摩訶止觀 3.76

3.76

Answer: Those graduated eyes are biased toward concentration or biased toward wisdom, which the Buddha rebuked; one cannot say that they see. What is spoken of as seeing with the wisdom eye shares only the name; it is actually the stage of the ten abodes of the perfect teaching. When the three contemplations are present before one and one enters into the principle of the three truths, it is called 'abiding'; calling this 'abiding' is merely [another name for] the wisdom eye. Therefore the Lotus Sūtra says: 'May we attain, like the World-Honoured One, the wisdom eye, supremely pure.' With such a wisdom eye, one sees partially but not yet completely; therefore it is said, 'like seeing shapes at night, or geese in the sky.' It is not that the wisdom eye of the two vehicles attains this name. Therefore in the Lotus Sūtra: 'It is as if a person digs on a dry plateau, seeing only dry earth; persevering without cessation, they next see moist earth; gradually they reach mud, and afterward they obtain water.' The dry earth is an analogy for the first contemplation; the moist earth is an analogy for the second contemplation; the mud is an analogy for the third contemplation; the water is an analogy for the contemplation of the perfect and sudden. Moreover, as an analogy for the teachings: the Tripiṭaka teaching does not expound the middle way, like dry earth; the shared teaching is like moist earth; the distinctive teaching is like mud; the perfect teaching expounds the middle way, like water. What is not expounded by the two teachings, and what is not reached by the two practices—how could a wisdom eye biased toward emptiness see the nature? For it to see the nature is impossible.