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.
Having last month concluded Chapter 28, The Encouragement of Universal-Sage Bodhisattva, we begin again with the arrival of Universal-Sage Bodhisattva, who was famous for his virtues and supernatural powers without hindrance.
Thereupon Universal-Sage Bodhisattva, who was famous for his virtues and supernatural powers without hindrance, came from a world [in the distance of many worlds] to the east [of this Sahā-World]. He was accompanied by innumerable, uncountable great Bodhisattvas. All the worlds quaked as he passed through. [The gods] rained down jeweled lotus-flowers, and made many hundreds of thousands of billions of kinds of music. He was also surrounded by a great multitude of innumerable gods, dragons, yakṣas, gandharvas, asuras, garuḍas, kiṃnaras, mahoragas, men and nonhuman beings. They reached Mt. Gṛdhrakūṭa of the Sahā-World by their virtues and supernatural powers. [Universal-Sage Bodhisattva] worshiped [the feet of] Śākyamuni Buddha with his head, walked around the Buddha [from left] to right seven times and said to the Buddha:
“World-Honored One! I heard the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma, which you expounded in this Sahā World, from a remote world in which lives Treasure-PowerVirtue-Superior-King Buddha. I came here with many hundreds of thousands of billions of Bodhisattvas in order to hear and receive [this Sūtra].
Nichiren discusses this chapter in his letter Response to My Lady Nichinyo:
The chapter “Encouragement of Universal Sage Bodhisattva” says that among many disciples of Śākyamuni Buddha, Kāśyapa and Ānanda waited on Him. They were like ministers attending both sides of a king. But this was the Buddha preaching sūtras of the Lesser Vehicle. Among many bodhisattvas, the Bodhiattva Universal Sage and the Bodhisattva Mañjuśrī attended Śākyamuni Buddha, the Lord Teacher, like two ministers attending both sides of a king. During the last eight years of the life of Śākyamuni Buddha, in which He expounded the Lotus Sūtra, so many Buddhas and bodhisattvas, more than dust particles on the earth, gathered from ten quarters in the universe. But strangely, Bodhisattva Universal Sage, one of the attendants of Śākyamuni Buddha, was not found there.
However, when Śākyamuni Buddha was about to finish His preaching by expounding the chapter “Wonderful Adornment King,” Bodhisattva Universal Sage came late from the land of the Jeweled Dignity and Virtue Purity King Buddha, performing hundreds of thousands of pieces of music and accompanied by a countless number of eight kinds of gods and demi-gods. Concerned about the reaction of the Buddha toward his late arrival, the bodhisattva turned pale and obligingly vowed to protect the practicer of the Lotus Sūtra in the Latter Age of Degeneration. Śākyamuni Buddha was pleased and told that it was his obligation to spread the Lotus Sūtra in the whole world. Śākyamuni Buddha thus praised Bodhisattva Universal Sage more cordially than his superiors.
Nichinyo Gozen Gohenji, Response to My Lady Nichinyo, Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Faith and Practice, Volume 4, Page 137-138