大方便佛報恩經 6.18

6.18

Answer: "It is not so. The Buddha's knowing and teaching were both exhaustive; with the two vehicles, their knowing and teaching of dharmas were in some respects not exhaustive. Furthermore, the Buddha understood all dharmas and was completely able to name them; the two vehicles cannot. Furthermore, the Buddha attained boundless dharmas and was able to teach boundlessly; the two vehicles cannot. Furthermore, there is shared and unshared: what the two vehicles attain is shared, while what the Buddha attains is unshared. What the śrāvaka attains, the three vehicles know together; what the middle vehicle attains, the two vehicles know together; only what the Buddha attains, the two vehicles do not know—the Buddha alone knows it himself. Furthermore, when the box is large, its lid is also large. Dharmas are vast, and the characteristics of dharmas are boundless; the Buddha, with boundless wisdom, knows and teaches boundless dharmas. The wisdom of the two vehicles is bounded, and thus does not match the characteristics of dharmas. Furthermore, there are faculties and objects: 'faculty' means the wisdom faculty; 'object' means the dharmas that are the cognitive objects of wisdom. The Buddha's faculties and objects are both replete, and the dharmas that are the cognitive objects of his wisdom are without exception exhaustive; for the two vehicles, both faculties and objects are incomplete. Furthermore, the Buddha attained the name of 'knowledge of reality as it is,' because he understood in accordance with reality all the characteristics of dharmas; the two vehicles do not know dharmas to their very origins and depths, and moreover their knowledge is not comprehensive, and therefore they cannot be said to possess knowledge of reality as it is. For these various reasons, the two vehicles cannot be called Buddhas. As for 'Bhagavat', it cannot be transmitted by sound alone, nor can it be explained by meaning alone. Why is he called the World-Honoured One? Because he is able to know all antidotes. Furthermore, worldly conventions and spoken languages differ, so that worldly people do not understand one another; the Buddha knows them all, and is therefore called the World-Honoured One. Furthermore, he enjoined the bhikṣus, saying: 'All followers of the two vehicles and ordinary beings say of themselves that they have attained the Dharma; either they delight in silence, or they enter dhyāna, or owing to other circumstances they keep it secret and cherish it without teaching it. As for the Dharma attained by the Buddha, through the power of loving-kindness and compassion, he delights in teaching it to others.' Furthermore, why? Because he has destroyed the three poisons, he receives the title of World-Honoured One."