金光明經文句記 3.12

3.12

Second, from "If not yet" onward, the prince shows the source to cause awakening to the trace. In the "Chapter on the Span of Life" of the new translation of the sūtra, after the four Buddhas finished explaining the lifespan to benefit beings, there was the Brahmin Kauṇḍinya who, wishing to be born in heaven, sought relics of the Buddha the size of a mustard seed. The Licchavi prince replied in verse, saying: / "Even if the legs of a gnat or mosquito / could be made into city watchtowers, / in the serene body of the Tathāgata, / there can be no matter of relics. / If a hare's horn were made into a ladder / to ascend to heaven from the earth, / evil thinking regarding the Buddha's relics / having merit is impossible. / If a mouse mounted a ladder of hare's horns / to eat the moon and eliminate the asuras, / relying on relics to exhaust delusion / and attain liberation is impossible." / Those of middling faculties, directly hearing that the principle-source of the Dharmakāya is neither born nor extinguished, then awaken to the fact that the reward and response can be eternal or non-eternal. Once principle and phenomena are harmonized, deliberation and thought immediately cease. This corresponds to the second cycle.