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

Last month covered the road traveled by Wonderful-Voice Bodhisattva. This month, we get to a special skill of Wonderful-Voice Bodhisattva.

Flower-Virtue! Now you see Wonderful-Voice Bodhisattva here and nowhere else. But formerly he transformed himself into various living beings and expounded this sutra to other in various places. He became King Brahman, King Sakra, Freedon God, Great-Freedom God, a great general in heaven, Vaisravana Heavenly-King, a wheel-turning-holy-king, the king of a small country, a rich man, a householder, a prime minister, a brahmana, a bhiksu, a bhiksuni, an upasaka, an upasika, the wife of a rich man, that of a householder, that of a prime minister, that of a brahmana, a boy, a girl, a god, a dragon, a yaksa, a gandharva, an asura, a garuDa, a kimnara, a mahoraga, a human being or a nonhuman being. [After he transformed himself into one or another of these living beings,] he expounded this sutra, 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 sutra.

Rev. Ryusho Jeffus‘ Lecture on the Lotus Sutra offers this observation:

Wonderful-Voice Bodhisattva is able to change his shape and transform himself into any being he wishes. We, too, as we develop our Buddha potential are better able to communicate with various people taking on their lives and understanding the nature of their problems. Just as the Buddha was able to communicate with people of all the different Ten Worlds so too we can transcend the differences that frequently cause divisions and reach out to the many various people in our environment.
Lecture on the Lotus Sutra

Day 27 concludes Chapter 23, The Previous Life of Medicine-King Bodhisattva.

Last month covered the “innumerable merits” of those who hear The Previous Life of Medicine-King Bodhisattva. Now we reach the end of the chapter.

“Therefore, Star-King-Flower! I will transmit this chapter of the Previous Life of Medicine-King Bodhisattva to you. Propagate this chapter throughout the Jambudvipa in the later five hundred years after my extinction lest it should be lost, and lest Mara the Evil One, the followers of Mara, gods, dragons, yaksas, and kumbhandas should take advantage [of the weak points of the people of the Jambudvipa].

“Star-King-Flower! Protect this sutra by your supernatural powers! Why is that? It is because this sutra is a good medicine for the diseases of the people of the Jambudvipa. The patient who hears this sutra will be cured of his disease at once. He will not grow old or die.

Star-King-Flower! Strew blue lotus flower and a bowlful of powdered incense to the person who keep this sutra when you see him! After strewing these things [to him], you should think, ‘Before long he will collect grass [for his seat], sit at the place of enlightenment, and defeat the army of Mara. He will blow the conch-shell horn of the Dharma, beat the drum of the great Dharma, and save all living beings from the ocean of old age, disease and death.’

In this way, those who seek the enlightenment of the Buddha should respect the keeper of this sutra whenever they see him.

When the Buddha expounded this chapter of the Previous Life of Medicine-King Bodhisattva, eighty-four thousand Bodhisattvas obtained the dharanis by which they could understand the words of all living beings. Many-Treasures Tathagata in the stupa of treasures praised Star-King-Flower Bodhisattva, saying:

Excellent, excellent, Star-King-Flower! You obtained inconceivable merits. You asked this question to Sakyamuni Buddha, and benefited innumerable living beings.

The Daily Dhara from Nov. 21, 2016, offered this about our daily war with Mara:

Star-King-Flower! Strew blue lotus flowers and a bowlful of powdered incense to the person who keeps this sūtra when you see him! After strewing these things [to him], you should think, ‘Before long he will collect grass [for his seat], sit at the place of enlightenment, and defeat the army of Māra. He will blow the conch-shell horn of the Dharma, beat the drum of the great Dharma, and save all living beings from the ocean of old age, disease and death.’

Day 26 concludes Chapter 21, The Supernatural Powers of the Tathāgatas, includes Chapter 22, Transmission, and introduces Chapter 23, The Previous Life of Medicine-King Bodhisattva.

Having last month completed the Supernatural Powers of the Tathāgatas, it is time for the Transmission.

Thereupon Sakyamuni Buddha rose from the seat of the Dharma, and by his great supernatural powers, put his right hand on the heads of the innumerable Bodhisattva-mahasattvas, and said:

For many hundreds of thousands of billions of asamkhyas of kalpas, I studied and practiced the Dharma diffcult to obtain, and [finally attained] Anuttara-samyak-sambodhi. Now I will transmit the Dharma to you. Propagate it with all your hearts, and make it known far and wide!

He put his [right] hand on their heads twice more, and said:

For many hundreds of thousands of billions of asamkhyas of kalpas, I studied and practiced the Dharma difficult to obtain, and [finally attained] Anuttara-samyak-sambodhi. Now I will transmit [the Dharma] to you. Keep, read, recite and expound [this sutra in which the Dharma is given], and cause all living beings to hear it and know it! Why is that? It is because I have great compassion. I do not begrudge anything. I am fearless. I wish to give the wisdom of the Buddha, the wisdom of the Tathagata, the wisdom of the Self-Existing One, to all living beings. I am the great almsgiver to all living beings. Follow me, and study my teachings without begrudging efforts!

The Daily Dharma of Aug. 24, 2016, offers this:

For many hundreds of thousands of billions of asaṃkhyas of kalpas, I studied and practiced the Dharma difficult to obtain, and [finally attained] Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi. Now I will transmit the Dharma to you. Propagate it with all your hearts, and make it known far and wide!

Day 25 covers all of Chapter 20, Never-Despising Bodhisattva, and opens Chapter 21, The Supernatural Powers of the Tathāgatas.

Having last month covered the demonstration of the Buddhas’ supernatural powers, it is time to finish up with the response from the gods outside the gathering on the Saha World:

At that time the gods in the skies [of the worlds of the ten quarters] said loudly:

There is a world called Saha beyond a distance of many hundreds of thousands of billions of asamkhyas of worlds. In that world lives a Buddha called Sakyamuni. He is now expounding to Bodhisattva-mahasattvas a sutra 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 Sakyamuni Buddha!

Having heard their voice from the skies, the living beings of those worlds joined their hands together toward the Saha­World, and said, “Namah Sakyamunaye Buddhaya, namah Sakyamunaye Buddhaya.” Then they strewed various flowers, various kinds of incense, various necklaces, streamers, canopies, personal ornaments, treasures, and other wonderful things to the Saha-World from afar.

The strewn things came from the worlds of the ten quarters like gathering clouds and changed into a jeweled awning over the Saha-World. The awning extended over the Buddhas staying in this world. At that time the worlds of the ten quarters became passable through each other without hindrance as if they had been a single Buddha-world.

When I read that the offerings gathered like clouds and changed into a jeweled awning, I’m reminded on the decorations that frame the altar at the Sacramento Nichiren Buddhist Church.