妙法蓮華經玄贊 7.9

7.9

The Commentary says: Below, the third section has seven verses on the metaphor of seeing the Buddha again. The prose has three parts: the son growing older and returning to the country; the father first searching; and the son arriving at the city. Here, only the father first searching for the son is versified, not the other two. Those two texts enter into the fourth section below, for the sake of stylistic smoothness and convenience. Within this there are four parts: first, one verse on searching for the son and stopping in a city; second, two and a half verses on his assets and wealth being exceedingly vast; third, one verse on his mercantile profits being abundant and broad; and fourth, two and a half verses on those who come and go being numerous. This is the first. ‘Searching in the four directions’ means searching by following him into the four modes of birth. ‘Weary’ means toilsome labor, displaying marks in order to search for the son. ‘Suddenly’ (dun) means stopping; stopping and dwelling in a great city.