請觀音經疏闡義鈔 2.28

2.28

First, within the number: "With" (與) means together. As for "one thousand two hundred and fifty," the three Kāśyapa brothers had one thousand disciples: Uruvilvā had five hundred, Gayā had three hundred, and Nadī had two hundred; Śāriputra and Maudgalyāyana had two hundred and fifty disciples. Kāśyapa, Śāriputra, and the others had all previously served fire; turning away from the heterodox and entering the orthodox, they immediately attained the higher fruition. Deeply moved by the Buddha's grace, they constantly followed and attended the Buddha, and therefore they constituted the assembly who heard [the teaching] together. "Bhikṣu" is translated here as "dispeller of famine." Sentient beings have meager merit: at the stage of the cause, lacking the Dharma to sustain themselves, they obtain retribution that is mostly starved and deficient; the renunciant's precept-practice is an excellent field of merit, able to generate wholesome qualities in living beings and eliminate the famine and deficiency of both cause and effect. Alternatively, some say it is not translated, for the name contains three meanings: First, "destroyer of evil": as when one first receives the precepts, one is then called a bhikṣu because through the three karmavācanā procedures one generates the wholesome vinaya discipline; hence it is called destroying evil. Second, "terrifier of Māra": since one can destroy evil, Māra fears that one will leave his realm and convert his retinue, and so he feels shock and terror. Third, "mendicant": a renunciant inwardly cultivates virtue and the Path and stays far away from the four heterodox livelihoods, begging for food to sustain the body; hence he is called a mendicant. These three meanings apply through both the initial mind and the final mind; those listed by the compiler of the sūtra all pertain to the final mind.