Chapter 28: Encouragements of the Bodhisattva Universal Worthy

The Bodhisattva Universal Worthy (Samantabhadra) arrives from the world of the Buddha Jewel Dignity Supremely Exalted King, traveling with a retinue of immeasurable bodhisattvas. He comes riding on a six-tusked white elephant king, his iconic mount, and the worlds he traverses tremble and rain jeweled lotus flowers as celestial music fills the air. Upon reaching Vulture Peak, he pays homage to Shakyamuni Buddha and asks a question of great practical importance: after the Buddha's extinction, how can a good son or good daughter come to obtain the Lotus Sutra?

The Buddha responds that there are four conditions that will enable a practitioner to obtain the Lotus Sutra after his passing: to be protected and kept in mind by the Buddhas, to plant roots of virtue, to enter the stage of correct concentration, and to arouse the determination to save all sentient beings. Anyone who fulfills these four conditions will, after the Buddha's extinction, certainly obtain the Lotus Sutra. Universal Worthy then makes his own vow: if anyone upholds the Lotus Sutra -- reading it, reciting it, copying it, or practicing it -- he will ride his white elephant and appear before that person with his retinue to guard, protect, and comfort them.

The Buddha praises Universal Worthy and declares that anyone who accepts, upholds, reads, recites, correctly recalls, practices, and copies the Lotus Sutra should be regarded as performing an offering to the Buddha himself. Such a person, upon death, will be reborn in the Tushita heaven among the company of great bodhisattvas. The sutra closes with the entire assembly -- bodhisattvas, voice-hearers, gods, dragons, humans, and all other beings -- filled with great joy. They accept the teaching, bow to the Buddha, and depart. With this final chapter, the Lotus Sutra seals its message of universal compassion with a personal promise of protection for every practitioner who carries it forward into the future.