梵網經古迹記 1.150

1.150

The commentary says: Second, specific explanation. Someone might have a doubt, asking: 'From the initial attainment of buddhahood, at what time did he expound it?' Therefore, it is now explained: this transformation Śākyamuni initially manifested from the fundamental Buddha in the Lotus Realm, coming from the east to enter the Tuṣita Heaven palace, expounding the sūtra on Māra receiving transformation, and then descending to be born and entering the womb, up to being named our Śākyamuni Buddha—this adduces his attainment of the Path. Other sūtras say that he subdued Māra beneath the tree; why does this sūtra say that only after Māra received transformation did he descend to be born? It is explained: the hosts of Māra are not just one, and their transformation has an earlier and a later time; just as the Mahāsaṃnipāta-sūtra says, there are ten billion Māra kings. If once one was subdued there were no others, then who would have disrupted the compilation after the Buddha's parinirvāṇa? To manifest the superiority of his power, he subdued Māra from time to time; just as the Avataṃsaka says: in order to manifest that the power of the bodhisattva's merit cannot be destroyed. Descending to Jambudvīpa refers to the aspect of entering the womb. In Sanskrit it is 'Jambu,' translated here as 'supreme gold.' As the 'Chapter on Jambudvīpa' of the Āgama says: beneath the Jambu tree there is gold forty yojanas thick, named supreme gold. Because it is supreme among gold, it is none other than jambūnada gold. 'Mahāmāyā' is translated here as 'Great Illusion.' Regarding 'leaving household life at age seven,' and so forth: this sūtra must be erroneous, since it already states that he married before leaving home; the records of the Western Regions say that the various schools saw and heard it differently. The correct view is as in the Commentary on the Suvarṇaprabhāsa-sūtra. From 'Bodhimaṇḍa of Quiescence' below reveals the time, meaning that after attaining buddhahood, he attended upon Locana from the fourth dhyāna to receive the Mind-Ground Dharma, and returning to the bodhimaṇḍa expounded the ten ocean-like worlds; as just explained before, he passed through the ten abiding places, up to expounding the Mind-Ground in the palace of the king of the tenth Maheśvara Heaven, when the Great Brahmā kings made offerings of web banners, wherefore he expounded the Dharma, up to telling them: 'I have now come to this world eight thousand times.'