大般涅槃經集解 9.26

9.26

Sengliang comments: If laypeople who destroy the Dharma are subjected to painful punishment, how much more so the renunciants? Sengzong comments: The giving and taking of the sages and their benefiting of beings have their proper times, not necessarily waiting for transformation; but the matter Kāśyapa raised was actually an apparition. Mingjun comments: From here below, the Buddha’s reply has five steps: first, brushing away traces, revealing that the boy was an apparition; second, clarifying that royal law and the Buddha’s Dharma are distinct in their particulars, thereby proving non-killing; third, using the small to illustrate the great: if releasing a single ray of light already confers fearlessness, how could there be killing?; fourth, raising three parables to clarify that when practicing the Dharma in later times, the four assemblies are able to punish wrongdoers who destroy the Dharma and obtain immeasurable merit; fifth, concluding both purports together: if one does not punish them, one incurs immeasurable guilt, but one who can punish according to the Dharma is my disciple.