摩訶止觀 7.4

7.4

The old [commentators] said: 'Exhausting views and thoughts at the sixth bhūmi is the three hundred; the seventh and eighth bhūmis are the four hundred; the ninth and tenth bhūmis are the five hundred.' This meaning contradicts the Mahāprajñāpāramitopadeśa, which takes the two vehicles as the four hundred; the path of the two vehicles is not the seventh or eighth bhūmis. The masters of the Mahāyānasaṃgraha consider the three realms as three hundred, and the two kinds of birth and death of expedient means and conditioned arising to complete the five hundred. But this does not encompass the meaning completely: furthermore, there are birth and death with remainder and birth and death without remainder—to which hundred do these belong? The masters of the Daśabhūmikā regard the ten faiths, abodes, practices, transferences, and bhūmis as the five hundred. This contradicts the Lotus Sūtra. The Lotus Sūtra creates the conjured city after passing three hundred yojanas, whereas this creates the conjured city at two hundred yojanas. Still others explain the three realms as three hundred, with the two vehicles completing the five hundred. This interpretation has three flaws: first, the conjured city is erected outside the three realms; how could the two vehicles, having emerged outside the three realms, not enter the city but travel further through four hundred and five hundred? Beyond four hundred and five hundred there is no conjured city; into what could they enter to be called the two vehicles? Second, only when the conjured city is dissolved can one advance; when the city has not yet dissolved, how could they rashly advance four hundred and five hundred? Third, the two vehicles enter the conjured city together; why would the śrāvakas be four hundred and the pratyekabuddhas be five hundred? Others consider the afflictions of the five entrenchments as five hundred. Yet the two vehicles have already severed four entrenchments, so the conjured city should be established beyond four hundred yojanas. Others consider severing the thoughts of the three realms as three hundred, [delusions like] dust and sand as four hundred, and ignorance as five hundred. This too is incorrect: yojanas originally metaphorize afflictions; why are the numerous views not counted, while the fewer thoughts are made three hundred?