解脫道論 四大緣相與同異

The conditions doorway first states that “four causes and four conditions give rise to the elements,” then lists action, mind, time, and food. All nine condition-lists with explicit numbers agree with the items given. It finally says earth serves as a dwelling-place condition for the other elements, water as a binding condition, fire as a maturing condition, and wind as a sustaining condition. The characteristics doorway gives the four pairings hardness-earth, moisture-water, heat-fire, and cold-wind.

The class doorway first groups earth-water through heaviness and fire-wind through lightness. It then distinguishes water-fire through extinguishing and drying, and earth-wind through obstruction and movement. Finally, through reciprocal condition the four elements are reciprocally of one class; through own-characteristic they are reciprocally unlike. The judgments stand on different grounds.

The one-nature-and-diverse-natures doorway says that the four elements are one insofar as they are born of action and diverse in their characteristics. Six aspects of one nature are being elements, great, qualities, impermanent, suffering, and not-self. Diverse natures are listed through characteristic, function, action, mind, time, food, place, birth, and destination. Between them stands the unnamed sentence “through diverse nature, they become diverse in nature.” It remains without an assigned category.

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Shi Huijing · Waken · The Path of Freedom · The Four Great Elements: Conditions, Characteristics, Similarity, and Difference · Doorway · Summer 2026

Contemplating the Elements through Conditions

Question: How does one contemplate the elements through conditions?

Answer: The treatise first says that “four causes and four conditions” give rise to the elements, then lists only four items: action, mind, time, and food. It does not distinguish whether the names “causes” and “conditions” both refer to this one list.

What is action? It means what is born of action. The four elements born of action are conditioned by two conditions, the arising condition and action condition; the remaining elements are conditioned by the support condition.

Mind means what is born of mind. The four elements born of mind are conditioned by six conditions: arising, co-arising, support, food, faculty, and existence. The passage on the remaining elements reads, “by a condition, by the support condition, by the existence condition, at the time of entering the womb, mind.” The first “by a condition” gives no name, and the attachment of the final phrase is unclear. It therefore remains unresolved without supplementation.

Material qualities are conditioned by seven conditions: co-arising, reciprocal, support, food, faculty, result, and existence. The final phrase reads “later-arising mind is initial arising,” and receives no further explanation here.

The body is conditioned by three conditions: later-arising, support, and existence. At this point the text says that this time is formed by time.

With respect to what is formed by time, the four great elements are conditioned by two conditions, arising and existence; the remaining elements by two, support and existence. The source next reads 此食從為食所成. Its syntax is irregular and is not explained here.

With respect to what is formed by food, the four great elements are conditioned by three conditions—arising, food, and existence—and the remaining elements by two, support and existence.

The source then again uses the four elements born of action as an example. The co-arisen elements reciprocally condition one another through four conditions: co-arising, reciprocal, support, and existence. The remaining elements are conditioned through support and existence. What is born of mind, time, and food is to be understood in the same way.

The four elements also condition one another. The earth element serves as a dwelling-place condition for the other elements, water as a binding condition, fire as a maturing condition, and wind as a sustaining condition.

In this way one contemplates the elements through conditions.

Contemplating the Elements through Characteristics

Question: How does one contemplate the elements through characteristics?

Answer: Hardness is the characteristic of the earth element, moisture of water, heat of fire, and cold of wind. In this way one contemplates the elements through characteristics.

Contemplating the Elements as Like and Unlike in Class

Question: How does one contemplate the elements as like and unlike in class?

Answer: Because of heaviness, earth and water belong to one class. Because of lightness, fire and wind belong to one class.

Water and fire are unlike: water can extinguish, while fire causes drying. Earth and wind are reciprocally unlike in class: earth obstructs, wind moves, and wind can destroy earth.

Again, the four elements can be reciprocally of one class because they are reciprocal conditions, or reciprocally unlike in class because of their own characteristics.

In this way one contemplates the elements as of the same and different classes.

Contemplating the Elements through One Nature and Diverse Natures

Question: How does one contemplate the elements through one nature and diverse natures?

Answer: The four elements born of action are one in nature insofar as they are born of action; they are diverse in nature with respect to their characteristics. What is born of mind, time, and food is to be understood in the same way.

The source next speaks of elements formed by four causes and conditions, saying of earth: “one in nature with respect to characteristic; with respect to cause, what are called diverse characteristics.” It then says, “In the same way, the wind element and fire element formed by four causes and conditions. The wind element is to be understood.” In this list, earth occurs once, fire once, wind twice, and water not at all. The received list remains without adding water or deleting wind.

The four elements are one in six respects: as elements, as great, as qualities, as impermanent, as suffering, and as not-self. They are diverse in characteristic, function, and action.

The source then says in order that through diversity of mind they become diverse, through diversity of time they become diverse, and through diversity of food they become diverse. A separate sentence says only “through diverse nature, they become diverse in nature,” without naming its basis. Then it gives diversity of place, birth, and destination.

In this way one contemplates the elements through one nature and diverse natures.

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Shi Huijing · Waken · The Path of Freedom · The Four Great Elements: Conditions, Characteristics, Similarity, and Difference · Vernacular · Summer 2026

The earlier teachers’ original heading says “ten modes,” but it actually lists only nine items. This passage continues by explaining the last four doorways in that list: conditions, characteristics, like and unlike in class, and one nature and diverse natures. Each of the four sections has its own question and answer, and each closes with “thus … contemplate the elements.” The conditions doorway first states, “four causes and four conditions give rise to the elements,” then lists action, mind, time, and food. The characteristics doorway lists hardness, moisture, heat, and cold. The doorway of like and unlike in class distinguishes class and nonclass through heaviness and lightness, extinguishing and obstruction, reciprocal condition, and own-characteristic. The doorway of one nature and diverse natures explains one nature through a common cause of arising, through element, great, and quality, and through impermanence, suffering, and not-self; it explains diverse natures through characteristic, function, action, mind, time, food, place, birth, and destination. The four sections can therefore be read side by side, one by one, through these four opening questions, four groups of answers, and four closing sentences.

The four closing sentences, in order, are “Thus one contemplates the elements through conditions,” “Thus one contemplates the elements through characteristics,” “Thus one contemplates the elements as like and unlike in class,” and “Thus one contemplates the elements through one nature and diverse natures.” The third and fourth retain the compound names used in their respective opening questions.

Conditions: Action, Mind, Time, and Food

“Question: How does one contemplate the elements through conditions? Answer: Four causes and four conditions give rise to the elements. What are the four? They are action, mind, time, and food” 〔T32 439c11–13〕. The heading uses both “four causes” and “four conditions,” but the passage that follows gives only one four-item list: action, mind, time, and food. Whether the two names refer to one thing or two is not distinguished here and therefore remains unresolved. The action item says “born of action.” The four elements are conditioned through two conditions, the arising condition and action condition, while the remaining elements are conditioned through the support condition 〔T32 439c13–14〕. Action, the four elements, and the remaining elements are three distinct levels of subject, each with its own verb and named conditions; they must be kept sentence by sentence.

The mind item first says “born of mind.” The four elements are conditioned through six conditions: arising, co-arising, support, food, faculty, and existence. The remaining elements are then listed as conditioned “by a condition, by the support condition, and by the existence condition,” with the first “condition” left unnamed, followed by “at the time of entering the womb, mind” 〔T32 439c17〕. Material qualities are then conditioned through seven conditions: co-arising, reciprocal, support, food, faculty, result, and existence. The passage next says, “later-arising mind is initial arising.” The body is conditioned through three conditions: later-arising, support, and existence 〔T32 439c17–20〕. The stated totals of six, seven, and three all agree with their lists, but the unnamed first “condition” for the remaining elements and the meaning of “later-arising mind is initial arising” must remain as received.

After “this time is formed by time,” the time item says that the four great elements are conditioned through two conditions, arising and existence, while the remaining elements are conditioned through two conditions, support and existence 〔T32 439c19–21〕. After “this food, from what is formed by food,” the food item says that the four great elements are conditioned through three conditions, arising, food, and existence, while the remaining elements are conditioned through two conditions, support and existence 〔T32 439c21–23〕. The passage then again speaks of the four elements born of action: the co-arisen elements reciprocally are conditioned through four conditions—co-arising, reciprocal, support, and existence—while the remaining elements are conditioned through support and existence. It gathers the four items again with “what is born of mind, time, and food is to be understood in the same way” 〔T32 439c23–27〕. In source order, the nine explicitly numbered lists are two, six, seven, three, two, two, three, two, and four; all nine agree with the items listed. Ten distinct condition names occur verbatim: arising, action, co-arising, support, food, faculty, existence, reciprocal, result, and later-arising.

Expanded one by one in source order, the nine numbered lists are these: first, the four elements born of action are conditioned through arising and action; second, the four elements born of mind through arising, co-arising, support, food, faculty, and existence; third, material qualities through co-arising, reciprocal, support, food, faculty, result, and existence; fourth, the body through later-arising, support, and existence; fifth, the four great elements formed by time through arising and existence; sixth, the remaining elements in that section through support and existence; seventh, the four great elements formed by food through arising, food, and existence; eighth, the remaining elements in that section through support and existence; and ninth, the co-arisen elements reciprocally through co-arising, reciprocal, support, and existence. At every point, the stated total can be checked item by item against its list.

The ten condition names are distributed differently among the lists. The arising condition appears with the action-born four elements, the mind-born four elements, the time-formed great elements, and the food-formed great elements; the action condition appears only with the action-born four elements. The co-arising condition appears with the mind-born four elements, material qualities, and the co-arisen elements reciprocally; the reciprocal condition appears with material qualities and the co-arisen elements reciprocally. The food condition appears with the mind-born four elements, material qualities, and the food-formed great elements; the faculty condition appears with the mind-born four elements and material qualities. The result condition is listed only for material qualities, and the later-arising condition only for the body. Support and existence are the most widely distributed, but the remaining elements in the action section are expressly given only the support condition. These differences must be preserved list by list, so the ten names are not mistaken for a fixed template present under every source.

At the end of the conditions doorway, the passage separately states the conditions that the four elements provide for the remaining elements: the earth element serves as a dwelling-place condition, the water element as a binding condition, the fire element as a maturing condition, and the wind element as a sustaining condition 〔T32 439c27–29〕. The four subjects, their shared object, and what each does are all distinct: earth, water, fire, and wind act upon the remaining elements respectively as dwelling place, binding, maturing, and sustaining. No total is stated for these four correspondences. The doorway then closes with “Thus one contemplates the elements through conditions.”

Characteristics: Hardness, Moisture, Heat, and Cold

“Question: How does one contemplate the elements through characteristics? Answer: Hardness is the characteristic of earth, moisture the characteristic of water, heat the characteristic of fire, and cold the characteristic of wind. Thus one contemplates the elements through characteristics” 〔T32 440a01–02〕. The four correspondences are stated verbatim: hardness with earth, moisture with water, heat with fire, and cold with wind. “Cold characteristic” occurs only here in the entire treatise. In the self-nature doorway, the same wind element is separately described as sustaining, cold, going and coming, light movement, low, and taking; in the function doorway as obstruction and turning; and in the conditions doorway as serving as a sustaining condition. These descriptions belong to their respective doorways. They cannot be combined into a single count, nor can weight, tactile sensation, or an on-the-spot mnemonic be turned into a diagnostic rule for the practitioner. The characteristics doorway itself gives only the four characteristics and their four corresponding elements, then closes with the same concluding formula.

The order of the four characteristics exactly matches the order of the four elements: first, hardness with earth; second, moisture with water; third, heat with fire; and fourth, cold with wind. No element is omitted or repeated, and no question of numerical correspondence arises.

Like and Unlike in Class: Heaviness, Lightness, Functions, Conditions, and Own-Characteristics

“Earth and water are one class because of heaviness. Fire and wind are one class because of lightness” 〔T32 440a03–04〕. On the first level, heaviness and lightness group earth and water into one class and fire and wind into one class. The second level says that water and fire are unlike because the water element can extinguish while the fire element causes drying 〔T32 440a04–05〕. The third says that earth and wind are reciprocally unlike in class because the earth element obstructs, the wind element moves, and the wind element can destroy the earth element 〔T32 440a05–07〕. Each of the three levels has an explicit textual basis, and each uses different groups of elements, different class terminology, and different reasons.

The passage finally states, “Or the four elements are reciprocally of one class because they are reciprocal conditions; or they are reciprocally unlike in class because of their own characteristics” 〔T32 440a07–08〕. The same group of four elements can be described as reciprocally of one class on the basis of reciprocal condition and as reciprocally unlike in class on the basis of each element’s own characteristic. The two judgments rest on different grounds and do not cancel each other. Within this doorway, the text alternates among forms meaning “one class,” “unlike,” “unlike in class,” “reciprocally of one class,” and “like and unlike in class”; each form must remain in its own sentence. The conclusion is “Thus one contemplates the elements as like and unlike in class” 〔T32 440a08–09〕.

Returning each reason to its subject: when earth and water are grouped together, their only reason is “because of heaviness”; when fire and wind are grouped together, their only reason is “because of lightness.” When water and fire are said to be unlike, water “can extinguish” and fire “causes drying.” When earth and wind are said to be unlike in class, earth “obstructs,” wind “moves,” and wind “can destroy the earth element.” The final judgment no longer takes the elements in pairs but speaks of all four together: reciprocal condition is the basis for being reciprocally of one class, and own-characteristic is the basis for being reciprocally unlike in class. The scope of the subject changes across these three levels, so the reasons of heaviness and lightness from the first level cannot be transferred to the later ones.

One Nature and Diverse Natures: Shared and Differing Aspects

“The four elements are born of action; because they are born of action, this is called one nature. With respect to characteristics, diverse natures” 〔T32 440a10–11〕. Their common birth from action is one nature; their differing characteristics are diverse natures. The next sentence, “What is born of mind, time, and food is to be understood in the same way,” places mind, time, and food alongside action as four causes of arising 〔T32 440a11〕. The older wording then reads, “The earth element of four causes and conditions: one nature with respect to characteristic; with respect to cause, what are called diverse characteristics. In the same way, the wind element and fire element of four causes and conditions. The wind element is to be understood” 〔T32 440a12–13〕. Measured by the names actually given, earth appears once, fire once, wind twice, and water not at all. The missing water and repeated wind must be disclosed exactly as they stand; water cannot be supplied and the second wind cannot be deleted. The syntax of “one nature with respect to characteristic; with respect to cause, what are called diverse characteristics” is likewise retained as received.

This numerical fact must be kept separate from interpretation. After “the earth element of four causes and conditions,” the passage says, “In the same way, the wind element and fire element of four causes and conditions. The wind element is to be understood.” The actual sequence of names is therefore earth, wind, fire, wind, not a regular series of earth, water, fire, and wind. Elsewhere, four witnesses record the variant “arising” for “place,” but that cannot be used to regularize the names here. According to the Taishō base text, the received surface remains earth once, fire once, wind twice, and water zero.

The passage next lists six aspects of one nature: “The four elements are one as elements, one as great, one as qualities, one as impermanent, one as suffering, and one as not-self” 〔T32 440a13–15〕. The transition from one nature to diverse natures appears at 〔T32 440a13–16〕. The six items, in order, are element, great, quality, impermanence, suffering, and not-self; the treatise does not separately state their number. Diverse natures first lists characteristic, function, and action 〔T32 440a15–16〕, then mind, time, and food 〔T32 440a16–18〕. An unnamed sentence, “through diverse nature, they become diverse in nature,” is then inserted without stating the category to which it belongs. Place, birth, and destination follow 〔T32 440a18–20〕. The textual form is therefore three items, three items, one unnamed sentence, and three items; the unnamed sentence cannot be supplied with a missing category.

The latter two lists repeat each item in full: “Through diversity of mind, they become diverse; through diversity of time, they become diverse; through diversity of food, they become diverse.” After the unnamed sentence come “through diversity of place, they become diverse; through diversity of birth, they become diverse; through diversity of destination, they become diverse.” Characteristic, function, and action instead appear only in the single series “through diversity of characteristic, through diversity of function, through diversity of action,” without repeating “they become diverse” after each item. The three groups do not originally have precisely the same form.

Precisely stated, common birth from action is one nature, while difference in characteristics is diverse natures. The four elements are also one as element, great, quality, impermanent, suffering, and not-self, and they become diverse through characteristic, function, action, mind, time, food, place, birth, and destination. These shared and differing aspects are all listed item by item in the source; missing water, repeated wind, and the unnamed sentence remain as three textual irregularities. “Thus one contemplates the elements through one nature and diverse natures” 〔T32 440a20〕 corresponds to the conclusions of the preceding three doorways and closes the fourth question.

Carry away the explicit content of all four sections. The conditions doorway gives action, mind, time, and food as one four-item list; all nine explicitly numbered condition-lists agree with the items actually given, and the doorway closes with four conditions: earth as dwelling place, water as binding, fire as maturing, and wind as sustaining. The characteristics doorway gives only hardness-earth, moisture-water, heat-fire, and cold-wind. The doorway of like and unlike in class first divides two pairs through heaviness and lightness, then gives water-fire and earth-wind as unlike, and finally speaks of class through reciprocal condition and nonclass through own-characteristic. The doorway of one nature and diverse natures speaks of one nature through a common cause of arising and through the six items element, great, quality, impermanence, suffering, and not-self; it speaks of diverse natures through characteristic, function, action, mind, time, food, place, birth, and destination, while preserving the missing water, repeated wind, and unnamed sentence. The content of the four doorways is sufficient for a detailed reading in the source’s own order; no modern simile, bodily diagnosis, or fixed rule of practice needs to be added.

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Shi Huijing · Waken · The Path of Freedom · The Four Great Elements: Conditions, Characteristics, Similarity, and Difference · Exposition · Summer 2026