When the rain of the Dharma falls in Chapter 5, we are told that the “roots, stems, branches and leaves” were watered. This is more than a botany lesson. As Nikkyō Niwano explains in Buddhism for Today:
Buddhism for Today, p74“Roots, stalks, twigs, and leaves indicate faith, precepts, meditation, and wisdom. Roots are the most important part of plants. Without roots, they cannot grow stalks, twigs, or leaves. Therefore ‘roots’ means faith. One cannot keep the precepts without faith. Because of keeping the precepts, one can enter into the mental state of meditation and can also obtain wisdom.
“Conversely, however strong the roots may be, they will eventually die if the twigs and leaves wither or if the stalks are cut. In the same way, if man does not have wisdom, his faith will become corrupt. In short, in believing in a religion, man begins with faith and attains wisdom through the precepts and meditation. However, these four steps of his religious practice are always interrelated and exist together. When any one of the four steps is lacking, his religious practice cannot be perfect, and it will not progress to the next stage. Just as a tree may be big or little, superior, middle, or low, so different people are large- or small-minded, wise or ignorant.”
When the roots, stems, branches and leaves work together the plants bear fruit and this helps nourish others. Gene Reeves offers this explanation in Stories from the Lotus Sutra:
The Stories of the Lotus Sutra, p82“From the point of view of the Sutra, this earth is the buddha land of Shakyamuni Buddha. This world, and especially this world, is Shakyamuni Buddha’s world. But the Buddha is not some sort of all-powerful God ruling the universe. The Buddha is embodied, made real, in the Buddha-deeds of ordinary living beings. The Buddha invites us to be partners with him in transforming this world into a pure buddha land, where there is a kind of harmony of beauty enabling living beings to flourish together in many different healthy ways, all equally depending on the Dharma and on one another.
“[Chapter 5] of the Lotus Sutra encourages us to think of the large picture and to be grateful that we are nourished by the Dharma raining on us. But it is also important to recognize that the Dharma can be rained down by us. In Zen and Western Thought the famous Zen scholar Masao Abe wrote that ‘the greatest debt without doubt is to my three teachers. … Without the Dharma rain they poured upon me, a rain which nourished me for many years, even this humble bunch of flowers could not have been gathered.’
“In other words, to follow the Buddha Way, the Dharma, is to be nourished by the Dharma, but it is also to nourish others – many kinds of others. In still other words, to follow the Buddha Way of transforming living beings and purifying buddha lands is to become a buddha oneself, at least in small but very important ways.”
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