In considering the merits of religious practice, we must place great importance on being upright in character and gentle in mind, as taught in chapter 16. We should focus our gaze on the Buddha alone, not worrying ourselves about divine favors in this world. We should be united with the Buddha and act obediently according to his guidance. If our actual life should consequently change for the better, that is a natural phenomenon produced because our minds and actions have been set in the direction of the truth. We should receive such phenomena gratefully and frankly.

The merits of religious practice are preached in three chapters of the latter half of the Lotus Sutra: chapter 17, “Discrimination of Merits”; chapter 18, “The Merits of Joyful Acceptance”; and chapter 19, “The Merits of the Preacher.” We should read these chapters bearing in mind the basic significance of merits as discussed above.