妙法蓮華經玄贊 5.196

5.196

Commentary: Below is the second [section], considering transformation by means of the Mahāyāna causes. Above, having considered transformation through the fruit and found it unfeasible, he should transform them through the causes. Transformation through the causes has three parts: first, considering that they initially cannot practice in reliance on the great teaching; second, that if they give rise to slander, they will sink into and be entangled in the evil destinies; third, considering the manifestation of various sufferings to secretly expound the Mahāyāna. This is the first. / This house of the three realms of the two kinds of death has only a single correct gate of the Mahāyāna as the place of exit. Bodhisattvas of great capacity are able to practice it fully, but the nature of the two vehicles being currently matured, they cannot escape in reliance on the great teaching; even if it were expounded for them, they could not practice it. Being unable to accommodate their practice is called 'narrow and small'; not accommodating the practice of pratyekabuddhas is called 'narrow', and not accommodating the practice of śrāvakas is called 'small'. For example, though the great ocean is immeasurably broad, because it does not harbor dead corpses it is also called 'narrow'; although the causal practice of the Single Vehicle is boundlessly vast, because it does not accommodate the practices of the two [vehicles], it is called 'narrow and small'.