華嚴經探玄記 11.8

11.8

Fifth, regarding the distinction in terms of the practices and stages sought, there are two aspects: the general and the particular. Speaking generally: either all are practices, because they are practices cultivated in reliance on the vows; or all are stages, because their initial generation is prior to the bhūmis and their ultimate accomplishment is above the bhūmis, as in the aforementioned Liang treatise. In the particular distinction, the first seven are practices, as already explained above. The latter three are elucidated in terms of stages. The treatise explains that of the latter three, the first is called 'the superiority assessed by attaining the bhūmis', because this becomes increasingly superior from the first bhūmi up to the ninth bhūmi; the second is 'the superiority assessed by exhausting the bodhisattva bhūmis', which is at the tenth bhūmi, where the stages of a bodhisattva are consummated, hence called 'exhausting the bhūmis'; the third is 'the ultimate [attainment] by exhausting all bhūmis', which is at the Buddha bhūmi, where the fruit of Buddhahood is ultimate and all bhūmis are exhausted.