[T]he four evil destinies manifest only evil [pain] and are not able to manifest any good [pleasure]. The appearance of men and gods manifests goodness [pleasure] and does not manifest evil [pain]. Those of the two vehicles manifest only undefilement, and do not manifest [deluded] pleasure or pain. The appearance of the Buddhas contains and manifests all appearances. If one understands of appearance of the Buddha, one would completely understand all appearances. Therefore the suchness of the Buddha is most supreme.

Therefore it is written in the Hsien shêng chi²²⁶ that “those dwelling in hell can perceive only hell and cannot know about the other superior destinies. Those who dwell in heaven know both heaven and the other inferior destinies and their characteristics, but are not called ones with correct universal knowledge”²²⁷

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The identity of this text is not known, but it is believed to be an Abhidharma text. In the Fa hua hsüan i shih ch’ien [Annotations on “The Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sūtra] Chan-jan says that the content is the same as the AbhidharmakoSabhäsya, but this may be referring merely to this one passage. The Shakusen kögi makes reference to both the “old” translation of the AbhidhamakoSabhäya by Paramärtha and the “new” translation by Hsüan-tsang, but obviously Chih-i could not have seen Hsüan-tsang’s translation. (see Bukkyö taikei I: 605—606) The following quote is similar in content to a passage in Paramärtha’s translation of the Abhidharmakośabhāṣya. return

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Samyaksaṃbuddha. The Taishō text has (“named”), but the Bukkyō taikei edition uses the character (“clarify, perceive”), which would change this phrase to mean “they do not perceive correct universal wisdom (or knowledge).” return