I see, so because the Buddha saw the suffering of beings in the six realms and then taught the expedient means of the three vehicles Zhiyi collectively referred to this as the ten realms based on Chapter 2?tkp67 wrote: ↑Mon May 17, 2021 9:48 pmIf you read the previous and subsequent text within expedient means he addresses beings in the six realms and then voice hearers, pratyekabuddha and bodhisattavas respectively discriminating between them all. It is necessary to read it all on context but is far too great to post here in the entirety without violating the TOA.
btw, the passage to which I think you refer:
https://www.nichirenlibrary.org/en/lsoc/Content/2 Pg 76 -77 wrote:I see the living beings in the six paths, how poor and distressed they are, without merit or wisdom, how they enter the perilous road of birth and death, their sufferings continuing with never a break, how deeply they are attached to the five desires, like a yak enamored of its tail, blinding themselves with greed and infatuation, their vision so impaired they can see nothing. They do not seek the Buddha, with his great might, or the Law that can end their suffering, but enter deeply into erroneous views, hoping to shed suffering through greater suffering. For the sake of these living beings I summon up a mind of great compassion. When I first sat in the place of enlightenment and gazed at the tree and walked around it, for the space of three times seven days I pondered the matter in this way. The wisdom I have attained, I thought, is subtle, wonderful, the foremost. But living beings, dull in capacity, are addicted to pleasure and blinded by foolishness. With persons such as this, what can I say, how can I save them?
At that time the Brahma kings, along with the heavenly king Shakra, the four heavenly kings who guard the world, and the heavenly king Great Freedom, in company with the other heavenly beings and their hundreds and thousands and ten thousands of followers, reverently pressed their palms together and bowed, begging me to turn the wheel of the Law. Immediately I thought to myself that if I merely praised the buddha vehicle,
then the living beings, sunk in their suffering, would be incapable of believing in this Law. And if they rejected the Law and failed to believe in it,
they would fall into the three evil paths. It would be better if I did not preach the Law but quickly entered into nirvana. Then my thoughts turned to the buddhas of the past and the power of expedient means they had employed, and I thought that the way I had now attained should likewise be preached as three vehicles."