妙法蓮華經文句 釋妙音菩薩品

A bodhisattva is about to travel far.

His name is Wonderful Sound, and he lives in the distant east, where the Buddha is 6,800,000 yojanas tall. His destination is called Sahā—there the Buddha is only sixteen feet tall, the ground is earth and stone, and living beings are obstinate and difficult to transform.

Before he leaves, his Buddha gives him three instructions.

First: Do not forget the dignity of the Buddha there because his body is small.

Second: Do not assume that the disciples there are only what they appear to be because they look like śrāvakas.

Third: Do not slight those dwelling in that land because the land is coarse.

The three instructions say one thing:

Do not use the dimensions of what you see to infer the content you cannot see.

At the opening of this chapter, the treatise gives the reader the same teaching. It says that the chapter concerns a bodhisattva who manifests bodies according to kind in order to transmit the scripture—people see the appearance he manifests but cannot fathom his origin.

Then comes the statement:

Simply taste the flavor of his Dharma; do not discriminate according to his appearance.

If you look down upon that station, you yourself obstruct the flow of Dharma.

That half-sentence is the sharpest point in the chapter.

It does not say, “That is very disrespectful,” or “Doing so will bring guilt.” It describes something purely physical: you have blocked the conduit.

The Dharma remains entirely present. What is diminished is the portion that can reach you.

Here the mirror layer adds a more precise point. It says that what must be humbled is not the form one sees, but the ground of one’s own mind.

You see someone unprepossessing teaching Dharma and think that person unprepossessing—that is merely the eye. You therefore decide that the Dharma itself is unimpressive—that is the obstruction.

We have probably all experienced this.

We are willing to consider a statement when one person says it; from another person, we cannot even be bothered to hear it to the end.

The statement itself has not changed from beginning to end.

The question therefore returns to oneself: over these years, how much that should have entered have I stopped at the door?

Not because it was poor.

Because the person who brought it did not fit my specifications.

I. Explanation of the Chapter Title: Past and Present Interpreted Together

The scripture itself gives the explanation—

In the past he offered one hundred thousand kinds of music to Buddha King Cloud-Thunder-Sound; now, as he journeys and transforms in other lands, music naturally accompanies him. In the past he offered 84,000 jeweled bowls; now he is surrounded by that many companions who are vessels of the path. In the past he attained the dhāraṇī of the languages of all living beings; now through universally manifesting physical forms and subtle, wondrous sound, he roars throughout the ten directions and propagates this teaching. Therefore the chapter is called Wonderful Sound.

This chapter explains how a bodhisattva, through inconceivable power, transmits the scripture in accordance with the kinds of living beings. People see his Trace but cannot fathom his Origin. Simply taste the flavor of his Dharma and do not discriminate according to his appearance. If you yourself slight that station, you obstruct the circulation of Dharma yourself—this is the second meaning within the gate of transforming others.

II. Six Divisions of the Text

The text has six parts: first emitting light and summoning from the east; second receiving the command and coming west; third propagating the scripture throughout the ten directions; fourth benefit in both lands; fifth returning to the original land; and sixth advancing on the path through hearing the chapter.

III. Explanation of “the Mark of a Great Person”

“The mark of a great person” means the ocean of great marks.

The merit of all the hairs covering the body does not equal that of one excellence, the merit of all excellences does not equal that of one mark, and the marks, successively surpassing one another from below upward, do not equal the merit of the white tuft. The merit of the white tuft in turn does not equal that of the crown protuberance. Therefore these are marks of a great person.

The karmic cause of this mark arises from filial obedience toward teachers and elders. The Buddha now emits this light to summon his original disciple so that the disciple may propagate the scripture of the middle way and benefit persons of great capacity. The white tuft arises from the purity of the one path; the Buddha now emits this light so that the disciple may propagate this Dharma.

IV. First Question and Answer: Why Are the Buddha’s Marks Superior and Inferior?

Question: Each of the Buddha’s marks is an ocean of the Dharma realm. Why, then, are some superior and others inferior?

Answer: What is taught in other scriptures should simply be explained this way.

V. Second Question and Answer: Why Summon from the East and Explain the West?

Question: The Buddha’s disciples with karmic affinity fill the ten directions. Why does he summon from the east and explain the west without discussing the other eight directions?

Answer: This carries a representation. The Vimalakīrti Sūtra says: “Why do the sun and moon travel across Jambudvīpa? They wish to use their radiance to dispel the darkness of living beings.”

The east is the beginning of light and the west its end—possessing a beginning and an end, perhaps only noble persons do so. Those who have not generated the resolve are caused to generate it; those not yet ultimate are brought to ultimacy. Since this applies to one bodhisattva, it applies to all; since it applies to one direction, it applies to every direction. Noble persons do not burden the text with detail: they raise one to encompass the rest, and therefore only east and west are discussed.

VI. Setting Out: Six Conditions for Coming

The passage on setting out has two parts: first the conditions for setting out and second the setting out itself.

The conditions for coming are six: first the scripture’s narrator recounts his merit and wisdom; second he is illuminated by the light; third he takes leave; fourth the Buddha admonishes him; fifth he receives the intent; and sixth he manifests the sign of coming.

The source of his merit is his encounter with many former buddhas. “Profound wisdom” is the adornment of wisdom, while the sixteen samādhis are the adornment of merit.

The light illuminating his body and his taking leave of the Buddha are as stated in the scripture.

VII. Three Intents in the Buddha’s Admonition

Concerning the Buddha’s admonition: a great being of the Dharma-body originally needs no stern supervision in order to accomplish the task. Some among the companions he brings, however, may not yet understand, so through admonishing him the Buddha regulates them.

The Buddha’s body accords with principle. One must not see a low and small body and forget its dignity—this is an admonition in terms of the Tathāgata’s seat.

Teacher and disciples fully possess wisdom and severance. Since the teacher establishes provisional dharmas, the disciples also conceal their real virtue—this is an admonition in terms of the Tathāgata’s robe.

The land as dependent recompense is always evoked by direct recompense. The Tathāgata comes over the great-thousand world with a compassionate mind, becoming high where high is appropriate and low where low is appropriate. One must not see the dependent recompense and slight the direct recompense—this is an admonition in terms of the Tathāgata’s room.

The Buddha in this land commands these same three intents when propagating the scripture, and the World-Honored One in that land likewise admonishes them; thus the path of the buddhas is the same.

Receiving the intent: “the Tathāgata’s power” is the power of the seat; “the power of supernormal mastery” is the power of the room; and “the power of adornment” is the power of the robe. This is receiving the great purport of propagating the scripture and the essential aim of benefiting beings, and therefore Wonderful Sound can journey and transform throughout the ten directions without moving from this assembly.

VIII. Six Signs and the Third Question and Answer

The passage on manifesting the signs has six parts: first sending the lotus flowers, second the question, third the answer, fourth the request, fifth referring the merit, and sixth commanding him to come, all as stated in the scripture.

Question: If Mañjuśrī’s position were lower, Wonderful Sound should not have asked to see him when taking leave. If Mañjuśrī’s position were high and the sign appeared, why did he suddenly fail to recognize it?

Answer: Although they occupy the same position, there are still beginning, middle, and end. Not knowing this single matter does not diminish his high station. Further, the great assembly saw the auspicious sign but did not understand it; Mañjuśrī initiated the question so that they might know, and therefore he asked the Buddha.

IX. Six Parts of Setting Out

The passage below “at that time” is the setting out and has six parts: first traveling with the companions; second recounting the marks and ascending the platform; third offering greetings and transmitting the intent; fourth requesting to see Prabhūtaratna; fifth the World-Honored One enabling communication; and sixth praise from within the stūpa, all as stated in the scripture.

X. Propagating the Scripture throughout the Ten Directions

Third, propagating the scripture has two parts: question and answer.

The first question asks what wholesome roots he planted; the second asks how he possesses such supernormal power. Wholesome roots asks about the past, supernormal power about the present. The Buddha answers both meanings.

In the past he offered music and jeweled bowls, and past and present are then joined, all as stated in the scripture—this answers what wholesome roots he planted.

The passage below “Flower Virtue” answers the question about his supernormal power. He manifests thirty-four kinds of ordinary bodies and four kinds of noble bodies, gathered into the ten Dharma realms and six destinies.

The passage below “at that time Flower Virtue” asks in what concentration he now abides to benefit beings with such mastery; the Buddha’s answer is as stated in the scripture.

XI. Benefit in Both Lands: Samādhi and Dhāraṇī

The passage below “when this chapter was taught” is the fourth part, benefit in both lands.

Samādhi and dhāraṇī are one in essence but differ in function: the function of quiescence is samādhi, while the function of retaining is called dhāraṇī. Further, transformation of physical forms is called samādhi, while eloquent teaching through sound is called dhāraṇī.

The preceding chapter says “at first he attained the samādhi of all physical forms and transformed his body, then attained the dhāraṇī of all languages.” One should know that sound remains a form-dharma, and therefore they are said to be one in essence but different in function.

Further, purity of the tongue faculty is called dhāraṇī, while purity of the other faculties is called samādhi—in summary, all are Dharma gates of purity of the six faculties.

XII. Returning to the Original Land and Advancing through Hearing the Chapter

The passage below “at that time Wonderful Sound” is the fifth part, returning to the original land.

“The earth moved and flowers rained down”—the places through which the bodhisattva passes can bring collateral benefit; how much more the Buddha’s preceding emission of light, which collaterally illuminated 1.08 million koṭis of nayutas of lands to the east, also involves their benefit.

Sixth, advancing on the path through hearing the chapter, as stated in the scripture.

The preceding chapter explained how one who propagates the Dharma relinquishes the body. This chapter turns to the other side—how the person receiving Dharma looks at people.

A bodhisattva comes from the east. His name is Wonderful Sound. In the past he offered one hundred thousand kinds of music and 84,000 jeweled bowls to Buddha King Cloud-Thunder-Sound and attained the dhāraṇī of the languages of all living beings. Now he universally manifests physical forms and roars throughout the ten directions with wondrous sound.

Under the chapter title, the treatise first establishes three past-present correspondences: music formerly offered / music now naturally accompanying him; jeweled bowls formerly offered / companions who are vessels of the path now surrounding him; the dhāraṇī of languages formerly attained / wondrous sound now roaring throughout the ten directions.

What was planted in the past is precisely what manifests today. Once the three pairs are set out, cause and fruit are plain to see.

The treatise then turns to the chapter’s actual purpose.

I. Simply Taste the Flavor; Do Not Select According to Appearance

The treatise says that this chapter explains a bodhisattva who transmits the scripture according to kind through inconceivable power: “People see his Trace but cannot fathom his Origin.”

Then comes the crucial statement:

“Simply taste its flavor and do not discriminate according to his appearance; if you slight that station, you obstruct its flow yourself.”

Simply taste the flavor of his Dharma; do not discriminate according to his appearance. If you look down upon that station, you yourself obstruct the flow of Dharma.

The treatise made the same point in the preceding chapter, then in negative form—“do not look with the eyes of cattle and sheep.” Here it gives the positive: simply taste the flavor.

What deserves attention is the subject of the final half-sentence: you obstruct its flow yourself. It is not that Dharma fails to flow toward you; you block it. The Dharma has not diminished. What is diminished is what can reach you.

The mirror layer gives this a more exact point: “If one does not regard ghosts and animals merely as ghosts and animals, but instead humbles the ground of one’s own mind, one will not obstruct the flow of the wondrous Dharma”—

What must be humbled is not the form seen, but the ground of one’s own mind.

If you see someone who has manifested the form of a ghost or animal teaching Dharma and view that person as nothing but a ghost or animal, that concerns the form. If you consequently decide that the Dharma itself is low, that concerns the mind. The former is only the eye; the latter is the obstruction.

II. Before Sending Someone Out, the Buddha Gives Three Instructions

Wonderful Sound is about to come to Sahā. Before he departs, his Buddha instructs him in three matters.

The treatise does not read the three statements as etiquette. It connects each one to the three tracks of propagating the scripture.

The first is the seat. The Buddha’s body accords with principle; one must not see a low and small body and forget its dignity. Śākyamuni’s stature in Sahā is far smaller than the Buddha’s in that land, but a small body does not mean a small principle.

The second is the robe. Teacher and disciples fully possess wisdom and severance. Since the teacher establishes provisional dharmas, the disciples conceal their real virtue. The śrāvakas one sees are not truly only that.

The third is the room. Every land as dependent recompense is evoked by direct recompense. The Tathāgata comes over the great-thousand world with a compassionate mind, becoming high where high is appropriate and low where low is appropriate. One must not see a coarse dependent recompense and slight the direct recompense.

The three statements present three angles on one thing: do not use the dimensions of what you see to infer the content you cannot see.

Wonderful Sound’s response in receiving the intent corresponds exactly to these three admonitions: “the Tathāgata’s power” is the power of the seat; “the power of supernormal mastery” is the power of the room; and “the power of adornment” is the power of the robe.

One admonition and one reception, three answering three. This is the most elegant structural feature of the chapter—what the Buddha admonishes and what the bodhisattva receives are two sides of the same set.

III. One Ray of Light Is Emitted from the Finest Point

To summon Wonderful Sound, the Buddha uses the light of the white-tuft mark.

Here the treatise inserts an examination that at first seems incidental: are some of the Buddha’s marks and excellences higher than others?

It first establishes a sequence: the merit of all the hairs covering the body does not equal one excellence, all excellences do not equal one mark, the marks successively surpass one another from below upward but do not equal the white tuft, and the white tuft does not equal the crown protuberance. Thus “the mark of a great person” means the ocean of great marks.

The treatise then identifies the karmic cause of this mark: it arises from filial obedience toward teachers and elders.

This point deserves a pause. The causal ground of the most honored light in the entire scripture is not supernormal power, ascetic practice, or eloquence, but filial obedience toward teachers and elders. And today this light is emitted precisely to summon the original disciple—the teacher summons the disciple with light cultivated through the teacher-disciple relation.

Cause and fruit are the two ends of the same event here.

The treatise immediately poses another question, however, loosening its own hierarchy: every mark of the Buddha is an ocean of the Dharma realm, so how can there be superior and inferior?

Its answer has only one sentence: “What is taught in other scriptures should simply be explained this way.”

The answer is measured. It neither overturns the hierarchy above nor insists upon it; it merely identifies the level to which it belongs. In terms of the ocean of the Dharma realm, every mark is equal; in terms of other scriptures adapting to capacities, only then is there a hierarchy. The treatise does not erase a skillful statement because it values perfect integration, nor forget that it is skillful because it has cited it.

The later question about Mañjuśrī uses the same method. Someone asks: if Mañjuśrī’s position were low, Wonderful Sound should not have named him as someone he wished to see; if his position were high, how could he fail to recognize the lotus flowers? The treatise answers that even within one position there are beginning, middle, and end, and not knowing one matter does not diminish a high station. Moreover, the great assembly saw the auspicious sign but did not understand it; Mañjuśrī initiated the question so that they might know.

Sometimes not knowing enables others to know.

IV. Why Summon Only from the East and Explain Only the West?

The treatise poses three questions and answers in this chapter; the second shows its method most clearly.

Question: The Buddha’s disciples with karmic affinity fill the ten directions. Why does the light summon only Wonderful Sound in the east and then explain only Perceiver of the World’s Sounds in the west? Where did the other eight directions go?

The treatise does not argue its answer, but says it is “from the standpoint of representation.”

It cites the Vimalakīrti Sūtra: Why do the sun and moon travel across Jambudvīpa? To use their radiance to dispel the darkness of living beings. It then adds: “The east is the beginning of light and the west its end; possessing beginning and end, perhaps only noble persons do so.”

The east is where light begins and the west where it ends. Summoning from the east and explaining the west represent the entire path from generating the resolve to the ultimate—“those who have not generated the resolve are caused to generate it; those not yet ultimate are brought to ultimacy.”

Since this applies to one bodhisattva, it applies to all; since it applies to one direction, it applies to every direction.

The treatise concludes: “Noble persons do not burden the text; they raise one to encompass the rest.”

Noble persons do not belabor the point; by raising one, they include all the rest.

This answer is worth remembering because it demonstrates the treatise’s consistent approach to why a scripture does not say everything: not saying everything is not omission but representation. If a scripture said everything everywhere, it would become an inventory. Precisely because only east and west are raised, the reader must supply the middle.

V. Samādhi and Dhāraṇī Are Actually One Thing

Near the end of the chapter comes a small examination, yet it exemplifies a method the treatise repeatedly uses in this edition.

The scripture says that both lands benefit; some attain samādhi and some dhāraṇī. The treatise therefore asks how the two are related.

The answer has four characters: one in essence, different in function.

One essence, different functions. The function of quiescence is called samādhi, while the function of retaining is called dhāraṇī. From another angle, transformation of physical forms is called samādhi, while eloquent teaching through sound is called dhāraṇī. From still another, purity of the tongue faculty is called dhāraṇī, while purity of the other faculties is called samādhi.

The three explanations take different angles but point to one thing. The treatise finally gathers them together: “all are simply Dharma gates of purity of the six faculties.”

This gathering is crucial. Elsewhere samādhi and dhāraṇī are often pursued as two attainments. The treatise says they are different names at different faculties for the single matter of purity of the six faculties.

Its evidence lies in one statement from the preceding chapter: Gladly Seen “at first attained the samādhi of all physical forms,” and later “attained the dhāraṇī of all languages.” The treatise points out that sound remains a form-dharma. Thus he did not first attain one thing and then another; the same attainment receives one name on the sides of expression and manifestation.

VI. Carrying Forward: The One from the East Has Arrived; Next Comes the One from the West

This unit ends with advancing on the path through hearing the chapter.

In the passage on returning to the original land, the treatise notices a small point: the places through which the bodhisattva passes can bring collateral benefit, much more so the Buddha’s preceding light, which collaterally illuminated 1.08 million koṭis of nayutas of lands to the east.

Benefit overflows. Light need not be emitted especially for someone in order to reach that person.

What follows is The Universal Gateway of the Bodhisattva Perceiver of the World’s Sounds. The treatise already joined the two chapters in the preceding unit, saying that both belong to “riding the vehicle through samādhi” and both exhort disciples who receive the Dharma. The one from the east has been explained; next comes the one from the west.

The reading path turns from “the great being from the east comes west” to “the universal gateway of the great being in the west.”

Through the Eye of the Wenjuji

The mirror layer shows its greatest restraint in the way it supplies what the chapter does not say.

When the treatise explains Perceiver of the World’s Sounds, it has a question and answer concerning “the reason for receiving the name,” but this chapter has none. The mirror therefore asks why.

Its answer does not say that this chapter omitted something. It first distinguishes the work of the two chapters—the present one speaks from personal cultivation, the next from benefiting others—and then points out that by analogy with Perceiver of the World’s Sounds, a “universal gateway” should also stand beneath the name in the present chapter, because both bodhisattvas attained the samādhi of universally manifesting physical forms.

It then gives a general judgment: “Therefore the Dharma gates of the five chapters are certainly without superiority or inferiority; only the ways of riding the vehicle differ as expedient means according to capacities.”

The Dharma gates of the five chapters have no superiority or inferiority; each person merely rides differently through expedient means adapted to living beings. It adds: “One must not let differences in names conceal their Dharma gates.” Do not separate the Dharma gates because their names differ.

This judgment forms the inner and outer faces of the root treatise’s statement in the preceding chapter that the five chapters each ride through one Dharma: the treatise says there is only one vehicle; the mirror says the entrances into it have no hierarchy.

For “one should humble that ground,” the mirror’s supplementary explanation has already been cited; its essential point is that one humbles the ground of one’s own mind.

For “summoning from the east and explaining the west,” the mirror divides the treatise’s answer into four sections (distinguishing what can represent, properly clarifying what is represented, giving an example, and concluding with the use of representation), then adds the practical statement “Noble persons do not multiply words; in principle all ten directions should arrive.” All ten directions should arrive in principle; because the text avoids prolixity, one direction represents them. It gives examples from the Flower Garland, Great Collection, and Perfection of Wisdom scriptures, where the light’s illumination and summons extend through all ten directions.

Thus “only east and west” is not the situation of the scripture, but its economy of expression.

Finally comes the passage on samādhi and dhāraṇī. The mirror does something very precise: it reproduces the wording of the preceding chapter verbatim and uses it to check the statement cited by the treatise.

The source reads that the Bodhisattva Gladly Seen “attained the samādhi of manifesting all physical forms”, and later, reborn suddenly by transformation in the family of King Pure Virtue, told his father “I had already previously attained the dhāraṇī of understanding all languages.”

The mirror identifies the key: the scripture says “I had already previously attained.” This points back to the earlier attainment of the samādhi of physical forms, rather than describing a new attainment. The two names therefore designate the same samādhi.

The treatise’s four characters “one in essence, different in function” thereby receive scriptural evidence in the mirror layer.

The mirror’s final argument goes further: these are the samādhi and dhāraṇī of the Perfect gate, necessarily the same in essence but different in name. Samādhi is named from concentration and dhāraṇī from wisdom. Precisely because they are inconceivable concentration and wisdom, they can function interchangeably.

If concentration and wisdom were truly two things, they could not function interchangeably.