妙法蓮華經玄贊 1.82

1.82

「大比丘」者，《智度論》云，三義解大，諸眾中最大，大障礙斷，大人恭敬。真諦三釋：一勝大，學、無學人中勝。二體大，功德智慧極高廣。三數大，萬二千人。今合為六：一數大；二離大，大障斷故；三位大，大阿羅漢故；四德大，如經所說故；五名大，名稱遠聞故；六識大，大人大眾所知識故。梵云「苾芻」訛云「比丘」，由具五義所以不翻：一曰怖魔，初出家時魔宮動故。二言乞士，既出家已乞食自活故。三名淨持戒，漸入僧數應持戒故。四云淨命，既受得戒，所起三業以無貪發，不依於貪邪活命故。五曰破惡，漸依聖道滅煩惱故。

"Great bhikṣu": the *Mahāprajñāpāramitopadeśa* says that "great" is explained with three meanings: greatest among all assemblies, great obstacles severed, and revered by great people. Paramārtha gives three explanations: 1. superiorly great, superior among persons in training and beyond training; 2. substantially great, virtue and wisdom being extremely high and vast; 3. numerically great, twelve thousand persons. Now they are combined into six: 1. great in number; 2. great in abandonment, because great obstacles are severed; 3. great in status, because they are great arhats; 4. great in virtue, as stated in the sūtra; 5. great in fame, their reputation being heard far and wide; 6. great in recognition, being known by great people and the great assembly. In Sanskrit it is *bhikṣu*, erroneously called *biqiu*; possessing five meanings, it is therefore not translated: 1. called frightening Māra, because when one first renounces household life, Māra's palace trembles; 2. called mendicant, because having renounced household life, one sustains oneself by begging for food; 3. called pure upholders of precepts, because gradually entering the monastic assembly, one ought to uphold the precepts; 4. called pure livelihood, because having received the precepts, the three activities one generates are motivated by non-greed and do not rely on greed or wrong livelihood; 5. called destroying evil, because gradually relying on the noble path, one eliminates defilements.