Day 32 covers Chapter 28, The Encouragement of Universal-Sage Bodhisattva, closing the Eighth Volume of the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.
And so we come to the end again. Universal-Sage Bodhisattva, who has arrived from a world to the east, asks how people will obtain this sutra after the Buddha’s extinction.
The Buddha said to Universal-Sage Bodhisattva:
The good men or women will be able to obtain this Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma after my extinction if they do the following four things:
- secure the protection of the Buddhas,
- plant the roots of virtue,
- reach the stage of steadiness [in proceeding to enlightenment],
- resolve to save all living beings.
The good men or women will be able to obtain this sutra after my extinction if they do these four things.
Universal-Sage Bodhisattva, in turn, offers his protection:
If anyone keeps, reads and recites this sutra while he walks or stands, I will mount a kingly white elephant with six tusks, go to him together with great Bodhisattvas, show myself to him, make offerings to him, protect him, and comfort him, because I wish to make offerings to the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma. If he sits and thinks over this sutra, I also wi11 mount a kingly white elephant and appear before him. If he forgets a phrase or a gatha of the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma, I will remind him of it, and read and recite it with him so that he may be able to understand it. Anyone who keeps, reads and recites the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma [after your extinction], will be able to see me with such joy that he will make more efforts.
This final chapter is the one I find the most conflicted about women.
Universal-Sage Bodhisattva offers to appear before those who study the sutra – with my body which all living beings wish to see – and offer dharanis spells so that those who study the sutra “will not be killed by nonhuman beings or captivated by women.” Then he says:
Anyone who keeps, reads and recites this sutra, memorizes it correctly, understands the meanings of it, and acts according to it, know this, does the same practices that I do. He should be considered to have already planted deeply the roots of good under innumerable Buddhas [in his previous existence]. He will be caressed on the head by the hands of the Tathagatas. Anyone who copies this sutra will be reborn in the Heaven of the Trayastrimsa Gods immediately after his present life. On that occasion, eighty-four thousand goddesses will come and receive him, making many kinds of music. A crown of the seven treasures will be put on his head, and he will enjoy himself among the ladies in waiting.
The Buddha responds:
Universal-Sage! Anyone who keeps, reads and recites this Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma, memorizes it correctly, studies it, practices it, and copies it, should be considered to see me, and hear this sutra from my mouth. He should be considered to be making offerings to me. He should be considered to be praised by me with the word ‘Excellent!’ He should be considered to be caressed by me on the head. He should be considered to be covered with my robe. He will not be attached to worldly pleasures. He will not like to read heretical scriptures or any other writings of heretics. He will not be intimate with heretics, slaughterers, boar-breeders, sheep-breeders, fowl-breeders, dogbreeders, hunters, prostitutes, or any other evil people. He will be upright. He will have correct memory and the powers of merits and virtues. He will not be troubled by the three poisons. He will not be troubled by jealousy, arrogance from selfishness, arrogance from self-assumed attainment of enlightenment, or arrogance from self-assumed acquisition of virtues. He will want little, know contentment, and practice just as you do.
I enjoy the Buddha’s offering of his caress and his robe. May I not be troubled by “arrogance from self-assumed attainment of enlightenment, or arrogance from self-assumed acquisition of virtues”