妙法蓮華經玄義 7.60

7.60

○一、略釋者，本因妙者，本初發菩提心，行菩薩道所修因也。若十六王子在大通佛時弘經結緣，皆是中間所作，非本因也。若娑婆為墨，東行千界方下一點，點不點等，盡抹為塵，一塵一劫，復過於是百千萬億那由他劫，彌勒補處，以出假種智直數世界，尚不能知，況數其塵，寧當得盡？特是如來巧喻，顯其長遠之相；況以世智，巧歷算數耶！文云：「我以佛眼觀彼久遠，猶若今也。」唯佛能知如此久遠，皆是迹因，非本因也。若留中間之因，於後難信，是故《法華》拂迹除疑，權而非實，我本行菩薩道時，不在中間，過是已前所行道者，名之為本，即是本因妙也。

First, as for the brief explanation: the subtlety of the original cause is the cause cultivated when first generating the bodhicitta and practicing the bodhisattva path. The sixteen princes propagating the sūtra and forming karmic connections at the time of the Buddha Mahābhijñājñānābhibhū were all actions done in the intermediate time, not the original cause. If the Sahā world were ground into ink, and traveling east across a thousand realms one were to place a single dot, until all lands, dotted or undotted, were pulverized into dust, and each speck of dust were an eon, and again exceeding this by hundreds of thousands of myriads of koṭis of nayutas of eons—even Maitreya, who is in the stage of succession, directly counting the worlds with the wisdom of the aspects of ways that proceeds out of emptiness, still could not know it; how much less could he finish counting the specks of dust? This is purely the Tathāgata's skillful metaphor to reveal the vastness and distance of that span; how much less could it be calculated through worldly wisdom and skillful reckoning! The text says: "With my buddha-eye I view that long-distant time as if it were today." Only a buddha can know this; such a long and distant time is all the causal stage of the traces, not the original cause. If the intermediate cause were retained, it would be difficult to believe later on; therefore the Lotus Sūtra brushes away the traces and eliminates doubt, showing that they are provisional and not real. When I originally practiced the bodhisattva path, it was not in the intermediate time; that which was practiced prior to this is named the original source, which is the subtlety of the original cause.