大方廣佛華嚴經隨疏演義鈔 26.53

26.53

Regarding the commentary's statement "The Sanskrit text fully states..." and so forth: the Sanskrit says kusuma (flower) tala (treasury) vyūha (adornment) alaṃkāra (adornment accessories) lokadhātu (world) samudra (ocean) pariśuddha (meaning completely pure) guṇa (merit) samudra (ocean) avabhāsa (light) parivarta (chapter), which here is translated as "The Light of the Ocean of Completely Pure Merits of the World-Ocean of the Accessories of the Flower Treasury Adornment Chapter." Now, the commentary's text has four parts: first, it adduces the Sanskrit name; second, from "The translator, finding it cumbersome" onward, it offers its semantic explanation; third, from "The Sanskrit text states" onward, it explains the aforementioned Sanskrit text; fourth, from "In terms of phenomena it may be so" onward, it investigates its fundamental origin—without this explanation, how could one comprehend the origins of the rising of the kṣetra-oceans? Third, the primary tenets and purpose. As for the statement "possessing ten virtues," the previous chapter already cited four passages. Regarding the commentary's statement, "First, it clarifies the cause, fruit, and self-essence of the Flower Treasury," the second section on layout and adornment is also the characteristic of the fruit, so cause should be distinguished in contrast to fruit. Overall, it forms two sections: first, clarifying the causes of the kṣetra, and later revealing the characteristics of the fruit. Because the prose in the first section contains both cause and fruit, and the verses clarify both cause and fruit together, they are combined under cause and belong within self-essence. Regarding the commentary's statement, "This means pointing out that this kṣetra-ocean belongs to our fundamental teacher..." and so forth, the commentary's text has two parts: first, a general explanation of the sūtra text; second, separate explanations according to difficulties. Now for the first. Regarding the commentary's statement, "Not only Vipaśyin, Śākyamuni, and so forth": the eighteenth fascicle of the Abhidharmakośa-bhāṣya states that over the three incalculable eons, one makes offerings to seventy thousand [buddhas] in each, and further makes offerings sequentially to five, six, and seven thousand buddhas; upon completing the three incalculable eons, one encounters in reverse order Vipaśyin, Dīpaṃkara, Śikhin, and the initial Śākyamuni. In explanation: among these three verses, the first verse clarifies the number of buddhas to whom offerings were made. That is, in the first incalculable eon, offerings were made to 75,000 buddhas; in the second incalculable eon, offerings were made to 76,000 buddhas; in the third incalculable eon, offerings were made to 77,000 buddhas. The subsequent verse's meaning clarifies which buddhas were offered to. "In reverse order" means explaining backward from the third incalculable eon: upon completing the third incalculable eon, one encountered Vipaśyin Buddha; upon completing the second incalculable eon, one encountered Dīpaṃkara Buddha; upon completing the first incalculable eon, one encountered Śikhin Buddha; and upon first generating the mind [for bodhi], one encountered Śākyamuni Buddha, making the vow: "May I become a buddha just like the World-Honoured One today. When that World-Honoured One appeared in the world during the final eon, the Dharma remained for a thousand years; now may my Tathāgata be identical to him in every respect." Therefore, when the commentary now says "not only Vipaśyin," it adduces the buddha encountered upon completing the third asaṃkhyeya-kalpa. Saying "Śākyamuni" adduces the buddha of the initial generation of the mind. And saying "and so forth" contains three meanings: first, it includes Dīpaṃkara and Śikhin; second, it includes the number of buddhas offered to; third, it includes what is explained in other teachings. Even if one speaks of making offerings to thirty-six or thirty-eight Gaṅgā-sands of buddhas, none of these is sufficient to be considered many.