妙法蓮華經玄義 6.61

6.61

Third, regarding opening the crude and revealing the subtle: if the capacities of the nine realms are crude and the capacity of the one realm is subtle, and if the response before attaining the dharma-kāya is crude and the response upon attaining the dharma-kāya is subtle, then the various Mahāyāna sūtras such as the Avataṃsaka explain the crude and subtle as separated from each other, so that the two vehicles do not hear and do not understand, as if deaf and mute. The Sūtra of Immeasurable Meanings clarifies the crude and subtle by having the immeasurable crude and subtle capacities and responses arise from the one principle; the one principle is subtle, and that which arises into the immeasurable is crude. This is emerging from the subtle into the crude, separated and not yet unified. The present sūtra returns the immeasurable to the one; this is opening the provisional and revealing the real, where the crude itself is the subtle. Why? Originally, in order to reveal the one principle, various expedients were devised; the expedients are themselves the real. Therefore it says: 'Whatever is done is solely for one matter, never once abandoned.' For example, the three herbs and two trees merely grow from a single ground; this is the oneness of capacity from a shared source. Being moistened by the single rain is the oneness of response shared in common. The foolish, not understanding, say that the four subtle atoms of herbs and trees are forever not the earth; the wise thoroughly understand that the arising of the four subtle atoms is merely the transformation of the earth, and the cessation of the four subtle atoms is merely their return to the earth—how could herbs and trees not be the earth! This is opening the provisional and revealing the real, resolving and understanding the śrāvaka Dharma to be the king of all sūtras. The capacities of the nine dharma realms are all the capacity of the buddha realm; the responses of the four types of sages are none other than subtle responses.