觀彌勒上生兜率天經贊 2.7

2.7

The Commentary says: This presents the present [state] to challenge [the matter] with a subsequent inquiry. The text has two parts: first, adducing the present [state] to challenge concerning the place of subsequent birth; second, adducing the present [state] to challenge concerning the purity or impurity of the place of subsequent birth. This is the first challenge. Upāli was of inferior capacity, his sentiments limited to the Hīnayāna, and using what he knew, he rashly speculated about the supreme ultimate. The Lesser Vehicle asserts that a bodhisattva over three kalpas is still an ordinary person, and only under the tree with the thirty-four minds does he become a noble one. His thoughts of sensual desire, malice, and harming have at times not yet ceased; therefore he says, 'an ordinary person and has not yet severed the various outflows.' As for outflows, there are three kinds, as explained in the *Commentary on the Lotus Sūtra*. As for 'where will he be born?', in which realm of the three realms? In which destiny of the five destinies? In which birth of the four forms of birth? In which existence of the nine states of existence? Observing the cause to test the fruit, he could not dispel the doubts in his mind; he only wished that the Dharma King would point out and state the domain of birth.