大方廣佛華嚴經隨疏演義鈔 28.43

28.43

Regarding the commentary's statement, "He is truly the mother of the Buddhas of the three periods of time, how could he merely be the teacher of Śākyamuni?": this concludes with his actual virtue. Thus the seventy-ninth fascicle of the sūtra says: "All the great vows of Mañjuśrī cannot be possessed by any other immeasurable hundreds of thousands of koṭis of nayutas of bodhisattvas. Excellent, Mañjuśrī! His practices are vast, his vows are boundless, giving rise to all bodhisattva virtues without rest. Excellent, Mañjuśrī! Constantly the mother of immeasurable hundreds of thousands of koṭis of nayutas of Buddhas, constantly the teacher of immeasurable hundreds of thousands of koṭis of nayutas of bodhisattvas, teaching and bringing to fruition all sentient beings," and so forth. The Fo ming jing says: the Buddhas of the past, [countless as] the sands of immeasurable Ganges Rivers, were all inspired to generate the aspiration [for awakening] by Mañjuśrī. Yet that still retains numbers; therefore it now reveals the reality: he is truly the mother of all Buddhas, whose beginning and end cannot be fathomed. As for "how could he merely be the teacher of Śākyamuni?", this refers to what was previously quoted from the Garbhastha-sūtra: "In the past I was the teacher of the Capable Sage (Śākyamuni); now I am the Buddha's disciple. Two honoured ones do not teach side by side, so I act as a bodhisattva." That is, as the ancestral teacher across nine lifetimes in the Lotus Sūtra, he also retained upāya to abide in the Śūraṅgamasamādhi. This too is among his traces; hence relaxing and deploying within the arena of the provisional and real, lucidly penetrating the boundary of tathatā, he abides in the inconceivable realm of all Buddhas—how could one speak of his beginning or end? Where there are no words, one speaks by forcing words, calling him the mother of the Buddhas of the three periods of time. Regarding the commentary's statement, "Coming like an echo and shadow, hence his exposition": this is the conclusion. "Echo and shadow" shows that this is not his real causal stage. Regarding the commentary's question, "Why does he not enter samādhi?": what is the intention of this question? It explains that later, faith has not yet entered the stages, so it is permitted that he does not enter samādhi; now, these three chapters explain the three karmas of the Buddha, so why does he not enter samādhi? Hence this resolution is made: aligning the fruit with the cause, the cause is the ten faiths; since the ten faiths do not enter, the fruit also does not enter, because it is within the ten faiths that the fruit is expounded. Regarding the commentary's statement, "The concluding text below fully reveals it": this refers to the end of the chapter where it says, "When the World-Honoured One was formerly a bodhisattva, he achieved fulfillment through various discourses, various languages, various sounds, various karmas, various retributions, various places, various upāyas, various faculties, various faiths and understandings, and various stages, and he also caused sentient beings to have such knowledge and vision, preaching the Dharma for them." This is that text.