辯中邊論 辯得果品第六（連續

Having cultivated such a road — the thirty-seven factors, the eighteen stages — what, in the end, does one gain? This chapter answers precisely that. The foregoing chapters spoke of the "cause"; this one speaks of the "fruit."

It speaks first through the five fruits of common Abhidharma teaching: cultivation yields the body that upholds the noble path (the maturation fruit), the dominant force that makes wholesome factors of the highest grade (the dominant fruit), the deep delight in the wholesome that comes of cultivating it in former lives (the outflow fruit), the swift completion of wholesome roots through present diligence (the fruit of effort), and finally the disjunction fruit — obstacle-severance, permanent freedom from bondage. The first four are common to the tainted and the untainted; only this last, "disjunction," is unconditioned in substance and gained by the untainted alone — the fruit of the path becomes the truly supramundane attainment only at this step of "obstacle-severance."

Then it briefly opens ten fruits, laying out the whole course of the bodhisattva's attainment in a single line: from the "first fruit" of the path of seeing, through learner and beyond-learner, all the way to the bodhisattva grounds' "fruit having a beyond" and the buddha-ground's "unsurpassed fruit." The chapter's culmination falls right here — "the unsurpassed fruit = the buddha-ground." The fruit having reached the buddha-ground, the next chapter, "The Unsurpassed Vehicle," follows of its own accord to ask: why is this path the unsurpassed Great Vehicle?

In other words, this chapter does not merely tally the harvest of practice; it carries that harvest all the way to its summit — pointing straight to the buddha-ground — and lays the thread for the treatise's final chapter.

If you want to know what each of the five fruits refers to, why the "disjunction fruit" alone is unconditioned, and how the ten fruits lay out the whole course from the path of seeing to the buddha-ground, the exposition layer will walk you through it section by section; to go deeper, there are the verses themselves, Vasubandhu's commentary, and the ancient masters' findings. For now, just here, let one question settle in you: the "fruit" you hope practice will bring — is it a passing ease, or that true, irreversible attainment of obstacle severed and bondage left behind?

This chapter sets out the fruit attained in dependence on the stages of cultivation: first the five fruits proper, then briefly the ten further fruits.

〔1〕The five fruits

器說為異熟，力是彼增上， 愛樂增長淨，如次即五果。

The five fruits attained through cultivation, respectively: the vessel (the capacitated supporting body, as a vessel holds) is called the maturation fruit (the maturation summoned by past karma); power (the capacity that cultivation accomplishes) is the dominant fruit of it (the fruit of dominant force); delight (what is enjoyed) is the outflow fruit (the fruit that flows out homogeneous with its cause); growth (progressive increase) is the fruit of effort (the fruit accomplished by one's own exertion); purity (the purity that is free of stain) is the disjunction fruit (the fruit disclosed by separation from bondage). Vessel, power, delight, growth, purity — respectively the maturation, dominant, outflow, effort, and disjunction fruits, the five.

〔2〕The ten further fruits

復略說餘果，後後初數習， 究竟順障滅，離勝上無上。

Further, briefly, ten more fruits, all alternative ways of speaking of the attainment of fruit: the each-later fruit (each stage being fruit relative to the one before, in succession), the first fruit (the fruit attained at the outset), the fruit of repeated practice (accomplished by cultivating again and again), the ultimate fruit (the fruit at the very limit), the conducive fruit (the fruit inclined toward further advance), the fruit of obscuration's cessation (the fruit disclosed when obscuration is exhausted), the disjunction fruit (the fruit of separation from bondage), the excellent fruit (the fruit that surpasses), the fruit-with-a-beyond (with further advance still above it), and the unsurpassed fruit (the ultimate, unsurpassed buddha-fruit). The five fruits set out directly, the ten gathered alongside — the character of attaining fruit being manifest, the next chapter, on the unsurpassed vehicle, sets out why this path is unsurpassed.

The previous two chapters spoke of the "cause of cultivation" — "Cultivation of the Antidotes" said what is cultivated (the thirty-seven factors), "Stages of Cultivation" said what stages it passes through. The causal practice now complete, this chapter asks next: what is the "fruit" attained through cultivation? In only two verses it first sets out the "five fruits" of common Abhidharma teaching, then briefly states the "ten further fruits," opening the fruit out to the very summit of the bodhisattva path — the buddha-ground.

Kuiji notes the connecting logic of this chapter: "the causal practice of cultivation being complete, the discourse follows on to the fruit." The "object" and "practice" set out in the foregoing chapters are all the cause of cultivation; the cause being complete, it is only right to speak next of the fruit. So this chapter is devoted to one question: in dependence on that foregoing causal cultivation, what fruit is gained?

1. The Five Fruits: From the Body That Receives the Path, to the Disjunction of Obstacle-severance

The first verse fits the fruit attained through cultivating the antidotes to the five fruits of common Abhidharma teaching.

The vessel is called the maturation; power is its dominance; delight, growth, purity — these in order are the five fruits.

The verse uses five words — vessel, power, delight, growth, purity — to fit, in order, the five fruits, which Vasubandhu opens one by one:

• Vessel — the maturation fruit (vipāka-phala). The matured body that accords with wholesome factors (the bodily "vessel" that upholds the noble path; summoned by past wholesome karma, its nature is karmically neutral).
• Power — the dominant fruit (adhipati-phala). By the dominant force of that bodily vessel, the wholesome factors cultivated are made of the highest grade.
• Delight — the outflow fruit (niṣyanda-phala). By the force of cultivating the wholesome again and again in former lives, in this life one comes to delight deeply in wholesome factors (the fruit flowing out homogeneous with its cause, hence "outflow").
• Growth — the fruit of effort (puruṣakāra-phala). By the force of cultivating the wholesome again and again in the present, the wholesome roots cultivated swiftly reach completion (accomplished by one's own exertion, hence "effort").
• Purity — the disjunction fruit (visaṃyoga-phala). That is, "obstacle-severance," the gaining of permanent freedom from bondage.

These five (maturation, dominant, outflow, effort, disjunction) are the standard fruit-categories of Abhidharma, here fitted to "cultivating the antidotes." One distinction to mark (which Kuiji draws): the first four fruits (vessel, power, delight, growth) are common to both the tainted and the untainted; only the last, the disjunction fruit (purity), is unconditioned (asaṃskṛta) in substance and gained by the untainted alone — for what is gained by the tainted is no "permanent freedom." The fruit of the path reaches the true, supramundane attainment only at this step of "disjunction" (obstacle-severance).

2. The Ten Further Fruits: Opening the Whole Course of the Bodhisattva's Attainment

The second verse (the chapter's conclusion) states, beyond the five fruits, "further fruits" that are ten.

Further, in brief, the further fruits: each-later, first, repeated-practice, ultimate, conducive, obstacle-cessation, disjunction, excellent, having-a-beyond, unsurpassed.

Vasubandhu sets out the ten one by one:

1. The each-later fruit — by the "lineage" one gains the fruit of "aspiration," and so each later stage is gained from the one before, in mutual succession.
2. The first fruit — the first realization of the supramundane (that is, the path of seeing).
3. The fruit of repeated practice — the learner stages from this point on.
4. The ultimate fruit — the factors of one beyond learning.
5. The conducive fruit — the gradual succession of the cause (subsumed under the "each-later fruit").
6. The fruit of obstacle-cessation — the severing path (the "first fruit"), so called because it severs the obstacle.
7. The disjunction fruit — the "repeated-practice" and "ultimate" fruits, the learner and beyond-learner stages each in turn freed from the bondage of the afflictions.
8. The excellent fruit — the supernormal powers and other distinguished qualities.
9. The fruit having a beyond — the bodhisattva grounds (having surpassed the other vehicles, but not yet a buddha, so the buddha-ground is still above).
10. The unsurpassed fruit — the buddha-ground (above which there is no further excellent factor).

Vasubandhu makes plain that of these ten, the latter six (conducive, obstacle-cessation, disjunction, excellent, having-a-beyond, unsurpassed) are in fact the differentiated unfolding of the first four (each-later, first, repeated-practice, ultimate). Drawn together, these ten are precisely the whole course of the bodhisattva's attainment — from the "first fruit" (the path of seeing), through "repeated-practice" (learner) and "ultimate" (beyond-learner), all the way to "having a beyond" (the bodhisattva grounds) and "unsurpassed" (the buddha-ground). Its culmination falls on "the unsurpassed fruit = the buddha-ground"; and this opens directly onto the next chapter, "The Unsurpassed Vehicle" — the fruit having reached the buddha-ground, one naturally asks: why is this path the unsurpassed Great Vehicle?

Vasubandhu finally adds a "general sense of attaining the fruit," gathering the mutual subsumption of the five fruits and the further fruits under six headings: receiving (the five fruits), differentiation (the further fruits), former cultivation (the maturation fruit), each-later evoking (the other four fruits), statement (the four — each-later and the rest), and explanation (the six — conducive and the rest, which differentiate the first four). These six headings gather, once more from the angle of "mutual subsumption," all the fruits set out above.

Conclusion: A Single Line through the Attainment of the Fruit

Drawing the two verses together, this chapter is a line that moves from the common to the particular, from cause toward fruit, ending at the buddha-ground:

The five fruits fit the standard Abhidharma fruit-categories (maturation, dominant, outflow, effort, disjunction) to what is attained through cultivating the antidotes — showing the fruit of causal cultivation, with the "disjunction fruit" (obstacle-severance, unconditioned, gained by the untainted alone) as the true supramundane attainment; the ten further fruits open the whole course of the bodhisattva's attainment, from the "first fruit" of the path of seeing to the "unsurpassed fruit" of the buddha-ground, gathered under the six headings of the "general sense of attaining the fruit."

From "the cause complete, the fruit follows by right reason," through "disjunction is the true supramundane attainment," to "the unsurpassed fruit is the buddha-ground" — the "Attainment of the Fruit" chapter offers a map that points from the fruit of causal cultivation straight to the buddha-ground; and its closing word, "unsurpassed," is the very thread that draws in the next chapter, "The Unsurpassed Vehicle."