大般涅槃經義記 5.2

5.2

Regarding the 'Chapter on Noble Practice': the above was first to reveal the introduction to the practices; below, it directly discriminates the practices. The practices are threefold: First, exhausting the ten virtues to clarify the practice of cultivating through following conditions; second, the single 'Lion' chapter to clarify the practice of relinquishing marks to enter realization; third, the later 'Kāśyapa Chapter' to clarify the practice of realizing reality to achieve the fruit, also called the practice of realizing reality to activate function. Cultivating through following conditions is called in foreign countries *the stage of cultivating to completion in accordance with the Dharma*; relinquishing marks to enter realization is called in foreign countries *the stage of being free from all negligence to enter realization*; realizing reality to achieve the ultimate aim is called in foreign countries *the stage of maintaining through the skillful means of compassionate radiance*. Though the names are different, their meaning does not differ. Question: Why, in the previous study of the Dharma, were the two causes of bodhi and nirvāṇa spoken of separately, whereas the study of practice is not so? To follow either is permissible; it is only that in clarifying the Dharma the principle must be detailed and complete, so they were discussed separately before; when practice is accomplished based on the Dharma, the completed practice is not different, so they are not distinguished separately.