摩訶止觀 3.193

3.193

Next, clarifying the 'great': this is the Mahāyāna. Its wisdom is profound and sharp, cultivating the calming and contemplation that embodies dharmas as neither arising nor perishing. Practiced by great people, it is therefore named the 'Great Vehicle' (Mahāyāna). The Mūlamadhyamakakārikā's clarification of identity with emptiness expounds the Mahāyāna. The Mahāyāna is precisely the great. When it says within the Mahāyāna, 'If one wishes to attain the śrāvaka state, one should learn prajñā,' this was originally a bodhisattva dharma; the great can encompass the small, collateralizing the śrāvakas. For example, the Vermilion Bird Gate, erected by the imperial house, primarily serves royal affairs, but does not prevent the common people from entering and exiting through it. Though it allows passage to commoners, it remains ultimately an imperial gate. The Mahāyāna now is also like this: it is primarily for bodhisattvas embodying dharmas to enter emptiness; though it includes the Hīnayāna, it is ultimately named 'great.' This is analogous to the Tripiṭaka's analysis of dharmas: though it includes Buddhas and bodhisattvas, it is ultimately the Hīnayāna. What is called the contemplation embodying dharmas of the Mahāyāna differs from that of the Tripiṭaka. In the Tripiṭaka, designations are provisional while dharmas are real, and one analyzes the real to make it empty—for example, breaking a pillar to make it empty. Now, the meaning of embodiment in the Mahāyāna is that both designations and reality are provisional; their intrinsic characteristics are empty, fundamentally void and tranquil. For example, a pillar in a mirror is fundamentally not a pillar; one does not wait for the pillar to be destroyed before it is empty: the very reflection is empty, unarisen and unperishing, unlike a real pillar.