四明尊者教行錄 4.33

4.33

答：第四疏云：三根入初住，猶有利鈍不？記云：即此三根入住已後猶名三不？今據記主出問意者，入住之後，身子等為上根，飲光、滿慈等仍是中下耶？疏答云：真修體顯則無差降。此答意者，三根證理之後，縱起緣修，終不準前上根仍上、中根還中等也。故知為被根性求定，故云真修無差。若自判法身增道損生，寧無遲速耶？故有一念八念三世八世等異也。又問一生妙覺者，疏既有一念八番，《金光明》中復有生身十地，以此驗即身證妙覺非一向無。但為《華嚴經》中初發心時便成正覺之文，正是初住八相，世人多謂妙覺法身，則全失四十一位修證。是故今家凡判八相，多在無生位中。且龍女修證之文，及以南方成佛之相，難可的判高下，蓋發心畢竟二不別也。餘處所明，初登地住，三因開發。既得無生，則任運證於後位。且龍女畜生之報便證此位，即能八相，益物足顯速疾證也。若據《起信》，既是通伸衍門三教，定說劫數之文，恐是別教教道之義。若云馬鳴天台不可相違者，如天台判本門記別則一向不用天親本論，本論尚自去取，況通伸論耶？

Answer: The Commentary to the fourth fascicle states: 'When the three faculties enter the initial stage of abiding, are there still sharp and dull ones?' The Subcommentary states: 'After these same three faculties have entered the stage of abiding, are they still named three?' Now, based on the Subcommentary author's intended question: after entering the stage of abiding, are Śāriputra and the others still superior faculties, while Kāśyapa, Pūrṇa, and the others remain intermediate and inferior? The Commentary answers: 'When the essence of true cultivation is manifested, there is no disparity.' The meaning of this answer is: after the three faculties have realized the principle, even if they give rise to conditioned cultivation, it will never be based on the previous [hierarchy where] superior faculties remain superior and intermediate faculties remain intermediate. Thus we know that it is said that true cultivation has no disparity in order to adapt to faculties seeking certitude. But if one determines for oneself that the Dharmakāya increases the path and decreases rebirth, how could there not be slowness and speed? Hence there are disparities such as one thought-moment, eight thought-moments, three lifetimes, and eight lifetimes. Furthermore, regarding the question about [attaining] wondrous enlightenment in a single lifetime: since the Commentary mentions eight increments in a single thought-moment, and the Suvarṇaprabhāsa also mentions the ten bhūmis in the body of birth, using this to verify that realizing wondrous enlightenment in this very body is not entirely absent. It is only because the passage in the Avataṃsaka Sūtra stating that 'at the initial generating of the mind, one immediately attains right enlightenment' precisely refers to the eight phases of the initial stage of abiding, while worldly people mostly take it to be the Dharmakāya of wondrous enlightenment, thereby entirely missing the cultivation and realization of the forty-one stages. Therefore, whenever our school judges the eight phases, it mostly places them within the stage of the non-arising. Moreover, regarding the text on the dragon girl's cultivation and realization, and the phase of her attaining buddhahood in the southern realm, it is difficult to definitively determine higher or lower, because generating the mind and ultimate [attainment] are not distinct. As explained elsewhere, upon first ascending to the bhūmis and the stages of abiding, the three causes unfold. Having attained the non-arising, one then naturally realizes the subsequent stages. Furthermore, the dragon girl, with the retributive body of an animal, immediately realized this stage and was able to display the eight phases, benefiting beings, which sufficiently reveals swift realization. If one relies on the Awakening of Faith, since it generally expounds the three teachings of the Mahāyāna, the passage that definitively speaks of the number of kalpas is likely the meaning of the pedagogical path of the separate teaching. If it is said that Aśvaghoṣa and Tiantai must not contradict each other: just as when Tiantai judged the predictions of the Origin Section, it entirely refrained from using Vasubandhu's original treatise. If even that original treatise was subject to acceptance and rejection, how much more so a treatise that generally expounds [the teachings]?