華嚴五十要問答 1.24

1.24

Question: What is the distinction between the two stages of cause and result for buddhas and bodhisattvas? Answer: According to the Hīnayāna teaching, one person, relying on one realm and on one mind, successively becomes a buddha. Cause and result correspond to each other and can be known by direct perception; it is only the cause and result of severing afflictions that differ in being exhausted or unexhausted. According to the triyāna, it is manifested and accomplished in many bodies, many minds, and many places; it is not the practice and karma of a single person. For a buddha it is likewise: he achieves it in all places. It is only the buddhas of the ocean of Padmagarbha-lokadhātu and a portion of the wise and completely enlightened ones of the three worlds whose semantic characteristics can be known. But regarding the limit and measure: taking sentient beings of these trichiliocosms, and using the ten directions as the limit and measure, it does not discuss the realms existing in Indra's [net] and the subtle worlds. According to the Ekayāna, all the limits and measures of the cause and result of becoming a buddha pervade all the limits of the secret and subtle realms of Indra's [net], exhausting the limits and measures of the three worlds, conforming to the gate of Samantabhadra in the Avataṃsaka-sūtra. The two stages of cause and result, such as all cultivation of practice and severing of afflictions, are both exhausted and unexhausted.