Day 23 covers all of Chapter 18, The Merits of a Person Who Rejoices at Hearing This Sutra, and opens Chapter 19, The Merits of the Teacher of the Dharma.

One of my favorite concepts in the Lotus Sutra is the example of the 50th person to hear and rejoice.

The Buddha said to Maitreya Bodhisattva-mahasattva: ‘Ajita! Suppose a bhiksu, a bhiksuni, an upasaka, an upasika, or some other wise person, whether young or old, rejoices at hearing this sutra in a congregation after my extinction. After leaving the congregation, he or she goes to some other place, for instance, to a monastery, a retired place, a city, a street, a town, or a village. There he or she expounds this sutra, as he or she has heard it, to his or her father, mother, relative, friend or acquaintance as far as he or she can. Another person who has heard [this sutra from him or her], rejoices, goes [to some other place] and expounds it to a third person. The third person also rejoices at hearing it and expounds it to a fourth person. In this way this sutra is heard by a fiftieth person. Ajita! Now I will tell you the merits of the fiftieth good man or woman who rejoices at hearing [this sutra].

And those merits are huge.

“Ajita! The merits of the fiftieth person who rejoices at hearing this Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma are immeasurable, limitless, asamkhya. Needless to say, so are the merits of the first person who rejoices at hearing [this Sutra] in the congregation. His merits are immeasurable, limitless, asamkhya and incomparable.

And this promise makes me want to stand outside the Sacramento Nichiren Buddhist Church waiving a sign when services are scheduled:

Anyone who[, while he is staying outside the place of the expounding of the Dharma,] says to another person, ‘Let us go and hear the sutra called the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma which is being expounded [in that place],’ and causes him to hear it even for a moment, in his next life by his merits, will be able to live with the Bodhisattvas who obtain dharanis.

Of course, that’s a minimum-wage merit compared to the earnings of those who devote their lives to the Lotus Sutra:

“Ajita, look! The merits of the person who causes even a single man to go and hear the Dharma are so many. It is needless to speak of the merits of the person who hears [this sutra] with all his heart, reads it, recites it, expounds it to the great multitude, and acts according to its teachings.

And in gathas:

Anyone who persuades others to sit and hear this sutra
In the place where the Dharma is expounded,
Will be able to obtain the seat of Sakra or of Brahman
Or of a wheel-turning-holy-king by his merits.

Needless to say, boundless will be the merits
Of the per on who hears this sutra with all his heart,
And expounds its meanings,
And acts according to its teachings.

In the next chapter we get a wonderful, as in full of wonder, list of merits to be given to the teacher of the Dharma.

The good men or women who keep, read, recite, expound or copy this Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma, will be able to obtain eight hundred merits of the eye, twelve hundred merits of the ear, eight hundred merits of the nose, twelve hundred merits of the tongue, eight hundred merits of the body, and twelve hundred merits of the mind. They will be able to adorn and purify their six sense-organs with these merits.

And this will be done with their natural sense organs.

Although they have not yet obtained heavenly eyes,
They will be able to see all this
With their natural eyes.

And…

Their ears given by their parents will be purified, not defiled.
With their natural ears,
They will be able to recognize the sounds of voices
Of the one thousand million sumeru-worlds.

One final point: Today’s two chapters listing the merits speak consistently about “good men or women.” The merits to be earned from the Lotus Sutra are not limited to men or to women reborn as men. Even without the Devadatta chapter, the Lotus Sutra benefits men and women equally. In fact, I would argue that the lesson of the Dragon King’s daughter is only peripherally about the enlightenment of women, which is covered in the promises made to Sakyamuni’s step-mother and former wife in Chapter 13, Encouragement for Keeping this Sutra. The 8-year-old dragon girl is both very young and a member of the non-human world. Her quick transformation and enlightenment underlines the universal power of the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma, complementing the evil Devadatta, who was Sakyamuni’s teacher at one point and tormentor at another and eventually becomes a Buddha himself.