仁王護國般若經疏 2.48

2.48

“The eighth day of the first month” is second, clarifying the season of manifesting omens. Paramārtha says: “The Tathāgata was in the world for forty-five years and turned three wheels of Dharma, namely turning, illuminating, and maintaining. However, these three wheels have the manifest and the esoteric: esoterically, from the night of attaining the Way to the night of nirvāṇa, all three turned the wheels of Dharma. Manifestly, for the first seven years after attaining the Way, he only turned the wheel of turning; during the thirty-one years after the seven years, he turned the wheel of illuminating; during the seven years after the thirty-eight years, he turned the wheel of maintaining. From the turning of the wheel of turning, thirty years had passed; previously, up to the twenty-ninth year, he had already expounded the other Prajñā [sūtras], and now reaching the eighth day of the first month of the thirtieth year, he only then expounded the Benevolent Kings; therefore it says ‘the eighth day of the first month.’” This then means that thirty-seven years after attaining the Buddha-way he expounded this sūtra, when he was seventy-two years of age, and so forth.