Day 22

Day 22 covers all of Chapter 17, The Variety of Merits.

Last month I discussed the Buddha’s Pure Land. This time through I’m not speaking ill of this sutra, but rejoicing.

Furthermore, the good men or women who do not speak ill of this sutra but rejoice at hearing it after my extinction, should be considered, know this, to have already understood my longevity by firm faith. It is needless to say this of those who [not only rejoice at hearing this sutra but also] read recite and keep it. They also should be considered to be, carrying me on their heads. Ajita! They need not build a stupa or a monastery in my honor, or make the four kinds of offerings to the Samgha because those who keep, read and recite this sutra should be considered to have already built a stupa or a monastery or made offerings to the Samgha. They should be considered to have already erected a stupa of the seven treasures tall enough to reach the Heaven of Brahman, the upper part of the stupa being the smaller. They should be considered to have already equipped the stupa with streamers, canopies and jeweled bells, and enshrined my sariras therein. They also should be considered to have already offered flowers, incense, necklaces, incense powder, incense applicable to the skin, incense to burn, drums, music, reed pipes, flutes, harps, various kinds of dances, and songs of praise sung with wonderful voices [to the stupa] continuously for many thousands of billions of kalpas.

Daily Dharma from Sept. 13, 2016, adds this:

The Buddha makes this declaration to his disciple Maitreya in Chapter Seventeen of the Lotus Sūtra. After learning the merits of understanding the ever-present nature of the Buddha, Maitreya hears that this understanding is present in anyone who finds joy in this sūtra. From the parables told earlier in the sūtra, we know that this joy is not the same as the joy that comes from ending suffering. It is the joy in our awakening Buddha nature.

The Daily Dharma is produced by the Lexington Nichiren Buddhist Community. To subscribe to the daily emails, visit zenzaizenzai.com