中觀論疏 1.32

1.32

From "people's faculties shifted" onward, this second [part] explains the reason for losing the teaching. The reason why they lost the teaching was precisely because people's faculties were dull. Question: Which faculties were dull? Answer: It is precisely that the faculty of wisdom was dull, or one could also say that the five faculties including faith and the others were all dull. Furthermore, the twenty-two faculties were all dull, hence they are called dull. When the Buddha was in the world, there were both sharp and dull, but collectively they were called sharp faculties. After the Buddha passed into extinction, although there were sharp and dull, collectively they were called dull faculties. Within the dull faculties, the first five hundred years were the true Dharma, so they were the sharp within the dull; the latter five hundred years were called the semblance Dharma, which was the dullest of the dull; hence they are said to have shifted to become duller.