妙法蓮華經文句 1.44

1.44

"I" is the master of the ear; mentioning the "I" subsumes the assembly of conditions. This is the worldly explanation. When Ānanda ascended the high seat and declared "I have heard," the great assembly should have wailed in sorrow, [thinking]: "Just now we saw the Tathāgata, and now [Ānanda] declares 'I have heard,'" and the arhats flew into the air and spoke gāthās. The Fo hua jing explains that when Mañjuśrī compiled the canon, he first chanted the title and next declared "Thus have I heard," at which time the assembly wailed in sorrow. This is the individual adaptation explanation. When Ānanda ascended the high seat and declared "I have heard," he dispelled the doubts of the assembly. Ānanda's body resembled the Buddha's, being only three fingers shorter than the Buddha. The assembly doubted whether Śākyamuni had reappeared, or a buddha from another world had arrived, or Ānanda had become a buddha; when he chanted "I have heard," the three doubts were immediately dispelled. This is the counteractive explanation. Ānanda, being a practitioner in training (śaikṣa), conformed to worldly convention in calling himself "I"; in the paramārtha-satya, there is neither self nor hearing. The various explanations of old all share this single sense of causes and conditions.