摩訶止觀 6.34

6.34

Answer: The Great Treatise distinguishes the burning of the wick in three places, so there are three kinds of bodhisattvas who sever delusion. If dry wisdom subdues delusion and can still count as the first flame, what could be wrong with taking the eight persons' genuine severing as the first flame, and so forth? Furthermore, the Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikā explains that 'a bodhisattva of the tenth bhūmi is like a Buddha'; since it makes clear that the final bhūmi borders the ultimate, how could there be no intermediate bhūmis and no initial bhūmi? Deducing from this, what fault is there in separately opening up the ten bhūmis of the bodhisattva? If there were no ten bhūmis, the sūtra should not say: 'A bodhisattva cultivates and purifies the activities of the bhūmis, from the first bhūmi to the tenth bhūmi, each and every bhūmi having such-and-such Dharma-gates,' and so forth. Furthermore, the Great Treatise says: 'The stage of dry wisdom, in the bodhisattva Dharma, is the forbearance of subduing; the nature stage, in the bodhisattva Dharma, is the compliant forbearance; the stage of the eight persons, for the bodhisattva, is the forbearance of the non-arising [of dharmas]; the stage of insight, for the bodhisattva, is the fruition of the forbearance of the non-arising [of dharmas]; the stage of thinning, for the bodhisattva, is named purity free from desire; the stage of freedom from desire, for the bodhisattva, is named playing with supernormal powers; the stage of having accomplished, for the śrāvaka, is named the Buddha stage, but for the bodhisattva is the forbearance of the non-arising of dharmas.' Therefore the Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikā says: 'Whether the cognition or the severing of a srotāpanna, it is the bodhisattva's forbearance of the non-arising of dharmas; up to, whether the cognition or the severing of a pratyekabuddha, it is the bodhisattva's forbearance of the non-arising of dharmas.' Since such treatises have themselves already separately addressed the bodhisattva, what fault can there be now in formulating the meaning according to this?