妙法蓮華經玄贊 2.161

2.161

The Commentary says: The following thirty-one verses and a half eulogise practicing the bodhisattva path, divided into three: the first verse eulogises various causes and conditions; the next seventeen verses eulogise various forms and aspects; and the following thirteen verses and a half eulogise various faiths and understandings. In the preceding prose, external conditions and internal practice were used to explain the hierarchical sequence from ordinary beings to sages; here in the verses, it first relies on external conditions and then clarifies one's own practice. In one's own practice, the sequence is based on superior and inferior: the "forms and aspects" are the mixed cultivation of uncontaminated and contaminated [practices] across the ten stages, cultivating the practices of the six pāramitās in sequence; "faiths and understandings" are exclusively contaminated cultivation, practiced chaotically and not in sequence. Since superior and inferior are distinct, their sequence differs. However, the cultivation of the six pāramitās has, in brief, three stages: prior to the path of seeing, during the first kalpa, within one practice only one practice is cultivated—chaotic, contaminated cultivation is precisely these "faiths and understandings." From the first stage up to the seventh stage, completing the second kalpa, within one practice all practices are cultivated, both contaminated and uncontaminated being cultivated in combination. From the eighth stage up to the tenth stage, completing the third kalpa, within all practices all practices are cultivated, purely uncontaminated cultivation; the cultivation of the latter two kalpas is precisely these "forms and aspects." The Daśabhūmika-sūtra says: "On the first stage one practices the perfection of giving and so forth, up to on the tenth stage one cultivates the perfection of wisdom, yet across the remaining perfections, according to one's power and measure, it is not that one does not practice them"; therefore these forms and aspects are the cultivation of the ten stages, because they possess sequentiality and because the practices are vast. "Faith and understanding" is prior to the path of seeing, because the practices are not superior and because they are described as chaotic cultivation. This [verse] eulogises the causes and conditions. As for "bodhisattvas like the sands of the Gaṅgā," in Sanskrit it is called Gaṅgā, corrupted and abbreviated as Héng. It is the name of a river deity, and the river is named after her; jǐng (殑) has the pronunciation of the fanqie of 其 (qí) and 矜 (jīn), in the falling tone. The sūtras speak of the sands of the Ganges as an analogy: the Anavatapta Lake sends forth four great rivers, and this is one of them. First, because its sands are numerous; second, because worldly people collectively regard it as meritorious water, entering to bathe in which cleanses sins, and drowning to death in it leads to rebirth in heaven; third, because though passing through kalpas of destruction, its name remains constant; fourth, because the Buddha frequently stayed near it to preach the subtle Dharma; fifth, because it is familiar to all people, it is often taken as an analogy; moreover, it takes the sands of an area forty li square where it first issues from the mouth of the lake as the analogy.