維摩經玄疏 3.47

3.47

Answer: In the citations above from various passages on "the four [types of dharmas] are inexpressible, but because there are causes and conditions, they can also be expressed," there has never been a definitively fixed single preaching; how could there ever be definitively fixed four teachings? It is merely because sentient beings have four different capacities—namely, the four different faculties of inferior, medium, superior, and supreme—that they call forth the distinctions of the four preachings and four teachings; this is precisely the parable of "the three grasses and two trees, grown from one ground" clarified in the *Lotus Sūtra*, which allegorizes these four faculties. Therefore, this sūtra says: "The Buddha expounds the Dharma with a single voice, and sentient beings each attain understanding according to their kind"; this refers precisely to the different understandings of the Buddha's teaching by the four faculties. However, different sūtras clarify the meaning differently: there are different preachings with different understandings, [different preachings with] a single understanding, a single preaching with different understandings, a single preaching with a single understanding, and no preaching and no understanding. Therefore, this sūtra says: "The one who expounds the Dharma has nothing to preach and nothing to indicate; the one who listens to the Dharma has nothing to hear and nothing to attain." If one penetrates this intention, when the four teachings establish their meanings by pointing to emptiness, what doubt could there be?