宗鏡錄 88.15

88.15

Answer: If one discusses the Path, it must have its fruit. If there were no stages of practice, it would be [the way of] heavenly Māras and non-Buddhists. What is explained in the sūtras and treatises is subtle and difficult to know. The Tiantai teaching contains the text on the 'six degrees of identity'; the Benevolent King [Sūtra] provides the stages of the 'five kṣāntis'. For fear that people might fall into excessive conceit and grasp at understanding without practicing, all these were expounded by ancient sages, and I do not dare omit them. It is not out of presumption that I establish divergent tenets on my own; I only hope that later worthies will wish to comply with former models.