The Path of Seeing
The treatise now examines the path of seeing itself — the single most consequential transition on the entire path, where cultivated preparation finally gives way to direct, irreversible realization. General account and detailed sixteen-instant breakdown are given side by side, worked through in full for the truth of suffering before the same pattern is said to repeat for each of the remaining three truths.
1. The Path of Seeing, Stated in General
何等見道？若總說謂世第一法無間無所得三摩地鉢羅若及彼相應等法。又所緣能緣平等平等智為其相。又遣各別有情假、法假，遍遣二假所緣法智為相。
What is the path of seeing? Stated in general, it is the concentration and wisdom, together with their associated factors, that immediately follow the supreme mundane stage, apprehending nothing at all. Its mark is the wisdom of exact, unmediated equality between what is grasped and what grasps. Its mark, further, is the discerning wisdom that dispels the merely nominal designation of an individual sentient being, dispels the merely nominal designation of individual dharmas, and dispels both such designations without exception.
2. Sixteen Instants, Worked Through for Suffering
若別說見道差別，謂世第一法無間苦法智忍、苦法智、苦類智忍、苦類智，集法智忍、集法智、集類智忍、集類智，滅法智忍、滅法智、滅類智忍、滅類智，道法智忍、道法智、道類智忍、道類智。如是十六智忍，是見道差別相。
Stated in specific detail, the path of seeing distinguishes as follows, immediately after the supreme mundane stage: forbearance regarding suffering through dharma-knowledge, dharma-knowledge of suffering, forbearance regarding suffering through inferential knowledge, inferential knowledge of suffering; forbearance regarding origination through dharma-knowledge, dharma-knowledge of origination, forbearance regarding origination through inferential knowledge, inferential knowledge of origination; forbearance regarding cessation through dharma-knowledge, dharma-knowledge of cessation, forbearance regarding cessation through inferential knowledge, inferential knowledge of cessation; and forbearance regarding the path through dharma-knowledge, dharma-knowledge of the path, forbearance regarding the path through inferential knowledge, inferential knowledge of the path. These sixteen forbearances and knowledges together constitute the path of seeing's own specific mark.
云何苦？謂苦諦。云何苦法？謂苦諦增上所起教法。云何法智？謂於加行道中觀察諦增上法智。云何智忍？謂先觀察增上力故，於各別苦諦中起現證無漏慧，由此慧故永捨見苦所斷一切煩惱，是故名為苦法智忍。云何苦法智？謂忍無間由此智故於前所說煩惱解脫而得作證，是名苦法智。
What is suffering? The truth of suffering. What is the dharma of suffering? The scriptural teaching that arises with reference to the truth of suffering, with dominant force. What is dharma-knowledge? The knowledge, cultivated in the preparatory stage, of contemplating the truth with dominant force. What is forbearance-knowledge? Through the dominant force of that prior contemplation, the uncontaminated wisdom that arises as direct realization within the truth of suffering itself, individually — a wisdom by which every affliction abandoned through seeing suffering is permanently relinquished; this is why it is called forbearance regarding suffering through dharma-knowledge. What is dharma-knowledge of suffering? Immediately following that forbearance, the knowledge by which liberation from the afflictions just described is actually, directly witnessed; this is dharma-knowledge of suffering.
云何苦類智忍？謂苦法智無間無漏慧生，於苦法智忍及苦法智各別內證。言後諸聖法皆是此種類，是故名為苦類智忍。云何苦類智？謂此無間無漏智生，審定印可苦類智忍，是名苦類智。如是於餘諦中隨其所應，諸忍諸智盡當知。
What is forbearance regarding suffering through inferential knowledge? Immediately following dharma-knowledge of suffering, an uncontaminated wisdom arises, individually and inwardly realizing that forbearance and knowledge already attained — recognizing that every later noble dharma will be of this very same kind; this is why it is called forbearance regarding suffering through inferential knowledge. What is inferential knowledge of suffering? Immediately following that forbearance, the uncontaminated knowledge that arises to confirm and seal it; this is inferential knowledge of suffering. The same pattern of forbearances and knowledges should be understood, correspondingly, for each of the remaining three truths.
於此位中由法忍法智覺悟所取、由類忍類智覺悟能取。又此一切忍智位中，說名安住無相觀者。如是十六心剎那，說名見道。於所知境智生究竟，名一剎那。
Within this stage, dharma-forbearance and dharma-knowledge awaken one to what is grasped; inferential forbearance and inferential knowledge awaken one to what grasps. And throughout the entirety of this sequence of forbearances and knowledges, one is said to abide in signless contemplation. These sixteen mind-instants together constitute the path of seeing. A single instant, here, means the complete arising of knowledge with respect to its own object of knowledge.
T1606 draws out the pattern behind the fixed dharma/inferential pairing that repeats four times across all sixteen instants: "dharma-knowledge" names the very first direct realization of a given truth in this present breakthrough, while "inferential knowledge" (literally, knowledge "of the same kind") names the immediately following recognition that every future noble realization — one's own later attainments, and every future noble one's own realization as well — will be of this identical kind. Within each pair, "forbearance" names the moment uncontaminated wisdom first arises and actually severs the corresponding afflictions, while "knowledge" names the immediately subsequent instant that directly witnesses and confirms that severance has genuinely occurred — forbearance does the cutting, knowledge certifies the cut. T1606 also glosses the striking phrase "abiding in signless contemplation": throughout all sixteen instants, the practitioner is said to be the very one the Buddha elsewhere calls "the person abiding in the sixth signless dwelling," since within this specific sequence no conceptual sign of any kind — self, other, dharma, or non-dharma — can be apprehended at all. And the closing technical point about what counts as "a single instant" is a genuine clarification worth flagging: it is not simply the passage of one indivisible moment of time, but the complete arising of a specific act of knowledge with respect to its specific object — the treatise defines the unit of the sixteen-instant sequence functionally, by what each instant accomplishes, not merely by its bare temporal duration.
Part 53 Complete
The path of seeing — its general mark and its full sixteen-instant sequence of forbearances and knowledges — is now examined. Part 54 turns to the four ways this same path of seeing can be correspondingly understood, and to two well-known scriptural passages the treatise reads as further, independent descriptions of this identical breakthrough.
Continue to Part 54 — Four Aspects of the Path, and Two Scriptural Descriptions →