法華玄論 7.51

7.51

Answer: As for the five goods: humans and devas are two goods, the two vehicles are one good, and buddhas and bodhisattvas are two goods. Because the five precepts and ten goods of humans and devas differ in superiority and inferiority, they are opened into two. The two vehicles differ in sharp and dull faculties, but because their wisdom and eradication are equal in meaning, they are combined into one. The myriads of practices and myriads of virtues, cause and effect, ascent and descent of buddhas and bodhisattvas should be opened into two. Thus, the five goods open the great and combine the small, whereas the five vehicles open the small and combine the great; the four storehouses combine the ordinary and open the noble, whereas the five vehicles open both the ordinary and the noble. These all differ according to conditions, and need not be forced into conformity. Regarding the three grasses and two trees, some say: humans and devas are the small grass, the two vehicles are the medium grass, external ordinary beings are the great grass, internal ordinary beings are the small tree, and the first bhūmi through the tenth bhūmi are the great tree. Some say: internal ordinary beings are the great grass, the first bhūmi through the seventh bhūmi are all the small tree, and the eighth bhūmi is the great tree. Appraisal: The meaning of the stages is difficult to elucidate; we now take the matching of the parables as correct. Matching the two grasses is as determined above. Matching the great grass, [the sūtra] says: 'Seeking the place of the World-Honored One, [thinking] "I shall become a buddha," practicing vigor and dhyāna'—this is called the great grass. Since it is called the Buddha path, it must surely extend from the ten faiths of external ordinary beings to the thirty minds of internal ordinary beings; these forty minds are all the great grass. Why is this? Because they have not yet attained the unproduced and their roots are planted still shallowly, they should be given the name 'grass'. Furthermore, since the two vehicles are taken as the medium grass, the forty minds prior to the bhūmis all belong to bodhisattvas, and hence are called the great grass. The first bhūmi through the sixth bhūmi are called the small tree, and the seventh bhūmi and above are called the great tree.