華嚴一乘教義分齊章 2.17

2.17

Question: "If all possess the nature, how is the one lacking gotra among the five gotras established?" Answer: "The treatises provide their own explanation. Thus the Ratnagotravibhāga says: 'It is definitively stated that the icchantika has no nature of nirvāṇa and does not enter nirvāṇa. What is the meaning of this? It is because [the Buddha] wished to show the cause of slandering the Mahāyāna. What does this clarify? In order to turn around the mind that slanders the Mahāyāna, this was spoken relying on [an extent of] immeasurable time, because they truly possess the pure Buddha-nature.' Furthermore, the Foxing lun says: 'Question: "If so, why did the Buddha say that sentient beings do not abide in the gotra and are eternally without parinirvāṇa?" Answer: "If one has turned one's back on the Mahāyāna, this dharma is the cause of an icchantika. It was in order to cause sentient beings to abandon this dharma [that he said this]. If one falls into the causes of an icchantika, one transmigrates without cessation in the long night [of saṃsāra]. By this principle, the sūtra speaks thus. If one relies on reason, all sentient beings originally possess the pure Buddha-nature; that they should not attain parinirvāṇa is impossible. Therefore, Buddha-nature is definitively originally possessed, being free from existence and free from non-existence."' Explanation: Furthermore, the earlier text of this treatise extensively refutes the absence of gotra, up to its concluding text, which says: 'Third is the error of being identical with the non-Buddhists: what originally exists definitely exists, and what originally does not exist definitely does not exist; what exists cannot be destroyed, and what does not exist cannot be produced. Faults such as these arise from your mistaken attachment to the doctrine of the absence of gotra,' and so forth, up to extensive explanations."