仁王護國般若波羅蜜多經疏 3.172

3.172

Question: In matter there are large and small, and you permit that the small can contain the large; in time there are short and long, so should a long eon enter a short one? Answer: There is no fault or difficulty in this. The Buddha has attained the extraordinary mastery of lengthening and shortening, shortening many eons into one eon and lengthening one eon into many eons. Passages such as these providing proof are not just one. [Objection:] If so, lengthening one eon into three and shortening three eons into one means that one and three have no fixed measure. Would this not contradict the texts and contradict what the Buddha taught, that a bodhisattva must pass through three incalculable eons, fully cultivating the myriad practices, to realize great bodhi? [Reply:] This objection is incorrect. The mastery of the virtues of the fruit is not the domain of the cause. The Xianyang and the Yogācāra both say that one who forcibly speculates about the inconceivable receives the retribution of delusion and madness. Next, the third: concluding with the inconceivable.