釋淨土群疑論 6.51

6.51

釋曰：此不成例。佛無九品差殊，悉須萬德齊備，必假長時長劫方始道成正覺。《法華經》為對聲聞之人作如此說。但能發無上菩提之心，乃至散亂念佛，終是佛果之因。後能廣修諸度，即得成等正覺。聲聞縱多修道，不趣無上菩提，為此不能成無上果也。彼經為對聲聞會二歸一，故作是說，不例《觀經》等往生義也。一聲十聲念佛功德，雖得往生淨土，還是凡夫。眾生往生九品不同，許其行有多少，還是凡夫所攝，何妨一念即生佛土。若無九品差別，為因皆須一種，必須具修萬行方成十方世雄，故不可為例也。

The explanation says: This does not constitute an analogy. Buddhahood has no distinctions of nine grades; it completely requires all ten thousand virtues to be fully prepared, and must depend on long times and long kalpas before the Path of Right Awakening is accomplished. The Lotus Sūtra made this statement for the sake of the śrāvakas. If only one can generate the mind of supreme bodhi, even down to reciting the Buddha with a distracted mind, it ultimately serves as the cause for the fruit of buddhahood. When they can later extensively cultivate the various perfections, they will achieve equal and right awakening. Even if śrāvakas cultivate the Path extensively, they do not tend toward supreme bodhi, and for this reason they cannot accomplish the supreme fruit. That sūtra made this statement for the sake of the śrāvakas to converge the two [vehicles] and return them to the One, so it is not analogous to the principle of rebirth in the Pure Land found in the Guan jing and other texts. Through the merit of reciting the Buddha once or ten times, although one attains rebirth in the Pure Land, one is still a pṛthagjana. Living beings' rebirth in the Pure Land differs across nine grades, allowing for more or less practice; they are still subsumed under pṛthagjanas, so what prevents them from being reborn in the buddha-land in a single thought? If there were no distinctions among the nine grades and the causes all had to be of a single kind, one would have to cultivate all ten thousand practices fully before becoming a hero of the worlds of the ten directions. Therefore, it cannot be taken as an analogy.