佛祖統紀 4.5

4.5

Speaking of nirvāṇa, it has two meanings. First, for those whose faculties were not yet ripened by the Lotus Sūtra, he subsequently preached the four teachings, comprehensively discussed the Buddha-nature, and caused them to know the true and permanent and enter the great nirvāṇa; this is called the teaching that gleans the remaining capacities (Sijiao yi). That is to say, the Tathāgata accommodated and ripened beings of gradual capacity, taking both the Lotus and Nirvāṇa as the latter teaching and the latter flavor. It is like a farming household where what is sown first ripens first and is harvested first, and what is sown later ripens later and is harvested later. Therefore, the eight thousand śrāvakas, the immeasurable bodhisattvas who cut off rebirths, the venerable Śāriputra, and others received prediction in the Lotus Sūtra, saw the Tathāgata-nature, and achieved the great fruit, like the autumn harvest and winter storage with nothing more to do; this was the former round, emerging from Mahāprajñā to enter the Lotus. If persons of dull faculties could not enter the Lotus, prajñā was further employed to wash them clean; like the five thousand who rose of themselves and the humans and devas who were transferred, for those who were not yet ripened, prajñā was discussed once more to enter nirvāṇa and see the Buddha-nature; this was the latter round, emerging from prajñā to enter the Great Nirvāṇa. Thus we know that the former round of the Lotus was like the great harvest of autumn completion, while the latter round of Nirvāṇa was like gleaning the leftovers (Xuan, fascicle 10).