大般涅槃經集解 24.26

24.26

案僧亮曰：唯佛具善有耳，非佛得者非善有也。乃有一佛者，善有難成，曠劫乃就也。開示三乘者，三非實有，非先究竟也。法瑤曰：此明二乘不得涅槃義也。涅槃若極，菩薩近之，無佛之世尚無得者，況二乘耶。而云二乘得者，是不實也。僧宗曰：根有大小，悉有廣狹。世無大心眾生為說常果令作佛者，非無權說二乘得二滅也。以其志小，權說引接。得知虛果未極，何容責使同佛涅槃耶？又釋：若世間都無作佛理者，非無二乘得二涅槃。理既不爾，故知二乘權設小果，何得同佛耶？無量劫乃有佛出者，釋上句也。謂圓解難固、常倒易生，無善感佛，不得恒現。善機希有，所以時一出世。背化失機，動經劫數，云何說大耶？致教唯以三乘級引，故知小果權施而非實也。

Sengliang comments: Only a Buddha is complete with beneficial existence; what is attained by non-Buddhas is not beneficial existence. That there is only one Buddha [at a time] is because beneficial existence is hard to accomplish, taking vast kalpas to achieve. When it says 'reveals the three vehicles', the three are not real existences and are not originally ultimate. Fayao says: This clarifies the principle that the two vehicles do not attain nirvāṇa. If nirvāṇa is the ultimate, bodhisattvas are close to it; yet in an era without a Buddha even they do not attain it, much less the two vehicles! Saying that the two vehicles attain it is untrue. Sengzong says: Faculties have great and small; all have broad and narrow. When in the world there are no beings with the great aspiration for whose sake one might teach the permanent fruit to make them become Buddhas, it is not that there is no expedient teaching of the two vehicles attaining the two cessations. Because their aspirations are small, expedient teachings are delivered to guide them. Understanding that an illusory fruit is not yet ultimate, how could one reprove them and force them to equal the Buddha's nirvāṇa? Another explanation: If in the world there were fundamentally no principle of becoming a Buddha, it would not be that the two vehicles do not attain the two nirvāṇas. Since the principle is not so, we know that the two vehicles are an expedient provision of a lesser fruit; how could they equal the Buddha? 'A Buddha appears only after immeasurable kalpas' explains the preceding sentence: perfect understanding is hard to solidify, and inversions concerning permanence easily arise; without good deeds to evoke the Buddha, he cannot be constantly manifest. Favourable capacities are rare, so he appears in the world only occasionally. Turning away from teaching and missing the opportunity, kalpas pass in an instant; how could the Great [Vehicle] be spoken of? The teaching merely uses the stages of the three vehicles to guide them; hence we know that the lesser fruits are provisionally applied and are not real.