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

In this chapter we underline with examples that the teaching of the Lotus Sutra applies to everyone and all are eligible to become Buddhas.

We begin with a story about Sakyamuni’s past life as a king who made a vow to attain unsurpassed Bodhi.

I sought the Great Dharma strenuously
Because I wished to save all living beings.
I did not wish to benefit myself
Or to have the pleasures of the five desires.

Although I was the king of a great country,
I sought the Dharma strenuously.
I finally obtained the Dharma and became a Buddha.
Therefore, I now expound it to you.

The king learned the dharma from a seer named Asita. “He caused me…”

The seer at that time was a previous life of Devadatta. 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.

Devadatta, the most evil of men of Sakyamuni’s time, was once his teacher and in the future will a Buddha who expounds the Dharma.

The other example of the universality of the Lotus Sutra comes from the daughter of Dragon-King Sagara, who was taught my Manjusri.

To begin we learned that those taught by Manjusri only heard the One Vehicle:

All these Bodhisattvas had been led [into the Way to Bodhi] by Manjusri. They had already performed the Bodhisattva practices. [Up in the sky] they [began to] expound the six paramitas. Some of them were formerly Sravakas. When they were Sravakas, they expounded the Sravaka practices in the sky. Now they were acting according to the truth of the Void of the Great Vehicle.

As Manjusri explained:

In the sea I expounded only the Sotra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.

And who was his best pupil? Who “has already been qualified to become a Buddha quickly?” None other than an 8-year-old female dragon.

In reading the dragon girl’s qualifications I was reminded of the Sidney Poitier movies of my childhood. In these discussions of race relations, Poitier’s character was always so overqualified for his job, that to dislike him could only be attributed bias based on the color of his skin.

The qualifications of the daughter of Dragon-King Sagara:

She is eight years old. She is clever. She knows the karmas of all living beings. She obtained dharanis. She keeps all the treasury of the profound and hidden core expounded by the Buddhas. She entered deep into dhyana-concentration, and understood all teachings. She aspired for Bodhi in a ksana, and reached the stage of irrevocability. She is eloquent without hindrance. She is compassionate towards all living beings just as a mother is towards her babe. She obtained all merits. Her thoughts and words are wonderful and great. She is compassionate, humble, gentle and graceful. She [has already been qualified to] attain Bodhi[, and to become a Buddha quickly].

Accumulated-Wisdom Bodhisattva argues against the idea of Buddhahood being something that can be attained quickly. Sariputra argues against the idea of a woman becoming a Buddha at all:

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]?

The daughter of the dragon-king proves the naysayers wrong and in the process completes the assurance that anyone and everyone is qualified to become a Buddha by following the teachings of the Lotus Sutra.

In the next chapter we reinforce this message when Sakyamuni notices that his step-mother, Maha-Prajapati Bhiksuni, feels she hasn’t been assured of her future attainment of Buddhahood.

Thereupon the World-Honored One said to Gautami:

Why do you look at me so anxiously? You do not think that I assured you of your future attainment of Anuttara-samyak-sambodhi because I did not mention you by name, do you? Gautami! I have already said that I assured all the Sravakas of their future attainment [of Anuttara-samyak-sambodhi].

Again, the sex of the practitioner is irrelevant. The important thing is to adopt the Bodhisattva practices. As Sakyamuni explains to the mother of Rahula, Yasodhara Bhiksuni:

You will perform the Bodhisattva practices under hundreds of thousands of billions of Buddhas in the future. You will become a great teacher of the Dharma under those Buddhas. You will walk the Way to Buddhahood step by step, and finally become a Buddha in a good world.