大般涅槃經義記 3.78

3.78

就初段中，有二問答：前一問答明興癈時。迦葉先問「如來滅後四十年中，是經廣流過是沒」者牒上所辨，「久近還出」對滅問興。下佛答之，「若我正法餘八十年，前四十年是經復當雨法雨」者，釋迦正法有五百年，五百年中後八十年中前四十年，此經重興於閻浮提，雨大法雨，良以法通有時故爾。

Within the first section, there are two questions and answers. The first question and answer explains the times of flourishing and decline. Kāśyapa first asks: "Within forty years after the Tathāgata passes into extinction, this sūtra will circulate widely, and beyond this it will disappear" reprises what was clarified above; "how long until it appears again?" asks about flourishing in contrast to extinction. Below, the Buddha answers him: "When there remain eighty years of my True Dharma, in the first forty years this sūtra will again rain the rain of Dharma." The True Dharma of Śākyamuni lasts for five hundred years; within the latter eighty years of these five hundred years, in the first forty years this sūtra will flourish again in Jambudvīpa, raining down the great rain of Dharma, truly because the dissemination of the Dharma has its seasons.