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.

I would like to think I have new insights each day I recite a portion of the Lotus Sutra, but sometimes I’m simply reminded of how much I enjoy a particular passage. In this case, on the 10th time through Day 23, I’m again struck by the example of the propagation of the Lotus Sutra contained in the story of the 50th “good man or woman who rejoices at hearing this sutra.”

Ajita! Suppose a bhiksu, a bhiksuni, an upasaka, an upasika, or some other wise person, whether young or old, rejoices at hearing this sutra in a congregation after my extinction. After leaving the congregation, he or she goes to some other place, for instance, to a monastery, a retired place, a city, a street, a town, or a village. There he or she expounds this sutra, as he or she has heard it, to his or her father, mother, relative, friend or acquaintance as far as he or she can. Another person who has heard [this sutra from him or her], rejoices, goes [to some other place] and expounds it to a third person. The third person also rejoices at hearing it and expounds it to a fourth person. In this way this sutra is heard by a fiftieth person. Ajita! Now I will tell you the merits of the fiftieth good man or woman who rejoices at hearing [this sutra]. Listen attentively!

Underscore he or she expounds this sutra, as he or she has heard it, to his or her father, mother, relative, friend or acquaintance as far as he or she can.

And today I repeat what I wrote last April: Feeble and weak as my understanding may be, I rejoice in hearing and in turn pass it on.

Ajita, look! The merits of the person who causes even a single man to go and hear the Dharma are so many. It is needless to speak of the merits of the person who hears [this sutra] with all his heart, reads it, recites it, expounds it to the great multitude, and acts according to its teachings.