Day 32 covers Chapter 28, The Encouragement of Universal-Sage Bodhisattva, the final chapter in the 8th volume of the Lotus Sutra.

Coming from a world many worlds to the east, Universal-Sage Bodhisattva asked:

“World-Honored One! Tell me how the good men or women who live after your extinction will be able to obtain this Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma!”

The Buddha said to Universal-Sage Bodhisattva: “The good men or women will be able to obtain this Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma after my extinction if they do the following four things: 1. secure the protection of the Buddhas, 2. plant the roots of virtue, 3. reach the stage of steadiness [in proceeding to enlightenment], and 4. resolve to save all living beings. The good men or women will be able to obtain this sūtra after my extinction if they do these four things.”

Those heavy footsteps thundering through the brush and the loud trumpeting you hear are Universal-Sage Bodhisattva:

If anyone keeps, reads and recites this sūtra while he walks or stands, I will mount a kingly white elephant with six tusks, go to him together with great Bodhisattvas, show myself to him, make offerings to him, protect him, and comfort him, because I wish to make offerings to the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma. If he sits and thinks over this sūtra, I also will mount a kingly white elephant and appear before him. If he forgets a phrase or a gāthā of the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma, I will remind him of it, and read and recite it with him so that he may be able to understand it. Anyone who keeps, reads and recites the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma [after your extinction], will be able to see me with such joy that he will make more efforts.

And in addition:

Anyone who keeps, reads and recites this sūtra, memorizes it correctly, understands the meanings of it, and acts according to it, know this, does the same practices that I do. He should be considered to have already planted deeply the roots of good under innumerable Buddhas [in his previous existence]. He will be caressed on the head by the hands of the Tathāgatas.

To which Śākyamuni responds:

Universal-Sage! Anyone who keeps, reads and recites this Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma, memorizes it correctly, studies it, practices it, and copies it, should be considered to see me, and hear this sūtra from my mouth. He should be considered to be making offerings to me. He should be considered to be praised by me with the word ‘Excellent!’ He should be considered to be caressed by me on the head. He should be considered to be covered with my robe.

[Here ends] the Eighth Volume of the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.

Day 31 covers Chapter 27, King Wonderful-Adornment as the Previous Life of a Bodhisattva.

This is a tale of teachers and how we benefit from their efforts. In this case, two sons – Pure Store and Pure Eyes – who “had already practices the Way which Bodhisattvas should practice” and their father, King Wonderful-Adornment.

They also had already obtained [the four states of mind towards all living beings:] compassion, loving-kindness, joy and impartiality.

At the urging of their mother, the sons put on a demonstration for their father.

By displaying these various wonders, they purified the mind of their father, that is, of the king, and caused him to understand the Dharma by faith.

The two sons “did the work of the Buddha” for the sake of their father.

The two sons led their father by these expedients and caused him to understand the teachings of the Buddha by faith and to wish [to act according to those teachings].

Note that the benefit the king received was to understand by faith and to wist to act according to the teachings. Instructed by the Cloud-Thunderpeal-Star-King-Flower-Wisdom Buddha, the king practiced the Lotus Sutra “constantly and strenuously for eighty-four thousand years.” The king said to the Buddha:

World-Honored One! These two sons of mine did the work of the Buddha. They converted me from wrong views by displaying wonders. They caused me to dwell peacefully in your teachings. They caused me to see you. These two sons of mine are my teachers. They appeared in my family in order to benefit me. They inspired the roots of good which I had planted in my previous existence.

“So it is, so it is,” replied the Buddha:

The good men or women who plant the roots of good will obtain teachers in their successive lives. The teachers will do the work of the Buddha, show the Way [to them], teach them, benefit them, cause them to rejoice, and cause them to enter into the Way to Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi. Great King, know this! A teacher is a great cause [of your enlightenment] because he leads you, and causes you to see a Buddha and aspire for Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi.

Day 30 covers all of Chapter 26, Dhāraṇīs.

Just how much merit is there in keeping, reading, reciting, understanding or copying the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma? The Buddha said:

Suppose some good men or women make offerings to eight hundred billion nayuta Buddhas, that is, as many Buddhas as there are sands in the River Ganges. What do you think of this? Are the merits given to them many or not?

“Very many, World-Honored One!” [said Medicine-King Bodhisattva]

The Buddha said: “More merits will be given to the good men or women who keep, read or recite even a single gāthā of four lines of this sūtra, understand the meanings of it or act according to it.”

Subsequently, Medicine-King Bodhisattva, Brave-In-Giving Bodhisattva, Vaiśravaṇa Heavenly-King, World-Holding Heavenly-King, the 10 female rākṣasīs and their mother each offer dhāraṇīs to protect the person who keeps this sūtra and the teacher of the sūtra. Attacks on these people under protection are to be considered attacks on countless Buddhas.

The 10 rākṣasīs and their mother say:

“World-Honored One! We also will protect the person who reads, recites and keeps the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma so that he may have no trouble. No one shall take advantage of the weak points of this teacher of the Dharma.”

They also predict:

Anyone who attacks this teacher of the Dharma
Will receive the same retribution
As to be received by the person who kills his parents,
Or who makes [sesame] oil without taking out worms [from the sesame],
Or who deceives others by using wrong measures and scales,
Or by Devadatta who split the Saṃgha.

In reply to the rākṣasīs, the Buddha says:

“Excellent, excellent! Your merits will be immeasurable even when you protect the person who keeps only the name of the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma. Needless to say, so will be your merits when you protect the person who keeps the sūtra itself, and makes to a copy of this sūtra hundreds of thousands of offerings such as flowers, incense, necklaces, powdered incense, incense applicable to the skin, incense to burn, streamers, canopies, music, and various lamps like lamps of butter oil, oil lamps, lamps of perfumed oil, lamps of sumanas-flower oil, lamps of campaka flower oil, lamps of vārṣika-flower oil, and lamps of utpala-flower oil. Kuntī! You [rākṣasīs] and your attendants should protect this teacher of the Dharma.”

Day 28 covers all of Chapter 24, Wonderful-Voice Bohisattva, and concludes the Seventh Volume of the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.

When Wonderful-Voice Bohisattva suggests to Pure-Flower-Star-King-Wisdom Buddha that he wants to visit Śākyamuni Buddha in the Sahā-World the Buddha tells him not judge by what he sees:

Do not despise that world! Do not consider it to be inferior [to our world]! Good Man! The Sahā-World is not even. It is full of mud, stones, mountains1 and impurities. The Buddha [of that world] is short in stature. 2 So are the Bodhisattvas [of that world]. You are forty-two thousand yojanas tall. I am six million and eight hundred thousand yojanas tall. You are the most handsome. You have thousands of millions of marks of merits, and your light is wonderful. Do not despise that world when you go there! Do not consider that the Buddha and Bodhisattvas of that world are inferior [to us]! Do not consider that that world is inferior [to ours]!

Śākyamuni Buddha explains Wonderful-Voice Bohisattva’s greatest power:

Flower-Virtue! Now you see Wonderful-Voice Bodhisattva here and nowhere else. But formerly he transformed himself into various living beings and expounded this sūtra to others in various places. He became King Brahman, King Śakra, Freedom God, Great-Freedom God, a great general in heaven, Vaiśravaṇa Heavenly-King, a wheel-turning-holy-king, the king of a small country, a rich man, a householder, a prime minister, a brāhmaṇa, a bhikṣu, a bhikṣuṇī, an upāsaka, an upāsikā, the wife of a rich man, that of a householder, that of a prime minister, that of a brāhmaṇa, a boy, a girl, a god, a dragon, a yakṣa, a gandharva, an asura, a garuḍa, a kiṃnara, a mahoraga, a human being or a nonhuman being. [After he transformed himself into one or another of these living beings,] he expounded this sūtra, and saved the hellish denizens, hungry spirits, animals, and all the other living beings in the places of difficulties. When he entered an imperial harem, he became a woman and expounded this sūtra.

Flower-Virtue! This Wonderful-Voice Bodhisattva protects all living beings in this Sahā-World. He transforms himself into one or another of these various living beings in this Sahā-World and expounds this sūtra to all living beings without reducing his supernatural powers, [his power of] transformation, and his wisdom. He illumines this Sahā-World with the many [rays of light] of his wisdom, and causes all living beings to know what they should know.

And the Gods on high benefit as well:

When [Śākyamuni Buddha] expounded this chapter of the Coming and Going of Wonderful-Voice Bodhisattva, forty-two thousand gods obtained the truth of birthlessness, and Flower-Virtue Bodhisattva obtained the ability to practice the samādhi for the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.