Realization · The Bodhi PathPart 5Paper 8 of 10

The Second to Seventh Grounds

BODHI-P08 · v1.0 · 2026-06

Stainlessness · Radiance · Flaming · Hard-to-Conquer · Manifest · Far-Reaching — the gradual severance of innate, subtle afflictions on the path of cultivation, the obstacles from coarse into subtle, and the seventh, the Far-Reaching Ground, passing beyond the two vehicles' world-transcending path

中文主題：二至七地——修道位漸斷俱生惑與障自麁入細

I. The Question

The preceding paper carried the bodhisattva across the pass of "entering the noble from the worthy." On the first ground (the Ground of Joy), in the time of the path of seeing, the bodhisattva for the first time directly contemplated suchness by the wisdom of the equality of all dharmas, severing outright the discriminated afflictions (the bonds of view that are the path-of-seeing's to sever) — the bodhisattva's first true severing of the affliction-root since beginningless time, turning from suppression to severance, from worthy into noble (BODHI-P07). Yet this paper must press a further question: if the first ground's path of seeing has already severed the discriminated afflictions outright, why do the stages still run on to the second, the third, and so up to the tenth ground? If a single severance on the path of seeing finished the work, why the nine grounds that follow?

The answer lies in the distinction of "what the path of seeing severs" from "what the path of cultivation severs." What the first ground's path of seeing severs is only the one class of "discriminated afflictions" (the bonds of view that arise by discrimination, by wrong view, deluded about principle); as for the "innate afflictions" — those subtle afflictions that arise spontaneously by beginningless habituation, deluded about phenomena — they cannot be severed all at once on the path of seeing, but must pass through the grounds of cultivation, thinning and receding gradually ground by ground. Vasubandhu judges plainly: "the bonds of view were severed at the first ground, on the path of seeing," while the three realms' "afflictions of the path of cultivation" "thin and recede gradually across the grounds." The former is severed outright on the path of seeing; the latter is severed gradually on the path of cultivation. The second to seventh grounds are precisely this course in which the "path-of-cultivation positions" gradually sever the innate, subtle afflictions.

So this paper's question has three layers. First, how does the severance of the path of cultivation differ in kind from that of the path of seeing? Answer: the path of seeing severs outright (extinguishing the discriminated bonds of view all at once), the path of cultivation severs gradually (the innate, subtle afflictions thinning across the grounds) — both are "severance," yet outright and gradual differ in their force. Second, what does this gradual course counteract? Answer: a series of obstacles running from coarse into subtle. Vasubandhu judges the ten grounds to counteract ten obstacles; what the second to seventh grounds counteract runs from the second ground's "obstacle of wrong conduct," the third's "obstacle of forgetting," the fourth's "obstacle of conceit toward dharmas understood," the fifth's "obstacle of conceit-of-self in bodily purity," to the sixth's "obstacle of subtle afflictive habit" and the seventh's "obstacle of subtle-mark habit" — the obstacles ever finer the further on, marking the afflictive habits ground ever thinner. Third, is the bodhisattva's path-of-cultivation severance of the innate afflictions the same thing as the arhat's path-of-cultivation severance? Answer: still "the same grammar, a different exit" — and the seventh, the Far-Reaching Ground, "ultimately able to pass beyond the world-transcending path of the two vehicles of the world," is precisely the express landing of "the different exit" in the path-of-cultivation positions. The three questions interlock, and are what this paper sets out to unfold.

II. The Canonical Basis

This section sets out three sets of textual evidence: the full listing of the ten grounds (the second to seventh among them); the meaning of the names of the second to seventh grounds; and the express wording on path-of-cultivation severance and the ten obstacles. All citations are collated against the CBETA electronic canon, in the three texts — the Eighty-fascicle Avataṃsaka (T0279), the Daśabhūmika-sūtra (T0287), and Vasubandhu's Daśabhūmika-vyākhyāna (T1522).

2.1 The full listing of the ten grounds: the second to seventh among the ten

The Eighty-fascicle Avataṃsaka's "Chapter on the Ten Grounds" formally lists the full names of the bodhisattva's ten grounds, the second to seventh among them:

何等為十？一者歡喜地，二者離垢地，三者發光地，四者焰慧地，五者難勝地，六者現前地，七者遠行地，八者不動地，九者善慧地，十者法雲地。佛子！此菩薩十地，三世諸佛已說、當說、今說。

What are the ten? First, the Ground of Joy; second, the Ground of Stainlessness; third, the Light-Emitting Ground; fourth, the Blazing-Wisdom Ground; fifth, the Hard-to-Conquer Ground; sixth, the Manifest Ground; seventh, the Far-Reaching Ground; eighth, the Immovable Ground; ninth, the Ground of Good Wisdom; tenth, the Dharma-Cloud Ground. O child of the Buddha! These ten grounds of the bodhisattva the buddhas of the three times have spoken, will speak, and now speak. (Mahāvaipulya-buddhāvataṃsaka-sūtra, fasc. 34, "Chapter on the Ten Grounds, 26, part 1," T10n0279_p0179b22, trans. Śikṣānanda)

The Daśabhūmika-sūtra (Xuanzang's translation) lists the ten grounds alike, with the first as "Ground of Supreme Joy," the second to seventh agreeing broadly with the Avataṃsaka tradition:

何等為十？一名極喜地，二名離垢，三名發光，四名焰慧，五名難勝，六名現前，七名遠行，八名不動，九名善慧，十名法雲。唯諸佛子！此名一切菩薩十地。

What are the ten? First, named the Ground of Supreme Joy; second, Stainlessness; third, Light-Emitting; fourth, Blazing-Wisdom; fifth, Hard-to-Conquer; sixth, Manifest; seventh, Far-Reaching; eighth, Immovable; ninth, Good Wisdom; tenth, Dharma-Cloud. O children of the Buddha! These are named the ten grounds of all bodhisattvas. (Daśabhūmika-sūtra, fasc. 1, "The Bodhisattva's Ground of Supreme Joy, 1, part 1," T10n0287_p0536b03, trans. Xuanzang)

The two renderings side by side show: the names of the second to seventh grounds (Stainlessness · Light-Emitting · Blazing-Wisdom · Hard-to-Conquer · Manifest · Far-Reaching) agree in both translations; the first ground's "Joy / Supreme Joy" variant was marked in the preceding paper. The ten grounds are the full listing of the bodhisattva's grounds of wisdom, taught in common by the buddhas of the three times; the second to seventh grounds this paper treats lie after the first ground (the path of seeing) and before the eighth (the Immovable), the trunk of the path-of-cultivation positions.

2.2 The meaning of the names of the second to seventh grounds: the Far-Reaching Ground "passes beyond the two vehicles"

Vasubandhu's Daśabhūmika-vyākhyāna glosses each ground's name; the names of the second to seventh grounds run thus:

離能起誤心犯戒煩惱垢等，清淨戒具足，故名離垢地。隨聞思修等照法顯現，故名明地。不忘煩惱薪智火能燒，故名焰地。得出世間智方便善巧，能度難度，故名難勝地。…善修無相行功用，究竟能過世間二乘出世間道，故名遠行地。

Leaving the defilement of the afflictions of precept-breaking that can rouse the erring mind, fulfilling the pure precepts — hence named the Ground of Stainlessness. As hearing, reflecting, and cultivating make the dharmas appear in illumination — hence named the Radiant Ground. The wisdom-fire that does not forget can burn the fuel of afflictions — hence named the Flaming Ground. Attaining the skillful means of world-transcending wisdom, able to ferry the hard-to-ferry — hence named the Hard-to-Conquer Ground. … Well cultivating the application of the markless practice, ultimately able to pass beyond the world-transcending path of the two vehicles of the world — hence named the Far-Reaching Ground. (Daśabhūmika-vyākhyāna, fasc. 2, "Gloss on the Meaning of the Names of the Ten Grounds," T26n1522_p0127a17)

The meaning of the names, ground by ground: the second, Stainlessness — leaving the defilement of the afflictions of "precept-breaking that rouses the erring mind," fulfilling the pure precepts; the third, Radiance (Light-Emitting) — as hearing, reflecting, and cultivating make the dharmas appear in illumination; the fourth, Flaming (Blazing-Wisdom) — the wisdom-fire able to burn the "fuel of afflictions"; the fifth, Hard-to-Conquer — attaining the skillful means of world-transcending wisdom, "able to ferry the hard-to-ferry"; the sixth, Manifest — its name-gloss is here abridged in this treatise's text (the source passes over it with "…"; this paper does not supply it, see Section V); the seventh, Far-Reaching — "well cultivating the application of the markless practice, ultimately able to pass beyond the world-transcending path of the two vehicles of the world." Of these, the single line on the seventh Far-Reaching Ground is what this paper weighs most: "able to pass beyond the world-transcending path of the two vehicles of the world" — the bodhisattva here is able to "pass beyond" the world-transcending path at which the two vehicles stop, the very express wording, in the meaning of a name, of "the different exit" in the path-of-cultivation positions (see 3.3). (Note: the name-gloss's "Radiant Ground / Flaming Ground" and the listing's "Light-Emitting Ground / Blazing-Wisdom Ground" in §2.1 are the side-by-side of the treatise's name-gloss and the sūtra's listing, see Section V.)

2.3 Path-of-cultivation severance and the ten obstacles: thinning across the grounds, from coarse into subtle

The express wording on path-of-cultivation severance is plainly judged by Vasubandhu — the view-afflictions (the bonds of view) severed already at the first ground, the afflictions of the path of cultivation thinning across the grounds:

一切欲縛轉復微薄者，斷一切修道欲、色、無色界所有煩惱，及彼因同無明習氣，皆悉微薄遠離故。諸見縛者，於初地中見道時已斷。

That "all the bonds of desire grow yet thinner" means: all the afflictions of the path of cultivation of the realms of desire, form, and the formless, together with their cause, the kindred habit-energy of ignorance, all thin and recede. The bonds of view were severed at the first ground, on the path of seeing. (Daśabhūmika-vyākhyāna, fasc. 6, "Gloss on the Third, the Radiant Ground · Severing Obstacles," T26n1522_p0158c20)

The "bonds of view" (the path-of-seeing's to sever) were severed outright in the first ground's path of seeing; the three realms' "afflictions of the path of cultivation of the realms of desire, form, and the formless," together with the "habit-energy of ignorance," "all thin and recede" — a gradual "thinning and receding" across the grounds, not an all-at-once extinguishing. This is the express evidence for the gradual severance of the second to seventh grounds. And the obstacles this gradual severance counteracts, Vasubandhu judges as ten, running from coarse into subtle:

何者十障？一者凡夫我相障；二者邪行於眾生身等障；三者闇相於聞思修等諸法忘障；四者解法慢障；五者身淨我慢障；六者微煩惱習障；七者細相習障；八者於無相有行障；九者不能善利益眾生障；十者於諸法中不得自在障。

What are the ten obstacles? First, the obstacle of the ordinary being's self-mark; second, the obstacle of wrong conduct toward the bodies of beings and the like; third, the obstacle of the dark mark, the forgetting of the dharmas of hearing, reflecting, cultivating; fourth, the obstacle of conceit toward dharmas understood; fifth, the obstacle of the conceit-of-self in bodily purity; sixth, the obstacle of subtle afflictive habit; seventh, the obstacle of subtle-mark habit; eighth, the obstacle of having application within the markless; ninth, the obstacle of being unable to benefit beings well; tenth, the obstacle of not attaining mastery among the dharmas. (Daśabhūmika-vyākhyāna, fasc. 2, "The Ten Obstacles and Their Counteragents," T26n1522_p0127a12)

The first obstacle, "the ordinary being's self-mark," is the coarsest (broken by the first ground's path of seeing); the second-to-seventh obstacles — wrong conduct · forgetting · conceit toward dharmas understood · conceit-of-self in bodily purity · subtle afflictive habit · subtle-mark habit — run from coarse gradually into subtle, the sixth "subtle afflictive habit" and the seventh "subtle-mark habit" already the finest of afflictive habits. The obstacles' run from coarse into subtle marks the path-of-cultivation severance grinding ever finer. Further, the treatise takes "the time of the path of seeing / the time of the path of cultivation" as the backbone of the ground-path:

五者證入，於一切法平等智見道時中善…六者不放逸入，於修道時中遠離…

Fifth, entering by realization, in the time of the path of seeing, by the wisdom of the equality of all dharmas …; sixth, entering by non-negligence, in the time of the path of cultivation, leaving far behind …. (Daśabhūmika-vyākhyāna, fasc. 1, "Gloss on the General Preface to the Ten Grounds · Entering by Realization," T26n1522_p0124c17)

"Entering by realization" marks "the time of the path of seeing" (the first ground); "entering by non-negligence" marks "the time of the path of cultivation" (the second to seventh grounds and the path-of-cultivation positions of the grounds) — the time of the path of seeing and the time of the path of cultivation set side by side, the very backbone of the division between the first ground (the path of seeing) and the second to seventh grounds (the path of cultivation).

III. The Core Argument

This section unfolds in three layers the doctrine of the second to seventh grounds' path-of-cultivation severance: cultivation as "gradual severance" (3.1); the obstacles from coarse into subtle (3.2); the same severance with a different exit, and the seventh Far-Reaching Ground passing beyond the two vehicles (3.3).

3.1 Cultivation as "gradual severance," not the path of seeing's "outright severance": the innate, subtle afflictions thinning across the grounds

The first difference of the second to seventh grounds from the first ground lies in the "force" of severance: the first ground's path of seeing is "outright severance," the second to seventh grounds' path of cultivation is "gradual severance." The discriminated bonds of view severed by the first ground's path of seeing are afflictions arising by discrimination, by wrong view, deluded about principle; the mark of this class is "severed in a thought when suchness is seen" — once suchness is directly contemplated, they are severed then and there, as darkness meets light. But the innate afflictions are not so. The innate, subtle afflictions are afflictions arising spontaneously by beginningless habituation, deluded about phenomena, their root coiled within the beginningless habit-energy, not to be removed at one stroke by a single direct contemplation; they must, in the path-of-cultivation positions, be counteracted ground by ground, ground thinner layer by layer. Vasubandhu plainly judges that the three realms' "afflictions of the path of cultivation" "all thin and recede" (§2.3) — using precisely the words "thin and recede," a gradual thinning, a gradual receding, not an "all-at-once extinguishing." So the severance of the second to seventh grounds is "gradual severance": the innate, subtle afflictions thin gradually across the grounds of cultivation, each ground thinning them by a portion, not extinguished all at once as on the path of seeing.

The difference of outright and gradual is rooted in the difference of nature of the afflictions severed. The discriminated afflictions are deluded about principle, and principle is pierced the moment it is seen, so they can be severed outright; the innate afflictions are deluded about phenomena, and phenomenal marks are measureless, their habit-energy deep, so they must be ground gradually. This too is why the path of seeing is but one position (the first ground) while the path of cultivation must pass through many grounds (the second to seventh and beyond): the afflictions deluded about principle are one class, severed and finished in a single path of seeing; the afflictions deluded about phenomena are measureless, thinning ground by ground on the path of cultivation, not at once finished. The first ground's "joy" is the joy of outright severance; the advance of the second to seventh grounds is the work of gradual grinding — the former like the single split of a bamboo, the latter like the gradual thinning of a pestle worn down.

A contrast: the ebbing tide. The first ground's outright severance of the discriminated afflictions is like the sluice-gate flung open, the held-back water draining all at once (the afflictions deluded about principle, severed in a thought when suchness is contemplated). The second to seventh grounds' gradual severance of the innate afflictions, however, is like the ebb of the sea-tide — not drained in an instant, but wave upon wave, sinking by degrees, the tide-line moving back ground by ground until the flats lie bare. The "thinning and receding" of path-of-cultivation severance is just this aspect of "gradual ebb": the afflictions of the path of cultivation of the desire, form, and formless realms, and the habit-energy of ignorance, thin a portion and recede a portion on each of the second to seventh grounds — not any one ground severing them all at once, but ground by ground thinning, accumulating toward the subtle. The bodhisattva here is no longer at the instant's bamboo-split of the path of seeing, but at the long road's ebbing-tide work of the path of cultivation — and this is the very character of the second to seventh grounds, the "path-of-cultivation positions."

✅ Doctrinally sound: the second to seventh grounds' path-of-cultivation severance is "gradual severance," differing from the first ground's path-of-seeing "outright severance." The innate, subtle afflictions severed are deluded about phenomena, arising spontaneously by beginningless habit-energy, not to be finished by a single contemplation, but counteracted gradually across the grounds of cultivation. Vasubandhu judges the three realms' afflictions of the path of cultivation and the habit-energy of ignorance to "all thin and recede" (§2.3), the words "thin and recede" marking a gradual thinning, a gradual receding, not an all-at-once extinguishing. So the path of seeing is one position (the principle-deluded severed and finished), the path of cultivation passes through many grounds (the phenomenon-deluded thinning, not at once finished); like the ebbing tide's line moving back ground by ground, the second to seventh grounds each thin them a portion, accumulating toward the subtle.

3.2 The obstacles from coarse into subtle: the second to seventh obstacles, from wrong conduct to subtle-mark habit

The course of gradual cultivation, brought down to "what is counteracted," is a series of obstacles running from coarse into subtle. Vasubandhu judges the ten grounds to counteract ten obstacles, and these ten obstacles are not ten heaps laid side by side without order, but a sequence "from coarse gradually into subtle" (§2.3): the first obstacle, "the ordinary being's self-mark," is the coarsest — the ordinary being's grasping of the mark of self, removed at once by the first ground's path of seeing; the second-to-seventh obstacles run from coarse toward subtle, layer deepening into layer. The second ground counteracts the "obstacle of wrong conduct toward the bodies of beings and the like" (there is yet the wrong conduct of precept-breaking that rouses the erring mind, so the second ground counteracts by the pure precepts, named Stainlessness); the third counteracts the "obstacle of the dark mark, the forgetting of the dharmas of hearing, reflecting, cultivating" (there is yet a dim forgetting of the dharmas heard, so the third counteracts by making the dharmas appear in illumination, named Radiance / Light-Emitting); the fourth counteracts the "obstacle of conceit toward dharmas understood" (there is yet conceit toward the dharmas one has understood, so the fourth counteracts by the wisdom-fire burning the fuel of afflictions, named Flaming / Blazing-Wisdom); the fifth counteracts the "obstacle of the conceit-of-self in bodily purity" (there is yet a grasping of bodily purity that rouses conceit-of-self, so the fifth counteracts by world-transcending wisdom ferrying the hard-to-ferry, named Hard-to-Conquer); and the sixth counteracts the "obstacle of subtle afflictive habit," the seventh the "obstacle of subtle-mark habit" — the very names "subtle afflictive habit" and "subtle-mark habit" plainly marking what is counteracted as the finest residue of afflictive habit. The obstacles run from "the self-mark" (coarse) all the way ground down to "subtle afflictive habit" and "subtle-mark habit" (subtle), the afflictive habit like ore ground ever finer, marking the path-of-cultivation severance's layer-by-layer deepening.

The obstacles' run from coarse into subtle and the severance's thinning across the grounds are two faces of one course: the finer the obstacle, the more refined the counteragent it demands; the thinner the affliction, the higher the ground it manifests. The second ground's "wrong conduct" is still a coarser affliction of precept-breaking; by the sixth and seventh grounds' "subtle afflictive habit" and "subtle-mark habit," it is already the finest shadow of habit-energy — and this shows that the path of cultivation is not the repeated severing of one and the same affliction, but the layered counteracting of obstacles ever finer. Each ground counteracts one obstacle, thins the affliction a portion, attains a portion of purity, advancing ground upon ground, up to the seventh.

A contrast: polishing. The counteracting of the second-to-seventh obstacles on the path of cultivation is like a craftsman polishing a vessel — first with a coarse stone grinding off the conspicuous edges (the second ground leaving the wrong conduct of precept-breaking, like grinding off the coarsest roughness that catches the hand), then with a middling grit grinding off the finer flaws (the third removing forgetting, the fourth conceit-toward-dharmas-understood, the fifth the conceit-of-self in bodily purity, like grinding off, layer by layer, the ever-finer blemishes), and last with the finest grit and cloth rubbing again and again at the all-but-invisible faint marks (the sixth removing subtle afflictive habit, the seventh subtle-mark habit, like grinding away the finest residual shadow the eye can scarcely tell). Each grade of grit grinds off only that layer and reveals a finer layer beneath; the grit is changed ever finer, the mark ground ever fainter. The second-to-seventh obstacles' "from coarse into subtle" is just this sequence of polishing: not repeatedly grinding the same spot, but grinding layer by layer toward the finer, each ground fulfilling its own portion.

✅ Doctrinally sound: the second-to-seventh obstacles run from coarse into subtle. Vasubandhu judges the ten obstacles as a sequence from coarse gradually into subtle (§2.3): the first obstacle "the ordinary being's self-mark" the coarsest (broken by the first ground's path of seeing), the second-to-seventh — wrong conduct · forgetting · conceit toward dharmas understood · conceit-of-self in bodily purity · subtle afflictive habit · subtle-mark habit — turning finer layer by layer, the sixth and seventh "subtle afflictive habit" and "subtle-mark habit" marking what is counteracted as the finest residue of afflictive habit. The finer the obstacle the more refined the counteragent, the thinner the affliction the higher the ground; the obstacles' coarse-into-subtle and the afflictions' thinning across the grounds are two faces of one course. Like polishing's changing to finer grit and grinding the fainter mark, each ground counteracts one obstacle, thins the affliction a portion, attains a portion of purity, advancing ground upon ground.

3.3 One and the same grammar of severance, a different exit: the seventh, the Far-Reaching Ground, "passes beyond the world-transcending path of the two vehicles"

The final layer, inheriting the preceding paper's axis and landing it in the path-of-cultivation positions: is the bodhisattva's path-of-cultivation severance of the innate afflictions on the second to seventh grounds the same thing as the arhat's path-of-cultivation severance? The answer is still "the grammar is the same, the exit is different" — and this paper finds, in the meaning of the name of the seventh Far-Reaching Ground, the express textual landing of "the different exit" in the path-of-cultivation positions.

First, "the grammar is the same." The arhat's path of cultivation, too, after severing the view-afflictions on the path of seeing, goes on to sever the afflictions of the path of cultivation that are the three realms' to sever (the innate cultivation-afflictions), severing gradually until, all severed, arhatship is realized. The bodhisattva's path of cultivation of the second to seventh grounds, too, after the first ground's path of seeing severs the discriminated afflictions, goes on in the path-of-cultivation positions to sever gradually the three realms' innate, subtle afflictions. As regards the overall grammar of severance "the path of seeing severs the view-afflictions, the path of cultivation severs the cultivation-afflictions," the bodhisattva and the two vehicles are of one form — this axis does not deny this sameness (it is the further fulfilment, in the path-of-cultivation positions, of the bodhisattva-path independence established in BODHI-P01, "the same afflictions may fall, yet the measure and goal differ"): the bodhisattva who has entered the grounds does indeed sever the innate afflictions gradually in the path-of-cultivation positions, and the three realms' afflictions of the path of cultivation that he severs are of the same class as those the arhat's path of cultivation severs.

Then, "the exit is different," and here this paper finds its express landing in the meaning of a name. The name of the seventh Far-Reaching Ground reads: "well cultivating the application of the markless practice, ultimately able to pass beyond the world-transcending path of the two vehicles of the world, hence named the Far-Reaching Ground" (§2.2). The line "able to pass beyond the world-transcending path of the two vehicles of the world" most repays pondering: the two vehicles too cultivate the world-transcending path (severing the cultivation-afflictions, heading for nirvāṇa), and their path has its "stop" — it stops at severing all and realizing the fruit, entering remainderless nirvāṇa; the bodhisattva, on the seventh Far-Reaching Ground, is "ultimately able to pass beyond" the two vehicles' world-transcending path — "pass beyond" meaning to surpass, to go past, not to stop where the two vehicles stop. The same severance of the innate cultivation-afflictions: the two vehicles by it head for quiescence and take realization, stopping at arhatship (the exit at the terminus, as the axis's sramana division expounds); the bodhisattva does not stop there, but on the seventh ground "passes beyond" the two vehicles' path, going on to the eighth ground and above, heading for buddhahood (the exit as the extension of a starting point, climbing on without abiding). The afflictions severed are of the same class of path-of-cultivation innate afflictions, yet arriving at the seventh ground, one (the two vehicles) has stopped, the other (the bodhisattva) can pass beyond — the name "Far-Reaching" marks just the "far" of the bodhisattva's path: far past the two vehicles' stop, reaching toward the buddhahood the two vehicles cannot reach.

A contrast: two mountain paths, parallel in their first stretch (the bodhisattva and the two vehicles alike severing the innate afflictions in the path-of-cultivation positions, the grammar the same). Arriving somewhere there is a fork — the two vehicles' path here sets a terminus, marked "this very spot is the summit, you may stop" (the two vehicles stop at arhatship, enter nirvāṇa); the bodhisattva's path, at the same fork, sets a marker: "the road ahead is yet far, you may pass this and climb," and so passes that terminus, going on toward a higher, farther peak (the seventh Far-Reaching Ground "passing beyond" the two vehicles' world-transcending path, going on toward buddhahood). Parallel in the first stretch (alike severing the innate afflictions), parting at the fork (the seventh ground passing beyond the two vehicles): one takes it for the road's end and stops, the other for the mid-stretch of a farther road and passes beyond. "Far-Reaching" means just this: the bodhisattva's going can "reach far past" the two vehicles' stop — this is the express landing of "the different exit" in the path-of-cultivation positions, in the meaning of the seventh ground's name, and the concrete attestation, in the path-of-cultivation positions, of BODHI-P01's bodhisattva-path independence.

✅ Doctrinally sound: the second-to-seventh grounds' path-of-cultivation severance of the innate afflictions and the arhat's path-of-cultivation severance are "the same grammar, a different exit" — both, after severing the view-afflictions on the path of seeing, go on in the path-of-cultivation positions to sever gradually the three realms' innate afflictions (the grammar is the same; this axis does not deny the sameness), yet the two vehicles by it head for quiescence and take realization, stopping at arhatship (the exit at the terminus), while the bodhisattva, on the seventh Far-Reaching Ground, "is ultimately able to pass beyond the world-transcending path of the two vehicles of the world" (§2.2), not stopping where the two vehicles stop but going on toward buddhahood (the exit as the extension of a starting point). The name "Far-Reaching" marks just that the bodhisattva's path reaches far past the two vehicles' stop. This is the attestation, in the path-of-cultivation positions, of BODHI-P01's bodhisattva-path independence: the same innate cultivation-afflictions severed, yet the measure and goal differ, the exit differs.

Taken together, the three layers — the second to seventh grounds are the path-of-cultivation course of "gradual severance" of the innate, subtle afflictions, differing from the first ground's outright severance (3.1); the obstacles they counteract run from coarse into subtle, from the second ground's wrong conduct to the sixth and seventh grounds' subtle afflictive habit and subtle-mark habit (3.2); and this path-of-cultivation severance is one grammar with the arhat's yet a different exit, the seventh Far-Reaching Ground's "able to pass beyond the world-transcending path of the two vehicles" the express landing of "the different exit" (3.3) — jointly establish the thesis: the second to seventh grounds (Stainlessness to Far-Reaching) are the bodhisattva's path-of-cultivation course of gradually severing the innate, subtle afflictions "from coarse into subtle, thinning ground by ground," its severance one grammar with the two vehicles' path-of-cultivation severance yet of a different exit — the seventh Far-Reaching Ground's "passing beyond the two vehicles' world-transcending path" the plain evidence of "the different exit"; the innate, subtle afflictions are not here yet severed to the end, opening the course of the eighth ground and above.

IV. Interdisciplinary Convergence

(This paper deliberately omits the section of interdisciplinary convergence; the reason and the declaration of the omission are given in Section VI. In brief: the spine of this paper is the Mahāyāna noble-stage doctrine of "gradually severing the innate, subtle afflictions in the path-of-cultivation positions, the obstacles from coarse into subtle, the seventh ground passing beyond the two vehicles' world-transcending path." Contemporary models of "incremental skill mastery," of "the decay curve of habit-extinction," of "layered denoising / successive approximation" may, on the surface, be likened in respect of "the gradual, the graded, the tending from coarse to fine," yet they cannot sustain a three-fold convergence free of forced analogy on the three meanings: that "the innate afflictions are an afflictive habit arising from delusion about phenomena, not a quantifiable behavioral residue"; that "the severance of the path of cultivation is a severance subsumed under the noble stage's suchness, not a psychological fading"; and that "the seventh ground's passing beyond the two vehicles is a transcendence in the direction of soteriology, not an increment of efficacy." Above all, the meaning that "the seventh Far-Reaching Ground passes beyond the two vehicles' world-transcending path" marks a difference in the direction of the exit between the bodhisattva path and the two-vehicle path, which no same-direction incremental model of "higher degree, better efficiency" can answer to. Hence, per the series' editorial convention, the section is cut, and so declared here.)

V. Middle-Way Corrections

This section clears away three misreadings; the first concerns the documentary nature of this paper's core terminology, the second the source-abridgement of a name, and both demand special honesty.

⚠️ Correction 1: Equating "innate afflictions (severed on the path of cultivation)" with "the afflictions severed on the path of cultivation" is, like the preceding paper's pairing of "discriminated afflictions" with "the bonds of view," a later Yogācāra classification, not the express wording of this round's three texts. Inheriting the caution of BODHI-P07's Section V, this paper must mark the same. The express wording of this round's three texts — the Eighty-fascicle Avataṃsaka (T0279), the Daśabhūmika-sūtra (T0287), and Vasubandhu's Daśabhūmika-vyākhyāna (T1522) — reads "the bonds of view were severed at the first ground, on the path of seeing" against the three realms' "afflictions of the path of cultivation (of the realms of desire, form, and the formless) … all thin and recede" (§2.3). What the three texts speak of is the pair "bonds of view (severed on the path of seeing) / afflictions of the path of cultivation (severed on the path of cultivation, thinning gradually)"; they do not produce the paired Yogācāra classificatory terms "discriminated-arising / innate-arising." To equate "the afflictions severed on the path of cultivation" outright with "innate-arising afflictions" is, with the preceding paper's equation of "the bonds of view severed on the path of seeing" with "discriminated-arising afflictions," one and the same Yogācāra ascription (the Cheng weishi lun tradition). This paper continues to use the term "innate afflictions" for ease of prose and to thread the whole axis's scheme of stages (as this axis's PLAN also adopts), because it does mark the reality of "the phenomenon-deluded subtle afflictions severed on the path of cultivation"; but it must be marked: the three texts' express wording reaches only to "afflictions of the path of cultivation," and the equation "= innate afflictions" is a later Yogācāra ascription. Such Yogācāra classificatory text lies beyond this round's designated sources (T0279 / T0287 / T1522), to be supplied after a separate round of Yogācāra-treatise source-gathering (the Cheng weishi lun and the like); the final adjudication of its equation is for the author to make in accordance with school and treatise.

⚠️ Correction 2: The name-gloss of the sixth, the Manifest Ground, is abridged in this round's source, and this paper does not supply it; further, "Radiant Ground / Flaming Ground" (the treatise's name-gloss) and "Light-Emitting Ground / Blazing-Wisdom Ground" (the sūtra's listing) are set side by side. This must be honestly marked as a limit of the source. In Vasubandhu's Daśabhūmika-vyākhyāna's "Gloss on the Meaning of the Names of the Ten Grounds" (§2.2), within the source unit relied on this round, the name-gloss of the sixth "Manifest Ground" — between the fifth "Hard-to-Conquer Ground" and the seventh "Far-Reaching Ground" — is passed over with "…", no verbatim wording found. This paper does not supply or fabricate the Manifest Ground's name-gloss here (its name-meaning to await the completion of the source or the author's adjudication by the treatise), and merely lists its position by name (the sixth, Manifest, between Hard-to-Conquer and Far-Reaching). Further: in that same name-gloss passage, Vasubandhu writes "Radiant Ground" and "Flaming Ground," while §2.1's listing writes "Light-Emitting Ground" and "Blazing-Wisdom Ground" — this is the side-by-side of the treatise's "name-gloss wording" and the sūtra's "listing wording" (Radiant = Light-Emitting, Flaming = Blazing-Wisdom, the same ground under different appellations); this paper, at the listing, follows the sūtra's listing with "Light-Emitting Ground / Blazing-Wisdom Ground," and where it cites the name-gloss preserves the treatise's original "Radiant Ground / Flaming Ground," the two set side by side, not deciding in the author's stead which appellation to adopt uniformly.

❌ Misreading 3: The second to seventh grounds' path of cultivation already "severs the innate afflictions to the end," and the seventh ground's "passing beyond the two vehicles" means "accomplishing the two-vehicle fruit" or "no different from buddhahood." This holds two errors, to be cleared together. First, the second to seventh grounds' gradual severance of the innate afflictions is a "thinning and receding" (§2.3), not a "severing to the end": the innate, subtle afflictions thin ground by ground on the second to seventh grounds, yet are not yet exhausted — only on the eighth ground and above, up to buddhahood, are they ultimate. To misread "thinning" as "severing to the end" is to erase the whole course of the eighth ground and above (BODHI-P09 and after), and to conflate the causal-stage bodhisattva with buddhahood. Second, the seventh Far-Reaching Ground's "able to pass beyond the world-transcending path of the two vehicles of the world," its "pass beyond," is "to surpass, to go past" (the bodhisattva's path reaching far past where the two vehicles stop, going on toward buddhahood), by no means "accomplishing the two-vehicle fruit" or "being the same as the two vehicles" — to the contrary, "passing beyond" marks just that the bodhisattva does not stop where the two vehicles stop. To misread "passing beyond the two vehicles" as "equaling the two vehicles' realization" is to read the name exactly backward ("Far-Reaching" marks its reaching-far-past, not its stopping-the-same). The second to seventh grounds are the "mid-stretch" of the path-of-cultivation positions, the course of the innate afflictions thinning, the attestation of the bodhisattva path's reaching far past the two vehicles — neither the consummation of severance nor a conflation with the two vehicles or with buddhahood.

VI. Conclusion

Essential restatement. The second to seventh grounds (Stainlessness · Light-Emitting · Blazing-Wisdom · Hard-to-Conquer · Manifest · Far-Reaching) are the bodhisattva's "path-of-cultivation" course of gradually severing the innate (path-of-cultivation's-to-sever) subtle afflictions. Inheriting the first ground's path-of-seeing outright severance of the discriminated afflictions (BODHI-P07), the severance of the second to seventh grounds differs from outright severance and is "gradual severance": Vasubandhu plainly judges the three realms' afflictions of the path of cultivation and the habit-energy of ignorance to "all thin and recede," a gradual thinning across the grounds, not an all-at-once extinguishing. The obstacles they counteract run from coarse into subtle — from the second ground's "obstacle of wrong conduct," the third's "obstacle of forgetting," the fourth's "obstacle of conceit toward dharmas understood," the fifth's "obstacle of conceit-of-self in bodily purity," to the sixth's "obstacle of subtle afflictive habit" and the seventh's "obstacle of subtle-mark habit" — marking the afflictive habits ground ever finer. On the textual evidence, the Avataṃsaka's Chapter on the Ten Grounds and the Daśabhūmika-sūtra formally list the ten grounds from Joy (Supreme Joy) to Dharma-Cloud, taught in common by the buddhas of the three times; Vasubandhu's Daśabhūmika-vyākhyāna glosses each ground's name (Stainlessness leaving the defilement of precept-breaking, Radiance illumining the dharmas, Flaming burning the fuel of afflictions, Hard-to-Conquer ferrying the hard-to-ferry, Far-Reaching passing beyond the two vehicles' world-transcending path), classes the second-to-seventh obstacles from coarse into subtle, judges the afflictions of the path of cultivation to thin across the grounds, and takes the time of the path of seeing and the time of the path of cultivation as its backbone. On the doctrine, three layers bear it: cultivation as gradual severance, not outright severance (3.1); the obstacles from coarse into subtle (3.2); the path-of-cultivation severance of the innate afflictions one grammar with the arhat's yet a different exit, the seventh Far-Reaching Ground's "passing beyond the world-transcending path of the two vehicles" the express landing of "the different exit" (3.3). It must be honestly marked: pairing "innate" with "afflictions of the path of cultivation" is a later Yogācāra ascription; the sixth Manifest Ground's name-gloss is abridged in this round's source and not supplied; Radiant/Flaming and Light-Emitting/Blazing-Wisdom stand side by side as renderings (Section V).

Guidance for practice. Though the second to seventh grounds are noble-stage path-of-cultivation states beyond the ordinary being's reach, their doctrine offers the practitioner two things. First, to discern the division of "outright" from "gradual" and so to raise patience. In the true course of severing afflictions, the afflictions deluded about principle may be pierced at a single seeing (as on the path of seeing), but the habit-energy deluded about phenomena must be ground gradually over long eons (as on the path of cultivation) — the innate, subtle afflictions "thin across the grounds," and even the noble-stage bodhisattva who has entered the grounds must still pass through the second to seventh grounds and the grounds beyond to sever them gradually, how much more the ordinary being? So the practitioner, in effort, should know that coarse and heavy afflictions may be subdued more quickly, while deep and subtle habit-energy must be nourished with patience and ground gradually ground by ground, not to be sought all at one bound, nor to lose heart because the subtle afflictions are hard to exhaust. Second, to take a measure of method from "from coarse into subtle." In counteracting afflictions, it is fitting to go coarse first and fine after — first removing the coarsest and heaviest that catch the hand (as the second ground leaves precept-breaking), then grinding layer by layer toward the finer habit-energy (as the sixth and seventh grounds remove subtle afflictive habit and subtle-mark habit). The sequence of polishing changes the grit from coarse to fine, the mark from plain to faint; so too in effort — not skipping grades to seek the fine, not stalling at the coarse — and so accord with the principle of "from coarse into subtle."

Open questions. First, this paper deliberately cut the Section IV interdisciplinary convergence, for the reason given above. Second, the Yogācāra ascription (the Cheng weishi lun tradition) of this paper's core term "innate afflictions" lies beyond this round's designated sources (T0279 / T0287 / T1522) and is not matched to textual evidence; after a separate round of Yogācāra-treatise source-gathering is supplied, this paper's and the preceding paper's argument on the ascription of severance should be reinforced, and the final adjudication of its equation is for the author to make in accordance with school and treatise. Third, the name-gloss of the sixth, the Manifest Ground, is abridged in this round's source, no verbatim wording found, and this paper does not supply it; to await the completion of the source or the author's adjudication by the treatise. Fourth, the second to seventh grounds' cultivation only thins the innate, subtle afflictions gradually without severing them to the end; the course of the eighth ground and above — the eighth (Immovable) ground's markless, effortless forbearance of the non-arising of dharmas, the ten masteries, mindfulness-non-regress; the ninth (Good Wisdom) ground's perfection of power; the tenth (Dharma-Cloud) ground's perfection of wisdom and the consecration that confers office — open BODHI-P09 and P10.

The dual-axis seam (SEAM). This paper meets the Attainment-axis attainment-signatures/bodhisattva at the two faces of the second to seventh grounds: the Realization-axis (this paper) tells the "walking" of the second to seventh grounds' cultivation — how, in the path-of-cultivation positions, one gradually severs the innate, subtle afflictions, the obstacles from coarse into subtle, the seventh ground passing beyond the two vehicles' world-transcending path; the Attainment-axis then reads the fruit-virtue this cultivation accomplishes — the portion of bodhisattva-mastery signed by each of these grounds (Stainlessness's purity of precept, Hard-to-Conquer's world-transcending wisdom, Far-Reaching's passing beyond the two vehicles, and the rest, the mastery of the portion of suchness realized at each ground). It must be sharply distinguished from the fruit-stage of the Attainment-axis's tathagata: the second to seventh grounds are the causal-stage path of cultivation, the mid-stretch of the ten nobles, their realization and severance alike the affair of a causal-stage bodhisattva's portion, the innate afflictions they sever not yet exhausted, not the ultimate of the tathāgata's fruit-stage. The doctrine of the seam is for the author to adjudicate; this paper does not speak in the Attainment-axis's stead.

Cross-Reference Index

BODHI-P01 "The Bodhisattva Path Does Not Continue from the Fruit of Arhatship," §3.2: This paper's "the same grammar of severance, a different exit" (3.3) is precisely the fulfilment, at the level of path-of-cultivation severance, of the bodhisattva-path independence established there — the second-to-seventh-ground bodhisattva, though severing the innate afflictions gradually in the path-of-cultivation positions alike with the two vehicles, does not take severance as heading for quiescence and realization, stopping at arhatship, but on the seventh Far-Reaching Ground "passes beyond the world-transcending path of the two vehicles," continuing toward buddhahood; the same affliction severed in the same way, yet the measure and goal differ.
BODHI-P07 "The First Ground and the Path of Seeing," §3.2, §VI: This paper directly inherits the preceding — it established the first ground's path of seeing as "outright severance" of the discriminated afflictions (the bonds of view that are the path-of-seeing's to sever), foreshadowing that the innate afflictions await gradual severance across the grounds of cultivation; this paper is the unfolding of that "path-of-cultivation gradual severance of the innate afflictions," showing the "gradual severance" of the second to seventh grounds and the obstacles from coarse into subtle, set against the preceding paper's "outright severance" and "first obstacle, the self-mark" to complete the two positions of the path of seeing and the path of cultivation.
BODHI-P09 "The Eighth Ground" (forthcoming): This paper's §VI foreshadows the next — the second to seventh grounds' cultivation only thins the innate, subtle afflictions gradually without severing them to the end; the eighth (Immovable) ground, by the markless, effortless forbearance of the non-arising of dharmas, the ten masteries, and mindfulness-non-regress, advances to a finer severance, continuing the course of the eighth ground and above up to the ultimate of buddhahood.
The axis's sramana division: This paper's 3.3 "the two vehicles by severance head for quiescence and take realization, stopping at arhatship," the detail of its "exit at the terminus," belongs to the śrāvaka path expounded in the axis's first division; this paper cites it only for the contrast of "the different exit," not speaking in the sramana division's stead.

Notes

References

I. Buddhist Primary Sources

Mahāvaipulya-buddhāvataṃsaka-sūtra (Eighty-fascicle Avataṃsaka). Trans. Śikṣānanda. T10, no. 0279. "Chapter on the Ten Grounds, 26" (the full listing of the ten grounds · the second to seventh among them · spoken by the buddhas of the three times alike).
Daśabhūmika-sūtra. Trans. Xuanzang. T10, no. 0287. (Variant rendering of the names of the ten grounds · the first as "Ground of Supreme Joy" · the names of the second to seventh grounds agreeing with the Avataṃsaka tradition.)
Daśabhūmika-vyākhyāna. Composed by Vasubandhu, trans. Bodhiruci et al. T26, no. 1522. (Gloss on the meaning of the names of the second to seventh grounds · the ten obstacles and counteragents from coarse into subtle · the afflictions of the path of cultivation thinning across the grounds · the time of the path of seeing and the time of the path of cultivation.)

II. Modern Scholarship

(This paper cites no modern scholarship; its argument rests wholly on the Buddhist primary sources, following the open-source spirit of "returning to the headwaters." The section of interdisciplinary convergence has been cut. The Yogācāra teaching-mode ascription (the Cheng weishi lun tradition) pairing "innate afflictions" with "the afflictions severed on the path of cultivation" is marked by this paper as a later Yogācāra ascription, not adopted as the verbatim wording of the three texts, nor is its treatise-classification unfolded; pending a separate round of Yogācāra-treatise source-gathering or the author's adjudication, this paper does not pre-cite recent Yogācāra studies of the stages of severance. The sixth Manifest Ground's name-gloss is abridged in this round's source, and is not supplied from other recensions.)

III. Index of Canonical Citations

Gist of citation	Source	CBETA id
Full listing of the ten grounds (Ground of Joy … Dharma-Cloud) · the second to seventh among them · spoken by the buddhas of the three times	Eighty-fascicle Avataṃsaka, fasc. 34, Ten Grounds part 1	T10n0279_p0179b22
Variant rendering of the ten grounds (Supreme Joy … Dharma-Cloud) · the second to seventh names agreeing with the Avataṃsaka	Daśabhūmika-sūtra, fasc. 1, Ground of Supreme Joy part 1	T10n0287_p0536b03
Name-gloss of the second to seventh grounds (Stainlessness · Radiant · Flaming · Hard-to-Conquer · [Manifest abridged] · Far-Reaching "passing beyond the two vehicles' world-transcending path")	Daśabhūmika-vyākhyāna, fasc. 2, meaning of the names	T26n1522_p0127a17
The ten obstacles and counteragents from coarse into subtle · the second-to-seventh obstacles (wrong conduct · forgetting · conceit toward dharmas understood · conceit-of-self in bodily purity · subtle afflictive habit · subtle-mark habit)	Daśabhūmika-vyākhyāna, fasc. 2, ten obstacles	T26n1522_p0127a12
The bonds of view severed at the first ground · the afflictions of the path of cultivation thinning and receding across the grounds	Daśabhūmika-vyākhyāna, fasc. 6, third ground severing obstacles	T26n1522_p0158c20
Entering by realization "in the time of the path of seeing" · entering by non-negligence "in the time of the path of cultivation" (the two-time backbone)	Daśabhūmika-vyākhyāna, fasc. 1, preface · entering by realization	T26n1522_p0124c17

Paper: BODHI-P08 · 二至七地 · The Bodhi Path · Part 5 · The Ten Grounds Author: 釋慧鏡 (Shi Huijing) · Project: 指月 / Pointing-at-the-Moon · Series: The Realization Paths（行階位歷程） License: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 CBETA collation: 全文引用均依 CBETA 電子佛典核校（《大方廣佛華嚴經》T0279、《十地經》T0287、《十地經論》T1522）。初地譯名「歡喜地／極喜地」、三地「發光地／明地」、四地「焰慧地／焰地」依華嚴系經列名／世親論名義釋並陳；第六現前地名義於本輪來源從略（以「…」略過），不擬補。「俱生惑」配「修道所斷煩惱」標為後出唯識（成唯識論系）之教判，非本輪三本逐字明文（三本作「修道煩惱」而無「俱生起」一詞）。本篇為大乘分區，無巴利雙軌義務；引文均待 CBETA XML 實核。 Repository: https://github.com/pointing-at-the-moon/realization-paths