妙法蓮華經文句 譬喻品 · 偈頌（頌別譬・合譬・通經勸信）

The elder has already made the danger clear: venomous creatures, evil ghosts, a great fire, and manifold sufferings are all directly before the children. They hear him, yet remain attached to their play.

Not every act of “hearing” is enough to make a person rise.

The elder therefore sets aside his anguished words and instead tells them of three fine carts outside the gate. He has not forgotten the fire or approved their play. He has simply seen that these children cannot be moved by terror but may run toward the gate for what delights them.

This turn is easily misunderstood. Some may ask: If the great cart will be given in the end, why first speak of three carts? Others may ask: If three carts were promised, does giving only the great cart afterward not break the promise?

This passage places the answer in the father's original intent. He establishes the carts so that the children will escape danger. Once they truly leave the burning house, he uses all the treasures he possesses to give them equally a great cart surpassing what they originally sought. Speaking first of three does not confine the children to three forever; giving one afterward does not deny that they escaped because of the three carts.

Skillful means is therefore not false because every sentence is frozen into its final form, but because it never departs from the intent to rescue the children.

Yet this does not mean that any method is permissible merely because one claims good intentions. The elder first sees the fire, knows what delights the children, possesses the capacity to make the carts, and personally assumes responsibility for the result. He does not entice them with something pleasing only to lead them into another burning house. He genuinely brings them out of danger and finally gives them a cart of freedom.

From standing outside the gate to sitting after the children emerge, the entire passage moves with the safety and danger of living beings. While the children remain inside, the elder cannot sit at ease merely because he himself is safe. Only when they are free from danger does joy arise. Whether the lion seat is understood as the children's fearlessness after leaving the house or the father's fearlessness after seeing them rescued, sitting occurs only after deliverance.

At the end of the verse, the question returns to the one who teaches: When should one speak, and when should one refrain? To whom may the teaching be transmitted, and to whom should it not be forced? If one ignores capacities and seeks only to prove oneself right, even truth can become the condition for another person's slander and suffering. If one sees someone able to receive it but remains silent, that person may lose a benefit that should have been given.

Compassion is therefore not simply willingness to speak, nor is great loving-kindness simply speaking more. It requires the speaker to see the fire, the gateway, the carts, and what will actually enable the person before them to rise.

The next time you wish to urge someone away from danger, you might first ask: Am I only describing the flames again and again, or have I found a gateway through which this person can walk? Where will the skillful means I offer lead them? If they truly emerge, am I prepared to open a greater path before them?

Seeing danger is wisdom. Not abandoning those still inside the house is compassion. Skillful means is fulfilled only when they truly emerge.

I. The Specific Parables Chant Only Three Divisions, Beginning with the Elder Seeing the Fire

Beginning with “at that time the owner of the house stood outside the gate,” there are thirty-two and a half lines of verse, repeating in verse the second division, the specific parables. The preceding specific parables originally had four divisions, but the verses here repeat only three: the first two and a half lines chant the elder seeing the fire; the second, thirteen lines, chants setting aside the stool and using the carts—that is, the parable of temporarily putting the great teaching to rest and applying a lesser Dharma; and the third, seventeen lines, chants the parable of giving the great cart.

The first two and a half lines chant seeing the fire and are divided into three points: first, the person able to see; second, the fire he sees; and third, the alarm and fear that arise after he sees it. All three are present in the verse.

First consider the person able to see. The three phrases beginning with “the owner of the house” identify the person able to see. The prose above says “saw,” whereas the verse now says “heard,” using hearing in place of seeing. Whatever is heard necessarily comes from another person.

“Standing outside the gate” repeats in verse the preceding statement that the elder himself was able to emerge safely through the gate that was burning. “Standing” also indicates that He abides on the ground of the Dharma-body, constantly cherishes great compassion, and wishes to rescue living beings; He therefore does not sit upon the seat of emptiness in the primary meaning.

For the “person” in “someone came and said,” this treatise sets out four explanations side by side. An old explanation says that the buddhas of the ten directions tell Śākyamuni: the children connected with You remain within the three realms, and their wholesome roots are about to perish. Another explanation says that living beings’ capacities to evoke a response from the Buddha constitute the other person who comes to report. This treatise's present explanation is that Dharma is the Buddha's teacher, here meaning the Dharma of samādhi. Since this Dharma can act as teacher, it is the so-called other person. If the Buddha enters samādhi, He can see living beings’ capacities; because samādhi causes the Buddha to see, the scripture says that someone came to report. Yet another explanation says that great compassion itself is the other person. 〔The remainder is abbreviated.〕

The one line and one phrase beginning with “those children of yours” form the second point and chant the fire seen by the elder.

Here someone asks: the children had not yet gone out, so why does the scripture say that, because they were playing, they entered the house again?

The answer has two branches. First, living beings may previously have aroused the resolve. At the time they aroused it, they could be said to have already left the three realms; when they later regressed and returned, this could be called reentry. It is like someone raising a foot to step across the threshold, then turning around and retreating inside: one may say both that the person had gone out and that the person returned and entered again. Second, from the standpoint of principle-nature, one's nature is originally pure and is not a dharma of the three realms. It is only because ignorance gives rise to conceptual proliferation that birth and death come to be; hence the scripture says that they previously came into this house through play.

Because great goodness has not yet become manifest, they are called “young”; because they are obscured by ignorance, they are called “unaware.” The two phrases beginning with “after the elder heard this, he entered in alarm” form the third point and repeat in verse the preceding passage in which the elder was immediately greatly alarmed and afraid and consequently aroused the mind of great compassion.

II. Failing to Rescue the Children: Intending the Great Teaching, but the Children Do Not Heed the Warning

The thirteen lines beginning with “he should now devise a means of rescue” chant setting aside the stool and using the carts and are divided into two passages. The first five and a half lines chant the preceding attempt to rescue the children with the great teaching, which could not succeed; the latter seven and a half chant the change to the three carts.

First comes the failed rescue. When the parable was unfolded above, it included exhortation and warning; in the preceding application, only the exhortation was applied, whereas the verse here chants only the warning. The warning originally had three points, and all three are still given now. The first four and a half verses chant the elder's wish to explain the frightful dangers and his initial formulation of an appropriate teaching. The three phrases beginning with “the children were unaware” form the second point and chant the children's refusal to accept the admonition. The phrase “they continued playing without cease” is the third point and directly chants the cessation of guidance by the great teaching.

“An appropriate means” is the deliberation to use the great teaching for rescue. “Telling and instructing” means explaining the various dangers to the children and admonishing and teaching them. The scripture singles out the phrase “they continued playing without cease” to chant the preceding statement that the children merely looked at their father. Seeing that his admonitions had no effect, the elder set aside those anguished, urgent words.

III. Changing to the Three Carts: One of Four Meanings Omitted; Exhorting, Showing, Confirming, and Exhorting Again

The seven and a half lines of verse beginning with “at that time the elder thought to himself” form the second passage and chant the preceding change to the three carts.

The preceding prose originally had four meanings: first, deliberating on establishing the three carts; second, knowing the children's former preferences; third, praising the rarity of the three carts; and fourth, making the establishment accord with the children's wishes. The verses here have only three meanings, omitting the second—knowing the children's former preferences.

The first three lines chant the deliberation on establishing the three carts. The three verses beginning with “he told the children” form the second meaning, exhorting the children to leave the house and praising the rarity of the three carts. The prose above explained this through the three meanings of exhorting, showing, and confirming. The verses now still have those three meanings, but because the exhortation is chanted a second time, the wording forms four units.

The first unit, one line, chants the exhortation. Second, the three phrases beginning with the goat cart chant the showing of the three carts. Third, the phrase “come out quickly” chants the exhortation once more. Fourth, the verse beginning with “for your sake I” chants the confirmation: the father truly is able to make carts for the children and give them the carts.

The one and a half lines beginning with “when the children heard that there were such carts” form the third meaning and chant that the establishment accorded with the children's wishes. They collectively chant the six phrases of the preceding prose. The treatise correlates the children's “racing out” with seeing the truths and their “reaching the open ground” with the stage beyond learning.

IV. Equally Giving the Great Cart: Escaping Danger, Requesting the Carts, Equal Giving, and Rejoicing

The seventeen lines of verse beginning with “the elder saw that the children had already left the burning house” form the third passage and chant the preceding parable of equally giving the great cart.

The preceding prose had four divisions: first, escape from danger; second, requesting the carts formerly promised; third, equally giving the great cart; and fourth, rejoicing after receiving the cart. The verses now contain all four in the same sequence: the first five lines chant rejoicing at escape from danger; the second three lines chant requesting the carts; the third seven and a half lines chant equal giving; and the fourth one and a half lines chant rejoicing upon receiving the cart.

The first five lines chant the children's escape from danger and are divided into two levels. The first level, one line, directly chants escape from danger; the four lines beginning with “and he himself” form the second level and chant the elder's rejoicing.

For “sat upon the lion seat,” this treatise sets out two explanations side by side. The first says that the children sat upon the seat; because they had already left the three realms, they attained fearlessness. The second says that the elder sat upon the seat; when the elder saw that the children had escaped danger, he too attained fearlessness. When he first stood outside the gate, the children were still in the burning house, so he remained worried and afraid. Now that the children had left through the gate, he could sit at ease without fear. Thus the Skillful Means chapter says, “Now I rejoice and am without fear.” At this point the passage on escape from danger is fully explained.

The four lines beginning with “and he himself rejoiced in his good fortune” chant the elder's rejoicing; the scripture's meaning is evident from its wording.

The three lines of verse beginning with “the children knew that their father was seated at ease” form the second passage and chant the children's request for the carts; their meaning is clear from the scripture.

The seven and a half lines beginning with “the elder was extremely wealthy” form the third passage and chant the equal giving of the great cart. The preceding prose had two headings, two extended explanations, and two explanatory passages, which together formed five textual units. Here only four of them are chanted; the extended explanation of the equal mind and the explanation of the equal mind are not chanted.

The first line departs from the sequence and chants the fourth point first—that is, the explanation of the great cart. A place above ground where things are stored is called a storehouse, while a place underground where things are stored is called a treasury. Practice replete with all dharmas is called a treasury; the six faculties of eye, ear, and so forth being replete with all dharmas is called a storehouse. 〔The remainder is abbreviated.〕

The six lines of verse beginning with “next, with various precious things” form the second point and extensively chant the great cart. Within them, the first two phrases chant the two headings. The phrase “with such wondrous carts” forms the third point and chants the heading of the great cart. The phrase “equally gave them to the children” forms the fourth point and chants the heading of the equal mind.

The one and a half lines beginning with “at that time the children leapt for joy” form the fourth passage and chant their rejoicing after receiving the cart.

The treatise explains “roamed throughout the four directions” as riding the wisdom of the middle way: horizontally roaming the four kinds of four gates and the four kinds of four truths, vertically traversing the forty-one stages, and finally consummating the virtues of permanence, bliss, self, and purity. Hence they are said to play freely.

V. Applying the General Parable: Four Meanings Also Encompass Six Parables

Beginning with “I too am like this, I tell you Śāriputra,” there are thirty-four and a half lines, forming the second major passage and chanting the application of the parable.

The first four lines chant the application of the general parable. They make only four points yet also encompass six parables. The line “I too am like this” chants the application of the elder: the first half-line applies the elder's rank and title, while the second applies his name and conduct and also carries the sense of praising his virtuous deeds. The Buddha is most honored among the sages and worthies of the seven skillful means and is also the father of the nine worlds.

The verse “all living beings are my children” chants the application of the living beings of the five destinies and in meaning also encompasses the thirty children. The thirty children are children through conditioning cause, whereas all living beings are children through direct cause.

The half-verse “there is no safety in the three realms” chants the application of the house and also encompasses the meaning of the single gate. The verse and a half “all kinds of suffering fill it” chant the application of the outbreak of fire. Here the application of the general parable is complete.

VI. In Applying the Specific Parables, First Applying Seeing the Fire, Then Setting Aside the Stool and Using the Carts

The thirty and a half lines beginning with “the Tathāgata has already left the burning house of the three realms” form the second passage and chant the application of the specific parables. The earlier verses opening the parable did not chant the absence of falsehood; now the verses applying the parable supply it.

The first three verses chant the Tathāgata seeing living beings scorched by birth, aging, and other sufferings, corresponding to the parable of seeing the fire. The preceding verses opening the parable divided seeing the fire into three points; its application now likewise has three.

The first verse chants the Tathāgata as the one able to see. Precisely because He dwells calmly in seclusion, He can see the children amid the five turbidities; this verse corresponds to the preceding “heard someone come and report.” The one and a half lines beginning with “now these three realms” form the second point and chant the living beings seen by the Tathāgata being scorched by birth, aging, illness, and death, corresponding to the fire seen. The half-verse beginning with “I alone” forms the third point and chants the Buddha's immediate thought of rescuing and protecting them after He sees, corresponding to the elder's entering the burning house in alarm.

The four lines beginning with “although He again admonished them” chant the application of setting aside the stool and using the carts and are divided into two passages.

The first passage, one line, chants the application of setting aside the stool. When the parable was unfolded earlier, there were three points: deliberating on an appropriate means, living beings lacking the capacity, and ceasing to teach. This verse now also has all three meanings, merely stated in a condensed way. The phrase “although He again admonished them” chants the deliberation on an appropriate means. “They did not believe and accept” chants living beings’ lack of the capacity to accept the great teaching. The next two phrases chant the cessation of the great teaching. Another division holds that the next two phrases also both chant the lack of receptive capacity.

“Because their attachments were very deep” chants the preceding statement that living beings had not yet escaped birth, aging, illness, death, worry, sorrow, suffering, affliction, and the like.

The three verses beginning with “therefore, through skillful means” form the second passage and chant the application of using the carts to rescue the children and bring about their escape. The preceding prose had four meanings, but here only three are chanted; the second—knowing the children's former preferences—is again omitted.

The initial phrase “therefore, through skillful means” chants the preceding deliberation consisting solely in skillful wisdom. The one line and one phrase beginning with “He taught them the three vehicles” form the second meaning and chant the application of the preceding praise of the rarity of the three carts. The one and a half lines beginning with “these children” form the third meaning and chant the application of the preceding establishment in accord with what was desired.

When applying the three vehicles above, each vehicle had four phrases; now the three vehicles are collectively chanted. The treatise says that only from patience with the Dharma of suffering onward is “if the mind has become resolute” truly decisive; this phrase collectively chants the stages at which adherents of the three vehicles race out. The one line beginning with “complete” then separately chants the stages at which the three vehicles vie to leave the house.

VII. Applying the Equal Gift: Together Receiving the Great Cart and Playing Day and Night

The eight lines beginning with “you, Śāriputra, I, for the sake of living beings” form the third passage and chant the application of the third parable, equally giving the great cart.

In the prose application, neither requesting the carts nor rejoicing was applied, while the verses opening the parable contained both. Now the verses applying the parable apply only equal giving and rejoicing, not escape from danger or requesting the carts. Through these complementary selections, they ultimately form two passages. The wording is also divided into two parts: the first five lines chant the application of equal giving, and the latter three chant rejoicing.

The preceding application of equal giving had four points. Here two of them are not chanted; only the two headings and the third passage, which extensively explained the great cart, are applied, and the explanation of why the cart exists is chanted again.

First, the one line beginning with “you, Śāriputra” chants the heading of the great cart, corresponding to the meditations and other dharmas of the buddhas in the preceding prose. Second, the one line beginning with “if you are able” chants the application of the heading of the equal mind, corresponding to the living beings who have left the three realms in the preceding prose. Third, the two lines beginning with “this vehicle is subtle and wondrous” chant the application of the direct, extended explanation of the great cart, corresponding to the preceding phrases “all of one characteristic, one kind,” and so forth. Fourth, the one line beginning with “immeasurable hundreds of millions of various powers and liberations” chants the preceding explanation of why the cart exists.

The three verses beginning with “having obtained such a vehicle” form the second part and chant rejoicing after receiving the cart. This again divides into two levels: the first two verses say that each receives the great cart; the one verse beginning with “because of this cause and condition” concludes and exhorts people to believe.

For “day and night” in the first two verses, the treatise sets out several levels of meaning. When one first attains the Buddha's knowledge and vision, the light of the wisdom of the middle way is like white day, while the ignorance that remains is like dark night. One's own attainment of the wisdom of the middle way is like white day, while entering birth and death through compassion is like dark night. Because one constantly exercises these two dharmas, wisdom and compassion, it is said that one plays day and night.

Adherents of the three vehicles together enter the Buddha's wisdom, so the scripture says that bodhisattvas and the assembly of śrāvakas ride together. This can also be explained from the two sides of one's own practice and transforming others: one personally attains this one vehicle, hence “playing day and night”; one also uses this one vehicle to guide others, hence “riding the jeweled vehicle together with the bodhisattvas and the assembly of śrāvakas.” The adherents of the three vehicles who are guided thereby ride the jeweled vehicle together.

The next verse says that there is no cause and condition for the three vehicles to stand alongside the one vehicle taught here. If one examines and seeks throughout the lands of the ten directions, there is only the one vehicle and no second vehicle. The three vehicles are merely established by the Buddha as skillful means and therefore are not included in this sentence's direct statement.

At its close, this treatise further records another person's question: if bodhisattvas did not request a cart, why did they later ride a cart and rejoice?

VIII. Applying the Absence of Falsehood: First Teaching Three, Then Returning to the One Great Vehicle After Obstructions Are Removed

The fifteen and a half lines of verse beginning with “I tell you Śāriputra, all of you” form the fourth passage and chant the preceding application of the parable's absence of falsehood.

The prose application above had two levels: first, it raised two elements of the parable; then it applied the parable to explain the absence of falsehood. Now only the application of the absence of falsehood is chanted, again in two parts. The first three and a half lines directly chant the heading of the absence of falsehood. The twelve verses beginning with “if there is a bodhisattva” chant the explanation of the absence of falsehood, based on the parable in which what Śāriputra did accords with the father's original intent.

The father originally wished to free his children from danger, and therefore first established the three carts. Once the children had escaped danger, even if he subsequently did not give them the small carts, he had not betrayed his original intention to rescue them from danger and was therefore not false. The Buddha chants this parable again likewise to explain the absence of falsehood. The Buddha's original intention was to teach the one vehicle, but because living beings amid the five turbidities would not believe and accept it, He first taught the three vehicles. Once the turbid obstructions had been removed, He returned to teaching the one great vehicle, precisely according with His original intent.

The initial heading has three points. First, one line establishes the relationship of father and children, showing that the father originally wished to give the great cart; the scripture says that all are His children, so in principle He should equally give them the great cart. Second, the verse beginning with “all of you” shows that the later establishment of the three vehicles was for removing obstructions; hence it says that for long kalpas you had been scorched by various sufferings. Third, the one and a half lines beginning with “although I first taught” state that, once obstructions were removed, He returned to His original intent and gave the Great-Vehicle Dharma; hence it says that what should now be done is solely the Buddha's wisdom.

The twelve lines beginning with “if there is a bodhisattva” form the second part and explain the preceding three points in reverse. The first two verses explain that living beings are alike the Buddha's children, so in principle the great should be given equally. The seven verses beginning with “if a person's wisdom is narrow” explain that living beings cannot accept it immediately and that the Buddha therefore provisionally teaches the three vehicles. The three verses beginning with “in fact, they have not yet attained” explain that, if living beings later become able to accept it, the Buddha will still give them the Great Vehicle.

First consider the initial two lines. The “if there is a bodhisattva” spoken of here refers to living beings guided by the skillful three vehicles. They are all Buddha-children who formed connections with the Buddha in the past and alike possess buddha-nature as thusness; therefore all are said to be bodhisattvas.

The seven lines beginning with “if a person's wisdom is narrow” explain that people of lesser wisdom have deep obstructions and cannot immediately believe and accept, so the Buddha skillfully opens the three vehicles to draw them in.

The scripture says “He teaches that person the truth of suffering” because the śrāvaka is the smallest of the three vehicles and takes the truth of suffering as the first gateway of entry. It says “living beings’ minds rejoice” because the teaching exactly accords with their former dispositions: they originally rejected birth and death and personally sought nirvāṇa; now, on hearing that escape is possible, they meet with their past habituation and therefore rejoice. This passage directly concerns the constructed four truths.

“Only separated from the false” means that ignorance is originally unreal. Shared delusions arise in dependence on ignorance and therefore are also called false. The constructed four truths can remove only this level of delusion, and this is called liberation; they free one from fragmentary birth and death, but not yet from transformational birth and death, so this is still not mastery.

The three verses beginning with “in fact, they have not yet attained” form the third passage and state that, once obstructions have been removed and sentiments and capacities have become keen, the Buddha returns to His original intent and gives the Great-Vehicle Dharma. The Buddha originally wished to give liberation from everything. Now you have severed only fragmentary birth and death and have not yet attained great nirvāṇa. Since you have not attained liberation from everything, you ultimately have not accorded with the Buddha's original intent; hence the scripture says that the Buddha's intention is not to have people reach only this extinction.

The Buddha still intends now to bring people to the unsurpassed path and into great nirvāṇa; only then do they finally accord with the Buddha's original intent. Liberation from everything is the unconstructed truth of cessation, and the unsurpassed path is the unconstructed truth of the path; these truths of cessation and path demolish the unconstructed truths of suffering and accumulation. The Buddha originally wished to teach these dharmas before, but living beings could not accept them at the time. Now that the obstructions have been removed, He again teaches this one great Dharma.

The Buddha is the Dharma-king and has attained mastery over both skillful and true Dharma. He opens the three to reveal the reality of the one; how could there be falsehood?

IX. Exhortation to Trust Has Two Axes: Teaching or Not Teaching, Transmitting or Not Transmitting

Beginning with “you, Śāriputra, this Dharma-seal of mine,” the treatise originally labels this “six, fifteen lines of verse”: it is the sixth division, fifteen lines of verse, explaining the exhortation to trust and transmit the scripture.

“Trust” means trusting why the Buddha teaches and why He does not teach. “Exhortation” means exhorting practitioners to distinguish what may and may not be transmitted. Because it has these two levels of meaning, it is called the exhortation to trust.

The whole is divided into two parts: first, the two headings are stated; second, they are separately explained.

The first line states teaching and not teaching. Teaching means that the Tathāgata proclaims this Dharma-seal for the benefit of the world. Not teaching means that, during the previous forty years and more, the time for teaching it had not yet arrived and the five thousand had not yet left the assembly; He therefore did not teach it.

The half-line beginning with “in the places where you travel” states the headings of what may and may not be transmitted—that is, it warns against reckless propagation. If one insists on teaching evil people and causes them to fall into painful results, that is improper. If one does not teach good people and causes them to miss happiness, that too is improper. Out of great compassion for evil people, one should not transmit it to them; out of great loving-kindness for good people, one should transmit it to them. These are the headings of what may and may not be transmitted.

Beginning with “if there is someone who hears,” the second part is again divided into two passages: the first eight lines explain what may and may not be taught; the second, fifty and a half lines, explain what may and may not be transmitted.

The first eight lines explain how the Tathāgata benefits the world. In general, He observes benefits in the past, present, and future; specifically, He brings adherents of the two vehicles into trust and understanding.

“Avaivartika” means nonretrogression, which this treatise regards as a present benefit. “Has formerly seen” means that He teaches a person only after observing the person's wholesome roots from the past. Someone able to believe what Śāriputra teaches and also believe what the Buddha teaches is taught only after the Buddha observes that person's future goodness. The later passage says that a person of deep trust and understanding can see the Buddha eternally abiding on Vulture Peak; this is precisely the present meaning.

After “this Lotus Sutra,” one character has the interlinear note 〔practice is〕. Syntactically, it carries forward the preceding text and introduces what follows: the Tathāgata observes and knows that benefits exist in all three times, and therefore teaches people; He does not teach those whose wisdom is shallow and who cannot understand. This explains the heading of the Tathāgata's teaching and not teaching.

X. The Gate of Great Compassion: Do Not Insist on Teaching Evil People

Beginning with “arrogant and indolent” is the explanation of those to whom a transmitter of the scripture may and may not transmit it, again divided into two passages.

The first thirty-six and a half lines say that, when employing the gate of great compassion, one must not teach evil people. The scripture first lists evil conduct, then the evil results this person must incur through malicious slander. To prevent that person from creating the cause of slandering the Dharma and undergoing later suffering, great compassion does not permit insistent teaching.

The scripture says in sequence: it should not be taught to those who are arrogant, indolent, and attached to views of self; nor should it be taught to ordinary people of shallow wisdom, deeply attached to the five desires, who cannot understand upon hearing. If someone disbelieves and slanders this scripture, that person will cut off the buddha-seed in the world. If, in addition, the person furrows the brow and harbors doubt, or even slanders the scripture while the Buddha is in the world or after His extinction, and looks with contempt on, hates, envies, and bears resentment toward those who read, recite, copy, and uphold the scripture, that person will incur the offenses and retributions described next.

The scripture then sets out the evil results in sequence: at life's end the person enters Avīci Hell; after completing a kalpa, the person is born there again, passing repeatedly through it for innumerable kalpas. After emerging from hell, the person again falls among animals, becoming a dog, jackal, camel, or donkey, or becoming a one-eyed jackal or a great footless python, suffering hunger and thirst, heavy loads, beatings with staves, being eaten by insects, and other pains. If the person again obtains a human body, the faculties are dark and dull and the form maimed; others do not trust the person; ghosts and spirits possess the person; and the person is poor, lowly, sickly, and without support. Whatever is gained is soon lost; treatment for illness instead increases other ailments; when the person falls ill, no one rescues or treats them; and, moreover, the person unexpectedly encounters such calamities as rebellion, plunder, and theft.

For a long time, such a person cannot see a buddha or hear the Dharma, is constantly born in difficult circumstances, and is deranged, deaf, mute, and deficient in faculties. The person circles through hell and the other evil destinies. On again obtaining a human body, the person suffers deafness, blindness, muteness, poverty, decline, edema, emaciation, scabies, leprosy, abscesses, sores, and other pains; the body constantly stinks and is filthy, while views of self are deeply held and anger and lust increase. The scripture says that even over long kalpas one could not exhaustively describe the retributions for slandering the scripture; it therefore warns Śāriputra not to proclaim this scripture among the ignorant.

This treatise further explains “cutting off the buddha-seed in the world.” First, the Vimalakīrti takes the afflictions as the Tathāgata-seed; this treatise adopts the object-realm nature it teaches. Second, the Great Perfection of Wisdom Sutra says to study prajñā through knowledge of all aspects; this treatise adopts the understanding cause as buddha-seed. Third, the Nirvāṇa Sutra holds that the principle of mind-nature is uninterrupted; this treatise adopts the direct cause as buddha-seed. Fourth, this scripture says that even minute wholesome acts can bring buddhahood; this treatise adopts the conditioning cause as buddha-seed. To disbelieve that even small goodness can bring buddhahood is to cut off the buddha-seed in the world.

XI. The Gate of Great Benevolence: The Five Pairs and Ten Kinds of Good People May All Be Taught

The nineteen lines beginning with “if there are those of keen faculties” explain the use of the gate of great loving-kindness when transmitting the scripture: good people should be taught, lest they lose happiness.

The essential point in transmission is to harmonize the two gates of great compassion and great loving-kindness so that each is used in its proper place. Only proper use constitutes skillful transmission; improper use is reckless propagation.

This passage is again divided into two parts: the first seventeen lines list the characteristics of the five pairs and ten kinds of good people who may be taught; the latter two lines conclude that they should be taught.

The first pair is past and present. The first kind is a person in the present who has keen faculties, clear wisdom, extensive learning, strong retention, and seeks the Buddha-path; the treatise gathers that person's present goodness under “keen faculties” and “strong retention.” The second kind is a person who in the past saw hundreds of thousands of millions of buddhas, planted many wholesome roots, and was firm in deep mind; the treatise gathers that person's past goodness under “planting goodness” and “seeing hundreds of thousands.”

The second pair is below and above. The third kind is a person who is diligent, constantly cultivates loving-kindness, and does not spare life and limb; the treatise uses “cultivating loving-kindness” to express that person's compassion for living beings below. The fourth kind is a person who is reverent, without divergent mind, removed from the foolish and ordinary, and dwells alone in mountains and marshes; the treatise uses “reverence” to express that person's respect for those above.

The third pair is outer and inner. The fifth kind is a person who abandons bad friends and draws near good friends, seeking wholesome supporting conditions outwardly. The sixth kind is a person who keeps the precepts as purely as a bright jewel and aspires to Great-Vehicle scriptures, inwardly protecting their own observance of the precepts.

The fourth pair is one's own practice and transforming others. The seventh kind is a person without anger, upright and gentle, constantly compassionate toward all, and reverent toward the buddhas; the treatise uses “uprightness and reverence for the buddhas” to describe that person's own practice. The eighth kind is a person who, amid an assembly and with a pure mind, teaches the Dharma unobstructedly through various causes and conditions, parables, and expressions; the treatise uses “teaching through parables” to describe that person's transformation of others.

The fifth pair is beginning and end. The ninth kind is a person who, seeking knowledge of all aspects, goes in the four directions to seek the Dharma and receives it with palms joined and placed upon the crown; this is the beginning of requesting instruction. The tenth kind is a person who single-mindedly receives and upholds Great-Vehicle scriptures, seeks no other scriptures, and seeks the scripture as one would wholeheartedly seek the Buddha's relics, then bears it upon the crown and upholds it after obtaining it; this is the final refuge and the endpoint of dedicated cultivation. 〔The remainder is abbreviated.〕

The two lines beginning with “I tell you Śāriputra” form the conclusion. The characteristics of good believers are exceedingly numerous, and the scripture merely gives ten in brief to show people how to transmit it. In facing different people, one must employ the two gates of great loving-kindness and great compassion in their proper places; only then does one know when it may and may not be transmitted.

The verse begins with a seemingly contradictory posture: the master of the house has safely passed beyond the gate of what is burning, yet he does not sit down. He stands outside the gate, hears that the children remain within, and enters again in alarm. His ability to leave shows that the burning house does not confine him; his continued standing and reentry show that he does not abandon the children merely because he himself is safe.

This act of standing gives every subsequent vehicle its point of departure. The three carts are not promises cast from afar, nor is the great cart wealth the children find for themselves. Everything begins with the elder hearing, seeing, becoming alarmed, and devising a rescue. The burning-house parable therefore asks not only how living beings emerge, but first: How does one who is already outside the gate not abandon those still within?

I. Who Tells the Master of the House That the Children Are in Danger?

The root treatise first notices a change of voice in the scripture. The prose says that the elder “saw” the fire, whereas the verse says that he “heard” someone speak. Seeing may arise by oneself, but hearing must come from another. Thus “the other person” becomes the first point requiring explanation.

An old explanation says that the buddhas of the ten directions tell Śākyamuni. Another says that it is living beings' capacity to evoke the Buddha that comes to inform him. The root treatise's present explanation takes the Dharma as the Buddha's teacher and says that samādhi enables the Buddha to illuminate and see living beings' capacities. A final explanation takes great compassion itself as the other person. All four accounts arise from “hearing must come from another,” yet each locates that other differently: among the buddhas, in living beings' capacity, in the Dharma by which capacities are seen, or in great compassion that cannot bear their suffering.

The root treatise does not melt the four accounts into a newly invented character. It first records the old and alternative explanations, explicitly marks its present explanation, and finally preserves the great-compassion explanation alongside them. Readers therefore need not hastily supply an unnamed scriptural role for “someone.” More importantly, they can see how the single word “heard” brings the wisdom that sees, the capacity that evokes a response, and the compassion that rescues simultaneously to the outside of the gate.

II. If the Children Had Never Left, Why Does the Verse Say That They Came into the House Again?

The second question likewise arises from the scripture's wording. Since the children were already within the house, how can it say that they first “came inside” because of play?

The root treatise gives two answers. The first speaks from having once given rise to resolve and then regressed. At the time of giving rise to resolve, one may already be called outside the three realms; returning afterward is therefore called reentry. It is like raising one's foot to cross the edge of a gateway and then turning back. Exit and entry are not two wholly separate places, but one action changing direction at the threshold.

The second answer begins from the original purity of the nature of principle. That nature is originally not a dharma of the three realms; because ignorance gives rise to conceptual proliferation, birth and death come to be, and this is called entering through play. The first answer describes having moved toward the gate and then regressed. The second explains how pure principle-nature comes to involve birth and death through ignorance. Both answer the same word “came” and neither can be discarded.

Thus “young” indicates not only age but that great goodness has not yet become manifest; “without knowledge” indicates not only inexperience but being covered by ignorance. What alarms the elder is not merely that the children do not recognize the fire, but that those capable of escape have been drawn back by play and those whose nature is pure have been covered by ignorance.

III. Why Does the Painful Admonition Fail, Requiring a Turn to the Carts?

The failed rescue of the children first has three steps: assessing the suitability of rescuing them through the Great teaching, the children's refusal to accept the admonition, and the elder's cessation of that course of transformation. He has explained the dangers, evil ghosts, venomous creatures, and great fire clearly, yet the children continue to play. They merely look at their father and do not move. The anguished words are therefore set aside.

Setting aside painful words does not mean abandoning the rescue. The subsequent use of the three carts again has four meanings: assessing the suitability of the three carts, knowing the children's former inclinations, praising the rarity of the three carts, and suiting the children's wishes. The verse omits knowing their former inclinations and recapitulates the other three. Exhortation, demonstration, and confirmation are originally three meanings; only because exhortation is recapitulated twice do they appear as four textual units. If the repeated exhortation is established as a separate meaning, the three meanings and four phrases become confused.

The turn here is not the elder's abandonment of what he originally intended to accomplish. Rather, he sees that words of terror cannot move the children and begins from the carts they delight in. “Come out quickly” is said twice because the carts outside the gate must be demonstrated while the children are still urged to rise. If the promise of carts cannot make them leave the house, it remains only a picture outside the gate; exhortation turns the demonstrated carts into an actual path of escape.

When the children hear of the carts, they race one another out. The root treatise correlates their running with seeing the truths and their arrival on open ground with the stage beyond learning. The verse contains only a few rapid actions, but the commentary gives them sequence: first moving because of what delights them, then crossing the threshold, and finally leaving danger.

IV. Why Do They Seek Three Carts but Finally Receive the Great Cart Equally?

After the children emerge, the sequence is escape from danger, seeking the carts, equal gift, and joy. Seeking the carts cannot be omitted, because what the children seek is precisely the three kinds of cart their father promised. Equal gift cannot be moved earlier, because the great cart appears only after they have left the burning house.

“Sitting on the lion seat” therefore receives two explanations. One says that the children sit upon it because they have left the three realms and attained fearlessness. The other says that the elder sits because seeing the children escape danger has transformed his anxious fear into fearlessness. The first considers the children's deliverance; the second the father's state of mind. The root treatise records both and does not delete the first merely because the latter more clearly echoes his earlier standing outside the gate.

The elder is immensely wealthy and can therefore make great carts from his many treasures. The commentary first distinguishes storehouse and treasury: what holds things in a building is called a storehouse, and what holds them in the earth is called a treasury. It further calls practice that contains all dharmas a treasury and the six faculties that contain all dharmas a storehouse. It then proceeds from the many treasures, through the body and adornments of the cart, to their equal gift to the children. This does not make the children's request for three carts never have happened. It shows that what the father can give exceeds what they originally sought.

After receiving the great carts, they travel in all four directions. The root treatise explains this through the wisdom of the Middle Way: horizontally, they travel through four kinds of four gates and four kinds of four truths; vertically, through forty-one stages, reaching the ultimate permanence, bliss, self, and purity. The cart's free movement in the scripture becomes horizontal and vertical travel in the commentary. The greatness of the great cart therefore lies not only in its form but in the breadth and depth of where it can go.

V. How Do the Parable and Its Application Join without Becoming Confused?

Beginning with “I too am like this,” the scripture itself turns to the application of the parable. The root treatise first uses four meanings to apply six parables: the Buddha corresponds to the elder, all living beings to the children, the three realms to the house, and manifold sufferings to the outbreak of fire. The elder's status, name, conduct, and virtuous deeds, the five destinies and thirty children, and the one gateway are incidentally included within these four meanings.

The transition is unmistakable. The parable first presents an elder, children, a house, fire, and carts. Only in the application does the text explicitly speak of the Buddha, living beings, the three realms, manifold sufferings, and the vehicles. If the Dharma meanings supplied by the application are inserted prematurely into the parable, what the children see is no longer fire and carts but something like a commentary they have already heard. The parable can bear the Dharma precisely because it first preserves its own figures and actions.

After the general application comes the specific application. The one who sees is the Tathāgata dwelling peacefully in quietude; what is seen is living beings scorched by birth, old age, illness, and death; the alarmed entry corresponds to “I alone am able to rescue and protect them.” The one verse applying the setting aside of the stool still has the three meanings of deliberating on an appropriate means, absence of capacity, and cessation of transformation; another explanation attaches both of its latter two phrases to absence of capacity. The application of using the carts is the same as in the opening verse: it recapitulates three of four meanings and again omits knowing the children's former inclinations.

The prose above applies four phrases to each of the three vehicles, but the verse gives only a general recapitulation. The root treatise therefore does not divide each vehicle again into four separate passages. It uses “their minds became settled” to gather the stage of racing from the house and then uses the three knowledges, six supernormal powers, pratyekabuddhas, and nonretrogressing bodhisattvas to describe the respective stages of their emergence. A general recapitulation is a general recapitulation; because the earlier prose had four phrases for each vehicle, twelve divisions cannot be invented within the verse.

VI. If the Application Does Not Include Seeking the Carts, Why Is There Still Joy in Riding Them?

The application of equal gift comprises only eight lines. The prose application does not apply seeking the carts or joy, while the opening verse contains both. When the verse applies the parable, it takes only equal gift and joy and does not apply escape from danger or seeking the carts. The scripture and commentary select differently from the same four passages; omission does not mean that the omitted events never occurred.

The first five lines apply the heading of the great cart, the heading of the equal mind, the extensive explanation of the great cart, and the reason the cart exists. The final three describe each receiving the great cart and rejoicing. “Playing day and night” receives two further layers: the light of Middle-Way wisdom is like day and ignorance like night; personally attaining wisdom is like day and entering birth and death through compassion like night. In terms of one's own practice and transforming others, constantly riding oneself is personal practice, while riding together with bodhisattvas and śrāvakas is transforming others.

The final verse searches and examines throughout the ten directions and says that there is only one and not two; the three vehicles are spoken only through the Buddha's skillful means. Yet the root treatise does not erase another's question: If bodhisattvas did not seek a cart, why do they ride it and rejoice? The question remains exactly as posed. It reminds readers that the selections in the opening verse, prose application, and verse application are not symmetrical. To understand the application, one must see both what the scripture applies and what it leaves unapplied, without supplying text merely for the sake of neatness.

VII. How Is It Not False to Promise Three Carts First but Give Only the Great Cart Later?

The key to no falsehood is not the father's literal delivery of every small cart but his unwavering intent to bring the children out of the danger of fire. The three carts are first established because admonition does not make the children leave. Once they have emerged, not giving the small carts does not violate the original intent of rescuing them from danger.

The Dharma application likewise first establishes three chapters. It initially determines father and children, explaining why the Great should be given equally. It then says that living beings have been burned by suffering for accumulated eons, and therefore the three vehicles are first taught to remove their obstructions. Once the obstructions have been removed, the Buddha returns to fulfilling his original intent and teaches only buddha-wisdom. The following twelve verses explain these three in the same order.

Those of small wisdom first enter through the truth of suffering and rejoice because what they hear accords with their habitual rejection of birth and death and search for nirvāṇa. The constructed four truths remove the shared delusions arising through ignorance and free them from fragmentary birth and death, but do not yet free them from transformational birth and death. The root treatise therefore says that they have only left the false and have not attained liberation from everything.

The Buddha's original intent does not stop there. Liberation from everything corresponds to the unconstructed truth of cessation, and the unsurpassed path to the unconstructed truth of the path. Because living beings could not receive these teachings before, they are still taught once their obstructions have been removed. First three and later one are therefore not two mutually contradictory promises but successive establishments made by one rescuing intent for different states of receptivity. The Buddha has mastery over skillful and true dharmas; this is the opening the three to reveal the one, and it is therefore not false.

VIII. Why Does the Exhortation to Trust Restrict Both Teaching and Transmission?

At the end of the verse, trust means trusting why the Buddha speaks or does not speak; exhortation urges practitioners to distinguish what may and may not be transmitted. The first axis concerns when the Buddha teaches, while the second concerns the people addressed by those who transmit the scripture. They cannot be merged into a single prohibition.

Regarding speaking and not speaking, the Tathāgata speaks to benefit the world and refrains when the time has not come or obstructions to receiving the Dharma remain. When it is time to speak, he further contemplates benefit in the three times: the present benefit of nonretrogression, goodness from having seen buddhas and heard the Dharma in the past, and the future capacity to see the Buddha through trusting what Śāriputra teaches. Speaking and not speaking are both measured by whether living beings benefit, not by treating more speech as a virtue in itself.

Regarding transmission and nontransmission, forcing the teaching upon an unwholesome person may prompt slander and suffering; withholding it from a wholesome person may deprive them of the joy they should receive. The gateway of great compassion therefore says not to force it upon unwholesome people, while the gateway of great loving-kindness says to teach wholesome people. The two gateways point in opposite directions yet protect the same thing: the teaching should not become a cause of suffering where it does not correspond, nor should those to whom it corresponds lose the benefit because no one teaches.

Those who may be taught cannot be exhausted by the single phrase “wholesome people.” The root treatise groups ten kinds of people into five pairs: past and present, below and above, outer and inner, one's own practice and transforming others, and beginning and end. From sharp faculties and planting goodness to cultivating loving-kindness and reverence; from abandoning bad companions and approaching good friends, maintaining precepts like a jewel, being straightforward and revering buddhas, to teaching unobstructedly through causes, conditions, and parables; finally, it moves from seeking the Dharma in the four directions to receiving it upon the crown and practicing it exclusively. The essential work of transmission lies not only in the ability to speak but in discerning persons and knowing the time, allowing great loving-kindness and great compassion each to find its proper place.

Through the Eye of the Wenjuji

Zhanran first gathers standing outside the gate into the relation between wisdom and compassion. He says: “As for ‘not occupying the foremost seat of emptiness,’ emptiness in the highest meaning is the union of wisdom and principle and shares one substance with compassion. Here it means not dwelling in wisdom without compassion but constantly abiding in compassion that possesses wisdom; therefore it says ‘not occupying’”〔T34n1719 0272c02〕. Thus “not sitting” is not merely a physical posture but wisdom not separating from compassion. Terms such as “objectless loving-kindness” therefore belong only to the attributed mirror and cannot be represented as already stated by the root treatise.

Regarding the four explanations of “the other person,” the Wenjuji first asks whether the Buddha could truly wait for someone else to tell him and whether living beings' capacity could turn around and tell the Buddha; it then adopts the Dharma as teacher and says that the explanation through great compassion is more direct〔0272c05–0272c16〕. Regarding the question of the children never having left, it judges “The two explanations in the answer wonderfully attain event and principle”〔T34n1719 0272c19〕, then calls having once given rise to resolve and regressed the explanation in terms of events and arising conceptual proliferation through ignorance the explanation in terms of principle〔0272c22〕. The labels event and principle illuminate the passage from the mirror; they are not subheadings already present in the root treatise.

Around the carts, the Wenjuji says “As for ‘the crossroads’ in the scripture, they are precisely the four truths”〔T34n1719 0273b03〕 and adopts the father as the one seated: “At first the children were still inside, and therefore the father stood; now that they have emerged, he sits at ease”〔T34n1719 0273b04〕. The root treatise preserves both the children-seated and father-seated explanations. The mirror's decision in favor of the father can explain the sequence of standing and sitting, but cannot be used to delete the first explanation.

In the equal-gift passage, the Wenjuji draws a meaning from the abbreviated wording: “Since there is equalness of the carts, one must know that the mind too is equal”〔T34n1719 0273b19〕. It further explains the treasury and storehouse, the net of loving-kindness like net holes, and the manifold capacities universally delighted by the hanging ornaments〔0273b21–0273c06〕. These correspondences unfold the adorned great cart more densely, but the storehouses, treasuries, nets, and ornaments of the root scripture must first retain their material images, while the root treatise's practice-treasury and faculty-storehouse retain their own level.

In the application, the Wenjuji explains the nine kinds of world as the nine realms and distinguishes the nine kinds of world from the seven kinds of skillful means by saying that the meaning of children is broad while the meaning of forming connections is narrow〔0273c20–0273c21〕. It also explains the prose's abbreviated wording by saying that escape from danger incidentally includes seeking the carts and equal gift incidentally includes joy, and classifies escape and seeking as ancillary while equal gift and joy are direct〔0273c29–0274a03〕. These direct and ancillary classifications belong to the mirror's further division, not to headings separately listed by either scripture or root treatise.

In the seven lines applying no falsehood, the Wenjuji illuminates suffering, accumulation, cessation, and the path in order, then asks what kind of liberation is attained through contemplating the truths. It classifies the passage from “only free” onward as merely the lesser liberation from the bonds of the realms, uses the unsurpassed path to reject its finality, and finally identifies the Buddha's original intent〔0274a05–0274a19〕. This finer analysis explains why “called liberation” is followed by “in truth not yet attained,” but remains the mirror's unfolding of the root treatise's constructed and unconstructed levels.

At the exhortation to trust and transmit, the Wenjuji records someone's division of unwholesome causes into fourteen items, then immediately comments “This division of the text is not without one possible intent, but it has no stated basis”〔T34n1719 0274a28〕. “Fourteen unwholesome causes” must therefore be read together with this reservation and cannot be represented as a doctrinal enumeration established by Zhanran. He further asks whether the scripture becomes the condition for the offense when slandering it produces an offense and answers “Offense and merit arise from the mind; the scripture is merely an assisting condition”〔T34n1719 0274b03〕, adding that the Buddha's original intent is solely to generate merit and that the fault lies with the deluded person, not with the road〔0274b04〕. The mirror closes in the passage on unwholesome results and does not explain the five pairs and ten kinds of wholesome people item by item. That passage must still be read from the root treatise and root scripture themselves.