妙法蓮華經玄贊 4.26

4.26

The Eulogy: Below is clarifying the rules of the buddhas of the three times, which has two parts: first, separately clarifying the rules of the three times; and later, concluding that their purpose is identical. In the first there are three: first the past, next the future, and finally the present. In each of the three there are two: first, clarifying that the rules of the buddhas' preaching of the Dharma are identical; and later, clarifying that the sentient beings they deliver attain the Way identically. This clarifies that the rules of the past buddhas are identical. First, that they expound the Dharma with various causes and conditions as expedient means is entirely for the sake of later attaining the one buddha vehicle. Hence the root treatise says: "Expedient means: in the Lesser Vehicle, contemplating the aggregates, realms, and entrances, weary of suffering and separated from suffering to attain liberation; in the Great Vehicle, the pāramitās and the four means of attraction, methods for gathering benefits for oneself and others and for antidotes." Regarding "causes and conditions": the root treatise explains them in its second discussion among the six meanings; pointing to the preceding, it says that the various causes and conditions as mentioned above refer to the teachings of the three vehicles; those three vehicles are merely spoken in names, words, and phrases, and do not possess real meaning, because their real meaning cannot be spoken. Regarding "parables": just as relying on a cow there is milk, curd, raw butter, clarified butter, and ultimately sarpirmaṇḍa, and sarpirmaṇḍa is supreme; because the Lesser Vehicle is like milk and the Great Vehicle is like sarpirmaṇḍa. This parable clarifies that the Great Vehicle is unsurpassed, and that the śrāvakas and others are also equal to the unsurpassability of the Great Vehicle. That śrāvakas are equal indicates that the nature of the dharmakāya of the buddhas and tathāgatas is identical, because the dharmakāya of ordinary beings, śrāvakas, pratyekabuddhas, and so forth is equal and without differentiation; this is manifested in this parable. The meaning here is that ordinary beings are like the cow, śrāvakas are like the milk, pratyekabuddhas are like the curd, minor bodhisattvas are like the raw butter, great bodhisattvas are like the clarified butter, and the Buddha is like the sarpirmaṇḍa; sarpirmaṇḍa is supreme, and so too is the buddha vehicle. From the milk nature in the belly of the original single cow, it progressively becomes superior up to sarpirmaṇḍa; therefore, from ordinary beings up to the attainment of buddhahood, though their appearances differ, their essential nature is equal and originally non-dual. Now in this sūtra text there are only these three, but the root treatise's commentary on the sūtra also includes "mindfulness-contemplation." Mindfulness-contemplation refers to the contemplation of the selflessness of persons and so forth in the Lesser Vehicle, and the contemplation of tathatā, the dharmadhātu, the bhūta-koṭi, the selflessness of persons, and the selflessness of dharmas in the Great Vehicle. This sūtra takes expedient means, causes and conditions, parables, and phrasing as the sequence, whereas the root treatise commenting on the sūtra takes parables, causes and conditions, mindfulness-contemplation, and expedient means as the sequence. The present citation and explanation differ from the treatise, which scholars should know.