妙法蓮華經玄贊 2.88

2.88

Seventeenth, "the Utmost Sublime Dharma Gate": because of accomplishment through subsumption. Accomplishment through subsumption means subsuming immeasurable collections of names, phrases, and letters, as well as verses of the numbers bimba, akṣobhya, and so forth. Being the foundation, it subsumes all other meanings of names, phrases, and letters; hence it is called "utmost sublime." This is the expressed [meaning], the gate to all other utmost sublime dharmas, both expressing and expressed; what expresses is also the gate to all other expressing and expressed dharmas, because it subsumes all names, phrases, letters, and so forth. Bimba is the eighteenth number among the fifty-two numbers of the Hinayāna, and akṣobhya is the twentieth number; these are the numbers of verses in other Mahāyāna scriptures, all of which this can subsume, hence it is called a Dharma gate—that is, twenty hundred million billion verses. The commentary says: "Among the seventeen phrases, this is the overarching phrase, and the rest are specific phrases." This sūtra has only three: (1) Immeasurable Meanings, because its substance and function are supreme; (2) The Dharma for Teaching Bodhisattvas, because it transforms those of mature faculties; (3) What Buddhas Protect and Keep in Mind, because it exists only in reliance on a buddha. Because these three meanings are preeminent, they are exclusively stated.