大乘起信論義記 1.8

1.8

Question: If these three piṭakas each express one training among those three trainings, why does the eleventh fascicle of the *Abhidharmasamuccayavyākhyā* say: 'Furthermore, disclosing the three trainings establishes the sūtras; disclosing precepts and concentration is called vinaya; disclosing the training in wisdom is called abhidharma'? Answer: If based on the gate of strictly essential nature, they each express one as described before; if based on the gate of secondary and primary, it is as stated in the *Samuccaya*: 'Because sūtras are broad, they possess all three; vinaya is next, possessing two; treatises are narrow, having only one. This is also the gate of root and branches: sūtras are the root, and the other two are successively the branches.' Among those three piṭakas, this treatise is subsumed under the Abhidharmapiṭaka.