Tao-sheng: Bestowing Prophecies on Learners and Adepts

[Concerning Chapter 9, The Assurance of Future Buddhahood of the Śrāvakas Who Have Something More to Learn and the Śrāvakas Who Have Nothing More to Learn,] the five hundred arhats are those who had “the virtues filled inside and their names flowing outside.” Thus, they received their prophecies earlier. These learners and adepts are advanced very little in “name and actuality” (ming-shih); hence, they receive their prophecies later. All that is dealt with throughout this one segment is [the Buddha’s] bestowal of the prophecies upon them.

Tao-sheng Commentary on the Lotus Sutra, p267