Day 4 finishes Chapter 2, Expedients, and completes the first of eight volumes of the Lotus Sutra.

We begin with a review of why 5,000 people walked out when the Buddha began to talk of his relying on expedients to teach the Dharma.

Some bhikṣus and bhikṣuṇīs
Were arrogant.
Some upāsakas were self-conceited.
Some upāsikās were unfaithful.
Those four kinds of devotees
Were five thousand in number.

They could not see their own faults.
They could not observe all the precepts.
They were reluctant to heal their own wounds.
Those people of little wisdom are gone.
They were the dregs of this congregation.
They were driven away by my powers and virtues.

They had too few merits and virtues
To receive the Dharma.
Now there are only sincere people here.
All twigs and leaves are gone.

“Dull” people needed expedients but some people confused those expedients with “enlightenment.”

I never said to them:
“You will be able to attain the enlightenment of the Buddha.”
I never said this
Because time was not yet ripe for it.
Now is the time to say it.
I will expound the Great Vehicle definitely.
I expounded various sūtras of the nine elements
According to the capacities of all living beings.
I expounded various sūtras
Because those sūtras were a basis for the Great Vehicle.

The promise:

Any Śrāvaka or Bodhisattva
Who hears even a gāthā
Of this sūtra which I am to expound
Will undoubtedly become a Buddha.

The Buddha is not stingy. He holds nothing back:

Know this, Śāriputra!
I once vowed that I would cause
All living beings to become
Exactly as I am.

That old vow of mine
Has now been fulfilled.
I lead all living beings
Into the Way to Buddhahood.

A summary of how we got to this point:

People of this world suffer:

Śāriputra, know this!
Seeing with the eyes of the Buddha
The living beings of the six regions, I thought:
“They are poor, and devoid of merits and wisdom.
They incessantly suffer because they are taken
To the rough road of birth and death.
They cling to the five desires
Just as a yak loves its tail.
They are occupied with greed and cravings,
And blinded by them.
They do not seek the Buddha who has great power.
They do not seek the Way to eliminate sufferings.
They are deeply attached to wrong views.
They are trying to stop suffering by suffering.”

Seeing this caused Śākyamuni to arose great compassion and attain enlightenment. But he was unsure whether he could save everyone.

On that occasion King Brahman,
Heavenly-King Śakra,
The four heavenly world-guardian kings,
Great-Freedom God, and other gods [of each world],
And thousands of millions of their attendants
Joined their hands together [towards me] respectfully,
Bowed to me,
And asked me to turn the wheel of the Dharma.

Śākyamuni questioned whether the people would appreciate the Buddha-Vehicle and chose to do what past Buddhas had done and used expedients. In response, the Buddhas of the ten quarters appeared and suggested:

Men of little wisdom wish to hear
The teachings of the Lesser Vehicle.
They do not believe that they will become Buddhas.
Therefore, we show them
Various fruits of enlightenment.
Although we expound the Three Vehicles,
Our purpose is to teach only Bodhisattvas.

And so the words Nirvāṇa, Arhat, Dharma, and Saṃgha came into existence. But then Śākyamuni was confronted by “many sons of mine, thousands and billions in number, seeking the enlightenment of the Buddha.” They had already heard the expedient teachings from past Buddhas.

I thought:
“I appeared in this world
In order to expound my wisdom.
Now is the time to do this.”

Śāriputra, know this!
Men of dull capacity and of little wisdom cannot believe the Dharma.
Those who are attached to the appearances of things are arrogant.
They cannot believe it, either.

I am now joyful and fearless.
I have laid aside all expedient teachings.
I will expound only unsurpassed enlightenment
to Bodhisattvas.

The Bodhisattvas who hear the Dharma
Will be able to remove the mesh of doubts.
The twelve hundred Arhats also
Will become Buddhas.

All the Buddhas in the past, present and future
Expounded, are expounding, and will expound
In the same manner the Dharma beyond comprehension.
I also will expound it in the same manner.