法華經義記 3.35

3.35

The questioner asks: "If it all depends on the conditions of past conditioning in the Great Vehicle, what does the obstruction of the five turbidities have to do with it?" The explicator says: "I now borrow an analogy to illustrate the meaning of obstructing capacity. How so? It is like a person who constantly suffers from a chronic ailment. If his food and drink are constantly abundant year-round, his warmth agreeable, and fine cloth and furs are provided according to the season, then although this chronic ailment remains perpetually established, it does not become an affliction. If this person year-round has insufficient food and drink, and a scarcity of clothes and bedding, causing cold and heat to find their opportunity, then his past chronic ailment will manifest and flare up at that time. The internal application is also like this: if the nourishment of roots of goodness is strong, the chronic ailment of afflictions, though present, will not flare up; once roots of goodness are weak, the chronic ailment of the five turbidities will obstruct the capacity for the One Vehicle. Now, obstructions are of three kinds: first, direct obstruction; second, already-subdued obstruction; third, situational obstruction. Now, when saying that the five turbidities obstruct the One Vehicle, this is designated a situational obstruction—it is simply that they find their opportunity according to the situation and are thereby able to form an obstruction."