仁王經疏 2.170

2.170

Second, according to the school of Maitreya Bodhisattva, dispositional bodhisattvas can also retrogress into the miserable destinies and fall into the rank of external worldlings. As cited earlier, the first fascicle of the Benye jing states: "Practitioners in the mind of faith and conceptualization are good sons of this share of wholesome roots; if they practice the ten faiths for one kalpa, two kalpas, or up to ten kalpas, they attain entry into the ten abidings. At that time, if this person, from the first abiding through the sixth abiding, practices the sixth, the prajñāpāramitā, higher contemplation becomes manifest before them, and later, because they are protected by the good friends among buddhas and bodhisattvas, they step forth to reach the seventh abiding, where they permanently abide and do not retrogress. Prior to this seventh abiding, it is named the share of retrogression. Sons of the Buddha! If one does not retrogress, enters the sixth [pāramitā of] prajñā, and cultivates the non-self and non-master of emptiness, then, being ultimately unarisen, one will surely enter the determined rank. Sons of the Buddha, if one does not encounter good friends, then in one kalpa, two kalpas, or up to ten kalpas, one will retrogress from the bodhisattva-mind. Just as in the assembly of my first gathering there were eighty thousand people who retrogressed; and just as the divine son Śuddhanetra, King Dharmadhana, Śāriputra, and others were about to enter the seventh abiding, but because they met bad conditions in the interim, retrogressed into the unwholesome evils of worldlings, and not being named persons of the habit-disposition, retrogressed into non-Buddhist teachings. For one kalpa, ten kalpas, or up to a thousand kalpas, they adopted great wrong views and the five heinous crimes, leaving no evil uncommitted—this is the mark of retrogression." According to such passages, there are indeed those who retrogress. And when texts such as the Joyous Adornment Sūtra say they do not retrogress, this refers to those who, as in the Benye jing, practice the sixth pāramitā and encounter good friends. Thus we know that among the dispositional lineage, there are both retrogression and non-retrogression.