解脫道論 果正受

The last sentence of the preceding passage merely set down two names. This passage explains the first of them: fruit attainment.

The questions come in one long chain—twelve of them in a single breath. In the answering, only seven are given headings; two questions have no heading of their own at all, and in three the wording of the heading does not match what was asked. Where the questions say “cultivate,” the answers say “cause to arise.” The author gives not one word of explanation.

And what most wants looking at in the whole passage is the three statements in the middle.

The first statement is the author’s own answer: as for fruit attainment, only the arahant and the non-returner bring this concentration to fulfilment.

The second statement: every noble person can cause it to arise.

The third statement: every noble person accomplishes it, but those who cause it to arise are only those two.

With the three statements set side by side, the author passes not one word of judgment—he neither says which of them is the proper meaning nor calls any of them an alternate view in order to refute it.

Here is a tool to carry away: when the author does not judge, go and count which statement carries a citation, which carries a simile, and which comes empty-handed. He takes no side, yet the weight he gives to each statement can be counted.

Counted that way: the first statement is empty-handed; the second carries one citation; the third carries one citation and a simile besides.

The simile runs like this. In a mountain forest there is a well, and at the well there is no rope. A man comes, scorched by the sun, heat-worn and thirsting. He sees the well, and he knows there is water in it—but he cannot touch it with his body.

Then Naluotuo (那羅陀) closes the comparison: I have indeed seen cessation, seen Nibbāna, rightly known and well seen as it truly is; and I am not an arahant with the influxes exhausted.

Well seen, and not influx-exhausted.

The force of this simile lies entirely in its parting “seeing” from “touching” into two separate things. And the dispute among the three statements falls on exactly that parting: whether one attains it is one matter; whether one causes it to arise is another.

The author places the simile beneath the third statement and adds no sentence saying “this statement is the correct one.” He has given the weight, and left the judgment to the one who reads.

And the one who reads should remember: counting weight is not passing judgment. The author himself did not judge, and here we stop as well.

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Shi Huijing · Waken · The Path of Freedom · Fruit Attainment · Doorway · Summer 2026

1. Twelve Questions and Their Answers

Question: What is fruit attainment? Why is it called fruit attainment? Who cultivates it? Who causes it to arise? Why cultivate it? How is it cultivated? How does one attend to it? Through how many conditions is it accomplished? Through how many conditions does it abide? Through how many conditions does it arise? Is this attainment worldly or supramundane?

This single opening asks twelve questions. Only seven answers below receive their own headings, and the wording of three headings differs from the questions. “Who cultivates?” and “Who causes it to arise?” receive no separate heading; their answers are contained in the second topic. The form is preserved without supplementation.

What Is Fruit Attainment?

Answer: What is fruit attainment? This fruit of recluseship, in which the mind is settled in Nibbāna, is called fruit attainment.

Why Is It Called Fruit Attainment?

Why is it called fruit attainment? It is neither wholesome nor unwholesome; it is not an object; it is formed as the result of the supramundane path. Therefore, in this fruit attainment, arahants and non-returners fulfill this concentration.

Another statement says that all noble persons can cause it to arise. As the Abhidhamma says: to attain the stream-entry path, exclusion of arising is called change-of-lineage; all cases are like this.

Another statement says that all noble persons accomplish and fulfill this concentration, but only those persons cause it to arise.

As the elder Naluotuo (那羅陀) said: “Monastics! It is like an elder at a well in a mountain forest, with no rope there to draw water. A person comes, exposed to the sun (曝), exhausted by heat and longing from thirst. The person sees the well and knows that there is water, yet cannot remain in bodily contact with it. In the same way, I, an elder, truly and rightly know and clearly see that cessation is Nibbāna, but I am not an arahant whose influxes are exhausted.”

(Three statements stand side by side: the first limits fulfillment to arahants and non-returners; the second says all noble persons can cause it to arise; the third says all noble persons accomplish it but only those two cause it to arise. The author does not adjudicate among them.)

Why Cause It to Arise?

Why cause it to arise (何故令起)? Answer: One causes it to arise in order to abide happily in the presently seen Dhamma.

As the Blessed One taught Anan (阿難): “At that time, Anan, the Tathāgata did not attend to any signs. With only the cessation of one feeling, he caused signless concentration of mind to arise and abide.” At that time, Anan, the Tathāgata’s body became at ease.

How Is It Caused to Arise?

How, by what means, is it caused to arise (云何以令起)? Answer: The sitting meditator enters a very peaceful abiding, whether sitting or lying down, delighting in attaining fruit attainment. Beginning with contemplation of the arising and cessation of formations and continuing through change-of-lineage knowledge, immediately after change-of-lineage knowledge the mind is settled in fruit attainment upon Nibbāna. The path is cultivated in dependence on that meditation. This is what meditation accomplishes; it is called fruit attainment.

How Does One Attend to It?

How does one attend to it? Answer: One attends peacefully to the unconditioned realm of the clarified essence.

How Many Conditions?

Through how many conditions is it accomplished? Through how many conditions does it abide (幾緣住 in the question, 幾緣為住 in the answer)? Through how many conditions does it arise?

Answer: That attainment is accomplished through two conditions: not attending to any signs, and attending to the signless realm.

It abides through three conditions: not attending to any signs, attending to the signless realm, and the initial activity.

It arises through two conditions: attending to every sign, and not attending to the signless realm.

Worldly or Supramundane?

How is this concentration worldly or supramundane?

Answer: This is supramundane attainment, not worldly attainment.

2. The Non-Returner’s Difficulty

Question: When a non-returner directly contemplates fruit concentration, why, immediately after change-of-lineage, does the arahant path not arise?

Answer: Because it is not a place of delight, contemplative seeing does not arise; because there is no power.

Here two kinds of superior fruit are to be known:

Direct contemplation accomplishes a fruit with path and change-of-lineage;

when the directly realized path is immediately followed by the manifestation of fruit, it accomplishes a fruit without path and with change-of-lineage;

entering fruit concentration accomplishes a fruit without path and with change-of-lineage;

emerging from cessation concentration accomplishes a fruit without path and without change-of-lineage.

(The heading says “two kinds,” but four clauses follow. The text does not state what “two kinds” designates.)

(Fruit attainment is complete.)

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Shi Huijing · Waken · The Path of Freedom · Fruit Attainment · Vernacular · Summer 2026

The preceding passage merely named two attainments. This passage explains the first, fruit attainment.

The finding comes first. Three statements appear under one question, and the author offers no verdict. Their supporting weight differs: the first has neither citation nor simile, the second has one citation, and the third has one citation plus a simile. The simile draws the disagreement exactly: a person sees a well and knows it contains water, yet cannot touch it with the body.

One Question Containing Twelve Questions

The passage opens with a chain: “What is fruit attainment? Why is it called fruit attainment? Who cultivates it? Who causes it to arise? Why cultivate it? How is it cultivated? How does one attend to it? Through how many conditions is it accomplished? Through how many conditions does it abide? Through how many conditions does it arise? Is this attainment worldly or supramundane?” 〔T32 460c17–20〕.

Twelve questions appear without interruption. The next passage opens in the same form.

The first answer establishes the name: “This fruit of recluseship, in which the mind is settled in Nibbāna, is called fruit attainment” 〔T32 460c20–21〕. “Fruit attainment” occurs ten times in the treatise, all within this passage.

The next answer says: “It is neither wholesome nor unwholesome; it is not an object; it is formed as the result of the supramundane path” 〔T32 460c21–23〕. Three negatives delimit its place before one positive account states what forms it.

Three Statements Side by Side

Next comes the place in this passage that most wants looking at.

The first statement is the author’s own answer: “therefore, in this fruit attainment, arahants and non-returners bring this concentration to fulfilment” 〔T32 460c23–24〕—only these two kinds of person.

The second says: “Another statement says that all noble persons can cause it to arise” 〔T32 460c24〕. Its scope is all noble persons.

The third says: “Another statement says that all noble persons accomplish and fulfill this concentration, but only those persons cause it to arise” 〔T32 460c26–27〕. All accomplish it, but only the two previously named groups cause it to arise.

With the three set side by side, the author passes not one word of judgment. He neither says which of them is the proper meaning nor, as he did earlier in Chapter Twelve, calls one of them an alternate view in order to refute it. He simply writes them down one after another.

Reading Method: When the Author Does Not Judge, Count What Each Statement Carries

When several statements are juxtaposed without a verdict, count what each carries: citation, simile, or nothing. The author may not state a preference, but his allocation of evidence is still observable.

Counted that way for this passage:

The first statement—no citation, no simile.

The second has one citation: “As the Abhidhamma says: to attain the stream-entry path, exclusion of arising is called change-of-lineage; all cases are like this” 〔T32 460c24–26〕. The citation formula “as the Abhidhamma says” occurs only once in the treatise.

The third has one citation and one simile: “As the elder Naluotuo (那羅陀) said: ‘Monastics! It is like an elder at a well in a mountain forest, with no rope there to draw water’” 〔T32 460c27–28〕. The Chinese name 那羅陀 occurs only once. It is retained as Naluotuo rather than reconstructed into an unattested Indic form.

After counting, the edition stops. It records the distribution of evidence without deciding which statement the author intended as correct.

The three preceding units, 12-13 through 12-15, contain no citations. This passage suddenly has three, all offered in support rather than refutation.

The Simile Draws the Point of Disagreement

The third statement’s comparison deserves line-by-line attention.

A well stands in a mountain forest with no rope to draw water. A person comes “exposed to the sun (曝), exhausted by heat and longing from thirst; the person sees the well and knows there is water, yet cannot remain in bodily contact with it” 〔T32 460c28–29〕.

The person sees the well and knows the water is there but cannot touch it with the body.

Naluotuo (那羅陀) then joins the comparison: “In the same way, I, an elder, truly and rightly know and clearly see that cessation is Nibbāna, but I am not an arahant whose influxes are exhausted” 〔T32 461a01–02〕.

Clear seeing, yet not exhaustion of the influxes: one has seen, but is not that person.

The comparison separates seeing from touching. The three positions turn on the same distinction: accomplishing or having access to fruit attainment is one thing; causing it to arise is another. The third statement says explicitly that all noble persons accomplish it, while only those two cause it to arise.

The author places the comparison under the third statement without adding “this is correct.” Its placement is recorded without converting it into a verdict.

At 460c28, the Taishō base has the gaiji 𭨃 in “exposed to the sun”; the critical edition has adopted 曝. Since the body has been critically corrected, this edition follows “exposed,” not the gaiji reading.

Why Cause It to Arise? The Blessed One Teaches Anan

The third citation belongs to another answer.

The heading says: “Why cause it to arise? Answer: One causes it to arise in order to abide happily in the presently seen Dhamma” 〔T32 461a02–03〕. The phrase translated “abide happily in the presently seen Dhamma” occurs only once.

The text then cites: “As the Blessed One taught Anan, at that time, Anan, the Tathāgata did not attend to any signs. With only the cessation of one feeling, he caused signless concentration of mind to arise and abide” 〔T32 461a03–04〕. Its effect appears in the next statement: “At that time, Anan, the Tathāgata’s body became at ease” 〔T32 461a05〕.

The question asks why; the answer says “to abide happily in the presently seen Dhamma,” and the citation supplies the fact of the Tathāgata’s bodily ease. No additional argument is inserted.

Pause: Twelve Questions but Seven Answer Headings

Return to that chain of questions at the opening.

The questions number twelve. Yet of those answered topic by topic with a heading of their own, there are only seven.

Stop and ask: where did the other five go?

Let the text answer for itself. Three things can be checked:

First, two questions are given no heading at all: “Who cultivates? Who causes it to arise?”—the answers to these two are contained within the second topic 〔T32 460c23–24〕. In answering “why is it called fruit attainment,” the author states “arahants and non-returners” in passing, and that is precisely the answer to “who.” The juxtaposition of the three statements also falls entirely within that same passage.

Second, in three places the wording of the heading does not match what was asked: the question reads 何故修, “why cultivate,” while the heading reads 何故令起者, “why cause it to arise” 〔T32 461a02〕; the question reads 云何修, “how cultivate,” while the heading reads 云何以令起者, “how, by what means, cause it to arise” 〔T32 461a05〕; the question reads 幾緣住, “through how many conditions does it abide,” while the heading reads 幾緣為住, “through how many conditions is it made to abide” 〔T32 461a10–11〕.

The first two are especially worth remembering: the question uses 修, “cultivate,” and the answer uses 令起, “cause to arise.” One and the same matter, with two different graphs at the asking and at the answering.

Third, the author gives not a word of explanation. He does not say which question has been folded into which topic, nor whether “cultivate” and “cause to arise” are one thing.

This edition sets down only these three, regularizing nothing and supplying nothing—it does not change 修 to 令起 at the question on the author’s behalf, nor supply a heading for those two questions.

The Procedure for Causing It to Arise and Its Attention

“How, by what means, is it caused to arise? The sitting meditator enters a very peaceful abiding, whether sitting or lying down, delighting in attaining fruit attainment” 〔T32 461a05–06〕.

The procedure follows: “Beginning with contemplation of the arising and cessation of formations and continuing through change-of-lineage knowledge, immediately after change-of-lineage knowledge the mind is settled in fruit attainment upon Nibbāna” 〔T32 461a07–08〕. It begins with seeing arising and cessation, passes through change-of-lineage knowledge, and connects by “immediately after.”

The close assigns the work to meditation: “The path is cultivated in dependence on that meditation. This is what meditation accomplishes; it is called fruit attainment” 〔T32 461a08–09〕.

The attention answer is shorter: “One attends peacefully to the unconditioned realm of the clarified essence” 〔T32 461a09–10〕. The expression “unconditioned realm of the clarified essence” occurs only once. The preceding passage spoke instead of a “door of the clarified essence”: one says realm, the other door, and the author does not explain their relation.

Three Condition Counts That Align Exactly

The condition answers are the passage’s most regular arithmetic.

Accomplishment: “That attainment is accomplished through two conditions: not attending to any signs, and attending to the signless realm” 〔T32 461a11–12〕.

Abiding: “It abides through three conditions: not attending to any signs, attending to the signless realm, and the initial activity” 〔T32 461a12–13〕. These are the two conditions of accomplishment plus one, initial activity.

Arising: “It arises through two conditions: attending to every sign, and not attending to the signless realm” 〔T32 461a13–14〕. These two reverse the accomplishment conditions.

The counts—two, three, two—match the listed members exactly. Accomplishment gives the pair, abiding adds one, and arising reverses the pair.

The last question is brief: “How is this concentration worldly or supramundane? Answer: This is supramundane attainment, not worldly attainment” 〔T32 461a14–15〕.

Final Section: A Heading of Two but Four Clauses

A separate question asks: “When a non-returner directly contemplates fruit concentration, why, immediately after change-of-lineage, does the arahant path not arise? Answer: Because it is not a place of delight, contemplative seeing does not arise; because there is no power” 〔T32 461a15–17〕.

The answer contains only those two reasons.

Then comes: “Here two kinds of superior fruit are to be known: a fruit with path and change-of-lineage” 〔T32 461a18〕, followed by three further clauses: direct realization immediately manifesting fruit, without path but with change-of-lineage 〔T32 461a18–19〕; entry into fruit concentration, without path but with change-of-lineage 〔T32 461a19–20〕; and emergence from cessation concentration, without path and without change-of-lineage 〔T32 461a20–21〕.

The text says “two kinds,” but gives four clauses. Each clause corresponds to one event; the contrasts are path/no path and change-of-lineage/no change-of-lineage.

What then does “two kinds” designate? The text does not say. Whether it means the two contrasted matters or two among the four clauses cannot be settled from the wording. 二種勝果 occurs only once in the treatise, so there is no second place to read it against.

This edition records it as it stands and does not count on the treatise’s behalf.

An inline note closes the topic: “(Fruit attainment is complete)” 〔T32 461a21〕. The next passage closes in the same form.

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Carry away three things. One finding: three statements stand side by side without adjudication 〔T32 460c23–24·460c24·460c26–27〕, but their evidentiary weights differ: none; one citation; one citation plus the well simile. The simile separates seeing from touching—“the person sees the well and knows there is water, yet cannot touch it with the body” 〔T32 460c29〕—the very distinction at issue. One method: when the author juxtaposes claims without judgment, count which carries citation, simile, or nothing; stop after mapping the weight and do not convert it into a verdict. One question to hold: the opening asks twelve questions but only seven answers receive headings 〔T32 460c17–20〕. Two “who” questions are embedded elsewhere, and three heading pairs differ—何故修/何故令起, 云何修/云何以令起, 幾緣住/幾緣為住—without explanation.

Remember three smaller points. “Fruit attainment” occurs ten times, all here; its definition is simply “mind settled in Nibbāna” 〔T32 460c21〕, while its account begins with three negatives 〔T32 460c21–23〕. The condition counts align: three for abiding equals the accomplishment pair plus initial activity, and the arising pair reverses the accomplishment pair 〔T32 461a11–14〕. Finally, “two kinds of superior fruit” heads four clauses 〔T32 461a18〕, but the text does not say what the two are.

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Shi Huijing · Waken · The Path of Freedom · Fruit Attainment · Exposition · Summer 2026