Day 24 concludes Chapter 19, The Merits of the Teacher of the Dharma and closes the Sixth Volume of the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.
We continue today with the merits to be received by “the good men or women who keep, read, recite, expound or copy this sutra.” As I read the Lotus Sutra over and over again, I love to imagine, What if? What if what I read is literally true:
Those who keep this sutra also will be able to recognize the gods [and things] in heaven by smell while they are staying [in the world of men]. … They will be able to recognize the gods by smell. They will be able to recognize from afar the scent that Sakra-Devanam-Indra gives forth when he satisfies his five desires and enjoys himself in his excellent palace, or when he expounds the Dharma to the Trayastrimsa Gods at the wonderful hall of the Dharma, or when he plays in the gardens.
Or…
Anyone who keeps
This Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma
Will be able to know by smell
Whether the gods are walking, sitting, playing or performing wonders.
Or…
He will be able to know by smell
Whether an unborn child is a boy or a girl,
Or a child of ambiguous sex,
Or the embryo of a nonhuman being.He will be able to know by smell
Whether a woman is an expectant mother,
Or whether she will give an easy birth
To a happy child or not.He will be able to know by smell
What a man or a woman is thinking of,
Or whether he or she is greedy, ignorant or angry,
Or whether he or she is doing good.He will be able to recognize by smell
The gold, silver, and other treasures
Deposited underground,
And the things enclosed in a copper box.He will be able to know by smell
The values of various necklaces,
And the deposits of their materials,
And also to locate the necklaces [ when they are lost].
“What if…” is just such fun. I really love the Lotus Sutra and Buddhism and the empowerment that comes from believing that we have Buddhahood inherent in each and every one of us.
Twice each day I read the Verses for Opening the Sutra, in which it says:
“Anyone can expiate his past transgressions, do good deeds, and attain Buddhahood by the merits of this sutra. It does not matter whether he is wise or not or whether he believes the sutra or rejects it.”
“What if…” is so incredibly better than the alternative.
Today, is March 15, 2016, the date of several presidential primaries. While I was waiting for my wife at a train station, I listened on the car radio to U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio announce he was dropping out of the race for the Republican nomination after losing in Florida, his home state. Why quit now? Apparently, Rubio now realizes it’s “not God’s plan that I be president in 2016.”
I’ve never understood how that “god’s plan” could work. Blaming god for failing to convince voters that you are the best candidate for the job seems so silly.
OK. Maybe it is not as “silly” as imagining gaining the ability to “smell whether an unborn child is a boy or a girl, or a child of ambiguous sex, or the embryo of a nonhuman being.”
But the promise of the Lotus Sutra is infinitely greater than any religion in which one is reduced to blaming “god’s plan” as the controlling factor in all events.
As Ryusho Jeffus writes in his Lecture on the Lotus Sutra
No longer is there a fundamental difference between the enlightenment of people and the enlightenment of Buddhas. The Buddha is showing us the path to an enlightenment that is exactly like that of all Buddhas. This is really what I think is remarkable.
This is the religion in which I choose to put my faith, and why I count myself as one of the “good men or women who keep, read, recite, expound or copy this sutra.”