瑜伽師地論 聞所成地 · 三世間明（醫方 · 聲明 · 工業）

Why should a treatise on yoga teach medicine, grammar, and the trades of farming and commerce? Because what the bodhisattva seeks, in seeking the true Dharma, contains the five sciences. The three worldly sciences are not a miscellany but the bodhisattva's three gateways into the world for ripening beings — medicine heals the body, grammar opens the speech, the crafts secure the livelihood.

In one line: The three worldly sciences establish, through medicine's four skills, grammar's six modes of designation, and the crafts' twelve loci, the worldly sciences a bodhisattva ought to learn; and the reason they are to be learned lies not in the sciences themselves but in what the Bodhisattva Stage establishes — that the bodhisattva's seeking of the true Dharma is the seeking of the five sciences, for ripening sentient beings and for gathering in the cause of omniscience.

Three Points of the Eye

1. Medicine's four skills are the frame of the four truths: skill in the marks of illness, in the causes of illness, in cutting off an illness once arisen, and in the means whereby an illness once cut off does not arise again 〔this treatise 0356a〕 — recognizing, knowing the cause, curing, preventing recurrence: one sequence with suffering, arising, cessation, path. The treatise marks only the four matters and adds, "The full and detailed sense of these four skills is as should be understood from the scriptures," pointing the full sense back to the Buddha's scriptures, which take medicine as their figure. Dunlun's Notes on the Yogācārabhūmi sets down only "As for the science of medicine, its wording is self-evident" 〔T42n1828 0411b07〕.

2. Grammar's essence, and the five virtues of one who speaks: six modes of designation (dharma · meaning · person · time · number · locus-and-root-stock); Kuiji's Concise Compendium adjudicates them as "first, concluding the foregoing and setting out the list; afterward, explaining each in turn," and points out that the line on designation by dharma is what "sets forth the essence of grammar" 〔T43n1829 0095a27〕. That essence is "the word-collection, the phrase-collection, and the syllable-collection, together with sound endowed with five virtues"; the five are "not being vulgar, being easy, being sonorous, being fitting, and being sound in meaning" 〔this treatise 0360c〕 — not rules of grammar but the character of speech. The ten establishments of designation by meaning (faculties · great elements · action · seeking · what is not the Dharma · the Dharma · flourishing · decline · enjoyment · guarding) gather across the classes of what language expresses; the six meanings (intrinsic nature · cause · fruit · function · association · alteration) run down through their aspects 〔0361a〕.

3. The twelve crafts and the standing of the worldly sciences: the crafts of farming, trading, serving the king, writing-reckoning-measuring-numbering-and-sealing, divination, spells, construction, breeding-and-raising, spinning-and-weaving, blending, cooking, and music 〔this treatise 0361b〕 — and the treatise calls the knowledge of them "marvelous knowledge": the livelihoods of the human world fall entire within what a bodhisattva ought to know. Yet the Section on Ascertainment, the Ground of the Wisdom Attained through Hearing, judges the inner science to be supreme 〔T1579 0653c06–c11〕: the three worldly sciences are subsumed under the inner science, branches and not the trunk. The whole warrant is anchored in the Bodhisattva Stage · Chapter on the Power-Lineage: "When those bodhisattvas seek the true Dharma, what should they seek?" 〔T1579 0500c13–21〕.

The three worldly sciences are sciences held in common in the world; they carry no scriptural grounds of the eighth-consciousness or three-natures order, and Heading III of the apparatus marks this truthfully as "the point of the eye · none," without forcing the matter. The grounds for "why they are to be learned" lie in the Bodhisattva Stage. For the doctrinal exposition, see the Exposition.

Of the five sciences, the latter three — medicine, grammar, and the crafts — are all worldly sciences held in common; the treatise sets them out mainly by listing names. Technical terms keep their traditional forms; each line is rendered into present-day language, without added exposition and without citing the treatises; where the source abridges, the sense is supplied within 〔 〕. (Note: in the source, medicine (醫方明) stands before logic (因明), and grammar and the crafts (聲明·工業) stand after logic; here they are gathered together as "the three worldly sciences.")

1. The Science of Medicine (Four Skills)

What is the science of medicine? Know that this science has, in brief, four kinds: skill in the marks of illness, skill in the causes of illness, skill in cutting off an illness once it has arisen, and skill in the means whereby an illness once cut off does not arise again 〔the four matters: recognizing the illness, knowing its cause, curing the illness already present, and preventing its recurrence〕. The full and detailed sense of these four skills is as set forth in the scriptures, and should be understood accordingly 〔the full treatment is found in the scriptures〕.

2. The Science of Grammar (Six Modes of Designation)

What is the science of grammar? Know that this science has, in brief, six modes: the mode of establishing designation by dharma (法), the mode of establishing designation by meaning (義), the mode of establishing designation by person (補特伽羅), the mode of establishing designation by time (時), the mode of establishing designation by number (數), and the mode of establishing designation by locus and root-stock (處所根栽). A summary verse says: dharma, meaning, the person (數取趣 = 補特伽羅), time, number, and locus, together with the root-stock and its basis — this is grammar's modes in brief.

(i) Establishing designation by dharma — this is the word-collection (名身), the phrase-collection (句身), and the syllable-collection (文身), together with sound endowed with five virtues. The five virtues are: not being vulgar, being easy, being sonorous, being fitting, and being sound in meaning.

(ii) Establishing designation by meaning — know that this has, in brief, ten establishments: the establishment of the faculties (根), of the great elements (大種), of action (業), of seeking (尋求), of what is not the Dharma (非法), of the Dharma (法), of flourishing (興盛), of decline (衰損), of enjoyment (受用), and of guarding (守護). A summary verse says: the eye and the rest, the earth-element and the rest, the body and the rest, and seeking, what is not the Dharma, the Dharma, flourishing, decline, enjoyment, and guarding. "The establishment of the faculties" — this is the meaning of seeing, of hearing, of smelling, of tasting, of touching, and of knowing 〔the meaning of the six faculties〕. "The establishment of the great elements" — this is the meaning of upholding-and-supporting and the rest, of moistening-and-soaking and the rest, of illuminating and the rest, and of stirring-and-shaking and the rest 〔the meaning of the four great elements: earth, water, fire, wind〕. "The establishment of action" — this is the meaning of coming-and-going and the rest, of proclaiming and the rest, and of thinking-and-examining and the rest 〔the meaning of the action of body, speech, and mind〕. "The establishment of seeking" — this is the meaning of pursuing-and-inquiring and the rest. "The establishment of what is not the Dharma" — this is the meaning of killing, stealing, and the rest. "The establishment of the Dharma" — this is the meaning of giving, keeping precepts, and the rest. "The establishment of flourishing" — this is the meaning of attaining, rejoicing, and the rest. "The establishment of decline" — this is the meaning of ruin, dread, sorrow, and the rest. "The establishment of enjoyment" — this is the meaning of food and drink, covering-and-sheltering, embracing-and-holding, receiving-and-practicing, and the rest. "The establishment of guarding" — this is the meaning of guarding, nurturing-and-rearing, filling-to-fullness, and the rest. Further, stated in brief, there are six meanings: the meaning of intrinsic nature (自性), of cause (因), of fruit (果), of function (作用), of distinction-and-association (差別相應), and of alteration (轉). A summary verse says: intrinsic nature, and cause, fruit, function, association, and alteration.

(iii) Establishing designation by person — this is the establishing of the distinctions in the marks of sound for male, female, and neither-male-nor-female; or again, the establishing of the distinctions in the marks of sound for the beginning person, the middling person, and the superior person.

(iv) Establishing designation by time — this is the distinctions in the marks of sound for the three times: past (the past as distinct), future (the future as distinct), and present (the present as distinct).

(v) Establishing designation by number — this is the distinctions in the marks of sound for the three numbers: the singular, the dual, and the plural.

(vi) Establishing designation by locus and root-stock — know that "locus" has, in brief, five kinds: continuity (相續), name-and-title (名號), general summary (總略), that which benefits (彼益), and proclamation (宣說); and if it is a "section-verse" (界頌) and the like, it is called "root-stock." These two kinds, taken together, are named the establishment of locus and root-stock.

3. The Science of the Crafts (Twelve Crafts)

What is the science of the crafts? It is the marvelous knowledge, stated in brief, of the crafts in twelve loci — this is named the science of the crafts. Which are the twelve craft-loci? They are: the craft of farming, the craft of trading 〔commerce〕, the craft of serving the king 〔serving one's sovereign〕, the craft of writing-reckoning-measuring-numbering-and-sealing 〔writing · arithmetic · measurement · number · seals〕, the craft of divination, the craft of spells, the craft of construction 〔building〕, the craft of breeding-and-raising 〔propagating and rearing〕, the craft of spinning-and-weaving (防那) 〔weaving〕, the craft of blending 〔harmonizing and compounding〕, the craft of cooking 〔cooking to doneness〕, and the craft of music.

Teaching arc: why should a treatise on the stages of yogic practice teach medicine, teach grammar, teach farming and trade and the crafts? If that question is not answered first, the three worldly sciences read as nothing but a string of names. The answer is not in this passage but in the Bodhisattva Stage — what the bodhisattva seeks when seeking the true Dharma has the five sciences within it entire. Followed out from that question, the four skills of medicine, the six modes of grammar, and the twelve loci of the crafts cease to be a miscellany and become the bodhisattva's three gateways into the whole of the world. All that is expounded is what the treatise itself has and what the ancient masters have explained; not one meaning is added.

Why a Yoga Treatise Teaches Medicine and the Crafts

Among the five sciences, the science of inner meaning and the science of reasoning are the household's own gates — no surprise there. What surprises is the latter three: medicine, grammar, and the crafts, which look to be worldly skills through and through. How do they get into the stages of the yoga practitioner?

The treatise does not answer here. The answer is kept for the Bodhisattva Stage · Chapter on the Power-Lineage: "When those bodhisattvas seek the true Dharma, what should they seek?" What they should seek, besides all the dharmas of the bodhisattva-canon, is precisely "the five sciences: first, the science of inner meaning; second, the science of reasoning; third, the science of grammar; fourth, the science of medicine; fifth, the science of the crafts" 〔this treatise〕. The five together are what the bodhisattva seeks in seeking the true Dharma — not a leftover for after the Dharma has been learned, but something the very act of seeking the Dharma already contains.

That settles the direction. The three worldly sciences enter the treatise not for worldly fame or gain, and not for the sake of being widely accomplished, but for ripening sentient beings and for gathering in the cause of omniscience. Beings fall ill: you must know how to heal. Beings speak: you must understand how language works. Beings make their living: you must know what their livelihood actually is. Without entering these three gates, compassion stays a movement of one's own mind and never lands on another person. The Section on Ascertainment judges the inner science to be supreme among the five, and that too is a matter of proportion: the three worldly sciences are the branches that are subsumed, not the trunk — but if the branches do not grow, the tree shades no one.

The Science of Medicine: Four Skills That Are a Fourfold Truth

For medicine the treatise gives the barest outline — "know that this science has, in brief, four kinds": skill in the marks of illness, skill in the causes of illness, skill in cutting off an illness once it has arisen, and skill in the means whereby an illness once cut off does not arise again 〔this treatise〕. Dunlun, in his Notes on the Yogācārabhūmi, sets down only this: "As for the science of medicine, its wording is self-evident" — the listing of names is itself the explanation, and the ancients open no separate treatment.

But the order in which the four are laid out gives one a start on a second reading: first recognize the marks of the illness, then investigate its cause, then treat of how an illness already arisen is cut off, and last of how an illness once cut off does not arise again. Recognizing the illness, knowing its cause, curing it, preventing its return — this is the very frame of the four truths: suffering, its arising, its cessation, the path.

Nor does the treatise close the matter off. It adds at once: "The full and detailed sense of these four skills is as should be understood from the scriptures" 〔this treatise〕. The full sense is not in this treatise but in the scriptures — and in the scriptures the figure of medicine for the Dharma is everywhere: the Buddha is called the great king of physicians, and to speak of suffering is to speak of the disease, to speak of its arising is to speak of the cause, to speak of cessation is to speak of the cure, to speak of the path is to speak of the prescription. The reason medicine is a science a disciple of the Buddha ought to learn lies exactly here: its structure is one with the structure of the Buddha's own teaching. A physician who can see that layer holds, in the four skills in his hands, the four noble truths in his mind at the same time; the order in which he treats another's bodily illness is the order in which the Buddha treats the illness of the mind.

And just for that reason the treatise need not set out pharmacology and prescriptions here — those belong to the medical books of the world. What the treatise keeps is the bone of that fourfold sequence; the bone standing, the flesh grows according to each land.

Grammar: How Language Works, and the Five Virtues of One Who Speaks the Dharma

Grammar is the most detailed of the three. Kuiji, in his Concise Compendium, first adjudicates its structure: "first, concluding the foregoing and setting out the list; afterward, explaining each in turn" — the earlier passage concludes what precedes and sets out the six modes, the later explains them one by one. The six are: dharma, meaning, person, time, number, and locus-and-root-stock. The treatise binds them with a summary verse of its own, which shows that the six modes are meant to be committed to memory as a frame.

Establishing designation by dharma — the essence of grammar. The treatise says it is "the word-collection, the phrase-collection, and the syllable-collection, together with sound endowed with five virtues" 〔this treatise〕; and Kuiji points out that just this line "sets forth the essence of grammar." Word, phrase, syllable are the three levels of that which expresses: syllables make words, words make phrases, phrases make sense. The skeleton of language is no more than these three.

But the five virtues that follow immediately are the most intimate thing in this whole mode: "not being vulgar, being easy, being sonorous, being fitting, and being sound in meaning" 〔this treatise〕. These five are not rules of grammar; they are the character of speech — speech that is not coarse or debased, speech another can receive without strain, speech clear and strong in the delivery, speech fitted to the one it is addressed to, and speech whose freight of meaning is wholesome. Let one who expounds the Dharma be ever so accomplished in grammar: if these five are missing from the speech, the voice is still an unfinished instrument. Turned the other way about, the five virtues are also a measure a hearer may take up against himself — the words I let out today, on which virtue did they fall, and in which were they wanting?

Establishing designation by meaning — what language expresses, which the treatise gathers into ten classes: the establishment of the faculties is "the meaning of seeing, of hearing, of smelling, of tasting, of touching, and of knowing"; of the great elements, "the meaning of upholding-and-supporting and the rest, of moistening-and-soaking and the rest, of illuminating and the rest, and of stirring-and-shaking and the rest"; of action, "the meaning of coming-and-going and the rest, of proclaiming and the rest, and of thinking-and-examining and the rest"; and thereafter seeking is the meaning of pursuing and inquiring, what is not the Dharma is "the meaning of killing, stealing, and the rest," the Dharma is "the meaning of giving, keeping precepts, and the rest," flourishing is "the meaning of attaining, rejoicing, and the rest," decline is "the meaning of ruin, dread, sorrow, and the rest," enjoyment is "the meaning of food and drink, covering-and-sheltering, embracing-and-holding, receiving-and-practicing, and the rest," and guarding is "the meaning of guarding, nurturing-and-rearing, filling-to-fullness, and the rest" 〔this treatise〕.

Take the ten together and one thing becomes visible: the map of language is the map of the world of sentient beings. From what the six faculties meet, to what the four great elements compose, to what body, speech, and mind perform, to the mind's own pursuing, to the two roads of good and ill, to flourishing and decline, enjoyment and guarding — everything a person says, say what he will, does not fall outside these ten. Beyond the ten the treatise sets six further meanings to exhaust their variation — "intrinsic nature, and cause, fruit, function, association, and alteration" 〔this treatise〕 — which is to look again, within any one meaning, at its own substance, its cause, its fruit, its function, its companion, and its alteration. The first ten gather across the classes; the latter six run down through the aspects.

The remaining four modes are brief but not to be passed over. Designation by person is "the establishing of the distinctions in the marks of sound for male, female, and neither-male-nor-female; or again, the establishing of the distinctions in the marks of sound for the beginning person, the middling person, and the superior person" 〔this treatise〕 — language marks the standing and the grade of the one who speaks and the one spoken of. Designation by time distinguishes the marks of sound for past, future, and present. Designation by number distinguishes the singular, the dual, and the plural. And under designation by locus and root-stock, locus has five kinds — continuity, name-and-title, general summary, that which benefits, and proclamation — while "if it is a 'section-verse' and the like, it is called 'root-stock'" 〔this treatise〕: the root and the shoot from which language grows, the section-verses being just such a thing.

One caution. Grammar in its own right concerns the study of the Sanskrit language, whereas what this treatise sets out are the headings of the designation of the marks of sound as transmitted in the Chinese translation — not a reconstruction of Sanskrit grammar. The treatise gives a frame, not a grammar book; the reader should keep to that measure here.

The Crafts: Twelve Livelihoods, All Within the Bodhisattva's Field of View

The science of the crafts is the shortest and shows the largest breadth of mind. The treatise says: "It is the marvelous knowledge, stated in brief, of the crafts in twelve loci — this is named the science of the crafts" 〔this treatise〕. The twelve are the craft of farming, of trading, of serving the king, of writing-reckoning-measuring-numbering-and-sealing, of divination, of spells, of construction, of breeding-and-raising, of spinning-and-weaving, of blending, of cooking, and of music 〔this treatise〕.

The farmer, the merchant, the servant of the king, the one who writes and reckons and measures, the diviner, the reciter of spells, the builder, the breeder, the weaver, the compounder, the cook, the musician — a treatise on yogic stages enters the twelve livelihoods of the human world one by one, and calls the knowledge of them "marvelous knowledge."

That list blocks a misunderstanding easily formed: practice is not a matter of leaving human livelihoods behind to set up some other thing elsewhere. The sentient beings a bodhisattva is to ripen live inside these twelve; not knowing the twelve, one's teaching has nowhere to land. The treatise does not teach you how to plow or how to weave — each trade has its own transmission for that. What the treatise establishes is the single judgment that these all fall within what a bodhisattva ought to know. The judgment once made, the boundary is opened.

Seen together, the three sciences fall into a clear order: medicine heals the body, grammar opens the speech, the crafts secure the livelihood. Body at ease, speech open, livelihood standing — only then is there anything to say about turning the mind by the inner science. That the three worldly sciences are "the branches that are subsumed" means just this: the branch is not the trunk, and yet without the branch nothing is shaded.

Inheritance and Extension

Of the five sciences this passage lists only three; the full scope of their scriptural warrant, and the reason for it, is anchored in the Bodhisattva Stage · Chapter on the Power-Lineage — that the bodhisattva's seeking of the true Dharma is the seeking of the five sciences, a meaning established by this treatise itself and not added by later hands. Later students took the five sciences as the general frame of the bodhisattva's field of training; the gate of medicine opened out into Buddhist medical learning, the gate of grammar was taken up by the study of syllabaries and of sound-and-sense in the Chinese lands, and the gate of the crafts became the warrant for Buddhism's meeting with the skills of the world — all of them carried on and extended from the headings established in these three passages.

Yet the pivot remains a single sentence: the reason the three worldly sciences are to be learned by a disciple of the Buddha lies not in the sciences themselves but in the mind that seeks omniscience and ripens sentient beings. If the mind is not there, one may exhaust the five sciences and have only gained a set of accomplishments; if the mind is there, then to recognize one illness, to set one word right, to master one skill — each is the bodhisattva's own field of practice.