The Four Aids: Heat, Summit, Patience, and Supreme Worldly Dharma

Abhidharmakośa, Volume Twenty-Three (Part One)

Original text:颂曰：彼居法念住。总观四所缘。修非常及苦空。非我行相。论曰。彼观行者。居缘总杂。法念住中。总观所缘。身等四境。修四行相。所谓非常。苦空非我。修此观已。生何善根。

Explanation: A practitioner who is currently cultivating the dharma establishment of mindfulness among the four establishments of mindfulness should contemplate the four objects of contemplation—body, feeling, mind, and dharmas—from an overall perspective, in order to cultivate the cognitive aspects of suffering, emptiness, impermanence, and non-self with respect to body, feeling, mind, and dharmas. The treatise says: The practitioner engaged in contemplative practice dwells within the dharma establishment of mindfulness, which takes the totality mixed together as its object, and contemplates the objects of contemplation in their totality—the four realms of body and so forth—cultivating four cognitive aspects, namely impermanence, suffering, emptiness, and non-self. After cultivating this contemplation, what wholesome roots are produced?

Original text:颂曰：从此生暖法。具观四圣谛。修十六行相。次生顶亦然。如是二善根。皆初法后四。次忍唯法念。下中品同顶。上唯观欲苦。一行一刹那。世第一亦然。皆慧五除得。

Explanation: There is a verse that says: After cultivating the suffering, emptiness, impermanence, and non-self of the four establishments of mindfulness, the heat dharma (ūṣma-gata) is produced, which can fully contemplate the Four Noble Truths and cultivate the sixteen cognitive aspects. The peak dharma (mūrdhan) produced next after cultivating the Four Noble Truths is likewise so; it also fully contemplates the Four Noble Truths and cultivates the sixteen cognitive aspects. Both of these two wholesome roots, heat and peak, are cultivated first through the dharma establishment of mindfulness, and afterwards through the mixed contemplation of the four establishments of mindfulness of body, feeling, mind, and dharmas. The subsequent wholesome root of patience (kṣānti) can be produced by cultivating only the dharma establishment of mindfulness; the lower and middle grades of the patience wholesome root have the same objects of contemplation as the peak, while the highest grade of patience contemplates only the suffering of the desire realm, contemplating the truth of suffering in every aggregate and every instant among the five aggregates.

The wholesome root of the supreme worldly dharma (laukikāgra-dharma) is also like this, being produced only when cultivating the dharma establishment of mindfulness; the objects of contemplation of its lower and middle grades are the same as the peak, and its highest grade contemplates only the suffering of the desire realm. All four wholesome roots take wisdom as their essence; they are of the nature of wisdom, cultivated by contemplating the five aggregates, with the sole exception of acquisition (prāpti).

The sixteen cognitive aspects mean that each of the four establishments of mindfulness must be observed for its suffering, emptiness, impermanence, and non-self nature—four cognitive aspects each—so the four establishments of mindfulness comprise sixteen cognitive aspects in total, namely: the suffering, emptiness, impermanence, and non-self of the establishment of mindfulness of the body; the suffering, emptiness, impermanence, and non-self of the establishment of mindfulness of feelings; the suffering, emptiness, impermanence, and non-self of the establishment of mindfulness of the mind; and the suffering, emptiness, impermanence, and non-self of the establishment of mindfulness of dharmas. In the cultivation of the wholesome roots of heat and peak, all sixteen cognitive aspects must be cultivated; the contemplative wisdom therein gradually becomes deeper and subtler, and meditative concentration also gradually deepens. The levels of concentration and wisdom differ, and only after cultivating to the perfection of the fourth wholesome root, the supreme worldly dharma, when concentration and wisdom are both complete, can one attain the vision of the path (darśana-mārga).