The Four Immeasurables
Everywhere the scriptures speak of the most excellent qualities — from the immeasurables through the eighteen qualities exclusive to a buddha — these belong specifically to subsequent realization and culminating realization. The treatise now works through eighteen such categories in turn, each analyzed by the same five-part framework of basis, object, aspect, essence, and accompaniment, beginning with the four immeasurables of loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity.
1. Which Realizations These Qualities Belong To
諸無量等最勝功德何現觀攝？後現觀、究竟現觀攝。彼復云何？謂無量解脫、勝處、遍處、無諍、願智、無礙解、神通、相隨好、清淨、力、無畏、念住、不護、無忘失法、永斷習氣、大悲、不共佛法、一切種妙智，如是等功德，諸契經中處處宣說。
To which of the ten kinds of direct realization do the immeasurables and the other most excellent qualities belong? They belong to subsequent realization and to culminating realization. What are they? The immeasurables, the liberations, the stations of mastery, the totalities, non-contention, wish-knowledge, the unhindered understandings, the superknowledges, the major and minor marks, the purities, the powers, the fearlessnesses, the foundations of mindfulness, the states requiring no concealment, the quality of never forgetting, the permanent elimination of habitual imprints, great compassion, the qualities exclusive to a buddha, and the wisdom of every kind and mode — these qualities are proclaimed again and again throughout the scriptures.
T1606 explains that these most excellent qualities are given by the noble disciples during the path of cultivation and, in their complete and final form, at the culminating path itself — hence their placement under subsequent realization and culminating realization rather than any earlier kind. T1606 also introduces the shared analytical framework used to examine every one of the eighteen categories that follow: basis (the meditative foundation each quality rests on), object (what it takes as its field), aspect (the specific way it engages that object), essence (the concentration and wisdom that constitute it), and accompaniment (the mind and mental factors that arise together with it). This same five-part structure, once established here for the four immeasurables, repeats — often only implicitly stated after the first full example — across every quality still to come.
2. Loving-Kindness, Compassion, Sympathetic Joy, and Equanimity
無量者，謂四無量。云何慈？謂依止靜慮，於諸有情與樂相應意樂住具足中若定若慧，及彼相應諸心心所。云何悲？謂依止靜慮，於諸有情離苦意樂住具足中若定若慧，餘如前說。云何喜？謂依止靜慮，於諸有情不離樂意樂住具足中若定若慧，餘如前說。云何捨？謂依止靜慮，於諸有情利益意樂住具足中若定若慧，餘如前說。
The immeasurables are the four immeasurables. What is loving-kindness? It is, resting on the foundation of dhyāna, the concentration and wisdom fully present within an aspiration wishing happiness for every sentient being, together with the mind and mental factors associated with these.
What is compassion? It is, resting on that same foundation, the concentration and wisdom fully present within an aspiration wishing every sentient being freed from suffering, the remainder exactly as already stated.
What is sympathetic joy? It is, resting on that same foundation, the concentration and wisdom fully present within an aspiration that every sentient being's happiness never be parted from them, the remainder exactly as already stated.
What is equanimity? It is, resting on that same foundation, the concentration and wisdom fully present within an aspiration for every sentient being's genuine benefit, the remainder exactly as already stated.
T1606 explains that applying the shared five-part framework to loving-kindness itself yields: dhyāna as its basis, sentient beings as its object, the wish that they attain happiness as its aspect, concentration and wisdom as its essence — since every one of these eighteen qualities is comprehended within calm-abiding and insight together — and the associated mind and mental factors as its accompaniment; every remaining immeasurable, and indeed every remaining quality still to come, shares this same basis, essence, and accompaniment, differing only in its specific aspect. T1606 clarifies equanimity's own aspect in particular: "aspiration for genuine benefit" specifically means letting go of the partiality loving-kindness, compassion, and sympathetic joy can still carry — no longer distinguishing between beings one wishes happiness for, freedom from suffering for, or unbroken joy for, but simply reflecting, evenly and without preference, that all beings alike should be freed from their afflictions. Taken together, these four immeasurables span the entire range of a compassionate wish directed toward others: wishing them happiness, wishing them free of suffering, wishing their happiness undisturbed, and finally wishing all of this evenly, without partiality toward any single being over another.
Part 100 Complete
The four immeasurables are now examined, opening the treatise's extensive catalogue of the qualities of subsequent and culminating realization. Part 101 turns to the eight liberations — meditative attainments beginning with contemplating form while still perceiving it internally, and culminating in the cessation of perception and feeling itself.
Continue to Part 101 — The Eight Liberations →