阿彌陀經疏 1.46

1.46

From “At that time” downward is the second part, the main body of the sūtra. It has two parts: first, the general address; second, the specific explanation. In the first text, addressing Śāriputra is the sūtra compiler recounting the interlocutor. As for why he did not address the bodhisattvas and devas but addressed a śrāvaka: his intention was to cause beginners of the Hīnayāna to joyfully seek rebirth, turning from the small and entering the great. Śāriputra had already realized the supreme fruit, but during the Vaipulya period his bodhicitta had died; he considered himself to have realized entry into ultimate extinction without remainder, whereas from the Mahāyāna perspective he would only then undergo change. Yet neither of these two paths seeks rebirth in the Land of Common Residence of Sukhāvatī. The Tathāgata addressing him now is simply the superior instructing the inferior.