Twenty-Four Kinds of Coarse Heaviness
The treatise now catalogues, one by one, the twenty-four kinds of coarse heaviness that the vajra-like concentration permanently stills — a list running from the beginningless proliferation-habit lodged in the storehouse consciousness, through the ordinary burdens of food, sleep, sickness, and death, to the three distinct obstacles that separately confront the śrāvaka, the meditator, and the seeker of omniscience.
1. The List of Twenty-Four
云何名為一切麁重？略說有二十四種，謂一切遍行戲論麁重、領受麁重、煩惱麁重、業麁重、異熟麁重、煩惱障麁重、業障麁重、異熟障麁重、蓋麁重、尋思麁重、飲食麁重、交會麁重、夢麁重、病麁重、老麁重、死麁重、勞倦麁重、堅固麁重、麁麁重、中麁重、細麁重、煩惱障麁重、定障麁重、所知障麁重。如是二十四種，略攝一切麁重。
What is meant by every coarse heaviness? In brief, there are twenty-four kinds: the coarse heaviness of all-pervasive proliferation, the coarse heaviness of feeling, the coarse heaviness of affliction, the coarse heaviness of karma, the coarse heaviness of ripening, the coarse heaviness of the obstacle of affliction, the coarse heaviness of the obstacle of karma, the coarse heaviness of the obstacle of ripening, the coarse heaviness of the hindrances, the coarse heaviness of investigation, the coarse heaviness of food and drink, the coarse heaviness of sexual union, the coarse heaviness of dreaming, the coarse heaviness of sickness, the coarse heaviness of aging, the coarse heaviness of death, the coarse heaviness of fatigue, the coarse heaviness of the obdurate, the coarse-grade heaviness, the middle-grade heaviness, the subtle-grade heaviness, the coarse heaviness of the obstacle of affliction, the coarse heaviness of the obstacle of concentration, and the coarse heaviness of the cognitive obstacle. These twenty-four kinds, in brief, comprehend every coarse heaviness there is.
2. Each Kind Defined
一切遍行戲論麁重者，謂執眼等諸法習氣，無始時來依附阿賴耶識相續不斷，即此名為戲論習氣。從此習氣，眼等諸法及名言執數數生起。領受麁重者，謂有漏諸受習氣。煩惱麁重者，謂煩惱隨眠。業麁重者，謂有漏業習氣。異熟麁重者，謂異熟無堪能性。煩惱障麁重者，謂猛利長時煩惱性。業障麁重者，謂能障道無間等業障性。異熟障麁重者，謂與諦現觀相違，地獄等自體得。蓋麁重者，謂能障礙善品方便盛貪欲等性。尋思麁重者，謂能障礙欣樂出家欲尋思等性。飲食麁重者，謂極多少食於方便行無堪任性。交會麁重者，謂兩兩形交身心疲損性。夢麁重者，謂睡眠所發身惛劣性。病麁重者，謂諸界互違所發不安隱性。老麁重者，謂大種衰變所起不隨轉性。死麁重者，謂臨命終時諸根亂性。勞倦麁重者，謂遠行等所作支體頓弊性。堅固麁重者，謂無涅槃法者，如其所應所有戲論麁重等性。麁、中、細麁重者，謂欲色無色所有麁重，如其次第。煩惱障麁重者，謂聲聞獨覺菩提所治。定障麁重者，謂九次第定所發功德所治。所知障麁重者，謂一切智性所治。
- All-pervasive proliferation: the habitual imprint of grasping at the eye and every other such dharma, adhering without a break to the storehouse consciousness since beginningless time — it is this itself that is called the habitual imprint of proliferation, and it is from this very imprint that the eye and every such dharma, together with grasping at names and language, repeatedly arise.
- Feeling: the habitual imprint of every contaminated feeling.
- Affliction: the underlying tendency of the afflictions themselves.
- Karma: the habitual imprint of contaminated karma.
- Ripening: the very incapacity that belongs to karmic ripening itself.
- The obstacle of affliction: affliction that is fierce and long-enduring.
- The obstacle of karma: the very nature of a karmic obstacle capable of blocking the uninterrupted path and the like.
- The obstacle of ripening: a birth-state, such as the hells, that runs directly contrary to direct realization of the truths.
- The hindrances: the very nature of covetousness and the rest, capable of obstructing the skillful means belonging to wholesome states.
- Investigation: the very nature of thoughts and the like capable of obstructing the wish to delight in renunciation.
- Food and drink: the incapacity for skillful practice that comes from eating either far too much or far too little.
- Sexual union: the depletion of body and mind that comes from the physical joining of two bodies.
- Dreaming: the bodily dullness brought on by sleep.
- Sickness: the very unease that arises when the bodily elements are mutually discordant.
- Aging: the loss of responsiveness that arises as the great elements themselves decline.
- Death: the disordering of the faculties that occurs at the very moment life comes to an end.
- Fatigue: the sudden exhaustion of the limbs brought on by long travel and the like.
- The obdurate: the very nature of proliferation-heaviness and the rest, as it applies specifically to one who lacks the very capacity for nirvāṇa.
- Coarse-grade, middle-grade, and subtle-grade: whatever coarse heaviness belongs respectively to the desire realm, the form realm, and the formless realm, in that order.
- The obstacle of affliction (named again): what is specifically counteracted by the awakening of the śrāvaka and the pratyekabuddha.
- The obstacle of concentration: what is specifically counteracted by the qualities brought forth through the nine sequential concentrations.
- The cognitive obstacle: what is specifically counteracted by the very nature of omniscience itself.
The list moves through three distinct registers, and noticing the shift clarifies what could otherwise look like an arbitrary grab-bag. The opening five items describe the deep, structural machinery of contaminated existence itself: a beginningless proliferation-habit seated in the storehouse consciousness from which ordinary experience, feeling, affliction, karma, and their ripening all continually regenerate. The next set — the hindrances, unwelcome thoughts, the burdens of food, sex, sleep, sickness, aging, death, and fatigue, together with the "obdurate" condition of one who altogether lacks the capacity for nirvāṇa and the three grades tied to the three realms — describes coarse heaviness as it actually shows up in ordinary embodied and meditative life, at every level of subtlety from the desire realm's grossest afflictions to the formless realm's most refined. And the final three items, T1606 makes clear, are not one more grade of the same scale but a distinct threefold division mapped onto the three vehicles: the obstacle of affliction is specifically what the śrāvaka and pratyekabuddha's own awakening overcomes, the obstacle of concentration is what the nine sequential concentrations' own cultivated qualities overcome, and the cognitive obstacle — the subtlest and last to fall — is what only omniscience itself is capable of overcoming. The list's apparent repetition of "obstacle of affliction," appearing once among the general categories and again at the very end, is deliberate: the same affliction can be named as a general structural heaviness and, separately, as the specific obstacle a particular vehicle's own awakening is measured against.
Part 68 Complete
The twenty-four kinds of coarse heaviness are now catalogued in full. Part 69 turns to exhaustion-knowledge and non-arising-knowledge, the ten factors of one beyond training, and the treatise's own closing four-aspect summary of the truth of the path — completing this treatise's entire account of the four noble truths.
Continue to Part 69 — Exhaustion-Knowledge, and the Truth of the Path Complete →