妙法蓮華經文句 釋授記品

The three disciples have understood both the Buddha’s direct teaching and His teaching through simile, and they know that they can become buddhas in the future. Yet when others receive predictions and they themselves do not, they remain fearful and uncertain.

They compare themselves to people coming from a famine-stricken land who suddenly encounter a king’s meal. The food is before them and their hunger is real, yet they dare not eat at once. Without the king’s command, how can they know that this feast is truly for them?

This is precisely the distance between “knowing for oneself that one will become a buddha” and “receiving the Buddha’s truthful word.”

A prediction does not add a buddha-fruit from nowhere. The disciples have already understood, and the causes of buddhahood are already complete. What they do not yet know is the future fruit, the eon, the land, and whether buddhahood is near or far. When the Buddha speaks these matters Himself, what was not yet ascertained becomes settled, and fear turns into joy.

The root treatise therefore speaks not only of the prediction but distinguishes bestowal and reception. From the Buddha’s side, the prediction that should be given is clearly bestowed; from the disciples’ side, the prediction obtained is truly received. If it is bestowed but no one receives it, the king’s meal still remains before their eyes; if they wish to receive it but it has not been bestowed, the hungry still dare not eat.

The simile of father and son and the entrustment of wealth illuminates another side. The child does not first become the child at the instant the father entrusts the family wealth; yet when they have met and both their wishes are fulfilled, the wealth must still be clearly entrusted. Prediction occurs precisely at this moment of maturity.

To say that there is no prediction in ultimate truth prevents prediction and its recipient from being grasped as fixed entities; to say that there is prediction in conventional truth does not erase the actual exchange between the Buddha and His disciples at this moment. Grasping only existence may increase attachment; grasping only nonexistence may cause one to miss the Buddha’s timely word of bestowal.

At times we too take “I already understand” as the end of the road. Yet understanding the direction is not the same as knowing every time and circumstance; seeing food is not the same as receiving and enjoying it without fear. True joy occurs when the causes are complete, doubt is resolved, and the words that should be bestowed are finally heard—and truly received.

The question left by the “Bestowal of Predictions” chapter is therefore not: Can I write the answer for the future in advance?

It is this: Once the views that should be broken have been broken and the conditions that should be present are present, do I still stand before the king’s meal, afraid to receive it because no clear prediction has been given? And once the Buddha’s word has fallen, do I truly receive it?

I. If Three Scriptures All Criticize Prediction, Why Does the Lotus Sutra Still Bestow Predictions?

The Sanskrit term is transliterated heqieluo in Chinese and translated as “bestowal of prediction.”

Some scriptures criticize receiving predictions. The Vimalakīrti Sūtra says: “If one obtains a prediction through the arising of true suchness, one would also obtain it through the extinction of true suchness; but true suchness has neither arising nor extinction, so one should know that in reality there is no prediction.” The Questions of Brahmā Sūtra says: “I vow not to hear even the name ‘prediction.’” The Large Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra further says: “Receiving a prediction is conceptual proliferation.” If so, why does the present Lotus Sutra still bestow predictions?

The answer is this: if someone holds that a prediction truly exists and that a person receiving prediction truly exists, this view should be broken. If a bodhisattva makes a vow, that bodhisattva should be given a prediction, and this prediction should be bestowed. According to conventional truth, prediction can therefore be said to exist; according to ultimate truth, in reality there is no prediction. How a prediction is bestowed at an appropriate time according to the four siddhāntas will be distinguished below.

II. How Many Kinds of Prediction Are There?

A universally applicable prediction is exemplified by the prediction at the beginning of the “Dharma Teacher” chapter; a prediction individually bestowed upon particular people is exemplified by the predictions after the three cycles of teaching. Prediction concerning direct cause is exemplified by the “Never Disparaging” chapter; prediction concerning conditioning cause by the ten kinds of offering in the “Dharma Teacher” chapter; prediction concerning revealing cause by the predictions for persons of superior, middling, and lesser capacities.

Prediction concerning direct cause is broad in scope, while prediction concerning conditioning and revealing causes is narrow. There are also delayed and swift predictions; predictions bestowed by a buddha, as in this chapter, and predictions bestowed by a bodhisattva, as in the case of Bodhisattva Never Disparaging. Even though the latter does not definitely state the eon and land, it can still be called a prediction. There are also predictions made far in advance, such as those for śrāvaka disciples in future lives in the “Parable of the Conjured City” chapter.

Other scriptures give predictions only to bodhisattvas, not to the two vehicles; only to good people, not to evil people; only to men, not to women; only to humans and gods, not to animals. The present scripture gives predictions to every one of these classes.

The Śūraṅgama Samādhi Sūtra has four kinds of prediction, and the present scripture contains all four. Prediction before one has aroused the aspiration appears in the “Never Disparaging” chapter; predictions after arousing the aspiration, in the immediate presence, and through realization of non-arising are those bestowed after the three cycles of teaching.

Fascicle Nine of the Jeweled Necklace Sūtra further enumerates eight kinds of prediction: first, one knows but others do not; second, the entire assembly knows but one does not; third, both oneself and the assembly know; fourth, neither oneself nor the assembly knows; fifth, there is awareness nearby but not far away; sixth, there is awareness far away but not nearby; seventh, there is awareness both nearby and far away; eighth, there is awareness neither nearby nor far away.

When oneself knows but others do not, the bodhisattva has aroused the aspiration and made a personal vow, but the vow has not yet circulated widely among others, and the bodhisattva has not yet attained the four fearlessnesses or skillful means. When the entire assembly knows but oneself does not, the bodhisattva has aroused a vast aspiration and attained fearlessness and skillful means. When both oneself and the assembly know, one is at the seventh ground and has attained fearlessness, skillful means, and contemplation of emptiness. When neither oneself nor the assembly knows, one has not yet entered the seventh ground and has not yet attained the practice of nonattachment. [The remainder is omitted.]

Maitreya is the one said to lack awareness far away, because His faculties are complete and He does not abandon the Tathāgata’s practice of nonattachment. Bodhisattvas still unable to expound the practice of the worthy and noble are said to lack awareness nearby; Bodhisattva Siṃha-uraḥ is the example. Pliant bodhisattvas whose faculties are complete and who do not abandon the practice of nonattachment possess awareness both nearby and far away. Bodhisattvas of equal practice who have not yet attained skillful means and cannot fully comprehend the tathāgata-garbha possess awareness neither nearby nor far away.

Another scripture gives a further explanation. Knowing nearby means receiving a prediction from the present buddha, as Maitreya and others do. Knowing far away means receiving a prediction not from the present buddha but from a future buddha, as when the Buddha tells the evil Māra that Maitreya will give him a prediction in the future. Knowing both nearby and far away means that both the present and future buddhas give one a prediction. Knowing neither nearby nor far away means that neither the present nor future buddhas give one a prediction.

III. Why Should Predictions Be Bestowed Precisely Now?

The buddhas originally appear in the world for the causes and conditions of one great matter: to cause living beings to open, reveal, awaken to, and enter the Buddha’s knowledge and vision. Now this great matter has been made manifest, the Buddha has finished teaching the Dharma, and living beings have awakened and entered. The Buddha’s original intent has been freely expressed and living beings’ wishes fulfilled; according to the Dharma, predictions should therefore be bestowed. It is like a father encountering his own child—how could he not entrust the family wealth?

Furthermore, the practices and vows undertaken by practitioners throughout immeasurable lives all include the wish to receive predictions beneath the seat of the present Buddha. The scripture says, “Because this was their original vow, they obtain this prediction.” These two causes and conditions both belong to the worldly siddhānta, and predictions are therefore bestowed.

Again, after persons of the two vehicles hear this scripture, they transform the lesser-vehicle mind and enter the Great Vehicle. The perfect cause is complete; because a cause necessarily calls forth its corresponding fruit, the Tathāgata bestows predictions upon them. When members of the great assembly learn this, they all make vows. Some vow to become the inner or outer retinue of the predicted one’s birth-body or Dharma-body; others wish only to be born in that person’s land and benefit living beings. Both belong to the siddhānta for each person, and predictions are therefore bestowed.

Again, bestowing predictions upon persons of the two vehicles can break the minds of bodhisattvas who wish to retreat from the Great Vehicle and enter the lesser. Why? If a fixed fruit of the two vehicles existed into which one could retreat, yet there are now no such two vehicles, where could one retreat? This is the first counteraction.

Prediction can also break the minds of those wishing to arouse the aspiration for the two vehicles. Those who have already realized the fruits of the two vehicles relinquish them themselves; why should I instead take them up? This is the second counteraction.

Prediction can further cause those who have not yet transformed the lesser-vehicle mind to transform it immediately. This is the third counteraction.

Prediction can further cause those about to realize a lesser-vehicle fruit no longer to realize it. This is the fourth counteraction. These four all belong to the counteractive siddhānta, and predictions are therefore bestowed.

Furthermore, when the principle of non-arising becomes present, one necessarily opens the Buddha’s knowledge and vision through true understanding and without error and clearly comprehends buddha-nature; a prediction is therefore bestowed. When persons of the Lesser Vehicle enter the real principle, they are certain to become buddhas.

If so, all living beings also possess buddha-nature; why are predictions not bestowed upon all of them? Living beings possess only the direct cause, not the conditioning cause. Now, through hearing this scripture, they give rise to faith and understanding, and both conditioning and direct causes are complete. They open the Buddha’s knowledge and vision and know buddha-nature; they also see the Buddha-Dharma and thereby see buddha-nature. These two both belong to the siddhānta of ultimate truth, and predictions are therefore bestowed.

The four kinds of prediction according to the worldly siddhānta, the siddhānta for each person, the counteractive siddhānta, and the siddhānta of ultimate truth include all the various predictions described above. [The remainder is omitted.]

IV. What Is the Difference among Bestowal of Prediction, Reception of Prediction, Reception of Decision, and Reception of Differentiation?

Bestowal of prediction is also called reception of prediction, reception of decision, and reception of differentiation. “Bestowal” means giving; “reception” means obtaining; “prediction” records the matter; “decision” fixes it without change; “differentiation” makes it clearly distinct. From the Buddha’s giving it is called bestowal; from what the disciples obtain it is called reception.

Those of middling capacity have heard the two cycles of direct teaching and teaching through simile, heard the teaching of opening the three to reveal the one, understood completely, and received the Tathāgata’s confirmation. Although they know for themselves that they can become buddhas in the future, they have not yet ascertained the time and circumstances of buddhahood. If they can receive the Buddha’s truthful word, bestowing upon them the fruit they will attain in the future, fixing their eon and land, and clearly distinguishing whether their buddhahood is near or far, they will experience great joy.

This chapter takes its name from the Buddha’s bestowal of predictions and is therefore called “Bestowal of Predictions.”

V. Where Is This Chapter Located within the Teaching through Simile?

This scriptural passage is the fourth passage of the teaching through simile. The three preceding passages all teach through simile, and prediction here likewise uses simile to discuss prediction.

Why is there no fifth passage? One explanation says that the preceding text already has its referent and the following text will likewise have its referent, so the matter is omitted and not separately discussed. Another explanation says that the “Parable of the Medicinal Herbs” has already said that all living beings receive the moisture of the Dharma rain and each obtains growth. From this one can certainly know that all four assemblies have received benefit; the compilers of the scripture simply omitted the matter without stating it explicitly.

VI. How Is the Entire Chapter Divided?

The scripture of the whole chapter divides into two major passages: first, formally bestowing predictions upon those of middling capacity; second, promising to explain past-life causes and conditions for those of lesser capacity.

The first major passage again divides in two: first bestowing a prediction upon Kāśyapa, then upon three disciples. Both passages have prose and verse.

Kāśyapa’s prose prediction has six items: first, causal practice; second, the buddha-fruit obtained; third, the names of the eon and land and the land’s adornments; fourth, the buddha’s lifespan; fifth, the duration of the true and semblance Dharma, as stated in the scripture; sixth, the purity of the land.

The passage concerning the three disciples again divides in two: first, the request for predictions; second, the Buddha’s bestowal of predictions upon them.

The scriptural request for predictions contains seven verses: the first line is the direct request; the next two and a half lines open the simile; the following two and a half lines apply the simile to the matter discussed; the final line concludes.

The predictions of the three each have six items: first, causal practice; second, the buddha-fruit obtained; third, eon and land; fourth, the buddha’s lifespan; fifth, the duration of the Buddha-Dharma; sixth, number. The content of each is as stated in the scripture.

The two and a half lines beginning with “My disciples” promise to explain further the past-life causes and conditions for those of lesser capacity. These people have heard the direct teaching and teaching through simile and personally seen those of superior and middling capacities receive predictions, yet doubts remain and they cannot understand. Deeply ashamed, they wish to advance their path. To enable their path to advance, the Buddha first gives a general prediction and then explains the causes and conditions of past lives. [The remainder is omitted.]

The three disciples have understood the teaching through simile and know that they will ultimately become buddhas, yet they still use the simile of hungry people encountering a king’s meal: the food is before them, but fear remains, and without the king’s clear permission they dare not eat at once. This scene gathers the question of the chapter tightly. If the principle of attaining buddhahood is already understood, what is added when the Buddha Himself speaks of future events?

Zhiyi first presses the question more deeply. The Vimalakīrti Sūtra, the Questions of Brahmā Sūtra, and the Large Prajñāpāramitā Sūtra each criticize prediction from a different angle, while the Lotus Sutra repeatedly tells disciples their names, lands, eons, and lifespans. If only one sentence is taken from either side, the two appear contradictory. The root treatise does not answer by abandoning one side. It first distinguishes what should be broken from what should be given, the level on which existence can be spoken of from the level on which existence must not be grasped. Prediction is thereby neither read as an entity nor erased altogether simply because ultimate truth has no prediction, when the Buddha speaks at the maturation of causes and conditions.

I. What Is Broken Is a View of Existence; What Is Given Is a Prediction in Accord with a Vow

The root treatise draws its first boundary between “view” and “vow.” If one holds that there is a fixed prediction to be obtained and a fixed recipient of prediction within it, this view of existence must be broken. If a bodhisattva has made a vow and the causes and conditions correspond, the prediction in accord with the vow must be given. Breaking a view and bestowing a prediction are not affirmation and denial of the same thing; each addresses a different condition.

Prediction can therefore be spoken of in conventional truth, while in ultimate truth there is no prediction. The former preserves the transformation that actually occurs when the Buddha and living beings meet: someone hears the Dharma, makes a vow, and turns the mind, and the Buddha determines that person’s future fruit in words. The latter prevents these names and events from being grasped as immutable self-natures. If only conventional existence is taught, prediction can become a new object of attachment; if only ultimate nonexistence is taught, the present request for a prediction, its bestowal, and the joy arising from it all lose their place.

This also explains why the criticisms in the three scriptures cannot monopolize the answer. They can break conceptual proliferation, but this does not negate every timely prediction. The Lotus Sutra allows vow and buddha-speech to meet within conventional truth precisely while refusing to reify either the prediction or the one predicted.

II. Why Prediction Cannot Have Only One Form

The root treatise next gives a long enumeration of differences among predictions. A prediction may be universal or individually bestowed upon a particular person; it may concern direct cause, conditioning cause, or revealing cause; it may be delayed or swift; it may be spoken by a buddha or by a bodhisattva; and it may be a prediction made far in advance. Even when a prediction spoken by a bodhisattva does not definitely enumerate the eon and land, it remains a prediction.

These distinctions first prevent readers from taking the prose format of this chapter as the sole form of prediction. The Buddha’s detailed statement here of future fruit, eon and land, and lifespan does not mean that anything lacking those items cannot be called a prediction. Conversely, the shared name “prediction” does not mean that every bestowal has the same recipient, time, or degree of detail. What matters is what the scripture actually predicts; the detailed enumeration in this chapter cannot be imposed item by item upon every prediction.

The eight kinds enumerated by the Jeweled Necklace Sūtra further introduce differences of knowing and not knowing, and of proximity and distance. One may know while the assembly does not, the assembly may know while one does not, both may know, or neither may know; proximity and distance likewise each have awareness and nonawareness. These arrangements show that when a prediction occurs, the person receiving it and those observing may not occupy the same position of knowledge. The question is not only whether the Buddha has spoken but also who knows the matter, and when.

Other scriptures restrict the recipients: they predict bodhisattvas but not the two vehicles, good but not evil, men but not women, humans and gods but not animals. The root treatise contrasts these with “the present scripture predicts all.” The force of this sentence does not lie in grinding every prediction into a single specification but in bringing categories previously excluded within the scope of what buddha-speech predicts.

III. Why This Is Precisely the Time to Bestow Predictions

After distinguishing the types, the root treatise answers not only whether there is prediction but why prediction should occur now. The first level speaks through the worldly siddhānta: the buddhas appear in the world for the causes and conditions of one great matter; now the great matter has been revealed, the Buddha has finished teaching it, and living beings have entered. The Buddha’s original intent and living beings’ vows have both been fulfilled. Since the Dharma should be given, it is like a father meeting his child and rightly entrusting the family wealth. Another reason is that practitioners’ conduct and vows throughout immeasurable lives were originally tied to the present Buddha; because this was their original vow, they now receive predictions.

The second level speaks through the siddhānta for each person. After hearing the scripture, persons of the two vehicles turn from the lesser to enter the great. The perfect cause is complete; because the cause necessarily brings forth the fruit, the Buddha bestows predictions upon them. Once members of the assembly know this, they each make vows: some vow to become inner or outer retinues of birth-body and Dharma-body; others vow to be born in those lands and benefit living beings.

The third level speaks through the counteractive siddhānta, and its four items cannot be merged into one sentence. Prediction first breaks the thought among bodhisattvas of retreating from the great and entering the lesser: if there is no fixed two-vehicle status into which to retreat, where could they retreat? It also breaks the thought of those wishing to arouse a two-vehicle mind: those who have already realized it relinquish it themselves, so why should I take it up instead? It then causes those who have not yet turned from the lesser to do so and keeps those about to realize the lesser from realizing it. The four illnesses differ in sequence and therefore each has a corresponding counteraction.

The fourth level speaks through the siddhānta of ultimate truth. The presence of non-arising necessarily comes through true understanding: one opens the Buddha’s knowledge and vision without error and also clearly understands buddha-nature, and so receives a prediction. If one asks why all living beings, since they possess buddha-nature, do not immediately receive predictions one by one, the root treatise answers through direct cause and conditioning cause. Although living beings possess the direct cause, the conditions are not yet complete. Only now, through hearing the scripture, believing, and understanding, are condition and direct cause both complete; one knows buddha-nature and, by seeing the Buddha-Dharma, sees buddha-nature. Only then is it time for prediction.

The four siddhāntas here are not four answers competing for supremacy. The worldly siddhānta speaks of the revelation of the great matter and prediction in accord with the original vow; the siddhānta for each person speaks of turning from the lesser to enter the great and the assembly’s vows; the counteractive siddhānta speaks of how prediction cuts off minds of retreat and appropriation; ultimate truth speaks of true understanding and clear knowledge of buddha-nature. They answer different aspects of one matter: why buddha-speech falls upon this person at this time, after this particular hearing of the Dharma and transformation of mind.

IV. If Buddhahood Is Already Known, Why Wait for the Buddha’s Own Word?

Those of middling capacity have already passed through the two cycles of direct teaching and teaching through simile, fully understood, and received the Tathāgata’s confirmation. They are not entirely unaware that they can become buddhas; the root treatise explicitly says that they know for themselves they will become buddhas. What they have not yet ascertained is the time of buddhahood and its related circumstances. What will the future fruit be? What will the eon and land be? Is buddhahood near to or distant from the present? These matters have not yet been settled or distinguished.

Prediction therefore does not suddenly insert a previously nonexistent possibility of buddhahood into the disciples. The Buddha’s truthful word settles what had not yet been ascertained. “Bestowal” is spoken from the Buddha’s giving; “reception” from what the disciples obtain; a “prediction” records the matter; “decision” settles it; “differentiation” makes it distinct. The five expressions are not synonymous repetition but distinguish the giver, the receiver, the matter recorded, and the functions of settling and clarifying within one encounter.

The root scripture unfolds this feeling through the image of people from a famine-stricken land encountering a king’s meal. Having long been hungry, they suddenly see the king’s food and should rejoice at once; yet the more precious the food, the less they dare take it without the king’s command. The three disciples are the same. Although they have heard the Buddha’s voice say that they will become buddhas, fear remains in their minds. Only when the Buddha personally bestows a prediction upon each are they like people eating at the king’s command, free of further fear.

The root treatise also uses the father’s entrustment of wealth to illuminate the other side of prediction. The child does not suddenly become a child only at the moment when the father entrusts the family wealth; yet after recognition, maturity, and fulfillment of their wishes, the wealth must still be clearly entrusted. The king’s meal speaks from the receiver’s side, while the father’s entrustment of wealth speaks from the giver’s side: on one side, they dare not eat because no clear permission has been given; on the other, the causes and conditions have matured and the gift should therefore be made. Joined together, the two similes illuminate both bestowal and reception.

V. Describing the Time and Land in Detail Does Not Depart from the Principle of Buddhahood

In this chapter Kāśyapa and the three disciples receive predictions. The scripture does not merely say that they will become buddhas but also speaks of causal practice, attainment of fruit, eon and land, lifespan, duration of the Dharma, and numbers. These items answer precisely what was “not yet ascertained concerning time and circumstances.” Merely repeating that they will become buddhas would add nothing to what the disciples already know. By now explaining each unascertained matter, the Buddha distinguishes near and far, and those receiving predictions therefore experience great joy.

Kāśyapa’s prose prediction has six items: causal practice, attainment of fruit, name and adornments of the eon and land, lifespan, duration of the true and semblance Dharma, and purity of the land. The predictions of the three disciples likewise each contain causal practice, attainment of fruit, eon and land, lifespan, duration of the Dharma, and numbers. The two sets of headings resemble one another, but this does not warrant assuming that the scriptural wording for each person must be equal graph for graph. The divisions help readers see the matters predicted, but each person’s prose and verse must still be read according to the wording actually present.

The chapter title is also established from this action. The root treatise enumerates four names: bestowal of prediction, reception of prediction, reception of decision, and reception of differentiation. It finally says that this chapter is named from the Buddha’s bestowal and is therefore called “Bestowal of Predictions.” The same event may be called reception from the disciples’ side, but this chapter directs attention to how the Buddha clearly entrusts the future fruit that had not yet been ascertained.

VI. Why the Teaching through Simile Has a Fourth Passage but No Separate Fifth

The root treatise classifies this text as the fourth passage of the teaching through simile. The preceding three passages all teach through simile, and this prediction passage likewise discusses prediction through simile. Prediction is not placed outside the preceding teaching; it becomes the passage in which transformation through simile has matured and reaches entrustment.

As for why there is no fifth passage, the root treatise preserves two explanations. The first says that what precedes already has a referent and what follows will likewise have a referent, and it is therefore omitted without discussion. The second returns to the “Parable of the Medicinal Herbs”: all receive moisture and each obtains growth, which suffices to show that the four assemblies have benefited, although the compiler of the scripture omitted this without setting it out. Both explanations account for why the text does not separately state another passage, but one approaches it through the references above and below, the other through the preceding chapter’s reception of moisture. The root treatise preserves both without forcing them into one explanation.

This preservation also reminds readers that doctrinal division can identify the function of scripture but cannot fabricate a fifth passage merely because a diagram leads one to expect it. On seeing an “absence,” one must first ask whether the root treatise has already explained why it is omitted. Since two explanations are present, each should remain in its own position.

VII. How One Chapter of Predictions Turns toward Past Connections in the Next

The chapter first divides into two major passages: formally bestowing predictions upon those of middling capacity, and promising to teach past-life causes and conditions for those of lesser capacity. The former first bestows a prediction upon Kāśyapa, then upon three others, with both sides containing prose and verse. The three disciples first request predictions and the Buddha then gives them. Their seven verses of request consist in order of one line of direct request, two and a half lines opening the simile, two and a half lines applying it, and one line concluding the request. The count and sequence themselves preserve how their fear is expressed through simile and then gathered into a request for the Buddha’s word.

At the chapter’s end the direction suddenly widens. The Buddha says that all five hundred disciples will receive predictions and promises to explain further the causes and conditions between Him and His disciples in past lives. Persons of lesser capacity have heard the direct teaching and teaching through simile and have also seen those of superior and middling capacities receive predictions, yet matters remain unresolved in their minds. Deeply ashamed, they wish to advance their path. The Buddha first gives a general prediction, settling the direction, and then teaches past connections, enabling those who have not understood to trace the causes preceding the present Dharma assembly.

The “Bestowal of Predictions” chapter therefore does not close once the futures of four disciples have been told. On one side, it brings those of middling capacity from knowing for themselves to determination through the Buddha’s word; on the other, the general prediction for five hundred people opens the gateway for those of lesser capacity. It points toward future buddhahood while turning back to past connections. Past and future meet at the end of the chapter so that the present assembly, whose doubts remain, can advance its path.

Through the Eye of the Wenjuji

Zhanran first divides Zhiyi’s answer to the challenge based on three scriptures into eight passages: a general answer, two truths, four siddhāntas, direct clarification of the present scripture, distinguishing existence and nonexistence in relation to other scriptures, extensive treatment through the four siddhāntas, different names for giver and receiver, and the reason those of middling capacity now appear. This division shows that the question and answer concerning the chapter title is not a heap of disconnected enumerations but proceeds from breaking views and giving predictions to the reason this chapter occurs here〔T34n1719 0295c21–0295c24〕.

Concerning the three scriptures raised in the challenge, Zhanran further supplies the contexts of their questions: Maitreya receives a prediction and yet true suchness has neither arising nor extinction; prediction is false, and so one vows not to hear even the name; and the intent of the Large Prajñāpāramitā is likewise. These contexts explain how the question arises in each scripture without changing Zhiyi’s level of placing all three citations together within one question〔T34n1719 0295c13–0295c21〕.

Beneath “this view must be broken; a prediction in accord with a vow must be given,” Zhanran supplies five further intentions for the present scripture: breaking attachment to a prediction in the near term; breaking the defiled attachment of those first receiving predictions; revealing the marks of prediction and no prediction; causing those who should not yet receive predictions to cease hoping for them; and benefiting those who should hear the breaking of attachment. These five are the mirror’s expansion of the root treatise’s general answer and cannot be written backward as five items already explicitly enumerated by Zhiyi〔T34n1719 0295c25–0296a01〕.

Zhanran gathers the types of prediction enumerated by the root treatise into five groups: universal and particular, three causes, delayed and swift, teacher and disciple, and prediction made far in advance. He further says that predictions in the present and the future are omitted only for brevity. He then turns to comparing the present scripture with other scriptures and, citing a treatise’s four kinds of śrāvaka, judges that those who retreated from the great and those who appear by transformation are given predictions, while those of overweening pride and those fixed in attainment are not. Both levels belong to the mirror: the former illuminates how the root treatise’s enumerations are gathered, while the latter is a subsequently introduced criterion〔T34n1719 0296a04–0296a07；0296a20–0296a22〕.

Concerning the eight predictions in the Jeweled Necklace Sūtra, Zhanran judges that none in the present scriptural assembly fails to know and therefore takes mutual knowledge among the first four statements. Concerning the latter four, he further says that even where the language speaks of nonawareness at a distant place, because the path of transformation is the same it cannot be taken as complete nonawareness. This is a harmonization of the enumeration at the mirror level, not Zhiyi’s own deletion or combination of its eight items; the sequence enumerated by the root treatise must still be preserved in full〔T34n1719 0296a10–0296a16〕.

Zhanran explicitly numbers the extensive treatment through the four siddhāntas as two worldly, two for each person, four counteractive, and two of ultimate truth. He also distinguishes whether each item primarily concerns self-benefit, benefit of others, or both, and expressly says that these levels provisionally discuss prediction for the two vehicles, while statements about predictions by buddhas and bodhisattvas are not unfolded in this passage. This numerically checks the reasons listed one by one in the root treatise but cannot be used in reverse to insert the mirror’s self-and-other distinctions into the body without attribution〔T34n1719 0296b07–0296b23〕.

Because the root treatise’s division of this chapter is brief, Zhanran supplies the number of verse lines item by item. Kāśyapa’s verse contains causal practice, attainment of fruit, purity of the land, the buddha’s lifespan, the true and semblance Dharma, and a conclusion, and he points out that it lacks the name of the eon and land. Subhūti’s verse lacks the name of the eon and land; Kātyāyana’s lacks the buddha’s lifespan and the true and semblance Dharma; Maudgalyāyana’s states the buddha-fruit obtained together with the name of the land. These are detailed divisions made by the mirror according to the root scripture and must be read on a separate level from Zhiyi’s original text, which only generally enumerates six items〔T34n1719 0296b23–0296c05〕.