妙法蓮華經文句 6.22

6.22

In parsing the text, first, 'the son turning his back on the father and departing' has two parts: first, 'For instance, there is a person' receives the twenty sons, analogizing the people of the two vehicles; the stages and practices of bodhisattvas being difficult to know, they merely receive up to their own level. 'Whose years were still infantile': formerly it was said that hearing little Dharma is infantile; if so, when the text below says 'grown up', should it mean hearing much Dharma? Now [we say that] because thick and heavy ignorance obscures and obstructs the understanding mind, the understanding mind is powerless, hence it says 'infantile'; when wholesome roots are perfumed and influenced and gradually verge on manifesting, it is called 'grown up'. 'Abandoning his father and fleeing': retreating from the Mahāyāna is 'abandoning'; ignorance concealing oneself is 'fleeing'; heading toward birth and death is 'departing'.