瑜伽師地論 意地 · 世間安立

That the three catastrophes and Mount Sumeru are written into "the stage that speaks of mind" is no digression — it is the finishing stroke.

In one line: The receptacle-world is what the shared karma of sentient beings brings about, transformed out of the store consciousness's common-mark seeds; the manifold marks of sentient beings are established by karma and by verbal designation — the Stage of the Mental, by joining the outer division of the world to the inner division of death-and-rebirth, completes the whole picture of "all is but the manifestation of consciousness."

Three Points of the Eye

1. The receptacle-world = what is brought about by the dominant force of karma: the outer division's ruin and formation come "from the world-forming and world-ruining karma that sentient beings are able to bring about"; the world's forming comes "by the dominant force of the karma of all sentient beings." The world can be ruined up through the first, second, and third meditative absorptions (the three catastrophes of fire, water, and wind), while the fourth absorption has no catastrophe that can ruin it — even how far the world can be ruined is bound to the fixed karma of sentient beings, not to physical chance. Consciousness-only reading: the store consciousness takes "the place" (the receptacle-world) as its object = the object-aspect transformed out of common-mark seeds (tied to the Cheng Weishi Lun's store-consciousness object · shared and unshared karma).

2. Inner and outer mirror each other = the individual fruition and the shared fruition are one single account: 02-03, the inner division of death-and-rebirth = the store consciousness upholding the individual-fruition body (unshared); 02-04, the outer division of the world = shared karma bringing about the environing fruition, the receptacle-world (shared). One consciousness both transforms the material body and the receptacle-realm, and both upholds the individual fruition and the shared fruition. The three-thousandfold great-thousand world "forms together and is ruined together" and is called "one buddha-field" — the root still lies in shared karma and the transformation of consciousness.

3. The manifold marks of beings = established (designated), not real apart from consciousness: the five destinies and four births · the six bases of support · the seven objects of acquisition · the sixty-two classes of sentient beings · down to the "many phrases of verbal expression" (letters gathering meanings · the seven paradigm-phrases) — every mark is established in dependence on karma and on verbal designation, without an intrinsic nature apart from consciousness. That even the phrases of verbal expression are itemized in detail is exactly the point: verbal designation (idle proliferation) constructs the world (inheriting death-and-rebirth's "delight in idle proliferation is the most excellent cause").

Appended · Pointers

The Cheng Weishi Lun: the store consciousness takes "the appropriated and the place" as object · shared and unshared karma transform the receptacle-world 〔T1585 fasc. 2–3〕; the Sūtra on the Arising of Worlds and the Sūtra on the Arising of Worlds — the Root Cause (sūtras) · Vasubandhu's Abhidharmakośa, Chapter on the World (an ancient master, T1558) — read across. For the doctrine unfolded, see the exposition.

The 漢 root text (Xuanzang, T30n1579) is kept as a de-emphasized visual anchor for bilingual readers; the English below renders every word of it in plain, continuous prose. The enumerations — the heavens, the mountains, the continents, the catastrophes, the classes of beings, the phrases of verbal expression — are rendered one by one in full, none collapsed.

The establishment of the outer division of the world: the receptacle-world's forming and ruin through the three catastrophes · Mount Sumeru and the several continents · the five destinies and four births · the manifold classes of sentient beings and the phrases of verbal expression.

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One · The Outer Division, Whether It Ruins or Forms (the receptacle-world · the three catastrophes · the middling and great aeons)

云何外分若壞若成？謂由諸有情所作能感成壞業故。若有能感壞業現前，爾時便有外壞緣起，由彼外分皆悉散壞，非如內分由壽量盡。何以故？由一切外分所有麁色，四大所成，恒相續住，非如內分。又感成器世間業，此業決定能引劫住，不增不減。若有情數，時無決定。所以者何？由彼造作種種業故，或過一劫，或復減少乃至一歲。

What is the outer division (the receptacle-world), whether it ruins or forms? It is by reason of the world-forming and world-ruining karma that the several sentient beings are able to bring about. When karma able to bring about ruin becomes present, then there is the dependent arising of outer ruin, and by it that outer division is wholly scattered and ruined — not as with the inner division, which ruins because its measure of lifespan is exhausted. Why so? Because all the coarse matter belonging to the whole outer division, being made of the four great elements, abides in constant continuity — not as with the inner division. Again, the karma that brings about the forming of the receptacle-world — this karma definitely draws forth an aeon's duration, neither increasing nor decreasing. But for the number of sentient beings, the time is not fixed. Why is that? Because they perform karma of many kinds, [their lifespan] may exceed an aeon, or again be lessened down to a single year.

又彼壞劫。由三種災。一者、火災，能壞世間，從無間獄乃至梵世。二者、水災，能壞一切，乃至第二靜慮。三者、風災，能壞一切、乃至第三靜慮。第四靜慮無災能壞。由彼諸天身與宮殿俱生俱沒故，更無能壞因緣法故。復有三災之頂。謂第二靜慮、第三靜慮、第四靜慮。

Again, that aeon of ruin comes about through three kinds of catastrophe. The first is the catastrophe of fire, able to ruin the world from the Avīci hell up to the Brahmā-world. The second is the catastrophe of water, able to ruin everything up to the second meditative absorption. The third is the catastrophe of wind, able to ruin everything up to the third meditative absorption. The fourth meditative absorption has no catastrophe that can ruin it — because for those gods the body and the palace arise together and pass away together, and so there is no further factor of cause-and-condition able to ruin them. There are, further, the summits of the three catastrophes: namely the second meditative absorption, the third meditative absorption, and the fourth meditative absorption.

又此世間二十中劫壞，二十中劫壞已空，二十中劫成，二十中劫成已住；如是八十中劫，假立為一大劫數。又梵世間壽量一劫，此最後壞，亦最初成。當知此劫異相建立。謂梵眾天，二十中劫合為一劫，即依此劫施設壽量。梵前益天，四十中劫合為一劫，即依此劫施設壽量。若大梵天，六十中劫合為一劫，即依此劫施設壽量。

Again, this world is ruined over twenty middling aeons; over twenty middling aeons it is void after ruin; over twenty middling aeons it forms; over twenty middling aeons it abides after forming. In this way eighty middling aeons are provisionally set up as the count of one great aeon. Again, the Brahmā-world's measure of lifespan is one aeon; this [world] is the last to be ruined and also the first to form. It should be understood that this aeon is set up under a different aspect. For the Brahmā-multitude gods, twenty middling aeons combined make one aeon, and the measure of lifespan is designated in dependence on this aeon. For the Brahmā-fore-benefit gods (the Brahmā-purohita), forty middling aeons combined make one aeon, and the measure of lifespan is designated in dependence on this aeon. For the Great Brahmā god, sixty middling aeons combined make one aeon, and the measure of lifespan is designated in dependence on this aeon.

云何火災能壞世間？謂有如是時，世間有情壽量無限。從此漸減，乃至壽量經八萬歲。彼復受行不善法故，壽量轉減，乃至十歲。彼復獲得厭離之心，受行善法，由此因緣，壽量漸增，乃至八萬。如是壽量一減一增，合成一中劫。

How does the catastrophe of fire ruin the world? There is such a time when the sentient beings of the world have a limitless measure of lifespan. From this it gradually decreases, down to a lifespan that passes eighty thousand years. Because they then take up and practice unwholesome factors, their lifespan turns and decreases, down to ten years. They then obtain a mind of weary disenchantment and take up and practice wholesome factors, and by this cause and condition their lifespan gradually increases, up to eighty thousand. In this way, the lifespan once decreasing and once increasing together make one middling aeon.

又此中劫，復有三種小災出現。謂儉、病、刀。儉災者，所謂人壽三十歲時，方始建立。當爾之時，精妙飲食不可復得，唯煎煮朽骨共為讌會。若遇得一粒稻、麥、粟、稗等子，重若末尼，藏置箱篋而守護之。彼諸有情多無氣勢，蹎僵在地不復能起。由此飢儉，有情之類亡沒殆盡。此之儉災經七年七月七日七夜，方乃得過。彼諸有情復共聚集，起下厭離。由此因緣，壽不退減，儉災遂息。

Again, within this middling aeon there appear, further, three kinds of minor catastrophe: namely famine, pestilence, and the sword. As for the famine catastrophe: it is only set up when human lifespan reaches thirty years. At that time, fine and choice food and drink can no longer be had; people only boil rotten bones and take them together for a feast. Should one come upon a single grain of rice, wheat, millet, or barnyard-grass and the like, it is prized as heavy as a maṇi-jewel, stored away in a box and guarded. Those sentient beings, mostly without vigor, stumble and fall stiff to the ground and can no longer rise. By this hunger and famine, the classes of sentient beings perish almost to extinction. This famine catastrophe passes only after seven years, seven months, seven days, and seven nights. Those sentient beings then gather together and rouse a slight weary disenchantment; and by this cause and condition their lifespan does not fall and decrease, and the famine catastrophe thereupon subsides.

又若人壽二十歲時，本起厭患今乃退捨。爾時多有疫氣、障癘、災橫、熱惱相續而生。彼諸有情遇此諸病，多悉殞沒。如是病災經七月七日七夜，方乃得過。彼諸有情復共聚集，起中厭離。由此因緣，壽量無減，病災乃息。

Again, when human lifespan is twenty years, the weary disenchantment once roused is now let go. At that time there arise, one after another, much of epidemic vapors, obstructive plagues, calamitous mishaps, and feverish afflictions. Those sentient beings, meeting these several diseases, mostly all perish. This pestilence catastrophe passes only after seven months, seven days, and seven nights. Those sentient beings then gather together and rouse a middling weary disenchantment; and by this cause and condition their measure of lifespan does not decrease, and the pestilence catastrophe thereupon subsides.

又人壽十歲時，本起厭患今還退捨。爾時有情展轉相見，各起猛利殺害之心。由此因緣，隨執草木及以瓦石，皆成最極銳利刀劍，更相殘害，死喪略盡。如是刀災極經七日，方乃得過。

Again, when human lifespan is ten years, the weary disenchantment once roused is again let go. At that time sentient beings, seeing one another in turn, each rouse a fierce and sharp mind bent on killing. By this cause and condition, whatever grass, wood, tile, or stone they take in hand all becomes the utmost keen and sharp sword or blade, and they harm and slay one another, dying and perishing almost to extinction. This sword catastrophe passes only after at most seven days.

爾時有情復有三種最極衰損。謂壽量衰損、依止衰損、資具衰損。壽量衰損者，所謂壽量極至十歲。依止衰損者，謂其身量極至一搩，或復一握。資具衰損者，爾時有情唯以粟稗為食中第一，以髮毼為衣中第一，以鐵為莊嚴中第一。五種上味悉皆隱沒，所謂酥、蜜、油、鹽等味，及甘蔗變味。爾時有情展轉聚集，起上厭離，不復退減。又能棄捨損減壽量惡不善法，受行增長壽量善法，由此因緣，壽量、色力、富樂、自在皆漸增長，乃至壽量經八萬歲。如是二十減、二十增，合四十增減，便出住劫。

At that time sentient beings have, further, three kinds of utmost decline. Namely: the decline of lifespan, the decline of the support (the body), and the decline of provisions. The decline of lifespan means that lifespan at its utmost reaches ten years. The decline of the support means that their bodily measure at its utmost reaches a single span, or again a single fist. The decline of provisions means that at that time sentient beings take only millet and barnyard-grass as the first among foods, hair-felt as the first among garments, and iron as the first among ornaments; and the five choice flavors are all hidden away — namely the flavors of ghee, honey, oil, and salt and the like, and the altered flavor of sugar-cane. At that time sentient beings gather together in turn and rouse a superior weary disenchantment, and no longer fall and decrease. And they are able to cast off the evil and unwholesome factors that diminish and decrease lifespan, and to take up and practice the wholesome factors that increase lifespan; and by this cause and condition their lifespan, bodily strength, wealth-and-joy, and self-mastery all gradually increase, up to a lifespan that passes eighty thousand years. In this way, twenty decreases and twenty increases, forty increase-and-decrease together, and then the aeon of abiding runs out.

於最後增已，爾時那落迦有情唯沒不生。如是漸漸乃至沒盡，當知說名那落迦世間壞。如那落迦壞，傍生、餓鬼壞亦如是。爾時人中隨一有情，自然法爾所得第二靜慮。其餘有情展轉隨學，亦復如是。皆此沒已，生極淨光天眾同分中。當知爾時說名人世間壞。如人趣既爾，天趣亦然。

After the final increase, at that time the beings of the hells (naraka) only pass away and are no longer born. In this way, gradually, until they are passed away and exhausted — this should be understood to be called "the ruin of the hell-world." As the hells ruin, so too do the animal realm and the hungry-ghost realm ruin. At that time, some one being among humans, by its own natural law, attains the second meditative absorption; and the remaining sentient beings, following and learning in turn, do likewise. When all these have passed away, they are born among the group of the Ābhāsvara (Extremely Pure Radiant) heaven. At that time this should be understood to be called "the ruin of the human world." As it is for the human destiny, so likewise for the destiny of the gods.

當於此時，五趣世間居住之處無一有情可得，所有資具亦不可得。非唯資具不可復得，爾時天雨亦不可得。由無雨故，大地所有藥草叢林皆悉枯槁。復由無雨之所攝故，令此日輪熱勢增大。又諸有情能感壞劫業增上力故，及依六種所燒事故，復有六日輪漸次而現。彼諸日輪望舊日輪所有熱勢，踰前四倍。既成七已，熱遂增七。

At this time, in the dwelling-places of the five-destiny world not a single sentient being can be found, and none of their provisions can be found either. Not only can provisions no longer be had — at that time even the rain of the heavens can no longer be had. Because there is no rain, all the medicinal herbs and thickets and forests of the great earth wholly wither. And because they are held by the absence of rain, the heat-force of this sun-disc grows greater. Again, by the dominant force of the karma that sentient beings are able to bring about which forms the ruin-aeon, and in dependence on the six things to be burned, there appear, further, six sun-discs, one after another. The heat-force belonging to those sun-discs, measured against the old sun-disc, exceeds it fourfold. Once they have become seven, the heat thereupon increases sevenfold.

云何名為六所燒事？一、小大溝坑，由第二日輪之所枯竭；二、小河大河，由第三日輪之所枯竭；三、無熱大池、由第四日輪之所枯竭；四者、大海，由第五日輪及第六一分之所枯竭；五、蘇迷盧山及以大地，體堅實故，由第六一分及第七日輪之所燒然。即此火焰為風所鼓，展轉熾盛、極至梵世。又如是等，略為三事。一、水所生事、謂藥草等，由初所槁；二、即水事、由五所涸；三、恒相續住體堅實事，由二所燒。

What are called the six things to be burned? First, the small and large gullies and pits, dried up by the second sun-disc. Second, the small rivers and great rivers, dried up by the third sun-disc. Third, the great Anavatapta (heatless) lake, dried up by the fourth sun-disc. Fourth, the great sea, dried up by the fifth sun-disc and a portion of the sixth. Fifth, Mount Sumeru and the great earth — because their substance is firm and solid, they are burned aflame by a portion of the sixth and the seventh sun-disc. This very flame, fanned by the wind, blazes ever more fiercely, reaching to the very Brahmā-world. Again, such things as these are, in brief, three matters: first, the things produced from water — namely the medicinal herbs and the like — withered by the first [sun]; second, the water itself — dried up by the [first] five; third, the things that abide in constant continuity, of firm and solid substance — burned by the [remaining] two.

如是世界皆悉燒已，乃至灰墨及與餘影皆不可得，廣說如經。從此名為器世間已壞。滿足二十中劫。如是壞已，復二十中劫住。

When the world has thus been wholly burned — down to ash and cinder and even any remaining shadow, none can be found (expounded at length as in the sūtra) — from this point it is called "the receptacle-world already ruined." It fills out twenty middling aeons. Having thus been ruined, it abides for a further twenty middling aeons.

云何水災？謂過七火災已，於第二靜慮中，有俱生水界起，壞器世間，如水消鹽。此之水界與器世間一時俱沒。如是沒已，復二十中劫住。云何風災？謂七水災過已，復七火災；從此無間，於第三靜慮中有俱生風界起，壞器世間，如風乾支節、復能消盡。此之風界與器世間一時俱沒。所以者何？現見有一由風界發，乃令其骨皆悉消盡。從此壞已，復二十中劫住。如是略說世間已壞。

What is the catastrophe of water? When seven fire catastrophes have passed, in the second meditative absorption a co-arisen water-element arises and ruins the receptacle-world, as water dissolves salt. This water-element passes away together with the receptacle-world at one and the same time. Having thus passed away, it abides for a further twenty middling aeons. What is the catastrophe of wind? When seven water catastrophes have passed, and a further seven fire catastrophes; and thereupon, without interval, in the third meditative absorption a co-arisen wind-element arises and ruins the receptacle-world, as the wind dries out the limbs and joints and can further dissolve them utterly. This wind-element passes away together with the receptacle-world at one and the same time. Why so? It is presently seen that there is a case where, set off by the wind-element, one's very bones are wholly dissolved away. Having from this been ruined, it abides for a further twenty middling aeons. Thus, stated briefly, the world has been ruined.

Two · The World Forms (the meditative-absorption receptacle-worlds · the wind-wheel and gold-wheel · Mount Sumeru and the several continents · the beginning of the aeon)

云何世間成？謂過如是二十中劫已，一切有情業增上力故，世間復成。爾時最初於虛空中，第三靜慮器世間成。如第三靜慮，第二及初亦復如是。爾時第三災頂有諸有情由壽盡故，業盡故，福盡故，從彼沒已，生第三靜慮。餘一切處，漸次亦爾。復從第二災頂生第二靜慮。餘一切處，應知亦爾。

What is the forming of the world? When such twenty middling aeons have passed, by the dominant force of the karma of all sentient beings the world forms again. At that time, first of all, within empty space the receptacle-world of the third meditative absorption forms; and as with the third absorption, so likewise the second and the first. At that time, at the summit of the third catastrophe there are sentient beings who, because their lifespan is exhausted, because their karma is exhausted, and because their merit is exhausted, pass away from there and are born into the third meditative absorption; and at all the remaining places it is likewise, in gradual sequence. Again, from the summit of the second catastrophe they are born into the second meditative absorption; and at all the remaining places it should be understood likewise.

復從第一災頂，有一有情由壽等盡故，從彼沒已，生初靜慮梵世界中，為最大梵。由獨一故、而懷不悅。便有希望：今當云何令餘有情亦來生此。當發心時，諸餘有情由壽等盡故，從第二靜慮沒已，生初靜慮彼同分中。如是下三靜慮器及有情世間成已。

Again, from the summit of the first catastrophe, there is a single being who, because its lifespan and the rest are exhausted, passes away from there and is born within the Brahmā-world of the first meditative absorption, becoming the Great Brahmā. Because it is solitary and alone, it harbors displeasure. And there comes a hope: "How now might I make the remaining sentient beings also come to be born here?" Just when it rouses this thought, the remaining sentient beings, because their lifespan and the rest are exhausted, pass away from the second meditative absorption and are born among that group of the first meditative absorption. Thus the receptacle-worlds and the sentient-being worlds of the lower three meditative absorptions have formed.

於虛空中，欲界四天宮殿漸成。當知彼諸虛空宮殿皆如化出。又諸有情，從極淨光天眾同分沒，而來生此諸宮殿中。餘如前說。自此以後，有大風輪，量等三千大千世界，從下而起，與彼世界作所依持，為欲安立無有宮殿諸有情類。此大風輪有二種相。謂仰周布及傍側布，由此持水令不散墜。

Within empty space, the palaces of the four heavens of the desire-realm gradually form. It should be understood that those empty-space palaces all come forth as if by transformation. And sentient beings, passing away from the group of the Ābhāsvara heaven, come to be born within these palaces. The rest is as stated before. After this, there is a great wind-wheel, its measure equal to the three-thousandfold great-thousand world, arising from below to serve as the support and upholder for that world, in order to establish the classes of sentient beings who have no palaces. This great wind-wheel has two forms: namely the upward-encircling spread and the sideways spread; and by it the water is upheld so that it does not scatter and fall.

次由彼業增上力故，於虛空界金藏雲興。從此降雨，注風輪上。次復起風，鼓水令堅，此即名為金性地輪。上堪水雨之所激注，下為風颷之所衝薄。此地成已，即由彼業增上力故，空中復起諸界藏雲，又從彼雲降種種雨。然其雨水，乃依金性地輪而住。次復風起，鼓水令堅。即由此風力所引故，諸有清淨第一最勝精妙性者，成蘇迷盧山。此山成已，四寶為體。所謂金、銀、頗胝、琉璃。

Next, by the dominant force of that karma, in the realm of empty space a gold-treasury cloud arises. From this rain falls, pouring upon the wind-wheel. Next, a wind arises again and churns the water to make it firm — this is called the gold-natured earth-wheel. Above, it withstands the dashing pour of the water and rain; below, it is buffeted by the rushing gusts of the wind. Once this earth has formed, then by the dominant force of that karma there arise again in the sky the several element-treasury clouds, and from those clouds fall rains of many kinds; yet those rain-waters abide upon the gold-natured earth-wheel. Next, a wind arises again and churns the water to make it firm. And drawn forth by this force of the wind, whatever is of a pure, foremost, most excellent, and finely subtle nature forms into Mount Sumeru. Once this mountain has formed, four jewels are its substance — namely gold, silver, crystal, and lapis lazuli.

若中品性者，成七金山。謂持雙山、毘那矺迦山、馬耳山、善見山、朅達洛迦山、持軸山、尼民達羅山。如是諸山，其峯布列，各由形狀差別為名，繞蘇迷盧次第而住。蘇迷盧量，高八萬踰繕那，廣亦如之，下入水際、量亦復爾。又持雙山，等彼之半。從此次第，餘六金山其量漸減，各等其半。

Whatever is of a middling nature forms into the seven gold mountains: namely the Yugaṃdhara (Twin-Holding) mountain, the Vinataka mountain, the Aśvakarṇa (Horse-Ear) mountain, the Sudarśana (Good-to-See) mountain, the Khadiraka mountain, the Īṣādhara (Axle-Holding) mountain, and the Nimindhara mountain. These mountains, their peaks arrayed, are each named by the difference of their shape, and abide in sequence encircling Sumeru. The measure of Sumeru is eighty thousand yojanas in height, and its breadth is likewise; and going down into the water's edge, its measure is again the same. Again, the Yugaṃdhara mountain equals half of it; and from this, in sequence, the remaining six gold mountains decrease in measure, each equaling half [of the one before].

若下品性者，於蘇迷盧四邊七金山外，成四大洲及八中洲，并輪圍山。此山輪圍四洲而住，量等尼民達羅之半。復成非天宮殿，此宮在蘇迷盧下，依水而居。復成大雪山及無熱池周圍崖岸。次成最下八大那洛迦處，諸大那洛迦，及獨一那洛迦、寒那洛迦、近邊那洛迦。復成一分鬼、傍生處。

Whatever is of a lower nature forms, on the four sides of Sumeru and outside the seven gold mountains, into the four great continents and the eight middling continents, together with the encircling-ring mountain. This mountain, encircling the four continents, abides, its measure equal to half of Nimindhara. There forms, further, the palace of the non-gods (asuras); this palace is below Sumeru, dwelling in dependence on the water. There form, further, the great Snow Mountain and the surrounding cliffs and banks of the Anavatapta (heatless) lake. Next there form the lowest eight great hell-places — the several great hells, and the solitary hells, the cold hells, and the neighboring hells. There forms, further, a portion of the places of the hungry ghosts and the animals.

四大洲者，謂南贍部洲、東毘提訶洲、西瞿陀尼洲、北拘盧洲。其贍部洲，形如車箱；毘提訶洲，形如半月；瞿陀尼洲，其形圓滿；北拘盧洲，其形四方。贍部洲量，六千五百踰繕那；毘提訶洲量，七千踰繕那；瞿陀尼洲量，七千五百踰繕那；拘盧洲量，八千踰繕那。

As for the four great continents: they are the southern Jambudvīpa, the eastern Videha, the western Godānīya, and the northern Kuru. The Jambudvīpa continent is shaped like a cart-box; the Videha continent is shaped like a half-moon; the Godānīya continent is round and full in shape; the northern Kuru continent is four-square in shape. The measure of the Jambudvīpa continent is six thousand five hundred yojanas; the measure of the Videha continent is seven thousand yojanas; the measure of the Godānīya continent is seven thousand five hundred yojanas; the measure of the Kuru continent is eight thousand yojanas.

又七金山，其間有水、具八支德，名為內海。復成諸龍宮。有八大龍，並經劫住。謂持地龍王、歡喜近喜龍王、馬騾龍王、目支隣陀龍王、意猛龍王、持國龍王、大黑龍王、黳羅葉龍王。是諸龍王，由帝釋力，數與非天共相戰諍。其諸龍眾類有四種。謂卵生、胎生、濕生、化生。妙翅鳥中，四類亦爾。復有餘水，在內海外，故名外海。

Again, among the seven gold mountains there is water, complete with the eight qualities, called the inner sea. There form, further, the several dragon-palaces. There are eight great dragons, and they abide through the aeon: namely the dragon-king Earth-Holder, the dragon-king Delight-and-Near-Delight (Nanda and Upananda), the dragon-king Horse-Mule, the dragon-king Mucilinda, the dragon-king Fierce-of-Mind, the dragon-king Realm-Holder (Dhṛtarāṣṭra), the dragon-king Great Black, and the dragon-king Elāpattra. These dragon-kings, by the power of Śakra (Indra), repeatedly wage war and contention with the non-gods. The classes of these dragon-multitudes are of four kinds: namely womb-born, egg-born, moisture-born, and transformation-born. Among the fine-winged birds (garuḍas) the four classes are likewise. There is, further, other water outside the inner sea, and so it is called the outer sea.

又依蘇迷盧根，有四重級。從蘇迷盧初級，傍出一萬六千踰繕那量。即從此量，半半漸減，如其次第，餘級應知。有堅手神住最初級，血手神住第二級，常醉神住第三級，持鬘神住第四級。蘇迷盧頂四隅之上有四大峯，各高五百踰繕那量。有諸藥叉，謂金剛手止住其中。

Again, in dependence on the root of Sumeru there are four tiered terraces. From the first terrace of Sumeru, [the terrace] projects sideways a measure of sixteen thousand yojanas. From this measure it gradually decreases by half and half, and the remaining terraces should be understood in this sequence. The god Firm-Hand dwells on the first terrace, the god Blood-Hand on the second terrace, the god Ever-Drunk on the third terrace, and the god Garland-Holder on the fourth terrace. Above the four corners of Sumeru's summit there are four great peaks, each five hundred yojanas in height. There are yakṣas — namely Vajrapāṇi (Diamond-Hand) — who dwell within them.

又持雙山，於其四面有四王都。東南西北隨其次第，謂持國、增長、醜目、多聞四大天王之所居止。諸餘金山，是彼四王村邑部落。又近雪山，有大金崖，名非天脅，其量縱廣五十踰繕那，善住龍王常所居鎮，又天帝釋時來遊幸。此中有樹，名曰善住，多羅樹行，七重圍繞。

Again, the Yugaṃdhara mountain, on its four sides, has the four kings' capitals. East, south, west, north, in that sequence, are the dwelling-places of the four great heavenly kings — Dhṛtarāṣṭra (Realm-Holder), Virūḍhaka (Increase-and-Growth), Virūpākṣa (Ugly-Eyed), and Vaiśravaṇa (Much-Hearing). The several remaining gold mountains are the villages, towns, and tribes of those four kings. Again, near the Snow Mountain there is a great gold cliff named the Flank of the Non-Gods, its measure fifty yojanas in length and breadth, where the dragon-king Supratiṣṭhita (Well-Abiding) constantly dwells and stands guard, and where the heavenly Śakra (Indra) at times comes to roam and sport. Herein there is a tree named Well-Abiding, a row of tāla-trees encircling it sevenfold.

復有大池，名漫陀吉尼，五百小池以為眷屬。善住大龍與五百牝象前後圍繞，遊戲其池，隨欲變現，便入此池，採蓮花根以供所食。即於此側，有無熱大池，其量深廣各五十踰繕那；微細金沙遍布其底，八支德水彌滿其中，形色殊妙，端嚴憙見。從此派流為四大河。一名殑伽，二名信度，三名私多，四名縛芻。

There is, further, a great pond named Mandākinī, with five hundred small ponds as its retinue. The great dragon Well-Abiding, encircled before and behind by five hundred cow-elephants, sports in that pond; conjuring at will, it enters this pond and gathers lotus-flower roots to supply its food. On this very side there is the great Anavatapta (heatless) pond, its measure fifty yojanas in depth and breadth; fine gold sand is spread all over its bottom, and water of the eight qualities fills it brimful, its form and hue surpassingly wondrous, upright and stately and a joy to behold. From this branch out and flow the four great rivers: the first named Gaṅgā, the second named Sindhu, the third named Sītā, and the fourth named Vakṣu.

復次，於蘇迷盧頂處中，建立帝釋天宮，縱廣十千踰繕那量。所餘之處，是彼諸天村邑聚落。其山四面，對四大洲，四寶所成。謂對贍部洲，琉璃為面；對毘提訶，白銀為面；對瞿陀尼，黃金為面；對拘盧洲，頗胝為面。

Furthermore, at the center of Sumeru's summit there is set up the palace of Śakra (Indra), ten thousand yojanas in length and breadth. The remaining places are the villages, towns, and hamlets of those gods. The four sides of that mountain, facing the four great continents, are made of the four jewels: namely, facing the Jambudvīpa continent, lapis lazuli is its face; facing Videha, white silver is its face; facing Godānīya, yellow gold is its face; facing the Kuru continent, crystal is its face.

又贍部洲，循其邊際，有輪王路，真金所成，如四大王天有情膝量，沒住大海。若輪王出世，如彼膝量海水減焉。又無熱池南有一大樹，名為贍部，是故此洲從彼得名。次於此北、有設拉末梨大樹叢林，四生種類妙翅諸鳥栖集其中。此四大洲各二中洲以為眷屬。復有一洲，羅剎所住。

Again, the Jambudvīpa continent, following along its edge, has a wheel-king's road, made of true gold, [submerged] to the knee-measure of the beings of the Cāturmahārājika (Four-Great-Kings) heaven, sunk and abiding in the great sea. Should a wheel-turning king appear in the world, the sea-water decreases to that knee-measure. Again, south of the Anavatapta pond there is a great tree named Jambu, and it is on this account that this continent takes its name from it. Next, north of this there is a great forest of śālmalī trees, where the fine-winged birds (garuḍas) of the four classes of birth roost and gather. Each of these four great continents has two middling continents as its retinue. There is, further, one continent where the rākṣasas dwell.

如是器世間成已，有諸有情從極淨光天眾同分沒，來生此中。餘如前說。此皆由彼感劫初業。此業第一，最勝微妙，欲界所攝；唯於此時此業感果，非於餘時。爾時有情名劫初者。又彼有色從意所生。如是一切，如經廣說。彼於爾時，未有家宅及諸聚落。一切大地面皆平正。

When the receptacle-world has thus formed, there are sentient beings who, passing away from the group of the Ābhāsvara heaven, come to be born within it. The rest is as stated before. This all comes about by their karma that brings about the beginning of the aeon. This karma is the first, the most excellent and subtle, subsumed under the desire-realm; only at this time does this karma bring about its fruit, and not at any other time. At that time the sentient beings are called "those of the aeon's beginning." And they have form and are born from mind. All this, as the sūtra expounds it at length. At that time they had as yet no homes or hamlets; the whole surface of the great earth was level and even.

自此以後，由諸有情福業力故，有地味生。如是漸次，地餅、林藤，不種粳稻，自然出現，無糠無𥝖。次有粳稻，有𥝖有糠。次復處處粳稻叢生，於是有情方現攝受。次由受用味等資緣，有情之類惡色便起，光明遂滅。其多食者惡色逾增，身極沈重。此諸有情互相輕毀，惡法現行。由此因緣，所有味等漸沒於地。如經廣說。

After this, by the force of the meritorious karma of the sentient beings, there arises the earth-savor. In this way, in gradual sequence, earth-cakes and forest-creepers, and unsown non-glutinous rice, appear of themselves, without husk and without chaff. Next there is non-glutinous rice that has chaff and has husk. Next, in place after place the non-glutinous rice grows in clusters, and thereupon the sentient beings begin to take possession of it. Next, through their use and enjoyment of the savor and the like as sustenance, the classes of sentient beings develop an ugly color, and their radiance thereupon fades. Those who eat much have their ugly color increase all the more, and their bodies become extremely heavy. These sentient beings despise and disparage one another, and evil factors become active. By this cause and condition, all the savors and the like gradually sink away into the earth. As the sūtra expounds it at length.

復從此緣，諸有情類更相顧眄，便起愛染。次由能感男女業故，一分有情男根生起，一分有情女根生起。遞相陵犯，起諸邪行，遂為他人之所訶呰，方造室宅以自隱蔽。復由攝受粳稻因故，遂於其地復起攝受。由此緣已，更相爭奪，不與取法從此而生。即由此緣立司契者，彼最初王名大等意。如是便有剎帝利眾、婆羅門眾、吠舍眾、戍陀羅眾出現世間。漸次因緣，如經廣說。

From this condition, further, the classes of sentient beings gaze at one another and thereupon rouse craving and attachment. Next, by reason of the karma able to bring about male and female, in one portion of sentient beings the male faculty arises, and in one portion the female faculty arises. They violate one another in turn and rouse the several wrong conducts, and are thereupon reproached and reviled by others, and so build houses in order to conceal themselves. And by reason of taking possession of the non-glutinous rice, they take possession, further, of the land. By this condition, they contend and seize from one another, and the factor of "taking what is not given" (theft) arises from this. And by this very condition they set up an "arbiter of covenants" [as king]; that first king is named Great-Equal-Mind (Mahāsammata). Thus there come to be the multitude of the kṣatriyas, the multitude of the brāhmaṇas, the multitude of the vaiśyas, and the multitude of the śūdras, appearing in the world. The gradual causes and conditions, as the sūtra expounds them at length.

又彼依止光明既滅，世間便有大黑闇生，日月星宿漸漸而起。其日輪量五十一踰繕那。當知月輪其量減一。日輪以火頗胝所成，月輪以水頗胝所成。此二輪中，月輪行速及與不定。又彼日輪，恒於二洲俱時作明，復於二洲俱時作闇。謂於一日中，於一日出，於一夜半，於一日沒。

Again, once the radiance on which they had depended is extinguished, there arises in the world a great darkness, and the sun, moon, and constellations gradually arise. The measure of the sun-disc is fifty-one yojanas; it should be understood that the moon-disc's measure is one less. The sun-disc is made of fire-crystal, the moon-disc is made of water-crystal. Of these two discs, the moon-disc moves swiftly and moreover irregularly. Again, that sun-disc constantly makes light over two continents at the same time, and makes darkness over two continents at the same time — that is, within one [and the same instant]: at one [continent] it is midday, at one sunrise, at one midnight, at one sunset.

又一切所有日月星宿，歷蘇迷盧處半而行，與持雙山高下量等。又復日行時有遠近，若遠蘇迷盧，立為寒分；若近蘇迷盧，立為熱分。即由此故，沒有遲速。又此月輪，於上稍欹，便見半月。由彼餘分障其近分，遂令不見。如如漸側，如是如是漸現圓滿；若於黑分如如漸低，如是如是漸現虧減。由大海中有魚鼈等影現月輪，故於其內有黑相現。諸星宿中，其量大者十八拘盧舍量，中者十拘盧舍量，最小者四拘盧舍量。

Again, all the sun, moon, and constellations there are travel around the mid-point of Sumeru, level in measure with the Yugaṃdhara mountain's high-and-low. Again, in its travel the sun has its far and near: when it is far from Sumeru, this is set up as the cold portion [of the year]; when it is near Sumeru, this is set up as the hot portion. And it is for this reason that there is slowness and swiftness in the setting. Again, this moon-disc, tilting slightly at the top, is then seen as a half-moon; because its remaining portion obscures its near portion, it is thereby made not visible. Just as it gradually inclines, just so does it gradually appear full; and in the dark fortnight, just as it gradually sinks, just so does it gradually appear waned. Because in the great sea there are fish, turtles, and the like whose shadows appear on the moon-disc, there therefore appear black marks within it. Among the constellations, the large ones are eighteen krośas in measure, the middling ones ten krośas in measure, and the smallest ones four krośas in measure.

Three · The Five Destinies and Four Births · the Classes of Sentient Beings · the Phrases of Verbal Expression (establishing the manifold marks)

復次，於世間四姓生已，方乃發起順愛不愛五趣受業。從此以後，隨一有情由感雜染增上業故，生那洛迦中作靜息王。從此無間，有那洛迦卒，猶如化生，及種種苦具，謂銅鐵等那洛迦火起。然後隨業有情於此受生，及生餘趣。

Furthermore, when the four castes have arisen in the world, only then are set in motion the fruition-bearing karmas of the five destinies, agreeable and disagreeable. After this, some one sentient being, by reason of the dominant karma that brings about defilement, is born within the hells to be the King Yama (the Stiller-of-Strife). Thereupon, without interval, there are the hell-wardens, as if transformation-born, and the manifold implements of suffering — namely the hell-fire of copper, iron, and the like arises. Thereafter, sentient beings according to their karma take birth here, and are born in the remaining destinies.

如是百拘胝四大洲，百拘胝蘇迷盧，百拘胝六欲天，百拘胝梵世間，三千大千世界俱成俱壞。即此世界有其三種。一、小千界，謂千日月乃至梵世，總攝為一。二、中千界，謂千小千。三、大千界，謂千中千。合此名為三千大千世界。如是四方上下無邊無際三千世界，正壞正成。猶如天雨，注如車軸，無間無斷，其水連注，墮諸方分。如是世界遍諸方分，無邊無際，正壞正成。

Thus a hundred koṭis of four-great-continents, a hundred koṭis of Sumerus, a hundred koṭis of six desire-realm heavens, and a hundred koṭis of Brahmā-worlds — the three-thousandfold great-thousand world forms together and is ruined together. This world is of three kinds. First, the small-thousand realm — namely a thousand suns-and-moons up to the Brahmā-world, gathered together as one. Second, the middling-thousand realm — namely a thousand small-thousands. Third, the great-thousand realm — namely a thousand middling-thousands. Combined, these are called the three-thousandfold great-thousand world. Thus the three-thousand worlds of the four directions, above and below, boundless and limitless, are now ruining and now forming — just as the rain of the heavens pours like a cart-axle, without interval and without break, its water pouring on unbroken, falling on the several quarters. Thus the worlds, pervading the several quarters, boundless and limitless, are now ruining and now forming.

即此三千大千世界名一佛土。如來於中現成正覺，於無邊世界施作佛事。如是安立世界成已，於中五趣可得，謂那洛迦、傍生、餓鬼、人、天。及四生可得，謂卵生、胎生、濕生、化生。復有六種依持。復有十種時分，謂時、年、月、半月、日、夜、剎那、怛剎那、臘縛、目呼剌多。復有七攝受事。復有十種身資具。復有十種受欲者，此如中阿笈摩說。復有八數隨行。復有八世法，謂得、不得、若譽、若毀、稱、譏、苦、樂。復有三品，謂怨、親、中。復有三種世事。復有三種語言。復有二十二種發憤。復有六十二種有情之類。又有八位。復有四種入胎。復有四種威儀。復有六種活命。復有六種守護。復有七種苦。復有七種慢。復有七種憍。復有四種言說。復有眾多言說句。

This very three-thousandfold great-thousand world is called "one buddha-field." Therein the Tathāgata manifests the attainment of right and full awakening, and throughout boundless worlds performs the buddha-deeds. When the world has thus been established and formed, within it the five destinies may be found: namely the hells, the animals, the hungry ghosts, humans, and gods. And the four births may be found: namely the egg-born, the womb-born, the moisture-born, and the transformation-born. There are, further, the six kinds of base of support. There are, further, ten divisions of time: namely the moment, the year, the month, the half-month, the day, the night, the instant (kṣaṇa), the tat-kṣaṇa, the lava, and the muhūrta. There are, further, the seven objects of acquisition. There are, further, the ten kinds of bodily provision. There are, further, the ten kinds of enjoyers of desire — this is as stated in the Madhyamāgama. There are, further, the eight numbered pursuits. There are, further, the eight worldly factors: namely gain, loss, praise, blame, fame, disrepute, suffering, and pleasure. There are, further, three grades: namely enemy, kin, and neutral. There are, further, three kinds of worldly affair. There are, further, three kinds of speech. There are, further, the twenty-two kinds of outburst. There are, further, the sixty-two kinds of classes of sentient beings. There are, further, the eight stages [of life]. There are, further, the four kinds of entering the womb. There are, further, the four kinds of deportment. There are, further, the six kinds of livelihood. There are, further, the six kinds of guarding. There are, further, the seven kinds of suffering. There are, further, the seven kinds of conceit. There are, further, the seven kinds of pride. There are, further, the four kinds of verbal expression. There are, further, the many phrases of verbal expression.

云何那落迦趣？謂種果所攝那洛迦諸蘊，及順那洛迦受業。如那洛迦趣如是，傍生、餓鬼、人、天、如其所應盡當知。云何卵生？謂諸有情破㲉而出。彼復云何？如鵞、雁、孔雀、鸚鵡、舍利鳥等。云何胎生？謂諸有情胎所纏裹，剖胎而出。彼復云何？如象、馬、牛、驢等。云何濕生？謂諸有情隨因一種濕氣而生。彼復云何？如蟲、蝎、飛蛾等。云何化生？謂諸有情業增上故，具足六處而生，或復不具。彼復云何？如天、那洛迦全，及人、鬼、傍生一分。

What is the hell-destiny? It is the aggregates of the hells subsumed under seed-and-fruit, and the karma that bears fruit conforming to the hells. As with the hell-destiny, so with the animals, the hungry ghosts, humans, and gods — each as is fitting, all should be understood. What is egg-birth? It is when sentient beings break the shell and come out. And what are they? Such as the goose, the wild goose, the peacock, the parrot, the śāri-bird, and the like. What is womb-birth? It is when sentient beings, wrapped and enveloped by the womb, split the womb and come out. And what are they? Such as the elephant, the horse, the ox, the donkey, and the like. What is moisture-birth? It is when sentient beings are born in dependence on some kind of moist vapor. And what are they? Such as worms, scorpions, flying moths, and the like. What is transformation-birth? It is when sentient beings, by the dominance of karma, are born complete with the six bases, or again incomplete. And what are they? Such as the gods and the hells entirely, and a portion of humans, ghosts, and animals.

云何六種依持？一、建立依持，謂最下風輪及水輪、地輪。令諸有情不墜下故起，是名依持。二、藏覆依持，謂屋宇等。為諸有情離流漏等所損故起，是名依持。彼屋宇等略有三種。或由造作，或不由造作，或宮殿化起。三、豐稔依持，為諸有情段食故起，是名依持。四、安隱依持，為諸有情離刀仗等所害故起，是名依持。五、日月依持，為諸有情見色故起，是名依持。六、食依持，謂四食。一、段食，二、觸食，三、意思食，四、識食。為諸有情任持身故起，是名依持。

What are the six kinds of base of support? First, the base of support that is establishing — namely the lowest wind-wheel and the water-wheel and earth-wheel. It arises so as to keep sentient beings from falling down, and this is called a base of support. Second, the base of support that is storing-and-covering — namely houses and dwellings and the like. It arises so as to keep sentient beings from the harm of leaks and drips and the like, and this is called a base of support. Those houses and the like are, in brief, of three kinds: either made by construction, or not made by construction, or palaces that arise by transformation. Third, the base of support that is bountiful-harvest — it arises for the morsel-food of sentient beings, and this is called a base of support. Fourth, the base of support that is peace-and-security — it arises so as to keep sentient beings from the harm of swords and staves and the like, and this is called a base of support. Fifth, the base of support that is sun-and-moon — it arises so that sentient beings may see form, and this is called a base of support. Sixth, the base of support that is food — namely the four foods: first, morsel-food; second, contact-food; third, mental-volition-food; fourth, consciousness-food. It arises so as to sustain the body of sentient beings, and this is called a base of support.

云何七種攝受事？一、自父母事，二、妻子事，三、奴婢僕使事，四、朋友官僚兄弟眷屬事，五、田宅邸肆事，六、福業事及方便作業事，七、庫藏事。云何十種身資具？一、食，二、飲，三、乘，四、衣，五、莊嚴具，六、歌笑舞樂，七、香鬘塗末，八、什物之具，九、照明，十、男女受行。

What are the seven objects of acquisition? First, the matter of one's own father and mother; second, the matter of wife and children; third, the matter of slaves, servants, and attendants; fourth, the matter of friends, officials, brothers, and kin; fifth, the matter of fields, houses, lodgings, and shops; sixth, the matter of meritorious deeds and of works done by skillful means; seventh, the matter of storehouses and treasuries. What are the ten kinds of bodily provision? First, food; second, drink; third, conveyance; fourth, clothing; fifth, ornaments; sixth, song, laughter, dance, and music; seventh, perfume, garlands, unguents, and powders; eighth, utensils and implements; ninth, illumination; tenth, the intercourse of man and woman.

云何八數隨行？謂諸世間數數隨所行事。一、蔽覆事，二、瑩飾身事，三、威儀易奪事，四、飲食事，五、睡眠事，六、交會事，七、屬彼勤劬事，八、屬彼言說事。云何三種世事？一、語言談論，更相慶慰事；二、嫁娶賓主，更相飲噉事；三、於起作種種事中，更相營助事。云何三種語言？謂有法語言、無法語言，及餘語言。有法語言者，謂宣說厭捨，離諸纏蓋趣可愛樂等。廣說如經。無法語言者，謂染污心說飲食等。餘語言者，謂無記心所起言說。

What are the eight numbered pursuits? They are the matters that the several worldlings pursue again and again: first, the matter of covering [the body]; second, the matter of adorning and grooming the body; third, the matter of the changing of deportment; fourth, the matter of food and drink; fifth, the matter of sleep; sixth, the matter of sexual union; seventh, the matter of toiling on its behalf; eighth, the matter of speech on its behalf. What are the three kinds of worldly affair? First, the matter of speech and discourse, mutually rejoicing and consoling; second, the matter of marrying and giving in marriage, of guest and host, mutually feasting and drinking; third, the matter of mutually managing and assisting in the doing of various works. What are the three kinds of speech? Speech with Dharma, speech without Dharma, and other speech. Speech with Dharma means proclaiming weary disenchantment and casting-off, departing from the several entanglements and hindrances and turning toward what is lovely and joyous, and the like (expounded at length as in the sūtra). Speech without Dharma means speaking, with a defiled mind, of food and drink and the like. Other speech means the speech roused by an indeterminate mind.

云何二十二種發憤？一、偽斗，二、偽稱，三、偽函，四、邪業方便，五、拒鬪，六、輕調，七、違反，八、諍訟，九、罵詈，十、忿怒，十一、訶責，十二、迫脅，十三、捶打，十四、殺害，十五、繫縛，十六、禁閉，十七、割截，十八、驅擯，十九、諂曲，二十、矯誑，二十一、陷逗，二十二、妄語。

What are the twenty-two kinds of outburst? First, the false measuring-vessel; second, the false weighing-scale; third, the false container; fourth, the skillful means of wrong livelihood; fifth, refusing and fighting; sixth, mocking and taunting; seventh, going against and opposing; eighth, quarreling and litigation; ninth, cursing and reviling; tenth, wrath and anger; eleventh, scolding and reproach; twelfth, coercing and threatening; thirteenth, beating and striking; fourteenth, killing and harming; fifteenth, binding and fettering; sixteenth, imprisoning and confining; seventeenth, cutting and severing; eighteenth, driving out and banishing; nineteenth, flattery and crookedness; twentieth, deceit and fraud; twenty-first, entrapping and ensnaring; twenty-second, false speech.

云何六十二種有情之類？一、那洛迦，二、傍生，三、鬼，四、天，五、人，六、剎帝利，七、婆羅門，八、吠舍，九、戍陀羅，十、女，十一、男，十二、非男非女，十三、劣，十四、中，十五、妙，十六、在家，十七、出家，十八、苦行，十九、非苦行，二十、律儀，二十一、不律儀，二十二、非律儀非不律儀，二十三、離欲，二十四、未離欲，二十五、邪性聚定，二十六、正性聚定，二十七、不定聚定，二十八、苾芻，二十九、苾芻尼，三十、正學，三十一、勤策男，三十二、勤策女，三十三、近事男，三十四、近事女，三十五、習斷者，三十六、習誦者，三十七、淨施人，三十八、宿長，三十九、中年，四十、少年，四十一、軌範師，四十二、親教師，四十三、共住弟子及近住弟子，四十四、賓客，四十五、營僧事者，四十六、貪利養恭敬者，四十七、厭捨者，四十八、多聞者，四十九、大福智者，五十、法隨法行者，五十一、持經者，五十二、持律者，五十三、持論者，五十四、異生，五十五、見諦，五十六、有學，五十七、無學，五十八、聲聞，五十九、獨覺，六十、菩薩，六十一、如來，六十二、轉輪王。此轉輪王復有四種。或王一洲，或二三四。王一洲者，有鐵輪應；王二洲者，有銅輪應；王三洲者，有銀輪應；王四洲者，有金輪應。

What are the sixty-two kinds of classes of sentient beings? (1) hell-being; (2) animal; (3) ghost; (4) god; (5) human; (6) kṣatriya; (7) brāhmaṇa; (8) vaiśya; (9) śūdra; (10) woman; (11) man; (12) neither-man-nor-woman; (13) inferior; (14) middling; (15) superior; (16) householder; (17) home-leaver; (18) ascetic; (19) non-ascetic; (20) [one under] restraint; (21) [one] without restraint; (22) [one] neither under restraint nor without restraint; (23) [one] free of desire; (24) [one] not yet free of desire; (25) [one] fixed in the wrong-natured heap; (26) [one] fixed in the right-natured heap; (27) [one] of the unfixed heap; (28) bhikṣu; (29) bhikṣuṇī; (30) probationer (śikṣamāṇā); (31) male novice (śrāmaṇera); (32) female novice (śrāmaṇerī); (33) layman (upāsaka); (34) laywoman (upāsikā); (35) one who practices cutting-off; (36) one who practices recitation; (37) one who makes pure gifts; (38) the elder in seniority; (39) the middle-aged; (40) the young; (41) the master of conduct (ācārya); (42) the personal preceptor (upādhyāya); (43) the co-resident disciple and the near-resident disciple; (44) the guest; (45) one who manages the affairs of the Saṅgha; (46) one greedy for gain and respect; (47) one who wearies and casts off; (48) one of much learning; (49) one of great merit and wisdom; (50) one who practices the Dharma in accord with the Dharma; (51) one who upholds the sūtras; (52) one who upholds the Vinaya; (53) one who upholds the treatises; (54) the ordinary being (pṛthagjana); (55) one who has seen the truths; (56) one in training (the learner); (57) one beyond training (the adept); (58) śrāvaka; (59) pratyekabuddha; (60) bodhisattva; (61) Tathāgata; (62) wheel-turning king. This wheel-turning king is, further, of four kinds: he may rule one continent, or two, three, or four. One who rules one continent has an iron wheel answering to him; one who rules two continents has a copper wheel answering to him; one who rules three continents has a silver wheel answering to him; one who rules four continents has a gold wheel answering to him.

云何八位？謂處胎位、出生位、嬰孩位、童子位、少年位、中年位、老年位、耄熟位。處胎位者，謂羯羅藍等。出生位者，謂從此後乃至耄熟。嬰孩位者，謂乃至未能遊行嬉戲。童子位者，謂能為彼事。少年位者，謂能受用欲塵，乃至三十。中年位者，謂從此位乃至五十。老年位者，謂從此位乃至七十。從此以上，名耄熟位。

What are the eight stages [of life]? Namely the womb-dwelling stage, the birth stage, the infant stage, the child stage, the youth stage, the middle-age stage, the old-age stage, and the decrepit-and-ripe stage. The womb-dwelling stage means the kalala (the embryonic film) and so forth. The birth stage means from this point on up to the decrepit-and-ripe. The infant stage means until [one is] not yet able to walk about and play. The child stage means being able to do those things. The youth stage means being able to use and enjoy the objects of desire, up to thirty [years]. The middle-age stage means from this stage up to fifty. The old-age stage means from this stage up to seventy. From this upward, it is named the decrepit-and-ripe stage.

云何四種入胎？一、正知而入，不正知住出；二、正知入住，不正知而出；三、俱能正知；四、俱不正知。初謂輪王，二謂獨覺，三謂菩薩，四謂所餘有情。

What are the four kinds of entering the womb? First, entering with right knowledge but dwelling and exiting without right knowledge; second, entering and dwelling with right knowledge but exiting without right knowledge; third, being able to have right knowledge in both; fourth, being without right knowledge in both. The first is the wheel-king; the second, the pratyekabuddha; the third, the bodhisattva; the fourth, the remaining sentient beings.

云何六種活命？一、營農，二、商賈，三、牧牛，四、事王，五、習學書算計數及印，六、習學所餘工巧業處。云何六種守護？謂象軍、馬軍、車軍、步軍、藏力、友力。

What are the six kinds of livelihood? First, working the fields; second, trading and commerce; third, herding cattle; fourth, serving a king; fifth, learning writing, calculation, counting, and seals; sixth, learning the remaining stations of craft and skill. What are the six kinds of guarding? Namely the elephant-army, the horse-army, the chariot-army, the foot-army, the power of the treasury, and the power of friends.

云何七種苦？謂生苦、老苦、病苦、死苦、怨憎會苦、愛別離苦、求不得苦。云何七種慢？謂慢、過慢、慢過慢、我慢、增上慢、卑慢、邪慢。云何七種憍？謂無病憍、少年憍、長壽憍、族姓憍、色力憍、富貴憍、多聞憍。

What are the seven kinds of suffering? Namely the suffering of birth, the suffering of aging, the suffering of sickness, the suffering of death, the suffering of union with what is hateful, the suffering of separation from what is loved, and the suffering of not getting what is sought. What are the seven kinds of conceit? Namely conceit, excessive conceit, the conceit beyond excessive conceit, the conceit of self, overweening conceit, the conceit of inferiority, and wrong conceit. What are the seven kinds of pride? Namely the pride of health, the pride of youth, the pride of long life, the pride of clan and caste, the pride of physical strength, the pride of wealth and rank, and the pride of much learning.

云何四種言說？謂依見、聞、覺、知所有言說。依見言說者，謂依眼故，現見外色，由此因緣，為他宣說，是名依見言說。依聞言說者，謂從他聞，由此因緣，為他宣說，是名依聞言說。依覺言說者，謂不見不聞，但自思惟、稱量、觀察，由此因緣，為他宣說，是名依覺言說。依知言說者，謂各別於內、所受、所證、所觸、所得，由此因緣，為他宣說，是名依知言說。

What are the four kinds of verbal expression? Namely the verbal expression there is in dependence on the seen, the heard, the sensed, and the known. Verbal expression in dependence on the seen means that, in dependence on the eye, one presently sees outer form, and by this cause and condition proclaims it to others — this is called verbal expression in dependence on the seen. Verbal expression in dependence on the heard means that one hears from others, and by this cause and condition proclaims it to others — this is called verbal expression in dependence on the heard. Verbal expression in dependence on the sensed means that, neither seeing nor hearing, one merely thinks, weighs, and observes for oneself, and by this cause and condition proclaims it to others — this is called verbal expression in dependence on the sensed. Verbal expression in dependence on the known means that, each severally, in what is inwardly felt, realized, touched, and obtained, one by this cause and condition proclaims it to others — this is called verbal expression in dependence on the known.

云何眾多言說句？謂即此亦名釋詞句，亦名戲論句，亦名攝義句，如是等類，眾多差別。又諸字母能攝諸義，當知亦名眾多言說句。彼復云何？所謂地、根、境、法、補特伽羅、自性、差別、作用、自、他、有、無、問、答、取、與、正性、邪性句。又有聽制、功德、過失、得、不得、毀、譽、苦、樂、稱、譏、堅妙、智退、沈、量、助伴、示現、教導、讚勵、慶慰句。又有七言論句，此即七例句。謂補盧沙、補盧衫、補盧崽拏、補盧沙耶、補盧沙䫂、補盧殺娑、補盧鎩，如是等。

What are the many phrases of verbal expression? These are also named phrases of etymological explanation, also named phrases of idle proliferation, also named phrases of gathered meaning, and classes such as these, of many kinds of distinction. Again, the several letters are able to gather the several meanings, and it should be understood that these too are named many phrases of verbal expression. And what are they? Namely the phrases of: earth, faculty, object, factor, person (pudgala), intrinsic nature, distinction, function, self, other, existence, non-existence, question, answer, taking, giving, right-natured, and wrong-natured. There are, further, the phrases of: permitting-and-prohibiting, virtue, fault, gaining, not-gaining, disparagement, praise, suffering, pleasure, blame, mockery, firm-and-subtle, the receding of wisdom, sinking, measure, accompanying aid, manifesting, instructing, exhorting, and rejoicing-and-consoling. There are, further, the seven discourse-phrases, which are the seven paradigm-phrases: namely puruṣaḥ, puruṣam, puruṣeṇa, puruṣāya, puruṣāt, puruṣasya, puruṣe, and the like [that is, the example of the seven Sanskrit case-inflections].

復有施設、教勅、標相、靜息、表了、軌則、安立、積集、決定、配屬、驚駭、初、中、後句。族姓等、立宗、言說、成辦、受用、尋求、守護、羞恥、憐愍、堪忍、怖畏、簡擇句。又有父母妻子等，一切所攝資具，應當廣說。及生老等，乃至所求不得、愁歎、少年、無病、長壽、愛會、怨離、所欲隨應、若不隨應，往來、顧視、若屈若申、行住坐臥、警悟、語默、解睡、解勞句。

There are, further, the phrases of: designation, injunction, sign-marking, stilling, disclosing, rule, establishing, accumulation, determination, allotting, alarm, the first, the middle, and the last. [And] the phrases of: clan-and-caste and the like, propounding a thesis, verbal expression, accomplishment, use-and-enjoyment, seeking, guarding, shame, compassion, forbearance, and fear, discrimination. There are, further, [the phrases of] father, mother, wife, and children and the like — all the provisions subsumed [under a household], which should be expounded at length. And [the phrases of] birth, aging, and so forth, down to not getting what is sought, sorrow-and-lament, youth, health, long life, union with the loved, separation from the hated, what is desired according as it accords or does not accord, coming-and-going, looking-around, bending or stretching, walking, standing, sitting, and lying, waking-alert, speaking-and-silence, dispelling sleep, and dispelling fatigue.

又有飲噉、咀味、串習、不串習、放逸、不放逸、廣略、增減、尋伺、煩惱、隨煩惱、戲論、離戲論、力劣、所成、能成、流轉、定異、相應、勢速、次第、時、方、數、和合、不和合、相似、不相似句。又有雜糅、共有、現見、不現見、隱顯句。又有能作、所作、法律、世事、資產、真妄、利益、非利益、骨體、疑慮、驚怪句。又有怯弱、無畏、顯了、不顯了、殺害、繫縛、禁閉、割截、驅擯句。又有罵詈、忿怒、捶打、迫脅、訶責、燒爛、燥暑、摧伏、渾濁、聖教隨逐比度句。

There are, further, the phrases of: eating-and-drinking, savoring, habituation, non-habituation, heedlessness, non-heedlessness, the extensive and the abridged, increase and decrease, applied-and-sustained thought, affliction, secondary affliction, idle proliferation, freedom from idle proliferation, strength and weakness, the produced, the producing, streaming-along, determinate-difference, association, momentum-and-speed, sequence, time, place, number, conjunction, disjunction, the similar, and the dissimilar. There are, further, the phrases of: intermixing, holding-in-common, the presently-seen, the not-presently-seen, and the hidden-and-manifest. There are, further, the phrases of: the agent, the acted-upon, law-and-code, worldly affairs, property, the true and the false, benefit, non-benefit, the bony frame, doubt-and-anxiety, and startled-wonder. There are, further, the phrases of: timidity, fearlessness, the disclosed, the undisclosed, killing, binding, imprisoning, cutting, and banishing. There are, further, the phrases of: cursing, wrath, beating, coercing, scolding, scorching, parching-heat, subduing, muddying, and the sacred teaching's following-and-inferring.

The Mental, 02-04, the Establishment of the World (the outer division — the receptacle-world and the world of sentient beings). Following 02-03, death-and-rebirth (the inner division), this passage turns to the outer division — the forming and ruin of the receptacle-world and the manifold marks of the world of sentient beings. The first question that occurs to a reader is exactly the point of the eye of this passage.

A Question: The Stage of the Mental Speaks of Mind and Consciousness — How Does It Suddenly Take Up Cosmology?

Reading this far, one is brought up short. What came before — the five items, the fourteen doorways, death-and-rebirth — all spoke of mind, mentation, consciousness, seeds, and taking birth: perfectly good Consciousness-Only mind-doctrine. How does it now suddenly spread out the three catastrophes (fire, water, wind), Mount Sumeru, the seven gold mountains, the four great continents, the forming-abiding-ruin-void of the aeon, and even the dimensions of the sun, moon, and stars? This great stretch of "world-geography" — why is it established within "the Stage of the Mental"?

The treatise itself gives the clue, and it lies in two places, the head and the tail of this very passage. At the head, speaking of the ruin and forming of the outer division, it says: "by reason of the world-forming and world-ruining karma that sentient beings are able to bring about." Turning to the forming of the world, it says again: "when such twenty middling aeons have passed, by the dominant force of the karma of all sentient beings, the world forms again." The key lies in those few words — "the dominant force of karma," "the karma able to bring [it] about": the receptacle-world is no dead thing that stands of itself, apart from sentient beings; it is what the shared karma of sentient beings brings about, draws forth, and establishes. The Stage of the Mental speaks of consciousness, and having spoken this far, it is just now drawing "the world" too into the track of "karma and consciousness" — and this is precisely the reason it is written into the Stage of the Mental.

The Receptacle-World: What Shared Karma Brings About, Transformed Out of the Store Consciousness's Common-Mark Seeds

Here is the Consciousness-Only reading. What the store consciousness takes as its object is not only "the appropriated" (the material faculties and the seeds, that is, the inner-division self-body), but also "the place" — that is, the receptacle-world. The receptacle-world is the object-aspect transformed and manifested by the store consciousness in dependence on "common-mark seeds." And so it is that one and the same Sahā world is seen in common and dwelt in in common by all beings, because it is transformed out of "shared-karma common-mark seeds"; whereas each person's own material body and their body of pleasure-and-pain are brought about by "unshared-karma unshared seeds." This passage's division — "the outer division is brought about by shared, common karma; the self-body by separate, particular karma" — is precisely the treatise-ground of the later Cheng Weishi Lun's teaching that "the store consciousness takes as object the appropriated and the place" and that "shared and unshared seeds transform the receptacle-world" 〔Cheng Weishi Lun, the meaning of the store consciousness's object〕.

Once this layer is understood, the three catastrophes and Mount Sumeru are no longer a myth off the topic: they are the concrete unfolding of "the receptacle-world as manifested by consciousness." The three catastrophes of fire, water, and wind can ruin as far as the first, second, and third meditative absorptions; the fourth absorption, because there "body and palace arise together and pass away together," has no catastrophe that can ruin it — even the question of how far the world can be ruined is bound to the force of sentient beings' fixed karma, and not to physical accident. The forming-abiding-ruin-void of the world is the rhythm of karma.

Watch How the Treatise Itself Stages This Drama of "Established by Karma"

To say merely "karma brings about the world" is still abstract; the treatise goes on to stage it for you, scene by scene, and every scene proves one and the same thing: the world declines and forms in accord with the karma of beings, with no creator presiding over it from outside.

When it ruins, it ruins first in the human heart. Within one middling aeon, human lifespan, "taking up and practicing unwholesome factors," decreases all the way from eighty thousand years down to ten years, and this draws forth the "three minor catastrophes": the famine catastrophe when human lifespan is thirty years (famine so great that one can only boil rotten bones to stave off hunger; and to come upon a single grain of rice or wheat is like getting a maṇi-jewel-treasure to store in a box; the starved lie dead everywhere; it passes over seven years, seven months, seven days, and seven nights); the pestilence catastrophe at twenty years (plagues break out crosswise, passing over seven months, seven days, and seven nights); and the sword catastrophe at ten years (the moment one person sees another, a mind to kill arises; the grass, wood, tile, and stone snatched up by hand all become the keenest swords, and they slaughter one another, passing over seven days). It is the evil karma of beings that first ruins the human world, and only then does the receptacle-world ruin along with it — at the end of the ruin-aeon, "six sun-discs" appear one after another and dry up, one by one, the gullies, the rivers, the great heatless lake, and the great sea, until at last even Mount Sumeru and the great earth burn into a fierce blaze that scorches up to the Brahmā-world, and not ash or cinder remains. That catastrophe arises from karma — this thread is written out plainly.

When it forms, even the highest "Great Brahmā" is merely one who arrived first. As the world re-forms, the third-absorption receptacle-realm forms first, then the second, then the first. The treatise writes a most crucial stroke: there is a single being who, its lifespan exhausted above, first falls and is born into the first absorption, becoming the "Great Brahmā"; solitary and alone, it is glum and displeased, and it rouses a thought — "How now might I make the other sentient beings also come to be born here?" Just as it rouses this thought, the other sentient beings happen, each of them, to have their lifespan exhausted and fall down from the second absorption, born beside it. By writing it just so, the treatise precisely punctures the delusion of a creator — those sentient beings came each in dependence on its own karma, not born of Brahmā; Brahmā is nothing but a fellow-kind who arrived a step earlier, and yet easily misapprehends that "it was I who created them." This scene is the very root of the reckoning-and-clinging that the later 03-04, "the refutation of the doctrine of a sovereign maker," sets out to refute head-on.

Even the human hierarchy of high-and-low and the institution of kingship are gradually formed by karma and craving. The people of the aeon's beginning were originally of a radiant, mind-born body; through greed for the earth-savor, the earth-cakes, and the non-glutinous rice, their bodies became coarse and heavy and their radiance faded; through the rousing of craving there came male and female, and wrong conduct, and so they built houses to conceal themselves; through taking possession of the non-glutinous rice, they contended and seized, and "taking what is not given" (theft) arose, and so they publicly set up an "arbiter of covenants" as king (the first king named Great-Equal-Mind, Mahāsammata), whereupon the four castes — kṣatriya, brāhmaṇa, vaiśya, and śūdra — appeared. Kingship, private property, and class — not one of them is heaven-ordained; all are established, step by step, by karma and affliction — and this is exactly the plainest and yet deepest sense of the four words "the establishment of the world."

Inner and Outer Mirroring Each Other: Death-and-Rebirth (Individual Fruition) and the World (Shared Fruition) Are One Account

Set 02-03 and 02-04 side by side, and the intent of the Stage of the Mental becomes clear:

• The inner division, death-and-rebirth (02-03): the store consciousness links up rebirth and upholds the body, receiving the individual-fruition self-body — this is the "unshared" side.
• The outer division, the world (02-04): sentient beings' shared karma brings about the receptacle-world, receiving the environing fruition in common — this is the "shared" side.

One consciousness (the store consciousness) both transforms the material body and the receptacle-realm, and both upholds the individual fruition and the shared fruition. The Stage of the Mental does not first speak of mind and then throw in cosmology as an appendage; rather, using the two divisions, inner and outer, it spreads "all is but the manifestation of consciousness" into one complete account: the self-body is what it transforms, and the world too is what it transforms. The three-thousandfold great-thousand world "forms together and is ruined together," and even "this very three-thousandfold great-thousand world is called one buddha-field, wherein the Tathāgata manifests the attainment of right and full awakening" — the greatness of the world and the vastness of the buddha-field have their root, still, in the shared karma of sentient beings and the transformation of consciousness.

The World of Sentient Beings: All the Marks Are "Established," Not Real Apart from Consciousness

After the world forms, the treatise lists, sparing no detail: the five destinies, the four births, the six bases of support, the seven objects of acquisition, the ten bodily provisions, the eight numbered pursuits, the three worldly affairs, the three kinds of speech, the twenty-two outbursts, the sixty-two classes of sentient beings, and even the "many phrases of verbal expression" (letters gathering meanings, the seven paradigm-phrases, and so on). This long, seemingly natural-historical inventory, seen with the Consciousness-Only eye, is meant to state one thing: all the distinguishing marks of the world of sentient beings — status, livelihood, suffering-conceit-pride, verbal expression — are, without exception, distinctions "established" (designated), set up in dependence on karma and on verbal designation, and not possessed of an intrinsic nature apart from consciousness. That even the "phrases of verbal expression" are itemized in detail makes exactly the point: the manifold marks of the world are for the most part constructed by verbal designation (idle proliferation). This runs in one line, front and back, with death-and-rebirth's "delight in idle proliferation is the most excellent cause" and "the craving of idle proliferation follows wherever one is to be born" — idle proliferation and verbal designation construct the world; the transformation of consciousness manifests the manifold marks.

The Point of This Passage

The Establishment of the World is written into the Stage of the Mental not as a digression but as the finishing stroke: the receptacle-world is what shared karma brings about, transformed out of the store consciousness's common-mark seeds; the manifold marks of sentient beings are established by karma and by verbal designation. The inner division of death-and-rebirth (individual fruition · unshared) and the outer division of the world (shared fruition · shared) together compose the complete picture of "all is but the manifestation of consciousness." The grandeur of the three catastrophes and Mount Sumeru, and the fine profusion of the sixty-two classes and the phrases of verbal expression, are all gathered into one sentence — the dominant force of karma, the transformation of consciousness.

Carrying Forward

The meaning of the receptacle-world's shared and unshared karma, and of the store consciousness taking as object "the appropriated and the place," is expounded at length in the Cheng Weishi Lun, fascicles two and three; the marks of the world's forming and ruin and of Mount Sumeru and the four continents are detailed in the Sūtra on the Arising of Worlds and the Sūtra on the Arising of Worlds — the Root Cause and in Vasubandhu's Abhidharmakośa, the Chapter on the World, which illuminate this passage in mutual light.