Day 21 covers all of Chapter 16, The Duration of the Life of the Tathāgata.
Thereupon the Buddha said to the great multitude including Bodhisattvas and others, “Good men! Understand my sincere and infallible words by faith!”
He said to the great multitude again, “Understand my sincere and infallible words by faith!”
He said to them once again, “Understand my sincere and infallible words by faith!”
Thereupon the great multitude of Bodhisattvas, headed by Maitreya, joined their hands together and said to the Buddha, “World-Honored one, tell us! We will receive your words by faith.”
They said this three times. Then they said once again, “Tell us! We will receive your words by faith.”
Thereupon the World-Honored One, seeing that they repeated their appeal even after they repeated it three times, said to them:
Listen to me attentively! I will tell you about my hidden core and supernatural powers. The gods, men and asuras in the world think that I, Sakyamuni Buddha, left the palace of the Sakyas, sat at the place of enlightenment not far from the City of Gaya, and attained Anuttara-samyak-sambodhi [forty and odd years ago]. To tell the truth, good men, it is many hundreds of thousands of billions of nayutas of kalpas since I became the Buddha.
And so the most important teaching of the Buddha is revealed.
All this time I have been living in this Saha-World, and teaching [the living beings of this world] by expounding the Dharma to them.
Different names, saying he’ll enter into Nirvana, teaching the lesser vehicle – all of these are expedients
Good men! All the Buddhas, all the Tathagatas, do the same as I do. [They expound their teachings] for the purpose of saving all living beings. Therefore, [their teachings] are true, not false.
PARABLE OF THE SKILLFUL PHYSICIAN AND HIS SICK CHILDREN
The Buddha said:
I am like the father. It is many hundreds of thousands of billions of nayutas of asamkhyas of kalpas since I became the Buddha. In order to save the [perverted] people, I say expediently, ‘I shall pass away.’ No one will accuse me of falsehood by the [common] law.
And in gathas:
Although I always live here
With the perverted people
I disappear from their eyes
By my supernatural powers.When they see me seemingly pass away,
And make offerings to my sariras,
And adore me, admire me,
And become devout, upright and gentle,
And wish to see me
With all their hearts
At the cost of their lives,
I reappear on Mt. Sacred Eagle
With my Samgha,
And say to them:
‘I always live here.
I shall never be extinct.
I show my extinction to you expediently
Although I never pass away.
I also expound the unsurpassed Dharma
To the living beings of the other worlds
If they respect me, believe me,
And wish to see me.
You have never heard this;
Therefore, you thought that I pass away.’
It is only due to our delusion that we fail to see this world as the Buddha’s pure land.
[This] pure world of mine is indestructible.
But the [perverted] people think:
“It is full of sorrow, fear, and other sufferings.
It will soon burn away.”Because of their evil karmas,
These sinful people will not be able
To hear even the names of the Three Treasures
During asamkhya kalpas.To those who have accumulated merits,
And who are gentle and upright,
And who see me living here,
Expounding the Dharma,
I say:
“The duration of my life is immeasurable.”
To those who see me after a long time,
I say, “It is difficult to see a Buddha.”I can do all this by the power of my wisdom.
The light of my wisdom knows no bound.
The duration of my life is innumerable kalpas.
I obtained this longevity by ages of practices.All of you, wise men!
Have no doubts about this!
Remove your doubts, have no more!
My words are true, not false.
The bottom line:
I know who is practicing the Way and who is not.
Therefore I expound various teachings
To all living beings
According to their capacities.I am always thinking:
‘How shall I cause all living beings
To enter into the unsurpassed Way
And quickly become Buddhas?’