安樂集 1.110

1.110

答曰：「皆是聖教明文。何者？如《法華經》云：『過去不可說久遠大劫，有佛出世號大通智勝如來。有十六王子，各昇法座教化眾生。一一王子，各各教化六百萬億那由他恒河沙眾生。其佛滅度已來，至極久遠，猶不可數知。』何者？經云：『總取三千大千世界大地，磨以為墨。佛言：「是人過千國土乃下一點，大如微塵，如是展轉，盡地種墨。」佛言：「是人所經國土，若點、不點，盡抹為塵，一塵一劫。彼佛滅度已來，復過是數。今日眾生，乃是彼時十六王子，座下曾受教法。」』是故經云：『以是本因緣，為說《法華經》。』《涅槃經》復云：『一是王子，一是貧人，如是二人互相往反。言王子者，今日釋迦如來，乃是彼時第十六王子也；言貧人者，今日眾生等是。』」

The answer is: 'These are all explicit passages in the sacred teachings. Which are they? As the Lotus Sūtra states: "In the past, an ineffably long number of great kalpas ago, there was a buddha who appeared in the world named Mahābhijñājñānābhibhū Tathāgata. He had sixteen princes, each of whom ascended a Dharma seat to teach and convert sentient beings. Each prince taught and converted sentient beings equal in number to the sands of six hundred myriad koṭīs of nayutas of Ganges rivers. The time since that buddha passed into nirvāṇa is extremely distant, still impossible to calculate and know." How so? The sūtra states: "Take the great earth of the trichiliocosm and grind it into ink. The Buddha said: 'Suppose someone passes a thousand lands and then deposits a single drop the size of a speck of dust, and proceeds in this way until the ink made from the earth is entirely exhausted.' The Buddha said: 'Whether dotted or not, all the lands that this person has passed through are pulverized into dust, one dust particle being one kalpa. The time since that buddha passed into nirvāṇa exceeds even this number. The sentient beings of today are those who in that era sat beneath the sixteen princes and received the teachings.'" Therefore the sūtra states: "For this fundamental cause and condition, I preach the Lotus Sūtra." The Nirvāṇa-sūtra also states: "One was a prince, one was a poor man; thus these two went back and forth with each other. As for the prince, it is the present Śākyamuni Tathāgata, who was then the sixteenth prince; as for the poor man, it is the sentient beings of today."'