[Shariputra] is transformed by the Dharma. While the Dharma can be thought of, and is, something that nourishes and sustains us, it can also transform us. Shariputra’s life was dramatically changed by the Dharma. Here, hearing the Dharma, he suddenly realizes that the goal he has been pursuing and the kind of life he has been living, while good, is not good enough. He realizes that the way he has taken can be a kind of gateway to more fully following the Buddha. No wonder he is filled with ecstasy! Indeed, almost everywhere you turn in the Dharma Flower Sutra, someone is receiving the Sutra with joy, or is full of joy, or has a heart that is dancing for joy.

The Buddha reminds Shariputra that Shariputra had learned this lesson before but had forgotten his own original vow. This is one of the many ways in which the Dharma Flower Sutra teaches that the potential for being a buddha is fundamental – something given to us originally. His life as a bodhisattva was always his life. Now, quite suddenly, he knows it.

To understand the Buddha Dharma as an ultimate truth about reality is to experience it as liberating. That Shariputra has received only some of the Buddha Dharma means that even though he is enlightened, liberated, and overcome with joy, this is only a new beginning, a rebirth, not a death in which there is nothing more to do. He is set free to live in the Dharma.