The Path of Cultivation Begins
Beyond the single decisive breakthrough of seeing lies the long, gradual work of cultivation. The treatise opens with the mundane component of this path — the four dhyānas and four formless spheres already familiar from this site's Abhidharmakośa pages — analyzed through a fourfold lens: how the very same meditative attainment can be either defiling or pure, and the five factors that give each dhyāna its own internal structure.
1. The Path of Cultivation Named
何等修道？謂見道上所有世間道、出世間道、軟道、中道、上道、加行道、無間道、解脫道、勝進道等，皆名修道。
What is the path of cultivation? Everything above the path of seeing — the mundane path, the supramundane path, the mild, moderate, and intense grades of practice, the preparatory approach, the immediately-liberating approach, the liberated approach, and the further-advancing approach — is together named the path of cultivation.
2. The Mundane Path: Defiled or Pure
云何世間道？謂世間初靜慮、第二靜慮、第三靜慮、第四靜慮，空無邊處、識無邊處、無所有處、非想非非想處。如是靜慮、無色，由四種相應廣分別，謂雜染故、清白故、建立故、清淨故。
What is the mundane path? The mundane first, second, third, and fourth dhyānas, together with the spheres of infinite space, infinite consciousness, nothing whatsoever, and neither perception nor non-perception. These dhyānas and formless spheres are analyzed at length through four aspects: defilement, purity, structure, and refinement.
何等雜染故？謂四無記根：一愛、二見、三慢、四無明。由有愛故味上靜慮雜染所染，由有見故見上靜慮雜染所染，由有慢故慢上靜慮雜染所染，由無明故疑上靜慮雜染所染。如是煩惱恒染其心，令色無色界煩惱隨煩惱相續流轉。何等清白故？謂淨靜慮、無色，由性善故說名清白。
What is defilement? Four morally neutral roots: craving, view, conceit, and delusion. Through craving, one relishes a higher dhyāna and is defiled by it. Through view, one holds mistaken views about a higher dhyāna and is defiled by it. Through conceit, one grows conceited over a higher dhyāna and is defiled by it. Through delusion, one remains doubtful regarding a higher dhyāna and is defiled by it. These afflictions constantly defile the mind, causing the afflictions and secondary afflictions of the form and formless realms to continue flowing on without interruption.
What is purity? Dhyāna and the formless spheres, when genuinely pure, are called purity precisely because their own nature is wholesome.
This is a genuinely important warning built directly into the very structure of the mundane path: attaining a dhyāna or formless absorption is never, by itself, a sign of genuine spiritual progress, since the identical attainment can be either a wholesome, purifying achievement or a subtly defiled trap, depending entirely on the practitioner's own accompanying mental state. T1606 makes the mechanism explicit: one can crave the pleasant, refined quality of a higher dhyāna the way an ordinary person craves sensual pleasure; one can build mistaken speculative views on the strength of what a dhyāna seems to reveal; one can grow arrogant over having attained something rare; or one can remain caught in unresolved doubt even while resting in deep concentration. None of these four defilements requires leaving the dhyāna itself — they operate quietly within it, which is exactly why this fourfold analysis matters practically, not merely academically.
3. Structure: The Five Factors of Each Dhyāna
何等建立故？有四種建立，謂支分建立、等至建立、品類建立、名想建立。云何支分建立？謂初靜慮有五支。何等為五？一尋、二伺、三喜、四樂、五心一境性。第二靜慮有四支。何等為四？一內等淨、二喜、三樂、四心一境性。第三靜慮有五支。何等為五？一捨、二念、三正知、四樂、五心一境性。第四靜慮有四支。何等為四？一捨清淨、二念清淨、三不苦不樂受、四心一境性。
What is structure? Four kinds of structural establishment: by factor, by attainment, by grade, and by name and concept.
What is establishment by factor? The first dhyāna has five factors: coarse discursive thought, subtle discursive thought, joy, pleasure, and one-pointedness of mind. The second dhyāna has four factors: inner purity, joy, pleasure, and one-pointedness of mind. The third dhyāna has five factors: equanimity, mindfulness, clear comprehension, pleasure, and one-pointedness of mind. The fourth dhyāna has four factors: purified equanimity, purified mindfulness, neither-painful-nor-pleasant feeling, and one-pointedness of mind.
對治支故，利益支故，彼二所依自性支故，諸無色中不立支分，以奢摩他一味性故。
Antidotal factors, beneficial factors, and the essential factor these two depend on — this threefold pattern accounts for every dhyāna's own factors in turn. The formless spheres, by contrast, are given no such factors at all, since their calm-abiding is of a single, undifferentiated character throughout.
T1606 sorts each dhyāna's own factors precisely into the threefold antidote/benefit/essence pattern the treatise names but does not spell out here. In the first dhyāna, coarse and subtle discursive thought are antidotal, since they counter the desire realm's own coarse craving and hostility; joy and pleasure are beneficial, the felt reward of having left that coarser state behind; and one-pointedness of mind is the essential factor both others depend on. In the second dhyāna, inner purity (freedom from the very discursive thought the first dhyāna still relied on) is antidotal; joy and pleasure remain beneficial; one-pointedness remains essential. In the third dhyāna, equanimity, mindfulness, and clear comprehension together counter the second dhyāna's own remaining excitement of joy; pleasure is beneficial; one-pointedness essential. And in the fourth dhyāna, purified equanimity and purified mindfulness counter even the third dhyāna's subtler pleasure; neutral feeling is what is actually gained; one-pointedness remains the shared essential ground throughout. The formless spheres need no such factor-analysis at all, T1606 explains, precisely because they have already left form and its accompanying complexity of factors behind, resting instead in a uniform, undifferentiated stillness that admits no further internal structure to distinguish.
Part 55 Complete
The mundane path's defiled-versus-pure distinction, and the five-factor structure of each dhyāna, are now examined. Part 56 continues structure's remaining two aspects — the seven mental applications by which each attainment is actually entered, and the threefold grading by mild, moderate, and intense cultivation — before closing the mundane path with its own supramundane counterpart.
Continue to Part 56 — Seven Mental Applications, and the Supramundane Path →