大方廣佛華嚴經隨疏演義鈔 27.19

27.19

Regarding the Commentary's statement, "That there are further great kalpas after this is not contrary to reason": this is a rebuttal of a proposed emendation. That is to say, Jingfa stated: "According to the text below, a great kalpa contains small kalpas as numerous as the sands of the Ganges. At the beginning of the two small kalpas of human lifespan, the Buddha's lifespan was five billion years. Weiguang successively served three Buddhas, changed his karmic retribution, and was born in the heavens. Now it says that in the very first kalpa there were Buddhas as numerous as the dust motes of ten Mount Merus. Was it that within that realm there were further multiple great kalpas, and this was the first great [kalpa]? Or did it select the beginning of a small [kalpa] from among the various small kalpas?" Commentary: Having cited the passage to set up the premise, he posed two alternatives. Next, he stated: "If it refers to the beginning of a small kalpa, Weiguang should not have encountered only three Buddhas within a single retribution. If it refers to a great kalpa, how could there be many great [kalpas] within a single realm?" Commentary: This explains both alternatives. It means that since the human lifespan was two small kalpas, and within one small kalpa there were Buddhas as numerous as the dust motes of Mount Meru, he should not have encountered only three Buddhas in a single retribution. As for saying 'how could there be many great [kalpas]', just as in a single Bhadrakalpa, there are not multiple great [kalpas]. Next, he stated: "Therefore, we know that the three characters 'the very first kalpa' (最初劫) in this text should be transposed to 'the very beginning of the kalpa' (劫最初). Furthermore, moving these three characters below the phrase 'appeared in the world' (出興於世) in the subsequent line would then be faultless." Commentary: This sets up the rationale and fully transposes the text, so that it should read: 'In that world of Superior Sound, there were Tathāgatas as numerous as the fine dust motes of ten Mount Merus who appeared in the world; at the very beginning of that kalpa, the first Buddha was named All-Merit-Mountain Meru Superior Cloud.' This emendation is indeed very good. But now, not wishing to multiply citations of faults in the translated sūtra, I have merely resolved the words 'the very first kalpa' forcibly through principle. When it says 'there are further great [kalpas]', in meaning this corresponds to intermediate kalpas; conforming to Jingfa's intent, it speaks of there being 'great' ones. For example, the Bhadrakalpa has twenty increases and decreases constituting intermediate kalpas, and in the fifteenth kalpa nine hundred and ninety-four Buddhas appear; thus, a single kalpa can accommodate many Buddhas. It is only because the time of that pure kalpa is vast that within a single kalpa there were Buddhas as numerous as the dust motes of ten Mount Merus. However, not wishing to criticize the sūtra and distract from urgent practice, I preserved an abridged explanation to reconcile the principle, not that Jingfa's emendation was truly inappropriate.