Between Day 32 and Day 1: Keeping Faith With the Comprehensive Sutras

Having last month completed the review of the senses and their karmic consequences, we consider the value of keeping faith with the comprehensive sutras and reflecting on the Great Vehicle’s principle.

Having expounded these verses, the Buddha said to Ānanda:

“You should now embrace this method of doing self-amendment for the six sense faculties through contemplation of the bodhisattva Universal Sage! Expound it widely and skillfully to human and heavenly beings everywhere in the ten directions!

“When followers of Buddha accept, keep faith with, recite, internalize, and give voice to the comprehensive sutras after the Buddha’s passing, they must recite and internalize the comprehensive sutras and reflect on the Great Vehicle’s principle in some tranquil place – whether in a cemetery, or at a hermitage, or under a tree in the woods. Because the power of their concentration will become strong, they will gain perception of my being and likewise perceive the stupa of Many-Treasures Buddha, innumerable emanated buddhas in the ten directions, Universal Sage Bodhisattva, Mañjuśrī Bodhisattva, Medicine King Bodhisattva, and Incomparable Medicine Bodhisattva. Because they so venerate the Dharma, we – bearing wondrous flowers – will permeate the skies to praise those who revere, follow, and keep faith with the Way. And because those who keep faith with this method are resolutely internalizing the comprehensive Great Vehicle sutras, they will be honored and sustained, day and night, by buddhas and bodhisattvas.”

See Points at Issue in the Composition of the Lotus Sutra