摩訶止觀 3.32

3.32

The Mahāyāna masters say: 'The dharmakāya is the true substance; whether there is a Buddha or no Buddha, it is fundamentally self-existent and does not merely happen to be now. The cognitive cause, which is prajñā, and the condition free of burden, which is vimokṣa—these two must come to be, separated by lives and straddling lifetimes, stretching across the pure and the defiled. This means the letter is vertical.' They also say: 'The three virtues have no before or after, but are fully complete in one single substance; when substance is subordinated to meaning, there are three distinctions. Thus substance is horizontal, while meaning is vertical.' They also say: 'Substance and meaning are both not distinct, but there is the difference between hidden and manifest. Since both are not distinct, it does not avoid being horizontal; since hidden and manifest differ, it does not avoid being vertical.' With such varied explanations, how could they accord with the sūtras?