Day 31 covers Chapter 27, King Wonderful-Adornment as the Previous Life of a Bodhisattva.

One of my favorite chapters, I always have a hard time deciding what to focus on. For example, this time through I was struck by the powers of the two sons and how they obtained them.

The two sons had great supernatural powers, merits, virtues and wisdom. A long time ago, they had already practiced the Way which Bodhisattva should practice.

And…

They also had already obtained [the four states of mind towards all living beings:] compassion, loving-kindness, joy and impartiality.

The Buddha of this time, Cloud-Thunderpeal-Star-King-Flower-Wisdom, expounded the Lotus Sutra with the aim of leading the boys’ father, King Wonderful-Adornment, who held heretical views. The sons, Pure-Store and Pure-Eyes, for their part, don’t immediately approach their father. Instead, they ask their mother to go hear the Lotus Sutra from Cloud-Thunderpeal-Star-King-Flower-Wisdom. It is the mother who reminds her children that they can’t abandon their father. That’s an interesting fact that stands out today.

The mother said to them, ‘Show some wonders to your father out of your compassion towards him! If he sees [the wonders], he will have his mind purified and allow us to go to that Buddha.’

Thereupon the two sons went up to the sky seven times as high as the tala-tree, and displayed various wonders because they were thinking of their father.

And wonders they performed.

By displaying these various wonders, they purified the mind of their father, that is, of the king, and caused him to understand the Dharma by faith.

Seeing [these wonders displayed by] the supernatural powers of his sons, the father had the greatest joy that he had ever had.

For me, the importance of this chapter is the role the children played. As they explain to their mother after convincing their father to hear the Buddha:

We did the work of the Buddha for the sake of our father.

And perhaps more important is the father’s perspective on what has happened:

After he renounced the world, the king acted according to the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma constantly and strenuously for eighty-four thousand years. Then he practiced the samadhi for the adornment of all pure merits. Then he went up to the sky seven times as high as the tala-tree, and said to that Buddha, ‘World-Honored One! These two sons of mine did the work of the Buddha. They converted me from wrong views by displaying wonders. They caused me to dwell peacefully in your teachings. They caused me to see you. These two sons of mine are my teachers. They appeared in my family in order to benefit me. They inspired the roots of good which I had planted in my previous existence.’

Underline the words They inspired the roots of good which I had planted in my previous existence. The sons were the king’s teacher, but the seed of good that sprouted already existed in the king.

Thereupon Cloud-Thunderpeal-Star-King-Flower-Wisdom Buddha said to King Wonderful-Adornment, ‘So it is, so it is. It is just as you say. The good men or women who plant the roots of good will obtain teachers in their successive lives. The teachers will do the work of the Buddha, show the Way [to them], teach them, benefit them, cause them to rejoice, and cause them to enter into the Way to Anuttara-samyak-sambodhi. Great King, know this! A teacher is a great cause [of your enlightenment] because he leads you, and causes you to see a Buddha and aspire for Anuttara-samyak-sambodhi.

Last year Ryusho Jeffus, who runs Myosho-ji, Wonderful Voice Temple, in Charlotte, NC, published a children’s book based on this story from the Lotus Sutra. The book, “King Wonderful Adornment,” was illustrated by Kanjo Grohman, a novice Nichiren Shu priest in training at Seattle Choezan Enkyo-ji.

I love the illustrations but the book doesn’t go beyond the point where the king agrees to go hear the Buddha. Missing for me is the point of the story: the father’s roots of good and the promise that “The good men or women who plant the roots of good will obtain teachers in their successive lives.” Children reading this book will miss the best part: The children – with their compassion, loving-kindness, joy and impartiality – were their father’s teacher.