妙法蓮華經文句 7.70

7.70

長者道門外有車，有隔故諸子不見，可得假設門外有車，車實無也；城在逈地不得假設，故城是有也。就理教者，執三教取理，則三教皆得理，此即有義如城也；將理取教，理既唯一，此教即無三家之果，即車義據無也。車三城一者，諸人同息一處，所以城一也；車就三人，三人所樂不同故三。理教者，三家盡無生不異，如城；三人正使雖同盡，而習氣有盡不盡，有傍得知見，有不得者，故用此莊嚴盡無生，此義不同如三車。三家盡無生智，明因盡果亡，此處是極，如城靜；盡無生智運入無餘，如車動也。難（云云）。今明約眾生心，車、城俱有；約佛智明，亦有亦無。權智所明為有，如城；實智所明為無，如車（云云）。化城正意為退大取小人，傍為發軫學小人。上二周正意，為發軫學小人，傍為退大人也。三車通今昔，化城正是引教意，未道是化也。

The elder said that outside the gate there were carts; because there was a barrier, the sons could not see them, so it was possible to hypothetically establish that there were carts outside the gate, though the carts were actually non-existent. The city was in an open wilderness and could not be hypothetically established, so the city existed. In terms of principle and teaching: if one grasps the three teachings to grasp the principle, then all three teachings attain the principle, which is the meaning of existence, like the city; if one takes the principle to grasp the teachings, since the principle is only one, these teachings have no fruits of three distinct traditions, which is the meaning of the carts being grounded in non-existence. That the carts are three and the city is one: all the people rested in the same single place, so the city is one; the carts were adapted to the three people, and because what the three people enjoyed differed, there were three. In terms of principle and teaching: that the three traditions are identical in exhausting [afflictions] without arising is like the city; although the three people are identical in exhausting the actual entanglements, their residual impressions may be exhausted or unexhausted, and some laterally attain knowledge and vision while others do not, so using this to adorn the exhaustion of non-arising differs in meaning, like the three carts. The three traditions’ knowledge of the exhaustion of non-arising shows that the cause is exhausted and the fruit is extinguished, this place being the culmination, like the city being still; the knowledge of the exhaustion of non-arising conveys one into the nirvāṇa without remainder, like the carts moving. Objections (and so forth). Now it is explained that from the perspective of sentient beings’ minds, both carts and city exist; from the perspective of the Buddha’s wisdom, they both exist and do not exist. What is illuminated by expedient wisdom is existent, like the city; what is illuminated by real wisdom is non-existent, like the carts (and so forth). The primary intent of the phantom city is for those who fell back from the great and grasped the small, and secondarily for those who began their journey by studying the small. The primary intent of the two previous cycles was for those who began their journey by studying the small, and secondarily for those who fell back from the great. The three carts span the present and the past; the phantom city is precisely the intention of an accommodating teaching, not yet stating that it is an illusion.