觀彌勒上生兜率天經贊 1.27

1.27

The eulogy says: The second is the time of expounding the teaching. When the Dharma King initiated the transformation, the suitable vessels all gathered, and the affairs of expounding and hearing were concluded, it is collectively called "at one time." This is provisionally designated on the basis of the culmination of expounding and hearing in an unbroken continuum of moments. The treatises have two explanations: First, the time of principle. Although the assembly of expounder and hearers is only present, and the conditioned formations of the five aggregates arise and cease moment by moment, these very present dharmas have the sense of repaying what came before and inducing what comes after. The sense of what is repaid is provisionally called the past, and the sense of what is induced is provisionally called the future; both are provisionally established upon present dharmas. That is to say, the dharmas of the five aggregates of the expounder and hearers arise and cease moment by moment, and when the succession of before and after reaches its conclusion, the three times are provisionally and collectively called "at one time"; it is not that a single arising and ceasing is called "at one time." Second, upon the conscious minds of the two groups—the expounder and the hearers—the appearances of the three times arise transformed; in reality they are the present, yet according to the mental measures they are transformed into short and long periods, and when the course of events reaches its conclusion, it is collectively called "at one time." Just as in a dream one sees what seems to be many lifetimes, but upon waking there is only mind and no substantial entity whatsoever. The transformation of the three times by the hearers' minds is also like this: they are subsumed under the aggregate of non-concurrent formations, the sphere of phenomena, and the realm of phenomena, which are solely cognitive objects of the mind. Here, it is not determined by a single moment, nor is it determined by continuity, nor is it determined by the four seasons, eight seasons, or twelve seasons, nor is it determined by the elapsed years and seasons since the attainment of the Way to be called "at one time." It is simply that when the hearers' capacities have matured, they move the Buddha to expound for them, and the expounder, with compassion, responds to their capacities by delivering the teaching; when the affairs of expounding and hearing are concluded, it is collectively called "at one time." Because the expounder has attained dhāraṇī, when he expounds the meaning of a single syllable, all understand; or because the hearers have attained purity of ear and mind, when they hear the meaning of a single syllable, all comprehend. Or it may be that the expounder takes a short time while the hearers take a long time, or the expounder takes a long time while the hearers take a short time; therefore, no fixed duration of a single thought-moment or many kalpas is stated. Because within a single assembly the capacities of the hearers include the sharp and the dull, and by the Tathāgata's supernatural power a brief thought-moment may be extended into long kalpas or many kalpas compressed into a brief thought-moment, it is also unfixed; it is termed "at one time" solely with reference to the conclusion of expounding and hearing, with no other meaning.