妙法蓮華經文句 釋從地踊出品

At the Dharma assembly, bodhisattvas from other lands volunteer to remain and propagate this sutra. Their intent is good, yet the Buddha does not permit it.

There are three reasons, but only the last reaches the real point: if he accepts their offer, the bodhisattvas from below cannot be summoned; if those from below do not come, that “near” cannot be broken open.

The earth then splits, and immeasurable bodhisattvas surge forth from the open space below. Their bodily marks are magnificent, and their number cannot be calculated.

No one recognizes them.

Not even Maitreya recognizes them. He is the bodhisattva next in line for buddhahood; with the wisdom of one in the place of succession, he has looked throughout the ten directions and attended upon the buddhas, and he knows the assemblies of those buddhas well. Yet of the company before him, he cannot name a single person.

We readily take “not recognizing” for a lack of ability. But not here. Maitreya’s wisdom is sufficient to exhaust the level on which he stands, while these people do not belong to that level: they dwell in the open space below, belonging neither to this realm nor to the other realm.

They lie within no coordinate system familiar to anyone, so no one can identify them.

The question therefore raises itself to another level.

At first there is only curiosity: Who are these people, and where did they come from? But when one sees their virtue, their number, and their bearing, the real question rises to the surface—who could possibly be the teacher of students such as these?

The Buddha first answers two questions, yet alone leaves “for what causal conditions have they gathered?” unanswered.

The blank is deliberate. Precisely because he does not answer, Maitreya has to ask once again. This second question is no longer curiosity; it is an inquiry made after his attachment has been shaken. He hears the Buddha say that he taught them only beneath the bodhi tree, and he also hears the Buddha say that he has taught this great assembly since the distant past. Put the two statements together, and his previously settled understanding can no longer stand.

Maitreya gives the simile: a handsome, black-haired man who appears twenty-five years old points to a hundred-year-old man and says, “This is my son”; the old man likewise points to the youth and says, “This is my father.”

Then Maitreya himself delivers the judgment: this is difficult to believe.

Some explain the simile by another simile: the father has taken a medicine that restores youth, and so he is young; the son has not taken it, and so he appears a hundred years old. If one knows of the medicine, the relation no longer seems reversed; only one who does not know finds it extraordinary.

What that medicine is, however, this chapter does not say.

To its very end, the entire chapter contains only a question and no answer. This is not defective writing. Beginning with five successive explanations of the chapter title, every section increases pressure in the same direction: the more clearly the “near” is established, the more conspicuous the gap of the “distant” becomes. Once the pressure forces out the four characters “this is difficult to believe,” the chapter has completed its task.

What matters most in reading this chapter, then, may not be learning the names of those bodhisattvas, but asking: Have I ever truly been brought to an impasse?

One who never finds the matter difficult to believe will never genuinely want to know the answer.

I. Five Explanations of the Chapter Title

The teacher is awe-inspiring and the Way is honored, so the disciples bow in reverence and attend upon him. At a single summons from the Tathāgata, bodhisattvas surge forth from the four directions; therefore this is called the Emerging from the Earth chapter.

The Buddha teaches and guides sentient beings through past, present, and future, bestowing benefit without boundary. One bright moon appears as myriad reflections in water—who could ever fathom them all? The Buddha summons the disciples whom he transformed in the past and manifests them now; these disciples propagate the sutra to benefit the future. Therefore this is called the Emerging from the Earth chapter.

Open space is limpid and quiescent, without early or late, yet some cling to the Buddha’s near Trace and therefore do not understand his distant Origin. The Buddha summons his disciples of former times and manifests them today, breaking attachment to the near and revealing the distant Origin. Therefore this is called the Emerging from the Earth chapter.

The father who manifests initial perfect awakening at the site of quiescence is young, while the sons who have long practiced in the Land of Constant Quiescent Light are old. The Buddha reveals the medicine’s power so that the entire assembly may understand. Therefore this is called the Emerging from the Earth chapter.

The sutra says, “From where have these bodhisattvas come? Through what causal conditions have they gathered?” To explain the chapter title through the meanings above is precisely an explanation through the causal conditions of the worldly, individual, counteractive, and ultimate-meaning siddhāntas. Therefore this is called the Emerging from the Earth chapter.

II. The General Outline of the Sutra’s Latter Half

From here begins one major division, the second: opening the near Trace that the Buddha manifests in his role as teacher and revealing the distant Origin of the Buddha Ground.

This major division has three parts. First, from here through “You will naturally hear of this through that,” is the introductory section. Second, from “At that time Śākyamuni Buddha told Maitreya” through Maitreya’s nineteen lines of verse in the Distinctions in Merit chapter is the main exposition. Third, the eleven and a half chapters after those verses form the transmission section.

III. The Introduction Divided into Emerging and Doubt

The introduction has two parts: first, emerging; second, doubt.

Emerging is further divided into three passages: the bodhisattvas from other lands request permission to propagate the sutra; the Tathāgata does not permit them; and the bodhisattvas from below emerge.

Hearing that propagating this sutra brings vast merit, the bodhisattvas from other lands all wish to vow to remain in this world and proclaim it, so they ask the Buddha’s permission.

The Tathāgata stops them for three reasons. First, each of you has duties of your own; remaining in this land would neglect benefit there. Second, the affinities between the bodhisattvas from other lands and the sentient beings of this land are not deep; even if they wished to proclaim and transmit the sutra, no great benefit would result. Third, if their request were permitted, the bodhisattvas from below could not be summoned. If the bodhisattvas from below did not come, the near Trace could not be broken and the distant Origin could not be revealed. For these three reasons, the Tathāgata stops them.

There are likewise three reasons for summoning the bodhisattvas from below. They are my disciples and should propagate my Dharma; their affinities are deep and broad, so they can benefit this land throughout, benefit all the lands of the emanation-bodies throughout, and benefit other lands throughout; and they can thereby open the near and reveal the distant. Thus he stops those from other lands and summons those from below.

IV. The Sutra Narrator’s Five Features of the Manifested Scene

From “When the Buddha spoke these words” onward is the third passage, the emergence from below. It has two parts: first, the sutra narrator describes the manifested scene that was seen; second, the greetings are explained. Each part has five items.

The first five items are: first, their emergence; second, their bodily marks; third, their dwelling place; fourth, hearing the command; fifth, their entourages.

Their dwelling place is the Land of Constant Quiescent Light. Constant is the virtue of permanence; quiescent is the virtue of bliss; light is the virtues of purity and self. This is the secret treasury of the four virtues and is precisely their dwelling place. They dwell within the secret treasury through the manner of nonabiding.

“Below” means the abyssal bottom of Dharma-nature and the ultimate ground of the mysterious purport; therefore it is called below. Situated below, they do not belong to this realm; dwelling in open space, they do not belong to the other realm. Neither this nor that is the middle way. Emerging from this realm yet remaining neither in an upper realm nor beneath this realm, they dwell in open space as neither above nor below; this too is the middle way.

They come because they have heard the command, to propagate the Dharma, to break attachment, and to reveal the Origin—all as explained above.

As for the entourages they bring, ordinary sentiment regards those leading sixty or fifty thousand Ganges sands as many, those leading three, two, or one as few, and those who come alone as solitary. But if one follows the sutra’s wording, sixty and fifty thousand instead count as few and those alone instead count as many, for the sutra says that the number dwelling alone exceeds all those described before.

In terms of Dharma gates, each one possesses the virtue of a guide and can lead the many to the jeweled place. One should understand that one person is not solitary, and sixty thousand are not many. One is the single pure path; two are concentration and wisdom; three are precepts, concentration, and wisdom; four are the Four Truths; five are the Five Eyes; and six are the Six Pāramitās. Each pāramitā contains the ten Dharma realms, each realm contains ten dharmas, ten make a hundred, and a hundred contains a thousand; matched with the ten wholesome actions, these make ten thousand. One pāramitā contains ten thousand practices, and six pāramitās are sixty thousand Dharma gates. Many is not many, and one is not few; they are neither many nor few, yet they are both many and few.

V. Five Parts of the Greetings and Two Kinds of Inconceivability

From “These bodhisattvas emerged from the earth” onward is the second part, the greetings, divided into five items: first, offerings through the three modes of action; second, the words of greeting; third, the Buddha’s answer concerning ease and well-being; fourth, rejoicing in verse; fifth, the Tathāgata’s praise.

First are offerings through the three modes of action. Fifty minor kalpas pass, yet the assembly feels that only half a day has gone by; the fourfold assembly can see all the bodhisattvas throughout. Long time is concealed and short time manifested, while the Buddha’s supernormal power also enables a narrow field of vision to behold a vast domain. Both are inconceivable.

“bowing and circumambulating” belongs to bodily action, “praising the Dharma” to verbal action, and “gazing upward in reverence” to mental action. As for “fifty minor kalpas” and “half a day,” this is the inconceivability of time. What the Tathāgata sees does not fall into the dual marks of long and short. The bodhisattvas from below ceaselessly praise him to his face, while the Tathāgata silently and continually receives their praise. Those who awaken see the long within the short and therefore experience fifty minor kalpas; those who are deluded see the short within the long and therefore feel that it is only half a day. This prepares the way for the Origin and Trace teaching below. Before the Tathāgata has opened and revealed, people remain dark about the Origin and cling to the Trace. Once the Buddha opens and reveals, awakening through the near enables them to comprehend the distant, and they understand that the inconceivable is one and the same.

The fourfold assembly’s ability to see the bodhisattvas throughout is likewise inconceivable. What fleshly and divine eyes ordinarily see is not far, yet what they now see fills open space. Seeing torrential rain, one knows the dragon’s power is vast; seeing flowers flourish, one knows the pond is deep and broad; seeing responsive bodies fill open space, one knows that the true body pervades the Dharma realm.

First, the four guides are introduced.

VI. The Words of Inquiry and the Tathāgata’s Complete Answer

Next come the words of greeting. The inquiry has two parts: prose and verse. The prose has two items: first, asking whether the Tathāgata is at ease and well; second, asking whether sentient beings are easy to transform.

Only four people are named in order to correspond to the forty stages of opening, showing, awakening, and entering. This is like the Avataṃsaka Sutra, which names only the four bodhisattvas Dharmamati, Guṇavana, Vajradhvaja, and Vajragarbha to expound the forty stages.

Third, the Tathāgata answers completely. Ease and well-being and ease of transformation mutually accomplish one another: when sentient beings are easy to transform, the Buddha is at ease; when the Buddha is at ease, sentient beings are easy to transform.

Ease of transformation has two kinds. The first comprises those of sharp faculties and profound virtue. Life after life, they have continually received Great-Vehicle teaching; as soon as they see my body and hear what I teach, they receive the Avataṃsaka teaching and enter the Tathāgata’s wisdom. Ripe fruit falls easily: this is sentient beings’ ease of transformation. The second comprises those of dull faculties and shallow virtue. Life after life, they have never received Great-Vehicle teaching. For such people, the Buddha must open the teaching for dull faculties and proclaim the gradual Dharma, disciplining them through the Tripiṭaka, Vaipulya, and Prajñāpāramitā teachings; he likewise enables them today to hear the Lotus and enter buddha-wisdom. Although they are more difficult than the first kind, they are still easy for the Buddha. The Buddha knows their capacities and establishes expedients with perfect fitness; only a little application and adjustment are needed, and the wisdom realized is still the same.

Now ten meanings are briefly presented to explain this. First are first seeing and seeing now; second, opening and convergence versus neither opening nor convergence; third, vertical breadth and horizontal brevity; fourth, one Origin and many Traces, shared Traces and an exclusive Origin; fifth, supplemental teaching and no supplemental teaching; sixth, transforming the land and not transforming it; seventh, many places and not many places; eighth, repudiation and deprivation versus neither repudiation nor deprivation; ninth, directly revealing the real and opening the provisional to reveal the real; tenth, sharp faculties maturing first and dull faculties maturing later.

First, first seeing and seeing now: what is seen at initial awakening is called first seeing; the true seeing long afterward in the Lotus assembly is called seeing now. Second, when sunlight illuminates the high mountains, the sudden teaching is proclaimed, neither opened nor converged. For those unable to enter, the sudden teaching is opened into the gradual teaching, and they are disciplined through the five flavors so that the gradual converges with the sudden. Third, the sudden teaching directly enters vertically and enters the Dharma realm, so it is called vertically broad; because it does not pass through expedient means, it is called horizontally brief. Here, passing through the five flavors is horizontal breadth, while attaining entry into buddha-wisdom is also vertical breadth. Fourth, one lotus platform is called one Origin, while its thousand petals are called many Traces; the Traces are shared because they accord with other sutras, while the Origin is exclusive because it differs from other sutras. Fifth, in the Avataṃsaka, the four bodhisattvas are empowered to expound the forty stages; in this sutra, the Buddha himself speaks opening, showing, awakening, and entering and does not empower someone else. Sixth, the Flower-King world is not transformed and therefore is called untransformed; in this sutra the land is transformed twice and therefore is called transformed. Seventh, the Avataṃsaka has seven places and eight assemblies and therefore many places; this sutra has Vulture Peak and distant open space and therefore not many places. Eighth, extinguishing the transformed city and changing the identity of the hired laborer are called repudiation and deprivation; the Avataṃsaka has no such events and therefore no repudiation or deprivation. Ninth, traveling the great direct path is called directly revealing the real, while resolving the Dharma of the śrāvakas is called opening the provisional to reveal the real. Tenth, those of sharp faculties whose conditions are mature enter buddha-wisdom at the beginning, while those of dull faculties who mature later enter buddha-wisdom only today.

Appropriate conditions differ, and so ten distinctions are briefly made; as for the knowledge of all modes and the Dharma realm, they are equal and without difference. Thus the sutra says, “As soon as they saw my body and heard what I taught, they all accepted it in faith and entered the Tathāgata’s wisdom, excepting only those who had previously cultivated and studied the Lesser Vehicle.” The explicit text for entering buddha-wisdom in this sutra today is right here; there is no need for doubt.

When masters see differing conditions, they follow those conditions into differing explanations; becoming confused and failing to return, they stray ever farther from the Way. If one recognizes identity at the level of principle, it is like a thousand carts traveling the same track: buddha-wisdom is without difference.

An older account says that the Avataṃsaka is definitive meaning, full word, and permanent, while the Lotus is nondefinitive meaning, neither full nor permanent. Now compare that account with this passage. If the first entry is definitive while entry today is nondefinitive, then the first entry is into buddha-wisdom, while today’s entry is not into buddha-wisdom. If buddha-wisdom is equal, definitive meaning is likewise equal, and full word and permanence are entirely the same.

The Dilun masters call the Avataṃsaka the Perfect School and the Lotus the Unreal School. This same passage is now likewise used to compare their claim.

VII. Understanding and Rejoicing, Followed by the Tathāgata’s Praise

Fourth, the bodhisattvas understand and rejoice. Those capable of asking are like the four great beings in the Avataṃsaka and Śāriputra’s three requests in the Lotus; these are all capable questioners. What they ask about is the Buddha’s wisdom.

Fifth, the Tathāgata praises them. This greatly differs from asking: on the questioners’ side there is rejoicing. Those capable of asking are all bodhisattvas, and when the people whom they transform hear, accept in faith, and practice, we rejoice accordingly. What, then, does it mean that the Tathāgata praises the rejoicing of those capable of transformation? Those capable of asking are originally ancient buddhas; because you can rejoice, you already are tathāgatas. The bodhisattvas rejoice in their Trace, while the Tathāgata praises their Origin. This also secretly indicates the meaning of the lifespan.

VIII. The Introduction of Doubt and the Doubts of This Land and Other Lands

From “At that time Maitreya and the eighty thousand great beings” onward is the second part, the introduction of doubt.

Maitreya says: From the site of quiescence until this assembly today, great beings from the ten directions have continuously come to gather. Although they are too numerous to count, through the power of the wisdom of a bodhisattva in the place of succession I have seen and known them all. Yet of this company I do not recognize a single person. Moreover, I have traveled and taught throughout the ten directions and attended upon the buddhas, and I know the assemblies of those buddhas well; in every place I have visited, these people have likewise been unknown. Whether I consider where they came from or where they are going, no inquiry enables me to recognize them.

Again, those great beings are elders who advanced and arrived before, while Maitreya is a later student; a junior does not know his seniors, and therefore he does not recognize them. Again, those great beings originally abide at the bottom of the true mark and responsively manifest throughout the ten directions, teaching and transforming along separate courses; none of their true or responsive bodies belongs to Maitreya’s field, and therefore he does not recognize them. Again, the Buddha entrusts propagation of the sutra and summons the great beings. They come upon hearing the teacher’s command, within which the meaning of the lifespan is secretly contained; this is not something the assembly present can know, and therefore he says he does not recognize them.

This explains the introduction of doubt through the worldly, individual, counteractive, and ultimate-meaning siddhāntas.

The doubt has two parts: first, the doubt of the bodhisattvas of this land; second, the doubt of the bodhisattvas of other lands. The doubt of this land has two levels. First comes doubt in prose. Next come nineteen and a half lines of verse constituting the formal question, divided into five passages. The first line and one phrase ask where they have come from. Next, the one line and three phrases beginning with “through what causal conditions” ask through what causal conditions they have come. Next, the nine lines beginning with “each one of the bodhisattvas” describe their number. Next, the two lines beginning with “these beings of great majestic virtue” ask who their teacher is. Next, the five and a half lines beginning with “such are these bodhisattvas’ supernormal powers” form the concluding request, which is further divided into five. The first two phrases conclude the praise. Next, the two lines beginning with “the earth in the four directions” ask the Buddha to answer concerning their place of origin. Next, the one line beginning with “within this assembly, I” asks the Buddha to answer concerning the conditions of their coming. Next, the one and a half lines beginning with “this great assembly today” are the common question of the great assembly. Next, the two phrases beginning with “immeasurable virtue” ask the Buddha to answer who their master is.

Second is the doubt of the bodhisattvas from other lands. The retinues of the emanation-buddhas extend horizontally throughout the ten directions and share Maitreya’s doubt. Neither land knows the Buddha’s original ground. The Buddha wishes to reveal that his attainment of the Way lies in the exceedingly distant past, so each group states its doubt to its buddha, while every buddha holds back an answer and waits for Maitreya.

IX. The Beginning of the Main Exposition: Admonition, Permission, and the Four Virtues

From “At that time Śākyamuni Buddha told Maitreya” onward is the second division, the main exposition. The text has two parts: first prose, then verse. The prose first admonishes and then grants permission, after which comes the proper exposition.

The prose begins with praise. Next comes the admonition: do not become distracted, indolent, or regressive. Next comes permission, introducing the wisdom of the fruit-ground. Fruit-wisdom is the Tathāgata’s knowledge and vision, the wondrous fruit of knowledge and vision. Next is the opening that discloses the teacher capable of transforming beings, namely “proclaiming and revealing.”

“sovereign supernormal power” refers to benefiting sentient beings in the past; “the lion’s swift advance” refers to the places reached in the present by the emanation-bodies throughout the ten directions. Some also say that swift advance is the posture of one about to move forward, indicating the future manifestation of perpetually benefiting beings. “great power and fierce majesty” refers to benefiting sentient beings in the future. Others take it as presently shaking the ten directions; each may use the reading according to their intent, but it is preferable to follow the sutra’s sequence.

Moreover, my private view is that “the Tathāgata’s sovereignty” is the virtue of self; “supernormal power” is the virtue of bliss; “the lion’s swift advance”—the swift advance removes defilement and is the virtue of purity; and “great power and fierce majesty,” referring to the future benefit of sentient beings, is the virtue of permanence. This points out the meaning of the four virtues.

Within the four lines of verse, the first three phrases restate the three admonitions, while the remaining three lines and one phrase restate the permission. The first phrase restates the introduction of the fruit of wisdom, and the next three lines restate the three periods.

X. Briefly Opening the Near and Revealing the Distant, and the Bottom-Dispersing Samādhi

From “At that time the World-Honored One” onward is the second division, the main exposition. The text has three parts. From here through the end of the Lifespan chapter is the proper opening of the near and revelation of the distant. Second, at the beginning of the Distinctions in Merit chapter, prediction of the Dharma body is conferred generally. Third, Maitreya gives a general statement of understanding.

The first part has two levels: first, briefly opening the near and revealing the distant, shaking attachment and producing doubt; second, a renewed request occasioned by doubt, cutting off doubt and producing faith. The brief opening further has two items: first, the brief opening; second, the renewed request occasioned by doubt.

The brief opening contains prose and verse. Here only two questions are answered; the question of through what causal conditions they gathered is not answered. Precisely because it is not answered, there is a renewed request. The prose answers and explains both, as shown in the sutra.

To explain dwelling in the open space below: the Mahāprajñāpāramitā Treatise speaks of the bottom-dispersing samādhi, which should be explained in four ways. First, “existence” means the three existences, and “bottom” means the station of neither perception nor nonperception; because it is deepest and most supreme, it is called the bottom. Again, “existence” means name and form, and “bottom” means emptiness; because emptiness is quiescent, it is called the bottom. Again, “existence” means the conventional extremes of existence and nonexistence, and “bottom” means the completeness of boundary-wisdom, so it is called the bottom. In the present sutra, the open space below is taken as the bottom: it is neither an upper realm nor a lower realm, indicating that the middle way is the bottom. This distinguishes the matter in terms of the four teachings.

From “within the various scriptures” onward is the explanation. The teacher knows that the disciples possess the two virtues of wisdom and severance. At first they cultivate wisdom and severance together; next they realize wisdom and severance together. Discriminating within the scriptures is cultivation of wisdom; right recollection is cultivation of severance; disliking residence among crowds is realization of severance; diligently practicing and advancing is realization of wisdom.

From “dwelling without relying upon humans or devas” onward is the explanation of place. Humans and devas are the two extremes of existence and emptiness; not dwelling means not clinging. “profound wisdom without obstruction” means relying upon inconceivable wisdom; “delighting in Buddha Dharma” means delighting in an inconceivable object. Both object and wisdom are exceedingly subtle and lie beyond bodhisattvas whose stages of practice remain shallow.

The verse has eight and a half lines. The first five and a half restate the answers to the two questions; the following three restate both explanations.

XI. Renewed Request Occasioned by Doubt: Explanation through Dharma and through Simile

From “At that time Maitreya” onward is the renewed request occasioned by doubt, containing prose and verse. The prose has two parts: first, doubt; second, request.

Maitreya has heard the preceding statement “only beneath the bodhi tree did he teach and transform them, and now they all dwell in nonretrogression,” and he has also heard “since the distant past I have taught and transformed this great assembly.” Hearing both statements shakes his attachment and gives rise to doubt.

From “he addressed the Buddha” onward, he raises and restates his doubt and renews his request. This has two parts: first, explanation through Dharma; second, explanation through simile.

The explanation through Dharma has three passages. First, from “he then addressed the Buddha” onward, he doubts how the attainment of the Way can be recent while those transformed are so numerous; this is attachment to the near giving rise to doubt about the distant. Second, from “World-Honored One, these great bodhisattvas” onward, those transformed are numerous and their stages of practice profound and subtle; this is attachment to the distant giving rise to doubt about the near. Third, from “World-Honored One, such a thing” onward is the concluding request.

The explanation through simile has an opening simile and a corresponding application. The opening simile has three passages. “handsome and black-haired” represents the preceding meaning that the attainment of the Way was recent. From “pointing to a hundred-year-old person” onward represents the preceding meaning that those transformed were exceedingly numerous.

The masters north of the Huai River use a simile to explain the simile: the father has taken a medicine that restores youth, so his appearance is that of a twenty-five-year-old; the son has not taken the medicine and appears a hundred years old. If one knows the medicine’s power, one does not doubt their father-son relation; one who does not know finds it strange. The Tathāgata takes horizontally the medicine of manifesting the Trace and shows initial birth in the city of Gayā; the bodhisattvas speak directly from the original ground, having aroused the mind of the Way in the distant past and now abiding in nonretrogression. Buddhas can readily understand this among themselves; those below the level of buddhas cannot comprehend it and cannot avoid giving rise to doubt.

From “this is difficult to believe” onward is the conclusion of the simile.

First comes the application of the near simile, as shown in the sutra. From “yet this great assembly” onward is the application of the distant simile. These bodhisattvas are seen to have planted wholesome roots for a long time, not merely to have aroused resolve in the city of Gayā.

The phrase “skilled in entering, emerging, and abiding” means: the nine successive concentrations are skill in entering, the lion’s swift advance is skill in emerging, and the transcendence samādhi is skill in abiding; this is the meaning of the Shared and Tripiṭaka teachings. From the first through the tenth ground is called skill in entering; at the tenth ground, entering the double mysterious gate and inversely cultivating the affairs of ordinary beings is called skill in emerging; the pervasion of wondrous awakening is called skill in abiding. This is the meaning of the Distinct teaching. The ultimate Dharma-nature samādhi is called skill in entering; the Śūraṅgama Samādhi is called skill in emerging; the king samādhi is called skill in abiding. This is the meaning of the Perfect teaching. Sequentially cultivating wholesome dharmas is called skill in cultivation at the causal stage and skill in entering at the fruit stage.

The phrase “skilled at answering difficult questions” means that they possess both the adornments of merit and wisdom. They are the foremost among the people of the seven expedients and therefore are called a “treasure.”

XII. The Request for an Answer and the Verses

From “today, World-Honored One” onward is the request for an answer, divided into three passages. From “today” onward, the Buddha’s words are cited. From “we” onward, the second passage explains the purpose of the request.

The request has two purposes. The first is for people in the present: although I still cannot comprehend it, I simply accept it in faith. From “yet the bodhisattvas” onward, the second purpose is for people in the future. Those whose practice is shallow readily produce slander; beginners fall into the evil paths because of that slander. Those who are nonretrogressive accept it in faith and do not slander, yet cannot advance their work in the Way. If the Buddha explains it to them distinctly, those who slander will produce faith and those who accept in faith will advance their work in the Way.

From “we only pray” onward is the third passage, the request that the Buddha answer. The request has two levels. First is “remove our doubts.” From “and in the future” onward, the second is to remove the doubts of future sentient beings.

The fourteen lines of verse restate the preceding explanation through Dharma and through simile: five lines restate the explanation through Dharma, and nine restate the explanation through simile.

The explanation through Dharma has three passages. The first line restates attachment to the near. Next, from “these children of the Buddha” onward, the second passage’s two lines and three phrases restate doubt about the distant. Finally, from “how could it be” onward, the third passage’s one line and one phrase restate the concluding request.

In restating the explanation through simile, the first two lines restate the opening simile. The following seven lines, beginning with “the World-Honored One is also like this,” restate the corresponding application. These are likewise divided into three passages. The first two phrases restate the application of the near. Next, from “the resolve of these bodhisattvas” onward, the second passage’s three and a half lines restate the application of the distant. Finally, from “we have heard from the Buddha” onward, the third passage’s three lines restate the corresponding request for an answer.

[Here ends fascicle nine, upper, of the Fahua Wenju.]

At this point in the assembly, bodhisattvas from other lands volunteer to remain and propagate this sutra. It is a good thing, yet the Buddha does not permit it. The earth then quakes and splits, and immeasurable bodhisattvas surge forth from the open space below—their bodily marks magnificent and their number beyond calculation, although no one present recognizes a single one. Not even Maitreya recognizes them.

The root treatise has already given the answer while explaining the chapter title: “From here begins the major division, the second: opening the near Trace of the Teacher Gate and revealing the distant Origin of the Buddha Ground.” From this point, the latter half of the entire sutra does only one thing: it opens the “near” that the Buddha manifests as teacher so that the “distant” of the Buddha Ground may be revealed. This company of unrecognized bodhisattvas is the first opening.

The chapter’s narrative may therefore appear to be only a spectacular scene, but every section is actually laying the way for the next chapter’s answer. If one sees only the grandeur of the bodhisattvas emerging, one misses its real intent: it is a question carefully designed to be unanswerable.

I. Why Is a Single Chapter Title Explained Five Times?

The root treatise explains the title five times in succession, concluding each explanation with “therefore it is called the Emerging from the Earth chapter.”

The first explanation proceeds from teacher and disciples: the teacher is awe-inspiring and the Way is honored, so at one summons they surge forth from the four directions. The second proceeds from benefit: teaching and transforming through the three periods, wisdom’s benefit knows no boundary; as one moon casts myriad reflections, who could fathom it? The third proceeds from breaking attachment: open space is limpid and originally knows neither early nor late, but people cling to the Trace and remain dark about the Origin, so those taught in the past are summoned and manifested now. The fourth proceeds from father and sons: the father who manifests initial awakening at the site of quiescence is young, while the sons who have long practiced in the Land of Constant Quiescent Light are old. The fifth concludes by directly citing the sutra’s question, “From where have they come, and through what causal conditions have they gathered?”

The five are not five alternatives from which one may select. They are the four perspectives of the four siddhāntas together with a general scriptural confirmation. The first concerns why beings joyfully answer the summons, the second how beings thereby produce goodness, the third how deluded attachment to the near is broken, and the fourth the ultimate at the level of principle. The same chapter title carries one meaning at each of four kinds of benefit.

The strange simile in the fourth explanation deserves notice: a young father and old sons. Common sense finds this reversed, but the root treatise places it there without explanation. In fact, it has moved forward into the explanation of the title the simile later found in the sutra, “a handsome, black-haired youth points to a hundred-year-old man and says that this is my son.” By the time the title has been explained, the suspense of the entire chapter is already established.

II. Why Does the Buddha Refuse When Bodhisattvas from Other Lands Volunteer to Propagate the Sutra?

Hearing that propagating this sutra brings vast merit, bodhisattvas from other lands vow to remain in the Sahā world and proclaim it. This is a rare resolve, yet the Buddha stops them.

The root treatise gives three reasons. First, each of you has duties of your own, and remaining here would neglect benefit there. Second, bodhisattvas from other lands do not have deep affinities with beings in this land, so even if they taught, no great benefit would result. Third—and this is the decisive point—if their offer were accepted, the bodhisattvas from below could not be summoned; if the bodhisattvas from below did not come, the near Trace could not be broken and the distant Origin could not be revealed.

The first two reasons concern practical effect; the third concerns the Buddha’s entire design. This “refusal” does not mean that their resolve is inadequate. What is needed at this moment is not a supply of people to propagate the sutra, but a scene capable of shaking everyone’s attachment.

Three symmetrical reasons also govern the summons from below: they are my disciples and should propagate my Dharma; their affinities are deep and broad, so they can benefit this land, the lands of the emanation-bodies, and other lands throughout; and through them the near can be opened and the distant revealed. The two sets of three interlock. Refusing one group and summoning the other are two sides of the same decision.

Thus the “refusal” is itself already teaching Dharma. The Buddha refuses a request that appears entirely proper precisely so that those who next appear will seem extraordinarily abrupt—so abrupt that a question becomes unavoidable.

III. Why Are “Below” and “Open Space” Explained as the Middle Way?

This company of bodhisattvas comes from below and dwells in the open space of this realm. The root treatise does not take this as a geographic description.

It first says that their dwelling place is the Land of Constant Quiescent Light and separates the three characters “constant, quiescent, light” to align them with the four virtues: constant is the virtue of permanence, quiescent is the virtue of bliss, and light is the virtues of purity and self. This is the secret treasury of the four virtues, and they “dwell within the secret treasury by means of the dharma of nonabiding”—their manner of dwelling is not to abide.

It next explains “below”: this is the abyssal bottom of Dharma-nature and the ultimate ground of the mysterious purport. Then comes the decisive step. To be below is not to belong to this realm; to dwell in open space is not to belong to the other realm. Neither this nor that is the middle way. Emerging from this realm yet remaining neither in an upper realm nor beneath this realm, dwelling in open space as neither above nor below, is likewise the middle way.

Thus “the open space below” is not a coordinate but a representation of Dharma. Through a double negation of place, it situates these bodhisattvas somewhere belonging neither to this nor to that—and this is precisely why no one recognizes where they come from. They stand within no coordinate system familiar to anyone.

When later explaining “dwelling without relying upon humans or devas,” the root treatise returns to the same structure: humans and devas represent the two extremes of existence and emptiness; not dwelling means not clinging. The representation through place and the representation through the virtues of practice say the same thing.

IV. Why Is One Person Alone More Numerous Than Sixty Thousand Ganges Sands?

The sutra enumerates the entourages brought by these bodhisattvas. Some lead assemblies numbering sixty thousand Ganges sands, some fifty thousand; others lead three, two, or one, while still others dwell alone.

Here the root treatise makes an elegant reversal. According to ordinary sentiment, it says, sixty thousand is many and one alone is solitary. But if one follows the sutra’s wording, sixty and fifty thousand are instead few, while those alone are more numerous—because the sutra expressly says that the number dwelling alone exceeds all those previously described.

It then gives a third way to read the passage. In terms of Dharma gates, each person possesses the virtue of a guide able to lead the many to the jeweled place. One is the single pure path; two are concentration and wisdom; three are precepts, concentration, and wisdom; four are the Four Truths; five are the Five Eyes; and six are the Six Pāramitās. Each pāramitā contains the ten Dharma realms, each realm contains ten dharmas, ten become a hundred and a hundred become a thousand, and when matched with the ten wholesome actions they become ten thousand. One pāramitā contains ten thousand practices, so six pāramitās are sixty thousand Dharma gates.

The conclusion is therefore: many is not many, and one is not few; they are neither many nor few, yet they are both many and few.

This passage does more than explain numbers. At the reader’s first encounter with “incalculable,” it teaches a way to read: numbers in the sutra are not statistics but a density of Dharma gates. Once one learns this way of reading, the later phrase “immeasurable, boundless hundreds of thousands of myriads of koṭis of nayutas of asaṃkhyeyas of kalpas” no longer seems merely a meaningless enormity.

V. When Fifty Minor Kalpas Seem Like Half a Day, Who Has Seen Incorrectly?

These bodhisattvas greet the Buddha over fifty minor kalpas, yet the assembly present feels that only half a day has passed.

The root treatise says that long time is concealed and short time manifested, while the Buddha’s supernormal power also enables a narrow field of vision to behold a vast domain; both are inconceivable. It then makes a subtle distinction. What the Tathāgata sees does not fall into the dual marks of long and short. Those who awaken see the long within the short and therefore experience fifty minor kalpas; those who are deluded see the short within the long and therefore feel that it is only half a day.

No one here has “seen incorrectly.” Long and short appear in response to capacities; there is no single correct answer inherent in the object and waiting to be matched. The root treatise immediately identifies the purpose: this prepares the way for the Origin and Trace teaching below. Before the Tathāgata opens and reveals, people remain dark about the Origin and cling to the Trace; once the Buddha opens and reveals, awakening through the near enables them to comprehend the distant.

The same reasoning applies to “the fourfold assembly seeing throughout.” What fleshly and divine eyes ordinarily see is not far, yet now they behold bodhisattvas filling open space. The root treatise gives three similes in succession: seeing torrential rain, one knows the dragon’s power is vast; seeing flowers flourish, one knows the pond is deep and broad; seeing responsive bodies fill open space, one knows that the true body pervades the Dharma realm.

All three similes share a single structure: from the magnitude of what can be seen, one infers the body that cannot be seen. This is precisely the inference the chapter teaches its reader to make. The incalculable bodhisattvas now before one’s eyes are a clue leading toward “how long ago the Buddha actually attained the Way.”

VI. Why Is the Ease of Transforming Sentient Beings Explained in Ten Respects?

The Buddha answers Maitreya that sentient beings are easy to transform. The root treatise divides this “ease of transformation” into two kinds. Those of sharp faculties and profound virtue enter the Tathāgata’s wisdom as soon as they see my body and hear my teaching. Those of dull faculties and shallow virtue require the gradual teaching and provisional means to be opened; after being disciplined through the Tripiṭaka, Vaipulya, and Prajñāpāramitā teachings, they now hear the Lotus and likewise enter buddha-wisdom. The latter are more difficult than the former, but “for the Buddha, they are exceedingly easy.”

The root treatise then undertakes the weightiest work in this chapter: it lists ten differences—first seeing and seeing now; opening and convergence versus neither opening nor convergence; vertical breadth and horizontal brevity; one Origin and many Traces; supplemental teaching and no supplemental teaching; transforming the land and not transforming it; many places and not many places; repudiation and deprivation versus neither; directly revealing the real and opening the provisional to reveal the real; and sharp faculties maturing first and dull faculties maturing later.

The ten appear to compare the Avataṃsaka and the Lotus. But the root treatise immediately discloses their purpose: “Because the appropriate conditions differ, ten distinctions are briefly made; as for the knowledge of all modes and the Dharma realm, there is no difference.” The ten concern differences in conditions, while the buddha-wisdom entered is without distinction.

Here lies the passage’s edge. The root treatise then directly rebukes those masters who see differing conditions and follow them into differing explanations, becoming confused, failing to return, and straying ever farther from the Way. If one recognizes identity at the level of principle, it is like a thousand carts traveling the same track: buddha-wisdom is without difference.

It then gives two examples. An older account takes the Avataṃsaka as definitive meaning, full word, and permanent, but the Lotus as nondefinitive meaning, neither full nor permanent. The root treatise establishes no new principle; it simply compares this claim with the present chapter’s sentence, “When they first saw my body and heard what I taught, they all immediately accepted it in faith and entered the Tathāgata’s wisdom.” If the first entry is definitive while entry today is nondefinitive, then the first enters buddha-wisdom but today’s does not. If buddha-wisdom is equal, definitive meaning is naturally equal as well. The Dilun masters call the Avataṃsaka the Perfect School and the Lotus the Unreal School; the root treatise says “now this same passage is also used to compare them”—the same scriptural sentence and the same method.

One sentence of scripture answers two schools. This is not economy but demonstration. If disputes over classification merely oppose name and form to name and form, they will never end. The root treatise’s method is to return to the sutra itself and ask a single question: Is the entry spoken of here entry into buddha-wisdom?

VII. Maitreya Does Not Recognize a Single Person—Has He Failed in His Duty?

In the sequence introducing the doubt, Maitreya speaks with striking candor: from the site of quiescence until today’s Dharma assembly, great beings from the ten directions have continuously come to gather; through the wisdom of a bodhisattva in the place of succession, I have seen and known them all, yet of this company I do not recognize a single person.

A bodhisattva in the place of succession is next in line for buddhahood. When Maitreya says that he does not recognize them, it sounds like an admission that his ability is limited. The root treatise instead gives four reasons that render this “not recognizing” meaningful.

First, these great beings are elders who advanced and arrived before, whereas Maitreya is a later student; those who come later do not know those who came before. Second, these great beings abide at the bottom of the true mark and responsively manifest throughout the ten directions, teaching and transforming along separate courses; their true and responsive bodies do not belong to Maitreya’s field. Third, the Buddha summons them through the entrustment to propagate the sutra; they come upon hearing the teacher’s command, which secretly contains the meaning of the lifespan and is not something the assembly present can know. Fourth gathers the preceding explanations beneath the four siddhāntas.

Thus “not recognizing” is not a gap in knowledge, but the boundary of a spiritual domain. Maitreya’s wisdom is sufficient to exhaust everything on the level where he stands, but these bodhisattvas simply do not belong to that level. Once this boundary is disclosed, the question rises from “Who are these people?” to “Who could possibly be the teacher of disciples such as these?”

Earlier, in its passage on the Tathāgata’s praise, the root treatise has already planted one sentence: those capable of asking are all ancient buddhas; the bodhisattvas rejoice in their Trace, while the Tathāgata praises their Origin—and it directly says “this also secretly indicates the lifespan.” From beginning to end, the chapter moves toward the answer that has not yet been spoken.

VIII. Why Does the Buddha First Answer Two Questions Yet Alone Leave “Through What Causal Conditions Have They Gathered?” Unanswered?

Maitreya’s verses ask several things: where they have come from, through what causal conditions they have come, how numerous they are, and who their teacher is. The Buddha’s brief answer responds to only two questions and does not answer “through what causal conditions have they gathered?”

The root treatise expressly marks the point: “Here he answers only two questions and does not answer through what causal conditions they gathered; because he does not answer, there is therefore a renewed request.”

This is the most artful moment in the chapter’s structure. The Buddha is not unable to answer; he leaves a deliberate blank. Precisely because of that blank, Maitreya has to ask again, and his second question is no longer mere curiosity but bears the attachment that has been shaken. He hears the Buddha say “only beneath the bodhi tree did I teach and transform them,” and also hears “since the distant past I have taught and transformed this great assembly.” Put the statements together, and his attachment can no longer stand.

Thus appears the celebrated simile: a handsome, black-haired twenty-five-year-old points to a hundred-year-old man and says, “This is my son,” while the old man points to the youth and says, “This is my father.” The sutra itself delivers the judgment: this is difficult to believe.

Here the root treatise cites the masters north of the Huai River, who explain one simile through another. The father has taken medicine that restores youth and is therefore young; the son has not taken it and so appears a hundred years old. Knowing the medicine’s power, one does not doubt; only one who does not know finds it strange. The root treatise accepts this explanation and continues with the corresponding application, “The Tathāgata takes horizontally the medicine of manifesting the Trace and shows initial birth at Gayā.” The difficulty of belief lies in not knowing the medicine; once one knows that medicine exists, the father-son relation is no longer reversed.

What the medicine is, this chapter does not say. It will be spoken only in the next chapter.

IX. Carrying Forward: Why Must the Answer Wait Until the Next Chapter?

This unit ends with Maitreya’s fourteen lines of verse, which restate the preceding explanation through Dharma and simile; the final three lines repeat the request for an answer. At this point, the entire chapter contains only a question and no answer.

This is not structural looseness. Beginning with the five explanations of the chapter title, the root treatise has proceeded in a single direction: the more clearly the “near” is established, the more conspicuous the gap of the “distant” becomes. The bodhisattvas from other lands are refused, the bodhisattvas from below surge forth, fifty minor kalpas seem like half a day, solitary individuals outnumber sixty thousand, the bodhisattva in the place of succession recognizes no one, and the Buddha answers two questions while alone leaving one unanswered—every section increases the pressure.

Once that pressure makes Maitreya say “this is difficult to believe,” the chapter has completed its task.

Below, fascicle nine, lower, begins the Explanation of the Lifespan Chapter and directly answers the question. The reading path turns from the question “From where have they come?” to the answer “Since I actually attained buddhahood, it has been a distant time.” This chapter is the gate into the Origin Gate. It gives no answer itself; it enables one to understand why that answer has become necessary.

Through the Eye of the Wenjuji

Zhanran’s Mirror explanation of this chapter begins by matching the explanations of the title with the four siddhāntas and proceeds down to the meanings of individual words.

He expressly assigns the root treatise’s five explanations of the title to the four siddhāntas: the awe-inspiring teacher and honored Way belong to the worldly siddhānta; teaching and transforming in the three periods and one moon with myriad reflections belong to the individual siddhānta; limpid open space and breaking attachment to the near belong to the counteractive siddhānta; and the young father at the site of quiescence belongs to the siddhānta of ultimate meaning. He then gives the general judgment that this chapter specializes in the worldly siddhānta. He further points out that, of the four siddhāntas, only the text of the first appears in this chapter; the meaning of the second also includes the next chapter, while the third and fourth anticipatorily employ meanings from the next chapter. The root treatise only lists five explanations without naming the siddhāntas; this matching belongs to the Mirror layer.

At the level of individual words, he explains “the teacher is awe-inspiring” through two mutually illuminating meanings: because the Way abides in the teacher, the Way is honored; because the teacher possesses the Way, the teacher is awe-inspiring. He explains “surge” as swiftness, saying that it indicates reverence at its utmost. In explaining the moon simile, he formally connects it to Origin and Trace: one moon is the Origin, and myriad reflections are the Trace; wherever there is water, the moon tirelessly responds, so how could it be fathomed through the three periods? This sentence turns the root treatise’s somewhat poetic simile into the framework of the Origin Gate.

He also supplies an explanation the root treatise does not give. The root treatise explains “below” but not “the splitting of the earth.” Zhanran says that earth covers the retinue of the Origin just as the Trace conceals the Origin; because the Trace is now opened and the Origin revealed, the earth splits to represent it. This is a meaning added by the Mirror.

At one point he directly discusses the placement of the root treatise’s wording. Where the root treatise says “if in terms of Dharma gates,” Zhanran thinks that these five characters should be attached below “sixty thousand are not many,” and that what precedes “not many” still belongs to the course of causal conditions; yet he immediately adds “there is also no need to move them.” He indicates how the passage might be construed, then says it need not be altered. The restraint is worth noting: the Mirror illuminates the textual sequence rather than rearranging the root treatise. The reader-facing layer of this edition therefore preserves the base text’s sequence and records the Mirror’s note separately within the Mirror layer.

Concerning the bottom-dispersing samādhi, he first explains the name—bottom means below and dispersing means empty—then says that if one is to bring out its actual character, it must be explained in terms of the teachings. He next assigns the root treatise’s four explanations to the Tripiṭaka, Shared, Distinct, and Perfect teachings, identifying this sutra as taking the middle way for the bottom. The root treatise says only “this is distinguished in terms of the teachings” without naming each one; the names of the four teachings are supplied by the Mirror.

In the passage where fifty minor kalpas seem like half a day, he records two explanations by other masters. One says that resolute attention in listening to Dharma causes one to forget the duration of time; another says that long and short are both extinguished, yet long and short are both present. Zhanran does not adopt either. He judges: both gain the side of stimulus and lose the side of response—why diminish the Tathāgata’s supernormal power? In other words, explaining the change in time only as the listeners’ subjective experience eliminates the Buddha’s sovereign power.

Concerning the masters north of the Huai River who explain one simile through another, he first states the order of their explanation of the simile and application, then explicitly says “Our present master uses it, and therefore there is no refutation.” Zhiyi accepted this account and did not criticize it. This sentence is useful for the reader: when the root treatise cites another school without adjudication, this is not necessarily an omission; it may amount to acceptance.

There is also one textual discrepancy. The Mirror quotes the root treatise as “The Tathāgata takes horizontally the medicine of responsive manifestation,” whereas the base text of the root treatise has “The Tathāgata takes horizontally the medicine of manifesting the Trace.” Zhanran then contrasts “taking horizontally” with “taking vertically”: the medicine of true truth cures illness, the medicine of responsive manifestation restores youth, and the medicine of nonduality extends life; the three medicines have neither before nor after. This development does not appear in the root treatise, and the lemma on which it relies also differs verbally from the base text. Both forms are recorded without using the Mirror text to alter the root treatise.