天台八教大意 1.3

1.3

First, as for the sudden: it takes its name from the collection [of texts], namely the Avataṃsaka. The Buddha's manifest traces convert beings through dust-mote kalpas beyond measure; the cause and lifespan are double that, so how could the result ever be compared? For now, speaking from his appearance in this single lifetime, he took birth relying on the womb of Māyā; host and retinue mutually served one another, relying solely on the great Dharma. Just as the rising sun first illuminates the high mountains, capacities do not undergo a progression; hence it is called 'sudden'. In terms of the sequence of the metaphor, using the first to illustrate the first, it is called the flavor of milk. Therefore the Nirvāṇa [Sūtra] says: 'From the Buddha emerge the twelve divisions of scriptures, just as from a cow comes milk.' Furthermore, the capacities of the two vehicles were raw and had not yet received the great conversion; although they were in the assembly, they were as if deaf and blind, and in the first assembly neither gained the benefit of seeing or hearing; this too is called milk. Therefore Kāśyapa expressed his understanding, saying: 'He immediately dispatched a bystander to rush after him and bring him back, but [the son] fell unconscious to the ground in terror,' and so forth; this is the first period.