Chapter 13: Encouraging Devotion

The Bodhisattva Medicine King and the Bodhisattva Great Joyful Preaching, along with their retinues of twenty thousand bodhisattvas, vow before the Buddha that after his passing they will travel widely to preach the Lotus Sutra. They acknowledge the difficulties they will face -- the evil age will be filled with beings of deep ignorance and arrogance -- but they pledge to don the armor of patience and endure all hardships for the sake of propagating this teaching.

Mahaprajapati, the Buddha's maternal aunt who raised him after his mother's death and who was the first woman ordained as a nun, also steps forward. She and six thousand nuns, both learners and adepts, rise from their seats and gaze at the Buddha with single-minded attention. The Buddha bestows prophecies upon Mahaprajapati and Yashodhara, the Buddha's former wife, confirming that they too will become Buddhas in future ages. This extension of prophecies to women practitioners further reinforces the sutra's message of universal inclusion.

Five hundred arhats who have received prophecies and eight thousand learners and adepts then vow to preach the sutra in other lands. The chapter describes in vivid terms the persecution they anticipate: ignorant monks will slander them, they will be driven from monasteries, and secular authorities may threaten them. Despite these dangers, the bodhisattvas declare that they will revere the Buddha and keep this vow, asking the Buddha to watch over them from afar. Their willingness to face hardship forms a bridge to the next chapter's instructions on how to practice in such difficult times.