法華義疏 2.48

2.48

The faculties are primary. Because the One Path is fundamentally pure by nature, while sentient beings deludedly lost the One Path and thus formed the six destinies, he now wishes again to cause them to awaken to the One Path, and therefore expounds that all teachings emerge from the single dharma. If he did not clarify that sentient beings originally lost the One Path, then even if he expounded that all teachings emerge from the single dharma, he could never cause them to return to the One Path. This meaning is the primary intent of the Lotus Sūtra's uniting the three and returning to the one, and is also the primary intent of causing all sentient beings to become Buddhas. If he had not first clarified this intent, the Lotus Sūtra could not state that all sentient beings will become Buddhas. Second, the Lotus Sūtra clarifies the ekayāna; now, about to explain the ekayāna, he first clarifies the root of the vehicle. The root of the vehicle is none other than the true aspect. One must awaken to the true aspect to give rise to prajñā; due to prajñā, no practice is left unfulfilled and no defilement is left undestroyed, so that one can transcend the three realms and reach sarvajñatā (omniscience); only then is the meaning of 'vehicle' established. Therefore, the Dvādaśanikāya Śāstra says: 'The great and profound meaning is what is called emptiness.' If one penetrates this meaning, one penetrates the Mahāyāna, fully possessing the six pāramitās without obstruction. If one does not awaken to the true aspect, then even if one extensively cultivates the myriad good deeds, they are all with apprehension (grasping), inverted, unmoving, and not transcending; thus the meaning of 'vehicle' is not established. Third, the Innumerable Meanings Sūtra secretly reveals the one and secretly refutes the three; the Lotus Sūtra explicitly reveals the one and explicitly refutes the three. Truly because attachment to the three is hard to overturn and the ekayāna is hard to believe, he now shows that expounding the Lotus Sūtra proceeds by degrees, hence first secret and later explicit.