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.

Last month, I focused on, as Maitreya asks, “How many merits will be given to a good man or woman who rejoices at hearing this Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma?”

This month I’m going to skip the lesson of the 50th person who rejoices and jump to the opening of the next chapter, The Merits of the Teacher of the Dharma.

Thereupon the Buddha said to Constant-Endeavor Bodhisattva­Mahasattva:

“The good men or women who keep, read, recite, expound or copy this Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma, will be able to obtain eight hundred merits of the eye, twelve hundred merits of the ear, eight hundred merits of the nose, twelve hundred merits of the tongue, eight hundred merits of the body, and twelve hundred merits of the mind. They will be able to adorn and purify their six sense-organs with these merits.

The Daily Dharma for June 4, 2016, offered this on these verses:

The Buddha gives this teaching in Chapter Nineteen of the Lotus Sūtra. This is another reminder that the practice of the Wonderful Dharma does not take us out of the world of conflict we live in. Instead, it helps us to use the senses we have, in ways we did not think were possible, to see the world for what it is. Merits in this sense are not status symbols. They are an indication of clarity, of our faculties not being impeded by anything that blocks their capacity.

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

This chapter ends with this summary of the variety of merits enjoyed by anyone who understands, however briefly, the ever-present nature of the Buddha:

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

Needless to say, so will be the merits of the person
Who keeps this sutra, 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.

Note the Buddha’s attitude toward teachers of the Dharma. As noted in the Daily Dharma from May 9, 2015:

It is important for us to treat all people, especially those who share this practice of the Buddha Dharma with us, with the same respect we would give to the Buddha himself.

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

After focusing on the need for “faith” and what is so difficult to believe, I want to step back at this point and just marvel at how long the Buddha has been the Buddha.

Listen to me attentively! I will tell you about my hidden core and supernatural powers. 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.

Pausing here to underline hundreds of thousands of billions of nayutas. That’s hundreds of thousands of billions times a hundred thousand million. And then you multiply that by the number of years in a kalpa, which some estimate to be around 4.32 billion years.

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 them). 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.

Pausing again to underline a distance of five hundred thousand billion nayuta asamkhya worlds. That’s five hundred thousand billion times a hundred thousand million times 10 to the 52nd power. And that’s just the number of worlds between one particle of dust and the next.

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.

And later he adds:

Good men! The duration of my life, which I obtained by the practice of the way of Bodhisattvas, has not yet expired. It is twice as long as the length of time as previously stated.

Eternity is a matter of perspective. For example, a quick Google search finds that the shortest lifespan of an animal is the Dolania americana, or mayfly. The adult females of the species live for less than five minutes. My single lifetime of more than 64 years encompasses something like 6,727,680 generations of female mayflies. Now consider that homo sapiens have been walking this earth for perhaps 10,000 generations.