大般涅槃經集解 9.42

9.42

案寶亮曰：將欲說果，以果難因。現果不長，往因寧等耶？僧宗曰：雖復捉果尋因，而事在難果，即答長壽果問也。智秀曰：猶是難因也。因必是實，理召常果，則不應涅槃。今已果徵因，因非實矣。以此而推，故知猶是難因，未是答果也。有兩翻：第一難、第二答也。就難中有三階：第一直謂不應長壽之旨、第二舉譬、第三合譬結難。此即第一，將欲為難，先領旨也。

Baoliang comments: Intending to speak of the fruit, he uses the fruit to question the cause: if the present fruit is not long, how could the past cause have been equal? Sengzong comments: Although he takes the fruit to trace the cause, the matter lies in challenging the fruit, which precisely answers the question regarding the fruit of long life. Zhixiu comments: It is still an objection to the cause. If the cause is definitely real, the principle calls forth a permanent fruit, and he should not enter nirvāṇa. Now, verifying the cause by the fruit, the cause is not real. Inferring from this, we know it is still an objection to the cause, not yet an answer regarding the fruit. There are two turns: first, the objection; second, the answer. Within the objection there are three steps: first, directly asserting that it should not be the purport of long life; second, raising a simile; third, joining the simile and concluding the objection. This is the first: intending to raise an objection, he first receives the purport.