大方廣佛華嚴經隨疏演義鈔 2.23

2.23

In the Commentary, the ninth part, from "Therefore the Bodhisattva searched for the secret in the Dragon Palace" onward, expresses feelings of rejoicing at having encountered it. Within this there are two: first, clarifying the origins of its propagation; second, directly expressing feelings about encountering it. Now for the first. It means that more than five hundred years [after the Buddha's demise], Bodhisattva Nāgārjuna finally entered the Dragon Palace to search and seek, and obtained this profound and abstruse scripture, as recorded in separate biographies and the Zuānlíng jì. As for "Great sages expounded it in the Eastern Xia," this specifically refers to Buddhabhadra alongside other venerable figures, meaning that Jñānagupta, Faye, Divākara, Śikṣānanda, and others expounded this scripture. "In the Eastern Xia" means east of the Congling (Pamir) Mountains, a region of thousands of li, called the Divine Land of the Great Xia. What was stated above as "therefore" is because, being so deep and wondrous, it was searched out to be expounded. Thus Nāgārjuna entered the Dragon Palace and saw countless [texts], but specifically chanted this sūtra because it was profound and wondrous. Hence the Dàzhìdù lùn names it the Great Inconceivable Sūtra. Furthermore, all the venerable masters saw that in this sūtra, a single phrase or line could not be written even if the ink of the ocean were exhausted, and a single verse or ray of light shatters the severe torments of the hells; therefore, the various masters dedicated their lives to propagating it.