金光明最勝王經疏 3.279

3.279

釋難者，問：妙幢聞說未了，何故中間還家，因夢聞說懺除，始復詣佛陳耶？答：鼓元因夢見覩，善緣逼使還家。若當身在眾中不睡，夢如何起？問：妙幢身當在座，何不直示悔方，要待歸寢夢中方現金鼓教懺？答：時眾宜聞說夢，方始發其懺端。復為妙幢宿緣，聞已慇心懺悔。問：宿緣并佛威力現鼓出懺悔音，何不現鼓眾中，妙幢夜獨夢見？答：眾會機別，宜展轉聞。復為妙幢願緣說已，餘方領解。問，妙幢夢中聞說懺悔，即成自懺罪不？答：此由宿願，因夢驚覺寤方能懺，非夢聞說即是懺悔。故下〈蓮華喻讚品〉云「願我當於未來世生，在無量無邊劫夢中常見大金鼓，得聞顯說懺悔音。」乃至云「夜夢常聞金鼓音，晝則隨應而懺悔。」既云願聞悔音晝則隨懺，明為先聞非即正懺。不爾，夢成懺悔事者，何須更說〈滅業障品〉？若云令餘發心懺悔，豈可夢懺罪竝除耶？

Regarding resolving difficulties, Question: If Ruciraketu's understanding was not yet complete upon hearing [the teaching], why did he return home in the interim, hear the explanation of repenting and eliminating [transgressions] through a dream, and only then return to the Buddha to state it? Answer: The drum was originally seen through a dream, and wholesome conditions impelled him to return home. If his body were present in the assembly without sleeping, how could a dream arise? Question: When Ruciraketu was present on his seat, why did [the Buddha] not directly show the method of repentance, but instead waited until he went back to sleep and manifested the golden drum in a dream to instruct him in repentance? Answer: The assembly at that time needed to hear about the dream before the initiative of repentance could be aroused in them. Furthermore, it was due to Ruciraketu's past conditions that, having heard it, he repented with deep sincerity. Question: Since past conditions together with the Buddha's supernatural power manifested the drum emitting the sound of repentance, why did he not manifest the drum within the assembly, instead of Ruciraketu dreaming of it alone at night? Answer: The capacities of the assembly were distinct, and it was fitting that they hear it successively. Furthermore, it was due to the conditions of Ruciraketu's vows that only after it was proclaimed did the others grasp and understand it. Question: When Ruciraketu heard the proclamation of repentance in his dream, did that already constitute his own repentance of sins? Answer: This was due to past vows: startled awake by the dream, he was only able to repent after awakening; it is not that hearing it proclaimed in the dream was itself the repentance. Therefore, the "Chapter of Praise with the Lotus Simile" below states: "May I, in births in future lives, / throughout measureless and boundless eons, / constantly see a great golden drum in dreams / and hear the sound of repentance clearly proclaimed," and continuing up to: "At night in dreams constantly hearing the sound of the golden drum, / then by day accordingly repenting." Since it says that wishing to hear the sound of repentance he accordingly repents by day, it is clear that hearing it beforehand is not the actual repentance itself. If that were not so, and the dream accomplished the matter of repentance, why would it be necessary to further expound the "Chapter on Eliminating Karmic Obstacles"? If it is said that this was to cause others to generate the mind of repentance, could it be that sins are eliminated purely through a dream repentance?