Day 18 concludes Chapter 13, Encouragement for Keeping this Sutra, and begins Chapter 14, Peaceful Practices.
Having last month considered the plight of the eighty billion nayuta Bodhisattva-mahāsattvas, we consider the Bodhisattvas vow in gāthās.
Thereupon the Bodhisattvas sang in gāthās with one voice:
Do not worry!
We will expound this sūtra
In the dreadful, evil world
After your extinction.Ignorant people will speak ill of us,
Abuse us, and threaten us
With swords or sticks.
But we will endure all this.Some bhikṣus in the evil world will be cunning.
They will be ready to flatter others.
Thinking that they have obtained what they have not,
Their minds will be filled with arrogance.Some bhikṣus will live in aranyas or retired places,
And wear patched pieces of cloth.
Thinking that they are practicing the true Way,
They will despise others.Being attached to worldly profits,
They will expound the Dharma to men in white robes.
They will be respected by the people of the world
As the Arhats who have the six supernatural powers.They will have evil thoughts.
They will always think of worldly things.
Even when they live in aranyas,
They will take pleasure in saying that we have faults.They will say of us,
“Those bhikṣus are greedy for worldly profits.
Therefore, they are expounding
The teachings of heretics.
They made that sūtra by themselves
In order to deceive the people of the world.
They are expounding that sūtra
Because they wish to make a name for themselves.”In order to speak ill of us, in order to slander us
In the midst of the great multitude,
In order to say that we are evil,
They will say to kings, ministers and brahmanas,
And also to householders and other bhikṣus,
“They have wrong views.
They are expounding
The teachings of heretics.”
But we will endure all this
Because we respect you.They will despise us,
Saying to us [ironically],
“You are Buddhas.”
But we will endure all these despising words.There will be many dreadful things
In the evil world of the kalpa of defilements.
Devils will enter the bodies [of those bhikṣus]
And cause them to abuse and insult us.We will wear the armor of endurance
Because we respect and believe you.
We will endure all these difficulties
In order to expound this sūtra.We will not spare even our lives.
We treasure only unsurpassed enlightenment.
We will protect and keep the Dharma in the future
If you transmit it to us.
The Daily Dharma from Aug. 22, 2022, offers this:
We will wear the armor of endurance
Because we respect and believe you.
We will endure all these difficulties
In order to expound this sūtra.
Medicine-King Bodhisattva and Great-Eloquence Bodhisattva, along with their attendants, declare these verses to the Buddha in Chapter Thirteen of the Lotus Sutra. The Buddha had asked previously who would teach the Lotus Sūtra after the Buddha’s death. These Bodhisattvas declare their aspirations to maintain their practice of the Buddha Dharma in the face of unimaginable difficulties. We may believe that this practice will lead to permanent comfort and pleasure. But knowing that we are in a world that is constantly changing, we realize that any difficulty is temporary, and that the way to a beneficial outcome may only go through difficulties. This knowledge and faith in the Buddha’s teachings increases our capacity to be a beneficial force in this world of conflict.
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