妙法蓮華經文句 8.29

8.29

From "At that time the Buddha again addressed" downward is the second part, praising the Dharma upheld and the method of propagating the sūtra. The Dharma upheld is the rule for oneself; the method of propagating the sūtra is the rule for others. There are prose and gāthās. In the prose, first is praising the sūtra's Dharma, and next the method and rules. The praise has five parts: first, praising in terms of the Dharma, also praising by comparative evaluation; second, praising in terms of persons; third, praising in terms of place; fourth, praising in terms of cause; fifth, praising in terms of effect. Because the Dharma is wondrous, the person is noble; because the person is noble, the place is revered; the place is revered, the cause is complete; the cause is complete, the effect is ultimate. First, in praising the Dharma: among those spoken in the past, present, and future, this sūtra is foremost. A master explained that the past is the *Prajñā*, the future is the *Nirvāṇa*; before the *Lotus*, the small and the great were separated from each other, but after the *Lotus*, they have already been unified, so this sūtra is precisely the beginning of converging the three and the start of returning to the one, and hence it is called the first. The sūtra praises the *Lotus* as being outside past, present, and future. This master lacked a segment (and so forth). Now, first, regarding "past": this refers to the gradual and sudden teachings from the *Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikā-prajñāpāramitā* on up. "Present" refers to sharing the same assembly seat, meaning the *Anantanirdeśa-sūtra*. "Future" refers to the *Nirvāṇa-sūtra*. The gradual and sudden teachings such as the *Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikā* all carry expedients, making it easy to inspire faith; now, in the *Anantanirdeśa*, the one produces the immeasurable, but the immeasurable has not yet returned to the one, so this too is easy to believe; now, when the *Lotus* discusses the Dharma, all differences are integrated and return to the one Dharma, and when it discusses persons, teacher and disciple, origin and traces, are both long-distant, both approaches being completely opposite to what was taught formerly, making it difficult to believe and difficult to understand. Once the most challenging matters at the forefront have already been spoken in the *Lotus*, the *Nirvāṇa* comes later and is easily believable. "Storehouse of the secret and essential": being concealed and unspoken is "secret"; gathering all together is "essential"; the containment of true suchness and the true mark is the "storehouse". "Cannot be distributed": the Dharma is wondrous and hard to believe; it may be bestowed upon those of profound wisdom, but to those without wisdom it increases sin, so it cannot be spoken rashly. "Never explicitly spoken from the past to the present": within the Tripiṭaka, the two vehicles' attainment of buddhahood is not spoken, nor are the origin and traces of teacher and disciple clarified; although the Vaipulya and *Prajñā* speak of the storehouse of the true mark, they also do not speak of the five vehicles attaining buddhahood, nor do they reveal the origin and disclose the traces; since the sudden and gradual sūtras have not yet integrated them, it is called secret. This sūtra fully expounds the Dharma secretly kept in the past, which is opening the secret storehouse and is also itself the secret storehouse. Such a secret storehouse has never been explicitly spoken before. "Even while the Tathāgata was in the world, there was much resentment and jealousy": for more than forty years it could not be spoken right away, and now, although he wishes to speak it, five thousand immediately withdraw from their seats; if it was like this even during the Buddha's lifetime, how much more so in the future! By principle, it is difficult to convert.