解脫道論 諸果進修與聖者類型

For further cultivation toward the three higher fruits, the author uses the same template three times: abide on this ground, apply effort to what is above, begin by seeing arising and cessation, practice in the present, rely on the faculties, powers, awakening, and factors of awakening, and distinguish the truths in this way.

The template is repeated three times, yet one slot has three forms: 如已見道 (“as one who has already seen the path”), 如見道 (“as seeing the path”), and 如己見道 (“as oneself having seen the path”). Each Chinese phrase occurs only once in this treatise, and all three stand in the same slot of the same template. They are transcribed without being made uniform.

The first repetition has another place where one should stop. Its heading is “in order to realize the fruit of once-returning,” but it closes “realizes the fruit of stream-entry.” Once-returning is sought, yet the close writes the stream-entry already realized in the preceding passage. The heading and close do not correspond.

Four witnesses read “once-returner” here. If those witnesses are followed, the heading and close correspond.

A tool can be carried away from this place: when the base text itself retains a mismatch, first check whether that place has a critical note; when it does and its variant happens to make the mismatch disappear, record both sides with particular care. Whether to remove the mismatch is a matter for human review, not for this edition.

The same tool must be used once more in this passage.

The five kinds of non-returner are explained one by one, and the first two have their distinct content. But the third, 不行般涅槃 (“Nibbāna without going”), and the fourth, 行般涅槃 (“Nibbāna with going”), receive word-for-word identical explanations from the author: “there is no different going; in order to remove the remaining fetters, one causes the noble path to arise.” This Chinese sentence occurs only twice in the treatise, precisely in these two neighboring places. The names are opposites, but the explanations are the same.

Check the critical note: there is one. Four witnesses read “there is” for “no.” If those witnesses are followed, the fourth item becomes “there is a different going,” and the two explanations immediately diverge.

This edition transcribes without correction. It does not replace the author’s “no” with “there is,” nor does it delete one explanation because the two are identical.

This passage also contains something opposite to the preceding long lists: its numbers clearly agree.

In several earlier passages, the author usually lists without counting—the seven groups, the thirty-two “meanings,” and here too the collective designations of the arahant are listed without a total. But in the section on the five non-returners, the lifespans in the five heavens double in sequence—ten thousand, twenty thousand, forty thousand, eighty thousand, one hundred sixty thousand, with none missing—and the persons are also counted clearly: five persons on each of four grounds make twenty; in 阿迦尼吒 there are four persons because an upward-flowing person has nowhere higher to go. The total is exactly twenty-four.

The Chinese expression “twenty-four persons” occurs only once in the treatise. Along Chapter Twelve’s long lists that generally “list without counting,” this is one place where the count clearly agrees.

The final verse gives a hammer striking iron. Sparks fall into water and are stilled one by one; where they go cannot be known. The liberated person crosses desire, bonds, and influxes and reaches unmoving bliss; where that one goes cannot be known.

One sentence is applied once to sparks and once to a person. The author adds not one word of explanation.

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Shi Huijing · Waken · The Path of Freedom · Further Cultivation of the Fruits and Types of Noble Persons · Doorway · Summer 2026

1. Further Cultivation toward the Three Higher Fruits

Once-Returner

The meditator abides on this ground and applies effort to what is above, in order to realize the fruit of once-returning. Beginning with seeing arising and cessation, one undertakes direct contemplation, just as stated at the outset. In present practice one proceeds “as one who has already seen the path” (如已見道); relying on the faculties, powers, awakening, and factors of awakening, one distinguishes the truths in this way.

Practicing in this way, one tends toward cessation and abandons coarse desire, ill will, and those defilements dwelling in one place. Immediately after that path, one realizes the fruit of stream-entry.

Here the base text reads “realizes the fruit of stream-entry,” although the fruit being sought is once-returning; four witnesses read “once-returner.” It is transcribed as it stands, and the body follows the base text.

Non-Returner

The meditator abides on this ground and applies effort to what is above, in order to realize the fruit of non-returning. Beginning with seeing arising and cessation, one undertakes present seeing, just as stated at the outset. In present practice one proceeds “as seeing the path” (如見道); relying on the faculties, powers, awakening, and factors of awakening, one distinguishes the truths in this way.

Tending toward cessation in this way, one abandons subtle desire, ill will, and those defilements dwelling in one place. Immediately after that path, one realizes the fruit of non-returning.

Arahant

The meditator abides on this ground and applies effort to what is above, in order to realize the fruit of arahantship. Beginning with seeing arising and cessation, one undertakes present seeing, just as stated at the outset. In present practice one proceeds “as oneself having seen the path” (如己見道); relying on the faculties, powers, awakening, and factors of awakening, one distinguishes the truths in this way.

Tending in this way to abandon desire for form, desire for the formless, conceit, agitation, and ignorance, one abandons all remaining defilements without remainder.

The three passages use one template, yet the sentence in the middle has three forms: one says 如已見道 (“as one who has already seen the path”), one says 如見道 (“as seeing the path”), and one says 如己見道 (“as oneself having seen the path”). They are transcribed as they stand and are not made uniform.

2. The Arahant’s Qualities and Collective Designations

From there the meditator realizes the fruit of arahantship. One contemplates the path, contemplates the fruit and Nibbāna, and contemplates the abandoned defilements. The bhikkhu becomes an arahant: the influxes are extinguished; what had to be done has been done; one has established oneself and laid down the burden; reached the wondrous meaning; cut the fetter of existence; attained right knowledge and liberation; departed from the fivefold and sixfold divisions; accomplished the one protection; is not bound by death; has removed the remainder, the truths, and equal cessation; seeks faith without turbidity; reflects and rests the body; is well liberated in conduct and well liberated in mind. Wisdom and the holy life have been established. One becomes a person, the foremost person, and attains the foremost attainment.

Such a one is called: one who has removed ill will, one who has crossed to the shore, one apart from defilements, one without obstructing bonds, one who has attained the noble 翻, one who has removed the burden, one who is unassociated, an ascetic, a brahmin, one who has bathed, one who has crossed the Vedas, the supreme brahmin, an arahant, one who has crossed, one who is freed, one who has subdued, one who is utterly stilled, and one who causes stilling. These are the collective designations of an arahant.

The designations are listed one by one, but no total is given. They are transcribed without supplying a count.

3. Three Kinds of Stream-Enterer

In this matter, if a stream-enterer does not apply further effort above the birth into which one has come, three kinds of stream-enterer are seen in three ways: first, the seven-birth stream-enterer; the family-to-family stream-enterer; and the one-birth stream-enterer.

In this matter, one of dull faculties becomes a seven-birth stream-enterer, one of middling faculties becomes family-to-family, and one of sharp faculties becomes a one-birth stream-enterer.

The seven-birth one goes to heaven and returns seven times, and here makes an end of suffering. The family-to-family stream-enterer goes to that family two or three times and then makes an end of suffering. The one-birth stream-enterer has already caused birth in human existence and makes an end of suffering.

4. Once-Returner

If a once-returner does not apply effort above the birth into which one has come, one returns once to this world and makes an end of suffering.

5. Five Kinds of Non-Returner

If a non-returner does not apply effort above the birth into which one has come, at death here one is born in the Pure Abodes.

Through the superiority of the faculties, five kinds are seen, constituting five kinds of non-returner: intermediate Nibbāna, Nibbāna upon birth, 不行般涅槃 (“Nibbāna without going”), 行般涅槃 (“Nibbāna with going”), and one who flows upward to the 阿迦尼吒 heaven.

In this matter:

One called an intermediate-Nibbāna person, before reaching the attached interval without interruption, causes the noble path to arise at a point dependent on the span of life, in order to remove the remaining fetters.

One who attains Nibbāna upon birth passes beyond the middle of the lifespan and, having been born, causes the noble path to arise in order to remove the remaining fetters.

One called 不行般涅槃 (“Nibbāna without going”): there is no different going; in order to remove the remaining fetters, one causes the noble path to arise.

One called 行般涅槃 (“Nibbāna with going”): there is no different going; in order to remove the remaining fetters, one causes the noble path to arise.

One who flows upward to the 阿迦尼吒 heaven passes at death from the 不煩 (“Non-Vexing”) heaven to the 不熱 (“Non-Heating”) heaven, at death from 不熱 to the 善見 (“Good-Seeing”) heaven, at death from 善見 to the 善現 (“Good-Manifestation”) heaven, and at death from 善現 is born in the 阿迦尼吒 heaven. In 阿迦尼吒, one causes the noble path to arise in order to remove the remaining fetters.

The explanations under the third and fourth items are word-for-word identical. At one of these places, four witnesses read “there is a different going” rather than “there is no different going.” It is transcribed as it stands, and the body follows the base text.

6. The Lifespans of the Five Heavens and the Twenty-Four Persons

In this matter, the lifespan in the 不煩 (“Non-Vexing”) heaven is ten thousand kalpas; in the 不熱 (“Non-Heating”) heaven, twenty thousand kalpas; in the 善見 (“Good-Seeing”) heaven, forty thousand kalpas; in the 善現 (“Good-Manifestation”) heaven, eighty thousand kalpas; and in the 阿迦尼吒 heaven, one hundred sixty thousand kalpas.

Across four grounds there are five persons on each; in 阿迦尼吒 there are four persons, for there is no upward-flowing person. Thus they constitute twenty-four persons.

Five persons on each of four grounds make twenty; the four persons in 阿迦尼吒 bring the total to twenty-four. Here the stated number agrees with what is listed.

7. The Arahant’s End of Suffering

Because an arahant has abandoned every defilement without remainder, no cause for a later existence is formed. Because there is no cause, the arahant is freed from lifespan, form, and life. Formations cease, this suffering is cut off, and no further suffering arises. This is called the end of suffering.

Therefore this verse is spoken:

Verse

Just as a hammer strikes iron, and sparks stream into water,

They come to stillness in sequence; where they go cannot be known.

So too, one rightly liberated, having crossed desire, bonds, and influxes,

Reaches unmoving bliss; where that one goes cannot be known.

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Shi Huijing · Waken · The Path of Freedom · Further Cultivation of the Fruits and Types of Noble Persons · Vernacular · Summer 2026

With the fruit of stream-entry established, this passage completes in one sweep the three higher fruits and the types of noble persons, then closes with a verse.

Let the central observation be stated first: among the five kinds of non-returner, the treatise gives word-for-word identical explanations for the third, 不行般涅槃 (“Nibbāna without going”), and the fourth, 行般涅槃 (“Nibbāna with going”): “there is no different going; in order to remove the remaining fetters, one causes the noble path to arise.” The Chinese string occurs exactly twice in the treatise, in these two neighboring places. The names are opposites, yet their explanations are identical.

Three Passages Use One Template, but One Sentence Has Three Forms

For further cultivation toward the three higher fruits, the author uses one template three times.

For the once-returner: “The meditator abides on this ground and applies effort to what is above, in order to realize the fruit of once-returning” 〔T32 458a16–17〕, and “In present practice one proceeds 如已見道 (‘as one who has already seen the path’); relying on the faculties, powers, awakening, and factors of awakening, one distinguishes the truths in this way” 〔T32 458a17–19〕.

In the non-returner passage, the same position reads, “In present practice one proceeds 如見道 (‘as seeing the path’); relying on the faculties, powers, awakening, and factors of awakening, one distinguishes the truths in this way” 〔T32 458a22–23〕.

In the arahant passage, the same position reads, “In present practice one proceeds 如己見道 (‘as oneself having seen the path’)” 〔T32 458a27〕.

如已見道, 如見道, and 如己見道: each of these three Chinese forms occurs only once in the treatise, and all three occupy the same slot in a single template.

The template is repeated three times, but that slot has three forms. They are transcribed without being made uniform.

What is abandoned becomes progressively subtler across the three repetitions. In the once-returner passage it is “coarse desire and ill will” 〔T32 458a19〕; in the non-returner passage, “subtle desire and ill will” 〔T32 458a24〕; and in the arahant passage, “desire for form, desire for the formless, conceit, agitation, and ignorance” 〔T32 458a28–29〕. First coarse, then subtle, and then a different set of names. The first two repetitions each close with “the defilements dwelling in one place,” while the last says, “the remaining defilements are abandoned without remainder.” The template is the same, what is abandoned differs, and that very difference distinguishes the three fruits. The author adds no separate explanation, allowing the two Chinese words for “coarse” and “subtle” to show the gradation themselves.

Pause Here: If Once-Returning Is Sought, Why Does the Passage Close with “Realizes the Fruit of Stream-Entry”?

The first repetition contains another place that deserves a pause.

Its heading is “in order to realize the fruit of once-returning” 〔T32 458a16–17〕—what is sought is once-returning. Yet it closes, “tending toward cessation and abandoning coarse desire, ill will, and those defilements dwelling in one place, immediately after that path one realizes the fruit of stream-entry” 〔T32 458a19–20〕—what is realized at the close is stream-entry.

The heading and close do not correspond. The fruit being sought is once-returning, but the close names the fruit of stream-entry—which the preceding passage has already realized.

Pause and ask: how should this place be read?

This passage cannot answer. Two matters can be checked: this is what the base text says; four witnesses read “once-returner” here. If those four witnesses are followed, the heading and close correspond, and the passage becomes uniform with the two repetitions below it, where the headings and closes for non-returner and arahant do correspond.

This edition transcribes the reading and does not alter it. Both readings are recorded without adjudication, and the body follows the base text. This place and the “there is no different going” below are of one kind: the base text retains a mismatch, while a variant in other witnesses happens to remove it. Whether to remove it belongs to Shi Huijing’s review, not to this edition.

A Reading Method: When Two Names Are Listed but Their Explanations Are the Same, First Check for a Variant

Now consider the central observation.

The five kinds of non-returner are first named: “five kinds of non-returner are constituted: intermediate Nibbāna, Nibbāna upon birth, 不行般涅槃 (‘Nibbāna without going’), 行般涅槃 (‘Nibbāna with going’), and one who flows upward to the 阿迦尼吒 heaven” 〔T32 458b20–22〕.

They are then explained one by one. The first and second each have their own content: intermediate Nibbāna means that “before reaching the attached interval without interruption, at a point dependent on the lifespan” the noble path arises; Nibbāna upon birth means that “after passing the middle of the lifespan … having been born” the noble path arises.

Third: “One called 不行般涅槃 (‘Nibbāna without going’): there is no different going; in order to remove the remaining fetters, one causes the noble path to arise” 〔T32 458b25–26〕.

Fourth: “One called 行般涅槃 (‘Nibbāna with going’): there is no different going; in order to remove the remaining fetters, one causes the noble path to arise” 〔T32 458b26–27〕.

Compare them word by word: not one word differs. The names are opposites (不行 / 行, “without going” / “with going”), but the explanations are identical.

The reading method furnished by this passage is here: when two opposite names are paired with the same explanation, do not immediately decide that a copying error or omission has occurred; first check whether that place carries a critical note.

Following that method, one checks and finds: it does. For the “no” at 458b26, four witnesses read “there is.” If those four witnesses are followed, the fourth item becomes “there is a different going,” and the two explanations immediately diverge. At the same place there is a second note: the Gong witness omits the Chinese graph 行 (“going”).

This place is therefore of the same kind as “stream-enterer / once-returner” above: the base text itself retains a mismatch, while a variant in the other witnesses happens to make it correspond.

This edition transcribes without altering. It does not replace the treatise’s “no” with “there is,” nor does it delete one explanation because the two are identical. Both readings are recorded without adjudication, and the body follows the base text.

The Arahant: First What Has Been Done, Then What the Person Is

Once the three fruits have been completed, the author describes the arahant in one long passage. Its order is worth following.

First come actions: “one contemplates the path, contemplates the fruit and Nibbāna, and contemplates the abandoned defilements.” This follows the pattern of the subsequent mind in the stream-enterer section. Then, “the bhikkhu becomes an arahant—the influxes are extinguished, what had to be done has been done, one has established oneself and laid down the burden, reached the wondrous meaning, and cut the fetter of existence,” followed by “right knowledge, liberation, departure from the fivefold and sixfold divisions, accomplishment of the one protection, not being bound by death, removal of the remainder, the truths, and equal cessation, seeking faith without turbidity, reflecting and resting the body, being well liberated in conduct, and being well liberated in mind.”

The entire series speaks of what has already happened: the influxes are extinguished, the burden has been laid down, the fetter of existence has been cut, and the fivefold and sixfold divisions have been left behind. The author does not describe the person’s state; he identifies what has been brought to completion.

Only then come the names: “Such a one is called one who has removed ill will, one who has crossed to the shore, one apart from defilements, one without obstructing bonds, one who has attained the noble 翻” 〔T32 458b06–08〕, and the list continues down to “one who causes stilling,” before closing, “These are the collective designations of an arahant” 〔T32 458b10–11〕.

The designations are listed one after another, but no total is given. This is the same treatment as the seven groups in 12-08 and the thirty-two “meanings” in 12-09. They are transcribed without supplying a count.

There is one further point within the list. Among the names are “ascetic, brahmin, one who has bathed, one who has crossed the Vedas, and the supreme brahmin”—names prized by practitioners outside the Buddhist teaching. The author gathers these names under the arahant without further analysis or differentiation. They are transcribed without adjudication.

Three Kinds and Five Kinds: Faculties and Grounds

The author divides the types of noble person in two places.

Stream-enterers are divided into three kinds, and the criterion is the faculties: “three kinds of stream-enterer are seen in three ways: first, the seven-birth stream-enterer; the family-to-family stream-enterer; and the one-birth stream-enterer” 〔T32 458b12–13〕; “one of dull faculties becomes a seven-birth stream-enterer, one of middling faculties becomes family-to-family, and one of sharp faculties becomes a one-birth stream-enterer” 〔T32 458b13–14〕.

Three faculties correspond to three kinds, with none missing. Each of the three sentences below closes with “makes an end of suffering.” That Chinese phrase occurs four times in the treatise, all four in this passage: once for each of the three kinds of stream-enterer, and once for the once-returner. The same closing expression is applied in four places: the persons differ, but what they reach is the same.

Non-returners are divided into five kinds, yet the criterion is not the faculties but place of birth and going: “five kinds of non-returner are constituted: intermediate Nibbāna, Nibbāna upon birth, 不行般涅槃 (‘Nibbāna without going’), 行般涅槃 (‘Nibbāna with going’), and one who flows upward to the 阿迦尼吒 heaven” 〔T32 458b20–22〕. Intermediate, birth, going or not going, and upward flow concern where Nibbāna occurs and by what going.

Both are divisions into kinds, but one group is determined by faculties and the other by place. The author does not say why the two are determined differently. This edition records only their form.

Here, the Number Clearly Agrees with What Is Listed

This passage also contains something opposite to the several preceding passages.

In those passages, when the author meets a long list, he generally lists without counting: the seven groups in 12-08; the thirty-two “meanings” in 12-09; and the collective designations of the arahant in this passage, which run from “one who has removed ill will” to “one who causes stilling” 〔T32 458b06–458b11〕, again without a total.

But in the section on the five non-returners, the author himself gives the count.

First come the lifespans in five heavens: “In this matter, the lifespan in the 不煩 (‘Non-Vexing’) heaven is ten thousand kalpas; in the 不熱 (‘Non-Heating’) heaven, twenty thousand kalpas” 〔T32 458c01–02〕; below these come forty thousand in 善見 (“Good-Seeing”), eighty thousand in 善現 (“Good-Manifestation”), and one hundred sixty thousand in 阿迦尼吒. The five levels double in sequence, with none missing.

Then comes the number of persons: “Across four grounds there are five persons on each; in 阿迦尼吒 there are four persons, for there is no upward-flowing person. Thus they constitute twenty-four persons” 〔T32 458c04–05〕.

Check it: five persons on each of four grounds make twenty; 阿迦尼吒 has four persons because an upward-flowing person has reached the summit and has nowhere higher to go; twenty plus four is exactly twenty-four. The number agrees with what is listed.

The Chinese expression “twenty-four persons” occurs only once in the treatise. Among the long lists in Chapter Twelve that “only list and do not count,” this is one place where the count clearly agrees. It is transcribed as stated.

Sparks Enter Water: One Sentence Said Twice

The final passage describes the arahant’s end of suffering and then says, “Therefore this verse is spoken” 〔T32 458c08〕. This is the treatise’s second use of this formula; the first is in the preceding passage 〔T32 458a13〕.

The four lines say: “Just as a hammer strikes iron, and sparks stream into water” 〔T32 458c09〕; “They come to stillness in sequence; where they go cannot be known” 〔T32 458c10〕; “So too, one rightly liberated, having crossed desire, bonds, and influxes” 〔T32 458c11〕; “Reaches unmoving bliss; where that one goes cannot be known” 〔T32 458c12〕.

There are two pairs, and their final clauses are the same. The upper pair concerns sparks: sparks cast off when iron is struck fall into water, are stilled one after another, and where they go cannot be known. The lower pair concerns the liberated one: having crossed desire, bonds, and influxes, that one reaches unmoving bliss, and where that one goes cannot be known.

The same Chinese sentence, 彼趣不可知 (“where that one goes cannot be known”), is applied once to the sparks and once to a person. The author adds not one word of explanation. “A hammer strikes iron” occurs only once in the treatise.

The restraint of the simile is also worth noting. The sparks are not said to “no longer exist”; the text says only that “they come to stillness in sequence” and their destination cannot be known. The author stops at “cannot be known” and does not go on to say “nonexistent.” It is transcribed without extending the inference.

(One further matter may be recorded: from beginning to end, this passage contains not a single Chinese graph for “question.” In this it is like 12-07. The very first sentence of the next passage is, “Question: Here a teacher says” 〔T32 458c13〕.)

The Arahant’s End of Suffering: Three Statements, One Conclusion

The sentences before the verse should also be retained.

“Because an arahant has abandoned every defilement without remainder, no cause for a later existence is formed”—this is the first statement. “Because there is no cause, the arahant is freed from lifespan, form, and life”—this is the second. “Formations cease, this suffering is cut off, and no further suffering arises; this is called the end of suffering” 〔T32 458c07–08〕—this is the third.

The three statements form one line: abandonment without remainder → no cause for later existence → freedom from lifespan, form, and life → the end of suffering. Each statement takes the preceding one as its basis. Along the whole line there is no simile and no descriptive embellishment. The author places the name “end of suffering” in the final position, while the three positions before it are all reasons.

The verse follows only after that position. The reasons are stated to their end; only then is a simile given. The order resembles the long passage on the arahant: first everything that can be said is said; only at the end is something unknowable left—“where that one goes cannot be known.” This edition records the form without speaking on the author’s behalf about why it is so.

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Carry away three things. One observation: the third and fourth items among the five non-returners have word-for-word identical explanations—“there is no different going; in order to remove the remaining fetters, one causes the noble path to arise.” This Chinese sentence occurs exactly twice in the treatise, in these two places (T32 458b25–26·458b26–27). The names are opposites, yet the explanations are the same. One reading method: when two names are listed but their explanations are identical, do not first decide that a copying error or omission has occurred; first check whether the place carries a critical note. Here it does: at 458b26, four witnesses read “there is” for “no,” and following those witnesses immediately separates the two explanations. One place to pause: the first repetition is headed “in order to realize the fruit of once-returning” 〔T32 458a16–17〕, yet it closes with “realizes the fruit of stream-entry” 〔T32 458a20〕. Heading and close do not correspond; four witnesses read “once-returner” here. It is of the same kind as the preceding matter: the base text retains a mismatch, while a variant in the other witnesses happens to remove it. It is transcribed without alteration, and the body follows the base text.

Three smaller matters should also be retained: the three passages for further cultivation use one template while one slot has three forms (如已見道 / 如見道 / 如己見道, each occurring only once in the treatise); the count in this passage agrees with what is listed—the lifespans of the five heavens double in sequence, and five persons on each of four grounds plus four persons in 阿迦尼吒 make exactly twenty-four 〔T32 458c04–05〕, an exception within Chapter Twelve’s general pattern of “listing without counting”; and the verse’s two pairs both close with 彼趣不可知 (“where that one goes cannot be known”), once for sparks and once for the liberated person (T32 458c10·458c12).

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Shi Huijing · Waken · The Path of Freedom · Further Cultivation of the Fruits and Types of Noble Persons · Exposition · Summer 2026