Day 2 completes Chapter 1, Introductory.
In anticipation of tomorrow’s introduction to the concept of expedient teachings, I want to use Manjusri’s recollection of a time “innumerable, inconceivable, asamkya kalpas ago” during the reign of a Buddha called Sun-Moon-Light to illustrate how rare it is to hear the Lotus Sutra.
[Sun-Moon-Light] expounded the right teachings. His expounding of the right teachings was good at the beginning, good in the middle, and good at the end. The meanings of those teachings were profound. The words were skillful, pure, unpolluted, perfect, clean, and suitable for the explanation of brahma practices. To those who were seeking Sravakahood, he expounded the teaching of the four truths, a teaching suitable for them, saved them from birth, old age, disease, and death, and caused them to attain Nirvana. To those who were seeking Pratyekabuddhahood, he expounded the teaching of the twelve causes, a teaching suitable for them. To Bodhisattvas, he expounded the teaching of the six paramitas, a teaching suitable for them, and caused them to attain Anuttara-samyak-sambodhi, that is, to obtain the knowledge of the equality and differences of all things.
After his extinction there appeared a Buddha also called Sun-Moon-Light. After his extinction there appeared another Buddha also called Sun-Moon-Light. In the same manner, twenty thousand Buddhas appeared in succession, all of them being called Sun-Moon-Light with the surname Bharadvaja.
Maitreya, know this! All those Buddhas were called Sun-Moon-Light with the ten epithets. Their expounding of the Dharma was good at the beginning, good in the middle, and good at the end.
It was only the last Sun-Moon-Light Buddha who exhibited the good omen illumining the worlds to the east.
Sun-Moon-Light Buddha emerged from his samadhi, and expounded the sutra of the Great Vehicle to Wonderful-Light Bodhisattva and others without rising from his seat for sixty small kalpas. It was called the ‘Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma, the Dharma for Bodhisattvas, the Dharma Upheld by the Buddhas.’ The hearers in the congregation also sat in the same place for sixty small kalpas, and their bodies and minds were motionless. They thought that they had heard the Buddha expounding the Dharma for only a mealtime. None of them felt tired in body or mind.