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

The entire day is spent with the reaction to the light of Great-Universal-Wisdom-Excellence Buddha’s enlightenment:

The Buddha said to the bhikṣus:

“When Great-Universal-Wisdom-Excellence Buddha attained Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi, five hundred billion Buddha-worlds in each of the ten quarters quaked in the six ways, and all those worlds, including those intercepted from the brilliant rays of light of the sun and the moon by the neighboring worlds, were illumined [by great rays of light], and the living beings of those worlds were able to see each other for the first time. They said to each other, ‘How did you appear so suddenly?’ “

The Brahman-heavenly-kings of each of the five hundred billion worlds of each of the 10 directions each realize something is up.

Let us go even to the end of one thousand billion worlds,
And find the place from where this light has come.
A Buddha may have appeared somewhere in the universe
In order to save the suffering beings.

Heavenly kings from each of the 10 directions descend on the Well-Composed World of Great-Universal-Wisdom-Excellence Buddha to ask the Buddha to turn the wheel of the Dharma:

Most Honorable of Gods and Men!
Turn the wheel of the unsurpassed Dharma,
Beat the drum of the Great Dharma,
Blow the conch-shell horn of the Great Dharma,
Send the rain of the Great Dharma,
And save innumerable living beings!
Devoting ourselves to you, we beg you.
Resound your profound teaching!

And as the Heavenly kings arrive they find Great-Universal-Wisdom-Excellence Buddha’s sixteen sons begging the Buddha to turn the wheel of the Dharma.

Day 10 concludes Chapter 6, Assurance of Future Buddhahood.

Today Subhūti learned he “will see three hundred billion nayutas of Buddhas, make offerings to them, respect them, honor them, praise them, perform brahma practices, complete the Way of Bodhisattvas, and become a Buddha” called Beautiful-Form in the world Treasure-Born in the kalpa Having-Treasures.

Kātyāyana was assured that after making “offerings to eight hundred thousand millions of Buddhas, attend on them, respect them, and honor them in his future life” and build stupas of the seven treasures for each after their extinction and making offerings to those stupas and then making “the same offerings to two billions of Buddhas,” he will become a Buddha called Jāmbūnada-Gold-Light.

And Maudgalyāyana “will make various offerings to eight thousand Buddhas, respect them, and honor them. After the extinction of each of those Buddhas, he will erect a stūpa-mausoleum a thousand yojanas high, and five hundred yojanas wide and deep. He will make it of the seven treasures: gold, silver, lapis lazuli, shell, agate, pearl and ruby. He will offer flowers, necklaces, incense applicable to the skin, incense powder, incense to burn, canopies, banners and streamers to the stūpa-mausoleum. After that he will make the same offerings to two hundred billions of Buddhas. Then he will become a Buddha called Tamālapattracandana-Fragrance…”

Becoming a Buddha at the time the Lotus Sutra was preached was no mean feat. But no one was left out:

The five hundred disciples of mine
Are powerful and virtuous.
They also shall be assured
Of their future Buddhahood.
They will become Buddhas
In their future lives.

The chapter ends with a teaser for what is to come in Chapter 7, The Parable of the Magic City:

Now I will tell you
About my previous existence
And also about yours.
All of you, listen attentively!

The stage for Chapter 7 is set with a description of how long ago “a countless, limitless, inconceivable, asaṃkhya number of kalpas ago” was. This is the period of time since a Buddha called Great-Universal-Wisdom-Excellence passed away.

Most important, though:

I remember the extinction of that Buddha
As vividly as if he had passed away just now,
By my unhindered wisdom; I also remember
The Śrāvakas and Bodhisattvas who lived [with him].

Keeping in mind that teaser “about my previous existence,” we learn that before Great-Universal-Wisdom-Excellence Buddha attained Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi he had sixteen sons.

And so Day 10 ends, pregnant with speculation as to what’s to come.

Day 9 covers Chapter 5, The Simile of Herbs, and the start of Chapter 6, Assurace of Future Buddhahood.

The self-worth doubts mentioned yesterday illustrate one illusion that keeps me from appreciating my equality. The Buddha Dharma, like the rain in the Simile of Herbs, is uniform and indiscriminate. It falls on everything and everyone.

The various teachings I expound are of the same content, of the same taste.

But each of us is at a differing stage of enlightenment, and as a result:

They obtained different flowers and fruits although they grew on the same ground and received water from the same rain.

And yet the differences are unimportant:

I will expound these teachings [of mine]
With a wonderful voice.
My purpose is
To reveal the
Great Vehicle.

I see all living beings equally.
I have no partiality for them.
There is not ‘this one’ or ‘that one’ to me.
I transcend love and hatred.

I am attached to nothing.
I am hindered by nothing.
I always expound the Dharma
To all living beings equally.
I expound the Dharma to many
In the same way as to one.

I always expound the Dharma.
I do nothing else.
I am not tired of expounding the Dharma
While I go or come or sit or stand.
I expound the Dharma to all living beings
Just as the rain waters all the earth.

And again:

As previously stated, Kāśyapa,
I expound the Dharma
And lead human flowers
[To the fruits of Buddhahood]
Just as the large cloud waters all flowers
By a rain of the same taste
And causes them to bear their fruits.

Kāśyapa, know this!
I reveal the enlightenment of the Buddha
With various stories of previous lives,
With various parables and similes,
That is, with various expedients.
All the other Buddhas do the same.

Day 8 concludes Chapter 4, Understanding by Faith, and the second volume of the Lotus Sutra.

As I mentioned yesterday, I have affinity for the “elders of the Samgha” who are explaining to the Buddha why they did not feel worthy of the greatest treasure.

The elders tell the parable of the boy who ran away and the rich father who, after the two were reunited, attempted to give the boy the treasure that was his inheritance. The boy was frightened. The father realized his son was “too base and mean” and devised an expedient plan in which he hired the son for day labor and the son grew eventually to realize that he was worthy of taking over control of the father’s treasure.

What resonates with me is the lack of self-worth of the son. He does not recognize that he is himself the son of a rich man. He settled for a day’s pay.

World-Honored One! We once had many troubles in the world of birth and death because of the three kinds of sufferings. We were so distracted and so ignorant that we clung to the teachings of the Lesser Vehicle. At that time you caused us to think over all things and to clear away the dirt of fruitless discussions about them. We made strenuous efforts according to the teachings [of the Lesser Vehicle] and attained Nirvāṇa as a day’s pay. Having attained it, we had great joy, and felt satisfied [with the attainment of it]. We said, ‘We have obtained much because we made efforts according to the teachings of the Buddha.’ But when you saw that we clung to mean desires and wished to hear only the teachings of the Lesser Vehicle, you left us alone. You did not tell us that we had the treasure-store, that is, the insight of the Tathāgata. You expounded the wisdom of the Buddha[, that is, the Great Vehicle] with expedients, but we did not aspire for that vehicle because, when we had obtained the day’s pay of Nirvāṇa from the Buddha, we thought that we had already obtained enough.”

Or as it is explained in the gathas:

The rich man knew
That his son was base and mean.
Therefore, he made him nobler
With expedients,
And then gave him
All his treasures.

A day laborer no more.

Day 7 concludes Chapter 3, A Parable.

(The Buddha said to Śāriputra:)
I am like the father.
I am the Saint of Saints.
I am the father of the world.

All living beings are my children.
They are deeply attached
To the pleasures of the world.
They have no wisdom.

The triple world is not peaceful.
It is like the burning house.
It is full of sufferings.
It is dreadful.

There are always the sufferings
Of birth, old age, disease and death.
They are like flames
Raging endlessly.

I have already left
The burning house of the triple world.
I am tranquil and peaceful
In a bower in a forest.

This triple world
Is my property.
All living beings therein
Are my children.

When the Buddha later explains to Śāriputra the merits of the One Vehicle it is hard not to see one of those late-night car commercials:

This vehicle is
The purest and most wonderful.
This is unsurpassed by any other vehicle
In all the worlds.
This vehicle is approved with joy by the Buddhas.
All living beings should extol it.
They should make offerings to it,
And bow to it.

The powers, emancipations, dhyāna-concentrations, wisdom,
And all the other merits [of the Buddhas],
Many hundreds of thousands of millions in number,
Are loaded in this vehicle.

But no car salesman was ever as compassionate as the Buddha:

I am the King of the Dharma.
I expound the Dharma without hindrance.
I appeared in this world
In order to give peace to all living beings.

In reading today, I was struck by the impact of slander. It doesn’t just affect the individual:

Those who do not believe this sūtra
But slander it,
Will destroy the seeds of Buddhahood
Of all living beings of the world.