妙法蓮華經玄贊 7.226

7.226

贊曰。品第三段結成說實為授記之漸。聲聞所行成佛遠因，故是菩薩所行方便之道。論云「汝等所行是菩薩道者，謂發菩提心。退已還發者，前所修行善根不滅，同後得果。」故二乘脩是大乘之遠方便因，名菩薩道。

Commentary: The third section of the chapter concludes by establishing that preaching the real serves as the gradual approach toward bestowing prophecies. What the śrāvakas practice is the distant cause of becoming buddhas; therefore it is the path of expedient means practiced by bodhisattvas. The treatise says: 'That what you practice is the bodhisattva path refers to giving rise to the mind of bodhi. For those who fall back and then give rise to it again, the previously cultivated roots of goodness are not destroyed, and together with subsequent [practice] they attain the fruit.' Therefore, the practice of the two vehicles is the distant expedient cause of the Great Vehicle, and is called the bodhisattva path.