妙法蓮華經玄贊 1.9

1.9

Responding to the cause of seeking: the "Devadatta Chapter" says: "In the past, I sought the Lotus Sūtra without weariness; over many kalpas, I constantly served as a king, seeking great bodhi without ever turning back. Beating a drum, I proclaimed an order to the four quarters. At that time, a seer came and said to the king: 'I have a Mahāyāna [teaching] called the Saddharmapuṇḍarīka-sūtra; if you do not disobey me, I will expound it for you.' When the king heard the seer's words, he leaped for joy, and at once followed the seer, supplying what he needed, even using his body as a bed and seat without bodily or mental weariness, serving the seer for a thousand years, ensuring he lacked nothing for the sake of seeking the Dharma. The king of that time was my own person; the seer of that time was Devadatta." Because although the Buddha's past vows and practices were accomplished, they necessarily relied on the convergence of conditions, he constantly venerated this sūtra and devotedly sought it from a kalyāṇamitra. Therefore, now he expounded it to cause beings to give rise to earnest seeking and veneration.