Chapter 19: Benefits of the Teacher of the Law

The Buddha tells the Bodhisattva Constant Exertion that any good son or good daughter who accepts, upholds, reads, recites, explains, or copies the Lotus Sutra will be rewarded with the purification of their six sense organs -- eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and mind. With purified eyes, one will perceive everything in the three thousand great thousandfold world, from the highest heavens to the lowest hells, as clearly as seeing a transparent crystal. With purified ears, one will hear all sounds throughout the cosmos -- the voices of Buddhas preaching, the songs of heavenly beings, and even the conversations of beings in the deepest hells.

With a purified nose, one will detect every fragrance in the universe and, by scent alone, will know the nature and spiritual state of any being. With a purified tongue, whatever one eats will taste like celestial ambrosia, and whatever one speaks will move the hearts of all listeners to aspire to Buddhahood. With a purified body, one's form will reflect the entire cosmos as in a clear mirror, revealing all beings and all phenomena. With a purified mind, one will understand the meaning of even a single verse of the sutra so deeply that one can preach it for an entire month, a year, or limitlessly, and every word will accord perfectly with the true nature of reality.

These six purifications represent a complete transformation of one's relationship to reality. The ordinary senses, which fragment and distort experience, are replaced by a unified and unlimited perception. This teaching implies that the practice of the Lotus Sutra does not merely convey intellectual understanding but fundamentally restructures the practitioner's consciousness. The eight hundred merits of each sense organ, totaling forty-eight hundred merits, become the foundation for a life of limitless teaching and compassionate engagement with all beings.