法華經義記 3.14

3.14

The questioner also says: “Since the severance of delusion admits of superior and inferior, the unconditioned also ought to be unequal.” The interpreter also says: “Drawing on past [teachings] to formulate the doctrine, it is not said that residual propensities receive rebirth; though they sever residual propensities, fruition is not established upon the locus where residual propensities are exhausted. Rather, the three houses alike establish the knowledge of exhaustion and knowledge of non-arising at the point where the causes and effects of the three realms are exhausted. If speaking of their liberation, the three houses are of one equal grade; but if discussing their efficacy and function, there are differences of broad and narrow, and distinctions of long and short. Likening them to the three carts, it is therefore said: ‘The Buddha preached the principle of one liberation.’ Liberation is nirvāṇa with remainder and without remainder, which is the truth of cessation. ‘Principle’ refers to the truth of the path. Indicating the cause by adducing the fruit: ‘In the past, relying on the Buddha’s teaching, we cultivated the truth of the path and verified the fruit of the truth of cessation; hence it is said, “The Buddha preached the principle of one liberation, and we also attained this principle and arrived at nirvāṇa.”’”