妙法蓮華經文句 方便品 · 偈頌（頌釋迦章）

When we clearly know the best road, why do we not immediately tell someone to take it? When we see another person going the wrong way, the easiest thing is to thrust before them the answer we consider best.

The answer may not be wrong, yet the timing may be. If the other person cannot understand it, they will withdraw; if they cannot bear it, they will resist; if pressed too hard, they may even take words that could have saved them as a new wound.

The Buddha sees living beings through the buddha-eye and also sees them sunk deep in the five turbidities. They want to leave suffering, yet seek escape through causes of suffering; they want peace, yet cling to what makes them unpeaceful. He sees not only that we suffer, but that we may even reverse the method of escaping suffering.

Great compassion therefore means more than “I have something good to give you.” Great compassion must also ask: Can you receive it now?

When the Buddha first sat at the place of awakening, he intended to teach directly the great Dharma he had attained. Living beings had dull faculties and heavy obstructions and could not bear it, so he paused. This pause was not abandonment. If one cares only to finish stating the highest Dharma, without regard for whether listeners will benefit or be harmed, one has completed one's own expression but not the work of liberation.

The Buddha therefore recollected the other buddhas and opened through the three vehicles a road that living beings could walk. Skillful means are not deception, nor do they lower the destination. They are like the three carts in the burning house: first, through what the children can understand and are willing to seek, they are led out of the burning house; once outside, they see that what was truly to be given was the one great cart, bestowed equally.

We often place truth and skillful means on opposite sides: to speak truth seems to allow no turn, while caring for the other person seems somehow less truthful. This passage instead shows that genuine skillful means never depart from the real. They preserve, for those not yet able to arrive directly, a road on which they will not be abandoned.

This also changes how we understand “waiting.” Waiting is not necessarily delay. Sometimes it means discerning capacities, ripening conditions, and preventing goodwill from becoming harm. Sometimes it means accompanying someone from a silent inward seeking until they can finally speak aloud what they truly seek.

Yet skillful means do not remain skillful means forever. When obstructions gradually fall away and the great capacity is aroused, the Buddha joyfully teaches the one straightforward path. A gateway is for entering, not for clinging to its frame. The routes may differ, but all lead toward every living being's capacity to become a buddha.

The next time you clearly know “the best answer,” ask one further question: Am I hurrying to prove that I know, or do I truly want the other person to find a way out?

Compassion does not speak less truth. Compassion gives truth a road by which it can arrive.

I. First Establishing the Foundation of the Parable

Beginning with “I too am now like this” are forty-three and a half lines of verse restating the chapter on Śākyamuni Buddha's teaching. The preceding prose does not praise the rarity of the Buddha-Dharma, but the verse includes all six meanings. In the old explanation of this chapter, the doctrinal meaning on which the later parable depends was first identified here and then pointed back to when the parable itself was reached. Dharma and parable interweave above and below, easily dazzling readers of the commentary, confusing those who hear it taught, and further bewildering those of dull faculties. The private recorder therefore first arranged the relevant material here and attached it again in the later passage, so that he could use it to illuminate what precedes and follows.

The verse of the Śākyamuni chapter has two functions: first, it restates what precedes; second, it establishes the foundation for what follows. Those of sharp faculties have already understood, while those of middling faculties have not, and so a parable is still required to enable people to understand the preceding Dharma-teaching through simile. A parable does not arise in isolation; it must have grounds that continue from the preceding text. These grounds are called the “foundation of the parable.”

An old explanation divides the passage into five parables: first, the elder; second, deliberating how to rescue; third, inducing through the provisional; fourth, bestowing equally; and fifth, absence of falsehood. The first item, however, is actually a general parable and not merely the single meaning of the elder. The second reaches only the inability to rescue the children and lacks the meaning of seeing the fire. The root treatise therefore does not use this division.

Master Yao divides the prose of the Skillful Means chapter into four chapters. From the buddhas' teaching according to what is appropriate through the end of the prose, it positively reveals the reality of the one vehicle. The four chapters are: first, opening the four and three taught in the past to accomplish the four ones revealed now; second, explaining that because of the five turbidities the one vehicle could not initially be taught directly; third, beginning with the disciples' claim that they had attained, explaining which persons could not attain; and fourth, beginning with the exhortation to single-minded belief and understanding, explaining that the Buddha's words are not false. Though their opening and closing expressions differ, in meaning all concern the real. The following parable of the burning house illustrates only three of the chapters. From “Suppose there were an elder” through the children's wish that their father give the carts promptly illustrates the chapter on the five turbidities. From the equal gift to each child of one great cart through the children's attainment of the unprecedented illustrates the chapter on the real. From the elder's equal gift of carts through the question whether he spoke falsely illustrates the chapter on absence of falsehood.

Master Xuanchang divides it into six parables. First is the condition of the many disasters within the house. Second, because only the Buddha is awakened, the thought of teaching the one vehicle arises. Third, living beings cannot receive it, and so frightening matters are first described. Fourth, the pleasures of the three vehicles are taught. Fifth, the one-vehicle teaching is taught in return. Sixth, the Buddha's words are concluded to be free of falsehood.

Master Long also divides it into six parables. First, the father and children in the house illustrate the Buddha transforming living beings within the three realms. Second, the elder sees the fire arise, illustrating the Buddha seeing living beings in the six destinies through the buddha-eye. Third, the elder devises a way to rescue them from the fire, illustrating the Buddha's wish to liberate living beings during three seven-day periods while being unable to use the Great Vehicle. Fourth, the elder skillfully induces them through three carts, illustrating the Buddha's establishment of the three-vehicle teaching. Fifth, the elder gives one great cart, illustrating the Buddha's teaching of the Sūtra of the Lotus Blossom of the Wondrous Dharma. Sixth is the parable of absence of falsehood.

Another explanation has ten parables of the burning house. First, the two lines beginning with “I too am now like this” generally restate the provisional and real above and establish the foundation of the general parable below. Second, the four lines beginning with Śāriputra being told that he should know restate the five turbidities above and establish the foundation of the parable of seeing the fire below. Third, the six and a half lines beginning with the Buddha first sitting at the place of awakening explain that transformation through the Great Vehicle could not succeed and establish the foundation of the parable of the inability to rescue the children below. Fourth, the eleven lines beginning with recollecting the buddhas of the past explain that transformation through the three vehicles could succeed and establish the foundation of the parable of the children's successful rescue below. Fifth, the one line beginning with the Buddha seeing children of the Buddha explains the arousal of the Great Vehicle capacity and establishes the foundation of the parable of seeing the children escape disaster below. Sixth, the one line beginning with everyone coming with reverent minds explains practitioners of the three vehicles seeking their fruits and establishes the foundation of the parable of the children's seeking the carts below. Seventh, the two lines and one phrase beginning with the Buddha immediately forming this thought explain the Tathāgata's rejoicing and establish the foundation of the parable of the elder's rejoicing below. Eighth, the three phrases beginning with the Buddha among the bodhisattvas explain his revelation of the Great Vehicle to the assembly and establish the foundation of the parable of the equal gift of the great cart below. Ninth, the one line beginning with the bodhisattvas hearing this Dharma explains living beings' rejoicing and establishes the foundation of the parable of the children's rejoicing after obtaining the cart below. Tenth, the one and a half lines beginning with the exhortation not to doubt explain the Buddha's absence of falsehood and establish the foundation of the parable of the elder's absence of falsehood below.

Someone criticizes the ten-parable explanation: divided by sentences, there should be nineteen; divided by meaning, there are only six—general explanation, seeing the fire, unsuccessful transformation through the one vehicle, successful transformation through the three vehicles, renewed teaching of the one vehicle, and absence of falsehood—while all remaining material can be included within these six. Further, the ten-parable explanation disrupts the order of Dharma-teaching and parable. The Dharma-teaching has seeking the carts before the father's rejoicing, whereas the parable has the father's rejoicing before seeking the carts. Even if forcibly reconciled, the result remains circuitous. The Great and Lesser sides also contradict each other. In the Dharma-teaching, the Buddha rejoices upon seeing the Great Vehicle capacity aroused; in the parable, the father rejoices upon seeing the Lesser Vehicle capacity escape disaster. The Dharma-teaching concerns a Great Vehicle cause, while the parable narrates a Lesser Vehicle effect. The Dharma-teaching says that Great Vehicle obstructions are about to be removed, while the parable says that Lesser Vehicle disaster has already been escaped. The movement of meaning on the two sides does not agree. There is also a difference of presence and absence. The Dharma-teaching describes those of sharp faculties awakening easily and therefore has no seeking of the carts; the parable describes those of middling faculties still in doubt and therefore has the seeking. To interpret their reverent arrival as seeking the carts entirely misses the scripture's original intent. The division adopted by the root treatise has none of these four faults.

Comparing presence and absence in prose and verse, the prose has five items: opening three, revealing one, the five turbidities, true and false, and absence of falsehood. The verse likewise has five. The prose has true and false but no praise of the Dharma, while the verse has praise of the Dharma but no true and false; each manifests what is absent from the other. Comparing their order, the prose first opens three and later reveals one, while the verse first reveals one and later opens three. Comparing combination and separation, opening three and revealing one combine as the foundation of the general parable, taught together within two lines rather than separated. The passage on the five turbidities is separated into the foundations of four specific parables: opened and not combined. Absence of falsehood establishes the foundation of the parable of absence of falsehood and is neither separately opened nor combined with another item. In terms of inclusion and exclusion, all four passages establish the foundations of six parables and are therefore entirely included; the chapter praising the Dharma is not among those six and is therefore excluded. In terms of general and specific, the initial opening of the three to reveal the one generally narrates Śākyamuni Buddha's entire work of transformation, while everything after the five turbidities belongs to the specific parables. In terms of origin and trace, the general narration of the Buddha's teaching collectively contains both origin and trace, while the passage after the five turbidities separately explains them. The chapter on the five turbidities properly explains the origin in which the Buddha dwells in the Dharma-body and generates great compassion upon seeing living beings suffer. From the unsuccessful one-vehicle transformation onward, it explains the trace manifested in teaching and transformation. 〔The remainder is abbreviated.〕

The root treatise's judgment is that the center of this passage is precisely opening the three to reveal the one. The preceding Dharma-teaching states this meaning directly, and those of sharp faculties awaken and understand immediately. Those of middling and dull faculties do not, and the Buddha therefore proceeds to give a parable, explaining three and one through simile so that they understand. Just as the preceding Dharma-teaching has a brief and an extensive opening of the three to reveal the one, the following parable should have a brief and an extensive promising of three carts and bestowing of one; the teaching through causes and conditions should likewise reveal the guiding of three into one. Divisions into three, six, or ten parables cannot accord with the complete text of the three rounds of teaching and also conflict with the understanding of the four great disciples. The root treatise therefore adopts none of them.

II. Brief and Extensive Verse

The root treatise broadly divides the verse of the Śākyamuni chapter in two. First, the two lines beginning with “I too am now like this” briefly restate the provisional and real above and establish the foundation of the general parable below. Second, the forty-one and a half lines beginning with “I observe through the buddha-eye” extensively restate the six meanings above and establish the foundations of the individual parables below.

Though the general verse is short, it already contains the six meanings and can therefore establish the foundations of the six meanings in the general parable. The “I” in “I too am now like this” is Śākyamuni Buddha, the agent of an entire lifetime's teaching and transformation, and establishes the foundation of the great elder below. “Peace” is the dwelling place of great nirvāṇa's permanence and bliss. It is quiescent and free of the obstructions of the five turbidities and is therefore called peaceful. Peace is opposed to lack of peace. Birth-and-death in the three realms is where the Buddha carries out teaching and transformation, and the obstructions of the five turbidities make it unpeaceful; this establishes the foundation of the burning house below. Living beings are the persons throughout the five destinies who receive transformation, establishing the foundation of the five hundred people below. Peace can also mean the peaceful Dharma, opposed to the unpeaceful Dharma of the five turbidities and establishing the foundation of the fire's arising below. Manifold Dharma gateways are opposed to what is not manifold and establish the foundation of the single gateway below. The Buddha's knowledge of living beings' natures and desires means that he knows the faculties and natures of beings in the five destinies to have the differences of three vehicles, establishing the foundation of the thirty children below. Viewed upward, these two lines are a brief verse; viewed downward, they are the foundation of the general parable. Foundation and branch follow each other before and after, making the textual meaning complete. When the parable is explained, the preceding passage will again be cited to prove what follows. 〔The remainder is abbreviated.〕

The extensive verse of the six meanings is further divided into four passages, each establishing the foundation of a specific parable below. First, the four lines beginning with the Buddha's observation through the buddha-eye extensively restate the five turbidities and establish the foundation of the parable of seeing the fire. Second, the seventeen and a half lines beginning with the Buddha's first sitting at the place of awakening extensively restate the opening of three within the one vehicle and establish the foundation of the parable of suspending the Great and establishing the Lesser. Third, the six lines beginning with the Buddha's seeing children of the Buddha extensively restate revealing the real and establish the foundation of the parable of equally bestowing the great cart. Fourth, the five and a half lines beginning with the buddhas of the three times extensively restate praise of the Dharma's rarity; the following two and a half lines directly restate absence of falsehood; and the next six lines restate exhortation to believe. These three meanings together establish the foundation of the parable of absence of falsehood, within which the two and a half lines directly restating absence of falsehood are principally taken.

Dividing the first passage more finely, the verse on the five turbidities has three meanings. The first half-line and one character concern observation through the buddha-eye and establish the foundation of the elder's ability to see. The next two lines, three phrases, and four characters concern the five turbidities seen by the Buddha and establish the foundation of the fire seen by the elder. The final half-line concerns the Buddha's generation of great compassion and establishes the foundation of the elder's alarmed entry into the burning house. The second passage, beginning with the Buddha's first sitting at the place of awakening, can again be divided in two according to opening three. The first six and a half lines explain the wish to transform through the Great Vehicle and its failure, establishing the foundation of the parable in which the elder has bodily and manual strength yet temporarily suspends the Great Vehicle. The eleven lines beginning with recollecting the buddhas of the past explain following the other buddhas in transforming through three vehicles and establish the foundation of the parable in which three carts are established and Lesser Vehicle skillful means employed. The third passage, restating the revelation of the real, has four meanings. First, two lines explain the arousal of Great Vehicle capacity and establish the foundation of the parable of seeking the carts. Second, two lines and one phrase explain the Buddha's rejoicing and establish the foundation of the elder's rejoicing upon seeing the children escape disaster. Third, three phrases directly reveal the real and establish the foundation of the parable of equally bestowing one great cart. Fourth, one line explains reception, practice, awakening, and entry and establishes the foundation of the parable of the children's rejoicing upon receiving one great cart. The verse on absence of falsehood directly establishes the foundation of the parable of absence of falsehood and is not further divided.

Under one broader division there can be three parables. The first two lines are combined and not divided, establishing the foundation of the general parable. The passage beginning with observation through the buddha-eye is divided and not combined, establishing the foundations of the specific parables. The parable of absence of falsehood is neither divided nor combined and directly establishes that foundation. Following the brief and extensive verse that continues from above and establishes the text below, the three rounds of teaching and the meaning of the Faith and Understanding chapter remain complete. If the extensive verse is further opened into four meanings, restating the four meanings above and establishing the foundations of four parables below, the three rounds and Faith and Understanding likewise remain complete. If divided still more finely, the verse on the five turbidities opens into three, the verse on skillful means into two, the verse on revealing the real into four, and absence of falsehood stands as one, making ten meanings that can establish the foundations of ten parables below. Yet these ten meanings have corresponding text only in the rounds of Dharma-teaching and parable, while Faith and Understanding and the teaching through causes and conditions become incomplete. The root treatise therefore divides the chapter at three levels to continue from above and establish the text below, not to segment it arbitrarily without purpose.

The first line of the brief verse restates revealing the real; the second restates opening the provisional. Though the wording is narrow, it fully contains one principle, one class of persons, one practice, and one teaching. The Buddha's statement that he is like the other buddhas means that he likewise transforms living beings through the single reality and generally restates revealing the real. The peaceful place is the secret treasury of nirvāṇa. The Buddha himself dwells there and also places living beings within the secret treasury; the peaceful place therefore restates one principle. Living beings restates one class of persons. Entering the buddha path through manifold Dharma gateways restates one practice. The Buddha's proclamation restates one teaching. The power of wisdom is the power of provisional wisdom. Knowing living beings' natures and desires illuminates Lesser Vehicle capacities. Skillfully teaching the various dharmas is the actual establishment of provisional teaching. Causing living beings all to rejoice means that the teaching accords with what is appropriate and fits their capacities. Though brief, these two verses gather the entire beginning and end of opening the provisional to reveal the real throughout the Buddha's lifetime of teaching, omitting nothing from beginning to completion. They are therefore called the brief verse and establish the foundation of the general parable below.

The extensive verse has forty-one and a half lines and extensively restates the six meanings above. An old explanation takes the final seven lines as the transmission section of the Dharma-teaching, but the root treatise does not adopt this and instead takes them as restating praise of the Dharma and exhortation to believe. The six passages are, in order: the first four lines restate opening three because of the five turbidities; the second passage's seventeen and a half lines restate establishing skillful means in teaching and transformation; the third passage's six lines restate revealing the real; the fourth passage's five and a half lines restate praise of the Dharma's rarity, an item absent from the prose of the Śākyamuni chapter but referable to the gateway of the buddhas in general; the fifth passage's two and a half lines restate absence of falsehood; and the sixth passage's six lines restate the exhortation to believe. In the first four lines on the five turbidities, the prose has four items—announcing the number, listing the names, giving their substance, and concluding the explanation—while the verse restates only the number, names, and substance. The prose says that the three vehicles are taught because of the five turbidities, whereas the verse says that the Buddha appears in the world because of them. The Buddha should have taught the Great Vehicle upon appearing, but because of obstructions he first teaches the Lesser as a last resort.

III. What the Buddha-Eye Sees and Where Great Compassion Responds

The first four lines are further divided into three passages. The first eleven characters say that the Buddha possesses the eye capable of seeing. The second, beginning with living beings in the six destinies, uses two lines, three phrases, and four characters to explain the five turbidities seen by the Buddha. The third, beginning with the Buddha's acting for these living beings, uses half a line to explain that he generates great compassion and responds by going to their aid.

The Buddha's observation through the buddha-eye corresponds to the later elder standing outside the gate. From this one knows that the Buddha dwells on the ground of the Dharma-body and completely illuminates all capacities through the constantly quiescent buddha-eye. If living beings have sharp faculties and light turbid obstructions, he manifests the body of Vairocana and teaches the one-vehicle Dharma. If they have dull faculties and heavy turbid obstructions, he removes his jeweled necklaces, manifests as an old monk, enters the burning house in alarm, and skillfully opens three. Here the passage only says that the Buddha then examined living beings' capacities and therefore calls it observation through the buddha-eye.

If observing forms, one should properly speak of the divine eye. If distinguishing faculties, one should properly speak of the Dharma-eye. Why does the passage instead speak of the buddha-eye? Because the buddha-eye perfectly interpenetrates and comprehends; raising what is highest and supreme includes what is lower. Moreover, the other four eyes merge into the buddha-eye and may all be called the buddha-eye. 〔The remainder is abbreviated.〕

The five turbidities seen by the Buddha occur at five places in the verse. Living beings' poverty and lack of merit and wisdom restate the turbidity of living beings. Their entry into the dangerous road of birth-and-death, with suffering continuing without interruption, restates the turbidity of life. Their deep attachment to the five desires restates the turbidity of afflictions. Their failure to seek the Buddha of great power or the Dharma that ends suffering restates the turbidity of the eon. Their deep entry into manifold deviant views and attempt to seek the abandonment of suffering through causes of suffering restates the turbidity of views.

There are two explanations of “seeking to abandon suffering through suffering.” One says that people burn their bodies with five kinds of heat and hope thereby to abandon suffering, but instead obtain painful retribution. Another says that the various deviant views belong to feeling and feeling itself is suffering; how could practicing such a cause of suffering in the hope of abandoning suffering possibly succeed?

The Sūtra of Universal Radiance explains the origins of the five destinies: observing the five precepts brings birth in the human destiny, cultivating the ten wholesome acts brings birth among gods, stinginess and greed lead to the hungry-ghost destiny, defiance and resistance lead to the animal destiny, and committing the ten unwholesome acts leads to hell. Without the five destinies, five aggregates, and six deteriorations there is nirvāṇa. Neither dwelling in birth-and-death nor abiding in nirvāṇa, one receives the prediction of awakening.

Fascicle Seven of the Abhidharma Vibhāṣā says that when beings are first born in hell they think: “Formerly I heard renunciants say that greed and desire are the fault leading to hell, a place greatly to be feared. I formerly failed to sever greed and desire, and now I undergo such intense torment.” This presents greed and desire as a cause of hell.

The treatise further says that each of the five destinies possesses phenomena natural to that destiny. The bodily form of hell beings arises again after being destroyed. Animals can fly through empty space. Hungry ghosts can come into the human realm when people give morsels of food. The human destiny possesses vigor, power of recollection, and brahmā-conduct. Vigor means broadly cultivating a cause before seeing its fruit. Power of recollection means being able to remember things done long ago. Brahmā-conduct means obtaining the shares conducive to liberation and proceeding to correct certainty. The heavenly destiny has the natural ability for things to accord with one's wishes: whatever is needed is immediately obtained. 〔The remainder is abbreviated.〕

Hell beings also possess the afflictions, karma, and wholesome dharmas corresponding to the Heaven of Mastery over Others' Creations, but these are not presently active. Beings in that heaven likewise possess the afflictions, karma, and unwholesome dharmas corresponding to hell, but these are not presently active. By raising the highest and lowest extremes, the intervening destinies can be understood by analogy.

“Hell” is the name in this land. The foreign term niraya is translated “absence,” because there is no joy, fragrance, delight, or benefit there. Another explanation takes it to mean lowly. One takes it to mean fallen, because the intermediate-existence body hangs upside down and all its faculties are damaged. Another says that absence means there is no further place of pardon.

There are two classes of jailers. The jailers seen when offenders suffer are transformations produced by karma and are not counted among living beings. The jailers who first bind offenders and bring them before King Yama are counted among living beings. According to this explanation, offenders can still speak normal language when they first arrive; once they undergo suffering, the sounds they emit can no longer be distinguished.

One explanation says that animals receive their name because their bodily forms are horizontal and they also move horizontally. Another says that this destiny exists throughout all five destinies and is therefore called universally present. Animals are found in the heavens of the Four Great Kings and the Thirty-Three, but elephants, horses, and other mounts in the higher heavens are transformations of meritorious karma and are not counted among living beings. Another says that animals are called blind and dark because their ignorance is severe. At the beginning of the eon they could all understand noble speech. Later, as food differed and crooked minds arose, their language gradually changed and some could no longer speak.

The foreign term for a ghost is Sheliduo, translated here as “grandfather.” Beings first born in this destiny were called grandfathers, and those born there later continued to use the name. Because stinginess and greed cause descent into this destiny and its beings mostly suffer hunger and thirst, they are called hungry ghosts. Because they are driven by the gods and constantly hope to obtain food, they are likewise called hungry ghosts.

The foreign term for a human is Monushe, translated here as “intention.” When King Summit-Born first transformed his people in the past, he taught them to reflect well, deliberate well, and recollect well before doing anything. Following the king's teaching, people first deliberated and recollected before acting and were therefore called intention. Humans are also so called because they can quiet false intentions, cultivate the path, and attain shares conducive to penetration. Another explanation says that the name human means pride, because among the five destinies the human destiny has much self-pride.

The name asura has three explanations. First, sura means god and a is a negative, so because they are not gods they are called asuras. Second, sura means upright and beautiful; because beings in that destiny are not upright or beautiful, they are called asuras. Third, sura means wine and a means absence; because that destiny has no wine, they are called asuras.

God means supreme: they are natural and spontaneous, their pleasures and bodily forms are supreme, everything about them surpasses the other destinies, and they constantly illuminate through their own radiance. They are therefore called gods. Another explanation directly takes the term to mean natural and spontaneous.

An Āgama says that living being is only a provisional name, while realm is the Dharma. Living beings in the five destinies combine with differing Dharma realms. When living beings generate unwholesome minds, they accompany an unwholesome realm. When they generate wholesome minds, they accompany a wholesome realm. When they generate superior minds, they accompany a superior realm. When they generate inferior minds, they accompany an inferior realm. Monks should therefore train in the various wholesome realms. The long preceding passage explains the six destinies through causes and conditions, while this latter passage approximates an explanation through contemplating the mind.

The Buddha generates great compassion for these living beings. The passage first raised the buddha-eye capable of seeing, next explained the living beings seen by that eye, and now says that great compassion perfumes and arouses the Buddha's mind, causing him to respond by entering the three realms, establishing skillful means, and guiding living beings toward buddha-wisdom.

IV. Transformation through the Great Vehicle Temporarily Cannot Be Used

Beginning with the Buddha's first sitting at the place of awakening is the second passage, with seventeen and a half lines restating his establishment of skillful means in teaching and transformation. It is divided in two. The first six and a half lines explain that the Buddha considers living beings' capacities through the Great Vehicle but cannot accord with them. The second part, beginning with recollecting the buddhas of the past, has eleven lines and explains that he recollects how the buddhas all transform through three vehicles; only then does the teaching accord with what is suitable for living beings and succeed.

The initial wish to transform through the Great Vehicle is further divided into three passages. First, one and a half lines consider whether the Great Vehicle is suitable for living beings. Second, the three lines beginning with living beings' dull faculties explain that they lack the corresponding capacity. Third, the two lines beginning with the Buddha's own reflection explain his decision to suspend Great Vehicle transformation temporarily.

Regarding the Buddha's first sitting at the place of awakening, ultimate principle originally has no time, but divisions of time are provisionally established to transform living beings. Since this is the beginning of transformation, it is called first. Explained in terms of events, the Buddha initially cultivated at this place and attained the path, and it is therefore called the place of awakening. He sat beneath this tree and realized complete awakening, and it is therefore called the tree of awakening. He contemplates the tree to recollect the kindness of its shade, and walks in meditation to recollect the virtue of the great earth that bears him. While requiting kindness upon attaining the path, the Buddha considers through the great Dharma whether living beings are suitable.

Explained through contemplating the mind, the tree of awakening is the great tree of the twelve links of dependent arising. After deeply contemplating dependent arising and himself accomplishing awakening, the Buddha wishes to benefit living beings with the shade of the forest of uncontaminated Dharma, and so the text speaks of contemplating the tree. As for walking in meditation, the thirty-seven factors of the Great Vehicle are dharmas for practicing the path. The Buddha himself treads every ground through the factors of the path and accomplishes buddhahood, and he also wishes to teach and liberate living beings through this Dharma; he therefore rises and walks in meditation.

Trees and earth originally have no discriminating minds, so why must their kindness be repaid? The Sūtra of the Unprecedented says that simply transforming through supernormal powers and transmitting the Buddha-Dharma is called requiting kindness.

The Sūtra of Past Causes and Effects says that during the first seven days after attaining the path, the Buddha considered that the Dharma he had attained was wondrous and no one could receive it. During the second seven days, he considered that living beings had superior, middling, and inferior faculties. During the third seven days, he considered who should hear the Dharma first. He then went to Vārāṇasī and taught the four truths to five people. Chenru attained purity of the Dharma-eye, while Ebi Bati, Shili Jiaye, Mohenan, and Juli had not yet attained the path. The Buddha taught the four truths again, and the other four also attained purity of the Dharma-eye. The Buddha then taught that the five aggregates are impermanent, suffering, empty, and not-self, and all five became arhats. The Buddha is the Buddha Jewel, the four truths the Dharma Jewel, and the five men together with the Buddha make six arhats and constitute the Saṅgha Jewel.

The Xiaoyun commentary says that during the first three seven-day periods the Buddha was already teaching the Lotus Sūtra. Since the later text says that the Buddha King of Constellations and Flower Wisdom taught the Lotus Sūtra beneath a seven-jeweled bodhi tree, one can know that the present Buddha likewise taught the Lotus Sūtra beneath the bodhi tree. Living beings of dull faculties could not bear it, however, and so the Buddha followed the other buddhas in opening three vehicles for transformation and only later taught the one vehicle in the royal city.

If Zhiyi's intent is sought, it is that the Buddha first taught buddha-wisdom beneath the bodhi tree and later taught buddha-wisdom elsewhere, just as the present Buddha first taught the Flower Garland Sūtra and later the Lotus Sūtra. The scripture says that those who first saw the Buddha's body and heard his teaching entered the Tathāgata's wisdom, except only those who had previously cultivated a Lesser Vehicle; these people too are now guided into the Tathāgata's wisdom, precisely agreeing with this meaning.

The five monks also had a past connection. Once, after a group of women heard an immortal teach the Dharma, King Evil-Born became angry and cut off the immortal's arms, ears, nose, and other parts; the blood that flowed turned into milk. That King Evil-Born later became Julin, and that immortal later became the Buddha. The Buddha had vowed to cause him to attain the deathless nectar and therefore caused him to hear the sound of Dharma first after attaining the path.

Someone asks: Why did the Buddha first turn the Dharma wheel for five people? The root treatise answers: because humans first see truth; humans can see directly in their present bodies; humans can realize; the activities performed by the Buddha resemble those of humans; the gods obtain wholesome benefit from the human realm; and the complete fourfold assembly of monastic and lay people exists among humans. The Dharma wheel was therefore first turned among humans for five people.

The sound of a wheel-turning king's appearance reaches the Heaven of Mastery over Others' Creations; the sound of Kauṇḍinya's attainment of the path reaches the Brahmā heavens; and the sound of the Buddha's attainment reaches the Pure Abodes. Why do they differ in height? Because wholesome karma, karma of renown, and karma of praising parents, teachers, and elders have superior, middling, and inferior levels. If the Summit of Existence has auditory consciousness, the Buddha's sound also reaches there. A wheel-turning king cultivates the ten wholesome acts, which cause birth in the desire-realm heavens, and so those heavens rejoice that their retinue has increased. Kauṇḍinya has left desire, and his sound therefore reaches the Brahmā heavens. The Buddha is supreme, and his sound therefore reaches the Akaniṣṭha Heaven. 〔The remainder is abbreviated.〕 According to the Great Vehicle, the sound of the Buddha's attainment reaches a billion Akaniṣṭha heavens and then the Akaniṣṭha heavens throughout immeasurable and boundless worlds in the ten directions. 〔The remainder is abbreviated.〕

The place of the first turning of the Dharma wheel, the place of the bodhi tree, the place where the Buddha first descended from the Heaven of the Thirty-Three, and the place where he manifested great supernormal transformation are four fixed places shared by all buddhas; other locations are not fixed. Another explanation says that if the place of turning the Dharma wheel is excluded, the remaining three are fixed.

One old explanation says that the three seven-day periods concern contemplating principle, teaching, and related matters; another says they concern exhortation, admonition, and related matters. Master Yao says that event and principle are so profound that even the utmost sage must reflect before acting. During the first seven days, the Buddha considered the subtlety of buddha-wisdom. During the second, he considered the differences in living beings' faculties. During the third, he considered the ten thousand kinds of Dharma medicine. The meaning of the verse proves this: the wisdom attained by the Buddha is wondrous and foremost, while living beings' faculties are dull—how should they be liberated?

The root treatise instead says that the Buddha dwells on the ground of the Dharma-body, quiescent yet constantly illuminating, forever seeing all through the buddha-eye without the slightest omission. How could he only begin to consider this matter after remaining at the place of awakening for three seven-day periods? The three periods are expressive. They indicate that the Buddha initially intended to teach in three rounds and therefore provisionally speak of three seven-day periods: during the first, he considered teaching through Dharma; during the second, teaching through parable; and during the third, teaching through causes and conditions from former lives. None could be carried out because the corresponding capacity was absent, so he suspended the Great Vehicle and first established the Lesser. This is explained particularly in terms of the Great Vehicle of the Perfect teaching.

Explained generally in terms of the Great Vehicle, during the first seven days the Buddha considered teaching the Great Vehicle of the Perfect teaching; during the second, the Separate teaching; during the third, the Great Vehicle of the Shared teaching. None could be carried out because the corresponding capacity was absent, so he suspended the Great Vehicle and first taught the three vehicles of the Tripiṭaka teaching as skillful transformation. Explained through contemplating the mind, he first wished to contemplate the middle path, but the middle is wondrous and difficult to contemplate. Next he wished to contemplate the immediately provisional, but discriminating wisdom in that contemplation was difficult to generate. Finally he wished to contemplate the immediately empty, but its skillful liberation could not be accomplished. He therefore changed to the Lesser contemplation that analyzes dharmas as a skillful means.

The three lines beginning with living beings' dull faculties say that they lack the corresponding capacity and are further divided into three passages. The first half-line says that their obstructions are severe. The second half-line, beginning with people such as these, says that they cannot bear hearing the great Dharma. The final two lines, beginning with the Brahmā kings' request for the Dharma, say that although the Brahmā kings request the great Dharma, the Buddha knows that living beings lack the capacity and therefore does not teach it.

The two lines beginning with the Buddha's own reflection explain his wish to suspend transformation and are divided in two. The first one and a half lines say that because living beings lack the capacity, if the teaching is forced upon them the listeners will instead be harmed. The final half-line formally explains suspending Great Vehicle transformation.

V. Skillful Means of the Three Vehicles Can Rescue

The eleven lines beginning with recollecting the buddhas of the past restate the skillful teaching of three within the one buddha vehicle. The passage is divided in two. The first ten lines positively explain successful transformation; the last line resolves doubt. The first ten are further divided into four passages. First, one line considers living beings' capacities through the three vehicles. Second, the six and a half lines beginning with the formation of this thought say that living beings possess the corresponding capacity. Third, the one and a half lines beginning with having considered this matter explain the actual implementation of transformation. Fourth, the one line beginning with “This is called” explains living beings' reception and practice.

Recollection means that the Buddha considers that although these living beings lack Great Vehicle capacities, they can never be abandoned forever and still must be guided and rescued through skillful means. It does not mean that the Buddha previously knew nothing of opening three, but displays that he follows the same path as the other buddhas and therefore speaks of recollection.

The six and a half lines beginning with forming this thought say that living beings possess Lesser Vehicle capacities and are divided in two. The first four and a half lines concern the buddhas' praise; the latter two concern Śākyamuni Buddha's response and compliance. When he previously wished to transform through the Great Vehicle, living beings lacked the capacity and the buddhas therefore did not praise him. Now that he intends to teach the Lesser Vehicle, indirectly meeting the conditions of their faculties and ultimately enabling liberation, the buddhas praise him.

The buddhas' praise is further divided into five items. First, three phrases narrate their manifestation. Because Śākyamuni Buddha recollects the buddhas' power of skillful means, they appear; this manifestation possesses both the meanings of considering the teaching and meeting the capacity. Second, the one line and one phrase beginning with the praise “Excellent!” directly praise Śākyamuni Buddha's ability to conceal the real and establish the provisional, and so they say excellent. He establishes three for the sake of the one vehicle and guides living beings into buddha-wisdom, and is therefore the foremost guide. The unsurpassed Dharma attained is the subtle and foremost real wisdom attained; using the power of skillful means is following all buddhas in concealing the real and employing the provisional. Third, one line says that the buddhas all likewise conceal the real and employ the provisional. Fourth, one line gives a double explanation of concealing the real and establishing the provisional. Because living beings possess little wisdom and cannot hear the Great Vehicle, the real is concealed; because they delight in a Lesser Dharma, the provisional is established. Fifth, half a line gives a double conclusion: although three vehicles are taught, the final purpose remains revealing the real.

The latter two lines explain Śākyamuni Buddha's response and compliance. After hearing the buddhas' praise, he responds “Namo.” Here namo is translated reverent compliance and contains two levels: the first line verbally expresses reverent compliance, while the second expresses the mental thought of complying with living beings' capacities.

The one and a half lines beginning with having considered this matter concern the actual implementation of teaching. The marks of all dharmas are quiescent and originally cannot be proclaimed in words. This is the preceding principle of the middle path's absence of nature as the buddha-seed. This principle is not an enumerable dharma and cannot be spoken, yet it is now provisionally taught as three vehicles. This principle originally neither arises nor ceases, yet arising and ceasing are taught as skillful means. The principle of partial truth originally cannot be indicated or proclaimed either, yet it is opened provisionally and taught through four gateways. The initial teaching of impermanence to the five men is the gateway of existence.

The one line beginning with “This is called turning the Dharma wheel” explains living beings' reception, practice, awakening, and entry. Turning the Dharma within the Buddha's mind that transforms others into the minds of others is called turning the Dharma wheel. Chenru initially sees truth, severs the delusion of views, and partially realizes the truth of extinction, thereby partially attaining nirvāṇa with remainder; the vocal teaching of nirvāṇa begins from this point. He later becomes one beyond training and therefore receives the name arhat. One capable of teaching the three-vehicle Dharma is called Buddha, the three vehicles taught are called Dharma, and arhats who see truth and others are called Saṅgha. The Three Jewels of Buddha, Dharma, and Saṅgha thereby appear in the world.

VI. Ripened from the Distant Past, the Real Is Revealed Now

The one line beginning with distant eons in the past resolves two doubts. The first concerns the Buddha: Was the Buddha initially unable to illuminate living beings' capacities and only learned their natures after recollecting the other buddhas? The answer is that the Buddha did not previously fail to know how to use skillful means. He recollects the buddhas only to display that he follows the same path, not because he began to know through this thought. Throughout distant eons he has long seen that living beings delight in a Lesser Dharma and has long praised and shown it to them, enabling them to extinguish all suffering. They can therefore attain liberation as soon as they hear the Lesser Vehicle now.

The second doubt concerns the disciples: How can living beings realize arhatship after hearing only briefly in one lifetime? The answer is that throughout distant eons the Buddha has already praised and shown the teaching to them. What is taught now accords precisely with their past habituation, and they can therefore attain the path swiftly.

An old explanation takes this verse as a concealed advance indication of the meaning of the Life Span of the Tathāgata chapter. In terms only of a secret meaning this may be possible; as an explicitly disclosed meaning it is incorrect. When the Life Span is about to be taught, even Maitreya still does not know this meaning. How could one verse have disclosed it in advance here? The root treatise therefore uses the verse only to resolve the two doubts above.

The six lines beginning with the Buddha's seeing children of the Buddha restate revealing the real and fully contain the four ones. The two lines beginning with seeing children of the Buddha restate one class of persons because practitioners of the three vehicles are all children of the Buddha, a meaning also included in the preceding passage. The one line beginning with the Buddha immediately forming this thought restates one principle because teaching buddha-wisdom to living beings is the comprehensive wisdom and Buddha's knowledge and vision spoken of above. The two lines beginning with Śāriputra being told that he should know restate one teaching because teaching only the unsurpassed path is one teaching. The one line beginning with the bodhisattvas hearing this Dharma restates one practice because all in the assembly will become buddhas.

These six lines can also be divided into four meanings. The first two lines explain arousal of the Great Vehicle capacity, also called seeking the fruit. The next two lines and one phrase explain the Buddha's rejoicing because living beings will obtain Great Vehicle benefit. The next three phrases directly reveal the real. The final line explains living beings' reception, practice, awakening, and entry.

Because living beings' Great Vehicle capacity is aroused, it is called seeking the fruit; seeking the fruit follows directly from the capacity's arousal. The removal of obstructions and arousal of the great capacity form four cases. First, obstructions have been removed but the great capacity has not arisen, as with arhats during the Tripiṭaka teaching: because they delight in the Lesser Dharma, although their turbid obstructions have been removed, their great faculties remain dull and the subtle capacity has not arisen. Second, the great capacity has arisen but obstructions have not been removed, as with ordinary beings in the Lotus Sūtra: although they have not severed the bonds of affliction, their great faculties are sharp and the capacity arises. Third, removal of obstructions and arousal of the great capacity occur together, as when people realize the fruits of the two vehicles during the teaching of the Sūtra of Immeasurable Meanings and the great capacity immediately arises in that very assembly. Fourth, obstructions have not been removed and the great capacity has not arisen, as with the five thousand who left the assembly.

Aspiring to the buddha path means seeking the Great Vehicle, not seeking a Lesser fruit. Seeking has three meanings. First, the Great Vehicle capacity inherently possesses the meaning of eliciting a fruit; this is seeking in terms of capacity. Second, silently asking in one's mind whether one can attain it is seeking in terms of feeling. Third, seeking through speech is the three earnest requests. Former teachings already contained seeking through capacity and feeling, but it had not yet been voiced. Only today are all three kinds of seeking complete.

Someone asks: After leaving the burning house in the past, the children sought three carts. If that was seeking through capacity and feeling, and the scripture says “as the father previously promised,” they were clearly seeking three carts. What relation does that have to seeking one? The answer is that when the children left the house and did not see the three carts, they necessarily knew that there was another way forward. They used the three carts promised in the past to inquire into that different true intent, and this too can be called seeking the one vehicle.

Concerning everyone's coming to the Buddha with a reverent mind, one explanation says that they were ashamed of the Lesser Vehicle and aspired to the Great, and their Great Vehicle capacity elicited the Buddha; this is therefore called coming to the Buddha. The root treatise says that not only did their capacities reach the Buddha, but their bodies actually came to the assembly, as in the Sūtra of Immeasurable Meanings, where the fourfold assembly surrounds the Buddha, joins palms reverently, and single-mindedly wishes to hear the complete path.

That they had formerly heard the dharmas taught as skillful means from the buddhas means that, beginning with the initial single flavor of discipline, they had received and practiced the Tripiṭaka teaching, the six perfections, and such skillful means as the Shared and Separate teachings. Through ripening by these skillful means, their obstructions could be removed, the Great Vehicle capacity could arise, and they could seek the great Dharma.

The two lines and one phrase beginning with the Buddha immediately forming this thought explain that living beings' obstructions have been removed and the Buddha therefore rejoices. The Buddha originally appears in the world for buddha-wisdom. In the past, living beings' obstructions were severe and they lacked the capacity, so buddha-wisdom could not be taught immediately. During the intervening period their obstructions were gradually removed, but it still could not be proclaimed. Now the capacity is aroused, and this is precisely the time to teach. In the past, living beings had dull faculties and narrow wisdom, and the Buddha feared that they would slander the true Dharma and fall into evil destinies; it was therefore not the time to teach. Now their faculties are sharp and aspirations vast, and after hearing they will certainly believe and understand, so the Buddha rejoices. Fearlessness means no longer fearing that through attachment to the Lesser Vehicle they will slander the Great Vehicle, create offenses, and fall into evil destinies.

The three phrases beginning with the Buddha among the bodhisattva assembly directly reveal the real. The five vehicles are crooked and not a direct path, while the Shared and Separate teachings incline to one side and are not the correct path. All those partial and crooked paths are now relinquished, and only the one straightforward path is taught.

The one line beginning with the bodhisattvas hearing this Dharma explains reception, practice, awakening, and entry. The two kinds of bodhisattva in the teaching of the six perfections and the Shared teaching had their old attachments stirred and new doubts generated upon first hearing the brief explanation; now all have been removed. This does not concern only bodhisattvas: people of the two vehicles are likewise. One passage of the scripture says that all śrāvakas will become buddhas because earlier teachings did not say that the two vehicles become buddhas and only now are predictions bestowed on them. But how could predictions be limited to the two vehicles? How could the removal of doubt be limited to bodhisattvas? The scripture preserves one side in each place, and both meanings are thereby complete.

Someone asks: What doubt do bodhisattvas possess? The answer is that the Tripiṭaka teaching says bodhisattvas do not sever delusion even after three incalculable eons and that once they sever it they enter truth. The Shared teaching says bodhisattvas sever the primary afflictions while retaining habituation and become buddhas when the habituation is exhausted. Yet the brief explanation now says that all these are skillful means. Where, then, are the truth realized in the past and buddhahood accomplished in the past? Further, if all three vehicles cultivate one path together, why do their results still differ? Hearing the Lotus Sūtra now sweeps away all these doubts without leaving even a mustard seed's trace.

VII. Difficult to Encounter, Hear, and Believe

The five and a half lines beginning with the buddhas of the three times restate praise of the Dharma's rarity and do not directly establish the foundation of the later parable of absence of falsehood. This section is divided in two. The first line restates the wondrous Dharma above, namely the provisional and real. Citing the buddhas of the three times all using provisional teachings says that provisional teachings are means for guiding living beings. Citing the buddhas of the three times all revealing the real says that at the real the road of words is cut off—how could there be a fixed method? Moreover, provisional and real are originally without distinction and are distinguished only by people of dull faculties and lesser wisdom. Now, awakening to the nonduality of one and three, one knows that the three and one taught by the Buddha were originally without distinction. All buddhas are so, not only Śākyamuni Buddha.

The following four and a half lines restate that the teaching occurs only when the time is appropriate. The scripture lists four difficulties. A buddha appears in the world only after an extremely distant time; this is the difficulty of the person. Even when a buddha has appeared, the true Dharma remains difficult to teach: the present Buddha reveals the real only after more than forty years in the world. 〔The remainder is abbreviated.〕 This is the difficulty of the Dharma. Hearing this Dharma requires immeasurable and incalculable eons; this is the difficulty of hearing the Dharma. The five thousand who left the assembly had the Brahmā voice filling their ears, yet still rose and departed, showing that genuine hearing is not easy. Those able to hear and receive this Dharma are also difficult to find. At that time only Śāriputra within the assembly understood first; those of middling and dull faculties listened but still did not understand. This is the difficulty of belief and reception. The udumbara-flower simile generally illustrates all four difficulties. The wording explicitly states only the difficulty of hearing the Dharma; the other three can be understood by analogy.

VIII. Absence of Falsehood and the Old Explanation of the Final Seven Lines

The two and a half lines beginning with the exhortation not to doubt restate the preceding absence of falsehood and are divided in two. The first one and a half lines exhort people not to doubt the trustworthy person; the last line exhorts them not to doubt the trustworthy Dharma. Even the words of worldly kings are not double; how could the Buddha, the Dharma King, teach falsely? Although skillful means are temporary provisional establishments, how could the real they reveal be false speech? One therefore should not doubt when hearing the Dharma King teach.

An old explanation takes the seven lines beginning with Śāriputra being addressed again not as a further restatement of the exhortation to believe, but simply as the Śākyamuni chapter's intent to exhort belief in and transmission of this scripture. The seven lines are divided in two. The first five and a half instruct people to transmit the scripture and thereby cultivate the cause of buddhahood. The final one and a half briefly bestow a prediction.

The first five and a half lines can be divided more finely. The first instructs people to aspire to the buddha-fruit and cultivate its cause, and cultivating the cause requires transmitting the scripture. The Buddha held this Dharma concealed in his mind for more than forty years, unknown to others, and it is therefore called secret. The direct path of the one vehicle collectively encompasses the myriad roads and is therefore called essential. The one line beginning with the evil world of the five turbidities explains secret and essential. People with severe obstructions ultimately cannot understand, so the Tathāgata secretly stores this Dharma and does not teach it casually. The two lines beginning with future ages explain the people for whom the scripture is transmitted. The first says it should not be taught to unwholesome people; the latter says it should be taught to good people. The one and a half lines beginning with Śāriputra being addressed again give a double conclusion. The first line concludes secret and essential, saying that this Dharma is originally so: innumerable skillful means are first used and only later is the real opened and shown. The latter half-line concludes the people for whom the scripture is transmitted, saying that those who do not train and study cannot understand; this concludes that it should not be taught to unwholesome people. Conversely, those who train and study can understand and are people to whom it may be taught.

The final one and a half lines briefly bestow a prediction. The first three phrases say that this person already possesses understanding, the middle phrase that this person is already free of doubt, and the final half-verse that this person receives a prediction. Possessing understanding and being free of doubt, one should naturally rejoice in one's future buddhahood. The prediction here establishes the foundation for the later predictions bestowed on Śāriputra and others. The transmission of the scripture here establishes the foundation for the later instruction that Śāriputra circulate it. This is the old explanation.

IX. The Root Treatise's Judgment: Distinguishing the Assembly and Then Exhorting Belief

The root treatise considers the six lines beginning after the five turbidities to restate distinguishing the listening assembly and exhorting belief. Since the preceding prose clearly has this passage immediately before one's eyes, how could one instead say that it is not restated?

The six lines are divided in two: the first three restate distinguishing the assembly, and the latter three restate exhorting belief. The initial one line on the five turbidities restates the preceding distinction and exclusion of those who are not genuine disciples of the Buddha. People attached to various sensual pleasures perform Māra's work and must therefore be distinguished and excluded. The preceding passage says that even those attached to nirvāṇa are not genuine disciples of the Buddha; how could those attached to birth-and-death here be genuine disciples? The two passages each distinguish and exclude from one side.

The one line saying that these people ultimately do not seek the buddha path restates the preceding distinction and exclusion of people of overweening pride. Those of overweening pride have not attained the superior Dharma yet think they have and therefore no longer seek the buddha path.

The one line on evil people in future ages restates the preceding point that people who genuinely understand the scripture after the Tathāgata's extinction are difficult to encounter. The one line on those with a sense of shame and purified body and mind restates the preceding point that if they can encounter other buddhas, they will attain decisive understanding.

The final three lines restate exhortation to believe: there is no reason for anyone not to believe this Dharma. The first one and a half lines exhort the assembly to believe the provisional; the latter one and a half exhort them to believe the real. Free of doubt about both provisional and real, they will themselves know that they will certainly become buddhas in the future. 〔The remainder is abbreviated.〕

Since the Buddha has already seen living beings, why does he not immediately teach the Dharma he truly intends to teach? Seated at the place of awakening, the Buddha illuminates living beings through the buddha-eye and generates great compassion because of what he sees. If his vision omits nothing and his compassion is genuine, why does he suspend the great Dharma he first intended to teach and instead establish three vehicles? If skillful means are understood only as a detour, this pause appears to be a retreat. Read in the root treatise's sequence, however, it is the beginning of buddha-wisdom genuinely entering living beings' lives.

This verse both responds to the preceding Dharma-teaching and establishes the foundation for the following parable of the burning house. It lays out a complete road: how the Buddha sees, cannot bear beings' suffering, assesses their capacities, pauses, establishes another way out, and finally causes them to return and enter the single buddha-wisdom. The house, fire, children, three carts, and great cart that follow do not begin a separate story. They all grow from the reality of teaching already explained here.

The real question is therefore not which separate cell should contain the three vehicles or the one vehicle. It is this: when living beings cannot yet bear the real, how does the Buddha abandon neither them nor his original intent to cause them to become buddhas?

I. The Foundation of the Parable Is Not a Cell-by-Cell Correspondence Table

The root treatise begins by listing at length the various masters' divisions of the parable: one division has five parables, another opens the prose into four chapters, two others have six parables, and another has ten. All perceive correspondences between the Dharma-teaching and the parable of the burning house. They differ in where they make divisions, which meaning they take as one parable, and whether their divisions can run through the later text.

The root treatise does not reject the continuity of Dharma and parable merely because the divisions are numerous. Instead it poses a stricter question: if a division corresponds only to part of the text but causes the earlier and later sequence, greater and lesser capacities, presence and absence in the scripture, and the meaning of passages cited to conflict with one another, can it still bear the whole foundation of the parable? The ten-parable explanation is highly detailed, yet its ordering of Dharma-teaching and parable becomes displaced: in one, seeking comes before rejoicing, while in the other rejoicing precedes seeking; in one, joy follows the arousal of the great capacity, while in the other it follows the difficulty of leaving the Lesser. Local resemblance cannot substitute for consistency throughout the text.

The root treatise therefore does not finally select the most elaborate table, but returns to the main movement of the Skillful Means chapter. The preceding Dharma-teaching first brings those of sharp faculties to awakening. Those of middling and dull faculties do not yet understand, so the Buddha again teaches three and one through parable, enabling them to understand as well. The Dharma-teaching has a brief and an extensive form, and the parable likewise has a brief and an extensive form. The Dharma-teaching moves from skillful means to the real, and the parable from promising three carts to bestowing one. The later understanding and causes and conditions from former lives must also be traversable by the same line.

This clarifies the weight of the word “foundation.” The foundation of the parable does not manufacture a fixed label in advance for every object in the later passage. It preserves the causes, consequences, and direction that allow the later passage to stand. Because living beings dwell in an unpeaceful place, the Buddha's compassion is moved and he enters in alarm. Because living beings differ in nature and desire, there are manifold Dharma gateways. If those gateways lose their final direction of entry into the buddha path, only many roads set side by side remain, no longer skillful means for rescuing children from the house.

II. How Can Two Lines Contain the Entire Beginning and End of the Teaching?

The Śākyamuni chapter has forty-three and a half lines: first two lines of brief verse, then forty-one and a half lines of extensive verse. Though extremely short, the two lines simultaneously gather provisional and real above and generate below the six meanings of the general foundation of the parable: an agent of transformation; peaceful and unpeaceful places; living beings transformed; the Dharma of the fire's arising; one gateway and manifold gateways; and differences formed by living beings' faculties and natures. Before the parable formally begins, the elder, burning house, people within it, fire, single exit, and differences among the children all already have a doctrinal basis.

More importantly, the first line of the brief verse reveals the real, while the second opens skillful means. Its order appears opposite to the prose, which first opens three and later reveals one. These are not two mutually exclusive roads. From the Buddha's original intent, the real comes first, and so the peaceful buddha path is stated first. From living beings' reception of teaching, skillful means come first, and so various dharmas must be established according to their natures and desires. Earlier and later change with the standpoint of observation, but what is to be accomplished remains one thing: causing living beings to enter the buddha path through skillful means.

The root treatise also reads the four ones within this narrow wording. The peaceful place points to principle, the living beings transformed to persons, entry into the buddha path through manifold Dharma gateways to practice, and the Buddha's proclamation to teaching. The four are not four isolated lists. Without a principle to realize, teaching and practice lose direction. Without persons transformed, principle has nowhere to enter life. If there is only proclamation without entry through practice, living beings remain outside the gate.

The extensive verse then unfolds this compressed course. It can be divided broadly into the five turbidities; the temporary inability to use the Great Vehicle; successful transformation through the three vehicles; revelation of the real; and praise of the Dharma, absence of falsehood, and exhortation to believe. According to the span compared, it can also be gathered into three sections or four passages, or finely opened into ten meanings. The numbers expand and contract because the level of observation differs, not because the doctrine repeatedly changes. Major sections must traverse what precedes and follows before minor sections have a place. If details become so numerous that they correspond only to Dharma and parable but cannot reach understanding and causes and conditions, precision itself obscures the main line.

III. What the Buddha-Eye Sees Is Not Only That Living Beings Suffer

The Buddha's seeing through the buddha-eye first reveals the one who sees. Living beings in the six destinies dwelling amid the five turbidities reveal what is seen. The arising of great compassion for these beings then reveals how what is seen becomes teaching and transformation. None of these three steps can be omitted. If there are only the marks of suffering without the buddha-eye, one does not know who can see the root of suffering and differences in capacity. If there is only the buddha-eye without great compassion, illumination stops at looking. If there is only great compassion without discernment of capacities, liberation can again become the imposition upon living beings of a Dharma they cannot bear.

The five turbidities are not five abstract names suspended above the world. Poverty and absence of merit and wisdom show living beings gathering into turbidity. Continuously suffering along the dangerous road of birth-and-death shows life's fragility. Deep attachment to the five desires shows the pull of afflictions. Failure to seek the Buddha and the Dharma that ends suffering shows an entire age obscuring the way out. Entry into deviant views and seeking to abandon suffering through suffering-causes shows views so inverted that even the method of escape reproduces suffering.

“Seeking to abandon suffering through suffering” especially shows that the buddha-eye sees more than the result of suffering. Some expect to leave suffering through painful practices such as burning the body and instead receive new painful retribution. Some act on suffering-causes through painful feelings and deviant views yet take those causes as an exit. Living beings do wish to leave suffering, but inversion still guides that wish. Merely telling them they should leave suffering does not touch the true predicament. The Buddha must give them another road they can actually walk.

The root treatise next extensively explains hell beings, animals, ghosts, humans, asuras, and gods. It does more than enumerate six destinations: it presents the correspondences among karma, habituation, feeling, language, bodily form, and mental activity. Hell's absence of pleasure and pardon, animals' blindness and darkness, hungry ghosts' stinginess and hungry seeking, humans' capacity to reflect and cultivate the path together with their frequent pride, the negations in the asuras' name, and the natural excellence of the gods each keep “living beings in the six destinies” from remaining a mere collective label.

Yet these differences do not finally seal living beings within six identities. Mind accords with differing Dharma realms: acting with an unwholesome mind, one accompanies an unwholesome realm; acting with a wholesome mind, one accompanies a wholesome realm; acting with a superior or inferior mind, one likewise accompanies the corresponding realm. The explanation of external destinies through causes and conditions thus returns to how a present thought accords with a world. What the Buddha sees reaches deeply into karmic retribution yet remains as near as living beings' present arousal of mind. Great compassion enters precisely this place, which can still turn.

IV. Are the Three Seven-Day Periods of Silence a Failure to Save, or the Work of Saving?

When the Buddha first sits at the place of awakening, contemplates the tree, and walks in meditation, he intends to transform living beings through the great Dharma he has attained. The root treatise first explains in terms of events: this is the place of awakening, and contemplating the tree and recollecting the ground also express requiting kindness. It then explains through contemplating the mind: deeply contemplating dependent arising is like contemplating a great tree; practicing the factors of the path on every ground, the Buddha intends to shade living beings with this forest of Dharma. Awakening is not a private completion. From the first, the path attained is directed toward benefiting living beings.

Living beings' faculties are dull and their obstructions severe, however, and they cannot bear it. Although the Brahmā kings request the Dharma, the Buddha does not teach immediately. If the Dharma is forced upon those without the capacity, listeners not only fail to benefit but may be harmed through disbelief and slander. Suspending the Great is therefore not the cessation of great compassion, but great compassion's refusal to turn the highest attainment into a new injury to living beings.

The three seven-day periods consequently receive many explanations. The Buddha may be said successively to consider teaching through Dharma, through parable, and through causes and conditions from former lives; to assess three kinds of Great Vehicle teaching in sequence; or, in contemplating the mind, to find that the three contemplations of the middle, provisional, and empty remain difficult to enter and therefore turn toward more accessible provisional contemplations. What these explanations jointly show is not that only on the twenty-first day did the Buddha gain knowledge previously absent. Quiescent yet constantly illuminating, the Buddha displays through the three seven-day periods the assessment inherent in teaching: what he intends to teach, whether living beings can bear it, and how not to abandon them when they cannot.

The initial turning of the Dharma wheel for five people continues the same question. Because those in a present human body can see and realize, the Buddha's activities are close to those of humans, gods also obtain wholesome benefit from the human realm, and the human realm possesses the complete fourfold assembly, the first teaching occurs among humans. The six reasons do not add six identities to five people. They answer why the first practicable point of liberation is in the human realm.

Likewise, the four fixed places and the reach of the Buddha's voice show that teaching and transformation have both a universal direction and concrete conditions. The sound of the Buddha's attainment of the path may pervade immeasurable worlds, yet the actual turning of the Dharma wheel still begins with those presently able to receive the Dharma. Universal illumination does not cancel sequence. Precisely because it illuminates all, it knows more clearly where the first step should fall here and now.

V. Does Teaching an Ineffable Dharma Already Depart from Quiescent Extinction?

The Buddha's recollection of past buddhas does not mean that he only then suddenly understands skillful means. It displays that he follows the same path as the buddhas: although living beings lack Great Vehicle capacities, they absolutely cannot be abandoned forever. Since the Buddha can neither force the teaching upon them nor leave them unsaved, the three vehicles become the road opened by great compassion within this dilemma.

The buddhas praise him at this point because Śākyamuni Buddha can conceal the real and establish the provisional. Concealing does not withdraw the real, and establishing the provisional does not create a destination unrelated to the real. Because living beings possess little wisdom and cannot hear the Great, it is temporarily concealed. Because they delight in a Lesser Dharma and can begin there, the provisional is established. Even when three are taught, the final purpose remains revealing one. Skillful means have value not because they replace the real, but because they bring those unable to enter it directly before it.

This makes “the marks of all dharmas are quiescent and cannot be proclaimed in words” the sharpest turn in the passage. If they cannot be proclaimed, why turn the Dharma wheel? The root treatise gives three answers. First, the real cannot be enumerated or spoken, yet it can provisionally be taught as three vehicles. Second, principle is neither arising nor ceasing, yet arising and ceasing can be taught as skillful means so that people have an entrance. Third, the partial truth likewise cannot be directly proclaimed, yet it can be disclosed through four gateways of teaching. None of the three turns quiescent extinction into something to be grasped; each opens an entrance for people who must still practice through language.

Turning the Dharma wheel means turning the Dharma within the Buddha's mind that transforms others into the minds of others. This “turning” preserves both sides: the Dharma is not reduced to phrases by being spoken, and living beings are not left outside because the Dharma is originally quiescent. Only when listeners receive and uphold it, practice according to what they hear, sever delusion, and see truth does the Dharma that transforms others within the Buddha's mind genuinely become a road within their minds. The Buddha, the Dharma taught, and the Saṅgha who receive the Dharma and attain the path thereby appear in the world through this actual turning into others.

Skillful means are therefore not a betrayal of the ineffable, but the form in which ineffable principle does not abandon teachable living beings. If one guards only ineffability, living beings have no gateway through which to enter. If provisional language is treated as ultimate, they stop inside the gateway. The Buddha's skill in teaching lies in making the gateway genuinely traversable while preventing practitioners from mistaking it for the destination.

VI. Why Must Today's Arousal of Resolve Be Viewed from the Distant Past?

When living beings hear the Dharma in one life and attain liberation, two doubts readily arise: Did the Buddha previously fail to know their capacities and discover them only after recollecting the other buddhas? Did the disciples suddenly attain fruit through only one brief hearing? “Throughout distant eons” resolves both doubts at once. The Buddha has long known that living beings delight in the Lesser and has long praised and shown it in accord with their habituation. Their ability to attain the path swiftly today occurs because their present hearing accords with habituation from the distant past.

The distant past does not make today unimportant. It prevents today's opportunity from appearing as an uncaused transformation. The removal of obstructions, arousal of the great capacity, reverent arrival before the Buddha, and desire to hear the complete path have all ripened over a long time. Yet today remains the crucial moment of moving from speechlessness to three earnest requests and from silent seeking to explicit seeking. The past prepared ears able to hear; only today is what they seek truly voiced.

Seeking can occur in three places. The capacity itself already contains the meaning of eliciting a fruit; this is seeking within capacity. Inwardly and silently asking whether one can attain it is seeking within feeling. Earnestly requesting the Dharma aloud is seeking through speech. The first two already existed within former teaching and transformation, while the third becomes complete only today. These three levels show that “seeking” is more than a spoken request. Body and mind may already face a destination while one cannot yet articulate that direction. When speech finally emerges, the capacity and intention long in preparation publicly become an event within the Dharma assembly.

The arousal of the great capacity and removal of obstructions do not always occur simultaneously. For some, obstructions have been removed but the great capacity has not arisen. For some, the great capacity has arisen while afflictions remain. For some, both mature together. For others, neither has occurred. The Buddha rejoices not because living beings have already completed everything, but because their faculties are now sharp and their resolve great, and after hearing they can believe and understand: this is precisely the time to teach buddha-wisdom. He no longer fears that through attachment to the Lesser they will slander the Great and suffer harm, and therefore teaches only the one straightforward path.

Revealing the real also unfolds simultaneously through persons, principle, teaching, and practice. Practitioners of all three vehicles are children of the Buddha, so persons are no longer divided by former names. The wisdom the Buddha teaches points to the principle they realize together. Teaching only the unsurpassed path means the teaching no longer takes skillful means as its endpoint. That all listeners will become buddhas directs practice toward one accomplishment. The four ones do not erase every course with one sentence; they give each course of provisional means the destination toward which it always tended.

VII. If the Dharma Is Equal, Why Still Distinguish People and Exhort Belief?

The Buddha-Dharma is difficult to encounter in four ways. A buddha appears only after a profoundly distant time: the person is difficult. Even after a buddha appears, the real is taught only when the time has come: the Dharma is difficult. The sound of Dharma reaches the ears, yet some leave the assembly: hearing is difficult. Some remain and hear, yet still may not understand: belief and reception are difficult. The difficulty does not lie in the Buddha's stinginess. Appearance in the world, proclamation, hearing, and entry through belief each require conditions.

The simile of the udumbara flower therefore does more than praise rarity. The moment of flowering gathers conditions accumulated through long waiting. The moment when the Buddha teaches this Dharma likewise gathers ripening from the distant past, gradual removal of obstructions, arousal of the great capacity, and listeners' willingness to believe and receive. If rarity is understood only as a spectacle seldom seen, its real urgency is missed: now that one has encountered it, will one allow what is heard to become one's own practice?

Absence of falsehood is explained first through the trustworthy person and then through the trustworthy Dharma. The Buddha is the Dharma King. His earlier establishment of skillful means does not mean that he formerly spoke falsely. Skillful means are provisional establishments responsive to capacities; the real is the destination toward which those establishments lead. If, because the real is now revealed, everything said before is called deception, skillful means lose their genuine function of saving beings. If, because earlier skillful means were effective, one refuses to advance, they become fixed as an obstruction. The Buddha's words are not false precisely because the provisional never departed from his original intent to cause living beings to become buddhas.

The final distinction of the assembly likewise does not close the Dharma gateway. Those attached to sensual desire bind life within birth-and-death, while those of overweening pride claim to have attained what they have not; neither continues seeking progress toward the buddha path. Only people with a sense of shame who can purify themselves preserve room to change after hearing. What is distinguished is the grasping that prevents belief and reception from arising, not living beings predesignated as forever unable to become buddhas.

The final three lines therefore exhort belief in both provisional and real. Believing only skillful means treats a temporary establishment as final. Believing only the real while denying skillful means leaves those unable to enter directly within the burning house. Only when doubt about both is gone can one see the whole movement of the Buddha's teaching: through great compassion he enters the house, through discernment of capacities he establishes a road, when capacities ripen he reveals the real, and living beings finally know that every step they have taken was originally directed toward becoming buddhas.

Through the Eye of the Wenjuji

The Fahua Wenjuji first explains that the root treatise lists the various masters' divisions of the parable at length because their divisions and the Dharma-teaching diverge from one another. With no settled basis for choosing a foundation of the parable, it first relates what is wrong and only afterward gives the correct explanation. It regards the old ten-parable division as the strongest among the various masters, yet still tests it through the root treatise's four faults of earlier and later, greater and lesser, presence and absence, and scriptural citation. Being comparatively superior does not make it the final judgment. The mirror gathers its standard into one sentence: to traverse what precedes and follows without discrepancy, the text must be explained according to three sections; only within particular ranges may it be opened into three, four, or a brief six and extensive six.〔Fahua Wenjuji T34n1719 0248a04–0249c25〕

Concerning peace in the brief verse, the mirror supplements an affective line: the Buddha has realized peace and also wishes to cause living beings to dwell there. Living beings still dwell in the unpeaceful place of the three realms, which moves the Buddha's great compassion and causes him to enter the burning house in alarm. It further says that the Tathāgata originally benefits living beings through one gateway and establishes manifold gateways only because circumstances leave no alternative; their original intent remains revealing the real. One gateway and many gateways thus become not a numerical opposition, but a movement between original intent and responsiveness to capacities.〔Fahua Wenjuji T34n1719 0249c25–0250a05〕

In the passage on the five turbidities, the mirror especially preserves the reversed point of “seeking to abandon suffering through suffering”: all three feelings are suffering, and there is no possibility of using such painful feeling as a method for relinquishing suffering. It does not recopy every name of the six destinies. After explaining the levels of causes and conditions and contemplating the mind, it expressly says that other scriptures and treatises distinguish them extensively and that what is not essential is not listed in full. Ending the discussion does not mean that the root treatise's list lacks a basis. Its further explanations of the thoughts of beings newly born in hell, shares conducive to liberation, and related meanings are additions within the mirror.〔Fahua Wenjuji T34n1719 0250b01–0250c24〕

Concerning the Buddha's first sitting at the place of awakening, the mirror follows the old commentary cited later and further connects the opening sentence to the great Dharma taught when the Buddha first awakened. It also supplements the geography of the place of awakening and the different numbers of days recorded in several scriptures and treatises. It expressly says that two, three, six, seven, and eight seven-day periods arise from differing perceptions in living beings' capacities and need not be forcibly reconciled. This judgment reminds the reader that the three seven-day periods adopted by the root treatise have an expressive function; they cannot conversely be made the only historical count in every transmitted text.〔Fahua Wenjuji T34n1719 0250c25–0251c17〕

Concerning provisional proclamation of what cannot be proclaimed, the mirror distinguishes the root treatise's three explanations more clearly. At the first level, the real cannot be spoken while the three provisional teachings can be enumerated. At the second, what neither arises nor ceases cannot be spoken while arising and ceasing are taught provisionally. At the third, the principle of partial truth cannot be proclaimed while four gateways are opened. It further correlates reception, practice, awakening, and entry with gradual transformation after hearing the Dharma and limits the appearance of the Three Jewels in the world to the beginning of gradual teaching and to the scope presently discussed. These boundaries prevent the three explanations from being blended into one general statement.〔Fahua Wenjuji T34n1719 0251c17–0252a09〕

In the mirror, “throughout distant eons” is further directed to the period after forming a connection in the distant past. This temporal placement is the mirror's judgment; the root treatise itself uses only the words distant past to resolve the two doubts concerning the Buddha and the disciples. Regarding the three kinds of seeking, the mirror again confirms that seeking within capacity means only possessing the sense of eliciting a fruit, while seeking within feeling is only a silent inward search. These two existed in the past, while seeking through speech occurs only today. It also distinguishes that arousal of the great capacity can be called seeking the fruit, but may not thereby be forced into the foundation of the parable of seeking the small carts.〔Fahua Wenjuji T34n1719 0252a09–0252c16〕

In the praise of the Dharma, the mirror opens the shared path of the buddhas of the three times into two aspects. In terms of teaching, the provisional is established for the sake of the real, followed by opening the provisional to reveal the real. In terms of principle, nonduality of provisional and real is itself the real. This “nonduality” is the mirror's development of the root treatise's meaning of nondiscrimination and should not be written backward as a new heading expressly listed by the root treatise. Concerning absence of falsehood, it further says that although skillful means are called provisional and temporary in relation to the real, the Buddha's original intent is not false. Once the provisional has been established it ultimately returns to the real; the real has now been taught, and the assembly is therefore exhorted not to doubt.〔Fahua Wenjuji T34n1719 0252c16–0252c29〕

The mirror likewise does not erase the old explanation of the final seven lines recorded in the root treatise. It judges that although the old reading is not the root treatise's final choice, it is not wholly without a path and preserves the agreements and differences between its reading of transmitting the scripture and bestowing predictions and the present judgment. At the end of the entire passage, it mutually distinguishes ordinary beings' attachment to desire and Lesser Vehicle practitioners' attachment to nirvāṇa, saying that only when both forms of grasping are relinquished are they fit to receive predictions. This conclusion is the mirror's distillation of the root treatise's final passage. The root treatise's own categories of overweening pride, evil people after the Buddha's extinction, shame and purity, and exhortation to believe the provisional and real must still be preserved individually.〔Fahua Wenjuji T34n1719 0252c24–0253a01〕