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

Having last month discussed the the assurance of future Buddhahood given by Sakyamuni to Subhuti, Great Katyayana, Great Maudgalyayana, I get to start over with Chapter 7, The Parable of the Magic City.

At the conclusion of Chapter 6, Assurance of Future Buddhahood, the Buddha sets the stage for what is to come next:

Now I will tell you
About my previous existence
And also about yours.
All of you, listen attentively!

Chapter 7 opens with a description of a “countless, limitless, inconceivable, asamkhya number of
kalpas ago” when a Buddha called Great-Universal-Wisdom-Excellence lived. But more important than the distance backward in time is this:

Yet I remember [the extinction of] that Buddha by my power of insight as vividly as if he had passed away today.”

And in gathas:

I remember the extinction of that Buddha
As vividly as if he had passed away just now,
By my unhindered wisdom; I also remember
The Sravakas and Bodhisattvas who lived [with him].

Bhiksus, know this!
My wisdom is pure, wonderful,
Free from asravas and from hindrance.
I know those who lived innumerable kalpas ago.

Rereading this again and again I’m still excited about the promise that I’m to learn about the Buddha’s previous existence and mine with details as fresh as if it all occurred today.