妙法蓮華經文句 5.28

5.28

As for explaining according to the teachings: the Buddha's original intent was to praise the Buddha Vehicle, but because beings could not bear it, he immediately recalled the great compassion and expedient means of former buddhas, went to the Deer Park, and praised the three carts. The two vehicles ferry themselves across with the inferior and intermediate, their grace not extending to others; the bodhisattva yokes the ox to transport others out of the fire, and is thus called a mahāsattva—this is the parable in the Tripiṭaka teaching. Furthermore, the three persons equally fear being burned and boiled: the śrāvaka is like a roe deer fleeing straight ahead without looking back; the pratyekabuddha is like a mother deer both galloping and looking back; the bodhisattva is like a great elephant whose body wards off knives and arrows, bringing the entire herd out intact. The Nirvāṇa [Sūtra] speaks of "the hare and the horse"—this is the parable in the shared teaching. Furthermore, the three vehicles have recent aspiration, shallow affinity with the principle, and weak wisdom; in severing shared afflictions they cannot exhaust the limits or reach the bottom, so it is not a pāramitā; the bodhisattva has aspired since long ago, the principle is deep and wisdom strong, severing distinctive afflictions and exhausting the source and nature. The Large [Prajñāpāramitā-sūtra] says: "The two vehicles are like fireflies, the bodhisattva is like the light of the sun." This is the parable in the distinctive teaching. Furthermore, upon first seeing my body and hearing what I preach, they immediately faithfully accept it and enter the Tathāgata's wisdom; people such as these are easily transformed and saved, causing the Tathāgata no weariness or distress—just as in the Avataṃsaka, phenomena are immediately the real, with no need for parables. For those who had not entered, for forty-odd years he further used different expedient means to assist in revealing the paramārtha; today in the Royal City he decisively preaches the Mahāyāna, universally causing all to open, demonstrate, awaken to, and enter the wisdom of the Buddha, not letting a single person attain extinction alone. The present is like the beginning, and the beginning is like the present, without two and without difference. Those of superior faculties and sharp wisdom understand upon hearing, causing the Tathāgata no weariness or distress, and likewise have no need for parables; it is only because the intermediate and lower [faculties] stirred up attachments and produced doubts, hesitating at the crossroads, that today's parable of the great carriage was needed to attain benefit—this is called the parable in the perfect teaching. Origin and traces, and contemplation of mind, can be understood by analogy, so they are not recorded again (and so forth).