四明尊者教行錄 3.52

3.52

Answer: This is because the ten stages in the Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikā contain the meanings of the three teachings of the Mahāyāna. For instance, the first stage bodhisattva is called patient suppression; the second and third stages are called compliant patience; from the fourth stage onward is called the patient cognition of non-arising, up to sporting with spiritual penetrations and purifying the Buddha land—all of these apply to the three teachings. Therefore, the Fuxing, in interpreting the tenth stage as "like a Buddha," says that if a practitioner who is received and grafted arrives here, having broken one grade of ignorance, they can also [manifest] the eight phases, hence they are called "like a Buddha." Is this not proof that the name and meaning of the ten stages apply across the three teachings? If so, why does the Fuxing, in explaining being received and grafted, say: "It means using the former teaching having a beginning but no end; having used the seventh and eighth stages, one does not reach the ninth and tenth. Then one uses the latter teaching having an end but no beginning, merely using the stages of direction and bhūmi without needing the abodes and practices; being joined and grafted in the middle, it gets the name of being grafted"? Does this not mean that after being received and grafted, one relies on the stages of the latter teaching? Answer: If judged by the scripture's text, there are no separate stages. But the Great Master grasped the profound import of the sūtra, and took the ten stages as applying across the three teachings; therefore, Jingxi elaborated upon it fully in terms of the stages of the two teachings, intending to differentiate the meaning of being received and grafted. To expand upon the text to resolve what was concise was indeed the author's intention.