瑜伽師地論 思所成地 · 體義伽他 · 第九段「流」

Cluster nine of the Body-Meaning Verses · five verses (again explaining the flood · the first two verses, the gradual crossing; the latter three verses, the everlasting crossing).

In one line: The "flood" cluster (the second treatment), with the "four crossings" (right trust crosses the flood · non-negligence passes over the great sea · energetic effort casts off the manifold sufferings · wisdom attains purity), crosses the four floods of desire, existence, view, and ignorance (avidyā); then, with "without grasping and without abiding" (= nirvāṇa / the attainment of cessation), marks out the ultimate, supported by the six matters — being perfect in the whole body of moral discipline and the rest — cultivated up to crossing the summit of existence.

Three Points of the Eye

1. The four crossings cross the four floods: right trust (having heard the Dharma, leaving home, cutting off the desire-that-is-objects / the desire-that-is-affliction · attaining the concentration-stage of dispassion) crosses the flood · non-negligence (relishing the concentration not · concentrating on the exhaustion of the taints · the direct realization of the four truths · cutting off the two floods of existence, form and formless, and the two floods of ignorance and views) passes over the great sea · energetic effort (the trainee cutting off the five hindrances and the griefs conditioned by the hindrances) casts off the manifold sufferings · wisdom (removing the five hindrances · in dependence on the not-yet-arrived · the taintless knowledge of the four truths · the exhaustion of the taints) attains purity. Summary of meaning: the ordinary being departs from desire first, then the direct realization; the trainee, the direct realization first, then departure from desire.
2. Without grasping and without abiding = nirvāṇa / the attainment of cessation: the flood = the four floods (desire · existence · view · ignorance). "Without grasping and without abiding" has two readings — nirvāṇa (grasping = entanglement · abiding = latent tendency, both absent) · the concentration of the cessation of perception and feeling (perception = grasping · feeling = abiding, both absent; the intent takes the attainment of cessation).
3. The six matters cross the utterly-hard-to-cross (the summit of existence): being perfect in the whole body of moral discipline · possessed of wisdom (knowing the four truths as they really are) · well settled in concentration (the four meditative absorptions / neither-perception-nor-non-perception) · inwardly reflecting (the twenty-two loci · changing one's appearance from what is customary) · fastened in mindfulness (the notion of a renunciant · the four foundations of mindfulness to cut off the remaining fetters) · being able to cross the utterly-hard-to-cross (all the fetters cut off · crossing the summit of existence · not what the foolish can cross). The lower-portion fetters cut off (departure from the defilement of the desire-notions) · the higher-portion fetters of the bondage to form cut off (passing beyond the form realm). Summary of meaning: being able to attain the utterly ultimate path · being able to realize the path of the foremost abiding (cessation).

Appended · Pointers

The four floods · the twenty-two loci → the Śrāvaka Stage; without grasping and without abiding = the attainment of cessation → the Stage of Meditative Equipoise (Stage 06); the six floods → cluster four (11-03-04). For the opening-out of the meaning, see the Exposition.

Verse One (Plain Language)

〔問：〕「誰能越暴流？誰能超大海？誰能捨眾苦？誰能得清淨？」〔答：〕「正信，越暴流；無逸（不放逸），超大海；精進，捨眾苦；智慧，得清淨。」

〔Question:〕 "Who is able to cross the flood? Who is able to pass over the great sea? Who is able to cast off the manifold sufferings? Who is able to attain purity?" 〔Answer:〕 "Right trust crosses the flood; non-negligence (heedlessness) passes over the great sea; energetic effort casts off the manifold sufferings; wisdom attains purity."

Verse One · Prose Exposition (Plain Language)

How does right trust cross the flood? Suppose there is a certain person who, in order to come to know the perils of the desires, listens to the true Dharma spoken by the Buddha or by a disciple of the Buddha; and, having heard the Dharma, obtains right trust, whereupon aspiration and delight arise, and so as to cut off "the desire that is objects" and "the desire that is affliction," he comes to relinquish the household desire-for-objects, leaves the home life out of right trust, and sets out for the homeless state. Once he has left home, in order to cut off the desires that are affliction, he dwells secluded; through blazing, diligent, energetic effort, and on up to the cultivation of right meditative reflection, he cuts off the desires that are affliction and attains "the concentration-stage of dispassion." Thus, with right trust as his support and his guide, he comes to cross over the flood of the desires.

How does non-negligence pass over the great sea? Toward that concentration he in the end relishes it not, and on up to having not even a firm clinging settled within it; excepting only that, so as to realize "the knowledge that the taints are exhausted," he concentrates his mind upon it. By this the concentrated mind is pure, bright-white, upright, and pliant, and he is able to enter into the direct realization of the Four Noble Truths, and on up to realizing the everlasting exhaustion of the taints. Thus, with non-negligence as his support and his guide, he is able to cut off the two floods of existence — "the bondage to the realm of form and the bondage to the formless realm" — and to cut off the two floods of "ignorance (avidyā) and views" — and this is why it is named "passing over the great sea."

How does energetic effort cast off the manifold sufferings? Suppose there is a certain person, a trainee who has seen the trace, who reflects thus: "I ought to realize dispassion toward the three realms, the everlasting exhaustion of the fetters." He then reaches seclusion, and there dwells in valiant, diligent effort, not letting his mind settle much into the entanglement of desire-greed; and he is able to know as it really is the escape from the present entanglements of desire-greed, and toward "the hindrance of desire-greed" he purifies and cultivates his mind, whereupon he is able to cut off the entanglements of desire-greed, and the various griefs and sufferings of mind that arise conditioned by the entanglement of desire-greed. As with "the hindrance of desire-greed," so on up to "the hindrance of doubt," likewise 〔cut off〕. Thus, with energetic effort as his support and his guide, he is able to cast off the manifold sufferings.

How does wisdom attain purity? After he has extinguished "the five hindrances" that can defile the mind and on up to obstruct the ultimate nirvāṇa, he then, in dependence on the "not-yet-arrived" 〔concentration〕, dwells settled within the not-yet-arrived; and, by the taintless knowledges of suffering, origin, cessation, and path that he obtained earlier, he reflects, amid the sufferings, upon true suffering, and on up to reflecting, toward the path, upon the true path, whereupon he attains dispassion toward the three realms without remainder, the everlasting exhaustion of the taints. Thus, with the wisdom obtained earlier as his support and his guide, he is able to realize purity.

Summary of Meaning One: The World-Honored One, in this verse, briefly shows that "the ordinary being first departs from desire, and thereafter is purified by the direct realization of the Noble Truths," and shows that "the trainee takes the direct realization of the Noble Truths first, and 〔thereafter〕 is purified by departing from desire."

Verse Two (Plain Language)

〔問：〕「誰能超越暴流，晝夜無惛昧？於『無攀無住、甚深、無減劣』〔之處安住〕？」〔答：〕「圓滿眾尸羅、具慧、善安定、內思惟、繫念，能度極難度〔之有頂〕；於諸欲想離染，亦超色界結，他便〔住於〕無攀無住、甚深、無減劣。」

〔Question:〕 "Who is able to transcend the flood, without dimness or torpor by day or by night? Who 〔dwells〕 in that which is 'without grasping and without abiding, profound, and undiminished'?" 〔Answer:〕 "One perfect in the whole body of moral discipline, possessed of wisdom, well settled in concentration, inwardly reflecting, and fastened in mindfulness, is able to cross the utterly-hard-to-cross 〔summit of existence〕; toward the several desire-notions he departs from defilement, and passes beyond the fetters of the form realm too; and he then 〔dwells in〕 that which is without grasping and without abiding, profound, and undiminished."

Verse Two · Prose Exposition (Plain Language)

What is the flood? It is the so-called "four floods": the desire-flood, the existence-flood, the view-flood, and the ignorance-flood. What is "without grasping and without abiding"? It is the so-called everlasting exhaustion of the cravings, dispassion, quiescence, nirvāṇa, and the attainment of cessation. Why? What is called "grasping" is the affliction-"entanglement"; what is called "abiding" is the affliction-"latent tendency"; where both of these are absent in that locus, therefore it is said to be "without grasping and without abiding" — this is to say that "nirvāṇa" is without grasping and without abiding. Again: "perception" is named grasping, and "feeling" is named abiding; if in a given locus both of these are absent, then that locus is said to be without grasping and without abiding — this is to display that "the concentration of the cessation of perception and feeling" is without grasping and without abiding. In the present sense here, the intent takes "the attainment of cessation."

What is being perfect in the whole body of moral discipline? It is to dwell well settled in the discipline of body and speech, and to purify one's livelihood. What is being possessed of wisdom? It is to know as it really is the noble truth of suffering, and on up to the noble truth of the path likewise. What is being well settled in concentration? It is to depart from the desires, and on up to dwelling fully settled in the fourth meditative absorption, or the meditative attainment of "the first existence" (the sphere of neither-perception-nor-non-perception). What is inwardly reflecting? It is to observe, again and again, at the "twenty-two loci," saying, "I now change my appearance and adornment from what is customary, and put away the fair form of the worldly one" (as the sūtra expounds at length). What is being fastened in mindfulness? It is that, when observing again and again at the twenty-two loci, one, in reliance on "the notion of a renunciant," makes it operate constantly, turn constantly, and stand present; and by this cause and condition, so as to cut off the remaining fetters, one cultivates the four foundations of mindfulness. What is being able to cross the utterly-hard-to-cross? It is that, because all the fetters are cut off without remainder, one is able to cross the utterly-and-extremely-hard-to-cross "summit of existence" — which is not what any of the ordinary foolish beings are able to cross. How does one, toward the several desire-notions, attain departure from defilement? It is that, toward the lower-portion fetters, they are already cut off and already known. How does one pass beyond the fetters of the form realm? It is that, toward the higher-portion fetters of the bondage to form, they are already cut off and already known. How is one, within that which is without grasping and without abiding and profound, without diminishment? It is that, in the formless realm, one has either already departed from desire or not yet departed from desire, has already attained the sphere of neither-perception-nor-non-perception, and is capable and strong enough to enter the attainment of cessation — the trainee and the adept alike may have this, and so it is not said with fixity that one "passes beyond the fetters of the formless."

Summary of Meaning Two: The World-Honored One, in this verse, briefly shows "being able to attain the utterly ultimate path," and shows "being able to realize the path of the foremost abiding" 〔realizing cessation〕.

The five verses of cluster nine are the Body-Meaning Verses' second treatment of "the flood" (cluster four already treated it once). This time from another angle: with four things — "right trust, non-negligence, energetic effort, wisdom" — one crosses the four floods of desire, existence, view, and ignorance (avidyā). The hard points are all put through words already present in the treatise.

First, One Question: The Flood Is So Swift — On What Does One Cross It?

Verse one, with four questions and four answers, cleanly and crisply pairs off four medicines: "right trust crosses the flood; non-negligence passes over the great sea; energetic effort casts off the manifold sufferings; wisdom attains purity." The treatise grounds each one in turn, and each, moreover, serves "as support and as guide" — as a leading-of-the-way and a thing-to-rely-on:

• Right trust: having heard the true Dharma and obtained right trust, one is willing to relinquish the home life, cut off the desire-for-objects, leave home, and cut off the desire-that-is-affliction, and so "attains the concentration-stage of dispassion" — trust is the starting step; it first pulls a person up out of the desire-flood;
• Non-negligence (heedlessness): having attained concentration one yet "in the end relishes it not," but concentrates on realizing the knowledge that the taints are exhausted, and enters the direct realization of the Four Noble Truths — non-negligence is not sticking to concentration; it cuts off the two floods of existence, "form and formless," and the two floods of "ignorance and views," and so is called "passing over the great sea" (the several existences being like a great sea);
• Energetic effort: the trainee who has seen the trace, valiant and diligent, cuts off the five hindrances "from the hindrance of desire-greed on up to the hindrance of doubt" and the griefs and sufferings born of the hindrances — energetic effort is the strength that casts off suffering;
• Wisdom: after removing the five hindrances, in dependence on the "not-yet-arrived concentration," by the taintless knowledge of the four truths one reflects upon true suffering and on up to the true path, and attains "dispassion toward the three realms without remainder, the everlasting exhaustion of the taints" — wisdom is what at the last attains purity.

The summary of meaning adds one further stroke of discrimination: the ordinary being goes "first departing from desire, and thereafter the direct realization of the Noble Truths"; the trainee goes "the direct realization of the Noble Truths first, and thereafter departure from desire" — the sequence of entry differs for the ordinary and the noble, and this is a very fine observation on the path of practice-and-realization.

The Key Term of Verse Two: "Without Grasping and Without Abiding"

Verse two turns to a deeper place, and one term recurs again and again — "without grasping and without abiding." The treatise gives it two readings, both exquisite:

• Spoken of nirvāṇa: "grasping" is the affliction-"entanglement" (the active phase), "abiding" is the affliction-"latent tendency" (the seed); when entanglement and latent tendency are both absent, that is "without grasping and without abiding" — in nirvāṇa, even the active phase and the seeds of affliction are gone; there is nothing to grasp, nothing to abide in.
• Spoken of the attainment of cessation: "perception" is named grasping, "feeling" is named abiding; when perception and feeling are both extinguished, that is "without grasping and without abiding" — and this is exactly "the concentration of the cessation of perception and feeling." The treatise says, "in the present sense here, the intent takes the attainment of cessation."

A single "without grasping and without abiding" reaches upward to nirvāṇa and points downward to the attainment of cessation — when the mind arrives there, there is no longer anything to grasp onto or to come to rest upon. And to arrive there, the treatise lists one course of hard discipline: being perfect in the whole body of moral discipline (pure discipline, pure livelihood), possessed of wisdom (knowing the four truths as they really are), well settled in concentration (departure from desire, on up to the fourth meditative absorption, and neither-perception-nor-non-perception), inwardly reflecting (observing again and again at the "twenty-two loci," constantly holding up "I now change my appearance and adornment from what is customary, and put away the fair form of the worldly one" — the mark of the renunciant, raised up moment by moment), and fastened in mindfulness (in reliance on the notion of a renunciant, cultivating the four foundations of mindfulness to cut off the remaining fetters). Only when one has cultivated to "all the fetters cut off without remainder" is one "able to cross the utterly-hard-to-cross" "summit of existence" — which is not what the foolish, ordinary being can cross.

The Flood = the Four Floods, to Be Cut Off One by One

This time the treatise says outright that "the flood" is precisely the four floods: the desire-flood, the existence-flood, the view-flood, and the ignorance-flood. The earlier cluster (cluster four) spoke of the flood through the six sense-doors; this cluster speaks of it through the "four floods." The former weighs the crossing of the five lower / five higher fetters; the latter weighs the "four crossings (trust, non-negligence, effort, wisdom)" and "without grasping and without abiding." The two clusters are one mirror with two faces, carrying the discipline of crossing the flood of birth-and-death all the way from the entry (leaving home out of right trust) through to the ultimate (crossing the summit of existence, entering the attainment of cessation).

The Point of This Cluster

The "flood" cluster (the second treatment), with the four crossings of "right trust, non-negligence, energetic effort, wisdom," crosses the four floods of desire, existence, view, and ignorance, and then, with "without grasping and without abiding" (= nirvāṇa / the attainment of cessation), marks out the place of the ultimate, supported by the six matters — being perfect in the whole body of moral discipline and the rest — cultivated up to "crossing the summit of existence." Without grasping and without abiding — entanglement and latent tendency both absent, perception and feeling both extinguished — this is the deepest single line of the whole cluster.

Carrying Forward

The four floods · the four foundations of mindfulness · the twenty-two loci → the fuller exposition in the Śrāvaka Stage (Dunlun: "expounded at length below in the Śrāvaka Stage"); without grasping and without abiding = the concentration of the cessation of perception and feeling → the attainment of cessation in the Stage of Meditative Equipoise (Stage 06); right trust → non-negligence → energetic effort → wisdom → the teaching, in the later treatises, that trust is the source of the path.