解脫道論 觀滅三行與除亂慢

Knowledge of arising and cessation has closed, and contemplation turns once more. From this point the meditator no longer attends to contemplating arising and sees only the cessation of mind.

The author establishes three ways—through a group, through a pair, and through analysis—and asks one question for each. All three questions have the same form, and none is missing. This is worth reading beside the earlier passage: there, the three ways concerning arising are also divided among three places, but one place lacks even the words “question” and “answer.” Within the same treatise, two sequences of three questions have matching structures, but one is uniform and the other is not.

When the three ways are complete, the author says only “as the verse says” and introduces a long verse of thirty-nine Chinese lines. No title is given, and the words are attributed neither to the Buddha nor to an elder. Nor does the verse have a closing formula.

Here is a reading tool worth carrying away: when meeting a long verse, do not begin by reading it line by line. First count its line form—how many Chinese graphs make up each line, and whether that number changes midway.

The count here is exact: the first twenty-six lines have five graphs each, and the final thirteen have seven.

The line where the form changes is also exactly where the subject changes. From beginning to end the five-graph section concerns how faculties and objects do not arise from themselves and how mutual conditioning is weak. The sound of a drum struck by a beater arises neither from the eye nor from form; the six faculties are taken in sequence; six occurrences of 最羸, “weakest,” follow; and a gandharva city closes the section. From beginning to end the seven-graph section concerns how one mind-moment and the three times cannot be found: one mind associated with suffering and pleasure is swift; a moment is placed beside mountains, oceans, and eighty thousand eons; in ultimate meaning there is no going or coming; dhammas do not arise, like empty space, and like lightning they cease in an instant.

Form is visible structure; subject is meaning. When the form changes, the meaning changes with it. This seam need not be guessed from interpretation alone. Counting the Chinese graphs in each line makes it visible.

One point invites a pause. 亦不離二句—“nor do they depart from these two phrases”—occurs five times in the verse, once each for eye, ear, nose, tongue, and body. The following section on the dhamma entrance does not carry that phrase and instead says 依因緣依生, “arises in dependence on causes and conditions.” Why do the five faculties all carry the phrase while the dhamma entrance does not? Two variants occur in that section, but neither supplies the missing words. This edition retains the text without supplementation.

At three other places the body’s graph 羸, “weak,” differs from the Taishō base’s 臝: the critical edition has already changed its own body text to 羸. Where the critical edition has amended the body, this text follows the corrected reading. That differs from merely recording a variant without adopting it. The apparatus separates those two classes into Tables A and B to keep the distinction visible.

After the verse, the author says that entering concentration upon seeing cessation is like smoke arising when fire is drilled. Illumination, knowledge, joy, tranquility, and other dhammas then arise, and the meditator may give rise to distraction or to overestimation. The subjects of the two questions are uneven: one asks how distraction is removed, and the other how overestimation arises. How does overestimation arise? The answer is concrete: a sign of attainment is formed over what has not yet been attained, and effort then stops.

The final words are “Knowledge of contemplating cessation has ended.” 觀滅智, “knowledge of contemplating cessation,” occurs only once in the entire treatise. The fascicle heading immediately follows. Chapter Twelve has completed its first fascicle.

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Shi Huijing · Waken · The Path of Freedom · Three Ways of Contemplating Cessation and Removing Distraction and Overestimation · Doorway · Summer 2026

Continuing the Preceding Passage: Seeing Only the Cessation of Mind

Having thus rightly seen the characteristic of arising and cessation, finely distinguished formations, and delighted in attaining the concentration that delights in cessation, the meditator no longer attends to contemplating arising. The meditator sees only the cessation of mind.

Taking form as object and taking the arising and cessation of mind, the meditator relies on that object and sees the cessation of mind. In the same way, through sustaining feeling, through perception as object, through formations as object, through consciousness as object, and through the arising and cessation of mind, the meditator relies on that object and sees the arising and cessation of mind.

Again, cessation is seen through three ways: through a group, through a pair, and through analysis.

First Question: How Through a Group?

Question: How does one see through a group?

Answer: With regard to a posture and the mental and associated factors that arise from that posture, one sees their cessation there as a group.

Again, one has contemplated form as impermanent, feeling as impermanent, perception as impermanent, formations as impermanent, and consciousness as impermanent. At that time, one sees as a group the cessation of the mental and associated factors that arise with impermanence as their object. The same applies to suffering as object and not-self as object. In this way one should see through a group.

Second Question: How Through a Pair?

Question: How does one see through a pair?

Answer: Having contemplated this form as impermanent, one sees the arising and cessation of the mind that arises following impermanence. In the same way, having contemplated feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness as impermanent, one sees the arising and cessation of the mind that arises following impermanence as its object. The same applies after taking suffering as object and after taking not-self as object. In this way one should contemplate through a pair.

Third Question: How Through Analysis?

Question: How does one see through analysis?

Answer: Having contemplated this form as impermanent, one sees the arising and cessation of the mind that arises following impermanence as its object. Contemplating through analysis in this way, one sees the cessation of many minds. In the same way, one contemplates feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness as impermanent, and sees the arising and cessation of the mind that arises following impermanence as its object. Through this seeing, one sees the mind cease and then sees that seeing cease. In this way, through analysis, one sees the cessation of many minds.

Contemplation of suffering and contemplation of not-self proceed in the same way. Having thus analyzed, one directly contemplates only that cessation.

The object of that cessation of suffering becomes specialized, and one constantly seeks the moments of formations and thereby obtains benefit. With this wisdom, not conditioned by another, the meditator sees the entire world. By its own nature it reaches something like the tip of a mustard seed: within one mind-moment there are arising, aging, death, and change. At that time the meditator again sees in this way.

Verse

As the verse says:

Section in Five-Graph Lines

This pair is the nature of name-and-form, turning upon one cessation. The cessation of the phrase is a condition for that cessation and for what is born from its cause. The aggregates are impermanent and subject to cessation; suffering is subject to arising and subject to cessation.

Like the sound of a drum struck by a beater: it does not arise from the eye; the five dhammas beginning with form and odor do not arise from form; nor do they depart from these two phrases. The conditioned arises dependent on conditions.

Like the sound of a drum struck by a beater: it does not arise from the ear; the five dhammas beginning with form and odor do not arise from sound; nor do they depart from these two phrases.

Nor does it arise from the nose; the five dhammas beginning with form and odor do not arise from odor; nor do they depart from these two phrases.

Nor does it arise from the tongue; the five dhammas beginning with form and odor do not arise from taste; nor do they depart from these two phrases.

Nor does it arise from the body; the five dhammas beginning with form and odor do not arise from touch; nor do they depart from these two phrases.

It does not arise from the sense-base or form and does not emerge from the dhamma entrance; it arises in dependence on causes and conditions.

Like the sound of a drum struck by a beater: that faculty is weakest when it emerges; the initial cause is also weakest, that cause is also weakest, what arises is also weak, this common ground is weakest, the associated is also weakest, the combined is also weakest, and this mutual turning is always weak.

The mutually turning dhammas do not remain. There is no nature that turns mutually, no agent able to make them arise, and no one that makes arising occur. They are like a gandharva city—who first made it arise? It is not born through its own body, does not remain through its own power, and arises by following other dhammas, giving rise to all influx-laden dhammas.

Section in Seven-Graph Lines

Its own substance is weak and does not produce itself; it is not its own cause and not its own object. It has no conditioned place and no own-nature; all modes of existence lack an own-nature in their formations and characteristics.

For birth, its own body is weak and has no time. It comes from nowhere and goes nowhere. Its place has no arising and is a foreign land. Mind has neither what belongs to self nor the nature of life and body.

One mind, associated with suffering and pleasure, is swift: a moment, mountains and oceans, eighty thousand eons. Once it remains, it does not remain again; there are not two minds. What is associated has passed and is about to cease.

All those aggregates now remaining have already gone and are lost without interval. What is future will be lost in that interval. What has disappeared does not arise again with a different characteristic. Because it is not born, the present is born; when it is lost from mind, the world is absent.

In ultimate meaning there is no going and no coming. The future has no collection and is only turning birth. Remaining like a mustard seed, dhammas arise; when that dhamma has ceased, that is its beginning.

In the world the beginning is not mixed with dhamma. One sees no going or coming and sees no arising. Dhammas do not arise, like empty space; like lightning they arise and cease in an instant.

The form of the verse changes once within a single passage: the first twenty-six lines have five Chinese graphs per line, and the final thirteen have seven. That measured feature is recorded here.

One further point: at three places the critical edition has already changed the body text from 臝 in the Taishō base to 羸—at “this mutual turning is always 羸,” “its own substance is 羸 and weak,” and “for birth, its own body is 羸.” This text follows the graph presented by the critical edition, not the Taishō graph.

After Seeing Cessation: Distraction and Overestimation

Seeing cessation inexhaustibly in this way, the meditator enters concentration, like smoke arising when fire is drilled. The factors of awakening arise moment after moment; illumination and knowledge arise; joy, tranquility, happiness, grasping, liberation, and foundations of mindfulness arise. Equanimity and emergence are unclear here. With regard to these dhammas, the meditator may give rise either to distraction or to overestimation.

Fourth Question: How Is Distraction Removed?

Question: How is distraction removed?

Answer: Joy arises in the meditator with regard to a dhamma, and that joy causes it to become still more settled. In this way that sitting again causes it to become settled, and the meditator’s mental dhammas become gathered by regulation. If the mind is gathered by regulation through dhamma, it is always difficult for that mind to depart from concentration on contemplation of cessation. It continually penetrates and in this way departs.

Fifth Question: How Does Overestimation Arise?

Question: How does overestimation arise?

Answer: When the sign of illumination first arises for the meditator with regard to a dhamma, the meditator attains a supramundane dhamma. A sign of attainment is formed with respect to what has not yet been attained, and the meditator continually makes no further effort. In this way overestimation arises.

The discerning meditator knows that this defilement is a disturbance of concentration, knows the activity and object of mundane dhammas, and in this way knows Nibbāna as the object of supramundane dhammas. Having known in this way, the meditator removes distraction and overestimation through knowledge, sees only cessation as wholesome, practices it, and develops it repeatedly. (Knowledge of contemplating cessation has ended.)

Two Points to Record

First, “like the sound of a drum struck by a beater” appears three times in the verse: once for the eye, once for the ear, and once when it says that “that faculty is weakest when it emerges.” The nose, tongue, and body continue the preceding pattern without repeating the phrase.

Second, “nor do they depart from these two phrases” appears five times, once each for eye, ear, nose, tongue, and body. The following section on the dhamma entrance does not carry that phrase and instead says, “it arises in dependence on causes and conditions.” This is retained without supplementation.

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Shi Huijing · Waken · The Path of Freedom · Three Ways of Contemplating Cessation and Removing Distraction and Overestimation · Vernacular · Summer 2026

Knowledge of arising and cessation has closed, and contemplation of formations turns once more: “Having thus rightly seen the characteristic of arising and cessation, finely distinguished formations, and delighted in attaining the concentration that delights in cessation” 〔T32 455c16–17〕, from this point the meditator no longer attends to contemplating arising and sees only the cessation of mind.

The main observation should be stated at once: the quoted verse has thirty-nine lines, and its line form changes once in the middle—the first twenty-six are five-graph lines and the final thirteen are seven-graph lines. The place where the form changes is precisely where the subject changes. The five-graph section concerns the six faculties’ failure to arise from themselves and the weakness of mutual conditioning; the seven-graph section concerns the moment and the three times. When the form changes, the subject changes with it. These are counts of Chinese graphs.

Seeing Cessation Through Three Ways: Three Questions in the Same Form, None Missing

First consider the backbone of the prose passage.

The author establishes three ways: “Again, cessation is seen through three ways: through a group, through a pair, and through analysis” 〔T32 455c20–21〕. Three questions then follow, one for each.

“Question: How through a group? Answer: With regard to a posture and the mental and associated factors that arise from that posture, one sees their cessation there as a group” 〔T32 455c21–22〕.

“Question: How through a pair? Answer: Having contemplated this form as impermanent, one sees the arising and cessation of the mind that arises following impermanence” 〔T32 455c25–26〕.

“Question: How through analysis? Answer: Having contemplated this form as impermanent” 〔T32 455c28–29〕.

All three questions have the same form; none is missing. This contrasts exactly with 12-04: there, the three ways concerning the characteristic of arising are likewise distributed across three places, but one place lacks both the words “question” and “answer.” Within the same treatise, two sequences of three questions have matching structures, but one is uniform and the other is not. Both are retained as they stand.

Each answer states concretely what its way does, so each deserves separate attention.

Group: first, with regard to the mental and associated factors that arise from a posture, “one sees their cessation there as a group” 〔T32 455c22〕. Then the answer applies to the three characteristics: “Again, one has contemplated form as impermanent, feeling as impermanent, perception as impermanent, formations as impermanent, and consciousness as impermanent” 〔T32 455c22–23〕. The mental and associated factors that arise with impermanence as their object form a group whose cessation is seen, and the answer closes, “The same applies to suffering as object and not-self as object. In this way one should see through a group” 〔T32 455c24–25〕. A group gathers the collection of minds arising in the same place and sees them cease together.

Pair: “Having contemplated this form as impermanent, one sees the arising and cessation of the mind that arises following impermanence” 〔T32 455c25–26〕. The close says, “The same applies after taking suffering as object and after taking not-self as object. In this way one should contemplate through a pair” 〔T32 455c28〕. The contemplated dhamma and the contemplating mind form a pair, and the contemplating mind is itself seen to arise and cease.

Analysis: the opening is identical to that for the pair, but it adds one sentence: “Through this seeing, one sees the mind cease and then sees that seeing cease. In this way, through analysis, one sees the cessation of many minds” 〔T32 456a02–03〕. It closes, “Contemplation of suffering and contemplation of not-self proceed in the same way. Having thus analyzed, one directly contemplates only that cessation” 〔T32 456a03–04〕. Analysis sees the mind cease and then sees the seeing itself cease, so what is seen is not one cessation but many.

The three closing formulas each say that one “should see” or “should contemplate” through that way, while the number contemplated increases step by step: a group is a collection, a pair is two, and analysis is multiple. When the three ways are complete, the phrase “directly contemplates only that cessation” 〔T32 456a04〕 gathers the practice back into a single cessation. From many to one: this gathering is the final step before the verse is introduced.

With the three ways complete, the text turns to why the verse is quoted: “The object of that cessation of suffering becomes specialized, and one constantly seeks the moments of formations and thereby obtains benefit” 〔T32 456a05〕; “by its own nature it reaches something like the tip of a mustard seed: within one mind-moment there are arising, aging, death, and change” 〔T32 456a06–07〕. It then says simply, “As the verse says” 〔T32 456a08〕.

The author says only “as the verse says.” No title is given, and the words are attributed neither to the Buddha nor to an elder. Nor is there a closing formula at the end of the verse; the close comes in the first prose sentence after it. The wording is retained without identifying the source on the author’s behalf.

Reading Practice: With a Long Verse, First Count Whether Its Line Form Changes Midway

Now consider the verse.

It opens with the pair of name-and-form: “This pair is the nature of name-and-form, turning upon one cessation” 〔T32 456a09〕; “the aggregates are impermanent and subject to cessation; suffering is subject to arising and subject to cessation” 〔T32 456a11〕.

Next comes a group concerning drum sound: “Like the sound of a drum struck by a beater: it does not arise from the eye” 〔T32 456a12〕; “the five dhammas beginning with form and odor do not arise from form” 〔T32 456a13〕; “nor do they depart from these two phrases; the conditioned arises dependent on conditions” 〔T32 456a14〕.

The ear begins once more: “Like the sound of a drum struck by a beater: it does not arise from the ear” 〔T32 456a15〕.

For the nose, tongue, and body, however, the phrase 如桴打鼓聲—“like the sound of a drum struck by a beater”—is not repeated. It occurs three times in the entire treatise, all three here: once for the eye, once for the ear, and a third time where it has already turned to introduce the section on weakness 〔T32 456a25〕.

Then comes a dense stack of weakness: “Like the sound of a drum struck by a beater: that faculty is weakest when it emerges” 〔T32 456a25〕. Six occurrences of 最羸, “weakest,” descend through the following clauses; the movement then closes with “this mutual turning is always weak; the mutually turning dhammas do not remain” 〔T32 456a29〕. At this last place four witnesses have 最, “most,” rather than the base’s 常, “always”; if those witnesses are followed, this line becomes uniform with the five occurrences above. Both readings are recorded without adjudication, and the body follows the base.

This stack deserves to be counted clause by clause, because it is the densest part of the verse: “the initial cause is also weakest; that cause is also weakest” 〔T32 456a26〕; “what arises is also weak; this common ground is weakest” 〔T32 456a27〕; “the associated is also weakest; the combined is also weakest” 〔T32 456a28〕. The faculty at emergence is weak; the initial cause is weak; that cause is weak; what arises is weak; common ground is weak; association is weak; combination is weak; mutual turning is weak. Each clause changes the position while retaining the word. 最羸 occurs six times in the entire treatise, all in these lines.

No single link alone is weak; every link is weak. The author adds no explanatory note and instead applies the same word at eight positions. Together the eight positions trace an entire dependent process—from the faculty’s emergence, through causes and what arises, to common ground, association, combination, and mutual turning. One word applied eight times: that is the passage’s method of exposition.

The next three lines press this stack to its limit: “There is no nature that turns mutually, no agent able to make them arise” 〔T32 456b01〕. Even an agent that might cause arising is absent. “Who first made it arise?” 〔T32 456b03〕 is a question without a direct answer; the next three clauses answer it: it is not born through its own body, does not remain through its own power, and arises by following other dhammas.

The final simile in the five-graph section is the gandharva city: “No one that makes arising occur exists; they are like a gandharva city” 〔T32 456b02〕; “it is not born through its own body, does not remain through its own power, and arises by following other dhammas, giving rise to all influx-laden dhammas” 〔T32 456b03–05〕. 乾闥婆城, “gandharva city,” occurs only once in the entire treatise.

Then the line form changes.

“Its own substance is weak and does not produce itself; it is not its own cause and not its own object” 〔T32 456b06〕—seven Chinese graphs per line.

From this line to the end of the verse, every line has seven graphs: “For birth, its own body is weak and has no time; it comes from nowhere and goes nowhere” 〔T32 456b08〕; “One mind, associated with suffering and pleasure, is swift: a moment, mountains and oceans, eighty thousand eons” 〔T32 456b10〕; “Once it remains, it does not remain again; there are not two minds. What is associated has passed and is about to cease” 〔T32 456b11〕; “All those aggregates now remaining have already gone and are lost without interval” 〔T32 456b12〕; “Because it is not born, the present is born; when it is lost from mind, the world is absent” 〔T32 456b14〕; “In ultimate meaning there is no going and no coming; the future has no collection and is only turning birth” 〔T32 456b15〕; “Remaining like a mustard seed, dhammas arise; when that dhamma has ceased, that is its beginning” 〔T32 456b16〕; “In the world the beginning is not mixed with dhamma; one sees no going or coming and sees no arising” 〔T32 456b17〕. It closes with two similes: “Dhammas do not arise, like empty space; like lightning they arise and cease in an instant” 〔T32 456b18〕.

The reading practice offered by the passage is this: when meeting a long verse, do not begin by reading it line by line. First count its line form—how many Chinese graphs make up each line, and whether that number changes midway.

The count here is thirty-nine lines: the first twenty-six have five graphs, and the final thirteen have seven. The line where the form changes is also exactly the line where the subject changes. From beginning to end the five-graph section concerns how faculties and objects do not arise from themselves and how every stage of mutual conditioning is weak. From beginning to end the seven-graph section concerns how one mind-moment and the three times cannot be found.

Form is visible structure; subject is meaning. When the form changes, the meaning changes with it. This seam need not be inferred from interpretation alone; counting the graphs in each Chinese line makes it visible.

The movement of the seven-graph section is also worth following. It first continues the earlier theme of weakness: “its own substance is weak and does not produce itself” 〔T32 456b06〕 and “for birth, its own body is weak and has no time” 〔T32 456b08〕 move weakness from the links of conditioning to substance itself. It then changes scale to time: “One mind, associated with suffering and pleasure, is swift: a moment, mountains and oceans, eighty thousand eons” 〔T32 456b10〕. One sentence places the speed of a single mind alongside eighty thousand eons, exhausting both extremes of scale at once. It then turns to the three times: the presently abiding aggregates have already gone and been lost, the future will be lost, and what has disappeared does not arise again 〔T32 456b12〕. Finally, “in ultimate meaning there is no going and no coming; the future has no collection and is only turning birth” 〔T32 456b15〕 gives the general judgment, and the similes of the mustard seed, empty space, and lightning close it 〔T32 456b16·456b18〕.

The five-graph section dismantles the question “From where does it arise?” The seven-graph section dismantles “At what moment does it remain?” One concerns place; the other concerns time. Both yield the same answer: neither can be found. The two sections give one side each and together form a single contemplation of cessation. This edition records the parallel without supplying the author’s reason.

(Two further visible details should be recorded. In the five-graph section, 亦不離二句—“nor do they depart from these two phrases”—occurs five times, once each for eye, ear, nose, tongue, and body. The following section on the dhamma entrance does not carry that phrase and instead says, “It does not arise from the sense-base or form, does not emerge from the dhamma entrance, and arises in dependence on causes and conditions” 〔T32 456a23–24〕. Also, 第一義中, “in ultimate meaning,” and 猶如電, “like lightning,” each occur only once in the entire treatise 〔456b15〕〔456b18〕.)

A Place to Pause: All Five Faculties Carry That Phrase; Why Does the Dhamma Entrance Not?

The point at which to pause is the one just noted.

亦不離二句 occurs five times in the entire treatise, all in this verse, once each for eye, ear, nose, tongue, and body. The sixth place—the section on the dhamma entrance—does not carry the phrase.

Pause and ask: why do all five faculties carry it while the dhamma entrance does not?

This passage cannot answer. Three matters can be checked: there is one occurrence for each of the five faculties, which can be counted plainly; the section on the dhamma entrance changes to 依因緣依生, “arises in dependence on causes and conditions”; and although two variants occur here—four witnesses read 亦不從 for the base’s 不從處色, and 出入 for 入出—neither variant supplies 亦不離二句. Following the four witnesses would make this section’s wording more nearly uniform with the five preceding sections, but the missing phrase would remain missing.

This edition retains the text without supplementation.

Three Instances of 羸: Here the Body Does Not Follow the Taishō Base

At three places in the verse, this edition’s body differs from the Taishō base.

展轉此常羸 〔T32 456a29〕, 自體羸劣不自生 〔T32 456b06〕, and 為生自身羸無時 〔T32 456b08〕 each have the graph 羸, “weak,” here. The Taishō base has 臝, but the critical edition has already changed its body text to 羸.

Where the critical edition has amended the body, this text follows the corrected reading. This differs from entries that merely record a variant without adopting it: in those cases the body follows the Taishō base. All three places involve the same change and fall in the section on weakness or at the beginning of the seven-graph section.

Section 3 of the apparatus separates the two classes into Tables A and B precisely to keep this distinction visible.

After the Verse: Distraction and Overestimation; the Two Questions Have Uneven Subjects

After the verse, the prose continues: “Seeing cessation inexhaustibly in this way, the meditator enters concentration, like smoke arising when fire is drilled” 〔T32 456b19〕. 如鑽火烟起, “like smoke arising when fire is drilled,” occurs only once in the entire treatise.

The dhammas that arise then follow: “The factors of awakening arise moment after moment; illumination and knowledge arise; joy, tranquility, happiness, grasping, liberation, and foundations of mindfulness arise. Equanimity and emergence are unclear here” 〔T32 456b20–21〕. The text lists names without giving a total and does not explain the items one by one. This edition retains the list without supplying a count or completing it.

Then: “With regard to these dhammas, the meditator may give rise either to distraction or to overestimation” 〔T32 456b21–22〕.

Two questions follow, but their subjects are not parallel:

“Question: How is distraction removed? Answer: Joy arises in the meditator with regard to a dhamma, and that joy causes it to become still more settled” 〔T32 456b22–23〕—the question asks about removal.

“Question: How does overestimation arise? Answer: When the sign of illumination first arises for the meditator with regard to a dhamma, the meditator attains a supramundane dhamma” 〔T32 456b26–27〕—the question asks about arising.

One asks how something is removed; the other asks how something arises. The first directly asks how distraction is removed, while the second first asks how overestimation arises. The removal of the latter comes only at the end of the answer: “In this way knowledge removes distraction and overestimation; seeing only cessation is wholesome, so one practices and develops it repeatedly. (Knowledge of contemplating cessation has ended.)” 〔T32 456c01–02〕. A single sentence removes both. Their uneven subjects are retained without normalization.

The arising of overestimation is described concretely: “A sign of attainment is formed with respect to what has not yet been attained, and the meditator continually makes no further effort. In this way overestimation arises” 〔T32 456b27–28〕. A sign of attainment is formed over what has not been attained, and effort then stops. The discerning meditator “knows that this defilement is a disturbance of concentration” 〔T32 456b28–29〕.

This judgment should be retained: the author classifies overestimation as 定亂, a disturbance of concentration, rather than as a separate kind of view or conceit. The distraction removed in the preceding question and the overestimation that arises in this question are two faces of one problem for the author; hence a single closing sentence can remove them together. The mechanism of arising likewise has only one sequence: a sign of attainment first; cessation of effort afterward. One believes attainment has occurred and then stops. This section provides no separate countermeasure and places “knowing” first: knowing that the defilement is a disturbance of concentration, knowing the activity and object of mundane dhammas, and knowing Nibbāna as the object of supramundane dhammas. Once it is known, knowledge removes it.

One Fascicle Ends Here

“(Knowledge of contemplating cessation has ended.)” 〔T32 456c02〕. 觀滅智, “knowledge of contemplating cessation,” occurs only once in the entire treatise.

The fascicle heading follows immediately after this sentence: fascicle eleven ends at 456c02–03, fascicle twelve begins at 456c06, its chapter heading reads “The Path of Freedom, Chapter Twelve, Distinguishing the Truths, Part Two” 〔T32 456c10〕, and its first passage begins at 456c11.

Chapter Twelve has completed its first fascicle.

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Take away three things. One observation: the thirty-nine-line verse changes form midway. Its first twenty-six Chinese lines contain five graphs each 〔T32 456a09–456b05〕, and its final thirteen contain seven 〔T32 456b06–456b18〕. The change in form is the change in subject: the five-graph section concerns the six faculties’ failure to arise from themselves and the weakness of mutual conditioning, while the seven-graph section concerns the moment and the three times. One reading practice: with a long verse, first count whether its line form changes midway. A shift in form often marks a shift in subject; the seam can be seen by counting rather than guessed from interpretation. One place to pause: 亦不離二句 occurs five times in the entire treatise, all here and once for each of the five faculties, but the section on the dhamma entrance alone lacks the phrase 〔T32 456a14–456a24〕. Neither of that section’s two variants supplies it, so the text is retained without supplementation.

Three smaller points also matter. The three questions on seeing cessation through three ways all have the same form and none is missing 〔T32 455c21·455c25·455c28〕, in contrast to the incomplete middle formula in 12-04. All three occurrences of 如桴打鼓聲 are in this verse—eye, ear, and the section on weakness—while nose, tongue, and body continue without repeating it 〔T32 456a12·456a15·456a25〕. Finally, at three instances of 羸, the critical edition has already amended the body, and this text does not follow the Taishō base 〔T32 456a29·456b06·456b08〕.

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Shi Huijing · Waken · The Path of Freedom · Three Ways of Contemplating Cessation and Removing Distraction and Overestimation · Exposition · Summer 2026