Day 14 covers all of Chapter 9, The Assurance of Future Buddhahood of the Śrāvakas Who Have Something More to Learn and the Śrāvakas Who Have Nothing More to Learn, and opens Chapter 10, The Teacher of the Dharma.

Last month, I focused on Rahula and the month before on Ananda. This leaves the remaining Sravakas.

Thereupon the World-Honored One saw the two thousand Sravakas, of whom some had something more to learn while others had nothing more to learn. They were gentle, quiet and pure. They looked up at the Buddha with all their hearts.

The Buddha said to Ananda, Do you see these two thousand Sravakas, of whom some have something more to learn while others have nothing more to learn?

Yes, I do.

Ananda! These people will make offerings to as many Buddhas, as many Tathagatas, as the particles of dust of fifty worlds. They will respect those Buddhas, honor them, and protect the store of their teachings. They will finally go to the worlds of the ten quarters and become Buddhas at the same time. They will be equally called Treasure-Form, 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. They will live for a kalpa. They will be the same in regard to the adornments of their worlds, the number of the Sravakas and Bodhisattvas of their worlds, the duration of the preservation of their right teachings, and the duration of the preservation of the counterfeit of their right teachings.”

These two thousand Sravakas, of whom some had something more to learn while others had nothing more to learn, were quite happy at this news:

You, the World-Honored One, are the light of wisdom. Hearing from you
That we are assured of our future Buddhahood,
We are as joyful as if we were sprinkled with nectar.

Next month I’ll move into the other part of today’s reading, Chapter 10, The Teacher of the Dharma, and the universal promise made to those rejoice at hearing even a gatha of phrase of the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.

Day 13 covers all of Chapter 8, The Assurance of Future Buddhahood of the Five Hundred Disciples.

Purna, foremost in expounding the Dharma, is joyous at the news he’s heard:

Thereupon Purna, the son of Maitrayani having heard from the Buddha the Dharma expounded with expedients by the wisdom [of the Buddha] according to the capacities of all living beings, and having heard that [the Buddha] had assured the great disciples of their future attainment of Anuttara-samyak-sambodhi, and also having heard of the previous life of the Buddha, and also having heard of the great, unhindered, supernatural powers of the Buddhas, had the greatest joy that he had ever had, became pure in heart, and felt like dancing [with joy]. He rose from his seat, came to the Buddha, and worshipped him at his feet with his head. Then he retired to one side of the place, looked up at the honorable face with unblenching eyes, and thought:

The World-Honored One is extraordinary. What he does is exceptional. He expounds the Dharma with expedients by his insight according to the various natures of all living beings of the world, and saves them from various attachments. The merits of the Buddha are beyond the expression of our words. Only the Buddha, only the World-Honored One, knows the wishes we have deep in our minds.

The April 6, 2016, Daily Dharma discusses Purna’s observation and what it means in our daily lives:

In Chapter Eight of the Lotus Sutra, Pūrṇa has these words in mind while looking at the face of the Buddha. The thoughts we have are mostly words, and the words are about the things we want. Words can help us make sense of the world around us, especially the words the Buddha uses to teach us. But words can also confuse us when we mistake our expectations for the reality of the world. When the Buddha calls us to become Bodhisattvas, to realize that our happiness is linked to that of all beings, his words open a part of our mind with which we are not familiar. He asks us to set aside the habits we have learned from this world of conflict and see his world in a new way.

Day 12 concludes Chapter 7, The Parable of the Magic City, and completes the Third Volume of the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.

After two days of preparatory work, we finally get to the Parable of the Magic City. By the end of this parable we understand:

The Buddhas expound the teaching of the Three Vehicles
Only as an expedient.
There is only the One Buddha-Vehicle.
The two [vehicles] were taught only as resting places.

Now I will tell you the truth.
What you attained is not [true] extinction.
Make great efforts in order to obtain
The Buddha’s knowledge of all things.
When you obtain the knowledge of all things
And the ten powers of the Buddha,
And the thirty-two physical marks,
You will be able to say that you attained true extinction.
The Buddhas, the Leaders, expound the teaching of Nirvana
In order to give a rest [to all living beings].
When they see them having already had a rest,
They lead them to the wisdom of the Buddha.

On the road to a place of treasures.

Day 11 continues Chapter 7, The Parable of the Magic City

My self-imposed single-topic limit works well some days and not so well others. Day 11 is all about the reaction of the Brahman-Heavenly-Kings of the 500 billion worlds in each of the 10 directions, all of whom fill up plates of flowers and tow along their palaces as they search out the source of the light that has suddenly illumined their palaces more brightly than ever before.

Finding a single point to stress beyond that general theme leaves me pointing out, as I did last month, how one Brahman-Heavenly-King addressed Great-Universal-Wisdom-Excellence Buddha as “Saintly Master, God of Gods!” instead of the more traditional “Most Honorable of Gods and Men.”

But in the nine previous times through this section of the Lotus Sutra I’ve never focused directly on what the great Brahman-heavenly-king called Sikhin said when he offered his palaces to the Buddha:

Our palaces are beautifully adorned
With your light.
We offer them to you.
Receive them out of your compassion towards us!

May the merits we have accumulated by this offering
Be distributed among all living beings,
And may we and all other living beings
Attain the enlightenment of the Buddha!

This concept of distributing merits to others is an essential Bodhisattva practice. The book Awakening to the Lotus offers this:

This Buddha had sixteen sons, who upon hearing of their father’s enlightenment, renounced their positions and joined him as disciples. They along with all of the heavenly kings asked that Buddha to expound the Dharma and bring peace to all suffering beings. They said, “May the merits we have accumulated by this offering be distributed among all living beings, may we and all living beings together attain the enlightenment of the Buddha.” This teaches the core of the Great Vehicle, that enlightenment is not individual but universal salvation.
Awakening to the Lotus