妙法蓮華經玄義 10.178

10.178

今驗之經論，皆是穿鑿耳。何者？人云佛教不出頓漸，而實頓漸攝教不盡，如四阿含經、五部戒律，教未窮深，未得名頓，說亘始終，復不與大次第為漸，是則頓漸不攝，何得云佛教不出頓漸也！然不無頓，不得全破。何者？凡論頓漸，蓋隨所為，若就如來，實大小並陳，時無前後，但所為之人，悟解不同，自有頓受，或從漸入，隨所聞結集，何得言無頓也？但不可定其時節，比其淺深耳。

Now, examining them against the sūtras and treatises, these are all merely far-fetched speculations. Why is that? People say that the Buddha's teachings do not go beyond the sudden and the gradual; yet in truth the sudden and the gradual do not encompass the teachings exhaustively. For instance, with the four Āgama sūtras and the vinayas of the five schools, their teaching does not reach the profound depths and cannot be called sudden, yet their exposition spans from beginning to end and does not align sequentially with the Mahāyāna as gradual. Thus they are not subsumed by sudden or gradual; how can one say that the Buddha's teachings do not go beyond the sudden and the gradual? Yet there is not an absence of the sudden, and it must not be completely refuted. Why is that? In general, discussions of sudden and gradual follow what is intended for whom: as far as the Tathāgata is concerned, both great and small are indeed set forth together without before and after in time; it is only that the persons for whom they are intended differ in awakening and understanding—some receive it suddenly on their own, while others enter via the gradual. Since compilations were made according to what was heard, how can one say there is no sudden? One simply cannot fix its time periods or compare their shallowness and depth.