妙法蓮華經玄義 5.58

5.58

圓八番位皆是實位，故不須廢。《大經》云：「一切江河，悉有迴曲。一切叢林，必有樹木。」諸教隨情，故有迴曲。三草二木是佛方便，故非真實，宜須廢位。金沙大河直入西海；金銀之樹悉是寶林。非曲，是直，是故不廢。昔從頓出漸，漸不合頓。引漸入頓，處處須廢。今已會頓，頓何須廢？文云：「始見我身」（云云）。是故一教不廢。又云：「但說無上道」，此道不廢。「昔於一佛乘，分別說三」，三乘不合，欲令三合一，處處須廢。今會三歸一，同乘一乘，是故一行不廢。

The eight stages of the perfect are all real stages, and therefore need not be abolished. The Great Sūtra states: "All rivers have meanderings. All forests have trees." Because the various teachings accord with sentient dispositions, they have meanderings. The three grasses and two trees are the Buddha's provisional means and therefore not real; their stages appropriately must be abolished. The great river of golden sand enters directly into the Western Sea; the trees of gold and silver are all jewel groves. They are not crooked, but straight; therefore they are not abolished. Formerly, from the sudden the gradual emerged, but the gradual did not accord with the sudden. Leading the gradual into the sudden, everywhere required abolition. Now that they have converged with the sudden, why should the sudden be abolished? The text says: "At the beginning they saw my body" (and so forth). Therefore the one teaching is not abolished. It also says: "Only teaching the unsurpassed path"; this path is not abolished. "Formerly, within the one buddha-yāna, distinctions were made to teach three"; the three vehicles did not accord, and desiring to bring the three to accord with the one, everywhere required abolition. Now having converged the three back to the one, they ride together in the single vehicle; therefore this single practice is not abolished.