Truth, Life and Path of the Bodhisattva: inter-confessional reading of the Lotus Sutra

Abstract

Three basic ideas of the Lotus Sutra are: The One Vehicle to the Ultimate Truth; the Everlasting Life of the Original Buddha; and the Way of Mercifulness and Compassion of the Boddhisatvas. While leaving to the interreligious studies the task of historical and doctrinal interpretation of this classical religious text, we shall try a reading which might be shared – out of the Buddhist context –, in an intercultural or «inter-confesional» context. Both a theist and a non-theist spirituality could, without refusing each one’s identity, share some basic aspects of the approach to the unifying truth of the Universe and the real aspect of all things, to the Eternal Life of the Buddha Shakamuni and his presence within the buddha-nature of each human being, as well as to the merciful way of life of the boddhisatvas.