Day 1 covers the first half of Chapter 1, Introductory

Having last month considered the additional practices of the Bodhisattvas that Maitreya sees, we considered the final practices of those Bodhisattvas that Maitreya sees.

I also see some Bodhisattvas
Offering delicious food and drink
And hundreds of kinds of medicines
To the Buddha and the Sangha.

Some offer garments and beautiful robes
Worth tens of millions
Or beyond monetary value
To the Buddha and the Sangha.

Some offer thousands of billions
Of jeweled houses made of candana
And wonderful bedding
To the Buddha and the Sangha.

Some offer pure gardens and forests
Abounding in flowers and fruits,
And furnished with rivers, springs,
and pools for bathing,
To the Buddha and the Saṃgha.

I see those Bodhisattvas
Making offerings of those wonderful things
Joyfully and untiringly
In order to attain unsurpassed enlightenment.

Some Bodhisattvas expound
The truth of tranquil extinction,
And with various expedients,
Teach innumerable living beings.

I also see some Bodhisattvas
Who attained the following truth:
“The nature of things is not dual.
It is [formless] like the sky.”

I also see some sons of the Buddha
Having no attachment in their minds.
They seek unsurpassed enlightenment
With this wonderful wisdom.

Mañjuśrī!
Some Bodhisattvas make offerings
To the śarīras of a Buddha
After his extinction.

I also see some sons of the Buddha
Adorning the world of the Buddha
With as many stupa-mausoleums
As there are sands in the River Ganges.

Those stupas of treasures are
Lofty and wonderful.
They are five thousand yojanas high,
And two thousand yojanas wide and deep.

Each of the stupa-mausoleums has
One thousand pairs of banners and streamers.
It also has curtains adorned with gems.
It also has jeweled bells ringing.

Gods, dragons, men, and nonhuman beings
Constantly offer incense, flowers, and music
[To the stupa-mausoleums].

Mañjuśrī!
Those sons of the Buddha
Adorn the stupa-mausoleums
And offer the adornments
To the śarīras [of the Buddha].

The worlds [of the Buddha] naturally become
As wonderful and as beautiful
As the [flowers] of the kingly tree
In full bloom on the top of Mt. Sumeru.
The multitude of this congregation and I
Can see the various wonderful things
Of those worlds
By the ray of light of the Buddha [of this world].

The Introduction to the Lotus Sutra explains the omens that confounded Maitreya:

In Chapter 1, Introduction, the congregation waited anxiously for this definitive sermon, the way to which had already been prepared by the Sutra of Innumerable Teachings. But Sakyamuni did not begin immediately. First, he preached the opening sutra … . Then he entered into its deep meditation. His body and mind became motionless. The assembled gods rained mandarava flowers upon him. The world quaked in six ways. The assembled beings looked on in astonishment and joined their hands together in supplication. Finally the Buddha emitted a ray of light from the white curl between his eyebrows (the so-called “third eye”) and illuminated all the eighteen thousand worlds to the east, from their lowest hells up to their highest heavens.

These are called the “Six Omens Shown in This World.” In order, they are “Preaching,” “Entering into Samadhi,” “Raining Flowers,” “Quaking,” “Delighting,” and “Emitting a Ray of Light.”

Introduction to the Lotus Sutra