大方廣佛華嚴經疏 34.40

34.40

Third, clarifying the boundaries and scopes. The first two are the expedient means of cultivating practice; the latter two are the full maturation of retributive practice. The cultivation of practice exists only at the fulfillment of the stage; retributive practice spans from beginning to end. From first abiding in the stage up to the fulfillment of the stage, the royal body received is described as retributive intake, and all its active functions are described as vow and wisdom. Furthermore, the first two and the last one are definitely present in this stage; the single fruit of retributive intake is indefinite in its presence or absence. Because one may possibly not act as such, it says 'mostly acts as', yet because one is definitely able to act as such, it is also definitely present. Furthermore, the first two fruits are also dharmas of the stage, the first being practice and the next being understanding, because they are what is cultivated; the latter two fruits are exclusively fruit and not dharmas, the first being essence and the second function, because they are not what is cultivated. Therefore, after the two fruits, the sūtra has a concluding text stating: 'Briefly spoken is the Dharma-gate of the first stage.' If one does not grasp this idea, it would appear as though the commentator erroneously took the Dharma-gate and improperly applied to it the name of 'fruit'.