起信論疏筆削記 4.4

4.4

Third, explaining the word "composed" (zao). "Composed" differentiates it from mere compilation. "The Buddha's extinction..." and so forth clarifies the time of the śāstra's composition: at the beginning of the second five-hundred-year period, those who attained liberation were few; therefore he composed this treatise to accommodate their entry into realization. "Māyā..." and so forth: according to the Moheyan lun, there were six Aśvaghoṣas who appeared at different times: First, the Shengdingwang jing states: on the seventeenth day after the Buddha's attainment of the path, a non-Buddhist came to question and challenge the Buddha, named Aśvaghoṣa. Second, the Moni qingjing jing states: one hundred years after the Buddha's nirvirāṇa, a bodhisattva appeared in the world named Aśvaghoṣa. Third, the Bianhua gongde jing states: three hundred years after the Buddha's parinirvāṇa, a bodhisattva appeared in the world named Aśvaghoṣa. Fourth, as cited in the commentary. Fifth, the Changde sanmei jing states: eight hundred years after the Buddha's extinction, a bodhisattva appeared in the world named Aśvaghoṣa. Sixth, the Zhuangyan sanmei jing states: in the past there was a bodhisattva named Aśvaghoṣa. In full, six are mentioned, and the present author corresponds to the fourth. Yet according to what is stated in the Dazhidu lun, this bodhisattva accomplished the path in an earlier kalpa, named the Great Radiance Buddha; now, to assist in teaching, he manifests his dwelling on the eighth bhūmi. His father's name was Luga, and his mother's name was Guna. He was also named Bodhisattva Puṇyārka (Sun of Merit), as explained elsewhere. Bei means class or category.