Chapter X: is called The Preacher and contains an address to the Lord

of Healing, or King of Medicine, in which the exceeding value of the Lotus Sutra is declared. So valuable indeed is it that if any one hear a single verse, or a single word of it, and by a single thought delight in it, their perfect enlightenment is assured. Any one who recites one verse only of the Sutra, or offers incense to it, or merely bows before it, foretells thereby his early escape from the realm of men and his translation to buddhahood. On the other hand, though all other blasphemy, even of the Buddha, may be considered light, he who blasphemes the Sutra with a single word, or abuses one reciting it, is guilty of what the Christian would term the sin against the Holy Ghost. On the contrary, he who recites the Sutra is thereby clad in the Buddha’s mantle and adorns himself with the Buddha’s adornment; such a one is worthy of the highest reverence and of the richest gifts; for the Lotus is the secret and mystic doctrine of the Buddha.

It is in Chapter XI that the drama reaches the supreme moment of its presentation. A great stupa or shrine, superbly decorated, appears in the sky, whose light and fragrance and music fill the whole earth. Gods and spirits rain flowers and perfumes upon it. From its midst comes a great voice: World-honoured Śakyamuni! Thou art able to preach to the great assembly the Wonderful Law-flower Sutra of universal and mighty Wisdom, which none but bodhisattvas can learn, and which the Buddhas keep under their own guardianship. What thou proclaimest is the Truth.

The vast multitude of disciples pray eagerly that the Occupant of this heavenly shrine may be revealed to them. They are told that he who is within is The Ancient Buddha, or as we might perhaps say, The Ancient of Days, whose name means Many Precious things, or Abundant Treasures. Infinite ages ago he had vowed that whenever in any world the Lotus was first proclaimed, there would he be in the midst. Only, if he were to reveal himself, it must be in the presence of the countless host of Buddhas who were the offspring of the Buddha he came to hear. Thereupon Śakyamuni sends forth from between his eyebrows the sacred ray of light, which illuminates all his Buddha-worlds first to the east, then to the south, west, and north, the zenith and nadir. In each direction all the Buddhas and bodhisattvas are revealed preaching to their countless hosts of disciples with ravishing voices, under jewelled canopies. The ray of light is recognized at once as the summons to attend upon the shrine of the Ancient Buddha, and hear that marvel of marvels the preaching of The Lotus. With all their vast trains they come joyfully from east and west, from north and south, from zenith and nadir, each taking up his station in the sky, seated on his lion-throne under his allotted jewel-tree. A gorgeous picture of a Celestial Durbar is thus displayed. Filled is the sky with a countless celestial host, when Śakyamuni Buddha approaches the shrine and with a sound as of thunder withdraws its bolt. The doors swing open to reveal on a lion throne the undissipated body of the Ancient Buddha, living and seated in deepest meditation. Lifting up his voice he announces that he has come, according to his age-long vow, to hear The Lotus proclaimed by Śakyamuni. To this end he beckons him to enter the shrine and share his lion-throne. Such is the Revelation of the Ancient Buddha, not as dead but as living.

Beholding all this marvel while still on the earth, the disciples of Śakyamuni now implore that they too no longer be tied to earth, but be received up to join the celestial host. Thereupon Śakyamuni, by his transcendent power, raises the whole company of his disciples into the sky and with a great voice cries: “Who is able to proclaim the Wonderful Law-Flower Sutra in this Saha-world? Now indeed is the time. The Tathagata (Buddha) must himself speedily enter Nirvana, but wills to bequeath this wonderful Sutra so that it may ever live in the world.” Therefore he calls on all present to take the great Mahayana vow.

With Chapter XII begins the difference between those versions with twenty-seven chapters and those with twenty-eight.

In the Sanskrit version our Chapter XII is the latter half of Chapter XI. Though generally considered to be part of the original text, it bears the impress of an interpolation, for the next chapter, (our