維摩經略疏 8.73

8.73

Question: Above, the goddess said, "For those to be delivered through the Dharma of dependent origination, I act as a pratyekabuddha." How can it be said now that it is exclusively the Dharma of bodhisattvas? Answer: This is an expedient teaching; conceded to be spoken, it belongs to the pratyekabuddha. If it is the definitive teaching, deprived of concessions, the pratyekabuddha has no share in it. Why is this? The twelve links of dependent origination are named buddha-nature; if one does not see buddha-nature, how could one know fundamental ignorance? Seeing the nature at the ten abodes, one has not yet exhausted ignorance and still does not clearly comprehend it, how much less a pratyekabuddha? You should know that dependent origination is exclusively the Dharma of bodhisattvas. The twelve links of dependent origination are all letters, hence she says that dwelling here for ten and two years, she never heard the Dharma of the two vehicles expounded from the start, but heard only the Dharma of buddhas and bodhisattvas. Therefore, the true reality of dependent origination is neither cause nor effect, yet is cause and effect; it is exclusively the Dharma of bodhisattvas and buddhas.