The Seven Temperaments, and the Three Vehicles
The first two of the seven distinctions by which persons are classified: the seven afflictive temperaments — greed, hatred, delusion, arrogance, discursiveness, balanced, and thin-defilement — and the three vehicles of deliverance, each defined by its own specific lineage, faculty sharpness, vow, aspiration, and scope of object.
1. The Seven Afflictive Temperaments
云何病行差別？此有七種，謂貪行、瞋行、癡行、慢行、尋思行、等分行、薄塵行補特伽羅差別故。何等貪行補特伽羅？謂有猛利長時貪欲。如是瞋行、癡行、慢行及尋思行補特伽羅，皆有猛利長時差別。何等等分行補特伽羅？謂住自性位煩惱。何等薄塵行補特伽羅？謂住自性位微薄煩惱。
What is the distinction of afflictive temperament? There are seven: the greed-conduct person, the hatred-conduct person, the delusion-conduct person, the arrogance-conduct person, the discursiveness-conduct person, the balanced-conduct person, and the thin-defilement person.
What is the greed-conduct person? One who has fierce and long-enduring craving. Likewise, the hatred-conduct, delusion-conduct, arrogance-conduct, and discursiveness-conduct persons are each distinguished by the very same fierce and long-enduring quality, each with respect to their own particular affliction. What is the balanced-conduct person? One who abides at the ordinary baseline level of affliction. What is the thin-defilement person? One who abides at that same baseline level, but with affliction reduced to a thin residue.
T1606 draws out precisely what distinguishes these seven from one another. The first five are named for whichever single affliction — greed, hatred, delusion, arrogance, or discursive restlessness — dominates that person's temperament so thoroughly, and so persistently, that it flares up even in response to comparatively minor or unremarkable objects and, once aroused, continues without any real interruption over long stretches of time; each of the five is defined by this identical fierce-and-long-enduring pattern, differing only in which affliction happens to be the dominant one. The balanced-conduct person, by contrast, experiences affliction at its ordinary baseline level, without any single affliction growing dominant or fierce — affliction simply arises in proportion to whatever object happens to be encountered, rising and falling with circumstance rather than being driven by any one entrenched pattern. And the thin-defilement person occupies that same balanced baseline, but with the intensity of affliction itself substantially reduced across the board, even when facing significant objects — a reduction T1606 attributes specifically to the lingering effect of powerful counteractive practice already cultivated in the past, still exerting a suppressive influence in the present.
2. The Three Vehicles of Deliverance
云何出離差別？此有三種，謂聲聞乘、獨覺乘、大乘補特伽羅差別故。何等聲聞乘補特伽羅？謂住聲聞法性，若定、若不定性，是鈍根。自求解脫發弘正願，修厭離貪解脫意樂，以聲聞藏為所緣境，精進修行法隨法行得盡苦際。何等獨覺乘補特伽羅？謂住獨覺法性，若定、若不定性，是中根。自求解脫發弘正願，修厭離貪解脫意樂，及修獨證菩提意樂，即聲聞藏為所緣境，精進修行法隨法行，或先未起順決擇分、或先已起順決擇分、或先未得果、或先已得果，出無佛世，唯內思惟聖道現前。或如麟角獨住、或復獨勝部行得盡苦際。何等大乘補特伽羅？謂住菩薩法性，若定、若不定性、是利根。為求解脫一切有情，發弘正願修無住處涅槃意樂，以菩薩藏為所緣境，精進修行法隨法行，成熟眾生修淨佛土，得受大記，證成無上正等菩提。
What is the distinction of vehicle of deliverance? There are three: the śrāvaka-vehicle person, the pratyekabuddha-vehicle person, and the Mahāyāna person.
What is the śrāvaka-vehicle person? One abiding in the śrāvaka lineage — whether of fixed or unfixed disposition — of dull faculties, who seeks their own deliverance alone, generates a vast and correct vow, cultivates the aspiration for liberation through disenchantment with craving, takes the śrāvaka basket as their object, and diligently practices in accordance with the Dharma until reaching the very limit of suffering.
What is the pratyekabuddha-vehicle person? One abiding in the pratyekabuddha lineage — whether of fixed or unfixed disposition — of middling faculties, who seeks their own deliverance alone, generates a vast and correct vow, cultivates both the aspiration for liberation through disenchantment with craving and the aspiration for solitary self-realized awakening, likewise takes the śrāvaka basket as their object, and diligently practices in accordance with the Dharma — whether the aids to penetration had already arisen beforehand or had not yet arisen, whether a fruit of the path had already been attained beforehand or had not yet been attained — appearing in an age without a buddha, realizing the noble path purely through inward reflection, reaching the very limit of suffering either dwelling utterly alone, like a rhinoceros's single horn, or dwelling within a group of fellow practitioners of superior attainment.
What is the Mahāyāna person? One abiding in the bodhisattva lineage — whether of fixed or unfixed disposition — of sharp faculties, who seeks the deliverance of every sentient being, generates a vast and correct vow, cultivates the aspiration for the non-abiding nirvāṇa, takes the bodhisattva basket as their object, diligently practices in accordance with the Dharma, ripens sentient beings, cultivates a pure buddha-land, receives the great prediction, and realizes unsurpassed and perfect awakening.
T1606 notes that each vehicle is here defined through the very same six-part structure — lineage, faculty, vow, aspiration, object, and resulting practice and fruit — allowing all three to be compared point by point. The śrāvaka is specifically called dull-facultied only in comparison to the pratyekabuddha and the bodhisattva, not in any absolute sense — otherwise the śrāvaka's own capacity for "practice in accordance with the Dharma," elsewhere described as belonging to sharp faculties, would be self-contradictory. The pratyekabuddha, uniquely among the three, may either already have begun the aids to penetration or a fruit of the path in some prior life or be starting entirely fresh in this one, and specifically appears only in an age when no buddha teaches, realizing the path through purely inward reflection alone; those who reach this without ever having previously begun the path at all are called "rhinoceros-horn" solitary types, dwelling utterly alone, while those who had already made some prior progress are called the "group-dwelling superior" type. And the Mahāyāna person's own defining mark, receiving "the great prediction," is specifically located by T1606 at the eighth bodhisattva ground, where the acceptance of the non-arising of dharmas is first realized — the decisive point after which final buddhahood is assured beyond any possibility of retreat.
Part 84 Complete
The seven afflictive temperaments and the three vehicles of deliverance are now examined. Part 85 turns to the third distinction: the three degrees of provisions accumulated for the path, together with the treatise's own further subdivision of each stage into four kinds of aid toward liberation and six kinds of aid toward penetrating insight.
Continue to Part 85 — The Three Degrees of Provisions →