Conditioned and Unconditioned, Worldly and Supramundane
Two categories that cut deeper than the ones before them: the conditioned versus the unconditioned — with the treatise's own puzzle about a class of aggregates that fits neither cleanly — and the worldly versus what genuinely transcends the three realms.
1. The Conditioned Versus the Unconditioned
云何有為？幾是有為？為何義故觀有為耶？謂若法有生滅住異，可知是有為義。一切皆是有為，唯除法界法處一分。為捨執著無常我故，觀察有為。
What is conditioned? How much of everything is conditioned? For what purpose is this examined? Any dharma that can be known to arise, cease, abide, and alter is what "conditioned" means. Everything whatsoever is conditioned, except for a portion of the dharma element and dharma sense field. This is examined in order to abandon clinging to a self conceived as impermanent.
云何無為？幾是無為？為何義故觀無為耶？謂有為相違，是無為義。法界法處一分是無為。為捨執著常住我故，觀察無為。無取五蘊，當言有為？當言無為？彼不應言有為無為。何以故？諸業煩惱所不為故，不應言有為；隨欲現前不現前故，不應言無為。如世尊說：法有二種，謂有為、無為。云何今說此法非有為非無為？若由此義說名有為，不以此義說名無為；若由此義說名無為，不以此義說名有為。依此道理，唯說二種。
What is unconditioned? How much of everything is unconditioned? For what purpose is this examined? The reverse of conditioned is what "unconditioned" means. A portion of the dharma element and dharma sense field is unconditioned. This is examined in order to abandon clinging to a self conceived as permanently abiding.
Should the ungrasped five aggregates — an arhat's own aggregates, no longer subject to grasping — be said to be conditioned, or unconditioned? Neither should properly be said of them. Why? They are not produced by karma or affliction, so they should not be called conditioned; yet they still arise or fail to arise according to what is wished, so they should not be called unconditioned either.
As the World-Honored One said: dharmas are of two kinds, conditioned and unconditioned. Why, then, is it now said that this thing is neither conditioned nor unconditioned? In the specific sense by which it is called conditioned, it is not thereby called unconditioned; and in the specific sense by which it is called unconditioned, it is not thereby called conditioned. It is on this basis alone that only two kinds are spoken of at all.
The genuine puzzle here concerns an arhat's remaining five aggregates — the body and mind that continue on after liberation, before final nirvāṇa without remainder. They fail the ordinary test for "conditioned," since they are no longer produced by karma and affliction the way an ordinary being's aggregates are; but they also fail the test for "unconditioned," since they still arise, persist, and eventually cease depending on causes and conditions (they still, for instance, arise or not according to what is wished, rather than simply abiding forever, unchanging, the way genuine unconditioned dharmas do). The treatise's resolution is careful rather than evasive: "conditioned" and "unconditioned" are each defined by a specific criterion (being produced by karma and affliction, versus abiding permanently and unconditionally), and an arhat's aggregates simply fail both specific criteria at once — which is exactly why the Buddha's own twofold division of all dharmas still holds without exception, properly understood: nothing here is a genuine third category, only a case that happens to satisfy neither of the two named criteria.
2. The Worldly Versus What Transcends It
云何世間？幾是世間？為何義故觀世間耶？謂三界所攝，及出世智後所得似彼顯現，是世間義。諸蘊一分，十五界、十處全，及三界二處一分，是世間。為捨執著世依我故，觀察世間。
What is worldly? How much of everything is worldly? For what purpose is this examined? Whatever is included within the three realms, together with whatever appears, after a supramundane wisdom's own realization, resembling those three realms once again — this is what "worldly" means. A portion of the aggregates, the fifteen elements and ten sense fields entire, and a portion of the remaining three elements and two sense fields, are worldly. This is examined in order to abandon clinging to a self conceived as dependent on the world.
云何出世？幾是出世？為何義故觀出世耶？謂能對治三界，無顛倒、無戲論、無分別故，是無分別出世間義。又出世後所得亦名出世。依止出世故，是出世義。諸蘊一分，及三界二處一分，是出世。為捨執著獨存我故，觀察出世。
What genuinely transcends the world? How much of everything does so? For what purpose is this examined? Whatever counters the three realms, being free of distortion, free of conceptual proliferation, and free of discrimination, is what non-discriminating transcendence means. Further, whatever arises subsequently, on the basis of such transcendence, is likewise called transcendent, since it depends on that same transcendence. A portion of the aggregates, and a portion of the remaining three elements and two sense fields, transcends the world in this way. This is examined in order to abandon clinging to a self conceived as existing independently, on its own.
T1606 draws a fine but consequential distinction between two things that might both loosely be called "worldly": the three realms themselves, and a further, subtler category — whatever a supramundane wisdom's own after-attained knowledge produces once that direct realization has passed, which still appears to resemble the three realms even though it is generated by wisdom that has already transcended them. The genuinely transcendent counts as two things in turn: the direct realization itself — the noble path, free of every distortion, of every unnecessary elaboration, and of ordinary discriminating thought — and, again, whatever arises afterward specifically depending on that direct realization, distinguished from the merely worldly "after-attained" category above by what it actually depends on: genuine realization in one case, the three realms' own conditioning in the other, even though both are experienced only once realization's initial moment has already passed.
Part 14 Complete
The conditioned and unconditioned, and the worldly and the genuinely transcendent, are now examined — including the treatise's own careful resolution of what an arhat's remaining aggregates actually are. Part 15 turns to already-arisen versus not-yet-arisen (with the treatise's own twenty-four-item breakdown of what "already arisen" covers), grasping versus what is grasped, and the outward-facing versus inward-facing gates of experience.
Continue to Part 15 — Already Arisen, Grasping, and the Two Gates →