法華宗要 1.3

1.3

First, as for stating the general meaning: the Saddharmapuṇḍarīka-sūtra is the grand purpose for which all the Buddhas of the ten directions and the three times appear in the world; it is the expansive gate through which all beings of the nine paths and the catur-yoni enter the single path. Its phrasing is ingenious and its meaning profound, reaching the utmost of subtlety; its diction unfolds and its principle is expansive, leaving no Dharma undeclared. Because its phrasing and diction are ingeniously unfolded, they flower while harboring the fruit of the real; because its meaning and principle are profound and expansive, they are real while carrying along the provisional. That the principle is profound and expansive means that it is without duality and without distinction; that the phrasing is ingeniously unfolded means opening the provisional and revealing the real. Opening the provisional means opening [the realization that] the three carts outside the gate are provisional, the apparitional city midway along the path is a conjuration, attaining awakening under the tree is not the beginning, and parinirvāṇa in the grove is not the end. Revealing the real means demonstrating that beings of the catur-yoni are all my children, and that those of the two vehicles will all become Buddhas: the number of dust motes cannot measure his lifespan, and the kalpa fire cannot burn his land. This is called the ingenuity of the phrasing and diction. Saying that it is without duality means that there is only the one great matter: opening, demonstrating, awakening to, and entering into the buddhajñānadarśana, causing them to know and realize that which is unexcelled and undifferentiated. Saying that it is without distinction means the three kinds of equality: all vehicles and all bodies are of the same measure, and the world and nirvāṇa are forever free from the two extremes. This is called the profound subtlety of its meaning and principle. Thus, its text and principle are both subtle; nothing is not a profound principle that transcends the coarse, and hence it is called the 'Subtle Dharma' (saddharma). The provisional flower unfolds and the real fruit is broadly revealed; this unstained beauty is metaphorically likened to the 'Lotus' (puṇḍarīka). Yet the Subtle Dharma is subtly transcendent—what three or what one could there be? It is utterly enduring and deeply obscure—who is short and who is long? This realm is vast and elusive, not easy to enter; the children wander aimlessly, truly difficult to bring out. Thereupon, the Tathāgata guided them by means of the provisional: he aroused yearning for the goat cart at the Deer Park, displaying a fragile body subject to conditions; he drove the white ox [cart] at Vulture Peak, revealing an infinite lifespan. This is borrowing the one to refute the three, yet once the three are eliminated, the one is abandoned; relying on the long to rebuke the short, yet once the short has ceased, the long is forgotten. This Dharma cannot be demonstrated; the characteristics of words and speech are extinguished. Boundless and without reliance, solemn and free from all attachments, one knows not how to speak of it, and only forcefully calls it the 'Subtle Dharma Lotus' (Saddharmapuṇḍarīka). Therefore, even those who share a seat to let others hear it still receive the seat of a wheel-turning king, Śakra, or Brahmā; those across whose ears a single verse passes all receive the vyākaraṇa of unexcelled bodhi. How much more so the merit of upholding and expounding it—how could it ever be measured by thought? Setting forth this grand purpose to indicate the title, it is therefore called the 'Saddharmapuṇḍarīka-sūtra'.