法華文句記 8.32

8.32

When speaking of provisional and real, this concerns the dharmas practiced; the duration of time is merely to entice and advance weary persons. One should know that the provisional teaching exclusively preaches length, as in the three asaṃkhyeya kalpas of the *Mahāvibhāṣā* and the immeasurable kalpas of the various Mahāyāna sūtras; this definitely cannot be shortened. Although in the real teaching there are both long and short, if one relies on the real path, shortness is definitely the correct [standard], as with the assembly that disparaged Never Disparaging, who merely passed through four hundred billion buddhas and all attained deliverance; how could they necessarily have had to pass through kalpas numerous as dust motes? Even so, length and shortness depend on the capacity; how could the principle be so? Since length and shortness depend on the person, if one is simply diligent oneself, what need is there to discuss the length or shortness of another's time?