Day 12 concludes Chapter 7, The Parable of the Magic City, and completes the Third Volume of the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.

Brahman-heavenly-kings of the five hundred billion worlds in each of the 10 directions (5,000 hundred billion worlds in all) each pleaded for Great-Universal-Wisdom-Excellence Buddha to turn the wheel of the Dharma:

World-Honored One, turn the wheel of the Dharma,
Beat the drum of the Dharma as sweet as nectar,
Save the suffering beings,
And show them the way to Nirvana!

Assent to our appeal!
You studied the Dharma for innumerable kalpas.
Expound it with your exceedingly wonderful voice
Out of your compassion towards us!

And just as was mentioned yesterday, that it is the light of the Buddha’s wisdom that illumines the darkness, we are reminded today:

The wheel of this teaching could not be turned by any other one in the world, be he a sramara, a brahmara, a god, Mara or Brahman.

Imagine the darkness suddenly gone:

“When the Buddha expounded these teachings to the great multitude of gods and men, six hundred billion nayuta men emancipated themselves from asravas, and obtained profound and wonderful dhyana-concentrations, the six supernatural powers including the three major supernatural powers, and the eight emancipations because they gave up wrong views. At his second, third and fourth expoundings of these teachings also, thousands of billions of nayutas of living beings, that is, as many living beings as there are sands in the River Ganges, emancipated themselves from asravas because they gave up wrong views. [They became Sravakas.] Those who became Sravakas thereafter were also innumerable, uncountable.

And with that, I set up the discussion over the next several months of the role of the 16 young boys who renounce the world where they are princes and become novice followers of Great-Universal-Wisdom-Excellence Buddha.