Chapter 18, The Benefits of Responding With Joy teaches in the prose section:
“Moreover, Ajita, suppose a person for the sake of this sutra visits a monks’ quarters and, sitting or standing, even for a moment listens to it and accepts it. As a result of the benefits so obtained, when he is reborn in his next existence he will enjoy the finest, most superior and wonderful elephants, horses, and carriages, and palanquins decked with rare treasures, and will mount up to the heavenly palaces. Or suppose there is a person who is sitting in the place where the Law is expounded, and when another person appears, the first person urges him to sit down and listen, or offers to share his seat and so persuades him to sit down. The benefits gained by this person will be such that when he is reborn he will be in a place where the lord Shakra is seated, where the heavenly king Brahma is seated, or where a wheel-turning sage king is seated.
“Ajita, suppose there is a person who speaks to another person, saying, ‘There is a sutra called the Lotus. Let us go together and listen to it.’ And suppose, having been urged, the other person goes and even for an instant listens to the sutra. The benefits of the first person will be such that when he is reborn he will be born in the same place as dharani bodhisattvas. He will have keen faculties and wisdom. For a hundred, a thousand, ten thousand ages he will never be struck dumb. His mouth will not emit a foul odor. His tongue will never be afflicted, nor will his mouth be afflicted. His teeth will not be stained or black, nor will they be yellow or widely spaced, nor will they be missing or fall out or be at an angle or crooked. His lips will not droop down or curl back or be rough or chapped or afflicted with sores or misshapen or twisted or too thick or too big or black or discolored or unsightly in any way. His nose will not be too broad or flat or crooked or too highly arched. His face will not be swarthy, nor will it be long and narrow, or sunken and distorted. He will not have a single unsightly feature. His lips, tongue, and teeth will all be handsomely proportioned. His nose will be long and high, his face round and full, his eyebrows long and set high, his forehead broad, smooth, and well shaped, and he will be endowed with all the features proper to a human being. In each existence he is born into, he will see the Buddha, hear his Law, and have faith in his teachings.
“Ajita, just observe! The benefits gained merely by encouraging one person to go and listen to the Law are such as this! How much more, then, if one single-mindedly hears, preaches, reads, and recites the sutra and before the great assembly makes distinctions for the sake of people and practices it as the sutra instructs!”
and in the verse section:
"I will now describe one’s blessings.
In existences to come among heavenly and human beings
one will acquire wonderful elephants, horses, carriages,
palanquins adorned with rare jewels,
and will mount to the palaces of heaven.
If in the place where the Law is expounded
one encourages someone to sit and hear the sutra,
the blessings one acquires will enable one
to gain the seat of Shakra, Brahma, and the wheel-turner.
How much more so if one listens single-mindedly,
explains and expounds the meaning,
and practices the sutra as the sutra instructs—
one’s blessings will know no bounds!"
In Chapter 28, Encouragements of the Bodhisattva Universal Worthy, we read:
“Their wishes will not be in vain, and in this present existence they will gain the reward of good fortune.”
and also,
“In this present existence he will have manifest reward for it.”
Nichiren has this to say in one of his most important writings which often brings tears of joy to my eyes:
"This sutra passage and my own experience tally exactly. By now all the doubts that I have raised earlier should be dispelled, and thousands of difficulties are nothing to me. Let me show you phrase by phrase how the text applies to me. “They may be despised,” or, as the Lotus Sutra says, people will “despise, hate, envy, or bear grudges against them”—and in exactly that manner I have been treated with contempt and arrogance for over twenty years. “They may be cursed with an ugly appearance,” “They may be poorly clad”—these too apply to me. “They may be poorly fed”—that applies to me. “They may seek wealth in vain”—that applies to me. “They may be born to an impoverished and lowly family”—that applies to me. “They may be persecuted by their sovereign”—can there be any doubt that the passage applies to me? The Lotus Sutra says, “Again and again we will be banished,” and the passage from the Parinirvāna Sutra says, “They may be subjected to various other sufferings and retributions.” [These passages also apply to me.]
The passage also says, “It is due to the blessings obtained by protecting the Law that they can diminish in this lifetime their suffering and retribution.” The fifth volume of Great Concentration and Insight has this to say on the subject: “The feeble merits produced by a mind only half intent on the practice cannot alter [the realm of karma]. But if one carries out the practice of concentration and insight so as to observe ‘health’ and ‘illness,’ then one can alter the cycle of birth and death [in the realm of karma].” It also says, “[As practice progresses and understanding grows], the three obstacles and four devils emerge in confusing form, vying with one another to interfere.”
From the beginningless past I have been born countless times as an evil ruler who deprived the votaries of the Lotus Sutra of their robes and rations, their fields and crops, much as the people of Japan in the present day go about destroying the temples dedicated to the Lotus Sutra. In addition, countless times I cut off the heads of the votaries of the Lotus Sutra. Some of these grave offenses I have already paid for, but there must be some that are not paid for yet. Even if I seem to have paid for them all, there are still ill effects that remain. When the time comes for me to transcend the sufferings of birth and death, it will be only after I have completely freed myself from these grave offenses. My merits are insignificant, but these offenses are grave.
and further down, Nichiren quotes the Nirvana Sutra:
“Although they do not seek emancipation, emancipation will come of itself.”
Nichiren teaches in On Practicing the Buddha's Teaching:
"...In their present existence the people will be freed from misfortune and disasters and learn the art of living long..."
One can feel the bad karma of a quintillion + lifetimes being expiated in a matter of months or years, in this very life. I can attest to the many times in this very life where I shouldn't have made it to this ripe old age of 67: At 3 years old, two neighbor boys hung me on a clothesline; avoiding two potentially devastating car accidents that should have been impossible to avoid; losing my kidneys 6 + years ago and still managing to work full time until May; cancer of the kidney; peritonitis three times in 2019 and a heart attack the second bout of peritonitis; someone pulling a gun on me just walking down the road. An infrarenal dissecting aneurism that fortunately went back into the aorta; blood pressures over two hundred, many days in the past, atherosclerosis throughout my body except my brain, and good looks 
. I'm now seeking part time work performing senior evaluations throughout East Central Ok.
. I'm now seeking part time work performing senior evaluations throughout East Central Ok.The Lotus Sutra Buddhism of Nichiren teaches that there are Three Treasures: The treasure of material things; the treasure of the body, and most importantly, the treasures of the heart. The first two treasures I have had in abundance until 6 years ago, not even catching a cold for seven or eight years prior and an upper middle class lifestyle. I wouldn't trade my treasures of the heart for a billion dollars or the good fortune to be without illness until I'm one hundred years old. Literally, I shed tears of joy daily. It is thanks to Myo Ho Ren Ge Kyo, the Gohonzon, Lord Shakyamuni Buddha of the Juryo chapter of the Lotus Sutra, and Nichiren that i can offer my thanks and praise to the Lotus Sutra today. Chanting Namu Myoho renge kyo fills me with the lifeforce that is draining. The Lotus Sutra is truly a great physician that can change poison into medicine as Bodhisattva Nagarjuna taught.
Good point the United States and France bombed the crap out of the area with hydrogen bombs in the 50s and sixties the British queen caused the windscale nuclear meltdown and disaster. The queen also nuked bombed Australia w Cobalt60 seeded bombs in the 60s. Nuclear bomb testing. Now the British queen says she will spend millions to get pedophile Andrew off.
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