妙法蓮華經玄義 10.3

10.3

Regarding the general meaning: within what is devoid of names and characteristics, the Buddha spoke by adopting provisional names and characteristics, delivering other sūtras that each accommodated particular conditions to confer benefit. Thus, with the Avataṃsaka-sūtra, at the outset he addressed capacities for the perfect and distinctive [teachings], the high mountains being illuminated first; he directly clarified sequential and non-sequential practice, and the merits of the [ten] abodes and [ten] grounds, but did not explain the Tathāgata's intention in preaching the sudden [teaching]. When he preached the four Āgamas—the Ekottarika-āgama clarifies the causes and effects of human and divine realms, the Madhyama-āgama clarifies the profound meaning of true quiescence, the Saṃyukta-āgama clarifies the dhyāna concentrations, and the Dīrgha-āgama refutes non-Buddhists, while all generally teach impermanence, knowing suffering, abandoning its origination, realizing its cessation, and practicing the path—he did not clarify the Tathāgata's intention in adroitly bestowing the small. When various vaipulya [sūtras] reprimand the small and censure the biased, praise the great and extol the perfect, and show compassionate practices and vows where facts and principles are extraordinarily distinctive, they do not clarify the intention behind juxtaposing rebuke and praise. When the Prajñāpāramitā-sūtras discuss the shared [aspect], the three types of persons enter together; when they discuss the distinctive [aspect], bodhisattvas advance alone, extensively traversing the aggregates and sense bases to render them utterly pure, empty, and harmoniously interfused, yet they also do not clarify the intention behind the shared and the distinctive. When the Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra comes at the end, briefly rebuking the three trainings and roughly indicating the five flavors, it also does not fully explain the finale wherein the Tathāgata established his teachings, tracing them from their beginning to their conclusive summation. All these sūtras accommodate the intentions of others to bring them benefit, without discussing the Buddha's own intention. Where does his intended purport tend?