維摩經玄疏 4.45

4.45

Answer: One explains it in terms of two meanings: first, there being the teaching and there being the person; second, there being the teaching and no person. If it is the expedient exposition of the three teachings, those who receive the teaching on the causal ground possess both the teaching and the person. The Buddha fruit, succession, and the bodhisattvas of the higher stages who are able to preach the three teachings—these all have the teaching but no [actual] person. Why is this? The practitioners who receive the three teachings each obtain their benefit through the teaching; hence, there is the teaching and there is the person. The masters of the teaching who are able to speak it manifest as the Buddhas and bodhisattvas of the three teachings to cause sentient beings to admire the fruit and practice the cause; once the causal practice is accomplished, there is no longer a transforming master. In this way, they respond whenever there is a causal connection, and when the causal connection ceases, they rest. It is like deceiving a small child with an empty fist to lead them back home, while in reality there is nothing inside the hand. The transforming masters of the three teachings are also like this. If it is the perfect teaching where there is the teaching and there is the person, receiving the teaching on the causal ground up to Dharma Cloud has the teaching and has the person; severing forty-one grades of ignorance, the succession to the Dharmakāya is real and not illusory. The marvelous enlightenment Dharmakāya's exposition without exposition is precisely having the teaching and having the person on the fruitional level. Having the teaching but no person is termed "provisional"; having the teaching and having the person is named "ultimate."