法華玄論 5.102

5.102

答：燸頂既退墮惡道，何不得退根性耶？《俱舍論》云「緣覺住二善根時但聞佛教，依教得道轉名聲聞耳，實非退中根作下根也。」今謂可具二人：一者退中根作下根，故緣覺成聲聞。二者迦葉之流不值佛即成緣覺，值佛即事佛為師也，為弟子故名聲聞耳。根性如故，此是不轉中根為下根也。復有不轉根義，如七生人不值佛成緣覺，實非退根義；迦葉緣覺成聲聞，豈有退根義耶？

Answer: Since at heating and summit one can regress and fall into the evil destinies, why could their faculties and nature not regress? The Abhidharmakośa-bhāṣya states: 'When a pratyekabuddha abides in the two wholesome roots, they merely hear the Buddha's teaching and attain the Path relying on that teaching, shifting their designation to śrāvaka; it is not genuinely regressing from middling faculties to lower faculties.' Now I maintain that there can be two kinds of persons: first, those who regress from middling faculties to lower faculties, so that the pratyekabuddha becomes a śrāvaka. Second, those of Kāśyapa's kind who, not encountering a buddha, would have become pratyekabuddhas, but encountering a buddha, served the Buddha as their master; being disciples, they are simply named śrāvakas. Their faculties and nature remain as before; this is not transforming middling faculties into lower faculties. Furthermore, there is the sense of not transforming faculties: just as a person of seven births who does not encounter a buddha becomes a pratyekabuddha without genuinely regressing in faculties, how could there be regression of faculties when Kāśyapa as a pratyekabuddha became a śrāvaka?