Day 3 covers the first half of Chapter 2, Expedients.

Last month covered the true nature of reality and the 10 factors. And today I review in gathas:

The [wisdom of the] World-Heroes is immeasurable.
None of the living beings in the world,
Including gods and men,
Knows the [wisdom of the] Buddhas.

No one can measure the powers, fearlessness,
Emancipations, samadhis,
And other properties of the [present] Buddhas,
Because they, in their previous existence,
Followed innumerable Buddhas
And practiced the teachings of those Buddhas.

The profound and wonderful Dharma
Is difficult to see and difficult to understand.
I practiced the teachings of the [past] Buddhas
For many hundreds of millions of kalpas,
And became a Buddha at the place of enlightenment.
I have already attained the Dharma.

Before continuing, I want to offer a pair of quotes. First, from Nichiren, The Buddhist Prophet:

The Dhamma is the truth revealed by Buddha, the Lord of Truth; yet he is not the creator of it. We are enlightened by the truths taught by him, but we can be thus enlightened because our existence and nature are based on the same Dhammata that is found in Buddha himself.
Nichiren, The Buddhist Prophet

The other quote comes from Rev. Ryusho Jeffus’ Physician’s Good Medicine:

Oratio Divina is a type of prayer that is in response to the text. For example, after reading a portion of the Lotus Sutra, you might meditate on a personal response to what was read. Rather than merely absorbing the text or even trying to define or describe what has been read and its meaning, the focus becomes directed to how you shall respond in your life to what you read.

This type of study-response activity makes the sutra a tool or guide on which to base future actions. It can be a call to reinterpret your life and environment or your relationship to both. Rather than reading to understand, it is more of a reading to hear. Listen to the text you study and listen to what is going on internally as you listen. What are your first thoughts? Based upon what you heard, what are some actions you might take in your own life?
Physician's Good Medicine

Day 2 completes Chapter 1, Introductory.

Having last month begun Manjusri’s answer to Maitreya, it’s time to explore the background for what he saw.

Good men! Innumerable, inconceivable, asamkya kalpas ago, there lived a Buddha called Sun-Moon-Light, the Tathagata, the Deserver of Offerings, the Perfectly Enlightened One, the Man of Wisdom and Practice, the Well-Gone, the Knower of the World, the Unsurpassed Man, the Controller of Men, the Teacher of Gods and Men, the Buddha, the World-Honored One. He expounded the right teachings. His expounding of the right teachings was good at the beginning, good in the middle, and good at the end. The meanings of those teachings were profound. The words were skilful, pure, unpolluted, perfect, clean, and suitable for the explanation of brahma practices. To those who were seeking Sravakahood, he expounded the teaching of the four truths, a teaching suitable for them, saved them from birth, old age, disease, and death, and caused them to attain Nirvana. To those who were seeking Pratyekabuddhahood, he expounded the teaching of the twelve causes, a teaching suitable for them. To Bodhisattvas, he expounded the teaching of the six paramitas, a teaching suitable for them, and caused them to attain Anuttara-samyak-sambodhi, that is, to obtain the knowledge of the equality and differences of all things.

After his extinction there appeared a Buddha also called Sun­-Moon-Light. After his extinction there appeared another Buddha also called Sun-Moon-Light. In the same manner, twenty thousand Buddhas appeared in succession, all of them being called Sun­Moon-Light with the surname Bharadvaja.

Maitreya, know this! All those Buddhas were called Sun-Moon­light with the ten epithets. Their expounding of the Dharma was good at the beginning, good in the middle, and good at the end. The last Sun-Moon-Light Buddha was once a king. He had eight sons born to him before he renounced the world. The first son was called Having-Intention; the second, Good-Intention; the third, Infinite-Intention; the fourth, Treasure-Intention; the fifth, Increasing-­Intention; the sixth, Doubts-Removing-Intention; the seventh, Resounding-Intention; and the eighth, Dharma-Intention. These eight princes had unhindered powers and virtues. Each of them was the ruler of the four continents [of a Sumeru-world]. Having heard that their father had renounced the world and attained Anuttara-samyak-sambodhi, they abdicated from their thrones, and followed their father. They renounced the world, aspired for the Great Vehicle, performed brahma practices, and became teachers of the Dharma. They had already planted the roots of good under ten million Buddhas in their previous existence.

Thereupon the last Sun-Moon-Light Buddha expounded a sutra of the Great Vehicle called the ‘Innumerable Teachings, the Dharma for Bodhisattvas, the Dharma Upheld by the Buddhas.’ Having expounded this sutra, he sat cross-legged [facing the east] in the midst of the great multitude, and entered into the samadhi for the purport of the innumerable teachings. His body and mind became motionless.

Thereupon the gods rained mandarava-flowers, maha­mandarava-flowers, manjusaka-flowers, and maha-manjusaka­flowers upon the Buddha and the great multitude. The world of the Buddha quaked in the six ways. The great multitude of the congregation, which included bhiksus, bhiksunis, upasakas, upasikas, gods, dragons, yaksas, gandharvas, asuras, garudas, kirmnaras, mahoragas, men, nonhuman beings, the kings of small countries, and the wheel turning-holy kings, were astonished. They rejoiced, joined their hands together [towards the Buddha], and looked up at him with one mind.

Thereupon the Tathagata emitted a ray of light from the white curls between his eyebrows, and illumined all the corners of eighteen thousand Buddha-worlds in the east just as this Buddha is illumining the Buddha-worlds as we see now.

The points to underline here are twofold. First, what Manjusri saw before is what Maitreya and the congregation see now. The other point, and I think most important, is the rarity of this event. “Twenty thousand Buddhas appeared in succession, all of them being called Sun­-Moon-Light with the surname Bharadvaja” and all expounded the Dharma broken into three vehicles. Only the last Sun­-Moon-Light exhibited the good omen the congregation sees now.

Day 1 covers the first half of Chapter 1, Introductory

Having last month discussed the gods and other non-humans present in the gathering who are protective deities, I should mention King Ajatasatru, who gets a special mention in the introduction:

King Ajatasatru, who was the son of Vaidehr, was also present with his hundreds of thousands of attendants. They each worshipped the feet of the Buddha, retired, and sat to one side.

Rev. Ryuei Michael McCormick‘s “Lotus World: An Illustrated Guide to the Gohonzon,” offers this about the king, who was chosen by Nichiren for inclusion on the Mandala Gohonzon:

King Ajatashatru was the king of Magadha, whose capital city was Rajagriha, at the time that Shakyamuni Buddha taught the Lotus Sutra. Vulture Peak, where the Lotus Sutra was taught, is located just outside of Rajagriha to the northeast. King Ajatashatru and his attendants appear in the assembly in the first chapter.

In the Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra, King Ajatashatru represents the icchantika. An icchantika is an incorrigible disbeliever who, according to some teachings, is utterly devoid of the seeds of buddhahood. The Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra, however, teaches that even icchantika such as Ajatashatru have buddha-nature. The Lotus Sutra’s prediction of Devadatta’s eventual buddhahood is taken to mean that even the icchantika’s buddha-nature will someday come to full flower.
Lotus World: An Illustrated Guide to the Gohonzon