大般涅槃經集解 15.5

15.5

Sengliang states: Propagating the Dharma in the degenerate age is not the station of śrāvakas. Yet correlating it with bodhisattvas is merely because śrāvakas leave home in the Dharma robes and their bodies are upright, so they are correlated. Bodhisattvas establish the principle of self-rectitude; though concealing their traces in the worldly stream, they are pure and unstained, comparable to arhats. This is the first of the eight sections below, correlating and revealing the marks of the four persons. Relying on the śrāvaka's cutting off of seeing the noble truths and desire-realm contemplation to correlate with the bodhisattva's cutting off of afflictions of the three realms, beginning and end make two persons. Relying on the śrāvaka's three-realm contemplation to correlate with that which is cut off by the bodhisattva as traces (vāsanā), beginning and end make two persons, together making four persons. Sengzong states: 'Protecting the True Dharma' means not allowing heterodoxy to invade or destroy it. 'Establishing' means causing the Dharma not to fall. 'Recollecting' means keeping it without forgetting. Zhixiu states: In this first section there are three passages: this first passage generally brings up the number and praises their virtues.