妙法蓮華經文句 9.28

9.28

Next, delivering the words of inquiry. The inquiry also has two parts: prose and verses. The prose has two: first, inquiring after the Tathāgata's well-being; second, inquiring whether living beings are easy to cross over (and so on). Citing only four individuals is simply intended to correspond to the forty stages of opening, demonstrating, awakening to, and entering, just as the Avataṃsaka-sūtra only cites Dharmamati, Guṇavana, Vajradhvaja, and Vajragarbha to explain the forty stages (and so on).