Four Aspects of the Path, and Two Scriptural Descriptions
Before turning to the path of cultivation, the treatise pauses to give a four-part account of how the entire path — not just the moment of seeing — is genuinely understood at each of its stages, then reads two classical scriptural passages, on first glance quite different from the sixteen-instant analysis just given, as descriptions of that very same breakthrough from two further angles.
1. Four Aspects: Establishment, Reflection, Direct Witness, Completion
一切道諦由四種相應隨覺了，謂安立故、思惟故、證受故、圓滿故。云何安立故？謂聲聞等隨自所證已得究竟，為欲令他亦了知故，由後得智以無量種名句文身安立道諦。云何思惟故？謂正修習現觀方便，以世間智如所安立思惟數習。云何證受故？謂如是數習已自內證受最初見道正出世間無戲論位。云何圓滿故？謂此位後圓滿轉依，乃至證得究竟。彼既證得究竟位已，復由後得智以名句文身安立道諦。
The entire truth of the path is correspondingly understood through four aspects: establishment, reflection, direct witness, and completion.
What is establishment? Once a śrāvaka and others have reached the culmination of their own realization, in order that others too may come to understand it, they draw on subsequently attained wisdom to establish the truth of the path through countless kinds of names, phrases, and syllables.
What is reflection? Correctly cultivating the very means to direct realization, reflecting again and again, through mundane wisdom, on exactly what has thus been established.
What is direct witness? Having thus reflected repeatedly, inwardly and personally witnessing, for the very first time, the genuinely supramundane, proliferation-free stage that is the path of seeing.
What is completion? Following that stage, the complete transformation of one's own basis, all the way through to the attainment of the culminating stage itself. And once that culmination has genuinely been attained, one again draws on subsequently attained wisdom to establish the truth of the path anew, through names, phrases, and syllables.
These four aspects trace a full circle worth noticing explicitly: establishment (a teacher putting the path into words for the benefit of others) leads to reflection (a student taking up those very words and cultivating them through ordinary, mundane understanding), which leads to direct witness (the actual, wordless breakthrough of the path of seeing itself, already examined in full in Part 53), which leads to completion (the path of cultivation and culminating stage, taken up in the parts ahead) — and completion, once genuinely reached, produces a teacher capable of establishing the path in words all over again for a new generation of students. The whole path, described this way, is not a single, isolated event but a self-renewing cycle, each fully realized practitioner becoming, in turn, the next "establishment" for someone else.
2. "Far from Dust, Free of Stain": A Second Description
如契經言，遠塵離垢於諸法中正法眼生者，此依見道說，諸法忍能遠塵，諸法智能離垢。遍知故、永斷故，道得清淨。
As the sūtra says: far from dust, free of stain, the pure dharma eye arises with respect to all dharmas — this, too, is spoken with reference to the path of seeing. The dharma-forbearances are what render one far from dust; the dharma-knowledges are what render one free of stain. Through complete understanding and through permanent severance, the path itself becomes purified.
T1606 pairs this scriptural formula precisely with the sixteen-instant analysis already given: "dust" is the general obscuring presence of affliction, dispelled specifically by the four forbearances (the moments of actual severance); "stain" is the residue affliction leaves behind even once its active manifestation has been cut, dispelled specifically by the four knowledges (the moments of direct confirmation that severance has occurred). "Complete understanding" and "permanent severance," in turn, are simply this same forbearance-knowledge pair described from a different angle, the two together being what actually purifies the path from beginning to end.
3. "Seeing the Dharma, Attaining the Dharma": A Third Description
如契經言：見法、得法、極通達法、究竟堅法，越度一切悕望、疑惑，不假他緣。於大師教餘不能引於諸法中得無所畏。此亦依見道說。見法者，謂諸法忍。得法者，謂諸法智。極通達法者，謂諸類忍。究竟堅法者，謂諸類智。
As the sūtra says: seeing the dharma, attaining the dharma, thoroughly penetrating the dharma, firmly, definitively grasping the dharma, transcending every hope and doubt, requiring no external condition, no longer to be led astray by any teaching apart from the Great Teacher's own, attaining fearlessness with respect to every dharma — this too is spoken with reference to the path of seeing. Seeing the dharma is the dharma-forbearances. Attaining the dharma is the dharma-knowledges. Thoroughly penetrating the dharma is the inferential forbearances. Firmly, definitively grasping the dharma is the inferential knowledges.
越度一切悕望者，由諸忍智於自所證無有悕慮。越度一切疑惑者，於此位中於他所證無有猶豫。不假他緣者，於所修道中無他引道自然善巧。於大師教餘不能引者，於佛聖教不為邪道所化引故。於諸法中得無所畏者，於依所證問記法中，諸怯劣心永無有故。
Transcending every hope means that, through these very forbearances and knowledges, one no longer harbors any anxious hope regarding one's own realization. Transcending every doubt means that, at this same stage, one no longer entertains any hesitation regarding others' realization either. Requiring no external condition means one becomes naturally skillful in the very path one cultivates, needing no other guide to lead the way. No longer led astray by any teaching apart from the Great Teacher's own means that one is no longer swayed by wrongful paths, having already attained genuine confidence in the Buddha's own noble teaching. Attaining fearlessness with respect to every dharma means that, when questioned and required to respond regarding one's own realization, no timid or cowardly mind ever arises again.
This third scriptural description again maps precisely onto the same sixteen-instant structure, this time distributing all four terms — seeing, attaining, thoroughly penetrating, and firmly grasping the dharma — across the four kinds of forbearance and knowledge rather than the earlier two. What is genuinely new here is the treatise's own psychological unpacking of what this breakthrough actually feels like from the inside: no more anxious uncertainty about one's own progress, no more secondhand doubt about whether others' claimed attainments are genuine, a newly self-sufficient confidence in continuing the path without needing further external validation, immunity to being talked out of the Buddha's teaching by some rival doctrine, and a settled fearlessness when called on to actually explain or defend one's own realization. Reading all three scriptural passages together — this one, the "dust and stain" formula, and the sixteen-instant sequence itself — the treatise's consistent method is on full display: multiple, seemingly independent scriptural descriptions of the same singular event, each carefully shown to be simply another facet of the identical underlying reality already established in precise technical terms.
Part 54 Complete
The path's four aspects, and two further scriptural descriptions of the path of seeing, are now examined. Part 55 turns to the path of cultivation, beginning with the world-transcending path itself: the four dhyānas and four formless spheres, and the fourfold framework — defilement, purity, structure, and refinement — through which each is analyzed.
Continue to Part 55 — The Path of Cultivation Begins →