Day 25 covers all of Chapter 20, Never-Despising Bodhisattva, and opens Chapter 21, The Supernatural Powers of the Tathāgatas.
The two previous days covered how “Anyone [who keeps this sūtra] will he able to have his eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body and mind purified” and the wonderful feats they will be able to do with those merits. And in Chapter 20 we hear the story of Never Despising Bodhisattva, someone who received those merits as a result of his efforts.
Why was this bhikṣu called Never-Despising? It was because, every time he saw bhikṣus, bhikṣuṇis, upāsakas or upāsikās, he bowed to them and praised them, saying, ‘I respect you deeply. I do not despise you. Why is that? It is because you will be able to practice the Way of Bodhisattvas and become Buddhas.’
He was rewarded:
Having kept all these gāthās, he was able to have his eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body and mind purified as previously stated. Having his six sense-organs purified, he was able to prolong his life for two hundred billion nayuta more years.
Never Despising Bodhisattva was Śākyamuni in a previous life:
If I had not kept, read or recited this sūtra or expounded it to others in my previous existence, I should not have been able to attain Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi so quickly. Because I kept, read and recited this sūtra, and expounded it to others under those past Buddhas, I attained Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi quickly.
And the arrogant bhikṣus who troubled Never Despising Bodhisattva:
The four kinds of devotees,
Who were attached to views at that time,
Were able to meet innumerable Buddhas
After they heard
The words of Never-Despising [Bodhisattva]:
“You will become Buddhas.”
They are now present here
In this congregation.
The rare good fortune to hear the Lotus Sutra:
This Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma
Can be heard only once
In hundreds of millions of billions of kalpas,
That is, in an inconceivable number of kalpas.The Buddhas, the World-Honored Ones,
Expound this sūtra only once
In hundreds of millions of billions of kalpas,
That is, in an inconceivable number of kalpas.Therefore, anyone who hears this sūtra
And practices the Way
After my extinction,
Should have no doubts about [this sūtra].He should expound this sūtra with all his heart;
Then he will be able to meet Buddhas
Throughout all his existences,
And quickly attain the enlightenment of the Buddha.
In Chapter 21, The Supernatural Powers of the Tathāgatas, we hear the vow of the Bodhisattvas who had sprung up from underground:
After your extinction, we will expound this sūtra in the worlds of the Buddhas of your replicas and also in the place from which you will pass away. Why is that? It is because we also wish to obtain this true, pure and great Dharma, to keep, read, recite, expound and copy [this sūtra], and to make offerings to it.
And in response Śākyamuni and all of the Buddhas present “stretched out their broad and long tongues and emitted innumerable rays of light” for 100,000 years.
Then they pulled back their tongues, coughed at the same time, and snapped their fingers.
Through the supernatural powers of the Buddhas, every living being in the worlds of the 10 quarters were able to see Śākyamuni, Many Treasures, the other Buddhas and the innumerable Bodhisattvas gathered in the Sahā world. The gods of the 10 quarters who witnessed this said:
“There is a world called Sahā beyond a distance of many hundreds of thousands of billions of asaṃkhyas of worlds. In that world lives a Buddha called Śākyamuni. He is now expounding to Bodhisattva-mahāsattvas a sūtra of the Great Vehicle, called the ‘Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma, the Dharma for Bodhisattvas, the Dharma Upheld by the Buddhas.’ Rejoice from the bottom of your hearts! Bow and make offerings to Śākyamuni Buddha!”