Day 24 concludes Chapter 19, The Merits of the Teacher of the Dharma and closes the Sixth Volume of the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.
Having last month begun the merits of the tongue, we complete the merits of the tongue in gāthās.
Thereupon the World-Honored One, wishing to repeat what he had said, sang in gāthās:
Their tongues will be purified.
Their tongues will not receive anything bad.
Anything they at will become
As delicious as nectar.When they e pound the Dharma to the great multitude
And lead them
By telling them the stories of previous lives, parables, and similes
With their deep, pure and wonderful voices,
The hearers will rejoice
And make excellent offerings to them.All gods, dragons,
Yakṣas and asuras
Will come together
And hear the Dharma respectfully.Anyone who expounds the Dharma, if he wishes,
Will be able to cause the living beings
Of the one thousand million Sumeru-worlds
To hear his wonderful voice.The wheel-turning-kings of great and small [countries],
Who have each one thousand children,
Will come with their children and attendants,
And join their hands together respectfully to hear the Dharma.Gods, dragons, yakṣas,
Raksasas and pisacakas
Also will come joyfully,
And make offerings to him.The Brahman-Heavenly-King,
King Mara, Freedom [God],
Great-Freedom [God],
And the other gods also will come to him.The Buddhas and their disciples who hear
The voice of the expounder of the Dharma,
Will think of him, protect him,
And sometimes appear before him.
The Daily Dharma from March 2, 2017, offer this:
Their tongues will be purified.
Their tongues will not receive anything bad.
Anything they eat will become
As delicious as nectar.
The Buddha sings these verses to Constant-Endeavor Bodhisattva in Chapter Nineteen of the Lotus Sūtra, describing those who keep the Lotus Sūtra. With food and drink it is easy to see how different people will find the same food either delicious or disgusting. Our experience and beliefs shape what we are comfortable putting into our bodies, and whether we do so for the sake of our health or the pleasure that comes from experiencing their flavor. But when we find that something with good flavor is bad for our health, or vice versa, we can change our tastes. This is another example of how the Lotus Sūtra teaches us how to live in the world. We learn to embrace situations we once found frightening or intolerable. We increase our capacity with our focus on benefiting others. As a wise teacher once said, we learn to enjoy problems the way we enjoy ice cream.
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