法華文句記 3.18

3.18

In explaining the four flowers: first, the old authors and the sūtras and treatises are brought forth to clarify that the names of the flowers are not fixed. Moreover, the Mahāprajñāpāramitā also says: "pleasing, great pleasing, soft, and great soft." However, the various teachings differ, though the texts mostly list four; as for what was moved by Master Yun, who said it was like mica, this was merely a temporary manifestation in response. In refuting the old interpretation under "according to what is expressed," where it says "narrow and inappropriate": within this, first its narrowness is rebuked, and next its inappropriateness is rebuked. In first rebuking its narrowness: how can the sixteen of each teaching now be compared to the old? Therefore, the reproach that "it does not exhaust the sixteen of the Tripiṭaka" is because there are only four. Furthermore, to merely say "sixteen"—for which teaching is it sixteen? Therefore, one should go through the teachings to discern the sixteen; one could also reproach: is it the sixteen who initiate, or down to the sixteen who establish affinities? Hence it says: "how much more so forty-eight?" Thus we know that although speaking of the four such as the monks contains those who initiate and so forth, there is no principle to reveal it. If one specifies the four such as those who initiate, they subsume the four such as the monks, how much more so the voice-hearers, bodhisattvas, and miscellaneous classes, in every single class of which there is none that does not possess those who initiate and so forth. Because the ancients stated four, it must be stated in contrast to the monks and so forth. From "Now flowers..." below explains the inappropriateness: these flowers secretly foretell the present attainment of marvelous causes that will lead to marvelous fruits; the ancients simply said that four express the monks and so forth, thus inviting the present difficulty. What rains down are flowers, and flowers should express causes; since the four assemblies have already attained them, what need is there to express them further? This reproaches the ancients for not knowing that raining flowers expresses the present marvelous causes, distinct from the causes of the past. If it expresses the four assemblies merely hoping for new fruits, what need is there to rain flowers? This reproaches the ancients for not knowing that scattering them on the Buddha expresses that the marvelous fruits lie in the future, distinct from the fruits of the past. The causes and fruits of the present and past—crude and marvelous—are eternally disparate; blending them into a single designation leaves no way to distinguish present and past. Furthermore, Master Sheng also said: "They express that the four fruits are unreal." This uses the text of the Tripiṭaka bodhisattva rebuking the Hinayana; thus, knowing that the four fruits are unreal, he had not yet understood even the Shared Teaching—how could he reveal the Lotus? Next, from "Now we say..." below is the correct explanation: first raising the past one-sided causes in contrast to the present perfect causes; because the past perfect causes are not distinct, it merely rebukes the three teachings (and so forth). In the Tripiṭaka, only the two vehicles are mentioned because they cannot be intercepted, which should be as the text of the Profound Meaning says: "The past three causes were greatly disparate," and so forth. "Buddha cause" is simply the perfect cause. "Four-wheel causes" are from the first abode upward: copper, silver, gold, and lapis lazuli; the first fascicle of the Notes on Great Calming and Contemplation fully cites the Yingluo [jing]. The text of the Profound Meaning further judges the stages with four phrases: opening the former and uniting the latter like the thirty-three devas, etc.; opening the latter and uniting the former like the fourteen prajñās; opening both like the forty-two syllables; uniting both like heaven raining the four flowers. Next, from "the lower text" onwards, various passages from the present sūtra are cited, all of which are the meaning of stages.