The previous chapter, “The Duration of the Life of the Tathagata,” explained that the Buddha’s life span is eternal. This teaching is the most important of the Lotus Sutra. Therefore, the merits or benefits which the teaching brings us must be immeasurably great. That indeed is the case. This chapter, the “Variety of Merits,” minutely delineates the benefits coming to anyone who hears Chapter Sixteen and accepts it by faith. The “variety” referred to means classifying and explaining those benefits in detail.