法華玄論 8.78

8.78

Someone says: As the Mahāparinirvāṇa-sūtra states: 'Srotāpannas arrive in eighty thousand kalpas, up to pratyekabuddhas who arrive in ten thousand kalpas.' 'Arriving' means reaching the place of the bodhicitta. Just as the persons of the three capacities comprehending and understanding is generating bodhicitta, because five kinds of persons come to reach the place of bodhicitta, it is therefore said to be a breadth of five hundred. This refers to persons of extremely dull faculties, hence it says they arrive in eighty thousand kalpas. If they are of sharp faculties, it does not necessarily require many kalpas. Those who attained the four fruitions during Śākyamuni's single lifetime, upon hearing the Saddharmapuṇḍarīka-sūtra, all generated the aspiration; this is called 'arriving.' Appraising this: This meaning is not so. The sūtra explains crossing three hundred yojanas to establish the stage of the two vehicles; how could it be crossing five persons?