Over many centuries, the Lotus Sutra has been hailed as one of the most seminal texts in the voluminous catalogue of Buddhist literature. Among the most read and most frequently recited of all the sutras, it is the focus of daily practice for Buddhists around the world. Yet how much of its philosophical profundity is truly understood? Is the message of the text being heard clearly amid the fervor of prosaic study and rote chanting? Or has there been a fundamental misapprehension of both the form and content of the Lotus Sutra? To answer these questions, the following discussion adopts a hermeneutical approach to the Lotus Sutra. I suggest that the author or authors of the Lotus Sutra set themselves the fifth stage task of Creative Hermeneutics in :critically inheriting and creatively developing" the message of primal Buddhism. To justify that claim our ensuing discussion addresses (I) the place of the Lotus Sutra within Buddhist philosophy; (II) Creative Hermeneutics and primal Buddhism：stages 1 through 3; (III) the Lotus Sutra as a work of Creative Hermeneutics：stages 4 and 5; (IV) the logic of the Three Gates, and (V) Buddhism beyond the Lotus Sutra.
Summary I. The Challenges and Possibilities of Creative Hermeneutics II. The Place of the Lotus Sutra within Buddhist Philosophy III. Creative Hermeneutics and Primal Buddhism: Stages 1 through 3 IV. The Lotus Sutra as a Work of Creative Hermeneutics: Stages 4 and 5 V. The Logic of the Three Gates 1. The Branch Gate: Signlessness/Animitta (Chapters 1-14) 2. The Root Gate: Emptiness/Sunyata (Chapters 15-27) 3. Closure (Gate of No Gate): Aimlessness/Appanihita (Chapter 28) VI. Buddhism Beyond the Lotus Sutra Bibliography
