解脫道論 四事受用觀

At a single meal, the author asks a person to pass through eight gates in the mind.

Not for fierce and dangerous conduct and not for self-exaltation; not for adornment and not for beautification; for sustaining this body and for its proper care; for dispelling hunger and thirst; for supporting the holy life; always reflecting that food and drink are for dispelling earlier illness and preventing new sickness; being content with little; and abiding blamelessly.

Of these eight gates, the first two take the form “not for,” the middle five take the form “for,” and the last takes the form “blameless.”

And the five similes given by the author fall precisely on the middle five instances of “for”:

For sustaining this body—like oiling the hub of a wheel. For dispelling hunger and thirst—like applying medicine to an open sore. For supporting the holy life—like holding the thought of eating one’s child. For dispelling earlier illness and preventing new sickness—like taking a medicinal decoction. Being content with little—like caring for a sick person.

Oiling, applying medicine, taking medicine, and caring for the sick—four are images of medicine or maintenance; set among them, the “thought of eating one’s child” is heavier still.

Taken together, the five similes say one thing: food is medicine, not food. The author does not need to state this sentence; arranging the five similes is enough.

The first two instances of “not for” have no simile—there is no action to which not doing something can be compared. The last, “abiding blamelessly,” has none either—it is the collective result of the preceding seven.

So count where the similes are placed, and we learn which points the author believes need to be imagined.

After explaining the eight practices, he gathers them into four contemplations; the four contemplations are gathered again into three, named “abandoning the two extremes and attaining fulfilment in the middle.” One extreme is craving the pleasure of food; the other is bodily exhaustion from eating too little. To abandon these two extremes is the middle.

The entire passage comes to rest in its final sentence: besides contemplating when eating, taking medicine, or receiving clothing, one should also “day after day, hour after hour, contemplate that my life depends upon others.”

For one who lives on alms, every mouthful comes from another person’s hand.

This sentence needs no simile.

---

Shi Huijing · Waken · The Path of Freedom · Contemplation on the Use of the Four Requisites · Doorway · Summer 2026

Eight Practices

Question: what is the practice of virtue in the use of the four requisites?

Answer: with these eight practices, having contemplated, one practises with alms food.

First, not for fierce and dangerous conduct and not for self-exaltation; second, not for adornment and not for beautification; third, for sustaining this body and for its proper care; fourth, for dispelling hunger and thirst; fifth, for supporting the holy life; sixth, always reflecting for oneself that food and drink are for dispelling earlier illness and preventing new sickness; seventh, one should be content with little; eighth, to abide blamelessly.

Of these eight items, the first two both take the form “not for,” the middle five all take the form “for,” and the last takes the form “blameless.” They are recorded here exactly as they stand.

An Explanation of Each of the Eight Practices

Question: what is it not to engage in fierce and dangerous conduct and not to exalt oneself?

Answer: because I crave food, I become vigorous, fierce, violent, playful, contentious, and given to racing about: this is fierce and dangerous conduct. Arrogantly raising oneself up and not knowing contentment is like an angry person striking and beating others.

Not adorning and beautifying means not seeking to make the body full and the face plump and pleasing, so that others will find one attractive while desire remains insatiable: that is the way of a person with sensual desire.

For sustaining this body and for its proper care means desiring that the body remain, as the hub of a wheel requires oil.

Dispelling hunger and thirst means always taking only a little food for support. To practise in this way is like applying medicine to a sore.

Supporting the holy life means relying on the strength afforded by little food and gladly attaining the noble path. To practise in this way is like holding the thought of eating one’s child.

For dispelling earlier illness and preventing new sickness means taking neither too little nor too much. To practise in this way is like taking a medicinal decoction.

Being content with little means using little merit to keep one’s own body at ease. One should always practise in this way, as though caring for a sick person.

Being blameless means being content with little. Practising in this way does not let the body come to nothing. It is praised by wisdom, and therefore is a blameless abiding.

If food and drink are properly adjusted and one is never negligent, and does not sleep during the early, middle, or late watches of the night, one achieves security and ease.

In this way, with these eight practices, having contemplated, one practises with alms food. This is how one should practise.

One thing is recorded here exactly as the treatise gives it: among the eight items, the five from the third through the seventh are each paired with a simile—the hub requiring oil, medicine applied to a sore, the thought of eating one’s child, taking a medicinal decoction, and caring for a sick person—whereas the first two and the last are not paired with similes. None is supplied here.

The Eight Practices Summarised as Four Contemplations

Further, these eight practices are summarised as four contemplations: contemplation of what is to be abandoned, contemplation of the matter, contemplation of contentment with little, and contemplation of little merit.

Question: what is contemplation of what is to be abandoned?

Answer: not for fierce and dangerous conduct, not for self-exaltation, not for the former body, and not for adorning the head: this is called contemplation of what is to be abandoned.

For sustaining this body, for its proper care, for dispelling hunger and thirst, and for supporting the holy life: this is called contemplation of the matter.

“I shall dispel earlier illness and prevent new sickness”: this is called contemplation of contentment with little.

“I shall be content with little, be blameless, and achieve a pleasant abiding”: this is called contemplation of little merit.

The Four Contemplations Further Summarised as Three

These four contemplations. These four contemplations are further summarised as three: abandoning the two extremes and attaining fulfilment in the middle.

Through contemplation of abandonment, one abandons attachment to sensual pleasure. Dispelling hunger and thirst means eliminating the original illness and preventing new sickness; through this contemplation one also abandons the exhaustion caused by attachment to the body. The remaining contemplation of fulfilment in the middle should be practised.

One also contemplates clothing: it is for warding off contact with wind, cold, heat, mosquitoes, gadflies, and ants, and for giving rise to shame and covering what is ugly and exposed. In the contemplation of fulfilment, one practises in this way.

One also contemplates the taking of medicine, as far as illness itself.

When to Contemplate

If this is what is said, when should one contemplate?

One contemplates alms food and medicine at the time of a meal. One also contemplates clothing and lodging when they are first received. And day after day, hour after hour, one contemplates, “My life depends upon others”; therefore one should contemplate.

All such things become contemplative practice.

---

Shi Huijing · Waken · The Path of Freedom · Contemplation on the Use of the Four Requisites · Vernacular · Summer 2026

Eight Things to Consider at a Single Meal

The “Chapter on the Analysis of Virtue” has reached the last item in the fifth group: the practice of virtue in the use of the four requisites. The four requisites are clothing, food, lodging, and medicine, yet the author gives almost this entire section to “food.”

He first establishes eight practices: “with these eight practices, having contemplated, one practises with alms food” 〔T32 403b15–16〕.

Eight things: not for fierce and dangerous conduct and not for self-exaltation; not for adornment and not for beautification; for sustaining this body and for its proper care; for dispelling hunger and thirst; for supporting the holy life; always reflecting that food and drink are for dispelling earlier illness and preventing new sickness; being content with little; and abiding blamelessly 〔T32 403b16–20〕.

At a single meal, the mind has to pass through eight gates.

But these eight gates do not all use the same construction: the first two both take the form “not for,” the middle five all take the form “for,” and the last takes the form “blameless.” Three forms are placed in a single list.

Similes Are Given Only to the Middle Five Gates

When explaining each of the eight practices, the author gives five similes.

For sustaining this body and for its proper care—“desiring that the body remain, as the hub of a wheel requires oil” 〔T32 403b25〕: like oiling the hub of a wheel.

For dispelling hunger and thirst—“always supported by little food; practising in this way is like applying medicine to a sore” 〔T32 403b25–26〕: like applying medicine to an open sore.

For supporting the holy life—“relying on the strength afforded by little food and gladly attaining the noble path; practising in this way is like holding the thought of eating one’s child” 〔T32 403b26–27〕.

For dispelling earlier illness and preventing new sickness—“neither too little nor too much; practising in this way is like taking a medicinal decoction” 〔T32 403b28〕.

Being content with little—“one should always practise as though caring for a sick person” 〔T32 403b29–403c01〕.

Five similes, five sentences, each ending after a single line. The author does not elaborate on even one of them.

And their positions are perfectly regular: they are precisely the middle five gates, the five that say “for.”

The first two, which say “not for,” have no simile. Neither does the last, “abiding blamelessly.”

Why?

A simile explains what doing something is like. The first two gates concern not doing: not being fierce or self-exalting, not adorning or beautifying. There is no action to which not doing something can be compared, so there is nowhere for a simile to land. The final gate, “abiding blamelessly,” is the collective result of the preceding seven, not one more thing to do.

The distribution of these five similes therefore has something to say in its own right: what the author believes needs to be imagined is precisely those five instances of “for.”

And when we look at the five similes, we find that they share a common baseline: oiling a wheel hub, applying medicine to an open sore, taking a medicinal decoction, and caring for a sick person—four are images of medicine or maintenance. Eating is not enjoyment but upkeep; not nourishment for its own sake but the limiting of damage. Set among them, “the thought of eating one’s child” is heavier still: it treats eating as something done only because there is no alternative.

Taken together, the five similes say one thing: food is medicine, not food. The author does not need to state this sentence; arranging the five similes is enough.

This gives us a way of reading that we can carry forward: count where this treatise places its similes, and we learn which points it believes need to be imagined. Where there is a simile, the author judges that merely reading the name would leave the reader empty-handed; where there is none, either it is not needed or it cannot be given.

What the First Two Gates Guard Against

Although the first two gates have no similes, their explanations are the most concrete.

For the first gate, “not for fierce and dangerous conduct and not for self-exaltation,” the author explains: because of craving food one becomes vigorous, fierce, violent, playful, contentious, and given to racing about—this is fierce and dangerous conduct; arrogantly raising oneself up and not knowing contentment is like an angry person striking and beating others 〔T32 403b20–21〕 and following.

The second gate, “not for adornment and not for beautification,” is explained as seeking to make the body full and the face plump and pleasing, so that others will find one attractive while desire remains insatiable: that is the way of a person with sensual desire.

What both gates guard against is not “eating too much” but the motive for eating.

The first guards against treating food as a source of physical strength—eating one’s fill so that one can contend, compete, and show off one’s power. The second guards against treating food as a means to improve one’s appearance—eating until one’s complexion looks attractive and others will like it.

One directs effort outward; the other makes the outward appearance pleasing. Together, the two block both forms of “eating for other people.”

The middle five instances of “for,” by contrast, are all directed inward: sustaining this body, dispelling hunger and thirst, supporting the holy life, dispelling illness, and being content with little. Not one involves how other people see us.

The arrangement of the eight practices is therefore not arbitrary: first it blocks two outward-facing motives, then establishes five inward-facing reasons, and finally gathers them under “abiding blamelessly.” The first two and the middle five form a pair, with refutation first and establishment afterwards.

How the Four Contemplations Gather Up the Eight Practices

When the eight practices are gathered into four contemplations, the way they are grouped is also worth checking.

Contemplation of what is to be abandoned gathers up the first two gates: “not for fierce and dangerous conduct, not for self-exaltation, not for the former body, and not for adorning the head” 〔T32 403c06–07〕—precisely the two gates that say “not for,” though the wording differs slightly (the initial list has “not for adornment and not for beautification,” whereas here it has “not for the former body and not for adorning the head”). The same thing is phrased differently in the two places. The author does not harmonise them, and neither do we.

Contemplation of the matter gathers up the third through fifth gates: for sustaining this body, for its proper care, for dispelling hunger and thirst, and for supporting the holy life.

Contemplation of contentment with little gathers up the sixth gate: I shall dispel earlier illness and prevent new sickness.

Contemplation of little merit gathers up the seventh and eighth gates: I shall be content with little, be blameless, and achieve a pleasant abiding.

Two, three, one, two: the eight gates are divided into four piles, and the piles are not the same size.

The names of the last two contemplations both contain the word “little” (contemplation of contentment with little and contemplation of little merit). The seventh of the eight practices likewise says “one should be content with little.” “Little” is the governing word in this passage: little food, contentment with little, little merit. It is not the virtue of frugality but a criterion of measure—one portion more is craving; one portion less is harm.

A Repeated Phrase and Several Variant Readings

Where the base text gathers the four contemplations into three, a phrase is repeated: “These four contemplations. These four contemplations are further summarised as three” 〔T32 403c11–12〕—the words “these four contemplations” occur twice in succession.

Four witnesses omit one occurrence, reading “These four contemplations are further summarised as three.”

Here the repetition on the face of the text is retained. The readings are recorded together without adjudication, because repetition in this treatise is not necessarily an interpolation: we have already seen an instance where “further” introduces the same matter a second time. And even if this instance really were an interpolation, the meaning would not change.

This passage has several other variant readings worth recording. In “it is praised by wisdom,” the character for “praised” is read as “difficult” in the Song, Yuan, and Ming witnesses and as “joyful” in the Gong witness 〔T32 403c02〕—three readings across the witnesses: praise, difficulty, and joy have entirely different meanings. The readings are recorded together without adjudication; this edition follows the face of the text.

There is also the character for “abiding” in “eighth, abiding blamelessly.” The critical note records a variant reading “craving,” while the edited text still reads “abiding” 〔T32 403b20〕—recorded but not adopted. If the reading really were “craving,” this gate would change from “blameless” to “without craving,” and the entire direction of the item would differ. The edited text fortunately does not adopt it, and this edition follows the face of the text.

Eight Gathered into Four, Four Gathered into Three

After explaining the eight practices, the author gathers them once: “Further, these eight practices are summarised as four contemplations: contemplation of what is to be abandoned, contemplation of the matter, contemplation of contentment with little, and contemplation of little merit” 〔T32 403c05–06〕.

Eight things are gathered into four contemplations. Each of the four contemplations is explained, and the first, “contemplation of what is to be abandoned,” gathers up precisely the first two instances of “not for”—though the wording differs slightly (the initial list has “not for adornment and not for beautification,” whereas here it has “not for the former body and not for adorning the head”). It is recorded as it stands and is not harmonised.

Then the author gathers them once more: “These four contemplations. These four contemplations are further summarised as three: abandoning the two extremes and attaining fulfilment in the middle” 〔T32 403c11–12〕.

Four contemplations are gathered into three.

But this time, he does not list what those three are.

He gives only one name: abandoning the two extremes and attaining fulfilment in the middle.

Eight → four → three, gathered upwards level by level; but at the last level, a number is announced while the items themselves are not given. This is not the first time in this chapter (the “merit in ten places” likewise announces a number without listing its items). It is recorded as it stands. Nothing is supplied.

“Fulfilment in the Middle” and “Fulfilment of the Middle Way”

That phrase “fulfilment in the middle” deserves a closer look.

Near the end of the “Chapter on Conditions,” we encountered a very similar expression: “leaving the two extremes far behind and attaining fulfilment of the middle way” 〔T32 400b21〕, and it occurs three times in that passage. Those three are the only occurrences of “middle way” in the entire treatise.

Here the phrase is “fulfilment in the middle”—there is no word “way.”

The expression “fulfilment in the middle” occurs three times in the entire treatise (403c12, 403c14, and 428c12): two are in this passage and the other is in Chapter Eight.

The two expressions are therefore distinct: “middle way” appears only in the “Chapter on Conditions,” while “fulfilment in the middle” appears in this chapter and in Chapter Eight. The treatise never links the two passages or says whether they refer to the same thing.

All we can establish is their wording: one has the word “way”; the other does not. Whether they are two synonymous expressions or two different formulations cannot be decided from the treatise itself, and no decision is supplied here.

This passage does, however, clarify its own “two extremes”: “through contemplation of abandonment, one abandons attachment to sensual pleasure,” and again, “through this contemplation one abandons the exhaustion caused by attachment to the body” 〔T32 403c13–14〕. One extreme is craving the pleasure of food; the other is bodily exhaustion from eating too little. To abandon these two extremes is fulfilment in the middle.

This is close in meaning to the two extremes in the “Chapter on Conditions” (attachment to desire and bodily emaciation), but it lands elsewhere: there it concerns the whole path; here it concerns a single meal. The same structure is applied at different scales.

From a Single Meal to a Single Garment

Of the four requisites, alms food occupies the great majority of this section.

Clothing receives only one sentence: “One also contemplates clothing, for warding off contact with wind, cold, heat, mosquitoes, gadflies, and ants” 〔T32 403c14–15〕, and for giving rise to shame and covering what is ugly and exposed.

Taking medicine is shorter still: “One also contemplates the taking of medicine, as far as illness itself,” and the matter is passed over in a single sentence.

Lodging does not even receive a sentence of its own; it is mentioned only incidentally at the end, when the time for contemplation is explained.

Why is the treatment so uneven?

Because the complete sequence of eight practices, four contemplations, and three has already been demonstrated with alms food. Once demonstrated, it can be extended by analogy to the other three requisites. This accords with the treatise’s consistent method throughout the chapter: explain one side in detail and leave the reader to turn over the other.

At the end, the author states clearly “when to contemplate” precisely so that this method can be extended: one contemplates alms food and medicine at the time of a meal; clothing and lodging when they are first received; and, in addition, “day after day, hour after hour, one contemplates, ‘My life depends upon others’” 〔T32 403c18–19〕.

This last sentence is where the entire passage comes to rest.

Whether the eight practices, the four contemplations, or the three, all are work to be done at the moment of use. This sentence extends that work from “the moment” to “day after day, hour after hour”: one reflects not only when eating but at all times, knowing, this life of mine is given by others.

For one who lives on alms, every mouthful comes from another person’s hand. This sentence needs no simile.

---

Shi Huijing · Waken · The Path of Freedom · Contemplation on the Use of the Four Requisites · Exposition · Summer 2026