法華經義記 7.20

7.20

From "The Buddha told the monks" below is the second, summarizing the overarching purport of teaching and transforming from beginning to end. It also has four parts: first, from "The Buddha told the monks: These sixteen bodhisattvas have always delighted in preaching this Sublime Lotus Sūtra" below, directly clarifying that in the interval after the past establishing of ties and before meeting today, they constantly encountered one another; second, from "Monks, I now tell you" below, clarifying that the sixteen princes who repeated the teaching in the past have now already achieved complete enlightenment; third, from "those who were transformed at that time" below, reconciling the past and the present; fourth, from "after my extinction" below, clarifying that those who meet [me] today but do not understand will definitely meet [me] in future lives. This clarifies the principle that establishing ties on a single day remains imperishable across kalpas.