For almost 50 years, Sakyamuni Buddha gave different messages depending on the level of each individual's understanding. That is why there are so many sutras in Buddhism. The founders of Buddhist sects chose different sutras for their salvation depending on what they emphasized. St. Nichiren in the13th century in Japan chose the Lotus Sutra as the salvation of people who live in the Latter Age of Declining Law or the Mappo Era. According to him, it is the Lotus Sutra that reveals the most essential teachings of Sakyamuni Buddha. Before I talk on the Lotus Sutra, I would like to talk briefly on the history of Buddhism, and how the idea of the Lotus Sutra began.

EARLY SUTRAS

When the Sakyamuni Buddha was alive, none of his teachings were recorded by means of a written language. I am not sure that there was writing methods at the time, but it could be that it was impolite to write the words of the Most Honored One. Even today in Japan, some masters of martial arts or Japanese culture such as flower arrangement or tea ceremony do not allow their students to take notes on paper. The students must learn to memorize the teachings. Sometimes this is called oral instruction.
Soon after the Buddha's death, 500 disciples gathered at Rajagrha to refresh their memory about the Buddha's teachings. They chanted gathas or Buddhist hymns. This kind of conference was held three times all together. The messages of the Buddha were kept in disciples' memory and transferred in the form of spoken words.
A few centuries later, the spoken words were written down in order to avoid forgetting important teachings. Therefore, all sutras start with the phrase, "Thus Have I Heard" in the first Chapter. The sutras compiled at that time were called the early sutras such as Agon Sutra, the Dharma Parda and the Sutta Niparta.

THERAVADA & MAHAYANA BUDDHISM

After Sakyamuni Buddha's death, his teachings were well kept and practiced and also propagated by the ordained priests, priestesses, lay men and women for about a century. However, the ways of understanding and practicing of the Buddha's teachings begun to split into two different traditions because of different interpretation of the Buddha's teachings. One of the groups was called Theravada Buddhists who tried to keep up the traditional practices and rules. The other was called Mahayana Buddhists who emphasized the essential ideas but changed their ways of practice depending on their living places and time. Theravada Buddhists maintained their strict precepts which differed between the ordained priests and lay people. On the other hand, Mahayana Buddhism arose among the lay people who could not keep up the strict precepts but kept the essential ideas of the Buddha.
For instance, ten people can have ten different ideas on what is important. Some people may emphasize the traditional, liberal, emotional, theoretical or practical attitude. It is unavoidable that interpretations of the Buddha's teachings differ depending on each individual's level of education, cultural back ground, era, and country.

Comparing the two main traditions, we see that Theravada Buddhism is mostly practiced in southern Asia like Thailand and Srilanka and that Mahayana Buddhism is practiced in Tibet, China, Korea, and Japan. It is said that Theravada priests stay in monasteries and practice for their own salvation. They go out begging food in front of their devotee's houses every morning, because the priests are not allowed to produce or to own anything, including food. Here in southern California, there is a group of Thai Buddhists in Hollywood. I once read an article in the L.A. Times regarding these priests begging food from house to house every morning. In Theravada Buddhism, lay people cannot attain Buddhahood, but wish to be reborn in better places by serving priests.

In contrast, Mahayana Buddhism arose among the lay people who insisted that attaining Enlightenment is possible even for lay men and women. It was probably founded after the Christian era, and its attitude was very liberal in contrast to the Theravada Buddhists. I believe that the Mahayana Buddhists have been greatly influenced by trading merchants on the Silk Road in the first and second century A.D.; therefore, there are many stories regarding merchants, traders, treasure hunts, physicians, kings, millionaires and also the homeless in the Lotus Sutra which I will discuss later.

Theravada priests keep strict precepts, but Mahayana priests especially some Japanese priests eat meat, drink sake, are married, own personal property, and so on just like lay people. Although Japanese priests are ordained, they keep lay people's life styles. All Mahayana sutras emphasize the practice of BODHISATTVA who are seeking Enlightenment not only for himself but for others.

MAHAYANA SUTRAS

There are many Mahayana Sutras, for example, Heart Sutra, Amida Sutra, Maha Virocana Sutra, Infinite Light Sutra, Lotus Sutra, and Nirvana Sutra. Ordinary people may wonder which sutra is good and which is the most excellent.

The Great Master T'ien T'ai (538-597) of China revealed the Five Periods of the Buddha's Teachings. According to him, all sutras can be divided in the five categories depending on their contents. At first, the Buddha preached the Kegon Teachings for 21 days after his Enlightenment, but these teachings were too difficult for the average person to understand. Then the Buddha taught the Agon Teachings during the next 12 years (from age 30 until 42) in which anyone could easily understand. Seeing that people understood the first stages of his teachings, the Buddha taught a little higher level of teachings called the Hoto Teachings. The subsequent 22 years (from age 50 until 72), the Buddha introduced the concept of "Ku" or "Emptiness" in the Heart Sutra. In the final stage, during the last eight years before his death, the Buddha revealed the Lotus Sutra.

St. Nichiren (1212-1282) read all Theravada and Mahayana sutras before his proclamation of the Odaimoku, "Namu Myoho Renge Kyo." He accepted T'ien T'ai's concept of the Five Periods of the Buddha's Teachings. Therefore, the Lotus Sutra contained the most essential teachings of the Buddha which was reveled whether people could understand them or not.
Another reason why Nichiren took the Lotus Sutra as the most essential teaching among other sutras was the phrase in Innumerable Meaning Sutra, the preceding sutra before the Lotus Sutra, says, "In the past forty odd years, I (Sakyamuni Buddha) had not yet expounded the truth." Then, the Lotus Sutra was preached. Thus Nichiren chose the Lotus Sutra as the most true teaching of the Buddha.

The Five Periods of the Buddha's Teachings

The sequence of the Lotus Sutra in relation to the other sutras according to the Great Teacher T'ien T'ai(538-597). The time classified into five periods of the teachings preached by the Sakyamuni Buddha, since he first attained enlightenment until he entered into Nirvana at the age of 80 together with the revelation of the inferior and superior sutras.

1. The Kegon Period: After attaining enlightenment, the Buddha preached the Kegon teachings for 21 days. However, these teachings were too difficult for the average people to understand.
Example: The Kegon Sutra

2. The Agon Period: The Buddha taught the Agon teachings during the next twelve years (from age 30 until 42) in a manner in which anyone could easily understand. (the Theravada teachings).
Example: The Agon Sutra, the Hokku Sutra (the Dharma Pada) and the Sutta Niparta amongst others.

3. The Hoto Period: The eight years following the Agon Period (from age 42 until 50) when the Buddha taught that Theravada teachings are inferior to the Mahayana teachings.
Example: The Yuima Sutra (The Vimalakirti Sutra), The Jodo Sutra (The Pure Land Sutra), Konkomyo Sutra (the Suvarnaprabhasottama-raja Sutra), Shiyaku Sutra etc.
4. The Hannya Period: The subsequent 22 years (from age 50 until 72) when the Buddha instructed the people to discard the one-sided teachings of Theravada and Mahayana as he introduced the teaching of Ku (voids).
Example: The Dai Hannya Sutra (The Great Heart Sutra)

5. The Hokke-Nehan Period: The final eight years (from age 72 until 80) preceding the Buddha's passing. Since the understanding of the disciples and followers had deepened, Sakyamuni Buddha taught the truth of his enlightenment.
Example: The Lotus Sutra and the Nirvana Sutra.

The Threefold Lotus Sutra

A set of the three sutras is as follows:
1. The Sutra of Infinite Meaning:
"In the past forty some odd years, I had not yet expounded the truth"
2. The Lotus Sutra:
"People of the two vehicles of Sravakahood or Sho-mon and Pratyekabuddhahood or En-gaku can attain enlightenment and the concept of the Eternal Buddha."
3. The Fugen Bodhisattva Sutra:
"The importance of Repentance."

Meanings of Lotus Flowers

The name of the Lotus Sutra in Sanskrit is The Saddharma Pundarika Sutra In English it is called the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma. Chapter 15 reveals about the lotus flowers as follows: "They are not defiled by worldiness, Just as the lotus-flower Is not defiled by water." Lotus flowers symbolize purity because the beautiful lotus flowers are never soiled by muddy water, so we should not be influenced by our bad environment. One should not blame others for what he or she did wrong. Lotus flowers also symbolize the law of cause, causation and effect because when a flower blooms, it already has the seeds within it. A flower is the cause while the seeds are effects; and water, soil, temperature are causation.

Shaku-mon and Hon-mon

The Lotus Sutra contains 28 chapters. According to the Great Master T'ien T'ai (538-597) of China, the first 14 chapters of the sutra is called Shaku-mon in which the Sakyamuni Buddha does not yet reveal his eternal nature, but appears as a historical person bound by limitations of time and space. On the other hand, in the last 14 chapters of the sutra, the Buddha reveal the eternal nature of the Buddha, his existence in the remote past, present, and eternal future. The Hon-mon chapters especially emphasize salvation of all mankind after the Sakyamuni Buddha's death.

In Chapter 16, The Duration of the Life of the Tathagata, the Sakyamuni Buddha says, "The gods, men and asuras in the world think I, Sakyamuni Buddha, left the palace of the Sakyas, sat at the place of enlightenment not far from the city of Gaya, and attained Enlightenment. To tell the truth, it is many hundreds of thousands of billions of nayutas of kalpas since I became the Buddha." He reveal the existence of the eternal Buddha in Chapter 16.
Shaku-mon is the teachings of the historical Buddha while Hon-mon is the teachings of the eternal Buddha. When we see the Buddha as a physical being who was born in India and lived for 80 years, he is a historical Buddha. But when we see the Buddha as a spiritual being, he is the eternal Buddha because his teachings will remain for ever. The more detail will be discussed on Chapter 16.

SHAKU-BUTSU and HON-BUTSU

SHAKU-BUTSU is Sakyamuni Buddha as a historical human being. See Chapter 16:
"The gods, men and asuras in the world think that I, Sakyamuni Buddha, left the palace of the Sakyas, sat at the place of enlightenment not far from the City of Gaya. and attained Anuttara-samyak-sambodhi [forty and odd years ago]. P.241 of The Lotus Sutra.
HON-BUTSU is the Sakyamuni Buddha as the Eternal & Original Buddha. See Chapter 16:
"To tell the truth it is many hundreds of thousands of billions of nayutas of kalpas since I became the Buddha." P.241 of The Lotus Sutra.