In chapter 15, “Springing Up from the Earth,” a group of bodhisattvas led by four, such as Bodhisattva Superior Practice, emerge from this Sahā world and reveal themselves to be direct disciples of the Buddha. They are described as ones who, having been entrusted by him to do so, will disseminate the Dharma after the Buddha is gone. This may be an indication that those who struggle within actual society are especially authentic Buddhists.

It is explained that these bodhisattvas dwell below, in an empty space under this Sahā world. As we have seen earlier, this “empty space” is another name for emptiness, and the two terms are often used interchangeably. Thus, we can interpret “living in an empty space below this Sahā world” to mean that being grounded in an experience of emptiness, they remain in this Sahā world without clinging to it. In other words, chapter 15 criticizes the way of the holy ones, the shravakas, for transcending actual reality in order to stagnate in emptiness, thereby falling into nihilism. Instead, it highly values the figure of the ordinary person, the bodhisattva, who lives in the actual world, the temporal world, without getting bogged down in it, and works diligently, with emptiness in the background behind the scenes, to bring about the realization of truth and the reformation of the world. Such empty space (emptiness) and actual reality (the temporal) express the true Buddha way—that is, the dialectical dynamic of the bodhisattva way of duality in nonduality, and nonduality in duality. A verse in chapter 15 says:

They have learned the bodhisattva way well,
And are untainted by worldly things,
Just as the lotus flower in the water
Emerges from the earth.

In other words, they emerged from the earth like a lotus flower untainted by water, coming together in the here and now, untainted by worldly things. Here the bodhisattva way is explained through the symbolism of the lotus. That is, the idea that the lotus flower can only grow in muddy water, but also blossom there into a beautiful flower, is applied to the image of the bodhisattva. Moreover, it is taken from the title of the Lotus Sutra.