華嚴經探玄記 1.24

1.24

Fourth, resolving contradictions: Question: Sūtras also say, 'For those seeking [to be] pratyekabuddhas, the twelve links of dependent origination are taught.' Why then is there no pratyekabuddha basket? Answer: Because pratyekabuddhas also only sever the grasping at self and only realize the emptiness of persons; in fruit they become arhats and their entering cessation is no different. Looked at in comparison to bodhisattvas, both are the lower vehicle; hence it is not spoken of separately. Question: If both are equally the lower [vehicle], why is it uniquely named the śrāvaka basket? Answer: Because pratyekabuddhas also appear in world-ages without Buddhas, where there are no teachings; śrāvakas are not so; hence it exclusively receives the name. Question: In the Hinayāna teachings, there are also expositions of the bodhisattva vehicle; why is that not also named the bodhisattva basket? Answer: Because in that school, what the bodhisattva severs, what they realize, and the nirvāṇa they enter are likewise not different from those of the two vehicles. Furthermore, because a bodhisattva is solitary and not multiple, it is also not spoken of. Question: If so, why do the 'Three Baskets Chapter' of the *Samantamukha-parivarta-samādhi Sūtra* and the *Mahāyānāvatāra-śāstra* state that the three vehicles are precisely the three baskets: (1) the śrāvaka basket, (2) the pratyekabuddha basket, and (3) the bodhisattva basket? Answer: In those sūtras and treatises, it is always stated that these three baskets exist within the Mahāyāna, not meaning the Hinayāna. Question: Even based on this text, a pratyekabuddha has a basket; how is this reconciled with the *Mahāyānasūtrālaṃkāra*? Answer: The former combined them because principle and fruit do not differ; the latter separated them because teaching and practice have slight differences. Therefore, the two explanations do not contradict each other.