佛祖統紀 3.80

3.80

The Chapter on Faith and Understanding states: At that time, the elder, desiring to lure his son (having suspended the great transformation, he did not wish to abandon him forever), secretly dispatched two men (concealing the real is "secret"; using expedients is "dispatched"; the śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas are the "two men"), of emaciated and haggard appearance (the two vehicles do not cultivate the major and minor marks), lacking dignity and virtue (lacking the ten powers and fearlessnesses), who spoke gently to the poor son (the lesser teaching being indirect and concealed is "spoke gently"): "We will hire you to clear away dung" (the dung of suffering and origin). Then the two emissaries sought out the poor son (having carefully discerned that he had the capacity); once they found him, they fully related the aforesaid matter (announcing the hired work). The poor son first took his wage, and soon cleared away the dung with them (taking the wage of path and cessation). His father saw his son and, pitying him, wondered at him (pitying his adopting the arhat state, and wondering at his not seeking the Buddha path; the above are all understanding the teaching on its own level; what follows is understanding in advance). Then, on another day, through a window (narrow, biased view) he saw his son's body from afar (the lesser being far removed from the great is "seeing from afar"), lean, emaciated, and haggard (having little power of wisdom and merit is "lean"; internally terrified of impermanence is "emaciated"; externally beset by entry into suffering is "haggard"), covered with dung, soil, dust, and dirt (the four dwellings are "dung and soil"; nescience is "dust and dirt"), defiled and unclean (having long known expedients, he displayed these toys); he then took off his necklaces and fine, soft upper garments (concealing the necklaces of the reward body's morality, samādhi, wisdom, and the upper garments of extinction-forbearance), and put on coarse, worn, soiled, and greasy clothes (the sixteen-foot form is "coarse"; the two forbearances regarding beings and phenomena are "worn"; bearing the afflictions caused by sentient beings is called forbearance of beings; bearing the afflictions caused by non-sentient things is called forbearance of phenomena, meaning cold, heat, wind, rain, etc. belong to phenomena; "coarse" is written 麁 in popular form), holding in his right hand a dung-clearing utensil (the methods to treat view-and-thought conditioned outflows; the left symbolizes the real, the right symbolizes the expedient). He said to the laborers (instructing his son in person): "Work diligently! Put your mind at ease. I am like a father to you (a likeness, not yet real); from now on you are like my own begotten son" (nearing the true and pressing toward the sage, namely the highest worldly position). Although the poor son rejoiced at this encounter, he still considered himself a hired menial (knowing himself unfit to inherit the great); for twenty years he was constantly made to clear away dung (one liberation and one unhinderedness in seeing the truths, and nine liberations and nine unhinderednesses in cultivating the truths, together making twenty; all the notes above are drawn from the Wenju). What meaning does this convey? This means that subsequent to the sudden, he concealed the Rocana body, assumed the form of a monk, and expounded the Tripiṭaka teaching; for twenty years they were constantly made to clear away dung, receiving the wage of a single day: view and thought were severed, and the outflow-free mind was purified (Miao xuan, fascicle 10).