Day 14 covers all of Chapter 9, The Assurance of Future Buddhahood of the Śrāvakas Who Have Something More to Learn and the Śrāvakas Who Have Nothing More to Learn, and opens Chapter 10, The Teacher of the Dharma.

Having covered Ananda, Rahula and the two thousand Sravakas, of whom some had something more to learn while others had nothing more to learn, I’m free to open Chapter 10, The Teacher of the Dharma.

When I recite the Lotus Sutra each day I enjoy imagining myself delivering a performance before a crowd of people. I wave my hands about and shout or whisper. This is one of my favorite performance sections.

Thereupon the World-Honored One said to Medicine-King Bodhisattva in the presence of the eighty thousand great men:

Medicine-King! Do you see the innumerable gods, dragon­kings, yakdad, gandharvas, asuras, garudas, kimnaras, mahoragas, men, and nonhuman beings, and [the four kinds of devotees:] bhiksus, bhiksunis, upasakas, and upasikas, and those who are seeking Sravakahood or Pratyekabuddhahood or the enlightenment of the Buddha in this great multitude? If in my presence any of them rejoices, even on a moment’s thought, at hearing even a gatha or a phrase of the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma, I will assure him of his future Buddhahood, saying to him, ‘You will be able to attain Anuttara-samyak-sambodhi.’

The Buddha said to Medicine-King:

If after my extinction anyone rejoices, even on a moment’s thought, at hearing even a gatha or a phrase of the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma, I also will assure him of his future attainment of Anuttara-samyak-sambodhi. If anyone keeps, reads, recites, expounds and copies even a gatha of the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma, and respects a copy of this sutra just as he respects me, and offers flowers, incense, necklaces, incense powder, incense applicable to the skin, incense to burn, canopies, banners, streamers, garments and music to it, or just joins his hands together respectfully towards it, Medicine-King, know this, he should be considered to have appeared in the world of men out of his compassion towards all living beings, although he already made offerings to ten billion Buddhas and fulfilled his great vow under those Buddhas in a previous existence.

Next month: Who are these people who keep, read, recite, expound and copy even a phrase of the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma?

Day 13 covers all of Chapter 8, The Assurance of Future Buddhahood of the Five Hundred Disciples.

I digress.

In the past 11 months, I have been cycling through the Lotus Sutra every 32 days, posting each day a comment on that day’s reading. So today, while Purna and the “five hundred disciples” are promised their future Buddhahood and we are reminded of the seed of Buddhahood we possess in the Parable of the Pricess Gem, I just feel like it is time to mention what a Buddha world would look like.

After performing “the Way of Bodhisattvas step by step for innumerable, asamkhya kalpas (and we are alerted in the footnotes that this is a finite period), Purna will become a Buddha called Dharma-Brightness in a kalpa called Treasure­Brightness on a world called Good-Purity:

The world of that Buddha will be composed of one thousand million Sumeru-worlds, that is, as many Sumeru-worlds as there are sands in the River Ganges. The ground [of that world] will be made of the seven treasures. It will be as even as the palm of a hand. There will be no mountains nor ravines nor ditches. Tall buildings adorned with the seven treasures will be seen everywhere in that world, and the palaces of gods of that world will hang so low in the sky that gods and men will be able to see each other.

Here’s where it gets interesting:

There will be no evil regions nor women. The living beings of that world will be born without any medium. They will have no sexual desire.

The footnote explains: “It means that they will be born not through the medium of a mother or an egg or moisture but by their own karmas. It is held that those who are born without any medium appear in a moment in their adult forms.

They will have great supernatural powers, emit light from their bodies, and fly about at will. They will be resolute in mind, strenuous, and wise. They will be golden in color, and adorned with the thirty-two marks. They will feed on two things: the delight in the Dharma, and the delight in dhyana. There will be innumerable, asamkhya Bodhisattvas, that is, thousands of billions of nayutas of Bodhisattvas. They will have great supernatural powers and the four kinds of unhindered eloquence. They will teach the living beings of that world. There will also be uncountable Sravakas there. They will have the six supernatural powers including the three major supernatural powers, and the eight emancipations.

The world of that Buddha will be adorned with those innumerable merits.

Day 12 concludes Chapter 7, The Parable of the Magic City, and completes the Third Volume of the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.

Brahman-heavenly-kings of the five hundred billion worlds in each of the 10 directions (5,000 hundred billion worlds in all) each pleaded for Great-Universal-Wisdom-Excellence Buddha to turn the wheel of the Dharma:

World-Honored One, turn the wheel of the Dharma,
Beat the drum of the Dharma as sweet as nectar,
Save the suffering beings,
And show them the way to Nirvana!

Assent to our appeal!
You studied the Dharma for innumerable kalpas.
Expound it with your exceedingly wonderful voice
Out of your compassion towards us!

And just as was mentioned yesterday, that it is the light of the Buddha’s wisdom that illumines the darkness, we are reminded today:

The wheel of this teaching could not be turned by any other one in the world, be he a sramara, a brahmara, a god, Mara or Brahman.

Imagine the darkness suddenly gone:

“When the Buddha expounded these teachings to the great multitude of gods and men, six hundred billion nayuta men emancipated themselves from asravas, and obtained profound and wonderful dhyana-concentrations, the six supernatural powers including the three major supernatural powers, and the eight emancipations because they gave up wrong views. At his second, third and fourth expoundings of these teachings also, thousands of billions of nayutas of living beings, that is, as many living beings as there are sands in the River Ganges, emancipated themselves from asravas because they gave up wrong views. [They became Sravakas.] Those who became Sravakas thereafter were also innumerable, uncountable.

And with that, I set up the discussion over the next several months of the role of the 16 young boys who renounce the world where they are princes and become novice followers of Great-Universal-Wisdom-Excellence Buddha.

Day 11 continues Chapter 7, The Parable of the Magic City

This middle section of the chapter is all about the response to an amazing new light that illumines the entire universe.

Why are our palaces illumined
More brightly than ever?
Let us find [the place]
[From where this light has come].

Did a god of great virtue or a Buddha
Appear somewhere in the universe?
This great light illumines
The worlds of the ten quarters.

For a single point to focus on, I want to discuss what the universe was like before this light.

The Brahman-heavenly-kings of the five hundred billion worlds of the southeast explain:

No Buddha has appeared
For the past one hundred and eighty kalpas.
The three evil regions are crowded;
And the living beings in heaven, decreasing.

The Brahman-heavenly-kings of the five hundred billion worlds of the zenith explain:

There has been no Buddha
For the past innumerable kalpas.
Before you appeared,
The worlds of the ten quarters were dark.

The living beings in the three evil regions
And asuras are increasing.
The living beings in heaven are decreasing.
Many fall into the evil regions after their death.

They do not hear the Dharma from a Buddha.
Because they did evils,
Their appearances are getting worse;
And their power and wisdom, decreasing.
Because they did sinful karmas,
They lose pleasures and the memory of pleasures.
They are attached to wrong views.
They do not know how to do good.
They are not taught by a Buddha;
Therefore, they fall into the evil regions.

Now you have appeared for the first time after a long time,
And become the eyes of the world.
You have appeared in this world
Out of your compassion towards all living beings,
And finally attained perfect enlightenment.
We are very glad.
All the others also rejoice at seeing you,
Whom they have never seen before.

It is the light of the Buddha’s wisdom that eliminates the darkness of the universe and reveals the path to salvation to all living beings.

Day 10 concludes Chapter 6, Assurance of Future Buddhahood, and opens Chapter 7, The Parable of a Magic City.

Last month skipped over the assurance of future Buddhahood for Subhuti, Great Katyayana, and Great Maudgalyayana and instead discussed Chapter 7, The Parable of the Magic City, and the unhindered power of the Buddha to remember what happened “countless, limitless, inconceivable, asamkhya number of
kalpas ago.”

Continuing in Chapter 7, we have the reality that enlightenment may take awhile.

The Buddha said to the bhiksus:

The duration of the life of Great-Universal-Wisdom-Excellence Buddha was five hundred and forty billion nayuta kalpas. [Before he attained Buddhahood,] he sat at the place of enlightenment and defeated the army of Mara. He wished to attain Anuttara-samyak­sambodhi, but could not because the Dharma of the Buddhas had not yet come into his mind. He sat cross-legged without moving his mind and body for one to ten small kalpas. During all that time the Dharma of the Buddhas did not come into his mind.

[Before he sat at the place of enlightenment,] the Trayastrimsa Gods prepared him a lion-like seat a yojana high under the Bodhi­tree so that he might be able to attain Anuttara-samyak-sambodhi on that seat. When he sat on that seat, the Brahman-heavenly-kings rained heavenly flowers on the area extending a hundred yojanas in all directions from that seat. From time to time withered flowers were blown away by fragrant winds and new flowers were rained down. [The Brahman-heavenly-kings] continued this offering to him for fully ten small kalpas. [After he attained Buddhahood also,] they continued raining flowers until he passed away.

[When he sat on that seat,] the four heavenly-kings beat heavenly drums, and the other gods made heavenly music and offered it to him. They continued these offerings also for fully ten small kalpas. [After he attained Buddhahood also,] they continued these offerings until he passed away.

Bhiksus! At the end of the period of ten small kalpas, the Dharma of the Buddhas came into the mind of Great-Universal­-Wisdom-Excellence Buddha. Now he attained Anuttara-samyak­sambodhi.

I sit in awe, unable to be still even for a moment, and consider that “He wished to attain Anuttara-samyak-­sambodhi, but could not because the Dharma of the Buddhas had not yet come into his mind,” and I try to imagine what it might feel like when “the Dharma of the Buddhas came into the mind of Great-Universal­-Wisdom-Excellence Buddha.”

Next month, the 16 princes.