大乘起信論裂網疏 5.54

5.54

Encountering Buddhas and bodhisattvas and cultivating all practices can indeed be called having causes and conditions. Merely because ten thousand great kalpas have not been fulfilled and the ten minds are not yet complete, even though they generate the mind upon encountering conditions, they cannot immediately enter the rightly determined group. If ten thousand kalpas were fulfilled, then conditions such as seeing the physical form or making offerings to the Saṅgha would all allow them to generate the mind and enter the rightly determined group. Do not say that these conditions are not good conditions; it is simply that the power of accumulated causes is weak, so it differs from the two kinds of generating the mind from great compassion and from protecting the Dharma. Therefore, encountering good conditions they are able to generate the mind, but should they encounter evil conditions, they may regress and fall into the stages of the two vehicles. The first [part], explaining the fulfillment of faith, is concluded.