佛祖統紀 30.48

30.48

The commentary states: The Abhidharmakośa-bhāṣya takes the increases and decreases of the three times to discuss the gradual arising of the three thousand Buddhas. The Bhadrakalpika-sūtra explains the arising of the Buddhas as having long and short intervals, without fixed kalpa numbers. There are three meanings to this: first, what the Buddha preached differed according to the faculties of beings; second, the compilations differed according to the different schools; third, the transmissions and translations differed according to who came earlier and later, so it is difficult to reconcile them (such cases are very numerous). However, if one roughly discusses the sequence and takes the increases and decreases as evidence, one must take the Abhidharmakośa as the standard. The Kalpa Chapter of Ci'en precisely adopts this treatise.