維摩經玄疏 3.223

3.223

Answer: Establishing virtual enlightenment further does not necessarily pose a problem. Why so? The Avataṃsaka Sūtra explains that the merit and wisdom of the tenth ground of the Cloud of Dharma, when compared to the Buddha's, is like the soil on a fingernail compared to the great earth. If so, although spoken of as one grade of ignorance, it is in truth an unspeakable number of grades. How is this known? The effortless path of the bodhisattva at the final mind is swifter than the wind, able in a single day to break through immeasurable grades of defilement that obstruct ignorance. How much more so when the Yingluo jing explains that on the ground of virtual enlightenment, for hundreds of thousands of myriads of koṭis of kalpas, one enters the door of profound depth, retrospectively practicing the affairs of ordinary worldlings! Therefore, opening the ground of the Cloud of Dharma and further establishing the buddha of virtual enlightenment with the adamantine mind has no flaw in principle. If one knows that a single grade contains immeasurable grades of ignorance, and that by using the unimpeded wisdom of the Cloud of Dharma they are immediately exhausted, why would there be any need to open up and bring forth the ground of virtual enlightenment?!