妙法蓮華經玄贊 2.354

2.354

The Commentary says: This is the second: the cause of the Dharma-wheel of the Well-Firm Tathāgata. According to the Hīnayāna, over three incalculable kalpas, in reverse order one meets Vipaśyin, Dīpaṃkara, and Ratnaśikhin buddhas. Śākyamuni first, at the beginning of the first kalpa, met Śākyamuni Buddha, and met a further seventy-five thousand buddhas. At the beginning of the second kalpa he met Ratnaśikhin Buddha, and met a further seventy-six thousand buddhas. At the beginning of the third kalpa he met Dīpaṃkara Buddha, and met a further seventy-seven thousand buddhas. At the completion of the third kalpa, for one hundred kalpas he cultivated the karmic causes for the physical marks, first meeting Vipaśyin Buddha, who is Vipaśyī. Because he praised Tiṣya while standing on one foot, he skipped over nine kalpas; therefore sūtras often say that ninety-one kalpas in the past there was Vipaśyin Buddha. According to the Mahāyāna, a bodhisattva of the fourth reliance makes offerings to buddhas as numerous as the sands of eight Ganges rivers, only then understanding the sixteenfold meaning of nirvāṇa. From ancient times this was assigned to the tenth bhūmi; nowadays it is also not fixed—it merely says 'sands of eight Ganges rivers', so why must it be the tenth bhūmi? Paramārtha's explanation says: 'In the first kalpa one meets five Ganges; in the second kalpa one meets six Ganges; in the third kalpa one meets buddhas as numerous as the sands of seven Ganges rivers.' Therefore it now says that upon obtaining entry into the eighth bhūmi, it still says one shall see countless buddhas.