雜阿含經 義疏通講 · 冊3Saṃyukta Āgama · Exposition Throughout · Vol. 3

“Mindful of the breath within, one binds mindfulness and trains well; mindful of the breath without, one binds mindfulness and trains well.” The thirty-two discourses of this fascicle follow on from the four previous fascicles of the Connected Discourses on the Path—the foundations of mindfulness, the faculties and powers and factors of awakening, the factors of awakening, and the eightfold noble path—and teach two things: mindfulness of breathing and the three trainings. The first four discourses teach the dharma of an ascetic and the fruits of an ascetic, continuing the dharma of an ascetic, the goal of an ascetic, and the fruits of an ascetic of the previous fascicle; the fourteen that follow (fifteen by number, the eight hundred and eleventh and twelfth forming one section) teach mindfulness of breathing—the five things that help its cultivation, the sixteen steps, the fruits it brings, the Tathāgata’s taking it as his dwelling, its being the subtle dwelling after the contemplation of the impure, one dharma fulfilling the four foundations of mindfulness, the seven factors of awakening, and knowledge and liberation, the simile of the crossroads, the body not tiring and the eyes not ailing, and the right conduct of the assembly in the summer retreat; the fourteen after that teach the three trainings—the names of the three trainings, their explanation, their pairing with the fruits, the two trainings, the blessing of training in the precepts, the meaning of laying down the precepts, the similes of the farmer and the brooding hen, the simile of the donkey that follows the herd of cattle, and Baqizi’s training in season. In the sixteen steps of mindfulness of breathing, from “one binds mindfulness and trains well” to “in contemplating cessation on the out-breath, one trains well,” each in-breath and each out-breath says “one trains well”; at the end of the three trainings, the World-Honored One tells Baqizi, “you should in season train in the higher precepts, the higher mind, and the higher wisdom.” The breath is what mindfulness is bound to; training is what is done. The way to read this fascicle lies in the four words “bind mindfulness” and “train well.”

I. The Dharma of an Ascetic and the Fruits of an Ascetic (Discourses 797 to 800)

The end of the previous fascicle taught the dharma of an ascetic, the goal of an ascetic, and the fruits of an ascetic; the beginning of this fascicle continues it. The seven hundred and ninety-seventh teaches “there is the dharma of an ascetic and the fruits of an ascetic”: the dharma of an ascetic is “namely, the eightfold noble path—right view, up to right concentration,” and the fruits of an ascetic are the four fruits, each explained by what is cut off: “What is the fruit of stream-entry? It is the cutting off of the three bonds. What is the fruit of once-returning? It is the cutting off of the three bonds and the thinning of greed, hatred, and delusion. What is the fruit of non-returning? It is the ending of the five lower bonds. What is the fruit of arhatship? It is the complete ending of greed, hatred, and delusion, the complete ending of all defilements.” The seven hundred and ninety-eighth teaches the dharma of an ascetic, an ascetic, and the goal of an ascetic: an ascetic is “one who is accomplished in this dharma,” and the goal of an ascetic is “the complete cutting off of greed, the complete cutting off of hatred and delusion, the complete cutting off of all defilements.” The seven hundred and ninety-ninth is abbreviated, and its only difference is “there are the fruits of an ascetic.” The eight hundredth is one sentence from the compilers: “So too the dharma of a brāhmaṇa, a brāhmaṇa, the goal of a brāhmaṇa, the fruits of a brāhmaṇa. The dharma of the pure conduct, one of pure conduct, the goal of the pure conduct, the fruits of the pure conduct are also as taught above”—ascetic, brāhmaṇa, one of pure conduct: three names, one dharma, all taking the eightfold noble path as their dharma, the complete ending of defilements as their goal, and the four fruits as their fruit.

The explanation of the four fruits rests wholly on what is cut off: the three bonds cut off; the three bonds cut off and the three poisons thinned; the five lower bonds ended; all defilements completely ended. A fruit is not a thing obtained; it is the measure of what has been cut off. This meaning is said once more at the end of the fascicle, in the eight hundred and twentieth to twenty-third, by way of the three trainings: one for whom the precepts are higher cuts off the three bonds, one for whom the mind is higher cuts off the five lower bonds, one for whom wisdom is higher is liberated in mind from the three outflows. Beginning and end mirror each other, and mindfulness of breathing and the three trainings taught between them are all headings of the dharma of an ascetic.

II. The Five Things for Cultivating Mindfulness of Breathing (Discourse 801)

The eight hundred and first does not first say what mindfulness of breathing is; it first says what things “are of much help in cultivating mindfulness of breathing.” Five things: first, “dwelling in the pure precepts and the restraint of the prātimokṣa, complete in deportment and resort, able to see danger in the smallest fault, taking up and keeping the training precepts”; second, “few wishes, few affairs, few duties”; third, “knowing measure in food, taking neither too much nor too little, not giving rise to thoughts of craving for the sake of food, and reflecting with diligence”; fourth, “in the first and last watches of the night not clinging to sleep, and reflecting with diligence”; fifth, “in an empty grove, away from all clamor.”

Not one of the five is contemplation of the breath. Precepts, few affairs, measure in food, not sleeping, a quiet place: all are matters outside the breath, and yet the discourse takes them as what helps the cultivation of mindfulness of breathing. The second half of this fascicle teaches the three trainings, and the first training is the training in the higher precepts, whose explanation—“if a bhikṣu dwells in the precepts and the restraint of the prātimokṣa, complete in deportment and resort, sees danger in the smallest fault, and takes up and keeps the training precepts”—is the same text as the first of these five things. Mindfulness of breathing takes the precepts as the first help; the three trainings take the precepts as the first training: the two halves of this fascicle join at this one sentence.

III. The Sixteen Steps (Discourses 802 to 804)

The eight hundred and second teaches the fruit of mindfulness of breathing: “if a bhikṣu cultivates mindfulness of breathing and cultivates it much, he attains the stilling of body and the stilling of mind, with thought and examination, stillness, singleness, and the perception of the portion of knowledge cultivated to fulfilment.” The eight hundred and third asks, “what is it that, having cultivated mindfulness of breathing and cultivated it much, body and mind are stilled?” and answers with the full text. First the basis: “that bhikṣu, if he stays depending on a village or town, in the morning puts on his robes, takes his bowl, enters the village for alms, guards his body well, keeps the doors of the senses, and binds his mind well in dwelling”; having eaten and returned to his dwelling, “he sits with his body upright, binds mindfulness before him, cuts off worldly craving, is purified away from desire, and ill will, sleepiness, restlessness and remorse, and doubt are cut off; he passes beyond all doubts and his mind gains certainty in wholesome dharmas”; the harm of the five hindrances is that they “weaken the power of wisdom, are a part of obstruction, and do not lead to nirvāṇa.” Then the sixteen steps: “mindful of the breath within, one binds mindfulness and trains well; mindful of the breath without, one binds mindfulness and trains well. The breath long, the breath short; knowing the whole body on the in-breath, in the whole body on the in-breath one trains well; knowing the whole body on the out-breath, in the whole body on the out-breath one trains well,” then for what follows—the stilling of bodily activity, joy, pleasure, mental activity, the stilling of mental activity, the mind, the gladdening of the mind, the concentrating of the mind, the liberating of the mind, impermanence, cutting off, dispassion, cessation—the text sometimes states in full the training well on the in-breath and on the out-breath and sometimes says only knowing and abbreviates, now in detail and now in brief, up to “contemplating cessation on the out-breath, in contemplating cessation on the out-breath one trains well: this is called the cultivation of mindfulness of breathing.”

The sixteen steps begin with the body and end with cessation. The first four are in the body (the breath, long and short, the whole body, the stilling of bodily activity), the next four in feeling (joy, pleasure, mental activity, the stilling of mental activity), the next four in the mind (the mind, the gladdening of the mind, the concentrating of the mind, the liberating of the mind), the last four in dharmas (impermanence, cutting off, dispassion, cessation). The meaning of these four divisions the World-Honored One teaches Ānanda himself in the eight hundred and tenth, which is taken up again in the seventh section of this fascicle. On each in-breath and out-breath it says “one trains well”: the breath is not a thing contemplated; it is a thing trained in. The one in training trains upon the breath, and trains as far as the liberating of the mind, as far as contemplating cessation. The eight hundred and fourth is abbreviated and adds one sentence: one who cultivates mindfulness of breathing much “cuts off all thoughts and perceptions,” and the compilers append, “as with cutting off thoughts and perceptions, so too with not wavering, attaining great fruit and great blessing, attaining the deathless and the final deathless, attaining the two fruits, the four fruits, and the seven fruits—each a discourse as taught above”—cutting off thoughts and perceptions, not wavering, great fruit and great blessing, the deathless, the two fruits, four fruits, and seven fruits, all take the same sixteen steps as their path.

IV. Superior and More Excellent, Beyond It (Discourses 805 and 806)

In the eight hundred and fifth the World-Honored One asks the bhikṣus, “the mindfulness of breathing that I have taught—have you cultivated it?” The bhikṣu Alishizha answers that he has, and what he cultivates is “I do not look back on past formations, I do not delight in future formations, I am not attached to present formations, and I rightly remove the perception of resistance within and without.” The World-Honored One answers: “You do indeed cultivate the mindfulness of breathing that I have taught; it is not that you do not. Yet, bhikṣu, beyond the mindfulness of breathing that you cultivate there is something superior and more excellent, beyond it.” What is superior? Depending on a town or village and cultivating the sixteen steps. What Alishizha cultivates is freedom from grasping at the formations of the three times and the removal of the perception of resistance within and without—this is right cultivation, and the World-Honored One does not deny it; but the sixteen steps begin with the breath and train through body, feeling, mind, and dharmas in sequence, and that is beyond it.

In the eight hundred and sixth the venerable Jibinna sits in meditation under a tree in the Andha Grove, “his body upright and unmoving, body and mind upright, in superior reflection.” The World-Honored One asks the bhikṣus whether they see him, and tells them: “If a bhikṣu cultivates samādhi, with body and mind settled, not leaning, not moving, dwelling in a superior dwelling, that bhikṣu attains this samādhi without strenuous effort, obtaining it as he wishes.” The bhikṣus ask what samādhi this is, and the answer is again depending on a village, going for alms, entering the grove and sitting upright, “reflecting and binding mindfulness, up to contemplating cessation and training well: this is called samādhi.” The two discourses stand together: one man tells what he cultivates and the World-Honored One shows what is beyond it; one man sits in silence unmoving and the World-Honored One shows how it is so. What is shown is in both cases the same sixteen steps. Without strenuous effort, obtaining it as he wishes: this is not not cultivating; it is cultivation grown ripe.

V. The Tathāgata’s Dwelling and the Dwelling of One in Training (Discourses 807 and 808)

In the eight hundred and seventh the World-Honored One sits in meditation for two months in the Icchānaṅgala Grove, and on coming out tells the bhikṣus: if those of other paths ask, “how did the ascetic Gautama sit in meditation during these two months?” they should answer, “the Tathāgata for two months sat in meditation and dwelt in reflection by mindfulness of breathing.” The World-Honored One tells how he dwelt for the two months: “when breathing in, mindful of the in-breath, I knew it as it really is; when breathing out, mindful of the out-breath, I knew it as it really is,” up to the out-breath of cessation known as it really is; having known it, he thought, “this is a dwelling of coarse reflection; now that I have stilled this reflection, I should further cultivate another, subtler dwelling of cultivation, and dwell in it.” The breath stills coarse reflection and enters subtle reflection. Three gods come: one says, “the ascetic Gautama’s time has come”; one says, “this is not the time having come, it is the time drawing near”; the third says, “it is neither the time having come nor the time drawing near; this is a dwelling of cultivation, it is the stillness of an arhat, that is all.” The World-Honored One concludes: “If there is right speech—the noble dwelling, the heavenly dwelling, the Brahmā dwelling, the dwelling of one in training, the dwelling of one beyond training, the Tathāgata’s dwelling, by which one in training attains what he has not attained, reaches what he has not reached, realizes what he has not realized, and one beyond training dwells at ease in this very life—it is mindfulness of breathing: this is right speech.”

The three gods and their three sayings are three ways of seeing: taking it as life ended, taking it as life about to end, knowing it to be a dwelling of cultivation and stillness. Where the Tathāgata dwells looks from outside like death; in truth it is the subtle dwelling of mindfulness of breathing. Six dwellings, one dharma: the noble dwelling, the heavenly dwelling, and the Brahmā dwelling are its names; the dwelling of one in training, of one beyond training, and of the Tathāgata are its persons—one in training attains by it what he has not attained, one beyond training dwells at ease by it in this very life.

In the eight hundred and eighth Mahānāma of the Śākyas asks the venerable bhikṣu Jiamo: “Is the dwelling of one in training the same as the Tathāgata’s dwelling? Or is the dwelling of one in training one thing and the Tathāgata’s dwelling another?” Jiamo answers: “The dwelling of one in training is one thing, the Tathāgata’s dwelling another. Mahānāma, the dwelling of one in training is dwelling much in cutting off the five hindrances. The Tathāgata’s dwelling is that the five hindrances are already cut off, already known, cut off at the root, like a palmyra tree cut off at the crown, never to grow again, become in future a dharma that does not arise”; and he cites the World-Honored One’s two months of meditation in the eight hundred and seventh as proof. This discourse has no word of the Buddha; a disciple’s answer explains the meaning of the previous discourse. The same mindfulness of breathing: one in training dwells in it by cutting off the five hindrances; the Tathāgata dwells in it with the five hindrances already cut off. What is cultivated is the same; what is dwelt in differs; the difference lies in whether the hindrances are already cut off or not yet, not in the breath.

VI. After the Contemplation of the Impure, the Subtle Dwelling (Discourse 809)

The eight hundred and ninth is one event. On the bank of the Baqiumo River the World-Honored One teaches the bhikṣus the contemplation of the impure, and having cultivated it the bhikṣus “are utterly weary and sick of the body, and some kill themselves with knives, some take poison, some hang themselves with ropes or throw themselves from cliffs, and some have other bhikṣus kill them”; a bhikṣu goes to Lulin, a brahmin’s son, and asks to be killed; a god of Māra’s host praises him, the brahmin’s son “grows in evil and wrong view,” goes from lodging to lodging killing, “up to killing sixty men.” When the precepts are recited on the fifteenth day, the World-Honored One asks Ānanda, “for what cause, for what reason, have the bhikṣus become fewer, dwindled, and come to an end?” Ānanda answers with the event, and asks, “may the World-Honored One teach another dharma, so that the bhikṣus, having heard it, may diligently cultivate wisdom, delight in receiving the right Dharma, and delight in dwelling in the right Dharma.” The World-Honored One teaches: “Therefore I now teach in sequence: dwell in the subtle dwelling, open to awakening in accordance with it, and swiftly bring to rest the evil, unwholesome dharmas already arisen and not yet arisen, as a great rain from the sky can bring to rest the dust already risen and not yet risen”; the subtle dwelling is “namely, dwelling in mindfulness of breathing.”

The contemplation of the impure is right Dharma, taught and praised by the World-Honored One himself; and yet those who cultivated it grew so weary of the body as to kill themselves, and Māra found his opening. The discourse does not revise the rightness of the contemplation of the impure, but teaches “another dharma”: mindfulness of breathing as the subtle dwelling, like a great rain settling dust. The weariness raised by the contemplation of the impure is coarse; what mindfulness of breathing dwells in is subtle; the coarse can move the mind to extremes, the subtle “opens to awakening in accordance with it,” and brings to rest the evil, unwholesome dharmas arisen and not yet arisen. In the eight hundred and seventh the World-Honored One says of himself, “this is a dwelling of coarse reflection,” and “I should further cultivate another, subtler dwelling of cultivation, and dwell in it”: that is the coarse and the subtle in the Tathāgata himself; this discourse is the coarse and the subtle in the assembly. The same “subtle dwelling,” for crossing over oneself and for bringing others across, is taught in one word.

VII. One Dharma as the Gate (Discourses 810 to 812)

In the eight hundred and tenth the venerable Ānanda, reflecting alone, asks: “Is there one dharma which, cultivated and cultivated much, causes four dharmas to be fulfilled; the four dharmas fulfilled, seven dharmas fulfilled; the seven dharmas fulfilled, two dharmas fulfilled?” The World-Honored One answers that there is: “namely, mindfulness of breathing. Cultivated much, it can cause the four foundations of mindfulness to be fulfilled; the four foundations of mindfulness fulfilled, the seven factors of awakening fulfilled; the seven factors of awakening fulfilled, knowledge and liberation fulfilled.”

How does mindfulness of breathing fulfil the four foundations of mindfulness? The World-Honored One pairs the sixteen steps with the four foundations of mindfulness: the four steps of the in-breath and out-breath, long and short, the whole bodily activity, and the stilling of bodily activity—“the noble disciple at that time dwells in the foundation of mindfulness contemplating the body as body; as for what is other than the body, he likewise reflects on it by comparison with the body”; the four steps of joy, pleasure, mental activity, and the stilling of mental activity—“the noble disciple at that time dwells in the foundation of mindfulness contemplating feeling as feeling”; the four steps of the mind, the gladdening of the mind, the concentrating of the mind, and the liberating of the mind—“the noble disciple at that time dwells in the foundation of mindfulness contemplating the mind as mind”; the four steps of impermanence, cutting off, dispassion, and cessation—“the noble disciple at that time dwells in the foundation of mindfulness contemplating dharmas as dharmas; as for what is other than dharmas, he likewise reflects on it by comparison with dharmas: this is called the cultivation of mindfulness of breathing fulfilling the four foundations of mindfulness.” How do the four foundations of mindfulness fulfil the seven factors of awakening? Dwelling in the foundation of mindfulness contemplating the body as body, he “binds mindfulness in dwelling and does not forget. At that time he cultivates with skilful means the awakening factor of mindfulness”; mindfulness fulfilled, selecting and considering dharmas is investigation of dharmas; investigation of dharmas fulfilled, attaining diligent skilful means is effort; effort, and the mind rejoices, is joy; joy, and body and mind are tranquil, is tranquillity; tranquillity, and samādhi is attained, is concentration; concentration fulfilled, “greed and sorrow cease, and even equanimity is attained. At that time he cultivates with skilful means the awakening factor of equanimity”; so too with the foundations of mindfulness of feeling, mind, and dharmas. How do the seven factors of awakening fulfil knowledge and liberation? “If a bhikṣu cultivates the awakening factor of mindfulness, depending on seclusion, depending on dispassion, depending on cessation, inclining toward relinquishment; having cultivated the awakening factor of mindfulness, he fulfils knowledge and liberation,” and so up to the awakening factor of equanimity. The World-Honored One concludes: “This is called dharma akin to dharma, dharma nourishing dharma. Thus these thirteen dharmas, with one dharma as the higher and one dharma as the gate, advance in sequence and are cultivated to fulfilment.”

One dharma, four dharmas, seven dharmas, two dharmas: the four, the seven, and the two together make thirteen, and the one dharma, being the gate, is not counted among them—hence it says thirteen dharmas; once within the gate, the foundations of mindfulness, the factors of awakening, and knowledge and liberation are fulfilled in sequence. “Dharma akin to dharma, dharma nourishing dharma” is one of the most important sayings of this fascicle: the several chapters of the Connected Discourses on the Path each teach the foundations of mindfulness, the factors of awakening, the noble path, as if each were one dharma; this discourse takes mindfulness of breathing as the gate and strings the dharmas into one stream—akin means alike and giving rise to each other, nourishing means supporting and completing each other. The eight hundred and eleventh and twelfth are one sentence of the compilers’ labelling: “So too what a certain bhikṣu asked, and the Buddha’s asking the bhikṣus, are as taught above”: the same dharma taught through three forms of question and answer.

VIII. The Crossroads (Discourse 813)

In the eight hundred and thirteenth the World-Honored One tells the venerable Jinpiluo that he will teach the diligent cultivation of the four foundations of mindfulness; Jinpiluo remains silent, up to three times; Ānanda says to him three times, “now the teacher is addressing you,” and Jinpiluo answers, “I know already. Venerable Ānanda, I know already, venerable Gautama”; then Ānanda addresses the Buddha and asks him to teach. The World-Honored One teaches: “If a bhikṣu, mindful of the in-breath, trains as on the in-breath, up to, at the out-breath of cessation, training as on the out-breath of cessation; at that time the noble disciple, mindful of the in-breath, trains as in mindfulness of the in-breath, up to, at the out-breath of the stilling of bodily activity, training as on the out-breath of the stilling of bodily activity, then the noble disciple dwells in the foundation of mindfulness contemplating the body as body. The noble disciple having dwelt in the foundation of mindfulness contemplating the body as body, knowing thus, he reflects well within”; the three foundations of mindfulness of feeling, mind, and dharmas follow the same form; of the foundation of mindfulness of dharmas it says, “being skilled in body, feeling, and mind, greed and sorrow cease and are relinquished, and at that time the noble disciple dwells in the foundation of mindfulness contemplating dharmas as dharmas”—the foundation of mindfulness of dharmas does not leave the first three; the ceasing and relinquishing of greed and sorrow is what it contemplates. After each foundation of mindfulness the World-Honored One asks Ānanda with a simile: “Suppose a man came driving a carriage headlong from the east; at that time would he trample the mounds of earth?” and so with south and west, up to the foundation of mindfulness of dharmas: “Suppose at a crossroads there were mounds of earth, and a man came driving a carriage headlong from the north; would he trample the mounds of earth?” Ānanda answers each time that he would.

At the crossroads there are mounds of earth, and carriages from all four directions trample them as they pass. The four foundations of mindfulness are the carriages from the four directions; the mounds of earth are what is unreasoned in the mind; from whatever direction the carriage comes, it tramples them. The previous discourse paired the sixteen steps with the four foundations of mindfulness, telling what mindfulness of breathing accomplishes; this discourse has carriages from four directions trample the mounds, telling what the four foundations of mindfulness break. Jinpiluo is silent and Ānanda asks in his place; the discourse does not say why, it only records what happened: one man silent, one man asking, and the World-Honored One teaches.

IX. The Body Does Not Tire, the Eyes Do Not Ail (Discourse 814)

The eight hundred and fourteenth teaches another fruit of mindfulness of breathing: “having cultivated mindfulness of breathing and cultivated it much, the body does not tire and the eyes do not ail; one dwells happily in contemplation in accordance with it, happily knows, and is not attached to the happiness.” It then teaches this mindfulness as the path to everything sought: whether one wishes to attain the first dhyāna, the second, third, and fourth, loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity, the four formless spheres; whether one wishes to attain, with the three bonds ended, the fruit of stream-entry, the fruit of once-returning, the fruit of non-returning; whether one wishes to attain “the countless kinds of supernormal power, the divine ear, knowledge of others’ minds, knowledge of past lives, knowledge of death and rebirth, knowledge of the ending of outflows”—in every case one “should cultivate mindfulness of breathing. Such mindfulness of breathing attains great fruit and great blessing.”

The body not tiring and the eyes not ailing is the matter closest to home for one who cultivates concentration: long concentration tires the body and strains the eyes, but the concentration of mindfulness of breathing does not. From this smallest fruit the discourse goes up to the greatest fruits, supernormal power and the ending of outflows, with the four dhyānas, the four immeasurables, the four formless spheres, and the three fruits between, and not one of them is without this mindfulness as its path. The previous fascicle taught the eightfold noble path as the track to everything sought; this fascicle teaches mindfulness of breathing as the method of cultivation for everything sought.

X. Right Conduct (Discourse 815)

The eight hundred and fifteenth is an event of the summer retreat. Many elders are in retreat under trees and in caves to the left and right of the World-Honored One; young bhikṣus come, and the elders take them in, “one taking one, or taking two, three, or many, and some elders taking as many as sixty”; at the poṣadha of the fifteenth day the World-Honored One praises them: “Good, good! I now rejoice that the bhikṣus practise all right conduct. Therefore, bhikṣus, you should be diligent and strive.” When the full moon of Kārttika comes, bhikṣus wandering among the people hear that the World-Honored One is in retreat at Śrāvastī, finish making their robes, and come; the elders take them in too, “admonishing and instructing them, well knowing the order of first and later.” At the poṣadha of the fifteenth day the World-Honored One praises them again: “The Buddhas of the past also had assemblies of bhikṣus that practised right conduct as this assembly does now; the assemblies that the Buddhas of the future will have will likewise practise right conduct as this assembly does now”; and why? Among the elder bhikṣus of this assembly are those who have attained the four dhyānas, the four immeasurables, and the four formless spheres, those who have attained stream-entry, once-returning, and non-returning, those who have attained supernormal power and the ending of outflows, and “there are bhikṣus who cultivate the contemplation of the impure and cut off greed, cultivate loving-kindness and cut off hatred, cultivate the perception of impermanence and cut off conceit, cultivate mindfulness of breathing and cut off thoughts and perceptions.”

What is right conduct? The discourse does not explain it separately; it only lists what this assembly has attained, and ends with four cultivations set against four cuttings off: the contemplation of the impure cuts off greed, loving-kindness cuts off hatred, the perception of impermanence cuts off conceit, mindfulness of breathing cuts off thoughts and perceptions. The eight hundred and fourth already said that mindfulness of breathing “cuts off all thoughts and perceptions”; here it is placed last among the four cultivations, alongside the contemplation of the impure, loving-kindness, and the perception of impermanence. Elders taking in the young, admonishing and instructing, the order of first and later—right conduct is not one person’s cultivation; it is the practice of an assembly. The fourteen discourses of this fascicle on mindfulness of breathing close with this assembly.

XI. The Three Trainings (Discourses 816 to 819)

The eight hundred and sixteenth teaches, “there are three trainings. What are the three? Namely, the training in the higher precepts, the training in the higher mind, and the training in the higher wisdom,” and speaks a verse: “One complete in the three trainings is a bhikṣu of right conduct; higher precepts, mind, and wisdom, in these three dharmas diligent and striving, brave and firm as a fortress, always guarding the senses”; within the verse, “as by day so by night, as by night so by day; as before so after, as after so before; as above so below, as below so above,” day and night, before and after, above and below without difference is the mark of the three trainings continuing unbroken; “immeasurable samādhis illuminate all directions”—concentration born of the precepts shines in every direction; the verse ends, “I am the awakened one of the world, complete in knowledge and conduct; dwelling in right mindfulness without forgetting, my mind has attained liberation; when the body breaks and life ends, it is like a lamp burnt out, its fire extinguished.” The eight hundred and seventeenth explains the three trainings: the training in the higher precepts, “if a bhikṣu dwells in the precepts and the restraint of the prātimokṣa, complete in deportment and resort, sees danger in the smallest fault, and takes up and keeps the training precepts”; the training in the higher mind, “if a bhikṣu, secluded from desire and from evil, unwholesome dharmas, up to, dwells having attained the fourth dhyāna”; the training in the higher wisdom, “that bhikṣu knows this noble truth of suffering as it really is, and knows the noble truths of arising, cessation, and the path as they really are.” The eight hundred and eighteenth teaches the unevenness of the three trainings: “there are bhikṣus with the training in the higher precepts but not the training in the higher mind or the higher wisdom, and bhikṣus with the training in the higher precepts and the higher mind but not the training in the higher wisdom”; but “a noble disciple who dwells having accomplished the skilful means of higher wisdom in accordance has the higher precepts and the higher mind cultivated to fulfilment,” and such a person “lives by the life of unsurpassed wisdom.” The eight hundred and nineteenth teaches that the three trainings gather all the precepts: “More than two hundred and fifty precepts are recited in sequence every half month as the prātimokṣa sūtra, so that those who seek the training themselves may train in them; I teach three trainings, which can gather all the precepts.”

The names of the three trainings are precepts, mind, and wisdom; in the verse they are “higher precepts, mind, and wisdom,” and the mind is the heart. The sequence of the three trainings begins with the precepts, and its fulfilment is in wisdom: there are those with precepts but not concentration and wisdom, there are those with precepts and concentration but not wisdom, and those with wisdom necessarily have precepts and concentration—therefore wisdom is the highest, and when wisdom is accomplished all three trainings are full. More than two hundred and fifty precepts are recited every half month, and the reciting is never finished, but the three trainings can gather them: this is not replacing the many with the few; it is gathering what follows by what it follows from. The saying “lives by the life of unsurpassed wisdom” says that wisdom is the life of one in training.

XII. Precepts Higher, Concentration Higher, Wisdom Higher (Discourses 820 to 823)

The eight hundred and twentieth opens in abbreviated form and explains each of the three trainings with its fruit. One in the training in the higher precepts “values the precepts, and the precepts are higher; does not value concentration, and concentration is not higher; does not value wisdom, and wisdom is not higher; and as for the several minor precepts, when he breaks one he at once repents”; the World-Honored One does not say that he is incapable: “if his precepts accord with the pure conduct, benefit the pure conduct, and make the pure conduct endure, such a bhikṣu is firm in the precepts, the teacher of the precepts abides with him always, the precepts arise in him always in accordance, and he takes them up and trains”; knowing and seeing thus, he “cuts off the three bonds, namely the view of the body, clinging to precepts, and doubt. Having cut off these three bonds, he attains stream-entry, is not subject to the dharmas of the evil destinations, is certain to go rightly toward saṃbodhi, and after seven existences born among gods and humans makes a complete end of suffering.” One in the training in the higher mind values the precepts and concentration but not wisdom, and “cuts off the five lower bonds, namely the view of the body, clinging to precepts, doubt, greed, and hatred. Having cut off these five lower bonds, he is a non-returner who attains final nirvāṇa on being reborn there, not returning to this world.” One in the training in the higher wisdom values precepts, concentration, and wisdom, all higher, and “is liberated in mind from the outflow of desire, liberated in mind from the outflow of existence, liberated in mind from the outflow of ignorance, with the knowledge and vision of liberation.”

The eight hundred and twenty-first is the same but finer: one in the training in the higher precepts cuts off the three bonds and “greed, hatred, and delusion are thinned, and he accomplishes the one-seed path. One not yet fully awakened at that stage is called a once-returner; one not yet fully awakened at that stage is called clan-to-clan; one not yet fully awakened at that stage is called seven-existences; one not yet fully awakened at that stage is called one who follows by Dharma; one not yet fully awakened at that stage is called one who follows by faith”; one in the training in the higher mind cuts off the five lower bonds and “can attain final nirvāṇa in the interval. One not yet fully awakened at that stage attains final nirvāṇa on being reborn; one not yet fully awakened at that stage attains final nirvāṇa without exertion; one not yet fully awakened at that stage attains final nirvāṇa with exertion; one not yet fully awakened at that stage attains final nirvāṇa going upstream.” The eight hundred and twenty-second and twenty-third open with “dwelling complete in the precepts”: “if a bhikṣu dwells complete in the precepts, well keeping the prātimokṣa, complete in deportment and resort, sees danger in the smallest fault, and is able to feel fear,” and explain it by the fulfilment of the three trainings, with the same fruits paired as before; the order of fruits in the eight hundred and twenty-third differs slightly from the twenty-first, beginning with “cutting off the three bonds, with greed, hatred, and delusion thinned, he attains the one-seed path,” and only then reaching stream-entry.

Four discourses, one meaning: the three trainings are not three doors side by side; they are three stages of one door. One in whom the precepts are higher but concentration and wisdom are not realizes as far as stream-entry, up to the one-seed path; one in whom concentration is higher but wisdom is not realizes as far as the five kinds of final nirvāṇa of the non-returner; one in whom wisdom is higher is liberated in mind from the three outflows. The phrase “one not yet fully awakened at that stage” is repeated again and again: not yet able to awaken fully at this stage, one is named by the fruit below it—the difference between fruits is a difference in full awakening. One who values the precepts, “as for the several minor precepts, when he breaks one he at once repents,” and the World-Honored One does not take the breaking of a minor precept as incapacity: training is gradual training; one breaks and repents, repents and continues. In the first half of the fascicle each in-breath and out-breath of the sixteen steps says “one trains well”; in these four discourses each passage says “takes them up and trains”: it is the same word, training.

XIII. The Two Trainings, the Blessing of Training in the Precepts, Laying Down the Precepts (Discourses 824 to 826)

The eight hundred and twenty-fourth teaches the two trainings: “namely, the training in higher deportment and the training in the higher prātimokṣa,” and speaks a verse: “When one in training trains in the precepts, he goes straight along the path in accordance; devoted and careful, diligent in skilful means, he guards his body well; he first attains the knowledge of the ending of outflows, then the ultimate not-knowing; attaining the liberation of not-knowing, knowledge and vision have all been crossed,” “attaining the unshaken liberation, all the bonds of existence are ended”—after the liberation of not-knowing comes the unshaken, and the unshaken is one in whom all the bonds of existence are ended, with no more falling back, ending, “he bears this last body, and subdues the hosts of Māra and his foes.” The eight hundred and twenty-fifth teaches that “dwelling in much blessing from training in the precepts, with wisdom as the highest, liberation firm, and mindfulness as higher,” four things, bring the three trainings to fulfilment, and the verse says, “training in the precepts brings blessing; devoted in thought to the dhyāna of samādhi; wisdom is the very highest, the last of this present life; the sage bears the last body, subdues Māra, and crosses to the far shore.” The eight hundred and twenty-sixth explains these four things: that training in the precepts brings blessing is “namely, the teacher lays down the precepts for the śrāvakas, that is, to gather the saṅgha, to gather the saṅgha fully, that those without faith may have faith, that those with faith may increase their faith, to tame evil men, that those with shame and scruple may dwell at ease, to guard against outflows in this very life, to attain the right remedy in the future, and to make the pure conduct long endure”; that wisdom is the highest is that the teacher teaches the Dharma “with great compassion and pity, benefiting with the meaning,” and the one in training “contemplates with wisdom each and every dharma, in each and every place”; that liberation is firm is that in each place one “attains the happiness of liberation”; that mindfulness is higher is “one whose body of precepts is not yet full binds mindfulness single-mindedly and dwells at ease; one who has not yet contemplated binds mindfulness with wisdom in each and every place and dwells at ease; one who has contemplated binds mindfulness again in each and every place and dwells at ease; one who has not yet touched the Dharma dwells at ease in each and every place with the mindfulness of liberation; one who has touched the Dharma dwells at ease in each and every place with the mindfulness of liberation.”

The nine purposes of laying down the precepts, from gathering the saṅgha to making the pure conduct long endure, are why the precepts are established: not precepts for the sake of precepts, but for the saṅgha, for faith, for taming, for dwelling at ease, for guarding, for the remedy, for long endurance. The blessing of training in the precepts lies here. And in the passage on mindfulness as higher, from the body of precepts not yet full to the Dharma already touched, at every position one “binds mindfulness and dwells at ease”—one whose precepts are not full binds mindfulness to the precepts, one who has not contemplated binds mindfulness to wisdom, one who has contemplated binds mindfulness again, one who has not touched the Dharma has the mindfulness of liberation, one who has touched the Dharma has the mindfulness of liberation too. Mindfulness runs through the three trainings from beginning to end, as in the first half of the fascicle mindfulness runs through the sixteen steps from beginning to end. The two verses of the eight hundred and twenty-fifth and twenty-sixth are the same text with one character different: “the last of this present life” and “the final edge of this present life”; so the base text stands, not made uniform. At the end the compilers record, “the Śivaka sūtra, as later, the Buddha will teach,” and also record that the three discourses asked by the bhikṣu Ānanda and by a certain bhikṣu, and the Buddha’s asking the bhikṣus, are likewise so.

XIV. The Farmer, the Brooding Hen, the Donkey (Discourses 827 and 828)

The eight hundred and twenty-seventh has two similes. The farmer “ploughs and harrows in season, irrigates in season, sows in season,” and does not think, “let it grow today, bear fruit today, ripen today, or tomorrow, or the day after,” and yet “once the seed has entered the ground, it grows of itself in season, and the fruit ripens.” A bhikṣu who trains well in the three trainings in season likewise does not think, “let me today attain the non-arising of outflows and a mind well liberated, or tomorrow, or the day after,” nor does he think, “by natural supernormal power I can make it today, or tomorrow, or the day after, that outflows do not arise and the mind is well liberated”; rather, “in its own season he attains of himself the non-arising of outflows and a mind well liberated.” The brooding hen “lays her eggs, ten or up to twelve, and in season tends them, cherishing them in cold and warmth,” and does not think she should peck with her beak and scratch with her claws to let the chicks be born, “and yet because the brooding hen broods her chicks well, cherishing them in season, her chicks are born safe of themselves.”

The two similes say one thing: training has its season, and the fruit cannot be hurried. Wanting to attain today is haste; waiting to attain by supernormal power is sloth—both thoughts are put away, and there is only training well in season. The farmer’s work is ploughing, irrigating, and sowing; the brooding hen’s work is cherishing in cold and warmth; the bhikṣu’s work is precepts, mind, and wisdom; and what comes of it lies in none of their thoughts, but in the season.

The eight hundred and twenty-eighth is the simile reversed: a donkey follows a herd of cattle, “takes himself for an ox, and lows like an ox, yet is far indeed from the cattle”; a foolish man “goes against the discipline, breaks the precepts, and follows the great assembly,” says of himself, “I am a bhikṣu, I am a bhikṣu,” and does not train in the three trainings, “yet in truth is far indeed from a bhikṣu.” The verse says: “Like a donkey among a herd of cattle, always far from the cattle of himself; though he follows the great assembly, his inner conduct is always at odds of itself.” The farmer and the brooding hen are those who train in season; the donkey is one who follows the crowd and does not train. The name of bhikṣu lies not in following the crowd, but in the three trainings.

XV. Training in Season (Discourse 829)

In the eight hundred and twenty-ninth the venerable Baqizi addresses the Buddha: “The Buddha has taught more than two hundred and fifty precepts, so that sons of good family recite the prātimokṣa sūtra in sequence every half month and the sons of good family train as they wish. But now, World-Honored One, I am not able to train by following the training.” The World-Honored One asks, “are you able to train in the three trainings in season?” and he answers that he is. The World-Honored One tells him: “You should in season train in the higher precepts, the higher mind, and the higher wisdom. Having in season diligently trained in the higher precepts, the higher mind, and the higher wisdom, before long you will attain the ending of all outflows, liberation of mind without outflows, liberation by wisdom, and in this very life you will know for yourself and realize.” Baqizi rejoices, pays homage, and departs; alone and devoted, as taught above, up to the mind well liberated, he attains arhatship.

Not able for the two hundred and fifty precepts, able for the three trainings: this is not lessening what is trained in; it is showing why one trains. The eight hundred and nineteenth and twenty-first already said that the three trainings “can gather all the precepts”; this discourse closes with one man’s inability, and the World-Honored One does not reproach him for it, but turns to ask what he is able for. Training in the three trainings is training in season, as the farmer ploughs and irrigates in season, as the brooding hen cherishes in season. The fascicle begins with the fruits of an ascetic and ends with one man attaining arhatship.

XVI. How to Read the Fascicle

This fascicle has two halves. The first half is mindfulness of breathing: what it depends on is the precepts and a quiet place, its work is the sixteen steps, its fruit runs from the stilling of body up to knowledge and liberation, its dwelling runs from the dwelling of one in training to the Tathāgata’s dwelling, and its use is to take up the subtle after the coarse and to be right conduct in the assembly. The second half is the three trainings: their names are precepts, mind, and wisdom; their explanation goes from shallow to deep; their fruits differ by what is valued; the reason for training is that it is in season; and the reason one is called a bhikṣu lies here and not in following the crowd. The two halves are joined by one word: training. Each in-breath and out-breath of the sixteen steps says “one trains well,” each passage of the three trainings says “takes them up and trains,” and Baqizi “trains in season.”

In reading this fascicle, one must not read the first half as one method and the second half as another. The eight hundred and first takes the precepts as the first help in cultivating the breath, and the eight hundred and seventeenth explains the training in the higher precepts with the same sentence; the eight hundred and tenth takes mindfulness of breathing as the gate into the foundations of mindfulness, the factors of awakening, and knowledge and liberation, and the eight hundred and twentieth pairs the three trainings with the fruits up to the liberation of mind; in the eight hundred and seventh the Tathāgata takes mindfulness of breathing as his dwelling, and in the eight hundred and twenty-eighth one who does not train in the three trainings, though he follows the assembly, is no bhikṣu. The breath is what one is bound to, training is what one does, the precepts are what one depends on, liberation is where one arrives. To bind mindfulness and train well is the one thing this fascicle teaches.

Carrying Forward — What the Compendium of Topics Gathers

In the Compendium of Topics, the Topics of the Sūtras, the Selection on the Factors of Awakening gathers two doors of this fascicle under its uddānas. The door of mindfulness of breathing: “obstructions, secondary defilements, thought and the rest, fruit, desire, subtle, bodily fatigue, the dwelling of one in training, and attention, and knowledge without grasping last.” The door of training: “first honouring the precepts, the fulfilment of pure precepts, present conduct, the benefit of training, and the differences of training last.”

The door of mindfulness of breathing. Obstructions: “in cultivating mindfulness of breathing in and out, one should know at that time the five obstructing dharmas: first, the mind scattered toward outer objects; second, the breathing in and out becoming difficult; third, the envelopment of restlessness and remorse present before one; fourth, the envelopment of torpor and sleepiness present before one; fifth, delighting in dwelling mixed together with those of the path and the laity.” This explains the five things of the eight hundred and first: the discourse takes precepts, few affairs, measure in food, not sleeping, and a quiet place as the help, and the treatise takes scattering, difficult breathing, restlessness and remorse, torpor and sleepiness, and mixed dwelling as the obstructions—the treatise’s five obstructions may be read alongside the discourse’s five things: torpor and sleepiness against not sleeping, and mixed dwelling against the secluded place, are plain; the rest are not matched item by item. Secondary defilements: “when defiled by the secondary defilements on the side of calm, the body grows torpid and the mind grows low. By right cultivation of mindfulness of breathing in and out, body and mind become tranquil, and the coarseness of body and mind that goes with torpor and lowness is wholly removed. When defiled by the secondary defilements on the side of insight, all manner of thought, examination, and false imagining arise”; “in order to remedy those false imaginings of the portion of ignorance, one purely cultivates the perception of the portion of knowledge, bringing it swiftly to fulfilment.” This explains “the stilling of body and the stilling of mind” and “the perception of the portion of knowledge cultivated to fulfilment” in the eight hundred and second and third: the discourse’s stilling of body and mind the treatise explains as freedom from the secondary defilements on the side of calm; the discourse’s perception of the portion of knowledge the treatise explains as the remedy for the false imaginings of the portion of ignorance. Thought and the rest: “thought and examination directed at past formations, which can cause the samādhi arising without interval to be interrupted, is swiftly diminished; thought and examination directed at future formations, which can cause the samādhi arising without interval to be interrupted, is swiftly stilled; thought and examination directed at present formations, which can cause the samādhi arising without interval to be interrupted, is swiftly quieted.” This explains “cuts off thoughts and perceptions” in the eight hundred and fourth: the discourse’s thoughts and perceptions the treatise explains as thought and examination directed at the formations of the three times, which interrupt samādhi; mindfulness of breathing diminishes, stills, and quiets them. Fruit: “because one can permanently cut off six kinds of bonds, one should know that the two, four, and seven kinds of excellent fruit are established, as the sūtra teaches at length. What are the six bonds? The two bonds of the lower and upper portions, the two bonds cut off by the path of seeing and the path of cultivation, and the two bonds of the positions of arising and of birth.” This explains the appended sentence of the eight hundred and fourth, “attaining the two fruits, the four fruits, and the seven fruits”: the treatise explains by the cutting off of six bonds why there are two, four, and seven fruits. Desire and subtle: “the differences in cultivating mindfulness of breathing in and out are, in brief, of two kinds: first, with something above it; second, with nothing above it”; that with something above it contemplates the life faculty as bound to the breath in and out and “with deep weariness purifies the mind of the love and hatred aroused by the objects of the three times,” while “the cultivation of the sixteen steps, one should know, has nothing above it”; “this dwelling in mindfulness of breathing in and out, because it takes the subtle wind-form as its object, is called the subtle dwelling.” This explains Alishizha in the eight hundred and fifth: the discourse says that what Alishizha cultivates is not looking back on the formations of the three times, and the World-Honored One says that the sixteen steps are superior and more excellent, beyond it; the treatise distinguishes that with something above it from that with nothing above it, purifying the mind of the three times being that with something above it and the sixteen steps that with nothing above it, which matches the discourse exactly. It explains the “subtle dwelling” of the eight hundred and ninth: the treatise explains it by taking the subtle wind-form as its object. Bodily fatigue: “cultivating mindfulness of breathing in and out in this way makes the body free of fatigue, because it is able to remove the secondary defilements on the side of calm; it makes the eyes free of fatigue, because it is able to remove the secondary defilements on the side of insight.” This explains “the body does not tire and the eyes do not ail” of the eight hundred and fourteenth: the discourse’s body and eyes not tiring the treatise explains as the removal of the secondary defilements on the two sides of calm and insight. The dwelling of one in training: “the Tathāgata has the dwelling apart from all hindrances; those lowest within the inner Dharma, whether in training or ordinary persons, by the power of effort suppress and cut off the five hindrances and dwell, and this is called the dwelling apart from hindrances,” and “one should know that these two dwellings apart from hindrances differ greatly. That is, those in training, by present conduct, dwell with a mind apart from hindrances equal to the Tathāgata’s. Yet because their latent tendencies are not yet permanently cut off, the hindrances again and again interrupt the continuity of the mind, and again and again by attention and striving they remove them. The Tathāgata, because the hindrances are finally cut off, dwells apart from all hindrances.” This explains the difference between the dwelling of one in training and the Tathāgata’s dwelling in the eight hundred and seventh and eighth: the discourse says that the dwelling of one in training is dwelling much in cutting off the five hindrances, and that in the Tathāgata’s dwelling the five hindrances are already cut off like a palmyra tree cut off at the crown; the treatise says that one in training suppresses and cuts them off while the latent tendencies are not yet cut off, and that the Tathāgata has finally cut them off, so that the two dwellings differ greatly. Attention: “taking mindfulness of breathing in and out as the basis, one cultivates the four foundations of mindfulness with reasoned attention as the basis, and as for all the unreasoned attention within the mind not yet cut off, one knows as it really is that it is unreasoned,” and “the four dharmas of body and the rest are like the four great roads. Unreasoned attention is like a mound of dust and earth, because it is not firm, because it is not real, because it confuses the mind. Reasoned attention is like the carriages that come from the four directions; turning upon the four objects of body and the rest as its doors, it can destroy that unreasoned attention which is like a mound of dust and earth.” This explains the crossroads of the eight hundred and thirteenth: the discourse takes carriages from the four directions trampling the mounds of earth as a simile, and the treatise explains the four great roads as the four dharmas of body and the rest, the mound of earth as unreasoned attention, and the carriage as reasoned attention—the three parts of the simile, the treatise says what each points to. Knowledge without grasping: “those who diligently cultivate mindfulness of breathing, by rightly cultivating the four foundations of mindfulness, because there is no self and the rest, are equal and the same,” and “this teaching of the foundations of mindfulness cultivated by the Buddhas has nothing like it in the dharmas of other paths.” This explains the eight hundred and tenth’s fulfilling the four foundations of mindfulness by mindfulness of breathing: the treatise says that one who cultivates the foundations of mindfulness by mindfulness of breathing is equal in the absence of self in body and the rest, and that this is not something other paths have.

The door of training. Honouring the precepts: “wrong conduct means that someone, not honouring the precepts, goes forth carelessly. Though he has gone forth, he does not take the pure precepts as his higher aim”; “right conduct is of three kinds: lower, middle, and higher. Lower right conduct means that someone honours the pure precepts and also takes the pure precepts as his higher aim,” “middle right conduct means honouring both precepts and concentration and taking them as the higher aim,” “higher right conduct means that one who has seen the truths honours all three trainings”; “if there is the training in concentration, there must be the training in the precepts; if there is the training in wisdom, there must be the training in concentration; one who has the training in the precepts does not necessarily have the trainings in concentration and wisdom.” This explains the unevenness of the three trainings in the eight hundred and eighteenth and the valuing of precepts, of concentration, and of wisdom in the eight hundred and twentieth to twenty-third: the discourse says valuing the precepts and not concentration and wisdom, valuing precepts and concentration and not wisdom, and valuing all three, and the treatise says lower, middle, and higher right conduct; the discourse says having the precepts but not mind and wisdom, having the precepts and mind but not wisdom, and the treatise says that having concentration there must be the precepts, having wisdom there must be concentration, and having the precepts there need not be concentration and wisdom—the treatise’s one who goes forth without honouring the precepts is exactly the donkey of the eight hundred and twenty-eighth. The fulfilment of pure precepts: “because one can keep away from the places of faults by nature, one should know that this is called the fulfilment of pure precepts. Because one takes up and keeps without interruption, in continuous succession, the wholesome dharmas that gather pure precepts, such as closely guarding the doors of the senses, one should know that this is called the fulfilment of wholesome dharmas. Because one can keep away from the places of faults by prohibition, one should know that this is called the fulfilment of the separate liberation.” This explains “dwelling complete in the precepts” of the eight hundred and twenty-second: the treatise distinguishes three fulfilments, of pure precepts, of wholesome dharmas, and of the separate liberation. Present conduct: “in sum, in brief, there are three points of training: first, higher present conduct; second, higher discipline; third, higher separate liberation.” This explains the two trainings of the eight hundred and twenty-fourth: the discourse says the training in higher deportment and the training in the higher prātimokṣa, and the treatise says higher present conduct, higher discipline, and higher separate liberation—deportment is present conduct, the prātimokṣa is the separate liberation; two trainings and three points of training, the names differ and what they point to carries over. The benefit of training: “dwelling in the benefit of training, with wisdom as the head, liberation firm, mindfulness as higher, the three trainings swiftly cultivated to fulfilment, and the rest, should be known as explained at length in the Compendium of Explanations.” This explains the four things of the eight hundred and twenty-fifth and twenty-sixth: the discourse says the blessing of training in the precepts, wisdom as the highest, liberation firm, and mindfulness as higher, and the treatise lists them in four phrases and points elsewhere. The differences of training: “pure precepts, because they remedy all the evils of breaking the precepts and are the basis of closely guarding the doors of the senses, are called restraint. Because they are well received at the start, they are called full. Because they are well kept afterwards, they are called pure,” up to “these are called the differences of the training in the higher precepts”; “taking three dwellings as the basis, one should know the differences of the training in the higher mind and the higher wisdom. That is, by the differences of the heavenly dwelling and the Brahmā dwelling one should know the differences of the training in the higher mind; by the differences of the noble dwelling, the factors of awakening and the other such dharmas, one should know the differences of the training in the higher wisdom. The four dhyānas and the four formless attainments are called the heavenly dwelling. The four immeasurable concentrations are called the Brahmā dwelling. The knowledge of the four noble truths, the four foundations of mindfulness, up to the path factors, the four modes of practice, excellent calm and insight, the four tracks of dharma, and so on, all are called the noble dwelling.” This explains the explanation of the three trainings in the eight hundred and seventeenth and the six dwellings of the eight hundred and seventh: the discourse explains the training in the higher mind as seclusion from desire up to the fourth dhyāna and the training in the higher wisdom as knowing the four noble truths as they really are, and the treatise explains the training in the mind by the heavenly dwelling and the training in wisdom by the noble dwelling; the eight hundred and seventh lists the noble dwelling, the heavenly dwelling, and the Brahmā dwelling, and the treatise takes the four dhyānas and four formless attainments as the heavenly dwelling, the four immeasurables as the Brahmā dwelling, and the knowledge of the four noble truths, the foundations of mindfulness, and the path factors as the noble dwelling—the six dwellings of the first half of the fascicle and the three trainings of the second half, the treatise runs through with the one phrase, three dwellings.

Outside these two doors, the discourses of this fascicle from the seven hundred and ninety-seventh to the eight hundredth, the eleventh and twelfth, the fifteenth, the nineteenth, the twenty-first, the twenty-third, the twenty-seventh, and the twenty-ninth are not directly glossed by the mātṛkā.

“Though the four great elements—earth, water, fire, and wind—may change, increase, or diminish, these four unbreakable purities have never once increased, diminished, or changed.” The thirty-one discourses of this fascicle are the sixth fascicle of the Connected Discourses on the Path. The first three discourses continue the training in the precepts and the three trainings of the previous fascicle: Kāśyapagotra confesses his fault and the World-Honored One grants him “the precepts of restraint give rise to precepts”; a senior who does not delight in training in the precepts the World-Honored One does not praise; and each of the three trainings has its explanation. The twenty-eight discourses that follow, apart from the single discourse 842 on the false path and the level, straight road, all teach the four unbreakable purities—unbreakable purity in the Buddha, unbreakable purity in the Dharma and the Saṅgha, and accomplishment in the noble precepts. What is taught is one dharma, and the faces from which it is taught are many: one who is accomplished in it, wishing for long life and beauty, obtains them, does not live in poverty, and is freed from the evil destinations; the four great elements change but this dharma does not; one who places faith in a person meets five dangers; it is the moisture of merit, the nutriment of happiness, like the water of the five rivers that cannot be measured; it is the four factors of one who has entered the stream; cutting off four dharmas and accomplishing four dharmas, one is declared a stream-enterer; it is the heavenly way of the gods, it is the discourse on the mirror of the Dharma; to be accomplished in it and not to seek higher is heedlessness; those far from the World-Honored One cultivate these five recollections and six recollections. At the close of the fascicle the elder Lishidaduo tells the Buddha that he guards three things and does not count things as his own. The five previous fascicles teach the foundations of mindfulness, the faculties and powers, the factors of awakening, the noble path, mindfulness of breathing, and training—all of them the path that is walked; this fascicle teaches the faith and the precepts on which the path rests, and closes with the guarding of the mind by a noble disciple who lives at home.

I. Confession and Training in the Precepts (Discourses 830 and 831)

Discourse 830, the longest in the fascicle, tells of a small matter. At Pengjiashe the World-Honored One “taught the bhikṣus the dharma connected with the precepts, praising the laying down of precepts,” and the venerable Kāśyapagotra, hearing it, “in his heart could not bear it and was not pleased,” saying, “This ascetic praises these precepts to the utmost and lays down these precepts to the utmost.” Not long after the World-Honored One had left, regret arose in Kāśyapagotra’s heart; he knew he had lost his own good, and so, putting on his robe and taking his bowl, he travelled by stages to Śrāvastī and said to the Buddha: “I confess my fault, World-Honored One! I confess my fault, Well-Gone One! I was foolish, I was deluded, unskilled and undiscerning.” The World-Honored One asked when he had spoken so; Kāśyapagotra answered in full and asked, “May the World-Honored One only accept my confession, out of compassion.” The World-Honored One accepted it: “Now, Kāśyapa, since you yourself know your fault and yourself see your fault, in time to come the precepts of restraint will give rise to precepts; this I now grant you, out of compassion.” The benefit of confession the World-Honored One states plainly: “If one knows one’s own offence and sees one’s own offence and confesses it, then in time to come the precepts of restraint arise, wholesome dharmas grow, and there is no falling back.” One who could not bear the precepts regrets it, and the precepts of restraint arise of themselves—this is the first thing the fascicle says about the precepts: the precepts are not only a rule imposed from outside; they also arise in the heart of one who knows his own fault.

In the second half of the discourse the World-Honored One speaks of seniors on the occasion of Kāśyapagotra’s case: “Even if Kāśyapa were a senior, if he did not wish to train in the precepts, did not value the precepts, did not praise the laying down of precepts, such a bhikṣu I do not praise.” The reason he does not praise is not that one man alone: “If the teacher praises someone, others will keep company with him and honour him closely; if others keep company with him and honour him closely, they will share his views and do as he does; doing as he does, through the long night they will meet with harm and suffering.” The teacher’s praise has the power to draw others after it, and so what he praises must be an elder who “from the first values the training in the precepts and praises the laying down of precepts”; “those of middle years and the young are likewise.” Discourse 831 repeats this and adds a layer: a senior who “sees other bhikṣus who from the first delight in training in the precepts, value the precepts, and praise the laying down of precepts, and does not praise them in season”—such a one the World-Honored One likewise does not praise. The fault of not delighting in training in the precepts lies not only in one’s own not training; it lies still more in seeing others delight in it and being unable to rejoice.

II. The Explanation of the Three Trainings (Discourse 832)

Discourse 832 gives the explanation of the three trainings. “There are three trainings. What are the three? The training in the higher precepts, the training in the higher mind, the training in the higher wisdom.” The training in the higher precepts is “dwelling in the precepts of the prātimokṣa, complete in deportment and conduct, seeing the smallest fault with fear, and taking up the training in the precepts”; the training in the higher mind is “apart from evil, unwholesome dharmas, with thought and examination, with the joy and happiness born of separation, dwelling complete in the first dhyāna, up to dwelling complete in the fourth dhyāna”; the training in the higher wisdom is “knowing as it really is this noble truth of suffering, and knowing as they really are this noble truth of the arising of suffering, this noble truth of the cessation of suffering, and this noble truth of the path leading to the cessation of suffering.” The previous fascicle has already given the names of the three trainings and their pairings; this discourse is only the three explanations, and the compilers add a sentence at its end: “The remaining discourses on the three trainings are as taught above for the foundations of mindfulness. As for the dhyānas, so for the immeasurables and the formless attainments. As for the four noble truths, so too for the four foundations of mindfulness, the four right exertions, the four bases of supernormal power, the five faculties, the five powers, the seven factors of awakening, the eightfold noble path, the four paths, the four dharma-phrases, and the cultivation of calm and insight.” This sentence tells the reader that the discourses on the three trainings may be taught again with the dhyānas, the immeasurables, and the formless attainments, and with the foundations of mindfulness through to calm and insight, each substituted in turn. The training in the precepts and the three trainings end here; from discourse 833 the four unbreakable purities are taught. All the paths of the Connected Discourses on the Path lie within the three trainings; what the three trainings rest upon is the faith and the precepts taught below.

III. What the Four Unbreakable Purities Bring (Discourses 833 and 834)

In discourse 833, at Vaiśālī, the World-Honored One says to Nanda the Licchavi, a skilled elephant-trainer: “If a noble disciple is accomplished in the four unbreakable purities, then wishing for long life, he obtains long life; wishing for beauty, strength, happiness, eloquence, and mastery, he obtains them.” The four unbreakable purities are “accomplishment in unbreakable purity in the Buddha, unbreakable purity in the Dharma and the Saṅgha, and accomplishment in the noble precepts.” One who is accomplished in them is born in heaven at the end of his life and “in heaven obtains ten things”—heavenly life, heavenly beauty, heavenly renown, heavenly happiness, heavenly mastery, and heavenly forms, sounds, scents, tastes, and touches; and when, his life in heaven ended, he is born back among humans, “I see that he is complete in these ten things.” The World-Honored One says this not to promise heavenly reward but to say that “that learned noble disciple does not believe because of another, does not desire because of another, does not hear it from another, does not take another’s view, does not think it because of another; I say he has knowledge and vision of right wisdom as it really is”—what is unbreakable is precisely what does not depend on another. Nanda’s attendant comes to report that “the time for bathing has come,” and Nanda answers, “I have no need now of a human bath; I bathe myself now in this excellent dharma, namely the pure faith and gladness I have gained in the World-Honored One.” This discourse has no closing “When the Buddha had spoken this discourse,” and ends instead with this one sentence of Nanda’s: pure faith and gladness are themselves the bath. The short discourse 834 says that one who is accomplished “does not live a life of poverty among humans, is not cold and begging, but is naturally wealthy and content.” Long life, beauty, wealth—what the people of the world seek—the World-Honored One says one accomplished in the four unbreakable purities obtains at once; and the reason he obtains them lies not in the seeking but in the clarity of faith and the precepts.

IV. The Wheel-Turning King and the Rag-Robes (Discourse 835)

Discourse 835 sets two men side by side. The wheel-turning king, “complete with the seven treasures, accomplished in the four kinds of divine power among humans, ruling the four continents, when his body breaks up and his life ends, is born in heaven,” and yet “has still not cut off the suffering of the evil destinations—hell, the animals, and the hungry ghosts”; the reason is that “the wheel-turning king has not gained unbreakable purity in the Buddha, unbreakable purity in the Dharma and the Saṅgha, and is not accomplished in the noble precepts.” The learned noble disciple “wears rag-robes, begs his food from house to house, and sleeps on a grass mat,” and yet “is freed from the suffering of the evil destinations—hell, the animals, and the hungry ghosts,” because he is accomplished in the four unbreakable purities. To be born in heaven without having cut off the evil destinations is a heavenly reward that can be exhausted; to beg one’s food and be freed from the evil destinations is to have closed the door to them. Everything this fascicle says of the fruit of the four unbreakable purities comes back to this one thing—not falling into the evil destinations.

V. Never Once Changed (Discourse 836)

Discourse 836 first speaks of the heart with which one teaches others: “You should arouse a heart of compassion and a heart of loving-kindness. If there are people who delight in hearing and delight in receiving what you teach, you should teach them the four unbreakable purities, so that they enter and abide.” The reason it should be taught is that this dharma does not change: “Though the four great elements—earth, water, fire, and wind—may change, increase, or diminish, these four unbreakable purities have never once increased, diminished, or changed.” The four great elements are what the body rests upon; the body may increase and may diminish, but for one who is accomplished, “that he should fall into hell, among the animals, or among the hungry ghosts—there is no such possibility.” The word “unbreakable” receives its explanation in this discourse: the pure faith of one who is accomplished is deep-rooted and does not turn, and what is believed in does not change amid all change—the body may change, the faith does not change, and the dharma does not change either. At the end of the discourse one more thing is added to what is to be learned: “you should also establish others, so that they are accomplished”—to be accomplished oneself and to bring others to accomplishment is what the heart of compassion and the heart of loving-kindness do.

VI. The Five Dangers of Placing Faith in a Person (Discourse 837)

Discourse 837 speaks of unbreakable purity from the reverse side. “If one places faith in a person, five dangers arise”: the person believed in may “break the precepts, violate the discipline, and be cast out by the assembly,” or “the saṅgha may carry out against him the act of suspension for refusing to see his offence,” or he may “take his robe and bowl and wander to another region,” or “give up the precepts and return to lay life,” or “the person believed in and revered may die.” The five cases differ, but the thought of the one who believes in and reveres him is the same: “This is my teacher, whom I revere; the saṅgha has cast him out and slights him; for what reason should I now enter that monastery?”; and the danger that arises is the same: “Not entering the monastery, he does not revere the saṅgha; not revering the saṅgha, he does not get to hear the Dharma; not hearing the Dharma, he falls away from wholesome dharmas and cannot long abide in the right Dharma.” When faith is bound to one person, that person’s leaving, dying, or returning to lay life is each the breaking of my faith. After the five dangers the World-Honored One says only one thing: “You should train thus: ‘I shall be accomplished in unbreakable purity in the Buddha, in unbreakable purity in the Dharma and the Saṅgha, and in the noble precepts.’” Unbreakable purity is unbreakable precisely because what is believed in is not some one person.

VII. The Nutriment of Happiness and the Moisture of Merit (Discourses 838 to 841)

Discourse 838 begins from the four nutriments: “There are four kinds of nutriment that nourish beings and sustain the growth of the four great elements. What are the four? Morsel food, contact, mental intention, and consciousness.” The four nutriments nourish the body of the four great elements; “in the same way, the moisture of merit is the nutriment of happiness,” and this nutriment of happiness is the four unbreakable purities. The difference in discourse 839 is one sentence only: “one accomplished in unbreakable purity in the Buddha is one who hears the Dharma, is recollected by the saṅgha, and is accomplished in the noble precepts.” The difference in discourse 840 speaks of giving: one who is accomplished, “among beings entangled in the stain of stinginess, has a mind free of the stain of stinginess, dwells at home in liberation, gives with his heart, constantly delights in giving, constantly delights in relinquishing, gives impartially, and is accomplished in the noble precepts.” Discourse 841 speaks of its measure: “Thus the noble disciple’s four kinds of moisture of merit, the moisture of wholesome dharmas, gather in a measure of merit that cannot be measured—so much fruit of merit, so much fruit, so much accumulation of the fruit of merit—and yet he gains many blessings; it is counted a great mass of merit.” The simile is the five rivers: “It is like the five rivers flowing together—the Gaṅgā, the Yamunā, the Sarayū, the Airāvatī, and the Mahī—whose waters none can measure by the hundred jars, the thousand jars, the hundred thousand or ten thousand jars; yet that water is much, and is counted a great mass of water.” The verse takes up the simile and goes a step further: “The great ocean where all blessings gather, pure itself, it purifies others, vast and flowing level, truly the chief of the hundred streams,” “all return to the great ocean; so too is this body: giving, precepts, and the cultivation of merit are where the stream of a hundred blessings returns.” The simile of the five rivers says that the merit cannot be measured; the verse says that this body itself is the ocean to which the hundred streams return. The line “pure itself, it purifies others” answers “you should also establish others” in discourse 836: when one is pure oneself, the hundred streams return of themselves. This discourse has no closing after the verse and passes directly to the next.

VIII. The False Path and the Level, Straight Road (Discourse 842)

Discourse 842 is the only discourse from 833 onward that does not teach the four unbreakable purities, and what it teaches is precisely their reverse. “The brāhmaṇas teach a false path, foolish, evil, and wrong, not rightly directed, not wise, not awakening, not heading toward nirvāṇa.” The disciples they convert bathe on the fifteenth day with sesame meal and āmalaka meal, put on new cotton, lie on ground smeared with cow dung, and in the morning, “stripping their bodies naked, run towards the east; even if on the road they meet a fierce elephant, a vicious horse, a mad bull, a rabid dog, thorns, thickets, pits and ravines, or deep water, they go straight on without turning aside, and if they meet their death through harm, they are sure to be born in the Brahmā heaven.” The World-Honored One cuts this off: “This is called the foolish wrong view of outsiders, not wise, not awakening, not heading toward nirvāṇa”; “for my disciples I teach the level, straight road, which is not foolish, which heads toward wisdom and awakening, toward nirvāṇa, namely the eightfold noble path—right view up to right concentration.” Nanda in discourse 833 bathes himself in pure faith and gladness; the brāhmaṇa in this discourse bathes his body in sesame meal: two bathings stand opposed, and so do two roads. To go straight on without turning aside and meet one’s death is to take death as the path; the level, straight road is a road that can be walked. The name of the eightfold noble path the previous fascicles explain in detail; that this fascicle sets this one discourse in the midst of faith and the precepts is to say what dharma is believed in and what conduct is kept—what is believed in is the level, straight road, not the false path.

IX. The Stream and Entering the Stream (Discourse 843)

In discourse 843 the World-Honored One asks Śāriputra three things. “It is called the stream. What is the stream?” Śāriputra answers: “The stream the World-Honored One speaks of is the eightfold noble path.” “It is called the factors of entering the stream. What are the factors of entering the stream?” He answers: “There are four factors of entering the stream. What are the four? Keeping company with good people, hearing the right Dharma, right reflection within, and practice in accordance with the Dharma.” “In how many dharmas is one who has entered the stream accomplished?” He answers: “There are four factors in which one who has entered the stream is accomplished. What are the four? Unbreakable purity in the Buddha, unbreakable purity in the Dharma, unbreakable purity in the Saṅgha, and accomplishment in the noble precepts.” The World-Honored One repeats his words and confirms them. Three questions in one discourse, and the whole relation that the Connected Discourses on the Path teach lies in them: the stream is the eightfold noble path, the path that is walked; the factors of entering the stream are keeping company, hearing the Dharma, reflection, and practice in accordance with the Dharma, the causes of entering the path; what one who has entered the stream is accomplished in is the four unbreakable purities, the mark of having already entered the path. The previous discourse spoke of the level, straight road; this discourse says that this road is called the stream, and that one who enters this stream has the four unbreakable purities as what he is accomplished in.

X. Cutting Off Four Dharmas, Accomplishing Four Dharmas (Discourse 844)

Discourse 844 has no words of the Buddha; it is a discussion between Śāriputra and Ānanda. Śāriputra asks: “Through the cutting off of how many dharmas does the Tathāgata, the Worthy One, the Perfectly Awakened One, knowing and seeing, declare that a person has attained stream-entry, is not subject to falling into the evil destinations, is certain of heading toward right awakening, goes back and forth among gods and humans for seven rebirths, and makes an end of suffering?” Ānanda answers: “Cutting off four dharmas and accomplishing four dharmas.” What is cut off and what is accomplished are two faces of one thing: “When the noble disciple’s lack of faith in the Buddha has been cut off and known, he is accomplished in unbreakable purity in the Buddha; when his lack of faith in the Dharma and the Saṅgha and his bad precepts have been cut off and known, he is accomplished in unbreakable purity in the Dharma and the Saṅgha and in the noble precepts.” When lack of faith in the Buddha is cut off, unbreakable purity in the Buddha is accomplished; when lack of faith in the Dharma and the Saṅgha is cut off, unbreakable purity in the Dharma and the Saṅgha is accomplished; when bad precepts are cut off, the noble precepts are accomplished—the four unbreakable purities are not four things added on, but the having cut off and known of four kinds of lack of faith and of bad precepts. When Ānanda has finished, the text reads “the venerable Ānanda the venerable Śāriputra,” followed by “So it is! So it is! Four dharmas cut off, four dharmas accomplished”; the base text has no word “said,” and following the order of the base text, it is Ānanda restating the meaning to Śāriputra. “Then, the two venerables having discussed together, rejoicing in turn with one another, rose from their seats and departed.” In the previous discourse the World-Honored One questioned Śāriputra on the four dharmas of the stream-enterer; in this discourse Śāriputra questions Ānanda with the same meaning: that disciples question one another and the answer is the same as the teacher’s is itself a matter of unbreakable purity in the Dharma and the Saṅgha.

XI. The Five Fears, the Three Matters, the Noble Path (Discourses 845 and 846)

Discourse 845 teaches the three supports on which a noble disciple declares himself: “If a bhikṣu’s five fears and enmities are stilled, if he is certain in three matters and free of doubt, and if he knows and sees as it really is the right path of the noble ones, that noble disciple is able to declare of himself: ‘The evil destinations—hell, the animals, the hungry ghosts—are ended for me; I have attained stream-entry, am not subject to falling into the evil destinations, am certain of heading rightly toward saṃbodhi, go back and forth among gods and humans for seven rebirths, and make an end of suffering.’” The five fears are the “fear born of the enmity of the offence” of killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, false speech, and drinking liquor; when one is apart from them, “the fear born of that cause is stilled”; certainty in three matters is “being certain about the Buddha and free of doubt, being certain about the Dharma and the Saṅgha and free of doubt”; knowing and seeing the noble path as it really is is knowing the four noble truths as they really are. This discourse teaches the four unbreakable purities under three names: the stilling of the five fears is accomplishment in the noble precepts; certainty in the three matters is unbreakable purity in the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Saṅgha; and knowing and seeing the noble path as it really is is the third support of one’s own declaration—beyond faith and the precepts, there must also be knowing and seeing as it really is. The knowing as it really is of the four noble truths in discourse 832 and the “knowledge and vision of right wisdom as it really is” in discourse 833 are here set out plainly as conditions of one’s own declaration. In the previous discourse Ānanda said of the four dharmas that they are “cut off and known”; this discourse says “knows and sees as it really is”; the two are one meaning. At the end of the discourse, “knows and sees the noble mind as it really is,” the base text has “the noble mind” where the surrounding text has “noble path”; it is recorded as the base text has it. Discourse 846 has two differences, both explaining “what is knowing and seeing the noble path as it really is”: one has “What is knowing and seeing the noble path as it really is? The eightfold noble path—right view up to right concentration,” and the other “knowing and seeing as they really are the twelve links of dependent arising,” from “because this exists, that exists; because this arises, that arises” to “conditioned by birth there are ageing, sickness, death, grief, lamentation, suffering, and distress.” The noble path can be explained by its eight factors or by dependent arising: to know the eightfold noble path is to know what is walked; to know dependent arising is to know why it is walked.

XII. The Heavenly Way of the Gods (Discourses 847 to 850)

Discourse 847 says, “There are four heavenly ways of the gods that purify beings not yet pure and further purify those already pure,” and the four are the four unbreakable purities. Discourse 848 teaches their mode of practice, four passages in one pattern. Recollecting the Tathāgata—“the Tathāgata, the Worthy One, the Perfectly Awakened One, the One Perfect in Knowledge and Conduct, the Well-Gone One, the Knower of the World, the Unsurpassed One, the Tamer of Persons, the Teacher of Gods and Humans, the Buddha, the World-Honored One”—“toward this Tathāgata a mind of rejoicing arises; having rejoiced, the mind is gladdened; the mind gladdened, the body is tranquil; the body tranquil, he experiences happiness; experiencing happiness, he is concentrated in samādhi”; being concentrated in samādhi, the noble disciple asks himself, “What is the heavenly way of the gods?” and answers himself, “I have heard that freedom from anger is the highest heavenly way of the gods,” and so he thinks: “From this day on, whether in fear or at ease in the world, I shall not give rise to anger; I shall only take upon myself the wholly pure and complete heavenly way of the gods.” For one who recollects the Dharma, the Dharma is “in this very life apart from all burning, not dependent on time, leading through to nirvāṇa, to be observed in this very body, to be known by oneself”; for one who recollects the Saṅgha, the Saṅgha is “upright and rightly directed, worthy of reverence, honour, and offerings, the unsurpassed field of merit”; for one who recollects the precepts, he recollects of himself, “I have precepts here that are unbroken, unstained, unmixed, praised by the wise, not disdained by the wise.” The four passages all have rejoicing, tranquillity, the experience of happiness, and concentration in samādhi as their frame; as for gladness, the first passage has “the mind is gladdened,” the second has none, the third has “obtains gladness,” and the fourth has “gladdened,” following the base text and not made uniform; all have “freedom from anger as the highest” as what is heard, and all have not giving rise to anger as what is learned. The name heavenly way of the gods receives its explanation in this discourse: the heavenly way is not a way to be born in heaven; it is to be free of anger as the gods are. Discourses 849 and 850 repeat the recollection of the Tathāgata and each add a phrase: 849, “then he cuts off evil greed and cuts off the evil, unwholesome faults of the mind”; 850, “his mind is apart from the entanglement of greed, the entanglement of hatred and delusion, and his mind is upright. Recollecting the Tathāgata, this noble disciple obtains the flowing water of the Dharma, obtains the flowing water of its meaning, obtains the benefit and rejoicing of recollecting the Tathāgata.” The flowing water of the Dharma and the flowing water of its meaning: what recollecting the Buddha brings is the Dharma and its meaning flowing in like water.

XIII. The Discourse on the Mirror of the Dharma (Discourses 851 to 854)

The short discourse 851 gives the name: “I shall now teach the discourse on the mirror of the Dharma. Listen closely and reflect well, and I shall teach it for you. What is the discourse on the mirror of the Dharma? The noble disciple’s unbreakable purity in the Buddha, unbreakable purity in the Dharma and the Saṅgha, and accomplishment in the noble precepts—this is called the discourse on the mirror of the Dharma.” Discourses 852 and 854 teach the use of this mirror. In 852 many bhikṣus, while begging their food, hear that “the bhikṣu Nantu has died, the bhikṣuṇī Nandā has died, the layman Shansheng has died, the laywoman Shansheng has died,” and ask the World-Honored One where the four should be reborn. The World-Honored One answers that the bhikṣu Nantu and the bhikṣuṇī Nandā “have ended all outflows; without outflows their minds are liberated and liberated by wisdom,” and that the layman and laywoman Shansheng “have ended the five lower bonds, attained non-returning, and are born in heaven to reach final nirvāṇa there, not returning again to this world.” Having answered, he teaches the discourse on the mirror of the Dharma. Discourse 854, at Nalijia village, where “many people have died,” the bhikṣus first ask about the twelve, including Jijiashe, and the World-Honored One answers that they are non-returners; the bhikṣus then ask about more than two hundred and fifty, five hundred, again more than two hundred and fifty, and again five hundred laymen—whether more than two hundred and fifty and five hundred laymen who have died “have all ended the five lower bonds and attained non-returning”; whether another more than two hundred and fifty laymen who have died “have all ended the three bonds, thinned greed, hatred, and delusion, attained once-returning, and will take one more birth and make an end of suffering”; whether another five hundred laymen who have died “have ended the three bonds, attained stream-entry, and are not subject to falling into the evil destinations”—the names of the fruits come from the bhikṣus’ question, and the World-Honored One stops them: “That you follow this one’s death and that one’s death with your questions is mere toil! It is not what the Tathāgata delights to answer. That what is born dies—what is strange in that?” Then he says why he teaches the Dharma: “Whether a Tathāgata arises in the world or does not arise, the nature of the Dharma ever abides. That Tathāgata, having himself known and attained perfect awakening, reveals and expounds it, distinguishes and discloses it,” and what he reveals is dependent arising in forward and reverse order—“because this exists, that exists; because this arises, that arises; conditioned by ignorance there are formations, up to conditioned by birth there are ageing, sickness, death, grief, lamentation, distress, and suffering. Thus the mass of suffering gathers; when ignorance ceases, formations cease, up to when birth ceases, ageing, sickness, death, grief, lamentation, distress, and suffering cease. Thus the mass of suffering ceases.” Having taught dependent arising, he teaches the discourse on the mirror of the Dharma. A mirror is a mirror because a person looks at himself in it: when the disciples ask one by one where others have been reborn, they are taking the Tathāgata as their mirror; when the World-Honored One gives them the mirror of the Dharma, he is making each of them look at his own purity toward the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Saṅgha and his own accomplishment in the precepts, so that he knows his own destination and need not ask anyone. Discourse 853 is told in brief; its difference is “a certain bhikṣu, a certain bhikṣuṇī, a certain layman, and a certain laywoman have died,” and the rest is as above. The phrase “the nature of the Dharma ever abides” is the root of what this fascicle says about faith: what is believed in is not the Tathāgata’s arising in the world, but the nature of the Dharma that ever abides whether he arises or not.

XIV. Heedlessness and Heedfulness (Discourses 855 and 856)

In discourse 855 the layman Nandi asks: “If a noble disciple is at all times not accomplished in these five faculties, is he heedless or heedful?” The World-Honored One first sets the question right: of one who is at all times not accomplished in the five faculties, “I say such a one is counted among the ordinary people”—what the discourse goes on to distinguish is the heedlessness and heedfulness of the noble disciple. Then he speaks of heedlessness: “If a noble disciple is accomplished in unbreakable purity in the Buddha and does not seek higher, does not go to a quiet forest or sit in the open, meditating day and night, striving in cultivation, toward the excellent and subtle deliverance, with benefit and rejoicing,” then “joy does not arise; joy not arising, the body is not tranquil; the body not tranquil, painful feeling arises; painful feeling having arisen, the mind does not become concentrated,” and this is called heedlessness. The heedful one, “accomplished in unbreakable purity in the Buddha, his mind does not give rise to the thought of contentment,” and in a quiet forest he meditates day and night: rejoicing, joy, tranquillity, the experience of happiness, the concentration of the mind. Discourse 848 above took the chain from rejoicing to concentration in samādhi as the mode of practice of the heavenly way of the gods; this discourse takes the arising or non-arising of the same chain as the mark of heedlessness and heedfulness: to be accomplished in the four unbreakable purities is not the end; to be accomplished and “not give rise to the thought of contentment” is heedfulness. In discourse 856 Nandi of the Śākyas asks the same with the four unbreakable purities, and the World-Honored One answers, “If one is at all times not accomplished in the four unbreakable purities, I say such a one is counted among the ordinary people outside,” and the rest is taught at length as above. Not being accomplished in the five faculties makes one counted among the ordinary people; not being accomplished in the four unbreakable purities makes one counted among the ordinary people outside—the five faculties are faith, energy, mindfulness, concentration, and wisdom, and the four unbreakable purities are faith and the precepts; that the two questions receive the same answer shows that the four unbreakable purities and the five faculties speak of one and the same person.

XV. The Five Places of Joy and the Six Recollections (Discourses 857 to 860)

The last four discourses all tell of the same occasion: the summer retreat is over, many bhikṣus are gathered in the dining hall sewing robes for the World-Honored One, and the Tathāgata will soon set out to wander among the people; the disciples living at home hear of it and are pained. Nandi of the Śākyas says to the Buddha: “Now my four limbs are falling apart, the four directions have changed their tone, and the Dharma I heard before I have now wholly forgotten”; “when shall I again see the World-Honored One and the bhikṣus who are my good friends?” The World-Honored One answers that whether one sees him or not, one should cultivate in season. Discourse 857 teaches the five places of joy: recollecting the Tathāgata, the Dharma, the Saṅgha, “the precepts one keeps oneself, and the worldly deeds one does oneself,” and as to giving, one recollects of oneself: “I have gained my own good; among beings stained with stinginess I should cultivate much the dwelling apart from the stain of stinginess, cultivating liberated giving, relinquishing giving, constant ardent giving, delighting in relinquishing, giving impartially, ever holding a giving heart”; “these five limbs of concentration, whether you are standing, walking, sitting, or lying down, even when you are with your wife and children, you should always bind your mind to this samādhi and recollection.” Discourse 858 teaches the six recollections: “you should recollect the Tathāgata, the Dharma, the Saṅgha, the precepts you keep yourself, the giving you practise yourself, and the gods.” Discourse 859 is told in brief; the elders Lishidaduo and Fulanna, two brothers, ask the same and are answered the same. Discourse 860 is the close of the whole fascicle. The two elders, working their fields in the Lujing marsh, send a man to look, hear that the World-Honored One has already set out, and go to meet him on the road; the World-Honored One “stepped off the road to the side, spread his sitting-cloth, and sat upright.” The elders set out in full the road by which the World-Honored One will pass through eight countries, and the World-Honored One answers with the six recollections and adds a word: “And yet, elder, the household life is noisy, the household life is stained; the life gone forth is open and quiet—it is hard for a worldly person to dwell in the homeless state, one-pointedly bright and clean, wholly pure and complete, the pure conduct spotless.” The elder calls it good, and tells of his own household affairs: as a great minister of King Prasenajit, the king ordered him to ride a great elephant carrying two palace women; “when the elephant goes downhill, the one in front clasps my neck and the one behind holds on to my back; when the elephant goes uphill, the one behind clasps my neck and the one in front holds on to my collar,” and “as I travel with them I always guard three things: first, driving the elephant, lest I lose the right road; second, guarding my own mind, lest attachment arise; third, guarding myself, lest I tumble and fall”; “at that time, toward the king’s women, not for a single moment was I without right reflection.” The World-Honored One says: “Good! Good! You guard the mind well.” The elder says further that the wealth of his house “I always share and use in common with the World-Honored One and the bhikṣus, bhikṣuṇīs, laymen, and laywomen, not counting it as my own.” The World-Honored One again says good. This discourse does not close with “rejoiced and practised accordingly”; it closes with the World-Honored One who, “for that elder, taught the Dharma in many ways, instructing, teaching, illumining, and gladdening him; having instructed, taught, illumined, and gladdened him, he rose from his seat and departed.” The World-Honored One says the household life is noisy; the elder does not argue, but answers with his own guarding of the mind while driving the elephant—to live at home and yet guard the mind and count nothing as one’s own is the open quiet in the midst of the noise. That the discourses on the four unbreakable purities close with a householder elder’s guarding of the mind is the last discourse of the six fascicles of the Connected Discourses on the Path.

XVI. How to Read the Fascicle

The twenty-seven discourses of this fascicle from 833 onward teach the four unbreakable purities, and the names they use are many: unbreakable purity, accomplishment in the noble precepts, the four factors of one who has entered the stream, cutting off four dharmas and accomplishing four dharmas, certainty in the three matters and the stilling of the five fears, the heavenly way of the gods, the discourse on the mirror of the Dharma. The names differ and the dharma is the same—the same in faith in the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Saṅgha and accomplishment in the precepts; the five places of joy and the six recollections are the recollections cultivated in reliance on this faith and these precepts. The opening of the fascicle teaches that confession gives rise to the precepts of restraint and that the three trainings have the precepts first; the middle teaches the reward of this faith and these precepts, their unchangingness, their immeasurability, and the declaration one makes of oneself; the close teaches what those far from the World-Honored One should cultivate. Why is faith unbreakable? Discourse 836 says the four great elements change but this dharma does not; 837 says that when faith is bound to one person the five dangers arise; 854 says that whether a Tathāgata arises in the world or not, the nature of the Dharma ever abides. Reading the three together, what is unbreakable is twofold: the faith of one who is accomplished is deep-rooted and does not turn, and the dharma believed in is not in a person, not in a body, not in the Tathāgata’s arising in the world—the nature of the Dharma ever abides, and so faith in it can be unbreakable. How are the precepts accomplished? Discourse 830 says that knowing one’s own fault and confessing it gives rise to the precepts of restraint; 845 says the five fears and enmities are stilled; 860 says one drives the elephant and guards the mind. The precepts are not only an outer rule; they are also the stilling of enmity, the guarding of the mind. When faith and the precepts are clear, rejoicing, gladness, tranquillity, the experience of happiness, and concentration in samādhi arise naturally in sequence—this is what 848 and 855 teach; to be accomplished and not content, meditating day and night, is heedfulness. The Connected Discourses on the Path begin from the foundations of mindfulness and end with this fascicle; the practices of the foundations of mindfulness, the factors of awakening, and the noble path all rest on this faith and these precepts, and the dharma they rest on, like the ocean receiving a hundred streams, is pure itself and purifies others.

Carrying Forward — What the Compendium of Topics Gathers

In the Compendium of Topics, the Topics of the Sūtras, the Selection on the Factors of Awakening gathers one door of this fascicle under its uddāna, the door of the purities of realization: “the purities of realization, first their establishment; change comes first; the heavenly road; the simile of the bright mirror; the declaration stands last.” Where the sūtra says unbreakable purity, the treatise says the purities of realization; where the sūtra says accomplishment in the noble precepts, the treatise says pure morality; where the sūtra says the heavenly way of the gods, the treatise says the heavenly road; where the sūtra says the mirror of the Dharma, the treatise says the bright mirror; where the sūtra says declaring, the treatise says declaration; where the sūtra says stream-enterer, once-returner, and non-returner, the treatise says stream-entrant, once-comer, and non-returner—the names differ, and they are set down side by side without being judged the same.

Establishment: “The Tathāgata’s disciple complete in right view, in brief by two dharmas, is able rightly to take up the quality of clarity, and so one should know that the four purities of realization are established: namely the faith and morality included in the goal of an ascetic.” Why the four purities of realization are only faith and morality: “toward the one who teaches, toward the goal of an ascetic, toward those who share the Dharma, and toward the companions who are able to attain, the pure faith is deep-rooted, and in other births too cannot be drawn away; because it is without deceit, it is called the quality of clarity”; “and pure morality, toward all evil, unwholesome dharmas that can lead to the evil destinations, obtains the restraint of never doing them, and so it too is called the quality of clarity.” This explains why the four unbreakable purities in discourses 833, 843, and 844 list only the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Saṅgha together with the precepts: the one who teaches, the goal of an ascetic, and those who share the Dharma of the treatise are the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Saṅgha, and pure faith deep-rooted toward these three is three purities of realization, with pure morality as the fourth; and “only faith and morality are said to be the quality of clarity, not that the remaining dharmas—energy, mindfulness, concentration, and the rest—are not the quality of clarity”—the reason the other four of the five faculties are not listed, the treatise says, is that “their function is supreme”: faith toward the well-taught Dharma and discipline never turns, and morality toward the evil destinations never goes. Further, “this faith and morality are the resting-place of the training in the higher precepts, the higher mind, and the higher wisdom; because faith and morality are said to be pure, it is shown that all three trainings obtain purity.” This explains why the four unbreakable purities follow directly upon the three trainings of discourse 832: the treatise says faith and morality are the resting-place of the three trainings, which agrees with the order in which this fascicle turns from the three trainings to the four unbreakable purities. “Such purities of realization, because they can well moisten all the white and pure dharmas that fall within the realms, are called the moisture of merit; because they can draw forth the excellent noble paths, they are called the moisture of goodness; because they can draw forth the cutting off of the remaining defilements, they are called what draws forth happiness.” This explains “the moisture of merit is the nutriment of happiness” in discourse 838 and “the four kinds of moisture of merit, the moisture of wholesome dharmas” in discourse 841: the sūtra says the moisture of merit, the moisture of wholesome dharmas, and the nutriment of happiness; the treatise says the moisture of merit, the moisture of goodness, and what draws forth happiness; the three names answer one another. It explains too why in discourse 835 the wheel-turning king has not cut off the evil destinations while the noble disciple is freed from them: the treatise says pure morality, toward the evil, unwholesome dharmas that can lead to the evil destinations, “obtains the restraint of never doing them,” and “even in other births does not do evil and fall into the evil destinations, never falling back, up to nirvāṇa.”

Change: “Noble disciples who are accomplished in the purities of realization and are certain to go only to the good destinations still have, while dwelling in the good destinations, the heavy suffering and fear that arise from three kinds of mutual opposition of the great elements, yet have no fear of the evil destinations. What are the three kinds of heavy suffering and fear? First, the suffering of sickness; second, the suffering of ageing; third, the suffering of death that severs the vital points. Therefore it is said: the four great elements can be made to change, but noble disciples who have accomplished the four purities of realization cannot be made to change.” This explains discourse 836, “though the four great elements—earth, water, fire, and wind—may change, increase, or diminish, these four unbreakable purities have never once increased, diminished, or changed”: the sūtra says the four great elements change while the four unbreakable purities do not; the treatise explains the change of the four great elements as the three heavy sufferings of sickness, ageing, and death, which the noble disciple still fears even in the good destinations, while having no fear of the evil destinations—what the treatise explains is precisely the sūtra’s “that he should fall into hell, among the animals, or among the hungry ghosts—there is no such possibility.”

The heavenly road: “If the gods who are pure in the ultimate sense are called supreme and without harm, it is because in body, speech, and mind they never do harm. Relying on such a pure heavenly nature, the four purities of realization are called the heavenly road.” This explains “freedom from anger as the highest” of the heavenly way of the gods in discourses 847 to 850: the sūtra says the noble disciple hears that freedom from anger is the highest heavenly way of the gods and does not give rise to anger whether in fear or at ease in the world; the treatise says the pure gods are supreme because body, speech, and mind do no harm, and relying on this heavenly nature the four purities of realization are called the heavenly road—the sūtra’s freedom from anger and the treatise’s freedom from harm point to one thing. “Further, with the four purities of realization as their resting-place, the noble disciples cultivate the six recollections through three doors: first, to cut off the defiling disturbance arising from the secondary defilements on the side of calm; second, to cut off the defiling disturbance arising from the secondary defilements on the side of insight; third, to cut off the two kinds of secondary defilement that, though there is no defiling disturbance now, may arise in the future”; “dullness and drowsiness are called the secondary defilements on the side of calm. Restlessness that goes with delight in sense pleasures, and the unwholesome thoughts and examinations of desire born of the faults of greed and the rest, dharmas of defilement that make the mind scatter, are called the secondary defilements on the side of insight.” This explains the six recollections of discourses 858 and 860: the sūtra says to recollect the Tathāgata, the Dharma, the Saṅgha, the precepts, giving, and the gods; the treatise says that relying on the four purities of realization one cultivates the six recollections in order to cut off the secondary defilements on the sides of calm and insight. “Further, the recollection obtained through the principle of the ultimate truth is called the valour of meaning; the recollection obtained through the principle of conventional truth is called the valour of the Dharma.” This explains “obtains the flowing water of the Dharma, obtains the flowing water of its meaning” in discourse 850: the sūtra says that recollecting the Tathāgata one obtains the flowing water of the Dharma and the flowing water of its meaning; the treatise says recollection is called the valour of meaning when obtained through the ultimate truth and the valour of the Dharma when obtained through conventional truth—the two names, the Dharma and its meaning, answer one another, while flowing water and valour are different figures.

The simile of the bright mirror: “Just as a person holding a bright mirror does so in order to observe the pure or impure marks of his own face, so the Tathāgata’s noble disciples hold the subtle bright mirror of the purities of realization in order to observe as they really are the defiled and pure marks of their own persons.” This explains the discourse on the mirror of the Dharma in discourses 851 to 854: the sūtra names the four unbreakable purities the discourse on the mirror of the Dharma and teaches it after the disciples have asked where others were reborn; the treatise explains the meaning of the mirror as observing whether one’s own face is pure or impure—the noble disciple holds the purities of realization to observe the defilement and purity of his own person and need not ask others. The sūtra’s mirror of the Dharma and the treatise’s bright mirror are different names for one simile.

Declaration: “If one is accomplished in the four purities of realization and, relying only on one’s own four purities of realization, declares for others, not relying on the recollections cultivated at a higher stage that go with joy, then by this cause one should know that the declaration is of the realization of the fruit of stream-entry, since one has not yet set out on the path cultivated at a higher stage.” This explains discourse 844, “cutting off four dharmas and accomplishing four dharmas, the Tathāgata, the Worthy One, the Perfectly Awakened One declares that a person has attained stream-entry,” and discourse 845, where the noble disciple “is able to declare of himself”: the sūtra says that on the basis of four dharmas cut off and four dharmas accomplished one is declared a stream-enterer; the treatise says that relying only on the four purities of realization one declares stream-entry. “If at a higher stage one declares for others with the five recollections that go with joy, by this cause one should know that the declaration is of the realization of the fruit of once-returning,” “because, with this joy as its basis, pliant ease arises; because of pliant ease, one experiences bodily happiness; because of experiencing happiness, the mind obtains right concentration, yet has not reached fulfilment in stillness and concentration”; “if at a higher stage one declares for others with the six recollections, by this cause one should know that the declaration is of the realization of the fruit of non-returning. The fruit of arhatship can be realized only by the path beyond the world, and all the recollections are only worldly; therefore above the realization of the fruit of non-returning there is no further such declaration by recollection.” This explains discourse 848, “having rejoiced, the mind is gladdened; the mind gladdened, the body is tranquil; the body tranquil, he experiences happiness; experiencing happiness, he is concentrated in samādhi,” together with the five places of joy of discourse 857 and the six recollections of discourse 858: the sūtra says rejoicing, gladness, tranquillity, the experience of happiness, and concentration in samādhi; the treatise says joy, pliant ease, bodily happiness, and right concentration—the chain is the same and the names differ; the sūtra says the five places of joy and the six recollections, the treatise says the five recollections declare once-returning and the six recollections declare non-returning—the treatise pairs the number of recollections with the fruits, the sūtra makes no such pairing, and the two are set down side by side without being judged the same. It explains too the fruits that the World-Honored One declares for the four persons in discourse 852 and for the twelve, including Jijiashe in discourse 854: the treatise says stream-entry is declared on the basis of the purities of realization, once-returning on the basis of the five recollections, non-returning on the basis of the six recollections, and arhatship only by the path beyond the world—in the sūtra, those the World-Honored One declares are the bhikṣu Nantu and the bhikṣuṇī Nandā who have ended the outflows, and Shansheng and Jijiashe and the others who are non-returners; the more than two hundred and fifty once-returners and five hundred stream-enterers of the bhikṣus’ further questions come from the bhikṣus’ asking and the World-Honored One stops them, and are not what the World-Honored One declares. The treatise’s declaration of the four fruits each has its basis; the sūtra’s declaring stops at what the World-Honored One answered. “Further, the four purities of realization are called only purity in the fruit of stream-entry; in the remaining fruits of training they are called complete purity; in the highest fruit they are called the foremost complete purity.” This explains discourse 855, “accomplished in unbreakable purity in the Buddha, his mind does not give rise to the thought of contentment”: the sūtra says that to be accomplished and not content is heedfulness; the treatise says that the purities of realization of the stream-enterer are called only purity, and only in the remaining fruits of training are they called complete purity—that above purity there is further completeness is precisely why the thought of contentment does not arise.

With the door of the purities of realization complete, the Topics of the Sūtras of the Compendium of Topics here concludes: “Thus, in brief, the mātṛkā of the essentials of the discourses that accord with the objects and knowledge of this treatise has been drawn out; all the rest, following this direction, should be understood.” The mātṛkā of the six fascicles of the Connected Discourses on the Path ends at this sentence.

Outside this one door, the training in the precepts and the three trainings of discourses 830 to 832, the five dangers of placing faith in a person of 837, and discourses 839, 840, 842, 846, 853, 856, and 859 are not directly explained in the door of the purities of realization; 830 to 832 may be referred to the door of training of the previous fascicle and 842 to the door of the path factors, neither of which belongs to this door.

“Śāriputra! Is there a path, is there a way, which, cultivated and much cultivated, makes the good dharmas constantly cultivated and grow?” He answered: “There is. It is the eightfold noble path.” The fourteen discourses of this fascicle, which marks itself at its head as “the Recitation Spoken by the Disciples, Part Four,” are the first fascicle of what is spoken by the disciples. Of the fourteen, only two are taught by the World-Honored One himself: in 497 he answers Śāriputra on the five dharmas for charging an offence, and in 498 he asks Śāriputra how he can roar the lion’s roar. In the other twelve (including 491, which abbreviates by reference to the one before), the speakers whose teaching is carried are the venerable Śāriputra and the venerable Mahāmaudgalyāyana—answering a wanderer’s questions, addressing the bhikṣus, questioning a disciple of Devadatta, answering a wanderer nun, recounting the World-Honored One’s teaching, or the two discussing together in the last watch of the night. What the fascicle speaks of is very mixed: definitions, samādhi, supernormal power, the precepts, disputes, charging an offence, faith, teaching the Dharma, begging for food, dwelling in meditation, effort; and what it returns to is one thing. The wanderer asks about one name at a time, Śāriputra answers with one meaning at a time, and after every answer there is always the question ‘is there a path, is there a way …?’, and after every question always the answer “There is. It is the eightfold noble path.” What the disciples speak is not the disciples’ own view; it is the meaning within “the noble Dharma and discipline,” and the path that reaches that meaning.

I. Yanfuche’s Questions—There Is a Path, There Is a Way (Discourses 490 and 491)

Discourse 490, the longest in the fascicle, is one man’s questions and one man’s answers. The questioner, Yanfuche, the text calls “a wanderer of another sect,” and it adds that he “was an old good friend of Śāriputra”—a man who had gone forth in another way and who knew Śāriputra of old. His questions begin from “In the noble Dharma and discipline, what is difficult?” Śāriputra answers, “Only going forth is difficult”; the difficulty of going forth lies in “delight is difficult”; the difficulty of delight lies in “constantly cultivating the good dharmas is difficult.” The three answers descend step by step: going forth is not difficult in the shaving of the head but in delight; delight is not difficult for a moment but in constantly cultivating the good dharmas. So Yanfuche asks: “Is there a path, is there a way, which, cultivated and much cultivated, makes the good dharmas constantly cultivated and grow?” Śāriputra answers that there is, “the eightfold noble path: right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration.” Hearing it, Yanfuche draws his own conclusion: “This is the good path, this is the good way; cultivated and much cultivated, the good dharmas are constantly cultivated and grow. Śāriputra, one who has gone forth and constantly cultivates this path will before long swiftly end all the outflows.” The first question is the pattern of the whole discourse: a question about the meaning of one name, a question whether there is a path and a way, an answer that it is the eightfold noble path. After this sentence the text marks itself: “in this manner, Yanfuche’s questions are set out as forty discourses,” and the questions that follow keep to this order.

The names asked about, in order, are: one who teaches the Dharma well, one rightly directed in the world, the well-gone one [the text answers with “well cut off”]; nirvāṇa; why one goes forth and cultivates pure conduct under the ascetic Gautama; the ending of outflows; the arhat; the arhat as such; ignorance; outflows [“as said before”]; existence; the existing body; suffering; the floods; the yoke [“the yoke is as the floods are said”]; clinging; ties; bonds; fetters; desire; nourishment; relief, one who has attained relief, the higher relief, the place of the higher relief; coolness, attaining coolness, the higher coolness, attaining the higher coolness; craving; the courses of action; stains; and at the end, “as with stains, so too with grime, grease, thorns, fondness, and ties,” six names are carried over. The answers to the first three names all explain by the taming of the three poisons: “if one teaches the Dharma so as to tame desire and craving, tame hatred, and tame delusion, this is called one who teaches the Dharma in the world”; “if one is directed towards taming desire and craving, towards taming hatred, towards taming delusion, this is called rightly directed”; “if desire is already ended and cut off and known without remainder, and hatred and delusion are already ended and cut off and known without remainder, this is called well cut off”; and the reason for going forth is the same: “in order to cut off desire, cut off hatred, and cut off delusion, one goes forth and cultivates pure conduct under the ascetic Gautama.” Śāriputra’s answers are of two kinds. One kind explains a name by the ending of the three poisons: “nirvāṇa is the permanent ending of desire, the permanent ending of hatred, the permanent ending of delusion, the permanent ending of all defilements—this is called nirvāṇa”; “desire already cut off without remainder, hatred and delusion already cut off without remainder—this is called the arhat”; “one who has attained the higher relief is one in whom desire is permanently ended and hatred and delusion are permanently ended—this is called attaining the higher relief”; and the higher coolness likewise. Nirvāṇa, the arhat, the higher relief, the higher coolness: four names and one meaning, all the permanent ending of desire, hatred, and delusion. The other kind explains a name by a numbered list: “outflows are the three outflows: the outflow of desire, the outflow of existence, the outflow of ignorance”; “existence is the three existences—desire existence, form existence, formless existence”; “the existing body is the five aggregates of clinging. What are the five aggregates of clinging? The aggregate of clinging to form, and the aggregates of clinging to feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness”; “suffering is the suffering of birth, of ageing, of illness, of death, of separation from what is loved, of meeting what is hated, of not getting what is sought; in brief, the suffering of the five aggregates of clinging—this is called suffering”; “the floods are the flood of desire, the flood of existence, the flood of views, the flood of ignorance”; “clinging is the four kinds of clinging: clinging to desire, clinging to self, clinging to views, clinging to precepts”; “ties are the four ties: the tie of desire, the tie of hatred, the tie of clinging to precepts, the tie of the view of self”; “bonds are the nine bonds: the bond of craving, of hatred, of conceit, of ignorance, of views, of grasping at the other, of doubt, of envy, of stinginess”; “fetters are the seven: desire, hatred, craving for existence, conceit, ignorance, views, doubt”; “nourishment has five: the nourishment of desire, of hatred, of drowsiness, of restlessness and remorse, of doubt”; “there are three cravings: craving for sensual pleasure, craving for form, craving for the formless”; “the courses of action are the ten unwholesome courses of action: killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, false speech, divisive speech, harsh speech, idle talk, desire, hatred, wrong view”; “stains are the three stains: the stain of desire, the stain of hatred, the stain of delusion.” The names come in threes, fours, fives, sevens, nines, and tens; all are names of what ties and binds, all are dharmas to be cut off.

Two names, the ending of outflows and the arhat, stand between the two kinds: “when these three outflows are ended and exhausted without remainder, this is called the ending of outflows” is the ending of a list; the arhat is “already cut off without remainder,” and the arhat as such is “desire permanently ended without remainder, hatred and delusion permanently ended without remainder—this is called the arhat as such,” so that the two names, cut off and permanently ended, stand side by side. Between the two kinds, relief and coolness each have four names, the finest distinction in the whole discourse. “Relief is the cutting off of the three bonds”; “one who has attained relief is one in whom the three bonds are already ended and already known.” “One who has attained the higher relief” is one in whom desire, hatred, and delusion are permanently ended; “the place of the higher relief is where desire is already cut off and already known, permanently ended without remainder, and hatred and delusion are already cut off and already known, permanently ended without remainder.” “Coolness is the ending of the five lower bonds: the view of the body, clinging to precepts, doubt, desire, and hatred”; “when the five lower bonds are already ended and already known, this is called attaining coolness”; the higher coolness is desire, hatred, and delusion and “all defilements permanently ended without remainder,” and attaining the higher coolness is their being “already cut off and already known.” Cutting off the three bonds, cutting off the five lower bonds, permanently ending desire, hatred, and delusion—these are three levels; and each level is divided into two names, “cut off” and “already cut off, already known.” Cutting off is the event; already known is knowing for oneself that it is cut off. The disciple’s answer does not stop at speaking of the fruit; it speaks as far as knowing the fruit for oneself, and this connects with the “declaring for oneself” of discourses 493 and 499 below.

The explanation of ignorance is the longest: “not knowing the former limit, not knowing the later limit, not knowing the former, later, and middle limits; not knowing the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Saṅgha, the jewels; not knowing suffering, its arising, its cessation, and the path; not knowing the wholesome, the unwholesome, and the indeterminate; not knowing inside, not knowing outside; whatever matter one does not know, dark and obstructed—this is called ignorance.” Hearing it, Yanfuche says, “This is a great mass of darkness.” Ignorance is not the not-knowing of one thing; it is not knowing “whatever matter” in the three limits, the three jewels, the four truths, the three natures, inside and outside; and so its cutting off, too, is only the path, not one piece of knowledge. The explanation of desire stands apart from all the other names: “desire: forms cognized by the eye that are lovely, pleasing, to be dwelt on, so that one is stained and attached to form; sounds for the ear, odours for the nose, tastes for the tongue, and objects of touch cognized by the body that are lovely, pleasing, to be dwelt on, so that one is stained and attached to touch. Yanfuche, these qualities are not desire; desire is only perceiving, thinking, and reflecting.” The loveliness of the five objects is “quality”; desire lies in “perceiving, thinking, and reflecting.” And so Śāriputra speaks the only verse in the fascicle: “The world’s manifold forms / are not the fetter of craving and desire; / it is only perception and thought— / that is a man’s desire. / Those manifold forms / are always in the world; / one who tames the mind of craving and desire— / that one is wise.” Forms are always in the world and cannot be made not to be there; what can be tamed is the mind. This verse and the “pure sign” of 493 are one in meaning: the object does not leave; the mind can leave.

At the end of every question comes “then the two venerables, having finished their discussion, each rose from his seat and left”—questioner and answerer alike are called venerables. Yanfuche asks and does not dispute; Śāriputra answers and does not exhort; it is the questioner who says of the eightfold noble path, “this is the good path, this is the good way,” the wanderer of another sect speaking for himself. Discourse 491 is a compiler’s abbreviation: “as with the discourse on Yanfuche’s questions, so too with the questions of the ascetic wanderer”—the same sequence of questions asked by another wanderer, with the same answers. The one who asks can change, the names asked about can change; the path answered does not change.

II. The Immeasurable Samādhi and the Existing Body (Discourse 492)

In 492 Śāriputra says to the bhikṣus: “if a bhikṣu attains the immeasurable samādhi and dwells in its full accomplishment realized in the body, yet his mind does not delight in nirvāṇa as the ceasing of the existing body, and he thinks longingly of the existing body”—he attains the samādhi, does not delight in nirvāṇa, and looks back instead to the existing body. The simile: “it is as if a man had glue stuck to his hand and took hold of a branch; his hand would stick to the tree and he could not get free. Why? Because of the glue on his hand.” That the hand does not leave the tree lies not in the tree but in the glue on the hand; that the bhikṣu does not leave the existing body lies not in the samādhi but in the longing of the mind. Its fruit is that “in the end he does not get free, does not obtain the teaching of the Dharma in accordance with the Dharma here and now, and even at the end of his life gains nothing, comes back to be born in this realm, and in the end cannot break through the darkness of delusion.” The second simile is a pond: “it is as if beside a village there were a muddy pond, its mud very deep, and in a long drought without rain the water dried up and the ground cracked.” Conversely, for one whose “mind gives rise to faith and delight in nirvāṇa as the ceasing of the existing body and does not think of the existing body,” “it is as if a man took hold of a branch with a clean, dry hand; his hand would not stick to the tree. Why? Because his hand is clean”; and his pond is one where “water flows in from the four directions and frequent rains fall, water always enters the pond, it overflows, the foul matter flows out, and the pond is clean”; and its fruit is that “even at the end of his life he does not come back to be born in this realm.” Two pairs, four similes, saying one thing: the samādhi is the same samādhi, the realization in the body the same realization; what differs is only whether the mind clings to or has faith and delight in the ceasing of the existing body. In the contrasting passage the text reads “his mind gives rise to faith and delight in nirvāṇa as the ceasing of consciousness,” “existing body” in the first passage and “consciousness” in the second, and both are recorded as the text has them. The discourse does not close with ‘cultivate samādhi’ but with “therefore, bhikṣus, strive with diligence to break through ignorance”—twice. What is to be broken through is ignorance, not any insufficiency of samādhi.

III. The Pure Sign and Seclusion (Discourse 493)

Discourse 493 teaches the self-examination of a forest-dwelling bhikṣu: “a forest-dwelling bhikṣu, in an open place, a wood, or under a tree, should train thus, examining and reflecting inwardly: ‘Am I aware of thoughts of desire in my mind?’” The method is not merely to ask oneself; it is “in regard to an object, or in regard to a pure sign, if desire arises, this goes against seclusion”—to test the mind with a pure sign, and if desire arises, to know that one is not secluded. The simile: “it is as if a man rowed a boat upstream with all his strength; when his body grew a little tired, the boat would turn back and drift downstream.” Rowing upstream is the practice; drifting downstream is being carried off by desire; when the strength is small, one turns back. Such a bhikṣu “cultivates an inferior means and does not attain purity, and so is carried off again by desire, does not attain the power of the Dharma, his mind is not still, and he does not unify his mind,” and therefore “does not dare to declare for himself that he is free from desire and liberated from the five strands of sense pleasure.” Conversely, one who, in regard to the pure sign, “perceives that his mind is secluded from it and inclines, flows, and pours towards seclusion” is like “a bird’s feather which, entering fire, curls up and cannot be spread”—the mind towards the pure sign is like the feather towards fire, curling of itself and not spreading. Such a bhikṣu “attains the stillness of the Dharma, calm, rest, and happiness, pure and unified in mind,” and “is able to declare for himself that he is free from desire and liberated from the five strands of sense pleasure.” Both passages close on “declaring for oneself”: whether one is free from desire is not said by another but known by testing one’s own mind with a pure sign. Discourse 490 says in verse “tames the mind of craving and desire”; this discourse tells how it is tested.

IV. The Withered Tree and the Elements (Discourse 494)

The setting of 494 differs from the other discourses: on his way to beg for food Śāriputra “saw by the roadside a great withered tree, spread his sitting-mat under it, sat upright with his body composed, and said to the bhikṣus.” What he says takes this very tree as its matter: “if a bhikṣu cultivates meditative reflection, attains supernormal power, and gains mastery of mind, and wishes this withered tree to become earth, it at once becomes earth. Why? Because in this withered tree there is the earth element.” That supernormal power is possible lies not in the mind’s creating things but in the fact that “in the withered tree there is the earth element”—resolving in mind that it is earth, it becomes earth; there is the water element in the tree, so it can become water; “because that withered tree has the various elements,” it can become fire, wind, gold, silver, “all accomplished without difference.” The principle of supernormal power is bound to the elements: the elements are already present in things, and one who has gained mastery in meditative reflection can make one element manifest. The discourse closes: “the range of a bhikṣu’s meditative reflection and supernormal power is inconceivable. Therefore, bhikṣus, strive in meditative reflection and train in the supernormal powers.” Its range is inconceivable; what can be trained in is meditative reflection.

V. What One Who Breaks the Precepts and One Who Keeps Them Relies On (Discourse 495)

Discourse 495 teaches the precepts as the root of a chain: “for one who breaks the precepts, because of the broken precepts, that on which he relies declines, and his mind does not dwell in delight; not dwelling in delight, he loses gladness, rest, happiness, the stillness of samādhi, knowing and seeing as it really is, weariness, freedom from desire, and liberation, and can never attain nirvāṇa without remainder.” The links of the chain from the precepts to nirvāṇa are, in order: the precepts, what one relies on, dwelling in delight, gladness, rest, happiness, the stillness of samādhi, knowing and seeing as it really is, weariness, freedom from desire, liberation, nirvāṇa; when one link is lost, all below it are lost. The simile is “as when the root of a tree is damaged, the branches, leaves, flowers, and fruit do not come to be.” For one who keeps the precepts it is the reverse: “a bhikṣu who keeps the precepts is complete in the root, complete in what he relies on, and his mind attains faith and delight; attaining faith and delight, his mind attains joy, rest, happiness, the stillness of samādhi, knowing and seeing as it really is, weariness, freedom from desire, and liberation; attaining liberation, he can swiftly attain nirvāṇa without remainder,” “as when the root of a tree is undamaged, the branches, leaves, flowers, and fruit all come to be.” The precepts are not nirvāṇa; they are the root of nirvāṇa; when what one relies on is complete, the chain can grow. Discourse 490 answers every question with the eightfold noble path; this discourse shows how the one link of right speech, right action, and right livelihood within that path is bound to the rest.

VI. Disputes and Self-Examination (Discourse 496)

Discourse 496 teaches on disputes within the Saṅgha: “if disputes arise among the bhikṣus and they accuse one another, there is the bhikṣu who has committed the offence and the bhikṣu who charges him.” If the two “do not rely on right reflection and examine themselves,” then “for a long night they are obstinate, the dispute grows, they oppose one another, their resentment deepens, and the offence that arose cannot be stilled by the right Dharma and discipline”; if “both rely on right reflection, examine themselves, and reproach themselves,” the dispute can be stilled. The method of self-examination: the one who committed the offence should think, “I was not right, I was not proper, I should not have committed the offence and let him see me; had I not committed this offence, he would not have seen it; because he saw my offence and, displeased, blamed me, he charged me, and that is all,” and say to himself, “now I know for myself, as one pays one’s own tax.” The one who charges should think, “that elder bhikṣu committed an improper offence and let me see it; had he not committed this improper offence, I would not have seen it. I saw his offence and, displeased, charged him,” and “from this day I shall put it away myself, as one pays one’s own tax.” The two men’s self-examination has one pattern: an offence becomes a dispute because he saw me and I saw him; when each examines why he was seen and why he saw, the dispute has nowhere to arise. “As one pays one’s own tax” occurs twice—one who pays tax knows for himself what is due and pays it, and does not take it as something seized by another. This is Śāriputra teaching the Saṅgha self-examination; in the next discourse he goes to the Buddha and asks about the method of charging an offence.

VII. The Five Dharmas for Charging an Offence (Discourse 497)

Discourse 497 is one of the two discourses in the fascicle spoken by the Buddha, yet its form is still a disciple asking and the World-Honored One answering, eleven times. Śāriputra first asks about the one who charges: “if a bhikṣu who charges an offence wishes to charge another with an offence, with his mind settled, by how many dharmas may he charge another with an offence?” The World-Honored One answers with five: “truly, not falsely; timely, not untimely; for benefit, not for harm; gently, not harshly; with a mind of loving-kindness, not with anger.” These five dharmas are the axis of the whole discourse: the one charged also settles his own mind by these five, thinking, “where does he get this? let it be true, not false; let it be timely, not untimely; let it be for benefit, not for harm; gently, not harshly; with loving-kindness, not with anger”; one who charges falsely is made to repent by these five, “and this also makes bhikṣus of the future not charge others falsely with offences”; one charged falsely by these five “truly has no remorse”; one who charges truly is kept from remorse by these five, “and this also makes bhikṣus of the future who charge truly have no remorse”; one charged truly is told by these five, “do not be remorseful”; and one charged truly who is angry is by these five “brought to awaken from his resentment.” One set of five dharmas, applied to the one who charges and the one charged, to true and false, to repentance and freedom from remorse, to resentment and awakening—seven uses in all. Not one of the five is ‘the gravity of the offence’: whether a charge is rightly made lies not in the offence charged but in the truth, timeliness, benefit, gentleness, and loving-kindness of the charging.

Śāriputra then recounts what he himself holds to: “whether one charges me truly or falsely, towards both I shall settle my own mind. If it is true, I shall know it for myself; if it is false, I shall clear myself, saying, ‘This is not true; I know for myself that there is no such thing in me.’” What he relies on is the World-Honored One’s discourse of the simile of the saw: “if robbers came and seized you and sawed your body apart, and you gave rise to evil thoughts and evil words towards the robbers, you would create your own obstruction”; “towards that person you should give rise to a mind of loving-kindness, without enmity or hatred, and dwell in the full attainment of loving-kindness towards the realms of the four directions”—“if the pain of being sawn apart is to be borne, how much more a small pain, a small slander?” To be angry at being charged is to be unable to bear a small slander; Śāriputra measures it by the teaching of the saw. After forbearance comes what is sought: “the gain of an ascetic, the wish of an ascetic, is to wish to cut off unwholesome dharmas and to cultivate wholesome dharmas,” “these unwholesome dharmas should be cut off and the wholesome dharmas cultivated; with diligent effort, guarding oneself well, binding one’s thoughts in reflection, and acting without heedlessness—thus should one train.” The last two questions are the World-Honored One’s counter-questions: “what kind of bhikṣu, hearing his offence charged, gives rise to anger?” Śāriputra answers: one who is “crooked and deceitful, false and faithless, without shame or scruple, lazy and forgetful, unconcentrated and of evil wisdom, slack, opposed to seclusion, without respect for the precepts and discipline, heedless of the ascetic life, not diligent in training, not examining himself, gone forth for the sake of a livelihood, not seeking nirvāṇa”; the opposite kind, “hearing me charge his offence, receives it joyfully, bowing his head, as if drinking sweet dew,” “as a woman of the kṣatriya or brāhmaṇa class, bathed and clean, obtaining a fine flower, cherishes it and places it on her head.” The World-Honored One concludes: the former “should not be instructed or spoken with. Why? Because such bhikṣus break the pure conduct”; the latter “should be instructed. Why? Because such a bhikṣu can cultivate pure conduct and can establish himself.” That a charge is rightly made by the five dharmas is the question at the start of the discourse; whether one is to be instructed is judged by whether he can be taught, the question at its end. Two questions, two answers, neither standing in for the other: when the five dharmas are present the charge may be made, and whether the one charged is angry or not separately decides whether he can be taught.

VIII. The Lion’s Roar and the Limits of the Dharma (Discourse 498)

In 498 Śāriputra says to the Buddha: “I have deep faith in the World-Honored One: of all the wisdom of the ascetics and brāhmaṇas of the past, the future, and the present, there is none equal to the World-Honored One’s awakening, let alone surpassing it.” The World-Honored One allows that he “can roar the lion’s roar in the assembly,” and at once asks him: “Can you know with certainty the higher precepts of the Fully and Perfectly Awakened Ones of the past?” “And their Dharma, their wisdom, their knowledge, their liberation, their dwelling?” The questions range over the three times; in the passage on the Buddhas of the past he first asks about the higher precepts and then asks again about the Dharma, wisdom, knowledge, liberation, and dwelling, four questions in all, and four times Śāriputra answers “I do not know.” The World-Honored One then asks: “if you do not know the dharmas in the minds of the Buddhas, the World-Honored Ones, of the past, the future, and the present, how can you praise them so and roar the lion’s roar in the great assembly?” Śāriputra’s answer separates mind from Dharma: “I cannot know the limits of the minds of the Buddhas, the World-Honored Ones, of the past, the future, and the present; but I can know the limits of the Dharma of the Buddhas, the World-Honored Ones.” How he can know the limits of the Dharma: “I have heard the World-Honored One teach the Dharma, ever deeper, ever better, ever higher, ever subtler,” “I have heard the World-Honored One teach the Dharma: knowing one dharma, I cut off one dharma; knowing one dharma, I realize one dharma; knowing one dharma, I cultivate one dharma; reaching the end of the Dharma, I attain pure faith in the teacher, and my mind is purified.” The simile is the gatekeeper: “it is as if a king had a frontier city, its walls square and straight all round, firm and solid, with only one door and no second door, and set a gatekeeper there; the people going in and out all pass through this door; and the gatekeeper, though he does not know how many people there are, knows that the people pass only through this door and nowhere else.” The gatekeeper does not know the number of people, but he knows that there is only one door; Śāriputra does not know the minds of the Buddhas, but he knows that the path of the Buddhas is only one—“they have all cut off the five hindrances, which afflict the mind, weaken the power of wisdom, belong to the side of obstruction, and do not lead to nirvāṇa; they dwell in the four foundations of mindfulness, cultivate the seven factors of awakening, and attain unsurpassed, right and perfect awakening”—and so it is in all three times. The World-Honored One confirms it: “So it is, so it is. Śāriputra, the Buddhas of the past, the future, and the present have all cut off the five hindrances.” That faith is not blind faith lies not in knowing the Buddha’s mind but in knowing the door of the Dharma. This discourse answers to 490: to every question Yanfuche receives the one answer “it is the eightfold noble path,” and before the World-Honored One, too, Śāriputra knows only one door.

IX. Devadatta’s Teaching and Cultivating the Mind Well (Discourse 499)

Discourse 499 is a disciple questioning a disciple: the bhikṣu Yuezi, “a disciple of Devadatta,” comes to Śāriputra. Śāriputra asks: “Does the bhikṣu Devadatta teach the Dharma to the bhikṣus?” “How does Devadatta teach the Dharma?” Yuezi answers with his teacher’s words: “a bhikṣu who cultivates the mind in the dharma of the mind is a bhikṣu able to declare for himself,” and what he declares is “I am free from desire, liberated from the five strands of sense pleasure.” Śāriputra does not rebuke him for being wrong; he asks about what is not taught: “why does your Devadatta not teach the Dharma, saying: ‘A bhikṣu who cultivates the mind well in the dharma of the mind, with a mind free from desire, a mind free of hatred, a mind free of delusion, attaining the dharma without greed, without hatred, without delusion, the dharma that does not turn back to desire existence, form existence, or formless existence—that bhikṣu is able to declare for himself: “My birth is ended, the pure conduct is established, what was to be done is done, I know for myself that there is no further existence”’?” Yuezi answers, “He cannot.” The two teachings differ in three places: first, cultivating the mind and cultivating the mind well; second, freedom from desire, and freedom from desire, hatred, and delusion all three, attaining the three dharmas without greed, without hatred, without delusion; third, what is declared—“I am free from desire, liberated from the five strands of sense pleasure” and ‘My birth is ended … I know for myself that there is no further existence.’ The former is freedom from the five sense pleasures; the latter is not turning back to the three existences; the former declaration may be the “free from desire and liberated from the five strands of sense pleasure” spoken of in 493, while the latter is the declaration of the ending of outflows. Śāriputra then teaches the bhikṣus four similes for one who cultivates the mind well: “it is as if near a village there were a great mountain of rock, unbroken, undamaged, unpierced, thick and dense; even if a wind came from the east it could not move it, nor could it pass through to the west”; “it is as if an indra-pillar of copper and iron and a copper pillar were set deep in the ground, packed firm; the winds of the four directions could not topple it”; “it is as if a stone pillar sixteen cubits long were set eight cubits into the ground; the winds of the four directions could not topple it”; “it is as fire burns what is unburnt, and what is burnt is not burnt again.” The first three similes speak of not being moved; the last speaks of not returning—one who has attained concentration may still think longingly of the existing body, as in 492; what is burnt and not burnt again is what “does not turn back.”

X. The Four Ways of Eating and Pure Livelihood (Discourse 500)

Discourse 500 is a wanderer nun of another sect questioning Śāriputra. Śāriputra, having begged for food, “was eating under a tree,” and the wanderer nun Jingkou asked, “Ascetic, are you eating?” He answered, “I am eating”; she asked again whether he ate with the mouth downward, with the mouth upward, facing the four directions, facing the four intermediate directions, and to all four he answered, “No, sister.” The nun repeated her questions and asked their meaning. Śāriputra explains the four ways of eating: “all those ascetics and brāhmaṇas who are skilled in affairs and skilled in crooked methods and seek food by wrong livelihood—such ascetics and brāhmaṇas eat with the mouth downward”; those who “observe the stars and calendars and seek food by wrong livelihood” eat with the mouth upward; those who “run errands for others and seek food by wrong livelihood” eat facing the four directions; those who “treat all kinds of illness by medical means and seek food by wrong livelihood” eat facing the four intermediate directions. All four are seeking food by wrong livelihood; they differ only in their craft. Śāriputra says of himself: “I do not fall into these four kinds of wrong livelihood in seeking food. Rather, sister, I seek food only by the Dharma and so sustain myself; therefore I say that I do not eat in the four ways.” Discourse 490 lists the eightfold noble path, which includes right livelihood; this discourse shows what right livelihood is in practice: not by affairs, not by calendars, not by errands, not by medicine, but only by the Dharma. The wanderer nun, hearing it, “rejoiced and approved and left,” and in the streets and at the crossroads of Rājagṛha she praised: “the ascetic sons of the Śākyans sustain themselves by pure livelihood, by the purest livelihood; whoever wishes to give should give to the ascetic sons of the Śākyans; whoever wishes to make merit should make merit with the ascetic sons of the Śākyans.” The discourse closes in narrative: the wanderers of other sects heard her praise and “out of jealousy killed that wanderer nun Jingkou; after her death she was born in the Tuṣita heaven, because of the faith she had given rise to towards the venerable Śāriputra.” There is no closing “rejoiced and practiced accordingly”; what closes it is a wanderer nun born in heaven because of faith.

XI. The Noble Silence and the Noble Dwelling (Discourses 501 and 502)

Discourses 501 and 502 are Mahāmaudgalyāyana addressing the bhikṣus, recounting how on Vulture Peak the World-Honored One came three times to teach him; the two discourses have one form. What 501 dwells on is the noble silence: “if a bhikṣu stills initial and sustained thought, inwardly pure and unified in mind, and dwells in the full accomplishment of the second dhyāna, the samādhi without initial and sustained thought that gives rise to joy and happiness, this is called the noble silence.” Maudgalyāyana dwelt in it, and “having dwelt in it much, a mind with initial and sustained thought arose again”; “then the World-Honored One, knowing the thought in my mind, vanished from the Bamboo Grove monastery and appeared before me on Vulture Peak, and said to me: ‘Maudgalyāyana, you should keep the noble silence; do not be heedless.’” And so a second and a third time. What 502 dwells on is the noble dwelling: “if a bhikṣu does not attend to any sign, and in the signless attainment of mind dwells in its full accomplishment realized in the body, this is called the noble dwelling”; having dwelt in it much, “a mind that takes up signs arose,” and the World-Honored One, “in the time it takes a strong man to bend or stretch his arm, by his supernormal power vanished from the Bamboo Grove monastery and appeared before me on Vulture Peak,” teaching him, “you should dwell in the noble dwelling; do not be heedless,” and so up to a third time. The concentration in the two discourses differs, and what falls away differs—in one, initial and sustained thought arise again; in the other, a mind that takes up signs arises—but the World-Honored One’s teaching is the same one sentence: do not be heedless. Maudgalyāyana says of himself: “if it is rightly said that a son of the Buddha is born from the Buddha’s mouth, born from the Dharma by transformation, and has obtained a share of the Buddha’s Dharma, then I am that one,” “with little effort I attained dhyāna, liberation, samādhi, and attainment. It is as with the eldest son of a wheel-turning king: though not yet anointed, he has already obtained the royal law, and without striving he can obtain the five strands of sense pleasure”; in 502 the same simile reads “it is as with the son of a wheel-turning king: though not yet anointed, he has already obtained the royal law,” without “eldest,” and both are recorded as the text has them. Why he calls himself a son of the Buddha lies not in supernormal power but in this: “in a single day the World-Honored One by his supernormal power came three times to where I was, instructed me three times, and established me in the standing of a great man.” Among the discourses spoken by the disciples, these two are a disciple recounting the teacher’s teaching; what is recounted is also the disciple’s falling away and the teacher’s support.

XII. Diligent Effort and the Second Companion (Discourse 503)

Discourse 503 is a night when Śāriputra, Mahāmaudgalyāyana, and Ānanda shared one room. In the last watch Śāriputra said to Maudgalyāyana: “Wonderful, venerable Maudgalyāyana! Tonight you dwelt in the attainment of quiescence,” “I did not hear the sound of your breathing at all”—before this sentence the text reads “the venerable Maudgalyāyana heard the venerable Śāriputra say to the venerable Maudgalyāyana,” with the subject stated twice, and from the context this sentence is Śāriputra’s. Maudgalyāyana answers: “This was not the attainment of quiescence; I dwelt only in a coarse attainment. Venerable Śāriputra, tonight I was speaking with the World-Honored One.” Śāriputra asks: the World-Honored One is in Śrāvastī, “very far from here; how did you speak together?” Did you go by supernormal power, or did the World-Honored One come by supernormal power? Maudgalyāyana answers: “I did not go to the World-Honored One by supernormal power, nor did the World-Honored One come to me by supernormal power; but I heard him here in Rājagṛha from Śrāvastī, because the World-Honored One and I have both attained the divine eye and the divine ear.” What he asked about was diligent effort, and the World-Honored One answered: “if a bhikṣu by day walks or sits and purifies his mind by the unobstructed dharmas; in the first watch of the night sits or walks and purifies his mind by the unobstructed dharmas; in the middle watch goes out of his room and washes his feet, returns to his room, lies down on his right side with foot resting on foot, binds his thoughts to the perception of light, mindful and clearly knowing, and keeps in mind the perception of rising; in the last watch wakes slowly and rises slowly, sits or walks, and purifies his mind by the unobstructed dharmas—Maudgalyāyana, this is called a bhikṣu’s diligent effort.” Diligent effort is not never lying down; it is that each of the four periods—day, first watch, middle watch, last watch—has its own practice, and even when lying down one “binds one’s thoughts to the perception of light, mindful and clearly knowing.” Maudgalyāyana calls his own dwelling “a coarse attainment,” and what he gained was speaking with the World-Honored One; Śāriputra then praises him: “you, Mahāmaudgalyāyana, are truly of great supernormal power, of great merit and power, sitting at ease; and I too am of great power, in that I am together with you,” “it is as when someone takes a small stone and throws it onto a great mountain: the mountain and the stone are the same in colour and taste; so too am I, who am together with the venerable one of great power and great virtue, seated on the same seat.” Maudgalyāyana answers him with the same simile: “that I now sit on the same seat with the venerable Śāriputra, of great wisdom and great virtue, is as when a small stone is thrown onto a great mountain and takes on the same colour; so too am I, seated on the same seat with the venerable Śāriputra of great wisdom, as his second companion.” Śāriputra says further, “all who live the pure conduct should bear him on their heads,” and “all who meet the venerable Maudgalyāyana, keep company with him, and revere and make offerings to him gain great benefit.” Each takes himself for the small stone and the other for the great mountain; one is called great in supernormal power, the other great in wisdom. The discourse closes with “then the two venerables, having finished their discussion, each rose from his seat and left”—the same sentence as the close of 490. The fascicle begins with two venerables in discussion and ends with two venerables in discussion.

XIII. How to Read the Fascicle

This fascicle can be read in three ways. The first reading is of the body of what the disciples speak: twelve discourses without the Buddha speaking in person, two spoken by the Buddha but arising from a disciple’s question. Of what Śāriputra speaks, some is spoken to wanderers (490, 500), some to the bhikṣus (492 to 496, 499), some as questions put to the Buddha (497, 498); what Maudgalyāyana speaks is a recounting of the teacher’s teaching (501, 502); and once the two speak together (503). What the disciples speak is not another kind of Dharma; it is the same Dharma spoken from the disciples’ mouths, and what it relies on is still the World-Honored One—497 relies on the discourse of the simile of the saw, 498 makes clear by the simile of the gatekeeper that only one door is known, 501 and 502 recount the World-Honored One’s three teachings, 503 recounts the World-Honored One’s answer.

The second reading is of “declaring for oneself.” The bhikṣu of 493 tests his mind with a pure sign, and if he is not secluded he “does not dare to declare for himself,” and if he has he “is able to declare for himself”; the difference in 499 lies in what one “is able to declare for oneself”; in 490 relief and coolness are each divided into “cut off” and “already cut off, already known.” What the disciples speak says much of knowing for oneself: the fruit is not declared by another but known by oneself. In 498 Śāriputra does not know the minds of the Buddhas but knows the limits of the Dharma—this too is knowing for oneself the bounds of what one knows.

The third reading is of where the fascicle returns. Every question in 490 returns to the eightfold noble path; 495 teaches the precepts as the root; 496 and 497 teach right reflection and the five dharmas in charging an offence within the Saṅgha; 500 teaches right livelihood; 501 to 503 teach concentration and effort. Precepts, livelihood, reflection, concentration, effort, view—all are limbs of the eightfold noble path. Yanfuche asks several dozen names, Śāriputra answers several dozen meanings, and the path is one; the gatekeeper does not know the number of people, but knows that the door is one. In the fascicle spoken by the disciples, what is spoken is the door.

Carrying Forward — The Compendium of Topics on Who Speaks

At its head this fascicle marks itself as “the Recitation Spoken by the Disciples, Part Four.” The Topics of the Sūtras in the Compendium of Topics has no item-by-item gloss on this part. What it relies on is only the treatise’s own statement: the Compendium of Topics says that the Saṃyukta Āgama “proclaims the connected discourses spoken by the Tathāgata and by the disciples,” and says that all the connected discourses are summed up under three aspects, “first, the one who speaks; second, what is spoken; third, for whom it is spoken,” and that “the Tathāgata, or the Tathāgata’s disciples, are the ones who speak. As with what is spoken by the disciples, so with the portion spoken by the Buddha.” The sūtra names the recitation “spoken by the disciples”; the treatise gathers it under “the one who speaks.” What divides what is spoken by the disciples from what is spoken by the Buddha is the person who speaks, not the Dharma that is spoken. In the fourteen discourses of this fascicle the speaker is the venerable Śāriputra or the venerable Mahāmaudgalyāyana, and the other party is a wanderer of another sect (490, Śāriputra answering), a wanderer nun of another sect (500, Śāriputra answering), or a disciple of Devadatta (499, Śāriputra asking and Yuezi answering), so that all is spoken by the Tathāgata’s disciples; and 497 and 498, spoken by the World-Honored One, also arise from a disciple’s question. Since the Compendium of Topics has no item-by-item gloss, the exposition of this fascicle does not cite the treatise’s headings; it takes only this statement as the anchor on which it relies.

“Bhikṣus! It is as Mahāmaudgalyāyana saw, truly and without difference; you should bear it in mind.” The thirty-three discourses of this fascicle are the second fascicle of what is spoken by the disciples, carried on from the recitation title of fascicle eighteen. Of the thirty-three, the speaker is the venerable Mahāmaudgalyāyana in thirty-one and the venerable Aniruddha in two; and yet the World-Honored One also teaches in his own voice in twenty-eight: in 506 he answers Mahāmaudgalyāyana’s question, and in the twenty-seven discourses 508 to 534 he explains the past deeds behind what Mahāmaudgalyāyana saw on the road. The disciple sees, the World-Honored One explains: in a fascicle spoken by the disciples the speaker is a disciple, and the truth of what is spoken is sealed by the World-Honored One. The fascicle has four matters: Mahāmaudgalyāyana’s two exchanges with Śakra (504 and 505); the World-Honored One’s summer retreat in the heaven of the Thirty-three and the gods’ declaring for themselves (506 and 507); the twenty-seven sights on the almsround of Mahāmaudgalyāyana and Lakṣaṇa (508 to 534); and the two questions on the four foundations of mindfulness between Mahāmaudgalyāyana and Aniruddha (535 and 536). What is spoken in the four matters differs, but one meaning runs through them: the disciple’s seeing is the seeing of one “abiding in true vision, true knowledge, true meaning, and true Dharma”; what the disciples speak is only what they have seen.

I. The Stain of Stinginess and the Worthy Among Givers (Discourse 504)

In 504 Śakra comes to Mahāmaudgalyāyana by night and speaks a verse: “One who can subdue the stain of stinginess, a great one who gives at the proper time, is called the worthy among givers, and sees excellence in the life to come.” Mahāmaudgalyāyana does not accept the verse but questions it: “Kauśika! What is it to tame the stain of stinginess and to see excellence, that you speak” this verse? In his question Mahāmaudgalyāyana repeats the verse with slight differences in wording: where Śakra says “one who can subdue the stain of stinginess,” Mahāmaudgalyāyana repeats “one who can tame the stain of stinginess,” and where Śakra says “is called the worthy among givers,” Mahāmaudgalyāyana repeats “is then the worthy among givers.” Śakra answers with two things. One is the fruit of being bowed to: “the foremost brāhmaṇa clans, the foremost kṣatriya clans, the foremost householder clans, the foremost of the Four Kings’ heaven, the foremost of the Thirty-three, bow their heads in reverence”—Śakra says of himself that he is bowed to by the five foremost, and “seeing this fruit, I spoke this verse.” The other is the fruit of the palace: from all that the sun and moon circle, “up to a thousand worlds, a thousand moons and a thousand suns, a thousand Sumeru kings of mountains, a thousand Pūrvavidehas, a thousand Uttarakurus, a thousand Aparagodānīyas, a thousand Jambudvīpas,” up to the thousand Brahmā heavens, “is called the small chiliocosm. In this small chiliocosm there is no palace equal to the Vijayanta palace,” “Vijayanta has a hundred and one towers, each tower with seven storeys, each storey with seven rooms, each room with seven queens, each queen with seven attendant maidens,” and “I see that because stinginess was tamed there is this wonderful fruit, and so I spoke this verse.” The verse says the worthy among givers “sees excellence in the life to come”; the excellence Śakra sees is the fruit in his own person. Mahāmaudgalyāyana grants it: “Good, good, Kauśika! You are able to see this excellent and wonderful fruit, and so you speak this verse.” The discourse has no word of the World-Honored One and no closing formula, only “rejoiced and rejoiced, and suddenly vanished.” What is spoken is the fruit of giving; the speaker is a god, and the one who seals it is a disciple.

II. The Palace and Weariness (Discourse 505)

In 505 Mahāmaudgalyāyana himself goes to the heaven of the Thirty-three. His reason for going is: “Once, in the stone cave of Mount Jiege, Śakra Devānām Indra asked the World-Honored One the meaning of liberation by the ending of craving, and the World-Honored One explained it for him; having heard it he rejoiced, and seemed to wish to ask further about its meaning. I shall now go and ask him the intent of his rejoicing.” His question is: “Did you rejoice at hearing the teaching? Or did you rejoice because you wished to ask further?” Śakra’s answer does not answer the question: “We of the Thirty-three are much attached to the pleasure of heedlessness; sometimes we remember former matters, and sometimes we do not,” and he asks Mahāmaudgalyāyana to go and ask the World-Honored One, “but here I have a fine palace, newly completed and not long finished; you may go in and look at it.” The meaning of liberation by the ending of craving Śakra sometimes remembers and sometimes does not; what he can show is the new palace. Mahāmaudgalyāyana goes in to look and answers his praise: “Kauśika! It is because you earlier cultivated good dharmas, by the causes and conditions of merit, that this wonderful fruit has come to be”; “Śakra praised himself three times,” and Mahāmaudgalyāyana “likewise answered two and three times.” In 504 Śakra takes the palace as proof of the fruit of giving, and Mahāmaudgalyāyana grants it; in this discourse Śakra praises himself by the palace, Mahāmaudgalyāyana answers three times with the causes and conditions of merit, and then thinks: “Now this Śakra is extremely heedless, dwelling attached to the divine realm, praising this palace; I shall make weariness arise in his mind”—“with one toe he flicked the palace, and made it shake throughout.” What is flicked is the palace; what is made to arise is weariness. The goddesses ask in alarm, “Is this Kauśika’s teacher, who has such great power of merit?” Śakra answers: “This is not my teacher. This is the teacher’s disciple Mahāmaudgalyāyana, pure in pure conduct, of great virtue and great power.” The discourse ends on the goddesses’ words: “If there is a fellow student of such pure conduct, great virtue, and great power, what must the virtue and power of the teacher be?” No word of the Buddha, no closing formula. The disciple’s power lets the gods know that there is a teacher; in this discourse what the disciple speaks is one toe.

III. They Come as They Wish and Go as They Wish (Discourse 506)

In 506 the World-Honored One is in the heaven of the Thirty-three, where he “spent the summer retreat, teaching the Dharma for his mother and the Thirty-three,” and Mahāmaudgalyāyana spends the retreat in the Jeta Grove, Anāthapiṇḍada’s Park. The four assemblies come to Mahāmaudgalyāyana twice: once to ask where the World-Honored One is keeping the retreat, once, after the three months of the retreat, having heard Mahāmaudgalyāyana “teach the Dharma in various ways, instructing, teaching, illumining, and gladdening,” to ask him to go and pay their respects, “may the World-Honored One return to Jambudvīpa, out of compassion”; Mahāmaudgalyāyana “silently consented.” Mahāmaudgalyāyana reaches the heaven of the Thirty-three, sees the World-Honored One teaching the Dharma to the gods, and thinks it “no different from an assembly in Jambudvīpa”; the World-Honored One knows his thought and says: “Mahāmaudgalyāyana! It is not by their own power. When I wish to teach the Dharma to the gods, they gather at once; when I wish them to go, they go back at once; they come as they wish and go as they wish.” Of the gathering of the gods the World-Honored One says himself, “not by their own power”; their coming and their going follow the World-Honored One’s mind. Mahāmaudgalyāyana asks whether these gods “once heard the Dharma taught from the Buddha, the World-Honored One, attained unbreakable purity, and at the breaking up of the body at death came to be born here?” The Buddha answers “So it is, so it is”: among the gods who gather “there are those who in former lives heard the Dharma, attained unbreakable purity in the Buddha, unbreakable purity in the Dharma and the Saṅgha, and accomplishment in the noble precepts, and at the breaking up of the body at death came to be born here.” The same sentence Śakra repeats, and a certain bhikṣu repeats—and after the three tellings, “a god rose from his seat, arranged his robes, bared his right shoulder, joined his palms and said to the Buddha”: “World-Honored One! I too have accomplished unbreakable purity in the Buddha, and so came to be born here,” and the other gods each say they attained unbreakable purity in the Dharma, unbreakable purity in the Saṅgha, or accomplishment in the noble precepts; “thus countless thousands of gods, before the World-Honored One, each declared for themselves the attainment of the dharma of stream-entry, and all vanished before the Buddha.” The World-Honored One says it, Śakra and a bhikṣu repeat it, the gods declare it for themselves: the meaning of birth in heaven by the four unbreakable purities comes out in this one discourse at three levels. In the last part the World-Honored One promises that in seven days he will “return to Jambudvīpa, to the city of Sāṃkāśya, outside the outer gate, beneath the udumbara tree,” and descends as promised; “gods, nāgas, and spirits, up to the Brahmā gods, all came down with him, and at that time this gathering was named the Place of Descent from the Heavens.” The discourse ends by naming this one event, with no closing formula. In this discourse what the disciple speaks is a carried message: the request of the four assemblies goes up through Mahāmaudgalyāyana, and the World-Honored One’s appointed day comes down through Mahāmaudgalyāyana.

IV. Forty Gods Declare for Themselves (Discourse 507)

Discourse 507 is a continuation of the pattern of 506 without the World-Honored One: forty gods come to Mahāmaudgalyāyana, and Mahāmaudgalyāyana says to them: “Good, gods! You are accomplished in unbreakable purity in the Buddha, accomplished in unbreakable purity in the Dharma and the Saṅgha.” The gods answer: “We attained unbreakable purity in the Buddha, unbreakable purity in the Dharma and the Saṅgha, and accomplishment in the noble precepts, and so were born in heaven,” and some each name one purity; “the forty gods, before the venerable Mahāmaudgalyāyana, each declared for themselves the attainment of the fruit of stream-entry, and vanished.” In 506 the gods declare for themselves before the World-Honored One; in this discourse they declare for themselves before Mahāmaudgalyāyana. The discourse closes with an abbreviation: “As with the forty gods, so four hundred, eight hundred, ten thousand gods spoke likewise.” To declare for oneself is to speak oneself of what one has attained; the declaration before a disciple and the declaration before the Buddha declare the same fruit.

V. The Smile and True Vision (Discourses 508, 509, and 510)

The twenty-seven discourses 508 to 534 share one pattern: Mahāmaudgalyāyana and Lakṣaṇa go on almsround, and on the road he “had a thought in mind, and smiled gladly”; Lakṣaṇa asks, “When the Buddha or a disciple of the Buddha smiles gladly, it is not without cause; venerable one, for what cause and what reason did you smile today?” Mahāmaudgalyāyana answers, “The question is untimely. Let us first enter Rājagṛha for alms, and when we have returned before the World-Honored One, ask this matter; that will be a timely question, and I shall tell you”; back before the Buddha, Lakṣaṇa asks again, and only then does Mahāmaudgalyāyana tell what he saw; the World-Honored One tells the bhikṣus and explains the past deed. What is seen in 508 is “a being, its body like a tower, weeping and wailing, in grief, sorrow, and pain, moving through the air”; in 509, “sinews and bones joined together, the whole body impure, foul and loathsome, with crows, kites, eagles, vultures, jackals, and hungry dogs following and snatching at it to eat”; in 510, “the whole body without skin, a single lump of flesh, moving through the air.” Of Mahāmaudgalyāyana’s smile the discourse does not explain the feeling; what it records is that he sees a being “receiving such a body and having such great grief, sorrow, and suffering,” and thinks of it; the reason he does not speak on the road but must speak before the World-Honored One is that he waits for the seal.

The World-Honored One’s seal is the heart of each discourse: “Good, good! Among my śrāvakas, one abiding in true vision, true knowledge, true meaning, and true Dharma, with decisive penetration, sees this being. I too see this being, and the reason I do not speak of it is for fear that people would not believe. Why? If there are those who do not believe what the Tathāgata says, they are foolish people who suffer through the long night.” What the disciple sees is the seeing of true vision and true knowledge; the World-Honored One also sees it, and does not speak—and his not speaking is not that he does not see, but that he fears people would not believe and would suffer. The disciple speaks it, the World-Honored One seals it, and then what was seen can be believed. The World-Honored One then tells its cause: “In a past age, that being with a huge body was in this Rājagṛha, a cattle-butcher’s son; because of butchering cattle he fell into hell for hundreds of thousands of years, and having come out of hell, with the remaining retribution for butchering cattle, he received such a body, and constantly suffers such grief, sorrow, affliction, and pain”; in 509 he was “a cattle-butcher’s apprentice, because of the offence of butchering cattle,” and in 510 “a sheep-butcher, because of this offence.” Hell is already left behind, but the remaining retribution is still there, so “now he receives this body, and because of the remaining retribution continues to suffer this pain.” Each discourse closes with the World-Honored One’s words: “It is as the venerable Mahāmaudgalyāyana saw, without difference; you should bear it in mind.” What is borne in mind is what the disciple saw, and it is the World-Honored One’s one phrase “without difference” that makes it something to be borne.

VI. What Was Seen on the Road at Rājagṛha (Discourses 511 to 522)

From 511 on, twelve discourses carry the full pattern of 508 by “and so on,” and what remains is only the form of the being and the past deed. The forms of the beings, in order, are: in 511, “the whole body without skin, shaped like dried meat”; in 512, “the whole body without skin, shaped like a lump of flesh”; in 513, “the whole body growing hairs, the hairs like great needles, every needle on fire, burning its own body, the pain piercing to the marrow”; in 514, “the hairs sharp as knives, the hairs on fire, cutting its own body”; in 515, “the hairs like arrows, all on fire, burning its own body”; in 516, “the hairs like spear-blades, the hairs all on fire, burning its own body”; in 517, “a being without a head, with eyes on either side and a mouth on its chest, its body constantly streaming blood, with worms gnawing at it”; in 518, “testicles like a jar, which it squats on when it sits and carries on its shoulder when it walks”; in 519, “wrapping its own body in a net of copper and iron, constantly ablaze, burning its own body”; in 520, “an iron millstone on its head, full of blazing fire, grinding round on its head”; in 521, “its body turning by itself, like a whirlwind”; in 522, “bent over and walking in hiding, as if in terror, its whole body clothed in garments all ablaze, burning its own body.”. The past deeds, in order, are: in 511, “a sheep-butcher’s apprentice”; in 512, “caused her own abortion”; in 513, “an elephant-tamer”; in 514, “delighted in fighting and quarrels, wounding people with knives and swords”; in 515, “was a hunter, shooting birds and beasts”; in 516, “a pig-butcher, spearing herds of pigs”; in 517, “delighted in cutting off people’s heads”; in 518, “was a coppersmith who cheated people with false vessels”; in 519, “a fisherman”; in 520, “a fortune-telling woman, divining by turning the board, deceiving and misleading people to get wealth”; in 521, “a fortune-teller, misleading many people to get wealth”; in 522, “delighted in adultery with others’ wives.”. Form answers deed: hairs like needles, like knives, like arrows, like spears—what the elephant-tamer, the fighter, the hunter, the pig-butcher did to others is done back to their own bodies; the headless one cut off heads, the one with a millstone grinding on its head turned the divining board, the one turning like a whirlwind misled many, the one clothed in fire committed adultery. Four of these discourses have an abbreviation: “As with the elephant-tamer, so with horse-tamers, cattle-tamers, those who delight in slander, and all kinds of people who torment others, likewise”; “As with cutting off people’s heads, so with seizing heads, likewise”; “As with the coppersmith, so with those who cheat with measures and scales, village heads, and market overseers, likewise”; “As with the fisherman, so with bird-catchers and rabbit-netters, likewise.” What one deed covers is not one person only: those who torment, those who seize heads, those who cheat, those who net rabbits, all belong to its kind.

VII. What Was Seen on the Road at Vārāṇasī (Discourses 523 to 525)

In 523 the setting moves to Vārāṇasī, and the full pattern returns: Lakṣaṇa says, “When the World-Honored One or a disciple of the World-Honored One smiles gladly, there must be a cause,” and Mahāmaudgalyāyana answers, “This is an untimely question.” What is seen is “the whole body festering, foul and impure, moving through the air”; Mahāmaudgalyāyana says himself, “I think of beings receiving such a body and suffering such pain—how painful it is!” The past deeds of these three discourses are all tied to the Buddha Kāśyapa: in 523, “a woman who lived by selling her body,” and “there was a bhikṣu who had gone forth under the Buddha Kāśyapa; that woman invited the bhikṣu with an impure mind, and the bhikṣu accepted the invitation with a straightforward mind, not understanding her intent; the woman grew angry and splashed the bhikṣu’s body with impure water”; in 524, “the chief consort of King Zizai, who while sleeping with the king gave rise to anger and poured lamp oil over the king’s body,” whose form is “the whole body ablaze”; in 525, “a brāhmaṇa, the teacher of King Zizai, who out of hatred and envy invited the Saṅgha of the Buddha Kāśyapa’s śrāvakas, and put excrement under the rice to test and trouble the Saṅgha,” whose form is “the whole body smeared with excrement, and eating excrement too.” Impure water, lamp oil, excrement—what was splashed and what was put becomes in turn the body of the one who did it.

VIII. What Was Seen on the Road at Śrāvastī (Discourses 526 to 534)

The nine discourses 526 to 534 are set at Śrāvastī, and the past deeds, except in 531, are all those of people gone forth in the Dharma of the Buddha Kāśyapa. In 526 the bhikṣu in charge of affairs “did not share out the oil at the proper time, waiting until the visiting bhikṣus had left before sharing it out,” and his form is “a great copper cauldron on his head, full of blazing fire, molten copper pouring down over his body”; in 527 the śrāmaṇera guarding the orchard “stole seven fruits and offered them to his preceptor,” and his form is “blazing iron balls going in and out of his body”; in 528 the śrāmaṇera splitting rock sugar “stole and ate what stuck to the blade of the axe,” and his form is “a broad and long tongue, with a sharp adze blazing with fire adzing his tongue”; in 529 the śrāmaṇera carrying rock sugar “stole two [measures] and put them under his armpits,” and his form is “a pair of iron wheels under his two flanks, blazing and spinning, burning his own body”; in 530 the bhikṣu who begged robes and food for the Saṅgha, “what remained after offering to the Saṅgha he used for himself,” and his form is “wrapped in blazing iron leaves, his clothes and bedding all hot iron, blazing with fire, eating hot iron balls,” and this discourse has the abbreviation “As with the bhikṣu, so with the bhikṣuṇī, the śikṣamāṇā, the śrāmaṇera, the śrāmaṇerī, the upāsaka, and the upāsikā, likewise”; in 531 the one who “lived by driving an ox-cart,” whose form is “a blazing iron cart yoked to his neck, pulling out the sinews of his neck”; in 532 the monastery steward who rebuked the bhikṣus, “You may leave this place; it is meagre and cannot provide for you; go each as you please,” so that “the resident bhikṣus all left, and visiting monks, hearing of it, did not come either,” whose form is “a long broad tongue, with blazing iron nails nailing his tongue”; in 533 the monastery steward who “abused the bhikṣus with harsh words and names, saying these are bald wretches, this is a bad wind-blown practice, these are bad robes,” whose form is “the likeness of a bhikṣu, wearing iron leaves for robes, the whole body ablaze, and eating hot iron balls from an iron bowl”; and 534 has no sentence describing the being, but tells the past deed directly: “delighted in raising disputes and litigation, stirring up the Saṅgha, making all kinds of talk so that it was not in harmony; the resident bhikṣus in disgust left, and those who had not come did not come.” Seven fruits, the sugar on the axe-blade, two measures of rock sugar, what remained after the offering—what was stolen is small, and yet “because of this offence he has already suffered immeasurable pain in hell.” The one whose tongue is adzed stole and ate, and the one whose tongue is nailed rebuked and sent away: both forms are tied to the tongue; the one who abused with harsh words and names has for his form iron leaves for robes and hot iron balls from an iron bowl, tied to the body. In the three discourses within the Saṅgha what is received is twice in the tongue and once in the body. In 534 the disharmony has no form told, and its deed alone stands out: the eight discourses before it each have one form and one deed, and the last has only the deed—the twenty-seven sights of one fascicle end with the stirring up of the Saṅgha.

IX. The One-Vehicle Path (Discourse 535)

Discourses 535 and 536 turn to the four foundations of mindfulness, and the speaker is the venerable Aniruddha. Aniruddha, alone, thinks: “There is a one-vehicle path that purifies beings, frees them from sorrow, grief, affliction, and pain, and attains the Dharma of suchness, namely the four foundations of mindfulness. What are the four? The foundation of mindfulness contemplating the body as body, and feelings, mind, and dharmas as dharmas.” His thought has two chains. One is the chain of being secluded from: “One who is secluded from the four foundations of mindfulness is secluded from the noble Dharma; one secluded from the noble Dharma is secluded from the noble path; one secluded from the noble path is secluded from the deathless Dharma; one secluded from the deathless Dharma cannot be freed from birth, old age, sickness, death, sorrow, grief, affliction, and pain.” The other is the chain of faith and delight: “One who has faith and delight in the four foundations of mindfulness has faith and delight in the noble Dharma; one who has faith and delight in the noble Dharma has faith and delight in the noble path; one who has faith and delight in the noble path has faith and delight in the deathless Dharma; one who has faith and delight in the deathless Dharma is freed from birth, old age, sickness, death, sorrow, grief, affliction, and pain.” Mahāmaudgalyāyana knows his thought, comes before him by supernormal power, repeats his thought and asks, “is it so?”; what he repeats differs slightly in wording—the chain of seclusion becomes “One who does not delight in the four foundations of mindfulness does not delight in the noble Dharma; one who does not delight in the noble Dharma does not delight in the noble path; one who does not delight in the noble path does not delight in the deathless Dharma either,” and the chain of faith and delight becomes “One who has faith and delight in the four foundations of mindfulness delights in the noble Dharma; one who delights in the noble Dharma delights in the noble path; one who delights in the noble path attains the deathless Dharma.” Aniruddha’s thought speaks of being secluded; Mahāmaudgalyāyana’s repetition speaks of not delighting; Aniruddha grants it: “So it is, so it is, venerable one!” Mahāmaudgalyāyana then asks: “What is called delighting in the four foundations of mindfulness?” The answer is: “If a bhikṣu, at the foundation of mindfulness contemplating the body as body, has the mind take the body as its object and abide in right mindfulness, tamed, stilled, quiescent, one-pointed and advancing; and likewise at the foundations of mindfulness on feelings, mind, and dharmas, abides in right mindfulness, tamed, stilled, quiescent, one-pointed and advancing.” In the base text this answer is headed “The venerable Mahāmaudgalyāyana:”, while the end of the answer addresses “Venerable Mahāmaudgalyāyana, this is called a bhikṣu delighting in the four foundations of mindfulness”; by context the answerer is Aniruddha, and both are recorded as the base text has them. One who delights in the four foundations of mindfulness does not delight in their name; the mind takes the body as its object and abides in right mindfulness, and is tamed, stilled, quiescent, and one-pointed and advancing. The discourse ends with Mahāmaudgalyāyana “entering a samādhi attainment befitting it” and returning; no word of the Buddha, no closing formula.

X. Cultivating and Much Cultivating the Four Foundations of Mindfulness (Discourse 536)

In 536 Mahāmaudgalyāyana asks again: “What is called cultivating and much cultivating the four foundations of mindfulness?” Aniruddha answers: “If a bhikṣu, toward the inner body, gives rise to the perception of weariness, toward the inner body gives rise to the perception of non-weariness, and to the perception of equanimity toward both weariness and non-weariness, with right mindfulness and right knowledge”; “as with the inner body, so with the outer body and the inner and outer body, the inner feelings, outer feelings, and inner and outer feelings, the inner mind, outer mind, and inner and outer mind, the inner dharmas, outer dharmas, and inner and outer dharmas, he forms the perception of weariness, the perception of non-weariness, and the perception of equanimity toward both weariness and non-weariness, abiding in right mindfulness and right knowledge.” To cultivate and much cultivate is not to give rise to one perception many times; it is to be able, at each and every place, to give rise to the perception of weariness, to give rise to the perception of non-weariness, and to give rise to the perception of equanimity toward both—all three perceptions within reach, while abiding in right mindfulness and right knowledge. Each of the four foundations is divided into inner, outer, and inner and outer, making twelve places; each place has three perceptions, and what one abides in is one. The discourse ends with Mahāmaudgalyāyana “entering samādhi, and from the Pine Grove Monastery at Śrāvastī, by the supernormal power of samādhi, in the time it takes a strong man to bend or stretch his arm, returning to the Vṛji village, Mount Śiśumāra, the fearsome dense forest, the haunt of wild beasts,” with no word of the Buddha and no closing formula. Discourse 535 says that delighting in the four foundations of mindfulness is the mind taking the body as its object and abiding in right mindfulness; 536 says that much cultivating is all three perceptions within reach and abiding in right mindfulness and right knowledge; the two discourses return alike to right mindfulness. The fascicle begins with Śakra’s verse and ends with Aniruddha’s four foundations of mindfulness; and in both of these discourses Mahāmaudgalyāyana asks and Aniruddha answers, a disciple asking a disciple and a disciple answering a disciple, with no word of the Buddha, and what they speak is the one-vehicle path.

XI. How to Read the Fascicle

This fascicle can be read three ways. One reading reads what the disciple saw. In 504 Mahāmaudgalyāyana hears Śakra tell of his palace, and in 505 he goes in and sees it himself, in 506 he sees the gods gathering, in 508 to 534 he sees the beings on the road, in 535 he sees Aniruddha’s thought. What the disciples speak is first what the disciples saw; and what is seen does not stop at the eye of flesh: Śakra’s palace he flicks with one toe, the gathering of the gods he knows to come and go as they wish, the beings’ bodies he sees moving through the air, another’s thought he knows and goes to ask about. The World-Honored One names this “abiding in true vision, true knowledge, true meaning, and true Dharma, with decisive penetration.”

The second reading reads the World-Honored One’s seal. In the twenty-seven discourses, whatever Mahāmaudgalyāyana sees he never speaks of on the road, but always before the World-Honored One; whatever the World-Honored One hears, he says, “I too see this being, and the reason I do not speak of it is for fear that people would not believe,” and then tells the past deed, and then says, “truly and without difference; you should bear it in mind.” That what the disciple saw can be believed lies not in the disciple but in the World-Honored One’s also seeing it and sealing it; that what the disciple speaks can be borne in mind lies not in his words but in “without difference.” In 506 the World-Honored One says the gods attained unbreakable purity and came to be born, Śakra repeats it, a bhikṣu repeats it, the gods declare it for themselves: this too is one seal and three tellings.

The third reading reads where the fascicle returns. 504 speaks of the fruit of giving; 505 speaks of the causes and conditions of merit and makes weariness arise; 506 and 507 speak of birth in heaven by the four unbreakable purities and of declaring for oneself; 508 to 534 speak of what deeds bring upon one; 535 and 536 speak of the one-vehicle path of the four foundations of mindfulness. Giving and its reward, unbreakable purity and stream-entry, deeds and remaining retribution, the foundations of mindfulness and right mindfulness—from the rewards of the gods it speaks down to the remaining retribution of beings, and from remaining retribution to the one-vehicle path. Śakra praises the palace, and Mahāmaudgalyāyana flicks it; the gods praise their rebirth, and the World-Honored One tells its cause; beings suffer their remaining pain, and the World-Honored One tells their deeds; Aniruddha thinks of the one-vehicle path, and Mahāmaudgalyāyana asks about delighting in it and cultivating it. What the fascicle speaks is cause and fruit, truly and without difference, and the one path that frees one from birth, old age, sickness, death, sorrow, grief, affliction, and pain.

Carrying Forward — The Compendium of Topics on Who Speaks

This fascicle carries on the recitation title “the Recitation Spoken by the Disciples, Part Four” marked at the head of fascicle eighteen, and is the second fascicle of what is spoken by the disciples. The Topics of the Sūtras in the Compendium of Topics has no item-by-item gloss on this part. What it relies on is only the treatise’s own statement: the Compendium of Topics says that the Saṃyukta Āgama “proclaims the connected discourses spoken by the Tathāgata and by the disciples,” and says that all the connected discourses are summed up under three aspects, “first, the one who speaks; second, what is spoken; third, for whom it is spoken,” and that “the Tathāgata, or the Tathāgata’s disciples, are the ones who speak. As with what is spoken by the disciples, so with the portion spoken by the Buddha.” In the thirty-three discourses of this fascicle the one who speaks is the venerable Mahāmaudgalyāyana or the venerable Aniruddha; and in the twenty-seven discourses 508 to 534, Mahāmaudgalyāyana speaks what he saw and the World-Honored One speaks the past deed, so that the ones who speak are two, a disciple and the Tathāgata, and what is spoken is one matter. The treatise divides what is spoken by the disciples from what is spoken by the Buddha by the one who speaks, and in these twenty-seven discourses a disciple and the Tathāgata together speak one discourse: within what is spoken by the disciples there is what is spoken by the Tathāgata, and what is divided is only the person who speaks, while the Dharma spoken does not differ. Since the Compendium of Topics has no item-by-item gloss, the exposition of this fascicle does not cite the treatise’s headings; it takes only this statement as the anchor on which it relies.

“Wonderful, venerable Ānanda! The teacher and the disciple have the same phrase, the same flavor, the same meaning—this is called the first meaning of the phrase.” The twenty-two discourses of this fascicle, from the five hundred and thirty-seventh to the five hundred and fifty-eighth, are the third fascicle of what is spoken by the disciples; what is spoken by the disciples begins at Fascicle 18, which marks itself at its head as “the Recitation Spoken by the Disciples, Part Four,” and this fascicle has no recitation title of its own but continues that part. Of the twenty-two, only the first half of 556 is taught by the World-Honored One himself: many bhikṣuṇīs ask about the fruit of the signless samādhi of the mind, and the Buddha answers “the fruit of knowledge, the merit of knowledge.” Everything else is spoken by three venerables: the venerable Aniruddha in nine discourses (537 to 545) answers the questions of Śāriputra, Mahāmaudgalyāyana, Ānanda, many bhikṣus, and wanderers of another sect, and what he teaches is only the four foundations of mindfulness; the venerable Mahākātyāyana in ten discourses (546 to 555) answers brāhmaṇas, a king, a laywoman, and elders, now explaining a verse of the World-Honored One, now explaining a phrase of his, now relating the six recollections as the World-Honored One taught them; the venerable Ānanda in three discourses (556 to 558) answers bhikṣuṇīs and a bhikṣu on the signless samādhi of the mind, and his answer does not differ by one word from the World-Honored One’s. What the three venerables teach differs, yet one thing is the same: all of it is the teaching of the World-Honored One. Aniruddha says, “I have cultivated and much cultivated the four foundations of mindfulness”; Kātyāyana says, “I understand that the World-Honored One spoke this verse with this meaning”; Ānanda says, “the World-Honored One says it is the fruit of knowledge, the merit of knowledge.” In the fascicle of what is spoken by the disciples, what is spoken is not the disciples’ own view; the bhikṣuṇīs’ praise, “the teacher and the disciple have the same phrase, the same flavor, the same meaning,” may stand as the title of the whole fascicle.

I. The Four Foundations of Mindfulness Accomplish Great Divine Power (Discourses 537 to 539)

Three discourses, one question. Śāriputra asks, “Wonderful, Aniruddha! You have great divine power—by cultivating and much cultivating what merit have you come to this?”; Mahāmaudgalyāyana asks, “By cultivating and much cultivating what merit have you accomplished this great divine power?”; Ānanda asks, “By cultivating and much cultivating what merit have you accomplished such great virtue, great strength, great supernormal power?” Aniruddha’s answer too is one sentence: “By cultivating and much cultivating the four foundations of mindfulness I have accomplished this great divine power.” Divine power is not the dharma cultivated but the fruit of the cultivation; what is cultivated is the four foundations of mindfulness. The sentence on the four foundations differs in wording in each of the three discourses while its meaning is the same: 537 reads “the foundation of mindfulness contemplating the body as body internally, ardent and resourceful, with right mindfulness and clear comprehension, taming greed and sorrow for the world”; 538 reads “contemplating the body as body internally with the mind bound in place, ardent and resourceful, with right mindfulness and clear comprehension, removing greed and sorrow for the world”; 539 reads “the foundation of mindfulness contemplating the body as body internally with the mind bound in place, ardent and resourceful, with right mindfulness and clear comprehension, removing greed and sorrow for the world.” Foundation of mindfulness, mind bound in place, taming, removing—these are different names for one thing; internal, external, internal and external, and body, feelings, mind, dharmas, are the twelve doors of one dharma.

The powers differ. To Śāriputra it is that “in a small thousandfold world, with little effort, I can survey everything,” “as a clear-eyed man on a high tower looks down upon the various things on the level ground below”; to Mahāmaudgalyāyana it is that “with little effort I see a thousand Sumerus,” “as a clear-eyed man climbs to a mountain top and looks down upon a grove of a thousand palmyra trees”; to Ānanda it is that “with the pure divine eye surpassing the eyes of gods and humans I see beings at the time of death and at the time of birth, of fine complexion and of poor complexion, of higher complexion and of lower complexion, in good destinations and in evil destinations, taking rebirth according to their actions, and I see all of it as it really is,” “as a clear-eyed man standing at a crossroads of four ways sees the people coming and going, sitting and lying down.” All three similes are the clear-eyed man; only the place where he stands differs: tower, mountain top, crossroads. The eye does not differ; where the place differs, what is seen differs. The foundations of mindfulness do not differ; where cultivation is greater, what is accomplished differs. In 539 the teaching reaches what the divine eye sees, and does not stop at the seeing but sees its cause: “evil conduct of body, evil conduct of speech and mind, slandering the worthy and the noble, through the condition of wrong view, at the breaking up of the body at the end of life they are born in hell”; “good conduct of body, good conduct of speech and mind, not slandering the worthy and the noble, accomplished in right view, through this condition, at the breaking up of the body at the end of life they are born in heaven.” What the divine eye sees is beings “taking rebirth according to their actions,” and this answers to what Kātyāyana says in 548, “the reality is action; it is what depends on action.” Each of the three discourses ends with “the two venerables, having finished their discussion, each rose from his seat and left” (538 lacks the comma after “then,” as the text has it); the questioner and the one who answers are both called venerables, in the same form as Fascicle 18.

II. Dwelling in the Four Foundations of Mindfulness in Sickness (Discourses 540 and 541)

In 540 Aniruddha “was afflicted with sickness and pain,” and he says of himself, “My sickness is not at ease; it is hard to endure; the pains of my body grow worse and do not lessen,” and at once he speaks the three similes—the text reads “at once he spoke the three similes, as told in the Chama discourse above,” that is, the three similes the bhikṣu Chama spoke in his sickness. The sickness does not lessen, and yet he can endure it: “But my body has already met with this pain; I shall endure it patiently, with right mindfulness and clear comprehension.” The bhikṣus ask, “Where does the mind dwell, that you can endure such great pain with right mindfulness and clear comprehension?” and he answers, “Dwelling in the four foundations of mindfulness, I can myself endure the pains that arise in my body, with right mindfulness and clear comprehension.” In 541, after the sickness has passed, they ask, “Dwelling where do the pains of the body find ease?” and he answers, “Dwelling in the four foundations of mindfulness, the pains of the body gradually find ease.” One discourse is in sickness, one after it; one speaks of enduring, one of ease. What is dwelt in is the same four foundations of mindfulness: when the sickness grows, dwelling here one can endure; when it lessens, dwelling here one finds rest. The four foundations of mindfulness are not a method for curing sickness; they are where the mind dwells, and when the mind has a dwelling, the pain is what is contemplated, not the master of what is felt. These two discourses join the three before them: the three say that the four foundations accomplish divine power, these two that they make endurance possible. Divine power and endurance are both the fruit of “cultivating and much cultivating,” and endurance is nearer to a human being.

III. Those in Training and Those Beyond Training Both Cultivate the Four Foundations (Discourses 542 and 543)

In 542 the question concerns the stage of training: “If a bhikṣu is at the stage of training and dwells aspiring upward to the safe nirvāṇa, how should the noble disciple cultivate and much cultivate so that in this Dharma and discipline he ends all outflows, with the mind liberated without outflows and liberated by wisdom?” The answer: “He should dwell in the four foundations of mindfulness.” In 543 the question concerns one beyond training: “If an arhat bhikṣu has ended the outflows, done what was to be done, laid down the heavy burdens, left behind the bonds of existence, and with right knowledge is well liberated in mind, does he too cultivate the four foundations of mindfulness?” The answer: “He too cultivates the four foundations of mindfulness.” The cultivation of one in training is for attaining; the text itself gives the reason for the cultivation of one beyond training: “What is not attained is attained, what is not realized is realized, and for the sake of dwelling at ease in this very life.” Here Aniruddha declares for himself: “I too have left behind the outflows and attained arhatship, done what was to be done, with the mind well liberated, and I too cultivate the four foundations of mindfulness. What is not attained is attained, what is not reached is reached, what is not realized is realized, up to dwelling at ease in this very life.” The arhat has ended the outflows and still has “what is not attained,” “what is not reached,” “what is not realized”—not a remainder of outflows, but divine power, samādhi, dwelling at ease in this very life and the like, which beyond the ending of outflows may still be attained and realized. For one in training the four foundations are a path; for one beyond training they are a dwelling. A path arrives somewhere; a dwelling arrives nowhere and is not given up.

IV. For the Sake of Cultivation; the Great Tree Leaning Downward (Discourses 544 and 545)

In 544 the wanderers of another sect ask, “Venerable one, why did you go forth in the Dharma of the ascetic Gautama?” and Aniruddha answers in four Chinese characters: “for the sake of cultivation.” Asked again what is cultivated, he answers, “cultivating the faculties, cultivating the powers, cultivating the factors of awakening, cultivating the foundations of mindfulness—which cultivation do you wish to hear?” The wanderers say of themselves, “Faculties, powers, factors of awakening—we do not even know their names, let alone ask their meaning; but we wish to hear of the foundations of mindfulness.” The names of the faculties, powers, and factors of awakening are already unknown to them; the name of the foundations of mindfulness they can still hear. Aniruddha then says, “If a bhikṣu contemplates the body as body internally, a foundation of mindfulness, up to contemplating dharmas as dharmas, a foundation of mindfulness.” The reason for going forth is not faith, not seeking a fruit, but cultivation; and what is cultivated, when told to those of another sect, is told only through the one door they are able to hear.

In 545 Aniruddha speaks to the bhikṣus with the simile of a great tree: “It is like a great tree that grows leaning downward, following the slope, following the flow; if its root is cut, the tree must fall, and it falls in the direction in which it leans.” The fall of the tree follows the direction of its growth; a bhikṣu cultivating the four foundations of mindfulness “through the long night inclines, slopes, and flows toward seclusion; inclines, slopes, and flows toward deliverance; inclines, slopes, and flows toward nirvāṇa.” Seclusion, deliverance, nirvāṇa are three names of one direction; inclining through the long night is a momentum already formed, not something turned at the moment. The nine discourses close with this simile: the cultivation of the four foundations of mindfulness is not a matter of one moment but a momentum long accumulated, and when the momentum is formed it moves toward nirvāṇa as the tree falls in the direction it leans. Aniruddha’s nine discourses teach a single dharma, while the questions of the nine differ: about divine power, about sickness, about the stage of training, about one beyond training, about the reason for going forth, and his own words to the bhikṣus. Nine doors of questioning, one dharma of answer.

V. The Cause of Dispute and Who Is Counted Among the Aged (Discourses 546 and 547)

In 546 a brāhmaṇa asks, “By what cause and what condition do kings dispute with kings, and brāhmaṇas and householders dispute with brāhmaṇas and householders?” Kātyāyana answers, “Through the cause and condition of being bound and attached by desire”; asked again why those gone forth dispute with those gone forth, he answers, “Because they are bound and attached by desire for views.” The disputes of those at home arise from desire, the disputes of those gone forth from desire for views; the binding is one, what is bound to differs. The brāhmaṇa asks whether there is anyone able to leave these two bindings, and Kātyāyana answers, “There is. My teacher, the Tathāgata, the Worthy One, the Perfectly Awakened One, perfect in knowledge and conduct, the Well-Gone One, knower of the world, the unsurpassed one, tamer of persons, teacher of gods and humans, the Buddha, the World-Honored One, is able to leave this binding and attachment by desire and by desire for views.” Hearing this, the brāhmaṇa joins his palms toward the place where the Buddha dwells and praises him: “Homage, homage to the Buddha, the World-Honored One, the Tathāgata, the Worthy One, the Perfectly Awakened One, who can leave the bindings of desire and craving, who can wholly leave the bonds of desire and all desire for views, pure at the root.” What the brāhmaṇa praises is the Buddha, and the one through whom he hears is a disciple; what is spoken by the disciples can turn a person toward the Buddha.

In 547 a staff-bearing brāhmaṇa, “aged in years, his faculties ripe,” is offended that the bhikṣus do not honor the old, and asks, “Elders! Why, seeing an old and aged man, do you not speak with him, greet him, and respectfully offer him a seat?” Kātyāyana answers, “In our Dharma, when an aged elder comes, all speak with him, greet him, respectfully bow, and bid him sit”; but the brāhmaṇa sees no one in the assembly older than himself, and so he asks. Kātyāyana then distinguishes those counted among the aged from the dharma of youth: “If there is one aged eighty or ninety, with white hair and fallen teeth, who is accomplished in the dharma of youth, he is not one of the aged; while one who is young, twenty-five years old, fair of skin and black of hair, in the fullness of strength and beauty, if he is accomplished in the dharma of age, is counted among the aged.” What is the dharma of youth? “There are the five strands of sense pleasure: forms cognized by the eye that are loved, delighted in, and longed for; sounds cognized by the ear, odors by the nose, tastes by the tongue, touches by the body, loved, delighted in, and longed for. With regard to these five strands of sense pleasure one is not free from greed, not free from desire, not free from craving, not free from longing, not free from turbidity”; conversely, “with regard to the five strands of sense pleasure one is free from greed, free from desire, free from craving, free from longing, free from turbidity,” and though twenty-five years old, “he is accomplished in the dharma of the old and is counted among the aged.” Old and young are not a matter of years but of whether one is free of the five sense pleasures or not. The brāhmaṇa examines himself and says, “though old I am young, and you, though young, are accomplished in the dharma of age.” Both discourses are a brāhmaṇa’s question and Kātyāyana’s answer, and both answers take binding and freedom as the measure: dispute arises from binding, age is accomplished by freedom from greed.

VI. The Four Castes Are Equal; the Reality Is Action (Discourse 548)

In 548 the king of Mathurā makes the brāhmaṇas’ own claim his question: “The brāhmaṇas say of themselves, ‘We are first, others are inferior; we are white, others are black; brāhmaṇas are pure, non-brāhmaṇas are not; the sons of brāhmaṇas are born from the mouth, made by brāhmaṇas, the possession of brāhmaṇas.’ Venerable Mahākātyāyana! What is the meaning of this?” Kātyāyana first answers in one sentence—“Great King! This is merely worldly speech”—and then sets down one sentence: “Great King, you should know that the reality is action; it is what depends on action.” Worldly speech and the reality of action are the two pillars of the whole discourse. The king says, “This is said in brief, and I do not understand it; I beg you to analyze it further,” and Kātyāyana does not analyze it himself but proposes, “Now I shall question you; answer me as I ask”—answering by questioning, so that the king answers himself.

Nine questions in three layers. The first three ask about power: if a brāhmaṇa is king, the four castes “are all summoned, and with wealth and with force made to attend him, to rise before him and lie down after him, and to carry out all his commands—is all this as he wishes?” The answer: “As he wishes.” If a kṣatriya, a householder, or an elder is king, it is the same; so he asks, “In this way the four castes are all equal—what difference is there?” and the king answers himself, “the four castes are all equal; there is no difference of superior and inferior.” The next three ask about crime: if among the brāhmaṇas there is a thief, he is “flogged, or bound, or driven from the country, or fined, or his hands, feet, ears, and nose are cut off, and if the crime is grave he is killed,” and “yet, being a brāhmaṇa, he is called a thief”; the other three castes are the same; so he asks, “Are the four castes not all equal?” and the king answers, “truly there is no difference of superior and inferior.” The last three ask about action: if a brāhmaṇa commits the ten unwholesome courses of action, “is he born in an evil destination, or in a good one? What have you heard from the arhats?” The king answers, “he falls into an evil destination,” and “of kṣatriyas, householders, and elders the same is said”; if he practices the ten wholesome courses of action, “he is born in a good destination,” and the four castes again are the same; so he asks whether the four castes are equal, and the king answers, “In this sense they are equal; there is no difference of superior and inferior.” Power the same, punishment the same, the result of action the same—all three layers are answered by the king’s own mouth; Kātyāyana’s conclusion is only “you should know that the reality is action, and what depends on action.” The king’s closing words use the same phrase: “all this is worldly speech, and so it is said” that brāhmaṇas are first, and “all is the reality of action, depending on action.”

This discourse answers to 539: Aniruddha with the divine eye sees beings “taking rebirth according to their actions,” and Kātyāyana by question and answer lets the king see for himself that the four castes “depend on action, and in reality there is no difference.” One is seeing, one is reasoning; the one who sees sees for himself, the one who reasons answers for himself. The Dharma spoken by the disciples does not force a person by one’s own words; it lets a person know for himself.

VII. Seeing Four Things Above Concentration (Discourse 549)

Discourse 549 is the only discourse in the fascicle whose verse appears twice in the same words. The laywoman Jialijia cites the verse with which the World-Honored One answered the maiden Sengqiduo: “The real meaning abides in the mind, quiescent and undisturbed; he has subdued all that is fierce, the lovely and well-formed; single-minded, reflecting alone, he feeds on the sublime joy of dhyāna; this is called seclusion from the companions of the world; among the companions of the world there is none who associates with me,” and asks its meaning. Kātyāyana’s explanation begins from the all-entering spheres: “There are ascetics and brāhmaṇas who say, ‘The attainment of the all-entering sphere of earth is the unsurpassed; for this fruit we seek.’” Ascetics and brāhmaṇas take the concentration of the all-entering sphere of earth as the unsurpassed and this as the fruit they seek. Kātyāyana does not reject their concentration; he shows what they have not seen: “If ascetics and brāhmaṇas, in the attainment of the all-entering sphere of earth, pure and bright-white, see its origin, see its danger, see its cessation, see the path to its cessation, then because they see its origin, see its danger, see its cessation, see the path to its cessation, the real meaning comes to abide in the mind, quiescent and undisturbed.” Water, fire, wind, blue, yellow, red, white, space, consciousness—the ten all-entering spheres all follow the same sentence. The all-entering spheres are concentration; seeing the origin, seeing the danger, seeing the cessation, seeing the path to cessation is wisdom. Concentration without seeing takes concentration as the fruit; concentration that can see, and then “the real meaning abides in the mind.” The first line of the verse Kātyāyana explains as seeing these four things above and beyond concentration; he closes with “seeing well, entering well,” and recites the verse again. “I understand that the World-Honored One spoke this verse with this meaning”—when a disciple explains a verse he does not bring out his own meaning but the meaning of the World-Honored One. The laywoman praises him, “the venerable one has spoken the real meaning,” invites him to eat and listens to the Dharma, and Kātyāyana “instructs, teaches, illumines, and gladdens” her.

VIII. The Six Recollections, the Places of Escape from Suffering (Discourse 550)

In 550 Kātyāyana speaks to the bhikṣus, and what he speaks he marks as spoken by the World-Honored One: “The Buddha, the World-Honored One, the Tathāgata, the Worthy One, the Perfectly Awakened One, from what he knows and sees, teaches six dharmas as places of escape from suffering that rise to the superior place, teaches the one-vehicle path that purifies beings, leaves behind all affliction and suffering, extinguishes all sorrow and lamentation, and attains the Dharma of suchness.” The six dharmas are the six recollections: recollection of the Tathāgata, of the right Dharma, of the dharma of the Saṅgha, of the merit of the precepts, of the dharma of giving, of the merit of the gods. The six sections share one form: when the noble disciple recollects this one thing, “thoughts of desire, ill will, and harming do not arise,” “thus the noble disciple leaves the mind of defiled attachment”; “what is the mind of defiled attachment? It is the five strands of sense pleasure”; “with regard to these five strands of sense pleasure he is free from greed, hatred, and delusion, abides in right mindfulness and clear comprehension, rides the straight path,” cultivates this one recollection, “heading rightly toward nirvāṇa”; this is called the first to the sixth of what the World-Honored One teaches as “a place of escape from suffering that rises to the superior place, the one-vehicle path that purifies beings, leaves behind suffering and affliction, extinguishes sorrow and lamentation, and attains the Dharma as it really is.” Each of the six recollections has the object it recollects: recollection of the Tathāgata is the ten epithets; recollection of the Dharma is “the Dharma and discipline here and now, leaving behind all fever, not subject to time, penetrating, right here and now, realized for oneself”; recollection of the Saṅgha is the four pairs, the eight persons, who are a field of merit because they are “accomplished in precepts, accomplished in concentration, accomplished in wisdom, accomplished in liberation, accomplished in the knowledge and vision of liberation,” and so “the unsurpassed field of merit for the world”; recollection of the precepts is “precepts unbroken, uncut, unmixed, undeparted-from, not stolen, well perfected, praiseworthy, of pure conduct and not disdained”; recollection of giving is “giving with a liberated mind, constant giving, giving in relinquishment, giving with delight, complete giving, equal giving”; recollection of the gods is the six heavens, “with pure faith, at the end of this life born among those gods,” and the same recollection turned upon oneself: “I too, with faith, precepts, giving, learning, and wisdom, at the end of this life shall be born among those gods”—what is recollected is the faith, precepts, giving, learning, and wisdom of the gods, and what is accomplished is one’s own. The six objects of recollection differ; what is left behind is one: the mind of defiled attachment. The mind of defiled attachment is not some other dharma; it is the five strands of sense pleasure. When one recollects the Buddha, the Dharma, the Saṅgha, the precepts, giving, and the gods, the mind is not in the five sense pleasures, and this is called leaving. The place of escape from suffering is not some other place; it is the place where the mind has left defiled attachment. The one-vehicle path is not some other path; it is that each of the six recollections can head straight toward nirvāṇa.

IX. The Flow and Blocking Its Source (Discourse 551)

In 551 the elder of Hali village cites the verse with which the World-Honored One answered Mojianti in the Chapter on Meaning: “Cutting off all the flows, and also blocking their source; close association with the village the sage does not praise. Emptied of the five sense pleasures, never again to be filled; disputes and quarrels of the world he finally does no more,” and asks its meaning. Kātyāyana explains it phrase by phrase, under eight headings. The flow: “the flow of the eye is this: greed arises in eye-consciousness, and depending on the eye element desire flows out; therefore it is called the flow,” and the six faculties are alike. Not flowing: “eye-consciousness and the forms cognized by eye-consciousness give rise, depending on them, to craving and delight; when these are exhausted, free of desire, ceased, stilled, and gone, this is called not flowing.” The source of the flow: “conditioned by the eye and forms, eye-consciousness arises; the meeting of the three gives rise to contact; conditioned by contact feeling arises, pleasant feeling, painful feeling, neither-painful-nor-pleasant feeling; depending on this, the flow of defiled attachment,” feeling gives rise to craving and delight, “this is called the source of the flow.” Blocking the source: “clinging to the eye element, the fetter that binds and attaches to the mind-dharmas and their objects—when this is exhausted, free of desire, ceased, stilled, and gone, this is called blocking the source of the flow.” Praising one another in close association: “those at home and those gone forth closely associate with one another, sharing joy, sharing sorrow, sharing happiness, sharing suffering, and in all they do acting together”; not praising is the reverse. Not emptied of desire: “the five strands of sense pleasure: forms cognized by the eye, loved, delighted in, longed for, nourished, with craving and desire deeply attached,” “with regard to these five sense pleasures one is not free from greed, not free from craving, not free from longing, not free from thirst”; emptied of desire: “with regard to these five strands of sense pleasure one is free from greed, free from desire, free from craving, free from longing, free from thirst.” All eight headings are explained with the six faculties as their body: the flow is greed arising in faculty and consciousness, the source is contact and feeling giving rise to craving, the blocking is the exhaustion of the fetter that binds and attaches. “To speak of the fetter that binds and attaches to a self—this is called the mind-dharmas filling again.” Where there is binding to a self, the mind-dharmas fill again; the arhat “has cut off its root, like a palmyra tree cut off at the crown, never to arise again in future,” and so “how could he again dispute with others?” The last two lines of the verse, “disputes and quarrels of the world he finally does no more,” Kātyāyana recites the second time as “no longer with the world does he exchange words in dispute”—the words differ, the meaning is one. This discourse answers to 546: there, dispute arises from binding; here, there is no dispute because the binding is exhausted. The explanation of the verse closes with “this is the analysis of the meaning of the verse spoken by the Tathāgata”—the one who analyzes is a disciple; what is analyzed is the Tathāgata’s verse.

X. The Ultimate End (Discourses 552 and 553)

Both discourses cite the same phrase that the World-Honored One spoke to Śakra, lord of the gods, in the stone cave on Mount Jiege: “Kauśika! If an ascetic or brāhmaṇa is liberated by the unsurpassed exhaustion of craving, the mind rightly and well liberated, he has reached the ultimate end, ultimate stainlessness, ultimate pure conduct, final purity,” and ask, “How, in this Dharma and discipline, does one reach the ultimate end, ultimate stainlessness, ultimate pure conduct, final purity?” In 552 Kātyāyana answers with the delight of faculty and consciousness: “The eye, eye-consciousness, and the forms cognized by eye-consciousness give rise, depending on one another, to delight; when this is exhausted, free of desire, ceased, stilled, and gone, in this Dharma and discipline one has reached the ultimate end, ultimate stainlessness, ultimate pure conduct, final purity.” For the other five faculties the text drops “free of desire” and “the ultimate end”: “The ear, nose, tongue, body, mind, mind-consciousness, and the dharmas cognized by mind-consciousness give rise, depending on one another, to delight; when this is exhausted, ceased, stilled, and gone, the bhikṣu in this Dharma and discipline has reached ultimate stainlessness, ultimate pure conduct, final purity”—left uneven, as the text has it. In 553 he answers with the binding of clinging to the elements: “If a bhikṣu clings to the eye element, with the fetter that binds and attaches to the mind-dharmas and their objects—when this is exhausted, free of desire, stilled, and gone, in this Dharma and discipline one has reached the ultimate end, ultimate stainlessness, ultimate pure conduct, ultimate purity.” One phrase, two explanations: one by the exhaustion of delight, one by the exhaustion of the fetter—corresponding exactly to the two headings of 551, not flowing (delight exhausted) and blocking the source (the fetter exhausted). What the World-Honored One spoke to Śakra, the four ultimates, are the names of the fruit; what Kātyāyana explains to the elder is the deed by which the fruit is reached. The unsurpassed liberation through the exhaustion of craving—what is exhausted lies in the delight of the six faculties and the clinging to the six elements, and nowhere else.

XI. The Four Unbreakable Purities Increase the Six Recollections (Discourses 554 and 555)

In 554 the elder and village chief of Hali is sick; Kātyāyana comes to ask after him, sees the elder about to rise, and first stops him: “Elder, do not rise! There is another seat; I can sit on it myself.” The elder says of himself, “my sickness is hard to endure; the pains of my body grow worse and do not lessen,” and at once speaks the three similes, “as told in the discourse of the bhikṣu Chama before”—the same sentence and the same similes as Aniruddha’s sickness in 540. Kātyāyana’s teaching is first the four unbreakable purities: “Therefore you should cultivate unbreakable purity in the Buddha, unbreakable purity in the Dharma, unbreakable purity in the Saṅgha, and accomplishment in the noble precepts; thus you should train.” The elder answers, “The four unbreakable purities the Buddha taught I have all accomplished.” So he goes further: “You should, depending on these four unbreakable purities, cultivate the six recollections,” and teaches each recollection in turn—the section on giving speaks of giving while at home: “though dwelling at home, giving with a liberated mind, constant giving, giving with delight, complete giving, equal giving,” five kinds of giving without “giving in relinquishment,” unlike the six of 550, each recorded as the text has it—ending, “Thus, awakening in dependence on the four unbreakable purities, increase the six foundations of recollection.” The elder answers, “The World-Honored One taught that in dependence on the four unbreakable purities one increases the six foundations of recollection; I have accomplished them all, and I shall cultivate recollection of the Buddha’s merit, recollection of the Dharma, of the Saṅgha, of the precepts, of giving, and of the gods.” Kātyāyana at once declares it: “Good, elder! You are able to declare for yourself that you have attained non-returning.” The six recollections of 550 were taught to the bhikṣus; the six recollections here are taught to a sick elder. To the bhikṣus they are taught as places of escape from suffering; to the elder, as what is increased in dependence on the four unbreakable purities. The four unbreakable purities are what one depends on; the six recollections are what is increased; to have accomplished the four unbreakable purities and be able to declare for oneself that one cultivates the six recollections is the self-declaration of a non-returner. In the midst of sickness, Aniruddha dwells in the four foundations of mindfulness and endures; the elder depends on the four unbreakable purities and increases the six recollections—a sick disciple and a sick layman dwell in different things, and both have a dwelling. Discourse 555 is the compilers’ abbreviated discourse: the elder Tuoshi of Bacheng is sick, Kātyāyana goes to him, “as told at length in the discourse of the elder of Hali.”

XII. The Signless Samādhi of the Mind; the Fruit of Knowledge (Discourses 556 to 558)

Three discourses, one question: “If the signless samādhi of the mind neither surges nor sinks, liberated and then abiding, abiding and then liberated—of this signless samādhi of the mind, what fruit, what merit does the World-Honored One teach?” In 556 many bhikṣuṇīs first ask the Buddha, and the Buddha answers, “this signless samādhi of the mind has the fruit of knowledge, the merit of knowledge”; they then go and ask Ānanda, and Ānanda answers, “the World-Honored One says it is the fruit of knowledge, the merit of knowledge.” The bhikṣuṇīs praise him, “the teacher and the disciple have the same phrase, the same flavor, the same meaning—this is called the first meaning of the phrase,” and explain their wonder themselves: “the World-Honored One has already taught us with the same phrase, the same flavor, the same meaning, no different from what the venerable Ānanda has said.” In 557 the bhikṣuṇī Shezhiluo asks Ānanda at Kauśāmbī; Ānanda answers the same; the bhikṣuṇī likewise praises the same phrase, the same flavor, the same meaning, and relates how the many bhikṣuṇīs once asked the Buddha at the city of Suoqi; and the bhikṣuṇī Jialuoba does likewise. In 558 a certain bhikṣu who has attained the signless samādhi of the mind wishes to ask Ānanda and reckons to himself: if Ānanda asks, “Bhikṣu! Have you attained this signless samādhi of the mind?” and he answers that he has not, that would be “asking truly and answering otherwise”; so “I shall follow the venerable Ānanda, and if perchance someone else asks about this matter, I shall thereby get to hear it.” He follows him six years; no one asks; then he himself asks Ānanda. Ānanda duly asks, “Bhikṣu! Have you attained this samādhi?”; the bhikṣu “remains silent,” and only then does Ānanda answer.

The signless samādhi of the mind “neither surges nor sinks, liberated and then abiding, abiding and then liberated,” and its fruit is knowledge. Neither surging nor sinking is the mark of the concentration; the fruit of knowledge is where the concentration returns: concentration does not take concentration as its fruit but knowledge—the same meaning as in 549, where above the attainment of the all-entering spheres there is still the seeing of the origin and the danger. The weight of the three discourses lies not in the explanation of the samādhi but in the sameness of phrase between teacher and disciple: the Buddha answers with two names in five characters, and Ānanda answers with the same two names in five characters, neither more nor less. The bhikṣuṇīs call this “the first meaning of the phrase”; the certain bhikṣu, unwilling to ask truly and answer otherwise, would rather follow six years in order to hear—so much does he value the truth of this phrase. The fascicle of what is spoken by the disciples closes with these three discourses: what is spoken by the disciples has the same phrase, the same flavor, the same meaning as what is spoken by the Buddha, and this is why what is spoken by the disciples can be spoken at all.

XIII. How to Read the Fascicle

This fascicle may be read in three ways. One reading asks what dharma each of the three venerables teaches. Aniruddha’s nine discourses teach the four foundations of mindfulness: accomplishing divine power, making endurance possible, cultivated by those in training and those beyond training alike, the reason for going forth, inclining through the long night toward nirvāṇa. Kātyāyana’s ten discourses teach freedom from binding: dispute arises from binding, old and young are a matter of freedom from the five sense pleasures, the four castes depend on action, above the all-entering spheres the four things are seen, the six recollections leave the mind of defiled attachment, the flow and its source and their blocking, the ultimate end lies in the exhaustion of delight and of the fetter, the four unbreakable purities increase the six recollections. Ānanda’s three discourses teach one phrase: the fruit of knowledge, the merit of knowledge. Each of the three has his own door, and every door faces nirvāṇa.

A second reading asks how the disciples speak. Aniruddha says of himself, “I have cultivated and much cultivated the four foundations of mindfulness,” taking his own cultivation as witness; Kātyāyana, explaining verses and phrases, says each time, “I understand that the World-Honored One spoke this verse with this meaning,” taking the teacher’s meaning as his ground; to the king he says, “Now I shall question you; answer me as I ask,” letting him answer himself; Ānanda, answering on the signless samādhi of the mind, only relates “the World-Honored One says it is the fruit of knowledge, the merit of knowledge,” changing not one word. Witnessing for oneself, relying on the teacher, letting a person know for himself, relating without alteration—all four are the manner of what is spoken by the disciples.

A third reading is to read the same phrase, the same flavor, the same meaning. Fascicle 18 gathered forty questions under “there is a path, there is a way”; this fascicle gathers twenty-two discourses under “the same phrase, the same flavor, the same meaning.” What Kātyāyana explains is the World-Honored One’s verse, the World-Honored One’s phrase, the six recollections the World-Honored One taught; what Ānanda answers is the World-Honored One’s answer; what Aniruddha cultivates is the four foundations of mindfulness the World-Honored One taught. What is spoken by the disciples does not set up another teaching; it is the same phrase spoken from a disciple’s mouth. The certain bhikṣu will not seek an answer by a question that is not true; the bhikṣuṇīs find it wonderful that teacher and disciple have the same phrase: the worth of what is spoken by the disciples lies in its sameness.

Carrying Forward — The Compendium of Topics on Who Speaks

This fascicle has no recitation title; it continues what Fascicle 18 marks at its head as “the Recitation Spoken by the Disciples, Part Four.” The Topics of the Sūtras in the Compendium of Topics has no item-by-item gloss on this part. What it relies on is only the treatise’s own statement: the Compendium of Topics says that the Saṃyukta Āgama “proclaims the connected discourses spoken by the Tathāgata and by the disciples,” and says that all the connected discourses are summed up under three aspects, “first, the one who speaks; second, what is spoken; third, for whom it is spoken,” and that “the Tathāgata, or the Tathāgata’s disciples, are the ones who speak. As with what is spoken by the disciples, so with the portion spoken by the Buddha.” The sūtra names the recitation “spoken by the disciples”; the treatise gathers it under “the one who speaks.” What divides what is spoken by the disciples from what is spoken by the Buddha is the person who speaks, not the Dharma that is spoken. In the twenty-two discourses of this fascicle the ones who speak are the venerable Aniruddha, the venerable Mahākātyāyana, and the venerable Ānanda; only the first half of 556 is spoken by the World-Honored One himself, and his phrase does not differ from Ānanda’s. Since the Compendium of Topics has no item-by-item gloss, the exposition of this fascicle does not cite the treatise’s headings; it takes only this statement as the anchor on which it relies.

“By day I dwell in this samādhi, and by night I dwell in this samādhi; through the whole night I constantly dwell in this samādhi. Having such knowledge, what need is there to believe in the World-Honored One?” The seventeen discourses of this fascicle, from the five hundred and fifty-ninth to the five hundred and seventy-fifth, are the fourth fascicle of what is spoken by the disciples, and the last; what is spoken by the disciples begins at Fascicle 18, which marks itself at its head as “the Recitation Spoken by the Disciples, Part Four,” and this fascicle has no recitation title of its own but continues that part. In the seventeen discourses the World-Honored One does not speak one word himself; his words come only as the disciples relate them: “the World-Honored One says it is the fruit of knowledge, the merit of knowledge,” “this was spoken by the World-Honored One,” “the five lower bonds as the World-Honored One has taught them.” The seventeen discourses fall into two groups. The first seven have the venerable Ānanda as their principal speaker: he answers the bhikṣu Jiamo, addresses the bhikṣus, answers a brāhmaṇa, answers the householder Ghoṣila, answers Fearless the Licchavi, teaches the Dharma to a bhikṣuṇī, and teaches the Dharma to the youths of Potou village. The last ten discourses center on a lay disciple, the householder Zhiduoluo: he explains a verse, answers on the samādhis, asks about the three activities and the bhikṣu Qiemo answers, invites the elders and Lixidaduo comes forward to answer, Mohejia teaches him heedfulness, he refutes an outsider, refutes the Nirgrantha, and, speaking verses in his sickness, dies and returns. In the first seven, disciples who have gone forth speak; in the last ten, the householder speaks what he sees, while Qiemo, Lixidaduo, and Mohejia each also teach one dharma; and the part spoken by the disciples closes with a lay disciple’s own knowing.

I. One with Perception Also Does Not Perceive; the Fruit of Knowledge (Discourse 559)

Jiamo asks: there is the eye and there are forms, up to there is the mind and there are mental objects, “and yet there are bhikṣus who, with such dharmas present, can fail to perceive them”—is it one with perception who does not perceive, or one without perception who therefore does not perceive? Ānanda answers, “One with perception also does not perceive, how much more one without perception.” One with perception who does not perceive is one in the four dhyānas and the three formless attainments: “in this way a bhikṣu with perception, with the dharma present, does not perceive it.” One without perception who does not perceive is one who, “not attending to any perception, dwells having realized with the body the samādhi of the mind without perception.” The dharma being present and yet not perceived does not mean the dharma is absent; it means the mind does not take it as object. In concentration the faculties and the objects are both present, and the bhikṣu does not perceive them. If this is so in a concentration with perception, it needs no saying in a concentration without perception. Jiamo asks again: the samādhi of the mind without perception, “neither surging nor sinking, liberated and then abiding, abiding and then liberated—the World-Honored One says this is what fruit, what merit?” Ānanda answers, “The World-Honored One says it is the fruit of knowledge, the merit of knowledge.” This question and answer are in the same phrase as the last three discourses of Fascicle 20, and this fascicle opens with them: at the head of what is spoken by the disciples, the words “the World-Honored One says” are set first.

II. Declaring of Oneself and the Four Paths (Discourse 560)

Ānanda addresses the bhikṣus: when a bhikṣu or bhikṣuṇī “declares of themselves before me, I shall say ‘well done,’ comfort and greet them, or seek it by the four paths.” Of the four paths, the first is to sit and “settle the mind, settle it well, settle it in place, tame the mind, make calm and insight one mind, with even reception, discriminating and measuring the dharmas; cultivating and much cultivating this, one comes to cut off the fetters.” The second is “to sit rightly and reflect, selecting among the dharmas,” and so settle the mind. The third is that one “held by restlessness and agitation sits with a tamed mind, sits rightly,” and so settles the mind. The fourth is “calm and insight joined and proceeding together.” All four paths have “cutting off the fetters” as their goal; what differs is only the entry: entering by concentration, by selecting the dharmas, by taming agitation, by calm and insight proceeding together. One who declares of oneself is a disciple stating what he has realized; Ānanda does not simply grant it, but seeks it by the four paths. If the realization lies in one of the four, then “well done”; if it does not, there is no ground for comfort. A disciple’s own knowing must have a path that can be followed. This is the first standard set in this part. The discourse ends, “the bhikṣus, hearing what the venerable Ānanda had said, rejoiced and practiced accordingly”: there is no questioner in this discourse; Ānanda addresses them himself, and the bhikṣus practice accordingly.

III. Relying on Desire to Cut Off Craving (Discourse 561)

A brāhmaṇa asks why one cultivates the holy life, and Ānanda answers, “for the sake of cutting off”; cutting off what? “cutting off craving”; relying on what is it cut off? “relying on desire, craving is cut off.” The brāhmaṇa objects: to cut off craving by desire, is this not without limit? Ānanda does not answer directly; he first asks the brāhmaṇa “did you first have the desire to come to the monastery?” and, having reached the monastery, “has that desire ceased?” The brāhmaṇa answers for himself: he came with energy, with means, with deliberation, and on arriving all of these ceased. Then Ānanda teaches the four bases of spiritual power: “the basis of spiritual power accomplished by concentration of desire and the exertion of abandoning; the basis of spiritual power accomplished by concentration of energy, concentration of mind, and concentration of reflection, with the exertion of abandoning,” and cultivating them “relying on seclusion, relying on dispassion, relying on escape, relying on cessation, and tending toward relinquishment, up to cutting off craving; when craving is cut off, that desire too ceases.” Desire is the instrument that cuts off; craving is the dharma cut off. When craving is exhausted desire too ceases, and so “this is the limit; it is not without limit.” That cutting off craving by desire does not fall into endlessness is because the desire relies on seclusion and on cessation and tends toward relinquishment; it does not rely on craving and tend toward existence.

IV. Rightly Directed and Rightly Arrived (Discourse 562)

The householder Ghoṣila asks three things: who teaches the Dharma in the world, who is rightly directed in the world, who is rightly arrived in the world. Ānanda again asks first, “if someone teaches the Dharma so as to tame greed, tame hatred, and tame delusion, can he be called one who teaches the Dharma in the world?” The householder answers: one who can tame greed, hatred, and delusion “is called one who teaches the Dharma in the world”; one directed toward taming is rightly directed; “if greed is tamed and already cut off without remainder, and hatred and delusion are already cut off without remainder, this is called rightly arrived.” Ānanda closes: “I have questioned you and you have answered me truly; the meaning is so—you should uphold it.” This discourse has the same form as the one before: the questioner answers for himself and the one questioned confirms it. Teaching the Dharma is measured by the taming of the three poisons, being directed by heading toward their taming, having arrived by their being cut off without remainder; the three lie on one line, and the answer is in the householder’s mouth.

V. The Three Kinds of Leaving the Burning (Discourse 563)

Fearless the Licchavi relates the way of his teacher the Nirgrantha: “the actions of former lives, through the practice of austerities, can all be thrown off,” and when no new bodily action is done, “since action is permanently exhausted, all suffering is permanently exhausted; since suffering is permanently exhausted, one reaches the final ending of suffering,” and asks Ānanda what he makes of this. Ānanda does not judge that teaching; he teaches only what the Tathāgata, the Worthy One, the Perfectly Awakened One has taught, “the three kinds of leaving the burning, the pure path of transcendence.” The first is pure precepts: “dwelling in pure precepts, taking up the prātimokṣa, complete in deportment,” and so “former actions are gradually thrown off, and one attains, in this very life, leaving the burning, not dependent on time.” The second is the four dhyānas. The third is, in the attainment of samādhi, “knowing this noble truth of suffering as it really is,” up to knowing the truth of the path as it really is, so that “no further action is made, former actions are gradually cut off, and one attains the true Dharma in this very life.” The Nirgrantha throws off former actions by austerities; the Tathāgata throws them off by precepts, concentration, and wisdom. What is thrown off is the same; what throws it off differs. “Not dependent on time” appears twice, and that is the judgment: austerities wait upon time; the true Dharma is present now. Fearless is silent, and Conghui reproaches him; Fearless answers, “I was reflecting on its meaning, and so I remained silent,” and says further, “if anyone hears the Dharma taught by the ascetic Gautama and does not rejoice in it, he is a fool,” and “through the long night he will suffer what is not his good and not his benefit.” A disciple of another sect who hears the Dharma and reflects on it appears more than once in this fascicle.

VI. Relying on Food to Cut Off Food, on Conceit to Cut Off Conceit, on Craving to Cut Off Craving (Discourse 564)

A bhikṣuṇī, her mind defiled by attachment, feigns sickness and sends a messenger. Ānanda goes, sees her lying exposed, and “at once restrained his faculties and turned his back to her”; the bhikṣuṇī “was at once ashamed, rose, and put on her robes.” Ānanda teaches her that this body is “nourished by impure food, nourished by conceit, nourished by craving, nourished by sexual desire,” and that relying on food one cuts off food, relying on conceit one cuts off conceit, relying on craving one cuts off craving. Relying on food to cut off food is “to eat reckoning and reflecting on the food, without the thought of delighting in it, without the thought of conceit, without the thought of adornment, without the thought of ornament,” as a merchant greases his cart and a sick man dresses his wound, only to carry the load and only to heal the sore. Relying on conceit to cut off conceit is, hearing that a certain venerable has exhausted the outflows, to think, “why have I not yet exhausted the outflows, why do I not yet know for myself that there is no further existence?”—and at that very time one can cut off the outflows. Relying on craving to cut off craving is, hearing that a certain venerable has exhausted the outflows, to think, “why have we not exhausted the outflows?” In all three what one relies on becomes what cuts off: food to sustain the body, conceit to spur oneself, craving to aspire; used where they belong, they are the instrument of their own cutting off. Only sexual desire has nothing to rely on: “as for what is not to be practiced, cut off sexual desire, the bridge of union.” Of the four nourishments, three can be relied on and cut off; one cannot be relied on, and is only cut. The bhikṣuṇī attains the pure Dharma-eye, confesses her fault, and Ānanda accepts it: “one who sees her own fault and knows her own fault, and can confess it, will in the future attain the full precepts, her good dharmas will increase, and she will never fall back.” This discourse shares one word with discourse 561, “relying”: in 561, relying on desire one cuts off craving; here, relying on conceit one cuts off conceit, relying on craving one cuts off craving. The disciple’s path does not leave what it relies on, and cuts off what it relies on.

VII. The Four Kinds of Purity and Pure Cutting Off (Discourse 565)

Ānanda teaches the youths of Potou village “the four kinds of purity: purity of precepts, purity of mind, purity of seeing, purity of liberation.” All four are gathered under “pure cutting off.” Of the body of precepts, “what is not full he makes full; what is already full he upholds accordingly”—this is the pure cutting off of precepts. Of the body of concentration, “what is not yet full he makes full; what is already full he takes up accordingly”—this is the pure cutting off of mind, and what it refers to is “secluded from desire and from evil and unwholesome dharmas, up to dwelling having attained the fourth dhyāna.” The pure cutting off of seeing has five doors: hearing the teacher teach the Dharma; hearing it from a wise and honored fellow in the holy life; reciting again what was heard before; expounding widely to others what was heard before; and “alone in a quiet place, reflecting and contemplating.” Through all five doors “in this way and that he gains gladness, gains rejoicing, gains following the Buddha,” and “in this way and that he enters the true Dharma, up to having faith in the true Dharma,” and in sum, “hearing from another and reflecting rightly within—this is called causing right view not yet arisen to arise, and right view already arisen to increase and widen.” The pure cutting off of liberation is that “the mind of greed is liberated through dispassion, and the mind of hatred and delusion is liberated through dispassion.” Purity does not stop at a single attainment: what is not full is made full, what is already full is taken up and held accordingly, “with desire, energy, and means, up to constantly taking it up,” and so it is called pure cutting off. Of the five doors of the purity of seeing, from hearing the teacher to reflecting alone, each door can be entered, and all return to “having faith in the true Dharma.” Faith comes after seeing; this is the line laid down early for the fascicle’s distinction of faith and knowledge.

VIII. The Householder Explains the World-Honored One’s Verse (Discourse 566)

Naqiedaduo questions the householder with a verse of the World-Honored One: “The green limbs covered with white, / the cart that turns on a single spoke, / free of the bonds, come to see, / the stream cut off, no longer bound.” The householder first asks, “did the World-Honored One speak this verse?” and then requests “a moment of silence; I shall reflect on its meaning,” and explains: “green means the precepts; covered with white means liberation; a single spoke means mindfulness of the body; turning means turning out; the cart means calm and insight”; free of the bonds means free of the three bonds of greed, hatred, and delusion; “seeing means vision; come means a person; the stream cut off means the stream of craving in birth and death”; not bound means free of “the three bindings: the binding of greed, the binding of hatred, the binding of delusion.” In all three places he cites the arhat, “like a palmyra tree cut off at the crown, never to grow again,” as the proof. One verse of four lines, and the householder opens it word by word into ten headings: precepts, liberation, mindfulness of the body, turning out, calm and insight, the three bonds, seeing, the person, the stream of craving, the three bindings. Naqiedaduo asks, “had you heard this meaning before?” and the householder answers, “I had not”; the venerable praises him: “you have gained a good benefit; into this profound Buddha-Dharma you have entered with the eye of noble wisdom.” He first asks whether the World-Honored One spoke it, and then explains its meaning. What is explained is the World-Honored One’s verse; what makes him able to explain it is the householder’s own seeing. These are the two faces of “spoken by the disciples” in this fascicle.

IX. Various Meanings and One Meaning (Discourse 567)

Naqiedaduo names “the immeasurable samādhi of the mind, the signless samādhi of the mind, the samādhi of the mind of nothingness, the samādhi of the mind of emptiness,” and asks whether these four “have various names because of various meanings, or have various names for one meaning.” The householder again asks first whether this was spoken by the World-Honored One or is the venerable’s own view; told “this was spoken by the World-Honored One,” he answers: “there are dharmas of various meanings, various phrases, and various flavors, and there are dharmas of one meaning and various flavors.” The various meanings are that each of the four samādhis has its own object: the immeasurable is the mind of loving-kindness “dwelling pervading all the world as its object”; the signless is “not attending to any sign”; nothingness is “passing beyond the sphere of boundless consciousness, nothingness”; emptiness is “contemplating the world as empty, as it really is, as constantly abiding and unchanging, as not self and not belonging to self.” The one meaning runs through them as being without contention: “greed is measurable, and the one without contention is the foremost immeasurable”; greed, hatred, and delusion have signs, and “the one without contention is signless”; they are something, and “the one without contention is nothingness”; “the one without contention is empty: empty of greed, empty of hatred and delusion.” The four names are four with regard to their objects and one with regard to freedom from greed, hatred, and delusion. The householder takes neither side; both accounts stand, each with its own reference, and Naqiedaduo praises him, “you have gained a great benefit.”

X. The Three Activities and the Attainment of Cessation (Discourse 568)

The householder asks the bhikṣu Qiemo about activities, and the answer is “three activities: bodily activity, verbal activity, mental activity”: “out-breath and in-breath are called bodily activity; initial and sustained thought are called verbal activity; perception and volition are called mental activity.” The reason: the breath “relies on the body, belongs to the body, and proceeds dependent on the body”; “because there is initial and sustained thought, there is speech”; perception and volition “rely on the mind, belong to the mind, and proceed dependent on the mind.” The householder asks in verse about the giving up of the body, and Qiemo answers in verse: “Life, warmth, and consciousness, / all given up when the body is given up; / that body is cast among the burial mounds, / without mind, like wood or stone.” The difference between death and the attainment of cessation: in death “life and warmth are given up, the faculties all break down, body and life are parted”; in the attainment of cessation “bodily, verbal, and mental activity cease, but life is not given up, warmth is not left, the faculties do not break down, body and life remain joined.” One who enters the attainment of cessation does not think, “I am entering the attainment of cessation”; “rather, having first made the means of gradual quieting, by those former means he moves toward entering the attainment.” On entering, “first verbal activity ceases, then bodily activity, then mental activity”; on emerging, likewise, he does not think, “I am now emerging”; “rather, having already made the resolve beforehand, he arises according to that former resolve,” and “mental activity arises first, then bodily activity, and verbal activity last.” One who has entered the attainment of cessation “tends toward seclusion, flows into seclusion, inclines toward seclusion,” up to nirvāṇa; while abiding, he “contacts the unshaken, contacts the signless, contacts nothingness”; what is practiced is “two dharmas: calm and insight.” The ceasing of the three activities has an order, and their arising has an order: verbal activity ceases first and arises last, mental activity ceases last and arises first; the body does not die and yet the three activities cease, and so this differs from death. Twelve questions in one discourse: everything the householder asks is a matter of the attainment of cessation, and everything Qiemo answers has its reason. At the last question, “how many dharmas are practiced,” Qiemo says, “this should have been asked first; why do you ask it now?” Calm and insight are the root of entering the attainment, and the householder asks of them last; hence the remark.

XI. The Various Elements; the View of the Body as Root; Heedfulness as Root (Discourses 569 to 571)

Three discourses with the householder as their central figure, and each with its own setting. In 569 the householder invites the elders and asks about the various elements, “the elders remained silent; so it was two and three times,” and the junior Lixidaduo answers, “the eye element is distinct, the form element is distinct, the eye-consciousness element is distinct,” up to the mind-consciousness element being distinct, the eighteen elements each distinct: “this is called the various elements”; the elders praise him, “you are truly quick in discernment, and speak knowing the matter.” In 570 the householder asks what the root of the views in the world is, “he asked three times, and three times they were silent,” and Lixidaduo answers again, “all have the view of the body as their root; from the view of the body they gather, from the view of the body they arise, from the view of the body they proceed”; the view of the body is “seeing form as self, form as other than self, self in form, form in self,” and so too for consciousness; the learned noble disciple does not see thus, and “this is called attaining freedom from the view of the body.” In 571 there is no setting of silence: Mohejia himself asks leave of the elders to raise clouds and rain, and the elders allow it; he enters the fire-light samādhi and burns the firewood while the white cloth is not burned, and then says to the householder, “you should know that all these have heedfulness as their root; from heedfulness they gather, from heedfulness they arise, from heedfulness they proceed,” and “this and the other merits all have heedfulness as their root.” 570 and 571 share one form of sentence: having such-and-such as root, gathering, arising, proceeding. The root of the views is the view of the body; the root of supernormal power and of merit is heedfulness; the one is the root of birth and death, the other the root of the factors of the path. 569 closes on “this is called the various elements,” without this form. The endings of the three discourses differ again: Lixidaduo accepts the householder’s invitation and, “hindered by the offerings, for a long time did not go to the World-Honored One”; Mohejia, “not wishing to be hindered by the fault of offerings and gain, rose from his seat and left, and did not return.” The sūtra does not conceal the difference: the one stays and is hindered, the other leaves and does not return.

XII. Desire and Craving Are the Bond (Discourse 572)

The elders in the dining hall discuss “does the eye bind forms, or do forms bind the eye?”; the householder passes by and asks, and the elders ask the householder’s own view in return. The householder answers: “the eye does not bind forms, forms do not bind the eye, up to the mind does not bind mental objects and mental objects do not bind the mind; but where between them there is desire and craving, by that they are bound,” with the simile of “two oxen, one black and one white, yoked with the yoke and the harness.” He asks whether the black ox binds the white or the white the black, “is this an even question?”; the elders answer, “it is not an even question,” and “it is the yoke and the harness that is their bond.” The householder concludes: “so between them, desire and craving are the bond.” The faculty does not bind the object, the object does not bind the faculty; the bond lies in the desire and craving between them, and to ask which of faculty and object binds the other is an uneven question. This meaning has appeared in the same phrase in the part on the six sense bases; in this fascicle it is spoken by a lay disciple, and the elders confirm it.

XIII. Faith and Knowledge (Discourses 573 and 574)

In 573 an Ājīvika outsider has been gone forth for over twenty years, and the householder asks, “have you attained superhuman states, ultimate knowledge and seeing, and a dwelling at ease?”; the answer is “I have not attained superhuman states, ultimate knowledge and seeing, or a dwelling at ease; there is only going naked, plucking out the hair, and begging for food.” The householder judges, “this is not the path of escape, it is not called perfect awakening, it is not a place to be praised, it is not to be relied on.” The outsider asks the householder in return, and the householder declares of himself: “the householder Zhiduoluo will never again be born by way of the womb, never again add to the burial mounds, never again arise in blood and breath; of the five lower bonds as the World-Honored One has taught them, I do not see one that is not cut off.” The outsider weeps and asks what he should do; the householder has him go forth in the true Dharma and discipline, provides him with robe and bowl, and having gone forth he “attained arhatship.” In 574 Nirgrantha Jñātiputra asks, “do you believe that the ascetic Gautama attains the samādhi without initial and sustained thought?” and the householder answers, “I have not come because of belief.” The Nirgrantha says that to still initial and sustained thought is like binding the wind with a rope or damming the Ganges with earth; the householder asks, “does faith come first, or does knowledge come first?” and the Nirgrantha answers, “faith should come first, and then there is knowledge; comparing faith and knowledge, knowledge is the superior.” The householder then states of himself: “I have already sought and attained the stilling of initial and sustained thought, inner purity and oneness of mind, without initial and sustained thought, with joy and happiness born of samādhi, and dwell having attained the second dhyāna,” dwelling in it constantly by day and by night, and “having such knowledge, what need is there to believe in the World-Honored One?” The Nirgrantha first calls the householder upright and then rebukes him as crooked, and the householder turns it on him: “if what you said before was true, then what you said after is false; if what you said after is true, then what you said before is false,” and asks him further whether he has “one question, one statement, one declaration, up to ten questions, ten statements, ten declarations”; the Nirgrantha “fell silent, shook his head, folded his arms, and went out.” The two discourses have one meaning: what the householder has is knowledge, not faith. In 573 he shows it by declaring of himself that the five lower bonds are ended; in 574 by his own dwelling in the second dhyāna. The first is to an outsider who mortifies himself; the second to an outsider who claims that knowledge and seeing are constantly present. The Nirgrantha himself says knowledge is superior to faith, and the householder answers him precisely with knowledge; the standard the Nirgrantha sets becomes the householder’s proof. “What need is there to believe in the World-Honored One?” is not disbelief in the World-Honored One; it is that what has been attained is no longer a matter of belief. The five doors of the purity of seeing all return to “having faith in the true Dharma,” and what faith accomplishes is knowledge.

XIV. The Seeing of the Gods and the Seeing of the Dharma (Discourse 575)

The householder is sick, and the gods urge him, “you should make the vow to become a wheel-turning king”; the householder answers, “if I became a wheel-turning king, that too would be impermanent, suffering, empty, and not self.” His relatives, hearing his words, take them for raving and tell him, “you should fix your mindfulness”; the householder says that he was answering the gods, not raving, and states of himself: “I now set my mind only on this: never again to see birth by way of the womb, never to add to the burial mounds, never to take on blood and breath; of the five lower bonds as the World-Honored One has taught them, I do not see that I have any”—in the same phrase as his declaration in 573. Then “sitting cross-legged, with right mindfulness before him,” he speaks a verse of fifteen lines: “Partaking of food, storing up what is stored, / widely crossing over the many perils, / giving to the supreme field of merit, / planting these five kinds of power”; though a layman, “I have gained all these benefits and am already free of the many perils”; making offerings to those who keep the precepts, to the arhats, to the hearers and sages, “practicing many gifts, / giving to the good fields of merit, / dying in this world, / one is born by transformation in heaven,” and “wherever one is reborn, one is never without gladness.” Having spoken, he dies and “is born in the Heaven of the Unburning.” The god returns to the Mango Grove, and a certain bhikṣu asks in verse, “Whose is this wondrous heavenly form, / abiding in the empty sky?” and the god answers: “In the Mango Grove, / the householder Zhiduoluo, / with pure precepts complete, / with mindfulness fixed, himself at peace, / with the body of liberation complete, / and the body of wisdom likewise: / I have come because I know the Dharma; / sir, you should know this: / there he will attain nirvāṇa; / such is this Dharma.” The gods teach him to vow for a wheel-turning kingship: that is the seeing of the gods. What the householder sees is impermanence, suffering, emptiness, and not self: that is the seeing of the Dharma. The verse does not speak of his concentration, only of his giving; what a lay disciple practices is giving and keeping the precepts, and what he attains is the three bodies complete: precepts, liberation, and wisdom. “I have come because I know the Dharma” is the reason for his coming, and the resting place of the whole fascicle.

XV. How to Read the Fascicle

This fascicle can be read in three ways. The first is to read what dharma each of the two speakers teaches. Of Ānanda’s seven discourses, five answer someone’s question or respond to someone’s request, while in 560 he addresses the bhikṣus and in 565 he teaches the youths: the fruit of the samādhi of the mind without perception, the four paths for one who declares of oneself, relying on desire to cut off craving, rightly directed and rightly arrived, the three kinds of leaving the burning, cutting off by relying on food, conceit, and craving, the four kinds of purity. Not one of the seven answers is Ānanda’s own view: “what the Tathāgata, the Worthy One, the Perfectly Awakened One knows and sees” appears three times, and “the World-Honored One says” twice. In the householder’s ten discourses, the householder states his own seeing, declares his own realization, dwells in his own concentration; yet what he explains is still the World-Honored One’s verse and the World-Honored One’s samādhis, and what he declares is still “the five lower bonds as the World-Honored One has taught them.”

The second is to read how the disciples speak. Twice Ānanda says, “now I shall question you; answer me as you wish,” letting the brāhmaṇa and the householder answer for themselves and then confirming it; twice Naqiedaduo asks the householder whether he had heard this meaning before, in two slightly differing wordings, and the householder each time answers that he had not; with the outsider, the householder first asks whether he has any superhuman state and then declares his own realization; with the Nirgrantha, he first asks, “does faith come first, or does knowledge come first?” states what he himself has attained in the second dhyāna, and then presses him: one who does not know even small matters, how could he know superhuman states? To question someone and let him answer for himself; to explain a meaning only after asking whether it came from the World-Honored One; to answer someone by first stating one’s own realization—the Dharma spoken by the disciples does not rest on the speaker’s authority but on the hearer’s own knowing.

The third is to read faith and knowledge. The five doors of the purity of seeing go “up to having faith in the true Dharma”: faith comes after seeing. The Nirgrantha says “faith should come first, and then there is knowledge”; the householder answers with knowledge and not with faith; the verse at his death does not speak of faith but says “I have come because I know the Dharma.” The part spoken by the disciples begins in Fascicle 18 with “there is a path, there is a way,” and ends in this fascicle with “what need is there to believe in the World-Honored One?” One believes in the World-Honored One and cultivates; cultivating, one has knowledge; and with knowledge, what was called faith has accomplished its work. The worth of what is spoken by the disciples lies not in their faith but in that what they speak is the same as the World-Honored One’s, and comes from their own knowing.

Carrying Forward — The Compendium of Topics on Who Speaks

This fascicle has no recitation title; it continues what Fascicle 18 marks at its head as “the Recitation Spoken by the Disciples, Part Four.” The Topics of the Sūtras in the Compendium of Topics has no item-by-item gloss on this part. What it relies on is only the treatise’s own statement: the Compendium of Topics says that the Saṃyukta Āgama “proclaims the connected discourses spoken by the Tathāgata and by the disciples,” and says that all the connected discourses are summed up under three aspects, “first, the one who speaks; second, what is spoken; third, for whom it is spoken,” and that “the Tathāgata, or the Tathāgata’s disciples, are the ones who speak. As with what is spoken by the disciples, so with the portion spoken by the Buddha.” The sūtra names the part “spoken by the disciples”; the treatise sets up “the Tathāgata’s disciples are the ones who speak” as its aspect. In the seventeen discourses of this fascicle, the ones who speak are all disciples, and the World-Honored One’s words appear only as they are related. The treatise marks only this one aspect, and the meaning of this fascicle can carry forward only this one statement; the rest is the sūtra’s own teaching, and no further matching term of the treatise is set up for it.