In the Lotus Sutra, the term pratyekabuddha is used to refer to monks who go off into forests by themselves to pursue their own awakening in solitude. But while the term is used frequently in the early chapters and pratyekabuddhas are made prominent by being named as one of the four holy states of buddhas, bodhisattvas, pratyekabuddhas, and shravakas, we never learn anything at all about any particular pratyekabuddha. While we hear the names of a great many buddhas, bodhisattvas, and shravakas in the Lotus Sutra, we never encounter the name of even a single pratyekabuddha. This leads me to think that, at least for the Lotus Sutra, pratyekabuddhas are not very important.

Though there probably was a historic forest-monk tradition in India, in the Lotus Sutra the pratyekabuddha seems to fill a kind of logical role. That is, there are those who strive for awakening primarily in monastic communities, the shravakas, and there are those who strive for awakening in ordinary communities, the bodhisattvas. There needs to be room for those who strive for awakening apart from all communities – the pratyekabuddhas. But from the bodhisattva perspective of the Dharma Flower Sutra, pratyekabuddhas are in a sense irrelevant. Since they do not even teach others, they indeed do no harm, but neither do they contribute to the Buddha’s work of transforming the world into a buddha land.