Nine Grades of Path Against Nine Grades of Affliction
The treatise now grades the path itself — mild, moderate, and intense, each further divided into three — against a precisely matching ninefold grading of affliction, revealing a genuinely counter-intuitive pairing: the mildest degree of path severs the coarsest affliction first, not the reverse. This is followed by the four-stage rhythm every act of cultivation moves through, and the four distinct senses in which cultivation itself actually operates.
1. Mild, Moderate, and Intense Path, in Precise Inverse Order
云何軟道？謂軟軟、軟中、軟上品道。由此道故，能捨三界所繫地地中上上、上中、上下三品煩惱。云何中道？謂中軟、中中、中上品道。由此道故，能捨三界所繫地地中中上、中中、中軟三品煩惱。云何上道？謂上軟、上中、上上品道。由此道故，能捨三界所繫地地中軟上、軟中、軟軟三品煩惱。
What is mild path? The mild-mild, mild-moderate, and mild-intense grades of path. Through this path, one abandons the strongest, upper-moderate, and upper-mild grades of affliction bound to each level of the three realms.
What is moderate path? The moderate-mild, moderate-moderate, and moderate-intense grades of path. Through this path, one abandons the moderate-upper, moderate-moderate, and moderate-mild grades of affliction bound to each level of the three realms.
What is intense path? The intense-mild, intense-moderate, and intense-intense grades of path. Through this path, one abandons the mild-upper, mild-moderate, and mildest grades of affliction bound to each level of the three realms.
This nine-against-nine pairing is worth working out explicitly, since it runs precisely backward from what intuition would first suggest: the mildest grade of path is what severs the very strongest, coarsest grade of affliction, while only the most intense grade of path is finally capable of severing affliction's very subtlest, faintest remainder. T1606 explains why this inverse order is exactly right: the strongest, coarsest grade of affliction, present in someone who has never cultivated any restraint at all — utterly without shame or scruple — manifests so blatantly and obviously that even a comparatively weak antidote can dislodge it, the way a light touch is enough to brush off a coarse layer of visible grime. The very faintest remaining trace of affliction, by contrast, present in someone whose practice is already deeply advanced, hides so subtly and elusively that only the most powerful, refined antidote can finally reach it — like the faintest residue of stain that ordinary washing cannot touch, requiring instead the most concentrated effort to remove. Coarse problems, on this account, are paradoxically the easiest to solve; it is the subtlest, most deeply entrenched remainder that demands the path's own greatest and most refined strength.
2. Four Approaches: Preparation, Severance, Liberation, Advancement
云何加行道？謂由此道能捨煩惱，是名修道中加行道。云何無間道？謂由此道無間永斷煩惱令無所餘。云何解脫道？謂由此道證斷煩惱所得解脫。云何勝進道？謂為斷餘品煩惱所有加行無間解脫道，是名勝進道。又復棄捨斷煩惱加行或勤方便思惟諸法，或勤方便安住諸法，或進修餘三摩鉢底諸所有道，名勝進道。又為引發勝品功德，或復安住諸所有道，名勝進道。
What is the preparatory approach? The path by which one actively works to abandon a given affliction — this is called the preparatory approach within the path of cultivation. What is the immediately-liberating approach? The path by which, without any interruption, that affliction is permanently severed without remainder. What is the liberated approach? The path by which the liberation resulting from that severed affliction is directly witnessed. What is the further-advancing approach? The preparatory, immediately-liberating, and liberated approaches undertaken for the sake of severing yet another, further grade of affliction still remaining — this is called the further-advancing approach.
It is further named the further-advancing approach when one sets aside the deliberate effort of actively severing affliction and instead diligently reflects on the Dharma, diligently abides in settled contemplation of the Dharma, or advances into some further meditative attainment. It is also so named when undertaken specifically to bring forth superior qualities, or simply to abide within whatever path one has already attained.
These four approaches are best understood as the recurring four-beat rhythm every single grade of severance, across all nine grades of both path and affliction just described, actually moves through: preparation builds up the deliberate effort needed; immediate severance is the decisive, uninterrupted moment the corresponding affliction is actually cut off; liberation is the immediately following confirmation and enjoyment of that severance's own result; and further advancement is either the same three-step cycle beginning again for the next grade of affliction still remaining, or — in the broader sense the treatise adds — any of several other legitimate uses of a settled mind once immediate severance work has, for the moment, been set aside: continued reflection, continued stability, or moving on to some further attainment or quality entirely.
3. Four Kinds of Cultivation
復云何修如是諸道？謂得修、習修、除去修、對治修。得修者，謂未生善法修習令生。習修者，謂已生善法修令堅住不忘倍復增廣。除去修者，謂已生惡不善法修令永斷。對治修者，謂未生惡不善法修令不生。
How, further, is each of these paths actually cultivated? Through four kinds of cultivation: acquiring cultivation, sustaining cultivation, removing cultivation, and preventive cultivation. Acquiring cultivation is cultivating so that a not-yet-arisen wholesome dharma comes to arise. Sustaining cultivation is cultivating so that an already-arisen wholesome dharma remains firmly established, is never forgotten, and grows ever stronger. Removing cultivation is cultivating so that an already-arisen unwholesome dharma is permanently severed. Preventive cultivation is cultivating so that a not-yet-arisen unwholesome dharma is prevented from ever arising at all.
又道生時能安立自習氣，是名得修。即此道現前修習，是名習修。即此道現在前時能捨自障，名除去修。即此道既捨自障，令彼未來住不生法，名對治修。復有四種對治名對治修，謂厭壞對治、斷對治、持對治、遠分對治。云何厭壞對治？謂於有漏諸行見多過患。云何斷對治？謂加行道及無間道。云何持對治？謂解脫道。云何遠分對治？謂此後諸道。
Further: when the path itself arises and establishes its own habitual trace, this is acquiring cultivation. That same path's own active, present cultivation is sustaining cultivation. That same path, at the moment it is actually present, removing its own corresponding obstruction, is removing cultivation. That same path, having already removed its own obstruction and thereby causing it to remain permanently within a state of non-arising into the future, is preventive cultivation.
Preventive cultivation, further, is of four kinds: the antidote of revulsion, the antidote of severance, the antidote of sustaining, and the antidote of distancing. What is the antidote of revulsion? Perceiving the many drawbacks present within contaminated formations. What is the antidote of severance? The preparatory approach and the immediately-liberating approach. What is the antidote of sustaining? The liberated approach. What is the antidote of distancing? Every path that follows after these.
These four kinds of cultivation are worth reading as four distinct functions the very same act of practice can serve, rather than four separate practices — a single moment of genuine cultivation can simultaneously be bringing a new wholesome quality into being, reinforcing one already present, actively dislodging an unwholesome one, and closing the door against its future return, all at once. The closing fourfold breakdown of "preventive cultivation" specifically maps back onto the four-approach rhythm just given in the previous section: revulsion is the motivating recognition that precedes preparation; severance names the preparatory and immediately-liberating approaches together, since both are actively engaged in the cutting itself; sustaining names the liberated approach, holding what has just been achieved in place; and distancing names every subsequent stage of further advancement, which continues to widen the gap between the practitioner and whatever affliction has already been left behind.
Part 58 Complete
The nine-graded path, its four-stage approach, and its four kinds of cultivation are now examined. Part 59 turns to eleven further distinct ways the path can be described, and opens the treatise's account of the thirty-seven factors of awakening — the classical, comprehensive scheme this and the surrounding parts have all been building toward.
Continue to Part 59 — The Thirty-Seven Factors of Awakening Begin →