妙法蓮華經玄義 7.75

7.75

By three reasons we know that all these causes are causes in the trace: first, because they are recent; second, because they differ in shallowness and depth; third, because they are brushed away. All the practices cultivated before the present lifetime and after the original source, in the intermediate [periods], are expedients; therefore we know they are causes in the trace. If one grasps the causes in the trace as the original cause, one does not understand the trace, nor does one recognize the original source. It is like not knowing the moon in the sky and merely viewing the moon in the pond: whether its light, its laurel tree, or its disc, one knows the upper by analogy with the lower. The light is an analogy for the wondrousness of wisdom, the laurel tree for the wondrousness of practice, and the disc for the wondrousness of the stage. If one recognizes the three wonders in the trace and brushes away the trace to reveal the original source, one then knows the wondrousness of the cause at the original ground. It is like pushing aside the reflection to point to the sky: why look down into the basin instead of gazing up at the Milky Way? Alas! The deaf and foolish—how could one discuss the Way with them? If one grasps this idea, the trace is original and yet not original, and the original source is trace and yet not trace; though original source and trace differ, their inconceivability is one.