天台八教大意 1.4

1.4

Next, from Mṛgadāva up to Prajñāpāramitā, is called the gradual teaching. Since the two vehicles were entirely raw, precious medicine could not cure the base; without moving from the nine assemblies, he cast off the wondrous and donned the coarse. Passing across the sun, he entered the womb, took a consort, and fathered a son. Manifesting attainment at Mṛgadāva, he turned the wheel of Dharma of the four truths of arising and ceasing, causing the Hinayana to generate faith, first liberating the five men. In terms of the sequence of the metaphor, it is called the flavor of curd. Therefore Kāśyapa expressed his understanding, saying: 'He secretly dispatched two men by an expedient to draw near to him,' and so forth. Therefore the Nirvāṇa [Sūtra] says: 'From the twelve divisions of scriptures emerge the sūtras, just as from milk comes curd.' This is the second period.