Furthermore, Ajita (which is the name of Maitreya Bodhisattva), if someone hears of the long duration of the Tathagata’s life and can understand its profound meaning, the merit they obtain will be limitless. Such a person will inevitably awaken the supreme wisdom that is identical to that of the Buddha. How much more so for someone who extensively hears this sutra or encourages others to hear it, or who practices it themselves or encourages others to practice it, or who copies it or encourages others to copy it, or who makes offerings to this classic with flowers, fine incense, necklaces, jeweled banners, flags, canopies, treasures, or lamps of fragrant oil or ghee. The merit of such a person is even more infinite and boundless, leading them to realize the All-Encompassing Wisdom possessed by the Buddha.
Ajita, if a good man or woman hears me speak of the long duration of the Tathagata’s life, believes it deeply without doubt, and understands its meaning, they will see the Buddha constantly residing on Vulture Peak, surrounded by great Bodhisattvas and Sravaka disciples, preaching the Lotus Sutra. They will also see that the ground of this Saha world is made of lapis lazuli, flat and even. They will be able to see the Pure Land; they will see that our world is also a Pure Land. Because you no longer cling to appearances, our world becomes a Pure Land. All distinctions, differences, highs and lows, and impurities are caused by your discrimination. If you do not cling to appearances and discriminate, then you will see that our Saha world is also a Pure Land. The ground becomes level because the unevenness of the earth is caused by our minds—it is the uneven minds of sentient beings. If your mind is not level, the ground is not level. You will see the earth of this Saha world made of lapis lazuli, pure, untainted, and flat. Our minds should naturally be like this: pure and level. The ground is perfectly square and even, with roads in all eight directions bordered by gold from the Jambu River. Rows of seven-jeweled trees line the paths, and all the pavilions and viewing towers are made of the seven treasures, with Bodhisattvas living within them. If someone can observe such a realm, you should know that this person has deep faith and understanding of the Lotus Sutra.
Furthermore, after the Tathagata’s parinirvana, if someone hears this sutra and does not slander it but feels joy in their heart, you should know that this person has deep faith and understanding of the Lotus Sutra. How much more so for someone who can read, recite, and uphold it; such a person is as if the Tathagata always rests upon the crown of their head.
Ajita, these good men and women no longer need to build stupas for my relics or construct monasteries, nor do they need to provide the fourfold offerings of food, clothing, bedding, and medicine to the Sangha. Why is this? Because for these good men and women to uphold, read, and recite this sutra is itself equivalent to establishing stupas and monasteries and making offerings to the Sangha. It is equivalent to using the Buddha’s relics to build a tower of the seven treasures, tall and wide, narrowing gradually from the base up to the Brahma Heaven. Upon the tower hang various banners and jeweled bells, with flowers, fine incense, necklaces, scented unguents, burning incense, drums, music, flutes, and lutes performing various dances and subtle melodies in praise. Such offerings continue for countless billions of eons.
Ajita, if after my parinirvana, someone hears this sutra and can faithfully uphold it, or copies it themselves or encourages others to copy it, they have essentially built a monastery. This monastery is made of red sandalwood, with thirty-two halls, and is the height of eight Tala trees, tall, vast, and magnificently adorned. That is to say, transcribing this sutra is equivalent to building a monastery and a stupa, and these buildings are extremely solemn. It does not matter if your handwriting is good or bad; the “building” you create is magnificent. We might transcribe with wild strokes, yet the Buddha still says the house you built is very solemn; finishing the transcription is enough. It has thirty-two halls and is eight Tala trees high—see, your words will turn into such things, tall, vast, and magnificent. Therefore, everyone should vow to finish the transcription; you must not stop halfway and leave behind an “unfinished building,” right?
Thousands of monks live within it, featuring gardens, baths, walking paths, and meditation caves, with no lack of clothing, food, bedding, medicine, and musical instruments. The number of such monasteries and pavilions can reach hundreds of thousands of billions, beyond calculation. This is equivalent to presenting such numerous offerings before us to provide for the Buddha and the Sangha. Therefore, I say that after the Tathagata’s parinirvana, if someone can uphold, read, and recite this sutra, copy it themselves or have others copy it, and make offerings to the scrolls, then they no longer need to build stupas and temples, construct monasteries, or make offerings to the Sangha to accumulate merit. How much more so if, while upholding this sutra, they can also practice the six paramitas of generosity, morality, patience, diligence, meditation, and wisdom.
The merit of these people is even more superior; it can be said to be infinite and boundless, as vast as the void! To the east, south, west, north, the four intermediate directions, and above and below, it is infinite and boundless like space. The merit of these people is just like that, and they will quickly realize the All-Encompassing Wisdom that is identical to the Buddha’s. If someone recites this sutra, explains it to others, copies it themselves or has others copy it, and simultaneously builds stupas and monasteries, makes offerings to and praises the Sravaka monks, and praises the merits of the Bodhisattvas in hundreds of thousands of billions of ways—furthermore, if they can explain this Lotus Sutra skillfully according to the different conditions and capacities of others, following the meaning of the text; if they can maintain pure precepts, study together with those who are gentle and harmonious, remain patient without anger, stay firm in will, prioritize meditation, and attain deep states of samadhi; and if they can be courageously diligent, perform good deeds, possess sharp wisdom, and be skillful in answering difficult questions—Ajita, if after my parinirvana, good men and women can have such various virtues while upholding, reading, and reciting this sutra, you should know that these people have already set out for the place of enlightenment. They are close to supreme perfect awakening and are already sitting beneath the Bodhi tree where they will eventually achieve Buddhahood. Ajita, in the places where these good men and women sit, stand, or pass by, a stupa should be built, and all heavenly beings should make offerings to them as if they were the Buddha’s own stupa. This is the merit of reading this sutra. These merits are many; let us continue to see—these are all things we shall obtain. Remember, you have gained many, many treasures.
There is also the merit of rejoicing in the Lotus Sutra. Even if we have not copied it or upheld it, for those who did not have time to transcribe it, as long as we sit here and rejoice with a single word of praise—”Ah! The Lotus Sutra is wonderful!”—then that is enough.
Shakyamuni Buddha said to Maitreya Bodhisattva: Ajita, after the Tathagata’s parinirvana, if there are bhiksus, bhiksunis, upasakas, upasikas, or other wise people, whether old or young, who hear this sutra and rejoice in it, they will go out from the assembly to other places—to monasteries, open spaces, cities, streets, alleys, villages, or fields—and tell what they have heard to their parents and kinsmen according to their own ability. These people, after hearing it, also rejoice and tell others, and those others, after hearing it, also rejoice and pass it on to yet others, repeating this up to the fiftieth person. Ajita, I shall now declare the merit of this fiftieth person who rejoices in the Lotus Sutra; you must listen carefully. Even if you only remember a line or two of the Lotus Sutra and go out to tell others— perhaps you don’t remember everything it says, but you remember a line or two, like what happened with Bhaisajyaraja Bodhisattva, telling even one or two stories is fine—this is called rejoicing in accord.
If in four million billion asankhyeya worlds there are sentient beings in the six realms—devas, humans, asuras, animals, hungry ghosts, and hell-dwellers—born in various ways, such as from eggs, from wombs, from moisture, or by transformation; beings with form or without form; beings with thought, without thought, or neither with nor without thought; beings without feet, or with two, four, or many feet—among all such beings, if someone, seeking blessings, satisfies all their desires according to what each realm of beings wants, giving them whatever they need; if they provide every being with gold, silver, lapis lazuli, giant clam shells, agate, coral, amber, and various wonderful treasures that fill the entire world of Jambudvipa, as well as elephant and horse carriages and palaces and pavilions built of the seven treasures—in the past it was described this way, now it might be various cars and villas. Such a great donor gives in this way for eighty years and then thinks: “I have already given these beings various things for enjoyment and satisfied their desires, but now these beings are aging; they are over eighty, their hair is white and faces wrinkled, and they will soon face death. Now I should teach them with the Buddha Dharma.” Thereupon, he assembles these beings and declares the Buddha Dharma to guide them, causing them to feel joy and quickly realize the four fruits of the Small Vehicle: Srotapanna, Sakadagamin, Anagamin, and Arhat. These beings have been liberated from all afflictions, attained mastery in various deep meditations, and obtained the eight liberations. What do you think? Is the merit obtained by this great donor not vast?
Maitreya Bodhisattva said: World-Honored One, this person’s merit is very great, it could be called infinite and boundless. Shakyamuni Buddha then said: I tell you now, this person’s merit from giving various items for enjoyment to the beings of the six realms in four hundred billion asankhyeya worlds and leading them all to achieve Arhatship is not equal to the merit of the aforementioned fiftieth person who hears even a single verse of the Lotus Sutra and rejoices in passing it on. It does not even reach one-hundredth, one- thousandth, or one-hundred-thousand-billionth of that merit; even using arithmetic to calculate or metaphors to explain, one could not know its infinite and boundless merit. Ajita, if this fiftieth person who heard the Lotus Sutra in succession and rejoiced in passing it on obtains such infinite and boundless asankhyeya merit, how much more so for the person who first heard this sutra in the assembly and felt a heart of joy. Their merit is far greater than that of the fiftieth person, so much so that even infinite and boundless asankhyeya numbers cannot serve as a comparison.
We might say that everything is like a dream, a phantom, or a bubble; we are Mahayana Bodhisattvas who do not cling to appearances, so we do not want merit. But we do want merit! If we do not have merit, we cannot manifest the Buddha’s thirty-two marks and eighty secondary characteristics in time and space. Every mark is a result of merit and causes and conditions; merit is required to manifest them. Merit is like the bricks for building a house; without that merit, the house cannot be built. Sentient beings are attached to appearances, and there is nothing you can do about that. You must manifest a solemn Dharma appearance in the world to save all beings, so we want merit. For the sake of compassion for sentient beings, we want merit; we need merit to manifest the Buddha’s fine features and use those features to save all beings. Therefore, we want all these merits.
Furthermore, Ajita, if someone, for the sake of hearing this sutra, goes specifically to a monastery and, whether sitting or standing, hears this sutra for even a short moment, then because of this merit, when they are reborn in the future, they will possess beautiful elephants, horses, carriages, and palanquins decorated with treasures, or be born in the heavens in a palace of the seven treasures. If another person is sitting where the Lotus Sutra is being preached and someone else comes, and they invite them to sit and listen, or share their seat, then their merit will cause them to be reborn in the future in the place of Shakra, or the Brahma King, or a Universal Monarch. Nowadays, we do much charitable work and give much in charity to get good rewards and ascend to heaven. If one does bad deeds, one falls down. But now, simply by hearing the Lotus Sutra, we have such merit that we can ascend to the heavenly realms.
Ajita, if someone says to another, “There is a scripture called the Lotus Sutra, we can go and listen to it together,” and the other person accepts the advice and hears the sutra for even a brief moment, the merit of that person will cause them to be born in the same place as Bodhisattvas who have attained various dharanis in their future lives. They will be of sharp faculties and great wisdom, and for hundreds of thousands of lifetimes, they will never suffer from muteness. Their breath will not be foul, and they will not suffer from diseases of the tongue or mouth. Their teeth will not be stained, nor yellow, nor black, nor sparse, nor missing, nor uneven, nor crooked. Their lips will not droop, nor be shriveled, nor rough, nor have sores, nor be cracked, nor deformed, nor slanted. The Buddha is so compassionate that he lists all these merits for us one by one. Their lips will not be overly thick or large; there will be nothing about them to cause aversion. The nose will be straight, not flat or crooked. The face will not be dark, nor long and narrow, nor hollow; there will be no features that people dislike. In short, his lips, tongue, and teeth will be firm and beautiful; his nose will be high and straight, and his face will be round and full. We are all naturally like this, but we have marred ourselves! The eyebrows will be high and long, the forehead wide and smooth, possessing all beautiful features. In every place they are born, they will be able to see the Buddha, hear the Dharma, have deep faith, and accept the Buddha’s teachings. Ajita, the merit of encouraging one person to go and hear the Dharma is already like this; how much more for one who can wholeheartedly hear, read, recite, and explain it for the sake of the assembly and practice according to the Dharma. This is the merit of rejoicing in the Lotus Sutra.