大般涅槃經集解 11.9

11.9

案僧亮曰：顯正他相也。能令受者，得解悟故。是時女人，即其事也。若不先除念子之亂，則不悟常說，所謂善正人也。僧宗曰：此中明菩薩四相，今乃就佛顯者，將明窮四之妙，其唯至人也。如來致教，消息根機，說必有益，即是正他，使弘法大士務遵其術也。又一義：欲論益化，其塗自多，自有法說而得益者、有宜但以神通而益者，此中所明但取說法也。寶亮曰：就此文中，即亦具有能隨問答，善解因緣也。何者？對彼有說，即是正他。往復辨理，即是隨問答也。知彼機緣，投得其宜，即是解因緣也。未知此女為當是說涅槃之時始來已？不然。既來在坐，先懷一疑，後與一念也。疑者，疑佛是一切智不？次念所含兒蘇消不消不？懷此二故，聽法不入。佛應其心，借以為喻也。智秀曰：亦是引昔誠教以顯今事也。

Sengliang states: This reveals the characteristics of rectifying others. It is because one is able to cause the recipient to attain understanding and awakening. The woman at that time is precisely this case. If her distraction over thinking about her child had not first been dispelled, she would not have awakened to the teaching on permanence; this is what is called skilfully rectifying people. Sengzong states: Here the four dharmas of the bodhisattva are clarified, yet they are revealed through the Buddha because it is intended to show that the marvel of exhausting the four belongs only to the ultimate person. When the Tathāgata presents teachings, he gauges the faculties and capacities, so that what he expounds is necessarily beneficial; this is precisely rectifying others, causing the great masters who propagate the Dharma to be devoted to following his methods. Another interpretation: If one wishes to discuss benefiting and transforming, its paths are naturally manifold: there are those who attain benefit through the exposition of the Dharma, and those for whom it is suitable to be benefited merely through spiritual superknowledges; what is clarified here takes only the exposition of the Dharma. Baoliang states: Within this text, it also possesses being able to answer in accordance with questions and skilfully understanding causes and conditions. Why? Responding to that person with an exposition is rectifying others. The back-and-forth discrimination of principle is answering in accordance with questions. Knowing that person's capacities and affinities and providing what is suitable is understanding causes and conditions. It is not yet known whether this woman had just arrived when nirvāṇa was being expounded. It was not so. Having arrived and sat down, she first harboured a doubt, and subsequently had a thought. The doubt was: she doubted whether the Buddha was omniscient or not. Next, she thought about whether the butter her child had consumed was digested or not. Because she harboured these two, her listening to the Dharma did not penetrate. The Buddha responded to her mind and borrowed this as an analogy. Zhixiu states: It is also citing genuine teachings of the past to illuminate present matters.