維摩詰所說經 法供養品第十三
佛先讓供養的畫面展開到幾乎無法計量：三千大千世界中的如來，如甘蔗、竹𥯤、稻麻、叢林一般密布；有人用一劫或略少一劫的長時恭敬、尊重、讚歎、供養。諸佛滅後，又為每一具全身舍利起七寶塔，塔的長寬遍及一四天下，高至梵天，再以花、香、瓔珞、幢、幡與伎樂長時供養。
釋提桓因說，這份福德以百千億劫也說不完。經文沒有把它抹去。法供養之所以更勝，不是珍寶突然失去價值，而是諸佛菩提從法而生，菩提之相不可限量。
寶蓋王供養藥王如來五劫，一千個王子又各自供養五劫。就在一切所安都已奉上時，月蓋獨坐，心中生起一個問題：還有沒有勝過這樣的供養？
這一問，把供養從『我還能奉上什麼』帶到『佛所說的法，怎樣不在佛滅後中斷』。
答案不是停止讀誦，也不是只做一件看不見的內在功夫。藥王如來把路說得很完整：聽聞深經，信受理解，領受持守，閱讀誦念；以方便力為眾生分別解說，使義理顯著分明，守護正法。還要依所說切實修行，隨順十二因緣，不違因緣果報，離開我與我所，依義、依智、依了義經、依法，直到不再於緣起的生滅、入歸、盡與不盡上生起固定見解。
所以，法供養不是把一部經保存在身外，也不是把一句義理藏在心內。聞持、解說與護法，經名為法供養；進而如說修行、不違緣起，經名為最上法供養。
月蓋聽完，先解下嚴身寶衣供養佛。接著，他發願在如來滅後實行法供養、守護正法。財供沒有被丟棄；寶衣就在那裡，卻不再是終點。
藥王如來授記他末後守護法城。這座城不是經文之外另造的地方：月蓋以信出家、修集善法，得到神通、總持與不斷辯才；佛滅後，他用十小劫隨順分布祂所轉的法輪。守城，就是不讓法輪在如來滅後停住。
本品最後才揭明：月蓋比丘就是佛自己的過去身。原來，現在勸天帝以法供佛的佛，正是往昔那位問法、聞法、行法、護法的人。法供養不是旁人替佛完成的儀式，而是佛道本身曾經走過的行跡。
三千大千世界都充滿如來，為每一尊佛建七寶塔，還有什麼供養能勝過它？讓祂所說的法在自己身上成為行，在眾生之間得到解說與守護，在祂入滅之後仍有人隨轉法輪。珍寶奉給諸佛所安，法供養使佛所說的菩提之道繼續有人行、有人傳。
The Buddha first lets the scene of offering expand almost beyond measure: Tathāgatas fill the three-thousand great-thousand world-system as densely as sugarcane, bamboo, reeds, rice, hemp, and forests. For a kalpa or slightly less than a kalpa, someone reveres, honors, praises, and makes offerings to them. After the buddhas pass into extinction, that person builds a seven-jeweled stūpa for each Buddha’s full-body relics. Each stūpa extends in length and breadth across one four-continent world and rises as high as the Brahmā Heaven. For another long period, the person makes offerings of flowers, incense, necklaces, standards, banners, and music.
Śakra says that even a hundred thousand koṭis of kalpas would not suffice to tell the full measure of this merit. The sūtra does not erase it. The offering of Dharma surpasses it not because precious things suddenly lose their value, but because the awakening of all buddhas arises from the Dharma, and the mark of awakening cannot be measured.
King Jeweled Canopy makes offerings to Medicine-King Tathāgata for five kalpas, and each of his thousand princes then makes offerings for another five kalpas. Just when everything required for the Buddha’s ease has been presented, Moon Canopy sits alone and a question arises in his mind: Is there an offering that surpasses even this?
That question carries offering from “What else can I present?” to “How can the Dharma taught by the Buddha continue without interruption after the Buddha’s extinction?”
The answer is not to stop reading and reciting, nor is it to perform only an invisible inner practice. Medicine-King Tathāgata sets out the whole path: hear the profound sūtra, trust and understand it, receive and retain it, read and recite it; use the power of skillful means to explain and distinguish it for sentient beings, make its meaning clearly manifest, and protect the true Dharma. One must also practice in accordance with what it teaches, follow the twelve links of dependent origination, not oppose cause, condition, and karmic result, leave self and what belongs to self behind, rely on meaning, wisdom, sūtras of definitive meaning, and Dharma, until one no longer raises fixed views about arising and cessation, entry and return, or exhaustion and non-exhaustion within dependent origination.
Thus, the offering of Dharma is neither keeping a sūtra outside oneself nor hiding a doctrinal meaning within one’s own mind. Hearing and retaining, explaining, and protecting the Dharma are what the sūtra calls the offering of Dharma. Going further—practicing in accordance with what is taught and not opposing dependent origination—is what the sūtra calls the supreme offering of Dharma.
After Moon Canopy hears this, he first removes the jeweled robe adorning his body and offers it to the Buddha. He then vows that, after the Tathāgata’s extinction, he will practice the offering of Dharma and protect the true Dharma. Material offering is not cast aside. The jeweled robe is still there, but it is no longer the endpoint.
Medicine-King Tathāgata predicts that Moon Canopy will protect the city of Dharma in the final period. This city is not a place fabricated outside the sūtra: Moon Canopy leaves home in faith, cultivates wholesome dharmas, and attains superknowledges, dhāraṇī, and uninterrupted eloquence. After the Buddha’s extinction, for ten small kalpas he uses these capacities to spread onward the Dharma-wheel that the Buddha had turned. To protect the city is to keep the Dharma-wheel from stopping after the Tathāgata’s extinction.
Only at the end of the chapter is it revealed that the bhikṣu Moon Canopy was the Buddha Himself in a former life. The Buddha who now urges Śakra to make the offering of Dharma to the Buddha was once the person who asked about the Dharma, heard it, practiced it, and protected it. The offering of Dharma is not a rite that others perform on behalf of a Buddha; it is a path once traveled by the Buddha-way itself.
If the three-thousand great-thousand world-system were filled with Tathāgatas and a seven-jeweled stūpa were built for every Buddha, what offering could surpass that? Let the Dharma He taught become practice in oneself, receive explanation and protection among sentient beings, and still have someone carry the Dharma-wheel onward after His extinction. Precious things are presented for the ease of the buddhas; the offering of Dharma allows the path to awakening taught by the Buddha to continue to be practiced and transmitted.
姚秦三藏鳩摩羅什譯《維摩詰所說經》卷下〈法供養品第十三〉· 大正藏 T14n0475〔起 T14 0556a01〕。段/行首〔T14 …〕＝大正藏頁·欄·行錨。
〔T14 0556a01〕維摩詰所說經法供養品第十三 爾時釋提桓因於大眾中白佛言：「世尊！我雖從佛及文殊師利聞百千經，未曾聞此不可思議、自在神通、決定實相經典。如我解佛所說義趣，若有眾生聞是經法，信解、受持、讀誦之者，必得是法不疑，何況如說修行？斯人即為閉眾惡趣開諸善門，常為諸佛之所護念；降伏外學，摧滅魔怨；修治菩提，安處道場；履踐如來所行之跡。世尊！若有受持讀誦、如說修行者，我當與諸眷屬供養給事；所在聚落城邑、山林曠野有是經處，我亦與諸眷屬聽受法故，共到其所；其未信者，當令生信，其已信者，當為作護。」 佛言：「善哉，善哉！天帝！如汝所說，吾助爾喜。此經廣說過去、未來、現在諸佛不可思議阿耨多羅三藐三菩提。是故，天帝！若善男子、善女人受持、讀誦、供養是經者，即為供養去、來、今佛。天帝！正使三千大千世界如來滿中，譬如甘蔗、竹𥯤、稻麻、叢林；若有善男子、善女人，或一劫、或減一劫，恭敬尊重，讚歎供養，奉諸所安，至諸佛滅後，以一一全身舍利起七寶塔——縱廣一四天下，高至梵天，表剎莊嚴——以一切華香、瓔珞、幢幡、伎樂微妙第一，若一劫、若減一劫，而供養之，於天帝意云何，其人植福寧為多不？」 釋提桓因言：「多矣！世尊！彼之福德，若以百千億劫說不能盡。」 佛告天帝：「當知是善男子、善女人聞是不可思議解脫經典，信解受持，讀誦修行，福多於彼。所以者何？諸佛菩提皆從是生；菩提之相不可限量，以是因緣福不可量。」 佛告天帝：「過去無量阿僧祇劫，時世有佛，號曰藥王如來、應供、正遍知、明行足、善逝、世間解、無上士、調御丈夫、天人師、佛、世尊。世界名大莊嚴，劫曰莊嚴，佛壽二十小劫。其聲聞僧三十六億那由他，菩薩僧有十二億。天帝！是時有轉輪聖王，名曰寶蓋，七寶具足，主四天下。王有千子，端正勇健，能伏怨敵。 「爾時寶蓋與其眷屬，供養藥王如來，施諸所安，至滿五劫。過五劫已，告其千子：『汝等亦當如我，以深心供養於佛。』於是千子受父王命，供養藥王如來，復滿五劫，一切施安。其王一子，名曰月蓋，獨坐思惟：『寧有供養殊過此者？』以佛神力，空中有天曰：『善男子！法之供養勝諸供養。』即問：『何謂法之供養？』天曰：『汝可往問藥王如來，當廣為汝說法之供養。』 「即時月蓋王子行詣藥王如來，稽首佛足，却住一面，白佛言：『世尊！諸供養中，法供養勝。云何為法供養？』佛言：『善男子！法供養者，諸佛所說深經，一切世間難信難受，微妙難見，清淨無染，非但分別思惟之所能得，菩薩法藏所攝，陀羅尼印印之；至不退轉，成就六度，善分別義，順菩提法，眾經之上；入大慈悲，離眾魔事及諸邪見；順因緣法，無我、無人、無眾生、無壽命，空、無相、無作、無起；能令眾生坐於道場而轉法輪，諸天、龍神、乾闥婆等所共歎譽；能令眾生入佛法藏，攝諸賢聖一切智慧；說眾菩薩所行之道；依於諸法實相之義，明宣無常、苦、空、無我、寂滅之法；能救一切毀禁眾生，諸魔外道及貪著者能使怖畏，諸佛賢聖所共稱歎；背生死苦，示涅槃樂，十方三世諸佛所說；若聞如是等經，信解、受持、讀誦，以方便力為諸眾生分別解說，顯示分明，守護法故，是名法之供養。又於諸法如說修行，隨順十二因緣，離諸邪見，得無生忍；決定無我無有眾生，而於因緣果報無違無諍，離諸我所；依於義不依語，依於智不依識，依了義經不依不了義經，依於法不依人；隨順法相，無所入，無所歸；無明畢竟滅故，諸行亦畢竟滅，乃至生畢竟滅故，老死亦畢竟滅：作如是觀十二因緣，無有盡相，不復起見，是名最上法之供養。』」 佛告天帝：「王子月蓋從藥王佛聞如是法，得柔順忍。即解寶衣嚴身之具，以供養佛，白佛言：『世尊！如來滅後，我當行法供養，守護正法。願以威神加哀建立，令我得降魔怨，修菩薩行。』佛知其深心所念，而記之曰：『汝於末後守護法城。』天帝！時王子月蓋，見法清淨，聞佛授記，以信出家，修集善法；精進不久，得五神通，逮菩薩道，得陀羅尼，無斷辯才。於佛滅後，以其所得神通、總持、辯才之力，滿十小劫，藥王如來所轉法輪隨而分布。月蓋比丘以守護法，勤行精進，即於此身，化百萬億人於阿耨多羅三藐三菩提立不退轉；十四那由他人，深發聲聞、辟支佛心；無量眾生得生天上。天帝！時王寶蓋豈異人乎？今現得佛，號寶炎如來；其王千子，即賢劫中千佛是也——從迦羅鳩孫駄為始得佛，最後如來號曰樓至。月蓋比丘，即我身是。如是，天帝！當知此要：以法供養於諸供養為上為最，第一無比。是故，天帝！當以法之供養，供養於佛。」
The canonical text stands in Chinese only. This edition renders the essence, the plain reading, the exposition and the apparatus into English — never the sūtra itself. Switch to 漢讀本 or 並行雙語 above to read it.
底本：姚秦鳩摩羅什譯《維摩詰所說經》卷下〈法供養品第十三〉。以下依本品八段散文次第逐句今譯；經中名號、數目、供具、深經之德、法供養之行與月蓋所化，一項不省。
釋提桓因讚歎本經，並發願護持
那時，釋提桓因在大眾中對佛說：『世尊！我雖然已從佛與文殊師利聽過成百上千部經，卻從未聽過這樣一部說不可思議、自在神通與決定實相的經典。依我對佛所說義旨的理解，若有眾生聽聞這部經法，能夠信受理解、領受奉持、閱讀誦念，必定能得到這個法，不再疑惑；何況還能依照經中所說切實修行！』
他接著逐項說明這位行者所得的利益：關閉通向各種惡趣的道路，開啟一切善門；常受諸佛護念；降伏外學，摧滅魔怨；修治菩提之道，安住道場；親自踏上如來走過的行跡。這八項不是只給會背誦經句的人；釋提桓因先列聽聞、信解、受持、讀誦，又把如說修行放在更深一層。
釋提桓因又向佛發願：『世尊！若有人受持、讀誦，又能如說修行，我要和所有眷屬一同供養、照料他。無論聚落、城邑、山林或曠野，只要那裡有這部經，我也要和所有眷屬為聽聞領受法義而前往。尚未相信的人，我要使他生起信心；已經相信的人，我要保護他。』
佛以廣大財供校量受持此經的福德
佛說：『好極了！好極了！天帝！正如你所說，我也隨喜、助成你的歡喜。這部經廣說過去、未來、現在諸佛不可思議的無上正等正覺。所以，天帝！善男子或善女人若受持、讀誦、供養這部經，就等於供養過去、未來、現在諸佛。』
接著，佛提出一個極其廣大的校量。假使三千大千世界處處充滿如來，密集得如同甘蔗、竹𥯤、稻麻與叢林；又有善男子或善女人，在整整一劫或略少於一劫的長時之中，對這些如來恭敬、尊重、讚歎、供養，奉上使祂們安樂所需的一切。
直到諸佛入滅以後，這些人又為每一尊佛的全身舍利建造七寶塔。每座塔的長寬遍及一個四天下，高達梵天，塔上的標剎莊嚴；再用一切花、香、瓔珞、幢、幡與最上微妙的伎樂，在一劫或略少於一劫的長時之中供養。佛問釋提桓因：『你認為如何？這個人所種的福多不多？』
釋提桓因回答：『非常多，世尊！即使用百千億劫來講說，也說不完他的福德。』
佛告訴天帝：『你要知道，善男子、善女人若聽聞這部不可思議解脫經典，信受理解、領受奉持、閱讀誦念、切實修行，所得福德比剛才所說的還多。為什麼？諸佛的菩提全都從這個法出生；菩提之相不可限量，所以由這個因緣所得的福也不可限量。』
經文先承認那廣大財供的福德以百千億劫也說不盡，然後才說法供養的福更多。比較的關鍵，在諸佛菩提從法出生、菩提之相不可限量，並不是說花香、塔廟與照料諸佛全無福德。
藥王如來、寶蓋王與千子供佛
佛又告訴天帝：『過去無量阿僧祇劫，那時世間有一尊佛，名為藥王如來。祂是應受供養者、正遍知者、明與行具足者、善逝、世間解、無上士、調御丈夫、天人師、佛、世尊。祂的世界名叫大莊嚴，那一劫名叫莊嚴，佛的壽命有二十小劫。祂的聲聞僧有三十六億那由他，菩薩僧有十二億。』
『天帝！那時有一位轉輪聖王，名叫寶蓋。他具足七寶，統領四天下。王有一千個兒子，每一位都容貌端正、勇猛健壯，能夠降伏怨敵。』
寶蓋王和眷屬供養藥王如來，布施佛所需的一切安樂資具，這樣做滿了五劫。五劫過後，他告訴一千個兒子：『你們也應當像我一樣，以深切真誠的心供養佛。』一千個兒子領受父王的命令，又供養藥王如來整整五劫，奉上一切使佛安樂的資具。
月蓋尋找勝過財供的供養
一千個王子中有一位名叫月蓋。他獨自坐著思惟：『還有沒有一種供養，能勝過我們已經做的供養？』藉著佛的神力，空中有天人對他說：『善男子！以法作供養，勝過其餘供養。』
月蓋立刻問：『什麼叫作法供養？』天人回答：『你可以去請問藥王如來，祂會為你詳細解說法供養。』
月蓋王子隨即前往藥王如來所在之處，頂禮佛足，退到一旁站立，對佛說：『世尊！在各種供養之中，法供養最為殊勝。什麼叫作法供養？』
藥王如來先說法供養所供的深經
藥王如來說：『善男子！所謂法供養，是對諸佛所說的深經作供養。』接著，佛把這種深經一項一項說清楚。
這是諸佛所說的深經；一切世間難以相信、難以領受；義旨微妙而難以照見；清淨而沒有染污；不能只靠分別思惟便得到。它由菩薩法藏所收攝，由陀羅尼總持之印加以印定；能使行者到達不退轉，成就布施、持戒、忍辱、精進、禪定、智慧六度；能善於分別義理，隨順菩提之法，居於眾經之上。
它能使人進入大慈大悲，遠離一切魔事與種種邪見；隨順因緣之法，照見沒有實在的我、沒有實在的人、沒有實在的眾生、沒有實在的壽命；與空、無相、無作、無起相應。
它能使眾生坐在道場而轉法輪，受到天眾、龍神、乾闥婆，以及經文以總稱帶過的其餘眾類共同讚歎；能使眾生進入佛法寶藏，收攝一切賢聖的智慧；能宣說眾菩薩所行之道；依止諸法實相的義理，清楚宣說無常、苦、空、無我與寂滅五法。
它能救護所有毀犯禁戒的眾生；能使魔眾、外道與貪著者感到怖畏；受到諸佛與賢聖共同稱歎；使人背離生死之苦，看見涅槃之樂；也是十方三世諸佛共同宣說的法。
以上從諸佛所說、難信難受，一直說到十方三世諸佛所說，共有二十九項。經文沒有只用『深』字帶過，而是把深經的清淨、所攝、所印、所成、所順、所說與所能利益逐一展開。
聞、持、解說與護法，就是法供養
藥王如來接著說：『若有人聽聞這一類深經，能夠信受理解、領受奉持、閱讀誦念，並以善巧方便的力量為眾生分別解說，把義理顯示得清楚明白，又為守護正法而行，這就叫作法供養。』
這一段明列七項行動：第一，聽聞深經；第二，信受並理解；第三，領受後持守不失；第四，親自閱讀誦念；第五，以方便力為眾生分別解說；第六，使所說義理顯著分明；第七，守護正法。法供養不止於自己聽過，也不止於保有一部經；所聞的法還要被理解、持守、說明並護住。
如說修行，是最上法供養
藥王如來沒有停在聞持與解說，又往下說：『還要對一切法依照經中所說切實修行。』
行者應當隨順十二因緣，離開各種邪見，得到無生忍；決定照見沒有實在的我、沒有實在的眾生，卻不違背因緣果報，也不與因緣果報爭執，並離開對一切我所的執取。
接著是四依。第一，依止義理，不依語句本身；也就是不因追逐言辭而失去所說之義。第二，依止能照見、決斷義理的智慧，不依只在境相上分別的識。第三，依止義旨明了究竟的經，不依義旨尚未明了究竟的經。第四，依止正法，不因某個人的身分而背離法。
行者還要隨順諸法本來的相狀，照見沒有一個真實可說的進入，也沒有一個真實可說的歸去。無明畢竟寂滅，所以諸行也畢竟寂滅；經文接著略過中間支分，一直說到生畢竟寂滅，所以老死也畢竟寂滅。如此觀察十二因緣，又不把它執成一個終於斷盡的實體相；觀它無有盡相，便不再生起各種見解。藥王如來把這完整一段稱為最上法供養。
最上法供養明列的關節是：如說修行；隨順十二因緣；離邪見；得無生忍；決定無我、無眾生；於因緣果報無違無諍；離我所；依義不依語；依智不依識；依了義經不依不了義經；依法不依人；隨順法相；無所入、無所歸；觀無明與諸行畢竟滅，直到生與老死畢竟滅；觀十二因緣無有盡相；不再起見。每一項都在經文中有自己的位置，不能以一句『照經修行』把它們壓縮掉。
月蓋得忍，發願守護法城
佛告訴天帝：月蓋王子從藥王如來聽完這個法，得到柔順忍。他立刻解下身上用來莊嚴的寶衣，拿來供養佛，並說：『世尊！如來入滅以後，我要實行法供養，守護正法。願世尊以威神慈悲扶持、成就我，使我能降伏魔怨，修行菩薩道。』
藥王如來知道月蓋內心深切所念，便為他授記：『你將在末後守護法城。』
月蓋看見法的清淨，聽到佛為他授記，便以信心出家，修集善法。他勤奮精進，不久便得到五種神通，達到菩薩之道，得到陀羅尼總持，也得到不會中斷的辯才。
藥王如來入滅以後，月蓋以所得神通、總持與辯才三種力量，在十小劫中把藥王如來所轉的法輪隨順分布出去。月蓋比丘為守護正法而勤行精進；就在這一生中，他使百萬億人在無上正等正覺上建立不退轉，使十四那由他人深深發起聲聞乘與辟支佛乘之心，無量眾生得以生到天上。
佛指明往事中的人物，結勸以法供佛
佛問天帝：『那時的寶蓋王，難道是別人嗎？他如今已成佛，名為寶炎如來。那一千個王子，就是賢劫中的一千尊佛：最先從迦羅鳩孫駄佛開始，最後一尊如來名叫樓至。至於月蓋比丘，就是我自己。』
佛最後說：『天帝！你應當知道這個要點：在所有供養中，法供養為上、為最，居於第一，沒有可以相比的。所以，天帝！你應當用法供養來供養佛。』
本品從釋提桓因發願保護誦持修行者，走到月蓋實際護持藥王如來所轉法輪；從遍滿世界的如來、七寶高塔與一切供具，走到聞經、信解、受持、讀誦、解說、顯明、護法與如說修行。財物供養沒有被抹去；月蓋得忍後仍解寶衣供佛。經文真正推進的是：供養若要與諸佛菩提相應，便須讓所聞之法在自己身上成為行，也在眾生之間得到守護與流通。
Base text: Kumārajīva’s Yao-Qin translation, The Vimalakīrti Sūtra, Lower Scroll, Chapter 13, “The Offering of Dharma.” What follows renders the chapter’s eight prose passages sentence by sentence in their transmitted sequence. Not one name, number, article of offering, quality of the profound sūtra, practice of the offering of Dharma, or person transformed by Moon Canopy is omitted.
Śakra Praises This Sūtra and Vows to Protect It
At that time, Śakra said to the Buddha before the great assembly, “World-Honored One! Although I have heard hundreds of thousands of sūtras from the Buddha and Mañjuśrī, never before have I heard a scripture such as this, which teaches inconceivability, sovereign spiritual powers, and the definitive true mark. As I understand the meaning spoken by the Buddha, if sentient beings hear this sūtra-Dharma and can trust and understand it, receive and retain it, and read and recite it, they will certainly attain this Dharma without doubt. How much more will this be so if they actually practice in accordance with what the sūtra teaches!”
He then explained one by one the benefits attained by such a practitioner: closing the roads to the various evil destinies; opening every gate of goodness; always being kept in mind and protected by the buddhas; subduing outside teachings; destroying hostile Māras; cultivating the path to awakening; dwelling at the place of awakening; and personally treading the tracks once walked by the Tathāgata. These eight benefits are not offered only to someone able to memorize the sūtra’s sentences. Śakra first lists hearing, trusting and understanding, receiving and retaining, and reading and reciting, then places practice in accordance with the teaching at a deeper level.
Śakra further vowed before the Buddha, “World-Honored One! If someone receives and retains this sūtra, reads and recites it, and can also practice in accordance with what it teaches, I and all my retinue will make offerings to and attend upon that person. Whether in a village, town, forest, or wilderness, wherever this sūtra is found, I and all my retinue will go there in order to hear and receive the meaning of the Dharma. I will cause those who do not yet trust it to give rise to trust, and I will protect those who already trust it.”
The Buddha Uses Vast Material Offerings to Compare the Merit of Retaining This Sūtra
The Buddha said, “Excellent! Excellent, Lord of the Gods! Just as you have said, I too rejoice in and assist your joy. This sūtra extensively teaches the inconceivable unsurpassed perfect awakening of the buddhas of the past, future, and present. Therefore, Lord of the Gods, if a good man or good woman receives and retains, reads and recites, and makes offerings to this sūtra, that person thereby makes offerings to the buddhas of the past, future, and present.”
The Buddha then proposed a comparison on an immense scale. Suppose that every place throughout the three-thousand great-thousand world-system were filled with Tathāgatas, as densely as sugarcane, bamboo, reeds, rice, hemp, and forests. Suppose also that, throughout one full kalpa or slightly less than a kalpa, a good man or good woman revered, honored, praised, and made offerings to these Tathāgatas, presenting everything required for their ease.
After the buddhas had passed into extinction, these people would then build a seven-jeweled stūpa for the full-body relics of every single Buddha. Each stūpa would extend in length and breadth across one four-continent world, rise as high as the Brahmā Heaven, and be adorned with its finial and standard pole. For one kalpa or slightly less than a kalpa, they would again make offerings of every kind of flower, incense, necklace, standard, banner, and supremely subtle music. The Buddha asked Śakra, “What do you think? Is the merit planted by this person great or not?”
Śakra answered, “It is exceedingly great, World-Honored One! Even if one spoke for a hundred thousand koṭis of kalpas, one could not finish telling that person’s merit.”
The Buddha told the Lord of the Gods, “You should know that if a good man or good woman hears this scripture of inconceivable liberation, trusts and understands it, receives and retains it, reads and recites it, and actually practices it, that person’s merit is greater than what I have just described. Why? The awakening of all buddhas is born entirely from this Dharma. The mark of awakening cannot be measured; therefore, the merit produced by this cause and condition likewise cannot be measured.”
The sūtra first acknowledges that even a hundred thousand koṭis of kalpas would not suffice to tell the merit of those vast material offerings, and only then says that the merit of the offering of Dharma is greater. The crucial point in the comparison is that the awakening of all buddhas arises from the Dharma and the mark of awakening cannot be measured. It does not say that flowers, incense, stūpas, or care for the buddhas possess no merit at all.
Medicine-King Tathāgata, King Jeweled Canopy, and the Thousand Princes Make Offerings to the Buddha
The Buddha again told the Lord of the Gods, “Immeasurable asaṃkhyeya kalpas ago, a Buddha named Medicine-King Tathāgata appeared in the world. He was Worthy of Offerings, Perfectly and Universally Awakened, Perfect in Knowledge and Conduct, Well-Gone, Knower of the World, Unsurpassed, Tamer of Persons, Teacher of Gods and Humans, Buddha, and World-Honored One. His world was called Great Adornment, and the kalpa was called Adornment. The Buddha’s lifespan was twenty small kalpas. His community of śrāvakas numbered 3.6 billion nayutas, and his community of bodhisattvas numbered 1.2 billion.”
“Lord of the Gods! At that time there was a wheel-turning sage-king named Jeweled Canopy. He possessed the seven treasures and ruled the four-continent world. The king had one thousand sons, every one of them handsome in appearance, courageous, and strong, with the power to subdue enemies.”
King Jeweled Canopy and his retinue made offerings to Medicine-King Tathāgata, presenting everything required for the Buddha’s ease, and continued doing so for a full five kalpas. When the five kalpas had passed, he told his thousand sons, “You too should make offerings to the Buddha just as I have, with a deeply sincere mind.” The thousand princes accepted their father the king’s command and made offerings to Medicine-King Tathāgata for another full five kalpas, presenting everything required for the Buddha’s ease.
Moon Canopy Seeks an Offering That Surpasses Material Offerings
Among the thousand princes was one named Moon Canopy. Sitting alone, he reflected, “Is there an offering that surpasses the offerings we have already made?” Through the Buddha’s spiritual power, a god in the sky said to him, “Good man! Making an offering through the Dharma surpasses all other offerings.”
Moon Canopy immediately asked, “What is called the offering of Dharma?” The god answered, “You may go ask Medicine-King Tathāgata. He will explain the offering of Dharma to you in detail.”
Prince Moon Canopy at once went to the place where Medicine-King Tathāgata was staying, bowed his head at the Buddha’s feet, withdrew to one side, and stood there. He said to the Buddha, “World-Honored One! Among all forms of offering, the offering of Dharma is supreme. What is called the offering of Dharma?”
Medicine-King Tathāgata First Describes the Profound Sūtra to Which the Offering of Dharma Is Made
Medicine-King Tathāgata said, “Good man! What is called the offering of Dharma is making an offering to the profound sūtras spoken by the buddhas.” The Buddha then set forth the nature of such a profound sūtra item by item.
It is a profound sūtra spoken by the buddhas. All the worlds find it difficult to trust and difficult to receive. Its meaning is subtle and difficult to see. It is pure and unstained, and it cannot be attained merely through discriminative thought. It is embraced by the Dharma treasury of the bodhisattvas and sealed by the seal of dhāraṇī. It can bring practitioners to non-retrogression and enable them to perfect the six perfections of giving, ethical discipline, patience, diligent effort, meditation, and wisdom. It enables them skillfully to distinguish meaning, accord with the Dharma of awakening, and dwell above the many sūtras.
It enables people to enter great loving-kindness and great compassion, leave behind every affair of Māra and every wrong view, and accord with the Dharma of causes and conditions. It reveals that there is no real self, no real person, no real sentient being, and no real lifespan. It accords with emptiness, signlessness, wishlessness, and non-arising.
It can enable sentient beings to sit at the place of awakening and turn the Dharma-wheel, receiving the shared praise of the assemblies of gods, nāgas, gandharvas, and the other classes whom the sūtra gathers under a general designation. It enables sentient beings to enter the treasury of the Buddha-Dharma and gathers all the wisdom of the worthy and holy ones. It can proclaim the path practiced by the bodhisattvas. Relying on the meaning of the true mark of all dharmas, it clearly proclaims the five dharmas of impermanence, suffering, emptiness, no-self, and quiescent cessation.
It can rescue all sentient beings who have violated the precepts. It can strike fear into the hosts of Māra, followers of outside paths, and those who are attached through greed. It receives the shared praise of the buddhas and the worthy and holy ones. It causes people to turn away from the suffering of birth and death and see the bliss of nirvāṇa. It is also the Dharma spoken in common by the buddhas of the ten directions and the three times.
From “spoken by the buddhas” and “difficult to trust and receive” through “spoken by the buddhas of the ten directions and the three times,” the foregoing account contains twenty-nine items. The sūtra does not pass over them with the single word “profound.” It unfolds one by one the profound sūtra’s purity, what embraces and seals it, what it perfects and accords with, what it teaches, and the benefits it can bring.
Hearing, Retaining, Explaining, and Protecting the Dharma Are the Offering of Dharma
Medicine-King Tathāgata continued, “If someone hears profound sūtras of this kind and can trust and understand them, receive and retain them, read and recite them, use the power of skillful means to explain and distinguish them for sentient beings, make their meaning clearly manifest, and act to protect the true Dharma, this is called the offering of Dharma.”
This passage explicitly lists seven actions: first, hearing the profound sūtra; second, trusting and understanding it; third, receiving it and retaining it without loss; fourth, personally reading and reciting it; fifth, using the power of skillful means to explain and distinguish it for sentient beings; sixth, making the meaning taught clearly manifest; and seventh, protecting the true Dharma. The offering of Dharma does not stop at having heard the Dharma oneself, nor does it stop at possessing a copy of the sūtra. The Dharma that has been heard must also be understood, retained, explained, and protected.
Practicing in Accordance with What Is Taught Is the Supreme Offering of Dharma
Medicine-King Tathāgata did not stop with hearing, retaining, and explaining, but continued: “With respect to all dharmas, one must also practice in accordance with what is taught in the sūtra.”
The practitioner should accord with the twelve links of dependent origination, leave behind every wrong view, and attain acceptance of non-arising. One decisively sees that there is no real self and no real sentient being, yet neither contradicts nor disputes cause, condition, and karmic result, and leaves behind grasping at everything that belongs to self.
Next come the four reliances. First, rely on meaning, not on words themselves; that is, do not lose the meaning taught by chasing after language. Second, rely on the wisdom that illuminates and determines meaning, not on the consciousness that merely discriminates among objective appearances. Third, rely on sūtras whose meaning is definitive and fully clear, not on sūtras whose meaning is not yet definitive and fully clear. Fourth, rely on the Dharma, and do not turn away from the Dharma because of a person’s identity.
The practitioner must also accord with the original characteristics of all dharmas and see that there is no real entry that can be spoken of and no real return that can be spoken of. Because ignorance is ultimately extinguished, formations are also ultimately extinguished. The sūtra then passes over the intermediate links and continues through to this: because birth is ultimately extinguished, aging-and-death is also ultimately extinguished. One contemplates the twelve links of dependent origination in this way without grasping them as the real mark of something finally exhausted. Contemplating them as having no mark of exhaustion, one no longer gives rise to the various views. Medicine-King Tathāgata calls this entire passage the supreme offering of Dharma.
The explicitly stated junctures of the supreme offering of Dharma are: practicing in accordance with what is taught; according with the twelve links of dependent origination; leaving wrong views behind; attaining acceptance of non-arising; decisively seeing no-self and no sentient being; neither contradicting nor disputing cause, condition, and karmic result; leaving what belongs to self behind; relying on meaning rather than words; relying on wisdom rather than consciousness; relying on sūtras of definitive meaning rather than sūtras of nondefinitive meaning; relying on the Dharma rather than a person; according with the characteristics of dharmas; having no place of entry and no place of return; contemplating the ultimate extinction of ignorance and formations, through to the ultimate extinction of birth and aging-and-death; contemplating the twelve links of dependent origination as having no mark of exhaustion; and no longer giving rise to views. Every item has its own place in the sūtra. They cannot be compressed into the single sentence “practice according to the sūtra.”
Moon Canopy Attains Acceptance and Vows to Protect the City of Dharma
The Buddha told the Lord of the Gods that, after Prince Moon Canopy had heard this Dharma from Medicine-King Tathāgata, he attained pliant acceptance. He immediately removed the jeweled robe adorning his body and offered it to the Buddha, saying, “World-Honored One! After the Tathāgata’s extinction, I will practice the offering of Dharma and protect the true Dharma. May the World-Honored One support and fulfill me with spiritual power and compassion, enabling me to subdue the hostile Māras and practice the bodhisattva path.”
Medicine-King Tathāgata knew the profound intention in Moon Canopy’s mind and gave him this prediction: “In the final period, you will protect the city of Dharma.”
Having seen the purity of the Dharma and heard the Buddha give him this prediction, Moon Canopy left home in faith and cultivated wholesome dharmas. Through diligent effort, before long he attained the five superknowledges, reached the bodhisattva path, attained dhāraṇī, and attained uninterrupted eloquence.
After Medicine-King Tathāgata’s extinction, Moon Canopy used the three powers of his superknowledges, retention, and eloquence for ten small kalpas to spread onward the Dharma-wheel turned by Medicine-King Tathāgata. The bhikṣu Moon Canopy diligently exerted himself to protect the true Dharma. In that very life he established one million koṭis of people in non-retrogression from unsurpassed perfect awakening, caused fourteen nayutas of people to form a profound resolve for the śrāvaka vehicle and the pratyekabuddha vehicle, and enabled immeasurable sentient beings to be born in the heavens.
The Buddha Identifies the People of the Past and Concludes by Urging an Offering of Dharma to the Buddha
The Buddha asked the Lord of the Gods, “Could King Jeweled Canopy of that time have been someone else? He has now become a buddha named Jeweled Flame Tathāgata. The thousand princes are the thousand buddhas of the Fortunate Kalpa: the first was Krakucchanda Buddha, and the final Tathāgata is named Ruci. As for the bhikṣu Moon Canopy, he was none other than myself.”
The Buddha concluded, “Lord of the Gods! You should understand this essential point: among all offerings, the offering of Dharma is highest and supreme, first and incomparable. Therefore, Lord of the Gods, you should use the offering of Dharma to make offerings to the Buddha.”
This chapter moves from Śakra’s vow to protect those who recite, retain, and practice the sūtra to Moon Canopy’s actual protection of the Dharma-wheel turned by Medicine-King Tathāgata. It moves from Tathāgatas filling the world, seven-jeweled stūpas, and every article of offering to hearing the sūtra, trusting and understanding, receiving and retaining, reading and reciting, explaining, making clear, protecting the Dharma, and practicing in accordance with what is taught. Material offering is not erased: after Moon Canopy attains acceptance, he still removes his jeweled robe and offers it to the Buddha. What the sūtra truly advances is this: if offering is to accord with the awakening of all buddhas, then the Dharma heard must become practice in oneself and must also be protected and circulated among sentient beings.
寶蓋王供養藥王如來滿五劫，又令一千個兒子各以深心供養滿五劫。一切安樂資具都已奉上，時間也長得難以想像。偏偏就在這時，月蓋獨坐思惟：「寧有供養殊過此者？」這一問不是嫌前面的供養太少；經文稍早才說，遍滿三千大千世界的如來受一劫供養，滅後又各起七寶塔，其福以百千億劫也說不能盡。月蓋所問的是：如此廣大而長久的供養之外，還有沒有更能承接佛所成就之法的供養？
空中天回答：「法之供養勝諸供養。」可是，什麼叫作以法供養？是擁有一部經，是熟練地誦念，是替人解說，還是自己照著行？藥王如來的回答沒有只選其中一項。祂先說所供的是怎樣的深經，再說聞、持、解說與守護，最後把如說修行、緣起觀、四依與不起見說為最上法供養。經文用整整一段回答，使『法供養』從一句讚語成為一條可走的路。
經先承認財供的重量
本品比較財供與法供，卻沒有把財供說成無用。佛所設的校量極其廣大：三千大千世界充滿如來，如甘蔗、竹𥯤、稻麻、叢林；行者在一劫或略少一劫中恭敬、尊重、讚歎、供養，奉給一切所安。諸佛滅後，又為每一具全身舍利起七寶塔；每座塔縱廣一四天下，高至梵天，復以華、香、瓔珞、幢、幡、伎樂長時供養。
釋提桓因回答，這份福德即使用百千億劫也說不能盡。佛隨後說聞持修行本經之福更多，並不是先把前面的福改說成零；校量之所以成立，正因兩邊都有福，而法供養所關聯的菩提不可限量。
這一點在月蓋身上也沒有斷裂。他從藥王如來聞法、得到柔順忍後，仍解下寶衣嚴身之具供養佛。接著，他才發願在佛滅後實行法供養、守護正法。寶衣沒有被丟棄成一件錯事；它與護法之願前後相接，顯示經文不是叫人以法為名輕視財施，而是把供養帶到更深、更久的護持與修行。
為什麼受持一部經，能說是供養三世佛？
佛先說，這部經廣說過去、未來、現在諸佛不可思議的無上菩提；所以受持、讀誦、供養此經，就是供養過去、未來、現在諸佛。接著又說，諸佛菩提皆從此法而生，菩提之相不可限量，故由此而有的福也不可限量。
經文把所供養的佛與所受持的法接在一起。若只把供養理解為在佛前奉上資具，諸佛入滅後便似乎只剩塔與舍利；本品卻進一步指出，受持、讀誦、供養此經，就是供養三世諸佛，又以諸佛菩提從法而生說明所由。聞持、修行與流通經法，於是和供養過去、未來、現在諸佛同在一條經文脈絡中。
釋提桓因的護法願正好把這一點落實。他願意和眷屬供養受持、讀誦、如說修行的人；無論聚落、城邑、山林或曠野，只要有這部經，便為聽法前往；對未信者令生信，對已信者為作護。由此可見，法供養一開始就不只是一個人的內心活動，也包括經法在眾生與處所之間能被聽見、相信、持守與保護。
深經之『深』，經文自己怎樣說？
月蓋問什麼是法供養，藥王如來先回答所供的是諸佛所說深經。祂沒有用『深奧』二字便收住，而從這部經難以信受、難以見，到它能成就什麼、救護什麼，一項一項說下去。
先看它本身。這是諸佛所說，一切世間難信難受，微妙難見，清淨無染，不能只靠分別思惟得到；它由菩薩法藏收攝，由陀羅尼印印定。經文沒有替『深』另下一句抽象定義，而把難信、難受、難見、清淨無染、非分別所得、法藏所攝與總持所印依次並列；正文先守這些明列之語，不替其中任何一項另定唯一解釋。
再看它使行者成就什麼。它能使人至不退轉，成就布施、持戒、忍辱、精進、禪定、智慧，善於分別義理，隨順菩提法；能使人進入大慈悲，遠離魔事與邪見，隨順因緣法。深經不是把人帶離眾生，而是使人進入大慈悲；也不是以空義破壞緣起，而是同時說無我、無人、無眾生、無壽命，又順因緣法。
經文又把所明之理列出：空、無相、無作、無起；諸法實相；無常、苦、空、無我、寂滅。這些義理不是停在名相上，因為後文接著說深經能令眾生坐道場、轉法輪，令眾生入佛法藏，攝受賢聖智慧，說明菩薩所行之道。
最後看它對眾生與世間的作用。它受天眾、龍神、乾闥婆及諸眾共同歎譽；能救毀犯禁戒的眾生，使魔、外道與貪著者怖畏，受諸佛賢聖稱歎；能使人背離生死苦，看見涅槃樂；又是十方三世諸佛所說。從難信難見到救護毀禁者，從實相之義到眾生坐道場轉法輪，經文不讓『深』變成離人很遠的玄談。
法供養不是藏住法，而是使法顯明
說完深經，藥王如來才正說怎樣供養這個法。經文依次列出：聞，信解，受持，讀誦，以方便力為眾生分別解說，顯示分明，守護正法。每一步都補足前一步可能留下的缺口。
只聞而不信解，法仍像從耳邊經過；信解而不受持，所解沒有被守住；受持而不讀誦，法不能在身口間熟習；讀誦而不為眾生解說，所得仍停在自己一人；解說若不顯示分明，聽者未必能見義旨；說得分明而不守護，法仍可能在流傳中受阻。經文所列的七項，從自己聽見一路走到眾生能明白、正法能被保護。
然而，經文並沒有說能講得清楚便已到盡頭。下一句用『又』轉入如說修行。能說法與能行法在此不是兩條互不相干的路：若解說者不如說行，他所護的法便沒有在自己身上得到承接；若修行者只求自己受用，不使深經被聞、被解、被護，本品所說的法供養也少了流通的一面。
無我與因緣果報，為什麼要放在同一句？
最上法供養先說隨順十二因緣、離邪見、得無生忍，接著說決定無我、無有眾生，卻又緊接『於因緣果報無違無諍』。經文在決定無我、無眾生之後，緊接因緣果報無違無諍，兩者並列。
『無違無諍』先要求如實面對因緣果報，不以自己的見解和緣起相抵觸。『離諸我所』又把執取往下鬆開：沒有固定的我，也沒有一批永遠屬於我的法。如此說無我，不是否定行為與果報；如此說果報，也不把受報者固化成常住自體。
這一段和前文『順因緣法』互相照應。深經所明的空、無相、無作、無起，沒有使因緣失效；如說修行所見的因緣果報，也沒有把我、人、眾生、壽命重新立起。法供養所護的，是隨順因緣、遠離我人等相的深經。
四依為什麼一口氣列出四對？
經文一口氣列出四對：依義不依語，依智不依識，依了義經不依不了義經，依法不依人。四對各有正依與不依，次序清楚，沒有把前三對收進最後一句，也沒有只留下『依法不依人』作總稱。
這四對又出現在聞、信解、受持、讀誦、解說、顯明、護法與如說修行之後。前段明說須為眾生分別解說、顯示分明，後段同時明說依義不依語；前段明說所供的是諸佛深經，後段又分了義經與不了義經。正文能確定的是這些句子在同一回答中的位置與並列，至於義與語、智與識、兩類經、法與人各應如何分釋，留待古德兩鏡各還其說。
四依在此不能被縮成一條方便口號。它是最上法供養明列的四個關節，與隨順十二因緣、離邪見、得無生忍、因緣果報無違無諍、離我所及不起見前後相接；讀者須先保留經文給出的全部四對，才不會以一對代替其餘三對。
已說畢竟滅，為什麼又說無有盡相？
本品說，隨順法相便無所入、無所歸；無明畢竟滅，諸行也畢竟滅，乃至生畢竟滅，老死也畢竟滅。經文沒有在『乃至』之間逐支重列，我們也不憑記憶替它補成另一段原文。它實寫無明與行、生與老死，以『乃至』承接中間支分，逐字範圍到此為止。
緊接著，經文又說觀十二因緣『無有盡相』，最後才說『不復起見』。畢竟滅、無有盡相與不起見三句前後相連，都是本品明文；正文若只順本經自身，便應先完整保留三句，不以畢竟滅刪去無有盡相，也不以無有盡相改寫畢竟滅，更不替兩句另選一個疏家的解法。
這一段與前文的次序同樣不能拆散：先是隨順十二因緣、於因緣果報無違無諍，後是隨順法相、無所入、無所歸，再說畢竟滅、無有盡相與不起見。經文把整條次序合稱最上法供養；至於古德如何說明『畢竟滅』與『無有盡相』同段而出，留在文末兩鏡並照，不預先灌入正文。
月蓋怎樣把聽見的法變成護法？
月蓋聞法後，先得柔順忍，隨即解寶衣供佛，發願在如來滅後行法供養、守護正法。他沒有只說自己已懂得法供勝財供；他問的是法供養，願的是親自行法供養。
藥王如來為他授記：末後守護法城。接下來的敘事逐步說明這座『法城』如何被守：月蓋以信出家，修集善法，精進不久而得五神通、菩薩道、陀羅尼、無斷辯才；佛滅後，又以神通、總持、辯才之力，十小劫隨而分布法輪。守護不是把法藏起來，而是使藥王如來所轉法輪繼續展開。
經文也逐項記下弘通所及：百萬億人在無上菩提上立不退轉，十四那由他人深發聲聞與辟支佛之心，無量眾生得生天上。三類所得各自保留，沒有被壓成同一果位。月蓋護法的結果，正顯出深經前文所說能令眾生入佛法藏、攝賢聖智慧、說菩薩所行之道。
法供養為什麼始終沒有離開眾生？
藥王如來說深經時，沒有只列清淨、實相、空與無相。祂同時說深經使人進入大慈悲，能使眾生坐道場、轉法輪，能救毀犯禁戒的眾生，又能背生死苦、示涅槃樂。義理愈深，經文所列對眾生的救護愈明；深經不是離開眾生才顯得深。
正式說法供養時，經文也沒有停在個人受持。聞、信解、受持、讀誦之後，緊接著是以方便力為眾生分別解說、顯示分明、守護正法。『方便』所面對的是不同眾生，『顯示分明』所要求的是使所聞之義真正可明，『守護』所維持的是法能繼續利益後來的人。若法只被一人收藏，這三步都還沒有完成。
月蓋的故事把這一方向延伸到佛滅後。他所得的神通、總持、辯才，不以自受用作結，而用來隨順分布藥王如來所轉法輪；他所化的人又各有去向：有人在無上菩提立不退轉，有人深發聲聞與辟支佛之心，有人得生天上。經文沒有把眾生只許向同一個結果前進，卻讓每一類都在護法弘通中得到相應利益。
所以，從釋提桓因願到有經之處聽法，到月蓋十小劫分布法輪，本品的供養始終帶著他人。自己如說修行與為眾生解說並不互相取代；前者使法不只停在口中，後者使法不只停在一身。兩面俱在，法供養才從聞法者延續到後來眾生。
為什麼佛最後說月蓋就是自己？
佛在故事末尾揭明，寶蓋王今日已成寶炎如來，千子即賢劫千佛，月蓋比丘就是佛自己。法供養於是既是藥王如來當時所說的教法，也是佛在過去親自聞受、修行與護持的道路。
這個身份揭示使品首與品末連在一起。品首說受持、讀誦、供養此經，就是供養過去、未來、現在諸佛；品末則由現在說法的佛回指過去護法的月蓋。三世佛與法供養不是抽象地連接，而在這段本生往事中由聞法者、護法者與成佛者貫穿。
所以，全品最後的勸語不是另加一句口號。前面已走過財供的廣大、深經的德用、聞持解說、如說修行、緣起四依與月蓋弘法，佛才說法供養『為上為最，第一無比』。真正供養佛，不只在佛前奉上珍寶，也要使佛所說之法在自己身上成為行，在眾生之間成為可聞、可解、可受持的法，在佛滅後仍有人守護、分布祂所轉的法輪。
二鏡並照
上來只順羅什本本品自身開講。古德讀到財供、法供、深經、四依、緣起與護法，又各以一面鏡照出不同紋理。以下並列什門三家與慈恩一系；前者各還什、肇、生之名，後者守其所依玄奘本，兩路等權，不以一鏡判另一鏡。
什門之鏡：奉順經典、弘布正法與內行應順
羅什對空中天所說法供勝諸供養，著眼於佛積劫本為眾生；若能奉順經典、如說修行，便稱悅聖心。他說：「若奉順經典、如說修行，則稱悅聖心，乃真供養也。」道生把同一關節收成一句：「法供養者，行法即為供養也。」兩句都把供養落在行，卻沒有使用同一套論證。
到了藥王如來正式開示，羅什先辨前一大段在讚歎深經，後一段才明受持宣行；僧肇則把兩重行相分開說：「上以信解護持宣示弘布以為法養，今明內行應順為法供養也。」前者使大法增廣，後者使自己如說而行。道生又說如經修行是最深者，故另加說明。三家都看見經文的轉折，仍各有自己的落筆。
對『非但分別思惟所能得』，羅什保留禪定功德與實智慧兩種說法；僧肇從無分別著眼；道生則說須積功德然後契會。對四依，僧肇以「至義非言宣，尋言則失至。」開釋依義不依語，道生著眼於不逐語取相，羅什長分文字與義、識與智、不了義與了義、人與法。把其中一條獨立成唯一答案，反而會失去這部古注內部的多聲。
緣起段也一樣。羅什把它繫於四依下的如實法；僧肇由無生轉說無盡，並以「滅無所滅即是無盡義也。」回答畢竟滅與無盡相如何同說；道生從生若不有、誰復有滅說無入無歸。到月蓋所得，羅什以軟智軟信說柔順忍，僧肇則說心柔智順、堪受實相而未及無生。兩說都保留，方是照三家原貌而傳。
慈恩之鏡：經的所能、依教依行與緣起無盡
窺基依玄奘本開品，先把本品置於讚授流通，又分天帝讚揚、世尊印述、往事勸修三段。他以財資身、法長道說品題，對財供校量則細分現前供養與滅後供塔；對法供福勝，又由無上菩提之因與佛果功德說明。這些都是慈恩的科判語，不替代羅什本本品的問答脊。
在藥王如來開示處，窺基分經的體義與所能，又並列空理義、應理義，不替兩軌決一。其後他說：「初明依教，多分地前行法供養；後明依行，多分十地行法供養。」依教一面列聽聞、信解、受持、讀、誦、思惟、為他說、方便攝護正法；依行一面列緣起觀、無生忍、無我無有情、無違無諍、離我我所、四依與捨見。這面鏡把本品的長列整理成修行層次，層次仍只屬疏家。
對四依，窺基以義理可依、智能決斷、了義明顯、法可軌範分說。到了玄奘本專有的一句，他寫：「悟入真如無所攝藏，滅阿賴耶。」羅什本本品沒有這句，所以本層只把它標作慈恩所依漢本中的唯識讀，不將它補進前面的經義正文。
對月蓋所得順法忍，窺基先繫地前決擇忍位，又依五忍配位繫於順忍，末說二解任取；本編照樣保留兩解。品末玄奘本有五種最勝語，他又提出五蘊法身與四智兩組配釋。從忍位到五最，慈恩鏡本身已有複數讀法，並錄比替它選定一說更忠於原疏。
兩鏡都看見法供養不止於財物，也不止於口誦；什門由奉順、弘布與內行展開，慈恩由依教、依行與緣起無盡展開。前者保存羅什本三家古注的多聲，後者保存玄奘本慈恩疏的層次。經文仍在兩鏡之間居中：月蓋問法、聞法、行法、護法，最後由佛自指其身，讓法供養成為可以承衍的佛道行跡。
King Jeweled Canopy makes offerings to Medicine-King Tathāgata for a full five kalpas, then has his thousand sons each make offerings with a profound mind for another full five kalpas. Everything required for the Buddha’s ease has been presented, and the length of time is almost unimaginable. Yet it is precisely then that Moon Canopy sits alone and reflects: 「寧有供養殊過此者？」 — “Is there an offering that surpasses this?” This question does not suggest that the earlier offerings were too small. Just before this, the sūtra said that if Tathāgatas filled the three-thousand great-thousand world-system and received offerings for a kalpa, and if after their extinction a seven-jeweled stūpa were built for each of them, even a hundred thousand koṭis of kalpas would not suffice to tell the resulting merit. Moon Canopy’s question is this: beyond such vast and enduring offerings, is there an offering that can more fully carry forward the Dharma realized by the Buddha?
The god in the sky answers: 「法之供養勝諸供養。」 — “The offering of Dharma surpasses all offerings.” But what does it mean to make an offering through the Dharma? Does it mean possessing a sūtra, reciting it fluently, explaining it to others, or practicing it oneself? Medicine-King Tathāgata’s answer does not select only one of these. He first describes the profound sūtra to which the offering is made, then speaks of hearing, retaining, explaining, and protecting it, and finally names practice in accordance with what is taught, contemplation of dependent origination, the four reliances, and no longer giving rise to views as the supreme offering of Dharma. By answering over the course of an entire passage, the sūtra turns “the offering of Dharma” from a phrase of praise into a path that can be walked.
The Sūtra First Acknowledges the Weight of Material Offerings
This chapter compares material offerings with the offering of Dharma without calling material offerings useless. The Buddha’s comparison is immense: the three-thousand great-thousand world-system is filled with Tathāgatas, as densely as sugarcane, bamboo, reeds, rice, hemp, and forests. For one kalpa or slightly less than one kalpa, practitioners revere, honor, praise, and make offerings to them, presenting everything required for their ease. After the buddhas pass into extinction, the practitioners build a seven-jeweled stūpa for every set of full-body relics. Each stūpa extends in length and breadth across one four-continent world, rises as high as the Brahmā Heaven, and receives long-lasting offerings of flowers, incense, necklaces, standards, banners, and music.
Śakra answers that even a hundred thousand koṭis of kalpas would not suffice to tell the full measure of this merit. When the Buddha then says that the merit of hearing, retaining, and practicing this sūtra is greater, He does not first reduce the earlier merit to zero. The comparison works precisely because both sides possess merit, while the awakening connected with the offering of Dharma cannot be measured.
Nor is this continuity broken in Moon Canopy’s own conduct. After hearing the Dharma from Medicine-King Tathāgata and attaining pliant acceptance, he still removes the jeweled robe adorning his body and offers it to the Buddha. Only then does he vow that after the Buddha’s extinction he will practice the offering of Dharma and protect the true Dharma. The jeweled robe is not discarded as an error. It is followed by the vow to protect the Dharma, showing that the sūtra does not ask people to disdain material giving in the name of Dharma, but carries offering into the deeper and more enduring work of protection and practice.
Why Can Retaining a Single Sūtra Be Called Making Offerings to the Buddhas of the Three Times?
The Buddha first says that this sūtra extensively teaches the inconceivable unsurpassed awakening of the buddhas of the past, future, and present. Therefore, to receive and retain, read and recite, and make offerings to this sūtra is to make offerings to the buddhas of the past, future, and present. He then says that the awakening of all buddhas is born from this Dharma and that, because the mark of awakening cannot be measured, the merit arising from it likewise cannot be measured.
The sūtra joins the buddhas to whom offerings are made with the Dharma that is received and retained. If offering is understood only as presenting articles before a Buddha, then after the buddhas pass into extinction only stūpas and relics seem to remain. This chapter goes further: receiving and retaining, reading and reciting, and making offerings to this sūtra are themselves offerings to the buddhas of the three times, and the sūtra explains why by saying that the awakening of all buddhas arises from the Dharma. Hearing, retaining, practicing, and circulating the sūtra-Dharma thus stand in the same scriptural sequence as making offerings to the buddhas of the past, future, and present.
Śakra’s vow to protect the Dharma gives this principle concrete form. He vows that he and his retinue will make offerings to anyone who receives and retains, reads and recites, and practices in accordance with the teaching. Whether in a village, town, forest, or wilderness, wherever this sūtra is found, he will go there to hear the Dharma. He will cause those who do not yet trust it to give rise to trust and will protect those who already trust it. The offering of Dharma is therefore, from the outset, more than one individual’s inward activity. It also includes enabling the sūtra-Dharma to be heard, trusted, retained, and protected among sentient beings and across places.
How Does the Sūtra Itself Describe the “Profundity” of the Profound Sūtra?
When Moon Canopy asks what the offering of Dharma is, Medicine-King Tathāgata first answers that the object of the offering is the profound sūtra spoken by the buddhas. He does not stop after saying that it is “profound,” but proceeds item by item from its being difficult to trust and receive to what it can perfect and whom it can rescue.
First consider the sūtra itself. It is spoken by the buddhas; all the worlds find it difficult to trust and receive; it is subtle and difficult to see, pure and unstained, and cannot be attained merely through discriminative thought. It is embraced by the Dharma treasury of the bodhisattvas and sealed by the seal of dhāraṇī. The sūtra does not give “profound” a separate abstract definition. It successively places side by side difficulty of trust, reception, and vision; purity and freedom from stain; non-attainment through discrimination; embrace by the Dharma treasury; and sealing by dhāraṇī. The main exposition first preserves this explicit language rather than making any one item the sole explanation.
Next consider what it enables practitioners to perfect. It brings them to non-retrogression; enables them to perfect giving, ethical discipline, patience, diligent effort, meditation, and wisdom; makes them skillful in distinguishing meaning; and allows them to accord with the Dharma of awakening. It enables them to enter great loving-kindness and great compassion, leave affairs of Māra and wrong views behind, and accord with the Dharma of causes and conditions. The profound sūtra does not carry people away from sentient beings, but brings them into great compassion. Nor does it use emptiness to destroy dependent origination: it teaches no-self, no person, no sentient being, and no lifespan while also according with the Dharma of causes and conditions.
The sūtra further lists the principles it clarifies: emptiness, signlessness, wishlessness, and non-arising; the true mark of all dharmas; and impermanence, suffering, emptiness, no-self, and quiescent cessation. These principles do not stop as technical terms, because the text immediately continues by saying that the profound sūtra can enable sentient beings to sit at the place of awakening and turn the Dharma-wheel, enter the treasury of the Buddha-Dharma, gather the wisdom of the worthy and holy ones, and proclaim the path practiced by bodhisattvas.
Finally, consider its work for sentient beings and the world. It receives the shared praise of the assemblies of gods, nāgas, gandharvas, and the other classes; rescues sentient beings who have violated the precepts; makes the hosts of Māra, followers of outside paths, and those attached through greed afraid; and receives the praise of the buddhas and the worthy and holy ones. It enables people to turn away from the suffering of birth and death and see the bliss of nirvāṇa, and it is spoken by the buddhas of the ten directions and the three times. From being difficult to trust and see to rescuing those who have violated the precepts, and from the meaning of the true mark to enabling sentient beings to sit at the place of awakening and turn the Dharma-wheel, the sūtra does not let “profound” become abstruse talk remote from people.
The Offering of Dharma Does Not Hide the Dharma Away, but Makes It Clear
Only after describing the profound sūtra does Medicine-King Tathāgata explain how to make an offering to this Dharma. The sūtra lists in order: hearing; trusting and understanding; receiving and retaining; reading and reciting; using the power of skillful means to explain and distinguish it for sentient beings; making it clearly manifest; and protecting the true Dharma. Each step fills a gap that the preceding one could leave behind.
If one hears without trusting and understanding, the Dharma still seems merely to pass by the ear. If one trusts and understands without receiving and retaining, what was understood is not kept. If one receives and retains without reading and reciting, the Dharma is not made familiar through body and speech. If one reads and recites without explaining it to sentient beings, what was attained remains with oneself alone. If an explanation does not make the meaning clearly manifest, listeners may still fail to see its purport. If the meaning is explained clearly but not protected, the Dharma may still be obstructed in transmission. The seven items named by the sūtra lead from hearing it oneself all the way to enabling sentient beings to understand and the true Dharma to be protected.
Yet the sūtra does not say that explaining the Dharma clearly is the endpoint. The next sentence uses “further” to turn toward practice in accordance with what is taught. The ability to teach the Dharma and the ability to practice it are not two unrelated roads here. If the person who explains does not practice in accordance with what is taught, the Dharma that person protects has not been carried forward in that person’s own life. If the practitioner seeks only personal benefit and does not enable the profound sūtra to be heard, understood, and protected, the offering of Dharma described in this chapter likewise lacks its dimension of circulation.
Why Are No-Self and Cause, Condition, and Karmic Result Placed in the Same Sentence?
The supreme offering of Dharma first speaks of according with the twelve links of dependent origination, leaving wrong views behind, and attaining acceptance of non-arising. It then says decisively that there is no self and no sentient being, yet immediately follows this with “neither contradicting nor disputing cause, condition, and karmic result.” The sūtra places no-self and no sentient being directly beside neither contradicting nor disputing cause, condition, and karmic result.
“Neither contradicting nor disputing” first requires one to face cause, condition, and karmic result as they are, without setting one’s own views against dependent origination. “Leaving behind everything that belongs to self” then loosens grasping still further: there is no fixed self and no collection of dharmas eternally belonging to it. To speak of no-self in this way does not deny actions and their results. To speak of karmic results in this way does not solidify the one who experiences them into a permanent essence.
This passage corresponds to the earlier phrase “according with the Dharma of causes and conditions.” The emptiness, signlessness, wishlessness, and non-arising clarified by the profound sūtra do not render causes and conditions ineffective. The cause, condition, and karmic result seen in practice according to the teaching do not reestablish self, person, sentient being, or lifespan. What the offering of Dharma protects is a profound sūtra that accords with causes and conditions while leaving the marks of self and person behind.
Why Are All Four Reliances Listed Together?
The sūtra lists four pairs at once: rely on meaning, not on words; rely on wisdom, not on consciousness; rely on sūtras of definitive meaning, not on sūtras of nondefinitive meaning; rely on Dharma, not on a person. Each pair has what should be relied upon and what should not, and their sequence is clear. The first three pairs are not folded into the final sentence, nor is “rely on Dharma, not on a person” left standing as a general name for all four.
These four pairs also appear after hearing, trusting and understanding, receiving and retaining, reading and reciting, explaining, making clear, protecting the Dharma, and practicing in accordance with what is taught. The earlier passage expressly says that one must explain and distinguish the Dharma for sentient beings and make it clearly manifest; the later passage simultaneously says to rely on meaning rather than words. The earlier passage says that the object of offering is the profound sūtra spoken by the buddhas; the later passage distinguishes sūtras of definitive meaning from those of nondefinitive meaning. What the main text can establish is the position and parallel form of these clauses within one answer. How meaning and words, wisdom and consciousness, the two kinds of sūtra, and Dharma and person should each be explained is left to the two mirrors of the ancient masters, each returned to its own reading.
The four reliances cannot be compressed here into a slogan of skillful means. They are four explicitly stated junctures within the supreme offering of Dharma, joined before and after to according with the twelve links of dependent origination, leaving wrong views, attaining acceptance of non-arising, neither contradicting nor disputing cause, condition, and karmic result, leaving what belongs to self behind, and no longer giving rise to views. Readers must first preserve all four pairs given by the sūtra so that one pair does not stand in for the other three.
Having Spoken of Ultimate Extinction, Why Does the Sūtra Then Speak of Having No Mark of Exhaustion?
This chapter says that, by according with the characteristics of dharmas, there is no place of entry and no place of return. Because ignorance is ultimately extinguished, formations are likewise ultimately extinguished; through to this: because birth is ultimately extinguished, aging-and-death is likewise ultimately extinguished. The sūtra does not relist every intermediate link between “through to” and the final pair, and we do not fill out a different scriptural passage from memory. It actually writes ignorance and formations, birth and aging-and-death, using “through to” to carry the intermediate links. That is the limit of the verbatim scope.
Immediately afterward, the sūtra says that one contemplates the twelve links of dependent origination as “having no mark of exhaustion,” and only then says “one no longer gives rise to views.” Ultimate extinction, having no mark of exhaustion, and no longer giving rise to views appear consecutively and are all the explicit words of this chapter. If the exposition follows this sūtra alone, it must first preserve all three statements. It neither deletes having no mark of exhaustion on the basis of ultimate extinction, nor rewrites ultimate extinction on the basis of having no mark of exhaustion, nor selects a commentator’s explanation of the two statements in advance.
The sequence of this passage likewise cannot be broken apart: first, according with the twelve links of dependent origination and neither contradicting nor disputing cause, condition, and karmic result; next, according with the characteristics of dharmas and having no place of entry or return; then ultimate extinction, having no mark of exhaustion, and no longer giving rise to views. The sūtra names this entire sequence the supreme offering of Dharma. How the ancient masters explain the appearance of “ultimate extinction” and “having no mark of exhaustion” in a single passage is left to the two mirrors at the end and is not poured into the main exposition beforehand.
How Does Moon Canopy Turn the Dharma He Has Heard into Protection of the Dharma?
After hearing the Dharma, Moon Canopy first attains pliant acceptance. He immediately removes his jeweled robe and offers it to the Buddha, then vows that after the Tathāgata’s extinction he will practice the offering of Dharma and protect the true Dharma. He does not merely say that he now understands the offering of Dharma to be superior to material offerings. What he asked about was the offering of Dharma, and what he vows is to practice that offering himself.
Medicine-King Tathāgata predicts that Moon Canopy will protect the city of Dharma in the final period. The following narrative explains step by step how this “city of Dharma” is protected. Moon Canopy leaves home in faith, cultivates wholesome dharmas, and through diligent effort soon attains the five superknowledges, the bodhisattva path, dhāraṇī, and uninterrupted eloquence. After the Buddha’s extinction, through the power of his superknowledges, retention, and eloquence, he spreads onward the Dharma-wheel for ten small kalpas. Protection does not mean hiding the Dharma away, but allowing the Dharma-wheel turned by Medicine-King Tathāgata to continue unfolding.
The sūtra also records one by one the reach of this circulation: one million koṭis of people are established in non-retrogression from unsurpassed awakening, fourteen nayutas of people form a profound resolve for the śrāvaka and pratyekabuddha vehicles, and immeasurable sentient beings are born in the heavens. Each of these three attainments is preserved separately and is not compressed into a single fruit. The result of Moon Canopy’s protection of the Dharma demonstrates precisely what the earlier description of the profound sūtra says: it can enable sentient beings to enter the treasury of the Buddha-Dharma, gather the wisdom of the worthy and holy ones, and proclaim the path practiced by bodhisattvas.
Why Does the Offering of Dharma Never Leave Sentient Beings Behind?
When Medicine-King Tathāgata describes the profound sūtra, He does not list only purity, the true mark, emptiness, and signlessness. He also says that the profound sūtra enables people to enter great compassion, enables sentient beings to sit at the place of awakening and turn the Dharma-wheel, rescues sentient beings who have violated the precepts, and enables them to turn away from the suffering of birth and death and see the bliss of nirvāṇa. The more profound the meaning, the more clearly the sūtra lists its protection of sentient beings. The profound sūtra is not profound because it leaves sentient beings behind.
Nor does the sūtra stop at personal retention when it formally defines the offering of Dharma. Hearing, trusting and understanding, receiving and retaining, and reading and reciting are immediately followed by using the power of skillful means to explain and distinguish it for sentient beings, make it clearly manifest, and protect the true Dharma. “Skillful means” addresses different sentient beings; “make it clearly manifest” requires that the meaning heard truly become intelligible; “protect” sustains the Dharma so that it can continue to benefit those who come later. If the Dharma is merely stored by one person, none of these three steps has yet been completed.
Moon Canopy’s story extends this direction beyond the Buddha’s extinction. His superknowledges, retention, and eloquence do not end in personal enjoyment, but are used to spread onward the Dharma-wheel turned by Medicine-King Tathāgata. The people he transforms then have distinct destinations: some are established in non-retrogression from unsurpassed awakening, some form a profound resolve for the śrāvaka and pratyekabuddha vehicles, and some are born in the heavens. The sūtra does not restrict sentient beings to advancing toward a single result, but allows every group to receive its corresponding benefit through the protection and circulation of the Dharma.
Thus, from Śakra’s vow to go wherever the sūtra is found in order to hear the Dharma to Moon Canopy’s ten small kalpas of spreading the Dharma-wheel, the offering of this chapter always includes others. Practicing in accordance with what is taught and explaining it for sentient beings do not replace one another. The former keeps the Dharma from remaining only in one’s mouth; the latter keeps it from remaining in one person alone. With both aspects present, the offering of Dharma continues from the one who hears it to sentient beings who come later.
Why Does the Buddha Finally Say That Moon Canopy Was Himself?
At the end of the story, the Buddha reveals that King Jeweled Canopy has now become Jeweled Flame Tathāgata, that the thousand princes are the thousand buddhas of the Fortunate Kalpa, and that the bhikṣu Moon Canopy was the Buddha Himself. The offering of Dharma is thus both the teaching given at that time by Medicine-King Tathāgata and the path that the Buddha personally heard, received, practiced, and protected in the past.
This revelation of identity joins the opening and closing of the chapter. At the opening, the sūtra says that receiving and retaining, reading and reciting, and making offerings to this sūtra are offerings to the buddhas of the past, future, and present. At the end, the Buddha who teaches in the present points back to Moon Canopy, who protected the Dharma in the past. The buddhas of the three times and the offering of Dharma are not connected abstractly. In this account of a former life, the one who hears the Dharma, the one who protects it, and the one who becomes a buddha form one continuous path.
The chapter’s final exhortation is therefore not an additional slogan. Only after traversing the vastness of material offerings, the qualities and capacities of the profound sūtra, hearing and retaining and explaining, practice in accordance with what is taught, dependent origination, the four reliances, and Moon Canopy’s circulation of the Dharma does the Buddha say that the offering of Dharma is “highest and supreme, first and incomparable.” Truly making offerings to the Buddha does not mean only presenting precious things before the Buddha. It also means allowing the Dharma taught by the Buddha to become practice in oneself, become a Dharma that can be heard, understood, and retained among sentient beings, and still have protectors after the Buddha’s extinction who spread onward the Dharma-wheel He turned.
Two Mirrors Shining Side by Side
The exposition above has followed this chapter of Kumārajīva’s recension alone. When the ancient masters read about material offerings, the offering of Dharma, the profound sūtra, the four reliances, dependent origination, and protection of the Dharma, each used a mirror to illuminate different patterns. Below, the three masters of the Kumārajīva line and the Ci’en line are presented side by side. The former retains the distinct names of Kumārajīva, Sengzhao, and Daosheng; the latter keeps the Xuanzang recension on which it relies. The two paths bear equal witness, and neither mirror is used to judge the other.
The Kumārajīva-Line Mirror: Following the Scriptures, Spreading the True Dharma, and Conforming Inward Practice
Regarding the god in the sky’s statement that the offering of Dharma surpasses all offerings, Kumārajīva attends to the fact that the Buddha cultivated through accumulated kalpas fundamentally for the sake of sentient beings. If one follows the scriptures and practices in accordance with what is taught, the holy mind is pleased. He says: 「若奉順經典、如說修行，則稱悅聖心，乃真供養也。」 — “If one follows the scriptures and practices in accordance with what is taught, one accords with and delights the holy mind; this is the true offering.” Daosheng gathers the same juncture into one sentence: 「法供養者，行法即為供養也。」 — “As for the offering of Dharma, practicing the Dharma is itself the offering.” Both place offering in practice, but they do not use the same line of argument.
When Medicine-King Tathāgata formally begins His explanation, Kumārajīva first distinguishes the earlier long passage as praise of the profound sūtra and the later passage as clarification of receiving, retaining, proclaiming, and practicing it. Sengzhao distinguishes the two modes of practice: 「上以信解護持宣示弘布以為法養，今明內行應順為法供養也。」 — “Above, trusting and understanding, protecting and retaining, proclaiming and spreading were taken as the offering of Dharma; now the text clarifies that inward practice should conform, and this is the offering of Dharma.” The former expands the great Dharma; the latter makes one practice personally in accordance with what is taught. Daosheng further says that practice in accordance with the sūtra is the most profound aspect, and so it is explained separately. All three see the transition in the scriptural passage, while each retains his own wording.
For “cannot be attained merely through discriminative thought,” Kumārajīva retains two explanations: one in terms of the qualities of meditation and another in terms of true wisdom. Sengzhao approaches it through non-discrimination, while Daosheng says that one must accumulate merit before meeting the principle. For the four reliances, Sengzhao explains reliance on meaning rather than words with 「至義非言宣，尋言則失至。」 — “The ultimate meaning is not proclaimed by words; if one pursues the words, one loses the ultimate.” Daosheng emphasizes not chasing words, grasping their marks, and thereby obscuring the principle. Kumārajīva distinguishes at length between writing and meaning, consciousness and wisdom, nondefinitive and definitive meaning, and person and Dharma. To isolate any one of these as the sole answer would lose the many voices within this ancient commentary.
The same holds for the passage on dependent origination. Kumārajīva connects it with the Dharma as true reality under the four reliances. Sengzhao turns from non-arising to inexhaustibility and answers how ultimate extinction and having no mark of exhaustion can be spoken together with 「滅無所滅即是無盡義也。」 — “When extinction has nothing to extinguish, this is precisely the meaning of inexhaustibility.” Daosheng proceeds from “if birth does not exist, who then has extinction?” to explain no entry and no return. Regarding Moon Canopy’s attainment, Kumārajīva speaks of pliant wisdom and pliant trust, while Sengzhao speaks of a mind made gentle and wisdom made conforming, capable of receiving the true mark but not yet reaching non-arising. Only by retaining both explanations does this mirror transmit the three masters in their original form.
The Ci’en Mirror: What the Sūtra Can Do, Reliance on Teaching and Practice, and the Inexhaustibility of Dependent Origination
Opening the chapter according to Xuanzang’s recension, Kuiji first places it within the circulation section of praise and entrustment, then divides it into Śakra’s praise, the World-Honored One’s confirmation and restatement, and the account of the past that urges cultivation. He explains the chapter title by saying that material things sustain the body while Dharma nurtures the path. In comparing material offerings, he distinguishes offerings made while the Buddha is present from stūpa offerings made after the Buddha’s extinction. In explaining the superior merit of the offering of Dharma, he proceeds from the cause of unsurpassed awakening and the qualities of buddhahood. These are Ci’en classificatory terms and do not replace the question-and-answer spine of Kumārajīva’s chapter.
At Medicine-King Tathāgata’s teaching, Kuiji distinguishes the sūtra’s essential meaning from what it can do and presents the emptiness-principle and the principle that accords with reason as two parallel paths, deciding neither to the exclusion of the other. He then says: 「初明依教，多分地前行法供養；後明依行，多分十地行法供養。」 — “The first section clarifies reliance on the teaching and for the most part concerns the offering of Dharma practiced before the grounds; the later section clarifies reliance on practice and for the most part concerns the offering of Dharma practiced on the ten grounds.” Under reliance on teaching he lists hearing, trusting and understanding, receiving and retaining, reading, reciting, reflecting, teaching others, and protecting the true Dharma through skillful means. Under reliance on practice he lists contemplation of dependent origination, acceptance of non-arising, no-self and no sentient being, neither contradicting nor disputing causes and conditions, leaving self and what belongs to self behind, the four reliances, and abandoning views. This mirror organizes the chapter’s long lists into levels of practice, but those levels remain the commentator’s classification.
For the four reliances, Kuiji separately explains that meaning can be relied upon, wisdom can determine, definitive meaning is clearly manifest, and Dharma can serve as a standard. When he reaches a sentence found only in Xuanzang’s recension, he writes: 「悟入真如無所攝藏，滅阿賴耶。」 — “Realize and enter suchness, in which nothing is stored or contained, and extinguish the ālaya.” Kumārajīva’s recension does not contain this sentence in this chapter. It is therefore marked here only as a Yogācāra reading within the Chinese recension on which the Ci’en commentary relies and is not inserted into the main scriptural exposition above.
Regarding the acceptance that accords with Dharma attained by Moon Canopy, Kuiji first associates it with the stage of decisive acceptance before the grounds, then uses the five acceptances to associate it with the acceptance of conformity, and finally says that either of the two explanations may be adopted. This edition likewise retains both. At the end of the chapter, Xuanzang’s recension has five expressions of supremacy, and Kuiji proposes two sets of correlations through the five-aggregate dharma-body and the four wisdoms. From the stage of acceptance to the five superlatives, the Ci’en mirror itself contains multiple readings. Recording them side by side is more faithful to the original commentary than choosing one on its behalf.
Both mirrors see that the offering of Dharma does not stop at material things or at oral recitation. The Kumārajīva line unfolds it through following, spreading, and inward practice; the Ci’en line unfolds it through reliance on teaching, reliance on practice, and the inexhaustibility of dependent origination. The former preserves the multiple voices of the three ancient commentators on Kumārajīva’s recension, while the latter preserves the levels of the Ci’en commentary on Xuanzang’s recension. The sūtra remains centered between the two mirrors: Moon Canopy asks about the Dharma, hears the Dharma, practices the Dharma, and protects the Dharma, until the Buddha identifies him as His own former self and allows the offering of Dharma to become a track of the Buddha-way that can be carried forward.
考據Apparatus
全品定位 本品位於卷下，承第十二〈見阿閦佛品〉而入全經十四品的流通末段。釋提桓因先歎本經，發願護持經處與行者；佛以廣大財供校量聞持修行之福，復說藥王如來、寶蓋王與月蓋王子的往事，正答何謂法供養與最上法供養。月蓋由聞法、發願、出家而護持法輪，佛最後指明月蓋即自己前身，勸天帝以法供養供養於佛。下一品〈囑累品第十四〉承接付囑流通。
一、科判定位
| 節點 | 定位 |
|---|---|
| 卷品 | 卷下 · 第十三〈法供養品〉 |
| 品題 | T14n0475 0556a01 |
| 品身 | 0556a01–0557a05 |
| 釋提桓因歎經、發護法願 | 0556a02–0556a13 |
| 佛印可並設財供校量 | 0556a13–0556a24 |
| 釋提桓因答福多 | 0556a25 |
| 佛判法供福勝並說所以 | 0556a26–0556b01 |
| 藥王如來與寶蓋王往事發端 | 0556b02–0556b08 |
| 寶蓋父子財供、月蓋求勝供 | 0556b08–0556b17 |
| 月蓋問、藥王如來說法供養 | 0556b17–0556c14 |
| 月蓋得忍、護法、弘通與古今身份 | 0556c15–0557a05 |
| 下一品題 | 第十四〈囑累品〉，0557a06 |
全品八段散文，無偈頌。依問答與敘事可讀作五大段：一、天帝歎經並願護法；二、佛以廣大財供校量法供；三、佛敘藥王如來與寶蓋父子的往事；四、月蓋問而藥王如來說深經、法供養與最上法供養；五、月蓋受持弘通，佛以古今身份結勸。品末不是另起一段泛論，而是以月蓋的實行回證本品所說法供養。
二、異譯對勘
三譯各守本名與定數：支謙本作天帝釋、文殊師利、善宿、俾沙闍羅耶如來；羅什本作釋提桓因、文殊師利、月蓋、藥王如來；玄奘本作天帝釋、妙吉祥、月蓋、藥王如來。下列逐字並欄只傳各本形態，不以較長譯本補較短譯本。
一、開篇所聞與法門名
| 譯本 | 逐字實文 | 出處 |
|---|---|---|
| 支謙 T474 | 「多福哉！世尊！得近如來、文殊師利者，雖百千聞，未有若此純法化者也。」 | T14n0474 0535b12 |
| 羅什 T475 | 「世尊！我雖從佛及文殊師利聞百千經，未曾聞此不可思議、自在神通、決定實相經典。」 | T14n0475 0556a02 |
| 玄奘 T476 | 「世尊！我雖從佛及妙吉祥聞多百千法門差別，而未曾聞如是所說不可思議自在神變解脫法門。」 | T14n0476 0585c13 |
支謙作『純法化』，羅什列『不可思議、自在神通、決定實相』，玄奘作『不可思議自在神變解脫法門』。三本所列不可拼接成同一經題或共同定義。
二、聞持修習與護法願
| 譯本 | 聞持修習 | 經處與行者 |
|---|---|---|
| 支謙 T474 | 「以宿曾聞是法不疑故，使其人得此法乘，能受持誦，況我面值應心與合。」（0535b14） | 「其未樂之天人，吾當起其樂，必以喜樂而營護法。」（0535b20） |
| 羅什 T475 | 「若有眾生聞是經法，信解、受持、讀誦之者，必得是法不疑，何況如說修行？」（0556a05） | 「其未信者，當令生信，其已信者，當為作護。」（0556a12） |
| 玄奘 T476 | 「若諸有情聽聞如是所說法門，信解、受持、讀誦、通利、廣為他說，尚為法器決定無疑，何況精勤如理修習？」（0585c16） | 「諸未信者當令其信，諸已信者如法護持令無障難。」（0585c27） |
玄奘本在此明列通利與為他說，羅什本此段只列聞、信解、受持、讀誦與如說修行；羅什本稍後在法供養定義中另說為眾生分別解說。次第與項數各守其本。
三、財供與法供校量
羅什本以三千大千世界如來滿中，如甘蔗、竹𥯤、稻麻、叢林為喻，又說一劫或減一劫供養諸佛，滅後以全身舍利起七寶塔，復以華香、瓔珞、幢幡、伎樂供養。支謙本相應處作一劫若百劫，並說穿地藏骨；玄奘本作一劫或一劫餘，詳列花鬘、燒香、塗香、末香、衣服、幡蓋、寶幢、燈輪、眾珍、伎樂及種種供具。三本共同以極廣財供設問，但時量與供具不可互補。
佛說法供福勝的所以，三本各有明文：
| 譯本 | 逐字實文 | 出處 |
|---|---|---|
| 支謙 T474 | 「法生佛道，法出諸佛，其能供養此正法者，非思欲施輩，當以知此。」 | T14n0474 0535c06 |
| 羅什 T475 | 「諸佛菩提皆從是生；菩提之相不可限量，以是因緣福不可量。」 | T14n0475 0556a29 |
| 玄奘 T476 | 「諸佛無上正等菩提從此生故，唯法供養乃能供養如是法門，非以財物。」 | T14n0476 0586a25 |
四、王子求問法供養
| 譯本 | 王子與空中天 | 出處 |
|---|---|---|
| 支謙 T474 | 「第一太子名曰善宿，獨坐自念：『寧有供養殊過此者？』空中有天承佛聖旨，應曰：『正士！法之供養，勝諸供養。』」 | T14n0474 0535c20 |
| 羅什 T475 | 「其王一子，名曰月蓋，獨坐思惟：『寧有供養殊過此者？』以佛神力，空中有天曰：『善男子！法之供養勝諸供養。』」 | T14n0475 0556b12 |
| 玄奘 T476 | 「時一王子名為月蓋，獨處閑寂作是思惟：『我等於今如是慇重恭敬供養藥王如來，頗有其餘恭敬供養最上、最勝、過於此不？』」 | T14n0476 0586b16 |
支謙本王子名善宿，後二本名月蓋。三本都由王子求問轉入法供養，但不得把善宿無標改作月蓋。
五、所供深經與法供養行
| 譯本 | 深經開端 | 法供養行 |
|---|---|---|
| 支謙 T474 | 「法供養者，如佛所說，眾經奧藏，深邃之言，諸世所歸，非為難受，難見之輩，以無憍慢，微妙無像，其義夷易。」（0535c26） | 「安習如是像眾經微言，分別惟觀而以受法，是為法之供養。」（0536a08） |
| 羅什 T475 | 「法供養者，諸佛所說深經，一切世間難信難受，微妙難見，清淨無染，非但分別思惟之所能得」（0556b19） | 「若聞如是等經，信解、受持、讀誦，以方便力為諸眾生分別解說，顯示分明，守護法故，是名法之供養。」（0556c03） |
| 玄奘 T476 | 「法供養者，謂於諸佛所說經典——微妙甚深似甚深相，一切世間極難信受、難度、難見，幽玄細密，無染了義，非分別知」（0586b27） | 「於是經典若樂聽聞、信解、受持、讀誦、通利，思惟觀察甚深義趣，令其顯著施設安立，分別開示明了現前，復廣為他宣揚辯說，方便善巧攝護正法，如是一切名法供養。」（0586c19） |
六、四依
| 譯本 | 逐字實文 | 出處 |
|---|---|---|
| 支謙 T474 | 「以捨我作而依於義，不以嚴好；以隨聖典而依於慧，不為文飾；處處入義而依於經，不習非義；以所懷戢而依於法，不用人所見。」 | T14n0474 0536a12 |
| 羅什 T475 | 「依於義不依語，依於智不依識，依了義經不依不了義經，依於法不依人；」 | T14n0475 0556c09 |
| 玄奘 T476 | 「依趣於義、不依於文，依趣於智、不依於識，依趣了義所說契經、終不依於不了義說世俗經典而生執著，依趣法性、終不依於補特伽羅見有所得。」 | T14n0476 0586c28 |
四依在三本均有相應段，然而語、文，人、補特伽羅，以及支謙本的嚴好、文飾等，皆是分本用語，不可互換。
七、緣起觀與本品未見
羅什本說：「隨順法相，無所入，無所歸；無明畢竟滅故，諸行亦畢竟滅，乃至生畢竟滅故，老死亦畢竟滅：作如是觀十二因緣，無有盡相，不復起見，是名最上法之供養。」（T14n0475 0556c11）支謙本逐支列不明、行、識、名色、六入、更樂、痛、愛、受、有、生、老死苦，復說十二因緣起不可盡。玄奘本說：「如其性相悟解諸法，入無藏攝滅阿賴耶，息除無明乃至老、死，息除愁歎、憂苦、熱惱，觀察如是十二緣起無盡引發、常所引發，願諸有情捨諸見趣。」（T14n0476 0587a02）
玄奘本明列『滅阿賴耶』，羅什、支謙二本本品未見；玄奘本另明列「廣為他說、書寫供養」（T14n0476 0586a05），羅什、支謙二本本品亦未見『書寫供養』連文。兩項只留玄奘本欄，不倒灌補入羅什本。
八、古今身份與結勸
| 項 | 支謙 T474 | 羅什 T475 | 玄奘 T476 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 寶蓋今身 | 寶成如來 | 寶炎如來 | 寶焰如來 |
| 王子 | 善宿，即佛自指 | 月蓋，即佛自指 | 月蓋，即佛自指 |
| 千佛首末 | 鳩留先／樓由 | 迦羅鳩孫駄／樓至 | 迦洛迦孫䭾／盧至 |
| 結語 | 上化、長化、願化、無上無比之化 | 為上為最，第一無比 | 最尊、最勝、最上、最妙、最為無上 |
三譯皆以往事接今身，卻保存不同佛名、王子名與結語列項。並錄差別，不以語勢較多者判為較勝。
三、經論宗依（眼）
本品之眼先在羅什本實文。它不以一句『法供養勝』停止，而把法供養依次落在聞持、解說、守護、如說修行、緣起觀、四依與弘通正法上。
一、供養三世佛，落在受持此經。 佛印可天帝後說：「若善男子、善女人受持、讀誦、供養是經者，即為供養去、來、今佛。」（T14n0475 0556a16）法供養的所向不是抽象名目；本品直接把供養三世佛與受持、讀誦、供養此經相接。
二、法供福勝，因菩提從法而生。 財供校量中的福德，天帝明答百千億劫說不能盡；佛並未抹去其福，而是說聞經、信解、受持、讀誦、修行的福更多，所據是：「諸佛菩提皆從是生；菩提之相不可限量，以是因緣福不可量。」（T14n0475 0556a29）
三、法供養由聞而護，由護而行。 藥王如來先說：「若聞如是等經，信解、受持、讀誦，以方便力為諸眾生分別解說，顯示分明，守護法故，是名法之供養。」（T14n0475 0556c03）隨後又說於諸法如說修行、隨順十二因緣、離邪見、得無生忍、具足四依。經文把法的流通與行者自身的如說修行接在同一回答中。
四、無我不壞因緣果報。 本品連說：「決定無我無有眾生，而於因緣果報無違無諍，離諸我所；」（T14n0475 0556c07）無我、無眾生與因緣果報並列；經文沒有用前者取消後者，也沒有為守因果而重立我與我所。
五、緣起畢竟滅，而無有盡相。 本品由無明、諸行一路略說至生、老死畢竟滅，又說觀十二因緣無有盡相、不復起見。『畢竟滅』與『無有盡相』同在一段，故不得只抽取一端改成本品唯一的緣起判語。
六、所聞須成守護與弘通。 月蓋聞法後得柔順忍，發願於如來滅後行法供養、守護正法；其後出家、修善、得神通總持辯才，滿十小劫分布藥王如來所轉法輪。品末佛自指月蓋即我身，將前說法供養落成一段已行之事。
本品實文已足以立此六眼。古德對經體、經用、四依、緣起與得忍位次的分判，留在諸家異釋，不倒成本經自說。
四、本品釋要
本品第一段由釋提桓因發起。他說自己雖從佛與文殊師利聞百千經，卻未曾聞此不可思議、自在神通、決定實相經典；眾生若聞、信解、受持、讀誦，便必得此法不疑，更何況如說修行。所得依經序有八：閉眾惡趣、開諸善門、常為諸佛護念、降伏外學、摧滅魔怨、修治菩提、安處道場、履踐如來所行之跡。天帝所發護法願又有四：供養給事受持修行者、與眷屬共到有經之處聽法、令未信者生信、為已信者作護。
佛先印可天帝，再立一個極大的財供校量：三千大千世界充滿如來，如甘蔗、竹𥯤、稻麻、叢林；善男子、善女人於一劫或減一劫恭敬、尊重、讚歎、供養，奉給一切安樂所需；諸佛滅後，又以每一尊佛的全身舍利起七寶塔，塔的縱廣如一四天下，高至梵天，表剎莊嚴，再以華、香、瓔珞、幢、幡與伎樂供養一劫或減一劫。天帝答說，這份福德以百千億劫也說不能盡。佛隨後才說聞持修行此經之福更多，所據不是貶低前供，而是菩提從法而生、菩提之相不可限量。
佛接著說往昔藥王如來。經文具列如來、應供、正遍知、明行足、善逝、世間解、無上士、調御丈夫、天人師、佛、世尊；世界名大莊嚴，劫名莊嚴，佛壽二十小劫；聲聞僧三十六億那由他，菩薩僧十二億。轉輪聖王寶蓋具足七寶、主四天下，有千名端正勇健、能伏怨敵的王子。寶蓋與眷屬供養藥王如來五劫，又令千子各以深心供養五劫。
月蓋獨自思惟，是否還有勝過這樣的供養。空中天告訴他法供養勝諸供養，並令他親往問藥王如來。月蓋稽首佛足、退住一面而問，藥王如來先說法供養所供的深經。依經次第，深經有二十九項：諸佛所說；世間難信難受；微妙難見；清淨無染；非但分別思惟所能得；菩薩法藏所攝；陀羅尼印所印；至不退轉；成就六度；善分別義；順菩提法；居眾經之上；入大慈悲；離魔事與邪見；順因緣法；說無我、無人、無眾生、無壽命；說空、無相、無作、無起；令眾生坐道場而轉法輪；為諸天、龍神、乾闥婆所歎；令眾生入佛法藏；攝賢聖一切智慧；說菩薩所行之道；依諸法實相之義；明宣無常、苦、空、無我、寂滅；救毀禁眾生；使魔、外道與貪著者怖畏；為諸佛賢聖稱歎；背生死苦而示涅槃樂；為十方三世諸佛所說。
對這樣的經，法供養有七項明行：聞；信解；受持；讀誦；以方便力為眾生分別解說；顯示分明；守護其法。藥王如來隨即再說最上法供養：於諸法如說修行；隨順十二因緣；離邪見；得無生忍；決定無我、無眾生；於因緣果報無違無諍；離我所；依義不依語；依智不依識；依了義經不依不了義經；依法不依人；隨順法相；無所入、無所歸；觀無明與諸行畢竟滅，乃至生與老死畢竟滅；觀十二因緣無有盡相；不復起見。經文以『最上法之供養』結此回答，不把中間省略的緣起支分由後人補齊。
月蓋聞法後得柔順忍，解下嚴身寶衣供養佛，又願在佛滅後行法供養、守護正法，求佛加威，使他能降魔怨、修菩薩行。藥王如來授記他末後守護法城。月蓋見法清淨，聞記而以信出家、修集善法；精進不久，得五神通、逮菩薩道、得陀羅尼、得無斷辯才。佛滅後，他以神通、總持、辯才之力，十小劫隨而分布法輪；又令百萬億人於無上菩提立不退轉，使十四那由他人深發聲聞、辟支佛心，無量眾生得生天上。
佛最後說，寶蓋王今為寶炎如來，千子即賢劫千佛，從迦羅鳩孫駄佛至樓至佛；月蓋比丘就是佛自己。故結勸天帝：法供養於諸供養中為上、為最、第一無比，應以法供養供養於佛。全品由天帝願護法起，經財供校量、月蓋發問、藥王開示，落在月蓋親自行持與弘通；『供養』也同時有聞法、護法、行法與傳法的經文實據。
五、諸家異釋（雙鏡並錄）
本目嚴守兩個隨本：T1775 所載什、肇、生三家依羅什 T475；T1782 窺基依玄奘 T476。前一鏡使用釋提桓因、文殊師利、月蓋的羅什本詞系；後一鏡使用天帝釋、妙吉祥、月蓋的玄奘本詞系。各家所釋只還其本，不合成一條共同經文。
一、什、肇、生三家：由法供養至最上法供養
財供與法供。 羅什說：「若財供養，則於佛無用、於眾生無益，故非所欣也。如來積劫本為眾生，若奉順經典、如說修行，則稱悅聖心，乃真供養也。」（T38n1775 0415a07）道生用最短一句定其行義：「生曰：法供養者，行法即為供養也。」（T38n1775 0415a11）僧肇則把往事看作成法供養義的事證：「肇曰：上以財供養，受持即法供養也。如來將成法供養義，故引成事以為證焉。」（T38n1775 0414c24）三家著眼不同，並列而不裁成一義。
深經與分別。 羅什對『非但分別思惟所能得』保留兩說：「什曰：要須禪定等諸功德，非但智慧分別之所能得也。亦云要用實智慧然後能了，非分別取相所能解也。」（T38n1775 0415b06）僧肇說：「肇曰：第一義經微遠無相，自非明哲，孰能分別？業之差別雖由分別，然非分別之所能得，得之者其唯無分別乎？故曰非但分別也。」（T38n1775 0415b09）道生只說：「生曰：要積功德然後會矣。」（T38n1775 0415b12）本編不把禪定、實智慧、無分別與積功德壓作一條排他的訓解。
陀羅尼印。 羅什把實相說為總持之一，又說以實相印封此經；僧肇由法藏所攝、總持所印說法寶深固；道生則釋陀羅尼為持，並用關津驗印作譬。道生原文說：「譬若生印為信，關津諸禁莫能呵留。果是印持，所印之經則無有閡。」（T38n1775 0415b26）三說共同圍繞本經『陀羅尼印印之』，但譬喻與所重各異。
順因緣而不墮有無。 羅什說法若定有或全無，都與生滅因緣相違，故深經所說非有非無而順因緣；僧肇從緣生無自性、無主，展至無我、人、壽命及空、無相、無作、無起；道生只說『此則因緣法』。到如說修行段，道生又說順因緣理便離有無邪見；僧肇則把明見十二因緣根源、離邪見、得無生忍、無復我與眾生想接成一讀。兩位並不使用同一組句法。
四依。 僧肇以「至義非言宣，尋言則失至。」（T38n1775 0416c24）說依義不依語；道生說不再逐語取相而昧理；羅什長釋文字語言與義法、識所知與智所知、了義與不了義，最後說依法不依人。僧肇對依法不依人另說：「法雖由人弘，而人不必盡應於法。法有定楷、人無常則，所以行者依法不依人也。」（T38n1775 0417a26）各說均照注者分家。
畢竟滅與無盡相。 羅什把此段繫於四依與十二因緣如實相。僧肇先說無明為十二之根本，又問既說畢竟滅，何以說無盡；其答為：「夫滅生於不滅，畢竟常滅則無不滅，無不滅則滅無所滅，滅無所滅即是無盡義也。」（T38n1775 0417b18）道生則從『生若不有，其誰有滅』說無入無歸。三說只傳其異，不以一說抹去另說。
柔順忍與弘法。 羅什說柔順忍是於實相法未能深入而軟智軟信隨順不違；僧肇說：「肇曰：心柔智順堪受實相，未及無生，名柔順忍。」（T38n1775 0417c02）到月蓋滅後分布法輪，僧肇以『分布法輪，即弘法養』收束；羅什則分神通、聞持、辯才三力說明何以能宣布遺法。這一鏡內部本有多聲，不以『僧肇注』一名籠統歸屬。
二、窺基：依玄奘本分經體、經用、依教與依行
全品位置。 窺基把後二品判作讚授流通，並把本品分為天帝讚揚、世尊印述、往事勸修三段。他對財供與法供的總語是：財為資身之具，法為長道之具；這是疏家科判，不倒作羅什本自說。
財供校量。 依玄奘本，窺基詳分現前供養與滅後供塔，又列飲食、臥具、湯藥、房舍，以及華鬘、燒香、塗香、末香、衣服、幡、蓋、寶幢、燈輪、眾珍、伎樂、種種供具。他以法供能顯法身、能生報佛解釋福勝；此『法身、報身』之判只在慈恩鏡內傳錄。
經體與經用。 窺基分真實甚深與相似甚深，又並列空理義、應理義兩軌；對經用則判三十句。他說玄奘本『佛印所印』以無相真如為佛印，並指出舊經作『陀羅尼印』。兩個漢本的詞只在明標對讀時相見，不相互覆寫。
依教與依行。 窺基說：「初明依教，多分地前行法供養；後明依行，多分十地行法供養。」（T38n1782 1110b23）在依教一段，他列聽聞、信解、受持、讀、誦、思惟、為他說與攝護正法；在依行一段，他列隨觀緣起、修無生忍、無我無有情、因緣無違諍、離我我所、四依與緣起無盡。『地前』『十地』是此疏的分判，不移入本經白話。
四依與阿賴耶。 窺基以義理、智、了義、法性分釋玄奘本四依，又在其所依本的下一節說依他起相、圓成實性與「悟入真如無所攝藏，滅阿賴耶。」（T38n1782 1111c05）羅什本本品未見『滅阿賴耶』，故此義只標在玄奘本慈恩鏡內。
順法忍二解。 窺基依玄奘本『得順法忍』，先說地前決擇忍位，又依五忍配位說順忍初登四地，明記『二解任取』。本編照錄二解，不替疏家擇一。
結勸。 窺基對玄奘本五個最勝語，提出五蘊法身與四智配釋，又引般若與金剛經文說法供勝財供。多組配釋都留在疏家承衍，不改寫羅什本『為上為最，第一無比』的三句結語。
兩鏡都從本品看見財供與法供、受持與修行、緣起與護法的次第；什門保留三家各別聲音，慈恩保留玄奘本的科判與唯識分析。彼此同處一品，仍各守所依漢本，並錄不判。
六、術語與譬喻
一、本品自有術語
法供養。 本品明列兩個可見層面：聞經、信解、受持、讀誦、為眾生分別解說、顯示分明、守護法；又於諸法如說修行，隨順緣起、具足四依、離見。前者與後者都在藥王如來同一回答中，不可只取誦經或只取內觀作完整定義。
深經。 本品用二十九項說深經的所從、難信難見、清淨無染、所攝所印、所成所順、所說之理、所能成辦與諸佛共說。『深』不是只憑篇幅或玄語判定，而由本品列項呈現。
陀羅尼印。 羅什本作『陀羅尼印印之』；羅什注以實相為印，僧肇由總持所印說其真，道生釋陀羅尼為持並用驗印為譬。玄奘本作『佛印所印』，只在異譯與慈恩欄並錄。
四依。 羅什本的四對是義／語、智／識、了義經／不了義經、法／人。四對各有正依與不依，不宜壓成一句泛稱『不要執著文字』。
柔順忍。 本品只記月蓋得柔順忍。什、肇各有釋，窺基依玄奘本又列順法忍二解；位次判釋只屬諸家異釋，不冒充經文明定。
法城。 藥王如來授記月蓋『末後守護法城』。經文以城表所護之法；窺基又明說正法如城、行者如居城之人。後一層是古德釋喻，非另造物理場景。
二、三譯名號與定數
| 義點 | 支謙 T474 | 羅什 T475 | 玄奘 T476 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 天帝 | 天帝釋 | 釋提桓因／天帝 | 天帝釋 |
| 文殊 | 文殊師利 | 文殊師利 | 妙吉祥 |
| 王子 | 善宿 | 月蓋 | 月蓋 |
| 藥王佛名 | 俾沙闍羅耶如來，後稱藥王如來 | 藥王如來 | 藥王如來 |
| 世界 | 太清 | 大莊嚴 | 大嚴 |
| 劫 | 淨除 | 莊嚴 | 嚴淨 |
| 佛壽 | 三十劫 | 二十小劫 | 二十中劫 |
| 寶蓋今身 | 寶成如來 | 寶炎如來 | 寶焰如來 |
| 千佛之始 | 鳩留先 | 迦羅鳩孫駄 | 迦洛迦孫䭾 |
| 千佛之末 | 樓由 | 樓至 | 盧至 |
三、本品自有意象與譬喻
甘蔗、竹𥯤、稻麻、叢林。 佛以密集而廣多的植物，譬三千大千世界中充滿如來；此喻只為開展財供校量的數量，不用來判法供養本體。
七寶塔高至梵天。 塔縱廣一四天下、高至梵天、表剎莊嚴，連同華香、瓔珞、幢幡與伎樂，構成財供廣大的經中畫面。經文隨即承認其福不可盡，方再校量法供。
解寶衣嚴身之具。 月蓋得柔順忍後，先解下嚴身寶衣供佛，隨即發願在佛滅後行法供養、守護正法。財施與法願在同一人身上前後相接，不宜寫成彼此排斥。
守護法城。 這是本品護法主題的收束意象。月蓋其後出家、修善、得總持辯才，十小劫隨而分布法輪，使『守城』在經文中以護持與弘通來落實。
七、徵引承衍
本品在什門三家中形成一條由經、行、護法相接的承衍。羅什把『深經』繫於實相，又以奉順經典、如說修行說真供養；僧肇從法養法身分別財養與法養，再把信解、護持、宣示、弘布與內行應順分列；道生用『行法即為供養』收其要。三家同注一個羅什本，卻各有句法與重心，故承衍本身就是多聲而非單線。
四依在三家注中又向後展開。羅什把四依說為佛滅後可依止之法；僧肇分別至義與言、正智與識、了義與應時密語、定法與無常之人；道生著眼於不逐語取相、智達理與有法即從。後來讀者若只留下『依法不依人』一對，便會失去本品四對並列的完整形態。
慈恩一鏡依玄奘本建立另一條承衍：先把全品置於讚授流通，再分經體、經用、依教法供養、依行法供養；對緣起則並說息十二支、息緣起果、觀緣起無盡常引與悲願不捨有情。其間所用依他、圓成、阿賴耶、五蘊法身與四智，都只作慈恩鏡內的古德讀法，不倒成羅什本直說。
月蓋的故事把兩路承衍都拉回護法行。什門由神通、總持、辯才說宣布遺法，慈恩由攝受正法、無難、降魔、護法、修行說其願。經文自身則給出共同的敘事骨架：聞法、得忍、發願、受記、出家、修善、弘通十小劫。兩鏡各照其義，仍以本品實事居中。
八、校本定位
一、底本與疏本座標
- 羅什本 T14n0475：品題 0556a01，品身至 0557a05；下一品題 0557a06。
- 支謙本 T14n0474：品題 0535b11，下一品題 0536b10。
- 玄奘本 T14n0476：品題 0585c12，下一品題 0587b07。
- 什、肇、生注 T38n1775：本品 0413c24 起，下一品題 0418a12；具名注釋一百三十六單元，其中什曰三十二、肇曰五十二、生曰五十一、生云一。
- 窺基疏 T38n1782：本品 1108c07 起，下一品題 1112b26；品首總釋一段、贊曰六十一段。
二、本品二十二條校勘記
見證代碼：【大】大正本，【CB】CBETA 定讀，【宋】宋本，【元】元本，【明】明本，【聖】聖語藏本，【磧乙-CB】磧砂乙本之 CBETA 校訂。全書二百五十一條校記中，本品索引為二一四至二三五，共二十二條；只傳定讀、異讀與見證，不在本層裁定。
| 索引 | 出處 | 定讀及見證 | 異讀及見證 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 214 | 0556a01 | 所說【大】 | 闕【宋】【聖】 |
| 215 | 0556a05 | 是【大】 | 此【宋】【元】【明】 |
| 216 | 0556a08 | 菩提【大】 | 佛道【聖】 |
| 217 | 0556a20 | 或【大】 | 或以【宋】【元】【明】 |
| 218 | 0556a21 | 全【大】 | 令【聖】 |
| 219 | 0556a24 | 於天帝【大】 | 天帝於【元】【明】 |
| 220 | 0556a25 | 多矣【大】 | 多【元】；甚多【明】 |
| 221 | 0556a29 | 是【大】 | 此【宋】【元】【明】 |
| 222 | 0556b04 | 名【大】 | 曰【宋】【聖】 |
| 223 | 0556b16 | 之【大】 | 闕【聖】 |
| 224 | 0556b19 | 為法【大】 | 名為法之【宋】【元】【明】 |
| 225 | 0556b20 | 諸佛【大】 | 謂諸佛【聖】 |
| 226 | 0556b21 | 非但【大】 | 但非【聖】 |
| 227 | 0556b25 | 無人【大】 | 闕【聖】 |
| 228 | 0556c01 | 之法【大】 | 闕【宋】【元】【明】【聖】 |
| 229 | 0556c08 | 諍【大】 | 爭【聖】 |
| 230 | 0556c18 | 降【大】 | 降伏【宋】【元】【明】 |
| 231 | 0556c20 | 守護【大】 | 護持【聖】 |
| 232 | 0556c21 | 集【大】 | 習【宋】【元】【明】 |
| 233 | 0556c22 | 逮【大】 | 具【元】【明】；通【聖】 |
| 234 | 0556c25 | 輪【大】 | 轉【聖】 |
| 235 | 0557a01 | 孫駄【大】 | 村大【聖】 |
本品二十二條校記分布於品題、聞持利益、財供校量、深經定義、緣起行、護法願、弘通與千佛名號。校記只顯示所傳字形與見證，不由其多寡推定義理。三譯、兩鏡與校本各保存一種古代傳承形態；法供養之義要如實傳下，須先守各本之字，再守各家之聲，最後仍回到本品所明聞、持、說、行、護法與弘通。
Chapter location. This chapter stands in the Lower Scroll. Following Chapter 12, “Seeing Akṣobhya Buddha,” it enters the circulation section at the end of the sūtra’s fourteen chapters. Śakra first praises this sūtra and vows to protect both the places where it is found and the people who practice it. The Buddha uses vast material offerings to compare the merit of hearing, retaining, and practicing the sūtra, then tells the former-life account of Medicine-King Tathāgata, King Jeweled Canopy, and Prince Moon Canopy, directly answering what the offering of Dharma and the supreme offering of Dharma mean. Moon Canopy proceeds from hearing the Dharma, making a vow, and leaving home to protecting the Dharma-wheel. The Buddha finally identifies Moon Canopy as His own former self and urges the Lord of the Gods to make offerings to the Buddha through the offering of Dharma. The next chapter, Chapter 14, “Entrustment,” continues the circulation section through the act of entrustment.
1. Structural Location
| Node | Location |
|---|---|
| Scroll and chapter | Lower Scroll · Chapter 13, “The Offering of Dharma” |
| Chapter title | T14n0475 0556a01 |
| Chapter body | 0556a01–0557a05 |
| Śakra praises the sūtra and vows to protect the Dharma | 0556a02–0556a13 |
| The Buddha confirms his words and establishes the material-offering comparison | 0556a13–0556a24 |
| Śakra answers that the merit is great | 0556a25 |
| The Buddha declares the merit of the offering of Dharma superior and explains why | 0556a26–0556b01 |
| The account of Medicine-King Tathāgata and King Jeweled Canopy begins | 0556b02–0556b08 |
| Jeweled Canopy and his sons make material offerings; Moon Canopy seeks a superior offering | 0556b08–0556b17 |
| Moon Canopy asks, and Medicine-King Tathāgata teaches the offering of Dharma | 0556b17–0556c14 |
| Moon Canopy attains acceptance, protects and spreads the Dharma, and the former and present identities are disclosed | 0556c15–0557a05 |
| Title of the next chapter | Chapter 14, “Entrustment,” 0557a06 |
The entire chapter consists of eight prose passages and contains no verses. According to its questions, answers, and narrative, it can be read in five major movements: first, the Lord of the Gods praises the sūtra and vows to protect the Dharma; second, the Buddha uses vast material offerings to compare the offering of Dharma; third, the Buddha recounts the past involving Medicine-King Tathāgata, King Jeweled Canopy, and his sons; fourth, Moon Canopy asks his question and Medicine-King Tathāgata teaches the profound sūtra, the offering of Dharma, and the supreme offering of Dharma; fifth, Moon Canopy receives, retains, and circulates the teaching, and the Buddha concludes by identifying the people of the past. The chapter’s end is not a new passage of general discussion. Moon Canopy’s practice confirms through an accomplished deed the offering of Dharma taught in the chapter.
2. Comparison of Alternative Translations
Each of the three translations retains its own names and fixed numbers. The Zhi Qian recension has Lord Śakra, Mañjuśrī, Excellent Rest, and Bhaiṣajyarāja Tathāgata; the Kumārajīva recension has Śakra, Mañjuśrī, Moon Canopy, and Medicine-King Tathāgata; the Xuanzang recension has Lord Śakra, Wondrous Auspiciousness, Moon Canopy, and Medicine-King Tathāgata. The verbatim columns below transmit the form of each recension without using a longer translation to supplement a shorter one.
1. What Was Heard at the Opening and the Name of the Dharma-Gate
| Translation | Verbatim Text | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Zhi Qian T474 | 「多福哉！世尊！得近如來、文殊師利者，雖百千聞，未有若此純法化者也。」 — “Great indeed is the blessing, World-Honored One! Though those who have drawn near the Tathāgata and Mañjuśrī have heard hundreds of thousands of teachings, never has there been a pure transformation by Dharma like this.” | T14n0474 0535b12 |
| Kumārajīva T475 | 「世尊！我雖從佛及文殊師利聞百千經，未曾聞此不可思議、自在神通、決定實相經典。」 — “World-Honored One! Although I have heard hundreds of thousands of sūtras from the Buddha and Mañjuśrī, never before have I heard a scripture such as this, which teaches inconceivability, sovereign spiritual powers, and the definitive true mark.” | T14n0475 0556a02 |
| Xuanzang T476 | 「世尊！我雖從佛及妙吉祥聞多百千法門差別，而未曾聞如是所說不可思議自在神變解脫法門。」 — “World-Honored One! Although I have heard many hundreds of thousands of distinct Dharma-gates from the Buddha and Wondrous Auspiciousness, never before have I heard this Dharma-gate of inconceivable, sovereign spiritual transformation and liberation that has now been taught.” | T14n0476 0585c13 |
Zhi Qian has “pure transformation by Dharma”; Kumārajīva lists “inconceivability, sovereign spiritual powers, and the definitive true mark”; Xuanzang has “the Dharma-gate of inconceivable, sovereign spiritual transformation and liberation.” The expressions listed by the three recensions are not spliced into a single sūtra title or common definition.
2. Hearing, Retaining, Cultivating, and the Vow to Protect the Dharma
| Translation | Hearing, Retaining, and Cultivating | The Sūtra’s Location and Its Practitioners |
|---|---|---|
| Zhi Qian T474 | 「以宿曾聞是法不疑故，使其人得此法乘，能受持誦，況我面值應心與合。」 — “Because this person heard this Dharma in the past and does not doubt it, he attains this Dharma-vehicle and can receive, retain, and recite it; how much more when I encounter it face to face and respond with my mind in accord.” (0535b14) | 「其未樂之天人，吾當起其樂，必以喜樂而營護法。」 — “Those gods and humans who do not yet delight in it, I will cause to delight in it; with joy and delight I will surely undertake the protection of the Dharma.” (0535b20) |
| Kumārajīva T475 | 「若有眾生聞是經法，信解、受持、讀誦之者，必得是法不疑，何況如說修行？」 — “If sentient beings hear this sūtra-Dharma and trust and understand it, receive and retain it, and read and recite it, they will certainly attain this Dharma without doubt. How much more if they practice in accordance with what is taught?” (0556a05) | 「其未信者，當令生信，其已信者，當為作護。」 — “I will cause those who do not yet trust it to give rise to trust, and I will protect those who already trust it.” (0556a12) |
| Xuanzang T476 | 「若諸有情聽聞如是所說法門，信解、受持、讀誦、通利、廣為他說，尚為法器決定無疑，何況精勤如理修習？」 — “If sentient beings hear the Dharma-gate taught in this way, trust and understand it, receive and retain it, read and recite it, master it fluently, and teach it extensively to others, they will certainly and without doubt be vessels of Dharma. How much more if they cultivate diligently and in accord with principle?” (0585c16) | 「諸未信者當令其信，諸已信者如法護持令無障難。」 — “I will cause those who do not yet trust it to trust it, and I will protect and retain those who already trust it in accordance with Dharma so that they encounter no obstruction or difficulty.” (0585c27) |
Xuanzang explicitly lists fluent mastery and teaching others at this point. Kumārajīva here lists only hearing, trusting and understanding, receiving and retaining, reading and reciting, and practice in accordance with what is taught; later, within the definition of the offering of Dharma, the Kumārajīva recension separately speaks of explaining and distinguishing it for sentient beings. Each recension keeps its own sequence and number of items.
3. Comparing Material Offerings and the Offering of Dharma
The Kumārajīva recension imagines a three-thousand great-thousand world-system filled with Tathāgatas, as densely as sugarcane, bamboo, reeds, rice, hemp, and forests. It then speaks of making offerings to the buddhas for one kalpa or slightly less than one kalpa, building seven-jeweled stūpas for their full-body relics after their extinction, and again making offerings of flowers, incense, necklaces, standards, banners, and music. The corresponding passage in the Zhi Qian recension has one kalpa or a hundred kalpas and also speaks of piercing the earth to store the bones. The Xuanzang recension has one kalpa or more than one kalpa and lists in detail flower garlands, burning incense, paste incense, powdered incense, clothing, banners, canopies, jeweled standards, lamp-wheels, precious things, music, and various articles of offering. All three recensions pose their question through immensely vast material offerings, but their durations and articles of offering must not be used to complete one another.
Each recension expressly states why the merit of the offering of Dharma is superior:
| Translation | Verbatim Text | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Zhi Qian T474 | 「法生佛道，法出諸佛，其能供養此正法者，非思欲施輩，當以知此。」 — “Dharma gives birth to the Buddha-way, and from Dharma the buddhas emerge. Those able to make offerings to this true Dharma are not merely of the class that thinks of and desires giving. This should be understood.” | T14n0474 0535c06 |
| Kumārajīva T475 | 「諸佛菩提皆從是生；菩提之相不可限量，以是因緣福不可量。」 — “The awakening of all buddhas is born entirely from this Dharma. The mark of awakening cannot be measured; therefore, the merit produced by this cause and condition likewise cannot be measured.” | T14n0475 0556a29 |
| Xuanzang T476 | 「諸佛無上正等菩提從此生故，唯法供養乃能供養如是法門，非以財物。」 — “Because the unsurpassed perfect awakening of all buddhas arises from this, only the offering of Dharma can make offerings to such a Dharma-gate, not material things.” | T14n0476 0586a25 |
4. The Prince Asks about the Offering of Dharma
| Translation | The Prince and the God in the Sky | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Zhi Qian T474 | 「第一太子名曰善宿，獨坐自念：『寧有供養殊過此者？』空中有天承佛聖旨，應曰：『正士！法之供養，勝諸供養。』」 — “The foremost crown prince was named Excellent Rest. Sitting alone, he thought, ‘Is there an offering that surpasses this?’ A god in the sky, receiving the Buddha’s holy intent, answered, ‘Good sir! The offering of Dharma surpasses all offerings.’” | T14n0474 0535c20 |
| Kumārajīva T475 | 「其王一子，名曰月蓋，獨坐思惟：『寧有供養殊過此者？』以佛神力，空中有天曰：『善男子！法之供養勝諸供養。』」 — “One of that king’s sons was named Moon Canopy. Sitting alone, he reflected, ‘Is there an offering that surpasses this?’ Through the Buddha’s spiritual power, a god in the sky said, ‘Good man! The offering of Dharma surpasses all offerings.’” | T14n0475 0556b12 |
| Xuanzang T476 | 「時一王子名為月蓋，獨處閑寂作是思惟：『我等於今如是慇重恭敬供養藥王如來，頗有其餘恭敬供養最上、最勝、過於此不？』」 — “At that time a prince named Moon Canopy dwelt alone in a quiet place and reflected, ‘We now make such earnest and reverent offerings to Medicine-King Tathāgata. Is there some other reverent offering that is highest and supreme and surpasses this?’” | T14n0476 0586b16 |
The prince in the Zhi Qian recension is named Excellent Rest, while the two later recensions name him Moon Canopy. All three move from the prince’s question into the offering of Dharma, but Excellent Rest is not silently renamed Moon Canopy.
5. The Profound Sūtra Offered to and the Practice of the Offering of Dharma
| Translation | Opening Description of the Profound Sūtra | Practice of the Offering of Dharma |
|---|---|---|
| Zhi Qian T474 | 「法供養者，如佛所說，眾經奧藏，深邃之言，諸世所歸，非為難受，難見之輩，以無憍慢，微妙無像，其義夷易。」 — “As for the offering of Dharma: as the Buddha has taught, it concerns the hidden treasury of the many sūtras and their profound words, that to which all the worlds turn. It is not for those who are difficult to receive or difficult to see; without arrogance, it is subtle and without image, and its meaning is level and accessible.” (0535c26) | 「安習如是像眾經微言，分別惟觀而以受法，是為法之供養。」 — “Peacefully train in the subtle words of sūtras of this kind, distinguish and contemplate them, and thereby receive the Dharma. This is the offering of Dharma.” (0536a08) |
| Kumārajīva T475 | 「法供養者，諸佛所說深經，一切世間難信難受，微妙難見，清淨無染，非但分別思惟之所能得」 — “As for the offering of Dharma, it concerns the profound sūtras spoken by the buddhas, which all the worlds find difficult to trust and difficult to receive, subtle and difficult to see, pure and unstained, and which cannot be attained merely through discriminative thought.” (0556b19) | 「若聞如是等經，信解、受持、讀誦，以方便力為諸眾生分別解說，顯示分明，守護法故，是名法之供養。」 — “If someone hears sūtras of this kind, trusts and understands them, receives and retains them, reads and recites them, uses the power of skillful means to explain and distinguish them for sentient beings, makes them clearly manifest, and protects the Dharma, this is called the offering of Dharma.” (0556c03) |
| Xuanzang T476 | 「法供養者，謂於諸佛所說經典——微妙甚深似甚深相，一切世間極難信受、難度、難見，幽玄細密，無染了義，非分別知」 — “As for the offering of Dharma, it concerns scriptures spoken by the buddhas: subtle and exceedingly profound, bearing the appearance of profundity, extremely difficult for all the worlds to trust and receive, difficult to cross into and difficult to see, hidden, abstruse, and finely detailed, unstained and definitive in meaning, and not known through discrimination.” (0586b27) | 「於是經典若樂聽聞、信解、受持、讀誦、通利，思惟觀察甚深義趣，令其顯著施設安立，分別開示明了現前，復廣為他宣揚辯說，方便善巧攝護正法，如是一切名法供養。」 — “If one delights in hearing these scriptures, trusts and understands them, receives and retains them, reads and recites them, masters them fluently, reflects on and contemplates their profound purport, makes it conspicuous by establishing it, distinctly reveals it so that it is clearly present, extensively proclaims and explains it to others, and skillfully embraces and protects the true Dharma, all this is called the offering of Dharma.” (0586c19) |
6. The Four Reliances
| Translation | Verbatim Text | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Zhi Qian T474 | 「以捨我作而依於義，不以嚴好；以隨聖典而依於慧，不為文飾；處處入義而依於經，不習非義；以所懷戢而依於法，不用人所見。」 — “Abandoning the construction of self, rely on meaning and not on ornament; following the sacred canon, rely on wisdom and not literary embellishment; entering meaning everywhere, rely on the sūtra and do not train in what lacks meaning; gathering in what one holds, rely on Dharma and do not use what a person sees.” | T14n0474 0536a12 |
| Kumārajīva T475 | 「依於義不依語，依於智不依識，依了義經不依不了義經，依於法不依人；」 — “Rely on meaning, not on words; rely on wisdom, not on consciousness; rely on sūtras of definitive meaning, not on sūtras of nondefinitive meaning; rely on Dharma, not on a person.” | T14n0475 0556c09 |
| Xuanzang T476 | 「依趣於義、不依於文，依趣於智、不依於識，依趣了義所說契經、終不依於不了義說世俗經典而生執著，依趣法性、終不依於補特伽羅見有所得。」 — “Incline toward and rely on meaning, not on words; incline toward and rely on wisdom, not on consciousness; incline toward and rely on discourses taught with definitive meaning, and never cling to worldly scriptures taught with nondefinitive meaning; incline toward and rely on Dharma-nature, and never view a person as possessing something attained.” | T14n0476 0586c28 |
All three recensions have corresponding passages on the four reliances, but “words,” “writing,” “person,” and “pudgala,” as well as Zhi Qian’s “ornament” and “literary embellishment,” are recension-specific expressions and cannot be exchanged.
7. Contemplation of Dependent Origination and What Is Not Found in This Chapter
The Kumārajīva recension says: 「隨順法相，無所入，無所歸；無明畢竟滅故，諸行亦畢竟滅，乃至生畢竟滅故，老死亦畢竟滅：作如是觀十二因緣，無有盡相，不復起見，是名最上法之供養。」 — “Accord with the characteristics of dharmas, with no place of entry and no place of return. Because ignorance is ultimately extinguished, formations are likewise ultimately extinguished; through to this: because birth is ultimately extinguished, aging-and-death is likewise ultimately extinguished. Contemplate the twelve links of dependent origination in this way as having no mark of exhaustion, and no longer give rise to views. This is called the supreme offering of Dharma.” (T14n0475 0556c11) The Zhi Qian recension lists in order ignorance, formations, consciousness, name-and-form, the six entrances, contact, feeling, craving, grasping, existence, birth, and the suffering of aging-and-death, and then says that the arising of the twelve links of dependent origination cannot be exhausted. The Xuanzang recension says: 「如其性相悟解諸法，入無藏攝滅阿賴耶，息除無明乃至老、死，息除愁歎、憂苦、熱惱，觀察如是十二緣起無盡引發、常所引發，願諸有情捨諸見趣。」 — “Awaken to and understand dharmas according to their nature and characteristics; enter where nothing is stored or contained and extinguish the ālaya; eliminate ignorance through to aging and death; eliminate sorrow and lamentation, grief and suffering, and feverish affliction; contemplate how these twelve links of dependent origination are endlessly and continually brought forth, and vow that sentient beings will abandon the courses of views.” (T14n0476 0587a02)
The Xuanzang recension explicitly has “extinguish the ālaya,” which is not found in this chapter of the Kumārajīva or Zhi Qian recensions. The Xuanzang recension also explicitly lists 「廣為他說、書寫供養」 — “teach it extensively to others and make offerings through copying” (T14n0476 0586a05); the linked phrase “make offerings through copying” likewise is not found in this chapter of the Kumārajīva or Zhi Qian recensions. Both items remain only in the Xuanzang column and are not backfilled into Kumārajīva’s recension.
8. Former and Present Identities and the Concluding Exhortation
| Point | Zhi Qian T474 | Kumārajīva T475 | Xuanzang T476 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jeweled Canopy’s present identity | Jeweled Accomplishment Tathāgata | Jeweled Flame Tathāgata | Jeweled Blaze Tathāgata |
| Prince | Excellent Rest, identified by the Buddha as Himself | Moon Canopy, identified by the Buddha as Himself | Moon Canopy, identified by the Buddha as Himself |
| First and last of the thousand buddhas | Krakucchanda / the Zhi Qian name-form 樓由 | Krakucchanda / Ruci | Krakucchanda / Ruci |
| Conclusion | The highest transformation, the enduring transformation, the vowed transformation, the unsurpassed and incomparable transformation | Highest and supreme, first and incomparable | Most honored, most excellent, highest, most wondrous, and unsurpassed |
All three translations connect the past events with present identities, yet preserve different Buddha names, prince names, and lists in their concluding language. The differences are recorded side by side, without judging the recension with more emphatic expressions to be superior.
3. Canonical and Treatise Foundations (The Eye)
The eye of this chapter lies first in the actual words of Kumārajīva’s recension. It does not stop with the single statement “the offering of Dharma is superior,” but successively grounds the offering of Dharma in hearing and retaining, explaining, protecting, practicing in accordance with what is taught, contemplating dependent origination, the four reliances, and circulating the true Dharma.
1. Making offerings to the buddhas of the three times is grounded in retaining this sūtra. After confirming the Lord of the Gods, the Buddha says: 「若善男子、善女人受持、讀誦、供養是經者，即為供養去、來、今佛。」 — “If a good man or good woman receives and retains, reads and recites, and makes offerings to this sūtra, that person thereby makes offerings to the buddhas of the past, future, and present.” (T14n0475 0556a16) The object of the offering of Dharma is not an abstract category. This chapter directly joins making offerings to the buddhas of the three times with receiving and retaining, reading and reciting, and making offerings to this sūtra.
2. The merit of the offering of Dharma is superior because awakening arises from Dharma. Śakra expressly answers that even a hundred thousand koṭis of kalpas would not suffice to tell the merit involved in the comparison of material offerings. The Buddha does not erase that merit, but says that the merit of hearing, trusting and understanding, receiving and retaining, reading and reciting, and practicing this sūtra is greater, on the basis that: 「諸佛菩提皆從是生；菩提之相不可限量，以是因緣福不可量。」 — “The awakening of all buddhas is born entirely from this Dharma. The mark of awakening cannot be measured; therefore, the merit produced by this cause and condition likewise cannot be measured.” (T14n0475 0556a29)
3. The offering of Dharma proceeds from hearing to protection, and from protection to practice. Medicine-King Tathāgata first says: 「若聞如是等經，信解、受持、讀誦，以方便力為諸眾生分別解說，顯示分明，守護法故，是名法之供養。」 — “If someone hears sūtras of this kind, trusts and understands them, receives and retains them, reads and recites them, uses the power of skillful means to explain and distinguish them for sentient beings, makes them clearly manifest, and protects the Dharma, this is called the offering of Dharma.” (T14n0475 0556c03) He then speaks of practicing all dharmas in accordance with what is taught, according with the twelve links of dependent origination, leaving wrong views behind, attaining acceptance of non-arising, and completing the four reliances. The sūtra joins the circulation of Dharma and the practitioner’s own practice in accordance with what is taught within the same answer.
4. No-self does not destroy cause, condition, and karmic result. This chapter says in one sequence: 「決定無我無有眾生，而於因緣果報無違無諍，離諸我所；」 — “Decisively see that there is no self and no sentient being, yet neither contradict nor dispute cause, condition, and karmic result, and leave behind everything that belongs to self.” (T14n0475 0556c07) No-self and no sentient being are placed beside cause, condition, and karmic result. The sūtra does not use the former to cancel the latter, nor does it reestablish self and what belongs to self in order to preserve causality and karmic result.
5. Dependent origination is ultimately extinguished yet has no mark of exhaustion. This chapter proceeds from the ultimate extinction of ignorance and formations, passes over the intermediate links, and continues through the ultimate extinction of birth and aging-and-death. It then says to contemplate the twelve links of dependent origination as having no mark of exhaustion and no longer give rise to views. “Ultimate extinction” and “having no mark of exhaustion” occur in the same passage; neither one may be extracted and turned into the chapter’s sole judgment on dependent origination.
6. What is heard must become protection and circulation. After hearing the Dharma, Moon Canopy attains pliant acceptance and vows that after the Tathāgata’s extinction he will practice the offering of Dharma and protect the true Dharma. He later leaves home, cultivates wholesome dharmas, attains superknowledges, retention, and eloquence, and for ten small kalpas spreads onward the Dharma-wheel turned by Medicine-King Tathāgata. At the chapter’s end, the Buddha identifies Moon Canopy as His own former self, bringing the preceding teaching of the offering of Dharma to completion in a deed that was actually performed.
The actual text of this chapter is sufficient to establish these six eyes. The ancient masters’ classifications of the sūtra’s essence and function, the four reliances, dependent origination, and the stage of acceptance remain in the section on divergent interpretations and are not made into statements of the sūtra itself.
4. Explanation of This Chapter
The first passage of this chapter is initiated by Śakra. He says that although he has heard hundreds of thousands of sūtras from the Buddha and Mañjuśrī, he has never heard this scripture of inconceivability, sovereign spiritual powers, and the definitive true mark. If sentient beings hear it, trust and understand it, receive and retain it, and read and recite it, they will attain this Dharma without doubt—how much more if they practice in accordance with what is taught. The benefits occur in eight items, in the sūtra’s order: closing the evil destinies; opening the gates of goodness; always being kept in mind and protected by the buddhas; subduing outside teachings; destroying hostile Māras; cultivating awakening; dwelling at the place of awakening; and treading the tracks walked by the Tathāgata. The Lord of the Gods’ vow to protect the Dharma has four further items: make offerings to and attend upon practitioners who retain and practice the sūtra; go with his retinue to any place where the sūtra is found in order to hear the Dharma; cause those who do not yet trust it to give rise to trust; and protect those who already trust it.
The Buddha first confirms the Lord of the Gods and then establishes an immense comparison of material offerings: the three-thousand great-thousand world-system is filled with Tathāgatas, as densely as sugarcane, bamboo, reeds, rice, hemp, and forests. For one kalpa or slightly less than one kalpa, a good man or good woman reveres, honors, praises, and makes offerings to them, presenting everything required for their ease. After the buddhas pass into extinction, the person builds a seven-jeweled stūpa for the full-body relics of every Buddha. Each stūpa extends in length and breadth across one four-continent world and rises as high as the Brahmā Heaven, with its finial and standard pole adorned. The person then makes offerings of flowers, incense, necklaces, standards, banners, and music for one kalpa or slightly less than one kalpa. The Lord of the Gods answers that even a hundred thousand koṭis of kalpas would not suffice to tell this merit. Only then does the Buddha say that the merit of hearing, retaining, and practicing this sūtra is greater. The ground is not disparagement of the earlier offering, but that awakening arises from Dharma and the mark of awakening cannot be measured.
The Buddha next speaks of Medicine-King Tathāgata in the past. The sūtra lists Tathāgata, Worthy of Offerings, Perfectly and Universally Awakened, Perfect in Knowledge and Conduct, Well-Gone, Knower of the World, Unsurpassed, Tamer of Persons, Teacher of Gods and Humans, Buddha, and World-Honored One. His world was called Great Adornment, the kalpa Adornment, and His lifespan twenty small kalpas. The śrāvaka community numbered 3.6 billion nayutas, and the bodhisattva community numbered 1.2 billion. The wheel-turning sage-king Jeweled Canopy possessed the seven treasures and ruled the four-continent world. He had one thousand handsome, courageous, and strong princes who could subdue enemies. Jeweled Canopy and his retinue made offerings to Medicine-King Tathāgata for five kalpas, then had his thousand sons each make offerings with a profound mind for another five kalpas.
Moon Canopy sits alone and reflects on whether there is an offering that surpasses even this. A god in the sky tells him that the offering of Dharma surpasses all offerings and directs him to ask Medicine-King Tathāgata. Moon Canopy bows at the Buddha’s feet, withdraws to one side, and asks his question. Medicine-King Tathāgata first describes the profound sūtra to which the offering of Dharma is made. In the sūtra’s sequence, the profound sūtra has twenty-nine items: it is spoken by the buddhas; difficult for the worlds to trust and receive; subtle and difficult to see; pure and unstained; not attainable merely through discriminative thought; embraced by the Dharma treasury of the bodhisattvas; sealed by the seal of dhāraṇī; leading to non-retrogression; perfecting the six perfections; skillfully distinguishing meaning; according with the Dharma of awakening; dwelling above the many sūtras; entering great compassion; leaving affairs of Māra and wrong views; according with the Dharma of causes and conditions; teaching no-self, no person, no sentient being, and no lifespan; teaching emptiness, signlessness, wishlessness, and non-arising; enabling sentient beings to sit at the place of awakening and turn the Dharma-wheel; receiving the praise of gods, nāgas, and gandharvas; enabling sentient beings to enter the treasury of the Buddha-Dharma; gathering all the wisdom of the worthy and holy ones; proclaiming the path practiced by bodhisattvas; relying on the meaning of the true mark of all dharmas; clearly proclaiming impermanence, suffering, emptiness, no-self, and quiescent cessation; rescuing sentient beings who have violated the precepts; making Māras, followers of outside paths, and those attached through greed afraid; receiving the praise of the buddhas and the worthy and holy ones; turning away from the suffering of birth and death and showing the bliss of nirvāṇa; and being spoken by the buddhas of the ten directions and the three times.
For such a sūtra, the offering of Dharma has seven explicit practices: hear; trust and understand; receive and retain; read and recite; use the power of skillful means to explain and distinguish it for sentient beings; make it clearly manifest; and protect its Dharma. Medicine-King Tathāgata then immediately teaches the supreme offering of Dharma: practice all dharmas in accordance with what is taught; accord with the twelve links of dependent origination; leave wrong views behind; attain acceptance of non-arising; decisively see no-self and no sentient being; neither contradict nor dispute cause, condition, and karmic result; leave what belongs to self behind; rely on meaning, not on words; rely on wisdom, not on consciousness; rely on sūtras of definitive meaning, not on sūtras of nondefinitive meaning; rely on Dharma, not on a person; accord with the characteristics of dharmas; have no place of entry and no place of return; contemplate the ultimate extinction of ignorance and formations, through to the ultimate extinction of birth and aging-and-death; contemplate the twelve links of dependent origination as having no mark of exhaustion; and no longer give rise to views. The sūtra closes this answer with “the supreme offering of Dharma” and does not have later readers fill in the intermediate links of dependent origination that it passes over.
After hearing the Dharma, Moon Canopy attains pliant acceptance, removes the jeweled robe adorning his body and offers it to the Buddha, and vows that after the Buddha’s extinction he will practice the offering of Dharma and protect the true Dharma. He asks the Buddha to empower him so that he can subdue hostile Māras and practice the bodhisattva conduct. Medicine-King Tathāgata predicts that he will protect the city of Dharma in the final period. Moon Canopy sees the purity of the Dharma, hears the prediction, leaves home in faith, and cultivates wholesome dharmas. Through diligent effort he soon attains the five superknowledges, reaches the bodhisattva path, attains dhāraṇī, and attains uninterrupted eloquence. After the Buddha’s extinction, he uses the power of superknowledges, retention, and eloquence to spread onward the Dharma-wheel for ten small kalpas. He further establishes one million koṭis of people in non-retrogression from unsurpassed awakening, causes fourteen nayutas of people to form a profound resolve for the śrāvaka and pratyekabuddha vehicles, and enables immeasurable sentient beings to be born in the heavens.
The Buddha finally says that King Jeweled Canopy has now become Jeweled Flame Tathāgata, that the thousand princes are the thousand buddhas of the Fortunate Kalpa from Krakucchanda Buddha through Ruci Buddha, and that the bhikṣu Moon Canopy was the Buddha Himself. He therefore concludes by urging the Lord of the Gods: among all offerings, the offering of Dharma is highest and supreme, first and incomparable, and one should use the offering of Dharma to make offerings to the Buddha. The chapter moves from the Lord of the Gods’ vow to protect the Dharma, through the comparison of material offerings, Moon Canopy’s question, and Medicine-King Tathāgata’s teaching, to Moon Canopy’s personal practice and circulation of the Dharma. “Offering” thus has scriptural ground in hearing the Dharma, protecting it, practicing it, and transmitting it.
5. Divergent Interpretations of the Ancient Masters (Two Mirrors Presented Side by Side)
This section strictly preserves two commentarial mirrors with their own recensions. T1775 records Kumārajīva, Sengzhao, and Daosheng following Kumārajīva’s T475 and therefore uses the terminology of Śakra, Mañjuśrī, and Moon Canopy found in Kumārajīva’s recension. Kuiji’s T1782 follows Xuanzang’s T476 and therefore uses the terminology of Lord Śakra, Wondrous Auspiciousness, and Moon Canopy found in Xuanzang’s recension. Each master’s explanation is returned only to its own text and is not synthesized into a single common scripture.
1. Kumārajīva, Sengzhao, and Daosheng: From the Offering of Dharma to the Supreme Offering of Dharma
Material offerings and the offering of Dharma. Kumārajīva says: 「若財供養，則於佛無用、於眾生無益，故非所欣也。如來積劫本為眾生，若奉順經典、如說修行，則稱悅聖心，乃真供養也。」 — “If it is a material offering, it is of no use to the Buddha and brings no benefit to sentient beings, and therefore is not what He delights in. The Tathāgata cultivated through accumulated kalpas fundamentally for the sake of sentient beings. If one follows the scriptures and practices in accordance with what is taught, one accords with and delights the holy mind; this is the true offering.” (T38n1775 0415a07) Daosheng defines its practice in the shortest sentence: 「生曰：法供養者，行法即為供養也。」 — “Daosheng says: As for the offering of Dharma, practicing the Dharma is itself the offering.” (T38n1775 0415a11) Sengzhao treats the former-life account as factual evidence establishing the meaning of the offering of Dharma: 「肇曰：上以財供養，受持即法供養也。如來將成法供養義，故引成事以為證焉。」 — “Sengzhao says: Above, the offering was made with material things; receiving and retaining is the offering of Dharma. The Tathāgata is about to establish the meaning of the offering of Dharma and therefore cites an accomplished event as evidence.” (T38n1775 0414c24) The three masters emphasize different points and are presented side by side without being adjudicated into one meaning.
The profound sūtra and discrimination. Kumārajīva preserves two explanations of “cannot be attained merely through discriminative thought”: 「什曰：要須禪定等諸功德，非但智慧分別之所能得也。亦云要用實智慧然後能了，非分別取相所能解也。」 — “Kumārajīva says: The qualities of meditation and the like are required; it cannot be attained merely through the discriminations of wisdom. It is also said that true wisdom is required before it can be understood; it cannot be comprehended by discrimination that grasps marks.” (T38n1775 0415b06) Sengzhao says: 「肇曰：第一義經微遠無相，自非明哲，孰能分別？業之差別雖由分別，然非分別之所能得，得之者其唯無分別乎？故曰非但分別也。」 — “Sengzhao says: A sūtra of ultimate meaning is subtle, remote, and signless. Who but one who is wise and discerning could distinguish it? Although differences in karma arise through discrimination, it cannot be attained by discrimination. Is it not only non-discrimination that attains it? Therefore the text says ‘not merely through discrimination.’” (T38n1775 0415b09) Daosheng says only: 「生曰：要積功德然後會矣。」 — “Daosheng says: One must accumulate merit, and only then can one meet it.” (T38n1775 0415b12) This edition does not compress meditation, true wisdom, non-discrimination, and the accumulation of merit into one exclusive explanation.
The seal of dhāraṇī. Kumārajīva treats the true mark as one form of retention and also says that this sūtra is sealed with the seal of the true mark. Sengzhao speaks of the Dharma treasure as profound and secure because it is embraced by the Dharma treasury and sealed by retention. Daosheng explains dhāraṇī as retention and uses the simile of a seal inspected at a checkpoint. His original words say: 「譬若生印為信，關津諸禁莫能呵留。果是印持，所印之經則無有閡。」 — “It is like producing a seal as a token of trust: none of the prohibitions at gates and crossings can rebuke or detain it. If it is indeed retained by the seal, then the sūtra that is sealed meets no obstruction.” (T38n1775 0415b26) All three explanations center on the sūtra’s phrase “sealed by the seal of dhāraṇī,” but differ in simile and emphasis.
According with causes and conditions without falling into existence or nonexistence. Kumārajīva says that if dharmas were definitely existent or wholly nonexistent, both positions would conflict with causes and conditions of arising and cessation. The profound sūtra therefore teaches neither existence nor nonexistence while according with causes and conditions. From arising through conditions and lacking intrinsic nature or a master, Sengzhao proceeds to no self, person, lifespan, and to emptiness, signlessness, wishlessness, and non-arising. Daosheng says only, “This is precisely the Dharma of causes and conditions.” In the passage on practice in accordance with what is taught, Daosheng further says that following the principle of causes and conditions leaves wrong views of existence and nonexistence behind. Sengzhao joins clearly seeing the source of the twelve links of dependent origination, leaving wrong views, attaining acceptance of non-arising, and no longer conceiving of self and sentient beings into one reading. The two do not use the same syntax.
The four reliances. Sengzhao explains reliance on meaning rather than words with 「至義非言宣，尋言則失至。」 — “The ultimate meaning is not proclaimed by words; if one pursues the words, one loses the ultimate.” (T38n1775 0416c24) Daosheng says not to continue chasing words, grasping their marks, and obscuring the principle. Kumārajīva explains at length writing and speech in relation to meaning and Dharma, what consciousness knows and what wisdom knows, definitive and nondefinitive meaning, and finally reliance on Dharma rather than a person. Sengzhao separately explains reliance on Dharma rather than a person: 「法雖由人弘，而人不必盡應於法。法有定楷、人無常則，所以行者依法不依人也。」 — “Although Dharma is spread by people, a person does not necessarily accord completely with Dharma. Dharma has a fixed standard, while people have no constant rule; therefore practitioners rely on Dharma and not on a person.” (T38n1775 0417a26) Each explanation remains assigned to its individual commentator.
Ultimate extinction and having no mark of exhaustion. Kumārajīva connects this passage with the four reliances and the twelve links of dependent origination as the true mark. Sengzhao first says that ignorance is the root of the twelve links, then asks why the text speaks of having no mark of exhaustion after saying “ultimately extinguished.” His answer is: 「夫滅生於不滅，畢竟常滅則無不滅，無不滅則滅無所滅，滅無所滅即是無盡義也。」 — “Extinction arises from non-extinction. If there is constant ultimate extinction, there is no non-extinction; if there is no non-extinction, extinction has nothing to extinguish. When extinction has nothing to extinguish, this is precisely the meaning of inexhaustibility.” (T38n1775 0417b18) Daosheng proceeds from “if birth does not exist, who then has extinction?” to explain no entry and no return. The three explanations transmit their differences without allowing one to erase the others.
Pliant acceptance and spreading the Dharma. Kumārajīva says that pliant acceptance means not yet being able to enter the Dharma of the true mark deeply, while one’s pliant wisdom and pliant trust conform without opposition. Sengzhao says: 「肇曰：心柔智順堪受實相，未及無生，名柔順忍。」 — “Sengzhao says: When the mind is gentle and wisdom conforming, one is capable of receiving the true mark but has not yet reached non-arising; this is called pliant acceptance.” (T38n1775 0417c02) When Moon Canopy spreads the Dharma-wheel after the Buddha’s extinction, Sengzhao concludes with “spreading the Dharma-wheel is precisely the offering that propagates the Dharma,” while Kumārajīva separately explains through the three powers of superknowledges, learning and retention, and eloquence why Moon Canopy could proclaim the Dharma left behind. This mirror itself contains many voices; they are not all attributed indistinctly under the single name “Sengzhao’s commentary.”
2. Kuiji: Distinguishing the Sūtra’s Essence, Function, Reliance on Teaching, and Reliance on Practice according to Xuanzang’s Recension
The chapter’s place in the whole sūtra. Kuiji classifies the final two chapters as the circulation section of praise and entrustment and divides this chapter into the Lord of the Gods’ praise, the World-Honored One’s confirming restatement, and the account of the past that urges cultivation. His general formulation for material offerings and the offering of Dharma is that material things sustain the body while Dharma nurtures the path. This is the commentator’s classification and is not made into a direct statement of Kumārajīva’s recension.
The comparison of material offerings. Following Xuanzang’s recension, Kuiji distinguishes present offerings from stūpa offerings after extinction and lists food and drink, bedding, medicines, and dwellings, as well as flower garlands, burning incense, paste incense, powdered incense, clothing, banners, canopies, jeweled standards, lamp-wheels, precious things, music, and various articles of offering. He explains the superior merit of the offering of Dharma by saying that it can reveal the dharma-body and give rise to the enjoyment-body Buddha. This judgment concerning “dharma-body” and “enjoyment body” is transmitted only within the Ci’en mirror.
The sūtra’s essence and function. Kuiji distinguishes what is truly profound from what only appears profound and places the emptiness-principle and the principle that accords with reason side by side. For the sūtra’s function, he classifies thirty sentences. He says that Xuanzang’s “sealed by the Buddha’s seal” takes signless suchness as the Buddha’s seal and notes that the older sūtra has “the seal of dhāraṇī.” The terms of the two Chinese recensions meet only in an explicitly marked comparison and do not overwrite one another.
Reliance on teaching and reliance on practice. Kuiji says: 「初明依教，多分地前行法供養；後明依行，多分十地行法供養。」 — “The first section clarifies reliance on the teaching and for the most part concerns the offering of Dharma practiced before the grounds; the later section clarifies reliance on practice and for the most part concerns the offering of Dharma practiced on the ten grounds.” (T38n1782 1110b23) In the section on reliance on teaching, he lists hearing, trusting and understanding, receiving and retaining, reading, reciting, reflecting, teaching others, and embracing and protecting the true Dharma. In the section on reliance on practice, he lists contemplation of dependent origination, cultivation of acceptance of non-arising, no-self and no sentient being, neither contradicting nor disputing causes and conditions, leaving self and what belongs to self behind, the four reliances, and the inexhaustibility of dependent origination. “Before the grounds” and “the ten grounds” are classifications of this commentary and are not moved into the sūtra’s Vernacular.
The four reliances and the ālaya. Kuiji explains the four reliances through meaning, wisdom, definitive meaning, and Dharma-nature, then in the next section of the recension on which he relies speaks of the other-dependent characteristic, the truly-perfected nature, and 「悟入真如無所攝藏，滅阿賴耶。」 — “Realize and enter suchness, in which nothing is stored or contained, and extinguish the ālaya.” (T38n1782 1111c05) Kumārajīva’s recension does not contain “extinguish the ālaya” in this chapter, so this meaning is marked only within the Ci’en mirror based on Xuanzang’s recension.
Two explanations of the acceptance that accords with Dharma. Following Xuanzang’s phrase “attained the acceptance that accords with Dharma,” Kuiji first explains it as the stage of decisive acceptance before the grounds, then, according to the five acceptances, associates acceptance of conformity with first entering the fourth ground and explicitly records that either of the two explanations may be adopted. This edition records both and does not choose one for the commentator.
The concluding exhortation. For the five expressions of supremacy in Xuanzang’s recension, Kuiji proposes correlations with the five-aggregate dharma-body and the four wisdoms, and also cites Prajñā and Diamond Sūtra passages to say that the offering of Dharma surpasses material offerings. These multiple correlations remain in the commentator’s later transmission and do not rewrite Kumārajīva’s threefold conclusion, “highest and supreme, first and incomparable.”
Both mirrors discern in this chapter the sequence of material offerings and the offering of Dharma, reception and retention and practice, dependent origination, and protection of the Dharma. The Kumārajīva line preserves the distinct voices of three masters, while the Ci’en line preserves the classifications and Yogācāra analysis of Xuanzang’s recension. They occupy the same chapter while each remains with its own Chinese recension, presented side by side without adjudication.
6. Terms and Similes
1. Terms Native to This Chapter
The offering of Dharma. This chapter explicitly sets out two visible levels: hearing the sūtra, trusting and understanding it, receiving and retaining it, reading and reciting it, explaining and distinguishing it for sentient beings, making it clearly manifest, and protecting the Dharma; then practicing all dharmas in accordance with what is taught, according with dependent origination, completing the four reliances, and leaving views behind. Both the former and the latter occur within one answer of Medicine-King Tathāgata. Neither reciting the sūtra alone nor inward contemplation alone can be taken as the complete definition.
The profound sūtra. The chapter uses twenty-nine items to describe the profound sūtra’s source, difficulty of trust and vision, purity and freedom from stain, what embraces and seals it, what it perfects and accords with, the principles it teaches, what it can accomplish, and its being spoken by the buddhas. “Profound” is not determined merely by length or abstruse language but is displayed through the chapter’s own enumeration.
The seal of dhāraṇī. Kumārajīva’s recension has “sealed by the seal of dhāraṇī.” Kumārajīva’s comment treats the true mark as the seal; Sengzhao speaks of its truth through the seal of retention; Daosheng explains dhāraṇī as retention and uses inspection of a seal as a simile. Xuanzang’s recension has “sealed by the Buddha’s seal,” which is recorded only in the alternative-translation and Ci’en columns.
The four reliances. The four pairs in Kumārajīva’s recension are meaning / words, wisdom / consciousness, sūtras of definitive meaning / sūtras of nondefinitive meaning, and Dharma / person. Each pair has what one relies on and what one does not rely on; they should not be compressed into the general slogan “do not cling to words.”
Pliant acceptance. This chapter records only that Moon Canopy attains pliant acceptance. Kumārajīva and Sengzhao each explain it, while Kuiji gives two explanations of the acceptance that accords with Dharma according to Xuanzang’s recension. Classifications of its stage belong only to the divergent interpretations of the ancient masters and are not passed off as a determination explicitly made by the sūtra.
The city of Dharma. Medicine-King Tathāgata predicts that Moon Canopy will “protect the city of Dharma in the final period.” The sūtra uses a city to represent the Dharma that is protected. Kuiji further says that the true Dharma is like a city and practitioners are like the people who dwell in it. This latter level is an ancient master’s explanation of the simile, not a newly fabricated physical scene.
2. Names and Fixed Numbers in the Three Translations
| Point | Zhi Qian T474 | Kumārajīva T475 | Xuanzang T476 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lord of the Gods | Lord Śakra | Śakra / Lord of the Gods | Lord Śakra |
| Mañjuśrī | Mañjuśrī | Mañjuśrī | Wondrous Auspiciousness |
| Prince | Excellent Rest | Moon Canopy | Moon Canopy |
| Medicine-King Buddha’s name | Bhaiṣajyarāja Tathāgata, later called Medicine-King Tathāgata | Medicine-King Tathāgata | Medicine-King Tathāgata |
| World | Great Clarity | Great Adornment | Great Grandeur |
| Kalpa | Pure Removal | Adornment | Adorned Purity |
| Buddha’s lifespan | Thirty kalpas | Twenty small kalpas | Twenty intermediate kalpas |
| Jeweled Canopy’s present identity | Jeweled Accomplishment Tathāgata | Jeweled Flame Tathāgata | Jeweled Blaze Tathāgata |
| First of the thousand buddhas | Krakucchanda | Krakucchanda | Krakucchanda |
| Last of the thousand buddhas | The Zhi Qian name-form 樓由 | Ruci | Ruci |
3. Images and Similes Native to This Chapter
Sugarcane, bamboo, reeds, rice, hemp, and forests. The Buddha uses densely growing and widespread plants as a simile for Tathāgatas filling the three-thousand great-thousand world-system. This simile serves only to unfold the numerical vastness of the material-offering comparison and is not used to define the offering of Dharma itself.
Seven-jeweled stūpas rising to the Brahmā Heaven. Each stūpa extends in length and breadth across one four-continent world, rises as high as the Brahmā Heaven, and has its finial and standard pole adorned. Together with the flowers, incense, necklaces, standards, banners, and music, this forms the sūtra’s image of the vastness of material offerings. The sūtra immediately acknowledges that their merit is inexhaustible before comparing them with the offering of Dharma.
Removing the jeweled robe that adorned the body. After attaining pliant acceptance, Moon Canopy first removes the jeweled robe that adorned his body and offers it to the Buddha, then vows that after the Buddha’s extinction he will practice the offering of Dharma and protect the true Dharma. Material giving and the Dharma vow follow one another in the same person and should not be written as mutually exclusive.
Protecting the city of Dharma. This is the concluding image of the chapter’s theme of protecting the Dharma. Moon Canopy later leaves home, cultivates wholesome dharmas, attains retention and eloquence, and spreads onward the Dharma-wheel for ten small kalpas, so that in the sūtra “protecting the city” is realized through protecting and circulating the Dharma.
7. Citations and Transmission
Within the three masters of the Kumārajīva line, this chapter forms a line of transmission joining sūtra, practice, and protection of the Dharma. Kumārajīva connects the “profound sūtra” with the true mark and explains true offering through following the scriptures and practicing in accordance with what is taught. Sengzhao distinguishes the material offering that nourishes the body from the Dharma offering that nourishes the dharma-body, and separately lists trusting and understanding, protecting and retaining, proclaiming, spreading, and inwardly conforming practice. Daosheng gathers its essence with “practicing the Dharma is itself the offering.” The three masters comment on a single Kumārajīva recension but have distinct syntax and emphases. This line of transmission is therefore itself many-voiced rather than singular.
The four reliances unfold further in the comments of the three masters. Kumārajīva describes the four reliances as the Dharma on which one can rely after the Buddha’s extinction. Sengzhao distinguishes ultimate meaning from words, correct wisdom from consciousness, definitive meaning from timely esoteric speech, and fixed Dharma from an impermanent person. Daosheng attends to not chasing words and grasping their marks, wisdom’s comprehension of principle, and following wherever Dharma is found. If later readers retain only the single pair “rely on Dharma, not on a person,” they lose the complete form of the four pairs stated together in this chapter.
The Ci’en mirror establishes another line of transmission according to Xuanzang’s recension. It first places the entire chapter within the circulation section of praise and entrustment, then distinguishes the sūtra’s essence, its function, the offering of Dharma by reliance on teaching, and the offering of Dharma by reliance on practice. Regarding dependent origination, it speaks together of bringing the twelve links to rest, bringing the results of dependent origination to rest, contemplating dependent origination as inexhaustibly and continually brought forth, and compassionately vowing not to abandon sentient beings. Its expressions “other-dependent,” “truly-perfected,” “ālaya,” “five-aggregate dharma-body,” and “four wisdoms” remain ancient readings within the Ci’en mirror and are not made into direct statements of Kumārajīva’s recension.
The story of Moon Canopy draws both lines of transmission back to the practice of protecting the Dharma. The Kumārajīva line uses superknowledges, retention, and eloquence to explain the proclamation of the Dharma left behind. The Ci’en line uses embracing the true Dharma, freedom from difficulties, subduing Māras, protecting the Dharma, and practice to explain his vow. The sūtra itself supplies the narrative framework common to both: hearing the Dharma, attaining acceptance, making a vow, receiving a prediction, leaving home, cultivating wholesome dharmas, and spreading the Dharma for ten small kalpas. The two mirrors each illuminate its meaning, while the accomplished events of the chapter remain centered between them.
8. Textual Positioning
1. Coordinates of the Base Texts and Commentaries
- Kumārajīva’s T14n0475: chapter title at 0556a01, chapter body through 0557a05; next chapter title at 0557a06.
- Zhi Qian’s T14n0474: chapter title at 0535b11; next chapter title at 0536b10.
- Xuanzang’s T14n0476: chapter title at 0585c12; next chapter title at 0587b07.
- Commentary of Kumārajīva, Sengzhao, and Daosheng, T38n1775: this chapter begins at 0413c24; next chapter title at 0418a12. It contains 136 individually attributed comment units: 32 marked “Kumārajīva says,” 52 “Sengzhao says,” 51 “Daosheng says,” and one “Daosheng states.”
- Kuiji’s commentary, T38n1782: this chapter begins at 1108c07; next chapter title at 1112b26. It contains one general explanation at the head of the chapter and 61 passages marked “The Commentary says.”
2. Twenty-Two Textual Notes in This Chapter
Witness codes: 【大】 is the Taishō base, 【CB】 the CBETA adopted reading, 【宋】 the Song edition, 【元】 the Yuan edition, 【明】 the Ming edition, 【聖】 the Shōgozō manuscript, and 【磧乙-CB】 CBETA’s correction from the Qisha second edition. Among the 251 textual notes for the whole sūtra, those of this chapter are indexed 214–235, twenty-two in all. The adopted reading, variant reading, and witnesses alone are transmitted; no adjudication is made in this layer.
| Index | Location | Adopted Reading and Witnesses | Variant Reading and Witnesses |
|---|---|---|---|
| 214 | 0556a01 | 所說【大】 — “spoken,” 【Taishō】 | 闕【宋】【聖】 — omitted in 【Song】【Shōgozō】 |
| 215 | 0556a05 | 是【大】 — “this,” 【Taishō】 | 此【宋】【元】【明】 — “this,” 【Song】【Yuan】【Ming】 |
| 216 | 0556a08 | 菩提【大】 — “awakening,” 【Taishō】 | 佛道【聖】 — “the Buddha-way,” 【Shōgozō】 |
| 217 | 0556a20 | 或【大】 — “or,” 【Taishō】 | 或以【宋】【元】【明】 — “or by means of,” 【Song】【Yuan】【Ming】 |
| 218 | 0556a21 | 全【大】 — “whole,” 【Taishō】 | 令【聖】 — “cause,” 【Shōgozō】 |
| 219 | 0556a24 | 於天帝【大】 — “to the Lord of the Gods,” 【Taishō】 | 天帝於【元】【明】 — “the Lord of the Gods, to…,” 【Yuan】【Ming】 |
| 220 | 0556a25 | 多矣【大】 — “it is great,” 【Taishō】 | 多【元】；甚多【明】 — “great,” 【Yuan】; “very great,” 【Ming】 |
| 221 | 0556a29 | 是【大】 — “this,” 【Taishō】 | 此【宋】【元】【明】 — “this,” 【Song】【Yuan】【Ming】 |
| 222 | 0556b04 | 名【大】 — “named,” 【Taishō】 | 曰【宋】【聖】 — “called,” 【Song】【Shōgozō】 |
| 223 | 0556b16 | 之【大】 — “of it,” 【Taishō】 | 闕【聖】 — omitted in 【Shōgozō】 |
| 224 | 0556b19 | 為法【大】 — “is Dharma,” 【Taishō】 | 名為法之【宋】【元】【明】 — “is called the Dharma’s,” 【Song】【Yuan】【Ming】 |
| 225 | 0556b20 | 諸佛【大】 — “the buddhas,” 【Taishō】 | 謂諸佛【聖】 — “namely the buddhas,” 【Shōgozō】 |
| 226 | 0556b21 | 非但【大】 — “not merely,” 【Taishō】 | 但非【聖】 — “merely not,” 【Shōgozō】 |
| 227 | 0556b25 | 無人【大】 — “no person,” 【Taishō】 | 闕【聖】 — omitted in 【Shōgozō】 |
| 228 | 0556c01 | 之法【大】 — “this Dharma,” 【Taishō】 | 闕【宋】【元】【明】【聖】 — omitted in 【Song】【Yuan】【Ming】【Shōgozō】 |
| 229 | 0556c08 | 諍【大】 — “dispute,” 【Taishō】 | 爭【聖】 — “dispute,” 【Shōgozō】 |
| 230 | 0556c18 | 降【大】 — “subdue,” 【Taishō】 | 降伏【宋】【元】【明】 — “subdue and overcome,” 【Song】【Yuan】【Ming】 |
| 231 | 0556c20 | 守護【大】 — “protect,” 【Taishō】 | 護持【聖】 — “protect and retain,” 【Shōgozō】 |
| 232 | 0556c21 | 集【大】 — “gather,” 【Taishō】 | 習【宋】【元】【明】 — “cultivate,” 【Song】【Yuan】【Ming】 |
| 233 | 0556c22 | 逮【大】 — “reach,” 【Taishō】 | 具【元】【明】；通【聖】 — “possess,” 【Yuan】【Ming】; “master,” 【Shōgozō】 |
| 234 | 0556c25 | 輪【大】 — “wheel,” 【Taishō】 | 轉【聖】 — “turn,” 【Shōgozō】 |
| 235 | 0557a01 | 孫駄【大】 — “the transmitted ending of the name,” 【Taishō】 | 村大【聖】 — “a variant ending of the name,” 【Shōgozō】 |
This chapter’s twenty-two textual notes occur in the chapter title, benefits of hearing and retaining, the comparison of material offerings, the definition of the profound sūtra, the practice of dependent origination, the vow to protect the Dharma, the spreading of the Dharma, and the names of the thousand buddhas. The notes display only the transmitted graphs and witnesses; their numerical distribution is not used to infer doctrine. The three translations, two mirrors, and textual witnesses each preserve a form of ancient transmission. To transmit the meaning of the offering of Dharma faithfully, one must first preserve the words of each recension, then preserve the voice of each master, and finally return to this chapter’s hearing, retaining, teaching, practicing, protecting, and circulating the Dharma.