瑜伽師地論 聲聞地 · 第三瑜伽處 · 初修業者 · 行差別

The whole set of tranquillity-and-insight instructions, at this last leaf, comes down onto a single person who has just set out on the road — seizing the five kinds of aspect · the simile of the oil-bowl displaying the concentration of the four foundations of mindfulness · attention of resolute conviction → attention to the real · entering the four foundations of mindfulness · a path for each of the five conducts · at the last, the accomplishing of "one possessed of attention." The word "cultivate" of the Third Yoga-Station, only here, truly comes down to the ground and first bears its fruit.

In one line: The beginner in practice seizes the five kinds of aspect (weary aversion · gladdening delight · danger · light · the discernment of matters; the ancient masters: weary-aversion / danger / discernment-of-matters = the mind-training of the earlier cultivation of attention, gladdening-delight = the mind-moistening, only light being newly brought out 〔Dunlun, T42 0467a〕) → in dependence on the contemplation of the impure (greed-conduct): weary aversion and gladdening delight tune the mind · the simile of the oil-bowl presses out the concentration of the four foundations of mindfulness · the six thoughts at the aspect of danger · attention of resolute conviction → attention to the real (a single blue-festered corpse → the immeasurable · the flank-mountain · the very bound of suffering) · entering the four foundations of mindfulness (following over body, feeling, mind, and dharmas · inner and outer); the remaining four conducts (hatred → loving-kindness · delusion → dependent origination · conceit → the difference of elements · ratiocination → the counting of the breath) are each given a gate of entering-in; and at the last, by the pliancy of body and mind filling him whole, the practitioner accomplishes it and is called "one possessed of attention" (a small portion of the subtle right attention subsumed under the ground of concentration of the form realm).

Three Points of the Eye

1. Seizing the five kinds of aspect · the simile of the oil-bowl (concentration is something pressed out): the five aspects are gathered up under the two attentions of training / moistening of the earlier cultivation of attention, only light being newly brought out 〔Dunlun, T42 0467a25〕. ★The simile of the oil-bowl (spoken by the World-Honored One in a hidden intent): holding a level, brimful bowl of oil, one passes through a great crowd, an executioner with a bared, drawn sword following behind, and if a single drop falls to the ground his head is cut off there and then — how should he have any mind to spare for the crowd's good things and songs and dances? A figure for the single-mindedness of cultivating the four foundations of mindfulness. The point-for-point corresponding simile of the treatise (bowl of oil = tranquillity · the crowd's good things = the enwrapment of greed · songs and dances = ratiocination and idle elaboration · the great, and the like being born = the ten aspects · the man of wisdom = the practitioner of yoga · the sharp sword and the executioner = the aspect of danger) is established by the treatise itself; the scriptural source is the Saṃyukta-āgama no. 623 〔T02 0174b24 · translated by Guṇabhadra · the scriptural source is a corroborating side-reference, not the ground of authority〕. Point of the eye: concentration is not forcibly clenched out but pressed out by "danger, like a sharp sword following behind."

2. Resolute conviction → attention to the real · entering the four foundations of mindfulness · five conducts, five paths: the contemplation of the impure proceeds by attention of resolute conviction (a single blue-festered corpse → two, three, five, ten, a hundred, a thousand → filling all, immeasurable · feigned imagining to train the mind) → attention to the real (illumining that the real corpses are immeasurable · what is cast off in a single aeon piles up like the vast, broad flank-mountain 〔Tai's gloss, Mount Vipula, T42 0468a〕 · and on to the very bound of suffering). The five mind-stilling contemplations each "follow over body, feeling, mind, and dharmas, inner and outer (inner = one's own body · outer = another's body · inner-and-outer = self and other)" and thereby enter the four foundations of mindfulness. Five conducts, five paths: greed → the impure · hatred → loving-kindness (the dear, the hostile, and the neutral, all held in even regard · the merit of the real contemplation of loving-kindness surpassing the feigned · and on to the upaniṣad fraction not reaching even a fraction of it 〔Tai: the utmost in number, for which there is no name that can be rendered, T42 0469a〕) · delusion → dependent origination (the four inversions: reckoning the impermanent as permanent · suffering as ease · the impure as pure · the not-self as self) · conceit → the difference of elements (the six elements inner and outer · analyzed down to the subtle particle · the variant gate of festering-and-rotting, fire-burning, wind-scattering) · ratiocination → the counting of the breath (the blow-pipe and bellows-bag · the in-and-out breath · tūla-cotton).

3. ★The accomplishment of attention → "one possessed of attention" (the fruit of the Third Yoga-Station): the pliancy of body and mind, faint and slight → growing on and on by degrees → the foretoken arising, "as though a heavy thing pressed upon the crown, yet no distress" → the coarseness-and-heaviness of mind removed · the mind's pliancy and pliant-ease arising → a great element of preponderantly-increased wind entering the body → the coarseness-and-heaviness of body removed · the body's pliancy filling him whole, as though overflowing → the mind leaping up in joy → its force gradually easing · the mind turning upon its object in stillness. From this the beginner in practice is called "one possessed of attention," and falls within the number of those possessed of attention — for having gained "a small portion of the subtle right attention subsumed under the ground of concentration of the form realm" 〔the treatise, T30 0464c〕. The pure characteristics of one possessed of attention: entering a lovable object, sharp and fierce greed does not arise · should it arise, it is expelled at once · sitting in repose, pliancy arises swiftly. This is the first fruit of the whole course of tranquillity-and-insight of the Third Yoga-Station (preliminary → the nine stations of mind → the nine preparatory efforts that purify the obstructions → the beginner in practice).

Appended note: "One possessed of attention" is not the terminus but the threshold — one who gains this "has the strength and the capacity to cultivate well the preparatory effort of the object that purifies the defilements," whose mundane dispassion (the seven attentions) and supramundane direct realization of the truths await the Fourth Yoga-Station to be set forth at length; the whole course of tranquillity-and-insight of the Third Yoga-Station is here drawn to a close. The posture of the ancient masters: Dunlun's Notes on the Treatise, the lower part of fascicle seven 〔from T42 0466c10 · glossing phrase by phrase · citing Tai / Jing / Bei / the Tripiṭaka-master〕; Kuiji's Concise Compendium has no phrase-by-phrase treatment of this whole segment (from the Second Yoga-Station 〔0113a〕 it leaps straight to the Pratyekabuddha Stage 〔0128b〕) · Jinaputra has no phrase-by-phrase treatment · the Section on Ascertainment has no parallel ascertainment of this leaf (all marked according to the fact). For the doctrine expounded, see the ⟨Exposition⟩.

The framework of cultivating attention has been set up; this closing leaf brings the whole teaching of tranquillity-and-insight down onto a single person who has only just set out on the road: how the teacher instructs the beginner in practice to take up five signs, and step by step to move from world-weariness to gladness, to gauge the mind with the sign of danger and the sign of light, and, relying on the contemplation of the impure, to enter the four foundations of mindfulness; midway, by the "simile of the oil-bowl" (which the World-Honored One spoke with hidden intent) it displays the one-pointed attentiveness of the four foundations of mindfulness; then, once greed-conduct has been fully treated, the four practices — loving-kindness, dependent origination, the differentiation of elements, and mindfulness of breathing — are each given their own gate of entry; and finally it speaks of "the accomplishment of attention" — how bodily and mental pliancy grows from faint and feeble to strong and vigorous, so that the practitioner first comes to be called "one who possesses attention" and falls into the number of those who possess attention. Only here does the cultivation of the Third Yoga-Station truly touch the ground. Rendered clause by clause into present-day language following Xuanzang's translation, keeping the old technical terms, adding no doctrine, citing no treatise, glossing no Sanskrit; where the treatise-text is compressed, it is filled back in with 〔 〕.

The Beginner in Practice Begins Cultivation: First Take Up the Five Signs

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

What is it for the beginner in practice, when he first begins to cultivate, to establish the cultivation of attention as fitting, to practice rightly according to what has been established, and so, for the very first time, to touch and realize the "one-pointedness of mind that is the severing-joy"?

The teacher, well versed in yoga, first instructs the beginner in practice in this way: "Welcome, worthy friend! You, now, should take up five signs by the threefold occasion of taking up signs — whether by seeing, or by hearing, or by the mind's comparative reckoning and heightened discernment: first, the sign of world-weariness; second, the sign of gladness; third, the sign of danger; fourth, the sign of light; and fifth, the sign of discerning things."

The three occasions for taking up signs are to be understood one by one: when the object has been personally seen, one takes up its sign by "seeing"; when the object has been heard from another, one takes up its sign by "hearing"; when it is neither presently seen nor presently heard but is comparatively reckoned in the mind, one takes up its sign by "the mind's comparative reckoning and heightened discernment." By these three occasions, each of the five — the sign of world-weariness, gladness, danger, light, and discerning things — can become a sign taken up by the beginner in practice.

Question: If the beginner in practice is a person of greed-conduct, who ought properly to be subdued by the contemplation of the impure, why is he taught to take up these five signs? Answer: He should be instructed in this way —

Greed-Conduct's First Cultivation (One): Taking Up the Sign of World-Weariness

"Welcome, worthy friend! In whatever village or settlement you dwell, if you hear of some other village where there are men and women who first enjoyed comfort and later met with misery; or where those men and women themselves fell into grave illness and, at the end of life, perished; or where their friends, relatives, and dependents met with such suffering; or where that settlement lost its wealth and treasure — whether seized by a strong enemy who came against it, or burned by fire, or swept away by water, or lost through blundering, or lost through poor management of affairs, or lost through poor disposition of affairs, or lost when someone took advantage in the matter of shared property, or lost through fire in the household. If you saw it yourself and did not merely hear it reported; or it was in this very village and not some other; or it was not some other village and not another person but your very own self — where the fierce and keen pleasant feeling you had tasted before was afterwards lost again (as explained at length before). Having heard it, having seen it, you should give rise to a deep world-weariness and distress: this birth-and-death is truly heavy suffering, the body one obtains is gotten with vast hardship, and yet within it there are just these many differences of decline, one's own and others' — the decline of health, the decline of lifespan, the decline of kin, the decline of wealth; there is illness and the nature-that-is-liable-to-illness, there is death and the nature-that-is-liable-to-death; and there is a further kind, the decline of pure discipline and the decline of right view. By these causes, those beings, in the present life, dwell amid manifold sufferings and torments, and in the life to come go on to the evil destinies. As for those who flourish — though in the present life they dwell in comfort, and in the life to come go on to the good destinies, still it is impermanent; and this impermanence can be realized here and now: whoever receives flourishing, for him decline will surely come to pass in the after-time; whoever receives decline, for him flourishing can hardly come to pass in the after-time. Matters of flourishing are all things hard to get and easy to break. Thus should you, with deep mind, be world-weary and distressed, attend to it most well, and hold it in accordance with principle: a place such as this can hardly be trusted. I, now, in this flowing-round of birth-and-death, have not yet reached final nirvāṇa, have not yet liberated my mind — hardly to be trusted. May these two things, decline and flourishing, not appear before me; may they not, on their account, cause me to fall into such a place and give rise to fierce, harsh, bitter, disagreeable suffering. By the very force of this matter, may I with utmost sincerity delight in severing and cultivate non-negligence; and by dwelling much in this way, may I be able to make an end of the meaningless. Thus should you attend most well and hold it in accordance with principle."

Greed-Conduct's First Cultivation (Two): Taking Up the Sign of Gladness

"Having taken up the sign of world-weariness, you should further diligently take up the sign of gladness. You should examine for yourself the discipline (śīla) you have received: is it well purified, or is it not purified? Perhaps through loss of mindfulness, or through lack of reverence, or through many afflictions, or through not knowing, I have committed some transgression against the trainings; and having transgressed, I shall, in accordance with the Dharma, by my own intrinsic heightened resolve, give rise to a deep mind toward the trainings and transgress no further — doing what is to be done and not doing what is not to be done; in brief, toward the trainings I shall bring the heightened resolve to fullness and bring all preparatory effort to fullness. When you examine rightly in this way, if you know for yourself that your body of discipline is pure — even though you do not deliberately make the thought 'I shall give rise to pure non-regret,' still, as a matter of course, one whose discipline is pure will surely give rise to this pure non-regret; and having given rise to non-regret, even though you do not deliberately make the thought 'I give rise to gladness,' still, as a matter of course, one who is without regret will surely give rise to gladness. Thus, first, at one kind of basis-of-gladness, you should give rise to the gladness whose forerunner is non-regret. And at the joy-place of the 'removal of hindrances,' you should give rise to joy — thinking: my discipline is now pure, I have the strength and the capacity to dwell in the trainings laid down by the World-Honored One, and in the present life I can attain what was not attained, touch what was not touched, realize what was not realized. From this place there arises a mind of joy. And if you obtain some slight difference of the earlier and later that you have realized, then by this very force, toward the perfect realization of others (such as the Tathāgatas, or the noble disciples) and toward your own later difference of realization, you should give rise to conviction and give rise to a mind of joy. These agreeable minds were first named gladness and are now named joy, and together are named delight of mind. This is called taking up the sign of gladness."

Greed-Conduct's First Cultivation (Three): The Instruction — Tempering and Moistening; Dwelling in Inward Even Abiding

Having taken up this sign, he should further be instructed, being told: "Worthy friend! By this sign of world-weariness you temper your mind, and by this sign of gladness you moisten your mind; toward the severing and extinguishing of worldly greed and grief you should dwell much. In each and every object-domain, diligently cultivate preparatory effort — whether of the tranquillity (śamatha) side or of the insight (vipaśyanā) side; and upon that very object let the mind abide inwardly and abide evenly. You will attain bodily and mental pliancy, and one-pointedness."

Greed-Conduct's First Cultivation (Four): Taking Up the Sign of Danger · Taking Up the Sign by the Six Practices

"If you thus turn your back on the dark categories and turn toward the white categories, tempering the mind and moistening the mind, you should further, again and again, take up the sign of danger — taking up the sign of danger in all signs, discursive thoughts, and secondary afflictions. As for the 'signs,' they are the ten signs of visible form and the rest; as for 'discursive thoughts,' they are the eight discursive thoughts of desire and the rest; as for 'secondary afflictions,' they are the five, greed-desire and the rest. You should take up the sign of danger in them: these signs can make the mind hurried and busy in its functioning; these discursive thoughts can make the mind yearn and be agitated; these secondary afflictions can make the mind never quiet — the mind's busyness is the doing of the signs, the yearning and agitation are the doing of the discursive thoughts, the never-being-quiet is the doing of the secondary afflictions, and by this the mind dwells in torment. Therefore these signs, discursive thoughts, and secondary afflictions are suffering, are not noble, and can draw on the meaningless; they make the mind scattered, agitated, and defiled — thus should you take up the sign of danger. And you should, relying on the mind's one-pointedness, the mind's abiding-in-stability, and the mind's freedom-from-disturbance, take up the sign rightly by six practices: first, the notion of signlessness; second, in signlessness, the notion of no-functioning; third, the notion of non-discrimination; fourth, in non-discrimination, the notion of no-yearning-and-no-agitation; fifth, the notion of quietness; and sixth, in quietness, the notion of the bliss-of-extinction that is free of all burning torments."

The six practices are likewise to be taken up one by one: first, upon the object, the notion of signlessness; second, within signlessness, the notion of no-functioning; third, upon the object, the notion of non-discrimination; fourth, within non-discrimination, the notion of no-yearning and no-agitation; fifth, upon the object, the notion of quietness; sixth, within quietness, the notion of the bliss of extinction free of all burning torments. These six practices are established in order upon one-pointedness of mind, stability of mind, and freedom of mind from disturbance.

Greed-Conduct's First Cultivation (Five): Taking Up the Sign of Light · the Sign of Discerning Things (the Livid Corpse)

"Having taken up the sign of danger, you should further, again and again, take up the sign of light — the light of a lamp, or the light of a great fire, or the light of the disc of the sun, or the light of the disc of the moon. Having taken up the sign of light, you should further go to the charnel-ground and take up the sign of the livid corpse (as explained at length, down to taking up the sign of the chained skeleton). If you cannot go to the charnel-ground, then take up these signs as made in painting, wood, or stone."

Having taken up this sign, he returns to his dwelling-place — whether a wilderness hermitage, or the foot of a forest tree, or an empty quiet room, or a large bed, a small corded couch, a seat of grass and leaves — and having first washed his feet, he sits cross-legged, sets his body erect and his aspiration upright, and settles into keeping mindfulness before him; first, upon a single object he keeps the mind from scattering and ties his mindfulness before him; and within that he attends and reflects by six notions: the notion of signlessness, the notion of non-discrimination, the notion of quietness, the notion of no-functioning, the notion of no-yearning-and-no-agitation, and the notion of the bliss-of-extinction free of all burning torments.

And within that, you should thoroughly and comprehensively come to know the "sign of disturbance and the sign of non-disturbance" as they appear distinctly before you. Just so, thoroughly and comprehensively knowing, you will be able to know the disturbed signs among all signs, discursive thoughts, and secondary afflictions, and also able to know the various undisturbed signs of the mind's one-pointedness cultivated by way of the six notions. And thoroughly knowing this sign of disturbance and non-disturbance, you will be able to dwell upon a single object-domain and to dwell in inward mental tranquil-stilling, so that the mind's continuities and the mind's flowings-on, of one taste before and after, turn on signless, non-discriminating, and quiet.

And if your mind, though it has attained tranquil-stilling, on account of loss of mindfulness and the fault of long habituation to signs, discursive thoughts, and secondary afflictions, has those object-images appear again and again before it like a face in a mirror; then, as they arise, upon them you cultivate once more the "attention of non-attending" — by the force of the sign of danger seen before, upon this object-sign, by the cultivated attention of non-attending, you dispel and scatter them and make them, once and for all, not appear before you. Worthy friend, you should know: this object is exceedingly subtle and hard to penetrate. You should give rise to a fierce and keen delight and longing, and, in order to penetrate it, give rise to diligent effort.

The Simile of the Oil-Bowl: the One-Pointed Attentiveness of the Four Foundations of Mindfulness (Which the World-Honored One Spoke with Hidden Intent)

The World-Honored One, in reference to this object-sign, once spoke with hidden intent these words —

"Bhikṣus, you should know 'the crowd of fine things': namely, in a great assembly gathered together, the flush and vigorous beauties; and the most excellent among this crowd of fine things — the singing, dancing, and entertainments of that great gathering. Suppose there were a wise man who came from outside and said to a certain person: 'Hey there, man! You, now, are to carry this bowl brimful of oil and not let it spill over, and pass through the midst of this great crowd; and you must avoid all the fine things there, and the most excellent singing, dancing, and entertainments, the great and equal beings and the rest. Now there is an executioner following behind you with a bared, drawn, sharp sword — if a single drop of your oil falls to the ground, this executioner will, with the sharp sword, then and there cut off your head and sever your life-root.' Bhikṣus, what do you think? Would this bowl-bearing man, do you suppose, fail to attend with single mind to the oil-bowl, to the executioner with the drawn sword, and to the uneven ground, and instead be able to attend to and gaze upon the fine things and the most excellent singing, dancing, and entertainments and the great beings?" "No, World-Honored One! Why? This bowl-bearing man, having seen the executioner following with a bared, drawn, sharp sword, is in the greatest terror and singly makes just this thought: the oil-bowl I carry is already full, and to pass through this crowd is exceedingly hard to accomplish; should a single drop fall to the ground, I shall surely, by this sword-bearing executioner, have my head cut off and my life-root severed. That man, at that time, toward those fine things and the most excellent singing, dancing, and entertainments and the great beings and the rest, does not attend to them, think of them, or gaze upon them at all; only upon the oil-bowl does he attend with single mind and rightly guard it."

"So it is, bhikṣus! My disciples, who with reverence and gravity, single-minded and recollected, cultivate the four foundations of mindfulness — know that it is likewise." — 〔The correspondences of this simile:〕 "the crowd of fine things" is a simile for the secondary-affliction dharmas that conform to the entanglements of greed-desire and the rest; among them the "most excellent singing, dancing, and entertainments" is a simile for the dharmas that conform to the agitating places of discursive-thought and idle proliferation; "the great and equal beings and the rest" is a simile for the dharmas that are the ten signs of visible form and the rest; the "wise man" is a simile for the yoga practitioner; the "bowl brimful of oil" is a simile for the mind that is settled by tranquillity (śamatha) — that which can make body and mind pliant and moist, and this is the meaning of tranquillity; the "executioner following with a bared, drawn, sharp sword" is a simile for the signs of danger among the signs, discursive thoughts, and secondary afflictions taken up before; "singly guarding it, and not letting a single drop of the oil fall to the ground" is a simile for the path of tranquillity that is embraced by thoroughly and comprehensively knowing the signs of disturbance and non-disturbance — whereby the mind's continuities and flowings-on are, by the force of effort, roused on without interval, of one taste before and after, signless, non-discriminating, turning quiet, and never again arousing one thought that goes back to take signs as object, or discursive thoughts and secondary afflictions as object.

Well Cultivating the Path of Tranquillity · When It Recedes, Return to Taking Up the Discriminated Sign

This yoga practitioner should further, in this way, earnestly instruct the beginner in practice, being told: "Worthy friend! If you thus diligently cultivate the path of tranquillity, and by such skillful means take on a mind of joy accompanied by right mindfulness and right knowing — only then is it named well cultivating the path of tranquillity. If, on account of the fault of long habituation, you cannot deeply delight therein, and it comes before you only with the greatest hardship and forceful rousing, then you should swiftly come out of the 'object-sign that is non-discriminating' and tie your mindfulness before you upon the 'object-sign that is discriminating' — such as the signs of the impure taken up before.

Attention-by-Resolute-Conviction → Attention-by-the-Real (Boundless Livid Corpses · the Flanking Mountain · the Limit of Suffering)

"You, now, should further attend and reflect: first using that 'insight that merely operates along the signs,' contemplate the livid corpse, or contemplate the festering-and-rotting (as explained at length, down to contemplating the bone, contemplating the chain, or contemplating the chained skeleton). When you first cultivate this contemplation, upon a single livid corpse (down to a single chained skeleton) you should give rise to resolute conviction. If therein you have already long habituated it, the path of contemplation is bright and clear, and upon the object-sign your clear resolute conviction continues on, then you should further, upon two, three, four, five, ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, or a hundred livid corpses, a thousand livid corpses, down to all the livid corpses in every direction and quarter, give rise to a resolute conviction that operates boundlessly, pervades all places, and is without interval — within which there is not even the empty space to admit the tip of a single staff. As with the livid corpse, so down to the chained skeleton likewise.

"Relying on this attention-by-resolute-conviction, you should enter into attention-by-the-real. When you enter, you should think thus: just as the boundless livid corpses (down to boundless chained skeletons) that I now produce by resolute conviction, the real livid corpses down to chained skeletons are in their number still beyond this, past reckoning. Why? From the prior limit onward, in this or that existence and this or that destiny I have wheeled round in birth-and-death, and the corpses I have discarded at the end of life when I perished, the livid corpses I have raised (down to the chained skeletons), are boundless and without limit; and tracing their prior limit, it cannot be known. Suppose someone could gather up these discarded corpses and keep them from decaying and rotting — all the great earth still could not hold them; the corpses discarded, down to chained skeletons, in a single eon alone, suppose someone could pile them in one place, their heaped quantity would be as great as a vast flanking mountain. As it is from the prior limit, so too from the later limit, and even so I have not yet been able to make an end of suffering. Thus, relying on attention-by-resolute-conviction, you should enter into attention-by-the-real.

"Again, in cultivating the insight of the livid corpse down to the chained skeleton, you should not contemplate all at once — just as, upon a single corpse's livid state, you give rise to resolute conviction, right away you let the mind be inwardly quiet; down to the point where, toward this object-sign, there is joy and clarity, without any disturbance, and no need to force effort — in just this small span of work, you should give rise to resolute conviction upon this corpse's livid state. If it comes before you only when you force effort, then at that time you cultivate inward quietness. As with the livid corpse, so down to the chained skeleton likewise; and by this principle, down even to the boundless, likewise. Having thus let the mind be inwardly quiet, you should further give rise to a 'resolute conviction of quietness' — from the last of the boundless livid corpses down to the last of the boundless chained skeletons, you inwardly gather in your mind, by skillful means dispel them, and set them within the 'non-appearance of the crowd of signs': not wholly casting off the discriminated sign, yet not discriminating either, only, upon this very object, letting your mind abide — signless, non-discriminating, turning quiet."

Cultivating Tranquillity-and-Insight by the Notion of Light · Relying on the Contemplation of the Impure to Enter the Four Foundations of Mindfulness

That yoga practitioner should further instruct him, being told: "Worthy friend! The signs of light you took up before — in the preparatory effort of the tranquillity (śamatha) side and in the preparatory effort of the insight (vipaśyanā) side, you should in both attend to them and reflect in accordance with principle. If you can, with a mind together-with-light, a mind together-with-illumination, a mind together-with-clarity, a mind together-with-no-gloom, cultivate tranquillity and cultivate insight — only then is it named cultivating the notion of light on the path of tranquillity-and-insight. If, at the very first, upon the object-domain [the sign] is largely indistinct, and though you often habituate resolute conviction its sign is dim and dark, then the resolute conviction cultivated afterward is likewise indistinct — though you habituate it much, its sign is dim and dark. If, at the very first, upon the object-domain it is largely distinct, and habituating resolute conviction its sign is clear, then what is cultivated afterward turns still more distinct — though you habituate it little, its sign is clear. Thus it is because you have well taken up the sign of world-weariness, the sign of gladness, the sign of tranquillity, the sign of insight, and the sign of light —"

From time to time inwardly by quietness, and from time to time by the insight that operates along the signs discerning and examining dharmas; then, by the force of rightly cultivating the preparatory effort of the impure, you enter the foundations of mindfulness in gradual sequence. When about to enter, you should first, upon the thirty-six substances within your own body (beginning from the hair and body-hair down to the urine), well take up their sign, first giving rise to resolute conviction of the impure, and after giving rise to it again and again, further let the mind be inwardly quiet — this is called "cultivating the body-contemplation upon the inner body" (it is raised in dependence on one's own inner body). Next, upon the various outer impure things you should well take up their sign, giving rise to resolute conviction of the livid corpse (down to resolute conviction of the chained skeleton; whether a narrow, or a broad, or a boundless resolute conviction), and after giving rise to it again and again, further let the mind be inwardly quiet — this is called "cultivating the body-contemplation upon the outer body" (it is raised in dependence on another's outer body). Afterward, upon the various impure things both inner and outer of your own body you should well take up their sign and make the mind distinct, and further upon the inner and outer impurity of another's body well take up the sign and make the mind distinct; toward what you yourself love, you should give rise to this resolute conviction: after death it is sent out to the charnel-ground, discarded upon the ground, and reaches the livid state and the festering-and-rotting state (down to the chained-skeleton state) — give rise to resolute conviction, and after giving rise to it again and again, further let the mind be inwardly quiet — this is called "cultivating the body-contemplation upon the inner-and-outer body" (it is raised in dependence on one's own and another's body, whether inner or outer).

You should further, upon the four formless aggregates, by the force of hearing and reflection discriminate and take up the sign, and give rise to resolute conviction in three portions: first, the tranquillity (śamatha) side; second, the non-distraction side; third, the insight (vipaśyanā) side. The tranquillity side: when your mind inwardly gathers in, it gives rise to the practice of the notion of signlessness, non-discrimination, and quietness, and the practice of the notion of no-functioning, no-yearning-and-no-agitation, and the bliss-of-extinction free of all burning torments; and toward the undisturbed four formless aggregates — feeling and the rest — that take that object, instant by instant unfolding as distinct, being only ever new-and-new and not old-and-old, continuous and flowing on, you should reflect in accordance with principle and give rise to resolute conviction — this is called "cultivating the contemplation of feeling, mind, and dharmas upon inner feeling, mind, and dharmas." The non-distraction side: toward the four formless aggregates — feeling and the rest — heightened by the object-domains of signs, discursive thoughts, and secondary afflictions that arise from the objects taken up before and taken as object, which have fallen into the non-fixed ground, have passed away and ceased, and are now produced by the mind's disturbance through loss of mindfulness, you should attend in accordance with principle: these dharmas are all by nature made by deceptive illusion, exist but for a while, come before you abruptly, are full of dangers, are by nature impermanent, and cannot be trusted — thus should you give rise to resolute conviction — this is called "cultivating the contemplation of feeling, mind, and dharmas upon outer feeling, mind, and dharmas." The insight side: having well taken up the sign of insight, you dwell in the attention that has signs and has discrimination, and toward the four formless aggregates — feeling and the rest — heightened and inwardly produced upon the discriminated and sign-bearing object, you attend in accordance with principle and reflect that this dharma, instant by instant, unfolds as distinct, is only ever new-and-new and not old-and-old, continuous and flowing on, and, as said before, give rise to resolute conviction — this is called "cultivating the contemplation of feeling, mind, and dharmas upon inner-and-outer feeling, mind, and dharmas."

Thus, by the force of rightly cultivating the preparatory effort in dependence on the contemplation of the impure, you will attain entry into the four foundations of mindfulness.

Within the Foundations of Mindfulness: the Deportment of Alms-Gathering · Measured Speech · Constant and Final Practice · the Aspiring Mind

"You should further, in the preparatory effort of the foundations of mindfulness, from time to time cultivate the superior tranquillity and insight. Abiding in right mindfulness within these four foundations of mindfulness, you dwell according to the outskirts of this or that village and settlement. When your mind conforms to, tends toward, and is on the verge of entering the object-domain, you should relinquish this object-sign and enter that village to gather alms; you should well avoid vicious elephants, vicious horses, vicious oxen, vicious dogs, vicious snakes, vicious beasts, pits and ravines, moats and trenches, stumps and stakes, poisonous thorns, muddy water, and filth, and keep far from all bad deportment and defiled seats and bedding — thus should you well guard your own body. If toward those object-signs the faculties ought not to be roused, then you make no exertion and well guard the faculties; if the faculties ought to be roused, then you make right exertion, well abide in right mindfulness, and cause the afflictions not to arise and become active. Thus should you well guard your own body, well guard the faculties, and well abide in right mindfulness; attending therein, know well the measure of your use of food and drink. And you should, with householders and renunciants, speak measured speech, principled speech, timely speech, upright speech, and quiet speech; all worldly, non-Dharmic talk you should keep far away. Even when you set forth Dharmic talk, you should not wrangle in dispute. Why? If someone abides in disputatious speech, mutually challenging and refuting, his mind then dwells amid much idle proliferation; because of much idle proliferation the mind is agitated; because the mind is agitated the mind is not quiet; and because it is not quiet, it causes his mind to grow distant from concentration. Having so conducted yourself, you should swiftly, without relinquishing the object, sit cross-legged, and toward tranquillity-and-insight, according to the sign taken up, by 'constant practice' and 'final practice' cultivate the yoga-practice — just as, in the world, the skillful means of drilling for fire (only by not staying the hand does fire arise), giving rise to preparatory effort without interval and preparatory effort with gravity — thus should you constantly practice and finally practice.

The five kinds of speech are likewise to be practiced one by one: speech that knows the fitting measure is measured speech; speech that accords with right principle is principled speech; speech uttered only at the fitting occasion is timely speech; speech free of flattery and crookedness is upright speech; and speech that leaves one's own and another's mind free of agitation is quiet speech. Every worldly discourse that does not accord with Dharma is to be kept far away; even when one proclaims discourse in accord with Dharma, one must not proclaim it by wrangling and mutual challenge.

"And you should give rise to this aspiring mind: even if all the people of Jambudvīpa, and all the lifespans that Jambudvīpa has ever had, were now gathered together in my single body, I too, to the exhaustion of this boundless lifespan, would resolutely, in the yoga-attention of severing and in superior tranquillity and superior insight, diligently cultivate, at no moment briefly relinquishing — because I rightly know that yoga preparatory effort cultivated in this way has a great and excellent fruit and a great and excellent benefit. How much more so with this slight lifespan of mine, this brief span of living, which even at its furthest does not exceed a hundred years, and which, reckoned in detail, is but the space of an instant. Thus should you, according to what you have been instructed, constantly practice and finally practice. If for this purpose you take on the practice of 'severing,' you shall surely, for this purpose, attain: you shall at the very first realize the inferior bodily and mental pliancy and one-pointedness, and afterward realize the vast and perfect fulfilment, mundane and supramundane."

When the beginner in practice begins to cultivate, the teachers well versed in yoga instruct him in this way in dependence on the contemplation of the impure — this is named "right instruction"; and to practice in this way is named "right practice."

The Gates of Entry for the Remaining Four Practices (Loving-Kindness · Dependent Origination · the Differentiation of Elements · Mindfulness of Breathing)

Just as greed-conduct is subdued by the contemplation of the impure, so hatred-conduct is subdued by the contemplation of loving-kindness, down to the last, discursive-thought conduct, which is subdued by mindfulness of breathing (ānāpāna-smṛti); each should be understood according to what is fitting. As for the differing "remaining gates of entry" among them, I shall now display —

(One) The Contemplation of Loving-Kindness (Hatred-Conduct): The beginner in practice, having well taken up the sign of the outer category of the dear, category of the hostile, and category of the neutral, sits in accordance with the Dharma, and by an attention on the fixed ground accompanied by the heightened resolve of benefit-and-comfort, first gives rise to resolute conviction toward one dear person, one hostile person, and one neutral person; toward these three categories, by an attention accompanied by an even resolve of benefit-and-comfort, he wishes to give them happiness, thinking thus: may those sentient beings who seek happiness all attain happiness — whether blameless desire-happiness, or blameless happiness-with-joy, or blameless happiness-without-joy. Next, toward two dear persons, three dear persons, four dear persons, five dear persons, ten dear persons, twenty, thirty, as before down to pervading every direction and quarter, wherein the category of the dear is filled without interval, he gives rise to resolute conviction, down to there being not even the space to admit the tip of a single staff; as with the category of the dear, so too with the categories of the hostile and the neutral. And, not relinquishing the effort of loving-kindness, by this very cultivation of loving-kindness he is able rightly to enter the foundations of mindfulness. How does he enter? When he enters, he should give rise to this resolute conviction: just as, toward me, they are called dear, called hostile, called neutral, and I therefore wish happiness and turn my back on their suffering — this is named "cultivating the body-contemplation upon the inner body"; the rest too, toward those called dear, called hostile, called neutral — as I do, so they too wish happiness and turn their backs on suffering — this is named "cultivating the body-contemplation upon the outer body"; as I am so, those sentient beings are likewise, and as I seek to attain superior happiness, they too are likewise, and those sentient beings are equal and similar to myself, so I shall give them benefit-and-comfort — this is named "cultivating the body-contemplation upon the inner-and-outer body." These four foundations of mindfulness, taking the aggregates as a whole for their object-domain, should be known as named "the foundation of mindfulness by the destructuring object." 　If the practitioner takes up only the sign of visible form (the manifest sign, the shape-sign, the expressive sign) and gives rise to resolute conviction toward the three categories, by this he establishes "the foundation of mindfulness of body alone"; and, relying further on attention-by-resolute-conviction, he is able rightly to enter attention-by-the-real — when he enters he gives rise to this resolute conviction: from the prior limit onward, the sentient beings of the category of the dear, category of the hostile, and category of the neutral who have fallen away into the past are without number, far surpassing what is now produced by resolute conviction; these past sentient beings, having been my dear ones, became again my hostile ones; having been my hostile ones, became again my dear ones; having been hostile and dear, became again neutral; having been neutral, became again hostile and dear — by this gateway of meaning, all sentient beings are equal, equal, without the least real quality of dearness, hostility, or neutrality; therefore, pervading the three categories, he gives rise to an even mind and evenly gives benefit-and-comfort. As it is from the prior limit, so from the later limit he will again wheel round in birth-and-death, likewise. And toward the sentient beings from the prior limit onward, I have never given rise to loving-kindness; they have all passed away — what benefit is there now in giving rise to loving-kindness? It is only to dispel the defilement of my own mind and make it attain purity; therefore he gives rise to the thought: may all past sentient beings attain comfort, and may those of the future who have never yet been also all attain comfort. Thus, entering into attention-by-the-real, within the abiding of loving-kindness there is the moistening of all merits and the moistening of all wholesome things; compared with the store of merit obtained in the abiding of loving-kindness by attention-by-resolute-conviction cultivated before, the latter does not equal one part in a hundred of this, does not equal one part in a thousand of this, down to not equaling one part in an upaniṣad-fraction of this (the rest as said before).

(Two) The Contemplation of Dependent Origination (Delusion-Conduct): The beginner in practice, by the force of the wisdom of hearing and reflection, discriminates and takes up the sign — sentient beings, by all manner of not-knowing (ajñāna) and delusion, seeing the impermanent falsely reckon it as permanent, seeing the impure falsely reckon it as pure, seeing what is suffering falsely reckon it as happiness, seeing the non-self falsely reckon it as self, having these inversions; with inversion as cause, toward the feeling in the present life and the various bodily-existences produced afterward, they give rise to craving; by craving they perform all manner of root-karma of birth; and with this affliction and karma as cause and condition, they draw down the whole great mass of suffering to come. Having well taken up the sign, he further within gives rise to resolute conviction: this whole great mass of suffering of mine, too, is thus produced; my bodily existence is boundless and limitless, from the prior limit its beginning cannot be known, thus produced; and the past, future, and present bodily existences of all those sentient beings, subsumed under the mass of suffering, have too all thus been produced and will be produced. This right contemplation of other-dependent nature and dependent-origination is wholly attention-by-the-real, with no remaining attention-by-resolute-conviction. If, upon your own body's present aggregates, you attend and reflect by other-dependent nature and dependent-arising, it is named "abiding in that following contemplation upon the inner body, feeling, mind, and dharmas"; upon another's body, it is named "upon the outer"; upon your own and another's past and future aggregates, it is named "upon the inner-and-outer" (the rest as said before).

(Three) The Contemplation of the Differentiation of Elements (Pride-Conduct): The beginner in practice first takes up the outer sign of solidity — the great earth, mountains and forests, grass and trees, brick and stone, tile and gravel, maṇi-gems, pearl, lapis lazuli, conch and shell, coral, jade, and the rest — and having taken up the sign, further gives rise to resolute conviction toward inner solidity. Next he takes up the outer sign of great water — rivers, streams, the many flowing waters, ponds, lakes, pools, marshes, wells, and the rest — and having taken it up, further gives rise to resolute conviction toward inner wetness. Next he takes up the outer sign of great fire — in the hot season the blazing sun scorching mountains and marshes, calamity-fire spreading and creeping, the various fires in kilns and chambers — and having taken it up, further gives rise to resolute conviction toward inner warmth. Next he takes up the outer sign of great wind — the winds of east, west, south, north, and the rest, down to the wind-disc — and having taken it up, further gives rise to resolute conviction toward inner wind. Next he takes up the outer sign of great space — the directions being without obstruction and without hindrance, the crevices and hollows within the aggregations of matter having capacity to admit — and having well taken up the sign of space, gives rise to resolute conviction toward the inner space-element. Afterward, by the force of hearing and reflection he raises a fine discrimination and takes up the sign of the consciousness-element — the inner eye-base being unimpaired, the outer form-base being present, if there is no productive attention properly arising, then the eye-consciousness to be produced also cannot arise; contrary to this, the eye-consciousness arises (down to mind, dharmas, and mental consciousness likewise). Having taken up the sign, he next gives rise to resolute conviction, knowing that within this body of four great elements there are the seeds, the elements, the lineage, and the intrinsic nature of all consciousness. 　And within the four great elements, he first gives rise to a coarse resolute conviction of the limbs and joints, and afterward gives rise to a subtle resolute conviction analyzing the various fine portions, thus in gradual sequence analyzing down to the measure of a floating mote, down to the subtlest particle, giving rise to resolute conviction; toward each single limb-part he still gives rise to the resolute conviction of a boundless heap of subtlest particles piled together, how much more so all the limb-parts within the body — this is named, within the contemplation of the differentiation of elements, the subtle resolute conviction that "analyzes the differentiation of the form-elements to their limit." Next, toward the space-element, he first gives rise to the coarse resolute conviction of the space-element (the eye, ear, nose, throat-tube, and the various openings and hollows, whereby there is swallowing and whereby the lower impure part flows out), then gradually gives rise to a subtle resolute conviction, down to knowing fully all the subtle pores and hollows within the body. Afterward, toward the consciousness-element, he gradually gives rise to boundless resolute conviction of the differentiations of the support, the object, and attention across the three-time divisions and classes; that is, when he gives rise to resolute conviction toward the consciousness-element, by the resolute convictions of the supports and objects he analyzes the consciousness-element, and also gives rise to resolute conviction toward the ten kinds of derived form (as with the fine analysis of the great elements, so too here). If toward the several elements of one's own body he gives rise to resolute conviction, it is named "abiding in that following contemplation upon the inner foundations of mindfulness"; toward the elements of the non-sentient class, it is named "upon the outer"; toward the elements of other sentient beings, it is named "upon the inner-and-outer." 　And there is a "further approach": toward one's own body he gives rise to resolute conviction — at the time of relinquishing life (as explained at length before, down to the livid state, or the festering-and-rotting state), then upon the festering-and-rotting he gives rise to the resolute conviction of all manner of outflow, the pus-flow gradually and successively spreading wider, down to the great sea and the limits of the great earth being wholly filled with pus; and having given rise to the resolute conviction of pus, he next gives rise to the resolute conviction of fire-burning (this body-part of boundless, limitless kinds and classes being burned to cinders by a great mass of fire of boundless, limitless kinds and classes); and after the fire is extinguished, he further gives rise to the resolute conviction of remaining bone and remaining ash, and further gives rise to boundless resolute conviction that grinds this bone-ash into fine powder, and further gives rise to the resolute conviction of a boundless great wind that scatters this powder to pervade every direction and quarter; and once it is scattered, he no longer sees the scattered ash and bone or the scattering wind, but contemplates only a remaining vast and dim space-element. Thus, by attention-by-resolute-conviction, relying on the preparatory effort of the impure both inner and outer, he enters the differentiation of elements, abides in the body-contemplation upon the body-sign, and from this enters attention-by-the-real — for by this attention-by-resolute-conviction, abiding in the body-contemplation upon the inner-and-outer body, by the force of resolute conviction he knows: the boundless, limitless signs of the water-element, fire-element, earth-element, wind-element, and space-element that I have made, compared with the various elements I have passed through wheeling round in birth-and-death from beginningless time (boundless, limitless, far surpassing this) — namely, by the death of parents, brothers, sisters, kin, and dependents, and by the parting and ruin of friends, wealth, and rank, weeping tears like rain; and again drinking mother's milk; and again by acting as a robber, coercing, plundering, breaking through walls and undoing knots, undergoing boundless times of having hands cut off, feet severed, head decapitated, nose sliced off, and the joints of the body all manner of dismembered and cleaved, blood flowing boundlessly. Thus all the water-element and heap of water subsumed under these tears, milk, and blood — the waters of the four great seas, though wholly filled, do not equal one part in a hundred of it (as explained at length before). And through the deaths and births in the various existences and destinies I have passed through, boundless fire has burned the corpses, and that mass of fire too is beyond compare; and I have passed through boundless discarded skeletons strewn upon the ground, and through boundless wind-elements arising and ceasing, analyzing the corpses, too beyond compare; and I have passed through the boundless eye-openings and the rest among the corpses, and through boundless consciousnesses flowing on, later and later corpses newly and newly raised, down to this present last corpse and the consciousnesses flowing on. Thus, establishing the destinies of the later limit, whose term is indefinite, down to the boundless consciousness-element.

(Four) Mindfulness of Breathing (Discursive-Thought Conduct): The beginner in practice first, upon the windows and doors before and behind a house, or the bellows-tube and sack of a blacksmith or a gold- and silver-smith, or the wind gathering outside and going in and out, coming and going, having well taken up the sign, by mindfulness of the inner in-breath and out-breath gives rise to resolute conviction toward the in-breath and out-breath. He first, upon the subtle breath-wind passing to and fro at the coarse hollow of the heart-and-chest region, gives rise to resolute conviction, and then gradually gives rise to resolute conviction toward the many winds (down to the winds of all the pores, each following as they enter, giving rise to resolute conviction); thus all the body-parts are followed by, embraced by, and stored-hidden by heaps of wind, and boundless heaps of wind are piled up therein, like tūla-cotton (kapok-down), or wadding and floss and such light floating things — toward these signs he gives rise to resolute conviction. If, upon the inner in-breath and out-breath flowing on unbroken, he attends and reflects, it is named "abiding in the body-contemplation upon the inner body"; if, upon the in-breath and out-breath's flowing-on being cut off in the livid state and the rest among another's dead corpse, he attends and reflects, it is named "abiding in the body-contemplation upon the outer body"; if he gives rise to resolute conviction upon the time of his own approaching death, or gives rise to resolute conviction upon the non-flowing of the in-breath and out-breath in one already dead, or gives rise to resolute conviction upon the non-flowing of the in-breath and out-breath in one not yet dead (because it is so by the nature of things), it is named "abiding in the body-contemplation upon the inner-and-outer body."

Pervading all right preparatory efforts, you should cultivate this kind of "aid-companion of the tranquillity-side, subsumed under the tranquillity-side" non-erroneous preparatory effort; all the rest is to be known as before.

Ardor · Right Knowing with Mindfulness · Subduing Worldly Greed and Grief

Thus, all beginners in practice, when they receive right instruction and cultivate right practice, abide in "ardor, right knowing with mindfulness, and subduing all worldly greed and grief." If, within the right preparatory effort, one constantly practices, finally practices, and attends non-erroneously, and cannot be moved and disturbed by uproar and the rest, this is named "ardor"; if, within the right preparatory effort, one cultivates tranquillity and insight and thoroughly knows the signs of disturbance and non-disturbance, this is named "right knowing with mindfulness"; if one can well take up the signs of world-weariness and the signs of gladness, this is named "subduing all worldly greed and grief." For these causes, it is declared that he can abide in ardor, down to subduing worldly greed and grief.

The Accomplishment of Attention: Bodily and Mental Pliancy Arises · Named "One Who Possesses Attention"

When he first gives rise to this right preparatory effort, the one-pointedness of mind and the bodily and mental pliancy still turn faint and feeble, hard to notice; afterward, by cultivating superior tranquillity and superior insight, body and mind become clear, supple, and pliant, and that formerly faint and feeble one-pointedness of mind and bodily-and-mental pliancy gradually grows further and can draw on a strong, vigorous, and easily noticed one-pointedness of mind and bodily-and-mental pliancy — by the skillful-means principle whereby causal force successively draws it forth, at that time it will not be long before he raises the strong, vigorous, easily noticed bodily-and-mental pliancy and one-pointedness of mind.

Thus even a "forerunning sign" arises: upon the crown of his head something like a heavy weight arises, yet it is not a sign of harm or torment. By this very sign arising within, the "coarse-heaviness of mind" that obstructs the joyous severing of the categories of affliction is all removed and extinguished, and the "suppleness of mind and pliancy of mind" that can counteract it are all made to arise; and because of this arising, there come into the body many great elements with a "predominant increase of the wind-element" that conform to and produce bodily pliancy, and because these great elements enter the body, the "coarse-heaviness of body" that obstructs the joyous severing of the categories of affliction is all dispelled, and the "suppleness of body and pliancy of body" that can counteract it pervade the whole body, in a state as of overflowing fullness. When it first arises, it makes the mind leap up, glad and delighted, accompanied by rejoicing, and makes the object-domain that gives the mind joy appear within the mind; from this point onward, the force of that first-arisen pliancy gradually slackens, and a subtle and marvelous pliancy travels along with the body and turns within the body — whereby the mind's leaping-up gradually recedes, and, held together by tranquillity, the mind turns quiet upon its object.

From this point onward, this beginner in practice is named "one who possesses attention," and first comes to fall within the number of those who "possess attention." Why? Because he has for the first time obtained the slight, subtle, and marvelous right attention subsumed under the meditative ground of the form realm, and by this cause he is named "one who possesses attention."

The beginner in practice who obtains this attention has these signs: he has obtained a slight portion of the concentrated mind subsumed under the form realm, a slight portion of bodily-and-mental pliancy and one-pointedness of mind; he has the strength and capacity to well cultivate the preparatory effort of the "object that purifies the afflictions," making the mind's continuities turn moistened, held and protected by tranquillity, able to purify the formations; though he moves amid all manner of lovable object-domains, the fierce entanglement of greed does not arise, and even if it arises slightly, relying on a slight, faint counteragent, a single moment of attention can dispel it (as with lovable object-domains, so too with the hateful, the deluding, the pride-provoking, and the discursive-thought-provoking object-domains); sitting quietly in a still room, briefly holding his mind, bodily-and-mental pliancy arises swiftly, he is not much oppressed by the coarse-heaviness of body, does not too frequently give rise to the active operation of the hindrances, and does not too frequently give rise to the notion-attentions accompanied by yearning, joylessness, and anxious grief; and though he rises from concentration and walks about outside, there is still a slight residual force of pliancy that travels along with body and mind — these and their kind should be known as the pure signs of "one who possesses attention."

Teaching arc: the essence and character of tranquillity-and-insight, the working hand and eye of cultivation, the attention that trains the mind — all three of the earlier leaves have been taught; this last leaf brings the whole set of instructions down onto a single person who has just set out on the road, and shows how the teacher leads him, step by step. First he teaches him to seize the five kinds of aspect, tuning the mind from weary aversion to gladdening delight; midway, by a "simile of the oil-bowl" (spoken by the World-Honored One in a hidden intent) he presses out the concentration of the four foundations of mindfulness; then, following the five mind-stilling contemplations, he moves from "attention of resolute conviction" to "attention to the real" and enters into the four foundations of mindfulness. When the greed-conduct is taught through, the loving-kindness, the dependent origination, the difference of elements, and the counting of the breath — one path is given to each of the other four conducts. Last comes "the accomplishment of attention": the pliancy of body and mind grows from faint and slight to a filling of the whole body, and only then does the practitioner first gain "one possessed of attention" — the single word "cultivate" of the Third Yoga-Station only here truly comes down onto the ground and first tastes its fruit.

First Seize the Five Kinds of Aspect, and Tune the Mind

The teacher teaches the beginner in practice that, when he first sets out to cultivate, he must, in dependence on the three occasions of "seeing, hearing, and inferring by mind," first seize the five kinds of aspect: the aspect of weary aversion, the aspect of gladdening delight, the aspect of danger, the aspect of light, and the aspect of the discernment of matters. These five aspects are not something added out of nowhere — the ancient masters point it out plainly: the aspect of weary aversion, the aspect of danger, and the aspect of the discernment of matters are just the "mind-training" (making it weary) spoken of in the earlier cultivation of attention; the aspect of gladdening delight is just the "mind-moistening" (making it glad); only the aspect of light is newly brought out here 〔Dunlun〕. In other words, to seize the five aspects is precisely to bring the two attentions of "training and moistening" from the previous leaf down into concrete aspects one can lay a hand on.

To teach the greed-conduct person, one then, in dependence on the contemplation of the impure, proceeds along these five aspects. First he seizes the aspect of weary aversion — hearing of, and seeing before his own eyes, others (and even himself) first delighted and afterward suffering, declining and losing, impermanent, and so gives rise to a deep weary loathing: this birth-and-death is heavy suffering; the body one has gained is got with the utmost hardship; and its flourishing too comes at last to ruin. Then he seizes the aspect of gladdening delight — turning back to look at the purity of his own moral discipline: discipline being pure there is "no remorse," no remorse being there is "gladness," gladness being there is "joy," and so all along it moistens and enriches his mind. Weary aversion and gladdening delight, the one pushing and the one drawing, tune the mind onto "turning its back on the dark class and facing the white class."

The Simile of the Oil-Bowl: Concentration Is Something Pressed Out

At the segment on the aspect of danger, the treatise cites a simile the World-Honored One spoke in a hidden intent, which most bears close exposition 〔the treatise · scriptural source the Saṃyukta-āgama no. 623〕:

There was a man of wisdom who said to a man: "You are to hold this bowl brimful of oil and pass through the midst of a great crowd — there where there are ravishing beauties, and singing, dancing, and music, all of which you must avoid; and moreover there is an executioner, following behind you with a bared, drawn sword, and if you let one drop of the bowl's oil fall to the ground, he will there and then cut off your head and sever your life." — Would such a man still let his mind wander off to gaze at those beauties, that singing and dancing?

He would not. Seeing the sharp sword following at his back, in the utmost dread, he single-mindedly guards that bowl of oil — how should he have any care to spare for the crowd's good things and songs and dances? The World-Honored One says: My disciples, reverent and earnest, cultivating the four foundations of mindfulness with a concentrated mind, are just like this. The treatise matches the simile point for point 〔the corresponding simile established by the treatise itself〕: "the crowd's good things" figures the dharmas that can rouse up greed; "the singing, dancing, and music" figures the dharmas that draw on ratiocination and idle elaboration; "the great, and the like, being born, and the like" figures the ten aspects of form and the rest; "the man of wisdom" figures the practitioner of yoga; "the level, brimful bowl of oil" figures the mind that abides in tranquillity; "the executioner with the bared, drawn sword" figures the aspect of danger seized beforehand; and "single-mindedly guarding the bowl, not letting one drop fall to the ground" figures the path that examines and clearly knows the aspect of being-disturbed and not-disturbed, and takes up and holds tranquillity.

The force of this one simile lies here: concentration is not something forcibly clenched out, but something pressed out by "danger." First one looks upon the aspects, the ratiocination, and the accompanying afflictions as a danger "like a sharp sword following behind," and the mind of itself no longer dares to scatter onto the songs and dances and beauties — and this is precisely the place to lay one's hand on the cultivation of the four foundations of mindfulness. 〔This simile is spoken by the World-Honored One in a hidden intent; its Chinese scriptural source is the Saṃyukta-āgama no. 623; the point-for-point corresponding simile is established by the treatise itself.〕

From Resolute Conviction to the Real: When the Feigned Is Practiced to Ripeness, the Real Seeing Comes of Itself

To teach the contemplation of the impure, the treatise uses a two-step course of "attention of resolute conviction → attention to the real." First the attention of resolute conviction: he contemplates a single blue-festered corpse; ripe at that, he contemplates two, three, five, ten, a hundred, a thousand, and so on to an immeasurable number of blue-festered corpses (and on to the chain of bones) filling every quarter and region, without a gap or interval — this is "feigned imagining" to train the mind. Trained to ripeness, he then enters into the attention to the real: he considers — these immeasurable blue-festered corpses I have made by feigned imagining are, compared with the real, still far short of them: from beginningless time, in birth-and-death, the corpses I have cast off in dying and perishing, and the blue-festered corpses that arose, are immeasurable and boundless, and were they gathered up, all the great earth could not hold them; the ones cast off in a single aeon alone would pile up like the "vast and broad flank-mountain" (Mount Vipula to the west of Rājagṛha, narrow above and broad below, shaped like a man's flank 〔Tai's gloss〕). Thus, by what is trained through feigned imagining and by what is illumined through the real, tranquillity-and-insight is no longer imagination but a real seeing.

One Path Leading into the Four Applications of Mindfulness

When the contemplation of the impure is cultivated to ripeness, he then "enters into the four foundations of mindfulness" — upon the inner body (the thirty-six substances), the outer body (the blue-festered corpses in the charnel-ground), and the inner-and-outer body, he cultivates the contemplation that follows over the body; and upon the four immaterial aggregates, dividing them into the class of tranquillity, the class of non-distraction, and the class of insight, he cultivates the contemplation that follows over feeling, over mind, and over dharmas. Inner = one's own body, outer = another's body, inner-and-outer = self and other; this format of "following over body, feeling, mind, and dharmas, inner and outer" is the common bridge by which the five mind-stilling contemplations lead into the four foundations of mindfulness.

Five Kinds of Conduct, Five Paths

The greed-conduct, in dependence on the contemplation of the impure, has been walked through; the remaining four conducts each have their own gate of entering-in —

• The hatred-conduct, in dependence on the contemplation of loving-kindness: upon the three classes of the dear, the hostile, and the neutral, out of the aspiration of "benefit and ease," he first resolves upon one dear, one hostile, and one neutral one, then two, three, and so on to a resolute conviction filling every quarter and region, wishing that all sentient beings gain ease; and when he enters into the attention to the real, he further illumines that, from beginningless time, the hostile and the dear have turned into one another, and there is no true dearness-nature or hostility-nature, and so he gives rise to a "mind of even regard." The ancient masters, moreover, weigh it out: the merit of the real contemplation of loving-kindness surpasses that of the feigned-imagining contemplation of loving-kindness by a hundredfold, a thousandfold, and on to the "upaniṣad fraction" (the utmost in number, for which there is no name that can be rendered 〔Tai〕), which does not reach even a fraction of it.
• The delusion-conduct, in dependence on the contemplation of dependent origination: he illumines that sentient beings, through the four kinds of inversion (reckoning the impermanent as permanent, reckoning suffering as ease, reckoning the impure as pure, reckoning the not-self as self), give rise to greedy craving, work karma, and draw on the pure-and-great mass of suffering; such a right contemplation of the conditioned-nature and dependent origination is all attention to the real.
• The conceit-conduct, in dependence on the contemplation of the difference of elements: he seizes the aspects of the outer six elements — the solid, the moist, the warm, the moving, space, and consciousness — and turns to illumine the six elements of his inner body, then analyzes them layer by layer down to the subtle particle, down to the pores of the space-element, taking apart "the body that is a single aggregated mass," and the conceit-mind can no longer stand. There is furthermore a "variant gate": he contemplates his own body, at the time of death, festering and rotting, burned by fire and scattered by wind, until only the faint, dim space-element remains.
• The ratiocination-conduct, in dependence on the mindfulness of in-and-out breathing: he seizes the aspect of a blow-pipe and a bellows-bag, of a mass of wind coming and going, and, taking the inner in-and-out breath as object, gives rise to resolute conviction, and on to where the wind at all the pores of the whole body follows along in-and-out, as light as "tūla-cotton" (the willow-catkin sort of cotton-down).

Four paths, matched to the malady of the four conducts; and adding the greed-conduct's contemplation of the impure, these are precisely the five mind-stilling contemplations, each the counteragent to each of the five conducts.

★Cultivating to "One Possessed of Attention": the Fruit of the Third Yoga-Station

At the last, the treatise speaks of "the accomplishment of attention" — and this is the fruit of the whole Third Yoga-Station. When one first gives rise to right preparatory effort, the one-pointedness of mind, and the pliancy of body and mind, are still faint and slight, hard to be aware of; later, cultivating the surpassing tranquillity and surpassing insight, body and mind grow gradually clarified and pliant, and that faint-and-slight pliancy grows on and on by degrees. Then a certain "foretoken" arises: it is as though a heavy thing were pressing upon the crown of the head (yet this is not a harming or a distress) — and by this aspect, the coarseness-and-heaviness of mind that can obstruct the "gladdening severance of the afflictions" is wholly removed; the mind's pliancy and pliant-ease arise; and next, a great element of "a preponderant increase of the wind-element" enters the body, the coarseness-and-heaviness of body too is expelled, and the body's pliancy fills the whole body, as though it were overflowing. When it first arises it makes the mind leap up in joy; thereafter its force gradually eases, there is a subtle pliancy that goes along with the body, and the mind turns upon its object in stillness.

From this time on, this beginner in practice is called "one possessed of attention," and falls within the number of "those possessed of attention." Why? Because he has, for the first time, gained "a small portion of the subtle right attention subsumed under the ground of concentration of the form realm" 〔the treatise〕. Having gained this attention, though he enter various lovable objects, sharp and fierce greed does not arise; and even should it arise, a single application of attention expels it; sitting in repose and holding the mind, the pliancy of body and mind arises swiftly, swiftly — and these are the pure characteristics of "one possessed of attention."

A person who has just set out on the road — from seizing the five aspects, to pressing out concentration in dependence on danger, to practicing the real out of resolute conviction, to entering the four foundations of mindfulness, and on to the pliancy of body and mind filling him whole and the first gaining of a small portion of the right attention of the ground of concentration of the form realm — the "cultivate" of the Third Yoga-Station, only here, may be reckoned to have truly come down to the ground and first borne its fruit.

Carrying Forward

With this, the whole course of tranquillity-and-insight of the Third Yoga-Station has been walked through: the preliminary establishing (13-03-01) → the essence of tranquillity-and-insight in the nine stations of mind (13-03-02) → the working hand and eye of cultivation in the nine preparatory efforts that purify the obstructions (13-03-03) → the beginner in practice coming down to the ground and accomplishing "one possessed of attention" (this leaf). And "one possessed of attention" is not the terminus but only the threshold — the treatise says that one who gains this attention "has the strength and the capacity to cultivate well the preparatory effort of the object that purifies the defilements." The mundane dispassion of the object-that-purifies-the-defilements (the seven attentions), and the supramundane direct realization of the truths, are set forth at length only in the Fourth Yoga-Station. In cultivating yoga, the śrāvaka first gains this key of "one possessed of attention"; only in the next station is the door of dispassion and direct realization formally pushed open.