The Three Realms, and Freedom from Desire
Three categories sort every dharma by which of the three realms it belongs to; the treatise then pauses on the boundary between them to ask what "freedom from desire" actually means, offering first a fivefold and then a far more granular tenfold classification — from the momentary satisfaction of a single good meal up to a buddha's own unsurpassed liberation, undertaken purely for the benefit of others.
1. The Three Realms
云何欲界繫？幾是欲界繫？為何義故觀欲界繫耶？謂未離欲者所有善不善無記法，是欲界繫義。四界二處全，及餘蘊界處一分，是欲界繫。為捨執著未離欲界欲我故，觀察欲界繫。
What is bound to the desire realm? How much of everything is so bound? For what purpose is this examined? Whatever wholesome, unwholesome, or morally neutral dharma belongs to one not yet free of desire is what "bound to the desire realm" means. Four elements and two sense fields entire, together with a portion of the remaining aggregates, elements, and sense fields, are bound to the desire realm. This is examined in order to abandon clinging to a self conceived as not yet free of the desire realm's own desire.
云何色界繫？幾是色界繫？為何義故觀色界繫耶？謂已離欲界欲、未離色界欲者，所有善無記法，是色界繫義。除前所說四界二處，餘蘊界處一分，是色界繫。為捨執著離欲界欲我故，觀察色界繫。
What is bound to the form realm? How much of everything is so bound? For what purpose is this examined? Whatever wholesome or morally neutral dharma belongs to one already free of desire-realm desire but not yet free of form-realm desire is what "bound to the form realm" means. Apart from those same four elements and two sense fields, a portion of the remaining aggregates, elements, and sense fields is bound to the form realm. This is examined in order to abandon clinging to a self conceived as already free of desire-realm desire.
云何無色界繫？幾是無色界繫？為何義故觀無色界繫耶？謂已離色界欲，未離無色界欲者，所有善無記法，是無色界繫義。三界二處四蘊一分，是無色界繫。為捨執著離色界欲我故，觀察無色界繫。
What is bound to the formless realm? How much of everything is so bound? For what purpose is this examined? Whatever wholesome or morally neutral dharma belongs to one already free of form-realm desire but not yet free of formless-realm desire is what "bound to the formless realm" means. A portion of the remaining three elements, two sense fields, and four aggregates is bound to the formless realm. This is examined in order to abandon clinging to a self conceived as already free of form-realm desire.
Notice a small but telling asymmetry: the desire realm alone admits unwholesome dharmas among its three moral kinds; the form and formless realms admit only wholesome and morally neutral ones, since anyone whose desire for a lower realm has already been sufficiently transcended to be reborn in a higher one no longer generates the kind of coarse unwholesome karma that keeps beings bound to that lower realm in the first place. T1606 adds a clarifying point on physical objects specifically: mountains, rivers, and the like are technically "not yet free of desire," in the sense that they are produced by the collective, dominant force of still-desiring beings' shared karma — even though "freedom from desire" is, strictly speaking, a state only a sentient continuum can actually attain or lack.
2. Five Kinds of Freedom from Desire
復次有一分離欲、具分離欲、通達離欲、損伏離欲、永害離欲。
Freedom from desire, further, is of five kinds: partial freedom, complete freedom, freedom through direct penetration, freedom through suppression, and freedom through permanent destruction.
T1606 explains this fivefold division through two separate lenses at once. Measured level by level: partial freedom is having severed up to the eighth of the nine grades of affliction bound to a given level, while complete freedom is having severed the ninth and final grade as well. Measured against the view of a substantial body specifically: one still in training (有學) counts as only partially free, while one beyond further training (無學, an arhat) counts as completely free. Separately, freedom through direct penetration is achieved specifically via the path of seeing; freedom through suppression is achieved via a mundane path that merely holds affliction in check without uprooting it; and freedom through permanent destruction is achieved via the supramundane path that genuinely severs affliction for good.
3. Ten Kinds of Freedom from Desire
復有十種離欲，謂自性離欲、損害離欲、任持離欲、增上離欲、愚癡離欲、對治離欲、遍知離欲、永斷離欲、有上離欲、無上離欲。何等自性離欲？謂於苦受及順苦受處法生厭背性。何等損害離欲？謂習欲者暢熱惱已，生厭背性。何等任持離欲？謂飽食已，於諸美膳生厭背性。何等增上離欲？謂得勝處已，於下劣處生厭背性。
There are, further, ten kinds of freedom from desire: freedom by nature, freedom through harm, freedom through sustained fullness, freedom through superiority, freedom through delusion, freedom through antidote, freedom through complete understanding, freedom through permanent severance, freedom that admits something higher, and freedom that admits nothing higher.
What is freedom by nature? A natural aversion arising toward painful feeling and toward whatever gives rise to painful feeling. What is freedom through harm? The aversion that arises in one habituated to sensual pleasure, once its accompanying agitation and distress have already been felt out fully. What is freedom through sustained fullness? The aversion toward even the finest food that arises once one is already full. What is freedom through superiority? The aversion toward an inferior state that arises once a superior one has already been attained.
何等愚癡離欲？謂諸愚夫於涅槃界生厭背性。何等對治離欲？謂由世間出世間道斷諸煩惱。何等遍知離欲？謂已得見道者？於三界法生厭背性。何等永斷離欲？謂永斷地地諸煩惱已，生厭背性。何等有上離欲？謂世間聲聞、獨覺所有離欲。何等無上離欲？謂佛菩薩所有離欲，為欲利樂諸有情故。
What is freedom through delusion? The aversion an ordinary, foolish being feels toward the nirvāṇa element itself, out of failing to understand its true, still nature. What is freedom through antidote? Severing afflictions by way of a mundane or a supramundane path. What is freedom through complete understanding? The aversion toward the dharmas of all three realms that arises in one who has already attained the path of seeing. What is freedom through permanent severance? The aversion that arises once the afflictions belonging to each level, one after another, have been permanently severed. What is freedom that admits something higher? The freedom from desire possessed by mundane śrāvakas and solitary realizers. What is freedom that admits nothing higher? The freedom from desire possessed by buddhas and bodhisattvas, undertaken specifically for the benefit and happiness of every sentient being.
What makes this list striking is how deliberately it runs from the most mundane examples straight through to the most exalted, without any embarrassment about the range: "freedom by nature" is simply the ordinary, universal aversion any being feels toward pain, and "freedom through sustained fullness" is nothing more exotic than the momentary lack of interest in food that follows a good meal — both counted, quite literally, as genuine instances of "freedom from desire," on a continuum with an arhat's permanent severance of affliction and a buddha's own unsurpassed liberation. T1606's point in laying out such an unglamorous beginning to a list that ends with buddhahood is itself instructive: freedom from desire is not one single achievement but a family of related structures — a mind, in each case, turning away from something it was previously drawn to — that shows up at every scale of practice, from the most trivial and involuntary instance to the rarest and most deliberately cultivated one. "Freedom that admits nothing higher" closes the list precisely because a buddha's and bodhisattva's freedom is not pursued for their own liberation alone, the way a śrāvaka's or solitary realizer's is, but explicitly for the sake of benefiting others — which is exactly what this treatise's Mahāyāna framing consistently treats as the one thing beyond which no further refinement is possible.
Part 19 Complete
The three realms, and freedom from desire in both its fivefold and tenfold forms, are now examined. Part 20 turns to a being's own progress along the path itself: the trainee, the one beyond further training, and neither — followed by which dharmas are abandoned through seeing, through cultivation, or through neither at all.
Continue to Part 20 — Trainee, Non-Trainee, and What Gets Abandoned How →