Day 17 covers all of Chapter 12, Devadatta, and opens Chapter 13, Encouragement for Keeping this Sutra

The Devadatta portion of Chapter 12 describes a past life of Sakyamuni during which he was a king who renounced his crown and vigorously sought the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.

I beat a drum and sought the Dharma in all directions, saying with a loud voice, ‘Who will expound the Great Vehicle to me? If there is anyone, I will make offerings to him, and run errands for him for the rest of my life.’

When a seer came to him and offered to teach him, Sakyamuni immediately became his servant.

I offered him anything he wanted. I collected fruits, drew water, gathered firewood, and prepared meals for him. I even allowed my body to be his seat. I never felt tired in body and mind. I served him for a thousand years. In order to hear the Dharma from him, I served him so strenuously that I did not cause him to be short of anything.

This is particularly interesting to me given a discussion I’ve been involved in about how to best support those who teach the Dharma today. In particular is this painfully long article by an American Nichiren Shu priest, Myth of Free Dharma: The Lies People Tell Themselves.

But the importance here is that Devadatta, the most evil of people, in a past life was instrumental in helping Sakyamuni attain enlightenment and in a future life would become a Buddha.

Devadatta was my teacher. He caused me to complete the six paramitas. He caused me to have loving-kindness, compassion, joy and impartiality. He caused me to have the thirty-two major marks and the eighty minor marks [of the Buddha]. He caused me to have my body purely gilt. He caused me to have the ten powers and the four kinds of fearlessness. He caused me to know the four ways to attract others. He caused me to have the eighteen properties and supernatural powers [of the Buddha]. He caused me to have the power of giving discourses. I attained perfect enlightenment and now save all living beings because Devadatta was my teacher.

In this English version of the Lotus Sutra, Senchu Murano goes out his way to underline that this chapter was inserted 84 years after Kumarajiva’s version was first published. Still, I will continue to focus on the promise of this chapter:

Good men or women in the future who hear this chapter of Devadatta of the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma with faithful respect caused by their pure minds, and have no doubts [about this chapter], will not fall into hell or the region of hungry spirits or the region of animals. They will be reborn before the Buddhas of the worlds of the ten quarters. They will always hear this sutra at the places of their rebirth. Even when they are reborn among men or gods, they will be given wonderful pleasures. When they are reborn before the Buddhas, they will appear in lotus-flowers.

And that’s before even hearing about what I consider the most important news: The potential of the daughter of Dragon-King Sagara to become a Buddha in an instant.

First we have to deal with the doubters:

Accumulated-Wisdom Bodhisattva said:

“As far as I know, [when he was a Bodhisattva,] Sakyamuni Buddha sought Bodhi, that is, enlightenment incessantly for innumerable kalpas. He accumulated merits by practicing austerities. Even the smallest part, even the part as large as a poppy-seed of this world-this world being composed of one thousand million Sumeru-worlds-is not outside the places where the Bodhisattva made efforts to save all living beings at the cost of his life. It was after doing all this that he attained Sodhi, that is, enlightenment. I do not believe that this girl will be able to attain perfect enlightenment[, that is, to become a Buddha] in a moment.”

And:

Thereupon Sariputra said to the daughter of the dragon-king:

“You think that you will be able to attain unsurpassed enlightenment [and become a Buddha] before long. This is difficult to believe because the body of a woman is too defiled to be a recipient of the teachings of the Buddha. How can you attain unsurpassed Bodhi? The enlightenment of the Buddha is far off. It can be attained only by those who perform the [Bodhisattva] practices with strenuous efforts for innumerable kalpas. A woman has five impossibilities. She cannot become 1. the Brahman-Heavenly-King, 2. King Sakra, 3. King Mara, 4. a wheel-turning-holy-king, and 5. a Buddha. How can it be that you, being a woman, will become a Buddha, quickly [or not]?”

After the daughter of the dragon-king proved Accumulated-Wisdom Bodhisattva and Sariputra and the rest of the doubters wrong, it is little wonder that “the congregation received the Dharma faithfully and in silence.” No dancing for joy here.

In the opening of Chapter 13, Encouragement for Keeping This Sutra, we’re offered an example of the differences between Bodhisattvas and Arhats and Sravakas when Medicine-King Bodhisattva-mahasattva and Great-Eloquence Bodhisattva-mahasattva vow to teach the sutra in this Saha World, despite the anticipated difficulty, but the various Sravakas can only do so in some other world:

“World-Honored One! We also will expound this sutra in some other worlds because the people of this Saha-World have many evils. They are arrogant. They have few merits. They are angry, defiled, ready to flatter others, and insincere.”