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

Last month, and the month before, I’ve skipped over the conclusion of Chapter 6, Assurance of Future Buddhahood, in order to delve into the much more interesting, Chapter 7, Parable of the Magic City.

So it is time to say at least something more about the assurance of future Buddhahood given by Sakyamuni to Subhuti, Great Katyayana, Great Maudgalyayana.

After assuring Subhuti, Great Katyayana and Great Maudgalyayana, Sakyamuni says:

The five hundred disciples of mine’
Are powerful and virtuous.
They also shall be assured
Of their future Buddhahood.
They will become Buddhas
In their future lives.

The importance of this chapter is explained in the Daily Dharma from April 26, 2016:

We know the defects of the Lesser Vehicle.
But we do not know how to obtain
The unsurpassed wisdom of the Buddha.

The Buddha’s disciples Maudgalyāyana, Subhūti and Mahā-Kātyāyana sing these verses in Chapter Six of the Lotus Sūtra. They have heard the Buddha teach that the expedient teachings about Suffering are incomplete. However they still have not yet embraced the One Vehicle teaching of the Lotus Sūtra which leads all beings to enlightenment. Nichiren explained, in his Treatise on Opening the Eyes of Buddhist Images, how teachings that came before the Lotus Sūtra were based on the mind of the hearer, where the Wonderful Dharma is itself the mind of the Buddha. When we read, recite, copy and expound the Lotus Sūtra, we are becoming of one mind with the Buddha.

The Buddha knew the mind of the “men living the life of wisdom” and offered the assurance they felt they needed in order to partake of the meal of the True Dharma. Today, we have joy and confidence, having always had the assurance of future Buddhahood of all who read, recite, copy and expound the Lotus Sūtra.