妙法蓮華經文句 譬喻品 · 法說五段與領解
舍利弗不是沒有修證，也不是從未聽過大法。正因為已經得到一些，他才更容易把中途所得判成最後所得。
他看見菩薩受記，自己卻不在其中，便以為佛有所偏。直到今天，他才承認：問題不在佛沒有說，也不在真理有所保留，而在自己沒有接受前面已顯的成佛之因，也沒有等待後來必說的真實。他在前後兩端之間匆匆取小，既不懂真實，也不懂方便。
所以譬喻先從一棵樹、一把扇子說起。風看不見，樹動了，人才知道風；月太高遠，循著扇子所指，人才抬頭。真正的善巧，不是把深義說淺，而是讓仍在歧路上的人終於看見方向。
舍利弗的合掌尤其動人。從前權宜與真實如兩掌分開，今天兩掌相合；心裡解開的事，變成身體的動作。他見佛、聞法、心解，身、口、意同時歡喜。這不是一時激動，而是『我被排除在成佛之外』的疑網終於斷了。
佛接著述成他：你不是從未走在大路上，只是中途忘了本願。先前的小善也沒有被丟棄，它原是方便接引；今天顯示真實，是使那段路重新通向本來的大心。
授記因此不只是告訴舍利弗，他將來會成佛。它把一個人的領解展開成長久的行因、國土、眾生、說法與法的延續；又使四眾看見，舍利弗的未來也可以成為自己的未來。於是，一個人的疑悔斷除，化成整個法會的歡喜、供養與迴向。
我們最需要提防的，也許不是完全不懂，而是懂了一點，便不再等待。兩楹之間那個太快的答案，常常正是下一次領解必須鬆開的地方。
Have you truly understood, or have you merely seized an answer too quickly between the two pillars? Śāriputra was neither without realization nor someone who had never heard the Great Dharma. Precisely because he had attained something, he could more easily judge an intermediate attainment to be the final one.
He saw bodhisattvas receive predictions while he was not among them and therefore thought that the Buddha showed partiality. Only today does he acknowledge that the problem was neither the Buddha's failure to teach nor the truth's being withheld. He himself had failed to receive the cause of buddhahood already revealed at the earlier end and had not waited for the real that would necessarily be taught at the later end. Between those two ends, he hurriedly took the Lesser and understood neither the real nor skillful means.
The explanation of simile therefore begins with a tree and a fan. Wind cannot be seen, but when the tree moves people know there is wind. The moon is too high and distant, but by following the direction in which a fan points people lift their eyes. Genuine skill is not the reduction of profound meaning to something shallow; it enables those still at a crossroads finally to see the direction.
Śāriputra's joining of his palms is especially moving. Formerly, provisional and real were apart like two separated palms; today the palms come together. What has opened within his mind becomes a movement of the body. He sees the Buddha, hears the Dharma, and understands in his mind, so body, speech, and mind rejoice together. This is not a momentary excitement but the final severing of the net of doubt that said, “I am excluded from buddhahood.”
The Buddha next confirms his understanding: You were never absent from the great road; midway, you merely forgot your original vow. The earlier lesser goodness has not been discarded—it was skillful guidance. Revealing the real today reconnects that stretch of road with the great resolve from which it began.
The prediction therefore does more than tell Śāriputra that he will become a buddha. It unfolds one person's understanding into long cultivation of causes, a land, living beings, teaching of the Dharma, and the Dharma's continuation. It also lets the fourfold assembly see that Śāriputra's future can become their own. One person's doubts and regrets end, transforming into the entire assembly's joy, offerings, and dedication.
Perhaps what we most need to guard against is not complete failure to understand, but understanding a little and then ceasing to wait. That too-quick answer between the two pillars is often precisely what the next act of understanding must release.
隋天台智者大師說《妙法蓮華經文句》〔灌頂法師私記・唐天寶戊子朗和尚條倫治定本・卷端序＝鏡中沙門神逈述〕· 大正藏 T34n1718〔起 T34 0063b11〕。段/行首〔T34 …〕＝大正藏頁·欄·行錨（換頁一枚）。
〔T34 0063b11〕釋譬喻品 先總釋，「譬」者比況也，「喻」者曉訓也，託此比彼，寄淺訓深。前廣明五佛長行偈頌，上根利智圓聞獲悟，中下之流抱迷未遣，大悲不已巧智無邊，更動樹訓風、舉扇喻月，使其悟解，故言譬喻。別釋者，以世法比出世法，因於曾有聞未曾有，踊躍歡喜，如經世間子父譬出世師弟。又以世生法比出世生法，使蒙佛音教不失大乘，如經父知諸子先心各有所好珍玩之具。又以世滅比出世滅，雖得無漏，聞亦除憂惱，如經我為其父應拔其苦難令免燒煮。又以世不生不滅比出世不生不滅，令其安住實智中我定當作佛，如經乘是寶乘直至道場。當知佛以一音說於譬喻，巧令中下得四悉檀益，故言「譬喻品」也。 約教解者，佛意本讚佛乘，為物不堪，尋念先佛大悲方便，趣於鹿苑稱讚三車，二乘以下中自濟恩不及人，菩薩駕牛運他出火，故名摩訶薩，此三藏教中譬喻也。又三人同畏燒煮，聲聞如麞直去不迴，緣覺如鹿母並馳並顧，菩薩如大象，身扞刀箭全群而出。《涅槃》云「兔馬」，此通教中譬喻也。又三乘發心近、緣理淺、智慧弱，斷通惑不能盡邊到底，非波羅蜜，菩薩發心久遠，理深智彊，斷別惑窮源盡性。《大品》云：「二乘如螢火，菩薩如日光。」此別教中譬喻也。又始見我身聞我所說，即皆信受入如來慧，如斯之人易可化度，不令如來生於疲苦，如《華嚴》中，即事而真不須譬喻。為未入者，四十餘年更以異方便助顯第一義，今日王城決定說大乘，普令一切開示悟入佛之智慧，不令一人獨得滅度，如今如始，如始如今，無二無異。上根利智聞即能解，不令如來生於疲苦，亦不須譬喻，秖為中下動執生疑，踟蹰岐道，故須今日大車譬喻而得利益，是名圓教中譬喻也。本迹、觀心，例可解，不復記〔云云〕。 法說有五段經文，其一始竟四猶未了，此品應在諸天說偈之後，火宅譬喻之前，出經者，調卷置領解之初耳。又人云：「發起中根，置第二卷初，如六瑞問答為法說作序，領解得記為譬說作序。」此人情耳，置法說之後，中根可不悟耶？此領解段，領其所聞、述其所解，長行領與解合說，偈中領與解各陳，故言領解段也。 文有二：一、經家敘，二、身子自陳。敘為二：謂內解、外儀，內解在心名喜，喜動於形名踊躍，從妙人聞妙法、得妙解，若值一幸尚復欣抃，況三喜具足寧不踊躍？文云：「今從世尊聞此法音心懷踊躍」，內外和合致此歡喜，即世界釋也。又改小學大，棄貧事草庵，受富豪家業，文云：「今日乃知真是佛子」，是故歡喜，此為人釋也。又憂悔雙遣疑難並除，內外妨障廓然大朗，文云：「我已得漏盡，聞亦除憂惱」，是故歡喜，此對治釋也。又佛子所應得者皆已得之，文云：「安住實智中，我定當作佛」，此第一義釋也。約教者，夫歡喜喜於入位，而阿羅漢出三界籠樊，破四住子果，對害不戚、逢利不欣，今言歡喜決非世間喜也。若苦忍明發、若究竟無學，先已得之，今不應重喜，若三人同以無言說道，體析雖異證空一致，一致之喜久已得之，亦不重喜。若二空觀為方便道，假觀蕩二乘之隘陋，空觀蕩凡夫之喧湫，過二邊惡得大歡喜，依圓悟初發心住名歡喜住，初行亦名歡喜行，初地亦名歡喜地。身子既是上根利智，必是超入之歡喜，設不超入亦名歡喜，此皆約教釋也。 〔T34 0064a19〕本迹釋者，身子久成佛，號金龍陀，迹助釋迦為右面智慧弟子，始從外道拔邪歸正，示乳味歡喜利益凡夫，次示酪味歡喜利益賢聖，次示生蘇、熟蘇歡喜利益菩薩，今作醍醐入佛知見，歡喜利益學佛道者，如此等歡喜，皆迹所為也。觀心解不復記〔云云〕。 敘外儀者，「即起合掌」名身領解，昔權實為二如掌不合，今解權即實如二掌合。「向佛」者，昔權非佛因、實非佛果，今解權即實成大圓因，因必趣果故言「合掌向佛」。「瞻仰尊顏」者，表其解實，實即佛境非方便法，瞻仰尊顏無餘思念，表開佛知見，意解於實亦即解權，身領於權亦解於實，互舉一邊。「白佛」下，口領解也，即是身子自陳，文為二：初長行、二偈頌。初文為三：一、標三喜章；二、釋；三、結成。「今從世尊」，標我身見佛身故名身喜，「聞此法音」，依於佛口聞而歡喜故言口喜，「得未曾有」，是我意解佛意故名意喜，是為標章也。次「所以者何」下，第二釋者，提昔之失，顯今之得。從「所以者何」訖「無量知見」，明昔不見佛為失，昔佛為菩薩授記，我不豫斯事，見佛義遠，既不見佛故無身喜。「聞如是法」者，若日照高山時，密有聞義，顯如聾如啞，不得道聞如是法也，秖是方等教中聞大乘實慧與今不殊，故言聞如是法也。「受記」者，亦是方等中與菩薩記，二乘不豫斯事。「甚自感傷」，《思益》、《淨名》中聞褒大折小，內疑而外鄙，名為感傷。「失一切知見」者，失佛眼之見，失佛智之知也。從「世尊」訖「非世尊也」，明昔不聞法失，良以身處山林，心執小道，則不聞法故無口喜。「我甞獨處」者，思過之所也。「同入法性」者，正出其過，執所入之一理，疑於三教之能門，一理既同而我失知見，三教既異而菩薩受莂，受莂則如來有偏所以成過，今述此失故言悔過。「是我等咎」者，由我迷權，何關理教？由我惑實，何關佛偏？追述昔非仰謝如來，是為引過自歸也。從「所以者何」訖「每自剋責」，明意無解之失，良以不待說所因則無實解，又不識方便故無權解，解無故故無意喜，昔失既彰，今得自顯。不待說所因者，自責不解實也；不解方便者，自責不解權也。所因二義：一、不受待對於前；二、不停待於後，初照高山明三諦之惠，是得佛因，以此待對於我，而我不受，失之於前；諸佛法久後要當說真實，我不停待，於此兩楹間，怱怱取小不解實權，如文。「而今從佛」下，結成三喜，先結、後成。「從佛」是結身喜也，「聞法」結口喜也，「斷諸疑悔」是結意喜，「乃知真是佛子」，近佛義成也。「從佛口生」結口成也。「從法化生」是結意成。如此消文文盡，釋理理彰也。更用四悉檀消文，「今從世尊」下，是世界歡喜；從「所以者何」，提昔失顯今得，是為人喜；從「世尊我從昔來」，對治喜也；從「今日乃知」下，是第一義喜也。更約喜心明四悉，心喜動悅，常未曾有，喜動覺觀，復動于形〔云云〕。 偈有二十五行半，為三： 初一行，頌標三喜，舉我聞兼得佛也。 從「昔來」下，第二、二十二行，頌釋三喜，又為三：今初一行半，頌見佛喜，長行明失知見，頌中明不失大乘，上論失論遠，頌論近論得，互現耳。「我處於山谷」下，第二，十一行，頌上不聞法，又為二：初九行，頌上身遠故不聞；次「我本著邪見」下，第二，兩行，頌上入法性故不聞。邪見是凡人著，入法性是二乘著，俱不聞法。「我甞於日夜」者，生死為夜、涅槃為日，為生死中有涅槃，為生死外有耶？若得悟時二疑雙遣。又生死涅槃俱為夜，此疑得除名為日，日出時二疑雙遣。又世人二種，一、草創學大；二、習小入大，桷其事相直入者劣，例如從《阿毘曇》中入者勝，菩薩亦應爾，於《華嚴》中入者，化道應弱，五味洮汏入者勝。從「而今乃自覺」下，第三，有九行半，頌上心得妙解喜，上明不待所因不解方便，頌中明得所因又解方便，聞當作佛是所因，聞五佛道同解魔非魔，是解方便，互顯一邊五佛章，即是領文也；從「聞佛柔軟音」下，第三，二行半，頌上結成，如文。 〔T34 0065a10〕「爾時佛告舍利弗吾今」下，是第三，述成段。上身子自陳得悟，今如來述解非虛，文有三：一、昔曾教大；二、中忘取小；三、還為說大。所以引昔曾教，述其見佛之緣；若中忘取小，述其憂悔聞法之緣；還為說大，述其悟解不虛。述成上三意也。《十住毘婆沙》云：「身無上，謂相好；受持無上，謂自利利他；具足無上，謂命見戒；智慧無上，謂四無礙；不思議無上，謂六波羅蜜；解脫無上，能壞二障；行無上，謂聖行梵行。又身無上名大丈夫，受持無上名大慈悲，具足無上名到彼岸，智無上名一切智，不思議無上名阿羅訶，解脫無上名大涅槃，行無上名三藐三佛陀。」《菩薩瓔珞》十三云：「道當清淨，穢濁非道；道當一心，多想非道；道當知足，多欲非道；道當恭敬，憍慢非道；道當檢意，放逸非道；道當顯曜，自隱非道；道當連屬，無行非道；道當覺悟，愚惑非道；道當教化，矜悋非道；道近善友，習惡非道。」如是等種種明無上道，今經以圓通為無上道，若偏、若次皆他經所論。「長夜隨我受學」者，昔雖大化未破無明，惑闇心中隨佛受學，了因雖遠猶尚不滅，況今真悟寧虛？故舉曾教述見佛不謬也。「我以方便生我法中」者，此義兩牽，若昔以大化，今生大解，此屬初意；若令免惡道權以小引，此是第二意。從「我昔教汝志願佛道，汝今悉忘」，自有中途廢大習小，名中途悉忘；若「而今便自謂已得滅度」，即是而今悉忘。由汝忘大、願即習小，致有憂悔，而得聞法不虛也。「我今還欲令汝憶念本願」，即是述其得解不虛。先施權教，成其中途小善，後顯真實，遂其本願大心也。 從「汝於未來」下，是大段第四，授記段。前自陳佛印竟，是故與記，若得大解自知得佛，何俟須記？記有四意：一、昔未記二乘而今須記；二、中下未悟，以記勉勵之；三、令聞者結緣；四、滿其本願，是故記也。有長行、偈頌，長行為十：一、時節；二、行因；三、得果，釋十號甚多，且記一種，無虛妄名如來，良福田名應供，知法界名正遍知，具三明名明行足，不還來名善逝，知眾生國土名世間解，無與等名無上士，調他心名丈夫，為眾生眼名天人師，知三聚名為佛，壞波旬名婆伽婆；四、國土；五、說法；六、劫名；七、眾數；八、壽量；九、補處；十、法住久近，悉如文。《大論》四十八云：「舍利弗，正法三十二小劫者，三災飢、病、刀滅眾生者名小劫。」又直是時節名小劫，如說《法華經》六十小劫，亦是時節數耳，非三災滅外物為小劫也。偈有十一行半，為二：初十行，頌上九意，略不頌補處，長有供養舍利；後一行半，結歎。初一行，超頌得果；次「供養」下，第二，一行，追頌行因；次「過無量」下，第三，半行，超頌劫名；次「世界名」下，第四，一行半，頌國淨；次「彼國」下，第五，一行半，頌菩薩眾數；次「如是等」下，第六，半行，頌說法；次「佛為王子」下，第七，二行，頌壽量；次「佛滅度之」下，第八，一行半，頌法住久近；次「舍利廣」下，第九，半行，供養舍利；後「華光佛」下，第二，一行半，結歎。「宜應自欣慶」者，成初入歡喜位之解也，初住能百佛世界作佛，行地倍是。 第五，四眾領解，有長行、偈頌。初經家敘眾喜；次陳供養。「作是言」下，正領解。初領開權，今乃復轉下，領顯實也。偈有六行半，為二：初二行，頌上開權顯實；後四行半，自述得解隨喜迴向也。「我等亦如是」者，如身子之領解，如身子被述成，如身子之得記也。 問： 迦葉、善吉諸大聲聞，尚未得解，四眾何人而先獲悟？ 答： 四眾天人亦具三品，上根同身子，中下可知。又解，身子、迦葉並是權行，中下未開故，迦葉、滿願示同不解，《淨名》云：「眾生未愈，菩薩亦未愈。」〔云云〕
The canonical text stands in Chinese only. This edition renders the essence, the plain reading, the exposition and the apparatus into English — never the sūtra itself. Switch to 漢讀本 or 並行雙語 above to read it.
一、譬喻品：總釋與四種利益
現在解釋〈譬喻品〉。
先作總的解釋。所謂譬，是拿一件事來比況另一件事；所謂喻，是使人明白、受到曉諭。借這件較淺近的事來比那件事，寄託在淺近的事物上，使人明白深義。
前面已經廣說五佛章的長行與偈頌。上根而智慧銳利的人，聽到圓滿的法說便已經悟入；中根、下根的人仍然抱持迷惑，還沒有除去。如來的大悲不肯就此停止，善巧智慧又沒有邊際，所以再用樹木搖動來使人知道有風，用舉起扇子來使人明白所指的月，使中下根人也能悟解，因此稱為譬喻。
再作分別解釋。第一，用世間之法比況出世間之法。眾生由曾經有過的父子關係，聽到從未聽過的出世師弟關係，因而踊躍歡喜；經文以世間父子譬喻出世師弟，這是從共同所處的世界使人得到歡喜。
第二，用世間的生，比況出世間的生。眾生蒙受佛的音聲教導，不再失去大乘；如經中說，父親知道諸子先前心中各有所喜好的珍玩之具。這使人承受佛教，生起應有的善法。
第三，用世間的滅，比況出世間的滅。聲聞雖然已得無漏，現在聽聞此法，又除去憂愁與苦惱；如經中父親自念，自己應當拔除諸子的苦難，使他們免受燒煮。這是以法對治憂惱。
第四，用世間的不生不滅，比況出世間的不生不滅，使人安住於真實智慧之中，確定自己將來必定成佛；如經中說，乘著這輛寶車，直接到達道場。這是以第一義使人得益。
由此可知，佛以同一音聲宣說譬喻，卻善巧地使中根、下根的人得到世界、為人、對治、第一義四種利益，所以本品名為〈譬喻品〉。
二、依四式釋譬與本迹、觀心
再依所說教法來解釋。
第一種，佛的本意原是稱讚佛乘，只因眾生不能承受，便憶念先佛以大悲施設方便的方法，到鹿苑稱讚三車。二乘只能自救，恩惠還不能及於別人；菩薩駕著牛車，又能運載他人離開火宅，所以稱為摩訶薩。這是三藏教中的譬喻。
第二種，三種人都畏懼火燒之苦。聲聞像麞一樣只管一直離去，不再回頭；緣覺像鹿母一樣，一面奔馳，一面還回顧幼鹿；菩薩則像大象，以自己的身體抵擋刀箭，保全整個群體而出。《涅槃經》又說到兔與馬。這是通教中的譬喻。
第三種，前三乘人發心較近，所緣之理較淺，智慧也較弱；雖然斷除共同的惑，卻不能窮盡邊際、到達根底，還不能稱為波羅蜜。菩薩發心久遠，所緣之理深，智慧強，能斷除別惑，窮究根源、盡其體性。《大品》用螢火與日光相比，說二乘如螢火，菩薩如日光。這是別教中的譬喻。
第四種，有些人最初見到佛身、聽聞佛說，立即信受，進入如來智慧。這樣的人容易化度，不使如來生起疲勞與辛苦。正如《華嚴》所說的情境，就眼前事相而契入真實，不須藉譬。
對於尚未契入的人，四十多年來又用種種不同的方便，幫助顯示第一義。到了今天王城法會，決定宣說大乘，普遍使一切眾生開示悟入佛的智慧，不讓任何一個人只獨自取得滅度。今天所說如同最初所說，最初所說也如同今天所說，二者沒有差別，也沒有兩種真實。上根利智的人一聽就能理解，也不使如來勞苦，所以不須譬喻；只是中根、下根仍因固執而生疑，在歧路上遲疑不決，因此今天必須用大車作譬，使他們得到利益。這是圓教中的譬喻。
本迹與觀心可以依前例理解，本論不再詳記〔云云〕。
三、法說五段的安置與領解段
法說共有五段經文，其中第一段從開始到結束已經完成，另外四段仍未說完。若依義理次序，〈譬喻品〉應當安在諸天說偈之後、火宅譬喻之前；集出經卷的人為了調整卷次，把品題安置在領解段的開頭。
又有人說：這一段要發起中根人的悟解，所以放在第二卷之初；正如六瑞與問答替法說作序，舍利弗領解、得記也替譬說作序。
本論認為，這只是依人情作出的說法。若領解段已放在法說之後，難道中根人就不能在聽完法說後得到悟解嗎？
這一領解段，是領受自己所聽到的法，陳述自己所理解的義。長行把領受與理解合在一起說，偈頌則把領受與理解分別陳述，所以稱為領解段。
四、經家敘：內解
領解段的文分成兩部分：第一是經家敘述，第二是舍利弗自己陳說。經家敘述又有兩部分，就是內心的理解與外在的儀態。
理解在內心，稱為喜；喜悅發動而表現在形體，稱為踊躍。舍利弗從殊妙的人聽聞殊妙之法，又得到殊妙的理解。這三件事即使只遇到一件，尚且會歡欣鼓舞，何況三種喜事完全具足，怎麼會不踊躍？
經文說，舍利弗現在從世尊聽到這一法音，心中踊躍。內心與外形相應，才形成這一歡喜；這是從世界的共同經驗來解釋。
他又改變原先所學的小法，轉而學習大乘；捨棄貧窮生活所依的草庵，承受富豪之家的產業。經文說，今天才知道自己真正是佛子，所以歡喜；這是從能生善法來解釋。
從前的憂愁與後悔一同除去，疑惑與疑難也同時消失；內外的妨礙完全廓清，豁然明朗。經文說，自己已經斷盡有漏，聽聞此法又除去憂惱，所以歡喜；這是從對治來解釋。
佛子所應得到的，現在全都已經得到。經文說，安住真實智慧之中，自己確定將來必定成佛；這是從第一義來解釋。
再依所說教法辨別這個歡喜。一般所說的歡喜，是為契入某一修行位次而喜。可是阿羅漢早已出離三界牢籠，破除四住惑而證得果位，遇到損害不悲戚，遇到利益也不欣喜；現在說的歡喜，決不是世俗得失的歡喜。
如果把它理解為苦忍的明慧發起，或理解為究竟無學的證得，舍利弗先前早已得到，今天不應再次為此歡喜。如果三種人都以不可用言語表達的道而證空，雖然體空、析空的方式有別，所證之空卻是一致，那麼這一致之喜也早已得到，不會今天才再次歡喜。
若以觀二空作方便道，用假觀蕩除二乘的狹隘，用空觀蕩除凡夫的喧擾，越過空、有兩邊的偏失，便能得到大歡喜。依圓悟而說，初發心住名歡喜住，初行也名歡喜行，初地也名歡喜地。舍利弗既是上根利智，必定是超越次第而契入的歡喜；即使不是超入，也仍可稱為歡喜。這些都是依教法所作的解釋。
再依本迹來說，舍利弗久遠以前已經成佛，名號是金龍陀；現在示現為釋迦佛右面的智慧弟子，輔助佛陀教化。他最初示現從外道中拔除邪見、歸於正道，在乳味階段示現歡喜，使凡夫得到利益；其次在酪味階段示現歡喜，使賢聖得到利益；再在生酥、熟酥階段示現歡喜，使菩薩得到利益；今天則在醍醐階段進入佛的知見，以歡喜利益學佛道的人。這些不同的歡喜，都是迹中為教化而作的示現。
觀心的解釋，本論不再詳記〔云云〕。
五、經家敘：外在儀態
經家接著敘述外在儀態。
舍利弗當下起身合掌，這叫作以身體領解。過去把權宜與真實看成兩件事，就像兩隻手掌沒有合攏；今天理解權宜當下就是實義，就像兩掌相合。
他面向佛陀。過去以為權宜之法不是成佛的因，實義也不是佛果；今天理解權宜當下就是實義，成為圓滿廣大的因，而因必定趣向佛果，所以合掌面向佛陀。
他又瞻仰世尊的面容，表示自己理解真實。真實正是佛的境界，不是方便法；瞻仰尊顏而沒有其他思念，表示佛的知見已經向他開顯。心意理解實義，也同時理解權宜；身體領受權宜，也同時理解實義。經文只在兩邊各舉一端，二者其實相互含攝。
從舍利弗向佛陀陳白以下，是以口領解，也就是舍利弗自己的陳說。自陳分成兩部分：先是長行，後是偈頌。長行又分三部分：第一標出三喜，第二解釋，第三總結成就。
舍利弗說自己現在從世尊處聞法，是標明自己的身體見到佛身，所以稱為身喜；說自己聽到這一法音，是從佛口聽聞而歡喜，所以稱為口喜；說自己得到前所未有的領解，是自己的心意理解佛意，所以稱為意喜。這就是標明三喜。
六、舍利弗自陳長行：標、釋、結
接著從舍利弗說明原因以下，是第二部分的解釋：提出過去的損失，顯示今天的所得。
從舍利弗說明原因，到說自己失去如來無量知見，說的是過去未能真正見佛之失。從前佛替菩薩授記，舍利弗沒有參與這件事，因此覺得自己與佛的關係遙遠。既然沒有見到自己也能成佛，便沒有身喜。
經文說從前聽到這樣的法。若以日光先照高山的時候來說，他在暗中並不是全無聽聞大法之義，但顯現在教法中的情形，卻如同聾者、啞者，不能說曾經聽聞這樣的法。就明顯的聽聞來說，這只是他在方等教中聽到大乘真實智慧，其義與今天所聞沒有差別，所以說曾經聽到這樣的法。
所謂授記，也是方等會中佛替菩薩授記，二乘人沒有參與。所謂非常感傷，是在《思益經》《淨名經》所示褒揚大乘、折伏小乘的情境中，內心懷疑而外表又受到貶抑，所以稱為感傷。所謂失去一切知見，是失去佛眼所見，也失去佛智所知。
從舍利弗再呼世尊，到承認過失不在世尊，說的是過去未能聞法之失。他的身體住在山林，心又執著小道，因而不能聽聞此法，所以沒有口喜。
他說自己曾經獨處，是說他在那裡反省自己的過失。他說大家同入法性，正是說出過失所在：他執著所入的同一理體，又疑惑三種教法何以有不同的入門。既然所入之理相同，自己卻失去佛的知見；既然三種教門不同，菩薩卻得到授記，他便以為如來有所偏向，因此構成過失。
現在他說這是自己的過咎，正是承認：由自己迷惑於權宜，與理、教有什麼關係？由自己迷惑於真實，又與佛是否偏心有什麼關係？他追述自己過去的錯誤，仰面感謝如來，把過失引回自身承擔。
從他再說明原因，到終日竟夜責備自己，說的是過去心中沒有領解之失。他沒有等待佛說明成佛的因，所以沒有真實之解；又不認識方便，所以沒有權宜之解。心中沒有權、實二解，便沒有意喜。過去的三失既已顯明，今天的三得也就自然顯出。
沒有等待佛說明所因，是責備自己不理解真實；不理解方便，是責備自己不理解權宜。所謂等待所因，有兩層意思：第一，先前已有可以相對而顯的法，他卻沒有接受；第二，後來還有應當等待的真實，他卻沒有停留等待。
最初如日照高山時，三諦智慧已顯示成佛之因；這一教法已經放在他面前，與他的所得相對，他卻沒有接受，因而在前面錯失。諸佛之法經過很久以後，必定要宣說真實；他又沒有停下來等待，便在前後兩端之間匆匆取得小果，既不理解真實，也不理解權宜。經文所說的正是這件事。
從舍利弗說現在從佛聞法以下，是總結三喜，先作總結，後明三喜所成就的身分。
說從佛而聞，是總結身喜；說聽聞此法，是總結口喜；說斷除種種疑惑與悔恨，是總結意喜。說今天才知道自己真是佛子，是成就親近佛的身分；說從佛口而生，是成就口喜；說從法化生，是成就意喜。這樣逐句消解，經文的意思沒有剩餘；所釋的理義也因此彰明。
還可以再用四種利益消解這段經文。從現在由世尊處聞法以下，是世界歡喜；從舍利弗說明原因、提出過失而顯示今天的所得，是為人歡喜；從再呼世尊、追述自己從前的心行，是對治歡喜；從今天才知道自己真是佛子以下，是第一義歡喜。
又可只從歡喜心來說四種利益：內心的喜悅發動而欣悅，這是平常未曾有過的；喜又發動心中的覺察與思量，進而表現在形體上〔云云〕。
七、二十五行半偈：標、釋、結
偈頌共有二十五行半，分成三部分。
最初一行，重頌標明三喜。偈中舉出自己聽聞法音，同時兼明將來得佛。
從昔來以下，第二部分共有二十二行，重頌解釋三喜；其中又分成三部分。
第一部分有一行半，重頌見佛之喜。長行說自己失去佛的知見，偈頌卻說自己從前並未失去大乘。長行從較遠處說失，偈頌從較近處說得，兩邊互相顯示。
從自己身處山谷以下，第二部分有十一行，重頌前面未能聞法，又分成兩段：最初九行，重頌身體遠離佛陀，所以不能聞法；從自己本來執著邪見以下的兩行，重頌因執著同入法性，所以不能聞法。邪見是凡夫的執著，執著已入法性則是二乘的執著；兩種執著都使人不能聽到眼前所說的法。
偈中說，自己曾經日日夜夜思量。這又有幾層理解。第一，把生死稱為夜，把涅槃稱為日；他所疑的是：涅槃究竟在生死之中，還是在生死之外？得到悟解時，這兩種疑惑一同除去。
第二，也可以把生死與涅槃都稱為夜；這一疑惑被除去，才稱為日。日光出現時，對生死、涅槃的兩種疑惑也同時消失。
第三，世間學道人可分兩種：一種是最初便開始學大乘，一種是先學小乘再入大乘。若衡量兩者的具體情形，直接入大乘的人反而較弱，例如先從《阿毘曇》學入的人較強。菩薩也應當如此：直接在《華嚴》會中契入的人，教化他人的歷程應當較弱；經過五味淘洗而契入的人則較強。
從現在才自己覺察以下，第三部分有九行半，重頌前面心得妙解之喜。長行說過去沒有等待所因，也不理解方便；偈頌則從正面說，今天得到所因，也理解方便。聽到自己將來成佛，便是得到成佛之因；聽到五佛所行之道相同，因而明白眼前是佛而不是魔，便是理解方便。長行與偈頌各顯一邊。這裡領受五佛章所說，所以也是領文。
從聽到佛柔軟的音聲以下，第三大部分有二行半，重頌前面總結成就的三喜；經文的次第十分明白。
八、第三述成：教大、忘大、還說大
從佛告舍利弗以下，是第三述成段。前面舍利弗自己陳說已得悟解，現在如來述說他的領解，證明所解並非虛妄。
述成分成三部分：第一，過去曾經教他大乘；第二，他在中途忘失大乘而取得小果；第三，現在又為他宣說大乘。
所以先提出過去曾經教大，是述成他今天見佛的因緣；說他中途忘失而取小，是述成他從前憂悔、今天聞法的因緣；再為他說大，則述成他今天的悟解確實不虛。這三項正好述成前面三種意思。
本論接著引《十住毘婆沙》解釋無上道。第一重列七無上：身無上，是相好莊嚴；受持無上，是自利又利他；具足無上，是命、見、戒；智慧無上，是四無礙；不可思議無上，是六波羅蜜；解脫無上，是能破兩種障礙；行無上，是聖行與梵行。
第二重仍列七項：身無上名大丈夫；受持無上名大慈悲；具足無上名到彼岸；智慧無上名一切智；不可思議無上名阿羅訶；解脫無上名大涅槃；行無上名三藐三佛陀。
本論又引《菩薩瓔珞》卷十三，列出十對：道應當清淨，穢濁不是道；道應當一心，多想不是道；道應當知足，多欲不是道；道應當恭敬，憍慢不是道；道應當檢束心意，放逸不是道；道應當顯明照耀，隱藏自己不是道；道應當前後連屬，沒有實行不是道；道應當覺悟，愚惑不是道；道應當教化，吝惜教法不是道；道應當親近善友，熏習惡法不是道。
像這樣，各經論以種種方式說明無上道。本經以圓滿通達為無上道；偏在一邊或依次第漸進的義，都是其他經典所論。
佛說舍利弗在長夜中隨祂受學，是說過去雖曾用大乘教化他，他仍未破除無明，在迷惑昏暗的心中跟隨佛陀學習。能成就理解的遠因尚且不曾消滅，何況今天真正悟入，怎麼會是虛妄？因此，佛舉出過去曾教大乘，述成舍利弗今天見佛不謬。
佛說以方便使他生在佛法之中，這句話牽連兩層意思。若指過去以大乘教化，今天生起大乘之解，便屬第一項曾經教大；若指為了使他免墮惡道，先以小法接引，便屬第二項中途取小。
佛又說，從前教他發願求佛道，而他今天全都忘了。若說他中途廢棄大乘而改習小法，便是中途全忘；若說他現在竟以為自己已得滅度，便是直到今天仍然全忘。因為他忘失大乘，心願隨即轉而修習小法，才生起憂愁與悔恨；現在能聽聞此法，確實不是虛妄。
佛今天要使他重新憶念原有大願，正是述成他的理解不虛。先施設權宜之教，成就他中途所得的小善；後來顯示真實，完成他本來所發的大心。
九、第四授記：四意、長行十科與偈頌
從佛說舍利弗未來成佛以下，是第四授記段。舍利弗先陳說自己的理解，佛又印可完畢，因此為他授記。
有人會問：如果舍利弗真正得到大乘之解，自己便應當知道將來成佛，為什麼還要等佛授記？
授記有四種用意。第一，過去沒有替二乘人授記，今天必須明確授記；第二，中根、下根的人還沒有悟解，用授記勉勵他們；第三，使聽到授記的人與佛道結緣；第四，滿足舍利弗原有的本願。因此仍須授記。
授記有長行與偈頌。長行分成十科。
第一，成佛的時節。第二，成佛以前所行之因。第三，所得佛果。佛的十號可作很多解釋，此處只記一種：沒有虛妄，所以名如來；是良好的福田，所以名應供；知道法界，所以名正遍知；具足三明，所以名明行足；不再退還，所以名善逝；知道眾生與國土，所以名世間解；無人可以與之相等，所以名無上士；能調伏他人之心，所以名調御丈夫；作眾生的眼目，所以名天人師；知道三聚，所以名佛；破壞波旬，所以名婆伽婆。
第四，佛國土地。第五，在國中所說的法。第六，劫的名稱。第七，會中大眾的數量。第八，佛與人民的壽量。第九，補處菩薩。第十，佛滅後正法、像法住世的久近。十科都可依根經正文讀知。
本論又引《大論》卷四十八，說舍利弗所得授記中正法住三十二小劫；飢餓、疾病、刀兵三災毀滅眾生，便稱為小劫。又有一種說法，只把一段時節稱為小劫；例如經中說宣講《法華經》經過六十小劫，也只是計算時節，並不是三災毀滅外在事物才可名小劫。
授記偈共有十一行半，分成兩部分。最初十行重頌長行九項，略去補處不頌，另外增加供養舍利；最後一行半總結讚歎。
最初一行越次先頌所得佛果。從供養諸佛以下的一行，回頭頌所行之因。從經過無量劫以下半行，越次頌劫名。從世界名離垢以下一行半，頌國土清淨。從彼國菩薩以下一行半，頌菩薩眾數。從像這些大士以下半行，頌佛所說之法。從佛為王子以下二行，頌佛與人民壽量。從佛滅度以後以下一行半，頌正法、像法住世的久近。從舍利廣泛流布以下半行，是供養舍利。最後從華光佛所為以下一行半，總結讚歎。
偈中勸舍利弗應當為自己慶幸，是成就他最初進入歡喜位的理解。初住能在一百佛世界示現作佛，往後行位與地位的作用又成倍增廣。
十、第五四眾領解與結尾問答
第五是四眾領解，也有長行與偈頌。
長行最初由經家敘述大眾歡喜，其次敘述他們陳設供養。從大眾開口陳說以下，才是正式領解：先領受佛開顯先前權宜之教；說今天又再轉法輪以下，領受佛顯示真實。
偈頌共有六行半，分成兩部分。最初二行，重頌上面開示權宜、顯示真實；後四行半，大眾自己陳述所得理解，隨喜舍利弗受記，又把所有福業迴向佛道。
大眾說自己也同樣如此，是說他們也像舍利弗一樣領解，也像舍利弗一樣由佛述成，也像舍利弗一樣將來得到授記。
本論最後設問：迦葉、善吉等大聲聞尚未得到理解，在場四眾究竟是哪些人，怎麼反而先得到悟解？
第一支回答說：四眾與天人中也各有上、中、下三品根機。上根人與舍利弗同時悟解，中根、下根人的情形可以依此類推。
第二支又作另一種解釋：舍利弗與迦葉都是權巧示現的修行人；中根、下根的人尚未開解，所以迦葉、滿願也示現成同樣未解。正如《淨名經》所說的意思，眾生尚未痊癒，菩薩也尚未痊癒〔云云〕。
I. The Parable Chapter: General Explanation and Four Kinds of Benefit
The Parable chapter is now explained.
First comes the general explanation. A “parable” takes one matter as a comparison for another; its “illustration” causes people to understand and be instructed. A relatively accessible matter is borrowed to compare with another matter, and through reliance on what is accessible people are enabled to understand a profound meaning.
The prose and verse of the chapter on the five buddhas have already been extensively taught above. Those of superior faculties and sharp wisdom awakened and entered upon hearing the complete Dharma-teaching, but those of middling and inferior faculties still held to delusion and had not yet cast it off. The Tathāgata's great compassion would not stop there, and his skillful wisdom is limitless. He therefore again shakes a tree so that people know there is wind and raises a fan so that they understand the moon to which it points, enabling those of middling and inferior faculties also to awaken and understand. Hence this is called a parable.
Next comes the differentiated explanation. First, a worldly dharma is used to compare with a world-transcending dharma. From a father-son relationship they have experienced before, living beings hear of the world-transcending relationship between teacher and disciple that they have never heard of, and so leap with joy. The scripture uses a worldly father and sons to illustrate a world-transcending teacher and disciples. This brings people joy through the world they share.
Second, worldly birth is used to compare with world-transcending birth. Receiving the teaching of the Buddha's voice, living beings no longer lose the Great Vehicle. As the scripture says, the father knows that each of his children formerly had toys and rare objects they delighted in. This causes people to receive the Buddha's teaching and generate the wholesome dharmas they should have.
Third, worldly cessation is used to compare with world-transcending cessation. Although the śrāvakas have already attained the uncontaminated, on hearing this Dharma now they further cast off sorrow and distress. As in the scripture, the father thinks to himself that he should extricate his children from their hardship and keep them from being burned. This uses the Dharma to counteract sorrow and distress.
Fourth, worldly neither-arising-nor-ceasing is used to compare with world-transcending neither-arising-nor-ceasing, causing people to abide within real wisdom and know with certainty that they will become buddhas in the future. As the scripture says, they ride this jeweled vehicle directly to the place of awakening. This benefits people through the ultimate meaning.
It can therefore be known that although the Buddha proclaims a parable in a single voice, he skillfully enables those of middling and inferior faculties to receive the four benefits of the world, the individual, counteraction, and the ultimate meaning. Hence this chapter is named the Parable chapter.
II. Explaining the Parable through the Four Modes, Origin and Trace, and Contemplating the Mind
It is next explained in terms of the teaching that is taught.
In the first mode, the Buddha's original intent was to praise the buddha vehicle. Only because living beings could not receive it did he recollect how earlier buddhas established skillful means out of great compassion and go to the Deer Park to praise three carts. Those of the two vehicles can rescue only themselves, so their beneficence still cannot reach others. Bodhisattvas drive an ox cart and can also carry others out of the burning house, and so they are called mahāsattvas. This is the parable within the Tripiṭaka teaching.
In the second mode, all three kinds of people fear the suffering of being burned by fire. A śrāvaka is like a river deer who only keeps fleeing straight ahead and never looks back. A pratyekabuddha is like a mother deer who looks back at her fawn even while running. A bodhisattva is like a great elephant who shields against blades and arrows with his own body and brings the entire herd safely out. The Nirvāṇa Sūtra also speaks of a rabbit and a horse. This is the parable within the shared teaching.
In the third mode, people of the first three vehicles arouse the aspiration from a relatively near point, the principle they take as object is relatively shallow, and their wisdom is also relatively weak. Although they sever shared delusions, they cannot exhaust their limits and reach their depths, and so still cannot be called pāramitās. Bodhisattvas arouse the aspiration from the distant past, take a profound principle as object, and have strong wisdom. They can sever distinct delusions, plumb the source, and exhaust the essential nature. The Large Perfection of Wisdom compares firefly light with sunlight, saying that the two vehicles are like fireflies while bodhisattvas are like the sun. This is the parable within the distinct teaching.
In the fourth mode, some people first see the Buddha's body and hear the Buddha teach, immediately believe and receive it, and enter the Tathāgata's wisdom. Such people are easy to transform and do not cause the Tathāgata fatigue or hardship. This is like the setting described in the Flower Ornament Sūtra: they enter reality through the phenomena directly before them and need not rely on a parable.
For those who had not yet entered, throughout more than forty years he again used various differing skillful means to help reveal the ultimate meaning. At today's assembly in the royal city, he definitively teaches the Great Vehicle and universally causes all living beings to open, be shown, awaken to, and enter the Buddha's wisdom, not allowing even one person to attain cessation alone. What is taught today is like what was taught at the beginning, and what was taught at the beginning is like what is taught today: there is no difference between them and no two realities. Those of superior faculties and sharp wisdom can understand upon hearing once and do not make the Tathāgata labor, so they require no parable. Only those of middling and inferior faculties still generate doubt through attachment and hesitate at a fork in the road. Today, therefore, the great cart must be used as a parable so that they receive benefit. This is the parable within the perfect teaching.
Origin and trace and contemplation of the mind can be understood according to the preceding model; this treatise does not record them in detail. 〔The remainder is abbreviated.〕
III. Placement of the Five Stages of the Dharma-Teaching and the Passage on Understanding
The Dharma-teaching comprises five passages of scripture. Of these, the first passage has been completed from beginning to end, while the other four remain unfinished. According to the sequence of meaning, the Parable chapter should be placed after the gods' verses and before the parable of the burning house. In order to adjust the fascicle divisions, however, those who compiled the scripture placed the chapter title at the beginning of the passage on understanding.
Someone further says: this passage is meant to initiate the awakening and understanding of those of middling faculties, so it is placed at the beginning of the second fascicle. Just as the six portents and the questions and answers form an introduction to the Dharma-teaching, Śāriputra's understanding and receipt of a prediction form an introduction to the parable-teaching.
This treatise holds that this is merely an explanation based on human sentiment. If the passage on understanding were placed after the Dharma-teaching, could those of middling faculties not attain awakening and understanding after hearing the Dharma-teaching to its end?
In this passage on understanding, one receives the Dharma one has heard and states the meaning one has understood. The prose speaks of receiving and understanding together, while the verse states receiving and understanding separately. It is therefore called the passage on understanding.
IV. The Narrator's Account: Inward Understanding
The passage on understanding divides into two parts: first, the narrator's account; second, Śāriputra's own statement. The narrator's account again has two parts: inward understanding and outward bearing.
Understanding within the mind is called joy; when joy stirs and manifests in the body, it is called leaping. Śāriputra heard a wondrous Dharma from a wondrous person and further attained a wondrous understanding. Encountering even one of these three matters would be enough to make one rejoice and leap; with all three joys complete, how could he not leap?
The scripture says that Śāriputra now heard this Dharma-sound from the World-Honored One and leapt within his heart. Only when the inward mind and outward form correspond does this joy arise. This is the explanation in terms of the shared experience of the world.
He further changed from the Lesser Dharma he had formerly studied and turned to study the Great Vehicle. He abandoned the grass hut on which his impoverished life depended and inherited the estate of a wealthy household. The scripture says that only today did he know he was truly a child of the Buddha, and so he rejoiced. This is the explanation in terms of generating wholesome dharmas.
His former sorrow and regret were cast off together, and his doubts and difficulties disappeared at the same time. Inward and outward obstructions were entirely cleared away, leaving him suddenly open and bright. The scripture says that he had already exhausted the contaminants and that on hearing this Dharma he further cast off sorrow and distress, and so he rejoiced. This is the explanation in terms of counteraction.
Everything a child of the Buddha should attain has now been completely attained. The scripture says that he abides within real wisdom and knows with certainty that he will become a buddha in the future. This is the explanation in terms of the ultimate meaning.
This joy is next distinguished in terms of the teaching that is taught. What is ordinarily called joy is joy at entering some stage of practice. Yet an arhat has long since escaped the cage of the three realms, destroyed the delusions of the four abidings, and realized the fruit: he does not grieve when meeting harm or delight when meeting benefit. The joy spoken of here is certainly not joy in worldly gain and loss.
If it is understood as the arising of clear wisdom in the tolerance of suffering, or as the attainment of ultimate nonlearning, Śāriputra had already attained these before and should not rejoice in them again today. If all three kinds of people realize emptiness through a path that cannot be expressed in words, then although their modes of realizing emptiness through embodiment or analysis differ, the emptiness realized is one. This shared joy too would have been attained long ago and would not be a joy arising anew today.
If contemplating the two kinds of emptiness is taken as the path of skillful means, contemplation of the provisional clears away the two vehicles' narrowness and contemplation of emptiness clears away the clamor of ordinary people. Passing beyond the deviations of the two extremes, emptiness and existence, one can attain great joy. In terms of perfect awakening, the first dwelling of arousing the aspiration is called the dwelling of joy; the first practice is also called the practice of joy; and the first ground is also called the ground of joy. Since Śāriputra possessed superior faculties and sharp wisdom, his joy must have come from entering beyond the sequence. Even if he did not enter by leaping beyond, it can still be called joy. These are all explanations in terms of the teaching.
In terms of origin and trace, Śāriputra became a buddha in the distant past under the name Golden Dragon Dhāra. He now manifests as the disciple of wisdom to Śākyamuni Buddha's right, assisting the Buddha's transformation. First, he manifests the uprooting of deviant views among non-Buddhists and a return to the right path. At the milk-flavor stage he manifests joy and benefits ordinary people; next, at the curds-flavor stage he manifests joy and benefits the worthy and noble; then, at the raw-cream and clarified-cream stages he manifests joy and benefits bodhisattvas; today, at the ghee-flavor stage, he enters the Buddha's knowledge and vision and through joy benefits those studying the buddha path. These differing joys are all manifestations enacted within the trace for the sake of transformation.
The explanation through contemplating the mind is not recorded here in detail. 〔The remainder is abbreviated.〕
V. The Narrator's Account: Outward Bearing
The narrator next describes the outward bearing.
Śāriputra immediately rose and joined his palms. This is called understanding through the body. In the past he saw the provisional and the real as two things, like two palms that had not been joined. Today he understands that the provisional itself is the real meaning, like two palms coming together.
He faced the Buddha. In the past he thought the provisional Dharma was not the cause of buddhahood and that the real meaning was not the buddha-fruit. Today he understands that the provisional itself is the real meaning and becomes a perfectly complete and extensive cause, and that this cause necessarily tends toward the buddha-fruit. He therefore joins his palms and faces the Buddha.
He further gazes upon the World-Honored One's face, indicating that he understands the real. The real is precisely the Buddha's domain and is not a skillful means. Gazing upon the honored face with no other thought indicates that the Buddha's knowledge and vision have opened and appeared to him. Through the mind he understands the real meaning and simultaneously understands the provisional; through the body he receives the provisional and simultaneously understands the real. The scripture raises one end on each side, but the two actually contain each other.
Beginning with Śāriputra's address to the Buddha is understanding through speech, that is, Śāriputra's own statement. His statement divides in two: first prose, then verse. The prose again divides into three parts: first, identifying the three joys; second, explaining them; and third, concluding their accomplishment.
When Śāriputra says that he now hears the Dharma from the World-Honored One, he identifies that his body sees the Buddha's body, and so this is called bodily joy. When he says that he hears this Dharma-sound, he rejoices at hearing from the Buddha's mouth, and so this is called verbal joy. When he says that he has attained an understanding never before experienced, his own mind understands the Buddha's intent, and so this is called mental joy. This identifies the three joys.
VI. Śāriputra's Prose Statement: Identification, Explanation, and Conclusion
Next, beginning with Śāriputra's explanation of the reason, comes the second part, the explanation: he raises his former losses in order to reveal what he has attained today.
From Śāriputra's statement of the reason through his statement that he had lost the Tathāgata's immeasurable knowledge and vision concerns his former loss of truly seeing the Buddha. Formerly, when the Buddha gave predictions to bodhisattvas, Śāriputra did not participate in this matter and so felt that his relationship with the Buddha was remote. Since he did not see that he too could become a buddha, he had no bodily joy.
The scripture says that he formerly heard a Dharma such as this. Speaking in terms of the time sunlight first illuminated the high mountains, it is not that he had absolutely no hearing of the Great Dharma while in darkness. Yet in the manifest teaching he appeared as though deaf and mute, so it cannot be said that he heard such a Dharma. In terms of manifest hearing, this refers only to his hearing the true wisdom of the Great Vehicle in the Vaipulya teaching. Its meaning did not differ from what he heard today, and so it says that he had formerly heard such a Dharma.
The “prediction” too was the Buddha's prediction of bodhisattvas in the Vaipulya assemblies, in which people of the two vehicles did not participate. Being deeply grieved refers to the settings of the Sūtra of Brahmā's Questions and the Vimalakīrti Sūtra, where the Great Vehicle was praised and the Lesser Vehicle subdued: inwardly he harbored doubt, while outwardly he was disparaged, and so this is called grief. Losing all knowledge and vision means losing what the buddha-eye sees and also what buddha-wisdom knows.
From Śāriputra's renewed address to the World-Honored One through his acknowledgment that the fault did not lie with the World-Honored One concerns his former loss of hearing the Dharma. His body dwelt in mountains and forests, while his mind clung to a lesser path, and therefore he could not hear this Dharma and had no verbal joy.
When he says that he once dwelt alone, this means that there he reflected on his own fault. When he says that everyone equally enters the Dharma-nature, this directly states where the fault lay: he clung to the single principle into which they entered and further doubted why the three teachings had different gateways of entry. Since the principle entered was the same yet he had lost the Buddha's knowledge and vision, and since the three gateways of teaching differed yet bodhisattvas received predictions, he thought that the Tathāgata was partial. This constituted his fault.
Now when he says that this was his own transgression, he acknowledges precisely this: if he himself was confused about the provisional, what did that have to do with principle or teaching? If he himself was confused about the real, what did that have to do with whether the Buddha was partial? Recounting his former error, he looks up and thanks the Tathāgata, taking the fault back upon himself.
From his further explanation of the reason through his statement that he reproached himself throughout the day and night concerns his former loss of understanding in the mind. He did not wait for the Buddha to explain the cause of buddhahood, and so he had no understanding of the real. He also did not recognize skillful means, and so he had no understanding of the provisional. Without either understanding of the provisional or the real in his mind, he had no mental joy. Once the three former losses have been made clear, the three attainments of today naturally become evident.
Not waiting for the Buddha to explain the cause is self-reproach for not understanding the real; not understanding skillful means is self-reproach for not understanding the provisional. “Waiting for the cause” has two levels of meaning. First, a Dharma that could be revealed through contrast had already been present before him, yet he did not receive it. Second, the reality for which he should later have waited was still to come, yet he did not remain and wait.
At the beginning, when the sun illuminated the high mountains, the wisdom of the three truths had already revealed the cause of buddhahood. This teaching had been placed before him in contrast with what he had attained, but he did not receive it and so missed it at the earlier end. After a long time, the Dharma of all buddhas necessarily teaches reality. He did not stop and wait, but hurriedly grasped a Lesser Vehicle fruit between the two ends, understanding neither the real nor the provisional. This is precisely what the scripture describes.
Beginning with Śāriputra's statement that he now hears the Dharma from the Buddha is the conclusion of the three joys. First it concludes them; then it explains the identities accomplished through the three joys.
Hearing from the Buddha concludes bodily joy; hearing this Dharma concludes verbal joy; and severing all kinds of doubt and regret concludes mental joy. Knowing only today that he is truly a child of the Buddha accomplishes the identity of being close to the Buddha. Being born from the Buddha's mouth accomplishes verbal joy. Being born through transformation by the Dharma accomplishes mental joy. Explained phrase by phrase in this way, none of the scripture's meaning remains unresolved, and the principle being explained is thereby made clear.
The four kinds of benefit can further be used to explain this passage of scripture. Beginning with hearing the Dharma from the World-Honored One is joy through the world. Beginning with Śāriputra's explanation of the reason, raising his loss to reveal today's attainment, is joy through the individual. Beginning with his renewed address to the World-Honored One, recounting his former mental activity, is joy through counteraction. Beginning with knowing only today that he is truly a child of the Buddha is joy through the ultimate meaning.
The four kinds of benefit can also be explained solely from the joyful mind: inward joy stirs and delights, which is something ordinarily never experienced; joy further stirs awareness and reflection within the mind and then manifests in the body. 〔The remainder is abbreviated.〕
VII. The Twenty-Five and a Half Lines of Verse: Identification, Explanation, and Conclusion
The verse comprises twenty-five and a half lines and divides into three parts.
The first line restates the identification of the three joys. The verse raises his own hearing of the Dharma-sound and at the same time also makes clear his future attainment of buddhahood.
Beginning with “since long ago,” the second part comprises twenty-two lines and restates the explanation of the three joys. It again divides into three parts.
The first part comprises one and a half lines and restates the joy of seeing the Buddha. The prose says that he had lost the Buddha's knowledge and vision, while the verse says that he had not lost the Great Vehicle in the past. The prose speaks of loss from the more distant perspective, while the verse speaks of attainment from the nearer perspective; the two sides reveal each other.
Beginning with his body's dwelling in mountain valleys, the second part comprises eleven lines and restates his earlier inability to hear the Dharma. It again divides into two passages. The first nine lines restate that because his body was far from the Buddha, he could not hear the Dharma. The two lines beginning with his original attachment to deviant views restate that because he clung to common entry into the Dharma-nature, he could not hear the Dharma. Deviant views are the attachments of ordinary people; attachment to having entered the Dharma-nature is the attachment of those of the two vehicles. Both kinds of attachment prevent people from hearing the Dharma being taught directly before them.
The verse says that he once reflected day and night. This again has several levels of interpretation. First, birth-and-death can be called night and nirvāṇa called day. His doubt was whether nirvāṇa was within birth-and-death or outside birth-and-death. When he attained awakening and understanding, both doubts were cast off together.
Second, birth-and-death and nirvāṇa can both be called night; only when this doubt is cast off is it called day. When daylight appears, the two doubts concerning birth-and-death and nirvāṇa disappear at the same time.
Third, people in the world who study the path can be divided into two kinds: those who begin by studying the Great Vehicle and those who first study the Lesser Vehicle and later enter the Great Vehicle. Judging their actual circumstances, those who directly enter the Great Vehicle are instead relatively weaker, while those who first enter through study of the Abhidharma are relatively stronger. Bodhisattvas should likewise be understood in this way: those who directly entered at the Flower Ornament assembly should have a relatively weaker course of transforming others, while those who enter after refinement through the five flavors are stronger.
Beginning with his statement that only now has he himself awakened, the third part comprises nine and a half lines and restates the earlier joy of attaining wondrous understanding in the mind. The prose says that in the past he did not wait for the cause and did not understand skillful means. The verse states positively that today he attains the cause and also understands skillful means. Hearing that he will become a buddha in the future is attaining the cause of buddhahood. Hearing that the paths practiced by the five buddhas are the same and thereby understanding that the one directly before him is a buddha and not a māra is understanding skillful means. The prose and verse each reveal one side. Here he receives what was taught in the chapter on the five buddhas, and so this is also receiving the text.
Beginning with hearing the Buddha's gentle voice, the third major part comprises two and a half lines and restates the preceding conclusion and accomplishment of the three joys. The scripture's sequence is perfectly clear.
VIII. The Third Stage, Confirmation: Taught the Great, Forgot the Great, and Taught the Great Again
Beginning with the Buddha's address to Śāriputra is the third stage, confirmation. Śāriputra has already stated that he attained awakening and understanding; the Tathāgata now confirms his understanding and establishes that what he understood was not false.
Confirmation divides into three parts: first, in the past the Buddha taught him the Great Vehicle; second, midway he forgot the Great Vehicle and grasped a Lesser Vehicle fruit; third, now the Buddha again teaches him the Great Vehicle.
Thus first raising the fact that the Great was taught in the past confirms the causes and conditions of his seeing the Buddha today. Saying that midway he forgot it and grasped the Lesser confirms the causes and conditions of his former sorrow and regret and his hearing the Dharma today. Teaching him the Great again confirms that his awakening and understanding today are genuinely not false. These three items exactly confirm the three meanings above.
The treatise next cites the Daśabhūmika-vibhāṣā to explain the unsurpassed path. Its first series lists seven kinds of unsurpassedness: unsurpassed body is adornment with the marks and excellences; unsurpassed reception and retention is benefiting oneself and others; unsurpassed completeness is life, views, and precepts; unsurpassed wisdom is the four unobstructed knowledges; inconceivable unsurpassedness is the six pāramitās; unsurpassed liberation is the ability to destroy two kinds of obstruction; and unsurpassed practice is noble practice and brahmā-practice.
The second series again lists seven items: unsurpassed body is called great person; unsurpassed reception and retention is called great loving-kindness and compassion; unsurpassed completeness is called reaching the other shore; unsurpassed wisdom is called omniscience; inconceivable unsurpassedness is called arhat; unsurpassed liberation is called great nirvāṇa; and unsurpassed practice is called samyaksaṃbuddha.
The treatise further cites Fascicle Thirteen of the Bodhisattva Jeweled Necklace, listing ten pairs: the path should be pure—defilement is not the path; the path should be single-minded—many thoughts are not the path; the path should know contentment—many desires are not the path; the path should be reverent—arrogance is not the path; the path should restrain the mind—heedlessness is not the path; the path should shine clearly—concealing oneself is not the path; the path should be continuous from beginning to end—failure to practice is not the path; the path should awaken—delusion is not the path; the path should teach and transform—begrudging the teaching is not the path; and the path should draw near good friends—being perfumed by unwholesome dharmas is not the path.
In this way, the various scriptures and treatises explain the unsurpassed path in many different ways. This scripture takes perfectly complete penetration as the unsurpassed path. Meanings that incline to one side or advance gradually through a sequence are discussed in other scriptures.
When the Buddha says that Śāriputra studied under him through the long night, this means that although he had formerly been transformed through the Great Vehicle, he still had not destroyed ignorance and studied under the Buddha within a deluded and darkened mind. Since even the distant cause capable of accomplishing understanding had never disappeared, how could his genuine awakening and entry today be false? The Buddha therefore raises the former teaching of the Great Vehicle to confirm that Śāriputra's seeing the Buddha today was not mistaken.
When the Buddha says that through skillful means he caused Śāriputra to be born within the Buddha-Dharma, this phrase connects with two levels of meaning. If it refers to his past transformation through the Great Vehicle and his arising of Great Vehicle understanding today, it belongs to the first item, the former teaching of the Great. If it refers to first drawing him in through the Lesser Dharma so that he would not fall into evil paths, it belongs to the second item, his midway grasping of the Lesser.
The Buddha further says that he formerly taught Śāriputra to vow to seek the buddha path, but Śāriputra had today entirely forgotten. If this means that midway he abandoned the Great Vehicle and instead studied the Lesser Dharma, then midway he forgot it entirely. If it means that even now he thought he had already attained cessation, then even today he still forgot it entirely. Because he forgot the Great Vehicle, his aspiration immediately turned to cultivation of the Lesser Dharma and he generated sorrow and regret. His ability to hear this Dharma today is certainly not false.
The Buddha now intends to cause him to recollect his original great vow again, thereby confirming that his understanding is not false. First he establishes the provisional teaching, accomplishing the lesser good Śāriputra attained midway; later he reveals the real, fulfilling the great aspiration Śāriputra originally aroused.
IX. The Fourth Stage, Prediction: Four Purposes, Ten Divisions of Prose, and Verse
Beginning with the Buddha's statement that Śāriputra will become a buddha in the future is the fourth stage, prediction. Śāriputra first stated his own understanding and the Buddha then finished certifying it, and so the Buddha gives him a prediction.
Someone may ask: if Śāriputra truly attained Great Vehicle understanding, he should himself know that he will become a buddha. Why must he still wait for the Buddha to give him a prediction?
Prediction has four purposes. First, those of the two vehicles had not been given predictions in the past, and today they must explicitly receive predictions. Second, those of middling and inferior faculties have not yet awakened and understood, so the prediction encourages them. Third, it enables those who hear the prediction to form a connection with the buddha path. Fourth, it fulfills Śāriputra's original vow. A prediction is therefore still required.
The prediction has prose and verse. The prose divides into ten divisions.
First is the time of his buddhahood. Second is the cause he practices before buddhahood. Third is the buddha-fruit he attains. The Buddha's ten epithets can be explained in many ways; only one is recorded here: because he is without falsity, he is called Tathāgata; because he is a fine field of merit, Worthy of Offerings; because he knows the Dharma realm, Correctly and Universally Knowing; because he possesses the three illuminations, Perfect in Knowledge and Conduct; because he never retreats again, Well-Gone; because he knows living beings and lands, Knower of the World; because no one can equal him, Unsurpassed Person; because he can discipline the minds of others, Tamer of Persons; because he serves as the eye of living beings, Teacher of Gods and Humans; because he knows the three groups, Buddha; and because he destroys Māra Pāpīyas, Bhagavān.
Fourth is the land of the buddha-country. Fifth is the Dharma taught in the country. Sixth is the name of the eon. Seventh is the number of the assembly. Eighth is the lifespan of the Buddha and the people. Ninth is the bodhisattva who will occupy the place of succession. Tenth is the length of time the True Dharma and Semblance Dharma remain after the Buddha's extinction. All ten divisions can be known by reading the root scripture itself.
The treatise further cites Fascicle Forty-Eight of the Great Treatise, which says that in the prediction received by Śāriputra the True Dharma remains for thirty-two minor eons. When the three disasters of famine, disease, and warfare destroy living beings, this is called a minor eon. Another explanation calls any period of time a minor eon. For example, when the scripture says that the Lotus Sūtra was taught for sixty minor eons, this likewise only counts a period of time; external things need not be destroyed by the three disasters for it to be called a minor eon.
The prediction verse comprises eleven and a half lines and divides into two parts. The first ten lines restate nine items from the prose, omitting the place of succession, while additionally introducing offerings to the relics. The final one and a half lines conclude with praise.
The first line advances out of sequence to restate the buddha-fruit attained. The one line beginning with making offerings to buddhas turns back to restate the cause practiced. The half-line beginning with the passage of immeasurable eons advances out of sequence to restate the name of the eon. The one and a half lines beginning with the world named Free of Defilement restate the purity of the land. The one and a half lines beginning with the bodhisattvas in that land restate the number of the bodhisattva assembly. The half-line beginning with great persons such as these restates the Dharma taught by the Buddha. The two lines beginning with the Buddha having been a prince restate the lifespans of the Buddha and the people. The one and a half lines beginning with the Buddha's extinction restate how long the True Dharma and Semblance Dharma remain. The half-line beginning with the widespread distribution of the relics concerns offerings to the relics. The final one and a half lines beginning with what the Buddha Flower Glow does conclude with praise.
When the verse exhorts Śāriputra to rejoice on his own account, it accomplishes the understanding through which he first entered the stage of joy. At the first dwelling one can manifest buddhahood in one hundred buddha-worlds, and the functions of the subsequent practices and grounds multiply progressively.
X. The Fifth Stage, the Fourfold Assembly's Understanding, and the Concluding Questions and Answers
The fifth stage is the fourfold assembly's understanding, which also has prose and verse.
In the prose, the narrator first describes the assembly's joy and then describes their presentation of offerings. Only beginning with the assembly's own statement is there formal understanding: first they receive the Buddha's opening and revealing of the former provisional teaching; beginning with the statement that today he again turns the Dharma wheel, they receive the Buddha's revelation of the real.
The verse comprises six and a half lines and divides into two parts. The first two lines restate the preceding opening of the provisional and revelation of the real. In the latter four and a half lines the assembly themselves state the understanding they attained, rejoice in Śāriputra's prediction, and dedicate all their meritorious action to the buddha path.
When the assembly says that they too are the same, it means that like Śāriputra they understand, like Śāriputra their understanding is confirmed by the Buddha, and like Śāriputra they will receive predictions in the future.
The treatise ends with a question: great śrāvakas such as Kāśyapa and Subhūti had not yet attained understanding. Who, then, were the members of the fourfold assembly present here, and how did they instead attain awakening and understanding first?
The first branch of the answer says that within the fourfold assembly and among gods and humans there are faculties of superior, middling, and inferior grades. Those of superior faculties awakened and understood together with Śāriputra; the cases of those of middling and inferior faculties can be inferred by analogy.
The second branch gives another explanation: Śāriputra and Kāśyapa are both practitioners who manifest through provisional skill. Since those of middling and inferior faculties had not yet opened and understood, Kāśyapa and Pūrṇa likewise manifested the same lack of understanding. This is like the meaning stated in the Vimalakīrti Sūtra: while living beings have not yet recovered, bodhisattvas have not yet recovered either. 〔The remainder is abbreviated.〕
〈譬喻品〉一開頭，先談的不是火宅，而是舍利弗已經發生的轉變：他聽見了什麼，如何知道自己從前錯在哪裡，又如何由佛親自印可，直到同席大眾也一同領解。
這個次第提醒我們，聽見一句深法，與真正讓它改變自己，並不是同一件事。法先被聽見，疑惑隨之鬆開；理解再表現在身體、言語與心意上；佛又述說這份理解確實不虛，授記其未來成滿。領解因此不是一個瞬間的感想，而是一段從聞法到成佛之路重新打通的過程。
一、譬喻為什麼從樹與扇開始？
風看不見，樹木一動，人便知道風來了；月亮高遠，舉扇作比，人便能循著所指而知月。譬喻所做的，正是借已知而顯未知，寄淺近之事，使深義可以被領會。
因此，本論先把譬與喻分開說：譬重在比況，喻重在曉訓。若只有比況，而聽者沒有因此明白，譬仍未完成它的作用；若只說深義，卻不顧中下根人仍在歧路遲疑，慈悲也還沒有走到他們所在之處。
別釋所舉的四種世間經驗，正好顯示譬如何一步步貼近人心。由世間父子，使人明白出世師弟；由父知諸子所好，使人承受佛的音聲教導而不失大乘；由父欲拔子苦，使已得無漏者再除憂惱；由寶車直至道場，使人安住真實智慧，確信自己將來成佛。同一個譬喻，可以使人歡喜、生善、除苦，也能使人契入真實。
約教所舉的形象又各有方向。牛車不只自出，也運他出火；麞只向前奔，鹿母奔馳還不忘回顧，大象則以身抵擋刀箭，護全群體；螢火與日光所照的廣狹，也顯出智慧力量的差別。到了上根一聞即解，譬可以不用；中下仍然疑而未決，大車之譬才成為必要。譬不是固定附在真理上的裝飾，而是因人能否領解而有用與不用。
二、既已題作譬喻品，為什麼還在收束法說？
本論明說，法說共有五段，第一段已經完成，還有四段未了。若依義次，本品應在諸天偈後、火宅譬前；經卷卻把品題安在領解之初。於是，讀者一見〈譬喻品〉，眼前仍先是舍利弗領解、如來述成、舍利弗授記與四眾領解。
這不是把譬說與法說混成一段。恰好相反，本論先把界線說清，才解釋領解段：所謂領，是領受自己所聞；所謂解，是陳述自己所解。長行把兩者合說，偈頌把兩者各自陳出。火宅譬還沒有開始，法說所引起的理解，卻必須先走到被陳述、被印可、被授記，也被大眾共同承接。
有人把領解得記看成譬說之序，本論隨即反問：既然領解放在法說之後，中根人難道不能因法說而悟嗎？這一反問守住了領解的直接所從。舍利弗先領的是前面所聞之法；不能因下一段即將說譬，便把他的悟解改繫為譬說的附屬。
三、歡喜為什麼要從內心走到兩隻手掌？
經家先敘內解，再敘外儀。喜在心中，原本看不見；喜一發動，身體踊躍，理解便有了外在形狀。舍利弗從妙人聞妙法，又得妙解，三件喜事同時具足，所以不能不踊躍。
這份歡喜不是一般的得利之喜。舍利弗早已超出世俗得失，也早已證得先前所得之果；若今天只是重得舊證，便沒有再次大喜的理由。今天真正改變的，是他不再把自己排除在佛子所應得的一切之外。他的憂悔與疑難同時消散，知道自己真是佛子，也確知自己必定成佛。
因此，起身合掌不只是禮節。從前權宜與真實如兩掌分開，今天理解權宜當下通於真實，如兩掌相合；面向佛陀，表示所成之因必定趣向佛果；瞻仰尊顏而無其他思念，表示心所解的正是佛境。身體領受權宜，心意理解真實，卻又彼此相通，不能再拆成互不相干的兩邊。
舍利弗開口後，這份領解又分成身、口、意三喜。見佛身，所以身喜；聞佛音，所以口喜；自己的心意理解佛意，所以意喜。理解不再只是一個抽象判斷，而是見到佛、聽到法、心中解開三件事同時會合。
四、舍利弗真正悔過的是什麼？
舍利弗先前看見菩薩受記，自己卻不參與，便感到與佛遙遠；身處山林，心執小道，又覺得自己沒有聽到同樣的法；即使與菩薩同入法性，自己卻失去如來知見，因而懷疑佛是否有所偏向。
他今天回頭才知道，問題不在佛偏授菩薩。自己迷於權宜，不能歸咎理與教；自己惑於真實，也不能歸咎佛有所偏。他說過失在自己，並不是把疑問壓下，而是看清自己曾在哪裡匆忙作了結論。
本論用兩楹說明這個匆忙。前一端，是最初大法已顯出成佛之因，他沒有接受；後一端，是諸佛經久之後必說真實，他又沒有停下等待。他在前後兩端之間匆匆取小，既不解真實，也不解方便。錯失不只是少聽了一段教法，更是把中途所得先判成最後所得。
今天從佛聞法，三項失也轉成三項得。從佛而聞，結成身喜；聽聞此法，結成口喜；疑悔斷除，結成意喜。真是佛子、從佛口生、從法化生，則把三喜落在新的身分上：他不再只是旁觀別人受記的人，而是自己也得佛法之分的人。
五、偈頌為什麼還要再走一遍？
二十五行半偈不是把長行縮短重說。長行從較遠處說舍利弗失去佛的知見，偈頌卻從較近處說他從未失去大乘；一邊明失，一邊明得，二者互相顯示。過去所得不是全然作廢，卻也不能被誤認為究竟。
山谷、林樹與獨自經行，把不能聞法寫成一種距離；日與夜又把疑惑寫成一種明暗。涅槃究竟在生死之中還是之外，是一重疑；若生死、涅槃都仍在不明之中，疑除而明才真正是日，又是一重讀法。所謂日夜思量，不只是經過很久，而是心一直找不到能同時安置生死與涅槃的位置。
偈中還保存了更劇烈的疑問：眼前說法者究竟是佛，還是魔？舍利弗聽到過去、現在、未來諸佛都以方便說同一法，才知道自己把佛誤認作魔，是由疑網所致。聞到自己必定成佛，使他得到所因；知道五佛之道相同，使他理解方便。疑魔、疑己、疑佛偏授，於是同時鬆開。
這也是為什麼柔軟音聲能帶來大歡喜。柔軟並不表示法義變淺，而是那個曾經只能令他感傷的佛音，今天終於能被聽成使疑網斷除、使自己安住真實智慧的法音。
六、佛為什麼還要親自述成？
舍利弗已經自陳得悟，佛仍須述成，因為自解與佛印並不相同。佛把他的歷程分成三段：過去曾教他大乘；他中途忘失大願而取小；今天又為他說大，使他憶念本願。
這三段把失去重新寫成遺忘，而不是從未具有。長夜受學時，成佛的遠因沒有消滅；中途小善也是佛以方便所成。今天顯示真實，不是把先前所得一概否定，而是使先前所得完成它接引回大願的作用。
本論在這裡連引七無上與十種清淨道。七無上從身、受持、具足、智慧、不可思議、解脫、行，說明無上道可從多面展開；十種清淨道則以清淨與穢濁、一心與多想、知足與多欲等相對，顯示道不只是一個名稱，也落在行者如何持心、如何行動。種種名稱最後都為說明無上道服務，而本經以圓滿通達收攝其義。
述成的中心仍在憶念本願。忘大取小，使舍利弗生起憂悔；還為說大，使他知道今天的理解並非偶然。佛所述說的，是他從前所學、途中所忘與今天所悟本來屬於同一段因緣。
七、既已知道成佛，為什麼還須授記？
本論自己提出這個問題：若已得大解，理當自知成佛，何必還等佛記？回答有四層。過去未替二乘授記，今天須明記；中下尚未悟，授記可使他們振作；在場聽者由此與佛道結緣；舍利弗原有本願也由此得到滿足。
所以授記不是只向舍利弗重複一句將來成佛。長行依次展開時節、行因、佛果、國土、說法、劫名、眾數、壽量、補處與法住久近。成佛因此不是一個孤立稱號，而有長久行因、有所教化的國土與大眾，也有佛滅後法如何住世及由誰補處。
偈頌再用十一行半回應長行。它略去補處，卻增加舍利供養；又依果、因、劫、國、眾、法、壽與法住次第展開，最後勸舍利弗應當自欣慶。領解開始時的歡喜，到這裡不再只是疑悔初除，而是被安置在未來成佛、教化眾生的完整時間中。
八、一個人的歡喜，如何成為四眾的領解？
舍利弗受記以後，四眾歡喜，脫下上衣供養；天衣在空中迴轉，伎樂同作，眾華如雨。先前內心不可見的歡喜，到了這裡成為整個法會共同可見、可聞的供養。
四眾先領開權，接著領顯實。六行半偈的前二行重頌這件事，後四行半則自述得解、隨喜並迴向。他們說自己也將如此，不只是分享舍利弗當下的情緒，而是說自己也如他領解、被佛述成，將來也如他得到授記。
可是，迦葉等大聲聞尚未顯示領解，四眾中又是誰先悟？本論保留兩支回答。一支說四眾、天人本有上中下三品，上根者可與舍利弗同悟；另一支說身子、迦葉皆是權行，中下尚未開解，所以迦葉、滿願示現同樣未解。兩支都不讓眼前的先後次序變成簡單的高下判斷。
至此，法說未了的四段才真正收束。下一步才是舍利弗為四眾請佛說明因緣，轉入中根譬說。火宅尚未燃起於正文，領解卻已先顯示：真正的聞法，不只使一個人知道答案，也使他的身、口、意，大眾的歡喜與未來的佛道，一同改變方向。
文句記之眼
湛然先把品題總釋細分為字訓、釋訓、來意三層〔T34n1719 0253a08〕，又說因緣釋是以世間四法譬一實四法〔0253a21〕。祂進一步指出四種利益各有一法一譬〔0253b17〕，並以問答說明：下根雖尚未顯悟，也並非全無冥益〔0253b23–0253b24〕。這些是鏡對本論材料的細分，不是本論另唱的三科。
對本單元的位置，湛然明說此處是暫置譬說，先解釋前品所餘法說〔0254a20〕。祂又登錄為譬作序之說〔0254a21〕，以後續諸品同樣先有領解、述成、授記作反難。鏡釋因而強化了本論所守的界線：領解直接承接法說，不因品題已換便改屬後面的譬說。
領解細科方面，湛然說長行的三業各有標、釋、結〔0254a24〕，又說偈中各自陳列領與解〔0254a27〕。本論原文只明列長行三分與偈頌三分；三業各自標釋結，是鏡所作的進一步展開。祂又以有二必三說明經文雖先見意喜、口喜而三喜理應具足〔0254b06–0254b07〕，同樣只可留在鏡層理解。
對外在儀態，湛然追問合掌、向佛本來各教皆有，為何此處別具表義；祂回答，今天所表只在佛果，故又面向而瞻仰尊顏，以顯舍利弗所解〔0254c05–0254c09〕。這是鏡對身相的展讀；本論自身所立，仍是兩掌相合表權實不二、因必趣果與瞻仰表解三層。
對歡喜位，湛然沒有假裝只有一個確定答案。祂明說未敢定判，保留超入或不超入兩途〔0254b24〕。對舍利弗偈，祂又在本論三分內提出亦可細分為八〔0255c27〕，並把日夜之疑、魔佛之疑與結三喜逐段展開〔0256a14–0256b17〕。這些細科能照明經疏轉折，卻不能反寫成本論原有唱數。
述成段中，湛然以見佛、聞法、悟解分別重讀身、口、意三喜〔0256b18〕，並說七無上兩重列舉中，前一為果、後六在因〔0256c01〕。授記段則逐解四種用意與長行十科；祂特別明言根經雖沒有一乘二字，仍依酬願而判說三、說一〔0257a18〕。這一句正標出鏡的判釋超過根經字面，不應下移為經文自說。
四眾領解處，湛然解脫衣供養、天衣迴轉與最大法輪，又保存亡相為法、當日更得兩種衣說〔0257b23–0257c06〕。末段祂說四眾自述只列三項，是因所聞之法大家先前共同聽到，不必重述〔0257c13〕；又以權行同生解釋身子、迦葉等示現先後〔0257c15〕。至〔0257c19〕，鏡文才與本單元一同收束，下一行已轉中根譬說。
Why, after understanding, are joy, confirmation, and prediction still needed? At the opening of the Parable chapter, the first subject is not the burning house, but the transformation that has already occurred in Śāriputra: what he heard, how he came to know where he had formerly gone wrong, how the Buddha personally confirmed him, and how the assembly seated with him came to understand as well.
This sequence reminds us that hearing a profound Dharma and truly allowing it to change us are not the same thing. The Dharma is first heard and doubts begin to loosen. Understanding then appears in body, speech, and mind. The Buddha confirms that this understanding is not false and predicts its future completion. Understanding is thus not a momentary impression but a process through which the road from hearing the Dharma to buddhahood is reopened.
I. Why Does the Explanation of Simile Begin with a Tree and a Fan?
Wind cannot be seen, but when a tree moves people know that wind has come. The moon is high and distant, but by raising a fan as a comparison one can follow where it points and know the moon. A simile uses what is known to disclose what is unknown and entrusts profound meaning to something accessible so that it can be understood.
The root treatise therefore first explains the two parts of the expression “simile and illustration” separately: simile emphasizes comparison, while illustration emphasizes instruction that brings understanding. If there is only comparison and the listener does not thereby understand, the simile has not yet completed its function. If only profound meaning is taught without regard for those of middling and dull faculties still hesitating at a crossroads, compassion has not yet reached where they are.
The four worldly experiences in the interpretation through causes and conditions show precisely how a simile approaches the mind step by step. Through worldly father and children, one understands the supramundane teacher and disciples. Through a father knowing what his children like, one receives the Buddha's vocal teaching without losing the Great Vehicle. Through a father's wish to remove his children's suffering, those who have attained the uncontaminated further remove sorrow and torment. Through the jeweled cart leading directly to the place of awakening, one abides in real wisdom and becomes certain of future buddhahood. The same simile can give joy, produce goodness, remove suffering, and enable entry into the real.
The images under the interpretation in terms of the teaching each have their own direction. An ox cart not only emerges itself but carries others out of the fire. A river deer runs only forward; a mother deer runs yet does not forget to look back; an elephant uses its body to withstand blades and arrows and protect the whole herd. The narrower and broader radiance of fireflies and the sun likewise reveal differences in the power of wisdom. When those of sharp faculties understand upon a single hearing, a simile is unnecessary. When those of middling and dull faculties remain doubtful and undecided, the simile of the great cart becomes necessary. Simile is not an ornament permanently attached to truth; it is used or not used according to whether people can understand.
II. Since This Is Titled the Parable Chapter, Why Does It Still Conclude the Prose Teaching?
The root treatise expressly says that the prose teaching has five stages: the first is complete, while four remain unfinished. In the order of meaning, this chapter title should follow the gods' verse and precede the burning-house parable, yet the scripture places it at the beginning of Śāriputra's understanding. On first seeing the title “Parable,” the reader therefore still encounters Śāriputra's understanding, the Tathāgata's confirmation, Śāriputra's prediction, and the fourfold assembly's understanding.
This does not blend parable teaching and prose teaching into one passage. On the contrary, the root treatise first marks the boundary clearly and then explains the stage of understanding. To receive means receiving what one has heard; to understand means stating what one has understood. The prose presents them together, while the verse states them separately. The burning-house parable has not begun, but the understanding produced by the prose teaching must first be stated, confirmed, predicted, and jointly received by the assembly.
Someone takes understanding and prediction as an introduction to the parable teaching. The root treatise immediately asks in reply: since understanding follows the prose teaching, could those of middling faculties not awaken through that teaching? This question preserves the direct source of understanding. Śāriputra first receives the Dharma he has just heard. The fact that a parable is about to be taught cannot make his awakening subordinate to the next passage.
III. Why Must Joy Move from the Mind into Two Joined Palms?
The scriptural narrator first describes inward understanding and then outward bearing. Joy in the mind is originally invisible. When joy sets the body in motion, understanding acquires an outward form. Śāriputra hears the wondrous Dharma from a wondrous person and obtains wondrous understanding: all three joyful events are complete, and so he cannot but leap for joy.
This is not the ordinary joy of gaining a benefit. Śāriputra has long transcended worldly gain and loss and has already realized the fruit formerly attained. If today merely repeated that old realization, there would be no reason for another great joy. What truly changes today is that he no longer excludes himself from everything children of the Buddha should attain. His sorrow, regret, and doubts vanish together; he knows that he truly is a child of the Buddha and is certain that he will become a buddha.
Rising and joining his palms is therefore more than etiquette. Formerly, provisional and real were apart like two separated palms. Today he understands that the provisional immediately opens into the real, like two palms joined. Facing the Buddha shows that the cause he has accomplished necessarily tends toward the buddha-fruit. Gazing at the honored countenance with no other thought shows that what his mind understands is precisely the Buddha's realm. His body receives the provisional and his mind understands the real, yet the two communicate and can no longer be separated into unrelated sides.
When Śāriputra begins to speak, this understanding further divides into joy of body, speech, and mind. Seeing the Buddha's body brings bodily joy; hearing the Buddha's voice brings verbal joy; his own mind understanding the Buddha's intent brings mental joy. Understanding is no longer merely an abstract judgment: seeing the Buddha, hearing the Dharma, and an opening within the mind converge at once.
IV. What Does Śāriputra Truly Repent?
Śāriputra had seen bodhisattvas receive predictions while he did not participate and therefore felt distant from the Buddha. Dwelling in mountains and forests with his mind attached to the Lesser path, he felt that he had not heard the same Dharma. Although he entered Dharma-nature together with the bodhisattvas, he had lost the Tathāgata's knowledge and vision and consequently suspected that the Buddha showed partiality.
Only in looking back today does he know that the problem was not the Buddha's partial prediction of bodhisattvas. His own confusion about the provisional could not be blamed on principle or teaching; his own delusion concerning the real could not be blamed on partiality in the Buddha. Saying that the fault lay in himself does not suppress the question. It recognizes where he once hurried to a conclusion.
The root treatise uses the two pillars to explain this haste. At the earlier end, the first Great teaching had already revealed the cause of buddhahood, but he did not receive it. At the later end, the buddhas would necessarily teach the real after a long time, but he did not stop and wait. Between these two ends he hurriedly took the Lesser, understanding neither the real nor skillful means. What he missed was not merely one portion of teaching; he judged an intermediate attainment to be the final one.
On hearing the Dharma from the Buddha today, the three losses become three gains. “From the Buddha” concludes bodily joy; “hearing this Dharma” concludes verbal joy; “doubts and regrets have ended” concludes mental joy. To be a genuine child of the Buddha, born from the Buddha's mouth and born through transformation by the Dharma, establishes these three joys in a new identity. He is no longer an observer of others' predictions, but one who himself obtains a share in the Buddhadharma.
V. Why Must the Verse Traverse the Course Once More?
The twenty-five and a half lines of verse do not merely repeat the prose in shorter form. The prose speaks from farther away of Śāriputra's loss of the Buddha's knowledge and vision; the verse speaks from nearer at hand of how he never lost the Great Vehicle. One reveals loss and the other gain, each making the other visible. What he attained in the past is not wholly invalid, but neither can it be mistaken for the ultimate.
Valleys, forests, trees, and solitary walking turn inability to hear the Dharma into a form of distance. Day and night turn doubt into a contrast between light and darkness. Whether nirvāṇa lies within birth-and-death or outside it is one doubt. If both birth-and-death and nirvāṇa remain obscure, then the removal of doubt and emergence of clarity alone is truly day—this is another reading. His pondering day and night does not merely mean that much time passes; his mind continually fails to find a place capable of holding birth-and-death and nirvāṇa together.
The verse also preserves a more violent doubt: is the one teaching before him a buddha or Māra? Only when Śāriputra hears that buddhas of past, present, and future all teach this same Dharma through skillful means does he know that his mistaking the Buddha for Māra arose from the net of doubt. Hearing that he will certainly become a buddha gives him the cause he will attain; knowing that the way of the five buddhas is the same enables him to understand skillful means. Doubt concerning Māra, himself, and the Buddha's partial prediction all loosen together.
This is also why a gentle voice can bring great joy. Gentle does not mean that the Dharma's meaning has grown shallow. The Buddha's voice that once could only make him grieve can finally be heard today as the Dharma voice that severs the net of doubt and establishes him in real wisdom.
VI. Why Must the Buddha Personally Confirm His Understanding?
Śāriputra has already stated his awakening, but the Buddha must still confirm it because self-understanding and the Buddha's seal are not the same. The Buddha divides his course into three: in the past he taught Śāriputra the Great Vehicle; midway, Śāriputra forgot his great vow and took the Lesser; today, the Buddha again teaches him the Great and causes him to recollect the original vow.
These three stages rewrite loss as forgetting, not as never having possessed. During study through the long night, the distant cause of buddhahood did not disappear. The intermediate lesser goodness was also accomplished by the Buddha through skillful means. Revealing the real today does not negate everything previously attained; it enables that earlier attainment to complete its function of guiding him back to the great vow.
The root treatise here cites the seven unsurpassed qualities and ten pure paths in succession. The seven—from body, reception and upholding, completeness, wisdom, inconceivability, liberation, and practice—show that the unsurpassed path can be unfolded from many sides. The ten pure paths use contrasts such as purity and defilement, single-mindedness and multiple thoughts, and contentment and many desires to show that the path is not merely a name but concerns how practitioners hold the mind and act. The various names ultimately serve to explain the unsurpassed path, while this scripture gathers their meaning through perfect comprehension.
The center of confirmation remains recollection of the original vow. Forgetting the Great and taking the Lesser caused Śāriputra sorrow and regret. Teaching the Great to him again lets him know that today's understanding is not accidental. What the Buddha confirms is that what Śāriputra formerly learned, forgot along the way, and understands today belongs to a single nexus of causes and conditions.
VII. Since He Knows He Will Become a Buddha, Why Is a Prediction Still Needed?
The root treatise itself asks this question: if Śāriputra has attained great understanding, he should naturally know that he will become a buddha. Why must he still await the Buddha's prediction? The answer has four levels. The two vehicles were not predicted in the past, so they must be clearly predicted today. Those of middling and dull faculties have not yet awakened, and the prediction can rouse them. Those present thereby form a connection with the buddha path. Śāriputra's former vow is also fulfilled through it.
The prediction therefore does not merely repeat to Śāriputra that he will become a buddha. The prose unfolds in sequence the time, causal practice, buddha-fruit, land, teaching of the Dharma, name of the eon, number of the assembly, lifespan, successor, and duration of the Dharma's abiding. Buddhahood is thus not an isolated title: it has long cultivation of causes, a land and assembly to transform, and an account of how the Dharma remains after the Buddha's extinction and who succeeds him.
The eleven and a half lines of verse then respond to the prose. They omit the successor but add offerings to the relics. They unfold in the sequence fruit, cause, eon, land, assembly, Dharma, lifespan, and duration of the Dharma's abiding, and finally exhort Śāriputra to rejoice in himself. The joy at the beginning of understanding is no longer merely the first removal of doubts and regrets; here it is placed within the complete time of future buddhahood and transforming living beings.
VIII. How Does One Person's Joy Become the Fourfold Assembly's Understanding?
After Śāriputra receives his prediction, the fourfold assembly rejoices, removes its upper garments, and offers them. Heavenly robes revolve in the air, music sounds together, and flowers rain down. The joy within the mind that was previously invisible now becomes an offering visible and audible to the whole Dharma assembly.
The fourfold assembly first understands opening the provisional and then understands revealing the real. The first two of its six and a half lines of verse restate this. The latter four and a half lines state its own understanding, sympathetic joy, and dedication. When the members say that they too will be like this, they do not merely share Śāriputra's present emotion. They say that they understand as he does, are confirmed by the Buddha as he is, and will receive predictions as he does.
Yet the great śrāvakas Kāśyapa and the others have not shown understanding. Who among the fourfold assembly awakens first? The root treatise preserves two answers. One says that the fourfold assembly and gods and humans have superior, middling, and inferior classes and that those of superior faculties can awaken together with Śāriputra. The other says that Śāriputra and Kāśyapa alike enact provisional practices; because those of middling and dull faculties have not yet been opened, Kāśyapa and Pūrṇa manifest the same lack of understanding. Neither answer turns the sequence visible before us into a simple ranking.
Only here are the four unfinished stages of the prose teaching truly concluded. Śāriputra will next ask the Buddha to explain the causes and conditions for the fourfold assembly, turning to parable teaching for those of middling faculties. The burning house has not yet ignited within the body of the commentary, but understanding has already shown that genuine hearing does not merely give one person an answer: it changes the direction of his body, speech, and mind, the assembly's joy, and the future buddha path together.
Through the Eye of the Wenjuji
Zhanran first subdivides the general explanation of the chapter title into the graph's meaning, the explanation of that meaning, and the reason for the chapter's arrival〔T34n1719 0253a08〕. He further says that the interpretation through causes and conditions uses four worldly dharmas to illustrate the four dharmas of the single reality〔0253a21〕. He then points out that each of the four benefits has one Dharma and one simile〔0253b17〕 and explains in question and answer that although those of dull faculties have not yet manifestly awakened, they are not wholly without unseen benefit〔0253b23–0253b24〕. These are the mirror's subdivisions of material in the root treatise, not three additional headings announced by the root treatise.
Concerning this unit's position, Zhanran expressly says that the parable teaching is temporarily set aside here while the remaining prose teaching from the preceding chapter is explained first〔0254a20〕. He also records the view that this passage forms an introduction to the parable〔0254a21〕 and challenges it by observing that the later chapters likewise begin with understanding, confirmation, and prediction. The mirror thereby strengthens the boundary preserved by the root treatise: understanding directly continues the prose teaching and is not reassigned to the following parable teaching merely because the chapter title has changed.
Concerning the fine divisions of understanding, Zhanran says that each of the three karmas in the prose has an indication, explanation, and conclusion〔0254a24〕, and that receiving and understanding are each separately stated in the verse〔0254a27〕. The root treatise itself explicitly lists only the prose's three divisions and the verse's three divisions; the separate indication, explanation, and conclusion for each of the three karmas is the mirror's further unfolding. Zhanran also explains, through the principle that if there are two there must be three, that although the scripture first presents mental and verbal joy, all three joys should be complete〔0254b06–0254b07〕. This too remains only at the mirror layer.
Concerning outward bearing, Zhanran asks why joining palms and facing the Buddha, which exist under every teaching, have a distinct expressive meaning here. He answers that what is expressed today lies only in the buddha-fruit; Śāriputra therefore also faces the Buddha and gazes at the honored countenance to reveal what he understands〔0254c05–0254c09〕. This is the mirror's extended reading of bodily form. The root treatise itself still establishes three levels: joining the palms expresses the nonduality of provisional and real, the cause necessarily tends toward the fruit, and gazing upward expresses understanding.
Zhanran does not pretend that there is only one certain answer concerning the stage of joy. He expressly says that he does not dare to decide and preserves both possibilities, entry by leaping beyond the sequence and entry without doing so〔0254b24〕. Concerning Śāriputra's verse, within the root treatise's three divisions he further proposes a possible subdivision into eight〔0255c27〕 and unfolds in sequence the doubt of day and night, the doubt concerning Māra and Buddha, and the conclusion of the three joys〔0256a14–0256b17〕. These fine divisions illuminate the turns of scripture and commentary but cannot be written back as totals originally announced by the root treatise.
In the confirmation section, Zhanran rereads seeing the Buddha, hearing the Dharma, and awakening and understanding as bodily, verbal, and mental joy respectively〔0256b18〕. He says that within the twofold listing of the seven unsurpassed qualities, the first concerns fruit and the latter six cause〔0256c01〕. In the prediction section he explains the four purposes and the prose's ten divisions one by one. He specifically states that although the root scripture does not contain the words “one vehicle,” teaching three and teaching one are nevertheless established according to the fulfillment of the vow〔0257a18〕. This statement precisely marks where the mirror's judgment exceeds the root scripture's wording and should not be moved down into the scripture's own speech.
In the fourfold assembly's understanding, Zhanran explains offering the removed garments, heavenly robes revolving, and the greatest Dharma wheel. He also preserves the interpretations that absence of marks is Dharma and that two further garments were obtained that day〔0257b23–0257c06〕. In the final passage he says that the assembly's own statement lists only three items because the Dharma heard had previously been heard by everyone and need not be stated again〔0257c13〕. He further invokes the co-presence of practitioners acting provisionally to explain the sequence manifested by Śāriputra, Kāśyapa, and the others〔0257c15〕. At〔0257c19〕, the mirror concludes together with this unit; the next line has already turned to parable teaching for those of middling faculties.
考據Apparatus
本單元從釋〈譬喻品〉之題起筆，先說何以須譬，繼而折回法說周尚未完成的四段：舍利弗領解、如來述成、舍利弗授記、四眾領解。雖以〈譬喻品〉為題，本域尚未進入火宅譬正文；長者、宅、火、諸子、三車、大車與不虛等逐科消釋，自下一單元方始。本相所帖根經、他引、鏡釋與校異各守本層，異文並錄，不判取捨。
一、科判定位
嚴格域為 T34n1718〔0063b11–0065c22〕，共十七個區塊、四千二百四十四字元、三千四百三十個漢字。〔0063b11〕題「釋譬喻品」；〔0065c23〕下一句是 從「爾時舍利弗白佛」下，第二大段，為中根譬說。，故不納入本域。
本論自說法說有五段，第一段已畢，尚有四段未了。現行經卷把本品安在領解之初，本論則先辨其義次，再依現行次第消文。全域可依本論唱數與轉折分為十節：
| 次第 | 行域 | 本論內容 |
|---|---|---|
| 一 | 0063b11–0063b26 | 先總釋譬、喻，再以世間四法比出世四法，分說四種利益 |
| 二 | 0063b26–0063c19 | 依三藏、通、別、圓四式釋譬；本迹、觀心從略 |
| 三 | 0063c19–0063c26 | 辨法說五段的安置；領解是領所聞、述所解，長行合說，偈中各陳 |
| 四 | 0063c26–0064a25 | 經家敘分內解、外儀；先釋內心歡喜，再依約教、本迹說明 |
| 五 | 0064a25–0064b03 | 外儀以起身合掌、向佛、瞻仰尊顏表其領解 |
| 六 | 0064b03–0064c18 | 舍利弗自陳長行：先標身、口、意三喜，次提昔失顯今得，後結成 |
| 七 | 0064c18–0065a10 | 二十五行半偈分三：標三喜、釋三喜、結成 |
| 八 | 0065a10–0065b13 | 第三述成分三：昔曾教大、中忘取小、還為說大 |
| 九 | 0065b13–0065c12 | 第四授記：四種授記意；長行十科；偈十一行半二分 |
| 十 | 0065c12–0065c22 | 第五四眾領解：長行、六行半偈及結尾兩支問答 |
此處法數各有所屬，不可相混。經家敘有內解、外儀二分；身子自陳有長行、偈頌二分；長行有標、釋、結三分；三喜是身、口、意；述成另有三意；授記有四意、長行十科、偈十一行半二分；四眾偈則為六行半二分。
《法華文句記》的對位域從品題〔T34n1719 0253a02〕起，至〔0257c19〕止；〔0257c20〕已轉中根譬說。鏡文中途在〔0255c01〕收卷五下，〔0255c04〕開卷六上，卷界不割斷領解偈的解釋。
二、成立與傳本
本單元品題逐字是「釋譬喻品」〔T34n1718 0063b11〕。卷五上卷題「妙法蓮華經文句卷第五上」在〔0060c14〕，其後署「天台智者大師說」〔0060c16〕；不得把卷題、署名與本單元品題拼成同一行題署。
卷首神逈序另署「鏡中沙門神逈述」〔0001a04〕。序中記本書「迺是灌頂法師私記」〔0001a23〕，又敘唐天寶戊子朗和尚條倫治定。這些是序文所述的傳錄史，不是本單元逐行署名。現行文字因而可分為智者所說、灌頂私記及後來條倫治定三個層次；但現存材料不足以逐字還原條倫以前的形態，故只誌所傳，不據此改正文。
甲本在本域開頭另有「法華文句卷第五首【甲】」〔0063b12〕，顯示其卷首位置；這是一條見證誌，不取代大正本的品題。本域另有十一組正文校異，詳見目八。
三、所帖經文與所引
（一）根經封閉域
本單元所消根經回錨本倉封印本 canon/tiantai/fahua/treatise/03_piyu/03_piyu_source.md 第四至第一百行，對應 T09n0262〔0010b29–0012b01〕。下表依封印本次序全錄九十七個內容行；〔0012b02〕舍利弗請問及其後火宅正文均在本域之外。
為同時保留逐行錨與長引原有的引號開合，先列九十七行的行錨索引，再按同一次序續錄逐字本文。
| 封印本行 | T0262 行錨 | 封印本行 | T0262 行錨 | 封印本行 | T0262 行錨 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| L4 | 0010b29 | L37 | 0011a18 | L70 | 0011c20 |
| L5 | 0010c14 | L38 | 0011a19 | L71 | 0011c21 |
| L6 | 0010c16 | L39 | 0011a20 | L72 | 0011c22 |
| L7 | 0010c17 | L40 | 0011a21 | L73 | 0011c23 |
| L8 | 0010c18 | L41 | 0011a22 | L74 | 0011c24 |
| L9 | 0010c19 | L42 | 0011a23 | L75 | 0011c25 |
| L10 | 0010c20 | L43 | 0011a24 | L76 | 0011c26 |
| L11 | 0010c21 | L44 | 0011a25 | L77 | 0011c27 |
| L12 | 0010c22 | L45 | 0011a26 | L78 | 0011c28 |
| L13 | 0010c23 | L46 | 0011a27 | L79 | 0011c29 |
| L14 | 0010c24 | L47 | 0011a28 | L80 | 0012a01 |
| L15 | 0010c25 | L48 | 0011a29 | L81 | 0012a02 |
| L16 | 0010c26 | L49 | 0011b01 | L82 | 0012a03 |
| L17 | 0010c27 | L50 | 0011b02 | L83 | 0012a04 |
| L18 | 0010c28 | L51 | 0011b03 | L84 | 0012a05 |
| L19 | 0010c29 | L52 | 0011b04 | L85 | 0012a06 |
| L20 | 0011a01 | L53 | 0011b05 | L86 | 0012a07 |
| L21 | 0011a02 | L54 | 0011b06 | L87 | 0012a17 |
| L22 | 0011a03 | L55 | 0011b07 | L88 | 0012a18 |
| L23 | 0011a04 | L56 | 0011b08 | L89 | 0012a19 |
| L24 | 0011a05 | L57 | 0011b09 | L90 | 0012a20 |
| L25 | 0011a06 | L58 | 0011b16 | L91 | 0012a21 |
| L26 | 0011a07 | L59 | 0011b24 | L92 | 0012a22 |
| L27 | 0011a08 | L60 | 0011c04 | L93 | 0012a23 |
| L28 | 0011a09 | L61 | 0011c10 | L94 | 0012a24 |
| L29 | 0011a10 | L62 | 0011c12 | L95 | 0012a25 |
| L30 | 0011a11 | L63 | 0011c13 | L96 | 0012a26 |
| L31 | 0011a12 | L64 | 0011c14 | L97 | 0012a27 |
| L32 | 0011a13 | L65 | 0011c15 | L98 | 0012a28 |
| L33 | 0011a14 | L66 | 0011c16 | L99 | 0012a29 |
| L34 | 0011a15 | L67 | 0011c17 | L100 | 0012b01 |
| L35 | 0011a16 | L68 | 0011c18 | ||
| L36 | 0011a17 | L69 | 0011c19 |
爾時舍利弗踊躍歡喜，即起合掌，瞻仰尊顏而白佛言：「今從世尊聞此法音，心懷勇躍，得未曾有。所以者何？我昔從佛聞如是法，見諸菩薩授記作佛，而我等不豫斯事，甚自感傷，失於如來無量知見。世尊！我常獨處山林樹下，若坐若行，每作是念：『我等同入法性，云何如來以小乘法而見濟度？是我等咎，非世尊也。所以者何？若我等待說所因成就阿耨多羅三藐三菩提者，必以大乘而得度脫。然我等不解方便隨宜所說，初聞佛法，遇便信受、思惟、取證。』世尊！我從昔來，終日竟夜每自剋責，而今從佛聞所未聞未曾有法，斷諸疑悔，身意泰然，快得安隱。今日乃知真是佛子，從佛口生，從法化生，得佛法分。」
爾時舍利弗欲重宣此義，而說偈言：
「我聞是法音，得所未曾有，
心懷大歡喜，疑網皆已除。
昔來蒙佛教，不失於大乘，
佛音甚希有，能除眾生惱，
我已得漏盡，聞亦除憂惱。
我處於山谷，或在林樹下，
若坐若經行，常思惟是事，
嗚呼深自責，云何而自欺？
我等亦佛子，同入無漏法，
不能於未來，演說無上道。
金色三十二，十力諸解脫，
同共一法中，而不得此事；
八十種妙好，十八不共法，
如是等功德，而我皆已失。
我獨經行時，見佛在大眾，
名聞滿十方，廣饒益眾生。
自惟失此利，我為自欺誑。
我常於日夜，每思惟是事，
欲以問世尊，為失為不失？
我常見世尊，稱讚諸菩薩，
以是於日夜，籌量如此事。
今聞佛音聲，隨宜而說法，
無漏難思議，令眾至道場。
我本著邪見，為諸梵志師，
世尊知我心，拔邪說涅槃。
我悉除邪見，於空法得證，
爾時心自謂，得至於滅度；
而今乃自覺，非是實滅度。
若得作佛時，具三十二相，
天人夜叉眾，龍神等恭敬，
是時乃可謂，永盡滅無餘。
佛於大眾中，說我當作佛，
聞如是法音，疑悔悉已除。
初聞佛所說，心中大驚疑，
將非魔作佛，惱亂我心耶？
佛以種種緣、譬喻巧言說，
其心安如海，我聞疑網斷。
佛說過去世，無量滅度佛，
安住方便中，亦皆說是法。
現在未來佛，其數無有量，
亦以諸方便，演說如是法。
如今者世尊，從生及出家、
得道轉法輪，亦以方便說。
世尊說實道，波旬無此事，
以是我定知，非是魔作佛。
我墮疑網故，謂是魔所為，
聞佛柔軟音，深遠甚微妙，
演暢清淨法。我心大歡喜，
疑悔永已盡，安住實智中。
我定當作佛，為天人所敬，
轉無上法輪，教化諸菩薩。」
爾時佛告舍利弗：「吾今於天、人、沙門、婆羅門等大眾中說，我昔曾於二萬億佛所，為無上道故，常教化汝，汝亦長夜隨我受學。我以方便引導汝故，生我法中。舍利弗！我昔教汝志願佛道，汝今悉忘，而便自謂已得滅度。我今還欲令汝憶念本願所行道故，為諸聲聞說是大乘經，名妙法蓮華，教菩薩法，佛所護念。
「舍利弗！汝於未來世，過無量無邊不可思議劫，供養若干千萬億佛，奉持正法，具足菩薩所行之道，當得作佛，號曰華光如來、應供、正遍知、明行足、善逝、世間解、無上士、調御丈夫、天人師、佛、世尊。國名離垢，其土平正，清淨嚴飾，安隱豐樂，天人熾盛。琉璃為地，有八交道，黃金為繩以界其側。其傍各有七寶行樹，常有華菓。華光如來亦以三乘教化眾生。
「舍利弗！彼佛出時，雖非惡世，以本願故，說三乘法。其劫名大寶莊嚴。何故名曰大寶莊嚴？其國中以菩薩為大寶故。彼諸菩薩，無量無邊，不可思議，算數譬喻所不能及，非佛智力無能知者。若欲行時，寶華承足。此諸菩薩，非初發意，皆久殖德本，於無量百千萬億佛所淨修梵行，恒為諸佛之所稱歎。常修佛慧，具大神通，善知一切諸法之門，質直無偽，志念堅固。如是菩薩，充滿其國。
「舍利弗！華光佛壽十二小劫，除為王子未作佛時。其國人民，壽八小劫。華光如來過十二小劫，授堅滿菩薩阿耨多羅三藐三菩提記。告諸比丘：『是堅滿菩薩次當作佛，號曰華足安行多陀阿伽度、阿羅訶、三藐三佛陀，其佛國土亦復如是。』
「舍利弗！是華光佛滅度之後，正法住世三十二小劫，像法住世亦三十二小劫。」
爾時世尊欲重宣此義，而說偈言：
「舍利弗來世，成佛普智尊，
號名曰華光，當度無量眾。
供養無數佛，具足菩薩行，
十力等功德，證於無上道。
過無量劫已，劫名大寶嚴，
世界名離垢，清淨無瑕穢。
以琉璃為地，金繩界其道，
七寶雜色樹，常有華菓實。
彼國諸菩薩，志念常堅固，
神通波羅蜜，皆已悉具足。
於無數佛所，善學菩薩道，
如是等大士，華光佛所化。
佛為王子時，棄國捨世榮，
於最末後身，出家成佛道。
華光佛住世，壽十二小劫，
其國人民眾，壽命八小劫。
佛滅度之後，正法住於世，
三十二小劫，廣度諸眾生。
正法滅盡已，像法三十二，
舍利廣流布，天人普供養。
華光佛所為，其事皆如是，
其兩足聖尊，最勝無倫匹。
彼即是汝身，宜應自欣慶。」
爾時四部眾，比丘、比丘尼、優婆塞、優婆夷，天、龍、夜叉、乾闥婆、阿修羅、迦樓羅、緊那羅、摩睺羅伽等大眾，見舍利弗於佛前受阿耨多羅三藐三菩提記，心大歡喜，踊躍無量，各各脫身所著上衣、以供養佛。釋提桓因、梵天王等，與無數天子，亦以天妙衣、天曼陀羅華、摩訶曼陀羅華等，供養於佛——所散天衣，住虛空中，而自迴轉；諸天伎樂百千萬種，於虛空中一時俱作，雨眾天華——而作是言：「佛昔於波羅㮈初轉法輪，今乃復轉無上最大法輪。」
爾時諸天子欲重宣此義，而說偈言：
「昔於波羅㮈，轉四諦法輪，
分別說諸法，五眾之生滅。
今復轉最妙，無上大法輪，
是法甚深奧，少有能信者。
我等從昔來，數聞世尊說，
未曾聞如是，深妙之上法。
世尊說是法，我等皆隨喜。
大智舍利弗，今得受尊記，
我等亦如是，必當得作佛。
於一切世間，最尊無有上，
佛道叵思議，方便隨宜說。
我所有福業，今世若過世，
及見佛功德，盡迴向佛道。」
（二）本論所帖短句與今本
| T1718 所錄 | T0262 今本 | 並錄說明 |
|---|---|---|
今從世尊聞此法音心懷踊躍〔T34 0064a01〕 | 今從世尊聞此法音，心懷勇躍〔T09 0010c01〕 | 踊、勇及句讀有別 |
今日乃知真是佛子〔T34 0064a03〕 | 今日乃知真是佛子〔T09 0010c13〕 | 字面相合 |
我已得漏盡，聞亦除憂惱〔T34 0064a06〕 | 我已得漏盡，聞亦除憂惱〔T09 0010c20〕 | 字面相合 |
安住實智中，我定當作佛〔T34 0064a08〕 | 安住實智中。我定當作佛〔T09 0011b06〕 | 今本依偈行分句 |
即起合掌〔T34 0064a26〕 | 即起合掌〔T09 0010b29〕 | 字面相合 |
向佛〔T34 0064a27〕 | 瞻仰尊顏而白佛言〔T09 0010b29〕 | 向佛是本論科釋語，根經無獨立二字 |
父知諸子先心各有所好珍玩之具〔T34 0063b19〕 | 父知諸子先心各有所好種種珍玩奇異之物〔T09 0012c06〕 | 本論有省略與收句差異 |
我為其父應拔其苦難令免燒煮〔T34 0063b21〕 | 我為眾生之父，應拔其苦難〔T09 0013a27〕；諸眾生為生老病死、憂悲苦惱之所燒煮〔T09 0013a19〕 | 本論合取兩處語義 |
乘是寶乘直至道場〔T34 0063b24〕 | 乘此寶乘，直至道場〔T09 0015a13〕 | 是、此及句讀有別 |
始見我身聞我所說，即皆信受入如來慧〔T34 0063c08〕 | 始見我身，聞我所說，即皆信受入如來慧〔T09 0040b08〕 | 本論用以說明其所指情境 |
前三條火宅語只在品題總釋中作譬喻背景，並不把根經〔0012b02〕以後的火宅長行納為本單元所帖正文。
（三）《涅槃》兔馬
本論作 《涅槃》云「兔馬」〔T34n1718 0063c03–0063c04〕。T12n0374 今本作 又未能渡十二因緣河，猶如兔馬。何以故？不見佛性故。〔T12n0374 0523c29〕。今本有兔馬二字，本論則把它置在三人同畏燒煮的說明中；兩處並錄，不判取義先後。
（四）《大品》螢火與日光
本論作 《大品》云：「二乘如螢火，菩薩如日光。」〔T34n1718 0063c07〕。T08n0223 今本先說 諸聲聞、辟支佛智慧，欲比菩薩摩訶薩智慧，百分不及一〔T08 0222a24〕，後分見 譬如螢火蟲不作是念：『我力能照閻浮提普令大明。』〔0222b05〕及 譬如日出時，光明遍照，閻浮提無不蒙明者。菩薩摩訶薩亦如是。〔0222b09〕。今本未見本論整句連文，故只列語義平行。
（五）七無上之引
本論標《十住毘婆沙》，自 身無上，謂相好〔T34n1718 0065a16〕列到 行無上名三藐三佛陀〔0065a23〕。現行 T26n1521 未檢得身無上、受持無上、具足無上等逐字連文；零命中不構成改題依據。
近逐字平行見 T30n1582：云何名為無上菩提？具七無上，故名無上菩提。一者身無上；二者受持無上；三者具足無上；四者智慧無上；五者不可思議無上；六者解脫無上；七者行無上。〔T30 0976a01〕；其後續釋身、受持、具足、智慧、不思議、解脫、行七項〔0976a04〕，再由大丈夫至三藐三佛陀列第二重名稱〔0976a19–0976a22〕。平行來源只誌錄，不改本論所標書名。
（六）《菩薩瓔珞》十清淨法
本論自 道當清淨，穢濁非道〔T34n1718 0065a24〕列至 道近善友，習惡非道〔0065a28〕，共十對。T16n0656 卷十三今本自〔0111c15〕列十清淨法，作一意、尊敬、撿意，另有 道當精懃，懈怠非道〔0111c19〕，並把第六序號重出。與本論的一心、恭敬、檢意及未列精懃一對俱並錄，不調整任一方的次序。
（七）《大論》四十八與小劫
本論作 舍利弗，正法三十二小劫者，三災飢、病、刀滅眾生者名小劫。〔T34n1718 0065b26〕，並續說直以時節名小劫。T25n1509 今本作 小劫亦三種：外三大發，故世界滅；內三毒發，故眾生滅，所謂飢餓、刀兵、疾病。復有人言：時節歲數，名為小劫。〔T25 0339c13〕，其後所引《法華經》作正法、像法各二十小劫〔0339c16〕。根經 T09n0262 本品則作正法、像法各三十二小劫〔T09 0011c10〕。二十與三十二三處並列，不相覆改。
（八）《淨名》病愈
本論作 《淨名》云：「眾生未愈，菩薩亦未愈。」〔云云〕〔T34n1718 0065c21–0065c22〕。T14n0475 今本先說 以一切眾生病，是故我病；若一切眾生病滅，則我病滅〔T14 0544b21〕，後說 眾生病，則菩薩病；眾生病愈，菩薩亦愈。〔0544b26〕。本論是未愈式，今本是病與病愈式，並錄不改。
（九）只有書名指向者
| 本論指向 | 行錨 | 本相處置 |
|---|---|---|
如《華嚴》中，即事而真不須譬喻 | 0063c10 | 只誌概括指向；相近逐字句另見 T0262〔0040b08〕，不反推華嚴經原句 |
《思益》、《淨名》中聞褒大折小 | 0064b17 | 兩書概括指向，無封閉引句 |
例如從《阿毘曇》中入者勝 | 0065a03 | 例說，無封閉引句 |
於《華嚴》中入者，化道應弱 | 0065a04 | 例說，無封閉引句 |
四、文句記釋要〔鏡〕
以下均是湛然《法華文句記》之鏡釋，不倒作智者原說。
| 本論節點 | 鏡釋骨幹 |
|---|---|
| 品題總別釋 | 鏡先把總釋分成字訓、釋訓、來意〔T34n1719 0253a08〕，再以界內人中車宅與界外佛事迷悟展開託此比彼〔0253a12〕 |
| 四種譬益 | 鏡明說因緣釋中以世四法譬一實四法〔0253a21〕，又說四悉各有一法一譬〔0253b17〕；下根雖未顯悟，仍非全無冥益〔0253b23–0253b24〕 |
| 四式譬喻 | 鏡依次解牛、麞鹿象、螢日與兩處不須譬〔0253c02–0254a14〕；本迹、觀心的補譬在〔0254a15–0254a18〕 |
| 法說餘段 | 鏡明言此處先置譬而釋前品之餘〔0254a20〕，並辨為譬作序之說〔0254a21–0254a23〕 |
| 領解總科 | 鏡說長行三業各有標、釋、結，偈中各陳〔0254a24–0254a27〕；這是鏡的細科，不改成本論唱數 |
| 經家敘內外 | 鏡以開顯義通解四喜〔0254b08–0254b16〕，再解歡喜位與合掌、向佛、瞻仰〔0254b17–0254c17〕 |
| 身子長行 | 鏡解口領、三業、昔失、所因兩義、兩楹與結三喜〔0254c18–0255b13〕，又展開喜心四益〔0255b14–0255b29〕 |
| 二十五行半偈 | 鏡在本論三分之內細分領、解，另說亦可分八〔0255c07–0256b17〕；八分只是鏡科 |
| 述成 | 鏡以見佛、聞法、悟解重讀三意，並解七無上雙列〔0256b18–0256c21〕 |
| 授記 | 鏡解四種授記意、長行十科與偈頌〔0256c22–0257b22〕；並明言根經未逐字出現一乘之語〔0257a18〕 |
| 四眾領解 | 鏡解脫衣、天衣迴轉、法輪與天子偈〔0257b23–0257c12〕，再解如身子、權行與末引《淨名》〔0257c13–0257c19〕 |
鏡文在本域沒有另立一段解釋本論所引《大論》的三十二小劫，也未逐句解第一答支所說四眾亦具三品；四枚〔云云〕亦非各有一段可封閉還原。無獨立鏡釋者只作如實明記，不補造鏡文。
五、諸家異釋
（一）本論自錄
本論明示異說共兩項，逐項如下：
| 次 | 異說原文 | 本論處理 |
|---|---|---|
| 一 | 又人云：「發起中根，置第二卷初，如六瑞問答為法說作序，領解得記為譬說作序。」〔T34n1718 0063c21〕 | 隨即說 此人情耳，置法說之後，中根可不悟耶？〔0063c23〕 |
| 二 | 又解，身子、迦葉並是權行，中下未開故，迦葉、滿願示同不解〔T34n1718 0065c20〕 | 作結尾問答第二支，後引《淨名》未愈之語 |
本域未見有人云、或言、舊云、解者不同、一云等標記。頌中明得所因又解方便〔0065a07〕的又解是亦解方便之意，不另立一說。
（二）鏡中所錄
《文句記》另錄多項異說與問難，均屬鏡層：品初兩種來意說〔T34n1719 0253a03–0253a04〕、下根得益問答〔0253b23〕、無二無異問答〔0253c21〕、為譬作序說〔0254a21〕、歡喜位二途與注家說〔0254b24–0254b26〕、阿含授記說〔0254c27〕、所因問答〔0255a03〕、嘉祥授記十意〔0256c27–0257a14〕、淨土劫數問答〔0257a28〕、脫衣兩說〔0257b27〕及圓音說〔0257c05〕。這些不併入本論異解分母；鏡有取捨者亦只誌其鏡判。
六、術語
| 詞 | 本論就地義 |
|---|---|
| 譬、喻 | 譬是比況，喻是曉訓；託此比彼，寄淺訓深〔0063b12–0063b13〕 |
| 動樹訓風、舉扇喻月 | 以可見的樹動、所舉之扇，使未直接領會的風與月得以曉解〔0063b15〕 |
| 四悉檀 | 本論依世界、為人、對治、第一義四路說譬益，又用以釋歡喜〔0063b16–0063b26；0063c29–0064a09〕 |
| 三藏、通、別、圓 | 本論依四式分說譬喻，各有自己的三乘形象與受益方式〔0063b26–0063c18〕 |
| 本迹、觀心 | 釋題與釋歡喜均有標示；觀心兩處從略作〔云云〕〔0063c18；0064a25〕 |
| 領解 | 領其所聞，述其所解；長行領解合說，偈中各陳〔0063c24–0063c26〕 |
| 內解、外儀 | 經家敘之二分；喜在心為內解，喜動於形而成起身、合掌、瞻仰為外儀〔0063c27–0064b03〕 |
| 三喜 | 身見佛身、口聞佛音、意解佛意，分為身、口、意三喜〔0064b03–0064b07〕 |
| 兩楹 | 前後兩端之間；本論指初照高山與久後說真實之間〔0064c04–0064c08〕 |
| 述成 | 如來述其所解不虛，分昔教大、忘大取小、還說大三意〔0065a10–0065a15〕 |
| 授記 | 印其得解後，記未來成佛；本論列四意、長行十科及偈頌二分〔0065b13–0065c12〕 |
| 權行 | 結尾第二答支用以說身子、迦葉及滿願示同未解〔0065c20〕 |
七、譬喻・互讀・承衍
品題總釋以動樹訓風、舉扇喻月說明譬喻的作用：不是以譬另造一理，而是借可知之事，使未能直領者明白深義。接著四式所用形象各守其列序：牛車運他出火；麞直去不回，鹿母並馳並顧，大象以身捍護全群；螢火與日光對舉；最後說上根不須譬，中下因疑而須大車譬。不可把後來火宅合譬所配之法倒填為這些形象的經文自說。
本單元真正承接的是法說五段。根經先由舍利弗歡喜、合掌、瞻仰、自陳，經二十五行半偈，再由佛述成、授記，最後四眾及諸天領解。三喜、四種歡喜、三段述成、四意授記、十科授記與四眾六行半偈，分別回答領何法、解何義、佛如何印可、未來如何成滿，以及同席大眾如何隨喜迴向。
末問表面上追問四眾何以先於迦葉等領悟。本論保存兩支回答：一說四眾天人亦有上、中、下三品，上根與舍利弗同悟；一說身子、迦葉皆為權行，中下尚未開解，故迦葉、滿願示同不解。兩支並存，不能只留後一支。
下一單元才從舍利弗請佛為四眾說因緣起，正式轉入中根譬說。故本相可以指出火宅為全品後續中心，卻不預先展開長者、宅、火、諸子、三車、大車與不虛的逐科法合。
八、校本定位
（一）正文校異
本域十一組正文關聯校異如下，正文一律守大正本：
| 行錨 | 大正本【大】 | 甲本【甲】 | 型態 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0063b14 | 遣 | 達 | 單字異讀 |
| 0064a07 | 又 | 又云 | 甲本增字 |
| 0064a28 | 圓 | 員 | 單字異讀 |
| 0064b04 | 二：初長行、二偈頌。初文為三 | 三名身喜聞此法音依於佛口聞而歡喜故 | 十一字與十七字整段異讀 |
| 0064b05 | 二 | 次 | 次第字異讀 |
| 0064b14 | 秖 | 只 | 星號沿用校；對應前見校號 |
| 0064b21 | 甞 | 常 | 單字異讀 |
| 0064b24 | 知見 | 見知 | 字序異讀 |
| 0064c08 | 實權 | 權實 | 字序異讀 |
| 0065a07 | 得 | 待 | 單字異讀 |
| 0065b10 | 願即 | 甲本缺 | 甲本空讀，缺二字 |
另有 法華文句卷第五首【甲】〔0063b12〕，只作甲本卷首見證誌，不列入十一組正文校異。
（二）夾註與異體字
T1718 本域共有四枚行內夾註，均為〔云云〕：〔0063c19〕、〔0064a25〕、〔0064c18〕、〔0065c22〕。夾註保留方括號形態，不抹成正文。
T1718 嚴格域沒有異體字元標記。根經覆蓋域另有 㮈，在 波羅㮈〔T09 0012a16〕及偈中同詞〔0012a18〕以異體字元標記編碼；這是根經層，不反算為本論異體字。
（三）頁錨體例
本帙讀者本只在換頁時標一枚頁錨；同頁後續內容沿用該頁，不逐行重標。所有徵引的行錨仍以引句首字前最近的大正藏行標為準。範圍式行錨的起點亦取首字實位，不借前句或標題所在行。
This unit begins with the explanation of the title of the Parable chapter. It first explains why a parable is required, then turns back to the four still-unfinished stages of the round of Dharma-teaching: Śāriputra's understanding, the Tathāgata's confirmation, Śāriputra's prediction, and the fourfold assembly's understanding. Although headed by the Parable chapter, this domain has not yet entered the body of the burning-house parable; the itemized explanations of the elder, house, fire, children, three carts, great cart, and absence of falsehood begin only in the next unit. The root scripture, other citations, mirror explanations, and variants assembled in this apparatus each remain within their own textual layer. Variant readings are recorded together without adjudicating among them.
I. Doctrinal-Outline Placement
The strict domain is T34n1718〔0063b11–0065c22〕, comprising seventeen blocks, 4,244 characters, and 3,430 Han characters. Line〔0063b11〕 is headed 「釋譬喻品」 tr. “Explanation of the Parable Chapter.” The next sentence at〔0065c23〕 is 從「爾時舍利弗白佛」下，第二大段，為中根譬說。 tr. “From ‘At that time Śāriputra addressed the Buddha’ onward is the second major division, the parable-teaching for those of middling faculties,” and is therefore excluded from this domain.
The treatise itself says that the Dharma-teaching has five stages: the first has been completed, while four remain unfinished. The present scripture fascicles place this chapter at the beginning of the passage on understanding; the treatise first distinguishes its order in meaning and then explains the text according to the present sequence. Following the treatise's own counts and transitions, the full domain divides into ten sections:
| No. | Domain | Content in the Root Treatise |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 0063b11–0063b26 | First generally explains “comparison” and “illustration,” then uses four worldly dharmas to compare with four world-transcending dharmas and distinctly explains four kinds of benefit |
| 2 | 0063b26–0063c19 | Explains parable according to the four modes of Tripiṭaka, shared, distinct, and perfect teachings; origin and trace and contemplation of the mind are abbreviated |
| 3 | 0063c19–0063c26 | Distinguishes the placement of the five stages of the Dharma-teaching; understanding means receiving what was heard and stating what was understood, combined in prose and stated separately in verse |
| 4 | 0063c26–0064a25 | The narrator's account divides into inward understanding and outward bearing; first explains inward joy, then discusses it in terms of the teaching and origin and trace |
| 5 | 0064a25–0064b03 | Outward bearing expresses understanding through rising, joining the palms, facing the Buddha, and gazing upon the honored face |
| 6 | 0064b03–0064c18 | Śāriputra's prose statement: first identifies bodily, verbal, and mental joy; next raises former loss to reveal present attainment; then concludes the accomplishment |
| 7 | 0064c18–0065a10 | The twenty-five and a half lines of verse divide in three: identifying, explaining, and concluding the three joys |
| 8 | 0065a10–0065b13 | The third stage, confirmation, divides in three: formerly taught the Great, forgot and grasped the Lesser, and taught the Great again |
| 9 | 0065b13–0065c12 | The fourth stage, prediction: four purposes of prediction; ten divisions of prose; eleven and a half lines of verse in two parts |
| 10 | 0065c12–0065c22 | The fifth stage, the fourfold assembly's understanding: prose, six and a half lines of verse, and the two concluding branches of question and answer |
The Dharma enumerations here belong to distinct levels and may not be conflated. The narrator's account has the two divisions of inward understanding and outward bearing; Śāriputra's own statement has the two divisions of prose and verse; the prose has the three divisions of identification, explanation, and conclusion; the three joys are bodily, verbal, and mental; confirmation has a separate set of three meanings; prediction has four purposes, ten prose divisions, and eleven and a half lines of verse in two parts; and the fourfold assembly's verse has six and a half lines in two parts.
The corresponding domain of the Fahua Wenjuji extends from the chapter title〔T34n1719 0253a02〕 through〔0257c19〕; line〔0257c20〕 has already turned to the parable-teaching for those of middling faculties. The mirror closes Fascicle Five, Second Half at〔0255c01〕 and opens Fascicle Six, First Half at〔0255c04〕. This fascicle boundary does not interrupt its explanation of the verse on understanding.
II. Formation and Transmission
The exact chapter title in this unit is 「釋譬喻品」 tr. “Explanation of the Parable Chapter”〔T34n1718 0063b11〕. The fascicle title 「妙法蓮華經文句卷第五上」 tr. “Words and Phrases of the Sūtra of the Lotus Blossom of the Wondrous Dharma, Fascicle Five, First Half” appears at〔0060c14〕 and is followed by the attribution 「天台智者大師說」 tr. “taught by Tiantai Great Master Zhizhe”〔0060c16〕. The fascicle title, attribution, and this unit's chapter title may not be joined into a single line of attribution.
Shenjiong's preface at the beginning of the fascicle is separately attributed 「鏡中沙門神逈述」 tr. “composed by the śramaṇa Shenjiong of Jingzhong”〔0001a04〕. The preface records that the work 「迺是灌頂法師私記」 tr. “is the private record of Dharma Master Guanding”〔0001a23〕 and further describes the ordering and recension carried out by the monk Lang during the wuxu year of the Tang Tianbao era. These statements in the preface concern the history of transmission and recording, not the line-by-line attribution of this unit. The present text can accordingly be understood in three layers: teaching by Zhizhe, private recording by Guanding, and later ordering and recension. The extant materials, however, do not suffice to reconstruct the wording before that recension, so the transmitted history is recorded without altering the base text on its account.
Witness Jia additionally has 「法華文句卷第五首【甲】」 tr. “Head of Fascicle Five of the Fahua Wenju [Jia]” at the opening of this domain〔0063b12〕, marking its position at the head of a fascicle. This is a witness note and does not replace the Taishō chapter title. The domain also contains eleven groups of base-text variants, detailed in Section VIII.
III. Sutra Passages Explained and Works Cited
1. Closed Domain of the Root Scripture
The root scripture explained in this unit is anchored to lines 4–100 of the repository's sealed text canon/tiantai/fahua/treatise/03_piyu/03_piyu_source.md, corresponding to T09n0262〔0010b29–0012b01〕. The following table records all ninety-seven content lines in the order of the sealed text; Śāriputra's request at〔0012b02〕 and the body of the burning-house parable that follows are both outside this domain.
To preserve both line-by-line anchors and the opening and closing quotation marks of the long citation, the anchor index for all ninety-seven lines is given first, followed by the exact text in the same order.
| Sealed Line | T0262 Anchor | Sealed Line | T0262 Anchor | Sealed Line | T0262 Anchor |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| L4 | 0010b29 | L37 | 0011a18 | L70 | 0011c20 |
| L5 | 0010c14 | L38 | 0011a19 | L71 | 0011c21 |
| L6 | 0010c16 | L39 | 0011a20 | L72 | 0011c22 |
| L7 | 0010c17 | L40 | 0011a21 | L73 | 0011c23 |
| L8 | 0010c18 | L41 | 0011a22 | L74 | 0011c24 |
| L9 | 0010c19 | L42 | 0011a23 | L75 | 0011c25 |
| L10 | 0010c20 | L43 | 0011a24 | L76 | 0011c26 |
| L11 | 0010c21 | L44 | 0011a25 | L77 | 0011c27 |
| L12 | 0010c22 | L45 | 0011a26 | L78 | 0011c28 |
| L13 | 0010c23 | L46 | 0011a27 | L79 | 0011c29 |
| L14 | 0010c24 | L47 | 0011a28 | L80 | 0012a01 |
| L15 | 0010c25 | L48 | 0011a29 | L81 | 0012a02 |
| L16 | 0010c26 | L49 | 0011b01 | L82 | 0012a03 |
| L17 | 0010c27 | L50 | 0011b02 | L83 | 0012a04 |
| L18 | 0010c28 | L51 | 0011b03 | L84 | 0012a05 |
| L19 | 0010c29 | L52 | 0011b04 | L85 | 0012a06 |
| L20 | 0011a01 | L53 | 0011b05 | L86 | 0012a07 |
| L21 | 0011a02 | L54 | 0011b06 | L87 | 0012a17 |
| L22 | 0011a03 | L55 | 0011b07 | L88 | 0012a18 |
| L23 | 0011a04 | L56 | 0011b08 | L89 | 0012a19 |
| L24 | 0011a05 | L57 | 0011b09 | L90 | 0012a20 |
| L25 | 0011a06 | L58 | 0011b16 | L91 | 0012a21 |
| L26 | 0011a07 | L59 | 0011b24 | L92 | 0012a22 |
| L27 | 0011a08 | L60 | 0011c04 | L93 | 0012a23 |
| L28 | 0011a09 | L61 | 0011c10 | L94 | 0012a24 |
| L29 | 0011a10 | L62 | 0011c12 | L95 | 0012a25 |
| L30 | 0011a11 | L63 | 0011c13 | L96 | 0012a26 |
| L31 | 0011a12 | L64 | 0011c14 | L97 | 0012a27 |
| L32 | 0011a13 | L65 | 0011c15 | L98 | 0012a28 |
| L33 | 0011a14 | L66 | 0011c16 | L99 | 0012a29 |
| L34 | 0011a15 | L67 | 0011c17 | L100 | 0012b01 |
| L35 | 0011a16 | L68 | 0011c18 | ||
| L36 | 0011a17 | L69 | 0011c19 |
At that time Śāriputra leapt with joy, immediately rose, joined his palms, gazed upon the honored face, and addressed the Buddha: 「今從世尊聞此法音，心懷勇躍，得未曾有。所以者何？我昔從佛聞如是法，見諸菩薩授記作佛，而我等不豫斯事，甚自感傷，失於如來無量知見。世尊！我常獨處山林樹下，若坐若行，每作是念：『我等同入法性，云何如來以小乘法而見濟度？是我等咎，非世尊也。所以者何？若我等待說所因成就阿耨多羅三藐三菩提者，必以大乘而得度脫。然我等不解方便隨宜所說，初聞佛法，遇便信受、思惟、取證。』世尊！我從昔來，終日竟夜每自剋責，而今從佛聞所未聞未曾有法，斷諸疑悔，身意泰然，快得安隱。今日乃知真是佛子，從佛口生，從法化生，得佛法分。」 **tr.** “Now, on hearing this Dharma-sound from the World-Honored One, my heart leaps and I have attained what I never had before. Why is this? In the past, when I heard a Dharma such as this from the Buddha and saw the bodhisattvas receive predictions of buddhahood, we did not participate in this matter. I was deeply grieved, feeling that I had lost the Tathāgata's immeasurable knowledge and vision. World-Honored One, I often dwelt alone beneath trees in mountain forests. Whether sitting or walking, I constantly formed this thought: ‘We equally enter the Dharma-nature. Why does the Tathāgata save us through the Lesser Vehicle Dharma? This is our fault, not the World-Honored One's. Why? Had we waited for the teaching of the cause by which unsurpassed complete awakening is accomplished, we would certainly have been liberated through the Great Vehicle. Yet we did not understand what was taught through skillful means according to what was appropriate. When we first heard the Buddha-Dharma, we immediately believed and received it, reflected on it, and grasped its realization.’ World-Honored One, from the past onward I reproached myself throughout the day and night. Now, on hearing from the Buddha a Dharma never heard before and never before experienced, I have severed all doubt and regret. Body and mind are at ease, and I have happily attained peace. Only today do I know that I am truly a child of the Buddha, born from the Buddha's mouth, born through transformation by the Dharma, and have attained a share in the Buddha-Dharma.”
At that time Śāriputra, wishing to restate this meaning, spoke in verse:
“I hear this Dharma-sound and attain what I never had before;
My heart holds great joy, and the net of doubt has been entirely cast off.
Since the past I have received the Buddha's teaching and have not lost the Great Vehicle.
The Buddha's voice is exceedingly rare and can remove the distress of living beings;
I have already exhausted the contaminants, yet hearing it further removes sorrow and distress.
I dwelt in mountain valleys or beneath trees in forests;
Whether sitting or walking in meditation, I constantly reflected on this matter.
Alas! I deeply reproached myself: how had I deceived myself?
We too are children of the Buddha and equally enter the uncontaminated Dharma,
Yet in the future we cannot proclaim the unsurpassed path.
The golden form and thirty-two marks, the ten powers and all liberations:
Though together within the same Dharma, we did not attain these things.
The eighty wondrous excellences and eighteen exclusive dharmas—
Merits such as these I had entirely lost.
When I walked in meditation alone, I saw the Buddha amid the great assembly,
His renown filling the ten directions as he extensively benefited living beings.
Reflecting that I had lost this benefit, I thought I had deceived myself.
Throughout day and night I constantly reflected on this matter,
Wishing to ask the World-Honored One whether I had lost it or not.
I constantly saw the World-Honored One praise the bodhisattvas,
And so throughout day and night I considered and weighed this matter.
Now I hear the Buddha's voice teaching the Dharma according to what is appropriate—
Uncontaminated and inconceivable, it leads the assembly to the place of awakening.
I originally clung to deviant views and was a teacher of brahmans.
The World-Honored One knew my mind, uprooted the deviant, and taught nirvāṇa.
I entirely cast off deviant views and attained realization within the Dharma of emptiness.
At that time I thought within my mind that I had reached extinction,
But only now have I awakened for myself that this is not real extinction.
When one attains buddhahood and possesses the thirty-two marks,
And assemblies of gods, humans, yakṣas, dragons, and spirits all show reverence,
Only then can it be said that one has forever exhausted all and entered remainderless extinction.
The Buddha, amid the great assembly, says that I shall become a buddha.
On hearing this Dharma-sound, all my doubt and regret have been cast off.
When I first heard what the Buddha taught, great alarm and doubt arose in my mind:
Could this be Māra appearing as the Buddha in order to trouble and confuse my mind?
The Buddha teaches skillfully through various conditions, parables, and eloquent words.
His mind is as steady as the ocean; on hearing him, my net of doubt was severed.
The Buddha says that in past ages immeasurable buddhas who entered extinction
Dwelt securely within skillful means and all likewise taught this Dharma.
The present and future buddhas are immeasurable in number,
And they too proclaim a Dharma such as this through various skillful means.
The present World-Honored One, from birth and renunciation
Through attaining the path and turning the Dharma wheel, likewise teaches through skillful means.
The World-Honored One teaches the real path; Pāpīyas has no such thing.
Therefore I know with certainty that this is not Māra appearing as the Buddha.
Because I had fallen into the net of doubt, I thought this was Māra's doing.
On hearing the Buddha's gentle voice, profound, far-reaching, and exceedingly subtle,
Proclaiming and unfolding the pure Dharma, my heart holds great joy.
Doubt and regret have forever ended, and I abide securely within real wisdom.
I shall certainly become a buddha, honored by gods and humans,
Turn the unsurpassed Dharma wheel, and teach and transform bodhisattvas.”
At that time the Buddha told Śāriputra: “I now declare amid this great assembly of gods, humans, śramaṇas, brahmans, and others that in the past, in the presence of twenty thousand koṭis of buddhas, I constantly taught and transformed you for the sake of the unsurpassed path, and throughout the long night you studied under me. Because I guided you through skillful means, you were born within my Dharma. Śāriputra, in the past I taught you to aspire and vow toward the buddha path, but today you have entirely forgotten and instead thought that you had already attained extinction. Now, wishing again to cause you to recollect the path practiced in accordance with your original vow, I teach all the śrāvakas this Great Vehicle scripture called the Lotus Blossom of the Wondrous Dharma, a Dharma for teaching bodhisattvas that is kept in mind by the buddhas.
“Śāriputra, in a future age, after immeasurable, boundless, inconceivable eons, you will make offerings to several thousands of myriads of koṭis of buddhas, uphold the True Dharma, and fully possess the path practiced by bodhisattvas. You will attain buddhahood and be called Tathāgata Flower Glow, Worthy of Offerings, Correctly and Universally Knowing, Perfect in Knowledge and Conduct, Well-Gone, Knower of the World, Unsurpassed Person, Tamer of Persons, Teacher of Gods and Humans, Buddha, World-Honored One. Your country will be named Free of Defilement. Its ground will be level, pure, adorned, peaceful, prosperous, and joyful, and gods and humans will flourish there. Its ground will be beryl, with eight intersecting roads whose sides are bordered by golden cords. Along each road will be rows of trees made of the seven treasures, constantly bearing flowers and fruits. Tathāgata Flower Glow will also teach and transform living beings through the three vehicles.
“Śāriputra, when that buddha appears, although it will not be an evil age, because of his original vow he will teach the Dharma of the three vehicles. His eon will be named Adorned with Great Jewels. Why will it be named Adorned with Great Jewels? Because the bodhisattvas in that country will be regarded as great jewels. Those bodhisattvas will be immeasurable, boundless, and inconceivable, beyond the reach of calculation or simile. No one without the power of buddha-wisdom will be able to know their number. Whenever they wish to walk, jeweled flowers will support their feet. These bodhisattvas will not be newly resolved; all will have long planted roots of virtue and purely cultivated brahmā-conduct in the presence of immeasurable hundreds of thousands of myriads of koṭis of buddhas, and will constantly be praised by the buddhas. They will constantly cultivate buddha-wisdom, possess great supernormal powers, thoroughly know all the gateways of the dharmas, be upright and without falsity, and remain firm in aspiration and mindfulness. Bodhisattvas such as these will fill that country.
“Śāriputra, Buddha Flower Glow's lifespan will be twelve minor eons, excluding the time when he is a prince before attaining buddhahood. The lifespan of the people in his country will be eight minor eons. After twelve minor eons, Tathāgata Flower Glow will give Bodhisattva Firm Fullness a prediction of unsurpassed complete awakening. He will tell the monks: ‘This Bodhisattva Firm Fullness will next become a buddha named Flower-Foot Peaceful Conduct, *Tathāgata, Arhat, Samyaksaṃbuddha*. His buddha-country will also be like this.’
「舍利弗！是華光佛滅度之後，正法住世三十二小劫，像法住世亦三十二小劫。」 **tr.** “Śāriputra, after Buddha Flower Glow enters extinction, the True Dharma will remain in the world for thirty-two minor eons, and the Semblance Dharma will likewise remain for thirty-two minor eons.”
At that time the World-Honored One, wishing to restate this meaning, spoke in verse:
“Śāriputra, in a future age you will become a buddha, an honored one of universal wisdom,
Named Flower Glow, and you will liberate immeasurable beings.
Having made offerings to numberless buddhas and fully practiced the bodhisattva practices,
You will possess the merits of the ten powers and realize the unsurpassed path.
After immeasurable eons have passed, the eon will be named Adorned with Great Jewels,
And the world will be named Free of Defilement, pure and without flaw or impurity.
Beryl will be its ground, and golden cords will border its roads;
Trees of the seven treasures in variegated colors will constantly bear flowers and fruits.
The bodhisattvas in that country will remain constantly firm in aspiration and mindfulness,
And will have entirely perfected supernormal powers and pāramitās.
In the presence of numberless buddhas they will have thoroughly studied the bodhisattva path;
Great persons such as these will be transformed by Buddha Flower Glow.
When the Buddha was a prince, he abandoned his country and relinquished worldly glory;
In his very last body he renounced the household life and accomplished the buddha path.
Buddha Flower Glow will remain in the world for a lifespan of twelve minor eons;
The multitude of people in his country will have lifespans of eight minor eons.
After the Buddha enters extinction, the True Dharma will remain in the world
For thirty-two minor eons, extensively liberating living beings.
After the True Dharma has completely ended, the Semblance Dharma will remain for thirty-two;
His relics will be distributed far and wide, and gods and humans will universally make offerings.
Everything done by Buddha Flower Glow will be in this way.
This noble sage, honored among two-footed beings, will be supreme and without equal.
He will be none other than you yourself; you should rejoice on your own account.”
At that time the fourfold assembly—the bhikṣus, bhikṣuṇīs, upāsakas, and upāsikās—and the great assembly of gods, dragons, yakṣas, gandharvas, asuras, garuḍas, kiṃnaras, mahoragas, and others saw Śāriputra receive before the Buddha a prediction of unsurpassed complete awakening. Their hearts filled with great joy and they leapt without measure. Each removed the upper garment worn on the body and offered it to the Buddha. Śakra Devānām Indra, the Brahmā kings, and others, together with numberless sons of gods, likewise offered the Buddha wondrous heavenly garments, heavenly māndārava flowers, great māndārava flowers, and the like. The heavenly garments they scattered remained in empty space and revolved on their own. Hundreds of thousands of myriads of kinds of heavenly music all sounded at once in empty space, and multitudes of heavenly flowers rained down. They said: 「佛昔於波羅㮈初轉法輪，今乃復轉無上最大法輪。」 **tr.** “In the past the Buddha first turned the Dharma wheel at Vārāṇasī; now he again turns the unsurpassed and greatest Dharma wheel.”
At that time the sons of gods, wishing to restate this meaning, spoke in verse:
“In the past at Vārāṇasī, he turned the Dharma wheel of the four truths,
Distinctly teaching the arising and cessation of the dharmas of the five aggregates.
Now he again turns the most wondrous, unsurpassed, great Dharma wheel.
This Dharma is extremely profound; few are able to believe it.
From the past onward, we have repeatedly heard the World-Honored One teach,
But never before have we heard such a profound, wondrous, and supreme Dharma.
The World-Honored One teaches this Dharma, and we all rejoice in accord.
Śāriputra of great wisdom now receives the Honored One's prediction;
We too shall be the same and will certainly attain buddhahood,
Most honored and unsurpassed throughout all worlds.
The buddha path is inconceivable and is taught through skillful means according to what is appropriate.
All the meritorious deeds I possess, whether in this life or past lives,
Together with the merit of seeing the Buddha, I dedicate entirely to the buddha path.”
2. Short Phrases Embedded in the Root Treatise and the Present Text
| Wording Recorded in T1718 | Present T0262 Wording | Record of Correspondence |
|---|---|---|
今從世尊聞此法音心懷踊躍 tr. “Now, on hearing this Dharma-sound from the World-Honored One, the heart leaps”〔T34 0064a01〕 | 今從世尊聞此法音，心懷勇躍 tr. “Now, on hearing this Dharma-sound from the World-Honored One, the heart leaps”〔T09 0010c01〕 | The graphs 踊 and 勇 and the punctuation differ |
今日乃知真是佛子 tr. “Only today do I know that I am truly a child of the Buddha”〔T34 0064a03〕 | 今日乃知真是佛子 tr. “Only today do I know that I am truly a child of the Buddha”〔T09 0010c13〕 | The wording agrees |
我已得漏盡，聞亦除憂惱 tr. “I have already exhausted the contaminants; hearing it further removes sorrow and distress”〔T34 0064a06〕 | 我已得漏盡，聞亦除憂惱 tr. “I have already exhausted the contaminants; hearing it further removes sorrow and distress”〔T09 0010c20〕 | The wording agrees |
安住實智中，我定當作佛 tr. “I abide securely within real wisdom; I shall certainly become a buddha”〔T34 0064a08〕 | 安住實智中。我定當作佛 tr. “I abide securely within real wisdom. I shall certainly become a buddha”〔T09 0011b06〕 | The present text divides the phrases according to the verse lines |
即起合掌 tr. “immediately rose and joined his palms”〔T34 0064a26〕 | 即起合掌 tr. “immediately rose and joined his palms”〔T09 0010b29〕 | The wording agrees |
向佛 tr. “facing the Buddha”〔T34 0064a27〕 | 瞻仰尊顏而白佛言 tr. “gazed upon the honored face and addressed the Buddha”〔T09 0010b29〕 | “Facing the Buddha” is a term in the root treatise's analytic division; the root scripture has no independent two-character phrase |
父知諸子先心各有所好珍玩之具 tr. “the father knew that each child's former mind had rare objects and toys it delighted in”〔T34 0063b19〕 | 父知諸子先心各有所好種種珍玩奇異之物 tr. “the father knew that each child's former mind delighted in various rare toys and unusual objects”〔T09 0012c06〕 | The root treatise abbreviates and closes the phrase differently |
我為其父應拔其苦難令免燒煮 tr. “I am their father and should extricate them from hardship, keeping them from being burned”〔T34 0063b21〕 | 我為眾生之父，應拔其苦難 tr. “I am the father of living beings and should extricate them from hardship”〔T09 0013a27〕; 諸眾生為生老病死、憂悲苦惱之所燒煮 tr. “living beings are burned by birth, aging, sickness, death, sorrow, grief, suffering, and distress”〔T09 0013a19〕 | The root treatise combines the meanings of two locations |
乘是寶乘直至道場 tr. “riding this jeweled vehicle, they go directly to the place of awakening”〔T34 0063b24〕 | 乘此寶乘，直至道場 tr. “riding this jeweled vehicle, they go directly to the place of awakening”〔T09 0015a13〕 | The demonstratives 是 and 此 and the punctuation differ |
始見我身聞我所說，即皆信受入如來慧 tr. “on first seeing my body and hearing what I taught, they immediately all believed and received it and entered the Tathāgata's wisdom”〔T34 0063c08〕 | 始見我身，聞我所說，即皆信受入如來慧 tr. “on first seeing my body and hearing what I taught, they immediately all believed and received it and entered the Tathāgata's wisdom”〔T09 0040b08〕 | The root treatise uses it to explain the setting to which it points |
The first three burning-house phrases appear only as the parabolic background in the general explanation of the chapter title. They do not incorporate the burning-house prose after root scripture line〔0012b02〕 into the text embedded in this unit.
3. The Rabbit and Horse in the Nirvāṇa Sūtra
The root treatise reads 《涅槃》云「兔馬」 tr. “The Nirvāṇa Sūtra speaks of ‘a rabbit and a horse’”〔T34n1718 0063c03–0063c04〕. The present T12n0374 reads 又未能渡十二因緣河，猶如兔馬。何以故？不見佛性故。 tr. “They are further unable to cross the river of the twelve links of causes and conditions, like a rabbit or a horse. Why? Because they do not see buddha-nature”〔T12n0374 0523c29〕. The present text contains the two words rabbit and horse, while the root treatise places them within the explanation of three persons equally fearing the burning. Both locations are recorded without adjudicating the priority of their meanings.
4. Firefly Light and Sunlight in the Large Perfection of Wisdom
The root treatise reads 《大品》云：「二乘如螢火，菩薩如日光。」 tr. “The Large Perfection of Wisdom says: ‘The two vehicles are like firefly light, while bodhisattvas are like sunlight’”〔T34n1718 0063c07〕. The present T08n0223 first says 諸聲聞、辟支佛智慧，欲比菩薩摩訶薩智慧，百分不及一 tr. “If the wisdom of śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas is compared with the wisdom of bodhisattva-mahāsattvas, it does not reach even one part in a hundred”〔T08 0222a24〕. It later separately has 譬如螢火蟲不作是念：『我力能照閻浮提普令大明。』 tr. “A firefly does not form this thought: ‘My power can illuminate Jambudvīpa and make it universally bright’”〔0222b05〕 and 譬如日出時，光明遍照，閻浮提無不蒙明者。菩薩摩訶薩亦如是。 tr. “When the sun rises, its light shines everywhere, and none in Jambudvīpa fail to receive its brightness. Bodhisattva-mahāsattvas are likewise”〔0222b09〕. The present text does not have the root treatise's complete sentence as continuous wording, so only the semantic parallel is recorded.
5. Citation of the Seven Unsurpassed Qualities
The root treatise identifies the Daśabhūmika-vibhāṣā and, beginning with 身無上，謂相好 tr. “unsurpassed body means the marks and excellences”〔T34n1718 0065a16〕, lists through 行無上名三藐三佛陀 tr. “unsurpassed practice is called samyaksaṃbuddha”〔0065a23〕. The continuous exact wording for unsurpassed body, unsurpassed reception and retention, unsurpassed completeness, and the other items was not found in the present T26n1521; zero results do not constitute grounds for changing the attribution.
A near-verbatim parallel appears in T30n1582: 云何名為無上菩提？具七無上，故名無上菩提。一者身無上；二者受持無上；三者具足無上；四者智慧無上；五者不可思議無上；六者解脫無上；七者行無上。 tr. “Why is it called unsurpassed bodhi? Because it possesses seven unsurpassed qualities, it is called unsurpassed bodhi: first, unsurpassed body; second, unsurpassed reception and retention; third, unsurpassed completeness; fourth, unsurpassed wisdom; fifth, inconceivable unsurpassedness; sixth, unsurpassed liberation; and seventh, unsurpassed practice”〔T30 0976a01〕. It continues by explaining the seven items of body, reception and retention, completeness, wisdom, inconceivability, liberation, and practice〔0976a04〕, then gives the second series of names from great person through samyaksaṃbuddha〔0976a19–0976a22〕. The parallel source is recorded without altering the title identified by the root treatise.
6. Ten Pure Dharmas in the Bodhisattva Jeweled Necklace
Beginning with 道當清淨，穢濁非道 tr. “the path should be pure; defilement is not the path”〔T34n1718 0065a24〕 and continuing through 道近善友，習惡非道 tr. “the path should draw near good friends; being habituated to evil is not the path”〔0065a28〕, the root treatise lists ten pairs. The present Fascicle Thirteen of T16n0656 lists ten pure dharmas beginning at〔0111c15〕, reading “one intention,” “veneration,” and “restraining the mind”; it additionally has 道當精懃，懈怠非道 tr. “the path should be diligent; laziness is not the path”〔0111c19〕 and repeats the ordinal number six. Its “one intention,” “veneration,” and “restraining the mind,” and the pair on diligence that does not appear in the root treatise, are recorded side by side without changing the sequence of either text.
7. Fascicle Forty-Eight of the Great Treatise and Minor Eons
The root treatise reads 舍利弗，正法三十二小劫者，三災飢、病、刀滅眾生者名小劫。 tr. “As for Śāriputra's True Dharma lasting thirty-two minor eons, when the three disasters of famine, disease, and warfare destroy living beings, this is called a minor eon”〔T34n1718 0065b26〕, and continues by saying that a period of time itself may be called a minor eon. The present T25n1509 reads 小劫亦三種：外三大發，故世界滅；內三毒發，故眾生滅，所謂飢餓、刀兵、疾病。復有人言：時節歲數，名為小劫。 tr. “Minor eons are also of three kinds: when the three great external calamities arise, the world is destroyed; when the three inner poisons arise, living beings are destroyed—namely by famine, warfare, and disease. Others further say that a period measured in years is called a minor eon”〔T25 0339c13〕. The Lotus Sūtra passage subsequently cited there reads that the True Dharma and Semblance Dharma each last twenty minor eons〔0339c16〕, while the root scripture in this chapter of T09n0262 reads that the True Dharma and Semblance Dharma each last thirty-two minor eons〔T09 0011c10〕. The readings twenty and thirty-two in the three locations are recorded side by side without overwriting one another.
8. Recovery from Illness in the Vimalakīrti Sūtra
The root treatise reads 《淨名》云：「眾生未愈，菩薩亦未愈。」〔云云〕 tr. “The Vimalakīrti Sūtra says: ‘While living beings have not yet recovered, bodhisattvas have not yet recovered either.’ 〔The remainder is abbreviated.〕”〔T34n1718 0065c21–0065c22〕. The present T14n0475 first says 以一切眾生病，是故我病；若一切眾生病滅，則我病滅 tr. “Because all living beings are ill, I am ill; if the illnesses of all living beings cease, my illness ceases”〔T14 0544b21〕, and later says 眾生病，則菩薩病；眾生病愈，菩薩亦愈。 tr. “When living beings are ill, bodhisattvas are ill; when living beings recover, bodhisattvas also recover”〔0544b26〕. The root treatise has the form “not yet recovered,” while the present text has the forms “ill” and “recover.” They are recorded together without alteration.
9. References Consisting Only of Titles
| Root-Treatise Reference | Anchor | Treatment in This Apparatus |
|---|---|---|
如《華嚴》中，即事而真不須譬喻 tr. “as in the Flower Ornament, reality is entered through phenomena themselves, with no need for a parable” | 0063c10 | Records only the general reference; a near-verbatim phrase occurs separately in T0262〔0040b08〕 and is not retrojected as a sentence from the Flower Ornament Sūtra |
《思益》、《淨名》中聞褒大折小 tr. “in the Sūtra of Brahmā's Questions and the Vimalakīrti, he heard the Great praised and the Lesser subdued” | 0064b17 | General references to two works, with no closed quotation |
例如從《阿毘曇》中入者勝 tr. “for example, those who enter through the Abhidharma are stronger” | 0065a03 | An illustrative statement, with no closed quotation |
於《華嚴》中入者，化道應弱 tr. “those who enter within the Flower Ornament should have a weaker course of transformation” | 0065a04 | An illustrative statement, with no closed quotation |
IV. Essential Explanations from the Wenjuji [the Mirror]
All entries below are mirror explanations from Zhanran's Fahua Wenjuji and are not inverted into original statements by Zhiyi.
| Root-Treatise Node | Essential Structure of the Mirror Explanation |
|---|---|
| General and differentiated explanation of the chapter title | The mirror first divides the general explanation into the meanings of the characters, interpretive gloss, and reason for the chapter's arrival〔T34n1719 0253a08〕; it then unfolds “relying on this to compare with that” through vehicles and houses within the realm and through delusion and awakening concerning buddha-activity beyond the realm〔0253a12〕 |
| Four benefits of the parable | The mirror explicitly states that in interpretation through causes and conditions the four worldly dharmas illustrate the four dharmas of the single reality〔0253a21〕 and that each of the four siddhāntas has one Dharma and one parable〔0253b17〕; although those of inferior faculties do not manifestly awaken, they are not entirely without hidden benefit〔0253b23–0253b24〕 |
| Parables according to the four modes | In sequence the mirror explains the ox; river deer, deer, and elephant; firefly and sun; and the two settings that require no parable〔0253c02–0254a14〕. Its supplementary parables for origin and trace and contemplating the mind appear at〔0254a15–0254a18〕 |
| Remaining stages of the Dharma-teaching | The mirror explicitly says that here the parable is first set aside while the remainder of the preceding chapter is explained〔0254a20〕, and it distinguishes the view that the passage forms an introduction to the parable〔0254a21–0254a23〕 |
| General outline of understanding | The mirror says that each of the three karmas in the prose has identification, explanation, and conclusion, while the verse states each separately〔0254a24–0254a27〕. This is the mirror's finer division and does not replace the root treatise's own count |
| Inward and outward parts of the narrator's account | The mirror generally explains the four joys through the meaning of opening and revealing〔0254b08–0254b16〕, then explains the stage of joy and joining the palms, facing the Buddha, and gazing upward〔0254b17–0254c17〕 |
| Śāriputra's prose | The mirror explains understanding through speech, the three karmas, former losses, the two meanings of the cause, the two pillars, and the conclusion of the three joys〔0254c18–0255b13〕, and further unfolds the four benefits of the joyful mind〔0255b14–0255b29〕 |
| Twenty-five and a half lines of verse | Within the root treatise's three parts, the mirror more finely divides receiving and understanding, and further says the passage can also be divided into eight〔0255c07–0256b17〕. The eight-part division belongs only to the mirror |
| Confirmation | The mirror rereads the three meanings through seeing the Buddha, hearing the Dharma, and awakening and understanding, and explains the double listing of the seven unsurpassed qualities〔0256b18–0256c21〕 |
| Prediction | The mirror explains the four purposes of prediction, the ten prose divisions, and the verse〔0256c22–0257b22〕. It explicitly states that the words “one vehicle” do not occur verbatim in the root scripture〔0257a18〕 |
| Fourfold assembly's understanding | The mirror explains removing the garments, the heavenly garments' revolving, the Dharma wheel, and the sons of gods' verse〔0257b23–0257c12〕, then explains “like Śāriputra,” provisional practice, and the final citation from the Vimalakīrti Sūtra〔0257c13–0257c19〕 |
Within this domain the mirror does not establish a separate passage explaining the thirty-two minor eons in the root treatise's citation of the Great Treatise, nor does it explain phrase by phrase the first answer's statement that the fourfold assembly also possesses three grades. The four instances of〔云云〕 also cannot each be recovered as an independently closed mirror passage. Where there is no independent mirror explanation, the absence is recorded as such without fabricating mirror text.
V. Explanations of Various Masters
1. Recorded by the Root Treatise
The root treatise explicitly marks two alternative explanations, itemized below:
| No. | Exact Alternative Explanation | Treatment by the Root Treatise |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 又人云：「發起中根，置第二卷初，如六瑞問答為法說作序，領解得記為譬說作序。」 tr. “Someone further says: ‘To initiate those of middling faculties, it is placed at the beginning of the second fascicle. Just as the six portents and the questions and answers form an introduction to the Dharma-teaching, understanding and receipt of a prediction form an introduction to the parable-teaching’”〔T34n1718 0063c21〕 | It immediately says 此人情耳，置法說之後，中根可不悟耶？ tr. “This is merely human sentiment. If it were placed after the Dharma-teaching, could those of middling faculties not awaken?”〔0063c23〕 |
| 2 | 又解，身子、迦葉並是權行，中下未開故，迦葉、滿願示同不解 tr. “Another explanation says that Śāriputra and Kāśyapa are both practitioners of provisional manifestation. Because those of middling and inferior faculties have not yet opened, Kāśyapa and Pūrṇa manifest the same lack of understanding”〔T34n1718 0065c20〕 | It forms the second branch of the concluding question and answer, followed by the citation of “not yet recovered” from the Vimalakīrti Sūtra |
No markers such as “someone says,” “another says,” “an old explanation says,” “interpreters differ,” or “one explanation says” otherwise occur in this domain. In 頌中明得所因又解方便 tr. “the verse clarifies attaining the cause and also understanding skillful means”〔0065a07〕, “also understanding” does not establish a separate explanation.
2. Recorded in the Mirror
The Wenjuji separately records multiple alternative explanations and challenges, all belonging to the mirror layer: two explanations of the reason for the chapter's arrival〔T34n1719 0253a03–0253a04〕; a question and answer on benefit to those of inferior faculties〔0253b23〕; a question and answer on “neither two nor different”〔0253c21〕; the explanation that the passage introduces the parable〔0254a21〕; two routes into the stage of joy and the commentators' explanation〔0254b24–0254b26〕; the Āgama account of prediction〔0254c27〕; a question and answer on the cause〔0255a03〕; Jiaxiang's ten purposes of prediction〔0256c27–0257a14〕; a question and answer on the number of eons in the pure land〔0257a28〕; two explanations of removing the garments〔0257b27〕; and the explanation of the perfect voice〔0257c05〕. These are not added to the denominator of alternative explanations in the root treatise. Where the mirror adjudicates, only the mirror's judgment is recorded.
VI. Terminology
| Term | Contextual Meaning in the Root Treatise |
|---|---|
| 譬、喻 · comparison and illustration | 譬 is comparison and 喻 is instruction that brings understanding: relying on this to compare with that, lodging in the shallow to teach the profound〔0063b12–0063b13〕 |
| 動樹訓風、舉扇喻月 · moving a tree to teach wind; raising a fan to illustrate the moon | Through the visible movement of a tree and the fan that is raised, the wind and moon not directly apprehended can be understood〔0063b15〕 |
| 四悉檀 · four siddhāntas | The root treatise explains the benefits of the parable through the world, the individual, counteraction, and the ultimate meaning, and also uses them to explain joy〔0063b16–0063b26; 0063c29–0064a09〕 |
| 三藏、通、別、圓 · Tripiṭaka, shared, distinct, and perfect | The root treatise distinctly explains parable according to four modes, each with its own images of the three vehicles and manner of receiving benefit〔0063b26–0063c18〕 |
| 本迹、觀心 · origin and trace; contemplating the mind | Both appear in the explanation of the title and explanation of joy; contemplation of the mind is abbreviated in both places with〔云云〕〔0063c18; 0064a25〕 |
| 領解 · understanding | Receiving what one has heard and stating what one has understood; receiving and understanding are combined in the prose and stated separately in the verse〔0063c24–0063c26〕 |
| 內解、外儀 · inward understanding and outward bearing | The two divisions of the narrator's account. Joy within the mind is inward understanding; when joy stirs in the body, it becomes the outward bearing of rising, joining the palms, and gazing upward〔0063c27–0064b03〕 |
| 三喜 · three joys | The body sees the Buddha's body, the mouth hears the Buddha's voice, and the mind understands the Buddha's intent: bodily, verbal, and mental joy〔0064b03–0064b07〕 |
| 兩楹 · two pillars | The interval between the earlier and later ends; the root treatise refers to the initial illumination of the high mountains and the teaching of reality after a long time〔0064c04–0064c08〕 |
| 述成 · confirmation | The Tathāgata confirms that what Śāriputra has understood is not false; it divides into formerly teaching the Great, forgetting the Great and grasping the Lesser, and teaching the Great again〔0065a10–0065a15〕 |
| 授記 · prediction | After certifying his understanding, the Buddha predicts his future buddhahood; the root treatise lists four purposes, ten prose divisions, and two parts of verse〔0065b13–0065c12〕 |
| 權行 · provisional practice | Used in the second concluding answer to explain Śāriputra, Kāśyapa, and Pūrṇa manifesting the same lack of understanding〔0065c20〕 |
VII. Similes · Cross-Reading · Carrying Forward
The general explanation of the chapter title uses moving a tree to teach wind and raising a fan to illustrate the moon to explain the function of parable. It does not use a parable to create a separate principle, but borrows a knowable matter so that those unable to receive directly can understand a profound meaning. The images used in the four modes that follow each keep their proper sequence: the ox cart carries others out of the fire; the river deer flees straight ahead without looking back, the mother deer runs while looking back, and the great elephant protects the whole herd with its body; firefly light is contrasted with sunlight; finally, those of superior faculties are said not to require a parable, while those of middling and inferior faculties require the parable of the great cart because of doubt. The doctrinal correspondences assigned later in the composite burning-house parable may not be retrojected as though the scripture itself stated them within these images.
What this unit actually continues is the five-stage Dharma-teaching. In the root scripture Śāriputra first rejoices, joins his palms, gazes upward, and states his understanding; after twenty-five and a half lines of verse, the Buddha confirms him and gives him a prediction; finally the fourfold assembly and the gods understand. The three joys, four kinds of joy, three stages of confirmation, four purposes of prediction, ten divisions of prediction, and the fourfold assembly's six and a half lines of verse respectively answer which Dharma is received, which meaning is understood, how the Buddha certifies it, how it will be fulfilled in the future, and how the assembly seated together rejoices and dedicates merit.
The final question ostensibly asks why the fourfold assembly awakened before Kāśyapa and the others. The root treatise preserves two branches of answer. One says that the fourfold assembly, gods, and humans also have superior, middling, and inferior grades and that those of superior faculties awakened together with Śāriputra. The other says that Śāriputra and Kāśyapa are both practitioners of provisional manifestation; because those of middling and inferior faculties had not yet opened and understood, Kāśyapa and Pūrṇa manifested the same lack of understanding. Both branches remain present and the latter may not be retained alone.
Only in the next unit does Śāriputra ask the Buddha to teach causes and conditions for the fourfold assembly, formally turning to the parable-teaching for those of middling faculties. This apparatus may therefore identify the burning house as the center of the chapter's continuation, but it does not prematurely unfold the itemized Dharma correspondences for the elder, house, fire, children, three carts, great cart, and absence of falsehood.
VIII. Placement of the Editions
1. Base-Text Variants
The domain has the following eleven groups of variants related to the base text. The body consistently follows the Taishō text:
| Anchor | Taishō [Da] | Witness Jia [Jia] | Type |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0063b14 | 遣 | 達 | Single-character variant |
| 0064a07 | 又 | 又云 | Additional characters in Witness Jia |
| 0064a28 | 圓 | 員 | Single-character variant |
| 0064b04 | 二：初長行、二偈頌。初文為三 | 三名身喜聞此法音依於佛口聞而歡喜故 | Whole-passage variant of eleven and seventeen characters |
| 0064b05 | 二 | 次 | Variant ordinal character |
| 0064b14 | 秖 | 只 | Starred corresponding apparatus; corresponds to an earlier apparatus number |
| 0064b21 | 甞 | 常 | Single-character variant |
| 0064b24 | 知見 | 見知 | Transposed character order |
| 0064c08 | 實權 | 權實 | Transposed character order |
| 0065a07 | 得 | 待 | Single-character variant |
| 0065b10 | 願即 | Absent in Witness Jia | Omission of two characters in Witness Jia |
The separate note 法華文句卷第五首【甲】 tr. “Head of Fascicle Five of the Fahua Wenju [Jia]”〔0063b12〕 is recorded only as a witness to the fascicle opening and is not counted among the eleven groups of base-text variants.
2. Inline Annotations and Variant Characters
The T1718 domain has four inline annotations, all〔云云〕:〔0063c19〕,〔0064a25〕,〔0064c18〕, and〔0065c22〕. They retain their bracketed form and are not flattened into the body text.
The strict T1718 domain has no encoded variant-character markers. The root-scripture coverage domain separately contains 㮈 in 波羅㮈 at〔T09 0012a16〕 and in the same word in verse at〔0012a18〕, encoded with a variant-character marker. This belongs to the root-scripture layer and is not counted as a variant character in the root treatise.
3. Page-Anchor Convention
The reader edition of this work displays one page anchor only when the page changes; subsequent content on the same page continues under that page and does not repeat an anchor on every line. Every cited line anchor nevertheless follows the nearest Taishō line marker preceding the first character of the quoted wording. The beginning of a ranged anchor likewise follows the actual position of the first character and does not borrow the line containing a preceding sentence or heading.