Differentiated Exposition, Disputation, and Inclusion

T1606 illustrates each of these formal answer-types with a worked example drawn from the categories already examined throughout this treatise. A single line of questioning takes one category and tests it systematically against every other, one at a time — asking, for instance, whether whoever possesses the eye sense field also possesses the form sense field, and continuing this same pairing all the way through every sense field in turn. An answer following the earlier term applies when the first term named always implies the second, but not the reverse — as when every instance of knowledge is itself something known, though not everything known is itself an instance of knowledge. An answer following the later term applies in the reverse situation — as when whatever is grasped is not always a grasper, though whatever grasps is always also something that could be grasped. A two-part answer applies when a question can only be resolved one of two ways, with no further possibility — as when asking whether whatever counts among the aggregates also counts among the elements, which can only be answered "some do, some do not" in either direction. A three-part answer allows for a third possibility where the first two overlap; a four-part answer allows the full range of both, neither, and each alone. A confirming answer simply affirms that a question is correctly stated exactly as posed. And a rejecting answer denies the premise of the question outright — as when asked how many truths comprehend the conditioned phenomena existing outside the aggregates, the correct response is simply that no such phenomena exist outside the aggregates at all.

T1606 illustrates the eight "what" terms through a single sustained example concerning the perfection of wisdom: asking what actually attains non-attainment (a bodhisattva-mahāsattva who has already attained the perfection of wisdom); what is thereby not attained (both the grasped and the grasping characteristic); by what means it is not attained (by means of the perfection of wisdom itself); for what purpose (to rescue every sentient being and establish them in unsurpassed awakening); through what cause (encountering a buddha's appearance in the world, hearing the correct Dharma, applying correct mental attention, and practicing in accordance with the Dharma); of what, specifically, is there non-attainment (of every dharma without exception); in what location does this non-attainment occur (from the ground of resolute conviction up through the tenth bodhisattva ground); and how many kinds of non-attainment are there (eleven distinct kinds, sorted by whether a phenomenon has already arisen and ceased, has not yet arisen, is presently occurring, and by several further such distinctions). The eight "if" terms follow this exact same eightfold pattern, simply rephrased as conditional questions rather than direct ones.

As for the four principles: refutation is rejecting an opposing position, showing that what it holds is poorly reasoned and therefore untenable; establishment is putting forward one's own position, showing that what it holds is soundly reasoned and therefore genuinely correct; resolution is settling whatever doubt has arisen in another's mind; and illumination is opening the understanding of the confused so that they come to grasp the subtle meaning being conveyed.

These ten loci function as a final organizing index, sorting every determination examined across this entire fourth chapter — whatever concerns actual accomplished practice, initial entry onto the path, resolute conviction still short of direct realization, the reasoning that establishes a position, formal discourse and debate, genuine penetration of the truths, purification of affliction, the unfolding elaboration of a teaching's implications, the fine distinctions of correct phrasing, and finally that most advanced condition in which understanding arises spontaneously, without effort, the instant attention is simply directed toward it — into a single, ordered progression from the most basic to the most refined.