What the chapter says
The chapter opens as Akṣayamati Bodhisattva asks the Buddha why Avalokiteśvara bears that name. The Buddha teaches that when suffering beings hear the bodhisattva's name and call on it single-heartedly, he at once perceives their voices. The chapter goes on to describe the many forms the bodhisattva takes to help beings.
Do not confuse it with «Buddha Speaks the Universal Gate Chapter Sūtra» in the Linh Sơn canon: that is a different text of the Chinese canon, not the Lotus Sūtra chapter.
The parts of the chapter
The chapter has three parts. The prose part holds Akṣayamati's question and the Buddha's answer, listing the forms the bodhisattva takes to teach each listener: a Buddha, a pratyekabuddha, a śrāvaka, King Brahmā, Śakra and many more. The verse part begins «The World-Honoured One, complete in every wondrous mark». At the end Dharaṇiṃdhara Bodhisattva rises to praise the merit of hearing the chapter.
The chapter runs to about two thousand three hundred words; chanted slowly it takes about twenty minutes.
Reading and chanting at home
The scroll 7 page shows chapters 24 to 28; the Universal Gate is the second, right after the chapter on Gadgadasvara. To chant, press «Chant» and pick a scrolling speed; leave the chanting mode when chapter 25 ends. The library holds the Vietnamese translation only, with no transliteration or recording yet.
