法華義疏 4.25

4.25

Answer: In their present capacity and conditions they delight in lesser dharmas, but over the long past they were greedily attached to saṃsāra. Furthermore, according to their capacity they delight in lesser dharmas, but based on emotional attachments they are greedily attached to saṃsāra. Moreover, delighting in lesser dharmas is itself being greedy for saṃsāra, because lesser nirvāṇa is just Mahāyāna saṃsāra. Therefore, "For them I expound nirvāṇa" is second, clarifying the Hīnayāna teaching. From "I devised these expedient means" downward: above clarified the two kinds of past teachings, while this clarifies the purport of the two kinds of teachings. First, closely following the preceding, it clarifies the purport of expounding the Hīnayāna teaching, showing that expounding the Dharma of nirvāṇa in the past was intended to cause them to enter the Buddha's wisdom. "Definitively expounding the Mahāyāna": in the past, words expounded the small while the intent was in the great, so the teaching did not match the intent and was not called definitive; now both words and intent are revealed, so it is called definitive. Furthermore, sūtras such as the Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikā explicitly teach bodhisattvas while secretly transforming the two vehicles; for bodhisattvas it was definitive, but for the two vehicles it was not yet definitive. Now explicitly teaching bodhisattvas and explicitly teaching the two vehicles, it is therefore called definitive. Furthermore, the Mahāyāna is the definitive Dharma, as the Nirvāṇa Sūtra states: the Lion's Roar is called the definitive exposition, meaning that all living beings possess Buddha-nature; here too, it definitively expounds that all living beings possess the ekayāna. Because in ultimate principle there is no remainder and in nature there is only Buddha-nature, expounding Buddha-nature is called the definitive exposition; the ekayāna is likewise.