妙法蓮華經玄贊 5.31

5.31

Eulogy: Explaining the attainment of what was never before, clarifying the exhaustion of sorrow and remorse. It means that regarding the Buddha's teaching that I formerly received, thinking that abiding in the lesser vehicle I could never attain the greater, I therefore felt sorrow and remorse; hearing this sūtra preached, today I finally know that I have not lost the Mahāyāna, because of having formerly cultivated the causes of the Mahāyāna; thereby remorse is exhausted. The rare and wondrous function of the Buddha's voice can eliminate the sorrow and anguish of sentient beings' affliction obstacle; although my outflows are exhausted, hearing it now can also suppress and eliminate the sorrow and anguish of clinging to phenomena. Here, 'sorrow' is the sorrow of not becoming a buddha. One view says it is precisely the sorrow of clinging to phenomena, which is not abandoned upon departing from desire, like Pilindavatsa's habit of coarse and harsh speech; because clinging to phenomena is not abandoned, as with the previous doubt and remorse, it is also thus according to the circumstances. A second view says that what is truly sorrow is precisely the neutral feeling of revulsion and disgust accompanied by regret, spoken of under the name 'sorrow'; or it is indeterminate or wholesome sorrow of the category of clinging to phenomena, which is not abandoned upon departing from desire; anguish associated with sorrow, anguish being sorrow and remorse, not an affliction.