四教義 6.12

6.12

Next, this should explain the stages of the twenty-seven worthies and sages entering the path through the door of emptiness in the Tripiṭaka teaching: practitioners of faith and of Dharma are the two worthies. When in the expedient path through the door of emptiness they generate genuine untaintedness, yet have not exhausted the delusions of view and lack practice, this is the proximate candidate for stream-entry; when the delusions of view are exhausted, it is called the fruit of stream-entry. When the understanding of emptiness grows brighter and one severs one to five grades of cultivation [delusions] of the desire realm, it is called candidate for once-returner; when six grades are completely severed, it is the fruit of once-returner. When seven or eight grades are severed, it is called candidate for non-returner; when the nine grades and five lower fetters of the desire realm are exhausted, it is the fruit of non-returner. There are eleven kinds of non-returners; taking along the fruit and practicing toward [the next] is the candidate for arhatship, advancing to sever cultivation [delusions] of the upper two realms; when the nine grades of neither-conceptualization-nor-non-conceptualization are exhausted, it is the fruit of arhatship. There are nine kinds of such arhats. There are two worthies and twenty-five sages, totaling twenty-seven worthies and sages, which are fully set forth in the Chéngshí lùn. However, their phenomenal details are manifold, broadly expounding the meaning of Mahāyāna. As for the Piṭaka door and the door of neither-existence-nor-emptiness, the sūtras do not set them forth in detail and treatises on them have not come to this land; how could one recklessly make judgments about them? Question: The two doors have not been translated and cannot be judged from afar; but since the door of emptiness explains stages superior to the Abhidharma, why discard the superior and use the inferior? Answer: Although the Abhidharma is inferior, it is the foundation of the Buddha's teachings; therefore, after the Buddha's decease, it circulated to benefit beings. Furthermore, when Mahāyāna sūtras and treatises refute the Hīnayāna, their engagement with the lesser vehicle mostly draws upon the door of existence in the Abhidharma and rarely upon the door of emptiness. Therefore, one must briefly set forth the door of existence in the Abhidharma as the foundation of the Buddha's teachings and the sequence of stages of worthies and sages.