The Fruit of Relinquishment: Non-Abiding Nirvāṇa
Part Nine covered the third higher training, wisdom; Part Ten covers the first of its two fruits — relinquishment itself, which the treatise identifies as non-abiding nirvāṇa. This short part defines exactly what is given up and what is kept in that relinquishment, then works through six kinds of "transformation of the basis" (轉依) that track a being's entire trajectory from ordinary confusion to a bodhisattva's full, unconfined realization.
Translation Method
As in Parts 1 through 9, the Chinese source is Xuánzàng's translation of Asaṅga's root text (T1594), read with Vasubandhu's commentary (T1597), also translated by Xuánzàng. "Non-abiding nirvāṇa" and "transformation of the basis" are kept consistent with the site's Cheng Weishi Lun pages. See also this site's note on translation method.
1. What Is the Fruit of Relinquishment? Non-Abiding Nirvāṇa Defined
如是已說增上慧殊勝，彼果斷殊勝云何可見？斷謂菩薩無住涅槃，以捨雜染不捨生死二所依止轉依為相。此中生死，謂依他起性雜染分；涅槃謂依他起性清淨分：二所依止謂通二分依他起性。轉依，謂即依他起性對治起時，轉捨雜染分，轉得清淨分。
Having thus spoken of the excellence of the higher training in wisdom, how may the excellence of its fruit of relinquishment be seen? Relinquishment refers to a bodhisattva's non-abiding nirvāṇa, characterized by the transformation of the basis that relinquishes defilement without relinquishing saṃsāra — the basis that underlies both. Here, saṃsāra is the defiled portion of the dependent nature; nirvāṇa is the purified portion of the dependent nature; and the basis underlying both is simply the dependent nature that runs through both portions at once. The transformation of the basis is precisely this: when the antidote arises within the dependent nature itself, its defiled portion is relinquished, and its purified portion is thereby attained.
This definition draws directly on the three-natures framework from Part 3 to solve a problem that could otherwise sound paradoxical: how can a bodhisattva relinquish saṃsāra's defilement while never actually leaving saṃsāra itself, the way a śrāvaka's final nirvāṇa does? The answer is that saṃsāra and nirvāṇa are not two separate places to move between, but two portions of one and the same dependent nature — exactly as Part 3 established that the discriminated and perfectly accomplished natures are simply two aspects of a single underlying flow, not two different things. "Transformation of the basis" names the shift from one portion being dominant to the other: nothing is relocated, but what the dependent nature now expresses has fundamentally changed. This is why non-abiding nirvāṇa can genuinely relinquish defilement without needing to abandon the very stream of conditioned life that a bodhisattva's compassion requires staying within.
2. Six Kinds of Transformation of the Basis
又此轉依，略有六種：一、損力益能轉，謂由勝解力聞熏習住故，及由有羞恥令諸煩惱少分現行、不現行故。二、通達轉，謂諸菩薩已入大地，於真實非真實、顯現不顯現現前住故，乃至六地。三、修習轉，謂猶有障，一切相不顯現，真實顯現故，乃至十地。
This transformation of the basis, briefly, is of six kinds. First, the transformation that weakens what obstructs and strengthens what is capable: through the power of resolute conviction, sustained by hearing-habituation, and through a genuine sense of shame that causes the afflictions to manifest only slightly, or not manifest at all. Second, the transformation of penetration: bodhisattvas who have already entered the great grounds directly dwell in the presence of both the real and the unreal, the manifest and the unmanifest, continuing through the sixth ground. Third, the transformation of cultivation: though obstruction still remains, every characteristic-bound appearance no longer manifests, and the real alone manifests, continuing through the tenth ground.
四、果圓滿轉，謂永無障，一切相不顯現，最清淨真實顯現，於一切相得自在故。五、下劣轉，謂聲聞等唯能通達補特伽羅空無我性，一向背生死一向捨生死故。六、廣大轉，謂諸菩薩兼通達法空無我性，即於生死見為寂靜，雖斷雜染而不捨故。
Fourth, the transformation of the fruit's full completion: forever free of obstruction, every characteristic-bound appearance no longer manifests, and the utterly pure, real alone manifests, with complete mastery over every characteristic. Fifth, the lesser transformation: śrāvakas and the like, able to penetrate only the emptiness and selflessness of the person, turn wholly away from saṃsāra, wholly relinquishing it. Sixth, the vast transformation: bodhisattvas, who penetrate the emptiness and selflessness of dharmas as well, see saṃsāra itself as quiescent — and though they relinquish defilement, they do not relinquish saṃsāra.
The first four kinds trace one continuous trajectory through time, and Vasubandhu is explicit about mapping them onto the path structure developed across the whole treatise: the first belongs to the stage of resolute conduct described in Part 4, where the afflictions are merely weakened through conviction and a healthy sense of shame, not yet actually cut off. The second belongs to entry into the grounds — the path of seeing — through the sixth ground, where reality and unreality are directly, if still partially, witnessed. The third belongs to the path of cultivation from the seventh through the tenth ground, where characteristic-bound appearances have finally stopped manifesting even though the subtlest obstruction, the cognitive obstruction, has not yet been fully removed. And the fourth is buddhahood itself, where every obstruction, without exception, is gone. The fifth and sixth kinds then step outside that single trajectory to compare two different destinations entirely: a śrāvaka's transformation only ever penetrates personal selflessness and therefore turns away from saṃsāra completely, while a bodhisattva's transformation — penetrating the selflessness of dharmas as well, exactly as Part 3 explained — sees saṃsāra itself as already quiescent, and so has no need to flee it in order to be free of its defilement.
3. The Fault of the Lesser Path; the Merit of the Vast One
若諸菩薩住下劣轉有何過失？不顧一切有情利益安樂事故，違越一切菩薩法故，與下劣乘同解脫故，是為過失。若諸菩薩住廣大轉有何功德？生死法中以自轉依為所依止得自在故；於一切趣示現一切有情之身，於最勝生及三乘中，種種調伏方便善巧安立所化諸有情故，是為功德。
If a bodhisattva were to abide in the lesser transformation, what fault would this be? It would mean disregarding the benefit and happiness of all sentient beings, violating every bodhisattva practice, and sharing the same liberation as the lesser vehicle — these are the faults. If a bodhisattva abides in the vast transformation, what merit is this? Within the very dharmas of birth and death, gaining mastery through one's own transformation of the basis as support; manifesting, in every destiny, a body matching each kind of sentient being; and, through manifold skillful means of taming beings across excellent rebirths and all three vehicles, establishing those to be transformed — these are the merits.
This section makes explicit why the choice between the fifth and sixth kinds of transformation matters so much for a bodhisattva specifically: it is not that the lesser transformation is wrong in itself — it is a genuine, valid liberation for those who seek it — but that a bodhisattva who settled for it would be failing the very vow that defines a bodhisattva in the first place, abandoning concern for other beings in favor of personal escape. The vast transformation's merit, by contrast, is precisely its ability to remain fully engaged: mastery within saṃsāra rather than exit from it, meaning a bodhisattva can appear in a form matching whatever realm and whatever kind of being needs to be reached, using skillful means fitted to that being's own capacity, across ordinary excellent rebirths and all three vehicles alike.
4. Four Verses on the Transformation of the Basis
此中有多頌：
「諸凡夫覆真， 一向顯虛妄；
諸菩薩捨妄， 一向顯真實。
應知顯不顯， 真義非真義，
轉依即解脫， 隨欲自在行。
於生死涅槃， 若起平等智，
爾時由此證， 生死即涅槃。
由是於生死， 非捨非不捨；
亦即於涅槃， 非得非不得。」
Here there are several verses:
"Ordinary beings cover over the real, wholly manifesting only the false;
bodhisattvas relinquish the false, wholly manifesting the real.
It should be understood: what manifests and what does not, the real meaning and the unreal meaning —
the transformation of the basis is itself liberation, proceeding with mastery according to one's own wish.
Toward saṃsāra and nirvāṇa, once equalizing wisdom arises,
at that very moment, through this realization, saṃsāra is itself nirvāṇa.
For this reason, toward saṃsāra, there is neither relinquishing nor not relinquishing;
and toward nirvāṇa, likewise, there is neither attaining nor not attaining."
Vasubandhu reads the first verse as a direct, symmetrical contrast: an ordinary being's ignorance covers over what is real and lets only the false, discriminated appearance show through, while a bodhisattva's realization simply reverses this, letting the real show through once the false has been relinquished — no third thing is added on either side, only what is allowed to appear changes. The second verse names this very shift "liberation" itself, and adds that, unlike a śrāvaka's liberation — which Vasubandhu elsewhere compares to a decisive, final beheading, a liberation entered once and then simply, permanently abided in — a bodhisattva's liberation proceeds with ongoing mastery, freely, according to their own continuing wish. The third and fourth verses then state the deepest point as plainly as the treatise ever does: once wisdom sees saṃsāra and nirvāṇa as genuinely equal — both being, at bottom, nothing more than the same dependent nature, now manifesting one way, now manifesting another — saṃsāra simply is nirvāṇa in that moment of seeing, which is why there is, in the end, nothing separate to relinquish and nothing separate to attain: only a shift in what the one underlying reality is allowed to show.
Part Ten Complete
This closes Part Ten of Ru-Yi's translation: non-abiding nirvāṇa defined as the transformation of the basis that relinquishes saṃsāra's defilement without relinquishing saṃsāra itself, the six kinds of that transformation tracking a being's whole trajectory from ordinary confusion to full mastery, and the closing verses' identification of saṃsāra and nirvāṇa as, in the end, one reality seen two ways. Part Eleven, the treatise's final part, turns to the second and last fruit: the wisdom of the fruit, realized as the three bodies of a buddha.
Continue to Part 11 — The Fruit of Wisdom →