134
SADDHARMA-PUNDARÎKA.
v.
on seeing this he comes to the conclusion: Yon beings, according to the good works they have done in former states, have feeble aversions and strong attachments; (or) feeble attachments and strong aversions; some have little wisdom, others are clever; some have soundly developed views, others have unsound views. To all of them the Tathâgata skilfully shows three vehicles[1].
The Seers in the parable, those possessing the five transcendent faculties and clear-sight, are the Bodhisattvas[2] who produce enlightened thought, and by the acquirement of acquiescence in the eternal law[3] awake us to supreme, perfect enlightenment.
The great physician in the parable is the Tathâgata. To the blind-born may be likened the creatures
- ↑ With this we may compare the term trivartman (of three paths), applied to the individual or living being, Svetâsvatara Upanishad V, 7. Saṅkara explains it by devayânâdi; in the more ancient and natural meaning, the word may have been applied to the three divisions of time. Cf. the same Upanishad I, 4, where the brahmakakra, the brahma-wheel, is said to be trivrit, threefold.
- ↑ In the Yoga called buddhisattva, the reasoning faculty. The Bodhisattvas are the five Dhyâni-Bodhisattvas Samantabhadra, &c, who do no more differ from the five Dhyâni-Buddhas Vairokana, &c, than the balas do from the indriyas. Cf. Burnouf, Introd. p. 118.
- ↑ Anutpattikadharmakshântim pratilabhya, var. lect. anutpattikîm kshântîm p. Anutpattika, being a Bahuvrîhi, necessarily means 'having no origin, no beginning,' alias anâdi. The eternal law is that of rise and decay, and in so far the purport of the phrase seems not materially to differ from the translation in Goldstücker's Dict., 'enduring conditions which have not yet taken place.' The word 'acquiescence' in my version gives but one side of the meaning, for it also denotes 'undergoing.' In reality the sanctimonious phrase comes to this: every thinking being suffers the eternal law, i. e. he must die.
