妙法蓮華經玄贊 2.228

2.228

Commentary: This praises the rarity of the Buddha's names and epithets. “Sun-Moon-Lamp-Brightness” (Candrasūryapradīpa) is the specific name; from “Tathāgata” onward are the common names. The sun has two capacities: first, guiding with light; second, bringing to fruition. The moon has two capacities: first, dispelling heat; second, coolness. The lamp has two capacities: first, shattering darkness; second, transmitting light. This shows that the Buddha can guide the deluded to awakening, mature vessels and ripen faculties, dispel the heat of afflictions, attain the coolness of nirvāṇa, forever shatter ignorance, and transform living beings and transmit the Dharma—signifying the rarity of the specific name. Relying on the eighty-third fascicle of the Yogācārabhūmi, it explains the ten epithets, saying: 1. Tathāgata, 2. Arhat, 3. Samyaksambuddha, 4. Vidyācaraṇasampanna, 5. Sugata, 6. Lokavid, 7. Anuttara-puruṣadamyasārathi, 8. Śāstādevamanuṣyāṇām, 9. Buddha, 10. Bhagavat. “Tathāgata” is the initial general designation, the general designation of the nine epithets below. The Nirvāṇa Sūtra says: “As with the sūtra-dharmas spoken by past buddhas—the six pāramitās, the thirty-seven factors [of enlightenment], the eleven emptinesses, and so forth—he has come thus to bodhi, hence he is called Tathāgata.” Now Śākyamuni, like the past buddhas, relying on the various teachings, cultivated practices such as the six pāramitās and contemplated principles such as the eleven emptinesses to arrive at the fruit of bodhi, and is therefore called Tathāgata; this is the reward-body (sambhogakāya) Buddha. The Prajñā[-sūtra] says: “Tathāgata means coming from nowhere and going nowhere; therefore he is called Tathāgata”; this is the Dharma-body (dharmakāya) Buddha. The Tattvasiddhi-śāstra states: “Riding the path of true suchness to come and achieve perfect awakening, he is called Tathāgata.” Although this slightly captures the meaning, it is not the doctrine of this school. The treatise says: “Arhat and Samyaksambuddha mean being perpetually liberated from all afflictive obscurations and cognitive obscurations.”