辯中邊論 義疏通講

What follows covers the first arc of the "Characteristics" chapter — from the opening "table of contents" verse to the eighth verse's "path of seeing." This arc is a single complete line of thought: first it establishes the middle, then it opens the three natures, and finally it turns from "characteristics" into "practice." For the eleven emptiness verses from [009] onward, the doctrine is fully covered in this chapter's vernacular and apparatus layers.

The Madhyāntavibhāga is a treatise whose root verses were composed by the bodhisattva Maitreya and whose commentary (bhāṣya) was written by the bodhisattva Vasubandhu. The title means "Distinguishing the Middle from the Extremes" — separating the right view (the middle) from two kinds of mistaken view (the extremes). The whole treatise has 113 verses; Xuanzang's translation divides it into seven chapters. This first chapter, "Characteristics" (lakṣaṇa), treats the characteristics of how things really are — that is: what, ultimately, all things are like.

First we must be clear about the two "extremes" this treatise is most concerned with, because the whole chapter turns on them:

• One is reification (samāropa) — asserting that what is not there is there; taking the unreal for the real.
• One is denial (apavāda) — asserting that what is there is not there; sweeping away even what should be granted.

The "middle" (madhyamā pratipad) is not splitting the difference "between" these two. It is seeing as it is: granting the existence of what does exist, and seeing through the non-existence of what does not. The first arc of this chapter sets that "seeing as it is" up, step by step.

〔Uddāna〕The Table of Contents: Seven Chapters, Seven Topics

The first verse states no doctrine; it only lists the contents. It names, all at once, the seven things the whole treatise will treat:

characteristics, obscuration, reality, cultivating the antidotes, the stages [of that cultivation], attaining the fruit, the unsurpassed vehicle.

These seven are the seven chapters:

1. Characteristics — the characteristics of how things really are (the present chapter).
2. Obscuration — the afflictions that veil those characteristics.
3. Reality — that on which those characteristics rest.
4. Cultivating the antidotes — the practice that counters those veils.
5. The stages — the levels the cultivation passes through.
6. Attaining the fruit — the fruit realized through that cultivation.
7. The unsurpassed vehicle — why this whole path is the unsurpassed Great Vehicle.

The ancient masters gather these seven further into three: object, practice, fruit. The first two chapters (characteristics, obscuration) are the object to be contemplated; the middle three (reality, antidotes, stages) are the practice to be undertaken; the last two (fruit, unsurpassed vehicle) are the fruit to be realized. So the whole treatise is, in fact, a single road of "object → practice → fruit." This verse sets up the seven signposts of that road; from the next verse on, we enter the first stop.

1. The Root Verse of the Middle: False Imagining "Exists"

The second verse is the eye of the whole treatise — everything looks through this one verse. In four clauses it establishes the middle:

False imagining exists; within it the two are both absent; here there is only emptiness; and in that, this too exists.

First, the term false imagining (abhūta-parikalpa). It names the ongoing activity of mind discriminating and constructing. It is called "false" not because it does not occur, but because what it presents is unreliable — things are not as it presents them. The activity itself is fully, really going on; it is the presented appearance of "me over here facing an object over there" that is false.

The four clauses, opened up:

• "False imagining exists." This activity of discrimination exists. (It is what the three natures will call the other-dependent — paratantra — the flow of mind arising in dependence on conditions.)
• "Within it the two are both absent." "The two" are the grasper (the grasping side, e.g. "I") and the grasped (the side grasped at, e.g. "the object"). The moment mind stirs, it splits into these two poles, "I here, object there." But regarding this false imagining itself, these two poles are forever absent. (This is the wholly-imagined nature — parikalpita — the subject-object opposition fabricated by reckoning, which never held in the first place.)
• "Here there is only emptiness." Within this very false imagining, the emptiness (śūnyatā) that is free of the two — grasper and grasped — does exist. This emptiness is suchness (tathatā), the very essence of false imagining.
• "And in that, this too exists." "That" is the emptiness (suchness); within suchness, likewise, there is only this false imagining — the imagining is not apart from suchness.

Taken together, the four clauses are an "exists — absent — exists — exists" pattern: the other-dependent exists, the wholly-imagined is absent, the perfectly-accomplished (suchness) exists, and the other-dependent is not apart from the perfectly-accomplished. It is neither "really existent" (this rules out reification) nor "wholly void" (this rules out denial) — and this "falling to neither extreme" is the "middle."

Vasubandhu closes the verse in a single move: upon false imagining the two are indeed not there, so one "observes it as empty" (knowing the non-existent as non-existent — against reification); yet the remainder — false imagining and suchness — is not nothing, so one "knows it truly as existing" (knowing the existent as existent — against denial). The middle is no compromise; it is seeing without error: the absence of the two, and the existence of the other-dependent and the perfectly-accomplished.

2. Extending to All Dharmas: Neither Empty Nor Non-Empty

The second verse established the four clauses for the single matter of "false imagining"; the third verse carries the same principle to all dharmas, and points to its scriptural ground:

Therefore all dharmas are spoken of as neither empty nor non-empty — because of existence, non-existence, and existence again — and this accords with the middle.

The opening "therefore … is spoken of" matters. Vasubandhu states plainly that this "well accords with the Prajñāpāramitā and other sūtras, which say all dharmas are neither empty nor existent" — that is, this middle is not the author's invention but follows the Perfection-of-Wisdom sūtras' "all dharmas are neither empty nor existent." The emptiness that consciousness-only teaches just is the emptiness the Prajñā sūtras teach; the only difference is that it is more precise.

"All dharmas" here is exactly specified. Vasubandhu fixes it as: the conditioned (that is, false imagining, the other-dependent) plus the unconditioned (that is, the emptiness of the two-grasping, the perfectly-accomplished). As for the grasper-grasped duality of the wholly-imagined nature, "its substance is no dharma at all" — it does not even amount to a thing, and so is not counted among "dharmas." (The masters gloss "dharma" as "what can be held": only what can be held and stands as a thing is a dharma.)

So the double negation maps, term by term, onto the natures:

• "Not empty" — because the substance of the other-dependent and the perfectly-accomplished is not nothing, all dharmas cannot be called empty.
• "Not non-empty" — because the grasper-grasped of the wholly-imagined nature genuinely is not there, all dharmas cannot be called non-empty either.

The clause "because of existence, non-existence, and existence again" simply gathers up the "exists — absent — exists" of the second verse. The final clause, "this accords with the middle": all dharmas are "not one-sidedly empty, nor one-sidedly non-empty," and this is what fits the middle.

This verse directly counters the wrong grasp of emptiness — hearing "all is empty" and supposing all is nothing, which falls into the extreme of denial. Hold onto one sentence: what is emptied is the two-grasping; it is not that the other-dependent and the perfectly-accomplished are emptied along with it. The middle is not a balance struck between two assertions, but seeing rightly what it is that is ultimately empty.

3. How False Imagining Operates: The Four Semblances

The second and third verses fixed the middle; the fourth verse turns to how false imagining works — the transformation of consciousness (識變).

Consciousness arises transforming as the semblance of object, sentient being, self, and cognizing; these objects are truly non-existent; the object being absent, consciousness too is absent.

The moment consciousness arises, it transforms-as four kinds of "semblance" ("semblance" meaning "seeming to be" — looking as if present, yet not as it looks):

• semblance of object (artha) — appearing as form and the other outer objects.
• semblance of sentient being (sattva) — appearing as the five sense-faculties of one's own and others' bodies.
• semblance of self (ātman) — the defiled manas, the seventh consciousness, ever conjoined with self-delusion, appearing as a "self."
• semblance of cognizing (vijñapti) — the first six consciousnesses, whose cognizing is comparatively coarse.

On the masters' settled (Cien-school) reading, these four are other-dependent: "semblance" means they are not real in substance, yet falsely appear as though they were real things — hence "semblance."

"These objects are truly non-existent" — the four objects so transformed are not truly there. "The object being absent, consciousness too is absent" — since the grasped four objects do not amount to anything real, the grasping consciousness too, so far as taking it to be real is concerned, does not amount to anything real. This is the consciousness-transformation form of the second verse's "the two are both absent": it is not that the outer object exists first and consciousness then grasps it, but that consciousness itself transforms-as the object, and the object being absent from the start, the grasping side cannot stand either.

Note one point: "the object being absent, consciousness too is absent" dispels its being-taken-as-real — it does not dismiss it as wholly nothing. The fifth verse, immediately following, secures exactly this.

4. The Other-Dependent, "Neither Really Existent Nor Wholly Non-Existent"

The fifth verse gathers the previous three (the four clauses, all dharmas, the transformation) and gives false imagining — the other-dependent — a precise placement: neither really existent, nor wholly non-existent.

The nature of false imagining is established by this principle: it is neither really existent nor wholly non-existent — because, granting its cessation, there is liberation.

• "Neither really existent" — what it presents (the two-grasping appearance) is not real, not as presented; so it is not "really existent."
• "[Nor] wholly non-existent" — yet within it a slight "disturbed consciousness" (false imagining itself) still arises; so it is not "wholly nothing."

The decisive part is the final reason — "because, granting its cessation, there is liberation." Vasubandhu asks: on what ground do we refuse to grant it wholly non-existent? Answer: because we grant that "ceasing it brings liberation." Consider: if false imagining were wholly non-existent from the start, there would be nothing to cease and no bondage to loosen — "liberation" simply could not be spoken of. Precisely because it "must have a slight substance" (something really there), ceasing it can issue in liberation.

Vasubandhu then locks the argument: if one forcibly dismisses false imagining as wholly non-existent, then bondage and liberation both vanish, and defilement and purity are wiped out together — falling into the great error of "denying defilement and purity."

This verse is consciousness-only's frontline defense against the wrong grasp of emptiness, and the ground of "the other-dependent is not nothing," the lifeline of consciousness-only. In one sentence: the "existence" of the other-dependent rests precisely on the possibility of practice-realization — empty the wholly-imagined two-grasping, yet keep the other-dependent's conditioned arising, and only then do defilement and purity, bondage and liberation, have a place to stand; were all emptied alike, practice and realization would have nowhere to set foot.

5. Naming the Three Natures: Three Faces of One False Imagining

At the sixth verse, the other-dependent, the wholly-imagined, and the perfectly-accomplished — referred to again and again above — are finally given three fixed names, with the ground of each name stated:

Only the wholly-imagined, the other-dependent, and the perfectly-accomplished nature — spoken of, respectively, by reason of object, of discrimination, and of the two emptinesses.

Vasubandhu assigns each:

• the wholly-imagined nature (parikalpita) — established by reason of the "object" that false imagining takes (the two-grasping object the mind faces).
• the other-dependent nature (paratantra) — established by reason of the "nature" (substance) of false imagining (the discriminating mind itself).
• the perfectly-accomplished nature (pariniṣpanna) — established by reason of the "two emptinesses," that grasper and grasped are both empty (the emptiness of the two-grasping).

The lower two clauses, "by reason of object, of discrimination, and of the two emptinesses," are just the ground of these three namings: object (wholly-imagined), discrimination (other-dependent), two emptinesses (perfectly-accomplished).

The one point to hold from this verse: the three natures are not three independent things, but three faces of one and the same false imagining — the object it takes is the wholly-imagined; the discriminating substance is the other-dependent; the emptiness of the two-grasping is the perfectly-accomplished. One false imagining subsumes all three natures. The three natures named, Vasubandhu at once turns: "upon this very false imagining, cultivate contemplation so as to enter the signlessness of the two-grasping" — and so we pass from "characteristics" (the establishing of the three natures) into "practice" (contemplation).

6. From "Characteristics" into "Practice": The Path of Means

The seventh verse is the body of the previous verse's closing "means of entering signlessness" — how one cultivates contemplation in order to enter the signlessness of the two-grasping. It sets out a sequence:

In dependence on consciousness's attaining, the non-attaining of the object arises; in dependence on the object's non-attaining, the non-attaining of consciousness arises.

"Attaining / non-attaining" (upalabdhi / anupalabdhi) means: grasper and grasped "standing up / failing to stand." The cultivation here goes in two steps:

• Step one — in dependence on first establishing "consciousness-only" (consciousness, attaining), one thereby sees the outer object as un-attainable (no object attained).
• Step two — the object now un-attainable, the grasping consciousness too becomes un-attainable (no consciousness attained).

The masters map the two steps onto the four aids to penetration: the upper two clauses, "mind exists, object absent," are the stages of heat and summit (first contemplating the emptiness of the grasped); the lower two, "object absent, consciousness too absent," are the stage of forbearance (then contemplating the emptiness of the grasper).

The key to this verse is precisely this sequence: not crying "object and consciousness are both empty" in one stroke, but object first, then consciousness — first establishing consciousness-only to dispel the outer object, then, from the object's absence, dispelling the grasping consciousness. Consciousness-only's calm-and-insight is no airy talk of emptiness; it is contemplation with a place to begin and a ladder to climb.

7. The Fundamental Path: The Equality of the Two Absences

The eighth verse is the summit of this line of practice — it explains "the equality of the two absences," what the path of seeing (the fundamental path) directly realizes:

Because consciousness has the property of attaining, it too comes to be un-attained; therefore one knows: the two attainings, in their non-attaining-nature, are equal.

Pressing on from the previous verse:

• "Because consciousness has the property of attaining" — when consciousness arises, it appears as manifold objects, and so is called "attaining."
• "It too comes to be un-attained" — but the attained object having no real nature, the attaining (consciousness)'s real nature too fails to be established; so consciousness "too comes to be un-attained."
• "Therefore one knows: the two attainings, in their non-attaining-nature, are equal" — since even the attaining consciousness is un-attained, the grasped and the grasper (formerly both still counted as "attaining") alike, and equally, come to be of the "non-attaining" nature.

The masters put it exactly: "not one alone being absent — hence 'equal.'" It is not that only the object is absent while consciousness still stands; rather grasper and grasped alike dissolve, and so it is called "equal."

This is the path of seeing: grasper and grasped both dissolved, equal and of one taste. Notice the division of labour between the seventh and eighth verses — the seventh is the path of means (object first, then consciousness, dispelled in sequence); the eighth is the fundamental path (grasper and grasped dissolved together, with no sequence). The culmination of consciousness-only contemplation does not stop at the step "consciousness exists, object absent" (which is still "attaining," still keeping a grasper); it goes all the way to "grasper and grasped alike un-attained" — and only then has one truly left the two-grasping mark and come to rest in true consciousness-only.

Conclusion: The Single Line of the First Arc

Read as a whole, the first arc of "Characteristics" is one complete line:

The first verse lists the seven-chapter contents of the whole treatise; the second verse establishes the root four clauses of the middle (exists — absent — exists — exists), breaking the two extremes of reification and denial; the third verse carries this middle to all dharmas and ties it to the Prajñā sūtras, showing that consciousness-only's emptiness just is the Prajñā sūtras' emptiness, only more precise; the fourth verse shows how false imagining operates by "transforming as the four semblances," the object absent and so consciousness too absent; the fifth verse secures the other-dependent as "neither really existent nor wholly non-existent," holding the line against denial with "granting its cessation, there is liberation," and so steadying the lifeline "the other-dependent is not nothing"; the sixth verse formally names the three natures, and points out that the three are only three faces of one false imagining; the seventh verse turns from "characteristics" into "practice," teaching the path of means for entering signlessness (object first, then consciousness; mapped to heat, summit, forbearance); and the eighth verse arrives at the fundamental path — the equality of the two absences, the realization of the path of seeing.

Establish the middle, open the three natures, turn from characteristics into practice, and arrive at the path of seeing — this is the first arc of the "Characteristics" chapter, a complete path leading from "seeing clearly what things are like" to "directly realizing that the two-grasping is, of itself, empty."

The first chapter, "Characteristics," set out how things really are. This second chapter, "Obscurations," asks the practical sequel: if reality is so, then what is it that veils it — keeping us from seeing it and from realizing it? The answer is "obscuration." From start to finish this chapter is a catalogue of what is to be severed — listing every veil, from the general to the particular, from the coarse to the subtle, and finally gathering them back into two root obscurations. It is the exact counterpart of the next chapter, "Cultivating the Antidotes" (which treats the severing power).

The Madhyāntavibhāga is a treatise whose root verses were composed by the bodhisattva Maitreya and whose commentary (bhāṣya) was written by the bodhisattva Vasubandhu; Xuanzang's translation divides it into seven chapters. The first chapter treated the characteristics of reality; this chapter treats the obscurations that veil it.

First, what is an "obscuration" (āvaraṇa)? The whole chapter turns on the word, so Kuiji fixes its name by two senses:

• one, it covers the knowable and keeps wisdom from arising — it veils what ought to be known, so that wisdom cannot come up;
• two, it bars true nirvāṇa and keeps it from being realized — it stands before real nirvāṇa, so that one cannot reach it.

Whatever does these two things is an "obscuration." All this chapter does is identify these veils one by one — not to list names, but because once you have seen clearly what is to be severed, your practice has something to aim at.

1. The Overview: The Five Obscurations and the Two Lineages

The first verse ([024]) is the chapter's heading-stanza; it gives the overview first, gathering obscuration into five kinds, each matched to the lineage it obstructs (the practitioner's type of disposition — the bodhisattva lineage, the śrāvaka and other two-vehicle lineages).

Full-portion and partial; intensified and equal; the grasping-and-rejecting of saṃsāra — these are said to obscure the two lineages.

The five, one by one:

• Full-portion obscuration — "full-portion" means "both present at once": the afflictive obscuration and the cognitive obscuration together, obstructing specifically the dharmas of the bodhisattva lineage. (The bodhisattva seeks the non-duality of compassion and wisdom; these two obscurations obstruct compassion and wisdom separately, so nothing less than severing both will do.)
• Partial obscuration — "partial" means "only one side": the afflictive obscuration alone, obstructing the dharmas of the śrāvaka and other two-vehicle lineages. (The two vehicles seek only to sever the afflictions and end birth-and-death, so only this one portion obstructs them.)
• Intensified obscuration — when, among greed and the other afflictions, some one is especially inflamed (one coarse affliction predominating).
• Equal obscuration — when the afflictions operate evenly, in equal measure, all together (equal-portion conduct).
• The obscuration of grasping-and-rejecting saṃsāra — the dharma-clinging that grasps nirvāṇa and rejects saṃsāra: in a hurry to seize nirvāṇa and push saṃsāra away. It obstructs the non-abiding nirvāṇa the bodhisattva realizes (the great nirvāṇa that abides neither in saṃsāra nor in nirvāṇa).

The one phrase to remember here is Vasubandhu's "each as is fitting": the five do not obscure everyone uniformly across the board, but each meets the lineage it obstructs — the full-portion and grasping-rejecting obscurations obstruct the bodhisattva alone; the partial obstructs the two vehicles alone; the intensified and the equal obstruct across the board. The ancient masters (Kuiji) draw it finer: the first and fifth obstruct the bodhisattva only, the second the two vehicles only, the third and fourth all three vehicles. With this lineage-keyed overview set at the outset, the chapter can then unfold the particulars layer by layer.

2. First Particular: The Nine Faces of the Afflictive Obscuration — The Nine Fetters

The second and third verses ([025]–[026]) open the second part of the five obscurations, called the obscuration of right effort, whose content is the nine fetters. A "fetter" is a bond — the nine afflictions that bind one in birth-and-death: craving, aversion, conceit, ignorance, [wrong] views, clinging, doubt, envy, stinginess. These nine are the nine faces of the afflictive obscuration.

The nine characteristics of affliction are the nine fetters beginning with craving; the first two obstruct disgust and relinquishing, the other seven obstruct true seeing — obstructing [the full-knowledge of] the view-of-self, its basis, cessation, the path, the Jewels, gain-and-honor, and seclusion.

What the fetters obstruct splits two ways:

• The first two (craving, aversion) obstruct "disgust and relinquishing": the fetter of craving obstructs disgust — one cannot turn away from agreeable objects; the fetter of aversion obstructs relinquishing — one cannot let go of disagreeable objects.
• The remaining seven (conceit, ignorance, views, clinging, doubt, envy, stinginess) obstruct "true seeing" — that is, they obstruct, in order, the seven full-knowledges ("full-knowledge" = a thorough, all-round knowing of a given object).

Vasubandhu pairs the seven finely, in order:

• Conceit obstructs the full-knowledge of the false view-of-self — in cultivating direct realization, conceit keeps surging up, and so the view-of-self (taking the five aggregates for a self) is hard to sever.
• Ignorance obstructs the full-knowledge of the basis of the view-of-self — not understanding the "appropriating aggregates" (the contaminated five aggregates) on which the view-of-self rests, its root cannot be pulled out.
• [Wrong] views obstruct the full-knowledge of the truth of cessation — the view of self-existence and the view of extremes dread "cessation" (fearing annihilation), and wrong view denies "cessation" (denying there is nirvāṇa).
• Clinging obstructs the full-knowledge of the truth of the path — taking a non-path for the path, reckoning other dharmas purifying.
• Doubt obstructs the full-knowledge of the Three Jewels — doubting their qualities, unwilling to accept them in faith.
• Envy obstructs the full-knowledge regarding gain and honor — not seeing the faults in gain and honor, and so being snared by them.
• Stinginess obstructs the full-knowledge of seclusion — attached to the requisites of life, so the wisdom of "seclusion" (few wants, contentment, the power to let go) is veiled.

The point: the nine fetters are no arbitrary string but are sorted by the order of practice — first "disgust and relinquishing" counter the first two (craving, aversion); then the seven full-knowledges remove the other seven in order. The characteristics of the afflictive obscuration at the stage of "right effort" thus fall into clear sequence.

3. Second Particular: The Causal Obscuration — What the Growth of the Good Lacks

The next six-and-a-half verses ([027]–[033]) treat the causal obscuration, the most finely analyzed part of the chapter. What it obstructs is no longer "the defilement of the afflictions" (as the nine fetters were), but what is "lacking or inverted" in the bodhisattva's growth in good dharmas — conditions that should be present are missing, practices that should be straight have gone crooked.

Its structure: first five verses ([027]–[031]) list thirty obstructors; then two verses ([032]–[033]) list the ten good dharmas these obstruct, concluding "each good dharma has three obscurations."

The thirty obstructors paired with the ten good dharmas

The ten obstructed good dharmas are: the good, awakening, embracing (arousing bodhicitta), having-wisdom (the bodhisattva-nature), non-distraction, non-obscuration (the nature-obscuration severed), dedication, fearlessness, non-stinginess, mastery. Each has three obscurations, six per verse, six × five = thirty, paired in order (in brief):

• the good — no application, misplaced application, unreasoned application.
• awakening — not generating good, not arousing right reflection, the provisions incomplete.
• embracing (bodhicitta) — lacking lineage, lacking a good friend, extreme weariness.
• having-wisdom (the bodhisattva-nature) — lacking right practice, dwelling with "the base" (the dull-foolish), dwelling with "the evil" (those who delight in injuring others).
• non-distraction — inverted coarseness, some one obscuration not yet exhausted, the liberation-ripening wisdom not yet ripe.
• non-obscuration — innate coarseness, indolence, heedlessness.
• dedication — attachment to existence, attachment to goods, lowliness of mind.
• fearlessness — not trusting the worthy, no firm conviction in the dharma, construing by the letter (the surface words, missing the deep sense).
• non-stinginess — not honoring the true dharma, honoring reputation-and-gain instead, no compassion for beings.
• mastery — too little learning, scant learning, not cultivating superior concentration.

The ten efficient causes: the obscuration "bars the cause"

Vasubandhu goes a level deeper, using the ten efficient causes to state the obscuration's substance. Each of the ten good dharmas comes to be only through one "efficient cause" (the key condition that brings it about) — as eye-consciousness depends on the eye-faculty for its "arising," or nirvāṇa on the noble path for its "attainment"; and the obscuration is precisely what bars that cause. The ten pair with their causes: good — arising · awakening — abiding · embracing — upholding · having-wisdom — illuminating · non-distraction — transforming · non-obscuration — separating · dedication — turning · fearlessness — convincing · non-stinginess — disclosing · mastery — attaining.

The sequence of the ten good dharmas is one bodhisattva path

The deepest point here is Vasubandhu's "sequence of the ten meanings" — the ten are no jumble but one line of the bodhisattva path: wishing to realize awakening, first generate good roots; sustained by good roots, come to abide in awakening; to grow them, arouse the thought of awakening (embracing), which is the support of the bodhisattva-nature (having-wisdom); having aroused it, sever distortion and give rise to non-distraction; non-distraction on the Path of Seeing, so on the Path of Cultivation sever all obscuration (non-obscuration); having severed it, hold the good roots and dedicate them; sustained by dedication, be fearless before the profound and vast dharma; fearless, see its excellent qualities and expound it to others (non-stinginess); sustained by merit, swiftly realize awakening and attain mastery over all dharmas.

So the thirty obscurations are no scattered thirty pits, but bar this single line station by station. The point in a sentence: the obscuration lies not in "afflictive defilement" but in "lacking conditions, inverted practice," so its cure lies in "supplying conditions, straight practice." The chapter moves from the general (the five) into the particular (the nine fetters, the causal obscuration), analyzing the veils ever more finely — precisely to lay the ground for the next chapter, "Cultivating the Antidotes."

4. Third Particular (i): The Limbs of Awakening — The Thirty-Seven

From the eleventh verse ([034]), the analysis turns to stages of practice — for each concrete set of practices the bodhisattva cultivates, it states a distinct obscuration. The first is the limbs of awakening, the thirty-seven limbs (the thirty-seven aids toward awakening), in seven sets, each with one obscuration.

Unskilled in the matters; indolence; the samādhi deficient in two; not planting; feebleness; the fault of [faulty] seeing and of coarseness.

The seven sets, in order:

• four foundations of mindfulness — "unskilled in the matters": unskilled in the things observed (body, feeling, mind, dharmas).
• four right exertions — "indolence": indolence obstructs strenuous effort.
• four bases of supernormal power — "samādhi deficient in two": the concentration falls short in two respects (deficient in one of aspiration-effort-mind-investigation; deficient in one of the eight abandoning-practices).
• five faculties — "not planting": not having planted the full, liberation-conducive superior roots of good.
• five powers — "feebleness": the five faculties, mixed with obscuration, are weak.
• seven limbs of awakening — "the fault of [faulty] seeing": this is disclosed on the Path of Seeing.
• eight limbs of the noble path — "the fault of coarseness": this is disclosed on the Path of Cultivation.

The point: the obscuration of the limbs is no obscuration-substance apart, but the "mixing-in, the lacking" of each set's own cultivation — the foundations lack skill, right exertion is mixed with indolence, the bases lack a concentration-factor … down to the path-limbs mixed with coarseness. And their stage-order is clear (faculties and powers in the application stage — heat, summit, forbearance, supreme-mundane; the awakening-limbs in Seeing; the path-limbs in Cultivation), displaying that the limbs of awakening are themselves a path-sequence.

5. Third Particular (ii): The Six Perfections — The Ten Pāramitās

The twelfth and thirteenth verses ([035]–[036]) treat the distinct obscurations of the six perfections (unfolded as ten pāramitās). Here Vasubandhu uses a special device: what the verse names is the obscuration of the fruit attained by the ten perfections, and by "obstructing their fruit" it reveals in reverse the obscuration of the perfections themselves. (The masters note: this is a tatpuruṣa reading, not karmadhāraya — the nature of the perfection is not itself the obscuration; "obscuration" means obstructing its fruit.)

Obstructing wealth, good destinies, not forsaking beings, decreasing-faults-and-increasing-merits, bringing-to-enter, liberation; obstructing the inexhaustibility and uninterruptedness of giving and the rest, the settling of deeds done, and the ripening of the enjoyed dharma.

The ten perfections, each with its obstructed fruit (obscuration-substance noted, per Kuiji):

• giving — obstructs "wealth-and-mastery" (substance: stinginess).
• discipline — "good destinies" (breaking precepts).
• forbearance — "not forsaking beings" (anger-and-harm).
• vigor — "decreasing faults, increasing merits" (indolence).
• meditation — "bringing those-to-be-trained to enter the dharma" (distraction).
• wisdom — "liberation" (delusion).
• skillful means — "the inexhaustibility of giving and the rest" (delusion; by skillful means one dedicates to awakening, making giving inexhaustible).
• vow — "the uninterrupted continuance of good through all births" (absence of vow; the great vow embraces what accords with the good).
• power — "the settling of deeds done" (weakness of power; crucially, the perfection of power subdues obscuration — it is not subdued by it; the masters here expressly correct the old translation's "because the power of cultivation is weak it cannot subdue" as "gravely mistaken").
• knowledge — "the ripening of the dharma enjoyed by self and others" (not awakening to the meaning according to the letter heard; not discerning the sense for oneself).

The point: the first six perfections are the root of self-practice; the latter four (skillful means, vow, power, knowledge) are differentiations of wisdom that support the first six, making them inexhaustible, uninterrupted, settled, and ripening. So the perfections' fruit-obscurations display the completeness of bodhisattva practice.

6. Third Particular (iii): The Ten Stages — The Subtlest Cognitive Obscuration

The fourteenth through sixteenth verses ([037]–[039]) treat the distinct obscurations of the ten stages, the subtlest part of the chapter's analysis. On the ten stages, each stage realizes one "meaning of the dharma-realm" (one facet of suchness); and its obscuration is "undefiled ignorance" — a not-knowing without defilement. Crucially: this is not the "defilement" of the afflictions (the coarse afflictive obscuration is by now subdued), but the subtlest not-knowing of the cognitive obscuration, covering those ten meanings of the dharma-realm, severed stage by stage.

All-pervadingness, the supreme, the supreme outflow, non-appropriation, the non-difference of the continuum, the absence of defilement-and-purity, the non-difference of the manifold, neither increase nor decrease, and [the meaning of] the support of the four masteries. Within these ten dharma-realms there is undefiled ignorance, obscuring the qualities of the ten stages; hence the ten obscurations are stated.

The dharma-realm-meaning realized on each stage (mode of penetration noted):

• 1st — all-pervadingness (realizes the dharma-nature of the equality of self and others).
• 2nd — the supreme (cultivates all practices in accord with the common emergence).
• 3rd — the supreme outflow (knows the dharma heard to be the supreme outflow of the pure dharma-realm; to seek it, would cast oneself even into a fire-pit and not reckon it hard).
• 4th — non-appropriation (even the love-of-dharma is extinguished).
• 5th — the non-difference of the continuum (attains the pure mind of the ten equal intentions).
• 6th — the absence of defilement-and-purity (knows dependently-arisen dharmas to be neither defiled nor pure).
• 7th — the non-difference of the manifold dharmas (knows dharmas to be signless, not operating within the manifold dharma-characteristics of the sūtras and the rest).
• 8th — neither increase nor decrease (fully realizes the forbearance of the non-arising of dharmas; sees no dharma increase or decrease among defiled and pure).
• 8th · 9th · 10th — subsumed under the support of the four masteries: the 8th penetrates the first two (non-discrimination, pure-land), the 9th the mastery of knowledge (the unobstructed discernments), the 10th the mastery of activity (creating at will deeds that benefit and gladden beings).

The point: the obscuration of the ten stages is throughout "undefiled ignorance" — not coarse affliction, but the subtle cognitive obscuration covering the ten meanings of the dharma-realm, severed stage by stage; hence "obscuring the qualities of the ten stages" is set up as the ten obscurations. This is the cognitive obscuration at its subtlest along the bodhisattva path, leading into the Reality chapter (chapter 3) and the severance of the Antidotes chapter (chapter 4).

The Concluding Verse: All Obscuration Gathered into Two

The seventeenth verse ([040]) is the chapter's concluding verse. Having set out the veils layer by layer — the five, the nine fetters, the thirty of the causal obscuration, the distinct obscurations of the limbs, perfections, and stages — this verse gathers them all into two root obscurations:

Now that the afflictions and the cognitive obscurations have been stated — granting that these two are exhausted, one is liberated from all obscuration.

No obscuration falls outside these two: the afflictive obscuration (obstructing liberation) and the cognitive obscuration (obstructing omniscience). "Granting that these two are exhausted, one is liberated from all obscuration." Within this: the two vehicles sever only the afflictive obscuration and gain liberation; the bodhisattva severs both and realizes great awakening. This is the sum of what is to be severed that the chapter sets out — the exact counterpart of the next chapter's "severing power."

Beneath the verse, Vasubandhu sets out a table of the eleven summary-meanings of the foregoing obscurations, subsuming the whole chapter under eleven "synonyms" (angles of naming): the vast (= full-portion), the narrow (partial), the application (intensified), the attainment (equal), the special (grasping-rejecting), the right-effort (nine fetters), the causal (the thirty, the ten efficient causes), the obscuration-to-entering-reality (limbs of awakening), the obscuration-to-the-unsurpassed-purity (the perfections), the obscuration-to-this-differentiated-course (the ten stages), the subsuming (the two obscurations in brief). The first ten subsume all the chapter's particular veils; the eleventh, "the subsuming," gathers them back into the two — mirroring the concluding verse head to tail. With this the Obscurations chapter is complete.

In Sum: The Line of the Obscurations Chapter

Read whole, these seventeen verses are a map of "what is to be severed," from the general to the particular and back to the general:

First the overview (the five, keyed to lineage); then particular by particular — the afflictive obscuration unfolds into the nine fetters (paired with the seven full-knowledges); the causal obscuration unfolds into thirty obstructors (paired with ten good dharmas and ten efficient causes, the ten dharmas themselves a bodhisattva path); the obscurations of practice unfold into three sets — the limbs of awakening, the perfections, the ten stages; finally the return to the two obscurations (afflictive, cognitive), with the "eleven summary-meanings" re-subsuming the whole.

From the general into the particular, from the coarse into the subtle, ending in the two obscurations — this is the Obscurations chapter: it makes plain what veils reality, and what is to be severed, so that the next chapter's "antidotes" have a definite object to work upon.

This chapter treats the real — the side of things by which they are ultimately true. The earlier "Characteristics" chapter discerned the characteristics of things, and the "Obscuration" chapter discerned the veils that hide them; here, by contrast, the treatise states positively ten kinds of reality, and lays down one thread that runs through the whole chapter: these ten realities take the "three natures" as their root, and from the three natures the remaining nine are opened out. The three natures are the mirror; the nine realities are the reflections in it.

The Madhyāntavibhāga takes "distinguishing the middle way from the two extremes" as its governing aim. By the time we reach "Discerning Reality," the question the author asks is this: granting that we are to see as things really are, then what is it that counts as "real"? The answer is not a single, vague "truth," but ten kinds of reality — ten faces, so that "the real" is said thoroughly and from every side.

First hold one master-thread in mind, the one the ancient masters point out as running through the whole chapter: the "Characteristics" chapter already spoke of the three natures with respect to the "object"; this chapter speaks of reality with respect to "setting out in practice," taking the three natures (the root reality) as basis and revealing from them the other nine realities. In other words, the nine realities that follow — characteristics, freedom-from-error, cause-and-effect, coarse-and-subtle, the well-established, the domain of purified cognition, the gathering-in, the differentiated, skill — not one of them stands apart from the three natures with a being of its own; each is the three natures unfolded under a particular aspect. So this chapter is, in truth, the one mirror "three natures" casting nine kinds of reflection.

〔Uddāna〕The Ten Realities: All to Remove the View-of-Self

The first two verses only list the contents; they state no doctrine. They count out, all at once, the ten realities to be treated:

root, characteristics, freedom-from-error, cause-and-effect, coarse-and-subtle, the well-established, the domain of purified cognition, the gathering-in, the differentiated, skill — ten kinds of reality, all to remove the view-of-self.

Of the ten, the tenth, "the reality of skill," itself opens out into ten skills (in the aggregates, the elements, the bases, dependent arising, the possible-and-impossible, the faculties, time, the truths, the vehicles, the conditioned-and-unconditioned). And the use of all this is said in a single clause of the table-of-contents verse: "all to remove the view-of-self" — the view-of-self being the deluded grasping at a real "I." Reality is not abstract talk; it is a way of contemplating that counters self-grasping — the ten realities counter ten kinds of view-of-self, and the ten skills too are set up precisely to break ten kinds of self-grasping. From the very start, then, the verse makes plain why the matter is divided so finely: not classification for its own sake, but a one-by-one antidote.

1. The Root Reality: Each Nature Is Real "in One Respect"

The third verse establishes the root reality — the basis of the remaining nine. It asks: within the three natures, what sense is taken as "real" in each? The answer is exact: each nature is neither wholly real nor wholly false, but real in one respect.

• The wholly-imagined nature — the nature fabricated by the mind's reckoning — has the character "permanently non-existent" (it never exists at all). Just in respect of "knowing that it is forever absent," that is its reality — for seeing it so is to see "without error" (without inversion).
• The other-dependent nature — the flow of things arising in dependence on conditions — has the character "existent yet not real" (it seems to be there, but is not really there). Just in respect of "knowing it as seeming-to-be yet not real," that is its reality — for it has the property of "disturbance" (appearing as if present, and so unsettling the mind).
• The perfectly-accomplished nature — the perfectly-accomplished truth as it actually is — has the character "both existent and non-existent." Just in respect of "knowing it as that which is revealed by the two emptinesses," that is its reality — for it has the property of "emptiness" (suchness, which is revealed once the false is gone).

This is why the "root" is the root: once the real character of each of the three natures is fixed, the later nine realities all branch off from here. The key to grasp is this — reality lies not in "which nature is true and which false," but in "knowing each nature, as it is, in its proper place": with the wholly-imagined, reality is in "knowing it is forever absent"; with the other-dependent, reality is in "knowing it seems-to-be yet is not real"; with the perfectly-accomplished, reality is in "knowing it is what emptiness reveals."

2. The Reality of Characteristics and the Reality of Freedom-from-Error: The Three Natures Remove Two Wrong Views; the Four Contemplations Each Open into Three

The fourth through seventh verses treat two realities together, both established upon the root three natures.

The reality of characteristics — each of the three natures "removes the two wrong views, reification and denial." Reification means asserting that what is not there is there; denial means asserting that what is there is not there. Once the deluded view no longer turns, the real character of each nature shows itself: where the views that reify or deny self and dharmas no longer turn, that is the real character of the wholly-imagined; where the views that reify or deny the grasped and the grasper no longer turn, that is the real character of the other-dependent; where the views that reify or deny the existent and the non-existent no longer turn, that is the real character of the perfectly-accomplished. In a word: once the reifying and the denying of the two-grasping are both dispelled, the real character of the three natures appears of itself.

The reality of freedom-from-error — what counters the four "inversions" (taking the impermanent for permanent, the painful for pleasant, the selfless for self, the impure for pure) is the four contemplations of "impermanence, suffering, emptiness, non-self." But this treatise does not leave these four contemplations as a single undifferentiated lump; rather it opens each into three upon the three natures, so that "four times three equals twelve." Take "impermanence" as the example:

• The impermanence of the wholly-imagined is "impermanence-of-non-being" — it never existed at all, so it is called impermanent.
• The impermanence of the other-dependent is "impermanence-of-arising-and-ceasing" — it has arising and ceasing, beginning and ending.
• The impermanence of the perfectly-accomplished is "impermanence-of-defilement-and-purity" — not arising-and-ceasing, but "a shift of position" (the turn from a defiled position to a position freed of defilement).

Suffering, emptiness, and non-self are likewise each opened into three in the same way. This section shows the depth of Mahāyāna consciousness-only at its clearest: the "impermanence, suffering, emptiness, non-self" that the disciple-path holds in common is here not recited vaguely but set up one by one upon the three natures — the very same "impermanence" means something different upon the wholly-imagined, the other-dependent, and the perfectly-accomplished. The three natures are the real skeleton of contemplative practice.

3. The Reality of Cause-and-Effect: The Four Truths, Each Opened into Three upon the Three Natures

The eighth and ninth verses treat the reality of cause-and-effect — that is, the four noble truths — suffering and its origin being the cause-and-effect of the worldly, cessation and the path being the cause-and-effect of the world-transcending. The four truths too are each opened into three, each resting on the three natures:

• The three of the truth of suffering are just the three of "suffering" already given in the previous section's "impermanence, suffering, emptiness, non-self each in three" (so the verse says "the three characteristics of suffering have been stated").
• The three of the truth of origin are: origin-as-habit-energy (the habit-energy of wholly-imagined grasping — the latent residue laid down by grasping), origin-as-equal-arising (deeds and afflictions), and origin-not-yet-freed-from-bondage (the suchness not yet freed of obscuration).
• The three of the truth of cessation are: cessation of own-nature, cessation of the two-grasping, and cessation of intrinsic-nature (this last being "the two of defilement-stilled" — analytic cessation and suchness).
• The three of the truth of the path are: the path of full knowing, the path of permanent cutting-off, and the path of attainment.

This pairing of the path-truth shows consciousness-only's deft hand most of all: the wholly-imagined nature needs only to be "fully known" (knowing that it was never there is enough); the other-dependent nature requires "full knowing plus permanent cutting-off" (knowing that it seems-to-be, and then cutting off its defiled part as well); the perfectly-accomplished nature requires "full knowing plus attainment" (knowing it, and then realizing its truth). Each nature has the antidote that fits it; there is no treating all alike. The same single set of four truths is held in common by the disciple-path and the Great Vehicle, yet this treatise, by means of the three natures, states it more finely and more precisely.

4. The Reality of the Coarse-and-Subtle: The Two Truths, Conventional and Ultimate, Each Opened into Three

The tenth and eleventh verses treat the reality of the coarse-and-subtle — the coarse being the conventional truth, the subtle being the ultimate truth. The three of the conventional rest on the three natures; the three of the ultimate, however, rest on the perfectly-accomplished alone:

• The three of the conventional truth are: the conventional-as-designation, the conventional-as-process, and the conventional-as-manifest, resting respectively on the wholly-imagined, the other-dependent, and the perfectly-accomplished.
• The three of the ultimate truth are: the ultimate-as-meaning (suchness, the object that the supreme wisdom takes), the ultimate-as-attainment (nirvāṇa, the supreme fruit and benefit), and the ultimate-as-right-practice (the noble path, which takes the supreme dharma as its meaning).

Here lies a pivot of the consciousness-only account of the ultimate: the three of the ultimate all come back to the perfectly-accomplished, and the perfectly-accomplished in turn divides into two parts — the unconditioned (suchness and nirvāṇa, which do not change) and the conditioned (the noble path, which is free of error toward its object) — and so even the noble path, a conditioned dharma, is called perfectly-accomplished. This parts ways with the account that "counts only the unconditioned as ultimate": in consciousness-only, the noble path one can practice is also perfectly-accomplished. The same body of dharmas, viewed by way of cause-and-effect, is the four truths; viewed by way of coarse-and-subtle, is the two truths — this is what is meant by "a different gate": change the angle, and the way of stating it changes.

5. The Reality of the Well-Established and the Reality of the Domain of Purified Cognition: The Three Tiers of Ordinary, Worthy, and Noble

The twelfth verse holds two realities in one verse, and these lay out exactly a tier-by-tier ascent from ordinary being to noble.

The reality of the well-established — the reality that everyone grants — itself divides into two tiers:

• Worldly-established: what the world grants in common (such matters of habitual agreement as "this is earth, not fire," "this is form, not sound"), resting on the wholly-imagined nature alone — it is an agreed-upon designation, a name held in common.
• Reason-established: the principle that those with wisdom prove by way of the "three means of knowing" (direct perception, inference, and the authority of the noble teaching), resting on the three natures.

The reality of the domain of purified cognition — the domain that purified wisdom ranges over (the reality ranged over by the wisdom purified of the obscuration-of-afflictions and the wisdom purified of the obscuration-of-the-knowable) — rests on the perfectly-accomplished nature alone; the other two natures are not the object of purified wisdom.

Set the three side by side, and the tiers rise step by step: worldly-established is only the wholly-imagined (an agreed-upon designation); reason-established runs through all three natures (a principle proved by the means of knowing); the domain of purified cognition is the perfectly-accomplished alone (noble wisdom ranges over suchness alone). From the common agreement of the ordinary being, to the means-proven knowing of the worthy one, to the purified wisdom of the noble one — the "basis" of reality maps out exactly the higher and lower of the path of cultivation-and-realization.

6. The Reality of the Gathering-in: The Five Matters Gathered Back into the Three Natures

The thirteenth verse treats the reality of the gathering-in — gathering the "five matters" taught across the scriptures (characteristic, name, discrimination, suchness, correct cognition) back into the three natures:

• Name — gathered into the wholly-imagined (the designation that names things).
• Characteristic and discrimination — gathered into the other-dependent (the object-appearance that is taken as object, and the mind that takes it).
• Suchness and correct cognition — gathered into the perfectly-accomplished (the principle that is revealed, and the wisdom that realizes it).

This gathering shows a tier-upon-tier drawing-in: all dharmas do not exceed the "five matters," the five matters do not exceed the "three natures," and the three natures do not exceed the "root reality." Vasubandhu says "as each fits" — not a mechanical forcing-together, but a placing of each of the five matters according to its own nature.

7. The Reality of the Differentiated: Seven Realities, Sorted into the Defiled and the Pure

The fourteenth verse treats the reality of the differentiated — with respect to the difference between "flowing on in birth-and-death" and "turning back to purity," it sets up seven realities, assigned to two sides according to the three natures:

• Flowing-on, the established, and wrong practice — belong to the defiled side, resting on the "first two natures" (the wholly-imagined and the other-dependent).
• The true character, consciousness-only, purity, and right practice — belong to the pure side, resting on the "last one nature" (the perfectly-accomplished).

One point to flag here: "the reality of consciousness-only" comes back to the perfectly-accomplished. This is exactly the account of the Thirty Verses on Consciousness-Only, that "the perfectly-accomplished nature is the very reality of consciousness-only" — the nature of consciousness-only just is the perfectly-accomplished suchness. The defiled comes back to the first two natures, the pure to the perfectly-accomplished; the seven realities are nothing but the three natures unfolded under the heading "the difference of defilement and purity."

8. The Reality of Skill and the Ten Views-of-Self: The Ten Dharmas of Aggregates and the Rest, Each Breaking One Self-Grasping

The fifteenth and sixteenth verses are the heading-verses of the tenth, "the reality of skill." The point of setting up skill is said in a word: "to counter the ten views-of-self." Toward the ten dharmas of aggregates and the rest, one or another view-of-self arises in each, and so one cultivates a corresponding skill to counter it:

grasping at a "oneness" nature (the aggregates), at a "cause" nature (the elements), at a "receiver" nature (the bases), at an "agent" nature (dependent arising), at a "self-mastery" nature (the possible-and-impossible), at a "dominance" nature (the faculties), at a "permanence" nature (time), at a "support-of-defilement-and-purity" nature (the truths), at a "contemplator" nature (the vehicles), at a "the-bound-and-the-freed" nature (the conditioned-and-unconditioned) — ten views-of-self, matched to ten skills.

The latter half of the sixteenth verse, "this grasped, this discriminated, the dharma-nature-meaning lies therein," points out further that each of the ten dharmas, aggregates and the rest, has three senses — the grasped sense (the wholly-imagined), the discriminated sense (the other-dependent), and the dharma-nature sense (the perfectly-accomplished). Take the aggregate of form as the example: there is "the grasped form, the discriminated form, the dharma-nature form," three faces; the other nine dharmas, feeling and the rest, are all to be understood in the same way. So the ten skills too are established entirely upon the root three natures. Skill is not a contemplation added from outside, but "taking up the ten dharmas of aggregates and the rest, seeing their three natures, and breaking their ten self-graspings" — the real contemplation, in the end, comes back again to the three natures.

9. The Particular Sense of the Ten Skills: Each Skill Opened Out One by One, Coming to Rest in "the Conditioned-and-Unconditioned"

The seventeenth through twenty-third verses explain, one by one, the "sense" of each of the ten skills (seven verses run through the ten skills). To take the gist of each:

• Aggregates — the sense of "heap" (the three senses of not-one, of summing-up, and of dividing into parts), breaking "grasping at oneness."
• Elements — the three classes of seeds — of the grasper, of the grasped, and of the grasping of these — breaking "grasping at a cause."
• Bases — the gateways for taking in [an object] and for cognizing the object, breaking "grasping at a receiver."
• Dependent arising — neither adding to nor subtracting from cause, effect, and function, breaking "grasping at an agent."
• The possible-and-impossible — the seven kinds of "not having self-mastery," breaking "grasping at self-mastery."
• The faculties — the twenty-two faculties exercising dominance by way of six matters, breaking "grasping at dominance."
• Time — the spent and the unspent of cause-and-effect (past, present, and future), breaking "grasping at permanence."
• The truths — feeling and the requisites of feeling (suffering), the conditioned activities that are the cause [of suffering] (origin), the two stillings (cessation), and the antidote (path), breaking "grasping at a support-of-defilement-and-purity."
• The vehicles — the wisdom of the three vehicles, the disciple, the solitary realizer, and the unsurpassed, breaking "grasping at a contemplator."
• The conditioned-and-unconditioned — this one is where the whole chapter comes to rest.

The "skill in the conditioned-and-unconditioned" shows the very bone of consciousness-only: the conditioned gathers in "designation (name); cause (the store-consciousness within which the seeds are held); and characteristic (the world-container, the body-with-its-faculties, the things of use, and the various evolving consciousnesses)"; the unconditioned gathers in "the stilled (cessation and the path) and the contemplated (suchness)." Gather in the conditioned and unconditioned of all dharmas, and self-grasping has nowhere left to lodge — and this is precisely where "breaking the grasping at the-bound-and-the-freed" comes to ground. Here the clause "cause = the store-consciousness within which seeds are held, characteristic = the evolving consciousnesses" points out the skeleton of the eight consciousnesses, and is the hinge by which the ten skills pass through to consciousness-only as a whole. (The store-consciousness is the eighth, foundational consciousness that holds the seeds of all things; the evolving consciousnesses are the seven that arise and turn upon it.)

Conclusion: The Revealing and the Revealed — the Three Natures as Mirror, the Nine Realities as Reflection

At the close of "Discerning Reality," Vasubandhu gathers the ten realities once more into two classes:

• The revealing reality — the first three, the root (the three natures), because it is what reveals the rest.
• The revealed reality — the nine that follow, all of them revealed by these three root realities.

There is an excellent simile in Paramārtha's translation: the revealing reality is like a mirror, the revealed reality like a reflection. The three natures are the mirror; the nine realities are the reflections cast in the mirror.

Looking back over the whole chapter, this is its single line: first it states ten realities, all to remove the view-of-self; it establishes the root three natures as basis; then, from the three natures, it opens out, layer upon layer, the nine realities — characteristics, freedom-from-error (four contemplations each in three), cause-and-effect (the four truths each in three), coarse-and-subtle (the two truths each in three), the well-established, the domain of purified cognition, the gathering-in (the five matters), the differentiated (seven realities), and skill (the ten skills countering the ten views-of-self); and finally it draws them together with "the revealing and the revealed," "mirror and reflection" — the nine-fold reality is nothing but the nine-fold reflection cast by the one mirror, the three natures. See the ten realities through, and one sees this through as well: the "reality" that consciousness-only speaks of, from first to last, is never apart from the three natures.

This chapter is about where practice actually begins. The first three chapters set up the "object": "Characteristics" saw clearly what things are like (the middle, the three natures), "Obscuration" listed the afflictions that veil reality, and "Reality" established the real that is to be cultivated. With the object clear, this chapter turns to the path that does the cultivating: everything the Buddhist path cultivates is gathered into the thirty-seven factors of awakening (bodhipākṣika). The chapter opens them up in seven classes — the foundations of mindfulness, the right exertions, the bases of power, the five faculties and powers, the factors of awakening, the path-factors — closing with "the three differences in cultivation" and "how the bodhisattva differs from the two vehicles."

The Madhyāntavibhāga has 113 verses in seven chapters. The ancient masters gather the seven into three: object, practice, fruit. The first two chapters (characteristics, obscuration) are the object contemplated; the middle three (reality, antidotes, stages) are the practice undertaken; the last two (fruit, unsurpassed vehicle) are the fruit realized. This chapter, "Cultivation of the Antidotes," is the hinge of the "practice" group — where the previous chapter set out the object of cultivation (reality), this one sets out the path that cultivates.

Keep one correspondence in mind from the start: the seven classes of this chapter are the positive face of the "obstacles to the factors of awakening" listed back in Chapter 2, verse [034]. There, the text named the obstacle that meets each class as one tries to cultivate it (mindfulness has the obstacle of "no skill in the matters," right exertion the obstacle of "laxity," and so on); here, it names how to cultivate each class so as to pass beyond that obstacle. One chapter on the obstacle, one on the cultivation: read together, the "illness" and the "medicine" of each factor are complete.

1. Mindfulness and Right Exertion: First "Knowing," Then "Doing"

The first two classes are the opening moves of the path — the four foundations of mindfulness and the four right exertions.

Because of coarseness, the cause that is craving, the matter of self, and non-delusion — in order to enter the four noble truths, one should cultivate the foundations of mindfulness. Having fully known the obscuration and its antidote in all their kinds — to distance and to gather, one diligently cultivates the four right exertions.

The four foundations of mindfulness contemplate the four loci: body, feeling, mind, and phenomena. But Vasubandhu stresses that this is no vague contemplation: it is contemplation for the sake of "entering the four noble truths," and each foundation answers to one truth:

• Contemplating the body — whose mark is coarseness (the dull, encumbered character of conditioned suffering) — one sees that all that is tainted is suffering, and enters the truth of suffering.
• Contemplating feeling — tainted feeling being the cause of craving — one enters the truth of origin.
• Contemplating mind — the very thing the self-grasping clings to; seeing through it, one no longer dreads "my own annihilation" — one enters the truth of cessation.
• Contemplating phenomena — leaving behind delusion about both defiled and pure phenomena — one enters the truth of the path.

So the four foundations are a contemplation that enters the truths: each is a doorway onto the four noble truths.

The four right exertions (right strivings) follow at once. Having cultivated mindfulness, one has now "fully known" which are the obstacles to be abandoned and which the path to be cultivated; that being clear, one turns to the diligent work of distancing what is to be abandoned and gathering what counters it — the canonical fourfold striving: to sever arisen evil, prevent unarisen evil, give rise to unarisen good, and increase arisen good.

The division of labor is plain in a phrase: mindfulness is "knowing," right exertion is "doing." Only when obstacle and antidote are clearly recognized can diligent severing and cultivating even be spoken of. The sequence of the path begins from this "first know, then do."

2. The Bases of Power, the Five Faults, the Eight Abandonments: The Fine Counter-work of Concentration

The third class is the four bases of power (ṛddhipāda). "Power" (神) means a distinguished accomplishment (such as the supernormal powers); "base" (足) means its distinguished cause. Its substance is in fact "the capacity of meditative abiding" — that is, concentration (samādhi).

Resting on the capacity of abiding, for the accomplishment of all matters, removing the five faults, one diligently cultivates the eight abandonments. Laxity, forgetting the instruction, dullness-and-agitation, non-application and over-application — these are the five faults to be known. To sever laxity, cultivate aspiration, effort, faith, and pliancy — that is, the basis, what rests on it, the cause, and the fruit. To remove the other four faults, cultivate mindfulness, clear awareness, will, and equanimity — retaining the instruction, detecting sinking and agitation, applying, and letting the even flow rest.

For concentration to succeed, the key lies in "removing the five faults and diligently cultivating the eight abandonments." First, recognize the five faults:

1. Laxity — the basic unwillingness to apply oneself.
2. Forgetting the instruction — losing the received teaching, the object held in mind.
3. Dullness-and-agitation — the mind's sinking and its excitation (these two are counted as a single fault).
4. Non-application — when dullness or agitation is present, failing to rouse the antidote that would cut it.
5. Over-application — when dullness or agitation has already been cut, still rousing the antidote, and so disturbing the mind.

Now the eight abandonments counter them. The first four counter "laxity," and they stand to one another as a single chain of dependence:

• Aspiration is the basis (the support on which effort rests).
• Effort is what rests on it (effort arises in dependence on aspiration).
• Faith is the cause (the proximate cause from which aspiration arises: believing in the fruit, one then wishes for it).
• Pliancy is the fruit (the result the diligent effort produces: the diligent attain superior concentration).

The latter four counter the remaining four faults, each with its own office:

• Mindfulness — "retaining the instruction": it does not lose the object, it holds the holy word (counters forgetting).
• Clear awareness — "detecting sinking and agitation": through mindfulness's retention, it can detect dullness and agitation as they arise (counters dullness-and-agitation).
• Will — "applying": having detected sinking and agitation, it rouses the antidote to subdue them (counters non-application).
• Equanimity — "letting the even flow rest": once sinking and agitation are subdued, it abides in letting-go, so the mind flows evenly and no longer meddles (counters over-application).

The subtlest point of this class lies in the last two, "will" and "equanimity": when sinking or agitation arises, rouse the antidote to subdue it (will); once subdued, let go and let the mind flow evenly, adding no further antidote (equanimity). Counter when countering is called for, let go when letting-go is called for — the whole cultivation of concentration lies in this delicate handling of the five faults and eight abandonments.

3. The Five Faculties and Five Powers: One Set of Wholesome Factors, Two Modes of Force

The fourth class is the five faculties and five powers. The bases of power having given the mind its capacity, once the wholesome roots "conducive to liberation" are complete, one cultivates further "five dominant ones."

Having sown what conduces to liberation, one further cultivates the five dominant ones: aspiration, exertion, non-forgetting, non-distraction, and discernment. As they damage the obscurations they are called "powers"; their order is set by cause and fruit. The stages conducive to penetration are distributed two and two, in the faculties and in the powers.

The "five dominant ones" of the verse — aspiration, application (exertion), non-forgetting, non-distraction, discernment — are, says Vasubandhu, in their order, precisely the five faculties: faith, vigor, mindfulness, concentration, and wisdom. ("Faculty" carries the sense of "dominant, forceful.")

And the five powers? Vasubandhu makes it exact: they are this very same set of five faculties — only, because they have gained a "superior force" and can "damage and subdue the obscurations, no longer mixed with by them," they are renamed "powers." So faculty and power are one in substance and differ only in force: as "able to generate the wholesome" they are faculties; as "able to damage the obscuration" they are powers.

Their order (faith → vigor → mindfulness → concentration → wisdom) is set by mutual cause and fruit: first, decisively believing in cause and fruit, one rouses vigor to gain that fruit; vigorous, one abides in right mindfulness; mindfulness abiding, the mind gains concentration; concentrated, it knows as it is — and knowing as it is, nothing is left undone.

The last line distributes the four wholesome roots of "the stages conducive to penetration" (warmth, summit, forbearance, supreme-mundane-dharma) across the two: warmth and summit at the faculty-stage, forbearance and supreme-mundane-dharma at the power-stage. These four roots are the "path of preparation" within the five stages of Yogācāra.

4. The Factors of Awakening: The Awakening of the Path of Seeing, Whose Heart Is "Non-defilement"

The fifth class is the seven factors of awakening. Vasubandhu marks them out: the factors of awakening stand on the path of seeing — they are the awakening that manifests at seeing. They are seven in full, gathered into five classes.

The factors of awakening are, in brief, five: basis, essence, emergence, and benefit, and the three factors of non-defilement. By the difference of cause, basis, and essence, pliancy, concentration, and equanimity are called the factors of non-defilement.

The seven factors (mindfulness, discernment of phenomena, vigor, joy, pliancy, concentration, equanimity) are gathered into five classes:

• The factor of basis — mindfulness (that on which awakening rests).
• The factor of essence — discernment of phenomena (awakening's own substance: the non-discriminating suchness-knowledge).
• The factor of emergence — vigor.
• The factor of benefit — joy.
• The factor of non-defilement — which opens into three: pliancy, concentration, equanimity.

Why is the last class, "non-defilement," opened into three? The second verse answers: each is named for one sense —

• Pliancy is the cause of non-defilement (coarseness is the cause that breeds the defilements, and pliancy is its near antidote).
• Concentration is its basis.
• Equanimity is its essence.

The seven factors take "mindfulness (basis) and discernment of phenomena (essence)" as their frame, joy and vigor as helpers, and pliancy, concentration, and equanimity as their non-defilement. The awakening of the path of seeing turns on this one word, "non-defilement" — when defilement is exhausted, the knowledge shines.

5. The Path-Factors: The Road of the Path of Cultivation — Self-realization, Then Guiding Others

The sixth class is the eightfold path (the path-factors). Vasubandhu marks them as standing on the path of cultivation, and says they are "eight in full, four in brief" — eight factors gathered into four classes.

Discerning and instructing, the three that bring others to faith, and the three that counter obscuration — so the path-factors come to eight. Showing view, morality, and seclusion, they bring others to deep faith; they counter the root and secondary afflictions and the obstacle to mastery.

The four classes open into eight factors:

• The discerning factor — right view. Though "mundane, it is the post-attainment of the supramundane": the post-attainment knowledge arising after the non-discriminating knowledge of the path of seeing, able to discern what one has oneself realized at seeing.
• The instructing factor — right intention, and a part of right speech; able to give rise to speech that instructs others.
• The factor that brings others to faith — three: right speech, right action, right livelihood.
• The factor that counters obscuration — three: right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration.

The second verse opens out the latter two classes. The three that "bring others to faith" do so by letting others see one's view, morality, and seclusion through one's conduct: right speech (in deciding a point by discussion, letting others trust one's superior wisdom), right action (committing no wrong deed, letting others trust one's pure morality), right livelihood (seeking robe and bowl lawfully, letting others trust one's superior seclusion). The three that "counter obscuration" each counter one obstacle: right effort counters the root afflictions (those abandoned on the path of cultivation), right mindfulness counters the secondary afflictions (dullness and agitation), right concentration counters the obstacle to mastery (what impedes the arising of excellent qualities).

The path of seeing sets up the factors of awakening; the path of cultivation sets up the path-factors — and the path-factors are marked by their joining of self and others: they include both "what one has oneself realized" (right view) and "instructing, bringing to faith, countering obstacles." On the road of the path of cultivation, self-realization and the guidance of others, the severing of obstacles and the bringing-forth of qualities, turn together.

6. The Three Differences in Cultivation: One Set of Factors, Differing in Purity

The seventh class turns to "the differences in cultivation." One and the same set of thirty-seven factors, cultivated, differs in depth according to the stage the practitioner stands at.

With distortion yet conducing to non-distortion; undistorted yet with distortion's residue; undistorted and without residue — these are the differences in cultivation.

Vasubandhu marks three, in order, as belonging to bodhisattvas at the stages of the ordinary being, the learner, and the one beyond learning:

• With distortion, conducing to non-distortion — the ordinary-being stage: still bearing distortion, but cultivation already inclines toward the undistorted (the stages of accumulation and preparation).
• Undistorted, with distortion's residue — the learner's stage: after the path of seeing, no distortion is active, but its latent residue (the dormant seeds) is not yet exhausted.
• Undistorted, without residue — the beyond-learning stage: both distortion and its residue are exhausted.

In a phrase: the cultivation of one and the same set of factors differs, by stage, in the presence or absence of distortion and its residue — the ordinary being inclines toward freedom from it, the learner subdues it, the one beyond learning exhausts it. The path of cultivation is not won in one stroke; it grows pure by degrees across the three stages.

7. How the Bodhisattva Differs from the Two Vehicles: Three Superiorities, Resting on "Non-apprehension"

The closing verse is the chapter's conclusion. The thirty-seven factors are common to the three vehicles (śrāvakas, pratyekabuddhas, and bodhisattvas all cultivate them). On what, then, does the bodhisattva's cultivation differ from the two vehicles'?

What the bodhisattva cultivates differs from the two vehicles by the superiority of its object, attention, and realization.

Vasubandhu marks three superiorities:

• Superiority of object — the two vehicles take only their own body, feeling, mind, and phenomena as object; the bodhisattva takes "both one's own and others' continua" as object (not contemplating oneself alone).
• Superiority of attention — the two vehicles contemplate with the aspect of "impermanence" and the like; the bodhisattva contemplates with the aspect of "non-apprehension" (anupalambha).
• Superiority of realization — the two vehicles cultivate only for their own swift release from bondage; the bodhisattva cultivates to "realize the non-abiding nirvāṇa" (apratiṣṭhita-nirvāṇa).

Of these three, the weightiest is the phrase "the aspect of non-apprehension." Contemplating the same body, feeling, mind, and phenomena, the two vehicles contemplate impermanence, the bodhisattva contemplates non-apprehension — bringing the prajñā of "no-attainment" into the cultivation of the factors of awakening. This is the very bone of the Great Vehicle's path of cultivation: the factors are still the same thirty-seven, but entered through "non-apprehension" and aimed at "the non-abiding nirvāṇa," they part decisively from the two vehicles.

Conclusion: A Single Line through the Cultivation of the Antidotes

Drawing the seven classes together, this chapter is a single complete line of practice:

Mindfulness first "knows" obstacle and antidote and enters the four truths; right exertion takes this up and "does," diligently severing and cultivating; the bases of power cultivate concentration, with fine counter-work among the five faults and eight abandonments; the faculties and powers are one substance in two modes of force, passing through the path of preparation (warmth, summit, forbearance, supreme-mundane-dharma); the factors of awakening manifest on the path of seeing, turning on non-defilement; the path-factors function on the path of cultivation, realizing for oneself and guiding others; the three stages of cultivation show one set of factors growing pure by degrees; and the chapter closes with the bodhisattva's three superiorities — object embracing self and others, attention as non-apprehension, realization as the non-abiding nirvāṇa.

From "knowing obstacle and antidote, entering the four truths" at the start, through concentration, preparation, seeing, and cultivation, to "entering by non-apprehension, aiming at the non-abiding nirvāṇa" — this is the complete sequence of the factors of awakening that the "Cultivation of the Antidotes" chapter lays before us, from the first move of practice all the way to the path distinctive of the Great Vehicle.

The previous chapter said what is cultivated — the thirty-seven factors of awakening. This chapter asks next: through what stages does that cultivation pass? In only four verses it lays out a line of stages from the ordinary being all the way to buddhahood — first opening it into "eighteen stages," then gathering it into "three," and finally pointing out a truth easily overlooked: what we call a "practitioner" is only a name posited according to stage; there is no real "self" doing the cultivating.

Kuiji notes a telling reason why this chapter is set up separately. The previous chapter, on cultivating the antidotes, spoke of the differences in cultivation "in terms of the ordinary, the noble, and the three vehicles" — but not in terms of stages; so a separate chapter is needed, devoted to the stages through which cultivation passes. Its spirit in a phrase: "cultivation proceeds by stages" — practice is not won at one stroke on level ground, but advances stage upon stage, each in succession.

1. The Eighteen Stages: One Line Gathering the Whole Bodhisattva Path

The first section (two verses joined as one) opens the "differentiated stages" of cultivating the antidotes into eighteen.

The cultivation of antidotes, just spoken of, has eighteen stages: cause, entering, practice, fruition, with-action, without-action, distinguished, having-a-beyond, unsurpassed; resolute-practice, entering, emergence, prophecy, teaching, consecration, and realization, benefit, accomplishing-what-is-to-be-done.

Vasubandhu sets out the eighteen one by one. The first nine are stated in common (the course of cultivation common to the three vehicles):

1. The cause stage — one who abides in the "lineage" (the causal support of cultivation).
2. The entering stage — having given rise to the aspiration.
3. The stage of preparation — having aspired, but not yet realized the fruit.
4. The fruition stage — having gained the fruit.
5. The stage with action — abiding as a "learner" (with work of realization still to be done).
6. The stage without action — abiding "beyond learning" (with no work left to do).
7. The distinguished stage — having accomplished the supernormal powers and other distinguished qualities.
8. The stage having a beyond — having surpassed the śrāvakas and entered the bodhisattva grounds (with the buddha-ground still above, hence "having a beyond").
9. The unsurpassed stage — having become a buddha, above which there is no higher stage.

The latter nine are opened for the bodhisattva path in particular — six of them being the "seven grounds" of the bodhisattva's ten:

10. The stage of resolute practice — all bodhisattvas who practice through resolve, before the grounds.
11. The entering stage — the Joyous Ground (the first ground).
12. The emergence stage — the next six grounds (second through seventh).
13. The stage of receiving prophecy — the eighth ground.
14. The teaching stage — the ninth ground (able to teach the Dharma).
15. The consecration stage — the tenth ground (the Dharma-cloud, the consecration to office).

The last three are the three bodies of a buddha:

16. The realization stage — the buddha's dharma body.
17. The benefit stage — the enjoyment body (the reward body: relative to bodhisattvas, it is their benefit).
18. The stage of accomplishing what is to be done — the transformation body (fulfilling the vows of the causal stage, accomplishing the buddha-work of benefiting beings).

Keep one point in mind: these eighteen stages have no separate substance of their own (Kuiji: "no further substance"). They simply are the before-and-after differences of the previous chapter's "cultivating the antidotes," divided by their sequence into eighteen. Their value lies in this: by a single line they thread the whole bodhisattva path — from the ordinary being's cause, entering, and preparation, through the noble stages of fruition and learner / beyond-learner, through the bodhisattva's ten grounds, all the way to the buddha's three bodies.

2. The Three Stages: Gathering Eighteen into Three by the Purity of the Dharma-realm

Detailed as the eighteen are, Vasubandhu at once gathers them into three — this time dividing by the purity or defilement of the "true dharma-realm" (suchness).

Within the dharma-realm, know, there are in brief three stages: impure, pure-and-impure, and pure, as appropriate.

"As appropriate" means: the foregoing eighteen, each as fits, are subsumed under these three —

• The impure stage — from the "cause stage" through the "stage of preparation" (still tainted, hence impure).
• The pure-and-impure stage — the "learner stage" (already partaking of the untainted, yet with afflictions still present, pure and impure mixed).
• The pure stage — the "beyond-learning stage" (obstacles exhausted, wholly pure).

What to remember most from this verse is its opening phrase, "within the dharma-realm." Vasubandhu says "within the true dharma-realm there are in brief three stages" — meaning: these three stages are not some thing apart from suchness, but one and the same suchness showing three faces according to the stages of defilement and purity. So the three stages are precisely the three phases of the "transformation of the basis" (āśraya-parāvṛtti) of suchness: bound (impure) → gradually freed (pure-and-impure) → unbound (pure). The complexity of the eighteen here gathers into the simplicity of the three stages of defilement-and-purity; and the root of the three is only the one true dharma-realm.

3. Persons Posited According to Stage: A Person Is a Name Set Up upon Dharmas

The closing verse is the chapter's conclusion, and its deepest move: how the "person" (pudgala, the being) is posited.

In dependence on the differences found among the foregoing stages, as appropriate, the various persons are posited.

Vasubandhu says it plainly: in dependence on the "differential characteristics" of those stages, and as fits each, the various "persons" are set up — "this is one who abides in the lineage, this is one who has given rise to the aspiration," and so on.

The key is the point Kuiji drives home: "a person being only a designation, when one speaks of a person in terms of what is real, one sets up the person only upon the differential characteristics of dharmas." That is: the person has no real substance of its own; that we can say "one who abides in the lineage" or "one who has aspired" is entirely a name posited upon the differential characteristics of the "stages" (dharmas). The stages (dharmas) differ, and so the name of the person differs; but though the name differs, that "person" is never to be found at all.

This move is of one purpose with what was said earlier in "Reality" — that the ten views of self are countered upon the aggregates and the rest — and with the refutation of "a really existent person" in the Viṃśatikā: the person is a name posited upon dharmas, not a real self. A chapter on the stages of cultivation closes, of all places, on "no-self" — and this is no digression but the very character of Yogācāra: even the concept "practitioner" must be seen through as merely posited according to stage, with no real self within it cultivating, within it attaining.

Conclusion: A Single Line through the Stages of Cultivation

Drawing the four verses together, this chapter is a line that moves from the many to the few, and from dharmas to persons:

The eighteen stages gather the whole bodhisattva path into one line (ordinary → noble → ten grounds → three bodies); the three stages then divide by the purity of the true dharma-realm, gathering the eighteen into the three phases of impure, pure-and-impure, and pure — making plain that these are only the transformation-phases of one suchness, with no substance apart; and the closing verse goes further still, saying that even the "practitioner" is only a name posited according to stage, with no real self.

From "what stages does cultivation pass through" to "these stages are only the defilement-and-purity phases of one suchness" to "even the one who cultivates is a mere designation" — the "Stages of Cultivation" chapter offers a map that traces the stages in fine detail and, at the same moment, dissolves them back into no-self.

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."

What follows covers the final chapter of the Madhyāntavibhāga — "The Unsurpassed Vehicle," all thirty verses. It answers a question that gathers up the whole treatise: this road that runs from "characteristics" all the way to "fruit" — by what right is it called "unsurpassed"? The answer is the three unsurpasseds: unsurpassed practice, unsurpassed object, unsurpassed cultivation-and-realization. This exposition follows those three threads, chapter's-end to chapter's-end.

The Madhyāntavibhāga is a treatise whose root verses were composed by the bodhisattva Maitreya and whose commentary (bhāṣya) was written by the bodhisattva Vasubandhu; Xuanzang's translation divides it into seven chapters. The first six chapters treated, in turn: the characteristics of all things, the obscurations that veil them, the reality on which they rest, the cultivation of the antidotes that counters those veils, the stages that cultivation passes through, and the fruit realized through it. The ancient masters gather these seven into three — object, practice, fruit: the first two chapters are the object to be contemplated, the middle three the practice to be undertaken, the last two the fruit to be realized.

Arriving at this seventh chapter, "The Unsurpassed Vehicle," the author does one summarizing thing: he makes plain why this whole road is the "unsurpassed" Great Vehicle. "Unsurpassed" (anuttara) means "with nothing higher above it" — no vehicle stands above it or surpasses it. By what right? By reason of three unsurpasseds in sum:

• Unsurpassed practice — the practice cultivated is unsurpassed (this thread is the broadest: it opens into the six kinds of practice — supreme, attention, according-to-dharma, free of the two extremes, differentiated, undifferentiated).
• Unsurpassed object — the object contemplated is unsurpassed (the twelve objects).
• Unsurpassed cultivation-and-realization — the cultivating and the realizing are unsurpassed (the ten cultivation-realizations).

Practice, object, cultivation-realization are exactly the three faces of practice, object, fruit. All three unsurpassed — so this vehicle is unsurpassed. From the "heading" onward, we open these three threads one section at a time, and close with the treatise's final verse.

〔Heading〕The Three Unsurpasseds and the Six Kinds of Practice: The Frame of the Unsurpassed Vehicle

By three unsurpasseds in sum it is called the Unsurpassed Vehicle — namely, unsurpassed practice, unsurpassed object, and unsurpassed cultivation-and-realization. Practice is of six kinds: supreme, attention, according-to-dharma, free of the two extremes, differentiated, and undifferentiated.

The Attainment chapter, having finished distinguishing the "fruit," brings us to this final chapter — the chapter on the Unsurpassed Vehicle. The previous six chapters have walked us straight through: the characteristics of all things, the obscuration that veils those characteristics, the reality on which they rest, the cultivation that counters the obscuration, the stages that cultivation passes through, and the fruit attained by that cultivation. What this chapter must answer is the single question that draws the whole treatise to a close: this Great Vehicle road, walked from characteristics all the way to fruit — by what right is it called "unsurpassed"? "Unsurpassed" (anuttara-yāna) means "there is nothing higher standing above it" — no other vehicle can rise above it, can go beyond it.

One thing must be said plainly first: the Great Vehicle is "unsurpassed" not because it has some special, more exalted thing set apart somewhere of its own. It is unsurpassed as spoken of with reference to the bodhisattva's practice of "the ten perfections" — and this practice, looked at from three places, is unsurpassed in every respect. These three places are called the three unsurpasseds:

• Unsurpassed practice — "practice" (prayoga) is the actual line of conduct one truly cultivates upward, and here it points precisely to the practice of the ten perfections (pāramitā) — that is, giving, morality, and so on, up to knowledge, the ten kinds of "going to the far shore." This practice itself is unsurpassed.
• Unsurpassed object — "object" (ālambana) is the very domain one faces and takes hold of in cultivation. The object the bodhisattva takes is also unsurpassed (this place is treated at length later, at the section on the object).
• Unsurpassed cultivation-and-realization — "cultivation-and-realization" is the cultivating done and the realization attained. The bodhisattva's cultivation and realization along this whole road are unsurpassed in the same way (this too is reserved for fuller treatment later).

So remember: the Unsurpassed Vehicle is not some separate substance, but the fact that "the practice of the ten perfections, its object, and its cultivation-and-realization" are all three unsurpassed. All three places being unsurpassed, taken together, is why it is called the Unsurpassed Vehicle. This is the master-frame of the chapter.

Among the three unsurpasseds, the first — unsurpassed practice — is the broadest and the most important, and so the second verse immediately opens it further into six, called the six kinds of practice:

1. Supreme practice
2. The practice of attention
3. The practice according to dharma
4. The practice free of the two extremes
5. Differentiated practice
6. Undifferentiated practice

None of these six is a fresh heading set up out of thin air. They are "six differentiations drawn out according to how one cultivates upon the ten perfections" — one and the same set of ten perfections, seen from the side of "cultivated most surpassingly," is supreme practice; seen from the side of "what kind of attention to arouse," is the practice of attention; and so on through differentiated and undifferentiated. So the six kinds of practice are six facets of the practice of the ten perfections — they are the skeleton of those four words, "unsurpassed practice."

Fix this heading section firmly and the rest of the road runs easily: the treatise's final chapter first sets up "the three unsurpasseds" as the master-frame, then takes the "unsurpassed practice" within it and unfolds it into "the six kinds of practice" as the detailed headings; as the six kinds of practice are explained one by one, this chapter, too, opens out section by section. Let us enter the first of them — supreme practice.

1. Supreme Practice: The Twelve Superiorities, and the Ten Perfections

The superiorities are twelve: vast, long-time, based, and inexhaustible; uninterrupted, without difficulty, masterful, embracing, initiating, attaining, outflowing, ultimate. By these the ten are called perfections. The ten perfections are: giving, morality, patience, vigor, concentration, wisdom, skillful means, vow, power, knowledge. To benefit, non-harm, to endure, to increase virtue, to enable entry, to liberate; inexhaustibility, constant arising, steadfastness, enjoying-and-maturing-others.

The first of the six kinds of practice is supreme practice. We should first unpack the name. "Supreme" means "most surpassing, beyond all comparison." Why is it that giving, morality, and the rest of these cultivations, once they are in the bodhisattva's hands, become "supreme"? Because these ten kinds of practice the bodhisattva cultivates each possess twelve marks of superiority; and precisely because they are complete in these twelve superiorities, these ten cultivations earn the name "perfection" (pāramitā). "Perfection" rendered into today's language is "going to the far shore" — it can ferry a person from the near shore of birth-and-death across to the far shore of nirvāṇa.

The twelve superiorities, on Vasubandhu's explanation, run one by one as follows:

1. Vast — in cultivating these practices, the mind never craves or clings to the world's wealth, pleasure, and ease; the aspiration is lofty and far-reaching. One does not cultivate for the sake of human or heavenly rewards, and so it is called vast.
2. Long-time — this is accomplished by habituation over a long time, through the three immeasurable eons. It is no work of a single moment or a single place.
3. Based — it takes the benefit and welfare of all sentient beings everywhere as its basis (its place of resting). The ground on which the cultivation stands is the whole realm of beings, not oneself alone.
4. Inexhaustible — all that is cultivated is dedicated to unsurpassed perfect awakening, and so is forever without end. Dedicated to the buddha-fruit, the merit can never be used up.
5. Uninterrupted — by gaining the resolute conviction of "self-other equality" (a deep trust that oneself and all beings are equal and not-two), when one gives rise to giving and the other practices toward beings, they can be swiftly perfected, with no break in between.
6. Without difficulty — toward the good dharmas cultivated by others one simply rejoices deeply (without envy, without measuring oneself against them), and this in turn lets one's own giving and the rest be swiftly perfected, the cultivation never felt as hard.
7. Masterful — by the power of the "Space-Treasury" and other samādhis (deep concentrations), one can let the giving and the rest one cultivates be swiftly perfected, done with mastery and ease.
8. Embracing — held and sustained by "non-discriminating wisdom," giving and the rest can be made utterly pure. Once wisdom embraces the practice, the practice becomes unmixed.
9. Initiating — this one is spoken of as matched to the highest grade of forbearance at the level of resolute conduct (and the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth that follow are likewise matched to the bodhisattva's stations).
10. Attaining — matched to the Ground of Supreme Joy, that is, the bodhisattva's first ground.
11. Outflowing — matched to the eight grounds after the first, that is, the second through the ninth ground.
12. Ultimate — matched to the tenth ground and the buddha-ground — here the bodhisattva's cause and the tathāgata's fruit are both complete.

Here one should pay particular attention to the last four (initiating, attaining, outflowing, ultimate). They are not merely four qualities; they are matched to the bodhisattva's stations of cultivation and arranged in rank, one level at a time: initiating at the highest grade of forbearance on the ground of resolute conduct, attaining at the first ground, outflowing across the second through ninth, ultimate at the tenth ground and the buddha-ground. One can see that the "going to the far shore" of the ten perfections is no loose slogan, but a real process — passing through the stations, gradually perfected, all the way to the utmost fullness of cause and fruit. Because giving and the ten perfections each possess these twelve superiorities, they all earn the name "going to the far shore."

Next the verse counts out the names of these ten kinds of "going to the far shore" one by one — and these are the ten perfections:

Giving, morality, patience, vigor, concentration (meditative absorption), wisdom, skillful means, vow, power, knowledge.

The first six (giving, morality, patience, vigor, concentration, wisdom) are the familiar "six perfections"; adding skillful means, vow, power, and knowledge to these makes up the "ten perfections."

Each perfection has its own particular work — that is, what each one specifically accomplishes. Vasubandhu points each out in turn (this is called "the distinct functions of the ten perfections"):

• Giving — to benefit all sentient beings everywhere (using things to benefit beings).
• Morality — to work no harm to beings (holding to not injuring others).
• Patience — when others come to do harm, deeply able to endure it.
• Vigor — to increase virtue (the growth of merit).
• Concentration — to arise supernormal powers and the like, leading beings on and bringing them into the true Dharma.
• Wisdom — to rightly teach and admonish beings, bringing them to liberation.
• Skillful means — to dedicate the merit to unsurpassed awakening, making the merit of giving and the rest inexhaustible.
• Vow — to take up and accord with the excellent births that giving and the rest bring, so that birth after birth one ever meets the Buddha, reverently making offerings and constantly giving rise to giving and the rest.
• Power — to be complete in the two powers of "discernment" and "cultivation," subduing and quelling every obstruction, so that giving and the rest proceed in unbroken, decided continuity.
• Knowledge — to be free of the various delusions that arise merely from following words as heard, and to enjoy the surpassing Dharma-savor that giving and the rest bring, unerringly maturing all sentient beings.

Here one relationship deserves to be pointed out. The first six perfections (giving, morality, patience, vigor, concentration, wisdom) are the root of the bodhisattva's own practice; the last four (skillful means, vow, power, knowledge) are in fact the "differentiations" of the first six — their work is to sustain and bring to completion the first six. Skillful means makes the merit of the first six inexhaustible; vow makes the first six ever-arising (meeting the Buddha birth after birth and cultivating without cease); power makes the first six decided (continuing in non-retreat); knowledge makes the first six able to mature others (delivering beings unerringly). So the ten perfections are not ten things laid out flat and side by side, but "six as root, four as support" — the last four turn back to make the first six inexhaustible, ever-arising, decided, and able to mature beings. This, then, is the full picture of supreme practice.

2. The Practice of Attention: Contemplating the Great Vehicle by the Three Wisdoms, and the Ten Dharma-Practices

The second of the six kinds of practice is called the practice of attention. "Attention" (manaskāra) means to take the mind up and settle it on its object, so that it does not scatter; "practice" means cultivating in accord with the right dharma of the Great Vehicle. Put together, the practice of attention is this: the bodhisattva, again and again without pause, settles the mind upon the dharma of the Great Vehicle and contemplates it.

By the three [kinds of] wisdom the bodhisattva constantly contemplates the Great Vehicle — the dharmas as they have been set forth. This is called the practice of attention. It makes the wholesome realm grow, brings entry into the real meaning, and brings the task to completion. Its aid, you should know, is just the ten dharma-practices: copying, making offerings, giving to others, listening, reading, upholding, rightly expounding, reciting, reflecting, and cultivating. One who performs the ten dharma-practices gains an immeasurable mass of merit — because it is superior, because it is inexhaustible, since the embracing of others never ceases.

First, with what does the bodhisattva contemplate? The verse says: "by the three wisdoms the bodhisattva constantly contemplates the Great Vehicle." The three [kinds of] wisdom are three kinds of higher knowing, divided according to the order in which they arise and the source from which each comes:

• the wisdom born of learning (śrutamayī) — the wisdom accomplished by learning the right dharma. To listen to, read, and recite the dharma of the Great Vehicle, and the understanding that grows from it, is the wisdom born of learning.
• the wisdom born of reflection (cintāmayī) — the wisdom accomplished by turning over and weighing again and again the meaning of what one has heard. After taking it in, one does not swallow it whole, but searches out carefully what it truly means; the clarity that grows from that is the wisdom born of reflection.
• the wisdom born of cultivation (bhāvanāmayī) — the wisdom accomplished by actual practice, contemplating within meditative concentration. One takes the meaning that reflection has fixed and cultivates it directly within calm and insight; what is accomplished thereby is the wisdom born of cultivation.

The "Great Vehicle" in "constantly contemplates the Great Vehicle" is not a loose phrase; it has a definite reference. It means "the dharmas as they have been set forth" by way of giving and the rest — that is, the scriptures and other Great-Vehicle teachings on the six perfections, just as the Buddha established and proclaimed them. The bodhisattva takes the three wisdoms and again and again settles the mind upon these Great-Vehicle dharmas to contemplate them: this is the substance of the practice of attention.

The verse then says that this contemplation of the Great Vehicle by the three wisdoms has, for each wisdom, its own particular function — this is just the line "it makes the wholesome realm grow, brings entry into the real meaning, and brings the task to completion":

• The wisdom born of learning, contemplating the Great Vehicle, makes the "wholesome realm grow." The "wholesome realm" is the inner seed of wholesome dharmas, the root of the good; the wisdom born of learning waters and nurtures it, so that the wholesome roots grow stronger day by day.
• The wisdom born of reflection, contemplating the Great Vehicle, "rightly enters the real meaning of what was heard." The "real meaning" is the true sense of the dharma one has heard. The function of the wisdom born of reflection is to enter truly into the real meaning of what was heard, not stopping at the surface of the words.
• The wisdom born of cultivation, contemplating the Great Vehicle, "brings the task sought to completion." The "task sought" is the great matter of practice that the bodhisattva must accomplish; the wisdom born of cultivation brings this task to full completion — that is, it "enters the cultivation-purifying grounds," truly setting foot in the stages of practice on the grounds, and working each ground to completion.

One line of learning, one of reflection, one of cultivation — exactly a single line running from the shallow into the deep: the wisdom born of learning grows the wholesome roots, the wisdom born of reflection enters the real meaning, the wisdom born of cultivation completes the task. The three wisdoms are the substance of the practice of attention.

The latter half of the verse speaks of the aid of the practice of attention — "its aid, you should know, is just the ten dharma-practices." An "aid" is a supporting practice that accompanies and runs alongside; the practice of attention takes contemplation by the three wisdoms as its main work, and takes the ten dharma-practices as its support. These ten the verse names one by one:

1. copying — copying out the scriptures and dharma of the Great Vehicle.
2. making offerings — reverently making offerings to the scriptures and dharma.
3. giving to others — giving the scriptures and dharma to others.
4. listening — listening attentively when another recites.
5. reading — perusing the scroll and reciting it oneself.
6. upholding — receiving it into the heart and keeping it without loss.
7. expounding — rightly setting out the letter and the meaning of the scripture for others.
8. reciting — reading aloud and bearing it in memory.
9. reflecting — reflecting on its meaning (that is, the practice of the wisdom born of reflection).
10. cultivating — cultivating it in practice (that is, the practice of the wisdom born of cultivation).

These ten — from copying out a scripture, to expounding it for others, to reflecting and cultivating it oneself — gather up the whole of what one can do in working with a single Great-Vehicle dharma. They are the aid of the practice of attention: contemplation by the three wisdoms is the main, the ten dharma-practices are the support, and taken together they are the complete "contemplating, plus observance" of Great-Vehicle learning and practice.

The final line is the most weighty: "One who performs the ten dharma-practices gains an immeasurable mass of merit — because it is superior, because it is inexhaustible, since the embracing of others never ceases." To cultivate these ten dharma-practices yields merit beyond all measure. But this line says more than "the merit is much"; it points out the two reasons why the Great Vehicle surpasses the two vehicles — and this is, in fact, the eye of the whole chapter, "Distinguishing the Unsurpassed Vehicle":

• Superior — "because it embraces others." The two vehicles cultivate mainly for their own release; the bodhisattva's ten dharma-practices, however, are at every point a gathering-in and benefiting of other beings. Because their reach is so wide, they are called "superior" (the most excellent).
• Inexhaustible — "because it never ceases." When the two vehicles realize the nirvāṇa without remainder, their work is over and done; the bodhisattva, though able likewise to realize the nirvāṇa without remainder, never lets the work of benefiting others come to rest — he does not stop the work of ferrying beings across just because he himself has reached the shore. The benefiting of others has no end, and so it is called "inexhaustible."

The essential point of this section can be drawn into a single sentence: the practice of attention has the three wisdoms for its substance and the ten dharma-practices for its aid; and the merit it draws down is both "superior" and "inexhaustible" — which is precisely where the bodhisattva path differs from the self-benefit of the two vehicles. A practice that gathers in and benefits others, and benefits them without cease, is plainly beyond what a practice seeking only one's own crossing-over can match.

3. Practice According to Dharma (i): Calm — Freedom from the Six Distractions

The third of the six kinds of practice is called practice according to dharma. "According to dharma" means cultivating in accord with the right dharma of the Great Vehicle; this practice is precisely where the foregoing "contemplating" and "observance" come down to actual ground, in calm and insight.

Practice according to dharma is of two kinds: free of distraction, and free of perversion — these the bodhisattvas should understand. [The distractions:] going out from concentration; flowing toward objects; relishing, sinking and agitation; false display; self-grasping; an inferior mind — these the wise should understand. [The non-perversions:] the wisdom that sees, regarding the letter and the meaning, attention, immovability, the two characteristics, defilement-and-purity, the adventitious, no-fear, no-arrogance.

At its very opening the verse divides practice according to dharma into two kinds: "free of distraction" and "free of perversion." "Transformation" here means that, throughout the course of practice, every shift and change of the mind keeps to the right track. Both of these the bodhisattva should understand well.

Said more plainly, these two faces are just calm and insight:

• non-distraction — this is the side of calm (śamatha). When the mind does not scatter, does not stir into disorder, but settles down, this is called non-distraction.
• non-perversion — this is the side of insight (vipaśyanā). When the mind is not perverted, but sees the dharmas as they really are, this is called non-perversion.

This section first treats the first face — non-distraction, that is, calm. Non-distraction means letting the six "distractions" fall away, one by one; only when the six distractions are gone is there what is called non-distraction. The second line of the verse — "going out from concentration; flowing toward objects; relishing, sinking and agitation; false display; self-grasping; an inferior mind" — points out exactly these six distractions, one by one. Following Vasubandhu's explanation, we open them out in turn:

• the distraction of own-nature — the verse-phrase is "going out from concentration." It means that, on coming out of concentration, the first five consciousnesses (the cognizing consciousnesses of eye, ear, nose, tongue, and body) scatter and flow out, each into its own sense-gate, to reach after outer objects. This is the very nature of distraction, and so it is called the distraction of own-nature.
• outward distraction — the verse-phrase is "flowing toward objects." It means the mind runs and scatters outward, chasing after the conditions of the outer world. The mind clinging to outer objects and running off — that is outward distraction.
• inward distraction — the verse-phrase is "relishing, sinking and agitation." This holds three things together: relishing the concentration (craving and savoring the meditative state one is cultivating), sinking (the mind dim and dull, unable to be lifted), and agitation (the mind restless, unable to settle). All three arise inwardly within the cultivation of concentration, as disturbances there, and so they are called inward distraction.
• the distraction of marks — the verse-phrase is "false display." "False" means feigning, contriving. It means that, in order to make a display for others, one contrives a false show of being absorbed in concentration, playing false with the preparatory exercises of concentration. This is a distraction arising upon "marks," and so it is called the distraction of marks.
• the distraction of coarseness — the verse-phrase is "self-grasping." "Coarseness" is that heavy, intractable force of the seeds of affliction. By the force of this coarseness, self-conceit (grasping a self and so exalting oneself) becomes active and operative. This is a distraction drawn up by coarseness, and so it is called the distraction of coarseness.
• the distraction of attention — the verse-phrase is "an inferior mind." It means giving rise to attention in reliance on an inferior vehicle (such as the two vehicles and other unfinal dharmas). The object being inferior, the mind falls into an inferior place; this is a distraction upon attention, and so it is called the distraction of attention.

These six, let fall away one by one, are "non-distraction"; this is just what calm leaves behind in practice according to dharma — the scattering of coming out of concentration, the scattering of running outward, the relishing-sinking-agitation of inward concentration, the contrived show of marks, the self-conceit of coarseness, the attention upon an inferior vehicle: each seen through clearly, each set far away, and only then does the mind truly settle, unmoving.

The third line of the verse — "the wisdom that sees, regarding the letter and the meaning, attention, immovability, the two characteristics, defilement-and-purity, the adventitious, no-fear, no-arrogance" — then turns to the second face, non-perversion, that is, insight. Non-perversion is just the ten non-perversions: regarding ten matters, one sees with wisdom as things really are, and gives rise to no perversion. This line first sets out the names of the ten non-perversions, all at once:

1. the letter (non-perversion regarding the letter)
2. the meaning (non-perversion regarding the meaning)
3. attention (non-perversion regarding attention)
4. immovability (non-perversion regarding immovability)
5. own-character (non-perversion regarding own-character)
6. common-character (non-perversion regarding common-character) — these two together are called "the two characteristics."
7. defilement-and-purity (non-perversion regarding defilement-and-purity)
8. the adventitious (non-perversion regarding the adventitious)
9. no-fear (non-perversion regarding no-fear)
10. no-arrogance (non-perversion regarding no-arrogance)

These ten are established by giving rise, regarding ten matters, to a wisdom-seeing that accords with what is real. How each one is contemplated, and how it comes to be its particular "non-perversion," is left for the next section to set out one by one; here the names alone are first set up.

The essential point of this section may be gathered thus: practice according to dharma has two faces, calm and insight — "non-distraction" is concentration (calm), "non-perversion" is wisdom (insight), and only their coupled functioning is the true cultivation that accords with the dharma of the Great Vehicle. This section treats the face of "calm": letting the six distractions fall away to the last, so that the mind settles, unmoving; and at the same time it first sets out the names of the ten non-perversions, the face of "insight." Calm departing from the six distractions, insight establishing the ten non-perversions — this is the bodhisattva's practice cultivated "according to the dharma of the Great Vehicle."

4. Practice According to Dharma (ii): Insight — The Ten Non-Perversions and the Ten Adamantine Sentences

Knowing that [the letter] has meaning by conjunction and habituation, and is meaningless when these are reversed — this is non-perversion as to the letter. The meaning appears as if [having] a dual nature; as it appears, it is really non-existent; knowing it free of existence and of non-existence — this is non-perversion as to the meaning. As to non-perversion in attention: knowing the verbal latency, the name-and-language attention on which that [duality] depends, and the cause of its appearing-as-two. As to non-perversion in immovability: knowing the meaning to be non-existent, yet not nothing, like an illusion and so forth — unmoved before the existent and the non-existent. As to non-perversion in own-character: knowing all to be mere name, free of all discrimination, [yet resting] on the own-character by the ultimate. Because apart from the true dharma-realm there is no separate single dharma — one who penetrates this has non-perversion as to common-character. Knowing perverted attention not-yet-ceased and already-ceased — non-perverted as to the dharma-realm's defilement and purity. Knowing the dharma-realm's nature to be originally pure, like space — and so defilement and purity are not the master: this is non-perversion as to the adventitious. Because beings and dharmas are [without real nature], the natures of defilement and purity are both absent — knowing this, free of fear and arrogance: this is the two non-perversions.

The previous section treated the "calm" side of practice according to dharma; this one turns to the "insight" side — that is, how the bodhisattva uses wisdom to see all things without the slightest perversion.

First, the words "non-perversion." "Perversion" means seeing things backwards or askew — taking what is not there to be there, what is there to be not there, what is pure to be defiled. "Non-perversion," then, is wisdom that sees as it really is: wisdom turned on a thing sees it neither slanted nor warped, but exactly as it is. Here ten matters are listed in a single breath; with respect to each, the bodhisattva departs from one kind of perversion, and together these are called "the ten non-perversions."

These ten non-perversions are the deepest stretch of doctrine in the whole chapter, for they set out at once the whole skeleton of the consciousness-only contemplation — the two graspings originally absent, the disturbed consciousness arising in delusion, all things like an illusion, the dharma-realm originally pure. We will open them up one by one. Remember at the outset: for each non-perversion, Vasubandhu's wording is "knowing the truth of some matter," and so every one of the ten begins from the word "knowing."

1. Non-perversion as to the letter — telling meaningful letter from meaningless

Knowing that [the letter] has meaning by conjunction and habituation, and is meaningless when these are reversed — this is non-perversion as to the letter.

The first matter is "the letter," that is, language and the written word. On what does a stretch of language become a "letter that has meaning"? Vasubandhu names two conditions:

• Conjunction — the phrasing is "enunciated in due order"; the words before and after join up and run in sequence, spoken in the order they ought to have.
• Habituation — this way of speaking is "commonly agreed and remembered" by all; it is conventional, mutually recognized, and retained in memory.

A stretch of language meeting both conditions has meaning — it is a meaningful letter. "When these are reversed" is the contrary case: if it is neither conjoined nor habituated, that stretch of language is meaningless — a mere heap of sounds and shapes, amounting to no meaning. The bodhisattva sees both kinds clearly — which is meaningful letter and which is empty letter — and is not deceived by the mere marks of language. This is "non-perversion as to the letter."

2. Non-perversion as to the meaning — the core of the whole section: the two graspings absent, the disturbed consciousness appearing in delusion

The meaning appears as if [having] a dual nature; as it appears, it is really non-existent; knowing it free of existence and of non-existence — this is non-perversion as to the meaning.

The second matter is "the meaning," that is, the object that the letter points to, the content it signifies. This is the most essential of the ten non-perversions; the very eye of the consciousness-only contemplation is here. What it states is the old refrain that the Characteristics chapter long ago established — the two graspings originally absent, the disturbed consciousness appearing in delusion — only set down more closely. Vasubandhu's commentary takes it apart clause by clause, and we will follow it clause by clause.

• "The meaning appears as if [having] a dual nature." The "dual nature" is the grasped-object (the side that is grasped at, like an object out there) and the grasper (the side that grasps, like a mind in here). When a "meaning" arises, it always arises already paired — "I, the grasper here; the object, the grasped there." Vasubandhu says this is "the disturbed consciousness arising with that aspect in its likeness" — it is this disturbed consciousness (the scattered, perverted mind) that itself conjures up an appearance "as if there were a grasper and a grasped," and there is not really a pair, grasper-and-grasped, set out there. The word "as if" is the crux: it is "in the likeness of," it looks as if it were there, yet it is not as it is seen.
• "As it appears, it is really non-existent." Just inquire after the very way it shows itself, and it is really not existent in that way. It shows up looking like grasper and grasped; go and look, and there is no such pair — what appears does not match how things are.
• "Free of existence." So one must be "free of existence": on this "meaning," the grasped and the grasper, both natures, are originally non-existent. This breaks reification — the two graspings never were; do not insist that they are.
• "Free of non-existence." Yet neither can one say it is "altogether nothing," so one must also be "free of non-existence": that disturbed consciousness is indeed "appearing as if existent," and this appearing-in-likeness is itself not nothing. This breaks denial — the disturbed consciousness's appearing-in-likeness cannot be wiped away at a stroke.

Put the four clauses together: the pair grasped-and-grasper is absent (free of existence), but "the disturbed consciousness that appears in the likeness of the two graspings" is (free of non-existence). This is precisely the lifeline of consciousness-only — what is emptied is the two graspings; what is kept is the appearing-in-likeness of the disturbed consciousness (the other-dependent). The bodhisattva sees this "meaning" so clearly, and so it is called "non-perversion as to the meaning." Several of the non-perversions that follow are, in truth, only the unfolding of this one.

3. Non-perversion as to attention — finding the root of the discrimination of the two graspings

As to non-perversion in attention: knowing the verbal latency, the name-and-language attention on which that [duality] depends, and the cause of its appearing-as-two.

Now that we know the "as-if two graspings" is conjured by the disturbed consciousness, the next question is: on what does that disturbed consciousness conjure up the two-grasping appearance? The third matter, "attention," answers to this root.

"Attention" is one of the mind's operations — the impulse by which the mind stirs to notice and to take an object. Vasubandhu says the attention meant here is "the name-and-language attention impregnated by the verbal latency of the two graspings." That is: from time without beginning we have ceaselessly used the whole language of "grasper / grasped" to speak and to think; these sayings, over and over, "impregnate" the mind with latencies, leaving habit-energies behind; and thereafter, the moment the mind takes up attention, it carries this verbal habituation along and brings forth an appearance as if there were a grasper-and-grasped, the two graspings.

So Vasubandhu marks out its two roles: attention is the basis of the discrimination of the two graspings (the discrimination of the two graspings can arise only in dependence on it), and it is the cause of the appearing-as-two (the cause of bringing forth the appearance like the two graspings lies just in this verbally-habituated attention). The bodhisattva sees clearly that "the root of the as-if two graspings lies, after all, in this verbally-habituated attention," and is not led along by it. This is "non-perversion as to attention."

4. Non-perversion as to immovability — the illusion-simile: neither existent nor non-existent, the mind unmoved and unscattered

As to non-perversion in immovability: knowing the meaning to be non-existent, yet not nothing, like an illusion and so forth — unmoved before the existent and the non-existent.

The fourth matter takes that measured "neither existent nor non-existent" of the second non-perversion ("as to the meaning") and makes it firm with a simile, so that the mind can stand steady on that measure, unshaken. The simile is the famous "illusion-simile."

Vasubandhu's commentary spells it out finely. An illusionist conjures up a troop of elephants and horses:

• These elephants and horses are not really existent — they are not actual elephants and horses; you cannot lead them away or ride them.
• Yet neither are they wholly nothing — plainly there before you is that very scene of elephants and horses in motion; it is the disturbed consciousness "manifesting in the likeness of those elephants, horses, and so forth," and you cannot say you saw nothing at all.

The "meaning" of all things is just so: it shows up looking like a pair of real, actual grasper-and-grasped (as the illusory elephants and horses show themselves), yet go and inquire and there is no such pair with any real nature (as the illusory elephants and horses are not real), and the very scene "as if there were a grasper-and-grasped" does indeed manifest on the disturbed consciousness (as the illusory elephants and horses are not wholly nothing). Vasubandhu adds a further word: besides the illusion, "the mirage, the dream-realm, the moon-in-water" — these too all hold by the same principle. A mirage looks like water yet has no water; a dream presents an object yet has no object; the moon in the water looks like the moon yet is no moon — all of them "appearing-as-if-there yet not really existent, and not wholly nothing."

Having seen through this "neither existent nor non-existent, like an illusion, like a mirage," the mind no longer sways back and forth between the two classes of "is it, after all, existent — or non-existent?" This is "unmoved before the existent and the non-existent." It does not fall into "grasping it as really existent" (reification), nor into "dismissing it as wholly nothing" (denial); the mind rests in seeing-as-it-really-is, unmoved, unscattered. The bodhisattva who thus "truly contemplates the meaning as like an illusion and so forth," with mind unshaken amid existence and non-existence — this is "non-perversion as to immovability."

5. Non-perversion as to own-character — all is mere name

As to non-perversion in own-character: knowing all to be mere name, free of all discrimination, [yet resting] on the own-character by the ultimate.

What went before treated the "common condition" of all things; the fifth matter, "own-character," treats each single dharma's own particular mark — the mark by which this one dharma is this dharma and not another, its own distinguishing character.

Vasubandhu says that, viewed from the ultimate (the final, highest truth), the bodhisattva knows "all is mere name" — eye and form, on down to mind and dharmas, the own-character of every one of these dharmas is nothing but a posited name; there is no real own-character standing on its own apart from the name. Being only name, it is therefore "free of all discrimination" — one no longer reckons and grasps, in reliance on the parsing of "this is this, that is that," after one real own-character after another. Note that this is said with respect to the ultimate; in conventional truth, all things are "not merely names" — each still has its designation and its function, and one is not, by leveling, sweeping away the conventional distinctions as well. The bodhisattva, on the ultimate, sees the own-character of all things as "mere name" and does not fall to discrimination. This is "non-perversion as to own-character."

6. Non-perversion as to common-character — apart from the true dharma-realm there is no separate dharma (the no-self of dharmas)

Because apart from the true dharma-realm there is no separate single dharma — one who penetrates this has non-perversion as to common-character.

The sixth matter, "common-character," stands opposite "own-character": "own-character" is each dharma's particular mark, "common-character" is the mark all dharmas share. Things differ in a thousand ways, yet they have one common ground beneath them — the "true dharma-realm" (the true essence of all things, that emptiness free of the two graspings).

Vasubandhu says: "apart from the true dharma-realm there is no separate single dharma" — outside this true dharma-realm there is no other thing to be found; which is to say, the common-character of all dharmas is wholly gathered into this true dharma-realm, and there is no single dharma that sets up a self of its own outside the true dharma-realm. This is just "the no-self of dharmas" — no dharma has an independent, self-subsisting "self-body of the dharma"; all return to the one true dharma-realm. The bodhisattva who penetrates "the common-character of all dharmas alike returns to the true dharma-realm, dharmas being originally without self" — this is "non-perversion as to common-character."

7. Non-perversion as to defilement-and-purity — telling the obscuration not-yet-severed from the already-severed

Knowing perverted attention not-yet-ceased and already-ceased — non-perverted as to the dharma-realm's defilement and purity.

The seventh matter treats defilement and purity upon that one same true dharma-realm. If the true dharma-realm is the common ground of all things, how can it have a difference of defilement and of purity? The hinge is whether "perverted attention" has ceased or not.

• While that perverted attention (the deluded stirring spoken of above, which carries the verbal habituation of the two graspings and appears as the two graspings) has not yet ceased, the true dharma-realm is bound up with it and shows as "defiled."
• When perverted attention has already ceased, the true dharma-realm is restored to its own, and shows as "pure."

The bodhisattva tells these apart clearly — which is the defiled station where "the obscuration is not yet severed," and which the pure station where "the obscuration is already severed" — and will neither take defilement for purity nor purity for defilement. This is "non-perversion as to defilement-and-purity." Remember: the difference of defilement and purity lies only in whether perverted attention has ceased or not; it is not that the true dharma-realm itself has changed. This point the next non-perversion drives home.

8. Non-perversion as to the adventitious — the dharma-realm originally pure like space; defilement and purity are guests, not the master

Knowing the dharma-realm's nature to be originally pure, like space — and so defilement and purity are not the master: this is non-perversion as to the adventitious.

The seventh left a question standing: since the true dharma-realm shows now as defiled, now as pure, are "defilement" and "purity" its own nature? The eighth matter, "the adventitious," answers this — and answers it with the utmost weight.

Vasubandhu says the dharma-realm is "originally pure in nature, like space" — its original essence is pure, just as space is. The simile of space is apt: space is by nature bright and clean; clouds and smoke and dust come, and space looks as if soiled; the clouds disperse, and space looks clean again — but space was never itself defiled, nor newly washed clean; those clouds, mist, and dust are only "guests," coming and going, not the "master" (the original nature) of space.

So with the dharma-realm. The two marks "first defiled, then pure" are guests — adventitious, added on, briefly appearing; they are not the "master" — not the dharma-realm's own original nature. The dharma-realm's nature is, from first to last, just that one taste of purity. So the bodhisattva, knowing "defilement and purity are guests, the original purity is the master," does not take the guest-come defilement and purity for the dharma-realm's true body. This is "non-perversion as to the adventitious." This joins straight onto what the Characteristics chapter long ago taught — "mind's nature originally pure, defiled by adventitious dust": the original purity is the abiding master, defilement the impermanent guest.

9. Non-fear and non-arrogance — these two joined in one verse

Because beings and dharmas are [without real nature], the natures of defilement and purity are both absent — knowing this, free of fear and arrogance: this is the two non-perversions.

The last matter is in fact two non-perversions taught together in one stanza — "non-fear" and "non-arrogance." Why together? Because they are a pair drawn from one and the same principle.

That principle presses all the foregoing through to the very end:

• "Beings and dharmas are [without real nature]." Even "beings" (the self that is a living being) and "dharmas" (the manifold things) are, in the last analysis, unobtainable (the no-self of persons, the no-self of dharmas — the latter already established under non-perversion as to common-character).
• "The natures of defilement and purity are both absent." Self and dharmas being ultimately without [real nature], the two natures "defilement" and "purity" that hang upon self and dharmas are therefore alike without being (there is no real self, no real dharma, to be the owner of defilement-and-purity).
• The natures of defilement and purity being alike absent, then ultimately there is nothing to decrease and nothing to increase — on the side of affliction's defilement, no real thing is actually diminished away; on the side of purity, no real thing is actually added.

From this "neither decreasing nor increasing" two non-perversions fall out:

• Non-fear — knowing well that ultimately "nothing decreases," the bodhisattva is not afraid. Afraid of what? The ordinary person dreads that "cultivating on and on, self and everything will be emptied, extinguished, decreased away" — a terror of annihilation. The bodhisattva knows that ultimately no real thing whatever is diminished, and so has no dread of this.
• Non-arrogance — knowing well that ultimately "nothing increases," the bodhisattva is not puffed up. Arrogant about what? The danger is the self-elation of "I have realized it, I have gained a measure of pure merit." The bodhisattva knows that ultimately no real thing whatever is added, and so gives rise to no exaltation.

To see truly this "no decrease, hence no fear; no increase, hence no arrogance" is "non-perversion as to the two" (the two non-perversions of non-fear and non-arrogance).

Closing: the general sense of the practice of non-perversion, and the ten adamantine sentences

Having treated the ten non-perversions one by one, Vasubandhu steps back and states, all together, what this "practice of non-perversion" as a whole is for — that is, what each of the ten leads to:

Non-perversion as to the letter rightly penetrates the two characteristics of calm-and-insight; non-perversion as to the meaning rightly penetrates the characteristics of perversion; non-perversion as to attention rightly departs from the causes and conditions of perversion; non-perversion as to immovability well apprehends that like-illusion characteristic; non-perversion as to own-character cultivates the path of non-discrimination as the counteragent to discrimination; non-perversion as to common-character rightly penetrates the purity of nature; non-perversion as to defilement-and-purity understands the obscuration not-yet-severed and already-severed; non-perversion as to the adventitious understands as it really is the two marks of defilement and purity (knowing them to be guests); and last, the two non-perversions of non-fear and non-arrogance bring the severance of all obscurations and final emergence into liberation.

One can see that these ten are not ten scattered matters but a single, complete road of contemplation — from seeing through language, to seeing through the two graspings, to beholding all as like an illusion, to penetrating the original purity, to the obscurations exhausted and liberation won — step succeeding step.

Vasubandhu points out one thing more at the close: these ten non-perversions are "established, in order, upon the ten adamantine sentences" — that is, the ten non-perversions, one by one, answer to and rest upon the framework called the "ten adamantine sentences" (vajra-pada) (namely: existent-and-non-existent · the basis without perversion · like-illusion and non-discrimination · originally and ever pure · defiled-and-pure · purity-of-nature likened to space · neither decreasing nor increasing, and the rest).

The name "adamantine sentence" takes the sense of the adamant (vajra) as "hardest of all, able to cut through anything." The ancient masters gather the burden of these ten sentences into a few heads: they speak of own-nature (which is the three natures), of the object (which is the three natures), of non-discrimination (which is non-discriminating wisdom, the purity of nature), and they use three similes to "resolve the difficulties" — the "illusion-simile" resolves the difficulty of "plainly non-existent, yet apprehensible"; the "space-simile" resolves the difficulty of "originally pure, yet bearing defilement and purity"; and "neither decreasing nor increasing" resolves the difficulty of "delivering measureless beings, yet saṃsāra does not perish; entering the great nirvāṇa, yet nirvāṇa does not increase."

Gather this whole section into one sentence: the ten non-perversions are the complete unfolding of the consciousness-only contemplation — "the two graspings originally absent, consciousness-only appearing in delusion, all things like an illusion, the dharma-realm originally pure" — and all of them are established upon the ten adamantine sentences. This is the very bone of the prajñā non-discriminating wisdom within the right practice of the Great Vehicle, running on one continuous line with the Characteristics chapter's "four appearances of consciousness-transformation" and "mind's nature originally pure, defiled by adventitious dust." The "insight" side of practice according to dharma is here brought to its fullness.

5. Practice Free of the Two Extremes: The Middle Way of the Ratnakūṭa, and the Seven Similes

Difference and identity; the outsiders' way and the disciples'; the extremes of reification and denial; the two extremes — each twofold — about beings and about dharmas; the to-be-counteracted and the counteragent; eternalism and annihilationism; the extremes of grasped and grasper; defilement and purity, taken in their two and three kinds. Know, further, that the discrimination of the two extremes has seven forms: the extreme of existence and non-existence; the to-be-pacified and the pacifier; the grasped and the grasper; right nature and wrong nature; the useful and the useless; non-arising and arising-in-time — these are the discriminations of the two extremes.

The fourth of the six kinds of practice is called practice free of the two extremes. "Practice" here means the proper cultivation a bodhisattva is to walk; "free of the two extremes" means keeping clear of two sorts of slanted, mistaken view. The content of this practice is exactly the middle way (madhyamā pratipad) taught in the *Ratnakūṭa* (the old translation records this scripture under the title Ratnacūḍa, 寶頂經; we keep "the Ratnakūṭa" throughout). In the Characteristics chapter, the middle way was set up upon a single false imagining, in four clauses. Here the middle way works differently: it takes the various "two extremes" the Buddha laid out for his disciples in the Ratnakūṭa, lifts each one up in turn, and sets a "cognition of the middle" against each to leave it behind. By a "cognition of the middle" is meant a wisdom that falls to neither extreme and sees a thing as it really is.

First, the various two extremes. Vasubandhu, following the scripture, sets out one paired slanted view after another, and matches to each a cognition of the middle that leaves it behind. There is no need to count every pair to the end; a few will make plain the method — for each single extreme, a cognition of the middle is raised to leave it:

• Difference and identity — some grasp that "the self" and this body are two separate things (difference); some grasp that "the self" just is this body (identity). Both grow from a prior assumption that there is a self at all. The cognition of the middle that leaves them is the contemplation of no-self: there is no such self in the first place, and so there is no longer anything to dispute as one with the body or other than it.
• Eternalism and annihilationism — the outsiders grasp that form and the other dharmas are eternal and unchanging — this is the "outsiders' extreme"; the disciples (the śrāvakas) grasp that form and the rest are impermanent, arising and perishing, falling to the other side — this is the "disciples' extreme." The cognition of the middle that leaves them is the contemplation of form and the rest as neither eternal nor impermanent: not flatly calling them eternal, and not flatly calling them annihilated and decaying.
• Reifying beings and denying beings — "reification" is asserting that what is not there is there; here it means grasping a really existent "self" (a being). "Denial" is sweeping away what is there; here it means erasing even the conventionally named being. What leaves them is the cognition of the middle that falls to neither "self" nor "no-self."
• Reifying dharmas and denying dharmas — one side grasps that mind and the cognitions are solidly, really existent; the other grasps that mind and the cognitions are altogether non-existent.

Leaving the pairs one by one in just this way is the middle-way practice for the various two extremes: the Buddha names an extreme, and a cognition is raised to leave it. At the pair of defilement and purity, Vasubandhu marks a key point. "Defilement" runs in three layers (affliction, action, and birth), and answering to them "the counteragent (purity)" runs in three layers as well; but the nature of the dharma-realm is, from the very first, undefiled — it is not that some "emptiness" is brought in to empty the dharmas away, but that the dharma-nature is empty of itself, the very substance of the dharmas being from the start empty. This dissolves the pair of "counteragent and to-be-counteracted" as well: one need not cling to a "defilement" that must be removed, nor to a "purity" able to remove it.

Now the seven discriminations of the two extremes. A "discrimination of the two extremes" is a paired slanted view born of false imagining; here they are counted out as seven, and Vasubandhu leaves each behind with a simile:

• Existence and non-existence — some grasp a really existent "person" (pudgala, the conventionally named individual that runs on through birth-and-death), and wait until it perishes to set up "emptiness." This is mistaken: emptiness is empty of itself, empty across the three times — past, present, and future — and is not raised up only in order to "annihilate a person." (This discrimination is leftbehind not by a simile but by this very point.)
• The to-be-pacified and the pacifier — "to pacify" is to still, to extinguish. Some grasp that there is a "thing to be severed" and a "force that severs," and so even come to dread emptiness. To leave this, the space simile is used: emptiness is like empty space — there is nothing in it to sever and nothing to extinguish, and so nothing to fear. This simile is spoken for the śrāvakas.
• The feared and the fearer — "to fear" is to dread. Some take the form wholly-imagined by reckoning to be fearsome, and take the painful dharma to be dreadful (the "wholly-imagined" being what is fabricated by reckoning and never stood as a thing at all). To leave this, the painter simile is used: just as a painter himself paints a fearsome figure and then, turning back, is frightened by his own painting — the feared object is in truth a showing of one's own mind. This simile is spoken for the bodhisattvas.
• The grasped and the grasper — "the grasped" is the object grasped at; "the grasper" is the mind that grasps. To leave this, the illusionist simile is used, and this is the spine of the whole practice free of the two extremes, to be opened up fully. The illusionist is one who works conjuring-tricks; the elephants and horses he conjures up look as if they were there and yet are wholly absent. Contemplation has just such a sequence. First, from the cognition of consciousness-only there arises the cognition of no-object — one first establishes that "the ten-thousand dharmas are only the showing of consciousness," and thereby sees that the grasped outer object cannot be attained. Then, by the cognition of no-object, one turns back and casts off "consciousness-only" in turn — the outer object once unattainable, the grasping consciousness too cannot stand, and so even the notion of "consciousness-only" is set down along with it. In one line: from consciousness-only arises [the cognition of] no-object, and by [the cognition of] no-object one casts off consciousness-only in turn — consciousness-only → no-object → casting off consciousness-only — until at last object and consciousness are effaced together. Why must grasper and grasped be effaced together? Because consciousness can only arise "in dependence on an object as its support"; the supporting object being non-existent, the consciousness that takes it as support is, in turn, non-existent. This "effacing object and consciousness alike" is precisely the three-nature middle way of consciousness-only contemplation — casting off the other-dependent, realizing the perfectly-accomplished — for to empty the two-grasping shown upon the other-dependent is to enter the perfectly-accomplished suchness. It is here that the "middle way" in this treatise's very name, Distinguishing the Middle from the Extremes, stands out most plainly, of one line with the "expedient of entering signlessness" in the opening arc of the Characteristics chapter.
• Right nature and wrong nature — some grasp that the contemplation "as it really is" must be either definitely right or definitely wrong. To leave this, the fire-from-two-sticks simile is used: just as two sticks drilled together give rise to fire, and the fire once arisen burns up the very two sticks — contemplation gives rise to the noble one's wisdom, and the wisdom once arisen turns back and removes the very contemplation that gave rise to it. So there is no need to cling rigidly to the contemplation as right or as wrong.
• The useful and the useless — some grasp that the noble one's wisdom must first discriminate point by point before it can remove defilement (useful); some grasp that it has no working at all (useless). To leave this, the first-lamp simile is used (the lamp first lit).
• Non-arising and arising-in-time — some grasp that the wisdom able to counter the afflictions can in the end never arise (non-arising); some grasp that it exists "at the same time, and just as long" as the defilement (arising-in-time). To leave this, the later-lamp simile is used (the lamp lit thereafter).

Taking the seven together: the practice free of the two extremes is this — to each kind of "two extremes" that beings grasp at, the Buddha speaks a simile to leave it. And the heart of it lies always in the illusionist simile — by consciousness-only dispelling the object, by the object's absence dispelling consciousness, until grasper and grasped are effaced together: this is the most thoroughgoing realization of the cognition of the middle.

6. Differentiated and Undifferentiated Practice: Cultivating the Ten Perfections across the Ten Grounds (the Six Practices gathered up)

Differentiated and undifferentiated — these are to be known upon the ten grounds: the cultivating-together of the ten perfections, now as dominant, now in equal measure.

The fifth and sixth of the six kinds of practice form a pair: differentiated practice and undifferentiated practice. They speak of two faces of the bodhisattva's cultivating of the ten perfections across the ten grounds. First let the two terms be made clear:

• The ten grounds — the ten ascending stations the bodhisattva passes through on the road to buddhahood, from the first ground all the way up to the tenth, each ground deeper than the last.
• The ten perfections — "perfection" (pāramitā) means "going to the far shore," naming ten practices able to carry one across from the near shore of birth-and-death to the far shore of nirvāṇa: giving, morality, patience, and the rest — the ten together.

With these two terms clear, the pair of practices is easily grasped:

• Differentiated practice — within the ten grounds, each single ground takes some one of the ten perfections as its dominant, cultivating it with special emphasis. So the first ground takes "giving" as dominant, the second ground takes "morality" as dominant, and so on — each ground with its own particular weighting. This is the "differentiated" (the divided, the emphasized).
• Undifferentiated practice — across all the grounds, giving and the other ten perfections are cultivated together, equally, with no leaning toward any one of them. The ten cultivated as one, with no emphasis — this is the "undifferentiated."

These two practices set out exactly the two faces of the bodhisattva's cultivating of the ten perfections across the ten grounds: on one face, each ground has its own emphasis (differentiated); on the other, all the grounds alike cultivate equally and together (undifferentiated).

At this point the six kinds of practice stand complete. Looking back over the six — supreme, attention, according-to-dharma, free of the two extremes, differentiated, and undifferentiated — Vasubandhu here gathers them in a single closing pass, the summary of the six practices, threading the six as one line:

• Supreme — by that most excellent class one contemplates the established teaching of the Great Vehicle set forth by the Buddha.
• Attention — "attention" is the settling of the mind, fixed upon its object; here it means contemplating, by that foregoing class, the dharma of the Great Vehicle.
• According-to-dharma — cultivating calm-abiding and insight in accord with the right dharma, that is: "by non-distracted transformation one cultivates calm-abiding; by non-perverted transformation one cultivates insight." Calm-abiding (śamatha) is "stilling" — settling the mind so that it is not scattered (non-distracted); insight (vipaśyanā) is "contemplating" — seeing as it really is, without inversion (non-perverted).
• Free of the two extremes — for the sake of the principle set out above, one cultivates the practice of the middle way that keeps clear of the two extremes, seeking emergence from birth-and-death.
• Differentiated and undifferentiated — within these very ten grounds, one cultivates the differentiated and the undifferentiated practice set out above.

Gathered all the way down in this manner — contemplating the dharma of the Great Vehicle by the supreme class, cultivating calm-abiding and insight, cultivating the practice of the middle way and seeking emergence, cultivating differentiated and undifferentiated practice across the ten grounds — this whole stretch is the entire content of "unsurpassed practice." "Unsurpassed practice" means: the bodhisattva's proper practice is the most excellent, with nothing further above it. The six kinds of practice have now gathered up, exhaustively, all the practice a bodhisattva is to cultivate; and just here, the reason the bodhisattva's practice is "unsurpassed" comes round to its fullness.

7. The Unsurpassed Object: The Twelve Objects

The second of the three unsurpasseds is called the unsurpassed object. The preceding "unsurpassed practice" spoke of the unsurpassedness of the practice the bodhisattva undertakes; this one turns to the object that practice faces — it says the object the bodhisattva takes is unsurpassed. An "object" (ālambana) is simply what the mind faces, what it contemplates. From start to finish the bodhisattva-path has, in all, twelve classes of object to contemplate, and not one of them is anything but unsurpassed — hence the unsurpassed object.

The object: the established designation of dharmas, the dharma-realm, the established and the establishing, sustaining, impressing-and-holding, inwardly holding, penetration, increase, partial realization, even-flowing, and the supreme.

In the barest possible words the verse counts off all twelve objects at a stroke. Following Vasubandhu's commentary, let us open them out one by one — for they are not twelve scattered items, but a single complete road of contemplation running from teaching to principle, through learning-reflection-and-cultivation, and on to the buddha-ground:

• The established designation of dharmas — the bodhisattva's very first object is "the diverse teaching-gateways that have been established," that is, the differentiated teachings that the Buddha set up and laid out for going to the far shore (the six perfections and the rest). Put simply, this takes teaching as object: first one contemplates the Great-Vehicle teaching-gateways the Buddha spoke.
• The dharma-realm — the object here is the dharma-realm (dharma-dhātu), that is, thusness (tathatā). The principle those teachings are meant to disclose is thusness; so after contemplating the teaching, one contemplates this principle. This takes principle as object.
• The established and the establishing — these two must be seen together: they are the two faces of the "established differentiated teaching-gateways" (going to the far shore, and so on) just mentioned. The gateways that have been set up are "the established"; that which can make these gateways stand and hold is "the establishing." Why divide it into two faces? Because those differentiated gateways for going to the far shore can be truly accomplished only by penetrating the dharma-realm (thusness) — once the principle is penetrated, the teaching has ground to stand on. So this pair, "the established" and "the establishing," follows directly upon the dharma-realm (thusness): by penetrating thusness, one turns back and makes the various teachings, as object, stand firm.
• Sustaining — this is the object of the wisdom born of learning (śruta-mayī prajñā). "Sustaining" means sustaining the letter — holding in mind the very words of the dharma one has heard; this is the object of the wisdom that comes through listening.
• Impressing-and-holding — this is the object of the wisdom born of reflection (cintā-mayī prajñā). "Impressing-and-holding" means impressing and holding the meaning — turning over again and again the meaning of what one has heard until that meaning is settled and stamped in; this is the object of the wisdom that comes through reflection.
• Inwardly holding — this is the object of the wisdom born of cultivation (bhāvanā-mayī prajñā). "Inwardly holding" means holding, item by item, within: gathering the meaning one has reflected on and settled into calm-and-insight, cultivating it point by point; this is the object of the wisdom that comes through cultivation.

These three — sustaining, impressing-and-holding, inwardly holding — are precisely the respective objects of the three wisdoms of learning, reflection, and cultivation: the wisdom of learning takes the letter as its object, the wisdom of reflection the meaning, the wisdom of cultivation cultivates inwardly. Each of the three wisdoms' objects, every one, is unsurpassed.

The next five are the objects contemplated on the path-stages, climbing upward along the levels of practice on the grounds:

• Penetration — the object of the path of seeing on the first ground (darśana-mārga). When the bodhisattva enters the first ground and raises the path of seeing, truly penetrating thusness, what is then contemplated is the object of penetration.
• Increase — the object of the path of cultivation, up through the seventh ground. After the path of seeing one enters the path of cultivation, and the qualities grow ground after ground; what is contemplated along this stretch is the object of increase.
• Partial realization — the object that, on the seventh ground, is realized portion by portion, class by class, of the various kinds of the mundane and supramundane path. Reaching the seventh ground, one realizes the path-categories — both worldly and world-transcending — bit by bit, item by item; what is contemplated here is the object of partial realization.
• Even-flowing — the object of the eighth ground. Reaching the eighth ground, practice turns of itself and flows on, continuing naturally and effortlessly; what is contemplated then is the object of even-flowing.
• The supreme — the object of the ninth ground, the tenth ground, and on up to the Tathāgata-ground. This is the last and highest object of the final three stations, and so it is called the supreme.

Taken all together, these twelve form one complete road of objects: first one contemplates the teaching (the established gateways), then the principle (the dharma-realm, thusness), and by penetrating thusness one turns back to make the established and the establishing — the teachings — stand firm; in between come the objects of the three wisdoms of learning, reflection, and cultivation (sustaining, impressing-and-holding, inwardly holding); and then, all the way up the path-stages — the path of seeing (penetration), the path of cultivation up through the seventh ground (increase), the seventh ground's portion-by-portion realizing (partial realization), the eighth ground's effortless flow (even-flowing), and the ninth and tenth grounds on up to the buddha-ground (the supreme). Teaching, principle, wisdom, and stage — there is not one of them that is not the bodhisattva's object of contemplation.

The pith of this section can be gathered into a single sentence: the unsurpassed object is just the unsurpassedness of the object the Great Vehicle contemplates. What the bodhisattva takes as object is not confined to one dharma or one field; it runs from the teaching the Buddha spoke, to the principle of thusness that teaching discloses, through the three wisdoms of learning, reflection, and cultivation, and exhausts the path of seeing, the path of cultivation, the ten grounds, and on up to the buddha-ground — this whole course of the object, from end to end, is gathered into these twelve. The object contemplated being thus vast and ultimate, with nothing able to surpass it, it is therefore said to be unsurpassed.

8. Unsurpassed Cultivation-and-Realization: The Ten Cultivation-Realizations (and the summary of the "Unsurpassed Vehicle")

The third of the three unsurpasseds is called unsurpassed cultivation-and-realization. "Unsurpassed practice" spoke of the practice undertaken, and "the unsurpassed object" of the object contemplated; this one speaks of what is accomplished — the cultivation-and-realization itself. From the lineage at the very beginning to the manifesting of awakening at the very end, this whole course of realization from cause to fruit has not a single station that is anything but unsurpassed — hence unsurpassed cultivation-and-realization.

Cultivation-and-realization: through being without lack, through not being slandered or shaken, through fullness, through arising, through firmness, through being made pliant, through not abiding, and through being without obscuration and without rest.

The verse, still in the most economical counting, points to all ten cultivation-realizations at once. Following Vasubandhu's commentary, let us open out these ten — they are one complete course of realization running from the ordinary into the noble, from the first arousing of the mind to the perfect buddha-fruit:

• The cultivation-realization of lineage — its accomplishment is because the cause is without lack. "Lineage" (gotra) is the capacity to become a vessel of the Great Vehicle, the very stock of buddhahood; its accomplishment lies in the causes and conditions for becoming a buddha being complete and unbroken. Only when the causes are not lacking can the lineage stand up.
• The cultivation-realization of resolute faith — its accomplishment is because one does not slander the Great Vehicle. To rouse trust and acceptance and resolute conviction (adhimukti) toward the true dharma of the Great Vehicle, and not to slander it — this step of resolute faith is accomplished precisely in this "not slandering."
• The cultivation-realization of arousing the mind — its accomplishment is because one is not shaken by the inferior vehicles. Once the mind set on awakening (cittotpāda) has been roused, this mind is not shaken or drawn aside by the inferior dharmas of the two vehicles and the like — the accomplishment of arousing the mind lies in this "not being shaken."
• The cultivation-realization of practice — its accomplishment is because the perfections are brought to completion. Practice is the actual, on-the-ground cultivation of the six perfections and the rest, the practices of going to the far shore; its accomplishment lies in cultivating each of the perfections to the full.
• The cultivation-realization of entering the [stage] free from [ordinary] birth — its accomplishment is because the noble path arises. "Free from birth" means leaving behind the birth-and-death nature of the ordinary person; "entering the [stage] free from [ordinary] birth" is to enter the path of seeing and raise the noble path (ārya-mārga), becoming for the first time truly a noble one — and the accomplishment of this step lies in "the noble path arising" (which is just that station of "penetration," the path of seeing, in the unsurpassed object above).
• The cultivation-realization of maturing beings — its accomplishment is because firm wholesome roots are gathered over the long span. Having entered the noble state, the bodhisattva must mature all beings; this depends on gathering firm wholesome roots over a long stretch of time, so as to guide beings and ripen their wholesome roots.
• The cultivation-realization of [purifying] the buddha-field — its accomplishment is because the mind is grown pliant. The "buddha-field" is the accomplishing of a pure buddha-land; its root lies in the bodhisattva's mind having been tamed and made supple — the mind being pure, the land it draws forth is pure.
• The cultivation-realization of the irreversible-ground prophecy — its accomplishment is because one does not abide in saṃsāra or nirvāṇa. Reaching the irreversible ground and receiving the Buddha's prophecy, this accomplishment lies in the bodhisattva's neither sinking into saṃsāra nor settling into nirvāṇa — only when one is not turned back by either of these two extremes, birth-and-death or nirvāṇa, is one truly irreversible.
• The cultivation-realization of the buddha-ground — its accomplishment is because it is free of the two obscurations. At the buddha-ground (buddha-bhūmi), both the afflictive obscuration and the cognitive obscuration have been severed and exhausted — "free of the two obscurations" is precisely the summit of cultivation-and-realization, that by which a buddha is a buddha.
• The cultivation-realization of manifesting awakening — its accomplishment is because it is without rest. Becoming a buddha is not yet the end: the Buddha manifests the realizing of perfect awakening, turns the dharma-wheel, and delivers beings — and this delivering of beings is forever without rest. To become a buddha and yet never cease delivering beings — this is the last mark of cultivation-and-realization.

Taken all together, these ten form one complete course of realization from cause to fruit: setting out from lineage (the cause without lack), passing through resolute faith (not slandering), arousing the mind (not being shaken), practice (the perfections brought to fullness), entering the [stage] free from [ordinary] birth (the noble path arising, the path of seeing), maturing beings (long-gathered wholesome roots), [purifying] the buddha-field (the mind made pliant), the irreversible prophecy (not abiding in the two extremes), the buddha-ground (the two obscurations severed and exhausted), and arriving at last at manifesting awakening (delivering beings without rest) — a single line straight through to the ultimate.

Having finished the ten cultivation-realizations, Vasubandhu then gathers the whole chapter, "Distinguishing the Unsurpassed Vehicle," into a single summary — the one sentence that draws the chapter closed. He says: the reason the Great Vehicle is called the "unsurpassed vehicle" comes, in sum, to just three unsurpassed principles:

• Unsurpassed practice — the practice undertaken is unsurpassed (the six kinds of practice spoken of above).
• Unsurpassed support-of-practice — the object that practice faces is unsurpassed (that is, "the unsurpassed object," which practice sustains and takes as its object).
• Unsurpassed fruit-of-practice — the fruit that practice accomplishes is unsurpassed (that is, this "unsurpassed cultivation-and-realization," the fruit that practice realizes).

In other words: the three unsurpasseds spoken of above — practice, object, and cultivation-realization — answer exactly to the three faces of practice, object, and fruit. The Great Vehicle's practice, object, and fruit are all three unsurpassed, and it is for this that it is called the "unsurpassed vehicle."

The pith of this section may be gathered thus: unsurpassed cultivation-and-realization is just the unsurpassedness of the fruit the bodhisattva realizes — beginning from the lineage, climbing station by station, on up to the buddha-ground where the two obscurations, afflictive and cognitive, are severed and exhausted, and then on to the manifesting of awakening and the unresting deliverance of beings; this whole course of realization has nothing that can surpass it. And Vasubandhu's closing summary draws the whole chapter tighter still: the Great Vehicle, being unsurpassed in all three — practice (practice), object (object), and cultivation-realization (fruit) — is therefore named the unsurpassed vehicle. All that the chapter "Distinguishing the Unsurpassed Vehicle" sets out to distinguish is herewith brought to completion.

The Concluding Verse: Explaining the Name "Distinguishing the Middle from the Extremes" — the Close of the Whole Treatise

This is the final verse of the Madhyāntavibhāga, and the concluding verse of the whole treatise. The one hundred and twelve verses before it have carried us from the "characteristics" of the first chapter all the way to the "unsurpassed vehicle" of the seventh; and now, at this last verse, the author turns back to explain why this treatise is called "Distinguishing the Middle from the Extremes" (madhyānta-vibhāga) — closing the whole work with its own title.

This treatise distinguishes the middle from the extremes; its sense is profound and firm, vast and all-encompassing; and it removes all that is inauspicious.

To the three words "distinguishing the middle from the extremes," Vasubandhu gives three layers of meaning. First, recall the root the treatise's first chapter set up: "false imagining exists, the two graspings are absent, the middle." That ongoing activity of mind-and-consciousness, false imagining, is what "stands in the middle" (neither empty nor existent); the grasper and the grasped that it splits open are the "two extremes"; and to see truly, apart from eternalism, annihilation, reification, and denial, is the middle way. The three senses of "distinguishing the middle from the extremes" all hold fast to this root:

• Distinguishing the "practice" of middle-and-extremes — this treatise can distinguish the subject-practice that takes as object the "middle" and the "two extremes." The subject-practice is that ongoing activity of mind-and-consciousness that goes out and takes things as object — false imagining itself: standing of itself in the middle, yet splitting open the two extremes of the two graspings. The treatise distinguishes this practice, and so it is called distinguishing the middle from the extremes.
• Distinguishing the "object" of middle-and-extremes — this treatise can also distinguish the object that is "middle-and-extremes," the object that the subject-practice faces. The treatise distinguishes this object, and so it too is called distinguishing the middle from the extremes.
• Distinguishing the "middle way" — this treatise can rightly distinguish the middle-way dharma free of the "first extreme and last extreme." The first and last extremes are eternalism and annihilation, reification and denial — these one-sided graspings; the treatise lets all such crookedness fall away and rightly distinguishes the middle way that falls to neither side, and so it is called distinguishing the middle from the extremes.

In the single phrase "distinguishing the middle from the extremes," all three senses are gathered — distinguishing the subject-practice, distinguishing the object, and distinguishing the middle way free of the extremes.

The verse's last three lines — "its sense is profound and firm, vast and all-encompassing, and it removes all that is inauspicious" — mark out the four senses of what this treatise distinguishes, together with its one function:

• Profound — what this treatise distinguishes is a profound (gambhīra) sense: it is not a realm that shallow ratiocination can reach. Ordinary conjecture and reasoning cannot touch this, and so it is called profound.
• Firm — it is a firm (dṛḍha) sense: it can overthrow the contrary arguments of others, while it is not itself subdued by any opponent. Its meaning is solid and not to be shaken, and so it is called firm.
• Vast — it is a vast (udāra) sense: it can distinguish the manifold matters that benefit and bring ease both to oneself and to others. Its reach being so wide, it is called vast.
• All-encompassing — it is an all-encompassing (sarva) sense: it can universally determine, for all, the dharmas of the three vehicles — those of the disciples, the solitary buddhas, and the bodhisattvas. Its compass being so complete, it is called all-encompassing.
• 〔Function〕Removing the inauspicious — the last line, "it removes all that is inauspicious," states the treatise's function: it can extinguish every kind of inauspiciousness. What is meant by "the inauspicious" is just the two obscurations, the afflictive and the cognitive; the treatise can bring one to sever these two obscurations forever, and so it is said to remove all that is inauspicious.

And so this one verse draws the treatise's name and substance together at once: its name is "distinguishing the middle from the extremes" (distinguishing the practice-and-object of the middle and the two extremes, distinguishing the middle way free of the extremes); its sense is profound, firm, vast, and pervades the three vehicles; its function forever severs the two obscurations and removes all that is inauspicious — name and substance according, the treatise's purport complete.

Set the whole treatise's beginning and end side by side, and a single line is seen running clear through to the last. The first chapter begins by setting up "false imagining exists, the two graspings are absent, the middle" as the root; the six chapters between, following object, practice, and fruit, distinguish this middle way step by step to the end — distinguishing the characteristics, the obscurations, the real, the cultivating of the antidotes, the stages of that cultivation, the attaining of the fruit — down to this last chapter, which distinguishes the Great Vehicle's practice, object, and fruit as all three unsurpassed. And at this final verse, the author folds it back upon the first chapter with the three words "distinguishing the middle from the extremes": what is distinguished is precisely false imagining's "standing in the middle" (neither empty nor existent), the two graspings' "two extremes," and the middle way free of eternalism, annihilation, reification, and denial. What the first chapter set up, the last verse seals; beginning and end answer to one another, like a ring that has no break. Its sense is profound, firm, vast, and pervasive through the three vehicles; its function forever severs the two obscurations and removes all that is inauspicious.

Setting up the middle way at the opening of the work, distinguishing the middle way through the whole of the work, and closing the work at its end under the name "distinguishing the middle from the extremes" — the Madhyāntavibhāga, in its one hundred and thirteen verses, is herewith complete.

In Closing: The One Thread of the Unsurpassed Vehicle

Seen as a whole, this chapter runs as a single thread.

The author first sets the heading: the Great Vehicle is unsurpassed by reason of three unsurpasseds in sum — practice, object, cultivation-realization; and practice opens further into six kinds. He then expounds these six kinds of practice one by one:

• Supreme practice — the ten perfections (pāramitā) earn the name "perfection" ("going to the far shore") because each carries the "twelve superiorities" (from vastness and long duration to the ultimate); and the latter four perfections (skillful means, vow, power, knowledge) sustain the first six, making them inexhaustible, ever-arising, settled, and maturing of beings.
• Practice of attention — cultivating constant attention to the Great Vehicle by the three kinds of wisdom (born of learning, of reflection, of cultivation), aided by the ten dharma-practices (copying, offering … through to cultivating); its merit is "supreme" and "inexhaustible," precisely where the bodhisattva path differs from the two vehicles' self-benefit.
• Practice according to dharma — in two faces, calm and insight: calm (śamatha) is freedom from the six distractions; insight (vipaśyanā) is the ten non-perversions (from letter and meaning through to no-fear and no-arrogance), gathered into the ten adamantine sentences. This stretch is the very skeleton of the Yogācāra contemplation — the two-grasping is absent, the deluded consciousness merely appears, like an illusion, the dharma-realm originally pure.
• Practice free of the two extremes — the middle-way practice taught in the Ratnakūṭa, which casts off seven discriminated pairs of extremes by seven similes; its core is the illusionist simile: by consciousness-only one casts off the outer object, and by the object's absence one casts off consciousness-only in turn, so that object and consciousness are both effaced — this is where the "middle" of "distinguishing the middle" shows most plainly.
• Differentiated and undifferentiated practice — cultivating the ten perfections across the ten grounds, now one predominating, now all equally. With this the six kinds of practice are complete, and "unsurpassed practice" is fulfilled.

Unsurpassed practice told, the other two threads follow: unsurpassed object — the object the bodhisattva contemplates, from teaching and principle to the objects of the three wisdoms and the ground-by-ground objects of the paths of seeing and cultivation, twelve kinds in all, none not unsurpassed; unsurpassed cultivation-and-realization — what the bodhisattva passes through and realizes, from lineage all the way to the manifesting of awakening, ten cultivation-realizations, ending at the buddha-ground where the two obscurations are severed. Practice, object, fruit — all three faces unsurpassed: and so the name "Unsurpassed Vehicle" is fixed.

Finally, the treatise closes with its last verse, turning back to name itself: "distinguishing the middle from the extremes" — distinguishing false imagining's "being-in-the-middle" from the two-grasping's "two extremes," distinguishing the middle way free of eternalism and annihilation, of reification and denial. What the first chapter set up — "false imagining exists, the two-grasping is absent, the middle" — and this final verse answer each other end to end: the whole treatise, it turns out, has spoken of one middle way from beginning to end.

Establishing the three unsurpasseds, opening the six kinds of practice, gathering in object and cultivation-realization, and at last folding back into the treatise's middle way — this is the thread that "The Unsurpassed Vehicle" offers: a complete line of thought from "why the Great Vehicle is unsurpassed" to "why the whole treatise is named Distinguishing the Middle from the Extremes."