瑜伽師地論 聲聞地 · 第四瑜伽處 · 出世間道 · 見道 · 究竟

With no interval after the highest-worldly dharmas the transcendent mind arises = the path of seeing. This leaf, from the path of seeing to the arhat, draws the whole Śrāvaka Stage (Stage 13) to a close. The point of the eye: ★ the store-consciousness/seed thread knots itself shut here — preparatory effort "perfumes" the seeds of the path of seeing's dharma- and consequent-knowledge; the vajra-like concentration "eliminates" the defiled seeds of the afflictions; joined with the previous three leaves' "suppress (the worldly path) · hold (the store consciousness) · know (the defiled seeds of the truth of origination)," the suppress → hold → know → perfume → eliminate — five acts fastened to one and the same store-consciousness seed, reaching the ultimate at the vajra-like [concentration].

In one line: the path of seeing (with no interval after the highest-worldly dharmas · the non-discriminating decisive knowledge and directly-seeing knowledge arise · the afflictions of view of the three realms are eliminated all at once · the three fruits: prior freedom from craving → non-returner 〔the leap-over non-returner〕 / double freedom from craving → once-returner / not yet free of craving → stream-enterer) → direct realization (the two markless [factors] join together · the kṣatriya simile) · the four knowledges (the knowledge that there is only dharma, dispelling the real self · the knowledge that is not [of] annihilation, not [of] permanence · the knowledge that conditioned formations are dependently arisen and like an illusion), the twelve marks → the path of cultivation (the eleven classes of cultivation) → the attention of joy-gathering → the vajra-like meditative concentration (harming forever, without interval, the coarse-and-heavy seeds of all the classes of affliction) → the knowledge of exhaustion · the knowledge of non-arising → becoming an arhat (the ten [dharmas] of the adept · the three abidings · the thirty-two excellent-quality dharmas) → "all of this is named the Śrāvaka Stage," the conclusion 〔T30 0475c27–0477b28〕.

Three Points of the Eye

1. The path of seeing eliminates the afflictions of view all at once · the three fruits · the four knowledges: the afflictions of the desire realm suppressed by the worldly path (the previous three leaves) are, at the path of seeing, eliminated in their view-portion all at once — one who is prior-free of craving, entering the path of seeing, becomes a non-returner, "the leap-over non-returner" 〔Dunlun T42 0480c01 · Kuiji T43 0126b11〕. Direct realization = "the two markless [factors] join together without discord," observing face to face · the kṣatriya simile 〔Kuiji T43 0126b22〕. The four knowledges: the knowledge that there is only dharma (dispelling the ordinary being's false reckoning of a real self) · the knowledge that is not [of] annihilation · the knowledge that is not [of] permanence (leaving annihilation and permanence) · the knowledge that the dependently-arisen is like an illusion 〔Kuiji T43 0126b29 · Dunlun T42 0480c15〕; the twelve marks (not falling into the evil destinies · not committing the five acts of immediate [retribution] · not undergoing an eighth existence · the fourfold pure faith, etc.).

2. ★ The store-consciousness/seed thread knots itself shut (the doctrinal eye · running through the four leaves): ① the seed-support site of the dharma- and consequent-knowledge · the innate and the newly perfumed — preparatory effort (the fourfold-truth contemplation by the five stilling contemplations and the general and particular applications of mindfulness) "perfumes and awakens the innate seeds of the path of seeing's dharma- and consequent-knowledge and causes them to increase" (Jing) · "this is the sense of newly perfuming … once again increasing the beginningless uncontaminated seeds" (Ji) 〔Dunlun T42 0479a11 · Kuiji, Concise Compendium, own composition, 0125b24〕; the path of seeing's two knowledges arise from this seed-support site. ② the vajra-like concentration, only the uninterrupted path, eliminates the seeds — Ji says: "if it is the eliminating of the seeds, it is only the uninterrupted path; if it is the suppressing of the seeds, the path of preparatory effort too has this sense … this treatise, on the strength of eliminating the seeds, speaks only of the uninterrupted path" 〔Dunlun T42 0481b18 · Kuiji T43 0127b06〕. Suppress (13-04-01, the seeds' activity) → hold (13-04-02, the store consciousness holds the body) → know (13-04-03, the craving of the truth of origination = the defiled seeds of the store consciousness, the cause of further existence) → perfume (this leaf, preparatory effort perfumes the uncontaminated seeds) → eliminate (the vajra-like [concentration] harms forever the defiled seeds) — one and the same store-consciousness seed, reaching the ultimate at the vajra-like [concentration].

3. The arhat's thirty-two dharmas · the conclusion of the Śrāvaka Stage: without interval after the vajra-like concentration one sets going the knowledge of exhaustion (the knowledge that my birth is already exhausted) · the knowledge of non-arising 〔Dunlun T42 0481c20〕, and becomes an arhat. The thirty-two dharmas of excellent quality: at the very utmost and ultimate · finally without stain · the utmost limit of the holy life · crushing the iṣīkā (a lofty mountain in the West · Jing figures it as the self-exalting of conceit 〔Dunlun T42 0482a16〕) · the six constant abidings (the six faculties toward the six objects without gladness and without sorrow, abiding in supreme equanimity, in right mindfulness and right awareness · taking the three dharmas of equanimity, mindfulness, and right awareness as their substance 〔Kuiji T43 0128a11〕) · abiding in the realm of nirvāṇa with remaining basis (sustaining the last body possessed) · final nirvāṇa in the realm of nirvāṇa without remaining basis (no one who attains final nirvāṇa at all, just as there is no one who transmigrates) · being unable to draw near to five sorts [of place]. The final "all of this is named the Śrāvaka Stage" concludes Stage 13, the four yoga-stations · "the teaching-dharma associated with the śrāvakas is their root, as with the assemblages of names, phrases, and syllables" 〔Dunlun T42 0482c14 · Kuiji T43 0128b05〕.

Note: the bounds of the exposition of the Śrāvaka Stage — Dunlun's Notes ends at 0482c21, Kuiji's Concise Compendium at 0128b08; there follows the Pratyekabuddha Stage, the fourteenth (0482c21 / 0128b09). The two ancient-master postures: Dunlun, Notes, fascicle eight, part one 〔T42 from 0480b · citing Jing, Tai, Ji〕; Kuiji, Concise Compendium, fascicle nine 〔T43 from 0126a〕. ★ The seed-support site, innate and newly perfumed = set out jointly by the three houses of Jing, Tai, and Ji; the vajra-like [concentration], only the uninterrupted path eliminating the seeds = Ji's account. Jinaputra's Commentary has only a preface to the general meaning, with no phrase-by-phrase dedicated exposition. For the opening-out of the doctrine, see the 〈Exposition〉.

With no interval after the highest-worldly dharmas, the transcendent mind arises — and this leaf is the ultimate consummation of the Śrāvaka Stage: the path of seeing (all that is to be eliminated by the path of seeing across the three realms is eliminated forever · the three fruits are gained) → the naming of direct realization → the four knowledges · the fourfold pure faith → the path of cultivation (progressively eliminating the afflictions of cultivation) → the intrinsic nature of cultivation · the eight acts of cultivation · the eleven classes of cultivation → the attention of joy-gathering → the vajra-like meditative concentration (the knowledge of exhaustion · the knowledge of non-arising · becoming an arhat · the ten [dharmas] of the adept · the three abidings) → the qualities of the arhat (the utmost limit of the holy life · the six constant abidings · nirvāṇa with and without remaining basis) → the general conclusion of the Śrāvaka Stage. The technical terms are kept as of old; every phrase is rendered into today's language, adding no doctrinal exposition, citing no treatise, glossing no Sanskrit; where the treatise-text is compressed, it is filled back in within 〔 〕.

1. The Path of Seeing — What Is to Be Eliminated by the Path of Seeing Is Eliminated Forever · the Three Fruits

With no interval after the highest-worldly dharmas, one raises an inward attention upon the principle of the noble truths contemplated before; with no interval after that attention, then — following the truths contemplated before in their proper sequence, whether among the noble truths that are directly seen or those not directly seen — there arises, in due order, the "non-discriminating decisive knowledge, the directly-seeing knowledge." Because this arises, all the coarse-and-heavy of the classes of affliction that are bound to the three realms, that are to be eliminated by the path of seeing, and that are "attached to the basis," are all eliminated forever. Because of this eliminating-forever:

　If one has already, beforehand, become free of craving for the desire realm, then, having now entered this direct realization of the truths, he gains the "fruit of the non-returner" — he should be known to be no different from the one who was said before to be free of craving, yet here there is a slight difference: he will take a birth by transformation, and precisely there will attain final nirvāṇa, no longer returning to be born again in this world.

　If one has beforehand "become doubly free of craving for the desire realm," then, having now entered the direct realization of the truths, he gains the "fruit of the once-returner."

　If one has beforehand not yet become free of craving for the desire realm, then, having now entered the direct realization of the truths, the coarse-and-heavy is stilled forever, and he gains the "fruit of the stream-enterer."

2. The Naming of Direct Realization — the Kṣatriya Simile

Because the "knowing knowledge" and the "known object" join together without discord and observe [each other] face to face, it is therefore named "direct realization." Just as a kṣatriya and a kṣatriya join together without discord and observe [each other] face to face, and this is named direct realization; and the brahmin and the rest should be understood likewise.

3. The Four Knowledges · the Many Marks of the Direct Realization of the Truths · the Fourfold Pure Faith

This too accomplishes many marks: by realizing this direct realization of the truths, one obtains the "four knowledges" — that is, because one well seeks out [the truth] within all the attentions, whether while moving or while staying, one gains "the knowledge that there is only dharma, the knowledge that is not [of] annihilation, the knowledge that is not [of] permanence, and the knowledge that conditioned formations are dependently arisen and like an illusion." Further: even if, while coursing among sense-objects, he should — through a lapse of mindfulness — give rise to fierce enwrapping afflictions, a single moment of attention swiftly dispels them; and he is able, once and for all, not to fall into the evil destinies; he will never deliberately transgress what he has trained in, and will not take the life even of an animal (a beast); he will never turn back or cast aside what he has trained in; he is no longer able to commit the five acts of immediate [retribution]; he knows for certain that pain and pleasure are not made by oneself, not made by another, not made by both oneself and another, and do not arise "without cause, made neither by oneself nor by another"; he will never seek to take a non-Buddhist as his teacher, nor conceive of such a one as a field of merit; toward other ascetics, brahmins, and the like, he will never watch their mouth and countenance 〔he does not rely on another's expression〕; he sees the dharma for himself alone, gains the dharma, knows the dharma, and realizes the very source and bottom of the dharma, crossing beyond doubt and hesitation, not [depending] on other conditions; regarding the teaching of the Great Master (the Buddha), he is not led by another; among the dharmas he gains fearlessness; he will never falsely reckon worldly auspicious signs and good omens to be purity; he will never again undergo an eighth existence-and-birth; and he fully accomplishes the "four kinds of pure faith."

　For such a practitioner: up to and before the highest-worldly dharmas, [his attention] is named the "attention of resolute conviction"; and from the direct realization of the noble truths onward, until he has eliminated forever all the afflictions to be eliminated by the path of seeing, [his attention] is named the "attention of seclusion."

4. The Path of Cultivation — Progressively Eliminating the Afflictions of Cultivation · the Fruit of the Once-Returner / Non-Returner · the Attention of Investigation

From this point onward, in order to progressively eliminate the afflictions "to be eliminated by cultivation," he cultivates the path he has gained yet more, again and again; and having eliminated forever the higher-grade and middle-grade afflictions of the desire realm, he gains the "fruit of the once-returner" — the various marks are as with the fruit of the stream-enterer, to be understood here likewise, yet with a slight difference: if, while coursing among sense-objects, at a spot able to conform to a higher-grade, fierce enwrapping affliction, he should, through a lapse of mindfulness, momentarily give rise to a faint, feeble enwrapping affliction, he at once brings an attention to bear and swiftly dispels it; he will come to be born in this world but a single time, and will then be able to bring about, once and for all, the limit of suffering. 〔Eliminating further〕, he gains the "fruit of the non-returner" and the marks of the non-returner, as already said before.

　Here it should be known: through the "attention of investigation," within all cultivation of the path he investigates again and again what has been eliminated and what has not been eliminated, and duly cultivates the path he has gained.

5. Cultivation — the Intrinsic Nature of Cultivation · the Eight Acts of Cultivation · the Eleven Classes of Cultivation

Further, here: what is called the intrinsic nature of cultivation? What is called the act of cultivation? What is called the differentiation of the classes of cultivation?

　The intrinsic nature of cultivation: by an attention on the ground of concentration, one cultivates and increases the wholesome conditioned dharmas of the world and beyond the world — done without interval, done with earnest esteem — causing the mental continuum to meet with and merge into that essential nature. This is named the intrinsic nature of cultivation.

　The acts of cultivation (eight kinds): (1) There is a class of dharma that, through cultivation, is "gained" (a surpassing wholesome dharma not gained before is, through cultivation, caused to be gained). (2) Through cultivation it is "practiced" (what is already gained is caused to turn into the present). (3) Through cultivation it is "purified" (what is already gained but not yet made present is, by cultivating dharmas of its kind, caused to become present, and caused to turn pure, white, and fresh, arising). (4) Through cultivation it is "expelled" (if, through a lapse of mindfulness, a defiled dharma becomes active, then by the power of cultivating wholesome dharmas one causes [oneself] not to endure it, and cuts it off, vomiting it out). (5) Through cultivation it is "known" (a dharma to be eliminated that has not yet arisen is, by the power of cultivating wholesome dharmas, understood as a disease and, with deep mind, held in aversion; understood as a boil, as an arrow, as an obstruction, as impermanent, suffering, empty, and without self, and, with deep mind, held in aversion). (6) Through cultivation it is "eliminated" (having known thus, one cultivates again and again, an uninterrupted path arises, and the afflictions are eliminated). (7) Through cultivation it is "realized" (the afflictions being eliminated, one realizes liberation). (8) Through cultivation it is "distanced" (as one advances toward the wholesome dharmas of a higher ground, so, in just that measure, one causes the dharmas already eliminated of a lower ground to turn into the "distant portion," and so on to the ultimate). This should be known as the eight kinds of act of cultivation.

　The differentiation of the classes of cultivation (eleven kinds): (1) the cultivation of calm-abiding (that is, the nine modes of causing the mind to settle in abiding, as already said before); (2) the cultivation of insight (likewise as said before); (3) the cultivation of the worldly path (seeing the coarse mark in the lower grounds and the calm mark in the higher grounds, and so on to the [path] that can proceed to the total freedom from craving of the sphere of nothing-whatever); (4) the cultivation of the transcendent path (rightly considering that suffering is truly suffering, that origination is truly origination, that cessation is truly cessation, that the path is truly the path — and, by the uncontaminated noble path of right view and the rest, and so on to the [path] that can proceed to the total freedom from craving of the sphere of neither-perception-nor-non-perception); (5) the cultivation of the lower-grade path (by which one can eliminate the coarsest, higher-grade afflictions); (6) the cultivation of the middle-grade path (by which one can eliminate all the middle-grade afflictions); (7) the cultivation of the higher-grade path (by which one can eliminate all the last-eliminated, lower-grade afflictions); (8) the cultivation of the path of preparatory effort (by which one sets going the preparatory effort for the sake of eliminating the afflictions); (9) the cultivation of the uninterrupted path (by which one rightly eliminates the afflictions); (10) the cultivation of the path of liberation (by which, without interval after the eliminating, one realizes liberation); (11) the cultivation of the path of further distinction (by which, from that point onward, one cultivates surpassing wholesome dharmas, and so on until one has not yet given rise to the counteracting preparatory effort for the afflictions of a remaining ground, or has not yet given rise to the [effort] proceeding to the ultimate stage). This should be known as the eleven kinds of differentiation of the classes of cultivation.

　One who, cultivating thus, diligently cultivates should, from time to time, rightly investigate which afflictions have been eliminated and which have not.

6. The Attention of Joy-Gathering → the Vajra-Like Meditative Concentration

From time to time, toward the dharmas that may be held in aversion, [he sets] deep aversion; from time to time, toward the dharmas that may be gladly desired, [he sets] deep glad longing — this is named the attention of joy-gathering.

　Drawing near to, cultivating, and cultivating much just this attention of joy-gathering, there arises the meditative concentration of the last stage of the learner, likened to the vajra, "able to eliminate forever, without remainder, the afflictions to be eliminated by the path of cultivation"; because of its arising, one is able to eliminate forever all the afflictions to be eliminated by the path of cultivation.

　Question: for what cause and condition is this meditative concentration named "vajra-like"? Answer: just as the vajra, set against all the other precious things — jewel, pearl, beryl, conch and cowry, jade disc, coral, and the rest — is the most solid, able to pierce and to break the remaining treasures, while it cannot be pierced or broken by the remaining treasures; so too this meditative concentration, among the meditative concentrations of all who are still learners, is the highest, the most excellent, the most solid, able to break all the afflictions there are, and cannot be overshadowed and subdued by the "higher afflictions" — this is why this meditative concentration is named "vajra-like."

　From this vajra-like meditative concentration, without interval, one harms forever the coarse-and-heavy "seeds" of all the classes of affliction; his mind is ultimately liberated therefrom, and he realizes the final "purity of lineage." Within the ultimate exhaustion of all the afflictions, he sets going the "knowledge of exhaustion"; and because the cause is exhausted, the fruit of suffering to come is finally not born, and precisely herein he raises the "knowledge of non-arising." At this time he becomes an arhat — his contaminants exhausted, what was to be done done, nothing further to be done, his own aim realized, all the fetters of existence exhausted; he has rightly practiced the noble teaching of the Tathāgata, his mind well liberated; and he has fully accomplished the "ten dharmas of the adept" (namely the adept's right view, right thought, and so on to the adept's right liberation and right knowledge). Among the abidings and the attentions, he is able to turn as he wills, in mastery of his own mind: whatever abiding he takes joy in — whether "the noble abiding," "the heavenly abiding," or "the sublime abiding" (brahma-vihāra) — there he can settle and abide; and whatever right dharmas he takes joy in considering, able to draw forth wholesome benefits of the world or beyond the world, those he can consider.

　"The noble abiding": that is, the abiding in emptiness, the abiding in the wishless, the abiding in the markless, the abiding in the attainment of cessation. "The heavenly abiding": that is, the abidings in the meditative absorptions and in the formless [attainments]. "The sublime abiding": that is, the abiding in loving-kindness, the abiding in compassion, the abiding in sympathetic joy, the abiding in equanimity.

7. The Qualities of the Arhat

Further, at this time, at the very utmost and ultimate, finally without stain, he finally realizes the "utmost limit of the holy life": free of all the bolts and bars, he has climbed out of the deep pit and crossed the deep moat, and has been able to crush the "iṣīkā" (the lofty standard) — he is a true noble one, who has crushed and destroyed the lofty standard; he has severed the five limbs and accomplished the six limbs; he wholly guards the four bases of reliance; utterly secluded, single and truthful, casting off longing, with untroubled thought, his bodily activity stilled to rest; his mind well liberated and his wisdom well liberated; single and without companion, his right practice established, he is named "one who has drawn near to the supreme great man."

　He fully accomplishes the "six constant-abiding dharmas": having seen a form with the eye, he is without gladness and without sorrow, abiding in supreme equanimity, in right mindfulness and right awareness; likewise having heard a sound with the ear, having smelled a scent with the nose, having tasted a flavor with the tongue, having felt a touch with the body, and having cognized a dharma with the mind, he is in every case without gladness and without sorrow, abiding in supreme equanimity, in right mindfulness and right awareness.

　At this time he experiences the exhausting-forever, without remainder, of greed; the exhausting-forever, without remainder, of hatred; the exhausting-forever, without remainder, of delusion; and because that greed, hatred, and delusion are all exhausted forever, he commits no evils and draws near to the wholesome, his mind like the pure water of open space, like fine fragrant sandalwood, revered and made offering to by all the heavenly emperors and heavenly kings. Abiding in the realm of nirvāṇa "with remaining basis," he has crossed the sea of birth-and-death and reached the far shore — this is also named the sustaining of the last body possessed. And because the aggregates drawn forth by prior karma and affliction naturally cease, because there is no remaining grasping, and because there is no continuity, he attains final nirvāṇa in the realm of nirvāṇa "without remaining basis" — herein there is no "one who attains final nirvāṇa" at all, just as in birth-and-death there is no "one who transmigrates"; there is only the eternal ceasing of the mass of sufferings, the stillness, the coolness, the fading-away; only this place is the most still — namely the casting-off of all basis, the exhaustion of craving, the freedom from craving, the eternal ceasing, nirvāṇa. It should be known that herein there are marks such as these.

　The arhat, a bhikṣu whose contaminants are exhausted forever, is unable to draw near to five sorts of place: (1) he is unable deliberately to slay the life of living beings; (2) he is unable to take what is not given; (3) he is unable to engage in unchaste conduct and to practice the way of lust; (4) he is unable knowingly to speak falsely; (5) he is unable to hoard up and make use of the requisites of the desires. Thus too he is unable falsely to reckon that pain and pleasure are made by oneself, made by another, made by both oneself and another, or arise without cause, made neither by oneself nor by another; and he is unable to dread any of the "matters not to be declared"; and he is unable, upon cloud, thunder and lightning, thunderbolt, and hailstorm, and upon seeing manifold dreadful matters, to give rise to deep alarm and terror.

8. Assignment · Realizing the Ultimate by the Transcendent Path

Here it should be known: the attention subsumed under the vajra-like concentration is named the "attention of the culmination of preparatory effort"; and the attention subsumed under the highest fruit, the arhat, is named the "attention of the fruit of the culmination of preparatory effort." By such manifold attentions, one realizes the ultimate by the transcendent path.

9. The General Conclusion of the Śrāvaka Stage

All of this is named the "Śrāvaka Stage." This is the root of all the "teaching-dharma associated with the śrāvakas" spoken by all the Fully and Perfectly Awakened Ones — just as all the assemblages of names, of phrases, and of syllables are the root of the compositions, incantations, and heterodox treatises that are fashioned.

Teaching arc: the highest-worldly dharmas are "the last thought-moment of the worldly mind"; their very next thought is the transcendent — the path of seeing. This leaf begins from the path of seeing and runs all the way to the vajra-like concentration, the knowledge of exhaustion and the knowledge of non-arising, and the becoming of an arhat; and its final line, "all of this is named the Śrāvaka Stage," draws the whole Śrāvaka Stage (Stage 13, the four yoga-stations) to a close. The point of the eye: that store-consciousness/seed thread that runs through the Fourth Yoga-Station knots itself shut right here. The worldly path only "suppresses" the seeds' activity (13-04-01); the store consciousness "holds" the defiled seeds as the cause of further existence (13-04-02/03); and what the stage of preparatory effort cultivates is precisely the "perfuming" that draws out the seeds of the dharma-knowledge and consequent-knowledge of the path of seeing — the knowledge of the path of seeing arises from this "seed-support site"; and the moment the vajra-like concentration arises, it "harms forever, without interval, the coarse-and-heavy seeds of all the classes of affliction." Suppress, hold, know, perfume, eliminate — five acts all fastened to one and the same "seed," and it is only at the vajra-like [concentration] that the ultimate is reached. The whole course of the śrāvaka's practice-and-realization, at this one eliminating, comes to its curtain-fall.

The Next Thought after the Highest-Worldly Dharmas: the Path of Seeing, Eliminating the Afflictions of View All at Once

The highest-worldly dharmas are the last boundary-mark of the worldly formations. The treatise says: "with no interval after this, the transcendent mind arises, not the worldly mind" — the next thought steps across into the transcendent. This one thought is called the path of seeing: raising an inward attention upon the principle of the noble truths contemplated before, "the non-discriminating decisive knowledge and the directly-seeing knowledge arise," and the coarse-and-heavy of the classes of affliction of the three realms, "to be eliminated by the path of seeing, attached to the basis," is eliminated all at once.

The afflictions of view being eliminated, one gains the three fruits according to the depth of one's prior freedom from craving: one who has already, by the worldly path, become free of craving for the desire realm, on entering the path of seeing becomes a non-returner (the ancient masters call him the "leap-over non-returner" — he need not pass through the stream-enterer and once-returner; the moment he enters the path of seeing he leaps to the non-returner); one who is doubly free of craving gains the once-returner; one not yet free of craving gains the stream-enterer 〔Dunlun · Kuiji〕. The afflictions of the desire realm that the worldly path (the previous three leaves) "suppressed" have, at the path of seeing, their view-portion eliminated at last — the boundary between suppressing and eliminating shows itself once more.

The term "direct realization" the ancient masters gloss well: when at the path of seeing one realizes suchness, the object is thus markless and the knowledge too is markless, and "the two markless [factors] join together, without discord," observing [each other] face to face — hence the name "direct realization"; just as two kṣatriyas (of the same caste) join in one place, without discord or contention, because they are of one kind 〔Kuiji · Dunlun〕. Only when the knowing and the known are as one is it called "direct" realization.

Where Does the Knowledge of the Path of Seeing Come From? — the Seeds Perfumed by Preparatory Effort

This is the first point of the eye in this leaf. The path of seeing gives rise to two knowledges, the "dharma-knowledge and the consequent-knowledge"; from where do the seeds of this knowledge come? At the end of the previous leaf of the treatise-text there is a line: the directly-seen-truth knowledge and the inferring-truth knowledge contemplated in [the attentions of] the apprehension of aspects and of resolute conviction "are precisely the seed-support site able to give rise to the dharma-knowledge and the consequent-knowledge". The ancient masters read out two senses of this "seed-support site" —

Master Jing says: at the stage of preparatory effort (the previous three expedients), relying on the not-yet-attained concentration and raising the attention of the apprehension of aspects to contemplate the truths above and below, one "is able to perfume and awaken the innate seeds of the dharma-knowledge and consequent-knowledge in the aspect-portion of the path of seeing and cause them to increase" 〔Dunlun〕. Ji (Kuiji) puts it more plainly: making the fourfold-truth contemplation by the five stilling contemplations and the general and particular applications of mindfulness "is precisely the seed-support site of the later uncontaminated consequent-knowledge," and this has two senses — "first, the contaminated, being a condition, can draw forth the uncontaminated, and so is named a seed-support site — this is the sense of newly perfuming; second, at the very time of the five stilling contemplations, one can also once again increase the beginningless uncontaminated seeds" 〔Dunlun · Kuiji, Concise Compendium, own composition〕.

In other words: the fourfold-truth contemplation of the stage of preparatory effort, on the one hand "perfumes and awakens" the innate uncontaminated seeds and causes them to increase, and on the other "newly perfumes" uncontaminated seeds; and the dharma-knowledge and consequent-knowledge of the path of seeing arise from this perfumed "seed-support site." The seed-thread of the store consciousness here takes a turn: the previous leaf (the truth of origination) recognized the "defiled seeds" within the store consciousness (the latent proclivity of craving); this leaf perfumes the "uncontaminated seeds" within the store consciousness (the seeds of the dharma- and consequent-knowledge). One and the same store consciousness — its defiled seeds are to be eliminated, its pure seeds to be perfumed.

The Four Knowledges · the Twelve Marks: the Boundary between the Noble One and the Ordinary Being

With the path of seeing accomplished, the treatise-text lists "twelve marks," the very first being the gaining of the four knowledges: the knowledge that there is only dharma, the knowledge that is not [of] annihilation, the knowledge that is not [of] permanence, and the knowledge that conditioned formations are dependently arisen and like an illusion. The ancient masters point out one by one the ordinary being's false reckoning that each counteracts: "the knowledge that there is only dharma" — in the state of an ordinary being one falsely reckons a real self; on entering the path of seeing one dispels the real self and sees only that there is dharma; "the knowledge that is not [of] annihilation, the knowledge that is not [of] permanence" — the ordinary being falsely reckons annihilation and permanence; on entering the path of seeing one leaves the two views of annihilation and permanence; "the knowledge that the dependently-arisen is like an illusion" — one sees that all formations are dependently arisen and like an illusion 〔Kuiji · Dunlun〕. The remaining eleven marks — that he will finally not fall into the evil destinies, will not commit the five acts of immediate [retribution], will never again undergo an eighth existence, will accomplish the fourfold pure faith … — are all the seal-marks of "the division between the noble and the ordinary": once the path of seeing is past, these become forever irreversible.

From the Path of Cultivation to the Vajra: the Last Eliminating

The path of seeing eliminates the afflictions of view; there remain still the afflictions of cultivation to eliminate. The treatise-text next expounds the path of cultivation — "progressively eliminating the afflictions to be eliminated by cultivation" — and sets forth in sum "the eleven kinds of differentiation of the classes of cultivation" (calm-abiding · insight · the worldly path · the transcendent path · the lower-, middle-, and higher-grade paths · the paths of preparatory effort · the uninterrupted · liberation · further distinction). The attention of investigation investigates again and again what has been and has not been eliminated; the attention of joy-gathering draws near and cultivates; until "the meditative concentration of the last stage of the learner, likened to the vajra, arises", harming forever, without interval, the coarse-and-heavy seeds of all the classes of affliction.

This is the second point of the eye in this leaf, and the knot in which the store-consciousness thread ties itself shut. The ancient masters ask: why does the vajra-like concentration say only that the "uninterrupted path" can eliminate, and not the "path of preparatory effort"? Ji answers penetratingly: "if it is the eliminating of the seeds, it is only the uninterrupted path; if it is the suppressing of the seeds, the path of preparatory effort too has this sense"; the Abhidharma-samuccaya says that the vajra-like concentration takes in the path of preparatory effort as well, but that is said with respect to "suppressing the seeds," while this Yogācārabhūmi, on the strength of "eliminating the seeds," speaks only of the uninterrupted path 〔Dunlun · Kuiji〕. — "Suppressing" the seeds (keeping them from arising into activity) the path of preparatory effort can do, and the worldly path did it too (13-04-01, "the function of the seeds' arising-into-present-activity is suppressed"); but "eliminating" the seeds (harming their very substance forever) belongs to the uninterrupted path of the vajra-like [concentration] alone. Suppressing on one side, eliminating on the other — here they are told apart cleanly: that root the śrāvaka's practice-and-realization sets out to pull up — the defiled seeds within the store consciousness — is only at the vajra-like concentration truly eliminated to exhaustion.

The Arhat: the Thirty-Two Kinds of Excellent Quality

Without interval after the vajra-like concentration, one sets going the knowledge of exhaustion (the contaminants are exhausted — that is, "the knowledge that my birth is already exhausted") and the knowledge of non-arising (the fruit of suffering to come is finally not born), and becomes an arhat — the contaminants exhausted, what was to be done done, all the fetters of existence exhausted. The ancient masters judge the arhat's excellent qualities to be "thirty-two dharmas" 〔Kuiji · Dunlun〕: reaching the fruit of the adept is named "at the very utmost and ultimate"; eliminating the afflictions of the three realms to exhaustion is named "finally without stain"; surpassing the learner to the utmost is named "realizing the utmost limit of the holy life"; free of the "bolts and bars" of the prison of birth-and-death, of the torrent and the yoke; "crushing that iṣīkā" — the ancient masters say the iṣīkā is a lofty and steep mountain in the West; Master Jing takes it as a figure for "the self-exalting of conceit," so that crushing the iṣīkā is crushing the lofty standard of conceit 〔Dunlun〕. He also accomplishes the "six constant abidings" (the six faculties toward the six objects are without gladness and without sorrow, abiding in supreme equanimity, in right mindfulness and right awareness; the ancient masters: taking the three dharmas of equanimity, mindfulness, and right awareness as its substance 〔Kuiji〕); greed, hatred, and delusion exhausted forever, his mind "like open space undefiled, like pure water unclouded." Abiding in the realm of nirvāṇa "with remaining basis" (sustaining the last body possessed), the aggregates drawn forth by prior karma and affliction being exhausted, and there being no remaining grasping, he attains final nirvāṇa in the realm of nirvāṇa "without remaining basis" — "herein there is no one who attains final nirvāṇa at all, just as in birth-and-death there is no one who transmigrates."

All of This Is Named the Śrāvaka Stage

At this point, the treatise-text's one line, "all of this is named the Śrāvaka Stage," draws the whole Śrāvaka Stage to a close. The ancient masters say that this concluding text, "being brief, is lodged within the Fourth Yoga-Station"; and they gloss the final phrase — "the teaching-dharma associated with the śrāvakas is the root of the śrāvaka's practice, just as the assemblages of names, of phrases, and of syllables are the root of compositions, incantations, and heterodox treatises" 〔Dunlun · Kuiji〕. The expositions of Dunlun and Kuiji likewise end here; from here on begins the Pratyekabuddha Stage.

Carrying Forward

Look back over the one hidden thread that runs through the whole Fourth Yoga-Station — the store consciousness/seed: the worldly path "suppresses" the seeds' arising-into-activity, without harming their substance (13-04-01); the store consciousness "holds" the body, and in the attainment of cessation the six consciousnesses cease and only the store consciousness abides (13-04-02); the truth of origination recognizes that the root of birth-and-death is the defiled seeds of craving-as-latent-proclivity within the store consciousness, the cause of further existence-and-birth (13-04-03); and in this leaf, preparatory effort "perfumes" out the uncontaminated seeds of the dharma- and consequent-knowledge of the path of seeing, and the vajra-like concentration "eliminates" to exhaustion the defiled seeds of the afflictions. Suppress → hold → know → perfume → eliminate — five acts, fastened to one and the same "seed," one and the same "store consciousness," and it is only at the one eliminating of the vajra-like [concentration] that the śrāvaka's practice-and-realization reaches its ultimate.

The Śrāvaka Stage seems not to speak of the store consciousness; yet the pointing-out of this one lineage of the ancient masters (Jing · Tai · Ji) links the śrāvaka's path of cultivation up with the root consciousness of the Consciousness-Only teaching. This is exactly the eye that reads the Yogācārabhūmi as "one treatise" — the Śrāvaka Stage is not a "Hīnayāna passage" set at two poles from Consciousness-Only; within the very framework of its practice-and-realization, the seed-sense of the store consciousness lies already buried. The whole Śrāvaka Stage (13-01, the establishing of the first yoga-station; 13-02, the person; 13-03, the calm-and-insight of cultivating yoga; 13-04, the ultimate of the worldly and transcendent paths), at this one line, "all of this is named the Śrāvaka Stage," reaches its complete curtain-fall.