Buddhism’s Sacred Scripture: The Sutra of the Lotus of the Wonderful Dharma, Chapter 4, Part 5 of 6

“The Buddha too, is like this. He knows our fondness for the petty, and so he never told us, ‘You can attain Buddhahood.’ Instead he explained to us how we could become free of outflows, carry out the Lesser Vehicle and be voice-hearer disciples. Then the Buddha commanded us to preach the Supreme Way and explain that those who practice this will be able to attain Buddhahood. We received the Buddha's teaching and for the sake of the great Bodhisattvas made use of causes and conditions, various similes and parables, a variety of words and phrases, to preach the unsurpassed way.” “The various Buddhas in their Dharma of the secret storehouse set forth the true facts for the sake of Bodhisattvas alone; it is not for our sake that they expound the true essentials. The case is like that of the impoverished son who was able to approach his father. Though he knew of his father's possessions, at heart he had no longing to appropriate them. Thus, although we preached the treasure storehouse of the Dharma of the Buddha, we did not seek to attain it ourselves, and in this way our case is similar. We sought to wipe out what was within ourselves, believing that was sufficient.”