金剛般若經旨贊 1.48

1.48

Sūtra: “After the Tathāgata's extinction, in the final five hundred years…”
Commentary: Below, he directly answers that there are [such people]. Yet this answer of existence has two meanings: immediately, it answers the question of whether they give rise to the true mark; distantly, it answers the questions about abiding, cultivating, and subduing. Within this there are two parts: first, he clarifies the causes for generating the true mark to answer the question about abiding; afterward, he clarifies the ability to generate the true mark to answer the questions about cultivating and subduing.

Within the first part there are two: first, there is the time; afterward, there is the cause. This is the first: namely, the fifth five-hundred-year period after the Buddha's extinction. The Mahāsaṃnipāta Sūtra states: In the first five hundred years after the Buddha's extinction, liberation is firm, because they delight in practicing noble practices and many attain the noble fruit. In the second five hundred years, dhyāna-concentration is firm: although they do not attain the noble state, they deeply delight in dhyāna-concentration. In the third five hundred years, erudition is firm: they do not practice dhyāna-concentration, but largely uphold texts and their meanings. In the fourth five hundred years, building merit is firm: they again abandon erudition and delight in constructing stūpas and monasteries. In the fifth five hundred years, disputation is firm: they again abandon meritorious karma and mostly delight in angry contention.

Such five firm periods are spoken of in terms of the majority of practices among monastics in those eras; it does not mean that outside of these periods other practices are not cultivated. For example, during the first five hundred years when liberation was firm, there were nonetheless people who cultivated the other four practices, such as King Aśoka widely building stūpas and so forth. In later periods there were also earlier practices; this is spoken of merely in terms of the majority. When viewed from the time when the Buddha was in the world, these are all called “the later [times]”; therefore, the sūtra says “the final five hundred years,” which all refer to the evil generations after the Buddha's extinction. Alternatively, it may specifically designate the fifth five-hundred-year period, because it is the extremely evil time of disputation, clarifying that even at that time there will be people who believe in the sūtra—how much more so in the other, favorable times!