Day 13 covers all of Chapter 8, The Assurance of Future Buddhahood of the Five Hundred Disciples.

Having last month heard the Parable of the Priceless Gem, we hear the śrāvakas’ explanation.

“You, the Buddha, are like his friend. We thought that we had attained extinction when we attained Arhatship because we forgot that we had been taught to aspire for the knowledge of all things by you when you were a Bodhisattva just as the man who had difficulty in earning his livelihood satisfied himself with what little he had earned. You, the World-Honored One, saw that the aspiration for the knowledge of all things was still latent in our minds; therefore, you awakened us, saying, ‘Bhikṣus! What you had attained was not perfect extinction. I caused you to plant the good root of Buddhahood a long time ago. [You have forgotten this; therefore,] I expounded the teaching of Nirvāṇa as an expedient. You thought that you had attained true extinction when you attained the Nirvāṇa [ which I taught you as an expedient].’

“World-Honored One! Now we see that we are Bodhisattvas in reality, and that we are assured of our future attainment of Anuttara-samyak-saṃbodhi. Therefore, we have the greatest joy that we have ever had.”

The Daily Dharma from May 5, 2017, offers this:

Ājñāta-Kauṇḍinya and the others gathered to hear the Buddha teach make this declaration in Chapter Eight of the Lotus Sūtra. He and the others thought that their existence was merely to hear and preserve what the Buddha taught them, and to transmit it to others. They believed they were incapable of becoming as enlightened as the Buddha, because the Buddha’s earlier teachings had only led them so far. With the Lotus Sutra, the Buddha reminds all of us of our decision to come to this world of conflict to benefit all beings. He awakens us to our capacity to see the world with his eyes and experience the joy of reality.

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