起信論疏筆削記 2.19

2.19

"What benefit for their capacities?" means: since the treatise was composed for sentient beings, what benefit is obtained by those who are converted by it? The phrase "namely to cause..." below contains four benefits. "Faith" refers to the ten faiths; the wisdoms of hearing, contemplation, and cultivation refer to the three stages of worthies; "realization and entry" refers to the ten bhūmis; and the "fulfillment of causes" refers to the ultimate stage. Thus, it causes those without faith to have faith, those without understanding to understand, those without practice to practice, those without realization to realize, and those without nirvāṇa to attain nirvāṇa. Beginning with ordinary beings and ending with equal enlightenment, all who receive this conversion obtain benefit. The base commentary speaks of six benefits: faith, the three wisdoms, realization and entry, and the fulfillment of causes; they are largely the same with minor differences, and both opening and combining them are valid.