仁王經疏 2.169

2.169

Question: If that is so, then the two sūtras contradict each other; how are they to be reconciled? The explanation is: What the Bodhisattvabhūmi refers to when speaking of entering [hell] is meant to crush and terrify those prior to the bhūmis, making them feel dread so that they quickly realize the first bhūmi; it does not mean they actually enter Avīci Hell. Just as the seven admonitions in the Daśabhūmika Sūtra urge the eighth-bhūmi bodhisattva, saying: "Do not take pleasure in abiding in cessation." Yet, since an eighth-bhūmi bodhisattva has already transcended effortful practice, has perpetually cut off conscious concerns, is moment by moment non-arising, and advances naturally at every movement, how could they possibly take pleasure in abiding in cessation and require admonition before advancing? It is because [the buddhas] wish them to quickly enter the ninth and tenth bhūmis and up to the buddha-stage that they add the admonition; it does not mean they actually take pleasure in abiding in cessation. This case is truly like that: they truly do not fall into hell; saying that they fall is in order to cause them to quickly realize the first bhūmi, not that they actually fall. Therefore we know that from the dispositional lineage upward, there is definitely no retrogression.