Q: What does it mean for the practitioners of the Four Teachings to sever delusions and [attain] the fruit of enlightenment?

A: Those of the two vehicles, of the Tripiṭaka Teaching, are basically involved in their own salvation and do not seek the fruit of Buddhahood. After a conversion of their mind they can attain mastery. Bodhisattvas, however, after three hundred incalculable aeons, fulfill the Buddhahood of the inferior vehicle by severing their bonds in a single moment through the thirty-four [correct] states of mind at the preparatory level. The lad of the Himalayas offered soft grass, and the Tathāgata accepted it and attained perfect awakening. Thus one [person] fulfilled the Buddha Path on a seat of grass under a tree. This is an inferior Buddha of transformation.

Next, those of the two vehicles in the Shared Teaching are the same as the Tripiṭaka Teaching. However, Bodhisattvas attain the enlightenment of Buddhahood sitting on an angel’s robe beneath a seven-jeweled tree by severing deluded views and attitudes and minute delusions and their habitual propensities, with the wisdom that comes when one’s final single thought corresponds [to reality as emptiness]. This is a superior Buddha of transformation.

Next, the practitioners of the Distinct Teaching cultivate practices over a period of time to attain the wisdom [gained] from gradual contemplation, and they fulfill the Buddhahood of Subtle Awakening under a seven-jeweled tree. This is a Buddha with a body accepted for the sake of saving others.

Next, the methods of the practitioners of the Perfect Teaching are different from [those of] the previous three. The reason is that with the threefold contemplation in a single thought [realizing that reality simultaneously has the threefold aspects of emptiness, conventional existence, and the Middle], one [realizes that] all is integrated and that there is not one color nor scent that is not the Buddha-nature. Without traversing the three aeons one immediately completes the practice of a [Bodhi]sattva, and without transcending one thought, one directly approaches the fruit of the ultimate Buddha Mahāvairocana. One fulfills perfect awakening on a seat of space. The triple body [of the Buddha] is perfectly complete, and there is no one [who is] superior. This result is truly the goal of this [Tendai] school.