維摩義記 2.40

2.40

次別解釋。於此品中所告眾多，告前四人隨別具列，「如是諸菩薩各各向」下，總舉餘者。就前別中，先告彌勒明法身果。彌勒是姓，此翻名慈，字阿逸多，此云無勝，是彼波羅捺輔相之子。彌勒初生具諸相好，波羅捺王名梵摩達，聞其生已福相過人，恐為國患，規欲危害，遂從其父索以瞻之。父知王心，即答王言：「外家將去。」迴至家中，尋即遣人送南天竺波婆離國外家養之。彌勒外舅姓波婆離，有髮紺色，手摩膝相，聰慧博達為世師首，以己所知用教。彌勒七歲從之受學，一日所習多餘歷年，未久知盡。其舅為顯彌勒之德，自家欲設無遮大會寄以顯之。己家物少，遣二弟子往彌勒家取索財物。其二弟子中路聞佛始出於世，迴道觀之，二人是時為虎所食，乘向佛善同生天上，使遂不達。彼波婆離久待不得，率家所有施設其會。會滿七日，最後有一婆羅門來，財食俱盡竟無所得，便大瞋忿，語波婆離：「要以神呪破碎汝頭令為七分。」波婆離聞極愁惱。前二弟子往生天者，遙見師愁空中問之：「師何故然？」時波婆離具說所為以答二天。即問之言：「天為是誰，而來見問？」天具答之而告之曰：「佛已出世，何不往見。徒憂何益？」彼波婆離先讀讖書知佛出，聞其所告，即遣彌勒將十六人往驗是非，教其觀佛三十二相八十種好具足以不，并教屏處心念為問：「我師是誰？年今幾許？身有幾相？」彌勒受教，往彼驗之。見佛相好明了具足，心念為問，如問具答。彌勒于時與十六人從佛出家，彼十六人即成羅漢，彌勒一人不取漏盡願求佛道。如來爾時即為授記，說其次身上生兜率，畢天壽已下生閻浮成得佛道。成道之相如經具說。佛今告之，先告、後辭。辭中初先明己不堪，「所以」下釋，「故我」下結。釋中「所以」徵前起後。下正辨之，辨中有三：一、舉昔被呵由緣。二、「時維摩」下，彰彼維摩教呵之辭。三、「世尊維摩說是法」下，明教呵益。初中「憶昔」，舉被呵時。「為兜率王及其眷屬說不退地」，彰被呵事。由佛記說，彌勒捨身當生兜率，故兜率天王與諸眷屬數來請法。彼於一時來問地行，彌勒為說。淨心已上名不退地，亦可名彼種姓已上為不退地。是位趣地之行名為地行，亦可問其成地之行名為地行。彼天隨相問修成義，彌勒為說，說相覆實，為是被呵。

Next is the specific explanation. In this chapter, many are addressed: the first four are individually enumerated, and the text below—"All such bodhisattvas each said to [the Buddha]"—summarily mentions the rest. In the aforementioned individual treatments, he first addresses Maitreya to explain the fruit of the dharmakāya. Maitreya is a family name, translated here as "Benevolence" (ci); his personal name is Ajita, translated here as "Unconquered" (wusheng); he was the son of a chief minister of Vārāṇasī. When Maitreya was first born, he was endowed with all the physical marks and signs. The king of Vārāṇasī, named Brahmadatta, heard that he had been born with marks of merit surpassing other people; fearing that he would become a calamity to the state, he plotted to harm him and thereupon demanded him from his father to examine him. The father knew the king's intention and immediately replied to the king: "His maternal family has taken him away." Returning home, he immediately sent someone to deliver him to the kingdom of Bāvarī in South India to be raised by his maternal family. Maitreya's maternal uncle had the family name of Bāvarī; he had dark-blue hair and hands that touched his knees, and being clever, wise, and broadly learned, he was the foremost teacher of the world. He taught using what he knew. At the age of seven, Maitreya took instruction from him; in a single day, what he mastered surpassed many years' study, and before long he had completely mastered it. To make Maitreya's virtues known, his maternal uncle wished to establish an unrestricted great assembly on his own to make them evident. His family's goods were few, so he dispatched two disciples to Maitreya's family to request wealth and goods. On the way, the two disciples heard that the Buddha had just appeared in the world and diverted their path to behold him. At that time, the two were eaten by tigers; through the wholesome karma of turning toward the Buddha, they were together reborn in heaven, and so their mission failed to reach its destination. That Bāvarī waited a long time without result, and so, gathering all that his family possessed, he set up the assembly. When the assembly had completed seven days, at the very end a brāhmaṇa arrived; the wealth and food were both exhausted and he received nothing at all. He then flew into a great rage and said to Bāvarī: "I will certainly use a magic spell to shatter your head into seven pieces!" Bāvarī heard this and became extremely distressed. The two previous disciples who had been reborn in heaven saw their teacher's distress from afar and questioned him from the sky: "Why is the master like this?" Then Bāvarī fully stated what had happened to answer the two devas. He then asked them: "Who are you devas that you come to question me?" The devas answered him in full and told him: "The Buddha has already appeared in the world; why do you not go and see him? What benefit is there in vain sorrow?" That Bāvarī had previously read prophetic books and knew that the Buddha had appeared; hearing what they said, he immediately sent Maitreya together with sixteen people to go and verify the truth or falsehood of it, instructing them to observe whether the Buddha was endowed with the thirty-two physical marks and eighty secondary signs, and also instructing them to formulate questions in their minds in private: "Who is my master? How old is he now? How many physical marks are on his body?" Maitreya received the instruction and went there to test him. He saw that the Buddha's physical marks were clear and complete, and when he formulated the questions in his mind, [the Buddha] answered fully in accordance with the questions. At that time, Maitreya and the sixteen people went forth under the Buddha. The sixteen people immediately became arhats, while Maitreya alone did not grasp the extinction of outflows, aspiring instead to seek the Buddha Way. The Tathāgata then bestowed a prophecy upon him, saying that in his next lifetime he would be reborn in Tuṣita Heaven, and that after completing that celestial lifespan, he would descend to be born in Jambudvīpa and achieve the Buddha Way. The aspects of his attaining the Way are fully explained in the sūtra. Now the Buddha addresses him: first is the addressing, and then the declining. In the declining, he first explains his own incapability; below "suoyi" (the reason is), he explains it; and below "gwo" (therefore), he concludes. In the explanation, "suoyi" questions the preceding and raises the following. Below, it formally analyzes it, in which there are three parts: First, citing the circumstances of his being rebuked in the past. Second, from "shi Weimojie" (at that time Vimalakīrti) onward, revealing Vimalakīrti's words of instructive rebuke. Third, from "shizun Weimojie shuo shi fa" (World-Honoured One, when Vimalakīrti preached this dharma) onward, explaining the benefit of the instructive rebuke. In the first part, "recalling the past" cites the time he was rebuked. "Expounding the non-retrogressing stage for the king of Tuṣita and his retinue" highlights the event of his being rebuked. Because the Buddha's prophecy stated that Maitreya, upon relinquishing his body, would be born in Tuṣita, the Tuṣita heavenly king and his retinue frequently came to request the Dharma. On one occasion, they came to ask about the practices of the bhūmis, and Maitreya expounded them for them. From the pure mind upward is called the non-retrogressing stage; one may also call from the lineage stage upward the non-retrogressing stage. The practice that approaches the bhūmi in this position is called the practice of the bhūmi; one may also ask about the practice of completing the bhūmi and call that the practice of the bhūmi. That deva asked about the meaning of cultivation and accomplishment according to signs, and Maitreya expounded it for them; expounding signs obscures the real, and for this reason he was rebuked.