請觀音經疏闡義鈔 1.75

1.75

From "one cause" downward, the names are listed. "These three objects" means that these three objects are neither one nor three; they are solely within a single moment of thought, completely subsuming all phenomena, the three having no distinction and mutually interfusing. It is only because of the delusion of emotional attachments that [sentient beings] cannot awaken to and understand this, and so, amidst phenomena that are fundamentally unentangled, they forcibly generate entanglements, positing sentient and insentient, phenomena being different and principle being different. Amidst phenomena that are fundamentally free from liberation, they falsely seek liberation, and so they loathe suffering and delight in joy, abandon existence and enter emptiness, and leave the two extremes to seek the middle way. Hence there are the differences between ordinary beings' birth-and-death and the objects and wisdoms of the three teachings. Therefore it is said: "Being contemplated by wisdom, they become four." As for the four kinds of contemplation, a sūtra says: "Through contemplation by inferior wisdom, one attains śrāvaka bodhi; through contemplation by intermediate wisdom, one attains pratyekabuddha bodhi; through contemplation by superior wisdom, one attains bodhisattva bodhi; through contemplation by supreme wisdom, one attains Buddha bodhi." The present master's interpretation applies them in correspondence with the four teachings. Since the śrāvaka is the inferior vehicle and the Piṭaka teaching is the lowest teaching, śrāvaka bodhi is the Piṭaka teaching; the pratyekabuddha is the intermediate vehicle and the shared teaching, which also resides between the Piṭaka and distinct teachings; the bodhisattva is the superior vehicle and the distinct teaching, which still resides above the shared teaching; and the perfect teaching is further above the distinct teaching, hence it is called supreme.