Day 19 concludes Chapter 14, Peaceful Practices, and begins Chapter 15, The Appearance of Bodhisattvas from Underground.
Thereupon the World-Honored One, wishing to repeat what he had said, sang in gāthās:
Be patient, and compassionate
Towards all living beings,
And then expound this sūtra
Praised by the Buddhas!Anyone who keeps this sūtra
In the latter days after my extinction
Should have compassion towards laymen and monks
And towards those who are not Bodhisattvas.
He should think:
‘They do not hear this sūtra.
They do not believe it.
This is their great fault.
When I attain the enlightenment of the Buddha,
I will expound the Dharma to them
With expedients
And cause them to dwell in it.’
The Daily Dharma from May 18, 2021, offers this:
Anyone who keeps this sūtra
In the latter days after my extinction
Should have compassion towards laymen and monks
And towards those who are not Bodhisattvas.
He should think:
‘They do not hear this sūtra.
They do not believe it.
This is their great fault.
When I attain the enlightenment of the Buddha,
I will expound the Dharma to them
With expedients
And cause them to dwell in it.’
The Buddha sings these verses to Mañjuśrī in Chapter Fourteen of the Lotus Sūtra. In our zeal to help other beings, we may create expectations of how they will receive our efforts, or how they will change themselves after hearing the Buddha Dharma. We may even blame them for not improving as quickly as we might want. These verses remind us that there is no shortage of time available for our efforts to benefit others.
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