法華經義記 2.22

2.22

"Good men, in the past I have seen this auspicious sign": from here downwards, the second part is his stating on his own the matter of having seen the auspicious signs in the past; yet this import answers briefly with somewhat greater clarity. Within this [matter of] what he has seen before there are also two parts: first, he directly recounts what he has seen before; second, from "wishing to cause sentient beings all to hear and know" to "hence he manifests this auspicious sign", this clarifies that Mañjuśrī did not merely see it before, but also deeply grasped the import of what he had seen before, wishing to clarify that the Tathāgata must certainly preach the principle of identical return and the teaching without duality; thus he deeply grasped the Buddha's mind and subtly knew the sagely intent. Another explanation: the former clarifies citing the past, and the latter clarifies verifying the present.