華嚴經內章門等雜孔目章 2.5

2.5

The dharmas of practice cultivated by ordinary beings and āryas all arise from the three karmas, and their accomplishment and dedication are likewise entirely different. Taking the single gate of practicing generosity as an example: the Buddha's teaching says that those who break the precepts, break correct views, and break deportment are instructed to practice generosity. Why is this? Because he wishes to make them provisionally escape the hells. Although this generosity does not intimately accord with the wholesome [roots] of the aids to bodhi or the aids to liberation, the Buddha, in order to rescue them from suffering, still allows them to practice it. By this standard, when those with wholesome roots of humans and gods, keeping precepts, giving, and cultivating, are instructed to practice generosity, though it is not ultimate, they are permitted without doubt to practice it in order to escape the animal and hungry ghost [realms]. If one cultivates the wholesome [roots] of the aids to liberation, it is in order to leave behind humans and gods, and thus the Buddha permits its practice—this is the matter of śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas. If one cultivates the bodhisattva path, in order to redirect the śrāvakas, the initial teaching permits its practice; in order to guide [those of] the initial teaching, the final teaching permits its practice; in order to guide [those of] the gradual teaching, the sudden teaching permits its practice; in order to guide [those of] the sudden teaching, the perfect teaching permits its practice. Therefore, when the mind is perfected in the station of faith, Bhadraśrī praises [such] virtue, extensively explaining the practice of generosity and the making of offerings; according with the wholesome of the Ekayāna, not a single dharma is abandoned. According to the special intention of the Buddha, only the Ekayāna can be practiced, while the rest cannot be practiced. Why is this? Because they are not the ultimate reliance. Such differing acceptances and rejections are all the same single generosity. Why is this? It is entirely because of wisdom that there are distinctions. As with the single gate of generosity, so it is with the ten thousand practices; you should understand them accordingly.