涅槃經遊意 1.20

1.20

人聞此開覆，便作二解。聞昔覆，謂言別有一聖為凡所覆；聞今開，則謂却除於凡別有聖出。今明不爾，昔本來是聖，為緣未堪不得說為聖，唯得說為凡，隱聖道不得說名之為覆，豈別有一聖可覆？今只道：昔凡則是聖，詺之為開，豈別有凡可除，聖可開耶？

When people hear of this revealing and concealing, they form two distinct interpretations. Hearing of past concealment, they claim that there is separately a noble one who was concealed by the ordinary person; hearing of present revealing, they claim that an ordinary person is removed and a noble one separately emerges. Now it is clarified that this is not so: in the past, he was fundamentally a noble one; because the capacities of beings were not yet adequate, he could not be spoken of as a noble one, but could only be spoken of as an ordinary person. Hiding the noble path and being unable to speak of it is called "concealing"; how could there separately be a noble one to be concealed? Now it is merely said that the former ordinary person was in fact the noble one, which is designated "revealing"; how could there separately be an ordinary person to be removed and a noble one to be revealed?