Correct Exertions, and the Bases of Supernormal Power
The thirty-seven factors of awakening continue with two further categories, each analyzed through the same five-part framework: the four correct exertions, built entirely on the single factor of diligence, and the four bases of supernormal power, each grounded in a distinct route to the same one-pointed concentration.
1. The Four Correct Exertions
四正斷所緣者，謂已生未生所治能治法。自體者，謂精進。助伴者，謂彼相應心心所等。修習者，如契經說：生欲策勵發起正勤策心持心。此中諸句，顯修正勤及所依止。所依止者，謂欲。正勤者，謂策勵等。於止舉捨相作意中，為欲損減惛沈掉舉、發起正勤，故次說言策心持心。修果者，謂盡棄捨一切所治。於能對治若得若增，是名修果。
The four correct exertions take as their object: already-arisen and not-yet-arisen dharmas, both what is to be counteracted and what serves as the counteragent. Their essence is diligence itself. Their accompaniment is whatever mind and mental factors are associated with it.
Their cultivation, as the sūtra says: generating aspiration, exerting oneself, giving rise to correct effort, spurring the mind onward, and sustaining the mind. These several phrases together display both the actual cultivation of correct effort and what it depends on. What it depends on is aspiration. Correct effort itself is the exerting and the rest. Within the mental application of stillness, uplift, and equanimity, spurring the mind onward and sustaining it are stated specifically in order to diminish torpor and restlessness and give rise to correct effort in their place.
Their fruit is the complete abandonment of everything to be counteracted, and either the attainment or the further strengthening of the very capacity to counteract it — this is what their cultivation accomplishes.
The four correct exertions — preventing an unwholesome state not yet arisen, abandoning one already arisen, generating a wholesome state not yet arisen, and sustaining and increasing one already present — are, on this analysis, all reducible to a single essential factor: diligence, applied across all four of these combinations of already-arisen or not-yet-arisen, wholesome or unwholesome. T1606's gloss on the sūtra's own sequence of verbs is worth noting for its practical, almost mechanical precision: "generating aspiration" is simply wanting to make the effort at all; "spurring the mind onward" and "sustaining the mind" specifically name diligence's own two-sided corrective function — spurring the mind on whenever it grows sluggish and dull, and holding it steady whenever it grows scattered and restless — the same torpor/restlessness pairing already encountered repeatedly across this treatise's account of meditative obstacles.
2. The Four Bases of Supernormal Power
四神足所緣者，謂已成滿定所作事。自體者，謂三摩地。助伴者，謂欲、勤、心、觀及彼相應心心所等。云何欲三摩地？謂由殷重方便觸心一境性。云何勤三摩地？謂由無間方便觸心一境性。云何心三摩地？謂由先修三摩地力觸心一境性。云何觀三摩地？謂由聞他教法內自簡擇觸心一境性。
The four bases of supernormal power take as their object: the task already accomplished by fully perfected concentration. Their essence is concentration itself. Their accompaniment is aspiration, diligence, mind, and investigation, together with whatever mind and mental factors are associated with these.
What is the concentration of aspiration? One-pointedness of mind reached through earnest, deliberate effort. What is the concentration of diligence? One-pointedness of mind reached through sustained, uninterrupted effort. What is the concentration of mind? One-pointedness of mind reached through the power of concentration already previously cultivated. What is the concentration of investigation? One-pointedness of mind reached through personal discernment, informed by another's own teaching.
又欲三摩地者，謂由生欲觸心一境性。勤三摩地者，謂由策勵發起正勤觸心一境性。心三摩地者，謂由持心觸心一境性。觀三摩地者，謂由策心觸心一境性。修習者，謂數修習八種斷行。何等為八？謂欲、精進、信、安、正念、正知、思、捨。如是八種略攝為四，謂加行、攝受、繼屬、對治。
Further: the concentration of aspiration is one-pointedness of mind arising through the arousal of aspiration itself. The concentration of diligence is one-pointedness of mind arising through exerting oneself and giving rise to correct effort. The concentration of mind is one-pointedness of mind arising through simply holding the mind steady. The concentration of investigation is one-pointedness of mind arising through spurring the mind onward.
Their cultivation is the repeated cultivation of eight abandoning factors. What are the eight? Aspiration, diligence, faith, pliancy, correct recollection, clear comprehension, volition, and equanimity. These eight are, in brief, subsumed under four: preparatory application, sustaining, connecting, and antidote.
修果者，謂已善修治三摩地故，隨所欲證所通達法，即能隨心通達變現。又於別別處所法中，證得堪能自在作用，如所願樂能辦種種神通等事，又能引發勝品功德。
Their fruit is that, once concentration has been well cultivated and mastered, one is able, exactly as wished, to directly penetrate and manifest at will whatever dharma one seeks to realize. Further, with respect to each and every specific dharma, one attains a genuinely masterful, freely exercised capacity, able to accomplish supernormal powers and the like exactly as desired, and further able to bring forth every superior quality.
The four bases of supernormal power share a single essence — one-pointed concentration — but are distinguished by which of four distinct routes leads to it: through sheer earnest wanting (aspiration), through sustained continuous effort (diligence), through simply drawing on prior meditative attainment already on hand (mind), and through one's own active discernment building on something learned from a teacher (investigation). T1606's own gloss slightly restates each: the concentration of aspiration arises from the mere arousal of wanting to be concentrated; of diligence, from the actual exertion of correct effort; of mind, from holding the mind fixed; and of investigation, from actively spurring the mind's own discerning activity. The eight abandoning factors that constitute their cultivation are, T1606 clarifies, simply the very same eight qualities already fully defined much earlier in this treatise's account of the eleven wholesome mental factors and their functions — collected here specifically as the working toolkit for perfecting concentration, sorted into four functional groups: preparatory application (aspiration and diligence, which get the process started), sustaining (faith and pliancy, which keep it going), connecting (correct recollection, clear comprehension, and volition, which link intention to actual execution), and antidote (equanimity, which corrects for excess or deficiency once the concentration is already underway).
Part 60 Complete
The four correct exertions and the four bases of supernormal power are now examined. Part 61 turns to the five faculties and five powers — the same five qualities of faith, diligence, recollection, concentration, and wisdom, considered first as a growing capacity and then as an unshakable strength.
Continue to Part 61 — The Five Faculties and Five Powers →