法華義疏 11.196

11.196

此品四章：一、宿王華問；二、佛答；三、時眾得益；四、多寶稱歎。問中又三：一、總問；二、偏問苦行；三、請答。文處易知。佛答為二：一、說藥王本因緣；二者、歎教人。人謂行法之人，法謂成人之法，即是歎人美法一雙。就初又二：一、明緣由；二、正說藥王本事。緣由中五事：一、時節。「有佛號日月」下，明化主。「其佛有八十」下，辨徒眾。「佛壽四萬」下，明壽命。「彼國無有」下，明國土。國土中前明無穢，「地平如掌」辨有淨也。「一箭道」者，二里也。「爾時彼佛」下，第二、正明藥王本事。又開四別：一、明說經。「是一切眾生」下，第二、明悟解。「得此三昧」下，第三、報恩供養。「佛告宿王華」下，第四、結會古今。就第三中又開二別：第一、明現世報恩供養；第二、明轉身報恩供養，良以得恩深重，故須累世報之。初文又二：第一、明外財供養；「從三昧起」下，第二、辨內身供養。「兜樓波畢力迦」者，羅什云：「出龍神國，此土所無，故不翻也」（有人翻「畢力迦」為𧢻池也）。「一切眾生喜見」下，第二、明轉身供養。又開為二：初、明佛在世時供養；二、明佛滅後供養。初文二：一、明前為父說於佛所得二種恩以化父；二、明欲往佛所報恩供養。得恩中又二：初一偈半，明聞法利益恩；「說是偈已」，第二、明供養得利益恩。「甄迦羅頻婆羅阿閦婆等偈」者，有人言：初是四言偈，次是五言偈，後是七言。今明不爾，此文有二數：一者、八百千萬億，蓋是此土之數，從百轉增至億；自那由他已上皆是外國數名，即從億轉增故有那由他等，不應如前釋也。而初八者總貫於百乃至阿閦婆等也，如三僧祇之類。《注經》云「蓋是外國數名，如此土姟兆之類也」。甄迦羅（《正法華》云「何作」），頻婆羅（《正法華》云「模式」），阿閦婆（《正法華》云「不動」）。「大王我今」下，第二、明供養。又開二別：一、明佛在世供養，即偈文是也。至此文以來備三業供養，前明入三昧雨華香等，謂意業供養；次從定起燒身，謂身業供養也；今說偈，明口業供養。又合此三業以為二雙：意業供養謂外財供養，燒身為內身供養，此二謂供養門也。今亦有二：一者、恭敬、二者、讚歎。此四並是報恩之事也。

This chapter has four sections: 1. Nakṣatrarājasaṃkusumitābhijña's question; 2. the Buddha's answer; 3. the assembly of the time obtaining benefit; 4. Prabhūtaratna's praise. Within the question, there are also three parts: 1. a general question; 2. a specific question about ascetic practices; 3. a request for an answer. The locations in the text are easy to know. The Buddha's answer has two parts: 1. explaining Bhaiṣajyarāja's past causes and conditions; 2. praising the teaching and the person. 'Person' refers to the person who practices the Dharma; 'Dharma' refers to the Dharma that brings the person to fruition; that is, it is a pair of praising the person and extolling the Dharma. In the first part, there are again two: 1. explaining the background circumstances; 2. properly explaining the former deeds of Bhaiṣajyarāja. Within the background circumstances there are five matters: 1. the time period. From "There was a Buddha named Candrasūryavimalaprabhāsaśrī..." down, it explains the master of transformation. From "That Buddha had eighty..." down, it distinguishes the retinue of disciples. From "The Buddha's lifespan was forty thousand..." down, it explains the lifespan. From "In that land there were no..." down, it explains the land. In the land, it first explains the absence of defilements, and "the ground was flat as the palm of a hand" distinguishes the presence of purity. "A bowshot" (arrow-shot distance) is two li. From "At that time, that Buddha..." down is the second: properly explaining the former deeds of Bhaiṣajyarāja. This further opens into four distinctions: 1. explaining the preaching of the sūtra. From "This Sarvasattvapriyadarśana..." down is the second: explaining the awakening and understanding. From "Having attained this samādhi..." down is the third: repaying kindness and making offerings. From "The Buddha told Nakṣatrarājasaṃkusumitābhijña..." down is the fourth: concluding and joining the past and present. Within the third, it further opens into two distinctions: first, explaining repaying kindness and making offerings in the present lifetime; second, explaining repaying kindness and making offerings in a subsequent body; truly, because the kindness received was profoundly weighty, he had to repay it across successive lifetimes. The first passage also has two parts: first, explaining offerings of external wealth; from "arising from samādhi" down is the second: distinguishing the offering of his inner body. As for "turushka and kunkuma (douroupoluobolijia)", Kumārajīva says: "It is produced in the realm of dragons and spirits; since it does not exist in this land, it is not translated" (some translate "bilijia" as 'water-lily pond'). From "Sarvasattvapriyadarśana..." down is the second: explaining the offerings in a subsequent body. This further opens into two: first, explaining the offerings while the Buddha was in the world; second, explaining the offerings after the Buddha's parinirvāṇa. The first passage has two parts: 1. explaining that he previously spoke to his father of the two kinds of grace obtained at the Buddha's place in order to transform his father; 2. explaining his wish to go to the Buddha's place to repay kindness and make offerings. Within obtaining grace, there are also two parts: the initial verse and a half explains the grace of benefiting from hearing the Dharma; from "Having spoken this verse..." is the second, explaining the grace of obtaining benefits through making offerings. Regarding the verse with "kiṃkara, bimba, akṣobhya, and so forth": some say that the first is a four-character verse, the next is a five-character verse, and the last is a seven-character verse. Now I explain that this is not so; this text has two sets of numbers: first, eight hundred thousand million nayutas, which are the numbers of this land, successively increasing from hundreds to billions; from nayuta upward, these are all foreign names for numbers, which successively increase from a billion, hence there are nayuta and so forth; it should not be explained as previously suggested. And the initial 'eight' encompasses [everything] from hundreds up to akṣobhya and so on, like the case of 'three asaṃkhyeyas'. The Commentary on the Sūtra (Zhu jing) states: "These are probably foreign names for numbers, like the gai and zhao of this land." Kiṃkara (the Saddharmapuṇḍarīka Sūtra translated by Dharmarakṣa says: "what-action"), bimba (the Saddharmapuṇḍarīka Sūtra translated by Dharmarakṣa says: "pattern-model"), akṣobhya (the Saddharmapuṇḍarīka Sūtra translated by Dharmarakṣa says: "immovable"). From "Great King, I now..." down is the second: explaining the offerings. This further opens into two distinctions: 1. explaining offerings while the Buddha was in the world, which is just the verse text. Down to this passage, the offerings of the three karmas are complete: previously explaining entering samādhi and raining down flowers, incense, and so forth refers to offerings of mental karma; next, arising from absorption and burning the body refers to offerings of physical karma; now, speaking the verses explains offerings of vocal karma. Furthermore, these three karmas are combined into two pairs: the offering of mental karma refers to offerings of external wealth, while burning the body is the offering of the inner body; these two refer to the gate of making offerings. Now there are also two: 1. reverence; 2. praise. These four are all matters of repaying kindness.