妙法蓮華經玄義 6.58

6.58

First, regarding the crude and subtle of spiritual capacity: as in the interval of joy in hell, this joy is due to slight goodness. The Abhidharmakośa-sthāpanā-śāstra says: 'If a person raises the six domestic animals, giving them drink and food and keeping them warm or cool, in the hot hells they obtain intervals of cool, and in the cold hells they obtain intervals of warmth.' If according to this meaning, in the intervals of joy one can discuss the capacities of the ten dharma realms. In Avīci there are no intervals of joy and thus no concrete good; how could it possess all ten? However, it is because Avīci has inherent goodness that is never severed. Furthermore, although it has no concrete good in the recent age, it may have had it in distant kalpas; with evil being strong and good weak, it remains hidden, dormant, and unarisen, but if it encounters causal conditions, when it might arise is indeterminate. Therefore, Avīci can possess the ten capacities. Now evaluating the crude and the subtle: the capacities of the nine realms are crude, and the capacity of the buddha realm is subtle. Crude capacities summon provisional responses; these capacities have mature and immature states, and provisional responses have shallow and deep levels. Those whose capacity is mature receive a response; those who are immature do not yet receive a response. As for the shallow and deep of responses: as when moving from the uninterrupted [Avīci] to an interval, leaving hell for the animals, leaving animals for the ghosts, leaving the three evil realms for humans and devas, leaving humans and devas for the two vehicles, and so forth—all these are the unripeness and ripeness of capacity, the shallowness and depth of response, and all fall under the category of crude capacity.