28. Encouragement of the Bodhisattva Universal Virtue

Here we are told how the Bodhisattva Universal Virtue came from far in the east from the realm of the Buddha Jeweled Majestic Superior King in order to hear the Lotus Sutra. He was so moved by what he heard that he graphically described to the buddha how in future generations he would guard and protect those who received and kept the teachings. In turn, the buddha praised him and announced that he, the buddha, would likewise guard and protect any who did as the Bodhisattva Universal Virtue did. The chapter is thus an overall encouragement to give heart to practitioners of the Lotus Sutra far in the future, in the latter, declining days of the Law.

There is deep meaning in the appearance in this closing chapter of the sutra of the Bodhisattva Universal Virtue. Universal Virtue is the bodhisattva of the virtues of truth, concentration, and practice, and his appearance, mounted upon the white elephant king, symbolizes the preeminence of thoroughgoing practice.

In the early part of the Lotus Sutra the principal bodhisattva was Manjushri, the bodhisattva of knowledge. Midway, notably in chapter 16 on the life of the Tathagata, Maitreya, the bodhisattva of compassion, appeared. The appearance here at the end of Universal Virtue, the bodhisattva whose major attribute is practice, is thus significant. The meaning of this is clear: the hearer of the Lotus Sutra gains knowledge of the real aspect of existence from the part of the sutra that deals with derived truth. He is then awakened to the truth that all living beings are animated by the compassion of the Eternal and Original Buddha. This is the theme of the part of the sutra that deals with original truth. Finally, here, he learns that the teaching not put into practice is nothing. If we understand this, then we have already grasped the meaning of this chapter.

There is, however, one extremely important statement in the chapter that is not to be overlooked. After greeting the Buddha, the Bodhisattva Universal Virtue asks how good men and women are to gain the truth of the Lotus Sutra after the Buddha's extinction. Shakyamuni answers that there are four requisites to its acquisition: "first, to be under the guardianship of the buddhas; second, to plant the roots of virtue; third, to enter correct congregation; fourth, to aspire after the salvation of all the living." We may understand here that we must have faith that we are ever watched over and minded by the buddhas; that in our daily lives we must do good deeds and foster virtue and goodness in ourselves; that we must associate with others in right service to the teaching; and that we must be animated by a desire to deliver all people in the understanding that true salvation means salvation with everyone else.

Here, concisely stated in a form anyone may understand, we have the essentials of the teaching that were explained in detail earlier. Even people who may have been put off by the profundity of the teachings of the Lotus Sutra may here very well get the feeling that they too can make it. This is a most appropriate conclusion to the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Law.