華嚴一乘教義分齊章 3.17

3.17

Question: "How is it that once the afflictive active defilements are exhausted on the bhūmis, one does not fall into the stage of the Two Vehicles?" Answer: "Because the power of wisdom is superior, and because the active defilements of the cognitive obscuration have also been eliminated. Just as in the initial teaching and the Hīnayāna, when a person of sharp faculties who emerges suddenly cuts off the six grades of defilements of the desire realm, the six grades of the two higher realms are also simultaneously cut off, yet they still do not attain the fruit of a once-returner—how much less would this bodhisattva, whose path-power is extraordinarily superior, and who furthermore has already cut off the active defilements of the cognitive obscuration! In the stages before the bhūmis and in the initial teaching, that fault may indeed occur, but here it does not. Furthermore, in this teaching, when defilements are directly cut off, wisdom arises and defilements perish, which is neither at the beginning, nor in the middle, nor at the end, because 'beginning, middle, and end' are conceptual grasps. How do they perish? Just as empty space is originally pure, so too they perish; this is explained in detail in the Daśabhūmika-śāstra. Furthermore, in this teaching, defilements and other phenomena are all created by true suchness according to conditions; therefore, non-differentiation from true suchness is the meaning of defilement, as the Awakening of Faith explains. A sūtra also says: 'All dharmas are precisely suchness,' and so forth. Defilements should be understood by analogy with this. Therefore, one should know that this is different from the formulations of the previous teachings; one ought to understand this."