法華義疏 6.68

6.68

Next, secondarily matching the other five meanings: "and is born in the rotten, old burning house of the three realms" matches the place of conversion. "To save sentient beings" matches the five hundred people and thirty sons. "Birth, old age, sickness, and death" matches the intention behind conversion above. From "teaching and transforming" onward matches the gates of teaching. From "seeing sentient beings" onward matches the second parable of seeing the fire above. Above there were three parts: first, seeing the fire and being terrified; second, stating that he himself had already escaped; third, grieving that the sons had not yet left. Here it only matches the two section meanings of seeing the fire and grieving that the sons had not yet left. The reason it only matches these two meanings is that matching the general parable above praised the Buddha as having joy and lacking suffering, while here matching the parable of seeing the fire recounts that sentient beings have suffering and lack joy, wishing to set the agent of conversion and the object of conversion, having and lacking, in mutual contrast. Matching the two constitutes two meanings: first, explaining seeing sentient beings undergo suffering, matching the seeing of the fire above. This also has four parts: first, seeing sentient beings presently undergoing various sufferings; second, seeing sentient beings undergoing various sufferings in birth; third, seeing them undergoing various sufferings in the future; fourth, generally concluding the suffering of the three periods of time. Within each of the sufferings of the three periods of time there are three sufferings. The three sufferings of the present life are: first, birth, old age, sickness, death, worry, sorrow, suffering, and distress; these generally pertain to the suffering of the inner body, so the sūtra text concludes them as one suffering.