止觀輔行傳弘決 3.40

3.40

Next, in explaining the perfect teaching, first citing the Great Nirvāṇa Sūtra means that fundamentally in reality there is no opening; it is for the sake of sentient beings that opening is expediently spoken of. The Lotus Sūtra is also like this. As for 'helping to manifest', opening the one real truth into two or three is called different expedients for what has been opened. Why is this? Once already opened, what has been opened is in turn used to help manifest the real. If considered in terms of principle, there is not even one real, let alone two or three. Merely praising the Buddha vehicle would cause people to give rise to slander and sink into suffering; it is for this meaning that one must explain 'helping to manifest'. One should explain 'different expedients' through two meanings. Spoken of separately, the Tripiṭaka [teaching] is different, whereas the shared [teaching's] truth contains the middle, so it is not called different. Spoken of broadly, all three teachings are called different expedients, because the teaching path of the distinctive teaching is not entirely identical [with the perfect], and all the more so the shared [teaching's] truth only contains it implicitly. Therefore one should know: it is opened for others, and united to reveal the real.