Day 10

Day 10 concludes Chapter 6, Assurance of Future Buddhahood.

Today Subhūti learned he “will see three hundred billion nayutas of Buddhas, make offerings to them, respect them, honor them, praise them, perform brahma practices, complete the Way of Bodhisattvas, and become a Buddha” called Beautiful-Form in the world Treasure-Born in the kalpa Having-Treasures.

Kātyāyana was assured that after making “offerings to eight hundred thousand millions of Buddhas, attend on them, respect them, and honor them in his future life” and build stupas of the seven treasures for each after their extinction and making offerings to those stupas and then making “the same offerings to two billions of Buddhas,” he will become a Buddha called Jāmbūnada-Gold-Light.

And Maudgalyāyana “will make various offerings to eight thousand Buddhas, respect them, and honor them. After the extinction of each of those Buddhas, he will erect a stūpa-mausoleum a thousand yojanas high, and five hundred yojanas wide and deep. He will make it of the seven treasures: gold, silver, lapis lazuli, shell, agate, pearl and ruby. He will offer flowers, necklaces, incense applicable to the skin, incense powder, incense to burn, canopies, banners and streamers to the stūpa-mausoleum. After that he will make the same offerings to two hundred billions of Buddhas. Then he will become a Buddha called Tamālapattracandana-Fragrance…”

Seven Treasures: gold, silver, lapis lazuli, shell, agate, pearl and ruby
Seven Treasures: gold, silver, lapis lazuli, shell, agate, pearl and ruby

Becoming a Buddha at the time the Lotus Sutra was preached was no mean feat. But no one was left out:

The five hundred disciples of mine
Are powerful and virtuous.
They also shall be assured
Of their future Buddhahood.
They will become Buddhas
In their future lives.

The chapter ends with a teaser for what is to come in Chapter 7, The Parable of the Magic City:

Now I will tell you
About my previous existence
And also about yours.
All of you, listen attentively!

The stage for Chapter 7 is set with a description of how long ago “a countless, limitless, inconceivable, asaṃkhya number of kalpas ago” was. This is the period of time since a Buddha called Great-Universal-Wisdom-Excellence passed away.

Most important, though:

I remember the extinction of that Buddha
As vividly as if he had passed away just now,
By my unhindered wisdom; I also remember
The Śrāvakas and Bodhisattvas who lived [with him].

Keeping in mind that teaser “about my previous existence,” we learn that before Great-Universal-Wisdom-Excellence Buddha attained Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi he had sixteen sons.

And so Day 10 ends, pregnant with speculation as to what’s to come.