法華文句記 4.154

4.154

「毒鼓」者，《大經》云：「譬如有人以毒塗鼓，於大眾中擊令出聲，聞者皆死。鼓者，平等法身。毒者，無緣慈悲。打者，發起眾也。聞者，當機眾也。死者，無明破也。」今世惑破近死，正當當機人也。來世惑破遠死。此五千等雖非當機，如來何不彊為其說作久遠因，如喜根等即遠益人，具如《止觀》第八記。

"Poisoned drum": the Great Sūtra says: "Suppose a person smears a drum with poison and strikes it in the midst of a great assembly to make a sound; everyone who hears it dies. The drum is the impartial dharmakāya. The poison is unconditioned loving-kindness and compassion. The striker is the initiating assembly. The hearers are the assembly of primary capacities. The dead are those whose fundamental ignorance is broken." The breaking of delusions in the present life is proximate death, corresponding precisely to the persons of primary capacity. The breaking of delusions in future lives is distant death. Although these five thousand and the others were not of the primary capacity, why did the Tathāgata not forcibly preach to them to serve as a long-term cause, as with Harṣamukha and others who were benefited from afar, fully explained as in the Notes on the Eighth [Fascicle] of Stopping and Contemplation?