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.

Today’s reading begins with Sakyamuni addressing the Bodhisattvas led by Superior Practice who have vowed to take upon themselves the job of expounding the Lotus Sutra after Sakyamuni’s extinction.

The supernatural powers of the Buddhas are as immeasurable, limitless, and inconceivable as previously stated. But I shall not be able to tell all the merits of this sutra to those to whom this sutra is to be transmitted even if I continue telling them by my supernatural powers for many hundreds of thousands of billions of asamkhyas of kalpas. To sum up, all the teachings of the Tathagata, all the unhindered, supernatural powers of the Tathagata, all the treasury of the hidden core of the Tathagata, and all the profound achievements of the Tathagata are revealed and expounded explicitly in this sutra. Therefore, keep, read, recite, expound and copy this sutra, and act according to the teachings of it with all your hearts after my extinction!

And in the gathas, I smile with the idea of bringing joy to all the Buddhas:

Anyone who keeps this sutra will be able to cause me to rejoice.
He also will be able to bring joy
To [the Buddhas of] my replicas
And also to Many-Treasures Buddha who once passed away.

He also will be able to see
The present, past and future Buddhas
Of the worlds of the ten quarters,
Make offerings to them, and cause them to rejoice.

This chapter ends with this promise:

Therefore, the man of wisdom
Who hears the benefits of these merits
And who keeps this sutra after my extinction,
Will be able to attain
The enlightenment of the Buddha
Definitely and doubtlessly.

In the next chapter we get the actual transmission of the Lotus Sutra to the Bodhisattvas who arose from the sky below the Saha World.

In the future, when you see good men or women who believe in the wisdom of the Tathagata, you should expound this Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma to them, and cause them to hear and know [this sutra] so that they may he able to obtain the wisdom of the Buddha. When you see anyone who does not receive [this sutra] by faith, you should show him some other profound teachings of mine, teach him, benefit him, and cause him to rejoice. When you do all this, you will be able to repay the favors given to you by the Buddhas.

For me and my amusement at wondering “What if…” Chapter 23, The Previous Life of Medicine-King Bodhisattva, is the most troubling. How is a literalist like myself – a bemused reader who relishes the opportunity to suspend disbelief – to interpret the actions of Gladly-Seen-By-All-Beings Bodhisattva when he decides his offerings to Sun-Moon-Pure-Bright-Virtue Buddha after he preached the Lotus Sutra are just not serious enough.

Having made these offerings [to the Buddha], he emerged from the samadhi, and thought, ‘I have now made offerings to the Buddha by my supernatural powers. But these offerings are less valuable than the offering of my own body.’

Then he ate various kinds of incense taken from candana, kunduruka, turuska, prkka, aloes and sunac, and drank perfumed oil taken from the flowers of campaka and other flowers[. He continued doing all this] for twelve hundred years. Then he applied perfumed oil to his skin, put on a heavenly garment of treasures in the presence of Sun-Moon-Pure-Bright-Virtue Buddha, sprinkled various kinds of perfumed oil on the garment, and set fire to his body, making a vow by his supernatural powers. The light of the flame illumined the worlds numbering eight thousands of millions of times the number of the sands of the River Ganges.

Clearly Gladly-Seen-By-All-Beings was a great Bodhisattva with the most exquisite of supernatural powers. But instead of being inspired to metaphorically offer my own body to the task of expounding the Lotus Sutra, I’m reminded of the literal burning alive of a Buddhist monk June 10, 1963, to protest persecution of Buddhists by the South Vietnamese government during the Vietnam War.

Gladly-Seen-By-All-Beings Bodhisattva’s flaming tribute burned for 1,200 years until his body was consumed. He then returned as the son of a king. He said to his father:

Great King, know this, [in my previous existence]
I walked about this world, and at once obtained
The samadhi by which I can transform myself
Into any other living being. With a great endeavor,
I gave up my own dear body.