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.

Last month covered the long wait before Great-Universal-Wisdom-Excellence Tathagata expounded the Lotus Sutra and the job the princes took up of expounding the Dharma while Great-Universal-Wisdom-Excellence Tathagata sat in dhyana-concentration for 84,000 kalkpas.

Having practised dhyana-concentration for eighty-four thousand kalpas, the Buddha emerged from his samadhi, came back to his seat of the Dharma, sat quietly, and said to the great multitude, ‘These sixteen Bodhisattva-sramaneras are rare. Their sense organs are keen; and their wisdom, bright. In their previous existence, they already made offerings to many hundreds of thousands of billions of Buddhas, performed brahma practices under those Buddhas, kept the wisdom of those Buddhas, showed it to the living beings [of the worlds of those Buddhas], and caused them to enter into it. All of you! Approach these [Bodhisattva­sramaneras] from time to time and make offerings to them! Why is that? It is because anyone, be he a Sravaka or a Pratyekabuddha or a Bodhisattva, who believes this sutra expounded by these sixteen Bodhisattvas, keeps it, and does not slander it, will be able to attain Anuttara-samyak-sambodhi, that is, the wisdom of the Tathagata.’

The Daily Dharma of Nov. 9, 2016, offers this:

Anyone, be he a Śrāvaka or a Pratyekabuddha or a Bodhisattva, who believes this sūtra expounded by these sixteen Bodhisattvas, keeps it, and does not slander it, will be able to attain Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi, that is, the wisdom of the Tathāgata.