What Makes a Dharma Wholesome
The treatise now turns to a much larger analysis than any category so far: thirteen distinct senses in which something can be called wholesome, running from a dharma's own intrinsic nature through the karmic fruit it ripens into, the eight named forms of antidote that counter affliction, and the four kinds of nirvāṇa that count as wholesome's own final stillness.
1. Thirteen Senses of "Wholesome"
云何善？幾是善？為何義故觀善耶？謂自性故、相屬故、隨逐故、發起故、勝義故、生得故、加行故、現前供養故、饒益故、引攝故、對治故、寂靜故、等流故，是善義。五蘊十界四處一分是善。為捨執著法合我故，觀察善。
What is wholesome? How much of everything is wholesome? For what purpose is this examined? Thirteen senses make up what "wholesome" means: intrinsic nature, association, habitual trace, initiation, the ultimate, karmic acquisition, preparatory practice, present veneration, benefit, karmic attraction, antidote, stillness, and natural outflow. A portion of the five aggregates, ten elements, and four sense fields is wholesome. This is examined in order to abandon clinging to a self conceived as fused with wholesome dharmas.
何等自性善？謂信等十一心所有法。何等相屬善？謂彼相應法。何等隨逐善？謂即彼諸法習氣。何等發起善？謂彼所發身業語業。何等勝義善？謂真如。何等生得善？謂即彼諸善法，由先串習故感得如是報，由此自性即於是處不由思惟任運樂住。
What is wholesome by intrinsic nature? The eleven wholesome mental factors — faith and the rest. What is wholesome by association? Whatever is associated with those eleven. What is wholesome as habitual trace? The habitual imprint those same dharmas leave behind. What is wholesome by initiation? The bodily and verbal karma those factors give rise to. What is wholesome as the ultimate? Suchness itself. What is wholesome by karmic acquisition? Those same wholesome dharmas, brought about as a karmic result of prior habituation — a wholesome disposition one simply abides in effortlessly, without deliberate reflection, precisely because it is one's own acquired nature.
何等加行善。謂依止親近善丈夫故，聽聞正法如理作意，修習淨善法隨法行。何等現前供養善？謂想對如來，建立靈廟圖寫尊容；或想對正法，書治法藏興供養業。何等饒益善？謂以四攝事饒益一切有情。何等引攝善？謂施性福業事及戒性福業事故，引攝生天樂異熟、引攝生富貴家、引攝隨順清淨法。
What is wholesome through preparatory practice? Drawing near to and relying on a good and virtuous person, hearing the true Dharma, applying correct attention, and cultivating pure, wholesome dharmas in accordance with the Dharma. What is wholesome through present veneration? Erecting a shrine and forming an image in devotion toward the Tathāgata, or writing out and preserving the treasury of the Dharma in devotion toward the true teaching, and thereby making an offering. What is wholesome through benefit? Benefiting every sentient being through the four means of attraction. What is wholesome through karmic attraction? Through the meritorious deeds of giving and moral discipline, drawing forth a pleasant, ripened rebirth among the gods, drawing forth birth into a wealthy and noble family, and drawing forth conditions favorable to pure dharmas.
何等對治善？謂厭壞對治、斷對治、持對治、遠分對治、伏對治、離繫對治、煩惱障對治、所知障對治。何等寂靜善？謂永斷貪欲、永斷瞋恚、永斷愚癡、永斷一切煩惱，若想受滅、若有餘依涅槃界、若無餘依涅槃界、若無所住涅槃界。何等等流善？謂已得寂靜者，由此增上力故，發起勝品神通等世出世共不共功德。
What is wholesome as antidote? Eight kinds: the antidote of revulsion, the antidote of severance, the antidote of sustaining, the antidote of distancing, the antidote of suppression, the antidote of release from bondage, the antidote to the afflictive obstruction, and the antidote to the cognitive obstruction.
What is wholesome as stillness? The permanent severance of craving, of hatred, and of delusion, and the permanent severance of every affliction; the cessation of perception and feeling; the nirvāṇa element with remainder; the nirvāṇa element without remainder; and non-abiding nirvāṇa.
What is wholesome as natural outflow? Whatever superior manifestations of supernormal power and every other mundane and supramundane, shared and unshared excellent quality arise, through the dominant force of stillness already attained, once such stillness has actually been reached.
T1606 unpacks the eight antidotes as a progressive sequence, roughly matching the path's own unfolding: revulsion is simply seeing an affliction's own drawbacks clearly enough to want to be rid of it; severance is the actual cutting-off, accomplished specifically on the path of seeing; sustaining is what carries that severance forward once accomplished; distancing is the further weakening that continued practice brings, moving an affliction ever further from actually manifesting; suppression is the mundane path's own capacity to hold an affliction in check without yet uprooting it; release from bondage is the genuine freedom that follows once an affliction is actually severed; and the final two — the antidote to the afflictive obstruction and to the cognitive obstruction — are the two obstructions' own specific remedies, the first shared with the two lesser vehicles' path to liberation, the second unique to the bodhisattva path toward full buddhahood.
T1606 also flags "wholesome by karmic acquisition" (生得善) as a genuinely striking case: a disposition toward faith or generosity that a person seems to simply have, without any deliberate cultivation in this present life, effortlessly and "without thinking about it" — the treatise's own explanation is that this is itself a karmic fruit, the ripened result of habituation built up across prior lives, not evidence of some innate, uncaused goodness. Notice, too, that the four kinds of wholesome-as-stillness given here — the cessation of perception and feeling, nirvāṇa with remainder, without remainder, and non-abiding nirvāṇa — are the very same fourfold scheme used across this site's Mahāyānasaṃgraha and Cheng Weishi Lun pages for describing the fruit of the bodhisattva path; this treatise simply folds all four under "wholesome" at the broadest possible level of classification.
Part 17 Complete
Wholesome dharmas are now examined across all thirteen senses, from bare intrinsic nature through the eight antidotes to the four kinds of nirvāṇa. Part 18 turns to unwholesome and morally neutral dharmas, following the identical thirteen-sense framework just established, before closing with the puzzling category of a buddha's or advanced bodhisattva's own deliberately manifested — but not genuinely real — unwholesome appearances.
Continue to Part 18 — Unwholesome and Morally Neutral Dharmas →