The Eight Liberations
The eight classical liberations, called liberations because each releases the meditator from a specific obstruction: the two liberations still engaged with form, the pure liberation that unifies clean and unclean perception into a single flavor, the four formless liberations, and the final liberation of the cessation of perception and feeling itself.
1. Possessing Form and Contemplating Form; Formless-Perceiving and Contemplating External Form
解脫者，謂八解脫。云何有色觀諸色？謂依止靜慮於內未伏見者色想，或現安立見者色想，觀所見色住具足中若定若慧，及彼相應諸心心所，乃至為解脫變化障。云何內無色想觀外諸色？謂依止靜慮，於已伏見者色想，或現安立見者無色想，觀所見色住具足中若定若慧，餘如前說。
The liberations are the eight liberations. What is possessing form and contemplating form? It is, resting on the foundation of dhyāna, one who has not yet subdued the perception of form belonging to the perceiver within — or who deliberately establishes that perception of form in the present — contemplating the forms thus seen, together with the concentration, wisdom, and associated mind and mental factors fully present in this, extending to the liberation from the obstacle to transformation.
What is formless-perceiving within and contemplating external forms? It is, resting on that same foundation, one who has already subdued the perception of form belonging to the perceiver within — or who deliberately establishes a formless perception in its place — contemplating the forms thus seen, the remainder exactly as already stated.
T1606 explains what "possessing form" actually refers to: the meditator's own body, whose perception of form has not yet been subdued by any formless attainment — the perceiver still perceives form internally, whether that perception has arisen naturally or is deliberately established in the present. "Contemplating form" means engaging, through resolute conviction, with the attractive and unattractive forms one sees, and "liberation" here names the release this attainment brings from the obstacle to freely manifesting transformations of what is seen. The second liberation stands in direct contrast: the meditator's own internal perception of form has already been subdued through a formless attainment, so that any perception of form present is now purely external — a difference in the meditator's own inner state, while the outward practice of contemplating what is seen remains the same. Both liberations serve as the ground on which the eight stations of mastery and the ten totalities, examined in later parts, are subsequently built.
2. The Pure Liberation
云何淨解脫身作證具足住？謂依止靜慮，於內淨不淨諸色，已得展轉相待想、展轉相入想、展轉一味想故，於彼已得住具足中若定若慧，餘如前說，乃至為解脫淨不淨變化煩惱生起障。
What is the pure liberation, realized in one's own person, dwelling in its fullness? It is, resting on that same foundation, one who has already attained, with respect to internally clean and unclean forms, the perception of their mutual dependence, the perception of their mutual interpenetration, and the perception of their single, undifferentiated flavor — the concentration, wisdom, and remainder exactly as already stated, extending to the liberation from the obstacle of afflictive arising connected to the transformation of clean and unclean forms.
T1606 unpacks these three perceptions carefully, since together they form the actual insight this liberation depends on. Mutual dependence means recognizing that "clean" and "unclean" are never absolute but always relative: a form judged clean when compared to one set of forms is judged unclean when compared to another, and vice versa — cleanliness and uncleanliness are never fixed properties but only ever a matter of comparison. Mutual interpenetration goes further: what is ordinarily taken as clean actually contains uncleanliness within it, and what is ordinarily taken as unclean actually contains cleanliness within it — as when the body's own surface, generally regarded as clean beneath its thin covering of skin, is understood to conceal the thirty-six specific kinds of unclean substance that make it up. Bringing these two perceptions together yields the third: a single, undifferentiated perception of purity that no longer distinguishes clean from unclean at all. It is precisely this unified perception that grants free mastery over whatever transformation of clean or unclean forms one wishes to manifest, and that liberates from the specific affliction that would otherwise arise in connection with such transformations.
3. The Four Formless Liberations
云何無邊空處解脫？謂於隨順解脫無邊空處住具足中若定若慧，餘如前說。如無邊空處解脫，無邊識處、無所有處、非想非非想處解脫亦爾。乃至為解脫寂靜解脫無滯礙障。
What is the liberation of the sphere of infinite space? It is the concentration and wisdom fully present within an attainment conducive to liberation into the sphere of infinite space, the remainder exactly as already stated. Just as with the liberation of the sphere of infinite space, so too with the liberations of the sphere of infinite consciousness, the sphere of nothing whatsoever, and the sphere of neither perception nor non-perception — extending, in every case, to liberation from the obstacle of any remaining obstruction to this still, formless attainment itself.
These four formless liberations correspond exactly to the four formless spheres already familiar from this treatise's earlier accounts of the meditative levels — infinite space, infinite consciousness, nothing whatsoever, and neither perception nor non-perception — now considered specifically as liberations, meaning attainments that actually release the meditator from the coarser obstruction belonging to the level just below. T1606 adds one qualification worth carrying forward: these four are only properly called "liberations" in this sense when attained by a noble disciple in a manner that accords with the uncontaminated path and is genuinely pure — attained otherwise, by an ordinary being still susceptible to craving the very tranquility these states offer, they remain mundane formless absorptions without yet counting as liberations proper. It is specifically freedom from that same craving for stillness that these four, properly attained, actually deliver.
4. The Cessation of Perception and Feeling
云何想受滅解脫？謂依止非想非非想處解脫，超過諸餘寂靜解脫，住於似真解脫，住具足中心心所滅，為解脫想受滅障。
What is the liberation of the cessation of perception and feeling? It is this: resting on the liberation of the sphere of neither perception nor non-perception, and going beyond every other still liberation, one dwells within what resembles genuine liberation, and within the fullness of this dwelling, mind and mental factors themselves cease — this is liberation from the obstacle constituted by perception and feeling themselves.
T1606 explains why this eighth and final liberation is called only a resemblance of genuine liberation rather than genuine liberation outright: since mind and mental factors have themselves ceased entirely within this attainment, there is, strictly speaking, no object, no aspect, and no accompaniment left to describe at all — cessation itself, the very absence of mind and mental factors, simply constitutes this liberation's own essence. It resembles genuine liberation because a noble disciple who has already undergone the transformation of basis through the supramundane path can enter this state where mind and mental factors temporarily do not manifest at all, a stillness so complete, and so free of even the subtlest defiled mental activity, that it stands as close as any mundane attainment can come to genuine liberation itself — hence its name.
Part 101 Complete
The eight liberations are now examined in full. Part 102 turns to the eight stations of mastery and the ten totalities — meditative attainments that build directly on the first two liberations already examined here, granting the meditator ever-increasing mastery over what is contemplated and, at last, the ability to pervade the entire field of experience with a single unified object.
Continue to Part 102 — Eight Stations of Mastery, and Ten Totalities →