大般涅槃經集解 24.12

24.12

Sengliang comments: The elder is a parable for previous Buddhas. The cows are a parable for practitioners. The different colors are a parable for the three vehicles. The one person is a parable for the present Buddha. The three vehicles attaining Buddhahood repays the kindness of previous Buddhas, like an ancestral sacrifice. Attaining Great Nirvāṇa is the single vessel. The white color is a parable for self, bliss, and purity. From "he immediately was astonished and amazed" down to "they are all of the same color": being about to explain the reason, he feigns words of surprise, wondering why the causes differ while the fruit is one. "This person reflected": this means that with causes of eighty thousand practices, the fruit should not be different.