法華玄論 6.22

6.22

Answer: The Lotus Commentary states: 'Three kinds of persons free of afflictions still possess defiled conceit and inverted faith. First, believing in various vehicles; second, believing that the mundane and nirvāṇa are different; third, believing that one's own body and another's body are different. In order to remedy these three illnesses, the three standards of equality were expounded. First is equality of vehicles: by bestowing prophecy upon the śrāvakas, [it is shown that] there is only the Mahāyāna and no two vehicles. Second is equality of the mundane and nirvāṇa: because Prabhūtaratna Tathāgata entered nirvāṇa, this is the equality of the mundane and nirvāṇa. Third is equality of bodies: Prabhūtaratna Tathāgata had already entered nirvāṇa, yet manifested his body again, because one's own body, another's body, and the dharmakāya are equal and without differentiation. It is because these persons free of afflictions but possessing defiled conceit see differences between what is done by their own bodies and another's body, and do not know that the Buddha-nature and dharmakāya of self and other are equal.' In explaining the three meanings in the treatise, it first clarifies that arhats do not know the one vehicle, and later clarifies that arhats cannot know the eternal Buddha-nature. The reason they do not know is that although they are free of the afflictions within the realms, they still have defiled conceit; defiled conceit is ignorance, which is the cognitive obscuration, and therefore they do not know.