瑜伽師地論 聲聞地 · 第三瑜伽處 · 前行

The Third Yoga-Station cultivates yoga in earnest, yet first lays out a long string of preliminaries. The point of the eye: cultivating concentration is a matter of "meeting the aptitude" — first test the aptitude (vow · lineage · faculties · conduct), then set up the provisions, then accomplish seclusion; the preliminaries once complete, concentration sits steady.

In one line: the Third Yoga-Station opens with the "master uddāna" of eight subjects (going-and-greeting-and-inquiring · searching-out · establishing · guarding-and-nurturing · departure · one-pointedness · the purifying of obstruction · the cultivation of attention), which the ancient masters read as "three gates in all, the third gate subdivided into five" 〔Kuiji T43 0118b08 · Dunlun T42 0462b13〕; this leaf treats the first five — going-and-greeting-and-inquiring (abiding in right mindfulness at the four sites · going to the preceptor of conduct and the personal instructor · the nine-fold rousing-and-consoling · the four sites of examining inquiry) · searching-out (the four sites 〔vow · lineage · faculties · conduct〕 · the four means 〔examining inquiry · discourse · what he does · the knowledge of another's mind〕 · testing lineage and the five conducts by discourse) · establishing the five sites set out 〔guarding-and-nurturing · seclusion · one-pointedness · the purifying of obstruction · the cultivation of attention〕 · guarding-and-nurturing the provisions for concentration (taking up again the fourteen gates of the stage of departure) · seclusion (the three fullnesses of place · deportment · seclusion); the preliminaries once complete, the one-pointedness of mind begins its true cultivation.

Three Points of the Eye

1. Test the aptitude first, teach the dharma after: the teacher searches the disciple out at the four sites — vow · lineage · faculties · conduct — by the four means (examining inquiry · discourse · what he does · the knowledge of another's mind); a person of sharp faculties is searched out by examining inquiry alone, a person of dull faculties by adding the latter three means 〔Kuiji T43 0118b17 · Dunlun citing Kuiji T42 0462c02〕. Testing lineage by discourse (a dharma corresponding to each of the three vehicles makes the matching lineage leap up in joy) · testing the five conducts (the conduct of craving, hearing "the pure and sublime," gives rise to pure faith and loving delight · the conduct of delusion, hearing nirvāṇa, gives rise instead to fright · the conduct of hatred is the reverse of the above · the conduct of conceit does not take it to heart in faith · the conduct of discursive thought loses what it hears as it hears it); the ancient masters single out that "the pure and sublime" refers to the adornment of the buddha-land, not to outer objects of desire 〔Dunlun T42 0462c08 · Kuiji T43 0118b24〕; the point of the eye of "the object leading the mind" — 「為境制伏心·非心能伏境」 tr. "it is the object that subdues the mind, not the mind that can subdue the object" (the passage on craving's enwrapment dwelling in the body, another fascicle · 13-02-01 〔Dunlun T42 0444a27 · Kuiji T43 0113a27〕). The five conducts tested = the aptitude that the later "cultivation of attention" (Subject 8, later leaf) matches with counteracting objects (craving → the impure · hatred → loving-kindness · delusion → dependent origination · conceit → the differentiation of elements · discursive thought → counting the breath).

2. Guarding-and-nurturing is "taking up again," not building anew: the provisions for concentration = the "fourteen gates of the provisions for the two paths, mundane and supramundane," already expounded in the stage of departure of the First Yoga-Station (the discipline of the moral code · the discipline of the faculties · knowing the measure in food · the yoga of wakefulness · abiding with right awareness ~ the adornments of the śramaṇa), guarded so as not to fall back 〔Dunlun T42 0462c20 "expounded at length as there · its text taken up again"〕. The three fullnesses of seclusion — place (the āraṇya 〔a krośa and a half from the village〕 · the foot of a forest tree · the empty and quiet room · the ancient masters gloss the heap of rice-straw / the bedding of the margins 〔Dunlun T42 0442a14 · 0462c24 / c26〕 · the five kinds of fullness of place) · deportment · seclusion.

3. The five reasons for sitting cross-legged (the reason within the posture): the treatise rightly discerns five reasons and so sits cross-legged — pliancy swiftly aroused · able to endure long · uncommon to outsiders · comely in form · permitted alike by buddha after buddha and their disciples 〔T30 0450a〕; straightening the body frees one from torpor and drowsiness · rightening the vow frees one from the scattering of outer objects · turned-back mindfulness turns its back on the black class [of dharmas] (the mindfulness on the mark of concentration turns its back on the objects of the non-concentrated ground). The five reasons and the two senses of turned-back mindfulness the ancient masters tie to fascicle 24, expressly noting "there are five [restatements], to be expounded at length in the thirtieth [fascicle]," directing them to the present fascicle 〔Dunlun T42 0435b29 · Kuiji T43 0110b13〕 — on this leaf the five reasons are set out item by item after the treatise's own words.

Note: the first five of the eight subjects are exhausted on this leaf; from the one-pointedness of mind (Subject 6) on, see the later leaf 13-03-02. Guarding-and-nurturing → the fourteen gates of the provisions of the stage of departure of the First Yoga-Station (13-01-03~06); the determinacy of lineage, not to be shifted → the Lineage stage (13-01-01). Two states of the ancient masters: Dunlun's Notes, fascicle 7, latter part 〔T42 0462b04+ · treatise-fascicles 29–32 · glossed subject by subject〕; Kuiji's Concise Compendium, fascicle 8 〔T43 0118b03+ · treatise-fascicles 21–30 · expressly dividing "into five"〕; Jinaputra's Commentary, a name-gloss only, with no subject-by-subject exposition 〔T30 0887b20〕. The Section on Ascertainment's Śrāvaka Stage 〔T30 0669b08〕 ascertains the gates of lineage-nature and element-nature, with no parallel to the present establishing passage. For the doctrinal exposition, see the 〈Exposition〉.

The opening of the Third Yoga-Station: how one sets out to cultivate. First it gives the summary verse that gathers all eight subjects of the station; then it directly expounds the preliminary means to setting out — going to the teacher and inquiring (going-and-greeting-and-inquiring), the teacher's testing of one's vow, lineage, faculties, and conduct (searching-out), the establishing of the five sites, the guarding-and-nurturing of the provisions for concentration, and seclusion. Names are kept as of old; rendered clause by clause into today's language, without adding doctrine, without citing treatises, without annotating Sanskrit; where the treatise-text compresses, what it abbreviates is supplied back in 〔brackets〕.

Opening · The Summary Verse Gathering the Whole Station

This is the first part of the Third Yoga-Station in the thirteenth division, the Śrāvaka Stage, within the Basic Section.

Already expounded above were the classifications, establishment, object, and the rest of the person, down to "setting out to cultivate, whether with fruit or without fruit" (the Second Yoga-Station). How the practice is to be established, I shall now expound.

The summary verse (uddāna) says:

　　Going-and-greeting-and-inquiring, searching-out, and then establishing; guarding-and-nurturing,
　　departure, one-pointedness, the purifying of obstruction, the cultivation of attention.

〔These eight — going-and-greeting-and-inquiring · searching-out · establishing · guarding-and-nurturing · departure (seclusion) · one-pointedness · the purifying of obstruction · the cultivation of attention — are the whole framework of the Third Yoga-Station.〕

One · Going-and-Greeting-and-Inquiring — Going to the Teacher, Consoling, Extolling

If there is a self-cherishing person, a beginner in cultivation, then at the very start of setting out, in order to attain his own benefit and welfare, he should first abide in right mindfulness at four sites, and then go to one who has penetrated yoga — a preceptor of conduct (ācārya), or a personal instructor (upādhyāya), or another who is honored or resembles one honored. Which four sites? First, seeking solely to comprehend, with a mind that has "no wrangling to dispute"; second, giving rise to deep reverence, with a mind that has "no conceit"; third, seeking only the surpassingly good, with a mind that is "not to display one's own ability"; fourth, purely for the establishing of the roots of good in oneself and others, with a mind that "does not seek gain, honor, or renown."

Having thus come to the teacher's place bearing right mindfulness, he first requests permission, asks about the proper time when he may inquire, and then, composedly, bends his body and makes his inquiry. When inquiring, he bares his left shoulder, sets his right knee to the ground, or sits on a lower seat with body bent forward, joins his palms in reverence, gives rise to deep humility and awe, and, with lowered face and gentle words, inquires about yoga: "In this practice of yoga I wish to seek instruction; may you, out of compassion, expound it for me."

Having thus inquired, the teacher who has penetrated yoga, in order to establish the beginner's yogic attention, then with compassionate and gentle words rouses, encourages, consoles, and further extols the merit of "cultivation-and-severance," praising him and saying: "Excellent! Excellent, worthy one! —

　You alone, among beings who fall into heedlessness, delight in heedlessness, sink in objects, and delight in objects, are unheedful and delight in cultivating the conduct of departure; 　You alone, among beings long fallen into the various perilous dungeons of grief and suffering, seek liberation from this dungeon; 　You alone, among beings constantly bound fast by the fetters, manacles, cangue, and chains of craving, hatred, delusion, and the rest, seek to break this binding; 　You alone, among beings who have entered the perilous road of the wilderness of birth-and-death, seek to cross beyond this perilous road of the wilderness; 　You alone, among beings who meet with a famine of the roots of good, seek to gain rich and abundant roots of good; 　You alone, among beings who fall into the manifold robber-foes of affliction, into vast dread, seek to attain the ultimate ease and security, the ever-blissful nirvāṇa; 　You alone, among beings devoured by the grievous illness of affliction, seek to attain the foremost illness-free, ever-blissful nirvāṇa; 　You alone, among beings drowned in the four kinds of torrent, seek to cross over this torrent; 　You alone, among beings who have entered the vast darkness of ignorance (avidyā), seek to gain the light of great wisdom. 　Elder, you should know: if you can indeed thus diligently cultivate the practice of yoga, only then are you named one who 'does not use the faith-offerings of the people of the land in vain,' one who truly upholds the sacred teaching of the Tathāgata, does not forsake meditative absorption, accomplishes surpassing insight, increases the company of dharma-companions who delight in dwelling in solitude, and diligently cultivates and trains in the yoga of one's own benefit, not shaming the wise co-practitioners of the holy life. You now, for the sake of diligently cultivating the right practice of benefiting self and others, for the sake of benefiting and gladdening measureless beings, out of compassion for the world and the gods, humans, asuras, and the rest, that they may gain benefit, welfare, and gladness — you have come to inquire."

Having with such gentle words roused, encouraged, and consoled him, and extolled the merits of cultivation-and-severance, the teacher then, at the "four sites of examining inquiry," examines and inquires of him, saying: "Elder! Have you already, single-mindedly, taken refuge in the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Saṅgha, and not in an outsider teacher and the disciple-throng of his false dharma? Have you already, at the first, purely cultivated the holy life, well purified your moral discipline (śīla), and possess an upright view? Have you, with respect to the noble-truth teachings, both in general statement and in particular exposition, whether little or much, heard, received, and retained them? Do you, toward nirvāṇa, have deep-hearted faith and understanding, and did you go forth in order to realize [that] quiescence?"

Two · Searching-Out — Testing His Vow, Lineage, Faculties, and Conduct

Having thus inquired, if he answers "Yes," the teacher then, at "four sites," by "four means," is to search him out rightly.

What are the four sites? The four matters to be searched out are: first, his vow; second, his lineage; third, his faculties; fourth, his conduct. What are the four means? The four methods of searching out rightly are: first, examining inquiry; second, discourse; third, what he does 〔his marks and manner〕; fourth, the knowledge that discerns the differences in another's mind.

(1a) What is searching out his vow by examining inquiry? He asks thus — "Elder! What right vow have you set forth? The śrāvaka vehicle? The pratyekabuddha vehicle? The vehicle of unsurpassed perfect awakening?" Receiving this inquiry, he answers truthfully according to his own vow. (1b) What is searching out his lineage, faculties, and conduct by examining inquiry? He asks — "Elder! Can you examine your own lineage, faculties, and conduct? What lineage am I by origin — the śrāvaka vehicle? the pratyekabuddha vehicle? the Great Vehicle? What faculties do I have — dull, middling, or sharp? What conduct do I have — the conduct of craving? of hatred? on down to the conduct of discursive thought?" If he is astute, able to know for himself the differences of lineage, faculties, and conduct in their before-and-after, and to grasp their marks well, he answers as inquired; if his nature is dull, unable to know for himself, unable to grasp their marks well, then he cannot answer.

(2) What is searching out lineage, faculties, and conduct by discourse? From here, these three matters are tested by discourse: 　To him the teacher, with words that are "clear, in accord with reason, richly varied and finely fair, and easy to understand," first speaks a discourse "corresponding to the śrāvaka vehicle." As he listens, if within him there is the śrāvaka lineage, he gives rise, at this discourse, to the utmost leaping joy and deep faith and understanding; if he is of the pratyekabuddha lineage or the Great-Vehicle lineage, he neither rejoices nor understands. Next the teacher speaks a discourse "corresponding to the pratyekabuddha vehicle" — one of the pratyekabuddha lineage leaps up in joy and understanding, the other two do not. Last he speaks a discourse "corresponding to the Great Vehicle" — one of the Great-Vehicle lineage leaps up in joy and understanding, the other two do not. 　Testing the faculties: if he is of dull faculties, then even hearing a shallow and plain discourse, he must strain to examine and reflect before he can receive and penetrate it; if he is of sharp faculties, then even hearing a deep and subtle discourse, he can swiftly receive and penetrate it; the middling faculties stand in between. 　Testing the conduct: if he is of the conduct of craving, then hearing a discourse spoken on "the pure and sublime," he gives rise to the utmost pure faith and loving delight, and enters into its meaning; his body-hairs all stand erect, he weeps tears of moving sorrow, outwardly showing a glossy and smooth aspect, inwardly harboring gentleness and glad contentment. If he is of the conduct of hatred, it is wholly the reverse of the above. If he is of the conduct of delusion, then hearing a discourse spoken on "the definite penetration of nirvāṇa, corresponding to freedom from defilement," he gives rise to the utmost fright and dread (as with dull faculties, so too with the conduct of delusion). If he is of the conduct of conceit, then hearing a discourse spoken on the right Dharma, he does not very reverently lend his ear, does not settle in a mind that seeks to understand and to uphold-and-practice; though by skillful means one draws him on and makes him receive the right transforming teaching, he does not clearly voice his approval. If he is of the conduct of discursive thought, then hearing a discourse spoken on the right Dharma, though he lends his ear to listen, his mind is scattered, poorly receiving what is received; whatever he takes in is not firm and does not abide — received, it is lost; received, it is lost — and again and again he asks anew. This is named searching out lineage, faculties, and conduct by discourse.

(3) What is searching out these three by what he does? The various marks and manner, as stated above, of the śrāvaka lineage and of the conduct of craving and the rest — these are "what he does"; by these marks, one searches out lineage, faculties, and conduct rightly, each according to what fits. (4) What is searching out lineage, faculties, and conduct by the knowledge that discerns the differences in another's mind? If there is a teacher who has penetrated yoga and has attained "the knowledge that discerns the differences in another's mind," then by this knowledge he knows truly, as it is, the other's lineage, faculties, and conduct.

Three · Establishing — Setting Out the Five Sites

Having searched him out rightly at the four sites by the four means, [the teacher] then establishes [him] at "five sites," each as fits. Which five sites? First, the site of guarding-and-nurturing the provisions for concentration; second, the site of seclusion; third, the site of the one-pointedness of mind; fourth, the site of the purifying of obstruction; fifth, the site of the cultivation of attention.

Four · Guarding-and-Nurturing the Provisions for Concentration

What is guarding-and-nurturing the provisions for concentration? It is that one who has accomplished the discipline of the moral code, right here, in order not to fall back, abides in heedfulness — as the Buddha has enjoined, as the Buddha has permitted, [fulfilling] the differentiated points of training of the whole body of moral discipline, cultivating with diligence, ever without slackening or ceasing. In this way he can keep the śīla-corresponding path of training he has already realized from falling back, and can also realize the surpassing śīla-corresponding path of training not previously realized. As is said of accomplishing the discipline of the moral code, so also with accomplishing the discipline of the faculties, knowing the right measure in food, the yoga of wakefulness in the first and last watches of the night, and abiding with right awareness, on down to accomplishing all the adornments of the śramaṇa — with respect to the differentiated wholesome dharmas subsumed under whatever provisions have been gained, he can guard them all so that they do not fall back and are not lost; and with respect to the more surpassing differentiated wholesome dharmas, in order to fulfill them swiftly, and in order that, as has been said, they may "operate evenly, with no increase and no decrease," he gives rise to joyful aspiration and heightened yearning, ever-abiding, valiant and diligent. This is named guarding-and-nurturing the provisions for concentration. Thus, when he secludes himself from the dharmas that conduce to falling back, and cultivates the dharmas that can conduce to the surpassing portion, he delights to dwell in seclusion.

Five · Seclusion

What is seclusion? It is fullness of place, fullness of deportment, and fullness of seclusion.

(1) Fullness of place. "Place" means an āraṇya, or the foot of a forest tree, or an empty and quiet room — mountain valleys, rock caverns, heaps of rice-straw, and the like are named "empty and quiet room"; within a great grove of trees is named "the foot of a forest tree"; open expanses, among tombs, and lying-and-sitting at the margins are named "āraṇya." Thus, it should be known that the mountain valleys, rock caverns, heaps of rice-straw, great groves of trees, open expanses, tombs, and marginal lying-and-sitting places just stated — whether classed as an āraṇya, the foot of a forest tree, or an empty and quiet room — are all together named places of practice. Fullness of place is again of five kinds: 　First, that place is from the outset comely in form and appearance, delightful to the gaze of the many, pure and unsullied; provided with groves and pools, clear, open, and pleasant; the ground without high and low, the site without poisonous thorns, without many bricks, stones, tiles, or shards — able to make the one who sees it give rise to a mind of purity, to delight to dwell therein and to cultivate the preliminaries of severance, glad and joyful in mind, sustaining severance — this is the first fullness of place. 　Second, that place is by day without clamor and confusion, by night with little sound, and also with little of the evil, poisonous touch of mosquitoes, gadflies, wind and sun, snakes, and scorpions — this is the second fullness of place. 　Third, that place is without the frightful things of evil lions, tigers, leopards, jackals, wolves, foes, robbers, humans and non-humans, and the rest; therein, body and mind are at ease, wholly without misgiving, dwelling in ease and joy — this is the third fullness of place. 　Fourth, that place is where the requisites conducive to body and life are easily obtained, where seeking robes and the like is not overly hard, and where food and drink to sustain one are not wanting — this is the fourth fullness of place. 　Fifth, that place has good spiritual friends who take one in, and wise co-practitioners of the holy life who dwell there; where what is not yet made clear can be rightly made clear, and what is already made clear is made yet more lucid; where the deep import of the words is penetrated by wisdom, and by skillful means earnestly set forth, able to make knowledge and vision swiftly attain purity — this is the fifth fullness of place.

(2) Fullness of deportment. It is that by day one does walking meditation and seated meditation, in the first watch of the night likewise, in the middle watch lies down on the right side, and in the last watch quickly rises again to walking and seated meditation. Upon just such full bedding — the large and small rope-cots, the seats of grass and leaves, that the buddhas have permitted — one sits cross-legged (and so on at length). For what reason does one sit cross-legged? Because one rightly discerns five reasons: first, by drawing the body in, pliancy is swiftly aroused — this deportment is foremost in conducing to the arising of pliancy; second, by this seated meditation one can endure for a long while — this deportment does not let the body tire swiftly; third, this seated meditation is an uncommon dharma — outsiders and their treatises have none of it; fourth, this seated meditation is comely in form and appearance — making others, on seeing it, give rise to the utmost faith and reverence; fifth, this seated meditation is what buddha after buddha and their disciples alike have permitted — all the noble ones alike praise it. Rightly discerning these five reasons, one should therefore sit cross-legged. 　"Straightening the body and rightening the vow": what is straightening the body? It is rousing and raising the body to make it straight and erect. What is rightening the vow? It is making the mind free of flattery and free of deceit, pliant, upright, and straight. By rousing and raising the body to make it straight and erect, the mind is not entangled and troubled by torpor and drowsiness; by being free of flattery and deceit, the mind is not entangled and troubled by the scattering stir of outer objects. 　"Abiding in turned-back mindfulness": what is turned-back mindfulness? The mindfulness that corresponds to attention in accord with principle is named turned-back mindfulness — because it "turns its back on and runs counter to all the black class [of dharmas]"; and the mindfulness that takes the mark of concentration as its object is also named turned-back mindfulness — because it "turns its back on and dispels all the objects belonging to the non-concentrated ground." This is named fullness of deportment.

(3) Fullness of seclusion. It is of two kinds: bodily seclusion and mental seclusion. Bodily seclusion = not dwelling mingled together with the throngs of householders and those gone forth, alone and without companion. Mental seclusion = secluding oneself from all defiled and neutral attention, and cultivating all the attention of the concentrated ground "whose nature is wholesome and can draw forth benefit and welfare," together with the preliminary attention that is the provisions for concentration. 　Thus here, fullness of place, fullness of deportment, bodily seclusion, and mental seclusion, gathered together as one, are named seclusion.

Teaching arc: the moment the Third Yoga-Station opens its mouth, what it speaks of is cultivating yoga in earnest. Yet it is in no hurry to teach you how to enter concentration; instead it first lays out a long string of preliminary means — going to receive a teacher, being questioned, establishing the five sites, guarding-and-nurturing the provisions, choosing a place of seclusion and sitting down. The treatise, at its very opening, carries its own "master uddāna," setting out all eight matters of the whole station in one breath: going-and-greeting-and-inquiring · searching-out · establishing · guarding-and-nurturing · departure (seclusion) · one-pointedness · the purifying of obstruction · the cultivation of attention; the ancient masters read it as "three gates in all, the third gate then subdivided into five" 〔Kuiji · Dunlun〕. This leaf treats the first five. The point of the eye is this single line: cultivating concentration is not a matter of "I want to, so I do"; it is a matter of "meeting the aptitude" — one must first let a person who has been through it recognize what kind of faculties you are, what basis of affliction you have, before one knows where to settle you and what dharma to give you; only when the provisions stand firm and body and mind are drawn in does concentration sit steady. The preliminaries are not a delay; they are the foundation.

Why Must Cultivating Concentration Begin with Going to Receive a Teacher and Be Questioned?

Practice is not a thing one can accomplish shut up alone behind closed doors. The treatise says: a self-cherishing beginner in cultivation, at the very start of setting out, must first abide in right mindfulness at "four sites" — seeking single-mindedly to comprehend (holding no mind that wrangles to dispute), giving rise to deep reverence (holding no conceited mind), seeking only the surpassingly good (not to display one's own ability), purely to nurture the roots of good in oneself and others (not for gain, honor, or renown) — and only bearing such a mind does he go to visit the preceptor of conduct and the personal instructor who have penetrated yoga 〔ancient masters' transliteration: the preceptor of conduct is the ācārya, the personal instructor is the upādhyāya, the "upstairs-teacher / master"; see the apparatus〕.

Arriving before the teacher, he first requests permission and asks about the proper time, then bares his shoulder and sets his right knee [to the ground], joins his palms and lowers his face, and with gentle words inquires: "In this practice of yoga I wish to seek instruction; may you expound it for me." — This passage paints the very bearing and tone of a practitioner meeting his teacher for the first time.

The teacher is first to "console, encourage, and rouse" him. Here the treatise strikes out nine paired contrasts, each one saying "beings are thus, yet you alone can be so":

Beings fall into heedlessness and delight in heedlessness — you alone can be unheedful and delight in cultivating departure; Beings have long fallen into the perilous dungeon of grief and suffering — you alone seek liberation from this dungeon; Beings are constantly bound by the fetters, manacles, cangue, and chains of craving, hatred, and delusion — you alone seek to break this binding; Beings walk the perilous road of the wilderness of birth-and-death — you alone seek to cross beyond this perilous road; Beings meet with a famine of the roots of good — you alone seek roots of good rich and abundant; Beings fall into the robber-foes of affliction, into vast dread — you alone seek the ultimate, ever-blissful nirvāṇa; Beings are devoured by the grievous illness of affliction — you alone seek the foremost illness-free nirvāṇa; Beings are drowned in the four kinds of torrent — you alone seek to cross over this torrent; Beings have entered the vast darkness of ignorance (avidyā) — you alone seek the light of great wisdom.

Read down all nine in one breath, and the weight of "all others drown, I alone seek to be pulled out" comes forth — the teacher does not first teach the dharma; he first hammers into the disciple's heart the four words "rare and precious," describing this road. After rousing him, the teacher then examines him at the "four sites of examining inquiry": Have you single-mindedly taken refuge in the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Saṅgha, and left the outsider ways? Have you already purely cultivated the holy life, your moral conduct pure and your view upright? Have you heard and retained the noble-truth teachings? Did you truly go forth to realize the quiescent nirvāṇa? — With these four questions answered, the teacher has the measure of the disciple's grounding in mind.

By What Does the Teacher Recognize Your Aptitude?

Having questioned him, if the disciple answers "Yes," the teacher then formally "searches him out" in four matters: what vow he has set forth, what lineage, what faculties, what conduct. Searching-out has four methods — examining inquiry, discourse, observing the marks of what he does, and the knowledge of another's mind. The ancient masters point out a sequence: for a person of sharp faculties, the first method alone, "examining inquiry," suffices to search it out; a person of dull faculties cannot even state it for himself, and one must then use the latter three methods to test him minutely 〔Kuiji · Dunlun citing Kuiji〕.

The most instructive part is the passage on "testing lineage and testing conduct by discourse." Testing lineage: the teacher speaks in turn the dharma corresponding to each of the three vehicles — śrāvaka, pratyekabuddha, Great Vehicle — and watches which vehicle, when heard, makes the disciple leap up in joy and deeply understand; whichever lineage is within him, hearing the corresponding dharma makes him rejoice, and hearing another leaves him unmoved; the lineage is thus "tested" out. Testing conduct shows even more of the brush's power:

To a person of the conduct of craving, when "the pure and sublime" is spoken of (the adornment of the buddha-land wrought of the seven jewels), he gives rise to the utmost pure faith and loving delight, his body-hairs all stand erect, he weeps tears of moving sorrow, outwardly glossy-smooth, inwardly gentle — here the ancient masters especially single out: this "pure and sublime" refers to the adornment of the buddha-land, not to the outer objects of desire; the objects of desire cannot arouse such pure faith 〔Dunlun · Kuiji〕. A person of the conduct of hatred reacts exactly the reverse of the above. A person of the conduct of delusion, hearing the dharma of "the definite penetration of nirvāṇa," gives rise instead to the utmost fright and dread — the ancient masters say: he is like a person of dull faculties, who must strain even to understand a coarse and shallow dharma, how much more nirvāṇa, and so is frightened the moment he hears it 〔Dunlun〕. A person of the conduct of conceit, hearing the right Dharma, does not much take it to heart in faith; a person of the conduct of discursive thought lends his ear to listen yet is scattered in mind, losing what he hears as he hears it, asking again and again.

The point of the eye of this passage the ancient masters mark out plainly. That a person of the conduct of craving, hearing "the pure and sublime," gives rise to pure faith — the masters make clear that this "pure and sublime" refers to the buddha-land's adornment of the seven jewels, not to outer objects of desire 〔Dunlun · Kuiji〕. When all is said, this is "the object leading the mind along" — the very same meaning that, in another fascicle, at the passage on "craving's enwrapment dwelling in the body," the ancient masters point to in their sharpest single line: 「為境制伏心，非心能伏境」 tr. "it is the object that subdues the mind, not the mind that can subdue the object" 〔Dunlun · Kuiji〕: before the counteragent has been applied, it is the object that leads the mind along, not the mind that holds down the object. To recognize a person's basis of affliction to just this degree serves a purpose: in the later passage on "the cultivation of attention" (Subject 8), the five kinds of conduct are each to be matched, dose by dose, with a counteracting object (craving matched with the impure, hatred with loving-kindness, delusion with dependent origination, conceit with the differentiation of elements, discursive thought with counting the breath). Take the sick one's pulse accurately first, and only then is the medicine prescribed aright.

Establishing at the Five Sites: Laying the Foundation for Cultivating Concentration

The aptitude tested and now clear, the teacher then establishes the disciple at "five sites": guarding-and-nurturing the provisions for concentration, seclusion, the one-pointedness of mind, the purifying of obstruction, and the cultivation of attention. The latter three are matters of the true cultivation of calm-and-insight, kept for a later leaf; this leaf first lays the foundation of the first two — the provisions and seclusion.

Guarding-and-nurturing the provisions for concentration the treatise does not build from a fresh hearth. The ancient masters state it plainly: these provisions are precisely the "fourteen gates of the provisions for the two paths, mundane and supramundane," already expounded in the stage of departure of the First Yoga-Station — from the discipline of the moral code, the discipline of the faculties, knowing the measure in food, the yoga of wakefulness in the first and last watches, and abiding with right awareness, all the way to the adornments of the śramaṇa; here it is "expounded at length as there, and its text taken up again" 〔Dunlun〕. What is called "guarding-and-nurturing" is to keep these wholesome dharmas already gained from being lost, and further to give rise to yearning for the more surpassing wholesome dharmas and to be ever diligent. The household won by the earlier cultivation of departure must, when one is about to enter concentration, first be held fast — this is guarding-and-nurturing.

Seclusion is divided into three fullnesses: of place, of deportment, and of seclusion. First, "place": whether an āraṇya (a place empty and quiet — the ancient masters say one must go a krośa and a half from the village 〔Dunlun〕), or the foot of a forest tree, or an empty and quiet room. These place-names in the treatise all carry a picture, and the ancient masters gloss two out-of-the-way terms in passing: a "heap of rice-straw" is a stack piled up from the rice-stalks left in the fields of the Western Country after the harvest, where a practitioner may take shelter beneath the stack; "bedding of the margins" is bedding utterly coarse and worn, broken past anyone's wanting, cast away on the ground 〔Dunlun〕 — to choose such a spot and use such bedding shows exactly the true colors of one secluded, who does not covet ease. The place must further have "five fullnesses": a spot comely and pure, delightful to dwell in; day and night still, with few mosquitoes, gadflies, and poisonous touches; without the terrors of tigers, wolves, robbers, and the like; where robes and food and requisites are not hard to seek; and where good spiritual friends and co-practitioners take one in and set one right — with all five complete, only then is it a good place for cultivating severance.

The Five Reasons within the Sitting-Posture: Why Must One Sit Cross-Legged?

The passage on "fullness of deportment" most deserves a close telling. The treatise says the practitioner, in the three periods of the day and the first watch, does walking and seated meditation, in the middle watch lies on the right side, and in the last watch quickly rises again — the schedule set first. Then, coming to the sitting, why must one sit specifically "cross-legged"? The treatise does not bid you fold your legs out of nothing; it rightly discerns five reasons and only so sits:

First, once the body is drawn in, pliancy most easily arises — this posture best conduces to the arising of pliancy; second, one can sit long, not tiring easily; third, this is an "uncommon dharma" — outsiders and their treatises have no such way of sitting; fourth, the form is comely, and others, on seeing it, at once give rise to faith and reverence; fifth, this is the sitting permitted alike by buddha after buddha and their disciples, praised alike by the noble ones. See the five reasons plainly, and one knows that sitting upright cross-legged is no mere form; it has its own reason of body and mind.

Seated, one must further "straighten the body, righten the vow, and abide in turned-back mindfulness." Straightening the body is rousing and raising the body to make it straight and erect — the body once erect, torpor and drowsiness cannot entangle it. Rightening the vow is making the mind free of flattery and deceit, pliant, upright, and straight — the mind once upright, outer objects cannot scatter it. Turned-back mindfulness is abiding in a mindfulness that "turns its back": the mindfulness corresponding to attention in accord with principle turns its back on all the black class [of dharmas]; the mindfulness taking the mark of concentration as its object turns its back on and dispels all the objects of the non-concentrated ground — hence it is called "turned-back mindfulness," turning its back on the defiled dharmas of birth-and-death, facing toward the uncontaminated ground of concentration. 〔Dunlun and Kuiji already identify these five reasons for sitting cross-legged and two senses of turned-back mindfulness in an earlier seated-meditation passage. They expressly say "there are five [restatements], as will be expounded at length in the thirtieth fascicle" — directing the detailed gloss to the present fascicle.〕

Fullness of seclusion is gathered at the last, divided into the two of body and mind: bodily seclusion is not dwelling mingled with the throngs of householders and those gone forth, alone and without companion; mental seclusion is secluding oneself from all defiled and neutral attention and cultivating only the attention of the concentrated ground, wholesome in nature and able to draw forth benefit and welfare, together with the preliminary attention that is the provisions for concentration. The body secluded from clamor, the mind secluded from defilement, the four — place, deportment, body, and mind — are gathered as one matter and named together seclusion.

Carrying Forward

At this point the preliminaries stand complete. Looking back over what this passage has done: first it tests the aptitude (letting the teacher recognize your vow, lineage, faculties, and conduct), then it sets up the provisions (holding fast the household of moral good won in the stage of departure), and last it accomplishes seclusion (choosing a spot empty and quiet, straightening the body and sitting upright, body and mind both secluded). The root of cultivating concentration is here made firm.

The next step — only then does it come to "the one-pointedness of mind" (Subject 6, the later leaf 13-03-02) — the true cultivation of calm-and-insight, the nine kinds of mental abiding and the four kinds of vipaśyanā, which are to be expounded in earnest from there. Kuiji, glossing to the end of this leaf, likewise runs straight on into "what is the one-pointedness of mind". The preliminaries are not an appendage to cultivating concentration; they are its root; the aptitude tested clear, the provisions set up, seclusion accomplished — only then does this tree of calm-and-insight have soil in which to grow. The whole map of the śrāvaka's cultivation of yoga sets out in earnest from this passage of establishing.