成實論

CHAPTER 153: CESSATION OF THE DHARMA-MIND

Question: You previously said that the cessation of the three minds is called the Truth of Cessation. The causes and conditions for extinguishing the nominal mind have already been understood. What, then, is the Dharma-mind, and why must it be extinguished?

Answer: The mind that regards the five skandhas as real is called the Dharma-mind. By skillfully cultivating the wisdom of emptiness and seeing that the five skandhas are empty, one extinguishes this Dharma-mind.

Question: When practitioners contemplate the five skandhas as empty, does this mean that within the five skandhas there are no permanent dharmas, fixed dharmas, indestructible dharmas, immutable dharmas, self, or dharmas belonging to a self? Is it because these dharmas do not exist that this is called cultivating emptiness, rather than directly seeing the five skandhas as nonexistent?

Answer: Practitioners also do not see the five skandhas. Why is this? When practitioners cut off the mind, the conditioned mind ceases, and they attain a mind whose object is the unconditioned. Therefore, practitioners do not see the five skandhas but see only the cessation of the skandhas. Furthermore, if they saw the five skandhas, they would not see merely the cessation of the skandhas. Again, if they saw the five skandhas, this could not be called emptiness, because the skandhas would not be empty. Thus, the wisdom of emptiness would not be complete.

Question: Practitioners see form as empty because it is without self. As the sutra says: “Practitioners see this form as empty, and likewise consciousness as empty.” It should be understood that form and all the other skandhas are not nonexistent.

Answer: Although this is taught, it is not yet purified. As stated in the Sutra on the Seal of the Dharma: “Practitioners see that the characteristics of form and all other dharmas are impermanent, subject to decay, false, and deceptive, and they become disenchanted and detached.” This too is called emptiness, but it is not yet purified. Later, when such persons see the cessation of the five skandhas, their cultivation of this contemplation becomes pure. Therefore, one should understand the cessation of all the skandhas.

Question: Since wisdom takes conditioned dharmas as its objects, why can it not attain such purity?

Answer: Practitioners may at times give rise to the perception of the five skandhas and thereby regenerate the nominal mind. Therefore, a mind that takes conditioned dharmas as its objects cannot be purified. If they realize the cessation of the skandhas, the five skandhas no longer appear before them.

Because they accomplish cessation and extinguish the causes and conditions of nominal designation, nominal perceptions no longer follow them like shadows. It is like a tree that has been sawn down and burned until even its ashes and charcoal have entirely disappeared; only then does the perception of the tree cease and no longer follow like a shadow. This matter is likewise so.

Furthermore, the Buddha told Radha: “Break apart and utterly destroy the sentient being, causing it no longer to appear.” Another sutra also says: “Radha, break apart and utterly destroy form, up to and including consciousness, causing them no longer to appear.” It should therefore be understood that destroying the sentient being is the emptiness of nominal designation, while destroying form is called the emptiness of dharmas.

Furthermore, there are two contemplations: the contemplation of emptiness and the contemplation of no-self. The contemplation of emptiness means not seeing the nominally designated sentient being, just as one sees a jar as empty because there is no water in it. Likewise, because one sees that there is no person within the five skandhas, they are empty.

Not seeing any dharma is called no-self. Furthermore, the sutra says: “Upon attaining the wisdom of no-self, one is rightly liberated.” Therefore, one should understand that the cessation of the intrinsic nature of form, and the cessation of the intrinsic nature of feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness, are called no-self. No-self means the absence of intrinsic nature.

Question: If the absence of intrinsic nature is called no-self, then do the five skandhas truly not exist?

Answer: The five skandhas are truly empty; they exist only by virtue of conventional truth. Why is this? The Buddha said that all formations are like illusions and magical transformations; they exist by virtue of conventional truth. To exist by virtue of conventional truth is not to exist truly. Furthermore, the sutra teaches ultimate emptiness. This means that things are empty according to ultimate truth, not that they are empty according to conventional truth. Ultimate truth means that form is utterly empty and nonexistent, up to and including consciousness, which is utterly empty and nonexistent. Therefore, when people contemplate form and all other dharmas as empty, this is called seeing ultimate emptiness.

Question: If the five skandhas exist by virtue of conventional truth, why are form and the other dharmas called true truth?

Answer: They are said to exist for the sake of sentient beings. Some people conceive the five skandhas to possess the characteristic of true reality. For this reason, it is taught that although the five skandhas arise, they are empty according to ultimate truth.

Question: Does the sutra not say that karmic fruition exists, but that an agent cannot be apprehended?

Answer: When it is said, on the basis of dharmas, that an agent cannot be apprehended, this expresses the emptiness of nominal designation. As the sutra says, dharmas possess only nominal names. These nominal names are what are called ignorance, formations conditioned by ignorance, and so forth through aging-and-death, as well as suffering, its origin, and its cessation.

From these words, one should understand that the five skandhas are also empty according to ultimate truth. Furthermore, the Sutra on Great Emptiness says: “Suppose someone says, ‘This is aging-and-death.’ Or someone says that the body is identical with the spirit, or that the body is one thing and the spirit another. These statements differ, but their meaning is the same.

Those who hold such views are not my disciples and are not practitioners of the holy life.” If one negates that aging-and-death, one refutes nominal designation; if one negates this aging-and-death, one refutes the five skandhas. Yet it is also taught that birth conditions aging-and-death, and this is called the Middle Way. One should understand that according to ultimate truth, it is said that there is no aging-and-death, while according to conventional truth, it is said that birth conditions aging-and-death.

Moreover, just as the conception of a jar is transcended, according to ultimate truth there is no form. Furthermore, the sutra says: “Whatever dharma is deceptive is false; whatever dharma is not deceptive is called real.” All conditioned dharmas change and become otherwise and are therefore called deceptive. Because they are deceptive, they are false; because they are false, they do not truly exist.

As the verse says:

The world is bound by falsity,

Its appearances seeming fixed and certain.

Though unreal, it appears to exist;

Examined closely, all is empty.

One should understand that the skandhas are likewise empty. Furthermore, one is said to attain the Path by seeing the Truth of Cessation. Therefore, one should understand that cessation exists according to ultimate truth, whereas the skandhas do not.

If the skandhas truly existed, practitioners should attain the Path by seeing them as well. But in fact this is not so. Therefore, one should understand that the five skandhas do not exist according to ultimate truth.

Moreover, because the cessation of the skandhas is real, one should understand that the skandhas are not real. One should not say that the skandhas are real and that the absence of the skandhas is also real. Furthermore, whatever dharmas are seen are seen because of delusion.

Just as one whose eyes cannot be deceived does not see an illusion, so too, without ignorance, one would not see the skandhas. Therefore, the skandhas do not exist according to ultimate truth. Furthermore, the sutra says: “Wherever there is a self, there is a locus of disturbance.” Yet the self is conceived within the skandhas, as Ananda said: “The self is established in dependence upon dharmas,” meaning in dependence upon the skandha of form, up to and including the skandha of consciousness.

Furthermore, the elder bhiksus asked Khemaka: “What do you take to be the self?”

He replied: “I do not say that form is the self, nor do I say that the self is apart from form; and likewise through consciousness. I say only that the conceit ‘I am’ with regard to the five skandhas has not yet been eliminated.”

The meaning of this sutra is that, when a trainee’s mindfulness becomes distracted, conceit arises. If one gathers the mind and contemplates the cessation of the five skandhas, conceit will cease. Just as a flower is not identical with the roots, trunk, branches, or leaves, yet neither is it apart from these things, so too form and the rest are not the self, yet neither is the self apart from form and the rest.

Thus, when the causes and conditions for self cease, conceit does not arise. Therefore, one should know that the skandhas are also empty. Furthermore, the practitioner should extinguish all characteristics in order to realize the signless.

If characteristics truly existed, why would one not recollect them? This is unlike non-Buddhist practitioners who, when separated from form, know that form truly exists but do not recollect it. The practitioner must see that form and the other skandhas are completely extinguished.

Because one sees their complete cessation, this is called entering the signless. Therefore, one should know that form and the rest are not ultimate truth. Furthermore, whenever the five skandhas exist, the thought of self exists.

One should know that when the five skandhas do not exist, the thought of self ceases. Therefore, all the skandhas are empty.

Furthermore, in the Discourse on the Lump of Foam, the Buddha said: “Just as a person sees a lump of foam and, upon examining it carefully, knows that it is not real, so too, when a bhikshu rightly contemplates the skandha of form, he knows it to be deceptive, impermanent, insubstantial, and characterized by disintegration. He contemplates feeling as a water bubble, perception as a mirage, formations as a plantain tree, and consciousness as an illusion; these are likewise so.” These five similes all clearly reveal the meaning of emptiness. Why is this? Because when the lump of foam seen by the eye dissolves completely, it returns to nothingness. Water bubbles and the rest are likewise. Therefore, one should know that the skandhas do not truly exist.

Furthermore, the Buddha’s disciples become deeply disenchanted with samsara because they see that all dharmas have from the beginning been unborn and without anything that can be possessed. Seeing impermanence can only give rise to the painful characteristic of decay and destruction. Only by seeing the absence of intrinsic nature, with no other characteristic remaining, can one fully comprehend the suffering inherent in formations. The complete comprehension of these three kinds of suffering is called attaining liberation. One should know that all dharmas are empty.

Furthermore, emptiness is a gateway to liberation. This emptiness is not merely the emptiness of sentient beings; conditioned dharmas are also empty. As it is said, when the eye arises, it does not come from anywhere; when it ceases, it does not go anywhere. Thus one knows that the eye of the past and future is empty. The eye in the present is likewise empty because it can be analyzed into the four great elements. As the Buddha said concerning the eye: Within its visible form, whatever is solid and dependent upon solidity is called the earth element, and so forth. If one realizes this emptiness, one says that there is nothing whatsoever.

It is also said: The ending of all formations is called the nature of severance; relinquishment is called the nature of detachment; cessation is called the nature of extinction. Therefore, one should know that all formations cease. If they truly existed, there could be no severance, detachment, or extinction. Extinction means emptiness. Therefore, one should know that, according to ultimate truth, all formations are nonexistent. It is only according to conventional truth that formations exist.

CHAPTER 154: COMPLETE CESSATION

If nirvana is taken as the object, this is called the mind of emptiness.

Question: Since nirvana is an unconditioned dharma, upon what does the mind take as its object?

Answer: This mind takes nonexistence as its object. This matter was already clarified above through the knowledge of nirvana.

Question: Where does this mind of emptiness cease?

Answer: It ceases in two places: first, upon entering the cessation attainment, which is a concentration without mind; and second, upon entering nirvana without remainder, when the continuum is severed and it ceases. Why is this? Because when its causes and conditions cease, this mind also ceases. In the mindless cessation attainment, it ceases because its object has ceased; when the continuum is severed, it ceases because karma has been exhausted. The author of the treatise says: If a practitioner can extinguish these three minds, then karma and the afflictions will certainly never arise again.

Question: Why will they not arise?

Answer: Because this person has perfected selflessness, he can extinguish karma and the afflictions. It is like black lamp-smoke: when it has something on which to rest, it remains; when it has nothing on which to rest, it does not remain. Likewise, if the thought of self serves as a support, karma and the afflictions accumulate; without it, they do not accumulate.

Furthermore, undefiled right view burns away all characteristics without leaving any remainder, just as the conflagration at the end of a kalpa consumes the earth and all else, leaving nothing behind. Because there are no characteristics, karma and the afflictions no longer accumulate. Furthermore, when the thought of self exists, karma and the afflictions accumulate.

Arhats thoroughly comprehend the wisdom of emptiness, and because they have no thought of self, they accumulate no more.

Question: Although this person accumulates no new karma, why is he not reborn on account of old karma?

Answer: Because this person destroys that karma by means of right wisdom, it can no longer yield retribution, just as roasted seeds can no longer sprout. Furthermore, if there is no craving, created karma cannot yield retribution, just as seeds cannot sprout in soil that is not moist. Furthermore, this practitioner extinguishes all characteristics with respect to the stations of consciousness.

Because consciousness has nothing on which to depend, it has nowhere to arise, just as seeds without a supporting ground cannot sprout. Furthermore, only when karma and the afflictions are both present can one receive a body; when these conditions are incomplete, that possibility is extinguished. This person is without afflictions, and therefore the necessary causes and conditions are incomplete.

Even though karma exists, he cannot undergo rebirth.

Furthermore, sentient beings receive bodies in the various destinies because of the afflictions. Because they receive bodies, the karma associated with those bodies can produce its fruit of retribution. If there are no afflictions, they do not receive bodies.

If they do not receive bodies, how could karma produce its fruit of retribution? It is like a debtor who relies upon a powerful patron, so that the creditor can do nothing to him. The practitioner is likewise: if he no longer abides in samsara, then even though karma exists, it cannot yield retribution.

Furthermore, it is like people who are bound and may be freely reviled by those who are not bound. Likewise, sentient beings bound by the afflictions receive retribution according to the quantity of their karma. Once liberated, the afflictions can do nothing to them.

Furthermore, one’s own karma is capable of yielding its fruit of retribution. This person cultivates the practice of emptiness and therefore perceives no intrinsic characteristic in any dharma. Thus, karma cannot yield retribution, just as when one employs one’s own son as a servant, one need not pay wages.

This matter is likewise. Furthermore, the power of the afflictions is capable of setting karma in motion. When the strength of the afflictions is exhausted, there is no one to set karma in motion.

It is like a wheel that still exists but, when its driving force is exhausted, no longer turns. Furthermore, the power of the afflictions can transform karma, just as a mother’s blood turns into milk because of her love for her child; when that loving concern ends, the blood is not transformed. Likewise, it is through the power of the afflictions that karma can produce retribution; apart from them, it cannot.

Furthermore, through the merits of morality, concentration, and wisdom, this person has cultivated the body and acquired immense strength, and therefore karma can do nothing to him. Thus, although karma exists, it cannot yield retribution. In this way, while this person’s old karma still remains, he experiences only a small amount of retribution and creates no new karma. It is like a fire burning wood: when the wood is exhausted, the fire goes out. This person is likewise. Because he receives no further existence, he attains cessation; because he extinguishes the three minds, he is definitively liberated from all suffering. Therefore, the wise should extinguish the three minds.

End of the Section on the Truth of Cessation.

CHAPTER 155: THE CAUSES OF CONCENTRATION, IN THE TREATISE ON CONCENTRATION, SECTION ON THE TRUTH OF THE PATH

The author of the treatise says: We shall now discuss the Truth of the Path. The Truth of the Path is the eightfold right and direct path, from right view through right concentration. This Noble Eightfold Path is explained under two headings: the first is samadhi and its requisites; the second is wisdom. We shall now discuss samadhi.

Question: What is the characteristic of samadhi?

Answer: The mind’s abiding upon a single object is the characteristic of samadhi.

Question: How can this mind abide upon a single object?

Answer: It can abide upon whatever object in which it has been extensively trained. If it has not been extensively trained, it will quickly abandon that object.

Question: How does one train?

Answer: One trains in accordance with what one delights in.

Question: How does delight arise?

Answer: Heaviness of body and mind is called suffering. By using the means of pliancy to remove the coarse and heavy characteristics of body and mind, delight can arise.

Question: How does pliancy arise?

Answer: Through the causes and conditions of gladness, body and mind become harmonious and joyful.

Question: How does joy arise?

Answer: By recollecting the Three Jewels, hearing the Dharma, and so forth, the mind develops appreciation, and joy arises.

Question: How does appreciation arise?

Answer: Through pure observance of the precepts, the mind gives rise to no remorse.

Question: The causes of samadhi have already been explained. Now, of what in turn is samadhi the cause?

Answer: It is the cause of knowledge of things as they truly are. Knowledge of things as they truly are is the knowledge of emptiness. As it is said, when a practitioner has thus collected the mind, purified the mind, removed the hindrances from the mind, established the mind, and made the mind immovable, he then knows as they truly are the Noble Truth of suffering, the Noble Truth of its origination, its cessation, and the path.

Therefore, whoever wishes to attain knowledge of things as they truly are must diligently and vigorously cultivate samadhi. A person whose mind is distracted cannot even obtain the benefits of worldly learning, literary studies, crafts, and skills, much less the benefits of the supramundane. One should understand that all worldly and supramundane benefits are attained only through a concentrated mind.

Moreover, all excellent good arises through right knowledge, while all evil arises through wrong knowledge. As stated in the sutra: “Ignorance is the leader, and lack of conscience and moral dread are its attendants, giving rise to every evil. Here, insight is made the leader, and conscience and moral dread its attendants, giving rise to the cultivation of every good.” Samadhi is the cause of right knowledge and wisdom.

Thus, one should know that all excellent good depends upon samadhi. Therefore, one must diligently and vigorously cultivate it.

CHAPTER 156: THE CHARACTERISTICS OF CONCENTRATION

Question: You say that the mind abiding in one place is the characteristic of samadhi. Are samadhi and the mind one, or are they different?

Answer: Samadhi is not different from the mind. Some say that samadhi is different from the mind, because only when the mind acquires samadhi does it become settled in one place. Although this is said, the meaning is incorrect.

If, upon acquiring samadhi, the mind can abide in that object of cognition, then this samadhi must also abide in that object and, logically, must in turn depend upon another samadhi as the cause enabling it to abide there. This would continue without end, which is impossible. If this samadhi naturally abides in that mind, the same reasoning applies: it should abide without depending upon samadhi.

Therefore, to say that samadhi is different from the mind is meaningless. Furthermore, mental factors such as feeling and perception also abide in an object of cognition. By what dharma are they caused to abide there?

This must be explained. If feeling, perception, and the other mental factors each possess samadhi, the same fault as before follows. Moreover, the sutras merely state that one-pointedness of mind is the characteristic of samadhi; they do not say that the mind abides because it acquires samadhi.

Thus, one should know that this view is incorrect. Furthermore, they speak only of one-pointedness of mind and do not separately mention other dharmas. As explained previously, the mind abides wherever it delights in its object.

One should understand that there is no samadhi separate from the mind; when the mind abides for a long time, this is called samadhi.

Question: Is this samadhi with outflows or without outflows?

Answer: There are two kinds of samadhi: with outflows and without outflows. Worldly meditative concentrations are with outflows, while the samadhis present upon entering the Stage of the Dharma are called without outflows. Why is this?

Because at that time there is knowledge and vision of things as they truly are. At that time, it is called both samadhi and wisdom: because the mind is collected, it is called samadhi; because there is knowledge of things as they truly are, it is called wisdom. Collectedness of mind is of three kinds: wholesome, unwholesome, and indeterminate.

Of these, wholesome collectedness of mind is samadhi, but unwholesome and indeterminate collectedness are not. This samadhi is also of two kinds: first, that which is a cause of liberation; second, that which is not a cause of liberation. That which is a cause of liberation is called the faculty of concentration.

Some masters of the treatises say that only concentration without outflows is called the faculty of concentration. This statement is incorrect. Any concentration, whether with outflows or without outflows, that can serve as a cause of liberation may be called the faculty of concentration.

Because this samadhi is distinguished according to the object upon which it abides, it is divided into three kinds: small, great, and immeasurable. When the mind abides only briefly and perceives only a small object, this is called small. The other two kinds should be understood in the same way.

Furthermore, according to the occasion, there are three characteristics: the characteristic of restraint, the characteristic of arousal, and the characteristic of equanimity. When the mind sinks, the characteristic of arousal should be applied. When the mind is agitated, the characteristic of restraint should be applied.

When the mind is harmonious and joyful, the characteristic of equanimity should be applied. It is like a goldsmith refining gold: at times he places it in a blazing fire, at times he immerses it in water, and at times he leaves it alone. If it is continually heated, it will melt away; if it is continually immersed, it will become rigid; and if it is continually left alone, it will not become pliable.

The practitioner’s mind is likewise: if it is agitated and not restrained, it will remain scattered; if it is sunken and not aroused, it will become indolent; and if it is harmonious but not released into equanimity, it will again lose its balance. It is also like training a horse: if it goes too fast, one reins it in; if it goes too slowly, one urges it onward; if its pace is appropriate, one lets it proceed. The practitioner’s regulation of the mind is likewise.

Furthermore, this samadhi has three skillful means: the skillful means of entering concentration, the skillful means of abiding in concentration, and the skillful means of emerging from concentration. Entering concentration in accordance with the Dharma is the skillful means of entering concentration; remaining in concentration without wavering is the skillful means of abiding in concentration; and emerging from concentration in accordance with the Dharma is the skillful means of emerging from concentration.

Question: How are these three skillful means attained?

Answer: The practitioner apprehends the characteristics of his own mind: by restraining it in this way and arousing it in this way, he can enter concentration. Abiding in and emerging from concentration are likewise.

Question: One need only regard concentration as supreme; why is it necessary to employ skillful means?

Answer: If these three kinds of skillful means are not developed, errors will occur. One will be unable to act at will: when wishing to enter concentration, one instead emerges; when wishing to emerge, one instead enters. Such errors occur. Furthermore, one may regard benefit as harm and harm as benefit. For example, upon seeing a little pure form or a little light, one may think that a great benefit has already been attained. Or, while contemplating impermanence, suffering, emptiness, and so forth, the mind may fail to delight, and one may then regard this as harm.

Question: Why do some practitioners attain concentration while others do not?

Answer: There are four causes and conditions for attaining concentration: first, diligently practicing in this present life; second, having the requisite conditions from a previous life; third, skillfully apprehending the characteristics of concentration; and fourth, relying upon the methods of concentration. Furthermore, there are four ways of cultivating concentration: first, practicing constantly but not with one-pointed mind; second, practicing with one-pointed mind but not training constantly; third, both training constantly and practicing with one-pointed mind; and fourth, neither training constantly nor practicing with one-pointed mind.

There are also four further kinds: those with much goodness but little wisdom; those with little goodness but much wisdom; those with much goodness and much wisdom; and those with little goodness and little wisdom. Among these, the third kind of practitioner is certain to attain concentration, while the fourth cannot attain it. The first and second can attain it if goodness and wisdom are harmonized and brought into balance.

CHAPTER 157: THE THREE SAMADHIS

Question: The sutras speak of three samadhi dharmas: samadhi cultivated in one part, samadhi cultivated in conjunction, and noble right samadhi. What is each of these dharmas?

Answer: Cultivation in one part means cultivating concentration without cultivating wisdom, or cultivating wisdom without cultivating concentration. Cultivation in conjunction means cultivating both concentration and wisdom. This is worldly samadhi within the dharmas beginning with Warmth.

Noble right samadhi means that, upon entering the Stage of the Dharma, one is able to realize the Truth of Cessation; this is called noble and right. How is this known? A venerable bhiksu said to a practitioner: “When the mind is cultivated through concentration, wisdom can restrain the afflictions.

When the mind is cultivated through both concentration and wisdom, concentration can restrain the afflictions. When the mind is cultivated through both concentration and wisdom, liberation by nature is attained.” This means the nature of severance, the nature of detachment, and the nature of cessation. Moreover, because concentration and wisdom are simultaneously complete, it is called noble and right, just as liberation attained through both concentration and wisdom is called liberation through both.

Question: Some say: Cultivation in one part means that through samadhi one sees light but does not see forms, or sees forms but does not see light. Cultivation in conjunction means that one sees both forms and light. Noble and right refers to the samadhi attained by those in training and those beyond training. What of this?

Answer: No sutra says that one sees only light but does not see forms. The sutra merely says, “Previously, I saw light and also saw forms.” Moreover, you must explain the reason why one would see light but not forms. Assertions of this kind are erroneous.

Question: Furthermore, the sutras speak of three samadhis: emptiness, signlessness, and wishlessness. How do these three samadhis differ?

Question: If the practitioner sees neither sentient beings nor dharmas, this is called emptiness. In such emptiness, there is no characteristic that can be apprehended; this emptiness is therefore called signlessness. Within emptiness, there is nothing whatsoever to be wished for; this emptiness is called wishlessness. Thus, although there are three, their meaning is one.

Question: If so, why speak of three?

Answer: The function of this emptiness is that emptiness must be cultivated. The benefit gained by cultivating emptiness is that one does not perceive characteristics. Because one does not perceive characteristics, there is signlessness. Because there is signlessness, one wishes for nothing. Because one wishes for nothing, one does not assume another body. Because one does not assume another body, one can attain liberation from all suffering. Benefits such as these all arise through the cultivation of emptiness. Therefore, three must be spoken of.

Question: Some masters of the treatises say: If, in samadhi, one cultivates emptiness and non-self, this is called emptiness. If one cultivates impermanence, suffering, the cause of arising, and the conditions of the Path, such as the practice of emergence, this is called wishlessness. If one cultivates cessation, rectitude, wondrousness, and detachment, this is called signlessness. What of this?

Answer: Your statement that cultivating impermanence and suffering is called wishlessness is unreasonable. Why? Because the Buddha often said, “Whatever is impermanent is suffering, and whatever is suffering is non-self.” When one knows non-self, one no longer wishes for anything.

Thus, one should know that it is also because of emptiness that one ceases to wish. If one says that practicing the cause of arising and its conditions is called wishlessness, this may have some reason. Why?

Because the sutra says: “Only when one sees that all characteristics of arising are characteristics of cessation does disenchantment and detachment arise.” Moreover, there should be no practice of wishlessness within the Path. Why? Because wishing is one aspect of craving.

As the sutra says: “Wishes—superior, middling, or inferior—do not give rise to craving within the Path.” Therefore, there is no practice of wishlessness. Furthermore, the sutra says: “Because the five skandhas cease, it is called cessation.” One should know that where the five skandhas do not exist, this is called emptiness. Emptiness itself is cessation.

Within it there is wishlessness. It is because of craving for a body that wishes arise. Thus, one should know that although these are three, their meaning is one, and they should not be regarded as different.

Question: Furthermore, the sutra speaks of three samadhis: emptiness of emptiness, wishlessness of wishlessness, and signlessness of signlessness. What are these respectively?

Answer: Through emptiness, one sees that the five skandhas are empty; then one sees another emptiness that can empty that former emptiness. This is called emptiness of emptiness. Through wishlessness, one becomes disenchanted with the five skandhas; then through another wishlessness, one becomes disenchanted with that former wishlessness. This is called wishlessness of wishlessness. Through signlessness, one sees the five skandhas as quiescent and extinguished; then one employs another signlessness so as not to apprehend that former signlessness. This is called signlessness of signlessness.

Question: Some masters of the treatises say that these three samadhis are with outflows. What of this?

Answer: They are not with outflows. Why? Because at that time there are no outflows capable of making them so. Furthermore, these samadhis are superior even to emptiness and the others; how could they be said to be with outflows?

Question: If emptiness and the other three samadhis are true wisdom, why are they called samadhis?

Answer: It is because samadhis differ from one another. Furthermore, because samadhi can produce knowledge and vision in accordance with reality, it is called samadhi. This is naming the cause in terms of its result.

Question: Some masters of the treatises say that only those beyond training attain these three samadhis—emptiness of emptiness and the others—and not anyone else. What of this?

Answer: Those still in training should also attain them. Why? Because practitioners should realize the cessation of all dharmas, both with outflows and without outflows. Therefore, those still in training must also realize the cessation of dharmas without outflows.

CHAPTER 158: THE FOUR CULTIVATIONS OF SAMADHI

There is the cultivation of samadhi for present happiness; the cultivation of samadhi for knowledge and vision; the cultivation of samadhi for discerning wisdom; and the cultivation of samadhi for the exhaustion of the outflows. The samadhis capable of bringing present happiness are the second dhyana and the others. How is this known? Because the Buddha said: “In the second dhyana, joy and happiness arise from samadhi.” It is therefore named for this and not for other dharmas, just as entering the city of Sravasti is said to be for the sake of the meal.

Question: The first dhyana also contains joy and happiness. Why is it not said to possess present happiness?

Answer: The first dhyana is intermingled with applied and sustained thought, which can scatter the mind; therefore, it is not said to possess present happiness.

Question: The second dhyana also contains joy and other mental dharmas that can disturb the mind. Why, then, is it called happiness?

Answer: Because applied and sustained thought have previously ceased and the mind is deeply collected, joy and the others are then spoken of as happiness. Yet because conditioned activity is suffering, all of it is called suffering. Furthermore, in the first dhyana suffering is coarse, while in the second dhyana suffering is subtle. Because the suffering is subtle, it can be called happiness.

Question: In the second dhyana and the others, there is also the practice leading to happiness in a future life. Why, then, is it said to be only for present happiness?

Answer: It is like teaching King Ajatasatru the present fruit of the life of a renunciant. It is also spoken of because it is near at hand. Moreover, present happiness is taught in order to overcome the pleasures of the five desires.

Those who are attached to the pleasures of the five desires cannot attain the dhyanas and samadhis; it is for this reason that this is taught. Those who can abandon the pleasures of the five desires will attain a happiness surpassing present happiness. Furthermore, the Buddhas do not praise assuming another body hereafter, and therefore do not speak of happiness in a future life.

Moreover, worldly people say that householders are happy and renunciants are not. Furthermore, all four methods of cultivating samadhi are for present happiness, but because the first is named according to its cause, present happiness is mentioned only in connection with it.

Question: If these four methods of cultivating samadhi can accomplish many kinds of benefit, why are only four benefits mentioned?

Answer: Benefits are of two kinds: worldly benefits and supramundane benefits. The second cultivation of samadhi concerns worldly benefits, namely, knowledge and vision. Knowledge refers to benefits such as the eight liberating spheres and the ten totality spheres; vision refers to benefits such as the five superknowledges.

Why? Because these benefits can be seen with the eye, they are called vision. These attainments are accomplished by means of light; therefore, knowledge and vision refers to the characteristic of light.

The other two are supramundane benefits: discerning the five skandhas by wisdom is called discerning wisdom. Thus the sutra says: “A practitioner with discerning wisdom is able to know separately any feelings, cognitions, and perceptions that arise.” To know cognition separately is to recognize the cognition that grasps a self. How can it be rendered nonexistent?

It is by discerning that perceptions of male and female and the like are mere conventional designations. If this perception is overcome, there are no cognitions arising from perception. As the sutra says: “What are cognitions caused by?

By what is called perception.” Therefore, if this perception is overcome, there are no cognitions arising from perception. As the sutra says: “What are cognitions caused by? By what is called perception.” Thus, one should know that when perception alone is overcome, there is no cognition.

Because cognitions are empty, feelings are also empty. One should therefore know that, because conventional designations are overcome, this is called discerning wisdom. Through discerning wisdom, the outflows are exhausted.

As the sutra says: “Because the practitioner contemplates the characteristics of the arising and cessation of the five skandhas, the practitioner realizes the cessation of the skandhas.” Thus, one knows that all worldly and supramundane benefits are encompassed within these four methods.

Question: Some masters of the treatises say that, within the fourth dhyana, one can realize the unobstructed path leading to the fruit of arhatship, and this is called the exhaustion of the outflows. What of this?

Answer: There is no distinctive cause or condition here by which only the unobstructed path within the fourth dhyana should be called the exhaustion of the outflows, while other dharmas should not. Therefore, this is unreasonable. Furthermore, samadhi is cultivated for three benefits: first, for present happiness; second, for knowledge and vision; and third, for severing the fetters. Sometimes two are taught. Thus it is said: because there is the ultimate exhaustion; because there is excellent purity; because birth and death are ended; and because the various kinds of natures are discerned. This is the Path taught by the One with Eyes. Among these, the first three speak of severance, and the last speaks of wisdom. Here the Buddha did not speak of the present.

CHAPTER 159: THE FOUR IMMEASURABLE SAMADHIS

Loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity. Loving-kindness means a benevolent heart, the opposite of anger, like a good spiritual friend. A good spiritual friend always seeks peace and benefit for others. The practitioner is likewise, always seeking peace and happiness for all sentient beings. Therefore, this person becomes a good spiritual friend to all sentient beings.

Question: What are the characteristics of a good spiritual friend?

Answer: People always seek mutual benefit and happiness in this life and the next; they certainly do not oppose one another by seeking what is useless. The practitioner is likewise: solely for the sake of sentient beings, the practitioner seeks what brings peace and happiness, not what brings suffering.

Compassion is called the mind of loving-kindness and is opposed to affliction and harm. Why is this? Because it likewise seeks peace and happiness for sentient beings.

Question: Is there any difference between anger and harmfulness?

Answer: When a thought of anger arises within and one wishes to strike or harm a sentient being, and bodily or verbal karma arises from that anger, this is called harmfulness. Moreover, anger is the cause of harm, for one who harbors anger will be determined to inflict harm until the purpose is accomplished.

Sympathetic joy is called the mind of loving-kindness and is opposed to envy. Envy means that, upon seeing another’s good fortune, one’s mind cannot endure it and consequently gives rise to resentment and anger. When the practitioner sees all sentient beings obtaining benefits and advantages, the practitioner feels great joy, just as if personally receiving those benefits.

Question: Are all three of these dharmas loving-kindness?

Answer: They are three distinctions within the mind of loving-kindness. Why is this? Freedom from anger is loving-kindness.

Yet some people, although not prone to anger, are unable to feel sympathy upon seeing sentient beings suffer. If one deeply cultivates loving-kindness toward all sentient beings, like a person who sees their child urgently beset by suffering and harm, then the mind of loving-kindness is transformed and called the mind of compassion. Some people can feel sympathy for the suffering and injury of others, yet cannot feel joy at the benefits others receive.

How may this be known? Some, upon seeing an enemy or robber suffer, may occasionally feel sympathy; yet upon seeing their own child achieve a victory or accomplishment surpassing their own, they still cannot rejoice. When the practitioner sees all sentient beings obtain benefits and gives rise to joy as though personally receiving them, without any difference, this is called sympathetic joy.

One should therefore know that compassion and sympathetic joy are distinctions within the mind of loving-kindness.

Question: What is equanimity, and why is it called equanimity?

Answer: When one distinguishes enemies from loved ones, the mind of loving-kindness is not impartial: one treats loved ones with incomparable esteem, but treats enemies with extreme coldness. Compassion and sympathetic joy are likewise. Therefore, when the practitioner wishes to make the mind impartial, the practitioner relinquishes attachment toward loved ones and enmity toward enemies. Only thereafter does loving-kindness become impartial toward all sentient beings. Compassion and sympathetic joy are likewise. Therefore, the sutra says: “To put an end to hatred and affection, one should cultivate the mind of equanimity.”

Question: If so, is there no distinct mind of equanimity, and is it merely the impartial mind that is called equanimity?

Answer: I have already said that compassion, sympathetic joy, and the others are distinctions within loving-kindness. Furthermore, because the mind of loving-kindness has inferior, middling, and superior grades, it has three kinds. That which can render these three impartial is therefore called equanimity. Thus it is said that one cultivates the third dhyana through the superior grade of loving-kindness.

Question: By what means can this mind of loving-kindness be attained?

Answer: The faults of anger will be explained later. Having understood these faults, one should cultivate loving-kindness. As the sutra says: “One who cultivates loving-kindness sleeps peacefully and awakens peacefully, sees no evil dreams, is protected by devas and loved by human beings, is not harmed by poison or weapons, and is not injured by water.” How could all the karmic retributions born from anger compare with such benefits?

Hearing of these benefits, one should diligently cultivate it. Furthermore, the practitioner reflects: “When I give rise to anger, I myself undergo its karmic result; no one else undergoes it in my place. Therefore, I should not be angry but should cultivate loving-kindness.” The practitioner further reflects: “If, on account of some slight evil, I inflict harm upon another, I shall myself undergo evils a hundred times greater and beyond comparison.

I should therefore abandon evil.” Furthermore, the sutra teaches five causes and conditions for eliminating anger, which one should constantly recollect. Anger, moreover, is unworthy of a practitioner. One should also reflect upon that person’s beneficial and wholesome deeds and put aside their evil deeds; then one’s anger will naturally cease.

One should also contemplate that person’s causes and conditions in previous and future lives: in a previous life, this person may have been my mother, carrying me in her womb, giving birth to me, nurturing me, and enduring hardship for my sake; or may have been my father, elder brother, younger brother, wife, or child. How, then, could I be angry? One further reflects: “In a future life, this person may become my father, mother, elder brother, or younger brother; or may become an arhat, a pratyekabuddha, or a Buddha.

How, then, would I dare be angry?” One also sees that evil people, because they commit evil, suffer in both this life and the next. Therefore, one should not be angry. One should also carefully contemplate whether that person’s nature is good or evil.

If the person is evil and does evil to me, why should anger arise? When fire burns someone, who becomes angry at the fire? One also sees that the person is oppressed by discriminating thoughts and lacks self-mastery, as though possessed by a spirit; why, then, become angry?

Moreover, by whatever causes and conditions one cultivates patience, one should recollect that Dharma; anger will then cease, and loving-kindness will increase. Regarding the merit of patience, the practitioner should reflect: “If I become angry with another, I am as base and ignoble as that person, without any difference. Therefore, I should be patient.” As the Buddha said in verse:

Just as a trained elephant

Endures swords and arrows,

So too shall I

Endure all evils.

Another verse says:

Abusive and malicious speech,

Humiliation and anger—

Petty people cannot endure them,

Like a stone sinking in the rain.

Abusive and malicious speech,

Humiliation and anger—

Great persons can endure them,

Like flowers raining upon an elephant.

Therefore, one should be patient. Furthermore, one should transform these evil deeds into merit, so that all such evils consequently become merit. The practitioner also understands that these sentient beings are foolish and ignorant, like little children, and therefore should not be met with anger. By these means, one can cultivate loving-kindness.

Question: How does one cultivate compassion?

Answer: Seeing that sentient beings have little happiness and much suffering, the practitioner gives rise to compassion: “How could I bear to add further suffering to these already suffering sentient beings?” Seeing also that sentient beings are excessively attached to pleasures, the practitioner thinks: “How can I now put an end to their craving?” and therefore gives rise to compassion. Moreover, upon seeing sentient beings in pain, one understands that they suffer because of their present pain; upon seeing sentient beings enjoying happiness, one understands that they suffer because it is impermanent. Thus all sentient beings have a share in suffering, sooner or later, and none can escape it. Because of these causes and conditions, one gives rise to compassion.

Question: How does one cultivate sympathetic joy?

Answer: The practitioner sees that those who envy the gains of others bear the mark of baseness and ignobility, and therefore cultivates sympathetic joy, thinking: “I ought to bestow happiness upon sentient beings, but now they have obtained it by themselves; thus they have assisted me.” Therefore, one gives rise to joy. The practitioner also sees that envy is futile and useless: it cannot harm anyone else but instead harms oneself. Moreover, as the sutra explains the faults of envy, one should give rise to joy in order to abandon those faults.

Question: How does one cultivate equanimity?

Answer: Seeing the fault of an inequitable mind and wishing to make the mind impartial, one therefore cultivates equanimity. Furthermore, seeing the faults of greed and anger, the practitioner should cultivate the practice of equanimity.

Question: In which realm do these immeasurable minds exist?

Answer: They all exist throughout the three realms.

Question: Some masters of the treatises say that above the third dhyana there is no faculty of joy. What of this?

Answer: I do not say that the mind of sympathetic joy has the faculty of joy as its nature. It is called sympathetic joy merely because, on hearing that others have obtained something, one’s mind rejoices and remains unclouded. These four immeasurable minds all have wisdom as their nature.

Question: How can the four immeasurable minds exist in the formless realm? Sentient beings can be distinguished only when there are characteristics of form. Since the characteristics of form have disappeared there, how can they exist?

Answer: Formless sentient beings can also be distinguished. As the sutra says: “One should regard those with form, those without form, and so forth.” Another sutra says: “When loving-kindness is cultivated to the utmost, its retribution is rebirth in the Heaven of Pervasive Purity; when compassion is cultivated to the utmost, its retribution is rebirth in the Sphere of Nothingness.” One should therefore know that immeasurable minds also exist in the formless realm.

Question: Does each realm have one immeasurable mind? Is there none in the Sphere of Neither Perception nor Non-Perception?

Answer: All of these are present in every realm; it is only because one cultivates the higher loving-kindness that one is born in the Realm of Pervasive Purity. This is because various karmic actions produce corresponding retributions: beings who wish happiness for others in turn receive the happy retribution. The same applies to compassion.

Because there is a body, many sufferings accumulate. In the formless realm there is empty space; therefore, the mind in the Sphere of Consciousness dwells very joyfully upon its object, and afterward relinquishes everything to enter the Sphere of Nothingness. Because practitioners become wearied by perception, they enter the Sphere of Nothingness.

In the Sphere of Neither Perception nor Non-Perception there are also immeasurable states of mind, but because they are subtle and indistinct, they are not discussed. Furthermore, all of these are present in every realm, but they are described according to where they predominate. In the Realm of Pervasive Purity, loving-kindness is exceedingly sublime; hence it and the others are spoken of in this way.

Furthermore, among the various dhyanas and samadhis, the four immeasurable states of mind yield exceptionally excellent retributions because they take beings as their karmic object.

Question: Some masters of the treatises say that these four immeasurable states of mind take as their objects only beings in the Realm of Desire. What of this?

Answer: Wherever one is born, one can manifestly enter them.

Question: If one who is born there can also manifestly enter them, then one’s merit could never be exhausted, since one would dwell there perpetually.

Answer: Just as those born there may manifestly enter the dhyanas and other wholesome states, yet can still regress, so too is it with loving-kindness and the others.

Question: If this is possible, why do they not regress quickly?

Answer: Such is their karma. Although causes and conditions for regression exist, they do not regress quickly. It is like the devas in the Realm of Desire and elsewhere: although they possess wholesome karma, they may nevertheless be born in evil destinies. This matter is likewise so.

Question: Why can weapons, water, and fire not harm one who cultivates the samadhi of loving-kindness?

Answer: Because of that person’s long-accumulated and abundant merit, evils cannot inflict harm. Such a person is also protected by the devas.

Question: The sutra says that loving-kindness is cultivated together with the factors of awakening. How can the conditioned and the unconditioned both be cultivated together?

Answer: Loving-kindness accords with the factors of awakening. As the sutra says: “If a person listens attentively to the Dharma, that person can eliminate the five hindrances.” Yet one may cultivate the seven factors of awakening without necessarily listening to the Dharma and can still develop those factors. Furthermore, the sutra says: “Bhiksus, cultivate and develop loving-kindness, and I assure you that you will attain the fruit of an anagamin.” Although loving-kindness does not itself sever the fetters, one first uses loving-kindness to accumulate the benefits of merit and wisdom, and only afterward attains the Noble Path.

Because wisdom can sever the fetters, it is therefore said that by cultivating loving-kindness one attains the fruit of an anagamin. The cultivation of the factors of awakening together with loving-kindness is likewise so.

Question: Arhats have eliminated the perception of beings. How, then, can they cultivate the immeasurable states of mind?

Answer: Although arhats enter the mind of loving-kindness, they do not accumulate karma born of loving-kindness, because they will not undergo further birth.

Question: What is the great compassion of the Buddhas, the Blessed Ones, like?

Answer: The Buddhas, the Blessed Ones, possess inconceivable wisdom such as this: although they know that all dharmas are ultimately empty, they can practice great compassion more profoundly than ordinary beings, without definitively apprehending any characteristic of beings.

Question: What is the difference between compassion and great compassion?

Answer: What is called compassion is merely a mind of pity, but only when it can bring the work to completion is it called great compassion. Why is this? When bodhisattvas see beings suffering, they wish to end that suffering and therefore diligently cultivate vigor.

Furthermore, because it is cultivated throughout immeasurable kalpas until brought to perfection, it is called great compassion. Again, with the eye of wisdom they see the suffering of beings and resolutely arouse the intention to eliminate it; hence it is called great compassion. Again, because it accomplishes many beneficial deeds, it is called great compassion.

Because nothing can obstruct it, it is also called great compassion. Why is this? A compassionate mind may become obstructed when it thinks of another person’s evil deeds, but great compassion penetrates even the fiercest evils without obstruction.

Furthermore, compassion may differ in strength, being profound in some cases and slight in others, whereas great compassion regards all equally; hence it is called great compassion. Again, because one relinquishes one’s own benefit and seeks the benefit of others, it is called great compassion. Ordinary compassion does not equal this.

These are the distinctions between the terms. Thus, loving-kindness and the other immeasurable states possessed by a Buddha are all called “great.” Compassion, however, is specially mentioned because it can rescue beings from suffering.

CHAPTER 160: THE FIVE FACTORS OF SAMADHI

The sutra teaches five factors of noble samadhi: joy, bliss, purity of mind, the sign of illumination, and the sign of contemplation. The characteristic of joy is the same in the first and second dhyanas, so these are collectively called a single factor. In the third dhyana, because joy has been relinquished while bliss remains, bliss is separately called one factor. In the fourth dhyana the mind is pure, and thus purity of mind is called the third factor. Relying upon these three factors, one can produce the sign of illumination. This sign of illumination and the sign of contemplation serve as causes that can break through the five skandhas. Because one contemplates the five skandhas as empty, it is called the sign of contemplation. Because it can lead to nirvana, it is called noble.

Question: The sutra speaks of the samadhi of the five noble knowledges. What are they?

Answer: The Buddha himself said that the practitioner gives rise to this thought: “For me, this samadhi is noble and pure.” This is the first knowledge. “This samadhi cannot be approached by ordinary beings but is praised by the wise.” This is the second knowledge. “This samadhi can be attained only through tranquility, subtlety, and detachment.” This is the third knowledge.

“This samadhi is blissful in the present, and the retribution obtained afterward is also blissful.” This is the fourth knowledge. “I enter this samadhi with one-pointed mind and emerge from it with one-pointed mind.” This is the fifth knowledge. The Buddha shows that wisdom is also present within concentration; it is not merely a matter of binding the mind to an object.

When practitioners cultivate concentration, if afflictions arise, wisdom arises therein to eliminate those afflictions. The wish that samadhi be noble and pure is called the first knowledge. That which is noble and pure cannot be approached by ordinary beings and is praised by the wise.

Those who are not ordinary beings are the noble ones, who, because they have attained wisdom, are no longer called ordinary beings. This wisdom can destroy provisional designations; this is the second knowledge. As the afflictions gradually diminish and afflictions such as greed cease, this is called tranquility.

Because it is tranquil, it is subtle; because it is detached from the afflictions, it is called detachment. Attaining this Dharma is entirely the path of freedom from desire; this is the third knowledge. In accordance with one’s realization that the afflictions have been eliminated, one attains security and tranquility and is free from feverish distress; hence this is called present bliss and future bliss.

Present bliss is the bliss of freedom from the afflictions. Future bliss is the bliss of nirvana. This is the fourth knowledge.

Because practitioners constantly maintain a signless mind, they always enter and emerge with one-pointed mind. This is the fifth knowledge. Therefore, those in whom the five knowledges have not yet arisen should cause them to arise; once they have arisen, the fruit of samadhi is attained.

CHAPTER 161: THE SIX SAMADHIS

Question: The sutra speaks of six samadhis: cultivating one characteristic to produce one characteristic; cultivating one characteristic to produce many characteristics; cultivating one characteristic to produce both one characteristic and many characteristics; and similarly, cultivating many characteristics in these three ways. What are they?

Answer: “One characteristic” should refer to dhyana concentration, because in dhyana concentration the mind proceeds one-pointedly with a single object. “Many characteristics” should refer to knowledge and vision, because one knows the many natures of all dharmas, and therefore applies skillful means to the five skandhas and other dharmas.

Question: What is meant by cultivating one characteristic to produce one characteristic?

Answer: It is like a person who, relying upon concentration, further produces concentration. Cultivating one characteristic to produce many characteristics is like a person who, relying upon concentration, produces knowledge and vision. Cultivating one characteristic to produce both one characteristic and many characteristics is like a person who, relying upon concentration, produces both dhyana concentration and skillful means concerning the five skandhas. The cultivation of many characteristics is likewise explained in these three ways.

Question: Some masters of the treatises say: “Cultivating one characteristic to produce one characteristic is like a person who, relying upon the fourth dhyana, realizes the fruit of arhatship. Cultivating one characteristic to produce many characteristics is like a person who, relying upon the fourth dhyana, realizes the five supernormal powers. Cultivating one characteristic to produce both one characteristic and many characteristics is like relying upon the fourth dhyana to realize both the fruit of arhatship and the five supernormal powers.

Cultivating many characteristics to produce many characteristics is like a person who, relying upon the samadhi of five factors, realizes the fruit of arhatship and the five supernormal powers. The remaining two modes should be understood likewise.” What is the meaning of this?

Answer: The reason must be stated. Why are the fourth dhyana and the fruit of arhatship each a single characteristic, while the five branches of samadhi and the five superknowledges have many characteristics? Moreover, the five branches should not serve as supports, because the five branches of samadhi are the characteristics of illumination and contemplation belonging to the four dhyanas; how, then, could the fruit of arhatship be attained in dependence upon them? Why? Because one needs to rely on only one dhyana to attain the fruit of arhatship. Moreover, one should also attain the fruit of arhatship in dependence upon the characteristic of illumination. Therefore, this is unreasonable.

Question: Some say that there are six modes of entering concentration: entering in forward order, entering in reverse order, entering in forward and reverse order, forward-order leaping, reverse-order leaping, and reverse-and-forward-order leaping. What of this?

Answer: A certain master of the treatise says: A practitioner who wishes to attain the concentration of complete cessation should enter and emerge from the dhyanas in sequence. Therefore, there should be neither reverse order, nor forward order, nor reverse and forward order, nor any leaping through them. What benefit is gained from these six modes of entering and emerging?

A practitioner who wishes to attain the concentration of complete cessation must enter in sequence and should also emerge in sequence. Furthermore, after attaining a higher stage, why would one enter a lower stage? The lower stage is thorny, just as an adult no longer delights in the games of children.

Again, just as one who has become skilled in a craft no longer delights in clumsiness, so too should this matter be understood. Moreover, if one speaks of leaping through the stages, this is unreasonable. The sutras speak only of entering the dhyana concentrations in sequence.

If a practitioner can leap to the third, why can he not leap to the fourth or fifth? If it is said that his power extends only so far, like a person climbing a ladder who can ascend one rung but cannot reach the next, this analogy is likewise inconclusive. Furthermore, a person of great strength who can step up to the fourth rung may also leap over a hundred rungs.

Therefore, this is unreasonable. Although a sutra says that when the Buddha entered nirvana, he entered the dhyana concentrations in forward order, reverse order, and by leaping through them, that sutra contradicts the correct doctrine and should not be accepted. Although it contains such words, their meaning is unreasonable.

Why? Because, as has been said, a practitioner who reaches the concentration of complete cessation should enter only in forward order and has no need of the six methods. If a practitioner can proceed directly into the concentration of cessation, then they are unnecessary.

If one wishes to test whether one’s mind is masterful and irreversible within the dhyana concentrations, one may enter and emerge in forward and reverse order and leap through them, just as a person riding a horse should not make it run in circles when facing an enemy in battle, but may do so when training it at leisure. If it is said that the lower stages are thorny and therefore should not be entered, one does not enter them because they are superior to the later stages, but because they are places along which the practitioner traverses the path.

If it is said that this is like a person who does not delight in children’s games, circumstances may nevertheless require one to perform a child’s dances and games. An instructor of performers, for example, may dance and leap throughout the day, not because he personally delights in such amusements, but in order to teach and train others. In the same way, noble ones enter and emerge from the dhyanas in forward and reverse order and leap through them because they wish to demonstrate to devas, humans, spirits, and immortals their power of mastery over the dhyana concentrations.

Moreover, when the Buddha entered nirvana, wishing to perfume and cultivate his relic-jewels with profound and wondrous dhyana concentrations, he freely entered and emerged in forward and reverse order and leapt through them. Furthermore, when people saw the Buddha enter nirvana without remainder, they grew disenchanted with all conditioned dharmas; therefore, the Buddha manifested this precious and lovely Dharma treasure.

You say that this sutra contradicts the correct doctrine, but that is unreasonable. You ask why one cannot leap to the fourth stage. The Bodhisattva Treasury describes the characteristic of leaping: emerging from the first dhyana, one enters the concentration of complete cessation; emerging from the concentration of complete cessation, one may even enter a distracted state of mind.

This is possible because the power of the mind is immense.

CHAPTER 162: THE SEVEN SUPPORTS OF SAMADHI

The author of the treatise says: There are seven supports. In dependence upon the first dhyana, one attains the exhaustion of the taints, and so forth, up to attaining the exhaustion of the taints in dependence upon the sphere of nothingness. They are called supports because, by relying upon these seven states, one attains the noble wisdom, just as true knowledge arises when the mind is collected. Some people attain only dhyana concentration and regard that as sufficient. Therefore, the Buddha said: “This is not yet sufficient; one must rely upon this concentration to seek a still more excellent Dharma,” namely, the exhaustion of all the taints. Thus they are called supports.

Question: How does one attain the exhaustion of the taints in dependence upon these dhyana concentrations?

Answer: The Buddha said that whatever characteristic and object a practitioner uses to enter the first dhyana, that practitioner no longer thinks of or recollects that characteristic or object. Instead, within the first dhyana, he contemplates the various forms, feelings, perceptions, formations, and consciousness as disease, as sores, as arrows, as painful, as impermanent, as suffering, as empty, and as non-self. Contemplating in this way, his mind develops disenchantment and detachment, and he is liberated from the taints.

The same applies up to the sphere of nothingness, except that in the three formless spheres there is no form to contemplate. The practitioner sees that the desire realm is noisy and disturbed, while the first dhyana is peaceful and secluded, and only then attains it. Therefore, the Buddha said: “Do not dwell upon the perception of the bliss of tranquil cessation in the first dhyana; contemplate only the five skandhas and the eight faults of the first dhyana.” The other supports are likewise.

Question: Why is the desire realm not described as a support?

Answer: The Susima Sutra says: “Apart from the seven supports, there is another state in which the Noble Path may be attained.” One should therefore know that the desire realm is also a support.

Question: Some say that the preliminary stage adjoining the first dhyana, before its attainment, is a state in which the fruit of arhatship may be attained. What of this?

Answer: That is not so. If the preliminary stage before attainment were a support, this would entail an error. If that preliminary stage can enable attainment, why does one not enter the first dhyana? Therefore, this assertion is incorrect.

Question: Why is the sphere of neither perception nor non-perception not described as a support?

Answer: Because matters are not clear there: concentration is abundant and wisdom is slight. Therefore, it is not described as a support. The seven concentrations involving perception are the seven supports.

Question: Why did the Buddha call the seven supports the seven concentrations involving perception?

Answer: Because followers of other paths lack true knowledge, they rely only upon perception. All their states of reliance are defiled by perception, and they cannot destroy it to attain liberation; therefore, they are called concentrations involving perception. Noble ones can destroy perception and rely upon these concentrations solely to proceed directly to the exhaustion of the taints; therefore, they are called supports. It is said that the practitioner contemplates these dharmas as disease, as abscesses, and so forth. Because perception is also indistinct in the sphere of neither perception nor non-perception, it is not called a concentration involving perception.

CHAPTER 163: THE EIGHT LIBERATIONS

The author of the treatise says: The sutras teach eight liberations. First, while perceiving form internally, one contemplates forms externally. Through this liberation, the practitioner rends and destroys forms.

How is this known? In the second liberation it is said: While not perceiving form internally, one contemplates forms externally. Because internal form has been destroyed, it is said that one does not perceive form internally.

One should therefore know that, in the first liberation, the practitioner progressively destroys the form of the body; by the second liberation, internal form has been destroyed and only external form remains. In the third liberation, external form is also destroyed, so that neither internal nor external form is perceived. This is called the emptiness of form.

As the Parayana Sutra says: “Having rent asunder the characteristic of form and extinguished all desires, seeing neither within nor without—I ask about this matter.” In the four subsequent liberations, mind and consciousness are empty. As the Sutra of the Six Elements says: “If a bhiksu develops profound disenchantment and detachment toward five things, only consciousness remains.” One should therefore know that forms are rent and destroyed in these four liberations, and that only with the eighth liberation is everything completely extinguished and brought to cessation.

Why? Because when form is extinguished, all conditioned things are extinguished; this is called the fruit of arhatship. Complete cessation is attained through this sequence.

These are called the eight liberations. Some say that the first and second liberations are contemplations of impurity, while the third liberation is a contemplation of purity. This is unreasonable.

Why? Because liberation is not attained through contemplation of impurity; nor does contemplation of purity bring liberation. Liberation can be attained only through contemplation of emptiness.

Moreover, followers of other paths can attain both contemplations of purity and impurity, yet these are not called liberations.

Question: Non-Buddhist practitioners are also able to break apart the characteristics of form. How is this so?

Answer: Non-Buddhist practitioners contemplate the destruction of the characteristics of form through resolute understanding; it is not that they do not contemplate them. Why? Through contemplation based on resolute understanding, they see that after the body has died, it is cast into a cemetery and eaten by worms, beasts, and the like.

Question: Non-Buddhist practitioners, having departed from form and attained the formless concentrations, should therefore possess formless concentration and formless liberation, should they not?

Answer: Although non-Buddhist practitioners possess the formless concentrations, because they remain attached to them, these are not called liberations. Through the formless concentrations, noble ones are able to contemplate the four skandhas as sickness and the other seven of the eight afflictions; hence these are called liberations.

Question: You say that the concentration of cessation pertains to the arhat. This is unreasonable. Why? Trainees are also said to possess the eight liberations. You say that the concentration of cessation is called the exhaustion of the outflows; if so, trainees should have attained the exhaustion of the outflows.

Answer: The sutras speak of the characteristic of cessation in general, without distinguishing whether it is the cessation of mind or the cessation of afflictions. Thus, the sutras speak of two kinds of cessation: first, cessation; and second, successive cessation. There are also two kinds of nirvana: first, nirvana in the present; and second, ultimate nirvana.

They likewise speak of two kinds of peace: first, peace; and second, supreme peace. Those who attain peace are also of two kinds: first, those who attain peace; and second, those who attain supreme peace. Therefore, the realization attained by a trainee is not true cessation.

Furthermore, the sutras say: “If a bhiksu is able to enter the concentration of cessation, all that is to be done has been accomplished.” If the concentration of cessation were not the fruit of arhatship, it should not be said that all that is to be done has been accomplished.

Question: Do trainees truly not attain the eight liberations?

Answer: The sutras say that trainees attain the nine successive concentrations. They do not say that trainees attain complete cessation. A practitioner may attain complete cessation but be unable to enter the various dhyanas and concentrations; such a person is called one liberated through wisdom. Another may be able to enter the various dhyanas and concentrations but not attain complete cessation; such a person is called a bodily witness. One who attains both is called liberated in both ways. Why? The outflows constitute one aspect of obstruction, while the dharmas of dhyana and concentration constitute one aspect of attainment. Liberation from both of these aspects is called liberation in both ways.

Question: Is there any difference between cessation in the successive cessations and cessation in the liberations?

Answer: The names are the same, but their meanings differ. In successive cessation, cessation means the cessation of mind and mental factors; in the liberation of cessation, it means the cessation of the afflictions. As the sutras say, the formations cease successively.

That is, upon entering the first dhyana, speech ceases; upon entering the second dhyana, initial and sustained thought cease; upon entering the third dhyana, joy ceases; upon entering the fourth dhyana, pleasure ceases; upon entering the sphere of infinite space, the characteristic of form ceases; upon entering the sphere of infinite consciousness, the characteristic of space ceases; upon entering the sphere of nothingness, the characteristic of consciousness ceases; upon entering the sphere of neither perception nor non-perception, the characteristic of nothingness ceases; and upon entering the concentration of complete cessation, all perceptions and feelings cease.

Among these cessations, there is also a supreme cessation, namely, when a practitioner becomes disenchanted with thoughts of greed, anger, and delusion and thus attains liberation.

Question: How do we know that in successive cessation, mind and mental factors cease, whereas in liberation, the afflictions cease?

Answer: Although the term “cessation” is the same, its meaning must differ. In successive cessation, the cessation of perception and feeling is taught; in liberation, the cessation of feeling born from contact with ignorance is taught. Why? Because feeling arises from provisional designation, and when provisional designation is broken down, feeling ceases. Successive cessation is not like this. Such distinctions are found throughout the sutras. If it is stated simply that when a practitioner attains complete cessation, all that is to be done has been accomplished, one should understand that this refers to the cessation of all afflictions when nirvana is realized, not to the cessation of mind and mental factors.

Question: If the eight liberations are dharmas that eradicate the afflictions, then all arhats should attain them.

Answer: They all attain them, but they are not all able to “enter” them. If they have realized the various dhyanas and concentrations, they are able to enter them.

Question: If a practitioner lacks dhyana and concentration, how can that practitioner make body and mind empty and exhaust all afflictions?

Answer: Such a person possesses concentration but is unable to realize it fully. There is also a lightning-like samadhi; through this samadhi, one exhausts the afflictions. As the sutra says: “I have seen a bhiksu who, when intending to take up his robe, had afflictions, but immediately after taking it up was free of afflictions.” And so forth.

Why? Because the mind is like lightning, while samadhi is like a vajra. True wisdom is able to destroy the afflictions.

Furthermore, in the teaching concerning the Buddha’s third power, it is said that he knows in accordance with reality the distinctions among the dhyanas, liberations, samadhis, their entrance, defilement, and purification. Here, “dhyana” means the four dhyanas. Some say that the four dhyanas and four formless concentrations are all called dhyana; “liberations” means the eight liberations; “samadhi” means the lightning-like samadhi within a single thought-moment;

and “entrance” means attaining mastery in the “dhyanas, liberations, and samadhis.” As the Venerable Sariputra said: “With regard to the seven factors of awakening, I am able to emerge and enter at will.” One should therefore understand that among arhats liberated through wisdom, some are unable to enter because only through profound cultivation can one enter at will.

Question: How can there be arhats who have not profoundly cultivated the various dhyanas and concentrations?

Answer: Such persons have attained the Path and accomplished what was to be done. They delight in cultivating equanimity of mind and therefore do not continue practicing these attainments. If they did not abide in equanimity of mind, entering concentration would not be difficult.

As the sutra says: “A practitioner who has well cultivated the four bases of spiritual power can blow upon the Snow Mountains and reduce them to dust, much more so the dead mass of ignorance.” Therefore, one should understand that the exhaustion of the outflows taught among the eight liberations does not require entering concentration before cessation can occur. Furthermore, the sutra says: “There is the element of luminosity, the element of emptiness, the element of infinite space, the element of infinite consciousness, the element of nothingness, the element of neither perception nor non-perception, and the element of cessation.” Because there is darkness, there is the element of luminosity; because there is what is not empty, there is the element of emptiness;

because there is form, there is the element of infinite space; because there is the element of infinite space, there is the element of infinite consciousness; because there is infinite consciousness, there is the element of nothingness; because there is nothingness, there is the element of neither perception nor non-perception; and because there are the five skandhas, there is the element of cessation.

If one is unable to break down the provisionally designated characteristics of the five skandhas, this is called darkness. If one is able to break down the provisionally designated five skandhas, this is called the element of luminosity. As the Buddha instructed a bhiksu: “With regard to the emptiness within formations, you should contemplate formations within emptiness, thereby disciplining your own mind, just as a person holding a lamp in an empty house sees that all objects there are empty.” When the practitioner takes form and realizes the cessation of this form, it is called the element of emptiness.

Through the sphere of infinite space, non-Buddhist practitioners depart from form; and so forth, until through the sphere of neither perception nor non-perception they depart from the sphere of nothingness. Because the skandhas possess this element of cessation, whatever the practitioner thinks or conceives and whatever the practitioner initiates all cease—this is wondrous. This is what is meant by saying that because there are the skandhas, there is the element of cessation.

Question: Dependent upon which concentration are these elements attained?

Answer: The sutra says that the element of luminosity through the element of neither perception nor non-perception are all attained by personally practicing and entering concentration. That is, they are attained by practicing a path that takes conditioned phenomena as its objects. Why? The initial cognition that takes form as its object is called the element of luminosity. The second element also takes form as its object and, having taken it, analyzes it until it is seen as empty. In this manner, up to the element of neither perception nor non-perception and the element of cessation, upon entering the element of cessation, one attains it only when all conditioned dharmas are empty. Here, cessation means the exhaustion of the outflows and nirvana.

Question: At which levels are these liberations found?

Answer: When a practitioner wishes to break down form, one may either abide in concentration directed toward the desire realm or abide in concentration dependent upon the form realm; one is then able to realize the emptiness of form. The emptiness of mind may be realized at all levels.

Question: Of these liberations, how many are with outflows and how many are without outflows?

Answer: The element of emptiness is entirely without outflows.

CHAPTER 164: THE EIGHT SPHERES OF MASTERY

The first sphere of mastery: perceiving form internally, one sees a small amount of external form, whether beautiful or ugly; with regard to these forms, one masters them in knowledge and masters them in vision, and therefore it is called a sphere of mastery. The second is perceiving form internally and seeing a large amount of external form. The third is perceiving no form internally and seeing a small amount of external form.

The fourth is perceiving no form internally and seeing a large amount of external form. The fifth is perceiving no form internally and seeing external forms that are blue, blue in appearance, and radiantly blue, like the umaka flower or like cloth from Varanasi dyed the color of true indigo. The sixth is seeing yellow.

The seventh is seeing red, and the eighth is seeing white. The practitioner sees in this way a great and immeasurable multitude of forms. Why is this?

It is not that there are only these four colors—blue and the rest—but because they are stated in summary, there are eight spheres of mastery. If the practitioner is able to use the contemplation of emptiness to break through the faculties, they are then called spheres of mastery.

Question: Who is able to attain this Dharma?

Answer: Disciples of the Buddha, and no others.

Question: In which planes are these eight spheres of mastery found?

Answer: In the two realms of Desire and Form.

Question: Are they with outflows or without outflows?

Answer: At first they are with outflows, but when the contemplation of emptiness is used to break through form, they become without outflows.

Question: Why are these teachings alone called spheres of mastery?

Answer: These are the objects to which practitioners are most attached. Therefore, for the sake of his disciples, the Buddha called them spheres of mastery, meaning that these objects of cognition must be mastered.

CHAPTER 165: THE SEQUENCE OF THE FIRST DHYANA

The proper sequence of concentrations consists of the four dhyanas, the four formless concentrations, and the concentration of cessation. Regarding the first dhyana, as the sutra says: “The practitioner, secluded from sensual desires and unwholesome evil dharmas, with initial thought and sustained examination, enters the first dhyana, with rapture and bliss born of seclusion.”

Question: One should merely state the characteristics of the first dhyana. Why is it necessary to speak of being secluded from sensual desires?

Answer: Some people slanderously assert that no one in the world can become free from sensual desire, because everyone in the world abides amid the five sensual desires: there is no one whose eyes do not see forms, whose ears do not hear sounds, whose nose does not smell fragrances, whose tongue does not taste flavors, or whose body does not make contact. Therefore, the text speaks of being secluded from sensual desire.

Desire means the mind of craving; it does not mean forms and the other objects. As has been said, forms and the other objects are not themselves called desire. How is this known?

In one who practices diligently, forms and the other objects still remain, yet that person is able to sever desire. Moreover, the sutra says: “Forms and the other objects constitute the objective field and are not called desire.” The mind of craving for them is what is called desire. If a mind of craving arises, one seeks sensual pleasures.

Because of the causes and conditions involved in seeking sensual pleasures, craving, anger, beating with rods, killing, and other evil dharmas subsequently arise. As the Sutra on the Great Cause says, seeking and the other factors arise because of craving. Therefore, one should know that abandoning sensual craving is called seclusion from sensual desire.

Some say that abandoning the five sensual desires beginning with forms is called seclusion from desire, while abandoning evil and unwholesome dharmas means abandoning the five hindrances. The first dhyana is close to a distracted mind and is therefore called accompanied by initial thought. Furthermore, because this practitioner’s power of concentration has not yet matured, the distracted mind arises, and so it is called accompanied by initial thought.

As the sutra says: “I cultivate the practice accompanied by initial thought and sustained examination.” One should know that the Buddha calls the distracted mind initial thought. When this initial thought gradually weakens and the mind becomes more deeply collected, it is called sustained examination. As concentration matures, the mind is no longer greatly distracted; this is then called sustained examination.

This sustained examination accompanies the practitioner as far as the intermediate-dhyana plane. When initial thought and sustained examination are left behind and rapture is attained, it is called rapture born of seclusion. Because this rapture first benefits the body, it is called bliss.

Leaving behind initial thought and sustained examination and delighting in abiding upon a single object of cognition is called dhyana. Because this dhyana is disturbed by initial thought and sustained examination, its bodily retribution differs. According to distinctions of inferior, middling, and superior, there are the Heaven of Brahma’s Retinue, the Heaven of Brahma’s Ministers, and the Heaven of Great Brahma.

Question: If rapture apart from initial thought and sustained examination is the first dhyana, then there would be no need to take the five factors as constituting the first dhyana. How would this differ from the second dhyana, which is likewise apart from initial thought and sustained examination? Moreover, the sutra says: “The first dhyana has initial thought and sustained examination; tranquility is one thing, and rapture is another.” If tranquility were itself bliss, the seven factors of awakening should not separately include the awakening factor of tranquility.

Answer: You say that the first dhyana does not have five factors. This is incorrect, because it is not said that the five factors constitute the essential nature of the first dhyana. Because the first dhyana is close to the plane in which initial thought and sustained examination occur, these are called its factors.

Question: If dharmas belonging to a nearby plane are counted as factors, the first dhyana is also close to the five sensual desires, so should these too be called its factors?

Answer: The five sensual desires are not called proximate, because this practitioner’s mind has already become separated from them. Furthermore, upon entering the first dhyana in proper sequence, a mind of sensual desire does not arise. Moreover, the five sensual desires do not abide as factors of the first dhyana.

A factor means a cause. A cause is a constituent part, as in the complete assemblage of the factors of the Noble Path and so forth. Initial thought and sustained examination are likewise.

They are causes of the first dhyana. If the concentrated mind of a practitioner retreats from its object of cognition, the practitioner again takes up the sign of concentration, collects the mind upon the object, and recollects the original sign; this is called initial thought and sustained examination. Therefore, one should know that initial thought and sustained examination are causes of the first dhyana.

In the second dhyana, the concentrated mind has already matured, and therefore initial thought and sustained examination are not taken as its causes. Moreover, in the proper sequence of the second dhyana, initial thought and sustained examination do not arise. If you say that the first dhyana is conjoined with initial thought and sustained examination, that too is unreasonable.

For after emerging from the first dhyana, initial thought and sustained examination arise next. Because it is close to initial thought and sustained examination, it is said to be conjoined with them, just as one is said to travel together with a fourth person: although separated by a short distance, they may still be said to travel together. Furthermore, because the causes and conditions for their arising exist in this plane, it is said to possess initial thought and sustained examination.

It is like a person who is ill because of possession by a spirit: even when the illness is not manifesting, the person is still called ill. Because that person has been afflicted by the spirit and the illness will recur when an opportunity arises, it is called an illness. Furthermore, the pleasant feeling is itself rapture; it is only distinguished in speech, just as joy is separately mentioned from tranquility.

As the sutra says: “When the body becomes tranquil, one experiences joy.”

Question: If so, why is the first dhyana said to have five factors?

Answer: Five are spoken of according to the occasion, just as the seven factors of awakening, when attained at different times, are called fourteen factors of awakening. Here it is said that there is bodily tranquility and mental tranquility, but in truth the body does not experience tranquility. It is only because the mind is joyful that the body also experiences joy.

Rapture is likewise. When it first reaches the body, it is called rapture. When the sign of rapture and bliss is first attained, it is called bliss.

Later it is called only rapture, because the time is different. Furthermore, there is no separate dharma called tranquility. It is merely that when rapture arises, body and mind are no longer heavy or rigid but become pliant and harmonious; this is called tranquility.

It is like an illness of the four great elements: when the illness of the four great elements ceases and does not arise, the person is said to be happy. Tranquility is likewise. Furthermore, within dharmas of cessation, this is also called tranquility.

As the sutra says: “The formations cease in sequence.” Upon entering the first dhyana, speech ceases, and so forth, until upon entering the concentration of complete cessation, perceptions and feelings cease. Therefore, there is no separate dharma called tranquility. If it is said that the first dhyana is associated with initial thought and sustained examination, this too is unreasonable.

Why? The sutra says: “When a practitioner enters the first dhyana, speech ceases.” Initial thought and sustained examination are the causes of speech. How could the causes of speech remain while speech ceases?

If it is claimed that initial thought and sustained examination remain and only speech ceases, this would be like a person in the Desire Realm who does not wish to speak at a certain time, which would also be called cessation.

Question: If there is no initial thought or sustained examination in the first dhyana, it should be called Noble Silence. Yet the Buddha said only that the second dhyana is Noble Silence and did not say this of the first dhyana. Therefore, one should know that the first dhyana must possess initial thought and sustained examination.

Answer: Because it is close to initial thought and sustained examination, it is not called silence; it is not because it is associated with initial thought and sustained examination that it is not so called. Furthermore, the sutra says that sounds are still a thorn to the first dhyana, and therefore it is not called silence.

Question: Why are sounds a thorn to the first dhyana?

Answer: The concentrated mind abiding in the first dhyana is weak, like a flower floating upon water. In the second dhyana and above, the concentrated mind abides firmly, like lacquer adhering to wood. Furthermore, contact and the other sense objects are also called thorns to the first dhyana, because contact can cause the first dhyana to be disturbed. The second dhyana and those above are not like this. Why? Because in the first dhyana the sense consciousnesses have not ceased, whereas in the second dhyana and those above, the five sense consciousnesses have entirely ceased.

End of Fascicle Twelve of the Treatise on the Establishment of Truth