Q: What reality does this Tripiṭaka Teaching clarify?

A: It clarifies the reality of the Four Noble Truths as the actual arising and perishing of conditioned co-arising.

Q: For whose sake is this taught?

A: It is taught as correct for those of the Hinayāna and as marginal for instructing the Bodhisattvas.

Q: The Buddha first exposed [the doctrine of] the three vehicles within the Tripiṭaka Teaching. The Mahāyāna is the supreme teaching. Why is not the Mahāyāna presented as correct and the Hinayāna as marginal?

A: At the Deer Park the Buddha first preached the sermon on the Four Noble Truths. Five men, Ājñāta-Kauṇḍinya and so forth, perceived the truth and realized the Path, and eighty thousand divine beings attained pure insight into the truth. However, since this was the attainment of the Hinayāna Path, there was not yet any attainment of the Mahāyāna. So the Hinayāna was taught as correct and the Mahāyāna as marginal.

Q: Who are the Hinayānist, and who are the Mahāyānists?

A: The Śrāvakas and Pratyekabuddhas are the Hinayānists. The Bodhisattvas are the Mahāyānists.