In this essay, by initially acknowledging the inherent problems of communication that motivated the Buddha’s respect for rhetoric, I will show where the Buddha expresses the importance of rhetoric, how he exposes his own use of rhetoric, and what this implies about rhetoric, religion and academia: rhetoric is spirituality’s chaperon into the world; perhaps the study of rhetoric is the new focal point where religion and academia meet. Perhaps without rhetoric, we would not have religions, and religious figures would not be able to be religious figures. By examining a specific Buddhist text, The Lotus Sutra, I will show how rhetoric manifests in Buddhism and how Buddhism manifests in the rhetorical canon. The symbiosis of Buddhism and rhetoric is the bridge that can effectively connect religion and secular liberalism.