大方廣佛華嚴經疏 52.26

52.26

Fifth in the major section: below "ten kinds of bodily karma" there are fifty gates answering fifty questions, elucidating the aspects of practice in the stations of the ten stages. Ancient masters divided them into four: first, twelve gates elucidating the supreme practice of the three karmas in the ten stages, assigned to the first stage; second, nine gates from "ten kinds of diligent cultivation" onward, elucidating the practice of cultivating to leave obstacles behind, assigned to the second and third stages; third, nine gates from "ten kinds of ways to transcend worldly birth" onward, elucidating the practice of fully ripened cultivation, assigned to the stages from the fourth stage upward; fourth, twenty gates from "ten kinds of feet" onward, the practice of the full perfection of reward marks, assigned to the stages from the eighth stage upward. This explanation is somewhat close, yet its text still does not exhaust the principle. Here they are also distributed sequentially to the ten stages: ten gates for the first stage, with the next eight stages gradually abbreviated, because such is the textual momentum. That is, six gates for the second stage, five gates each for the third and fourth, two for the fifth, one for the sixth, three each for the seventh and eighth, two gates for the ninth stage, and thirteen gates for the tenth stage, which will be understood when reaching the text.