瑜伽師地論 義疏通講 · 冊12

One Stage That Gathers a Whole Road — Why the Stage of Cultivation Is "the Master Outline of the Wisdom of Cultivation"

A student, from the first time he hears the true Dharma to the final thought in which he cuts off the last, subtlest obstruction — can this whole road be expounded within a single "stage"?

The Stage of What is Attained through Cultivation is exactly such a stage. The Stage of What is Attained through Hearing and the Stage of What is Attained through Reflection come before it; it stands at the end of the three wisdoms (Jinaputra, in his Commentary on the Yogācārabhūmi, has the hearing-wisdom, the reflection-wisdom, and the cultivation-wisdom accomplished in sequence, the cultivation-attained being distinguished by its drawing forth wisdom through surpassing concentration and by its cultivation of the antidotes). But it is not merely one segment, "the wisdom of cultivation"; rather it gathers the entire sequence of practice — from being complete in the provisions for cultivating the path, through the practice of the antidotes of tranquillity and insight, to the fruit of the two kinds of purity, worldly and world-transcending — into a single stage.

The treatise itself gives the skeleton of its gathering: "In brief, one should know that it is fully gathered under four loci" — the locus of cultivation, the causes-and-conditions of cultivation, the yoga of cultivation, and the fruit of cultivation; and the four loci are opened out into seven branches (the perfection of birth, the perfection of hearing the true Dharma, having nirvāṇa as the foremost, the maturing of the liberation-ripening wisdom, the cultivation of the antidotes, the worldly purity of all kinds, the world-transcending purity of all kinds). How the four and the seven pair up, the treatise itself states in plain words: the perfection of birth is the locus of cultivation; the three branches — hearing the true Dharma, having nirvāṇa as the foremost, and the maturing of the liberation-ripening wisdom — are the causes-and-conditions of cultivation; the cultivation of the antidotes is the yoga of cultivation; the two purities, worldly and world-transcending, are the fruit of cultivation (Dunlun, in his Notes on the Yogācārabhūmi, and Kuiji, in his Concise Compendium, both gather it thus).

So to read this one stage is to hold in hand a condensed, whole map of the path of cultivation. Below, then, we walk this map, locus by locus.

Two · Why Begin from "I Was Born a Human Being" — the Perfection of Birth

The first step of practice is not sitting in meditation; it is first to see clearly what one holds in one's hand.

The treatise, in setting out, speaks not of contemplative skill, but first takes stock of what a practitioner "possesses" by birth — the ten kinds of the perfection of birth, five internal and five external. The five internal: obtaining a human body, a male body, the male faculty complete (the perfection of a common lot); being born in a central land that has the sphere of conduct of the four assemblies, not falling into a border region among the Daśyus and the Mlecchas (the perfection of location); the six faculties not lacking, able to understand the meanings of the Dharma whether well-spoken or ill-spoken (the perfection of the bodily support); not committing the five deeds of immediate retribution (the perfection of freedom from karmic obstruction); giving rise to no conviction toward false gods and non-Buddhist places, but raising up a pure mind toward the holy places alone (the perfection of freedom from the obstruction to conviction). The five external: meeting a Tathāgata's appearing in the world (the perfection of the Great Teacher); the Buddha's widely revealing the twelvefold teaching (the perfection of the conventional true Dharma being set forth); the disciples' cultivating the thirty-seven factors of awakening in accord with the Dharma and obtaining the fruits of the renunciant (the perfection of the ultimate true Dharma being carried on); the Buddha though entered into nirvāṇa, yet the true Dharma still abiding in the world unperished (the perfection of right conduct not perishing); the faithful gifts and requisites for the body not wanting (the perfection of the conducive means of support).

Why must these ten be numbered one by one? Because the treatise then, in a single line, lays bare their weight: "It is just these ten kinds of the perfection of birth that are named the locus of the yoga of cultivation" — these ten complete are precisely the "locus" (the foundation) on which practice can stand. Without this foundation, tranquillity and insight have nowhere to be established. Dunlun, glossing the first of the "four loci," says exactly: "The locus — the internal substance and the external conditions must all be complete".

One subtle point deserves notice. The treatise says that the holy Dharma to be realized in dependence on this locus is "the intent is to take the holy Dharma of the one beyond training." Why? "Because, though the trainees have holy Dharma, yet within their continuum there are still to be found the un-holy afflictions following along and manifesting in activity" — within the body of the trainee the holy Dharma still keeps company with the afflictions, and so the one beyond training is taken as the ultimate refuge. At the very starting point of practice, the eye is already fixed upon the end.

Three · What Is Listening For — the Perfection of Hearing the True Dharma and "Having Nirvāṇa as the Foremost"

Two people sitting in the same lecture hall listening to the Dharma can be walking two utterly different roads. Where lies the difference — in which single thought?

The treatise first establishes "the perfection of hearing the true Dharma": right speaking of the Dharma (of two kinds, the conforming and the undefiled) and right hearing of the Dharma (far removed from the four faults of pride, contempt, timidity, and distraction) combined into one. But this is still only "how to listen." The true watershed lies in the next branch — "having nirvāṇa as the foremost."

What is it to take nirvāṇa as the foremost? "Taking nirvāṇa alone as the foremost, seeking nirvāṇa alone, taking nirvāṇa alone as the object in listening to the Dharma, not for the sake of leading others to have faith in oneself, not for the sake of gain, respect, or praise." The whole direction of listening to the Dharma is set toward nirvāṇa, and not toward fame and gain. This single line has calibrated the "compass" of the entire practice of hearing and reflection.

And where the treatise is most subtle is in laying this one thought of the foremost mind out into a whole road, "a turning of ten dharmas in sequence" — Dunlun, in his Notes on the Yogācārabhūmi, points out these ten turnings node by node: taking the hearing-attained wisdom as cause, one gives rise, toward the path, the fruit of the path, and nirvāṇa, to three kinds of conviction (conviction that it truly exists, conviction that it has merits, conviction that one has oneself the means able to attain ease); conviction having arisen, one dwells far removed from clamor and evil ponderings; one enters the reflection-attained knowledge that well ascertains the meaning; one further enters the two means of uninterrupted and reverent-weighty cultivation; by this sequence, on down to realizing the cultivation-attained knowledge; from this one gives rise to firm conviction toward the faults of birth-and-death and toward the merits of nirvāṇa; through practiced cultivation one enters the direct realization of the truths, first attaining the path of seeing, the liberation of the trainee; upon the higher path of cultivation, through repeated practice, one further realizes the liberation of the one beyond training; the perfection of liberation is then the nirvāṇa-element with remaining basis — and all these first nine dharmas take the nirvāṇa-element without remaining basis as their final foremost.

In other words, one thought of a listening mind that "seeks nirvāṇa alone," followed on down, is the whole road of seeing and cultivating. The continuous sequence of the three wisdoms — hearing, reflection, cultivation — is here already quietly set in order. No wonder the treatise gathers the three branches — hearing the true Dharma, having nirvāṇa as the foremost, and the maturing of the liberation-ripening wisdom — under the single judgment "the causes-and-conditions of the yoga of cultivation": "Because, in dependence upon this sequence, this cause, this condition, the cultivation of the yoga comes to be accomplished and perfected."

As for "the maturing of the liberation-ripening wisdom," the treatise points out why it is that when tranquillity and insight are both accomplished the wisdom matures: "Because the wisdom within the concentrated mind carries on purely upon the object known" — the reason wisdom can ripen is precisely that it is set within the concentrated mind and carries on purely upon the object known. The branch of insight takes a good friend as its support, the branch of tranquillity is embraced by the perfection of moral discipline, and by these ten gates in gradual sequence liberation is brought to perfection (Dunlun lists these ten gates of the maturing).

Four · What Tranquillity and Insight Really "Counteract" — the Three Positions and Ten Cultivations of the Antidotes

By the time one reaches real cultivation, the question grows concrete: at this moment, in this body, in this position, which single obstruction am I to counteract?

The Stage of Cultivation's answer is exceedingly close to the bone: "Within three positions there are ten kinds of dharmas to be counteracted by the cultivation of the yoga" — the three positions being the position of the householder, the position of the renunciant, and the position of one cultivating the yoga in secluded, quiet dwelling. Each position has its own particular obstruction, and each obstruction is paired with its own particular antidote. This is not to speak loosely of "cultivating tranquillity and insight," but to push the lens up close upon the present situation of each and every practitioner.

The position of the householder: toward the various wives there is the craving associated with sexual desire; toward kinsfolk and wealth there is the affection associated with enjoyment — and because of these two obstructions one "is unable to depart from any kind whatsoever." The antidote the treatise gives is direct and plain: cultivate the perception of impurity (to counteract craving), cultivate the perception of impermanence (to counteract affection). The four undertakings of the position of the renunciant each have what they counteract, paired with four perceptions: toward impermanence cultivate the perception of suffering, toward the manifold sufferings cultivate the perception of no-self, toward food and drink cultivate the perception of loathsomeness, toward all the world cultivate the perception of what is not to be delighted in. The position of secluded, quiet dwelling has four antidotes: for the darkened mind, the savor-craving toward concentration, the mind following the marks of stirring, and the pondering of "not dying" — paired with cultivating the perceptions of light, of dispassion, of cessation, and of death.

Here a canon of doctrine must be held firm: the Stage of Cultivation uses, in this place, its own words — the perception of impurity, the perception of impermanence, the perception of light, and the rest — and does not set up the names "the seven attentions" or "the objects for purifying conduct." "The objects for purifying conduct" and "the seven attentions" are the framework set forth in the Śrāvaka Stage (Stage 13) — the Śrāvaka Stage establishes four kinds of object, the second of which is called the objects for purifying conduct, containing the impure, loving-kindness, dependent origination as the nature of conditions, the differentiation of elements, and mindfulness of the in-and-out breath; and it opens too the sequence from apprehending-the-aspect down to the fruit-of-culmination. The three perceptions of this stage share the same use as the gate for purifying conduct of the Śrāvaka Stage (the impure counteracts craving, impermanence counteracts affection, light counteracts darkness and dullness), yet this stage does not set up their names; it only condenses that whole map of the path of cultivation into its own three positions and ten cultivations. One who reads the exposition should walk along with this stage's own words; the names of the Śrāvaka Stage serve only as cross-reading and side-consultation, and must not be poured back in to frame this stage.

At the place of the perception of light the treatise adds one further meaning, most worth savoring: "What truly darkens the mind is, it is said, when cultivating the categories of tranquillity and insight by skillful means, whatever loss of mindfulness there is toward the various dharmas." What darkens the mind is not the darkness of an outer realm, but the loss of mindfulness, while cultivating tranquillity and insight, toward the Dharma one has heard; and so the so-called "perception of light" is the light of "the Dharma just as heard, already brought to consummation and not forgotten in mindfulness" (the light of Dharma), and the perception concurrent with it. The true battlefield of the antidote is, from first to last, in the single thought of the mind's brightness or darkness.

Then how does all this cultivation of tranquillity, insight, and antidote bear upon consciousness-only? A light touch suffices (this stage is, in essence, the common track of the śrāvaka's path of cultivation, and the consciousness-only meaning need not be forced upon it): the images ranged over by tranquillity and insight are what consciousness-only manifests. The Saṃdhinirmocana-sūtra, in its Chapter on Discerning Yoga, states plainly that tranquillity and insight have tranquillity (śamatha) and insight (vipaśyanā) for their substance, and that of the four kinds of image these range over (the image with discernment, the image without discernment, the far limit of the matter, the accomplishing of what is to be done), "I say that the object of consciousness is consciousness-only, because it is what consciousness manifests … because those images are only consciousness". This stage's yoga of cultivation takes tranquillity and insight for its substance, and its scriptural root lies just here. To speak honestly: this is one anchor where this stage joins with consciousness-only, and, being pointed to, it is left at that.

Five · First Cultivating the Worldly Concentration to Completion — the Three Categories of Concentration in the Worldly Purity

Before what transcends the world, there is a stretch of "worldly" skill that must be plainly accounted for. It is no detour; it is the stair by which one enters sanctity.

Here one must recognize the treatise's own structure: the Stage of Cultivation's "worldly purity of all kinds" = the three categories of concentration — attaining concentration, the perfection of concentration, and mastery of concentration. (One should not take the seven-attentions framework of the Śrāvaka Stage and impose it upon this.)

Attaining concentration: the treatise lists twenty kinds of "dharmas to be counteracted in attaining concentration," from "having as companions fellow practitioners who take no delight in cutting off" down to "not first cultivating the category of tranquillity, not first cultivating the category of insight," all of them obstructions to one-pointedness of mind. The twenty obstructions may, in brief, be obstructive by four characters: being unskilled in the means, having no practical effort at all, a wrong practical effort, and a loose and slack practical effort. To cut off these twenty obstructions is swiftly to settle the mind rightly and realize concentration — and this attainment the treatise itself fixes in place: "it is precisely what is embraced by the not-yet-arrived level, the access-concentration of the first meditative absorption." The first step of the worldly purity falls upon the not-yet-arrived concentration.

The perfection of concentration: having attained a small portion of surpassing concentration, one gives rise to no contentment of delight, but toward the surpassing concentration further raises up seeking and aspiration, sees its surpassing merits, and is heroically vigorous; in dependence upon the marks of stilling, exertion, and equanimity previously attained, one cultivates by the uninterrupted and reverent-weighty means, entering and emerging again and again, on to "being able to enter and realize the fundamental meditative absorption." From the not-yet-arrived concentration to advance into the fundamental meditative absorption is the perfection (Dunlun judges this to be the fundamental level, the ten characters).

Mastery of concentration: though the fundamental concentration is realized, one's mind is still defiled by the various secondary afflictions born of concentration — craving after savor, conceit, view, doubt, ignorance (avidyā), and the rest — and is "not yet named perfectly pure and pristine white." For the sake of training the mind and taming the mind, one contemplates well in four loci by twenty-two characters (contemplating the vow to accept the lowly form, deportment, and requisites; the vow to accept the restraining precepts; the vow to accept the diligent cultivation of the wholesome; and the following-along of the four sufferings), and by applying attention in accord with principle one comes "to deserve the name of the perception of the renunciant and the perception of the śramaṇa"; on at length to "attaining mastery upon concentration … one's mind pure and white, without stain or blemish, far removed from the secondary afflictions … attaining the unshakable, able to draw forth all the surpassing spiritual knowledges and higher wisdoms."

The three categories stated together are together named "the unsurpassed worldly purity of all kinds." The treatise's last line draws a boundary: "One should know that this purity is only within the true Dharma, and not among the various non-Buddhist paths." Even though the non-Buddhist paths can cultivate concentration up to the summit of existence, only within the true Dharma is there the one who can make his mind pure and pristine white, draw forth surpassing wisdom, and tend toward the transcending of the world. The worldly concentration cultivated to its utmost is still for the sake of that one gate that transcends the world.

Six · That Gate Beyond the World — the Entering into the Direct Realization of the Holy Truths and the Five Gates of the Path of Cultivation

However pure and white the worldly concentration, it is still within the "realm of idle proliferation." To step out beyond, on what single gate does one rely?

The Stage of Cultivation's world-transcending purity the treatise opens into five gates: first, the entering into the direct realization of the holy truths; second, having entered the direct realization of the holy truths, being far removed from the various obstructions; third, having entered the realization, in order to realize the swift higher knowledge, applying attention and reflecting upon the various matters of gladness; fourth, the cultivation of the path just as attained; fifth, the realizing of the utterly pure path and the merits of its fruit. The whole world-transcending road takes "the entering into the direct realization of the holy truths" as its first gate.

The entering into the direct realization of the holy truths — the student, having well cultivated the worldly purity, seeing deeply the faults of the various desires and seeing the tranquil virtue of the higher, surpassing realm, dwells disenchanted with the "realm of idle proliferation" (the worldly purity), his mind delighting to abide in the "realm free of idle proliferation" (the world-transcending purity). The treatise takes as the well-cultivated-and-mended the "applying attention and reflecting, with the perception concurrent with disenchantment, in five loci by twenty characters," and sets up further the "five causes and twenty characters" that hold the mind, so that it dwells much and swiftly in the nirvāṇa where craving is exhausted and stilled, its mind not turning back. The first of the five causes is "because of the penetrating attention" — and it is exactly here that the subtle meaning of consciousness-only shows itself:

The treatise says that within the intensified practice of emptiness, wishlessness, and marklessness, "the mind-mark that turns along interruptedly or uninterruptedly, concurrent with the conceit 'I,' is able to obstruct the attention of direct realization," and must be rightly penetrated and cast off; in dependence upon the mind ceasing without interval, one reflects, as it really is, with the modes of impermanence and the rest, on to "a knowledge arises in which the object-taken and the object-taker are equal and equal," and "the disordered mind of the conceit 'I' that is able to obstruct direct realization is cut off forever, and one realizes the one-pointedness of mind." What is this "conceit 'I' that turns along interruptedly and uninterruptedly"? Kuiji, in his Concise Compendium, judges it clearly: "The interrupted conceit 'I' is that concurrent with the sixth consciousness; the uninterrupted conceit 'I' is that concurrent with the seventh consciousness; both of these are innate, and so are named subtle". The subtle conceit "I" cut off in entering the direct realization of the truths is matched exactly to the innate self-grasping concurrent with the sixth consciousness and the seventh consciousness. Here the path of cultivation of this stage joins, at a single stroke, with the transformation of the basis in the consciousness-only paths of seeing and cultivating.

And this is precisely the common track of the five positions of consciousness-only: the Cheng Weishi Lun establishes the five positions — the provisions, the intensified practice, penetration (the path of seeing), cultivation (the path of cultivation), and the ultimate — as the gradual sequence of awakening to and entering the consciousness-only nature; the verse of the position of penetration says, "When toward the object the knowledge attains nothing to grasp, then one abides in consciousness-only, being free of the mark of the two graspings"; the verse of the position of cultivation says, "casting off the two coarse-and-heavies, one then realizes the transformation of the basis". This stage's "entering the direct realization of the holy truths → cultivating the path just as attained → realizing the pure path and its fruit" is just this path of seeing → path of cultivation → transformation of the basis, falling upon the common track of the śrāvaka's path of cultivation.

Being far removed from the various obstructions (the obstruction of the sphere of conduct, the obstruction of the dwelling place) and applying attention and reflecting upon the various matters of gladness (giving rise to gladness toward the field of the Three Jewels' merits, in dependence upon the pure confidence of realization, so as to draw forth the swift higher knowledge) — these two gates are the practice, after realization, of consolidating the strength of the path and keeping it from falling back.

The cultivation of the path just as attained — the one who has seen the holy truths, his mind drenched and flooded by a vast, blameless gladness, longs for the holy place where the arhats abide, gives rise to diligent vigor, by skillful means diligently cultivates the thirty-seven factors of awakening, delights in seclusion, and gives rise to no contentment of delight, "dwelling in yearning toward the higher, more surpassing, more subtle station of the various wholesome dharmas." By these four dharmas he embraces the path of cultivation, on at length to —

Seven · The Final Thought, Why It Is Named "Diamond" — the adamantine-like concentration and the Utterly Pure Path and Fruit

The whole road walked to its end, cutting off the last fraction of subtle obstruction — on what kind of concentration does it rely? The treatise gives it a name, and it is the sole simile of this stage.

"Again, this trainee, because the adamantine-like concentration reaches the ultimate, cultivates to perfection." — The adamantine-like concentration. This is, amid the scarcity of simile-words throughout the Stage of Cultivation, the one simile in operation, not to be lightly passed over. Diamond can crush all things and is not crushed by any; the last concentration of the trainee's level is just like diamond, able to cut off the last fraction of subtle obstruction and reach the ultimate, and so cultivates to perfection (Dunlun, glossing the fourth of "the cultivation of the path just as attained," that which brings five dharmas to cultivated perfection, gives as the fifth "attaining the diamond concentration"). The perfection of the path of cultivation hangs upon the cutting-off of obstruction in the final thought of the adamantine-like concentration — the antidotes, the categories of concentration, and the direct realization of the thousand turns and hundred bends before it, at this single thought, let their dust fall away.

The obstruction being cut off to exhaustion, there is then the utterly pure path and the merits of its fruit. The treatise names the five uncontaminated aggregates embraced by the ten limbs of the one beyond training (moral discipline, concentration, wisdom, liberation, and the knowledge-and-vision of liberation) as the utterly pure path; and because one realizes this path, one is "far removed from ten kinds of fault and abides in the holy abode," coming to be most surpassing among all sentient beings, on up to those born on high in the summit of existence — and so it is named "abiding in the holy abode," named a "merit." At this point, "the path of existence-karma that follows the path of the afflictions is, within the presently-seen Dharma, already forever cut off … the path of future suffering no longer turns. Because cause and fruit are thus forever extinguished, it is named the far limit of suffering. There is nothing more remaining, nothing higher, nothing more surpassing."

The worldly purity and the world-transcending purity, gathered in brief into one, are said to be named the fruit of cultivation. And the locus of cultivation, the causes-and-conditions of cultivation, the yoga of cultivation, and the fruit of cultivation, all stated together, are this one Stage of What is Attained through Cultivation. A stock-taking of "I was born a human being" walks all the way to the far limit of suffering where "there is nothing more remaining, nothing higher, nothing more surpassing." The whole road has truly been gathered within a single stage.

Eight · Carrying Forward — How the Later Treatises Take Up This Stage

The Stage of Cultivation is the last of the three-wisdoms stages and the master outline of the wisdom of cultivation; it condenses the whole road into an outline, and the later treatises then each open out and judge deeply upon a single node. The veins of the carrying-forward run as follows.

• The joining of the three-wisdoms stages: the Stage of What is Attained through Hearing (Stage 10), the Stage of What is Attained through Reflection (Stage 11), and the Stage of What is Attained through Cultivation (Stage 12), the three joined together as the three-wisdoms stages (Jinaputra, Commentary on the Yogācārabhūmi). The hearing-wisdom, the reflection-wisdom, and the cultivation-wisdom are accomplished in sequence, the cultivation-attained distinguished by its drawing forth wisdom through surpassing concentration and by its cultivation of the antidotes — and what this stage takes up from above lies precisely in the two stages of hearing and reflection.

• The Section on Ascertainment · the Ascertainment of the Stage of the Wisdom Attained through Cultivation (fascicle 67) takes up this stage and separately opens "the sixteen kinds of cultivation" to ascertain it afresh: among them the cultivation of the image, the cultivation of the far limit of the matter, and the cultivation of the accomplishing of what is to be done take up exactly the four kinds of object of the Saṃdhinirmocana; the cultivation of the antidote is divided into the four gates of disenchantment, cutting-off, sustaining, and far-part, and is matched with "the paths of hearing, reflection, and cultivation · the world-transcending path · the fruit that is the transformation of the basis · the worldly path of cultivation." This stage takes the four loci and seven branches as its outline; the Section on Ascertainment changes to a set of "sixteen kinds of cultivation" and ascertains the same meaning of cultivation afresh.

• The Śrāvaka Stage (Stage 13) opens it out widely: this stage's three perceptions and its sequence of tranquillity and insight in the cultivation of the antidotes are unfolded, in the Śrāvaka Stage, into the four kinds of object (the pervasive, the purifying-of-conduct, the skillful, and the purifying-of-affliction), the five stilling contemplations of the objects for purifying conduct, and the sequence from apprehending-the-aspect down to the fruit-of-culmination. This stage is the condensed map of the path of cultivation; the Śrāvaka Stage is its expanded version — which is why this stage does not set up the names "the seven attentions" or "the objects for purifying conduct," those names being established only when the Śrāvaka Stage opens it out widely.

• The consciousness-only paths of seeing and cultivating: this stage's "entering the direct realization of the holy truths → cultivating the path just as attained → realizing the pure path and its fruit" is, in the Cheng Weishi Lun, judged to be the gradual sequence of five positions — the path of seeing (the position of penetration), the path of cultivation (the position of cultivation), and the transformation of the basis (the ultimate position) — and the Thirty Verses' "gradually awakens to and enters the consciousness-only nature" takes it up; the ancient masters' clear judgment matching the subtle conceit "I" to the sixth and seventh consciousnesses is likewise in the Concise Compendium. This stage's path of cultivation is a foreshadowing, on the śrāvaka's common track, of the consciousness-only transformation of the basis.

• The Stage with Remaining Basis (Stage 16) · the Stage without Remaining Basis (Stage 17): Jinaputra cites the later treatise's "the Stage of Cultivation is also the Stage with Remaining Basis and without Remaining Basis" and "the Stage without Remaining Basis is a portion of five stages" — the conditioned merits of the cultivation-attained are gathered above under the Stage with Remaining Basis, its unconditioned merits under the Stage without Remaining Basis. The fruit of the wisdom of cultivation here passes through into the two nirvāṇa stages. The fruit of one stage is, from the first, the cause of the two later stages.