大般涅槃經集解 22.52

22.52

Sengliang notes: He cites a verse spoken in the past about doing evil without repentance to prove that the icchantika cannot be transformed. Sengzong says: He asks again about the past verse to broadly reveal their evil. By first raising what is fearful, he wishes to illuminate the meaning of fearlessness in the subsequent verse. Baoliang says: From here below is the answer to the fifteenth question, explaining that when the three kinds of transgressors hear the Nirvāṇa Sūtra, repent and cultivate goodness, they can become fields of merit for humans and devas. Originally having evil, they constantly feared the great assembly; now, having reformed the past and cultivated the future, they are without fear. In this answer three verses are spoken: the first four-line verse is on doing evil and having fear before the assembly.