維摩經義記卷第四 4.44

4.44

From “Then Vimalakīrti [spoke to] Mañjuśrī…” onwards is the second section. Mañjuśrī says, “Now is precisely the time.” If we go to the Buddha now, it is precisely the time for benefit. Due to going to the Buddha, there are seven benefits: First, due to going to the Buddha, one can pay homage, serve, and make offerings together with the great assembly, demonstrating that the illness is not real. Second, due to going to the Buddha, it makes clear that buddha-works are without fixed form, fulfilling the real benefit of the fragrant food above. Third, due to going to the Buddha, it can make clear that the bodhisattvas from the higher realm request the Buddha to preach for them the dharma door of exhaustible and inexhaustible liberation. Fourth, due to going to the Buddha, it can make clear that the dharmakāya transcends the hundred negations, in order to dispel everyone's mind of clinging to real existence. Fifth, due to going to the Buddha, it can reveal Vimalakīrti's birthplace and display the Tathāgata Akṣobhya of the Abhirati realm. Sixth, due to going to the Buddha, it can make clear that Dharma-offering is precisely the sealing and ratifying of what Vimalakīrti has spoken. Seventh, due to [approaching] the Buddha, it can make clear the entrustment to Maitreya and commissioning of Ānanda to transmit this sūtra, so that it will circulate without end for thousands of years. As for “What do you think?”, it means: “Did you merely see it with your eyes, or did you also understand its reason in your mental sphere?” As for “Bhagavat, what I observed was not to be planned by the intellect, nor measured by deliberation,” it means: What I observed with my eyes cannot be measured by the mental sphere, nor can it be gauged by deliberation.