法華玄論 2.64

2.64

Answer: The preceding passage itself serves as clear evidence, and the meaning can be known from it. Furthermore, the *Exegesis* (*Mahāprajñāpāramitopadeśa*) states: "As for the Mahāyāna gate of emptiness, it means that all phenomena are empty in their intrinsic nature and empty in their intrinsic characteristics. As for the Hīnayāna gate of emptiness, it explains emptiness by analyzing phenomena." The *Mahāyānasaṃgraha* states: "Practitioners of the lesser vehicle do not know that phenomena are empty by nature, and therefore do not attain the suchness of the selflessness of phenomena." Furthermore, the *Vimalakīrtinirdeśa* states: "For persons of overweening pride, the Buddha preached that the severance of the three poisons is called nirvāṇa. If they are free of overweening pride, the Buddha preached that the three poisons are themselves nirvāṇa." That the three poisons are themselves nirvāṇa means that the three poisons are fundamentally unarisen and now unextinguished—how could this not be nirvāṇa? Furthermore, the *Saddharmapuṇḍarīkopadeśa*, in explaining the presence or absence of the two vehicles and the one vehicle, clarifies that there is no nirvāṇa of the two vehicles, but only the great nirvāṇa of the tathāgata. Thus we know that this sūtra differentiates nirvāṇa from that of the lesser vehicle. If so, how could the body be the same as in the past? As for the second [difference], explaining the difference between the lesser vehicle's nirvāṇa and the Mahāyāna's nirvāṇa: in the "Simile" chapter, practitioners of the lesser vehicle merely depart from falsehood and call it liberation, but in reality have not attained all liberation; the seed and fruit of the three realms are called falsehood, and when the two vehicles escape them, it is called attaining liberation. "All liberation" means that all seeds and fruits, both within and outside the three realms, are entirely transcended, which is called all liberation. Thus the greater and lesser nirvāṇas differ in the sense of being short or long.