22-24

I know of more than one couple where one person practices formally and the other is supportive of the partner’s practice. In the verses at the end of Chapter 2 a lengthy list of such people are promised wonderful benefits.

“Those who bowed to the image of the Buddha,
Or just joined their hands together towards it,
Or raised only one hand towards it,
Or bent their head a little towards it
And offered the bending to it,
Became able to see innumerable Buddhas one after another.
They attained unsurpassed enlightenment,
Saved countless living beings,
And entered into the Nirvana-without-remainder
Just as fire dies out when wood is gone.”

I am the master of only myself. Your practice is yours. Mine is mine. I encourage everyone to bathe in the rain of the Dharma and allow the seed of enlightenment to sprout and grow and eventually bear its unique fruit.

Faith does not require understanding, but that doesn’t mean understanding shouldn’t be sought. That is the role of study in the Buddhist triad of faith, practice and study. As we study, we learn. As we learn, we deepen our understanding. All of this nourishes our faith and allows that faith to grow and flower and bear fruit. For me, this is illustrated in the prediction of future Buddhahood offered to Śāriputra in Chapter 3, A Parable:

“Śāriputra! Although the world in which he appears will not be an evil one, that Buddha will expound the teaching of the Three Vehicles according to his original vow.”

Why would Śāriputra need to teach the Three Vehicles when we learned in Chapter 2 that there is no vehicle other than the One Buddha-Vehicle? Many times when I cycled through my 32 Days of the Lotus Sutra I stumbled here. None of the other predictions of future Buddhahood of the śrāvakas includes this detail.

A year ago, after reading this chapter more than 60 times, I came to a realization. (The remainder of this essay summarizes what I wrote here.)

In Chapter 3, Śāriputra explains that he considered himself a śrāvaka and the teaching he had received before as somehow different from what Bodhisattvas were given. This misunderstanding – the thought that he was taught a lesser teaching – is Śāriputra’s. Thinking there are three separate vehicles mistakes what Śākyamuni did, what other Buddhas are doing and what Śāriputra will do when he becomes a Buddha.

Śākyamuni’s original vow is discussed toward the end of Chapter 2, Expedients.

“I thought:
‘If I extol only the Buddha-Vehicle,
The living beings [of the six regions] will not believe it
Because they are too much enmeshed in sufferings to think of it.
If they do not believe but violate the Dharma,
They will fall into the three evil regions.
I would rather enter into Nirvana quickly
Than expound the Dharma to them.’

“But, thinking of the past Buddhas who employed expedients,
I changed my mind and thought:
‘I will expound the Dharma which I attained
By dividing it into the Three Vehicles.’ ”

Chih-i offers this explanation in his Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sutra:

“Chu-i Yung-san (Abiding in the one and employing the three) is the function related to the Subtlety of Benefits. This is spoken of by Chih-i in terms of the Buddha’s original vow. The Buddha vowed to expound the Three Vehicles in the mundane world. This original vow of the Buddha denotes ‘abiding in the one,’ and expounding the Three Vehicles denotes ‘employing the three.’ ” (Vol. 2, p446)

Śāriputra, like all Buddhas, will abide in the one while he employs the three.

As we are told in Chapter 2:

“I showed to them
The teaching of the Three Vehicles as an expedient
In order to save them from various attachments.”

My misunderstanding, like Śāriputra’s, was in not appreciating the nature of the One Buddha Vehicle. There is no second or third vehicle outside the One Buddha Vehicle.

Each time as I cycle through the 32 Days of the Lotus Sutra (which, of course, is actually 34 days with the addition the Sutra of Innumerable Meanings and the Contemplation of Universal Sage) I am struck by the promises offered to everyone. This is especially true in Chapter 2.

“Any Śrāvaka or Bodhisattva
Who hears even a gāthā
Of this sūtra which I am to expound
Will undoubtedly become a Buddha.”

I believe it is these promises that have made the Lotus Sutra so important in Asia and why it translates so well as it is introduced to new readers. How can we not have faith?

Yet, some people won’t accept.

“Śāriputra, know this!
Men of dull capacity and of little wisdom cannot believe the Dharma.
Those who are attached to the appearances of things are arrogant.
They cannot believe it, either.”

But there is so much to believe that is made explicit in the Lotus Sutra. These promises don’t require a lifetime to accomplish or the endurance of painful ascetic practices.

“Anyone who rejoices at hearing the Dharma
And utters even a single word in praise of it
Should be considered to have already made offerings
To the past, present, and future Buddhas.
Such a person is rarely seen,
More rarely than the udumbara-flower.”

With enough faith to believe in the promise of the Lotus Sutra we can advance along the path.

“The boys who by playing drew
A picture of the Buddha
With a piece of grass or wood,
Or with a brush,
Or with the back of their fingernails,
Became able to accumulate merits one by one.
Having great compassion towards others,
They attained the enlightenment of the Buddha,
Taught only Bodhisattvas,
And saved many living beings.

“Those who, without concentrating their minds,
Offered nothing but a flower to the picture of the Buddha,
Became able to see
Innumerable Buddhas one after another.”

Faith is not magical. We must act just as the children who lost their right mind needed first to believe the medicine would taste good and then take the medicine. We are promised a reward and all we are asked to do is practice and study.

“Those who do not study the Dharma
Cannot understand it.
You have already realized
The fact that the Buddhas, the World-Teachers, employ expedients,
According to the capacities of all living beings.
Know that, when you remove your doubts,
And when you have great joy,
You will become Buddhas!”

This final promise of Chapter 2 is a fitting end. As Ryusho Jeffus wrote in his Lecture on the Lotus Sutra:

“Chapter II ends telling us that when we are able to overcome our hurdle of doubt and when joy wells up from within our lives, then we are able to become Buddhas. That is my wish for you as you read this writing on the Lotus Sutra. I wish for you to be able to experience the great joy of the Lotus Sutra.”

Before going on with the message of faith contained in Chapter 2, it’s necessary to explore what faith is not: arrogance.

As mentioned earlier, the children of the Skillful Physician in Chapter 16 drank poison when their father was away on business. Not helpful, but not deliberate. Arrogance is deliberate.

When Śāriputra asks the Buddha to explain why he is saying all of this new stuff about expedient means, the Buddha warns:

“My teaching is wonderful and inconceivable.
If arrogant people hear me,
They will not respect or believe me.”

And that is exactly what happens when the Buddha finally acquiesces to Śāriputra’s request.

“You asked me three times with enthusiasm. How can I leave the Dharma unexpounded? Listen to me attentively, and think over my words! Now I will expound the Dharma to you.

“When he had said this, five thousand people among the bhikṣus, bhikṣunīs, upāsakās, and upāsikās of this congregation rose from their seats, bowed to the Buddha, and retired because they were so sinful and arrogant that they thought that they had already obtained what they had not yet, and that they had already understood what they had not yet. Because of these faults, they did not stay. The World-Honored One kept silence and did not check them.”

It is really, really hard for me to imagine being that arrogant. But as explained in the gāthās, more was at work here than simple arrogance:

“Some bhikṣus and bhikṣunīs
Were arrogant.
Some upāsakās were self-conceited.
Some upāsikās were unfaithful.
Those four kinds of devotees
Were five thousand in number.

“They could not see their own faults.
They could not observe all the precepts.
They were reluctant to heal their own wounds.
Those people of little wisdom are gone.
They were the dregs of this congregation.
They were driven away by my powers and virtues.”

“They had too few merits and virtues
To receive the Dharma.
Now there are only sincere people here.
All twigs and leaves are gone.”

Examples of arrogance are found elsewhere in the Lotus Sutra such as the monks who challenge Never Despising Bodhisattva. Even Maitreya Bodhisattva, who is to be the next Buddha, was once a monk who “always seeking fame and gain / He often visited noble families. / He did not understand what he had recited, / Gave it up, and forgot it.”

But what’s important to keep in mind is that all of these arrogant people are saved in the end.

“[I]f everything is said in the Lotus, what is the purpose of the Nirvāṇa [Sutra]? Here, those five thousand haughty monks and nuns who walked out in the second chapter of the Lotus Sūtra come to the rescue. The sūtra does not explain what became of them, but Zhiyi explains that they returned to the assembly that surrounded the Buddha’s deathbed. The Buddha thus compassionately reiterated the central message of the Lotus Sūtra to those who had missed it the first time.” [The Lotus Sutra: A Biography, Page 56-57]

Yesterday, I described the gate to the Buddha’s wisdom and faith’s role in entering that gate. With this in mind, it is important to appreciate that there are many gates entering the Buddha’s house.

Nikkyō Niwano explains this in Buddhism for Today:

The One-vehicle means: All people can become buddhas. The enlightenment obtained by Śrāvakas, Pratyekabuddhas, and Bodhisattvas alike is one by which they become buddhas, and it is the same in origin. Some can obtain the enlightenment of a Śrāvaka and others can obtain that of Pratyekabuddhahood. Both aspects of enlightenment are gates to the Buddha knowledge.

This is allegorically explained as follows: A person who has entered this gate cannot enter the inner room of the Buddha-knowledge until he has first passed through the porch of the bodhisattva practice. At the same time, it cannot be said that the gate and the porch are not both included within the residence of the Buddha. However, if a person stays at the gate, he will be drenched when it rains and chilled when it snows. “All of you, come into the inner room of the Buddha’s residence. The eastern gate, the western gate, and the porch, all are entrances that lead to the inner room of the Buddha-knowledge.” This is the meaning of the Buddha’s words, “Besides the One Buddha-vehicle, there is neither a second vehicle nor a third. I have shown the existence of these two vehicles by my tactful power. There is only one true goal for all.”

Buddhism for Today, p48-49

The gāthās at the end of Chapter 2 illustrates the many varied gateways of the Lotus Sutra, all of which we are told lead to the Buddha’s wisdom. As Nikkyō Niwano says:

All living beings can enter the Buddha-way from any point: from worshiping the buddhas’ relics, from building stupas and memorials, from building temples and shrines to the buddhas in the wilderness, or even from heaping sand in play to form a buddha’s stupa. All living beings can enter the Buddha-way by doing anything good. As they increasingly strive after virtue and develop the great mind of benevolence, they finally become buddhas.

It is faith in the Lotus Sutra that allows us to find and enter these doors. As Nichiren Writes in his Treatise on the Daimoku of the Lotus Sūtra:

Many bodhisattvas with two eyes, the Two Vehicles with slanted eyesight and ordinary people and men of icchantika with poor eyesight all could not see anything clearly in the various pre-Lotus sūtras, much less the colors and shapes of those sūtras. Thanks to the Lotus Sūtra, the two eyes of bodhisattvas were first opened with the help of the moonlight of the theoretical section of the Lotus Sūtra. These were followed by the eyes of the Two Vehicles, ordinary people, and icchantika, which were gradually opened to gain the seed for future Buddhahood. These were due entirely to the merit of the single Chinese character myō.

[Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Faith and Practice, Volume 4,
Page 41-42]

Faith is truly wonderful.