Bodhisattvas of the Earth

Bodhisattvas of the Earth, also sometimes referred to as Bodhisattvas from the Underground, "Bodhisattvas Taught by the Original Buddha," or "earth bodhisattvas", are the infinite number of bodhisattvas who, in the 15th ("Emerging from the Earth") chapter of the Lotus Sutra, emerged from a fissure in the ground. This pivotal story of the Lotus Sutra takes place during the "Ceremony in the Air" which had commenced in the 11th ("Emergence of the Treasure Tower") chapter. Later, in the 21st ("Supernatural Powers") chapter, Shakyamuni passes on to them the responsibility to keep and propagate the Lotus Sutra in the feared future era of the Latter Day of the Law.

In the 15th ("Emerging from the Earth") chapter of the Lotus Sutra, the vast number of bodhisattvas from other realms who had appeared to hear Shakyamuni preach in the "Ceremony in the Air" hoped to receive the Buddha's permission to be the ones to propagate the Dharma in the perilous era to come. To their great chagrin, Shakyamuni refused their request, deferring this honor to unnamed bodhisattvas who already existed in the empty space underneath the sahā-world [tr: "world of endurance of suffering, any world of transmigration"]. Right after he made this statement the earth shook and a mighty fissure appeared. Dramatically, and in a single instant, bodhisattvas whose numbers are described in the sutra as "immeasurable, boundless, beyond anything that can be known through calculation, simile or parable" arose from tbe earth. All of them are "golden in hue, with the thirty-two features [of the Buddha] and an immeasurable brightness."

These bodhisattvas had four leaders and guiding teachers: Superior Practices (the leader of the four), Boundless Practices, Pure Practices, and Firmly Established Practices. The four leaders have been interpreted to represent the four bodhisattva vows as practiced by the Mahayana traditions of China, Japan, and Korea and are said to represent the four characteristics of Nirvana or Buddhahood as taught in the Lotus Sutra: true self, eternity, purity, and joy.

According to Tao Sheng (ca. 360–434), the splitting of the earth and the welling forth of the bodhisattvas is indicative that "living beings inherently possess an endowment for enlightenment, and it cannot remain concealed; they are bound to break the earth of defilements and emerge to safeguard the Dharma.”

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