Day 29 covers all of Chapter 25, The Universal Gate of World-Voice-Perceiver Bodhisattva.

Having last month focused on his wisdom, it’s time to conclude the chapter.

Suppose you are in a law-court for a suit,
Or on a battlefield, and are seized with fear.
If you think of the power of World-Voice-Perceiver,
All your enemies will flee away.

His wonderful voice [comes from] his perceiving the voice of the world.
It is like the voice of Brahman, like the sound of a tidal wave.
It excels all the other voices of the world.
Therefore, think of him constantly!

Do not doubt him even at a moment’s thought!
The Pure Saint World-Voice-Perceiver is reliable
When you suffer, and when you are confronted
With the calamity of death.

By all these merits, he sees
All living beings with his compassionate eyes.
The ocean of his accumulated merits is boundless.
Therefore, bow before him!

The Daily Dharma from Oct. 4, 2015, offers this thought:

Do not doubt him even at a moment’s thought!
The Pure Saint World-Voice-Perceiver is reliable
When you suffer, and when you are confronted
With the calamity of death.

Day 28 covers all of Chapter 24, Wonderful-Voice Bodhisattva, and concludes the Seventh Volume of the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.

Having last month covered the greeting Wonderful-Voice Bodhisattva delivers, it’s time to consider the road traveled to get here.

Thereupon Flower-Virtue Bodhisattva said to Sakyamuni Buddha:

World-Honored One! What root of good did this Wonderful-­Voice Bodhisattva plant and what kind of meritorious deeds did he do in order to obtain this supernatural power?

Sakyamuni Buddha said to Flower-Virtue Bodhisattva:

There was once a Buddha called Cloud-Thunder-Sound-King, the Tathagata, the Arhat, the Samyak-sambuddha. His world was called Appearance-Of-All-Worlds; and the kalpa in which he Lived, Gladly-Seen. [There lived] a Bodhisattva called Wonderful-­Voice [under that Buddha. The Bodhisattva] offered hundreds of thousands of kinds of music and eighty-four thousand patras of the seven treasures to Cloud-Thunder-Sound-King Buddha for twelve thousand years. Because of this, he was able to appear in the world of Pure-Flower-Star-King-Wisdom Buddha, and obtain supernatural power such as this.

Flower-Virtue! What do you think of this? Wonderful-Voice Bodhisattva who had offered the music and the jeweled bowls to Cloud-Thunder-Sound-King Buddha [at that time] was no one but this Wonderful-Voice Bodhisattva-mahasattva [whom you see here now].

Flower-Virtue! This Wonderful-Voice Bodhisattva already made offerings to innumerable Buddhas, attended on them, and planted the roots of virtue a long time ago. He also already saw hundreds of thousands of billions of nayutas of Buddhas, that is, a many Buddhas as there are sands in the River Ganges.

What roots of good could I grow if I put my faith to work?

Day 27 concludes Chapter 23, The Previous Life of Medicine-King Bodhisattva.

In moving step-by-step through each day’s reading of the Lotus Sutra, I sometimes come upon a point at which I’m at a loss for what to say. Today, for example, we have some of the “innumerable merits” of those who hear The Previous Life of Medicine-King Bodhisattva.

For starters:

The woman who hears and keeps this chapter of the Previous Life of Medicine-King Bodhisattva will not be a woman in her next life. The woman who hears this sutra and acts according to the teachings of it in the later five hundred years after my extinction, will be able to be reborn, after her life in this world, [as a man sitting] on the jeweled seat in the lotus flower blooming in the World of Happiness where Amitayus Buddha lives surrounded by great Bodhisattvas. He [no more she] will not be troubled by greed, anger, ignorance, arrogance, jealousy, or any other impurity. He will be able to obtain the supernatural powers of a Bodhisattva and the truth of birthlessness. When he obtains this truth, his eyes will be purified. With his purified eyes, he will be able to see seven billion and two hundred thousand million nayuta Buddhas or Tathagatas, that is, as many Buddhas as there are sands in the River Ganges. At that time those Buddhas will praise him, saying simultaneously from afar, ‘Excellent, excellent, good man! You kept, read and recited this sutra, thought it over, and expounded it to others under Sakyamuni Buddha. Now you have obtained innumerable merits and virtues, which cannot be burned by fire or washed away by water. Your merits cannot be described even by the combined efforts of one thousand Buddhas. Now you have defeated the army of Mara, beaten the forces of birth and death, and annihilated all your enemies. Good man! Hundreds of thousands of Buddhas are now protecting you by their supernatural powers. None of the gods or men in the world surpasses you. None but the Tathagatas, none of the Sravakas or Pratyekabuddhas or Bodhisattvas surpasses you in wisdom and dhyana-concentration.’ Star-King-Flower! [He is a Bodhisattva.] This Bodhisattva will obtain these merits and the power of wisdom.

And then there’s this:

Anyone who rejoices at hearing this chapter of the Previous Life of Medicine-King Bodhisattva and praises [this chapter], saying, ‘Excellent,’ will be able to emit the fragrance of the blue lotus flower from his mouth and the fragrance of the candana of Mt. Ox-Head from his pores, and obtain these merits in his present life.

Many cultural differences between ancient and modern society cloud the meaning of the Lotus Sutra. I find it difficult to imagine, for example, a time when it would be considered a merit to “emit the fragrance of the blue lotus flower from his mouth and the fragrance of the candana of Mt. Ox-Head from his pores, and obtain these merits in his present life.”

Day 26 concludes Chapter 21, The Supernatural Powers of the Tathāgatas, includes Chapter 22, Transmission, and introduces Chapter 23, The Previous Life of Medicine-King Bodhisattva.

Having last month enjoyed the opportunity to “bring joy/To [the Buddhas of] my replicas/And also to Many-Treasures Buddha” and “cause [present, past and future Buddhas] to rejoice” by keeping the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma, it’s time to finish up those Supernatural Powers of the Tathāgatas:

The Buddhas sat at the place of enlightenment,
And obtained the hidden core.
Anyone who keeps this sutra will be able
To obtain the same before long.

Anyone who keeps this sutra
Will be able to expound
The meanings of the teachings,
And the names and words [of this sutra].
Their eloquence will be as boundless
And as unhindered as the wind in the sky.

Anyone who understands why the Buddhas expound [many] sutras,
Who knows the position [of this sutra in the series of sutras],
And who expounds it after my extinction
According to its true meaning,
Will be able to eliminate the darkness
Of the living beings of the world where he walks about,
Just as the light of the sun and the moon
Eliminates alI darkness.
He will be able to cause innumerable Bodhisattvas
To dwell finally in the One Vehicle.

Therefore, the man of wisdom
Who hears the benefits of these merits
And who keeps this sutra after my extinction,
Will be able to attain
The enlightenment of the Buddha
Definitely and doubtlessly.

After more than two decades of practicing with SGI, it was only when I moved to Nichiren Shu and began studying the Lotus Sutra that I came to appreciate what being able to attain the enlightenment of the Buddha means.

Ven. Kenjo Igarashi‘s monthly commentary for September 2015 offered this explanation, something I had never before heard:

Buddhism is the teaching of the Buddha, just as Christianity is the teaching of Jesus Christ and Islam is the teaching of Mohammad.

Ultimately, Buddhism is everyone’s attempt to become a Buddha.

Definitely and doubtlessly.

Day 25 covers all of Chapter 20, Never-Despising Bodhisattva, and opens Chapter 21, The Supernatural Powers of the Tathāgatas.

Having last month covered the vow of the Bodhisattvas who had sprung up from underground, it’s time to review the display of the Supernatural Powers of the Tathāgatas.

Thereupon the World-Honored One displayed his great supernatural powers in the presence of the multitude, which included not only the many hundreds of thousands of billions of Bodhisattva-mahasattvas who had already lived in this Saha-World [before the arrival of the Bodhisattvas from underground], headed by Manjusri, but also bhiksus, bhiksunis, upasakas, upasikas, gods, dragons, yaksas, gandharvas, asuras, garudas, kimmaras, mahoragas, men and nonhuman beings. He stretched out his broad and long tongue upwards until the tip of it reached the World of Brahman. Then he emitted rays of light with an immeasurable variety of colors from his pores. The light illumined all the worlds of the ten quarters. The Buddhas who were sitting on the lion-like seats under th jeweled trees also stretched out their broad and long tongue and emitted innumerable rays of light. Sakyamuni Buddha and the Buddhas under the jeweled trees displayed these supernatural powers of theirs for one hundred thousand years. Then they pulled back their tongues, coughed at the same time, and snapped their fingers. Thes two sounds [of coughing and snapping] reverberated over the Buddha-worlds of the ten quarters, and the ground of those worlds quaked in the six ways. By the supernatural powers of the Buddhas, the living beings of those world , including gods, dragons, yaksas, gandharvas, asuraS, garudas, kimnaras, and mahoragas, men and nonhuman beings, saw the many hundreds of thousands of billions of Buddhas sitting on the lion-like seats under the jeweled trees in this Saha-World. They also saw Sakyamuni Buddha sitting by the side of Many­Treasures Tathagata on the lion-like seat in the stupa of treasures. They also saw that the many hundred of thousands of billions of Bodhisattva-mahasattvas and the four kind of devotees were surrounding Sakyamuni Buddha respectfully. Having seen all this, they had the greatest joy that they had ever had.

Rev. Ryusho Jeffus‘s Lecture on the Lotus Sutra, offers this:

When the bodhisattvas who appeared from beneath the ground made their vow to carry out their practice of the Lotus Sutra in the Saha World after the death of the Buddha, immediately the Buddha gave his assent and praised their vow. There is no place in the sutra where the Buddha gives such a dramatic indicator of his pleasure. The Buddha immediately showed his supernatural powers to all present at the ceremony that is still continuing. His powers were displayed to the worlds of the universe in the ten quarters. He stretched out his long broad tongue, and he also emitted rays of light in various colors from the pores of his skin. All of this is not only seen in the other worlds but allows those in this world to see into those other worlds. All of this causes the other Buddhas, the replica Buddhas, to do the same, as well as coughing and snapping their fingers together. The snapping of fingers and coughing are devices employed by the Buddha to gain attention to an important teaching. And all of the various supernatural phenomena mentioned at this point in the Lotus Sutra serve to further demonstrate the importance of the Buddha accepting the vow made by the Bodhisattvas from Beneath the Ground.
Lecture on the Lotus Sutra

Day 24 concludes Chapter 19, The Merits of the Teacher of the Dharma and closes the Sixth Volume of the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.

Having completed the merits of the mind last month, I circle back to the start, the merits of the nose.

Furthermore, Constant-Endeavor! The good men or women who keep, read, recite, expound or copy this sutra, will be able to obtain eight hundred merits of the nose. With their pure noses, they will be able to recognize all the various things above, below, within and without the one thousand million Sumeru-worlds.

And the “various things” that can be recognized are truly amazing:

He will be able to know by smell
Whether an unborn child is a boy or a girl,
Or a child of ambiguous sex,
Or the embryo of a nonhuman being.

He will be able to know by smell
Whether a woman is an expectant mother,
Or whether she will give an easy birth
To a happy child or not.

The Daily Dharma on Aug. 2, 2016, addressed these merits:

He will be able to know by smell
What a man or a woman is thinking of,
Or whether he or she is greedy, ignorant or angry,
Or whether he or she is doing good.

Or, more to the point, with the Buddha’s nose the world as it is.

Anyone who keeps this sutra
Will be able to have these merits of the nose
Although he has not yet obtained the nose
Of the Bodhisattva [who attained] the Dharma-without-asravas.

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.

Last month, I introduced the Merits of the Teacher of the Dharma. Now for the first of those merits:

They will be able to adorn and purify their six sense-organs with these merits. With their pure eyes given by their parents, these good men or women will be able to see all the mountains, forests, rivers and oceans inside and outside the one thousand million Sumeru-worlds, [each of which is composed of six regions] down to the Avici Hell and up to the Highest Heaven. They also will be able to see the living beings of those worlds, to know the karmas which those living beings are now doing and the region to which each of those living beings is destined to go by his karmas.

Thereupon the World-Honored One, wishing to repeat what he had said, sang in gathas:

Listen! I will tell you of the merits
Of those who fearlessly expound
To the great multitude
This Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.
They will be able to obtain the excellent eyes
Adorned with eight hundred merits.
Their eyes will be pure
Because of this adornment.

With their eyes given by their parents,
They will be able to see Mt. Meru, Mt. Sumeru,
The Surrounding Iron Mountains,
And the other mountains,
And the forests, oceans and rivers
Inside and outside the one thousand million Sumeru-worlds.
They will be able to see the living beings
Of those worlds [each being composed of the six regions]
Down to the Avici Hell and up to th Highest Heaven.
Although they have not yet obtained heavenly eyes,
They will be able to see all this
With their natural eyes.

As I begin walking through these merits, it is important to underscore that these senses are not yet heavenly. In this case, these feats are accomplished “with their eyes given by their parents.”

Day 22 covers all of Chapter 17, The Variety of Merits.

Last week I wrote a blog post about a video lecture on the Pure Land as understood by Nichiren Shu. Today’s reading from Chapter 17 provides another Lotus Sutra quote specifically explaining that the Eternal Buddha is always present and that this Saha World is the Pure Land.

Ajita! The good men or women who hear of my longevity of which I told you, and understand it by firm faith, will be able to see that I am expounding the Dharma on Mt. Grdhrakuta,* surrounded by great Bodhisattvas and Sravakas. They also will be able to see that the ground of this Saha-World is made of lapis lazuli, that the ground is even, that the eight roads are marked off by ropes of jambanada gold, that the jeweled trees are standing in lines, and that the magnificent buildings are made of treasures. They also will be able to see that the Bodhisattvas are living in those buildings. They will be able to see all this because, know this, they have already understood [my longevity] by firm faith.

*Mount Sacred Eagle

Day 21 covers all of Chapter 16, The Duration of the Life of the Tathāgata.

It amazes me that I can still have “ah-ha!” moments when reciting the Lotus Sutra. Today, I had one of those moments when reading the Parable of the Skillful Physician and His Sick Chilren.

To set the stage, we have the children who got into some poison and are rolling on the floor in agony by the time their father returns home.

At that time the father returned home. Some sons had already lost their right minds while the others still had not.

I bring this up because of how it plays out when the physician gives his children the medicine he says has a good color, smell and taste.

Notice here that the children can see the medicine has a good color and they can sniff the medicine to test its smell. But they must have faith in their father and his talents as a physician in order to believe the medicine tastes good before they take it.

And so…

The sons who had not lost their right minds saw that this good medicine had a good color and smell, took it at once, and were cured completely. But the sons who had already lost their right minds did not consent to take the medicine given to them, although they rejoiced at seeing their father come home and asked him to cure them, because they were so perverted that they did not believe that this medicine having a good color and smell had a good taste.

This is a wonderful example of faith because that faith – accepting that the medicine will taste good – is tested and confirmed. Once we take the medicine we realize it does, indeed, taste great.

Day 20 completes Chapter 15, The Appearance of Bodhisattvas from Underground, and concludes the Fifth Volume of the Sutra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma.

Last month, covered Maitreya’s statement that “We have never seen these many thousands of billions of Bodhisattvas.” So today…

Thereupon Sakyamuni Buddha said to Maitreya Bodhisattva:

Excellent, excellent, Ajita! You asked me a very important question. All of you should concentrate your minds, wear the armor of endeavors, and be resolute. Now I will reveal, I will show, the wisdom of the Buddhas, their supernatural power without hindrance, their dauntless powers like a lion’s, and their great power of bravery.

Thereupon the World-Honored One, wishing to repeat what he said, sang in gathas:

Exert yourselves and concentrate your minds!
Now I will tell you about this matter.
Do not doubt me!
My wisdom is difficult to understand.

Arouse your power of faith,
And do good patiently!
You will be able to hear the Dharma
That you have never heard before.

Now I will relieve you.
Do not doubt me!
Do not be afraid!
I do not tell a lie.
My wisdom is immeasurable.
The highest Dharma that I attained
Is profound and difficult to understand.
Now I will expound it.
Listen to me with all your hearts!

The Daily Dharma of Oct. 19, 2016, had this response:

Excellent, excellent, Ajita! You asked me a very important question. All of you should concentrate your minds, wear the armor of endeavors, and be resolute. Now I will reveal, I will show, the wisdom of the Buddhas, their supernatural powers without hindrance, their dauntless powers like a lion’s, and their great power of bravery.

I wear my armor of endeavors. I am resolute. I have aroused my power of faith. I am listening with all my heart.