金光明經文句記 3.347

3.347

First, explaining the marks of the birth body. "Lumbinī": this is translated as "place of liberation." "Raising her hand to grasp the tree": Lady Māyā grasped an aśoka tree, and the crown prince was born from her right flank. "Ayi," also Asita: this is translated as "incomparable," the name of a ṛṣi. "Uncovering": opening. Three days after the prince was born, he was wrapped in white cotton cloth; the king summoned the ṛṣi to read his marks, whereupon he opened the cotton cloth and read the marks of his form. "The marks are distinctly bright": the thirty-two marks are all clearly visible. "Definitely to become a Buddha": these are the words the ṛṣi addressed to the king, meaning that although a wheel-turning king possesses the thirty-two marks, his marks are not distinctly clear; now observing the prince's marks to be distinctly bright, he will definitely become a Buddha and not a wheel-turning king. "Grieving and unable to make a sound": the ṛṣi lamented his own old age, that he would not see the prince become a Buddha, and therefore wept. Shedding tears silently is called "weeping"; here saying "grieving and unable to make a sound" is weeping. "This is the birth body": although the commentary labels it "the body born of parents," one must understand its import—how could the latter two bodies be completely devoid of parents? Specifying this now clarifies that the Buddhas of the Tripiṭaka and Shared teachings abide in biased truth. Because the principle of biased truth does not contain the five aggregates, the Buddha's body is made to be produced from pure karmic residues; when the stimulus and connection are exhausted, it turns to ash, is annihilated, sinks into emptiness, and never manifests again. Therefore, by means of parents, its having birth is manifested; by the connections being exhausted and returning to emptiness, its having cessation is manifested. Although the Shared [teaching] takes it as illusory existence, it must likewise forever cease to be. Differentiating according to the teachings, the characteristics are like this.