The Same List Again, This Time With Its Reasons
This page carries Ru-Yi's translation of the complete Mahāyāna Extended Five Aggregates Treatise (大乘廣五蘊論), composed by Sthiramati (安慧) and translated into Chinese by Divākara (地婆訶羅) — CBETA cross-references this text and Part Two's Five Aggregates Treatise against one another directly. Sthiramati keeps Vasubandhu's own ninety-five questions almost word for word, then, for nearly every one, adds what the shorter text left out: an etymology, a worked example, a citation, and — for every mental factor — a second clause naming not just its nature (性) but its function (業), what it actually does once present. Read after Part Two, this page is less a new text than the first text's own commentary on itself.
Translation Method
The Chinese source is Divākara's seventh-century translation of Sthiramati's expansion of Vasubandhu's Pañcaskandhaka. Where Part Two gave each definition as a single clause — 謂……為性, "the nature of…" — this text regularly closes each entry with a second clause, ……為業 or 與……為業, "its function is…", stating what the thing accomplishes rather than only what it is. We have kept both halves visibly separate in the English, nature first and function second, since the distinction is the organizing idea of this whole expansion. Classical text is set in the left-hand column below, our English in the right. See also this site's note on translation method.
1. The Four Great Elements, and What "Element" Means
佛說五蘊，謂色蘊、受蘊、想蘊、行蘊、識蘊。云何色蘊？謂四大種及大種所造色。云何四大種？謂地界、水界、火界、風界。此復云何？謂地堅性、水濕性、火煖性、風輕性。界者，能持自性所造色故。
The Buddha taught the five aggregates: the aggregate of form, the aggregate of feeling, the aggregate of perception, the aggregate of formations, and the aggregate of consciousness.
What is the aggregate of form? It is the four great elements, and the form made by the great elements. What are the four great elements? The element of earth, the element of water, the element of fire, and the element of wind. And what are these? The solidity of earth, the moistness of water, the warmth of fire, and the lightness of wind. "Element" means what sustains its own nature, and the form that it produces.
This opening line already shows the pattern the whole page will follow: Vasubandhu's version simply names the four elements and defines each in four words; Sthiramati adds a closing etymology explaining why the term 界, "element," is used at all — because each one 能持自性所造色, sustains both its own nature and the form built from it. Nothing about the doctrine changes. What changes is that a term the shorter text simply uses, the longer one stops to justify.
2. The Five Faculties, and What "Faculty" Means
云何四大所造色？謂眼根、耳根、鼻根、舌根、身根、色、聲、香、味及觸一分、無表色等。造者因義。根者最勝自在義、主義、增上義，是為根義。所言主義，與誰為主？謂即眼根與眼識為主，生眼識故。如是乃至身根與身識為主，生身識故。
云何眼根？謂以色為境，淨色為性。謂於眼中一分淨色如淨醍醐，此性有故眼識得生，無即不生。
云何耳根？謂以聲為境，淨色為性。謂於耳中一分淨色，此性有故耳識得生，無即不生。
云何鼻根？謂以香為境，淨色為性。謂於鼻中一分淨色，此性有故鼻識得生，無即不生。
云何舌根？謂以味為境，淨色為性。謂於舌上周遍淨色、有說此於舌上有少不遍如一毛端，此性有故舌識得生，無即不生。
云何身根？謂以觸為境，淨色為性。謂於身中周遍淨色，此性有故身識得生，無即不生。
What is form made by the four great elements? The eye faculty, the ear faculty, the nose faculty, the tongue faculty, and the body faculty; form, sound, smell, taste, and part of the tangible; and non-informative form, and the rest. "Made" has the sense of causation. "Faculty" has the sense of what is most excellent and sovereign, the sense of a ruling master, the sense of dominance — this is the sense of "faculty." As for the sense of a ruling master: master over what? The eye faculty is master over the eye consciousness, since it gives rise to the eye consciousness. And so on, up to the body faculty being master over the body consciousness, since it gives rise to the body consciousness.
What is the eye faculty? Translucent form that takes form as its object — that portion of translucent form within the eye that is like pure ghee. Because this nature is present, the eye consciousness is able to arise; where it is absent, it does not arise.
What is the ear faculty? Translucent form that takes sound as its object — that portion of translucent form within the ear. Because this nature is present, the ear consciousness is able to arise; where it is absent, it does not arise.
What is the nose faculty? Translucent form that takes smell as its object — that portion of translucent form within the nose. Because this nature is present, the nose consciousness is able to arise; where it is absent, it does not arise.
What is the tongue faculty? Translucent form that takes taste as its object — translucent form spread over the whole tongue; some say it does not quite spread the whole way, falling short by about the width of a single hair. Because this nature is present, the tongue consciousness is able to arise; where it is absent, it does not arise.
What is the body faculty? Translucent form that takes the tangible as its object — translucent form spread throughout the body. Because this nature is present, the body consciousness is able to arise; where it is absent, it does not arise.
"謂於眼中一分淨色如淨醍醐" — a portion of translucent form within the eye, like pure ghee. This is the treatise's single most vivid image, and it is worth pausing on because it names what kind of claim is being made. The eye faculty is not the visible eyeball; it is a specific, translucent substance located within it, transparent the way clarified butter is transparent, and it is this substance, not the flesh around it, that actually does the work of seeing. Vasubandhu's shorter text simply asserts "translucent form"; Sthiramati reaches for a simile a reader can actually picture.
The etymology of 根, "faculty," repays a second look: "master" (主) turns out to mean nothing more mysterious than a productive relationship — the eye faculty is called master over the eye consciousness for exactly one reason, that it gives rise to it. There is no ruler behind the ruling; "sovereignty" here is just causal priority, stated in the vocabulary of a hierarchy so that Sanskrit's indriya — with its root sense of Indra, lordly power — carries into Chinese with something of its original charge intact.
3. The Five Objects, and Why an Effect Can Borrow Its Cause's Name
云何色？謂眼之境，顯色、形色及表色等。顯色有四種，謂青、黃、赤、白。形色謂長短等。
云何聲？謂耳之境，執受大種因聲、非執受大種因聲、俱大種因聲。諸心心法是能執受，蠢動之類是所執受。執受大種因聲者，如手相擊、語言等聲。非執受大種因聲者，如風林駛水等聲。俱大種因聲者，如手擊鼓等聲。
云何香？謂鼻之境，好香、惡香、平等香。好香者，謂與鼻合時於蘊相續有所順益。惡香者，謂與鼻合時於蘊相續有所違損。平等香者，謂與鼻合時無所損益。
云何味？謂舌之境，甘、醋、醎、辛、苦、淡等。
云何觸一分？謂身之境，除大種，謂滑性、澁性、重性、輕性、冷、飢、渴等。滑謂細軟，澁謂麁強，重謂可稱，輕謂反是。煖欲為冷，觸是冷因，此即於因立其果稱。如說諸佛出世樂、演說正法樂、眾僧和合樂、同修精進樂。精進勤苦雖是樂因，即說為樂。此亦如是，欲食為飢、欲飲為渴，說亦如是。已說七種造觸及前四大十一種等。
What is form (the visible)? The object of the eye — color, shape, and expressive form, and the like. Color is of four kinds: blue, yellow, red, and white. Shape is length, shortness, and the rest.
What is sound? The object of the ear — sound caused by appropriated great elements, sound caused by non-appropriated great elements, and sound caused by both together. Mind and mental factors are what appropriate; living, moving beings are what is appropriated. Sound caused by appropriated great elements is, for example, the sound of clapping hands together, or of speech. Sound caused by non-appropriated great elements is, for example, the sound of wind in a forest, or of rushing water. Sound caused by both together is, for example, the sound of a hand striking a drum.
What is smell? The object of the nose — good smell, bad smell, and neutral smell. Good smell is such that, upon contact with the nose, it benefits and favors the continuity of the aggregates. Bad smell is such that, upon contact with the nose, it harms and opposes the continuity of the aggregates. Neutral smell is such that, upon contact with the nose, it neither harms nor benefits.
What is taste? The object of the tongue — sweet, sour, salty, pungent, bitter, bland, and the rest.
What is part of the tangible? The object of the body, apart from the great elements themselves: smoothness, roughness, heaviness, lightness, cold, hunger, and thirst, and the rest. Smoothness is fine softness; roughness is coarse harshness; heaviness is what can be weighed; lightness is the reverse of this. The desire for warmth is called "cold" — the felt sensation is really the cause of the wish for warmth, and here the effect's name is given to its cause. It is like saying: the joy of the buddhas' appearance in the world, the joy of expounding the true teaching, the joy of the harmony of the sangha, the joy of cultivating diligence together. Diligence and exertion are really only the cause of joy, yet they are called joy directly. It is the same here: the desire for food is called "hunger," the desire for drink is called "thirst" — the naming works the same way. This concludes the seven kinds of derived tangibles, together with the four great elements themselves — eleven items in all.
The digression on 冷 (cold) is a small piece of philosophy of language dropped into a physics list. Sthiramati notices something genuinely odd about the term: strictly, "cold" names a bodily sensation, but the treatise's own definition — 煖欲為冷 — says cold is really the desire for warmth, an effect, not a stimulus. Rather than treat this as sloppy usage, he generalizes it into a rule: language regularly names an effect after its cause when the two are intimate enough. His examples are not physical at all — the joy of a buddha's appearance in the world is, strictly, caused by that appearance, not identical to it, yet Buddhist idiom says "the joy of a buddha's appearance" as though joy and appearance were one thing. Having established the rule with four dignified examples, he applies it right back down to hunger and thirst, which is exactly the move that makes this passage memorable: the same linguistic principle that lets scripture speak of "the joy of the Dharma" also explains why an empty stomach is called "hunger."
4. Non-Informative Form, and All Form in Three Kinds
云何無表色等？謂有表業、三摩地所生、無見無對色等。有表業者，謂身、語表，此通善、不善、無記性。所生色者，謂即從彼善不善表所生之色。此不可顯示，故名無表。三摩地所生色者，謂四靜慮所生色等。此無表色，是所造性，名善律儀、不善律儀等，亦名業，亦名種子。如是諸色，略為三種：一者可見有對、二者不可見有對、三者不可見無對。是中可見有對者，謂顯色等。不可見有對者，謂眼根等。不可見無對者，謂無表色等。
What is non-informative form and the rest? Form that is invisible and offers no resistance, arisen from informative action and from concentration. "Informative action" means bodily and verbal expression, which may be wholesome, unwholesome, or indeterminate in nature. "The form thereby produced" means the form produced from that wholesome or unwholesome expression itself — since it cannot be displayed, it is called non-informative. "Form produced by concentration" means the form produced by the four meditative absorptions, and the like. This non-informative form has the nature of something made; it is called wholesome discipline, unwholesome discipline, and so forth; it is also called karma, and also called a seed. All forms of this kind are, in brief, of three sorts: visible and resistant, invisible and resistant, and invisible and non-resistant. Among these, visible and resistant is color and the rest; invisible and resistant is the faculties of the eye and the rest; invisible and non-resistant is non-informative form and the rest.
Non-informative form is where the aggregate of form quietly stops being about physics at all and becomes about ethics. A precept taken and kept, or broken and never renounced, is here classed as a kind of matter — invisible, offering no resistance, yet real enough to be "also called karma, also called a seed." The three-way close (visible-resistant, invisible-resistant, invisible-non-resistant) is a tidy way to end the whole discussion of form: every physical thing named across this section — color one can see, faculties one cannot see but which still obstruct, and moral residue that neither can be seen nor obstructs anything — turns out to fit exactly one of three boxes, with nothing left over.
5. Feeling and Perception, and Why the Six Categories Are Named as They Are
云何受蘊？受有三種，謂樂受、苦受、不苦不樂受。樂受者，謂此滅時有和合欲。苦受者，謂此生時有乖離欲。不苦不樂受者，謂無二欲。無二欲者，謂無和合及乖離欲。受謂識之領納。
云何想蘊？謂能增勝取諸境相。增勝取者，謂勝力能取。如大力者，說名勝力。
云何行蘊？謂除受、想，諸餘心法及心不相應行。云何餘心法？謂與心相應諸行：觸、作意、思，欲、勝解、念、三摩地、慧，信、慚、愧、無貪、無瞋、無癡、精進、輕安、不放逸、捨、不害，貪、瞋、慢、無明、見、疑，忿、恨、覆、惱、嫉、慳、誑、諂、憍、害，無慚、無愧、昏沈、掉舉、不信、懈怠、放逸、失念、散亂、不正知，惡作、睡眠、尋、伺。
是諸心法，五是遍行。此遍一切善、不善、無記心，故名遍行。五是別境。此五一一於差別境，展轉決定性不相離，是中有一必有一切。十一為善，六為煩惱，餘是隨煩惱，四為不定。此不定四，非正隨煩惱，以通善及無記性故。觸等體性及業，應當解釋。
What is the aggregate of feeling? Feeling is of three kinds: pleasant feeling, painful feeling, and feeling that is neither painful nor pleasant. Pleasant feeling is such that, when it ceases, there is a wish to be joined with it again. Painful feeling is such that, when it arises, there is a wish to be parted from it. Feeling that is neither painful nor pleasant is such that there is neither wish — that is, neither the wish to be joined nor the wish to be parted. Feeling is consciousness's own experiencing.
What is the aggregate of perception? The forceful grasping of the marks of objects. "Forceful grasping" means a grasping capable of exerting force — just as one of great strength is said to have force.
What is the aggregate of formations? All the remaining mental factors apart from feeling and perception, together with formations dissociated from mind. What are the remaining mental factors? The formations associated with mind: contact, attention, and volition; aspiration, resolve, recollection, concentration, and wisdom; faith, sense of shame, sense of embarrassment, non-greed, non-hatred, non-delusion, diligence, pliancy, heedfulness, equanimity, and non-harming; craving, hatred, conceit, delusion, wrong view, and doubt; wrath, resentment, concealment, vexation, envy, stinginess, deceit, flattery, arrogance, and harmfulness; lack of shame, lack of embarrassment, torpor, restlessness, lack of faith, laziness, heedlessness, forgetfulness, distraction, and incorrect knowledge; regret, sleep, coarse discursive thought, and subtle discursive thought.
Among these mental factors, five are universal — pervading every wholesome, unwholesome, and indeterminate mind, hence called universal. Five are particular — each one of these five, with respect to its own distinct object, is settled and inseparable from the others in its turning, such that where there is one, all are necessarily present. Eleven are wholesome, six are root afflictions, the rest are secondary afflictions, and four are indeterminate. These four indeterminate factors are not, strictly speaking, secondary afflictions, since they pass through both the wholesome and the indeterminate natures. The nature and the function of contact and the rest should now be explained.
This treatise's list of the remaining mental factors names only 觸、作意、思 — contact, attention, and volition — where the parallel passage in Part Two lists all five universal factors including feeling and perception again, even though the sentence has just excluded them by name. That is a small but real inconsistency in the shorter text that this one quietly corrects: having said 除受想 (apart from feeling and perception), it does not then relist them.
The explanation of why 遍行 and 別境 carry the names they do is new to this text and worth keeping in mind for everything that follows. "Universal" (遍行) does not mean present in every moment of every kind of mind somewhere in the abstract; it means pervading every wholesome, unwholesome, and indeterminate mind — no mental state, however defiled or however neutral, arises without contact, attention, feeling, perception, and volition all five present. "Particular" (別境) factors are bound together not by always co-occurring with each other, but by a stranger rule: on their own distinct objects, all five or none arise together — aspiration, resolve, recollection, concentration, and wisdom are a package deal with respect to whatever they are directed at, even though unlike the universal five they need not appear in every mental state at all. And the aside about the four indeterminate factors — that they are "not, strictly speaking, secondary afflictions" despite following the twenty secondary afflictions in the count — heads off a natural misreading before it can happen: regret, sleep, and discursive thought are morally neutral in themselves, capable of appearing in either a wholesome or an unwholesome mind, and are grouped last only because they fit nowhere else, not because they are one more flavor of affliction.
6. Eight Definitions, With Function: The Universal and Particular Factors
云何觸？謂三和合，分別為性。三和，謂眼、色、識如是等。此諸和合，心心法生，故名為觸。與受所依為業。
云何作意？謂令心發悟為性。令心心法現前警動，是憶念義。任持攀緣心為業。
云何思？謂於功德過失及以俱非，令心造作。意業為性。此性若有，識攀緣用即現在前，猶如磁石引鐵令動，能推善、不善、無記心為業。
云何欲？謂於可愛樂事希望為性。愛樂事者，所謂可愛見聞等事，是願樂希求之義。能與精進所依為業。
云何勝解？謂於決定境，如所了知印可為性。決定境者，謂於五蘊等，如日親說：色如聚沫、受如水泡、想如陽焰、行如芭蕉、識如幻境。如是決定。或如諸法所住自相，謂即如是而生決定。言決定者，即印持義。餘無引轉為業，此增勝故餘所不能引。
云何念？謂於慣習事心不忘失，明記為性。慣習事者，謂曾所習行。與不散亂所依為業。
云何三摩地？謂於所觀事心一境性。所觀事者，謂五蘊等及無常苦空無我等。心一境者，是專注義。與智所依為業。由心定故，如實了知。
云何慧？謂即於彼擇法為性，或如理所引、或不如理所引、或俱非所引。即於彼者，謂所觀事。擇法者，謂於諸法自相共相，由慧簡擇得決定故。如理所引者，謂佛弟子。不如理所引者，謂諸外道。俱非所引者，謂餘眾生。斷疑為業。慧能簡擇，於諸法中得決定故。
What is contact? The nature of discernment born of the coming together of the three. "The three" means the eye, form, and consciousness, and so for the rest. From this coming together, mind and mental factors arise; hence it is called contact. Its function is to serve as the basis for feeling.
What is attention? The nature of what rouses the mind to awareness. It stirs mind and mental factors into present alertness — this is the sense of calling to mind. Its function is to sustain and direct the mind toward its object.
What is volition? That which, with respect to virtue, fault, and what is neither, impels the mind to act — the nature of mental karma. Where this nature is present, consciousness's function of engaging its object becomes immediately manifest, just as a magnet draws and moves iron. Its function is to impel the mind toward what is wholesome, unwholesome, or indeterminate.
What is aspiration? The nature of longing for something loved and delighted in. "A thing loved and delighted in" means something desirable, seen, heard, and the like — this is the sense of wishing, delighting in, and seeking. Its function is to serve as the basis for diligence.
What is resolve? The nature of affirming, exactly as it has been understood, an object that is settled. "A settled object" refers to things such as the five aggregates — as the Kinsman of the Sun has taught: form is like a mass of foam, feeling like a bubble, perception like a mirage, formations like a plantain tree, consciousness like an illusion. Settled in just this way. Or it may be settled with respect to the particular character in which each dharma abides, arising as settled precisely in that way. "Settled" has the sense of affirming and holding fast. Its function is to be such that nothing else can draw it elsewhere — being so forceful, nothing else is able to draw it away.
What is recollection? The nature of a mind that does not forget, clearly holding in mind a matter grown familiar through habitual practice. "A matter grown familiar" means something previously practiced and cultivated. Its function is to serve as the basis for non-distraction.
What is concentration? The one-pointedness of mind upon an object of contemplation. "An object of contemplation" means such things as the five aggregates, and impermanence, suffering, emptiness, and selflessness, and the like. "One-pointedness of mind" has the sense of focused attention. Its function is to serve as the basis for knowledge — since the mind is settled, it understands things as they really are.
What is wisdom? The nature of discerning the dharma with respect to that very object — whether drawn out by correct reasoning, by incorrect reasoning, or by neither. "That very object" refers to the object of contemplation. "Discerning the dharma" means that, through wisdom, one distinguishes the particular and shared characteristics of things and arrives at a settled understanding. "Drawn out by correct reasoning" refers to disciples of the Buddha. "Drawn out by incorrect reasoning" refers to followers of other paths. "Drawn out by neither" refers to the remaining sentient beings. Its function is to cut off doubt — wisdom is able to discern, and so arrives at a settled understanding among things.
"如日親說" names the source of the five similes for the aggregates — foam, a bubble, a mirage, a plantain tree, an illusion — and 日親, "Kinsman of the Sun," is an epithet for the Buddha himself (Śākyamuni's clan traced its lineage to the sun), not a reference to any human commentator. The five similes are in fact one of the tradition's oldest and most famous teachings on the aggregates, and Sthiramati reaches for it here to make concrete what "a settled object" means for the factor of resolve: one comes to a firm, held conviction about form once one has genuinely taken in that it is no more solid than foam.
The function clauses turn this section into a small causal chain, readable straight through: contact is the basis for feeling; attention sustains the mind on its object; volition impels the mind toward wholesome, unwholesome, or neutral action; aspiration is the basis for diligence; resolve resists being drawn elsewhere; recollection is the basis for non-distraction; concentration is the basis for knowledge; and wisdom cuts off doubt. Read only for their functions, the eight universal-and-particular factors describe one continuous process — contact meeting an object, attention holding it, and wisdom eventually settling what it is — with each step supplying what the next one needs.
7. Eleven Definitions, With Function: The Wholesome Factors
云何信？謂於業、果、諸諦、寶等深正符順，心淨為性。於業者，謂福、非福、不動業。於果者，謂須陀洹、斯陀含、阿那含、阿羅漢果。於諦者，謂苦、集、滅、道諦。於寶者，謂佛、法、僧寶。於如是業果等極相符順，亦名清淨及希求義。與欲所依為業。
云何慚？謂自增上及法增上，於所作罪羞恥為性。罪謂過失，智者所厭患故。羞恥者，謂不作眾罪。防息惡行所依為業。
云何愧？謂他增上，於所作罪羞恥為性。他增上者，謂怖畏責罰及譏論等，所有罪失羞恥於他。業如慚說。
云何無貪？謂貪對治，令深厭患，無著為性。謂於諸有及有資具染著為貪，彼之對治說為無貪。此即於有及有資具無染著義，遍知生死諸過失故，名為厭患。惡行不起所依為業。
云何無瞋？謂瞋對治，以慈為性。謂於眾生不損害義。業如無貪說。
云何無癡？謂癡對治，如實正行為性。如實者，略謂四聖諦，廣謂十二緣起，於彼加行是正知義。業亦如無貪說。
云何精進？謂懈怠對治，善品現前勤勇為性。謂若被甲、若加行、若無怯弱、若不退轉、若無喜足，是如此義。圓滿成就善法為業。
云何輕安？謂麁重對治，身心調暢堪能為性，謂能棄捨十不善行。除障為業。由此力故，除一切障，轉捨麁重。
云何不放逸？謂放逸對治，依止無貪乃至精進，捨諸不善，修彼對治諸善法故。謂貪瞋癡及以懈怠名為放逸，對治彼故是不放逸。謂依無貪、無瞋、無癡、精進四法，對治不善法，修習善法故。世出世間正行所依為業。
云何捨？謂依如是無貪、無瞋乃至精進，獲得心平等性、心正直性、心無功用性。又復由此，離諸雜染法、安住清淨法。謂依無貪、無瞋、無癡、精進性故，或時遠離昏沈掉舉諸過失故，初得心平等；或時任運無勉勵故，次得心正直；或時遠離諸雜染故，最後獲得心無功用。業如不放逸說。
云何不害？謂害對治，以悲為性。謂由悲故，不害群生，是無瞋分。不損惱為業。
What is faith? The nature of a mind made pure, in deep and correct accord with karma, its fruit, the truths, and the Three Jewels. "With respect to karma" means meritorious, demeritorious, and imperturbable karma. "With respect to fruit" means the fruits of stream-entry, once-returning, non-returning, and arhatship. "With respect to the truths" means the truths of suffering, origin, cessation, and the path. "With respect to the Three Jewels" means the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha. Being in such complete accord with karma, its fruit, and the rest is also called purity, and carries the sense of longing for them. Its function is to serve as the basis for aspiration.
What is a sense of shame? The nature of feeling shame for a wrong one has done, out of respect for oneself and for the dharma. "Wrong" means a fault, something the wise find distasteful. "Shame" means not committing further wrongs. Its function is to serve as the basis for guarding against and quelling bad conduct.
What is a sense of embarrassment? The nature of feeling shame for a wrong one has done, out of respect for others. "Respect for others" means fearing reproach and censure, and the rest — feeling shame before others for one's faults and failings. Its function is as stated for a sense of shame.
What is non-greed? The antidote to craving — the nature of deep aversion and detachment. Defiled attachment to existence and to the requisites of existence is craving; its antidote is called non-greed. This is the sense of being without defiled attachment to existence and its requisites — since one thoroughly knows the faults of birth and death, it is called aversion. Its function is to serve as the basis for bad conduct not arising.
What is non-hatred? The antidote to hatred — the nature of loving-kindness. This is the sense of not harming sentient beings. Its function is as stated for non-greed.
What is non-delusion? The antidote to delusion — the nature of correct conduct in accordance with how things really are. "How things really are," in brief, means the four noble truths; in full, means the twelve links of dependent origination — applying oneself to these is the sense of correct knowledge. Its function is also as stated for non-greed.
What is diligence? The antidote to laziness — the nature of bold exertion in bringing wholesome things to presence. This is the sense of arming oneself, applying effort, being free of timidity, not turning back, and not being satisfied too soon. Its function is to bring wholesome dharmas to complete and perfect accomplishment.
What is pliancy? The antidote to coarse heaviness — the nature of a body and mind made pliant and capable, able to abandon the ten unwholesome courses of action. Its function is to remove obstruction — by this power, all obstructions are removed, and coarse heaviness is transformed and cast off.
What is heedfulness? The antidote to heedlessness — in dependence on non-greed on through diligence, one abandons unwholesome things and cultivates the wholesome things that counteract them. Craving, hatred, delusion, and laziness are named heedlessness; their antidote is heedfulness. That is, in dependence on the four dharmas of non-greed, non-hatred, non-delusion, and diligence, one counteracts unwholesome things and cultivates wholesome things. Its function is to serve as the basis for correct conduct, both worldly and transcendent.
What is equanimity? In dependence on non-greed, non-hatred, and on through diligence, one obtains a mind that is even, upright, and effortless. And by this, one departs from things of defilement and abides in things of purity. That is, in dependence on the natures of non-greed, non-hatred, non-delusion, and diligence: sometimes, through being free of the faults of torpor and restlessness, one first obtains an even mind; sometimes, through functioning spontaneously without exertion, one next obtains an upright mind; and sometimes, through being free of all defilement, one at last obtains an effortless mind. Its function is as stated for heedfulness.
What is non-harming? The antidote to harmfulness — the nature of compassion. Through compassion, one does not harm living beings; this is a facet of non-hatred. Its function is to not injure or vex others.
Non-greed, non-hatred, and non-delusion share a single function clause — 業如無貪說, "its function is as stated for non-greed" — repeated twice rather than restated, which is the treatise's own way of marking these three as a genuine unit, the three wholesome roots taken together as the direct antidotes to the three unwholesome roots named earlier under delusion. Heedfulness and equanimity are handled the same way a moment later, equanimity's function given only as "as stated for heedfulness." The treatise reuses a function clause exactly when it wants to signal that two or three factors are functionally one operation wearing different names.
Diligence gets the fullest gloss of the eleven — armed readiness, applied effort, freedom from timidity, refusal to turn back, and, last, freedom from being satisfied too soon (無喜足). That final qualifier is easy to read past and is arguably the sharpest of the five: the danger diligence guards against is not only giving up, but stopping early because some real progress feels like enough. A factor whose whole job is sustained effort names premature satisfaction as one of its own failure modes.
8. Craving and Hatred; Conceit's Seven Forms
云何貪？謂於五取蘊染愛耽著為性。謂此纏縛，輪迴三界。生苦為業。由愛力故，生五取蘊。
云何瞋？謂於群生損害為性。住不安隱及惡行所依為業。不安隱者，謂損害他，自住苦故。
云何慢？慢有七種，謂慢、過慢、過過慢、我慢、增上慢、卑慢、邪慢。云何慢？謂於劣計己勝、或於等計己等，如是心高舉為性。云何過慢？謂於等計己勝、或於勝計己等，如是心高舉為性。云何過過慢？謂於勝計己勝，如是心高舉為性。云何我慢？謂於五取蘊隨計為我或為我所，如是心高舉為性。云何增上慢？謂未得增上殊勝所證之法，謂我已得，如是心高舉為性。增上殊勝所證法者，謂諸聖果及三摩地、三摩鉢底等。於彼未得，謂我已得，而自矜倨。云何卑慢？謂於多分殊勝，計己少分下劣，如是心高舉為性。云何邪慢？謂實無德，計己有德，如是心高舉為性。不生敬重所依為業。謂於尊者及有德者而起倨慠，不生崇重。
What is craving? The nature of defiled attachment and addiction to the five appropriated aggregates. Bound by this, one revolves through the three realms. Its function is to produce suffering — by the power of craving, the five appropriated aggregates are produced.
What is hatred? The nature of harming living beings. Its function is to serve as the basis for an unsettled abiding and for bad conduct. "Unsettled" means that, in harming others, one abides oneself in suffering.
What is conceit? Conceit is of seven kinds: conceit, excessive conceit, conceit exceeding excessive conceit, self-conceit, presumptuous conceit, self-deprecating conceit, and wrongful conceit. What is conceit? The nature of an exalted mind that considers itself superior to an inferior, or equal to an equal. What is excessive conceit? The nature of an exalted mind that considers itself superior to an equal, or equal to a superior. What is conceit exceeding excessive conceit? The nature of an exalted mind that considers itself superior to a superior. What is self-conceit? The nature of an exalted mind that takes the five appropriated aggregates as a self or as belonging to a self. What is presumptuous conceit? The nature of an exalted mind that, not having attained a distinguished and superior realization, considers that it has already attained it. "A distinguished and superior realization" means the noble fruits, concentration, meditative attainments, and the like — not having attained these, one considers oneself to have attained them, and grows conceited over it. What is self-deprecating conceit? The nature of an exalted mind that, measured against what is greatly superior, considers itself only slightly inferior. What is wrongful conceit? The nature of an exalted mind that considers itself to have virtues it genuinely lacks. Its function is to serve as the basis for a failure to feel respect — one grows arrogant and presumptuous toward the venerable and the virtuous, and no reverence arises.
Where Part Two names the third conceit 慢過慢, this treatise writes 過過慢 — "excessive conceit exceeding excessive conceit" rather than "conceit exceeding excessive conceit." The two names describe the identical mental state, claiming superiority over someone genuinely superior to oneself, and we have kept both texts' own wording rather than harmonizing them, following this collection's general practice of preserving each source's own terminology. It is the kind of variant that shows two independent transmissions of the same seven-item scheme rather than a single fixed formula copied everywhere unchanged.
Craving's function clause closes a loop the treatise never states outright but clearly intends: craving is defined as attachment to the five appropriated aggregates, and its function is said to produce the five appropriated aggregates. Attachment to a result becomes the cause of further instances of that same result — which is simply dependent origination compressed into a single mental factor's own definition, craving both feeding on the aggregates and generating more of them to feed on next.
9. Delusion, and Wrong View's Five Forms
云何無明？謂於業、果、諦、寶，無智為性。此有二種：一者俱生、二者分別。又欲界貪瞋及以無明，為三不善根，謂貪不善根、瞋不善根、癡不善根。此復俱生、不俱生、分別所起。俱生者，謂禽獸等。不俱生者，謂貪相應等。分別者，謂諸見相應與虛妄決定。疑煩惱所依為業。
云何見？見有五種，謂薩迦耶見、邊執見、邪見、見取、戒禁取。云何薩迦耶見？謂於五取蘊隨執為我或為我所，染慧為性。薩謂敗壞義，迦耶謂和合積聚義。即於此中見一見常，異蘊有我、蘊為我所等。何故復如是說：謂薩者破常想、迦耶破一想？無常積集，是中無我及我所故。染慧者，謂煩惱俱。一切見品所依為業。
云何邊執見？謂薩迦耶見增上力故，即於所取或執為常、或執為斷，染慧為性。常邊者，謂執我自在，為遍常等。斷邊者，謂執有作者丈夫等，彼死已不復生，如瓶既破更無盛用。障中道出離為業。
云何邪見？謂謗因果、或謗作用、或壞善事，染慧為性。謗因者，因謂業煩惱性，合有五支。煩惱有三種，謂無明、愛、取。業有二種，謂行及有。有者、謂依阿賴耶識諸業種子，此亦名業。如世尊說：「阿難！若業能與未來果，彼亦名有。」如是等，此謗名為謗因。謗果者，果有七支，謂識、名色、六處、觸、受、生、老死，此謗為謗果。或復謗無善行惡行名為謗因，謗無善行惡行果報名為謗果。謗無此世他世、無父無母、無化生眾生，此謗為謗作用。謂從此世往他世作用、種子任持作用、結生相續作用等。謗無世間阿羅漢等，為壞善事。斷善根為業。不善根堅固所依為業。又生不善、不生善為業。
云何見取？謂於三見及所依蘊，隨計為最為上為勝為極，染慧為性。三見者，謂薩迦耶、邊執、邪見。所依蘊者，即彼諸見所依之蘊。業如邪見說。
云何戒禁取？謂於戒禁及所依蘊，隨計為清淨、為解脫、為出離，染慧為性。戒者，謂以惡見為先，離七種惡。禁者，謂牛狗等禁，及自拔髮、執三支杖、僧佉定慧等，此非解脫之因。又計大自在或計世主，及入水火等，此非生天之因。如是等，彼計為因。所依蘊者，謂即戒禁所依之蘊。清淨者，謂即說此無間方便以為清淨。解脫者，謂即以此解脫煩惱。出離者，謂即以此出離生死。是如此義。能與無果唐勞疲苦所依為業。無果唐勞者，謂此不能獲出苦義。
云何疑？謂於諦、寶等，為有為無？猶預為性。不生善法所依為業。諸煩惱中，後三見及疑唯分別起，餘通俱生及分別起。
What is delusion? The nature of ignorance concerning karma, its fruit, the truths, and the Three Jewels. It is of two kinds: innate, and arisen through discrimination. Further, craving and hatred bound to the desire realm, together with delusion, are the three unwholesome roots: the unwholesome root of craving, the unwholesome root of hatred, and the unwholesome root of delusion. These are again innate, not-innate, or arisen through discrimination. Innate means, for example, in beasts and birds. Not-innate means, for example, associated with craving and the rest. Arisen through discrimination means associated with views, and with a false certainty. Its function is to serve as the basis for doubt and the afflictions.
What is wrong view? There are five views: the view of a substantial body, the extremist view, wrong view proper, clinging to views, and clinging to rules and rituals. What is the view of a substantial body? The nature of defiled wisdom that grasps the five appropriated aggregates as a self or as belonging to a self. "Sat" has the sense of what perishes and decays; "kāya" has the sense of what is joined and heaped together. It is within this heap that one sees a unity, sees permanence, sees a self apart from the aggregates, sees the aggregates as belonging to a self, and the like. Why is it explained this way — that "sat" breaks the notion of permanence, and "kāya" breaks the notion of unity? Because what is impermanent and heaped together contains, within it, neither a self nor anything belonging to a self. "Defiled wisdom" means wisdom bound together with the afflictions. Its function is to serve as the basis for every class of view.
What is the extremist view? By the force of the view of a substantial body, grasping what was grasped there as either permanent or as annihilated — the nature of defiled wisdom. The extreme of permanence means grasping the self as sovereign, all-pervading, and eternal, and the like. The extreme of annihilation means grasping that there is an agent, a person, and the like, who, once dead, does not arise again — as a broken jar can no longer hold anything. Its function is to obstruct the middle way and deliverance.
What is wrong view proper? The nature of defiled wisdom that denies cause and effect, or denies function, or destroys what is good. "Denying cause" — cause here means the nature of karma and the afflictions, which together comprise five factors. The afflictions are of three kinds: delusion, craving, and grasping. Karma is of two kinds: formative action and existence. "Existence" refers to the seeds of karma stored in dependence on the ālayavijñāna, which is also called karma — as the World-Honored One said: "Ānanda, if karma is able to give rise to a future fruit, that too is called existence." Denying things of this kind is called denying cause. "Denying effect" — effect has seven factors: consciousness, name-and-form, the six sense fields, contact, feeling, and birth-and-aging-and-death; denying these is denying effect. Or again, denying that there is good and bad conduct is called denying cause, and denying that good and bad conduct have karmic results is called denying effect. Denying that there is this world and another world, denying father and mother, denying beings born spontaneously — this denial is denying function: the function of passing from this world to another, the function of a seed's sustaining power, the function of the continuity of rebirth, and the like. Denying that there are arhats and the like in the world is destroying what is good. Its function is to cut off wholesome roots, to serve as the basis for making unwholesome roots firm, and to give rise to what is unwholesome while preventing what is wholesome from arising.
What is clinging to views? The nature of defiled wisdom that grasps the three views, and the aggregates they depend on, as the foremost, the highest, the supreme, and the ultimate. "The three views" are the view of a substantial body, the extremist view, and wrong view proper. "The aggregates they depend on" are the aggregates on which these views depend. Its function is as stated for wrong view proper.
What is clinging to rules and rituals? The nature of defiled wisdom that grasps rules and rituals, and the aggregates they depend on, as purifying, as liberating, and as leading out. "Rules" means abstaining from the seven kinds of wrongdoing, led by wrong view. "Rituals" means such things as the vows of cattle or dogs, pulling out one's own hair, carrying a three-pronged staff, or the concentration and wisdom of the Sāṃkhya — none of which is truly a cause of liberation. Or again, taking Maheśvara, or the lord of the world, or entering water and fire, and the like, to be a cause of rebirth in heaven, when they are not. All such things are grasped as a cause. "The aggregates they depend on" means the aggregates on which these rules and rituals depend. "Purifying" means holding these very practices, without interval, to be a means of purification. "Liberating" means holding that these very practices liberate one from the afflictions. "Leading out" means holding that these very practices lead one out of birth and death. Such is the sense of it. Its function is to serve as the basis for fruitless exertion and weary suffering — "fruitless exertion" means that this is unable to obtain release from suffering.
What is doubt? The nature of wavering over whether the truths, the Three Jewels, and the like exist or not. Its function is to serve as the basis for wholesome dharmas not arising. Among the afflictions, these last three views and doubt arise only through discrimination; the rest occur both innately and through discrimination.
The etymology of 薩迦耶 (sat-kāya) is the single densest piece of philology in the treatise, and it earns the space it takes. "Sat" carries the sense of what perishes and decays; "kāya" the sense of what is joined and heaped together — and Sthiramati explains that the compound is built specifically to attack the two errors a self-view makes at once: taking something impermanent (the aggregates constantly perishing) as permanent, and taking something composite (a heap of five distinct aggregates) as a single unity. The name of the affliction is itself already an argument against it — anyone who understands what 薩迦耶 literally says has been handed, in the term itself, the two-part refutation of what the term names.
Wrong view proper's definition unpacks into the fullest single passage in this treatise — five causal factors, seven effects, and three separate ways function can be denied — and it is worth noting what all of it targets: not disbelief in general, but specifically the denial of karmic continuity across lives. Every example given, from denying that intentional action bears fruit to denying that beings are reborn spontaneously, is a version of the same single claim: that what one does does not follow one anywhere. The treatise treats this, and not any particular metaphysical error about the external world, as the paradigm case of wrong view.
10. Twenty Definitions, With Function: The Secondary Afflictions
云何為忿？謂依現前不饒益事，心憤為性。能與暴惡執持鞭杖所依為業。
云何為恨？謂忿為先，結怨不捨為性。能與不忍所依為業。
云何為覆？謂於過失隱藏為性，謂藏隱罪故。他正教誨時不能發露，是癡之分。能與追悔、不安隱住所依為業。
云何為惱？謂發暴惡言，陵犯為性。忿恨為先，心起損害。暴惡言者，謂切害麁獷，能與憂苦、不安隱住所依為業。又能發生非福為業、起惡名稱為業。
云何為嫉？謂於他盛事心妬為性。為名利故，於他盛事不堪忍耐，妬忌心生。自住憂苦所依為業。
云何為慳？謂施相違，心悋為性。謂於財等生悋惜故不能惠施，如是為慳。心遍執著利養眾具，是貪之分。與無厭足所依為業。無厭足者，由慳悋故，非所用物猶恒積聚。
云何為誑？謂矯妄於他，詐現不實功德為性。是貪之分。能與邪命所依為業。
云何為諂？謂矯設方便隱己過惡，心曲為性。謂於名利有所計著，是貪癡分。障正教誨為業。復由有罪，不自如實發露歸懺、不任教授。
云何為憍？謂於盛事染著倨傲，能盡為性。盛事者，謂有漏盛事。染著倨傲者，謂於染愛悅豫矜恃，是貪之分。能盡者，謂此能盡諸善根故。
云何為害？謂於眾生損惱為性，是瞋之分。損惱者，謂加鞭杖等。即此所依為業。
云何無慚？謂所作罪不自羞恥為性。一切煩惱及隨煩惱助伴為業。
云何無愧？謂所作罪不羞他為性。業如無慚說。
云何昏沈？謂心不調暢、無所堪任，蒙昧為性，是癡之分。與一切煩惱及隨煩惱所依為業。
云何掉舉？謂隨憶念喜樂等事，心不寂靜為性。應知憶念先所遊戲歡笑等事，心不寂靜，是貪之分。障奢摩他為業。
云何不信？謂信所治，於業果等不正信順，心不清淨為性。能與懈怠所依為業。
云何懈怠？謂精進所治，於諸善品心不勇進為性。能障勤修眾善為業。
云何放逸？謂依貪瞋癡懈怠故，於諸煩惱心不防護、於諸善品不能修習為性。不善增長、善法退失所依為業。
云何失念？謂染污念，於諸善法不能明記為性。染污念者，謂煩惱俱。於善不明記者，謂於正教授不能憶持義。能與散亂所依為業。
云何散亂？謂貪瞋癡分，令心心法流散為性。能障離欲為業。
云何不正知？謂煩惱相應慧，能起不正身語意行為性。違犯律行所依為業。謂於去來等不正觀察故，而不能知應作不應作，致犯律儀。
What is wrath? The nature of a mind enraged, in dependence on some present harm. Its function is to serve as the basis for violent cruelty and taking up whip and rod.
What is resentment? Preceded by wrath, the nature of harboring a grudge without letting go. Its function is to serve as the basis for intolerance.
What is concealment? The nature of hiding one's own faults, concealing one's own wrongdoing. When others rightly instruct and admonish, one is unable to disclose it — this is a facet of delusion. Its function is to serve as the basis for later regret and an unsettled abiding.
What is vexation? The nature of bursting out with harsh, cruel words, and giving offense. Preceded by wrath and resentment, the mind gives rise to harm. "Harsh, cruel words" means words that cut and wound, coarse and rough. Its function is to serve as the basis for distress and an unsettled abiding, and further, to give rise to demerit, and to give rise to a bad reputation.
What is envy? The nature of a mind jealous of another's flourishing. For the sake of fame and gain, one cannot bear another's flourishing, and a jealous mind arises. Its function is to serve as the basis for one's own dwelling in distress.
What is stinginess? The nature of a mind that begrudges giving, opposed to generosity. Begrudging wealth and the rest, one is unable to give — this is stinginess. A mind entirely attached to gain and its requisites, it is a facet of craving. Its function is to serve as the basis for insatiability — being stingy and begrudging, one goes on hoarding things one does not even use.
What is deceit? The nature of falsely presenting unreal virtues to others, feigning and deceiving. It is a facet of craving. Its function is to serve as the basis for a wrong livelihood.
What is flattery? The nature of a crooked mind, devising contrivances to conceal one's own faults and wrongs. Attached to fame and gain, it is a facet of both craving and delusion. Its function is to obstruct correct instruction and admonishment — and further, having done wrong, one is unable to truthfully disclose and confess it, and cannot be taught.
What is arrogance? The nature of being conceited and presumptuous, attached to one's own flourishing, capable of exhausting. "Flourishing" means contaminated flourishing. "Conceited and presumptuous" means delighted, pleased, and self-satisfied through defiled attachment — it is a facet of craving. "Capable of exhausting" means that it is able to exhaust the wholesome roots.
What is harmfulness? The nature of injuring and vexing sentient beings, a facet of hatred. "Injuring and vexing" means inflicting whip and rod, and the like. Its function is simply to serve as the basis for this.
What is lack of shame? The nature of feeling no shame in oneself for a wrong one has done. Its function is to accompany and assist every root and secondary affliction.
What is lack of embarrassment? The nature of feeling no shame before others for a wrong one has done. Its function is as stated for lack of shame.
What is torpor? The nature of a mind unpliant, incapable, and clouded, a facet of delusion. Its function is to serve as the basis for every root and secondary affliction.
What is restlessness? The nature of a mind not still, following after the recollection of joyful and pleasurable things. One should know that recalling past amusements, laughter, and the like, with a mind not still, is a facet of craving. Its function is to obstruct calm abiding.
What is lack of faith? The antidote to which is faith — the nature of a mind not made pure, not rightly trusting and according with karma and its fruit and the rest. Its function is to serve as the basis for laziness.
What is laziness? The antidote to which is diligence — the nature of a mind not boldly advancing in wholesome things. Its function is to obstruct the diligent cultivation of every wholesome thing.
What is heedlessness? The nature of a mind that, in dependence on craving, hatred, delusion, and laziness, fails to guard against the afflictions and is unable to cultivate wholesome things. Its function is to serve as the basis for the growth of what is unwholesome and the decline of wholesome dharmas.
What is forgetfulness? Defiled memory — the nature of being unable to hold wholesome things clearly in mind. "Defiled memory" means memory bound together with the afflictions. "Unable to hold wholesome things clearly in mind" means being unable to retain the sense of correct instruction. Its function is to serve as the basis for distraction.
What is distraction? The nature of a portion of craving, hatred, and delusion that makes mind and mental factors drift and scatter. Its function is to obstruct freedom from desire.
What is incorrect knowledge? The nature of wisdom associated with the afflictions, giving rise to incorrect conduct of body, speech, and mind. Its function is to serve as the basis for violating disciplined conduct — through incorrect observation of one's going and coming and the rest, one fails to know what should and should not be done, and so comes to violate the precepts.
This treatise regularly classifies a secondary affliction as 是貪之分 or 是瞋之分 or 是癡之分 — "a facet of craving," "of hatred," "of delusion" — stinginess, deceit, arrogance, and torpor among craving's facets, harmfulness and restlessness split between hatred and craving, concealment and torpor among delusion's. This is new information Vasubandhu's shorter text never supplies: the twenty secondary afflictions are not twenty independent items standing alongside the three root afflictions, but local elaborations of them, each one a specific way that craving, hatred, or delusion shows up in a particular kind of situation. Twenty names shrink back down to three underlying diseases once this pattern is seen.
Concealment's function clause is the sharpest single insight of this stretch: 能與追悔、不安隱住所依為業, its function is to serve as the basis for later regret and an unsettled abiding. Hiding a fault does not simply postpone the reckoning; the treatise says it manufactures its own new suffering — the specific unease of carrying something undisclosed — on top of whatever the original wrongdoing already cost. The secondary affliction does not just fail to solve the problem it was employed against; it adds a second problem of its own.
11. Four Definitions, With Function: Regret, Sleep, and Discursive Thought
云何惡作？謂心變悔為性。謂惡所作，故名惡作。此惡作體非即變悔，由先惡所作，後起追悔故。此即以果從因為目，故名惡作。譬如六觸處說為先業。此有二位，謂善、不善。於二位中復各有二。若善位中，先不作善，後起悔心，彼因是善，悔亦是善。若先作惡，後起悔心，彼因不善，悔即是善。若不善位，先不作惡，後起悔心，彼因不善，悔亦不善。若先作善，後起悔心，彼因是善，悔是不善。
云何睡眠？謂不自在轉，昧略為性。不自在者，謂令心等不自在轉，是癡之分。又此自性不自在故，令心心法極成昧略。此善、不善及無記性。能與過失所依為業。
云何尋？謂思慧差別，意言尋求，令心麁相分別為性。意言者，謂是意識，是中或依思、或依慧而起。分別麁相者，謂尋求瓶衣車乘等之麁相。樂觸苦觸等所依為業。
云何伺？謂思慧差別，意言伺察，令心細相分別為性。細相者，謂於瓶衣等分別細相成不成等差別之義。
What is regret? The nature of a mind that turns back on itself in remorse. It is called "regret" — literally, "bad-doing" — because the doing was bad. But the substance of regret is not identical to remorse itself; it is because something bad was done earlier that remorse arises afterward. This names the effect after its cause, and so it is called "regret" — just as the six sense-contacts are spoken of in terms of prior karma. It has two positions, wholesome and unwholesome, and within each of these two there are again two. In the wholesome position: if one first fails to do something good and afterward feels remorse, the cause was wholesome and the remorse is also wholesome; if one first does something bad and afterward feels remorse, the cause was unwholesome and the remorse is wholesome. In the unwholesome position: if one first fails to do something bad and afterward feels remorse, the cause was unwholesome and the remorse is also unwholesome; if one first does something good and afterward feels remorse, the cause was wholesome and the remorse is unwholesome.
What is sleep? The nature of turning without mastery of oneself, dim and contracted. "Without mastery" means that mind and the rest turn without self-mastery — this is a facet of delusion. And because this very nature is without mastery of itself, it makes mind and mental factors utterly dim and contracted. It may be wholesome, unwholesome, or indeterminate in nature. Its function is to serve as the basis for faults.
What is coarse discursive thought? A distinct working of volition and wisdom, searching through mental speech, the nature of discriminating the coarse mark of the mind's object. "Mental speech" refers to mental consciousness, which here arises in dependence on either volition or wisdom. "Discriminating the coarse mark" means searching for the coarse mark of such things as a jar, clothing, or a cart. Its function is to serve as the basis for pleasant and painful contact.
What is subtle discursive thought? A distinct working of volition and wisdom, examining through mental speech, the nature of discriminating the fine mark of the mind's object. "The fine mark" means discriminating, with respect to a jar, clothing, and the like, the finer distinctions such as whether it is finished or unfinished.
Regret receives the treatise's single most elaborate moral analysis — a two-by-two table covering every combination of a good or bad deed followed by remorse over it. The result is genuinely counterintuitive on first pass: remorse over a bad deed already done is wholesome, but so is failing to feel remorse over a good deed not done — no, more precisely, feeling remorse over a good deed not done is also wholesome, because the remorse tracks the value of the missed good, not the bad feeling itself. The upshot the table is built to establish is that "regret" names a bare mental operation — the mind turning back on some prior action — that borrows its own moral quality entirely from what it turns back on, and carries no fixed moral charge of its own.
The same naming-effect-for-cause principle from the earlier discussion of "cold" is invoked again here by name — 此即以果從因為目 — and Sthiramati even supplies a cross-reference, 譬如六觸處說為先業, comparing this to how the six sense-contacts are conventionally spoken of by reference to prior karma. Twice in one treatise, a term that looks morally or physically loaded on its surface turns out, on inspection, to be doing something more modest: labeling a present state by pointing back at whatever produced it.
12. Formations Dissociated from Mind, and the Aggregate of Consciousness
云何心不相應行？謂依色心等分位假立，謂此與彼不可施設異不異性。此復云何？謂得、無想定、滅盡定、無想天、命根、眾同分、生、老、住、無常、名身、句身、文身、異生性如是等。
云何得？謂若獲、若成就。此復三種，謂種子成就、自在成就、現起成就，如其所應。
云何無想定？謂離遍淨染、未離上染，以出離想作意為先，所有不恒行心心法滅為性。
云何滅盡定？謂已離無所有處染，從第一有更起勝進，暫止息想作意為先，所有不恒行及恒行一分心心法滅為性。不恒行，謂六轉識。恒行，謂攝藏識及染污意。是中六轉識品及染污意滅，是滅盡定。
云何無想天？謂無想定所得之果。生彼天已，所有不恒行心心法滅為性。
云何命根？謂於眾同分先業所引住時分限為性。
云何眾同分？謂諸群生各各自類相似為性。
云何生？謂於眾同分所有諸行本無今有為性。
云何老？謂彼諸行相續變壞為性。
云何住。謂彼諸行相續隨轉為性。
云何無常？謂彼諸行相續謝滅為性。
云何名身？謂於諸法自性增語為性，如說眼等。
云何句身？謂於諸法差別增語為性，如說諸行無常等。
云何文身？謂即諸字，此能表了前二性故。亦名顯，謂名句所依顯了義故。亦名字，謂無異轉故。前二性者，謂詮自性及以差別。顯謂顯了。
云何異生性？謂於聖法不得為性。
云何識蘊？謂於所緣了別為性。亦名心，能採集故。亦名意，意所攝故。若最勝心，即阿賴耶識，此能採集諸行種子故。又此行相不可分別，前後一類相續轉故。又由此識從滅盡定、無想定、無想天起者，了別境界轉識復生，待所緣緣差別轉故，數數間斷還復生起。又令生死流轉迴還故。阿賴耶識者，謂能攝藏一切種子，又能攝藏我慢相故，又復緣身為境界故。又此亦名阿陀那識，執持身故。最勝意者，謂緣藏識為境之識，恒與我癡、我見、我慢、我愛相應，前後一類相續隨轉，除阿羅漢聖道、滅定現在前位。如是六轉識及染污意、阿賴耶識，此八名識蘊。
What are formations dissociated from mind? Provisional constructs established on the basis of positions taken by form, mind, and the rest — such that this and that cannot be posited as either other or not other. What are they? Possession, the attainment of no-thought, the attainment of cessation, the heaven of no-thought, the life faculty, class-commonality, birth, aging, abiding, impermanence, word-groups, phrase-groups, syllable-groups, the state of an ordinary being, and the like.
What is possession? Acquisition, or attainment. It is again of three kinds: attainment as seed, attainment as mastery, and attainment as presently arisen, as is appropriate in each case.
What is the attainment of no-thought? One who has become free of defilement toward the sphere of universal purity but not yet free of defilement toward what lies above — preceded by an attention set on the notion of release, the nature of the cessation of all the mind and mental factors that are not constantly present.
What is the attainment of cessation? One who has become free of defilement toward the sphere of nothingness and, going beyond even the summit of existence, rises to further advancement — preceded by an attention set on the notion of temporary stilling, the nature of the cessation of all the mind and mental factors that are not constantly present, together with a portion of those that are constantly present. "Not constantly present" means the six evolving consciousnesses. "Constantly present" means the storehouse consciousness and the defiled intent. Here, the cessation of the class of the six evolving consciousnesses, together with the defiled intent, is the attainment of cessation.
What is the heaven of no-thought? The fruit obtained through the attainment of no-thought. Once born in that heaven, the nature of the cessation of all the mind and mental factors that are not constantly present.
What is the life faculty? The nature of a determined span of abiding, drawn forth by prior karma, within one's class-commonality.
What is class-commonality? The nature of resemblance, each according to its own kind, among the multitude of living beings.
What is birth? The nature by which, within a class-commonality, formations that were formerly absent now come to be. What is aging? The nature of the continuous alteration and decay of these formations. What is abiding? The nature of the continuous carrying-on of these formations. What is impermanence? The nature of the continuous passing away of these formations.
What are word-groups? The nature of the terms that designate the own-nature of things, as when one speaks of "the eye" and the like. What are phrase-groups? The nature of the terms that designate the differentiation of things, as when one speaks of "all formations are impermanent" and the like. What are syllable-groups? The letters themselves, since they are able to make manifest the previous two natures. They are also called "the manifesting," since words and phrases depend on them to become clear in meaning. They are also called "letters," since they do not turn into anything else. "The previous two natures" are the expression of own-nature and of differentiation. "Manifesting" means making clear.
What is the state of an ordinary being? The nature of not having attained the noble dharmas.
What is the aggregate of consciousness? The nature of discerning the object taken as condition. It is also called mind, since it is able to gather; also called intent, since it is included within intent. The supreme mind is the ālayavijñāna, since it is able to gather the seeds of all formations. Further, its aspect and its object cannot be discriminated; it is a single kind, continuing on before and after without break. And it is because of this consciousness that, when one arises from the attainment of cessation, the attainment of no-thought, or the heaven of no-thought, the consciousness that discerns objects — the evolving consciousness — arises once more, since it turns according to differences in the objective condition, and arises again after repeated interruption. It further makes the flow of birth and death revolve. The ālayavijñāna is so called because it is able to store and gather all seeds, because it is able to store and gather the mark of self-conceit, and because it further takes the body as its object. It is also called the ādāna-consciousness, since it holds the body together. The supreme intent is the consciousness that takes the storehouse consciousness as its object and is constantly associated with self-delusion, self-view, self-conceit, and self-love, continuing on before and after as a single kind — except at the stage of an arhat, of the noble path, or when the attainment of cessation is presently manifest. Thus the six evolving consciousnesses, together with the defiled intent and the ālayavijñāna — these eight are named the aggregate of consciousness.
This treatise names the fruit of the no-thought attainment 無想天, "the heaven of no-thought" — a third name for the same referent that the Hundred Dharmas Treatise calls 無想報 and the Five Aggregates Treatise calls 無想所有. All three name the identical fact — that mistaking the temporary absence of mind for liberation is itself a karmic cause, and its fruit is rebirth in a specific heaven where mind stays absent for a very long time. Three independent digests of the same material, none copying the other's wording, is exactly the texture this collection has flagged from Part One onward.
The closing line of this section — 如是六轉識及染污意、阿賴耶識，此八名識蘊, "these eight are named the aggregate of consciousness" — is a small addition with real consequence. Vasubandhu's shorter text ends its own account of the ālayavijñāna without this explicit tally; Sthiramati adds it, making unmistakable that "the aggregate of consciousness," the fifth and last of the five aggregates a beginner learns on the very first page of this collection, was never simply "the six senses' awareness." It was eight consciousnesses all along, six of them interruptible and two of them — manas and the ālaya — never actually absent.
13. Why "Aggregate"? The Twelve Sense Fields and the Unconditioned
問：蘊為何義？答：積聚是蘊義。謂世間相續品類趣處差別色等總略攝故。如世尊說：「比丘！所有色，若過去、若未來、若現在，若內若外、若麁若細、若勝若劣、若近若遠，如是總攝為一色蘊。」
復有十二處，謂眼處、色處，耳處、聲處，鼻處、香處，舌處、味處，身處、觸處，意處、法處。眼等五處及色聲香味處，如前已釋。觸處謂諸大種及一分觸。意處即是識蘊。法處謂受想行蘊并無表色等及諸無為。
云何無為？謂虛空無為、非擇滅無為、擇滅無為及真如等。虛空者，謂容受諸色。非擇滅者，謂若滅非離繫。云何非離繫？謂離煩惱對治，諸蘊畢竟不生。云何擇滅？謂若滅是離繫。云何離繫？謂煩惱對治，諸蘊畢竟不生。云何真如？謂諸法法性法無我性。
Question: What is the meaning of "aggregate"? Answer: A heaping together is the meaning of "aggregate" — since form and the rest, across the continuity of the world, its kinds, destinies, and places, are all gathered up together in brief under this one term. As the World-Honored One said: "Monks, all form — whether past, future, or present; whether internal or external; whether coarse or fine; whether superior or inferior; whether far or near — all of this is gathered together as a single aggregate of form."
There are further the twelve sense fields: the eye field and the form field, the ear field and the sound field, the nose field and the smell field, the tongue field and the taste field, the body field and the tangible field, the mental field and the dharma field. The five fields of eye and the rest, together with the fields of form, sound, smell, and taste, have already been explained above. The tangible field is the great elements together with part of the tangible. The mental field is simply the aggregate of consciousness. The dharma field is the aggregates of feeling, perception, and formations, together with non-informative form and the like, and the unconditioned.
What is the unconditioned? Space, cessation not through discrimination, cessation through discrimination, and suchness. Space is whatever accommodates form. Cessation not through discrimination is a cessation that is not freedom from bondage. What is "not freedom from bondage"? It means that, apart from the antidote to the afflictions, the aggregates finally do not arise. What is cessation through discrimination? A cessation that is freedom from bondage. What is "freedom from bondage"? It means that, through the antidote to the afflictions, the aggregates finally do not arise. What is suchness? The nature of dharmas as they are, the selflessness of things.
The scriptural citation on "aggregate" is the treatise's only direct quotation of the Buddha's own words, and it is worth noticing what work it does: the seven pairs — past or future or present, internal or external, coarse or fine, superior or inferior, far or near — cover every axis along which two instances of form could possibly differ, and the citation's claim is that no matter how they differ, they are still gathered as a single aggregate. This is the scriptural warrant behind the whole hundred-dharmas project: a name like "form" was never meant to pick out one uniform thing, only to gather a genuinely various heap under one convenient label.
14. Why "Sense Field"? The Eighteen Elements, and Why Any of This Is Taught
問：處為何義？答：諸識生長門是處義。
復有十八界，謂眼界、色界、眼識界，耳界、聲界、耳識界，鼻界、香界、鼻識界，舌界、味界、舌識界，身界、觸界、身識界，意界、法界、意識界。眼等諸界及色等諸界，如處中說。六識界者，謂依眼等根、緣色等境，了別為性。意界者，即彼無間滅等，為顯第六識依止及廣建立十八界故。如是色蘊即十處十界及法處法界一分，識蘊即意處及七心界，餘三蘊及色蘊一分并諸無為即法處法界。
問：界為何義？答：任持無作用性自相是界義。
問：以何義故說蘊界處等？答：對治三種我執故，所謂一性我執、受者我執、作者我執，如其次第。
Question: What is the meaning of "sense field"? Answer: The gateway through which the consciousnesses are generated and grow — that is the meaning of "sense field."
There are further the eighteen elements: the eye element, the form element, the eye-consciousness element; the ear element, the sound element, the ear-consciousness element; the nose element, the smell element, the nose-consciousness element; the tongue element, the taste element, the tongue-consciousness element; the body element, the tangible element, the body-consciousness element; the mental element, the dharma element, the mental-consciousness element. The elements of eye and the rest, and the elements of form and the rest, are as stated among the sense fields. The six consciousness-elements are the nature of discerning, in dependence on the faculties of eye and the rest, the objects of form and the rest. The mental element is that very same consciousness immediately upon its ceasing — spoken of in order to display the basis of the sixth consciousness, and in order to fully establish the eighteen elements. Thus the aggregate of form is the ten fields and ten elements, together with a part of the dharma field and dharma element; the aggregate of consciousness is the mental field and the seven mental elements; and the remaining three aggregates, together with a part of the aggregate of form, and all of the unconditioned, are the dharma field and dharma element.
Question: What is the meaning of "element"? Answer: Bearing and holding a particular character that is without activity of its own — that is the meaning of "element."
Question: For what reason is the teaching of the aggregates, elements, sense fields, and the rest given? Answer: In order to counteract three kinds of grasping at a self — in their order, grasping at a self as a single unity, grasping at a self as an experiencer, and grasping at a self as an agent.
This closing exchange is nearly word for word what Part Two already gave, and the agreement is itself informative: unlike almost every other passage in this treatise, Sthiramati adds nothing further here. The three self-graspings — as a unity, as an experiencer, as an agent — apparently needed no further gloss to be considered complete, even by a commentator who has just spent five thousand characters expanding everything else in sight. Whatever the reason, this is the treatise's own signal that this particular explanation was already, in Vasubandhu's four words per item, as clear as it needed to be.
15. The Eighteen Elements, Classified Nineteen Ways
復次此十八界幾有色？謂十界、一少分，即色蘊自性。幾無色？謂所餘界。幾有見？謂一色界。幾無見？謂所餘界。幾有對？謂十色界，若彼於此有所礙故。幾無對？謂所餘界。幾有漏？謂十五界及後三少分，謂於是處煩惱起故、現所行處故。幾無漏？謂後三少分。幾欲界繫？謂一切。幾色界繫？謂十四，除香味及鼻舌識。幾無色界繫？謂後三。幾不繫？謂即彼無漏。幾蘊所攝？謂除無為。幾取蘊所攝？謂有漏。幾善、幾不善、幾無記？謂十通三性，七心界、色、聲及法界一分；八無記性。幾是內？謂十二，除色、聲、香、味、觸及法界。幾是外？謂所餘六。幾有緣？謂七心界及法界少分心所法性。幾無緣？謂餘十及法界少分。幾有分別？謂意識界、意界及法界少分。幾有執受？謂五內界，及四界少分，謂色、香、味觸。幾非執受？謂餘九及四少分。幾同分？謂五內有色界，與彼自識等境界故。幾彼同分？謂彼自識空時與自類等故。
Next, of these eighteen elements, how many have form? Ten elements, and a part of one more — this is the own-nature of the aggregate of form. How many are formless? The remaining elements. How many are visible? One, the form element. How many are invisible? The remaining elements. How many are resistant? The ten form elements — since something is obstructed by them where they are. How many are non-resistant? The remaining elements.
How many are contaminated? Fifteen elements, and part of the last three — since it is in these that the afflictions arise, and these are their present sphere of operation. How many are uncontaminated? Part of the last three. How many are bound to the desire realm? All of them. How many are bound to the form realm? Fourteen — excepting smell, taste, and the nose- and tongue-consciousnesses. How many are bound to the formless realm? The last three. How many are unbound? Simply that same uncontaminated part.
How many are included among the aggregates? All except the unconditioned. How many are included among the appropriated aggregates? Those that are contaminated. How many are wholesome, how many unwholesome, how many indeterminate? Ten pass through all three natures — the seven mental elements, and part of the elements of form, sound, and dharma; eight are of an indeterminate nature. How many are internal? Twelve — excepting form, sound, smell, taste, the tangible, and the dharma element. How many are external? The remaining six.
How many take an object? The seven mental elements, and the mental factors that are part of the dharma element. How many take no object? The remaining ten, and the rest of the dharma element. How many involve discrimination? The mental-consciousness element, the mental element, and part of the dharma element. How many are appropriated? The five internal elements, and part of four elements — form, smell, taste, and the tangible. How many are not appropriated? The remaining nine, and part of those four. How many are of similar class? The five internal elements that have form, since they share an equal domain with their own consciousness. How many are of that same class? Those same elements, at a time when their own consciousness is absent, since they remain on a par with their own kind.
This closing classification is almost identical to Part Two's, down to individual clauses, and stands as this collection's clearest single proof that Sthiramati's expansion is a genuine commentary on Vasubandhu's text rather than an independent composition that happens to cover the same ground. Where the earlier sections rewrite, add etymologies, and supply citations, this technical, formulaic list — the kind of material that admits no elaboration because it is already maximally compressed — is simply carried over with almost no change at all. A commentator's freedom shows up precisely where a text has room for it, and vanishes exactly where it does not.
Collection Complete
This closes the Hundred Dharmas collection: three texts, one taxonomy, read at three different depths. Part One gave the bare skeleton — five categories, a hundred names, no definitions — in the sole service of proving that a self is nowhere on the list. Part Two supplied every definition Part One withheld, reorganized under the older frame of the five aggregates. And this page has supplied what Part Two itself withheld — the etymologies, the functions, the citations, and the worked examples that turn a list of definitions into something closer to an actual explanation. Read start to finish, the three texts are not three different doctrines but one doctrine examined at three successively finer grains, ending exactly where it began: form, feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness, and nowhere among them, a self.