The Three Trainings
Twelve analyses of the higher discipline, the higher mind, and the higher wisdom. The first takes the canonical description of a monk of good conduct and unpacks every clause of it — what deportment means, which five households are off limits, and what it is to see great danger in the smallest fault. The tenth and eleventh turn to meditation: four kinds of yoga, and then the seven attentions by which any meditative level whatever is entered, including a six-part contemplation of what is wrong with desire. The twelfth asks how discipline goes impure and answers with ten causes, one of which — wrong livelihood — is described with a candor that has not dated. The fascicle closes by comparing the three enlightenments across five dimensions.
Where This Fascicle Picks Up
Fascicle 6 worked through the verse naming hearing, refuge, the trainings, and enlightenment, and completed the first two of those — hearing in six ways, refuge in three. This fascicle takes the third and fourth: the trainings in twelve ways, and enlightenment in five.
Classical text is set in the left-hand column below, our English in the right. See also this site's note on translation method, and the note on this treatise's method in fascicle 1.
1. Twelve Ways of Analyzing the Trainings
論曰：學十二種分別者，一差別分別、二生起分別、三轉異分別、四能治所治分別、五能引勝生定勝分別、六順法分別、七補特伽羅分別、八下中上分別、九瑜伽分別、十作意分別、十一引發分別、十二問答分別。
差別分別者，謂分別三學差別。增上戒學差別者，如經中說：若諸比丘尸羅成就住，守別解脫律儀，軌則所行悉皆具足，於微細罪深見怖畏，受學學處，名具戒者。
此中尸羅成就住者，謂於所受學處，身業無犯、語業無犯，不破不穴，如是尸羅成就住。
守別解脫律儀者，謂七眾尸羅名別解脫律儀。即此尸羅眾差別故，建立多種律儀。此中義者，唯依比丘律儀相說。是名守別解脫律儀。
The exposition: the trainings are analyzed in twelve ways — by difference; by arising; by variation; by counteragent and what is counteracted; by what leads to a superior birth and to certain excellence; by the states that accord with them; by persons; by lesser, middling, and greater; by yoga; by attention; by what they draw forth; and by question and answer.
Analysis by difference distinguishes the three trainings. As to the higher training in discipline, the scripture says: "If a monk abides accomplished in moral discipline, guarding the prātimokṣa restraint, complete in deportment and in the sphere of his conduct, seeing great danger in the smallest fault, and undertaking the training rules — he is called one possessed of discipline."
Abides accomplished in moral discipline: with respect to the training rules he has undertaken, his bodily action is without transgression and his verbal action is without transgression, unbroken and unpierced.
Guarding the prātimokṣa restraint: the moral discipline of the seven communities is called the prātimokṣa restraint, and because those communities differ, many kinds of restraint are established. The sense here is stated only with reference to the monk's restraint.
The whole of the first analysis is an exercise in reading one canonical sentence very slowly. The sentence is the standard description of a monk of good conduct, familiar from countless discourses, and Asaṅga treats each of its five clauses as carrying distinct content rather than as pious repetition. The method is the same one fascicle 2 applied to the formula for the first absorption.
The phrase 不破不穴 — unbroken and unpierced — is the traditional image for intact discipline: a vessel that neither has a piece broken off nor a hole worn through it. The distinction matters in the Vinaya, where a grave offence breaks the vessel and a pattern of small ones wears it through.
2. Deportment: Three Places It Must Hold
What "complete in deportment" actually requires, worked out for the three domains in which a monk is observed — his bearing, his daily tasks, and his practice.
軌則具足者，謂或於威儀、或於所作、或於方便修善品中軌則具足，隨順世間、不違世間，隨順毘柰耶、不違毘柰耶。
云何於威儀中軌則具足隨順不違世間及毘柰耶？謂若是時是處應行，及如是應行，即於是時是處如是正行，不為世間訶責譏毀，及不為聰慧正至善人、同法者、持律者、學律者訶責譏毀。如行，住坐臥亦如是知。
云何於所作中軌則具足隨順不違世間及毘柰耶？謂著衣服、大小便利、用水齒木、入村乞食、迴還受用、洗鉢安置、洗足敷具。又復略作鉢業衣業，及餘所有如法作業，是名所作。如其所應，若是時是處應作，及如是應作，即於是時是處如是正作，不為世間訶責譏毀，及不為聰慧正至善人、同法者、持律者、學律者訶責譏毀，是名於所作中軌則具足隨順不違世間及毘柰耶。
Complete in deportment: complete in deportment with respect to bearing, to his tasks, or to the means by which he cultivates the wholesome — according with the world and not violating it, according with the Vinaya and not violating it.
What is completeness of deportment in bearing, according with and not violating the world and the Vinaya? When at a given time and place one should walk, and should walk in a given manner, then at that time and place one walks rightly in that manner, and is not censured or derided by the world, nor censured or derided by the wise, the rightly arrived, and the good, by fellow practitioners, by those who uphold the Vinaya, or by those who study it. As with walking, so with standing, sitting, and lying down.
What is completeness of deportment in his tasks? Putting on robes; relieving himself; using water and a tooth-stick; entering a village for alms; returning and eating; washing and putting away the bowl; washing the feet and spreading out the bedding. And, in brief, work on his bowl and robes, and whatever other work accords with the Dharma — these are his tasks. When at a given time and place a thing should be done, and done in a given manner, then at that time and place he does it rightly in that manner, and is not censured or derided by the world, nor by the wise, the rightly arrived, and the good, by fellow practitioners, by those who uphold the Vinaya, or by those who study it.
云何於方便修善品中軌則具足隨順不違世間及毘奈耶？謂讀誦經典和敬師長，修承事業瞻侍疾患，互起慈心與欲宣說，方便修習請問聽法精勤無墮，於諸聰慧同梵行者躬自供事，獎勸他人修行善品，及為宣說深妙之法，入靜密處結加趺坐。諸如是等及餘善法，是名方便修諸善品。如是於方便修習如所說善品中，若是時是處應修，及如是應修，即於是時是處如是正修。由如是修故，不為世間訶責譏毀，及不為聰慧正至善人、同法者、持律者、學律者訶責譏毀，是名方便修善品中軌則具足隨順不違世間及毘柰耶。若如是相軌則具足，是名軌則具足。
所行具足者，謂五處非比丘所行。何等為五？一唱令家、二婬女家、三酤酒家、四王宮、五旃荼羅羯耻那家；及如來餘所制不應行處。除此餘是所行。如是以時行無過處，是名所行具足。
What is completeness of deportment in the means by which he cultivates the wholesome? Reciting the scriptures; harmonious reverence toward teachers and elders; performing services and attending the sick; giving rise to loving-kindness toward one another and conveying the consent of the absent; cultivating by means, asking questions and listening to the Dharma, diligent and not slack; personally serving wise fellow practitioners of the holy life; encouraging others to cultivate the wholesome, and expounding the profound teaching for them; entering a quiet, secluded place and sitting cross-legged. These and other wholesome states are what is meant by the means of cultivating the wholesome. When at a given time and place such cultivation should be undertaken, and undertaken in a given manner, then at that time and place he cultivates it rightly in that manner; and because he cultivates thus he is not censured or derided by the world, nor by the wise, the rightly arrived, and the good, by fellow practitioners, by those who uphold the Vinaya, or by those who study it. Where deportment has these marks, it is called complete.
Complete in the sphere of his conduct: five places are not the sphere of a monk's conduct. What five? The house of a public crier; the house of a courtesan; the house of a liquor seller; the royal palace; and the house of an outcaste or a butcher — together with the other places the Tathāgata has laid down as not to be frequented. Apart from these, the rest is his sphere. To go about at the right time and without fault of place is to be complete in the sphere of one's conduct.
The recurring test is a double one, and both halves are named every time: not censured by the world, and not censured by the wise and by those who uphold the Vinaya. Neither standard alone suffices. A monk may be blameless by the letter of the code and still give scandal to ordinary people; he may be popular and still be violating the Vinaya. Deportment is defined as the intersection.
The list of tasks is worth reading for what it treats as a matter of deportment: putting on robes, relieving oneself, cleaning one's teeth, washing the bowl, mending robes. And the third domain gives an equally concrete list of what "cultivating the wholesome" consists of — reciting, respecting elders, nursing the sick, carrying an absent monk's formal consent to a meeting, asking questions, serving others, encouraging others, teaching, and then sitting down cross-legged in a quiet place. Formal meditation appears once, at the end of a list of nine items, most of which are about other people.
The five forbidden households are not a moral ranking of the people in them. Four of the five are places where a monk's presence would be misconstrued, and the royal palace is on the list for the same reason as the courtesan's house — proximity to power compromises a mendicant as surely as proximity to scandal. The Vinaya's concern here is what the arrangement looks like, which is exactly the "not censured by the world" half of the test.
3. Great Danger in the Smallest Fault, and Undertaking the Training Rules
於微細罪深見怖畏者，謂犯小隨小學處，犯已可出者，皆名微細罪。復次若犯已少用功出者，名微細罪。若於此中深見怖畏，謂勿令我因此犯故便不堪任得所未得、悟所未悟、證所未證，勿復令我墮於惡趣起惡趣行，勿復令我後自悔責，勿為大師、諸天、聰慧同梵行者以法訶責，又勿令我惡名稱等流布十方。因見如是現法後法不可樂事，深生怖懼，為如是故，於小隨小學處乃至命難因緣終不故犯。設復失念或時犯已，疾疾悔過如法而出。如是名為於微細罪深見怖畏。
Seeing great danger in the smallest fault: transgressions of the minor and lesser training rules, from which one may emerge once they have been committed, are all called small faults; and again, a fault from which one emerges with little effort is called a small fault. To see great danger in these means to think: let me not, through this transgression, become unable to attain what I have not attained, to awaken to what I have not awakened to, to realize what I have not realized; let me not fall into the evil destinies or set going the conduct that leads there; let me not afterward reproach myself; let me not be censured according to the Dharma by the great teacher, by the gods, or by wise fellow practitioners of the holy life; and let no ill repute of mine be spread through the ten directions. Seeing these unwelcome consequences in the present life and hereafter, he generates deep dread; and for that reason he never deliberately transgresses even the minor and lesser training rules, though his life be at stake. And if through a lapse of mindfulness he does transgress, he confesses quickly and emerges from it as the Dharma requires.
受學學處者，謂先受別解脫律儀時，由白四羯磨受具足故，略已得聞學處體性；及於別解脫經所說過一百五十學處唯自誓受，我當盡學一切學處；復從鄔波柁耶、阿遮利耶，及諸共談論者、互問難者、數習近者、善同意者所數數聞已；又半月半月聞說別解脫經。由如是受一切學處故，名得別解脫律儀。從是已後，於諸所善學處無有毀犯，設有毀犯即如法出。若於先所誓受學處不善不達者，應如先所受，復於鄔波柁耶、阿遮利耶等所數數請問聽受令善達解，如尊所說不增不減善修學，已又無倒受持若文若義，如是名為受學學處。
Undertaking the training rules: when he first received the prātimokṣa restraint, because he received full ordination by the motion and three announcements, he had already heard in brief the essential nature of the training rules; and with respect to the more than one hundred and fifty training rules stated in the Prātimokṣa Sūtra he undertook them by his own vow alone — that he would train in all of them completely. And thereafter he heard them again and again from his preceptor and his teacher, from those who discuss with him, question him, keep close company with him, and share his good intentions; and fortnight by fortnight he heard the Prātimokṣa Sūtra recited. Because he thus undertook all the training rules, he is said to have obtained the prātimokṣa restraint. From then on he does not transgress the rules he has well undertaken; and if he does transgress, he emerges from it as the Dharma requires. If there are rules he vowed to keep but has not well understood, he should, in accordance with what he undertook, ask his preceptor and teacher and the rest again and again, receive their instruction, and come to understand it well; then, training well in what the Blessed One taught, neither adding nor subtracting, and holding both the letter and the meaning without inversion — this is what is meant by undertaking the training rules.
The list of dreaded consequences is ordered in a way worth noticing: the first item is not falling into hell but becoming unable to attain what one has not yet attained. The gravest danger in a small fault is that it blocks the path. The evil destinies come second, self-reproach third, censure fourth, and reputation last. The scale runs from what the transgression does to one's practice, outward to what it does to one's standing.
The account of undertaking the rules is notably social. One hears them at ordination, vows them oneself, hears them from preceptor and teacher, from those who argue with one, from close companions, and then every fortnight at the recitation. Six separate channels, most of them conversational. And the instruction for what to do about a rule one does not understand is simply to keep asking — 數數請問, again and again — with the standard for success being 如尊所說不增不減, exactly as the Blessed One taught it, neither adding nor subtracting. Scrupulosity that invents extra rules fails the test as surely as laxity.
4. What the Formula Displays
Having unpacked each clause, Asaṅga now reads the sentence twice over as a whole — first as displaying three marks, then as displaying three modes of discipline.
如是廣說尸羅律儀差別已。若略說彼義者，謂此中薄伽梵以三種相顯了戒蘊，一無失壞相、二自體相、三自體功德相。此中如前所說尸羅成就住者，此顯尸羅律儀無失壞相。次言守別解脫律儀者，此顯自體相。復言軌則所行悉具足者，此顯如所受別解脫律儀觀他增上功德名稱相。何以故？由他見此軌則所行具足相故，未信者信、已信者增長。由未信者依此信故，心無輕毀、無惡名聞。若不爾者，雖具足尸羅，由越軌則所行故，則無觀他增上德稱。若翻於此，則無過失。
後言於微細罪深見怖畏受學學處者，此顯觀自增上功德名稱相。何以故？雖復軌則所行具足故得觀他增上功德名稱，然毀尸羅已，由此因緣，或生惡趣，或不堪任得所未得、悟所未悟、證所未證。若能於微細罪尚見怖畏，何況上品。又受學學處，由此因緣，身壞命終生於善趣，又復堪任得所未得、悟所未悟、證所未證。以是緣故，名尸羅律儀觀自增上功德名稱相。
The differences of the discipline of restraint having thus been expounded at length, their sense in brief is this: here the Blessed One displays the aggregate of discipline by three marks — the mark of its not being lost, the mark of its own substance, and the mark of the good qualities of that substance.
"Abides accomplished in moral discipline" displays the mark of the discipline of restraint not being lost. "Guarding the prātimokṣa restraint" displays the mark of its own substance. "Complete in deportment and in the sphere of his conduct" displays the mark of the surpassing quality and repute of the prātimokṣa restraint as regarded by others. Why? Because when others see this completeness of deportment and sphere of conduct, those without faith gain faith and those with faith increase in it; and because those without faith come thereby to faith, there is no contempt in their minds and no ill repute. Were it otherwise — were one complete in discipline and yet violated deportment and the sphere of conduct — there would be no surpassing quality and repute as regarded by others. Reversing that, there is no fault.
"Seeing great danger in the smallest fault, undertaking the training rules" displays the mark of surpassing quality and repute as regarded by oneself. Why? Because although completeness of deportment and sphere of conduct wins quality and repute as regarded by others, still, once one has broken discipline, one may by that cause be born in an evil destiny, or become unable to attain what one has not attained, to awaken to what one has not awakened to, to realize what one has not realized. If one sees danger even in the smallest fault, how much more in the graver ones. And by undertaking the training rules one is, at the breaking up of the body after death, born in a good destiny, and is moreover able to attain what one has not attained, to awaken to what one has not awakened to, and to realize what one has not realized. For this reason it is called the mark of the discipline of restraint's surpassing quality and repute as regarded by oneself.
復次此中薄伽梵顯三種尸羅性：一受尸羅性、二出離尸羅性、三修習尸羅性。初說尸羅成就住者，此顯受尸羅性。次說守別解脫律儀者，此顯出離尸羅性。何以故？由別解脫律儀所攝尸羅，說名增上戒學。依增上戒學故，能修增上心學及增上慧學。由依此故，能令一切苦永盡出離。如是出離，先依尸羅行然後方得，是故別解脫律儀說為出離尸羅性。後說軌則所行悉皆具足，於微細罪深見怖畏，受學學處者，此顯修習尸羅性。若依如是相修習別解脫律儀尸羅者，是名修習善修習。如是名為增上戒學差別分別。
增上心學差別分別者，若比丘離欲惡不善法，有尋有伺離生喜樂，初靜慮具足住。復尋伺寂靜內遍淨，心一趣性，無尋無伺三摩地生喜樂，第二靜慮具足住。復離喜故住捨念，正知身受樂，聖者宣說有捨念樂住，第三靜慮具足住。復斷樂，先已斷苦及喜憂沒，不苦不樂捨念清淨，第四靜慮具足住。此差別義如前已說，是名增上心學差別分別。
增上慧學差別分別者，若比丘於苦聖諦如實知苦，於集聖諦如實知集，於苦滅聖諦如實知滅，於苦滅趣行聖諦如實知趣行，是名增上慧學差別分別。
Further, the Blessed One here displays three modes of moral discipline: discipline as undertaken, discipline as deliverance, and discipline as cultivated. "Abides accomplished in moral discipline" displays discipline as undertaken. "Guarding the prātimokṣa restraint" displays discipline as deliverance. Why? Because the discipline comprised in the prātimokṣa restraint is called the higher training in discipline; and it is in dependence on the higher training in discipline that one can cultivate the higher training in mind and the higher training in wisdom; and by that one can make all suffering permanently exhausted and be delivered. Such deliverance is obtained only after first relying on the conduct of discipline, and therefore the prātimokṣa restraint is called discipline as deliverance. "Complete in deportment and in the sphere of his conduct, seeing great danger in the smallest fault, undertaking the training rules" displays discipline as cultivated. To cultivate the discipline of the prātimokṣa restraint under these marks is what is called cultivating it well.
The higher training in mind: a monk, secluded from desire and from evil and unwholesome states, with coarse and subtle discursive thought and the joy and pleasure born of seclusion, dwells having fully attained the first absorption; then, coarse and subtle thought being stilled, with inner clarity throughout and the mind single in direction, without coarse or subtle thought, with the joy and pleasure born of concentration, he dwells having fully attained the second; then, becoming free of joy, he abides in equanimity and mindfulness, correctly knowing the pleasure felt in the body, of which the noble ones declare that there is an abiding in equanimity, mindfulness, and pleasure, and dwells having fully attained the third; then, cutting off pleasure, pain having been cut off before and joy and distress having vanished, with neither pain nor pleasure and with equanimity and mindfulness purified, he dwells having fully attained the fourth. The sense of these differences has been stated above.
The higher training in wisdom: a monk knows suffering as it really is with respect to the noble truth of suffering; knows origin as it really is with respect to the noble truth of origin; knows cessation as it really is with respect to the noble truth of the cessation of suffering; and knows the way as it really is with respect to the noble truth of the way leading to the cessation of suffering.
The first reading of the formula makes a distinction that is easy to lose: deportment earns quality and repute as regarded by others, while scrupulosity about small faults earns them as regarded by oneself. And the treatise is explicit that the first can exist without the second. A monk may be impeccable in bearing, admired, and drawing people to faith — and still be breaking discipline in ways that will send him to a bad rebirth and block his practice. The reputation that deportment wins is real and valuable; it is also not evidence.
The second reading names the middle clause "discipline as deliverance," and the argument for the name is the whole logic of the three trainings compressed into three sentences: discipline supports the training in mind, which supports the training in wisdom, which exhausts suffering. Deliverance is not something discipline produces directly; discipline is called deliverance because nothing else gets there without it.
Note how briefly the other two trainings are handled — the four absorptions quoted and referred back to fascicle 2, and the higher wisdom given in a single sentence. The disproportion is the point. Discipline is where a treatise addressed to monks needs to be exact.
5. How the Trainings Arise, Vary, and What Each Counteracts
生起分別者，謂由尸羅成就故無悔，由無悔故生悅，生悅故心喜，心喜故身安，身安故受樂，受樂故心定，心定故觀如實，觀如實故起厭，起厭故離欲，離欲故解脫，解脫故自謂我證解脫，復起如是智見：我生已盡，梵行已立，所作已辦，不受後有。
轉異分別者，謂或有增上戒學，無增上心、無增上慧。或有增上戒學、增上心學，無增上慧。若有增上慧學，必有增上戒及增上心。
能治所治分別者，謂增上戒學是煩惱纏止息對治，增上心學是煩惱纏制伏對治，增上慧學是煩惱隨眠永斷對治。
能引勝生定勝分別者，謂增上戒學、增上心學能引清淨地及清淨勝生，增上慧學能引出世決定勝德。
Analysis by arising: because discipline is accomplished there is no remorse; because there is no remorse, gladness arises; because gladness arises, the mind is joyful; because the mind is joyful, the body is at ease; because the body is at ease, one feels pleasure; because one feels pleasure, the mind is concentrated; because the mind is concentrated, one observes things as they really are; because one so observes, weariness arises; because weariness arises, there is dispassion; because there is dispassion, there is liberation; and because there is liberation, one knows for oneself that liberation has been realized, and there arises this knowledge and vision: birth is exhausted, the holy life has been established, what was to be done has been done, there is no further existence to be undergone.
Analysis by variation: some have the higher training in discipline without the higher training in mind or in wisdom. Some have the higher trainings in discipline and in mind without the higher training in wisdom. But whoever has the higher training in wisdom necessarily has the higher trainings in discipline and in mind as well.
Analysis by counteragent and what is counteracted: the higher training in discipline is the counteragent that stills the entanglements of affliction; the higher training in mind is the counteragent that subdues them; the higher training in wisdom is the counteragent that permanently cuts off the latent tendencies of affliction.
Analysis by what leads to a superior birth and to certain excellence: the higher trainings in discipline and in mind lead to the pure grounds and to a pure superior birth; the higher training in wisdom leads to the transcendent excellence that is certain.
The chain of arising is one of the oldest formulas in the canon, and its first link is the one that carries the argument: discipline produces the absence of remorse, and everything else follows from that. Not merit, not restraint of the senses — the absence of anything to reproach oneself with. Gladness, joy, bodily ease, pleasure, concentration, seeing, weariness, dispassion, liberation: eleven links, and the whole sequence is set going by having nothing on one's conscience. It is the most economical answer the tradition gives to the question of why a meditator should keep precepts.
The analysis by variation states the dependency as a one-way implication. Discipline can exist alone; discipline and concentration can exist without wisdom; but wisdom never occurs without both of the others. This is worth setting beside the account of the two kinds of liberated person in fascicle 3, where one liberated by wisdom lacked the eight liberations — lacking particular meditative attainments is not the same as lacking the training in mind.
The three counteragents are graded precisely: discipline stills the entanglements, concentration subdues them, wisdom permanently cuts off the latent tendencies. Only the third reaches the seeds — the same limit stated for the worldly path in fascicle 2.
6. Ten States That Accord with Training
What has to be in place for training to go well — including a fourfold diagnosis of bodily and mental heaviness matched to four different remedies.
順法分別者，謂十種隨順學法：一先因、二順教、三如理方便、四無間殷重修、五猛利樂欲、六修持力、七身心麁重安息、八數數觀察、九無怯怖、十無增上慢。
先因者，謂先世根熟及根成滿。順教者，謂無倒次第之教。如理方便者，謂如教修行，如是修時能生正見。無間殷重修者，謂如是方便時無空過，修習善品及至誠，速疾引發善品。猛利樂欲者，謂於增上解脫起證樂欲念：我何時證於眾聖具足住處。修持力者，謂二因緣得修持力：一性利根故、二長時純熟修故。
身心麁重安息者，若由身疲倦起身心麁重，則易奪威儀令得安息。若由極尋伺起身心麁重，則內修寂靜令得安息。若由勵意極攝斂心，及沈下心惛沈睡眠纏起身心麁重，則修慧觀及淨勝作意令得安息。若由自性未斷煩惱順煩惱品身心麁重隨逐不離，則正修聖道令得安息。
Analysis by the states that accord: ten states that accord with training — prior cause; teaching that accords; means in accordance with principle; uninterrupted and earnest cultivation; keen aspiration; the power of sustained cultivation; the settling of bodily and mental heaviness; repeated examination; freedom from timidity; and freedom from overestimation.
Prior cause: that in former lives the faculties have ripened and been brought to fullness. Teaching that accords: teaching that is undistorted and in due order. Means in accordance with principle: practicing as taught, so that in so practicing right view arises. Uninterrupted and earnest cultivation: that in so applying oneself no time is spent in vain, and one cultivates the wholesome sincerely, swiftly drawing it forth. Keen aspiration: with respect to the surpassing liberation one gives rise to a wish to realize it, thinking: when shall I realize that place where all the noble ones fully dwell? The power of sustained cultivation: obtained by two causes — that one is by nature of keen faculties, and that one has cultivated over a long time to maturity.
The settling of bodily and mental heaviness: if the heaviness of body and mind arises from bodily fatigue, then changing one's posture settles it. If it arises from excessive discursive thought, then inwardly cultivating stillness settles it. If it arises from straining the intention and over-gathering the mind, or from a sunken mind bound by torpor and sleep, then cultivating the observation of wisdom and a pure and surpassing attention settles it. If it is the heaviness of body and mind that pursues one inseparably because the afflictions and their kindred have not by nature been cut off, then rightly cultivating the noble path settles it.
數數觀察者，謂依尸羅數數觀察，惡作善作如實了知。若於惡作不為不應捨離，若於善作不為則應捨離；若於惡作為之則應捨離，若於善作為之不應捨離。如是觀察作意增上力故數數觀察，一切煩惱已斷未斷，若知已斷應深慶悅，若知未斷數數應修此對治道。
無怯怖者，謂於時時中應知應觀於法，由不知不觀不證入故，生於怯怖，心有萎悴、心有虛乏。如是數數生時，心不執著除斷棄捨。
無增上慢者，謂於所得所悟所證中，離增上慢不顛倒執，於已得中起已得想、於已悟中起已悟想、於已證中起已證想。
如是十法，樂正修行諸學處者，由初中後隨順學處，是故名為隨順學法。此十法中，先因一種，隨順增上戒學最勝；餘之九種，隨順增上心學、增上慧學最勝。
Repeated examination: resting on discipline, one examines again and again, knowing as it really is what is ill done and what is well done. If one has not done what is ill done, that is not to be given up; if one has not done what is well done, that is to be given up. If one has done what is ill done, that is to be given up; if one has done what is well done, that is not to be given up. Through the dominant power of such examining attention one examines again and again which afflictions have been cut off and which have not; and if one knows some have been cut off, one should deeply rejoice, and if one knows some have not, one should again and again cultivate the path that counteracts them.
Freedom from timidity: from time to time one ought to know and observe the Dharma; and because one does not know it, does not observe it, and does not realize entry into it, timidity arises, the mind withers, the mind grows empty and depleted. When this arises repeatedly, the mind does not cling to it, but removes, cuts off, and casts it away.
Freedom from overestimation: with respect to what has been attained, awakened to, and realized, one is free of overestimation and does not grasp things inverted — forming the conception of attainment about what has been attained, of awakening about what has been awakened to, and of realization about what has been realized.
These ten states accord with the training rules at the beginning, in the middle, and at the end for one who delights in rightly practicing them, and are therefore called the states that accord with training. Among the ten, the first — prior cause — accords most excellently with the higher training in discipline; the other nine accord most excellently with the higher trainings in mind and in wisdom.
The fourfold treatment of heaviness is the most practically useful passage in the fascicle, because it refuses a single remedy. Tiredness of the body is met by changing posture — the treatise does not moralize about it. Overthinking is met by cultivating stillness. Straining, and its opposite, the sunken drowsy mind, are met by the observation of wisdom and by a bright object of attention. And the heaviness that will not lift because the afflictions themselves are uncut is met only by the noble path. Four diagnoses, four different responses, and only the last of them requires anything more than adjustment.
The rule under repeated examination is a small logical square that reads awkwardly and means something simple: what should be given up is the doing of what is ill done and the not-doing of what is well done. Its point is that omission is examined on the same footing as commission.
The last two states form a pair that guards the same road from opposite ditches. Timidity is despairing of what one has not reached; overestimation is claiming what one has not reached. And the definition of freedom from overestimation is worth noting for its plainness — it is not humility but accuracy: attainment conceived as attainment, and nothing more.
7. Persons, Grades, and the Four Yogas
補特伽羅分別者，謂此三學通諸異生及見諦者。
下中上品分別者，謂由行故及方便故。由行故者，謂苦遲通行名下品學，苦速通行及樂遲通行名中品學，樂速通行名上品學。由方便故者，不殷重方便及不無間方便修者名下品學，隨一方便修者名中品學，具二方便修者名上品學。
瑜伽分別者，謂依四種瑜伽正學學處：一信、二欲、三正勤、四方便。
信者，謂二行相及二依處。二行相者，一忍可行相、二清淨行相。二依處者，一觀法道理依處、二信解人威德依處。
欲者，有四種欲：一為證得欲、二為問論欲、三為證資糧欲、四為方便修欲。為證得欲者，如一行者於上解脫起證樂欲，廣說如前。為問論欲者，如一行者起證欲已，趣僧伽藍中，詣有識者、同梵行者、正行智者所，為聞所未聞及已聞者明淨故。為證資糧欲者，如有行人於尸羅律儀清淨中、飲食知量中、覺悟方便中、正知住中及進上中起證樂欲。為方便修欲者，謂於無間方便中、殷重方便中、修聖道中，生希求作證樂欲。
Analysis by persons: these three trainings extend to ordinary beings and to those who have seen the truths alike.
Analysis by lesser, middling, and greater: by conduct and by means. By conduct: painful and slow progress is lesser training; painful and swift, and pleasant and slow, are middling; pleasant and swift is greater. By means: one who cultivates without earnestness and without continuity is in lesser training; one who cultivates with either of the two is in middling training; one who cultivates with both is in greater training.
Analysis by yoga: one rightly trains in the training rules in dependence on four kinds of yoga — faith, aspiration, right diligence, and the means.
Faith has two modes and two supports. The two modes are the mode of assent and the mode of clarity. The two supports are the support of observing the reasoning of a teaching, and the support of confidence in the majesty of a person.
Aspiration is of four kinds: the aspiration to realize; the aspiration to ask and discuss; the aspiration to accomplish the provisions; and the aspiration to cultivate by means. The aspiration to realize: as when a practitioner gives rise to a wish to realize the surpassing liberation, expounded at length above. The aspiration to ask and discuss: as when a practitioner, having given rise to that wish, goes to a monastery and approaches those who have knowledge, fellow practitioners of the holy life, and those wise in right practice, in order to hear what he has not heard and to clarify what he has. The aspiration to accomplish the provisions: as when a practitioner gives rise to a wish to realize purity in the discipline of restraint, moderation in food, the means of staying awake, abiding with correct knowing, and advancing higher. The aspiration to cultivate by means: giving rise to a seeking and wishing to realize, within uninterrupted application, earnest application, and the cultivation of the noble path.
正勤者，謂四種正勤：一為聞法故、二為思惟故、三為修習故、四為障淨故。為聞法故者，謂為聞所未聞及已聞者明淨故，策勵於心方便修習所未委處。為思惟故者，如所聞法，獨在靜處思惟稱量觀察其義。為修習故者，謂處靜室數修止觀。為障淨故者，謂為淨諸蓋，晝夜精勤經行宴坐策勵於心，方便修習所未委處。
方便者，亦有四種，謂守護尸羅及守護諸根增上力故，令根律儀清淨善住於念。由善住念故得不放逸，守護於心修習善法。由不放逸故，令其內心與止相應，及得增上慧觀察諸法。
如是四種瑜伽分為十六行。此中由信故，信當得義。由信當得義故，於諸善法起修作欲。由修作欲故，晝夜精勤，住於策勵堅固勇猛。由正勤故，攝修方便，為令得所未得義故、悟所未悟義故、證所未證義故。是故此四種法說名瑜伽。
Right diligence is of four kinds: for the sake of hearing the Dharma; for the sake of reflection; for the sake of cultivation; and for the sake of purifying the obstructions. For hearing: in order to hear what one has not heard and to clarify what one has, one rouses the mind and applies oneself to cultivating what one has not yet mastered. For reflection: with the Dharma as heard, one dwells alone in a quiet place and reflects on, weighs, and observes its meaning. For cultivation: dwelling in a quiet room, one repeatedly cultivates calm abiding and insight. For purifying the obstructions: in order to purify the hindrances, one is diligent day and night, walking and sitting in meditation, rousing the mind and applying oneself to what one has not yet mastered.
The means is likewise of four kinds: through the dominant power of guarding discipline and guarding the faculties, the restraint of the faculties becomes pure and one abides well in mindfulness; because one abides well in mindfulness one attains heedfulness, guards the mind, and cultivates wholesome states; and because of heedfulness one's inner mind is joined with calm abiding, and one attains the higher wisdom that observes things.
These four kinds of yoga are divided into sixteen practices. Here, by faith one has faith in the goal to be attained; because one has faith in the goal to be attained, aspiration to cultivate arises with respect to wholesome states; because of that aspiration, one is diligent day and night, abiding in exertion, firm and courageous; and because of right diligence one gathers up and cultivates the means, in order to attain what one has not attained, to awaken to what one has not awakened to, and to realize what one has not realized. Therefore these four states are called yoga.
The two supports of faith are the most quietly important line here: one may have faith because one has examined the reasoning of a teaching, or because one has confidence in the majesty of a person. Both are listed without preference, and both are called faith. This is a more generous account than the fourth reliance in fascicle 2 might suggest — "rely on the Dharma, not on the person" concerns what one studies and imitates, not what may legitimately give rise to confidence in the first place.
The four yogas were named in fascicle 5 as what makes a treatise worth reading; here they are unpacked as a working sequence and the causal chain is stated explicitly. Faith in the goal produces aspiration; aspiration produces diligence; diligence gathers up the means. Note that the second aspiration is simply the wish to go and ask someone — 趣僧伽藍中, to go to a monastery and find people who know more. The path is not represented as solitary at any point in this fascicle.
8. The Seven Attentions, and Six Ways to See Through Desire
The tenth analysis. The seven attentions were named in fascicle 4; here they are worked out, and the first of them opens onto a six-part contemplation of what is actually wrong with the objects of desire.
作意分別者，謂了相等七種作意。了相作意者，由作意故，了達欲界麁相及初靜慮靜相。云何了達欲界麁相？謂六種尋思諸欲過失，一義、二事、三相、四品類、五時、六道理。
尋思義者，謂尋思諸欲多諸過患、多諸累惱、多諸疫癘、多諸災橫。如是諸欲多諸過患，乃至多諸災橫，是為麁義。
尋思事者，謂或於內諸欲起於貪欲，或於外諸欲起於貪欲。
尋思相者，謂尋思自相及共相。尋思自相者，謂此是煩惱欲、此是事欲。如是諸欲，或隨順樂、或隨順苦、或復隨順不苦不樂。隨順樂者，是貪欲依處及想心顛倒依處。隨順苦者，是瞋恚依處及忿恨依處。隨順不苦不樂者，是覆惱誑諂、無慚無愧依處及見倒依處。如是諸欲，或暴惡受之所隨行、或不暴惡受之所隨行，如是名為尋思諸欲自相尋思。共相者，謂尋思諸欲生苦乃至求不得苦，平等平等隨逐隨縛。受用欲者，雖復諸欲廣備，亦應解了是生苦等法，此廣備欲須臾變壞。如是名為尋思諸欲共相。
Analysis by attention: the seven attentions beginning with the attention that understands the mark.
The attention that understands the mark: by this attention one understands the coarse mark of the realm of desire and the still mark of the first absorption. How does one understand the coarse mark of the realm of desire? By investigating the faults of the objects of desire in six ways — by meaning, by thing, by mark, by class, by time, and by principle.
Investigating the meaning: investigating that the objects of desire have many faults, many vexations, many plagues, many calamities. That the objects of desire have many faults, down to many calamities — this is their coarse meaning.
Investigating the thing: that craving arises either toward inner objects of desire or toward outer ones.
Investigating the mark: investigating their particular and general marks. Particular: that this is the desire that is affliction and this is the desire that is the object. Such objects of desire accord either with pleasure, with pain, or with neither. Those according with pleasure are the basis of craving and the basis of the distortions of perception and mind. Those according with pain are the basis of hatred and the basis of wrath and resentment. Those according with neither are the basis of concealment, vexation, deceit, and flattery, of lack of shame and lack of embarrassment, and the basis of the distortion of view. And such objects of desire are accompanied either by violent feeling or by feeling not violent. General: investigating that the objects of desire produce the suffering of birth down to the suffering of not getting what one seeks, and that they pursue and bind one equally and alike. One who enjoys the objects of desire should understand that, however abundantly they are furnished, they are of the nature of the suffering of birth and the rest, and that this abundant furnishing decays in a moment.
尋思品類者，謂尋思諸欲墮黑品類，如連鎖枯骨、如穢段肉、如草炬火、如一分炭火、如蟒毒蛇、如夢所見、猶如假借莊嚴之具、如樹杪果。又復尋思一切有情受追求所作苦、受親愛離壞所作苦、受無厭足所作苦、受不自在所作苦、受惡行所作苦。
又薄伽梵言：我說習近諸欲有五過患，一諸欲少味、二習近欲者多諸苦惱多諸過患、三習近欲者無厭無足無休無息、四習近欲者諸結增長、五習近欲者無惡不造。又復聰慧正至善人，以無量門訶責諸欲，謂此諸欲增染無厭，眾所共有非法顛倒，諸惡行因增長欲愛，智者捨遠速疾散壞。依於諸緣放逸之地，其性無常為空為虛，誑失之法如幻如化誘誑愚夫。若現法欲、若後法欲，若天上欲、若人間欲，一切皆是魔之所行、魔所住處。又依彼欲能令心生無量種種惡不善法，謂貪瞋恨等諸障礙法，諸聖弟子學學處時能為障礙。由如是等差別過失多分尋思諸欲墮黑品類，如是名為尋思品類。
尋思時者，謂於去來今世常恒相續尋思諸欲多諸累惱、多諸災橫、多諸過患，如是名為尋思於時。
Investigating the class: investigating that the objects of desire fall into the dark class — like a chain of bare bones; like a filthy lump of meat; like a torch of grass; like a portion of live coals; like a python or a venomous snake; like what is seen in a dream; like borrowed ornaments; like fruit at the top of a tree. And further, investigating that all beings undergo the suffering made by seeking, the suffering made by separation from what is dear, the suffering made by never having enough, the suffering made by having no mastery, and the suffering made by evil conduct.
And the Blessed One said: I declare that there are five faults in consorting with the objects of desire — that they have little savor; that one who consorts with them has much anguish and many faults; that one who consorts with them is never wearied, never satisfied, never at rest; that in one who consorts with them the fetters increase; and that one who consorts with them leaves no evil undone. And moreover the wise, the rightly arrived, and the good censure the objects of desire by measureless approaches: that they increase defilement and are never enough; that they are held in common by the crowd, unlawful and inverted; that they are the cause of every evil deed and increase the craving for desire; that the wise cast them off and keep away from them, and that they scatter and break up at once. They depend on conditions and are the ground of heedlessness; their nature is impermanent, empty, and hollow; they are deceiving and perishing things, like an illusion, like a conjuring, luring and deceiving the foolish. Whether desires of this present life or of the life to come, whether desires of the heavens or of the human world, all are the range of Māra and the dwelling place of Māra. And in dependence on those desires the mind gives rise to measureless kinds of evil and unwholesome states — craving, hatred, resentment, and the other obstructing states, which obstruct the noble disciples when they train in the training rules. Investigating for the most part that the objects of desire fall into the dark class by such differences of fault, this is investigating the class.
Investigating the time: investigating that in past, future, and present, constantly and continuously, the objects of desire have many vexations, many calamities, and many faults.
尋思道理者，謂此諸欲，由大資具、由大追求、由大勞倦，復由種種雜功業處，方得圓備成立增長。雖復如是外資生物增長成滿，然其法爾速疾散滅。又復父母、妻子、奴婢、諸作業者、朋友、官僚、兄弟親族等，雖暫集會不久散壞。又復內身麁色，四大所生、糜飯所長，常棄穢惡，澡浴按摩等雖復暫治所生苦惱，終是離散壞滅之法。
為治飢渴苦故受諸飯食，為治寒熱苦惱及為覆障可羞慚處受畜衣服，為治惛睡逼苦及為對治行住疲苦受諸臥具，為治諸疾病苦受諸醫藥。如是諸欲皆為治苦，不應貪著，唯除應如重病所執治病之藥。或依聖教尋思如是如是諸欲麁相，或復內自智見發起，或復尋思隨順道理，或復尋思諸欲自性無始世來法爾成就，不思議法不應思議不應分別。如是名為尋思道理。
如是六種了知諸欲麁相已，又復了知初靜慮靜相，謂於初靜慮中無如欲界極麁重相，由離如是欲麁相故，名初靜慮靜相。如是名為了知初靜慮靜相。由定地作意故，了知欲界麁相及初靜慮靜相，是名了相作意，此中猶有聞思間雜應知。
Investigating the principle: these objects of desire are brought to fullness, established, and increased only by great equipment, great seeking, great fatigue, and by all sorts of mixed labors. Yet though outer goods thus increase and are made complete, by their very nature they scatter and perish quickly. Again, parents, wives and children, servants, workers, friends, officials, brothers, and kin — though they gather for a while, before long they disperse and break up. Again, the coarse form of the inner body, born of the four great elements and grown on rice and gruel, constantly discharging filth — though bathing and massage may briefly relieve the suffering it produces, it is in the end a thing that comes apart and perishes.
Food is taken to relieve the suffering of hunger and thirst; robes are received and kept to relieve the suffering of cold and heat and to cover what would shame one; bedding is received to relieve the oppression of drowsiness and the fatigue of walking and standing; medicine is received to relieve the suffering of illness. All these objects of desire are for the relief of suffering, and are not to be clung to — except as one clings to the medicine required by a grave illness. One may investigate the coarse marks of desire in these various ways in dependence on the sacred teaching; or by the arising of one's own inner knowledge and vision; or by investigating what accords with reason; or by investigating that the own-nature of desire is naturally accomplished from beginningless time, an inconceivable matter not to be conceived or discriminated. This is investigating the principle.
Having understood the coarse mark of desire in these six ways, one further understands the still mark of the first absorption: that in the first absorption there is no such utterly coarse and heavy mark as in the realm of desire, and because it is free of that coarse mark of desire it is called the still mark of the first absorption. By the attention of the concentrated level one understands the coarse mark of the realm of desire and the still mark of the first absorption; this is the attention that understands the mark — and it should be known that here hearing and reflection are still mixed in.
The eight similes for desire are a canonical set and each carries a distinct charge: a chain of bare bones offers no nourishment; a lump of meat draws a fight; a grass torch burns the hand that holds it; live coals must be dropped; a python kills what embraces it; a dream vanishes on waking; borrowed ornaments must be returned; and fruit at the treetop is what one falls from. Read together they describe not one fault but a range — worthlessness, danger, transience, and the fact that none of it was ever one's own.
The investigation of principle ends somewhere unexpected. Having argued that possessions decay, relations disperse, and the body itself is a thing bathed and massaged and still perishing, Asaṅga arrives at the requisites — food, robes, bedding, medicine — and states plainly that all of them exist to relieve suffering and are not to be clung to, except as one clings to medicine when gravely ill. This is not a rejection of the requisites but an exact account of the attitude appropriate to them. A sick person takes the medicine seriously without loving it.
The closing qualifier is the honest one: in this first attention, hearing and reflection are 間雜, still mixed in. One is still thinking about the material rather than purely meditating on it. That is precisely what the next attention removes.
9. The Remaining Six Attentions
From resolve through to the fruit — including the fifth, which is the checkpoint where a practitioner deliberately tests whether the craving is really gone.
勝解作意者，謂如其所應，尋思了達欲界麁相及初靜慮靜相，不為聞思之所間雜，純起修行勝解。緣麁靜相修習止觀修習之時，如所尋思麁靜之相數起勝解，是故名為勝解作意。
遠離作意者，謂多修習此種類故，為欲斷除初分煩惱，起對治道與斷煩惱能對治道俱生作意，名遠離作意。
攝樂作意者，謂已斷欲界初分煩惱，及已遠離彼品麁重，於後勝品斷及遠離起於憙樂。又於斷處見勝功德，證於少分遠離憙樂，於時時中以淨勝作意而自慶悅，為欲斷除惛沈睡眠掉舉纏故，是名攝樂作意。
The attention of resolve: investigating and understanding, as is fitting, the coarse mark of the realm of desire and the still mark of the first absorption, no longer mixed with hearing and reflection, one gives rise purely to the resolve of practice. When, taking the coarse and the still marks as object, one cultivates calm abiding and insight, one repeatedly gives rise to resolve upon those marks as investigated; hence it is called the attention of resolve.
The attention of seclusion: because one has cultivated much of this kind, then, in order to cut off the first portion of the afflictions, there arises an attention born together with the counteracting path that can cut them off; this is called the attention of seclusion.
The attention that gathers up delight: having cut off the first portion of the afflictions of the realm of desire and become free of the coarse heaviness of that class, one gives rise to delight at the cutting off and freedom from the higher classes still to come. And seeing the surpassing good qualities in what has been cut off, one realizes the delight of a partial freedom, and from time to time gladdens oneself with a pure and surpassing attention, in order to cut off the entanglements of torpor, sleep, and restlessness; this is called the attention that gathers up delight.
觀察作意者，謂如是正修樂斷樂修已，善品方便之所扶持，令欲界繫諸煩惱纏若行若住不復現行。如是行者復自思惟：我此身中為有貪欲、為無貪欲？而於諸欲境不執受耶？為自觀察故，隨於一境思惟勝妙清淨之相。而彼行者由未盡斷諸隨眠故，思惟如是淨妙相時，隨順染習、趣向染習、臨至染習，不住於捨亦不厭毀遮止違逆。行者爾時如是自知：我於諸欲未正遠離，心未解脫，故諸欲行繫攝我心。猶如持水法爾攝伏，我今定當倍修治道，令餘隨眠無餘斷故。倍復欣樂勝斷勝修，是名觀察作意。
方便究竟作意者，謂倍修習止品，樂斷樂修故，雙修止觀數數觀察。如是行者修習對治，時時觀察斷與未斷，令心遠離欲界煩惱繫縛。此暫時伏離，非是究竟永拔種子。行者爾時得初靜慮方便道，究竟一切煩惱對治作意，是名方便究竟作意。
方便究竟果作意者，謂從此後無間，由前因緣故證入根本初靜慮定。此根本初靜慮俱生作意，是名方便究竟果作意。如初靜慮有七種作意，如是第二第三第四靜慮乃至非想非非想處定如其所應盡當知。
復次麁相者，謂於一切下地，從欲界乃至無所有處，略有三種諸下地法而可厭離應知，一極苦住性、二極不寂靜住性、三極短壽住性。
The attention that observes: having thus rightly cultivated, delighting in cutting off and in cultivating, and being sustained by the means of the wholesome, the entanglements of affliction bound to the realm of desire no longer operate whether one is moving or at rest. Such a practitioner then reflects: is there craving in this body of mine or is there not? Do I really not appropriate the objects of desire? And in order to observe himself he deliberately takes some object and contemplates its excellent and pure marks. But because that practitioner has not yet wholly cut off the latent tendencies, when he contemplates such a lovely mark he accords with defilement, tends toward defilement, comes to the brink of defilement; he does not abide in equanimity, nor does he weary of it, condemn it, block it, and turn against it. The practitioner then knows for himself: I am not yet rightly free of the objects of desire; my mind is not yet liberated; the movements of desire still bind and gather up my mind. Just as water is by nature held back and dammed, so now I must assuredly redouble my cultivation of the curing path, so that the remaining latent tendencies may be cut off without residue. And he redoubles his delight in surpassing cutting off and surpassing cultivation. This is the attention that observes.
The attention that is the culmination of the means: redoubling the cultivation of calm abiding, delighting in cutting off and in cultivating, he cultivates calm abiding and insight together and observes again and again. Such a practitioner cultivates the counteragent and from time to time observes what has been cut off and what has not, causing the mind to become free of the bondage of the afflictions of the realm of desire. But this is a temporary subduing and freedom, not the final uprooting of the seeds. The practitioner then obtains the path of means to the first absorption, the attention that is the culmination of all counteraction of the afflictions; this is the attention that is the culmination of the means.
The attention that is the fruit of the culmination of the means: immediately thereafter, by the foregoing causes, he realizes and enters the fundamental first absorption. The attention born together with that fundamental first absorption is the attention that is the fruit of the culmination of the means. As the first absorption has seven attentions, so should it be fully understood, as is fitting, for the second, third, and fourth absorptions and on up to the concentration of the sphere of neither-perception-nor-non-perception.
Further, as to the coarse mark: with respect to all the lower levels, from the realm of desire up to the sphere of nothingness, three kinds of lower-level states should be understood as fit to be wearied of — that they are an abiding of extreme suffering, an abiding of extreme unstillness, and an abiding of extremely short life.
The fifth attention is the most valuable passage in this fascicle for anyone actually practicing, because it describes a deliberate self-test and an honest failure. The practitioner's afflictions have stopped operating; nothing disturbs him whether moving or at rest. And precisely then he asks the awkward question — is there really no craving in me? — and instead of trusting the calm, he goes and looks at something attractive on purpose. What he finds is that he "accords with defilement, tends toward it, comes to the brink of it." The absence of disturbance was suppression, not freedom.
His own diagnosis is exact and unsentimental: 猶如持水法爾攝伏, just as water is naturally held back by a dam. The water has not gone anywhere. And his response is not discouragement but redoubling — the treatise is careful to say he 倍復欣樂, redoubles his delight in cutting off. This is the same shape as the pairing of freedom from timidity with freedom from overestimation earlier in the fascicle. The point of the test is not to deflate the practitioner but to prevent him from stopping at the sixth attention, which the treatise likewise labels 暫時伏離, a temporary subduing.
The three marks of every lower level at the close are worth carrying forward as a compact summary of why the ascent continues: each level below is more painful, more unstill, and shorter-lived than the one above it. Note that the series runs only to the sphere of nothingness — the same ceiling this treatise has kept to since fascicle 2.
10. Ten Ways Discipline Goes Impure
The last analysis is by question and answer, and its single question is a practical one. Ten causes are given, and the seventh — wrong livelihood — receives more space than any other passage in the fascicle.
引發分別者，謂四種引發：一果引發、二離欲引發、三轉根引發、四勝德引發。
問答分別者，謂無量門問答分別，今少顯示。問：增上戒學云何不清淨、云何清淨？答：有十種因，戒不清淨。何者為十？一初不如法受尸羅律儀、二極沈下、三極浮散、四放逸懈怠所攝、五發起邪願、六犯軌則攝、七犯邪命攝、八墮於二邊、九不能出離、十違越所受。
初不如法受尸羅律儀者，如有一人，或避王逼惱、或避強賊之所逼惱、或避債主逼惱、或因恐怖逼惱、或怖不活等故，出家受戒，不為營修聖道、不為清淨梵行、不為自調伏、不為自寂靜、不為自涅槃。諸如是等，是為不如法受尸羅律儀。
極沈下者，如有一人無慚無愧，悔心微劣其性慢緩，於諸學處慢緩修習，如是名極沈下。
極浮散者，如有一人僻執所受非處生悔，於不應悔處而生悔故，於他人所非處而生陵蔑之心及損害心，數習不捨，如是名極浮散。
Analysis by what they draw forth: four kinds — drawing forth the fruit; drawing forth freedom from craving; drawing forth a transformation of the faculties; and drawing forth surpassing good qualities.
Analysis by question and answer: this may be distinguished by measureless approaches; here a little is displayed. Question: how is the higher training in discipline impure, and how is it pure? Answer: there are ten causes by which discipline is impure. What ten? Receiving the discipline of restraint unlawfully at the outset; being utterly sunken; being utterly scattered; being possessed by heedlessness and laziness; generating a wrong vow; transgressing in respect of deportment; transgressing in respect of livelihood; falling into the two extremes; being unable to be delivered; and violating what one undertook.
Receiving the discipline of restraint unlawfully at the outset: as when someone goes forth and receives the precepts in order to escape harassment by the king, or by strong bandits, or by creditors, or because of some terror, or from fear of being unable to make a living — and not in order to cultivate the noble path, not for the purity of the holy life, not to tame himself, not to still himself, not for his own nirvāṇa. Such and the like is receiving the discipline of restraint unlawfully.
Utterly sunken: as when someone is without shame or embarrassment, his remorse feeble and his nature slack, and he trains slackly in the training rules.
Utterly scattered: as when someone clings perversely to what he has undertaken and feels remorse where remorse is out of place; and because he feels remorse where none is called for, he gives rise to contempt and to a wish to injure toward others where that too is out of place, and practices this repeatedly without letting it go.
放逸懈怠所攝者，如有一人，於過去世已有違犯，由忘念故而不如法起於對治，如是於未來現在起於違犯，由忘念故而不如法起於對治，先亦不起猛勵樂欲當於禁戒終不違犯，謂我當如是如是行、如是如是住，如所應行、如所應住令無所犯。又復如是行、如是住應可犯者而有毀犯。此人於前中後際及先時所作俱隨行時，皆現成就於放逸故。又執睡眠及與偃息以之為樂，慢緩嬾墮不樂修營，於梵行智人身不供侍。如是名為放逸懈怠所攝。
發起邪願者，如有一人，發起邪願行於梵行，謂我今所修戒禁梵行，當為天主、或作餘天，或復樂欲利養尊敬，謂從他人求諸利養及與尊敬，或唯願證利養尊敬，如是名為發起邪願。
犯軌則攝者，如有一人於諸威儀，或於所作，或於方便修善品中如前所說，凡有所行違於世間、越毘柰耶，如是名為犯軌則攝。
Possessed by heedlessness and laziness: as when someone has transgressed in the past and, through lapse of mindfulness, does not lawfully apply the remedy; and likewise transgresses in the future and the present and, through lapse of mindfulness, does not lawfully apply the remedy; and who moreover never generated a keen and vigorous wish that he would never transgress the precepts — thinking, I shall act thus and abide thus, acting and abiding as I ought, so as to commit no transgression. And, acting and abiding in a way in which transgression is possible, he does transgress. This person, in the earlier, middle, and later periods and in what he did before and does along with it, is at every point accomplished in heedlessness. And he holds sleep and lying down to be a pleasure, is slack and lazy and takes no delight in cultivation or in work, and does not personally serve the wise practitioners of the holy life.
Generating a wrong vow: as when someone practices the holy life having generated a wrong vow, thinking: by the precepts, observances, and holy life I now cultivate, may I become the lord of the gods, or some other god — or else desiring gain and honor, seeking gain and honor from others, or wishing only to obtain gain and honor.
Transgressing in respect of deportment: as when someone, in his bearing, in his tasks, or in the means by which he cultivates the wholesome as stated above, does anything that violates the world or transgresses the Vinaya.
The first cause is the bleakest and belongs to the social history of the order rather than to its ideals. People went forth to escape a king, escape bandits, escape creditors, escape fear, or because they could not otherwise eat. The treatise does not condemn them; it observes that discipline received on those terms is impure from the outset, because none of the five right reasons — cultivating the path, purity of the holy life, self-taming, self-stilling, one's own nirvāṇa — was present.
The second and third causes are opposite failures of conscience and make a matched pair. The sunken monk has too little remorse and is slack. The scattered monk has too much, and in the wrong places — and the consequence Asaṅga draws is acute: misplaced remorse turns outward as contempt and the wish to injure others. Scrupulosity about oneself is here diagnosed as a cause of cruelty toward others, and treated as a defilement of discipline in its own right.
11. Wrong Livelihood
The seventh cause, given at length and with unusual specificity — five techniques by which a monk extracts support from the laity.
犯邪命攝者，如有一人，為性大欲及不知足，難養難滿，又以非法求覓一切衣服飲食諸坐臥具病緣醫藥及餘資具，不以法故。此人為求衣服飲食等因，顯己功德故，於他人前詐現非其自性及非串習威儀，又現諸根寂靜無有掉動，意令他人謂己有德，當有所施及以供事，謂衣服飲食諸坐臥具病緣醫藥及餘資具身業給使。
又復此人形貌躁惡發言麁獷無所忌憚，嚴飾其身稱揚己名及與種姓，或復多聞、或廣持法，為得利養及恭敬故，而為他人宣說諸佛及佛弟子所演之法，或自說己實有功德或少增益。或令他人稱顯異相，為求多勝衣服飲食及餘沙門種種資具。雖復衣服無所闕少，故現受用弊壞衣服，意令信我長者居士知闕少故，便多施與上妙衣服。如衣服，餘沙門資命之具亦復如是。
Transgressing in respect of livelihood: as when someone is by nature of great desire and knows no contentment, hard to support and hard to satisfy, and moreover seeks all his robes, food, bedding, medicines for illness, and other requisites by unlawful means, not by the Dharma.
In order to obtain robes and food and the rest, and to display his own good qualities, such a person falsely puts on before others a bearing that is not his own nature and not his habit, and displays faculties that are still and without agitation, intending that others should think him virtuous and should therefore give and serve him with robes, food, bedding, medicine, other requisites, and personal attendance.
Again, such a person is coarse and unpleasant in appearance and rough and unrestrained in speech; he adorns his body and extols his own name and family, or his great learning, or his wide command of the Dharma; and in order to get gain and honor he expounds to others the teaching set forth by the buddhas and their disciples, or speaks of good qualities he actually has, or slightly exaggerates them; or he gets others to proclaim some remarkable sign about him, in order to seek more and better robes and food and the various requisites of a renunciant. And though his robes lack nothing, he deliberately appears using worn and broken ones, intending that the elders and householders who have faith in him should think him in need and so give him abundant fine robes. And as with robes, so with the other requisites of a renunciant's livelihood.
又於信敬婆羅門諸長者所不得如所欲物，或是所無、或是受用不可與故，而便逼切訶罵求索。或得下劣之物，輕毀退還，對施主前說如是語：咄善男子！有餘善男子善女人，若比於汝族姓下劣資財貧匱，尚能捨施如是如是妙可意物，況汝於彼族姓高勝富有財產，而以如是鄙可惡物施於我耶！諸如是等。
或依詐現威儀、或依非法言說、或依稱顯異相、或依逼切訶罵、或依以利比引於利，非法求覓衣服飲食坐臥之具病緣醫藥及餘資具，不以法求，是謂邪命。如是名為犯邪命攝。
Again, when he does not get what he wants from faithful and reverent brahmins and elders — whether because they do not have it, or because it is in use and cannot be given — he presses them, berates them, and demands it. Or, receiving something poor, he disparages it and sends it back, saying before the donor: "Come now, good man! There are other good men and women who, compared with you, are of lowly family and poor in means, and yet can give such and such fine and pleasing things. How much more you, whose family is high and whose property is great — and you give me a mean and contemptible thing like this!" And so on in that manner.
Whether by falsely putting on a bearing, by unlawful speech, by proclaiming a remarkable sign, by pressing and berating, or by using one gain to draw out another, he seeks robes, food, bedding, medicines for illness, and other requisites by unlawful means and not by the Dharma. This is wrong livelihood.
The five techniques named in the closing summary are the classical list of wrong livelihood for a mendicant, and the body of the passage illustrates each: hypocrisy of bearing, flattering or self-advertising speech, hinting at attainments, direct pressure, and trading one gift to leverage a larger one. What makes the passage remarkable is that it does not stay abstract. The monk who owns good robes and deliberately wears his worn ones so that donors will infer poverty; the monk who returns a modest gift with a speech comparing the donor unfavorably to poorer people — these are observed rather than deduced.
Note also what is included among the techniques: 為得利養及恭敬故，而為他人宣說諸佛及佛弟子所演之法, teaching the Dharma in order to get gain and honor. Preaching is on the list of ways to practice wrong livelihood, alongside berating donors. And the fault is not in the content taught — the teaching is that of the buddhas — but in what the teacher is doing with it.
The item about speaking of qualities one actually has, or exaggerating them only slightly, is finer still. The Vinaya elsewhere treats false claims of attainment as among the gravest offences; here even truthful self-report, when its purpose is to secure support, is wrong livelihood.
12. The Last Three Causes, and Purity
墮二邊者，如有一人，樂著受用諸欲妙樂，從他而得衣服等具，或如法或不如法，不見過患不知出離而受用之，此謂一邊。又如一人修自苦行，無量種種苦事煎迫其身，受行種種極苦禁戒，或依處棘刺、或依處灰、或依於杵、或依於板、或依髑髏、或復蹲住、或修蹲定、或復事火乃至日三、或復處水乃至日三、或翹一足視日隨轉，諸如是等及餘修自苦行，是第二邊。如是名為墮於二邊。
不能出離者，如有一人，執見尸羅及餘禁戒，謂唯修習尸羅禁戒，當得清淨解脫出離。又復執見善守善淨諸外道戒，當得清淨解脫出離。如是二種非究竟淨故，不能出離。如是名為不能出離。
違越所受者，如有一人都無羞恥，曾不顧惜沙門儀範，違毀禁戒行諸惡法，內懷朽爛隨順下流，如穢蝸虫螺音狗行，非沙門稱沙門，無梵行稱梵行者，如是名為違越所受。
由是十因，增上戒學而不清淨。若翻此者，是則清淨。增上心學淨不淨義者，如攝事品清淨靜慮中說。又由此清淨故，增上慧學清淨應知。如是等類問答分別無量無邊，准義應知。
Falling into the two extremes: as when someone delights in and clings to the enjoyment of the pleasures of desire, receiving robes and other goods from others — whether lawfully or unlawfully — and enjoys them without seeing their faults and without knowing deliverance from them. This is one extreme. And as when someone practices self-mortification, oppressing his body with measureless kinds of painful practices, undertaking all sorts of extremely painful observances: resting on thorns, or on ashes, or on a pestle, or on a plank, or on a skull; or squatting, or cultivating a squatting concentration; or tending a fire three times a day; or standing in water three times a day; or standing on one leg and turning with the sun — these and other self-mortifications are the second extreme.
Being unable to be delivered: as when someone clings to a view of discipline and other observances, holding that merely by cultivating discipline and observances he will attain purity, liberation, and deliverance; or clings to a view that by well guarding and well purifying the precepts of the outsiders he will attain purity, liberation, and deliverance. Because these two are not ultimate purity, he cannot be delivered. This is what is meant by being unable to be delivered.
Violating what one undertook: as when someone is wholly without shame, has never once regarded the decorum of a renunciant, breaks the precepts and practices evil states, inwardly rotten and following the downward current — filthy as a slug, sounding like a conch and behaving like a dog; called a renunciant while being none, called a practitioner of the holy life while having no holy life.
By these ten causes the higher training in discipline is impure. Reversing them, it is pure. The sense of purity and impurity in the higher training in mind is as stated under the purified absorptions in the chapter on Gathering the Topics; and because of that purity, the purity of the higher training in wisdom should be understood. Distinctions of this kind by question and answer are measureless and boundless, and should be understood by inference from the sense.
The first extreme is defined with more care than the familiar summary "indulgence" suggests. What makes it an extreme is not receiving robes and goods, and not even receiving them unlawfully — the text says "whether lawfully or unlawfully." It is enjoying them 不見過患不知出離, without seeing their faults and without knowing deliverance from them. A monk may hold nothing improper and still be at the first extreme, if what he holds he simply enjoys.
The catalogue of austerities is specific enough to be a report: sleeping on thorns, on ashes, on a pestle, on a plank, on a skull; permanent squatting; tending a fire or entering water three times a day; standing on one leg and turning to follow the sun. These were the observable practices of ascetics in Asaṅga's world, and the treatise names them rather than gesturing at "extreme asceticism."
The ninth cause is the one that cuts closest to a well-behaved monk, and it is why it is listed separately from the tenth. Being unable to be delivered is not misconduct at all — it is keeping discipline impeccably while believing that discipline alone purifies. The treatise puts this among the ten impurities of discipline, which is a strong claim: discipline held with that view is itself impure. It is the same 戒禁取, clinging to rules and rituals, catalogued among the five views in fascicle 1, seen here from the practitioner's side.
13. The Three Enlightenments Compared
The fascicle closes by setting the three vehicles side by side across five dimensions — and the last of them names the exact difference that everything else in the Mahāyāna turns on.
菩提五種分別者，一種性、二方便、三時、四證覺、五解脫。
種性者，聲聞菩提依鈍根種性，獨覺菩提依中根種性，無上正等菩提依利根種性。
方便者，聲聞菩提由行六處善巧方便，獨覺菩提由多分行甚深緣起善巧方便，無上正等菩提由五明處善巧方便。
時者，聲聞菩提極少三生修行而得，獨覺菩提由百大劫修行而得，無上正等菩提由三大劫阿僧企耶修行而得。
證覺者，聲聞菩提由師證覺，獨覺菩提唯誓自利無師證覺，無上正等菩提自利利他無師證覺。
解脫者，聲聞菩提、獨覺菩提所證轉依，解脫煩惱障，解脫身攝。無上正等菩提所證轉依，解脫一切煩惱障及所知障，解脫身攝及法身攝。
Enlightenment is analyzed in five ways: by lineage, by means, by duration, by awakening, and by liberation.
By lineage: śrāvaka enlightenment rests on the lineage of dull faculties; pratyekabuddha enlightenment on the lineage of middling faculties; unsurpassed perfect enlightenment on the lineage of keen faculties.
By means: śrāvaka enlightenment is by skill in the six sense fields; pratyekabuddha enlightenment for the most part by skill in profound dependent arising; unsurpassed perfect enlightenment by skill in the five sciences.
By duration: śrāvaka enlightenment is attained by practice over three lifetimes at the very least; pratyekabuddha enlightenment by practice over a hundred great aeons; unsurpassed perfect enlightenment by practice over three incalculable great aeons.
By awakening: śrāvaka enlightenment awakens by means of a teacher; pratyekabuddha enlightenment awakens without a teacher, having vowed only its own benefit; unsurpassed perfect enlightenment awakens without a teacher, for its own benefit and the benefit of others.
By liberation: the transformation of the basis realized by śrāvaka and pratyekabuddha enlightenment is liberation from the obstruction of the afflictions, and is comprised in the liberation body. The transformation of the basis realized by unsurpassed perfect enlightenment is liberation from all the obstruction of the afflictions and from the obstruction to what is to be known, and is comprised in both the liberation body and the Dharma body.
Read across, the five dimensions compose a coherent picture rather than a ranking. The śrāvaka has dull faculties, works with the six sense fields, needs three lifetimes and a teacher, and is freed of the afflictions. The buddha has keen faculties, works through the five sciences — logic, grammar, medicine, crafts, and the inner science — needs three incalculable aeons and no teacher, and is freed of both obstructions. The means and the duration are proportional: skill in the six sense fields can be got in three lives; competence across the whole field of human knowledge cannot.
The dimension of awakening isolates the two variables that make three vehicles rather than two. A teacher or no teacher is one; one's own benefit or also others' is the second. The śrāvaka has a teacher and, in this analysis, is not characterized by a vow for others. The pratyekabuddha does without a teacher but vowed 唯誓自利, only his own benefit. The buddha does without a teacher and for both. Nothing here is said about depth of realization — the three are separated entirely by what was undertaken and by whom it was received.
The final dimension names the doctrinal difference that the whole Mahāyāna rests on: two obstructions, not one, and consequently a Dharma body as well as a liberation body. Freedom from the afflictions ends suffering; freedom from the obstruction to what is to be known is what a buddha additionally has, and it is the same obstruction that fascicle 6 said is removed by training in the five sciences.
Fascicle 7 Complete
This completes the analysis of the three trainings and of enlightenment, and with them the verse begun in fascicle 6 on hearing, refuge, training, and enlightenment. Fascicle 8 continues the chapter on Gathering the Pure Meaning.
Continue to Fascicle 8 →