Day 31 covers all of Chapter 27, King Wonderful-Adornment as the Previous Life of a bodhisattva
The example of the two sons who seek to convince their father to listen to the Buddha Cloud-Thunderpeal-Star-King-Flower-Wisdom lives for me as a demonstration of how being a living example brings benefits to others.
The two sons, Pure-Store and Pure-Eyes, already had great powers, but more important:
They also had already obtained [the four states of mind towards all living beings:] compassion, loving-kindness, joy and impartiality.
The demonstration they put on caused their father, the King Wonderful-Adornment, “to understand the Dharma by faith.”
After [the king] renounced the world, the king acted according to the Sūtra of the Lotus Flower of the Wonderful Dharma constantly and strenuously for eighty-four thousand years. Then he practiced the samādhi for the adornment of all pure merits. Then he went up to the sky seven times as high as the tāla-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.’
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-saṃbodhi. 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-saṃbodhi.’
