大般涅槃經疏 22.18

22.18

起卷明第七功德。開善用此下兩功德為第二周，由近善友初聞正法於位則淺，下第八功德九事為體，辨心慧解脫，明義深極。今謂不爾。悉是初證不聞聞時所獲功德。佛作第七第八番說，明其洞識涅槃近因之法，堪為眾生作善知識。那忽棄其內德化他之功，而作外求師範自行之解？縱令自求善知識者，亦是寄事而表於理。例如淨名念佛之時，師子嚮等皆來說法，說已而去。如此知識聞法思修，何得是淺？

The opening of the fascicle clarifies the seventh merit. Kāishàn took these next two merits as the second cycle: because of drawing close to good spiritual friends and initially hearing the correct Dharma, in terms of stage this is shallow; below, taking the nine matters as the substance of the eighth merit, he analyzes the liberation of mind and wisdom, explaining the meaning to be exceedingly profound. Now I say this is not so. All of these are merits obtained when first realizing what one had not heard and hearing it. The Buddha gave the seventh and eighth rounds of exposition to clarify the penetrating understanding of the dharmas that are the proximate causes of nirvāṇa, enabling one to serve as a good spiritual friend for sentient beings. How could one cast aside their inner virtue and the function of transforming others, and adopt an interpretation of externally seeking teachers and exemplary models for one's own practice? Even if one seeks good spiritual friends for oneself, this is also expressing principle through external phenomena. For instance, when Vimalakīrti was mindful of the Buddha, Siṃhaghosa and others all came to expound the Dharma, and departed after speaking. When one hears the Dharma, contemplates it, and cultivates it through such spiritual friends, how could it be shallow?