Day 23 covers all of Chapter 18, The Merits of a Person Who Rejoices at Hearing This Sutra, and opens Chapter 19, The Merits of the Teacher of the Dharma.

Having last month begun the discussion of the merits of the 50th person who rejoices at hearing the Lotus Sutra, we now continue listing those merits.

“Ajita! The merits of the fiftieth person who rejoices at hearing this Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma are immeasurable, limitless, asamkhya. Needless to say, so are the merit of the first person who rejoices at hearing [this Sutra] in the congregation. His merits are immeasurable, limitless, asamkhya and incomparable.

“Furthermore, Ajita! Anyone who goes to a monastery in order to hear this Sutra and hears it even for a moment while he is sitting or standing, in his next life will be able to go up to the palace of heaven, riding in a beautiful and wonderful elephant-cart or horsecart or in a palanquin of wonderful treasure by his merits. Anyone who, while sitting in the place of the expounding of the Dharma, persuades another person to sit down or shares his seat with him to hear [the Dharma] when he sees him coming to the place, in his next life by his merits, will be able to obtain the seat of King Sakra, of the Brahman Heavenly-King or of a wheel-turning­holy-king.

“Ajita! Anyone who[, while he is staying outside the place of the expounding of the Dharma,] says to another person, ‘Let us go and hear the sutra called the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma which is being expounded [in that place],’ and causes him to hear it even for a moment, in his next life by his merits, will be able to live with the Bodhisattvas who obtain dharanis. He will be clever and wise. He will not be dumb throughout thousands of millions of his future existences. His breath will not be foul. He will have no disease of the tongue or the mouth. His teeth will not be defiled, black, yellow, few, fallen out, uneven or crooked. His lips will not be pendulous, shrunk, chapped, cracked, broken, distorted, thick, large, yellow-black or loathsome. His nose will not be flat or awry. His face will not be black, long, distorted or displeasing. His lips, tongue and teeth will be well-shaped; his nose, long, high and straight. His face will be full; his eyebrows, thick and long; and his forehead, broad and even. In a word, he will have all the good features of a man. He will be able to see the Buddhas, hear the Dharma from them, and receive their teachings by faith throughout his future existences.

“Ajita, look! The merits of the person who causes even a single man to go and hear the Dharma are so many. It is needless to speak of the merits of the person who hears [this sutra] with all his heart, reads it, recites it, expounds it to the great multitude, and acts according to its teachings.

The Daily Dharma from Nov. 7, 2015, offers this:

Ajita, look! The merits of the person who causes even a single man to go and hear the Dharma are so many. It is needless to speak of the merits of the person who hears [this sūtra] with all his heart, reads it, recites it, expounds it to the great multitude, and acts according to its teachings.

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

Having last month covered the merits of those who read, recite or keep this sutra, expound it to others, copies it, or causes others to copy it, we move to the concluding gathas.

Anyone who keeps this sutra
After my extinction
Will be able to obtain
Innumerable merits a previously stated.

He should be considered
To have already made various offerings.
He should be considered
To have already built a stupa
With a yasti soaring up to the Heaven of Brahman,
The upper part of it being the smaller,
A stupa which was adorned with the seven treasures,
And with thousands of billions of jeweled bells
Sounding wonderful when fanned by the wind
He should be considered to have already enshrined
My sarias in this stupa,
And offered flowers, incense, necklaces, heavenly garments,
And various kinds of music to it,
And lit lamps of perfumed oil around it for innumerable kalpas.

Anyone who keeps this sutra in the evil world
In the age of the decline of my teachings
Should be considered
To have already made these offerings.

Anyone who keeps this sutra should be considered
To have already built a monastery
Made of the cow-head candana,
installed with thirty-two beautiful halls,
Eight times as tall as the tala-tree,
Provided with delicious food and drink,
With wonderful garments and bedding
Wilh accommodations for one hundred thousand people,
With gardens, forests, and pools for bathing,
And with promenades and caves for the practice of dhyana.
He should be considered lo have already offered
That monastery to me in my presence.

Anyone who not only understands
This sutra by faith
But also keeps, reads and recites
And copies it, or causes others to it, copy it,
And strews flowers, incense,
And incense powder to a copy of it,
And lights lamps of the perfumed oil
Of umanas, campaka, and atimuktaka
Around the copy of this sutra
And offers the light thus produced to it,
Will be able lo obtain immmerable merits.
His merits will be as limitless as the sky.

Needless to say, so will be the merits of the person
Who keeps this satra, gives alms, observes the precepts,
Practices patience, prefers dhyana-concentrations,
And does not get angry or speak ill of others.

Anyone who respects the stupa-mausoleum,
Who is modest before bhiksus,
Who gives up self-conceit,
Who always thinks of wisdom,
Who does not get angry when asked questions,
And who expounds the Dharma
According to the capacities of the questioners,
Will be able to obtain innumerable merits.

When you see any teacher of the Dharma
Who has obtained these merits,
You should strew heavenly flowers to him,
Dress him in a heavenly garment,
Worship his feet with your head,
And think that he will become a Buddha.

You should think
“He will go to the place of enlightenment before long.
He will be free from asravas and free from causality.
He will benefit all gods and men.”

Erect a stupa in the place
Where he expounded even a gatha of this sutra
While he was standing,
Walking, sitting or reclining!
Adorn the stupa beautifully,
And make various offerings to it!

He is my son.
I will accept his place as mine.
I will be there.
l will walk, sit or recline there.

The Daily Dharma from Dec. 2, 2016, offers this:

When you see any teacher of the Dharma
Who has obtained these merits,
You should strew heavenly flowers to him,
Dress him in a heavenly garment,
Worship his feet with your head,
And think that he will become a Buddha.

Day 21 covers all of Chapter 16, The Duration of the Life of the Tathāgata.

Having last month heard of the need to understand the Buddha’s sincere and infallible words by faith, we pause to consider how old is really, really old.

The gods, men and asuras in, the world think that I, Sakyamuni Buddha, left the palace of the Sakyas, sat at the place of enlightenment not far from the City of Gaya, and attained Anuttara-samyak-sambodhi [forty and odd years ago]. To tell the truth, good men, it is many hundreds of thousands of billions of nayutas of kalpas since I became the Buddha. Suppose someone smashed into dust five hundred thousand billion nayuta asamkhya worlds, which were each composed of one thousand million Sumeru-worlds, and went to the east [carrying the dust with him). When he reached a world at a distance of five hundred thousand billion nayuta asamkhya worlds [from this world], he put a particle of dust on that world. Then he went on again to the east, and repeated the putting of a particle of the dust [on the world at every distance of five hundred thousand billion nayuta asamkhya worlds] until the particles of the dust were exhausted. Good men! What do you think of this? Do you think that the number of the world he went through is conceivable, countable, or not?

Maitreya Bodhisattva and others said to the Buddha:

World-Honored One! Those worlds are innumerable, uncountable, inconceivable. No Sravaka or Pratyekabuddha could count them even by his wisdom-without-asravas. We are now in the state of avaivartika, but cannot, either. World-Honoured One! Those worlds are innumerable.

Thereupon the Buddha said to the great multitude of Bodhisattvas:

Good Men! Now I will tell you clearly. Suppose those worlds, whether they were marked with the particles of the dust or not, were smashed into dust. The number of the kalpas which have elapsed since I became the Buddha is one hundred thousand billion nayuta asamkhyas larger than the number of the particles of the dust thus produced. All this time I have been living in this Saha-World, and teaching [the living beings of this world] by expounding the Dharma to them. I also have been leading and benefiting the living beings of one hundred thousand billion nayuta asamkhya worlds outside this world.

The Daily Dharma from April 1, 2016, (no fooling) offers this:

All this time I have been living in this Sahā-World, and teaching [the living beings of this world] by expounding the Dharma to them. I also have been leading and benefiting the living beings of one hundred thousand billion nayuta asaṃkhya worlds outside this world.

Day 20 completes Chapter 15, The Appearance of Bodhisattvas from Underground, and concludes the Fifth Volume of the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.

Having last month dealt with the doubts caused by Sakyamuni’s explanation in prose, we now turn Maitreya Bodhisattva singing in gathas:

It is not long
Since you renounced the family of the Sakyas
And sat under the Bodhi-tree
Near Gaya.

These sons of yours are innumerable.
They have practiced
The way to Buddhahood for a long time.
They have supernatural powers and the power of wisdom.

They have studied the Way of Bodhisattvas well.
They are not defiled by worldliness
Just as the lotus-flower
Is not defiled by water.

They sprang up from underground,
And are now standing before you respectfully.
This is difficult to understand.
How can we believe this?

You attained enlightenment quite recently.
But you have done so many things.
Remove our doubts!
Explain all this as it is!

Re-reading and re-reading and re-reading gives such a satisfying feeling. Yes, Maitreya is right to be puzzled. And that makes the big reveal in the next chapter so extraordinary.

And, on the topic of re-reading, I should point out that this post – day 20 in the 16th time through this 32-day cycle – represents the 500th day of this journey.