Day 32 covers Chapter 28, The Encouragement of Universal-Sage Bodhisattva, closing the Eighth Volume of the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.

Having last month heard Śākyamuni’s praise Universal-Sage, we conclude Chapter 28, The Encouragement of Universal-Sage Bodhisattva and finish Volume Eight of the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.

“Universal-Sage! Anyone who keeps, reads and recites this sūtra [in the later five hundred years] after [my extinction], will not be attached to clothing, bedding, food or drink, or any other thing for living. What he wishes will not remain unfulfilled. He will be able to obtain the rewards of his merits in his present life. Those who abuse him, saying, ‘You are perverted. You are doing this for nothing,’ will be reborn blind in their successive lives in retribution for their sin. Those who make offerings to rum and praise him, will be able to obtain rewards in their present life. Those who, upon seeing the keeper of this sūtra, blame him justly or unjustly, will suffer from white leprosy in their present life. Those who laugh at him will have few teeth, ugly lips, flat noses, contorted limbs, squint eyes, and foul and filthy bodies, and suffer from bloody pus of scabs, abdominal dropsy, tuberculosis, and other serious diseases in their successive lives. Therefore, Universal-Sage! When you see the keeper of this sūtra in the distance, you should rise from your seat, go to him, receive him, and respect him just as you respect me.

When the Buddha expounded this chapter of the Encouragement of Universal-Sage, as many Bodhisattvas as there are sands in the River Ganges obtained the dhārāṇis by which they could memorize hundreds of thousands of billions of repetitions of teachings, and as many Bodhisattvas as the particles of dust of one thousand million Sumeru-worlds [understood how to] practice the Way of Universal-Sage.

When the Buddha expounded this sūtra, the great congregation including the Bodhisattvas headed by Universal-Sage, the Śrāvakas headed by Śāriputra, and the other living beings such as gods, dragons, men and nonhuman beings, had great joy, kept the words of the Buddha, bowed [to him], and retired.

[Here ends] the Eighth Volume of the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.

The Introduction to the Lotus Sutra offers this on The Merits of This Teaching:

[Chapter 28, The Encouragement of Universal-Sage Bodhisattva] is the last chapter of the Lotus Sutra. By the merits of this teaching, as many Bodhisattvas as there are sands in the River Ganges obtained the dharanis of Samantabhadra Bodhisattva, and as many Bodhisattvas as the particles of dust filling the great universe grasped how to practice the Way of Universal-Sage.

When the Buddha finished expounding this Sutra, all the congregation, including Bodhisattvas, deities, and other living beings, rejoiced greatly, memorized the words of the Buddha, bowed before him, and departed from Mount Sacred Eagle.