解脫道論 義疏通講 · 冊1

One Ring Enclosing the Whole Passage

The Path of Freedom opens with homage, then a verse of sixteen characters, then the reason for composing the treatise, and then this sentence: “This path of freedom I shall now declare. Listen well.” 〔T32 399c19–20〕

By ordinary expectation the teaching would begin with the next sentence. Instead the next sentence is “Question: what is virtue?” 〔T32 399c20〕, and that one question draws out a long passage of definition. When the defining is finished, the author says it again: “The path of freedom I shall now declare.” 〔T32 400a04〕

The words “I shall now declare” occur only twice in the whole treatise, and those two occurrences are the head and the tail of this passage. The author states that he is about to declare the path of freedom, inserts an entire passage, and then states the same thing a second time—and the passage enclosed between them contains not a single word about how to practise. All of it establishes what the three words “path of freedom” mean.

That is the arc of this unit: the opening does not teach the path; it names it. Every section below turns on this.

Nine Words Glossed, Not One More and Not One Fewer

Look first inside the ring.

The question asks one thing only: what is virtue? But the answer runs straight on: “Virtue means deportment; concentration means non-distraction; wisdom means knowing and awareness; freedom means release from bondage; unsurpassed means without influxes; awakening in accordance means knowing and attaining; this Dhamma means the Dhamma of the four noble states; Gotama means the clan name; renowned means the Blessed One.” 〔T32 399c20–23〕

One item asked, nine answered. The nine are not an aside; look back at the verse and it is clear—“Virtue, concentration, wisdom; unsurpassed freedom; awakening in accordance with this Dhamma; the renowned Gotama.” 〔T32 399c15–16〕 Sixteen characters containing exactly nine lexical items: virtue, concentration, wisdom, unsurpassed, freedom, awakening in accordance, this Dhamma, renowned, Gotama.

The nine items of the answer are the nine items of the verse. None omitted, none added.

So the question “what is virtue?” is not a question about virtue alone. It takes the first word of the verse as a handle and draws the whole verse out to be glossed. The author never says “I now explain this verse.” He lets the count say it.

Here is a method worth carrying away: when a passage glosses word by word in the form “X means Y,” go back and count the lexical items in the sentence being glossed. In this treatise the number of glossed items always equals the number in the sentence glossed; get the count right and you know where the gloss begins and ends, whether anything is missing, and whether anything has been added. That is more useful than memorising nine definitions, because it is a measure you can carry elsewhere.

Two Pairs Reordered: The Named Before the Qualifier

The nine items are complete, but their order is not identical to the verse.

The verse has “unsurpassed freedom,” while the gloss gives “freedom means release from bondage” first and “unsurpassed means without influxes” 〔T32 399c22〕 second. The verse has “renowned Gotama,” while the gloss gives “Gotama means the clan name” first and “renowned means the Blessed One” 〔T32 399c23〕 second. The remaining seven follow the verse.

Only these two are reordered, and the two are the same kind of thing: in the verse each is a qualifier followed by the thing qualified—“unsurpassed” modifies “freedom,” “renowned” modifies “Gotama.” In the gloss the author invariably takes the named thing first and the word that qualifies it second.

This is not arbitrary. Verse must hold a four-syllable line, and the named thing can be pushed to the end; a gloss must be clear, so it establishes the name first and then says how it is qualified. The same set of words is arranged by metre when it is verse and by sense when it is gloss.

Why the Opening Does Not Teach Practice

Here one should stop and ask: a treatise that from beginning to end concerns meditation, resorts, higher knowledges, and the four truths—why does its opening not teach a single word of practice, and spend an entire passage instead glossing every word of a sixteen-character verse?

The text answers this itself, in the second half of the passage.

The author asks: “What does the path of freedom mean?” 〔T32 399c25〕 He does not answer directly what the path is. He first unfolds the word “freedom”: “Freedom is of five kinds: freedom by suppression, freedom by that part, freedom by cutting off, freedom by tranquillisation, and freedom by leaving behind.” 〔T32 399c25–26〕

Five kinds. Suppression is holding down; that part is severance in part; cutting off is destruction; tranquillisation is the ease of mind when the fruit is attained; leaving behind is nibbāna without residue. These five are not five synonyms but five distinct stages—from suppressing the hindrances in the first jhāna all the way to nibbāna without residue.

Which of them, then, is meant by the “freedom” in “path of freedom”? If this is not settled first, the three words could name five different roads. So the defining is not a courteous preface but a delimitation: unless what is meant is pinned down, nothing in the twelve fascicles that follow has a common point of reference.

At the end the author fixes it: “This path of freedom exists for the attainment of freedom; it is the complete path; and by virtue, concentration, and wisdom it is called the path of freedom.” 〔T32 400a02–04〕 It exists for the attainment of freedom, it is the complete path, and its substance is the threefold training. With this sentence the verse's first line, virtue and concentration and wisdom, is joined to the title of the book.

Asking Once, and Thereby Setting a Pattern

The manner in which the five freedoms are stated also deserves a look.

The first item: “what is freedom by suppression? Presently practising the first jhāna and suppressing the hindrances; this is called freedom by suppression.” 〔T32 399c26–27〕 Question, explanation, conclusion.

From the second item the shape changes: “Freedom by that part is presently cultivating the concentration of penetrative partaking, whereby there is freedom from the views; this is called freedom by that part.” 〔T32 399c27–29〕 No question; the item begins directly with the naming particle. The third, fourth, and fifth are all like this.

The author asks once, establishes the pattern, and thereafter does not ask again. This economy is very common in the treatise: once the sentence-shape is set, the reader supplies the unspoken question. One should not supply it on the page, but one must recognise it—each of those four items introduced by the naming particle is a complete question-and-answer.

Four of These Names Never Appear Again

There is a further point, easy to miss and obvious once counted.

“Freedom by that part,” “freedom by cutting off,” “freedom by tranquillisation,” and “freedom by leaving behind” each occur three times in the whole treatise, and all three occurrences of each fall within this passage 〔T32 399c26–400a02〕—once in the list of names, once introduced by the naming particle, and once in the concluding formula. Beyond this passage these four names never occur again.

Only “freedom by suppression” is different. It recurs afterwards, but its use changes: the next passage speaks of not having suppressed freedom and not having rightly suppressed freedom 〔T32 400a05–06〕, and thereafter it becomes the compound “path of suppressed freedom” 〔T32 400a14〕, which occurs seven times in the treatise.

So these five names do not carry equal weight in the work: four are there to open out the range of the word “freedom” and retire once that is done; one is kept, and becomes the frame of the two passages that follow. It is right to hold all five together when reading this passage; but know that the author will use only one of them.

The Sentence Said Twice

Return to the ring.

“This path of freedom I shall now declare. Listen well.” 〔T32 399c19–20〕 The words rendered “listen well” likewise occur only once in the whole treatise. The author asks his reader to attend carefully at exactly one place, and what is to be attended to is not a meditation method but the delimitation of a word.

Then comes the whole passage of definition. Then: “The path of freedom I shall now declare.” 〔T32 400a04〕

When the sentence is said the second time, the three words “path of freedom” are no longer the three words of the first saying. The first time they were only a title; the second time they carry behind them the nine items of the verse, the range marked out by the five freedoms, and the delimitation that by virtue, concentration, and wisdom this is what the path of freedom is. The same sentence, but not of the same weight—and the passage in between is the process of making it weigh more.

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Shi Huijing · Waken · The Path of Freedom · Homage and the Outline of the Path · Exposition · Summer 2026

A Term Taken Apart, Then Drawn Together Again

The preceding passage fixed the book’s title in place: by virtue, concentration, and wisdom it is called the path of freedom. This passage does something else—it takes apart the term “path of suppressed freedom”, lays it out, and then draws it together again.

The traces of this taking apart and drawing together remain in two sentences.

The first comes earlier: “This is the path of suppressed freedom; the three aggregates are complete” 〔T32 400a14〕.

The second comes later: “These three aggregates being complete, this is the path of suppressed freedom” 〔T32 400a19–20〕.

The same two things, each placed in a six-character opening, with subject and predicate simply reversed. The first says “the path of suppressed freedom is the completion of the three aggregates”; the second, “the completion of the three aggregates is the path of suppressed freedom”. What lies between them is precisely the unfolding of each of the three aggregates.

It first uses the result to mark the cause, unfolds the cause, and then uses the cause to close the result. That is the arc of this passage. The author is not saying the same thing twice. He uses the two directions of one sentence to enclose the unfolding between them—just as the preceding passage used the two appearances of “I shall now declare”, one before and one after, to enclose the glossing of the name. This treatise likes to use a repeated sentence to draw a boundary.

Inside the Ring Are Eight Items

What, then, lies within the ring?

“Namely, the aggregate of virtue, the aggregate of concentration, and the aggregate of wisdom” 〔T32 400a14–15〕. Each aggregate lists its own items: for virtue, “right speech, right action, and right livelihood”; for concentration, “right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration”; for wisdom, “right view and right intention” 〔T32 400a18〕.

Three, three, and two. Together, eight.

The treatise gives these eight items no collective name, nor does it state their number. It simply distributes them among the three aggregates as three, three, and two, and then moves on. A reader who does not count them will not see this.

The formulas for the three aggregates are not, in fact, uniform. The aggregate of virtue reads, “What is the aggregate of virtue? Right speech, right action, and right livelihood, together with anything of the same kind included in the aggregate of virtue, or the various accumulations of virtuous qualities” 〔T32 400a15–16〕. The aggregate of concentration reads, “What is the aggregate of concentration? Right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration, together with anything of the same kind included in the aggregate of concentration, or the various accumulations of the qualities of concentration” 〔T32 400a16–18〕—these two forms are the same. But the aggregate of wisdom reads, “What is the aggregate of wisdom? Right view and right intention, together with anything of the same kind that is included, or the various accumulations of the qualities of wisdom” 〔T32 400a18–19〕. Before “included”, it lacks the two characters meaning “aggregate of wisdom”.

This unevenness must be stated carefully: the wording of the aggregate-of-virtue formula is itself a corrected reading in the edited text; the Taishō text did not originally read this way (see the apparatus for details). Thus the lack of uniformity among the three forms comes partly from the base text and partly from editorial correction. Only one thing can be certain: the three forms in the edition now before the reader are not all the same, and the treatise itself never explains why. We do not make them uniform or use their unevenness to infer the author’s intention.

Three Lacks, Three Answers, the Order Unchanged

Return to the beginning of the passage.

The question is “What use is there in teaching the path of freedom” 〔T32 400a04〕—what use is there in teaching this path? The answer first sets out three lacks: “because they have not heard freedom taught, have not suppressed freedom, and have not rightly suppressed freedom” 〔T32 400a05–06〕. They have not heard someone teach it, have not suppressed, and have not rightly suppressed.

The treatise then answers these three lacks one by one.

The first lack receives the longest answer. It also cites the Buddha twice and finally closes with “This is why freedom is taught” 〔T32 400a11〕. The second lack: “For one who has not suppressed freedom, freedom is taught in order to give rise to disenchantment” 〔T32 400a11–12〕. The third lack: “For one who has not rightly suppressed freedom, freedom is taught in order to remove the wrong path and attain the jhāna path of freedom” 〔T32 400a12–13〕.

Each of the three answers closes with the four-character phrase “therefore freedom is taught”—three occurrences in this passage. The question begins by listing a number of things, and the answer gives just that many in the same order, omitting none and exchanging none.

This manner of writing is normal in the treatise and worth recognizing here: when several items are listed together at the head of a question, first remember how many there are, then see whether the answer returns to them one by one in the same order. If it does, the section is closed; if it does not, the discrepancy itself is something to notice.

Two Similes Bracketing the Three Answers

Between the three lacks and the three answers, two similes have also been placed.

Just after listing the three lacks, the author says, “like a blind person without a guide, travelling alone in a distant country” 〔T32 400a06–07〕. Just after giving the three answers, he says, “like a traveller on a long journey who obtains a good guide” 〔T32 400a13–14〕.

The same scene, the same long journey; the only difference is whether a guide is present. One stands on the side of the “lacks”, the other on the side of the “answers”, with the full text of the three answers between them.

Thus these are not two independent similes but the two faces of a single simile. What they illustrate is precisely “teaching the path of freedom” itself—to teach is to give that traveller a guide. Here the treatise answers why it exists.

The expression “like a traveller on a long journey” occurs only once in the entire treatise.

The Same Set of Three Trainings, Stated Three Times

Once the ring has closed, the author moves on to the three trainings. He states the same set of three trainings three times in succession, changing the form each time.

The first statement: “One should train in the three trainings: the higher training in virtue, the higher training in mind, and the higher training in wisdom” 〔T32 400a20–21〕. Three items, each bearing “higher”.

The second statement: “There is virtue and there is the higher training in virtue; there is concentration and there is the higher training in mind; there is wisdom and there is the higher training in wisdom” 〔T32 400a21–22〕. Six items, the three plain terms set beside the three higher ones.

The third statement: “Again, there is virtue—training in virtue; virtue—the higher training in virtue; concentration—training in mind; concentration—the higher training in mind; wisdom—training in wisdom; wisdom—the higher training in wisdom” 〔T32 400a22–24〕. Still six items, but each is now prefixed by its own plain term.

Between the three statements, the treatise gives not a word of explanation, nor does it say what the third adds to the second. They are not successive stages; they are three formulations of the same thing set side by side. When reading, do not hurry to merge the three into a table—the author did not merge them, and neither do we.

Four Questions, but Only Three Paragraphs

The next part has three short sections, each answering one question: the training in virtue 〔T32 400a24〕, the training in mind 〔T32 400a26〕, and the higher training in mind 〔T32 400a27〕.

But this part actually asks four questions. The fourth is “What is the training in wisdom” 〔T32 400a29〕—and it does not begin a paragraph of its own, but is embedded in the middle of the paragraph on the higher training in mind.

This yields a method worth carrying away: in this treatise, paragraph boundaries are section boundaries; when a question does not begin a new paragraph, understand that it is attached to the answer to the preceding question, not that it begins a new section.

Applied here, the definitions of the training in wisdom and the higher training in wisdom are, as a matter of form, hung beneath the section on the higher training in mind; they do not stand as a fourth section alongside the training in virtue and the training in mind. The wording alone does not disclose this difference. One has to see how the paragraphs are divided.

There is one more point that can be known only by looking at the base text: the third question is written, “Question: what is the higher training in mind.” 〔T32 400a27〕 It ends with a period, not a question mark. The first three questions all use question marks. It is transcribed as it stands, without correction—but the reader should know that it is there.

Why That Section Has Only Four Characters

Now stop and ask a question.

“What is the training in mind? Answer: what is called desire-concentration” 〔T32 400a26–27〕. In this section, the answer consists of only four characters. Yet the section immediately beside it asks in the same way and answers in more than sixty characters, with “again” introducing a second statement.

Why would a passage on the three trainings dispose of the “training in mind” so quickly?

The treatise itself answers, but only in the next section. That section says, “Question: what is the higher training in mind. Answer: form concentration and formless concentration; this is called the higher training in mind” 〔T32 400a27–28〕. Form concentration and formless concentration both belong to the higher training in mind.

What, then, remains for the training in mind? Only concentration of the desire realm. The four characters are not an omission; they have already said all there is to say. In the classification used by this treatise, most forms of concentration have been assigned to the higher training in mind, leaving only one thing in the category of the training in mind.

Following this further makes something else clear. This section stops when its answer ends; it does not add “this is called the training in mind”, while the neighboring section does say “this is called the higher training in mind”. The closing formulas for the six trainings in this passage actually use three forms—“is named” three times, “is called” twice, and “this is called” once. The author never makes the closing formulas uniform; where a formula closes and which word it uses vary from place to place. Thus “the section on the training in mind has no closing formula” need not be read as a lacuna. It is simply one instance of the passage’s original unevenness.

The Final Three Sentences

The passage ends with three kinds of faculties: “As the Blessed One taught: the higher training in virtue for those of dull faculties, the higher training in mind for those of middling faculties, and the higher training in wisdom for those of sharp faculties” 〔T32 400b02–03〕.

Dull faculties are paired with virtue, middling faculties with concentration, and sharp faculties with wisdom. Each is matched one to one, and the passage closes without further explaining what dull, middling, or sharp faculties are.

It is worth recording that this passage cites the Buddha three times from beginning to end, using three different introductory formulas: “as the Buddha said” 〔T32 400a08〕, “again, as the Buddha said” 〔T32 400a09〕, and “as the Blessed One” 〔T32 400b02〕. The first two stand only one line apart and answer the same question; the third comes after a long interval and closes the whole section. None of the three names a sutta.

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Shi Huijing · Waken · The Path of Freedom · Why the Path of Freedom Is Taught and the Three Trainings · Exposition · Summer 2026

First, Count Them

The final passage of the Chapter on Causes and Conditions is undivided in the base text, running on for more than four hundred characters in a single breath. At first glance it is a long string of technical terms: the three trainings, three purities, three goods, three blisses, the middle way, three removals, and four fruits.

But keep your eye on a single sentence and the framework of the passage becomes visible. That sentence is “this is the path of suppressed freedom.”

It appears five times in this passage:

“Thus one trains in these three trainings; this is called the path of suppressed freedom” 〔T32 400b05〕.

“Thus, through the three purities, this is the path of suppressed freedom” 〔T32 400b10〕.

“Thus, having accomplished the path of the three goods, this is already the path of suppressed freedom” 〔T32 400b17–18〕.

“Thus, having accomplished and attained the three blisses, this is the path of suppressed freedom” 〔T32 400b20–21〕.

“Thus, having left the two extremes far behind and attained completeness in the middle way, this is the path of suppressed freedom” 〔T32 400b24–25〕.

Five times: each begins with “thus,” and each closes on the same words. And outside this entire passage, “path of suppressed freedom” appears only twice more in the whole treatise, both in the preceding passage—of its seven occurrences, five belong to this passage alone.

The same sentence closes five times, and each time what it closes is something different. That is the arc of this passage.

Five Closings, Five Different Things

The first closes the three trainings: training in what can be trained, training in the higher training, and training in what is beyond training.

The second closes the three purities: purity of virtue, purity of mind, and purity of view—virtue washes away the stain of broken virtue, concentration washes away the stain of entanglements, and wisdom removes the stain of not knowing; it then changes the set: virtue removes the stain of evil action, concentration removes the stain of entanglements, and wisdom removes the stain of the afflictions.

The third closes the three goods: goodness in the beginning, goodness in the middle, and goodness in the end—virtue at the beginning, concentration in the middle, and wisdom at the end.

The fourth closes the three blisses: faultless bliss, the bliss of cessation, and the bliss of right awakening.

The fifth closes completeness in the middle way: leaving the two extremes far behind.

Five different things. Each comes in a group of three, each follows the order of virtue, concentration, and wisdom, and not one changes that order. Nor do they follow from one another—the three purities are not derived from the three trainings, nor are the three blisses derived from the three goods. The author turns the same thing to show five faces, and each time presses it back into its original place.

So these five passages are not five stages but five formulations. Do not arrange them into a sequence when reading; that would make the text say something it does not say.

Two Triads, Each Missing One Closing Formula

In the process of turning the same thing to different faces, two small irregularities are worth pausing over.

In the group of three purities, each of the three items states the stain it washes away, but there are only two closing sentences: “Virtue washes away the stain of breaches of virtue, and concentration washes away the stain of entanglements; this is called purity of mind” 〔T32 400b07–08〕, and “Wisdom removes the stain of not knowing; this is called purity of view” 〔T32 400b08–09〕. The virtue item has no close. Moreover, the two closing formulas use different words: one has “是謂,” the other “此謂.”

The group of three goods likewise has three items but only two closing sentences: “This is called goodness in the beginning” 〔T32 400b14–15〕 and “This is called goodness in the middle” 〔T32 400b15〕. The item on goodness in the end has no close; it proceeds directly to “Thus, having accomplished the path of the three goods, this is already the path of suppressed freedom” 〔T32 400b17–18〕.

Both groups lack one close, but in exactly opposite positions: the group of three purities lacks the first, while the group of three goods lacks the last.

There is no need to infer the author’s intention from this, and no need to supplement anything. What matters is being able to recognize it while reading—this treatise’s closing formulas are never uniform. The preceding passage used three different closing formulas for six trainings; here, two triads each lack one close. That a technical term does not carry “此謂” does not mean that it fails to stand, still less that a character has fallen from the base text.

The Sentence on Goodness in the Middle Joins the Beginning of Goodness in the End

The explanations of the three goods differ greatly in length. Goodness in the beginning links six items in succession: not falling back, joy, elation, bodily ease, bliss, and concentration of mind 〔T32 400b12–15〕. Goodness in the end has four: disenchantment, dispassion, freedom, and the accomplishment of self-knowledge 〔T32 400b15–17〕. The middle one, goodness in the middle, has only a single sentence: “Concentration is goodness in the middle because through concentration one knows and sees things as they really are; this is called goodness in the middle” 〔T32 400b15〕.

One sentence: it looks the slightest of the three. But look where it lands—“knowing and seeing as it really is.”

Then look at how goodness in the end begins: “Wisdom is goodness in the end: having already known and seen as it really is, one becomes disenchanted” 〔T32 400b15–16〕.

The endpoint of goodness in the middle is the starting point of goodness in the end. That middle goodness, which looks shortest, is actually the joint: the six-link chain of goodness in the beginning reaches “concentration of mind”; goodness in the middle turns “concentration of mind” into “knowing and seeing as it really is”; goodness in the end then takes “knowing and seeing as it really is” and links four more items, ending in “the accomplishment of self-knowledge.”

Together, the three goods form a single chain. Goodness in the middle is short because it is responsible for only one transition. Short does not mean abridged.

This also gives us a reading practice to carry away from the passage: when a closing sentence recurs, first count how many times it closes, then look in each case at what it closes. When the close is the same but what it closes differs, you know the author is presenting multiple faces of one thing; and where the lengths of neighboring sections differ sharply, first see whether their beginnings and endings join before deciding that one has been abbreviated.

Why “Middle Way” Appears Only Here

Now stop and ask a question.

The words “middle way” occur only three times in the whole treatise, and all three occurrences are within this passage 〔T32 400b20–21·400b23–24·400b24–25〕.

This is strange. The treatise has whole chapters on the four truths—Chapters Eleven and Twelve—and unfolds the noble eightfold path, yet nowhere in those places does it say “middle way.” Instead, at the end of the Chapter on Causes and Conditions, while speaking of the three blisses, it says it three times in succession.

The text itself gives the answer, in the context surrounding these three occurrences.

It says, “Leaving the two extremes far behind, one attains completeness in the middle way” 〔T32 400b21〕. What, then, are the two extremes? The next sentence tells us: “Through this goodness of virtue one removes every attachment to desire and feels delight in faultless bliss; through concentration one removes bodily weakness and increases one’s joyous delight in the bliss of cessation” 〔T32 400b21–23〕.

One extreme is “attachment to desire,” the other “bodily weakness.” Virtue removes attachment to desire; concentration removes bodily weakness—the two extremes here are not the familiar pair of extremes, but clinging to desire and weakness of the body; the so-called middle way is the state in which, once both have been removed, the three blisses are complete.

Thus the treatise is not presenting a doctrinal view of the middle way. It is giving “completeness in the middle way” a definition in terms of a stage of practice: virtue removes one extreme, concentration removes the other, wisdom distinguishes the four truths; when the three blisses are all present, that is called completeness in the middle way. It places the “middle way” at the close of the Chapter on Causes and Conditions precisely because this chapter sketches the outline of the entire path.

There is another point in support. “Two extremes” occurs four times in the whole treatise, two of them in this passage; the other two are in Chapters Two and Eight 〔T32 403c12·428c12〕—and in both of those places the wording is “complete in the middle,” without the word “way.” Only this passage in the whole treatise joins “middle” and “way” in a single expression.

The Last Turn Has No Closing Formula, and the Chapter Ends

After the five closing sentences comes one final turn: “Virtue removes the bad destinations, concentration removes the desire realm, and wisdom removes all becoming” 〔T32 400b25–26〕. Then come the four fruits: much cultivation of virtue with little of concentration and wisdom brings the first two fruits; much cultivation of virtue and concentration with little of wisdom brings non-returning; fulfilling all three forms of cultivation brings arahantship and unsurpassed freedom 〔T32 400b26–28〕.

This last turn has no closing sentence. Each of the preceding five turns is pressed back into place with “this is the path of suppressed freedom”; here, it is not.

And rightly so: the first five turns say “what this path is”; the last says “where it leads.” Once one has arrived, there is no need to say again which path it was.

The Chapter on Causes and Conditions ends here. It adds no separate closing formula attaching “finished” to the chapter title—other chapters in the treatise have such a formula, but this one does not. The next line is simply “Chapter Two: Distinguishing Virtue.” The boundary of this chapter can be recognized only from the title of the chapter that follows.

One final point is worth recording: the last four characters of the passage are “unsurpassed freedom” 〔T32 400b28〕. The second line of the opening verse of the chapter also says “unsurpassed freedom” 〔T32 399c15〕. At the beginning and end of the chapter, the same phrase. The text itself does not connect the two—but it places them there.

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Shi Huijing · Waken · The Path of Freedom · The Purity and Accomplishment of the Three Trainings · Exposition · Summer 2026