法華經義記 7.96

7.96

From "If with the mouth he proclaims..." through the end of the eleven and a half lines of verse is the second section, directly explaining the substance of this practice. Now, within this second section there are themselves two: first is the prose, and second is the verse. Now, regarding the prose, within it there are themselves two: intending to explain the substance of this practice, it therefore first explains departure from evil; second, from "All listeners..." downward, it directly explains the substance and marks of this practice. However, the third practice below also explains departure from evil; now here it again explains departure from evil—how does it differ from below? The commentators say: "There are three points of intention in all. The first intention says: The reason why departure from evil is explained here is that expounding the Dharma must be pure, transforming beings, and risking one's life to deliver people; therefore, when about to explain purely expounding the Dharma, it first explains departing from various faults and evils. The second intention: here, it first explains departing from evil and afterwards directly explains expounding the Dharma; the third practice below, right from the outset, directly explains departing from evil. The third intention: in the verses below, it first versifies expounding the Dharma and afterwards versifies departing from evil; therefore, by this verification one knows that it specifically takes expounding the Dharma as its substance." Now, in explaining departure from evil there are three sections: the two phrases from "If with the mouth he proclaims..." downward explain the time and occasion of expounding the Dharma; second, from "does not delight in speaking of people's..." downward, it directly explains departure from evil; third, the single phrase "because of skillfully cultivating such a mind of ease and comfort" is the concluding phrase. Within the second [section on] departing from evil, one departs from six kinds in all: First, stating "does not delight in speaking of people's..."—this explains not speaking of the faults of the person who put forth the sūtra. Second, stating "and the faults of the scripture"—this explains not criticizing the words and phrases of the sūtra text. Third, departure: asserting that that [person's] propagation of the sūtra is right and this [person's] propagation of the sūtra is wrong—this is from "nor does he disparage..." downward. Fourth, from "does not speak of others' good and bad, strengths and shortcomings"—one might say one should not speak of others' shortcomings, but why say one should not speak of others' strengths? The commentators originally said: mentioning strengths here was originally meant to expose their shortcomings. Fifth, from "Toward śrāvakas..." downward, this explains not speaking of the faults of the Small Vehicle; here it only explains not speaking the names of the Small Vehicle. As for "If there are those who delight in the Small Vehicle...", one might also disparagingly call them by name. Sixth, it says, "nor does he give rise to a mind of resentment and hatred."