大乘入道次第 1.28

1.28

Second, as for the brief questions and answers, Question: That persons of the Hīnayāna cultivate the aids to awakening is explicitly documented in the teachings. How do we know that the Mahāyāna also studies them? Answer: The Dazhidulun says: "Question: The thirty-seven aids are the path of śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas, while the six perfections are the path of bodhisattvas. Why speak of the dharmas of the śrāvakas within the path of awakening? Answer: Bodhisattva-mahāsattvas study all aids to the path." Since it says "all," we know they are also studied by bodhisattvas. Question: If the dharmas that are aids to awakening pervade all stages, why do the Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra and the Mahāyānasaṃgraha both say that one attains the aids to awakening only on the fourth ground? Answer: Those [texts] rely on the point that on the third ground one attains concentration, precepts, and so forth, which are similar to the worldly, whereas the fourth ground is similar to the supramundane of the two vehicles. The aids to the path are untainted and thus supramundane; hence it is said that they only arise on the fourth ground. Question: If the three vehicles cultivate them alike, how do their modes of practice differ? Answer: The Madhyāntavibhāga-bhāṣya says: "Persons of the two vehicles take the body and so forth of their own mental continuum as objects to cultivate antidotes. Bodhisattvas take the body and so forth of both their own and others' mental continuums as objects to cultivate antidotes." Śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas contemplate the body and other objects with the mental mode of impermanence and so on to cultivate antidotes. Bodhisattvas contemplate the body and other objects with the mental mode of non-apprehension to cultivate antidotes. When śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas cultivate the applications of mindfulness and so forth, it is merely so that the body and so forth quickly obtain release from bondage. When bodhisattvas cultivate the applications of mindfulness and so forth, it is not for the sake of the body and so forth obtaining release from bondage, but solely to realize non-abiding nirvāṇa. Because of these three conditions, they differ from the two vehicles.