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

My self-imposed one-topic limit leaves me choosing between Purna’s expedient role and the Arhats who introduce the Parable of the Priceless Gem. So this first time through under the one-topic limit I’ll go with the obvious.

The Parable of the Priceless Gem, which assures us of a treasure we have had all along, a priceless gem given to us but forgotten.

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, ‘Bhiksus! 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 Nirvana as an expedient. You thought that you had attained true extinction when you attained the Nirvana [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-sambodhi. Therefore, we have the greatest joy that we have ever had.

I’ll come back to Purna next month.