英語訳
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Śrāvakas realize arhat fruition in three lifetimes and sixty kalpas, pratyekabuddhas realize their fruition in four lifetimes and one hundred kalpas. Bodhisattvas pass through three asaṃkhyeya kalpas and attain the fruition of great awakening.
Question: Regarding bodhisattva stages, how many types are established in total?
Answer: Combining causes and effects, forty-one stages are established in total. Namely: ten abodes, ten practices, ten dedications, ten grounds, and buddhahood. If the stage of virtual enlightenment is opened, there are forty-two stages. However, it is subsumed under the dharma-cloud ground. Also, if the ten faiths are opened, there are fifty-one stages. However, since the ten faiths are subsumed under the first abode, Great Master Cien established only forty-one stages. If it were Dharma Master Ximming, he would fully establish fifty-two stages. These forty-one stages are bundled into five positions. First is the stage of accumulating provisions—these are the thirty minds before the grounds. Second is the stage of preparation—after the tenth dedication, the four good roots are opened as skillful means for preparation for the path of seeing. Third is the stage of penetration—this is the path of seeing position of entering the first ground. Fourth is the stage of cultivation—from dwelling mind of the first ground up to the tenth ground. Fifth is the stage of ultimate realization—namely buddhahood. This is called the five stages of cultivation.
Question: What kinds of obstructions do people of the three vehicles eliminate?
Answer: People of the two vehicles only eliminate afflictive obstructions.
Bodhisattvas of the great vehicle fully eliminate two obstructions. The two obstructions are: first, afflictive obstructions; second, cognitive obstructions. Each of the two obstructions has two types: discriminated and innate. Before the grounds, bodhisattvas subdue the manifest activity of discriminated two obstructions. At the first ground, they eliminate the seeds of those two obstructions. From the second ground up to the tenth ground, they gradually eliminate innate cognitive obstructions at each ground. Reaching the tenth ground, they eliminate the seeds of innate afflictive obstructions. The karmic impressions of the two obstructions are gradually eliminated accordingly from the second ground onward. When ascending to buddhahood, all are eliminated at once.
Question: What stages does each pass through during the three asaṃkhyeya kalpas?
【Lower Section】
Answer: The three worthies and four good roots are all the first asaṃkhyeya kalpa. From first ground to seventh ground is the second asaṃkhyeya kalpa. Eighth, ninth, and tenth grounds are the third asaṃkhyeya kalpa. After passing the three asaṃkhyeya kalpas, one immediately realizes buddhahood. The forty-one bodhisattva stages are bundled into four supports. Before the grounds is the first support—making offerings to buddhas numerous as five Ganges sands. First ground to sixth ground is the second support—making offerings to buddhas numerous as six Ganges sands. Seventh, eighth, and ninth grounds are the third support—making offerings to buddhas numerous as seven Ganges sands. The tenth ground is the fourth support—making offerings to buddhas numerous as eight Ganges sands. During the three asaṃkhyeya kalpas, offerings are made to buddhas numerous as twenty-six Ganges sands in total. During these three asaṃkhyeya kalpas, myriad practices are cultivated together and the six perfections are fulfilled.
Before the grounds, one cultivates aspectual consciousness-only; above the grounds, one manifests essential consciousness-only.
Question: How many dharma categories does this school establish to encompass all dharmas?
Answer: It establishes one hundred dharmas to encompass all dharmas completely.
Question: What are those one hundred dharmas?
Answer: They are bundled into five categories.
First, mind-kings have eight types: eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind, manas consciousness, and ālaya consciousness—these constitute the eight consciousnesses. Second, mental factors have fifty-one, combined into six categories. First, the five omnipresent factors are: attention, contact, feeling, perception, and volition. Second, the five object-determining factors are: desire, determination, mindfulness, concentration, and wisdom. Third, the eleven wholesome factors are: faith, vigor, shame, remorse, non-attachment, non-hatred, non-delusion, tranquility, non-laxity, equanimity, and non-harm. Fourth, there are six afflictions: attachment, hatred, delusion, pride, doubt, and wrong views. Wrong views are opened into five: self-view, extreme view, deviant view, view-grasping view, and precept-grasping view. Fifth, the twenty derivative afflictions are: anger, resentment, concealment, vexation, parsimony, jealousy, deception, flattery, harm,
【Left Page】
arrogance, shamelessness, lack of remorse, restlessness, dullness, lack of faith, laziness, laxity, forgetfulness, distraction, and improper awareness. Sixth, there are four indeterminate factors: regret, sleep, investigation, and analysis. The six categories total fifty-one.
Third, material dharmas have eleven: eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, form, sound, smell, taste, touch, and dharma-sphere-included form. This has five types: extremely subtle, extremely distant, life-sustaining, meditation-produced, and conceptually-constructed form. These are all dharma-sphere-included forms.
Fourth, dharmas not associated with mind are twenty-four types: acquisition, life faculty, common characteristics, ordinary being nature, mindless concentration, cessation concentration, mindless being, name-aggregate, sentence-aggregate, phoneme-aggregate, arising, aging, duration, impermanence, continuity, distinctness, correspondence, momentum, sequence, direction, time, number, harmony, and disharmony. Fifth, unconditioned dharmas have six: space, analytical cessation, non-analytical cessation, immobility, cessation of perception and feeling, and thusness. With these one hundred dharmas, all dharmas are briefly encompassed without exception.
Question: How do the three categories of aggregates, sense-fields, and elements encompassing form, body and other dharmas relate to the present one hundred dharmas?
Answer: Among the one hundred dharmas, mind-kings, mental factors, and material dharmas are bundled into the five aggregates. The form aggregate is material dharmas. The two aggregates of feeling and perception are mental factors. The consciousness aggregate is the eight-consciousness mind-king. The remaining mental factors are all encompassed in the formation aggregate. The aggregates do not encompass the unconditioned. The twelve sense-fields elaborate material and abbreviate mental—this can be understood by analogy with the aggregates. The eighteen elements extensively explain material and mental and also encompass the unconditioned. This school's fundamental intention is simply to clarify consciousness-only. All dharmas are consciousness-only. There is
【Lower Section】
not a single dharma that exists outside mind. Therefore Great Master Cien said: "If there are dharmas outside mind, one revolves in saṃsāra and birth-death. If one awakens to the one mind, birth-death is permanently abandoned." However, the distinctions of all dharmas are all transformations of consciousness-only. Apart from consciousness there are no separate dharmas. All realms return to mind-consciousness. To generally clarify this meaning, there are five levels of consciousness-only. First, rejecting the false and preserving the real consciousness—rejecting conceptual construction as false and preserving other-dependence and perfect accomplishment as real. Second, abandoning the contaminated and retaining the pure consciousness—because internal realms of other-dependence are contaminated by external, this is abandoned and only called consciousness. Third, gathering branches back to root consciousness—gathering the branches of the two aspects of aspect and perception back to the root of the self-witnessing aspect. Fourth, concealing the inferior and manifesting the superior consciousness—concealing inferior mental factors and manifesting the superior mind-king. Fifth, rejecting characteristics and realizing essential consciousness—rejecting the phenomenal characteristics of other-dependence and realizing the principle-nature of consciousness-only. The first four are aspectual consciousness-only, the fifth is essential consciousness-only. This mind's function has four aspects in total: first, the aspect-portion; second, the perceiving portion; third, the self-witnessing portion; fourth, the witnessing-self-witnessing portion. The Fenliang Commentary states: "Mind-function's divisions and limits have four types of distinctions, hence called the four aspects." However, there are different explanations by four masters. First, Bodhisattva Sthiramati established only one aspect—the self-witnessing aspect. Second, Bodhisattva Nanda established two aspects—the aspect and perceiving aspects. Third, Bodhisattva Dignāga established three aspects—aspect portion, perceiving portion, and self-witnessing portion. Fourth, Bodhisattva Dharmapāla established four aspects, as listed above. Now, since Dharmapāla's explanation exhausts principle, four aspects are established. Having characteristics and distinctions as the mind's object, it is called the aspect-portion. Being able to perceive the preceding realm, it is called the perceiving portion. Being able to perceive the perceiving portion, it is called the self-witnessing portion. Being able to perceive the self-portion, it is called the witnessing-self-witnessing portion. Among these four, the aspect-portion is only the perceived object. It lacks cognitive