Chapter 11 · The Five Stages — Śamatha, Vipaśyanā, the Six Perfections, and the Three Trainings

Part Three · The Path

The threshold into consciousness-only — the previous chapter has already reached it. But back on the cushion, back in the round of the days, how does one actually practice? Does this school have a discipline of its own, or, having finished expounding "consciousness-only," does it borrow its practice-gate from other houses?

This chapter lays out the full machinery of the practice-gate: the substance of the discipline (śamatha and vipaśyanā), the organizational map of the journey (the five stages), the fuel of action (the six perfections), and the discipline that gathers up all action (the three trainings). The parts are many, but the assembly line is single — every one of them meshes onto "entering consciousness-only."

1 · Śamatha and Vipaśyanā — The Substance of the Discipline

The "Analysis of Yoga" chapter of the Saṃdhinirmocana-sūtra is, in its entirety, a dialogue of questions and answers between Maitreya and the Buddha. The very first question strikes at the root:

「On what does a bodhisattva rely, in what does he abide, when within the Great Vehicle he cultivates śamatha and vipaśyanā?」

Śamatha the ancients rendered as 止, "calm"; vipaśyanā they rendered as 觀, "insight." What Maitreya asks is: in cultivating these two disciplines, where do the feet stand? The Buddha's answer names only two things:

「Know that the bodhisattva takes the provisional establishment of the Dharma, together with not forsaking the vow of anuttarā-samyak-saṃbodhi, as that on which he relies and in which he abides.」

The two supports catch, each of them exactly, a preceding chapter. "The provisional establishment of the Dharma" — the teaching set up provisionally by names and words. This word "provisional" (假) is the very same word as the "provisional establishment" of the previous chapter: the teaching is transmitted through the provisional establishment of names and words, and only so does mental discourse arise and run on in the hearer's mind — this school does not in the least evade this layer of mediacy; what the practitioner relies on is precisely this honestly-marked medium. "Not forsaking the vow of enlightenment" — that mind aroused in Chapter Nine here becomes, directly, the ground of the discipline. Śamatha and vipaśyanā are not sitting upon nothing; they sit upon the perfuming of what has been heard and upon the power of the vow.

Before separately defining calm and insight, the sūtra first sets out four kinds of object-domain, which must not be collapsed into one vague "image":

「First, the object-domain that is an image with discrimination; second, the object-domain that is an image without discrimination; third, the object-domain that is the limit of the real; fourth, the object-domain that is the accomplishment of what was to be done.」 「One is the object-domain of śamatha, namely the image without discrimination; one is the object-domain of vipaśyanā, namely the image with discrimination; two are the object-domain of both together, namely the limit of the real and the accomplishment of what was to be done.」

The assignment is clear: the image without discrimination is the object of calm, the image with discrimination is the object of insight; the limit of the real and the accomplishment of what was to be done belong to both calm and insight together as their shared object. Further on, the sūtra ranges the four along the sequence of the path of cultivation: first, through calm and insight, one obtains the two image-objects, with and without discrimination; at the path of seeing one further realizes the limit of the real; advancing through the later and later grounds, and up to the completion of enlightenment, one attains the object that is the full accomplishment of what was to be done. The four are not four pictures set side by side, but a single complete progression — from working upon the image, to touching the limit of the fact, to the ultimate accomplishment of what was to be done.

The definition of calm the sūtra writes as a single sequence of operations:

「Concerning the dharmas one has well pondered, dwelling alone in an empty and quiet place, one attends and reflects. Then, upon this very mind that is able to reflect, inwardly and continuously, one attends and reflects. Because one abides much in such right practice, there arise the pliancy of body and the pliancy of mind — this is called śamatha.」

Slow it down phrase by phrase. In the first phrase, one attends and reflects upon "the dharmas one has well pondered" — the dharmas well heard beforehand, "well listened to, well received, made well-fluent in speech, well examined in mind, well penetrated in view," set upon the mind while dwelling alone in quiet. The second phrase is the turn: "then upon this very mind that is able to reflect" — attention turns from the dharma thought-of to the reflecting mind itself, letting mind upon mind "continue inwardly." The third phrase gives the criterion: "there arise the pliancy of body and the pliancy of mind." Calm is not accomplished by sitting long but by pliancy — pliancy of body and pliancy of mind arising together: when the work is done rightly, both body and mind bear witness.

The definition of insight follows immediately, in the same passage:

「Because he takes the attained pliancy of body and mind as his support, then, concerning the dharmas he has well pondered, upon the image that ranges within concentration he examines, resolves upon it, and lets go of the mark of mind. Within the knowable meaning of such an image in concentration, he is able rightly to discern and to discern to the utmost, to search everywhere and to investigate everywhere — the acquiescence, the delight, the wisdom, the view, the contemplation therein — this is called vipaśyanā.」

Pliancy is taken "as the support" — insight rides upon calm, and the order cannot be reversed. And the verbs of insight — "discern," "search," "investigate" — join onto the working method of the four searchings of the previous chapter: the four searchings and the four cognitions-as-they-truly-are can serve as one contemplative method of this school's vipaśyanā, yet one cannot, conversely, narrow vipaśyanā down to these four alone. Here the work closes at the keystone: the consciousness-only contemplation is not a separate discipline set beside calm and insight, but operates within the broad gate of insight according to the meaning of consciousness-only.

And the one who has not yet gained pliancy — how does he count? Maitreya asked on behalf of the beginner, and the Buddha's answer is considerate:

「It is not śamatha-attention; it is the attention, conjoined with resolve, that accords with śamatha.」

Not yet calm, but it has a name — attention that "accords with" calm. Insight is likewise ("it is not vipaśyanā-attention; it is the attention, conjoined with resolve, that accords with vipaśyanā"). The beginner's work does not yet qualify, yet it is already on the map; "according with" means heading toward.

And the deepest question of this chapter is asked about the object of calm and insight. The "image ranging within concentration" that arises in meditation — that observed image — and the observing mind: are they one, or are they different? The Buddha answers:

「It should be said: not different. Why? Because that image is nothing but consciousness. Good son! I have said that the object of consciousness is only what consciousness itself manifests.」

"I have said that the object of consciousness is only what consciousness itself manifests" — the scriptural warrant for this school's very name, spoken from the Buddha's own mouth while he was teaching meditation. The observed image is not outside the mind; it is consciousness's own manifestation. But then, "this mind still sees this mind" — does that not become an eye seeing itself? The Buddha gives the simile of a mirror:

「Herein there is no least dharma that sees a least dharma; yet when this mind arises thus, just so does such an image appear. Good son! It is as when, in dependence on a well-polished, clean mirror-surface, with the substance itself as condition one sees back the original substance, and yet says 'I now see an image,' and says that, apart from the substance, there separately appears an image ranging before one. Just so, when this mind arises, there appears an image, as it were distinct, ranging within concentration.」

There is no thing looking at another thing; when the mind arises thus, the image appears thus, as the mirror-surface shows forth the substance — yet we "say that apart from the substance there separately exists" an image standing there. What the meditator verifies with his own hand on the cushion is just this: the object is the mind's own manifesting. Calm and insight are therefore not 'that those who practice consciousness-only must also sit,' but the very place where consciousness-only is seen — that patch of image on the cushion is the touchstone of the whole body of teaching.

The chapter further, in three answers, sorts calm, insight, and their conjoined operation cleanly apart: "if one continuously attends and reflects only upon the mark of mind," this is cultivating insight throughout; "if one continuously attends and reflects only upon the mind without interval," this is cultivating calm throughout; "if one rightly reflects upon the one-pointedness of mind," calm and insight harmonize and turn together.

2 · The Five Stages — The Organizational Map of the Journey

The discipline is in hand — how long is the road? The last five verses of the Thirty Verses are this school's map of the journey, one stage to a verse:

「So long as consciousness has not yet arisen, seeking to abide in the nature of consciousness-only, in the latent tendencies of the two graspings one is not yet able to subdue and extinguish them.」 (the stage of equipment) 「Setting up some slight thing before oneself and calling it the nature of consciousness-only — because there is still something attained, this is not truly abiding in consciousness-only.」 (the stage of preparation) 「When, with respect to the object, cognition attains nothing at all, then one abides in consciousness-only, for one is free of the marks of the two graspings.」 (the stage of penetration) 「Without attainment, inconceivable — this is the supramundane cognition; because the two coarse-and-heavy burdens are cast off, one then realizes the transformation of the basis.」 (the stage of cultivation) 「This is the uncontaminated realm — inconceivable, good, eternal; the blissful body of liberation; the great Muni named Dharma.」 (the ultimate stage)

What the five stages measure is not mileage but the relation to the nature of consciousness-only: the stage of equipment "seeks to abide" but cannot yet; the stage of preparation sets it up before oneself ("setting up some slight thing"); the stage of penetration truly "abides" within it ("then one abides in consciousness-only"); the stage of cultivation abides until it is seasoned; the ultimate stage graduates even from being a stage. The treatise gives each a single line of definition: the stage of equipment, "deep faith-and-understanding in the nature and characteristics of consciousness"; the stage of preparation, "gradually able to subdue and remove the grasped and the grasper"; the stage of penetration, "penetration as it truly is"; the stage of cultivation, "seeing the principle as it truly is, cultivating again and again"; the ultimate stage, "emerged from obstruction, round and luminous, able to transform sentient beings to the end of the future." The five sections below walk it stage by stage; the ultimate stage is kept to a heading and a pointer, the whole account referred to Chapter Twelve.

3 · The Stage of Equipment — Setting Out from the Deep and Firm Arousing of the Mind

From where does the stage of equipment begin to count? The starting point drawn by the Cheng weishi lun is precisely the close of Chapter Nine:

「From the arousing of the deep and firm great mind of enlightenment, up until the consciousness conducive to penetrative discernment has not yet arisen, seeking to abide in the true, supreme-meaning nature of consciousness-only — all of this is comprised within the stage of equipment.」

What the treatise stipulates is "the arousing of the deep and firm great mind of enlightenment": only upon arousing a great mind of enlightenment that is deep and firm, not backsliding from its direction, does one enter the stage of equipment; one cannot unconditionally equate a single first flash of aspiration with having entered the stage. The arousing of the mind spoken of in Chapter Nine is the gate onto the road; when it becomes deep and firm, it becomes the starting point of this stage. For the capital of this stage the treatise lists four items: "the four superior powers of cause, good friend, attention, and provisions" — lineage (cause), teachers and friends, proper attention, and the accumulation of merit and wisdom. And the treatise's description of this stage is utterly honest:

「Though he has deep faith-and-understanding in the meaning of consciousness-only, he cannot yet realize the emptiness of grasper and grasped, and mostly dwells at the outer gate cultivating the bodhisattva practice.」

Deep faith-and-understanding, but not yet the doing of it; mostly at the "outer gate" — practice upon such matters as giving and keeping the precepts. The verse says of this stage, "in the latent tendencies of the two graspings one is not yet able to subdue and extinguish them": the habit-energies of grasper and grasped still "follow after sentient beings and lie dormant in the store-consciousness" — asleep within the eighth consciousness, while here "the powers of calm and insight are feeble," unable to shake them.

At this stage the treatise sets down a most considerate passage. The beginner will lose heart — the author of the treatise foresaw it, and foresaw three kinds:

「In cultivating the superior practices there are three shrinkings-back, yet by three matters one can temper one's mind so that, toward what is to be realized and cultivated, one is valiant and does not retreat: first, hearing that unsurpassed perfect enlightenment is vast, great, and far off, the mind shrinks back; adducing others who have already realized the great enlightenment, one tempers one's own mind to valor without retreat.」

Hearing that enlightenment is too far, the mind contracts — then think: someone has already walked there, and they too set out from being human. The second shrinking is hearing that the six perfections are too hard to cultivate — the remedy is "examining one's own inclination and its capacity to cultivate giving and the rest": taking stock of oneself, one finds one can already practice giving in some small measure. The third is hearing that Buddhahood is too hard to realize — the remedy is "adducing others' coarse good to gauge one's own excellent cause": if even shallow good deeds bear fruit, how much more a correct cause. Three shrinkings, three temperings: the losing of heart is written into the main treatise, and the method for tempering the mind is written down along with it. The stage of equipment is long; this school does not coax anyone by calling it short — it only teaches how, on the long road, not to turn back.

4 · The Stage of Preparation — The Four Searchings Congealed into the Four Concentrations

The provisions are full; the sprint approaching the path of seeing is called the stage of preparation:

「He further cultivates the preparatory effort, subduing and removing the two graspings — namely, warmth, summit, forbearance, and the supreme worldly dharma.」

Warmth, summit, forbearance, supreme worldly dharma — four names, four steps pressing hard one after another. And the tool these four steps use, the treatise discloses in a single line:

「The four dharmas, warmth and the rest, are established in dependence on the four searchings and the four cognitions-as-they-truly-are, at their earlier and later stages.」

The four searchings and four cognitions-as-they-truly-are of the previous chapter — there still a method of discernment — here, in dependence on the four concentrations of light-obtaining, light-increasing, conforming-acceptance, and uninterrupted, are established as the four stages of warmth, summit, forbearance, and supreme worldly dharma. Take warmth as the example; the treatise's gloss on the name is exquisite:

「In dependence on the light-obtaining concentration, giving rise to the lower searching, observing that there is nothing grasped, this is established as the stage of warmth. That is, in this stage one first observes that the four dharmas of the grasped — name and the rest — are all transformations of one's own mind, provisionally set up as existing, and truly unobtainable. Because it is the first attainment of the forerunning aspect of the sun of wisdom, it is given the name 'light-obtaining'; and because this is the forerunning sign of the fire of the path thereby obtained, it is also named 'warmth.'」

"First observes" — for the first time, within concentration, using searching, one observes that name, meaning, own-nature, and distinction "are all transformations of one's own mind"; this is the forerunning sign of the light of the cognition of objectlessness, not yet the direct realization of the path of seeing. Why is it called warmth? Wisdom is like the sun, and this is the first thread of dawn-light before sunrise (hence the name "light-obtaining"); cognition is like fire, and this is the faint warmth as the fire is about to catch. At the summit stage, "the light-aspect grows more intense"; at the forbearance stage one endorses the emptiness of the grasped and turns toward the emptiness of the grasper — the reasoning uses just one sentence:

「Since there is no real object apart from the grasping consciousness, how could there be a real consciousness apart from the grasped object?」

The grasped once toppled, the grasper loses its partner; at the supreme worldly dharma "the two emptinesses are doubly endorsed," and after a single instant one must enter the path of seeing. The treatise cites a verse to sum up the four stages:

「The bodhisattva, in the stage of concentration, observes that the image is only mind; the mark of the object once extinguished, he examines closely that there is only his own conception. Abiding thus in the inner mind, he knows that the grasped does not exist; next, that the grasper too is nothing; finally he touches non-attainment.」

Image-is-only-mind → the object-mark extinguished → examining closely only-one's-own-conception → the grasped does not exist → the grasper too is nothing → touching non-attainment — a six-step card of the discipline. And the warning of Verse 27, read closely in the previous chapter: "setting up some slight thing before oneself and calling it the nature of consciousness-only" — to hold the nature of consciousness-only before oneself as a thing is precisely the limit of this stage's "observing mind while still carrying a mark," and precisely where it must transcend itself.

5 · The Stage of Penetration — The Path of Seeing

The instant that "slight thing" is set down:

「When, with respect to the object, the bodhisattva's non-discriminating cognition attains nothing at all, because he does not grasp the various marks of conceptual proliferation, then and only then is he said truly to abide in the true, supreme-meaning nature of consciousness-only; that is, the cognition that realizes suchness and suchness itself are equal, equal — both being free of the marks of grasper and grasped, since the marks of grasper and grasped are both discrimination, and it is by a mind that has attainment that conceptual proliferation appears.」

"Equal, equal" — doubled twice over: the cognition that realizes and the suchness that is realized are no longer two poles. This stage "experiences suchness, and is named the stage of penetration; because it is the first illumination of the principle, it is also named the path of seeing" — illumined and seen for the first time. The treatise further divides the true path of seeing (direct realization by non-discriminating cognition, "spoken of together as one mind") from the semblant path of seeing (the subsequent stage-by-stage statement of this one seeing); the detailed account is not unfolded here — it is set out in the compiled edition, §24. The prospect of the path of seeing was glimpsed from afar, in the previous chapter, through the Mahāyāna-saṃgraha ("entering the ground of supreme joy … this is what is called the bodhisattva's path of seeing"); the full sentence of the Cheng weishi lun is broader still:

「When the bodhisattva gains these two paths of seeing, he is born into the family of the Tathāgata, abides in the ground of supreme joy, well penetrates the dharma-realm, gains all the equalities, is ever born amid the great assemblies of the Buddhas, has attained mastery over many hundreds of gateways, knows of himself that before long he will realize the great enlightenment, and is able to benefit and gladden all beings to the end of the future.」

Notice where the sentence closes — "able to benefit and gladden all beings to the end of the future." The first prospect of the path of seeing is not a private feeling of liberation, but the redemption of Chapter Nine's "the nature of compassion arises of itself": the equality of self and other once realized, benefiting others has from here its root — forced effort gradually falls away, and the rest of the road is walked to its end in the ten grounds.

6 · The Stage of Cultivation — Maturing through the Ten Grounds

Having seen, one must still cultivate — "cultivating again and again": the path of seeing illumines once, the path of cultivation matures it over time. The verse says:

「Without attainment, inconceivable — this is the supramundane cognition; because the two coarse-and-heavy burdens are cast off, one then realizes the transformation of the basis.」

Cultivate what? The Cheng weishi lun's summary account, in one line:

「How are the two turnings of the basis realized? By cultivating the ten superior practices, severing the ten grave obstructions, and realizing the ten sorts of suchness within the ten grounds — the two turnings of the basis are thereby realized.」

In the ten grounds one cultivates the ten perfections, severs the ten obstructions, realizes the ten sorts of suchness — the skeleton of the whole journey is in this one line. The full names of the ten grounds, with the treatise's gloss, are as follows: first, the ground of supreme joy, where one first attains the noble nature and fully realizes the two emptinesses, and, able to benefit self and other, gives rise to great joy; second, the stainless ground, where pure morality is complete and one is free of the stain of subtle transgression; third, the ground of radiance, where superior concentration and the retentive holdings send forth the wondrous light of wisdom; fourth, the ground of blazing wisdom, where the dharmas that are the limbs of enlightenment burn the fuel of the afflictions and the flame of wisdom grows; fifth, the ground hard to conquer, which brings into accord the two cognitions — the real and the conventional — whose aspects are mutually opposed; sixth, the ground of manifestation, where, abiding in the cognition of dependent arising, one draws the supreme prajñā to manifest before one; seventh, the far-reaching ground, reaching the far edge of markless yet still-effortful practice, surpassing the mundane path of the two vehicles; eighth, the immovable ground, where non-discriminating cognition proceeds spontaneously and continuously, and neither marks nor afflictions can move it; ninth, the ground of excellent wisdom, where one perfects the four unobstructed discernments and everywhere throughout the ten directions well expounds the Dharma; tenth, the ground of the dharma-cloud, where the great cloud of dharma-wisdom, holding the water of all virtues, screens the space-like coarse-heaviness and fills the dharma-body full. The detailed account of one obstruction and one suchness to each ground is in the compiled edition, §25; here the ten names and ten meanings are listed in full, to avoid seeing only the first, the sixth, and the tenth and losing the middle stretch.

The "ten superior practices" are not merely another name for the six perfections either. The Cheng weishi lun explicitly lists the ten pāramitās: giving, morality, forbearance, vigor, meditation, and prajñā, plus skillful means, vow, power, and cognition. The latter four serve to help the former six be cultivated to fullness: skillful means aids the three of giving, morality, and forbearance; vow aids vigor; power aids meditation; cognition aids prajñā. When six are spoken of, the latter four are subsumed within prajñā; when ten are opened out, the workings of non-discriminating cognition and subsequently-attained cognition are unfolded. As for the verse's closing "one then realizes the transformation of the basis" — that is the word toward which the whole road heads, and the next chapter opens it in full.

7 · The Ultimate Stage — Emerged from Obstruction, Round and Luminous

The fifth stage is the fruit itself, Verse 30:

「This is the uncontaminated realm — inconceivable, good, eternal; the blissful body of liberation; the great Muni named Dharma.」

The treatise's one-line definition gathers up the five stages: "Fifth, the ultimate stage — namely, abiding in unsurpassed perfect enlightenment, emerged from obstruction, round and luminous, able to transform sentient beings to the end of the future." — obstruction now exhausted, luminosity now round, and yet the landing point of the definition is still others: "able to transform sentient beings to the end of the future." Strictly speaking, this stage is not a stop along the road but the road's transformation — here the verb turns into a noun, here the stage-of-practice turns into the stage-of-fruit. Its whole ledger — what the transformation of the basis is, how many kinds of nirvāṇa there are, what the mind has become, and then how one delivers beings — is the content of the whole next chapter; here the fifth stage is lit up on the map of the five stages, and the whole map is now set out in full.

8 · The Six Perfections — Cause and Fruit of That Entry

The five stages are a vertical cross-section; seen crosswise, what the practitioner does every day is called the six pāramitās: giving, morality, forbearance, vigor, meditation, and prajñā. The Mahāyāna-saṃgraha sets up the six perfections as "the cause and fruit of that entry" — the cause of entering consciousness-only, and also the fruit that follows upon entering consciousness-only. The treatise asks and answers itself:

「How does one, by means of the six pāramitās, gain entry into consciousness-only? And again, how do the six pāramitās become the fruit of that entry? That is: this bodhisattva is not attached to wealth and position, does not violate the moral precepts, is unmoved by suffering, is not slack in cultivation; when, amid such causes of distraction, none is active and the mind is fixed on a single object, he is able, in accord with principle, to discriminate the dharmas and gain entry into consciousness-only. Having, in dependence on the six pāramitās, entered consciousness-only, the bodhisattva realizes the six pāramitās as comprised within the pure and superior resolve.」

On the side of cause, the six perfections are a method of elimination: not attached to wealth and position (giving cures stinginess), not violating the precepts (morality cures transgression), unmoved by suffering (forbearance cures disturbance), not slack in cultivation (vigor cures indolence) — with the four causes of distraction not active, "the mind fixed on a single object" (concentration) becomes possible, and "discriminating in accord with principle" (wisdom) then enters consciousness-only. The six perfections are not a moral homework added on top of entering consciousness-only; they are the engineering that dismantles, item by item, the interferences to entering consciousness-only. On the side of fruit: after one has entered, the same six things are still being done, but now they are "comprised within the pure and superior resolve" — the same pair of hands gives, but the way of holding has entirely changed. Cause and fruit bear the same name, the six perfections: before the gate and behind the gate, the same set of actions is performed, but the one performing them is not the same.

Why exactly six, no more and no less? The treatise's answer is nearly engineering — a long road has three modes of failure, and it is precisely these that the six perfections counteract:

「In order to counteract the cause of not setting out, the pāramitās of giving and morality are established.」 (not setting out — unwilling to give up wealth, position, and household) 「In order to counteract the cause of having set out yet turning back again, the pāramitās of forbearance and vigor are established.」 (setting out then turning back — unable to bear suffering, unable to endure the long haul) 「In order to counteract the cause of having set out and not turning back yet going to ruin, the pāramitās of concentration and wisdom are established.」 (not turning back yet going wrong — distraction and false wisdom)

Not taking the road, turning back halfway, going bad as one walks — the modes of failure counted to exhaustion, two perfections posted to guard each, and so only the number six is established. The four means of gathering, then, belong on the side of benefiting others — as the Cheng Weishi Lun's account of the ten superior practices concludes, "the four means of gathering, the four immeasurables, and the rest are all comprised within the practice of benefiting others"), and stand to the six perfections as outside to inside.

One more question: giving money being the same in both cases, where does an ordinary person's giving differ from a pāramitā? The Cheng weishi lun sets up seven thresholds:

「Only when embraced by the seven superiorities can a pāramitā be established. First, the superiority of abiding — namely, one must abide in the bodhisattva lineage; second, the superiority of reliance — namely, one must rely on the great mind of enlightenment; third, the superiority of intention — namely, one must have compassion for all sentient beings; fourth, the superiority of undertaking — namely, one must fully practice every undertaking; fifth, the superiority of skillful means — namely, one must be embraced by the markless cognition; sixth, the superiority of dedication — namely, one must dedicate it to unsurpassed enlightenment; seventh, the superiority of purity — namely, one must not be interspersed with the two obstructions. If not embraced by these seven, then the giving and the rest that one practices do not reach the other shore.」

The seven thresholds are listed in full above: abiding in the lineage, relying on the mind of enlightenment, compassion for beings, fully practicing every undertaking, being embraced by the markless cognition (skillful means — to act without clinging to the mark of the act), dedicating to enlightenment, not being mixed with the two obstructions. The first three superiorities — lineage, mind of enlightenment, compassion — are exactly the three key points of Chapter Nine. The same act of giving, borne upon these seven superiorities, is what is called "reaching the other shore"; otherwise it is merely a good deed. What makes a perfection a perfection lies not in the act, but in the vow the act rides upon.

9 · The Three Higher Trainings — The Discipline That Gathers Up

After the six perfections have been cultivated portion by portion through the ten grounds, the sequence of ten aspects in the Mahāyāna-saṃgraha sets down one last operation:

「Thereafter, having penetrated the mark of the knowable, the six pāramitās of the prior stage of preparation, being now realized, should be brought to fuller completion, because the superior resolve has become pure. Thereafter the six pāramitās comprised within the pure resolve should be diligently cultivated, portion by portion in their distinctions, throughout the ten grounds — that is, over the course of three incalculable great eons. Thereafter, in the three trainings of the bodhisattva, one should bring them to fullness. Once they are full, the fruit thereof — nirvāṇa together with unsurpassed perfect enlightenment — should be realized in manifest equality.」

"The three trainings of the bodhisattva" are the three higher trainings: higher morality, higher mind, and higher wisdom. At the head of the treatise their substance is already marked: "the bodhisattva's disciplinary code is called herein the substance of higher morality"; "the Śūraṃgama, Ākāśagarbha, and the other concentrations are called herein the substance of higher mind"; "non-discriminating cognition is called herein the substance of higher wisdom." Morality, concentration, and wisdom are the common rubric of the Buddha-dharma; what this school gives is their bodhisattva version and their position: the six perfections are the unfolding of action, the three trainings are the gathering-up of action — spread out, they are six things; drawn together, they are the three disciplines of morality, concentration, and wisdom, which "should be brought to fullness" — once full, the fruit then manifests. The Cheng weishi lun has, besides, a detailed account of the mutual subsumption of the ten perfections and the three trainings (the three collections of morality, and so on); that is a different mode of subsumption, forming its own teaching apart from the sequence here, and the two are not to be confused.

10 · The Seventeen Grounds — The Panorama of the Foundational Treatise

This chapter's machinery — calm and insight, the five stages, the six perfections, the three trainings — is spread out, in this school's foundational treatise the Yogācārabhūmi, into a full map of a hundred scrolls: the seventeen grounds. The full list is: (1) the ground associated with the five sense-consciousnesses, (2) the mental ground, (3) the ground with both applied and sustained thought, (4) the ground without applied thought but with sustained thought only, (5) the ground with neither applied nor sustained thought, (6) the ground of meditative equipoise, (7) the ground of non-equipoise, (8) the ground with mind, (9) the ground without mind, (10) the ground constituted by hearing, (11) the ground constituted by reflection, (12) the ground constituted by cultivation, (13) the śrāvaka ground, (14) the pratyekabuddha ground, (15) the bodhisattva ground, (16) the ground with remainder of support, (17) the ground without remainder of support. Note: hearing, reflection, and cultivation are, in the foundational treatise, three complete grounds; equipoise and non-equipoise, mind and no-mind, each also have their place. A ground is what the practitioner treads; the seventeen grounds survey, at one stroke, all the terrain that can be analyzed, cultivated, and realized between the ordinary being's senses and remainderless nirvāṇa. This book takes its outline; for the one who would view the whole map, the reading-path's terminal station lies there.

11 · Gathering Up

Back to the question that opened the chapter: how does this school actually practice? Now the account can be closed. Sitting down, it is calm and insight — relying on the dharmas well heard and the vow not forsaken, gaining the pliancy of calm, examining upon the image and verifying that "the object of consciousness is only what consciousness manifests." Standing up, it is the six perfections — dismantling distraction, bearing the vow as one goes. Seen lengthwise, it is the five stages and ten grounds — from deep faith-and-understanding to non-attainment, the four searchings congealing all along into concentration and opening out into the path of seeing. And at the gathering point, it is the fullness of the three trainings. The observation of the stage of preparation cannot falsely claim the direct realization of the stage of penetration; truly to be free of the marks of the two graspings and to abide in consciousness-only is still bounded by the path of seeing. And those four words the verse leaves at the end of the stage of cultivation — "one then realizes the transformation of the basis" — when the road reaches here, all the verbs must be exchanged for the nouns of the fruit-stage. What it is that turns, what it is that is the basis, and how that person is once he has turned — the next chapter, the final chapter, opens it.

To walk this stretch by way of the original texts: the fifth station of the reading-path, the Saṃdhinirmocana-sūtra's "Analysis of Yoga" chapter; the third station, the Thirty Verses' verses on the five stages; the seventh station, the Cheng weishi lun §22–25; the sixth station, the Mahāyāna-saṃgraha's "cause and fruit of that entry" and the divisions on the three trainings; the eighth station, the Yogācārabhūmi, and so on.

Author · Shi Huijing CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · 二〇二六 · 夏