解脫道論 四諦因緣與三相廣觀

The four truths are fully brought forth in this passage, through a plain method: tracing backward from suffering.

Suffering has birth as its condition, birth has becoming as its condition, becoming has grasping as its condition, and the sequence continues until formations have ignorance as their condition. Eleven statements use one form, without omitting a link. Having reached the beginning, the author turns and gives a summary—but that summary names only three links: the first two and the last, omitting the middle.

The truths of suffering and arising are thereby established. The author gives the relevant knowledge three names: knowledge of the stability of dhammas, noble knowledge that grasps conditionality, and purification through freedom from doubt. Each name occurs only once in the treatise, and “these several expressions” gathers them without distinction.

The section on cessation calls for a pause. Its five statements of reverse cessation begin and end in agreement with the preceding series: when birth ceases, suffering ceases; when ignorance ceases, formations cease. The middle three exchange condition and conditioned: the cessation of birth is said to bring the cessation of becoming, the cessation of becoming that of grasping, and the cessation of grasping that of craving. The text then jumps from craving directly to ignorance and formations, leaving five intermediate links unstated.

No critical note occurs here. This edition records without correction.

Strangely, the summary that immediately follows is orderly and gives only three links in exactly the same positions as the forward summary. The two summaries are symmetrical.

The truth of the path is shortest, but it contains one telling feature: of the four truths, only the path points backward with “as explained in detail in the noble-truth method,” a phrase occurring only here in the treatise.

Then come one hundred and eighty dhammas and two calculations. The first says 於五陰五十二成六十; the second says 此十六成六十. Read as the single numbers fifty-two and sixteen, neither equals sixty.

The passage therefore offers a practical tool: when an announced total does not match a list, first test the punctuation.

Applied here, the first string becomes five times twelve—five aggregates with twelve approaches—and gives exactly sixty. The second list contains ten items, each attached to six; ten times six also gives sixty. Two run-together expressions are both restored by the “sixty” that the text itself announces.

Place them beside the reverse-cessation series and the teaching becomes complete: within one passage, a count restores two readings but cannot restore one sequence. Where the count restores the reading, preserve the written form and recognize the calculation. Where it does not, record without forcing a correction. A useful tool must not become a lever applied to what it cannot open.

The wording in the section on the three characteristics is also uneven: “with respect to formations, analytically contemplate,” “with respect to formations, contemplate analytically,” and “with respect to contemplation, analyze”—the last does not even contain the word “formations.”

The final three answers are likewise differently formed. Impermanence names the signless both where the mind arises and where it settles. Suffering moves from forming an aspiration to non-aspiration, positive to negative. Not-self describes only what is seen at arising and gives no name of an element there. This edition records without making the forms uniform.

A parenthetical closing ends the unit: “Analytical knowledge has ended.” This is Chapter Twelve’s first closing formula.

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Shi Huijing · Waken · The Path of Freedom · Conditions of the Four Noble Truths and Extended Contemplation of the Three Characteristics · Doorway · Summer 2026

First Question: What Is the Condition and Arising of This Suffering?

Question: What is the condition of this suffering, and what is its arising?

Answer: The meditator knows in this way:

This suffering has birth as its condition; birth has becoming as its condition; becoming has grasping as its condition; grasping has craving as its condition; craving has feeling as its condition; feeling has contact as its condition; contact has the six sense bases as its condition; the six sense bases have name-and-form as their condition; name-and-form has consciousness as its condition; consciousness has formations as its condition; formations have ignorance as their condition.

This series traces backward from suffering, link by link, in eleven statements, with no intermediate link omitted.

Thus ignorance conditions formations, formations condition consciousness, and birth conditions aging and death, producing grief, lamentation, suffering, and distress. In this way, the entire aggregate of suffering arises.

This summary gives only three links: the first two—ignorance conditions formations and formations condition consciousness—and the last—birth conditions aging and death. The middle links are omitted. This is recorded as it stands.

Causing the Truth of Arising to Arise

Having contemplated in detail how one is bound by conditions, the meditator now reduces the account: this feeling conditions craving, and that arising of suffering is caused to arise.

Knowledge of the stability of dhammas, noble knowledge that grasps conditionality, and purification through freedom from doubt are several names for the knowledge that causes the truth of arising to arise.

Cessation of Suffering: Viewed Through Reverse Cessation

Having caused the arising of suffering to arise and crossed beyond doubt in concentration, the meditator now contemplates the cessation of suffering.

What ceases? It is suffering that ceases. What ceases? It is this suffering that ceases.

The meditator knows in this way:

From the cessation of birth, this suffering ceases; from the cessation of birth, becoming ceases; from the cessation of becoming, grasping ceases; from the cessation of grasping, craving ceases; from the cessation of ignorance, formations cease.

In this five-statement list, the causal order of the first and last statements is opposite to that of the middle three. The first puts the cessation of birth first and the cessation of suffering after it; the last puts the cessation of ignorance first and the cessation of formations after it. Both agree with the earlier statements that suffering has birth as its condition and formations have ignorance as their condition. The middle three reverse this order. The list also jumps directly from the cessation of craving to the cessation of ignorance and formations, omitting feeling, contact, the six sense bases, name-and-form, and consciousness. This is recorded without correction or supplementation. No critical note occurs here.

Thus, from the cessation of ignorance, formations cease; from the cessation of formations, consciousness ceases; from the cessation of birth, aging, death, grief, lamentation, suffering, and distress cease. In this way, this entire aggregate of suffering ceases.

This summary likewise gives only three links, in exactly the same positions as the preceding summary. This is recorded as it stands.

Causing the Truth of Cessation to Arise

Having contemplated in detail the cessation of being bound by conditions, the meditator now reduces the account: this feeling conditions craving; from its cessation, suffering ceases. Thus the truth of cessation is caused to arise.

Causing the Truth of the Path to Arise

Having caused the truth of cessation to arise, the meditator now contemplates the path to the cessation of suffering: What is the path? What completeness brings craving to cessation?

The meditator knows in this way: contemplating the danger in the five appropriated aggregates is this path and this completeness that brings craving to cessation. Thus the truth of the path is caused to arise. As explained in detail in the noble-truth method, so should this be understood.

One Hundred and Eighty Dhammas: Two Calculations

Having caused the four truths to arise in sequence, the meditator now contemplates the five appropriated aggregates analytically, in sequence and by groups, through one hundred and eighty dhammas.

First Calculation

All form—past, future, and present; internal or external; large or small; coarse or subtle; far or near—is contemplated extensively as impermanent, as suffering, and as not-self.

All feeling, all perception, all formations, and all consciousness are treated in the same way.

Each aggregate has twelve approaches. For the five aggregates, the text writes 於五陰五十二成六十, literally running “five aggregates five-twelve make sixty” together without a break. Read as five times twelve, it yields sixty. Sixty visions of impermanence, sixty visions of suffering, and sixty visions of not-self make one hundred and eighty.

Read as the single number “fifty-two,” the written string does not agree with sixty. Read as five and twelve multiplied, it gives exactly sixty. The original written form is retained; punctuation is not supplied on the text’s behalf.

The qualifications listed above—past, future, present, internal, external, large, small, coarse, subtle, far, and near—number eleven, while the treatise calls them “twelve approaches.” If the word “all” in “all form” is also counted, there are exactly twelve. This is recorded without decision.

Second Calculation

Again, the one hundred and eighty approaches are: six internal sense bases, six external sense bases, six bodies of consciousness, six bodies of contact, six bodies of feeling, six bodies of perception, six bodies of intention, six bodies of craving, six applications of thought, and six examinations.

The text writes 此十六成六十, literally running “these ten-six make sixty” together. Ten times six makes sixty. Sixty visions of impermanence, sixty visions of suffering, and sixty visions of not-self—three sixties—make one hundred and eighty.

Read as the single number “sixteen,” the written string does not agree with sixty. The list contains exactly ten items, each attached to a six; ten times six gives exactly sixty. The original written form is retained; punctuation is not supplied on the text’s behalf.

How the Three Characteristics Are Contemplated

Across distant years, seasons, days, months, half-months, days and nights, times, moments of mind, and instants, formations become new and old through a process of turning, like the flame of a lamp continuing and turning. Thus formations are contemplated analytically as impermanent.

The suffering experienced in the bad destinations, hunger and thirst, fear, seeking, separation from the loved, aging, illness, death, grief, lamentation, suffering, and distress correspond to formations and continue. Thus formations are contemplated analytically as suffering.

What arises and is produced through aggregates, sense bases, elements, conditionality, truths, action, result, and conditions has no being, is unmoving, has no entity, and arises as formations by its own nature. Thus it is contemplated analytically as not-self.

With respect to formations and form: impermanence has the meaning of cessation; suffering, the meaning of fear; and not-self, the meaning of unreality. This is analyzed both in brief and in detail. Feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness are treated in the same way: impermanence means cessation, suffering means fear, and not-self means unreality. This too is analyzed in brief and in detail.

Here, analytical contemplation of impermanence removes the perception of permanence; analytical contemplation of suffering removes the perception of pleasure; analytical contemplation of not-self removes the perception of self.

Second Through Fourth Questions: How Are the Three Characteristics Analyzed Extensively?

Question: How is impermanence analyzed extensively?

Answer: One sees all formations in accordance with reality: there is no conditioned boundary; cessation is the boundary. One causes the mind to arise with regard to the signless and settles the mind in the signless element. Therefore this is called analyzing impermanence extensively.

Question: How is suffering analyzed?

Answer: One causes the mind to fear all formations, causes the mind to arise from forming an aspiration, and settles the mind in non-aspiration. Therefore this is called analyzing suffering extensively.

Question: How is not-self analyzed extensively?

Answer: Regarding all dhammas, one sees that grasping arises from another and from this; one then settles the mind in the element of emptiness. Therefore this is called analyzing not-self extensively.

The three answers do not use one mold. In the answer on impermanence, both arising and settling are said to concern the “signless.” In the answer on suffering, arising is linked to “forming an aspiration,” while settling is linked to “non-aspiration,” a positive and a negative form. In the answer on not-self, an element is named only for settling; the point of arising is described as what is seen, not where the mind settles. This is recorded as it stands.

In this way one analyzes the three realms of becoming, five destinations, seven stations of consciousness, and nine abodes of beings, viewing them through cessation, fear, and unreality. (Analytical knowledge has ended.)

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Shi Huijing · Waken · The Path of Freedom · Conditions of the Four Noble Truths and Extended Contemplation of the Three Characteristics · Vernacular · Summer 2026

The final sentence of 12-01 hands the reader onward: “From here, the conditions of suffering should be contemplated.” This passage receives that handoff with a question: “Question: What is the condition and arising of this suffering? Answer: The meditator knows in this way: this suffering has birth as its condition” 〔T32 454a05–06〕.

The central observation is this: two places run numbers together without a break, and in both places the text’s own announced total of “sixty” restores the reading. 於五陰五十二成六十 is five times twelve; 此十六成六十 is ten times six. Elsewhere in the same passage, however, neither counting nor sequence makes the wording align: in the five statements of reverse cessation, the first and last agree with the backward sequence, while the middle three are reversed. Within one passage, two readings can be recovered by number and one cannot.

Eleven Links Traced Backward, None Omitted

First observe how the four truths are established.

The author does not begin from a definition of suffering. He traces backward from suffering: “Birth has becoming as its condition; becoming has grasping as its condition; grasping has craving as its condition; craving has feeling as its condition” 〔T32 454a06–07〕, and continues to the beginning: “Contact has the six sense bases as its condition; the six sense bases have name-and-form as their condition; name-and-form has consciousness as its condition; consciousness has formations as its condition; formations have ignorance as their condition” 〔T32 454a08–10〕.

Eleven statements consistently attach the conditioned member and close with “has … as its condition.” No intermediate link is omitted.

Having reached the beginning, the author turns and gives a summary: “Thus ignorance conditions formations, formations condition consciousness, and birth conditions aging and death, producing grief, lamentation, suffering, and distress. In this way, the entire aggregate of suffering arises” 〔T32 454a10–11〕.

The summary gives only three links: the first two and the last. The middle is omitted.

The truths of suffering and arising are thereby established. The author closes: “Having contemplated in detail how one is bound by conditions, the meditator now reduces the account: this feeling conditions craving, and that arising of suffering is caused to arise” 〔T32 454a11–13〕.

Three names are then given to this knowledge: “knowledge of the stability of dhammas, noble knowledge that grasps conditionality, or purification through freedom from doubt—these several expressions refer to knowledge that causes the truth of arising to arise” 〔T32 454a13–15〕. Each of the three names occurs only once in the treatise, and the author gathers them with “these several expressions” without distinguishing them. This edition records without adjudication.

Pause: Why Are the Five Statements of Reverse Cessation Ordered This Way?

The truth of cessation follows. The author first asks twice: “What ceases? It is suffering that ceases. What ceases? It is this suffering that ceases” 〔T32 454a16〕.

Then comes reverse cessation: “From the cessation of birth, this suffering ceases; from the cessation of birth, becoming ceases; from the cessation of becoming, grasping ceases; from the cessation of grasping, craving ceases; from the cessation of ignorance, formations cease” 〔T32 454a17–18〕.

These five statements require a pause.

The first—when birth ceases, this suffering ceases—agrees with the earlier statement that birth conditions suffering.

The fifth—when ignorance ceases, formations cease—also agrees with the earlier statement that ignorance conditions formations.

But the middle three are reversed. The cessation of birth is followed by the cessation of becoming; the cessation of becoming by the cessation of grasping; the cessation of grasping by the cessation of craving. In the earlier series, becoming conditions birth, grasping conditions becoming, and craving conditions grasping. A sequence in the earlier causal order would therefore place the cessation of becoming before the cessation of birth, grasping before becoming, and craving before grasping. The three statements exchange the places of condition and conditioned.

There is a further feature. After “the cessation of grasping, craving ceases,” the passage jumps directly to “the cessation of ignorance, formations cease.” Feeling, contact, the six sense bases, name-and-form, and consciousness—five intermediate links—are not stated.

Why do the first and last agree while the middle three reverse?

The passage cannot answer. Three points alone are checkable: the first and last agree with the backward chain; the middle three reverse it; and no critical note occurs here—the critical tradition does not mark the passage as a variant.

This edition records without correction or supplementation.

The summary immediately following is orderly: “Thus, from the cessation of ignorance, formations cease; from the cessation of formations, consciousness ceases; from the cessation of birth, aging, death, grief, lamentation, suffering, and distress cease” 〔T32 454a19–20〕. It gives only three links, in exactly the same positions as the earlier forward summary—the first two and the last. The two summaries are symmetrical.

The truth of cessation then closes: “Having contemplated in detail the cessation of being bound by conditions, the meditator now reduces the account: this feeling conditions craving; from its cessation, suffering ceases. Thus the truth of cessation is caused to arise” 〔T32 454a20–22〕.

Place the closings of arising and cessation side by side: they use the same mold. The phrase “this feeling conditions craving” occurs twice in the whole treatise, both times here 〔454a13·454a22〕; “bound by conditions” also occurs twice, both times here 〔454a12·454a21〕. The two truths move in opposite directions, but the closing wording is unchanged.

The Truth of the Path: The Only Truth That Points Backward

The path section is shortest: “What is the path? What completeness brings craving to cessation?” 〔T32 454a23–24〕. The answer is: “Contemplating the danger in the five appropriated aggregates is this path and this completeness that brings craving to cessation. Thus the truth of the path is caused to arise. As explained in detail in the noble-truth method, so should this be understood” 〔T32 454a24–26〕.

One textual feature deserves notice. As the four truths are caused to arise one by one, only the truth of the path points backward to a preceding explanation. The formula “as explained in detail in the noble-truth method” 〔T32 454a25–26〕 occurs only once in the whole treatise. Suffering, arising, and cessation are stated locally without such a pointer.

The same device appeared in 12-01, where aggregates, sense bases, and elements each closed with “so should this be understood” 〔453c12·453c13·453c14〕 and sent the reader back to Chapter Eleven. Here the device appears once and only for the truth of the path.

Why the path alone? The passage cannot say. Its placement can be checked: suffering, arising, and cessation each receive a local development—suffering has the eleven-link backward tracing, arising has a closing plus three names, cessation has the reverse-cessation series plus its closing. The path alone has almost no development; after one sentence about contemplating the danger in the five appropriated aggregates, it turns outward 〔T32 454a24–26〕. The shortest truth is the one that points back. This edition records the contrast without supplying a reason.

Reading Practice: When the Number Does Not Fit, First Test the Punctuation

Once the four truths have arisen, the treatise turns to one hundred and eighty dhammas: “At this point, with respect to the five appropriated aggregates, the meditator contemplates analytically in sequence and by groups through one hundred and eighty dhammas” 〔T32 454a27–28〕.

Begin with the first calculation.

The qualifications are “all form—past, future, and present; internal or external; large or small; coarse or subtle; far or near” 〔T32 454a28–29〕, followed by “all form is contemplated extensively as impermanent, as suffering, and as not-self” 〔T32 454a29–454b01〕. Feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness are treated likewise.

The calculation reads: “Each aggregate has twelve approaches; 於五陰五十二成六十” 〔T32 454b02–03〕.

The written string 五十二成六十, if read as ‘fifty-two makes sixty,’ does not work. Fifty-two is not sixty.

The passage offers a reading practice: when an announced total does not match the listed items, first test a different punctuation before deciding.

Read the string as five and twelve: five aggregates times twelve approaches. It gives exactly sixty. A change of segmentation makes the number fit.

The second calculation is even clearer: “Again, the one hundred and eighty approaches are six internal sense bases, six external sense bases, six bodies of consciousness, six bodies of contact, six bodies of feeling, six bodies of perception, six bodies of intention, six bodies of craving, six applications of thought, and six examinations” 〔T32 454b04–07〕. It then says 此十六成六十 〔T32 454b07〕.

If 十六成六十 is read as ‘sixteen makes sixty,’ it likewise fails. But the preceding list has exactly ten items, each with a six. Read as ten times six, it again gives exactly sixty.

Within one passage, two unpunctuated strings are both restored by the total “sixty” that the text itself announces. This contrasts with the reverse-cessation series: there the sequence only tells us that it does not align; here the count gives the reading back.

Three sixties make one hundred and eighty. The second calculation states this explicitly: “three sixties make one hundred and eighty” 〔T32 454b08〕. “One hundred and eighty” occurs four times in the whole treatise, all four here.

One further point should be noted. The first calculation lists past, future, present, internal, external, large, small, coarse, subtle, far, and near—eleven qualifications—while the text announces “twelve approaches.” If “all” in “all form” is also counted, there are twelve. The edition records without deciding.

The Three Characteristics: Each Passage Uses Different Words

Once the one hundred and eighty dhammas have been established, the treatise describes contemplation of the three characteristics.

The impermanence passage first lays out time: “Across distant years, seasons, days, months, half-months, days and nights, times, moments of mind, and instants, formations become new and old through a process of turning, like the flame of a lamp continuing and turning” 〔T32 454b08–10〕. It then says “formations are contemplated analytically as impermanent” 〔T32 454b10〕. The lamp flame is not lit only here: it occurs four times in the treatise, two of them in 12-04 〔455a12·455a21〕.

The suffering passage lays out oppression and closes, “formations are contemplated analytically as suffering” 〔T32 454b12〕.

The not-self passage lays out absence of a controller: “no being, unmoving, no entity, arising as formations by their own nature” 〔T32 454b13–14〕, and closes with “it is contemplated analytically as not-self” 〔T32 454b14–15〕.

The three statements are worded differently: one says “with respect to formations, analytically contemplate”; one “with respect to formations, contemplate analytically”; one “with respect to contemplation, analyze”—and the last does not contain the word “formations.” They are recorded without standardization.

Each characteristic is then linked to one meaning and removes one perception: “impermanence has the meaning of cessation; suffering, the meaning of fear; not-self, the meaning of unreality” 〔T32 454b15–16〕; and “analytical contemplation of impermanence removes the perception of permanence, contemplation of suffering removes the perception of pleasure, and contemplation of not-self removes the perception of self” 〔T32 454b18–19〕.

Three meanings correspond to three perceptions, one for one. Here the wording is fully regular: each characteristic has one meaning and each meaning removes one perception, without a missing number or position. Read beside the preceding three different closing formulations, the treatise is regular where it is regular and irregular where it is irregular. The edition notes both without making them uniform.

Three Answers, Three Different Forms

The final three questions and answers link each characteristic to a distinct place.

“Question: How is impermanence analyzed extensively? Answer: One sees all formations in accordance with reality: there is no conditioned boundary; cessation is the boundary” 〔T32 454b19–20〕; “one causes the mind to arise with regard to the signless and settles the mind in the signless element. Therefore this is called analyzing impermanence extensively” 〔T32 454b21–22〕.

“Question: How is suffering analyzed? Answer: One causes the mind to fear all formations, causes the mind to arise from forming an aspiration, and settles the mind in non-aspiration” 〔T32 454b22–24〕.

“Question: How is not-self analyzed extensively? Answer: Regarding all dhammas, one sees that grasping arises from another and from this; one settles the mind in the element of emptiness” 〔T32 454b24–26〕.

The forms of the three answers are unequal in different ways. The impermanence answer speaks of the signless both where the mind arises and where it settles. The suffering answer speaks positively of forming an aspiration at arising and negatively of non-aspiration at settling. The not-self answer describes what is seen at arising—from another and from this—and gives no name of an element there; only the settling point is called the element of emptiness.

The phrases “no conditioned boundary,” “non-aspiration,” and “in the element of emptiness” each occur only once in the whole treatise. They are recorded without standardization.

The closing says: “In this way one analyzes the three realms of becoming, five destinations, seven stations of consciousness, and nine abodes of beings, viewing them through cessation, fear, and unreality. (Analytical knowledge has ended)” 〔T32 454b27–29〕.

This is the first parenthetical closing formula in Chapter Twelve. The group of four names will recur: it appears four times in the work, three of them in 12-07 〔456c12·456c14–15·456c22〕. The name “analytical knowledge” occurs three times; the other two are in 12-05, where it is “analytical knowledge of formations” (455c11·455c15).

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Take away three things. One observation: the passage restores two run-together numerical strings through its own announced total of sixty: 於五陰五十二成六十 〔T32 454b03〕 means five times twelve, and 此十六成六十 〔T32 454b07〕 means ten times six. Yet the five statements of reverse cessation agree at the first and last, reverse the middle three, and omit five links 〔T32 454a17–18〕. Two places can be recovered by number; one cannot. One reading practice: when an announced total does not match a list, test the punctuation first. If one segmentation makes the numbers agree, retain the written form but recognize the calculation; if no segmentation resolves it, do not force a correction. One pause: why do the first and last reverse-cessation statements agree while the middle three reverse and five links are omitted? No critical note occurs there; this edition records without correction or supplementation.

Three smaller points also matter. The forward and reverse summaries each give only the first two links and the last, in identical positions 〔T32 454a10–11·454a19–20〕. The closings of arising and cessation have the same form, and the phrases “this feeling conditions craving” and “bound by conditions” each occur twice in the work, both times in those two closings. Finally, of the four truths, only the path points backward through “as explained in detail in the noble-truth method” 〔T32 454a25–26〕, a phrase occurring only here in the work.

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Shi Huijing · Waken · The Path of Freedom · Conditions of the Four Noble Truths and Extended Contemplation of the Three Characteristics · Exposition · Summer 2026