仁王護國般若經疏 4.35

4.35

Question: The Benye yingluo says that within the ten abodes, when the correct contemplation becomes manifest at the sixth abode, if one is protected by good friends among buddhas and bodhisattvas, one exits to the seventh abode and is permanently non-regressing; before the seventh abode, it is called the domain of regress. Just as when eighty thousand people regressed at the Buddha's first assembly, and as the deva Śuddhanetra, prince Dharmamati, Śāriputra, and others wished to enter the seventh abode, but encountering bad causal conditions, regressed into the unwholesome evils of ordinary beings and adopted great wrong views. Now why does this sūtra say that they do not regress? Answer: Human minds are like faces, each different; the Great Sage adapts to capacities, so there are also differences. Some say that bodhisattvas of the ten practices, persons of the lineage of nature, still regress and fall into hell. Furthermore, those who still regress and fall in the first asaṃkhyeya kalpa mean that those who have entered dedications also regress. The first fascicle of the Yingluo explains the ten abodes, naming the seventh the "abode of non-regress"; prior to the seventh abode there is indeed the possibility of regress. Determining this according to the teachings: regress in the first asaṃkhyeya is the purport of the Tripiṭaka [teaching]; regress in the ten practices is the purport of the shared [teaching]; regress in the ten dedications is the purport of the distinctive [teaching]; regress in the ten faiths is the purport of the perfect [teaching]. Now, stating that the mind of faith does not regress and enters the ground of the first abode is the purport of the perfect [teaching].