法華玄論 9.9

9.9

Answer: The one vehicle is difficult to believe, and there was fear that Śākyamuni's teaching might seem biased. Therefore, an ancient buddha gave confirmation to make clear that the path of all buddhas is identical, and not that Śākyamuni's teaching was biased. Moreover, having expounded the teaching that plumbs ultimate principle, extraordinary auspicious signs were bound to be evoked. Among auspicious signs, nothing is greater than the gathering of the buddhas of the three periods of time; when the assembly witnessed this, those who did not yet believe came to believe, and those who already believed became firmly resolute. Furthermore, Prabhūtaratna welled forth and the buddhas of the ten directions assembled to jointly praise the great merit of the sūtra and repeatedly command people to propagate it; consequently, from the initial resolve to the final practice, none failed to receive the instruction. For meanings such as these, [the present passage] confirms what came before. As for opening what follows: up to this point, opening the three and revealing the one to illuminate the provisional and real teachings has concluded; next, the provisionality of the Tathāgata's body and the reality of his body are revealed. From the "Appearance of the Jeweled Stūpa" chapter up through the "Lifespan" chapter, three meanings are briefly clarified: First, it clarifies that since Prabhūtaratna's extinction is not extinct, one knows that Śākyamuni's birth is likewise not birth; wishing to reveal non-birth and non-extinction as the real body and birth-and-extinction as skillful means, it opens the gate of the body's skillful means to reveal the meaning of the body's reality. Second, gathering the emanations opens [the understanding that] the root is one and the traces are manifold. Since they are reciprocal emanations, one knows that both this and that are traces. Since both this and that are traces, there must be a unified root; hence the root is one and the traces are manifold. Because traces are manifold, it opens the gate of the body's skillful means; because the root is one, it reveals the reality of the body. Third, commanding that persons who propagate the sūtra be sought leads to the "Upholding" chapter and so forth, until the bodhisattvas from other lands receive the command to propagate the sūtra, whereupon the Tathāgata is able to halt their preaching and upholding, revealing the bodhisattvas from below and broadly unfolding the Lifespan, showing that he has long since realized the eternal.