In Chapter 21, The Supernatural Powers of the Tathāgatas, we are told:
“To sum up, all the teachings of the Tathāgata, all the unhindered, supernatural powers of the Tathāgata, all the treasury of the hidden core of the Tathāgata, and all the profound achievements of the Tathāgata are revealed and expounded explicitly in this sūtra. Therefore, keep, read, recite, expound and copy this sūtra, and act according to the teachings of it with all your hearts after my extinction!”
In Easy Readings of the Lotus Sutra, Chapter 21 is beautifully transformed into an ode to the Daimoku:
Easy Readings of the Lotus Sutra“The Odaimoku includes all the merits of the Buddha’s enlightenment.
“The Odaimoku contains all the supernatural powers of the Buddha to save all people.
“The Odaimoku is the crystallization of the Buddha’s boundless wisdom necessary to teach and lead all beings.
“The Odaimoku expresses all merits the Buddha has practiced.
“These four things showing the Buddha’s real image and spirit are explicitly revealed in the Lotus Sutra; the Buddha’s true mind is the Odaimoku.
“Especially after the Buddha’s extinction, you must keep in mind that you should believe, from the bottom of your heart, in the Lotus Sutra and the Odaimoku in which the entire mind of the Buddha is clearly explained, and that you should recite and study the Lotus Sutra and chant the Odaimoku in order to practice the Buddha’s teachings as instructed by the Buddha.
“Wherever the place might be, at the place where the teachings of the Lotus Sutra have spread and the faith in the Odaimoku is practiced in correct and proper ways, you must set up a place of prayer and spend a life with faith in the Sutra, be it in a village or countryside with farms, woods or groves, or in a monastery, or in the house of ordinary people, or a residence of higher status people, or in a mountain village or a vast plain.
“The reason for this is that nowhere else but a place where the Odaimoku is believed in and its teachings are expounded is the true place of prayer.
“It is this place of prayer to the Odaimoku where all Buddhas have become enlightened.
“Here, the Buddhas expound their teachings.
“In other words, this Sahā world in which we live, believing in the Odaimoku, is the very place where the Buddha’s true world lies.”
When we chant Namu Myōhō Renge Kyō we gather to ourselves “all the teachings of the Tathāgata, all the unhindered, supernatural powers of the Tathāgata, all the treasury of the hidden core of the Tathāgata, and all the profound achievements of the Tathāgata.” As Nichiren says in “Reply to My Lady, the Nun of Ueno”:
“In the case of the Lotus Sūtra, … when one touches it, one’s hands immediately become Buddhas, and when one chants it, one’s mouth instantly becomes a Buddha.”
Writings of Nichiren Shōnin, Followers II, Volume 7, Page 58-59
This is how faith in the Lotus Sutra is rewarded.
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