大般涅槃經集解 2.89

2.89

Sengzong comments: Above, the two śrāvaka assemblies were listed; now bodhisattvas are listed. That it does not speak of preparing offerings indicates they must be renunciants. Baoliang says: This specifically refers to those among the previous assembly of monks who provisionally manifested as śrāvakas. Zhixiu says: Previously, among the two śrāvaka assemblies, all were called 'true sons', so it was already known that all were bodhisattvas. That they are now listed separately again is spoken purely with respect to traces. Previously they had the traces of śrāvakas and the sense of close attendance, hence they were listed first. The bodhisattvas' practice is vast and their traces bear a distant sense, hence they are listed next. Huiling of Pengcheng says: These are those who have left household life, but are not monks. Mingjun notes: Here seven items are listed: first, citing the number; second, briefly praising their virtuous stage and skillful means; third, listing names; fourth, praising practices across the three times; fifth, recounting grief and sorrow; sixth, praising real virtues; seventh, recounting their arrival. Bodhisattvas and arhats have no further separate stages, not exceeding the number of the four assemblies of lay and monastic; therefore this one Ganges River stands between the two pillars. Calling them merely 'bodhisattvas' is to distinguish this group from that. By the time of the Saddharmapuṇḍarīka Sūtra there were already no śrāvakas, so how much less in this assembly could there be a separate kind of bodhisattva? That the assembly of nuns singled out those of the ten stages was merely to signal their preeminence, hence they are called dragons among men.