大乘入道次第 1.18

1.18

七挍勝劣者，《大集經》頌云：「若有能發菩提心，是則能勝一切乘，能淨一切眾生心，亦能演說無上道。」又云：「如恒河沙等眾生，悉住聲聞辟支佛乘，欲比菩薩初發心業，百分千分不可為喻。何以故？二乘之人，自為解脫，觀於煩惱。菩薩不爾，常為眾生得解脫故，觀諸煩惱。」又頌云：「如恒河沙等世界，滿中妙寶持用施。雖有如是無量福，不如憐愍發菩提。無量億等恒沙佛，淨妙華香以供養。如是福德猶不如，發菩提心七卓步。」

Seventh, in comparing superior and inferior, a verse in the Mahāsaṃnipāta-sūtra states: "If someone can generate the bodhimind, / He can thereby surpass all vehicles, / Can purify the minds of all sentient beings, / And can also expound the unexcelled path." It also says: "If sentient beings as numerous as the sands of the Ganges all abode in the Śrāvaka or Pratyekabuddha Vehicle, and one wished to compare them to the karma of a bodhisattva's initial generation of the mind, it could not be illustrated even by a hundredth or a thousandth part. Why is this? People of the two vehicles contemplate afflictions for the sake of their own liberation. A bodhisattva is not like that; he constantly contemplates afflictions for the sake of causing sentient beings to attain liberation." Another verse states: "Though one were to fill worlds as numerous as the sands of the Ganges / With wondrous jewels and give them in donation, / Although there would be such immeasurable merit, / It is not as good as generating bodhi out of compassion. / Though one were to make offerings of pure and wondrous flowers and incense / To Buddhas as numerous as the sands of immeasurable kotis of Ganges rivers, / Such merit would still not equal / Taking seven strides with the generation of the bodhimind."