法華義疏 2.17

2.17

'Named Innumerable Meanings': 'Mahāyāna' is its common name, and 'Innumerable Meanings' is its distinctive designation. The reason for specifying 'Mahāyāna' is secretly to reveal that there is only the Mahāyāna and no Hīnayāna, serving as a preface to the Lotus Sūtra. Regarding 'Innumerable Meanings,' explanations differ. Dharma Master Yin said: 'This sūtra explains the innumerable myriad good deeds. Because one practices the innumerable myriad good deeds in the present life, one becomes a Buddha in a future life.' Question: If it says that the myriad good deeds lead to Buddhahood, how does it differ from the Lotus Sūtra? He replied: 'Here it only explains coveredly that the myriad good deeds lead to Buddhahood; it does not say that outside the myriad good deeds there is no separate meaning of the three vehicles. This only reveals the real without yet opening the expedient (upāya). Therefore it differs from the Lotus Sūtra and is designated its preface.' Dharma Master Ji explained: 'What is called "innumerable meanings" is emptiness. If it were a conditioned phenomenon with existence, it would have boundaries and limits, being termed "finite" (measurable); the meaning of emptiness is profound and broad, hence termed "innumerable" (immeasurable).' Question: If so, how does it differ from the second-period teaching of the Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikā Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra? He replied: 'The former teaching explains emptiness as the basis of the practices of the three vehicles and cannot serve as the preface to the Lotus Sūtra; here, emptiness is explained as the basis of the Mahāyāna practices, and therefore it can serve as the preface to the Lotus Sūtra. Hence they are different.' The Mingseng zhuan states: 'Master Ji listened to Chu Daosheng lecture and was skilled in the Lotus Sūtra, yet although there were two interpretations, he had no means of deciding between them.' Next, his commentary on the Innumerable Meanings Sūtra states: 'Although the Innumerable Meanings Sūtra is recorded at the head of the Lotus Sūtra, its exposition had not yet been seen in China. Whenever arriving at the lecture hall, I never failed to set aside my talk and yearn to see this text. Suddenly, there was the monk Huibiao of Mount Wudang, born of the Qiang tribe, a nephew of the illegitimate emperor Yao Lue. On the day their state fell, he was captured by the Jin army's He Danzhi. A few years old and intelligent, Danzhi called him "mingling" (adopted son) and raised him as a foster child. Shortly thereafter he was released to leave the household, whereupon he diligently and austerely sought the Way, traveling north and south without avoiding rugged or dangerous places. In the third year of the Jianyuan era of the Qi dynasty, he again sought out rare and secret scriptures, traveling far to Lingnan. At Chaoting Monastery in Guangzhou, he encountered the monk Dharmagatayaśas from Central India, whose hand could write clerical script and whose mouth understood the speech of Qi. [Dharmagatayaśas] said he wished to transmit this sūtra, but did not know to whom to bestow it. Huibiao then earnestly made his request, mind and body completely dedicated. After a whole month had passed, he barely obtained one copy. He then returned north of Mount Song and went high into Mount Wudang. On the eighteenth day of the ninth month in the third year of the present Yongming era, he carried it on his head and came out of the mountain to bestow it upon me for propagation. Beholding the true text, my joy and reverence were profound; singing and chanting were insufficient, and dancing with hands and feet could not express it. Thereupon I composed a commentary stating: "It takes emptiness precisely as the innumerable meanings."' When Ji examined the text of the sūtra, he deemed that his interpretation agreed with the sūtra. Yet Master Yin held fast and did not waver, saying that the Innumerable Meanings Sūtra which explains emptiness was expounded at another time and was not the Innumerable Meanings Sūtra prior to the Lotus Sūtra. The Innumerable Meanings Sūtra prior to the Lotus Sūtra precisely explains that the myriad good deeds lead to Buddhahood, and has not arrived in this land. This reached down to Dharma Master Guangzhai, who still maintained Master Yin's interpretation.