Day 22 covers all of Chapter 17, The Variety of Merits.
Thereupon the World-Honored One, wishing to repeat what he had said, sang in gāthās:
Anyone who keeps this sūtra
After my extinction
Will be able to obtain
Innumerable merits a previously stated.He should be considered
To have already made various offerings.
He should be considered
To have already built a stupa
With a yasti soaring up to the Heaven of Brahman,
The upper part of it being the smaller,
A stupa which was adorned with the seven treasures,
And with thousands of billions of jeweled bells
Sounding wonderful when fanned by the wind.
He should be considered to have already enshrined
My śarīras in this stupa,
And offered flowers, incense, necklaces, heavenly garments,
And various kinds of music to it,
And lit lamps of perfumed oil around it for innumerable kalpas.Anyone who keeps this sūtra in the evil world
In the age of the decline of my teachings
Should be considered
To have already made these offerings.Anyone who keeps this sūtra should be considered
To have already built a monastery
Made of the cow-head candana,
installed with thirty-two beautiful hall ,
Eight times as tall as the tala-tree,
Provided with delicious food and drink,
With wonderful garments and bedding,
With accommodations for one hundred thousand people,
With gardens, forests, and pools for bathing,
And with promenades and caves for the practice of dhyāna.
He should be considered lo have already offered
That monastery to me in my presence.Anyone who not only understands
This sūtra by faith
But also keeps, reads and recites it,
And copies it, or causes others to copy it,
And strews flowers, incense,
And incense powder to a copy of it,
And lights lamps of the perfumed oil
Of sumanas, campaka, and atimuktaka
Around the copy of this sūtra
And offers the light thus produced to it,
Will be able to obtain innumerable merits.
His merits will be as limitless as the sky.Needless to say, so will be the merits of the person
Who keeps this sūtra, gives alms, observes the precepts,
Practices patience, prefers dhyāna-concentrations,
And does not get angry or speak ill of others.Anyone who respects the stupa-mausoleum,
Who is modest before bhikṣus,
Who gives up self-conceit,
Who always thinks of wisdom,
Who does not get angry when asked questions,
And who expounds the Dharma
According to the capacities of the questioners,
Will be able to obtain innumerable merits.
The Daily Dharma from Sept. 5, 2021, offers this:
Needless to say, so will be the merits of the person
Who keeps this sūtra, gives alms, observes the precepts,
Practices patience, prefers dhyāna-concentrations,
And does not get angry or speak ill of others.
The Buddha sings these verses in Chapter Seventeen of the Lotus Sūtra. In this chapter, he explains that anyone who understands his ever-present existence, even for a moment, will gain the merit of ridding themselves of innumerable delusions. In his previous teachings on the perfections of a Bodhisattva, he showed that our practices of generosity, discipline, patience, enthusiastic perseverance, concentration and wisdom, all these will help us to see the world as it is. Realizing that the Buddha is always here teaching us helps us to look for him. But this realization does not obscure the necessity of putting his teachings into practice so that we may benefit all beings.
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