妙法蓮華經文句 5.43

5.43

From the line "At that time Śāriputra addressed the Buddha" downwards is the second major section, the parabolic teaching for those of middling faculties. The text contains four chapters: this single chapter is precisely the opening of the three and revealing of the one through parable; "Faith and Understanding" explains the middling faculties attaining understanding; "Medicinal Herbs" is the Tathāgata's ratification; and "Bestowal of Prophecy" confers confirmation. These four rounds are all based on parable. The four sections below are all based on causal conditions: Kauṇḍinya clarifies the conditions of the tied jewel and grasps understanding; Ānanda adduces the conditions of the King of Emptiness and receives prophecy (and so on). Furthermore, by analogy with the doctrinal exposition, there should be the joy of the fourfold assembly of middling faculties, but it is absent here: first, it is said that the compiler of the sūtra kept it concise; second, by analogy with what precedes and follows it can be known, and its later text is found in the "Teacher of the Dharma Chapter" (and so on).