法華玄贊義決 1.12

1.12

Third, there are seven items demonstrating 'three': (1) to demonstrate the Three Jewels, as the text below says: 'Moreover, he saw the present Buddhas of that land, heard the Dharma of the sūtras taught by those Buddhas, and saw those monks,' and so forth, and Chapter Two says: 'If there are those who can believe what you teach, they will see me, the saṅgha of monks, and all the bodhisattvas,' and so forth, and the treatise says: 'Because the Buddhas and their disciples distinctly manifest the Three Jewels,' to arouse faith and joy; (2) to demonstrate the distinctions among the three vehicles, meaning the fourfold assembly of monks and so forth and seeing bodhisattvas seeking the Buddha way through various conditions, where the treatise says: 'Moreover, the distinction of vehicles makes known the superior and the inferior'; (3) to demonstrate the World-Honoured One's transformation through the three wheels, where entering samādhi demonstrates the wheel of reading thoughts, emitting light and the like manifests the wheel of supernatural transformation, and teaching the Dharma demonstrates the wheel of instruction, in order to make [beings] know the superior person and give rise to reverence; (4) to demonstrate awakening to and knowing the three natures, as the text below says: 'The Buddhas, the two-footed honoured ones, know that dharmas are perpetually devoid of nature; the Buddha-seed arises from conditions, therefore they teach the ekayāna; this Dharma abides...', in order to make [beings] awaken to the three natures and fathom the objects of knowledge; (5) to demonstrate the three superior practices, as the text below says: 'entering the Tathāgata's room, wearing the Tathāgata's robe, and sitting on the Tathāgata's seat,' and so forth, to demonstrate superior practices so as to inspire cultivation and study; (6) to demonstrate the three kinds of equality: first, conferring the prediction that the śrāvakas will definitely attain Buddhahood; second, Prabhūtaratna Buddha's arising from nirvāṇa; third, manifesting that one Buddha gathers all Buddhas; hence the treatise says that in order to eliminate three kinds of defiled views of the uncontaminated samādhi and the like, the three equalities were taught on account of defiled conceit—the three kinds of defiled conceit being believing that the various vehicles differ, believing that the mundane world and nirvāṇa differ, and believing that one's own body and another's differ—so that [beings] may realize the true principle and encompass oneself and others; (7) to demonstrate the three bodhis of the Buddha, where the sūtra below states that all think the Tathāgata went forth from the Śākya palace to demonstrate the transformation body, that in truth since he attained Buddhahood it has been a vast time to demonstrate the reward body, and that the Tathāgata truly knows and sees the triple world and so forth to demonstrate the Dharma body; hence the treatise says that the eighth is manifesting the attainment of the unsurpassed great bodhi, which is manifesting the three kinds of Buddha-bodhi, so that [beings] may recognize the real and the transformation and seek realization.