法華文句記 1.70

1.70

「二乘」，三藏也。「即空」，通也。「獨菩薩」，別也。「正直」等者，開權教也。正及流通準此可見。「螢光」者，《大品》云：「菩薩一日行般若，如日照世勝螢火蟲」。此斥三藏，故指燈炬以譬通教。燈如二乘，炬如菩薩，雖同般若不無明晦。道種智是別。如星月者，地前如星、登地如月。故星雖有明光不及遠，令遠見故；凡智雖照不及聖明，其心遠故；月不及日帶教道故。亦應更明三智三諦次不次等，以顯教相，於此非急。「楊葉」等者，《大經．嬰兒行品》意也。今文略出人天者，然嬰兒在小義通諸教，且從極小故指人天。但彼經喻從頓向漸，初云不能起住來去語言，圓嬰兒也。大字者，藏也。不知苦樂等，通也。下作大小等別也。啼哭等，人天也。經既通以小善為嬰兒，故圓因位亦名嬰兒。經云：「半字者，謂九部。滿字者，謂《毘伽羅論》」，此云字本。河西云：「世間文字之根本，雖是外論而無邪法，將非菩薩之所造作，故譬衍門十二部經。」古人唯知衍門一大，今則不然，簡共別後唯以圓門而為滿也。依義不依語，斯之謂矣。

"Two vehicles" refers to the Tripiṭaka. "Identical with emptiness" refers to the shared [teaching]. "Bodhisattvas alone" refers to the separate [teaching]. "Upright and direct" and so forth refers to opening the provisional teachings. The main body and the transmission can be understood by following this analogy. Regarding "glowworm light": the *Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikā-prajñāpāramitā* says, "When a bodhisattva practices prajñā for a single day, it is like the sun illuminating the world, surpassing a glowworm." This criticizes the Tripiṭaka; hence lamps and torches are pointed to as metaphors for the shared teaching. The lamp is like the two vehicles; the torch is like the bodhisattvas; although both are prajñā, they are not without brightness and dimness. Knowledge of the varieties of the path belongs to the separate [teaching]. As for being like stars and the moon: before the bhūmis is like stars; ascending the bhūmis is like the moon. Therefore, although stars have light, their radiance does not reach far, yet it allows one to see into the distance; although the wisdom of ordinary persons illuminates, it does not reach the brightness of sages, because their minds are far [from reality]; the moon does not equal the sun because it carries the path of instruction. One should also further clarify the successive and non-successive nature of the three wisdoms and three truths to reveal the characteristics of the teaching, though this is not urgent here. Regarding "willow leaves" and so forth: this is the intention of the 'Chapter on Infant Practice' in the *Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra*. The present text briefly brings out humans and devas; however, 'infant' refers to the small, whose meaning pervades the various teachings, and we provisionally point to humans and devas as the extremely small. Yet that sūtra's metaphor moves from the sudden toward the gradual: it first says they cannot rise, stay, come, go, or speak, which is the perfect infant; the 'large letters' refers to the Tripiṭaka; 'not knowing suffering or pleasure' refers to the shared; 'going down to make large and small' refers to the separate; 'weeping and crying' refers to humans and devas. Since the sūtra generally takes small good as an infant, the causal stages of the perfect [teaching] are also named 'infant.' The sūtra says: 'Half-letters refers to the nine divisions [of scriptures]; full-letters refers to the *Vyākaraṇa-śāstra*,' which is translated here as 'root of letters.' Hexi [Liangzhou] says: 'The root of worldly letters, though a non-Buddhist treatise, contains no heterodox teachings; could it be other than what bodhisattvas composed? Thus it is a metaphor for the twelve divisions of scriptures in the Mahāyāna gate.' Ancient scholars only recognized the one great Mahāyāna gate; now it is not so: after screening the shared and separate, only the perfect gate is taken as the full. 'Rely on the meaning, not on the words'—this is what it means.