妙法蓮華經文句 7.24

7.24

From "Thus, Kāśyapa" onward is the second [section], comprising five verses that versify the previous simile of nondifferentiation. This is further divided into two parts: the first verse and a half versifies the differentiation within nondifferentiation; the subsequent three verses and a half versify the nondifferentiation within differentiation. "Just like a great cloud, like rain of a single flavor" versifies and matches the above "rain of a single flavor is without differentiation." "Moistening human blossoms, each enables them to bear fruit" versifies the above differentiation. Next, from "Kāśyapa, you should know that through various causes and conditions" onward, this illuminates the expedient, and the expedient is differentiation, matching what was generated above. "Now I shall for you" reveals the real, and the real is nondifferentiation, matching the single ground above. "Are not extinct" means they have not yet crossed over the change [of mortal rebirths]. Mentioning the two vehicles alone is because their clinging to realization is strong. Humans and devas do not consider their fruit to be nirvāṇa; bodhisattvas do not attain realization mid-course. "This is the bodhisattva path" means that when a bodhisattva practices the path, they must also sever the shared defilements; since you have already severed them completely, this is precisely the bodhisattva path. The Treatise on the Lotus Sūtra states that having generated the aspiration, falling back, and generating it again, the good cultivated previously is not destroyed, matching the fruit attained later. That the knowledge and severance of the two vehicles is the bodhisattva path is said because the two vehicles cling to their fruit; thus they are reproved by saying this is the bodhisattva path, and the path is the cause.