瑜伽師地論 無餘依地

The end of the seventeen stages · the ultimate of the fruit of the three vehicles. The nirvāṇa-stage without remaining basis: the remaining basis too is extinguished, and all sufferings are forever quiescent.

In one line: What "remains" in "with remaining" is the aggregates of the arhat's one last body; at [the stage] without remaining basis, even this one body is extinguished — "the afflictions being already exhausted, the remaining basis too is extinguished, and all sufferings are forever quiescent." Yet what is "extinguished" is the basis of affliction, karma, and suffering, while what is "made manifest" is the pure suchness throughout without stain: the quiescence is not an annihilating emptiness, but the true uncontaminated realm made manifest by the transformation of the basis.

Three Points of the Eye

1. Subsumed under three aspects · the establishing of the stage marks out the territory first: the establishing-designation of the stage (the [stage] without remaining basis = the "one portion of five stages" cut out from the earlier stages: one portion each of the Stage without Mind, of What is Attained through Cultivation, the Śrāvaka, the Pratyekabuddha, and the Bodhisattva Stage) · the establishing-designation of quiescence · the synonyms of quiescence. Ultimate nirvāṇa is nowhere else; it is right at the far end of that "unconditioned" toward which each of the stages of practice points, gathered together into this last stage (Kuiji: "the substance of this stage is just what remains over from the earlier stages" 〔T1829 0168b03〕).

2. Two quiescences · "the quiescence of freedom from harm-and-distress" is the Consciousness-Only eye: the quiescence of stillness (the four most excellent kinds of stillness · the simile of the extinction of a lamp when [its fuel] is spent — the causes of affliction, karma, and suffering being spent, the later suffering goes out of itself like a lamp whose oil is exhausted, not blown out by some other hand) · the quiescence of freedom from harm-and-distress = "the true uncontaminated realm made manifest by the arising of the transformation of the basis," "made manifest by pure suchness, throughout without stain." Without remaining is not an annihilating emptiness — the basis of affliction, karma, and suffering is emptied out, and the fullness of suchness is made manifest (Dunlun: "the six kinds of transformation of the basis of the Mahāyānasaṃgraha · the perfect and complete transformation" 〔T1828 0590a14〕).

3. Apart from speech · and so it piles up measureless synonyms: the constant · the enduring · the dwelling-house · the island · the refuge · the ambrosia · the disease-free · nirvāṇa · the forever cutting-off of all idle proliferation … some two dozen synonyms. Because it "cannot be numbered" — whether it is or is not, whether identical with the aggregates or apart from them, cannot be spoken of; no single sentence exhausts it, and so it is pointed at from many sides.

The Two Nirvāṇa-Realms · The Four Nirvāṇas (appended · a signpost)

The Section on Ascertainment's "proper ascertaining of the two stages, with and without remaining basis," joins them in one ascertainment 〔T1579 0747b28〕: with remaining (the body remains · falls within the count · has suffering) / without remaining (the body extinguished · does not fall within the count · apart from suffering); the transformation of the basis without remaining basis takes suchness as its cause · constantly abiding and inextinguishable 〔0748b07〕. The four nirvāṇas of the Cheng Weishi Lun 〔T1585 0055b19〕: those of the two vehicles beyond training may possess the first three (halting at the "dwelling in quiescence" of the [nirvāṇa] without remaining basis); only the Buddha possesses all four (having further the "quiescent yet non-abiding" of the non-abiding [nirvāṇa]). The pratyekabuddha tends toward quiescence → the [stage] with remaining dwells in quiescence → the [stage] without remaining is quiescence-and-extinction; the fruit of the three vehicles reaches its end here in one line. (For the doctrine unfolded, see the Exposition.)

The 漢 root text (Xuanzang, T30n1579) is kept as a de-emphasized visual anchor for bilingual readers; the English below renders every word of it in plain, continuous prose.

The Threefold Overall Heading

本地分中無餘依地第十七如是已說有餘依地。云何無餘依地？當知此地亦有三相。一者、地施設安立，二者、寂滅施設安立，三者、寂滅異門安立。

Within the Basic Section, this is the seventeenth, the Stage without Remaining Basis. The Stage with Remaining Basis has already been spoken of. What is the Stage without Remaining Basis? It should be known that this stage too has three aspects: first, the establishing-designation of the stage; second, the establishing-designation of quiescence; third, the establishing of the synonyms of quiescence.

One · The Establishing-Designation of the Stage

云何地施設安立？謂先所除五地一分，當知即此無餘依地所攝。謂無心地、修所成地、聲聞地、獨覺地、菩薩地。

What is the establishing-designation of the stage? It is that "one portion of five stages" which was removed earlier 〔within the Stage with Remaining Basis〕 — it should be known that just this is what the Stage without Remaining Basis subsumes. That is, the Stage without Mind, the Stage of What is Attained through Cultivation, the Śrāvaka Stage, the Pratyekabuddha Stage, and the Bodhisattva Stage 〔the one portion removed from each of these five stages belongs precisely to the Stage without Remaining Basis〕.

Two · The Establishing-Designation of Quiescence

云何寂滅施設安立？謂由二種寂滅，施設安立如是無餘依地。一、由寂靜寂滅故；二、由無損惱寂滅故。

What is the establishing-designation of quiescence? It is that, by two kinds of quiescence, one establishes and designates this Stage without Remaining Basis: first, by the quiescence of stillness; second, by the quiescence of freedom from harm-and-distress.

云何寂靜寂滅？謂先於有餘依地，獲得觸證四種寂靜；今無餘依涅槃界中，亦有最勝四種寂靜。一、數教寂靜，二、一切依寂靜，三、依依苦寂靜，四、依依苦生疑慮寂靜。如說：由無下劣心，能忍受勤苦，彼所趣解脫，譬如燈盡滅。

What is the quiescence of stillness? It is that earlier, in the Stage with Remaining Basis, one obtained and directly realized the four kinds of stillness; now, in the realm of nirvāṇa without remaining basis, there are likewise the four most excellent kinds of stillness: first, the stillness of teaching-and-number; second, the stillness of all bases; third, the stillness of the suffering [that arises] from the bases; fourth, the stillness of the anxious doubt [arising] from the suffering [that arises] from the bases. As it is said: "Because he is without a lowly and inferior mind, he can endure toil and hardship; the liberation toward which he tends is like the extinction of a lamp when [its fuel] is spent." 〔The base text has the final line as 「譬如燈盡滅」 "like the extinction of a lamp when [its fuel] is spent"; the four editions Song, Yuan, Ming, and Palace have 「證涅槃」 "realizes nirvāṇa"; the two editions Sheng and Zhi have 「燈涅槃」 "the lamp['s] nirvāṇa" — here the base text's simile "the extinction of a lamp when [its fuel] is spent" is followed.〕

云何無損惱寂滅？謂與一切依不相應，違背一切煩惱諸苦流轉，生起轉依所顯真無漏界。如說：苾芻永寂滅，名真安樂住。又如說言：實有無生、無起、無作、無為、無等生起；亦有有生、有起、有作、有為、有等生起。若當無有無生、無起、無作、無為、無等生起；我終不說有生、有起、有作、有為、有等生起、有永出離。由實有無生、無起、無作、無為、無等生起；是故我說有生、有起、有作、有為、有等生起、有永出離。世尊依此密意說言甚深、廣大、無量、無數，是謂寂滅。由於此中所具功德難了知故，名為甚深。極寬博故，名為廣大。無窮盡故，名為無量。數不能數，無二說故，名為無數。

What is the quiescence of freedom from harm-and-distress? It is that which is not associated with any basis whatsoever, which runs counter to the flow-and-turning of all afflictions and sufferings — the true uncontaminated realm made manifest by the arising of the transformation of the basis. As it is said: "The monk who is forever quiescent — this is named the true dwelling in ease and bliss." And as it is further said: "There truly is that which is unborn, unarisen, unmade, unconditioned, and not arisen from any concurrence; and there is also that which is born, arisen, made, conditioned, and arisen from a concurrence. If there were no such thing as the unborn, unarisen, unmade, unconditioned, and not arisen from any concurrence, I would in the end not say that of the born, arisen, made, conditioned, and arisen from a concurrence there is any forever going-forth-and-out. Because there truly is the unborn … not arisen from any concurrence, therefore I say that of the born … arisen from a concurrence there is a forever going-forth-and-out." The World-Honored One, by this hidden intent, declares it to be profound, vast, measureless, and numberless — this is called quiescence. Because the merits it possesses herein are hard to comprehend, it is named "profound." Because it is utterly broad and ample, it is named "vast." Because it is without exhaustion, it is named "measureless." Because number cannot number it, there being nothing dual to be spoken of, it is named "numberless."

云何此中數不能數？謂有非有不可說故，即色離色不可說故，即受離受不可說故，即想離想不可說故，即行離行不可說故，即識離識不可說故。所以者何？由此清淨真如所顯，一向無垢，是名無損惱寂滅。

What does it mean here that "number cannot number it"? It is that whether it "is" or "is not" cannot be spoken of; that whether [it is] identical with form or apart from form cannot be spoken of; that whether identical with feeling or apart from feeling cannot be spoken of; that whether identical with perception or apart from perception cannot be spoken of; that whether identical with formations or apart from formations cannot be spoken of; that whether identical with consciousness or apart from consciousness cannot be spoken of. Why so? Because this is made manifest by the pure suchness, and is throughout without stain — this is named the quiescence of freedom from harm-and-distress.

如是二種，總說為一寂滅施設安立。

These two kinds 〔the quiescence of stillness and the quiescence of freedom from harm-and-distress〕, taken together, are spoken of as the single establishing-designation of quiescence.

Three · The Establishing-Designation of the Synonyms of Quiescence

云何寂滅異門施設安立？當知此中，寂滅異門有無量種。謂名為常，亦名為恒，亦名久住，亦名無變，亦名有法，亦名舍宅，亦名洲渚，亦名救護，亦名歸依，亦名所趣，亦名安隱，亦名淡泊，亦名善事，亦名吉祥，亦名無轉，亦名無垢，亦名難見，亦名甘露，亦名無憂，亦名無沒，亦名無熾，亦名無熱，亦名無病，亦名無動，亦名涅槃，亦名永絕一切戲論。如是等類，應知說名寂滅異門。

What is the establishing-designation of the synonyms of quiescence? It should be known that herein the synonyms of quiescence are of measureless kinds. That is, it is named "the constant," and also named "the enduring," and also named "the long-abiding," and also named "the unchanging," and also named "that which has [reality as a] dharma," and also named "the dwelling-house," and also named "the island," and also named "the rescue-and-shelter," and also named "the refuge," and also named "that toward which [beings] tend," and also named "the secure," and also named "the tranquil," and also named "the good matter," and also named "the auspicious," and also named "the unturning," and also named "the stainless," and also named "the hard-to-see," and also named "the ambrosia," and also named "the sorrowless," and also named "the undrowning," and also named "the unblazing," and also named "the unburning," and also named "the disease-free," and also named "the unmoving," and also named "nirvāṇa," and also named "the forever cutting-off of all idle proliferation." Terms of this kind should be known as the synonyms of quiescence.

是名寂滅異門施設安立。

This is named the establishing-designation of the synonyms of quiescence.

One · The Last of the Seventeen Stages — Where Do the Words "Without Remaining" Fall?

Having walked through sixteen stages, we come to the very end of the Basic Section. This last stage differs from the one before it by a single character: with remaining basis, without remaining basis — 有餘依, 無餘依. This single-character difference — where does it lie?

The Stage with Remaining Basis (Stage 16) is the nirvāṇa-station of the arhat in whom "the affliction, the karma, and the suffering are already stilled, yet the aggregates of one last body still remain"; by the Stage without Remaining Basis, even the aggregates of this one last body have ceased. The Cheng Weishi Lun puts it most directly: nirvāṇa without remaining basis "means just suchness that has passed out beyond the suffering of birth-and-death; the afflictions being already exhausted, the remaining basis too is extinguished, and all sufferings are forever quiescent". What "remains" in "with remaining" is precisely that latter-end body; in "without remaining," the remaining basis too is extinguished. So the Section on Ascertainment marks off the difference between the two realms with a set of matched couplets: "One who dwells with remaining basis falls within the count of [sentient] beings; one who dwells without remaining basis does not fall within the count. One who dwells with remaining basis still has the mass of sufferings; one who dwells without remaining basis is forever apart from the mass of sufferings" — while the body remains, one falls within the count of sentient beings and still has the mass of sufferings; when the body is extinguished, one departs from the count and is apart from suffering.

The treatise subsumes this stage under three aspects: the establishing-designation of the stage, the establishing-designation of quiescence, and the synonyms of quiescence. Let us follow them in order.

Two · How Is Its "Territory" Marked Out? — The Establishing-Designation of the Stage

It is a curious thing: this stage does not first say what it "is"; it first says which "territory" it occupies. Why mark it out in this way?

Because the Stage without Remaining Basis is not some further stage set up outside the seventeen, but that one portion "cut out" from the earlier stages. The treatise says: the Stage without Remaining Basis = the "one portion of five stages" removed earlier — the Stage without Mind, the Stage of What is Attained through Cultivation, the Śrāvaka, the Pratyekabuddha, and the Bodhisattva Stage. Kuiji describes this pair of shears very finely: within the Stage without Mind there are five phases of mindlessness, and of these it is uniquely the phase of "entering nirvāṇa without remaining basis" that belongs to the Stage without Remaining Basis; within the Stage of What is Attained through Cultivation, "its unconditioned [portion] is the substance of the Stage without Remaining Basis, and is here removed"; and from the Śrāvaka and the other stages, "the unconditioned [reached by] the exhaustion of the fruit is selected out". In other words, whatever within these five stages points to "the unconditioned that is ultimate quiescence" all belongs to this last stage. And so Kuiji says of the Stage without Remaining Basis: "the substance of this stage is just what remains over from the earlier stages; its sense is to be inferred from what precedes" — its substance is that portion left over from the earlier stages, the portion pointing to ultimate quiescence.

This is a very deep way of establishing a thing: ultimate nirvāṇa is nowhere else; it is right at the far end of that "unconditioned" toward which each of the stages of practice points, gathered together into a single stage.

Three · There Are Two Kinds of "Extinction" — The Quiescence of Stillness and the Quiescence of Freedom from Harm-and-Distress

When one speaks of "quiescence," it is most easily mistaken for a stubborn emptiness in which nothing at all is left. Precisely here the treatise divides extinction into two kinds, to hold off that mistake.

The quiescence of stillness — this is the aspect of "ceasing." The four kinds of stillness already directly realized in the Stage with Remaining Basis attain their most excellent form in the realm without remaining basis: the stillness of teaching-and-number (the numbers of verbal teaching all cease), the stillness of all bases (departure from the former eight bases), the stillness of the suffering [that arises] from the bases (the suffering born of the eight bases is forever extinguished), and the stillness of the anxious doubt [arising] from the suffering [that arises] from the bases (even that anxious doubt over "whether future suffering will or will not arise" is gone) 〔Dunlun cites Master Jing's explanation〕. To this aspect the treatise fits a simile —

"Because he is without a lowly and inferior mind, he can endure toil and hardship; the liberation toward which he tends is like the extinction of a lamp when [its fuel] is spent." 〔The base text has the final line as 「燈盡滅」 "the extinction of a lamp when [its fuel] is spent"; the Song, Yuan, Ming, and Palace editions have 「證涅槃」 "realizes nirvāṇa," the Sheng and Zhi editions 「燈涅槃」 "the lamp['s] nirvāṇa"; since Dunlun's adjudicating explanation sets up its simile precisely on "the extinction of a lamp," the base text is followed.〕 Dunlun judges the fourth line of this verse to be "the fruit without remaining". When the lamp's oil is spent the flame goes out of itself — it is not that some other hand comes to blow it out; and so it is with the quiescence without remaining basis: the causes, the affliction, the karma, and the suffering, being already exhausted, and the endurance of toil already accomplished, the later suffering does not continue, and it goes out like a lamp whose fuel is spent, with no remaining basis left to burn. Quiescence is not an annihilation that is manufactured; it is the flame going still of itself because its cause is spent.

The quiescence of freedom from harm-and-distress — this is the aspect of "manifesting," and it is also the Consciousness-Only knot of this whole stage. The treatise says it "is not associated with any basis whatsoever, runs counter to the flow-and-turning of all afflictions and sufferings — the true uncontaminated realm made manifest by the arising of the transformation of the basis," and that "it is made manifest by this pure suchness, and is throughout without stain." Mark this well: the extinction without remaining basis is not a nothing-at-all; it is the true uncontaminated realm "made manifest by the transformation of the basis" — the turning-away-from the basis of the afflictions, and the turning-toward the manifesting of suchness. Dunlun points directly to the Consciousness-Only sense of the transformation of the basis: "Following the Mahāyānasaṃgraha's account of the six kinds of transformation of the basis, what is here distinguished is just the perfect and complete transformation". So the other aspect of "without remaining" is precisely the fullness of "suchness made manifest" — what is emptied out is the basis of affliction, karma, and suffering; what is made manifest is the pure suchness throughout without stain. This one line joins the nirvāṇa without remaining basis of the two vehicles onto the very same suchness of the Consciousness-Only transformation of the basis.

The treatise further cites a passage of the Buddha's word to guard this measure: there truly is the "unborn, unarisen, unmade, unconditioned" nirvāṇa, and precisely because there truly is it, one can then speak of the conditioned, flowing-and-turning dharmas as having a "forever going-forth-and-out." Nirvāṇa is not the fictitious opposite of the flowing dharmas; it is the truly existent unconditioned realm that serves as the basis for going forth and out.

Four · Why Pile Up So Many Names? — The Synonyms of Quiescence and the "Inexpressible"

In the last aspect the treatise piles up, all in one breath, some two dozen names: the constant, the enduring, the long-abiding, the dwelling-house, the island, the refuge, the ambrosia, the disease-free, nirvāṇa, the forever cutting-off of all idle proliferation … Why should a single quiescence be set with so many synonyms?

Because it "cannot be numbered." The treatise glosses itself: profound (its merits hard to comprehend), vast (utterly broad and ample), measureless (without exhaustion), numberless (number cannot number it, there being nothing dual to be spoken of). And the reason that "number cannot number it" is a string of "cannot be spoken of": whether it "is" or "is not" cannot be spoken of, whether identical with form or apart from form cannot be spoken of, on down to whether identical with consciousness or apart from consciousness cannot be spoken of — this suchness-made-manifest falls into none of the sentences "is / is-not," "identical-with-the-aggregates / apart-from-the-aggregates."

Precisely because no single sentence can exhaust it, it is pointed at from every side through measureless synonyms: from the side of constant abiding come "the constant, the enduring, the long-abiding, the unchanging"; from the side of taking refuge come "the dwelling-house, the island, the rescue-and-shelter, the refuge, that toward which [beings] tend"; from the side of ease and bliss come "the secure, the ambrosia, the sorrowless, the disease-free"; from the side of departing defilement come "the stainless, the unburning, the unblazing"; and it closes with "nirvāṇa, the forever cutting-off of all idle proliferation." The piling-up of names is not fussiness; it is because the thing itself is apart from speech — it can only be indicated pointing-around from many sides, and can never be exhausted in a single utterance.

Five · Carrying Forward — How the Later Treatises Continue This Stage

The Stage without Remaining Basis is the end of the seventeen stages and the ultimate of the fruit of the three vehicles; the treatises that come after each take up one facet of it and ascertain it broadly, adjudicate it deeply. The veins of the carrying-forward run as follows.

• With the Stage with Remaining Basis (Stage 16) it forms the pair of the two nirvāṇa-realms: with remaining (the body remains · falls within the count · has suffering) / without remaining (the body is extinguished · does not fall within the count · is apart from suffering). The Section on Ascertainment's "proper ascertaining of the two stages, with and without remaining basis" joins the two stages in one ascertainment, distinguishing them broadly through fourteen gates — release-from-bondage, transformation of the basis, dwelling, difference, and the rest; and it ascertains in particular that the transformation of the basis without remaining basis "takes as its cause only the cultivating of the path whose object is suchness … it is not to be fully known, not to be cut off, and so cannot be extinguished" — the suchness-transformation-of-the-basis of the realm without remaining basis is constantly abiding and inextinguishable, not an annihilation.

• The four nirvāṇas of the Cheng Weishi Lun: intrinsically pure by original nature / with remaining basis / without remaining basis / non-abiding. "All sentient beings possess the first; those of the two vehicles who are beyond training may possess the first three; only our World-Honored One may be said to possess all four". Those of the two vehicles beyond training halt at the "dwelling in quiescence" of the [nirvāṇa] without remaining basis; the bodhisattva has further the "quiescent yet non-abiding" of the non-abiding nirvāṇa. The [stage] without remaining basis of the Basic Section is precisely the ultimate toward which those of the two vehicles beyond training tend, and it is likewise the third of the four nirvāṇas of Consciousness-Only.

• The Pratyekabuddha Stage (14) · the Stage with Remaining Basis (16) · the Stage without Remaining Basis (17) in one line: the pratyekabuddha "tends one-pointedly toward quiescence" → the [stage] with remaining basis is "dwelling in quiescence (the body remains)" → the [stage] without remaining basis is "quiescence-and-extinction (the body extinguished)" — the sequence of the fruit of the three vehicles reaches its end here.

• The Stage of What is Attained through Cultivation (12): Jinaputra judges that "the Stage of What is Attained through Cultivation is also a stage with and without remaining basis" — the unconditioned merit accomplished by the wisdom of cultivation is subsumed upward into the [stage] without remaining basis. The fruit of the wisdom of cultivation here passes into the stage of ultimate nirvāṇa. The end of a single stage is, from the first, the resting-place of the whole of practice-and-realization.