妙法蓮華經玄贊 1.69

1.69

Judging by the place and the capacities, responding to the śrāvakas, he is an emanation buddha (nirmāṇakāya). Judging by the text and the spiritual capacity, teaching the bodhisattvas, he is the reward body (saṃbhogakāya). Because the spiritual faculties of those who respond vary, the response and manifestation accordingly encompass both reward and emanation. Rājagṛha and Vulture Peak, incinerated when the kalpa ends, with Śāriputra hearing the sūtra—this is the emanation buddha. 'My land is peaceful and secure,' his lifespan long and enduring, with Mañjuśrī in their midst—this is the reward body. The responsive emanation is not the true Buddha, nor is it the expounder of the Dharma; attributing the achievement to the source, it is the Dharma body (dharmakāya). Hence the Praising the Merits of the Great Vehicle Sūtra abides in the storehouse of the dharma-realm, explaining the exposition of the Dharma body. The Buddhabhūmi-sūtra and others abide in the eighteen perfections of the jewel flower king, which is the exposition of the reward body. In this sūtra, the traces at Rājagṛha are the exposition of the emanation buddha. In terms of ultimate principle, it genuinely encompasses all three buddhas, for manifesting a body in response to beings is not fixed to only one. In the Laṅkāvatāra-sūtra it is taught that the expositions of the three buddha-bodies are each distinct, yet all expound the Dharma. Therefore, the elder Ghoṣila aroused the aspiration upon seeing him at three spans tall; five hundred brahmins gave rise to faith upon seeing his body reduced to ashes; the Bodhisattva of Boundless Body could not fathom him though exhausting the upper realms; while ordinary beings abiding in the lesser saintly attainments viewed his sixteen-foot body without end. Now, to make manifest that the Lord is venerable and the teaching supreme according to capacity, the Lord of the Teaching is indicated at the beginning to cause the arising of joyful minds.