首楞嚴義疏注經 1.16

1.16

Seventh, regarding the sequence of the traces of the teaching: when the Buddha spoke this sūtra, it was not spoken suddenly at one single time; the speaking must have had an earlier and later, and the compilers gathered them by category into a single work. When the Buddha first spoke, King Prasenajit was present in the assembly, relating outside [views] and raising doubts, refuting those annihilationist views. Later, when Ānanda questioned the seven destinies, he cited King Virūḍhaka exterminating the clan of the Śākyas and the monk Sunakṣatra falsely preaching the emptiness of dharmas, both falling alive into hell. Was Virūḍhaka not the son of King Prasenajit? Only after the king died and he succeeded to the throne did he exterminate the Gautama clan. How could there be an advance questioning about an event that had not yet occurred? Therefore, we know this sūtra was not spoken at a single time. If we determine it by the text and meaning, it is after the Lotus Sūtra and before the Nirvāṇa Sūtra. The sūtra text clearly points to Yaśodharā receiving prophecy and Dharaniṃdhara verifying the sūtra. Deduced by its meaning, the preface praises the śrāvakas not in terms of small practices, but as immeasurable response-bodies liberating sentient beings; prior to the Lotus Sūtra there was no such praise. The śrāvakas entering the real was also not revealed prior to the Lotus Sūtra, yet the present sūtra has it. Each expounding perfect penetration, the practitioners of the small vehicle all narrate their original time or recount their present encounter, all realising the perfect and wonderful; this did not exist before the Lotus Sūtra, so one should know it is after it. Yet it does not proclaim the date of entering extinction, so it is definitely before the Nirvāṇa Sūtra. The two sūtras belong to the same category, and this sūtra resides between them; both are of the ghee flavour, beyond any doubt.