俱舍論疏 1.9

1.9

First, the conditions for the arising of all teachings: When all Buddhas made their vows on the causal stage, it was entirely to deliver all sentient beings and cause them to attain Buddhahood. Practicing the bodhisattva conduct for three incalculable eons and realizing great bodhi was not for the sake of causing sentient beings to be born among humans or gods and seize minor fruits that they sought great bodhi and practiced many austerities. Therefore the Lotus Sūtra says: "It is solely for the sake of the one great cause and condition that [the Buddhas] appear in the world: namely, to open, reveal, awaken to, and cause all sentient beings to enter into the knowledge and vision of the Buddha." Furthermore, the Prajñā-śāstra states that generating the aspiration for great bodhi has four minds: vast, foremost, constant, and non-inverted. 'Vast' and 'foremost' mean desiring to cause all sentient beings to attain nirvāṇa without remainder. Nirvāṇa without remainder is distinguished from the nirvāṇa of the Lesser Vehicle. The purport of all Mahāyāna scriptures is identical. The Mahāprajñāpāramitopadeśa says: "There are the paths of the three vehicles as well as the paths of humans and gods. The Dharma of the bodhisattva is properly to guide sentient beings into the Great Vehicle's path; those who cannot abide in the Great Path are placed within the two vehicles, and those who cannot abide in nirvāṇa are placed within the merit and bliss of humans and gods to serve as causes for nirvāṇa." The purport of the Mahāprajñāpāramitā-sūtra and the Lotus Sūtra is also identical to this. According to the meaning of the sūtra and treatise passages cited above, all bodhisattvas practicing the bodhisattva conduct and expounding the three trainings, the three vehicles, and the Tripiṭaka do so entirely for the sake of the Buddha Vehicle.