妙法蓮華經玄義 8.85

8.85

三、譬如黃石中金，愚夫無識，視之謂石，擲在糞穢，都不顧錄；估客得之，融出其金，保重而已；金匠得之，造作種種釵釧鐶鐺；仙客得之，練為金丹，飛天入地，捫摸日月，變通自在。野人喻一切凡夫，雖具實相不知修習。估客喻二乘，但斷煩惱礦，保即空金，更無所為。金匠喻別教菩薩，善巧方便，知空非空，出假化物，莊嚴佛土，成就眾生。仙客喻圓教菩薩，即事而真，初發心時，便成正覺，得一身無量身，普應一切。今經但取金丹實相，以為經體也。

Third, by analogy to gold in yellow stone: a foolish person lacks knowledge, looks upon it and calls it stone, flinging it into filth and dung without giving it any regard or attention. A travelling merchant obtains it, smelts out its gold, and simply cherishes and guards it. A goldsmith obtains it and fashions it into various hairpins, bracelets, rings, and earrings. An adept immortal obtains it, refines it into the golden elixir, and flies into the heavens and enters the earth, handling the sun and moon, transforming and penetrating freely. The rustic person is an analogy for all ordinary persons: though endowed with the real mark, they do not know to cultivate and practice it. The travelling merchant is an analogy for the two vehicles: they only sever the ore of afflictions, preserve the gold of being identical with emptiness, and do nothing further. The goldsmith is an analogy for the bodhisattva of the distinctive teaching: having skilful means, knowing emptiness to be non-empty, they emerge from emptiness into the provisional to transform beings, adorn the buddha-lands, and bring sentient beings to completion. The adept immortal is an analogy for the bodhisattva of the perfect teaching: directly identifying phenomenal affairs with the real, at the moment of initial aspiration they immediately achieve correct awakening, attain a single body that is measureless bodies, and universally respond to all. The present sūtra takes only the real mark of the golden elixir as the substance of the sūtra.