俱舍論頌疏論本 8.43

8.43

地獄及諸天，中有唯化生者，一切地獄、諸天、中有，皆唯化生。鬼趣唯通胎、化二生。鬼胎生者，如餓鬼母白目連言：「我夜生五子，隨生皆自食，晝生五亦然，雖食盡而無飽（解云：意表有胎生）。」論云：「一切生中何生最勝？應言最勝唯是化生。若爾，何緣後身菩薩得生自在而受胎生？見受胎生有大利益故，謂為引導諸大釋種親屬相因令入正法；又引餘類令知菩薩是輪王種，生敬慕心，因得捨邪歸於正法；又令所化生增上心，彼既是人，能成大事，我曹亦爾，何不能為因發正勤，專修正法？又若不爾，族姓難知，恐疑幻化為天為鬼，如外道論矯設謗言：『過百劫後，當有大幻出現世間。』故受胎生，息諸疑謗。有餘師說：『為留身界，故受胎生，令無量人及諸異類一興供養，千返生天，及證解脫。若受化生，無外種故，身纔殞逝，復無遺形，如滅燈光，即無所見（已上論文。梵云馱都，此云界，佛身界也，亦名室利羅，此云體，佛身體。舊云舍利，訛。餘可知也）。』」

"Hell-beings, the gods, and intermediate existences have only apparitional birth": all hell-beings, gods, and intermediate existences have only apparitional birth. The ghost destiny is open only to the two births of womb and apparitional. As for ghosts born of the womb, it is as when the mother of hungry ghosts said to Maudgalyāyana: "At night I give birth to five sons, and as they are born I eat them all myself; in the daytime I also give birth to five, and although I eat them completely, I am never sated" (The explanation says: This is intended to indicate that there is womb-birth). The treatise says: "Among all births, which birth is the most supreme? It should be said that the most supreme is solely apparitional birth. If so, for what reason does a bodhisattva in their final existence, possessing mastery over rebirth, undergo womb-birth? Because seeing that undergoing womb-birth has great benefits: namely, to guide the vast family and relatives of the Śākya clan, taking this connection as the cause to lead them to enter the true Dharma; also to lead other classes of beings to know that the bodhisattva comes from a lineage of wheel-turning kings, so that they generate a mind of respect and longing, and through this are able to abandon heterodoxy and take refuge in the true Dharma; furthermore, to cause those to be converted to generate a superior mindset: 'Since he is a human being and can accomplish such a great matter, we are also like this; why can we not, by generating right effort, devote ourselves to practicing the true Dharma?'; again, if it were not so, his clan and lineage would be difficult to know, and people might suspect him of being a magical illusion, a deva, or a ghost, just as a tīrthika treatise slanderously concocted: 'After the passage of a hundred eons, a great illusion will appear in the world.' Therefore, he undergoes womb-birth to put an end to all doubts and slanders. Other masters say: 'To leave behind the corporeal relics (dhātu), he undergoes womb-birth, so that immeasurable humans and various different classes of beings, once raising offerings, may be reborn in heaven a thousand times and realize liberation. If he underwent apparitional birth, because there would be no external seed, as soon as the body perished, there would be no remaining form left, just as when the light of a lamp is extinguished, nothing further is seen' (The above is the text of the treatise. In Sanskrit it is dhātu, translated here as 'element', the corporeal relics of the Buddha; it is also called śarīra, translated here as 'body', the Buddha's physical remains. The old term sheli was an error. The rest may be known accordingly)."