Day 15 concludes Chapter 10, The Teacher of the Dharma, and opens Chapter 11, Beholding the Stūpa of Treasures.

Having last month learned of the benefits of expounding the sūtra, I want to pause before continuing wit the gāthās and return this:

“Medicine-King! Suppose a man on a plateau felt thirsty and sought water. He dug a hole in order to get water. As long as he saw the dug-out lumps of earth were dry, he knew that water was still far off. He went on digging, and then found the dug-out lumps of earth wet. When he finally found mud, he was convinced that water was near. In the same manner, know this, the Bodhisattvas who have not yet heard, understood or practised this Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma, are still far from Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi. [The Bodhisattvas] who hear, understand, think over and practice this sūtra, will approach Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi. Why is that? It is because Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi which all the Bodhisattvas [should attain] is expounded only in this sūtra. This sūtra opens the gate of expedients and reveals the seal of the truth. The store of this Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma is sound and deep. No one can reach its core. Now I show it to the Bodhisattvas in order to teach them and cause them to attain [Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi].

This simile of the thirsty man on a plateau has always puzzled me. I couldn’t see a way to apply this to my life. That is until today when it occurred to me that I was like the thirsty man on a plateau more than 28 years ago when, recently divorced, I felt a thirst for something spiritual that had been missing in my life. I dug in search of something to quench this thirst and eventually was introduced to Soka Gakkai. The ground was wet and for two decades I made do, extracting what water I could from the mud. Eventually I grew tired of the mud and decided to dig further, to explore more, to practice and study more. The effort led me to a clear spring of water within Nichiren Shu and the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma. Today I drink to my heart’s content.