妙法蓮華經玄贊 5.82

5.82

The Commentary says: The passage below clarifies the prophecy of fruition, which has two parts: first, prose; afterward, verses. The prose has six parts: 1. internal virtues accomplished and fulfilled; 2. external land adorned; 3. preaching of the Dharma identical to the present; 4. kalpa names being distinct or the same; 5. superiority or inferiority of the retinue; 6. length or brevity of the Dharma's duration. This is the first. His eyes beheld the rain of flowers and the emission of light, his ears heard the wisdom light of the Lotus Sūtra; furthermore, externally partaking of the secret Dharma, internally he generated the light of wisdom. Because of these two meanings, he is named Padmaprabha (Flower Light). Bestowing a buddha name is in principle not uniform: for example, Śākyamuni and Maitreya were named on the basis of beholding those buddhas, while Śāriputra originally established his name based on seeing and hearing. The Mahāprajñāpāramitopadeśa states: 'Three hundred bhikṣus took off their robes and presented them to the Buddha, raising their hands as a sign; they received the prophecy with the name Mahālakṣaṇa Tathāgata. Furthermore, a thousand devaputras saw the adornment of the buddha-field and generated pure thoughts; they received the prophecy with the name Alaṃkārarāja Buddha.' Furthermore, that work's 'Chapter on the Sign of the Tongue' states: 'One hundred thousand koṭis of people saw the bodhisattvas of the ten directions arrive and make offerings of flowers, generated the aspiration, and received prophecies; their buddha name was Kusumabuddha, and the kalpa was named Kusumasañcaya.' Such cases cannot be uniformly standardized; or perhaps these were all the buddhas encountered initially, and later encountering these conditions was because of conforming to past vows.