INTERPRETING THE LOTUS SUTRA
Stephen F. Teiser and Jacqueline I. Stone
THE LOTUS SUTRA asserts a bold set of claims about the Buddhist religion. Pitting itself against what the text views as immature followers of the Buddha, the Lotus champions the cause of the bodhisattva (a being intent upon supreme enlightenment), who seeks salvation for all sentient beings. The text portrays earlier models for the practice of Buddhism as preliminary or incomplete-or efkctive only after their provisional nature is understood.