The Merit of Possessing the Direct Realization of the Four Wisdoms (the Highest Worldly Dharma) (the Adhimokṣa-manaskāra)

Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra, Volume Thirty-Four

Original text:若行境界。由失念故。虽起猛利诸烦恼缠。暂作意时速疾除遣。又能毕竟不堕恶趣。终不故思违越所学。乃至傍生亦不害命。终不退转弃舍所学。不复能造五无间业。定知苦乐非自所作。非他所作。非自他作。非非自他无因而生。

Explanation: A practitioner who possesses the four knowledges of direct realization, if situated amid sense objects, due to a momentary lapse of mindfulness, although fierce entanglements of various afflictions may arise, with only a moment of attention (manaskāra) they can swiftly dispel those entanglements; moreover, they will ultimately never fall into the evil destinies, will never deliberately contemplate transgressing what they have undertaken to learn, will not harm even the life of an animal, will never regress or abandon what they have undertaken to learn, will no longer be able to commit the five acts of immediate retribution, and will know for certain that suffering and happiness are not made by oneself, not made by another, not made by both oneself and another, nor are they born causelessly apart from oneself and another.

Original text:终不求请外道为师。亦不于彼起福田想。于他沙门婆罗门等。终不观瞻口及颜面。唯自见法得法。知法得法。证法源底。越度疑惑。不由他缘。于大师教。非他所引。于诸法中得无所畏。终不妄计世瑞吉祥。以为清净。终不更受第八有生。具足成就四种证净。如是行者。乃至世第一法已前。名胜解作意。

Explanation: Such a practitioner will never seek out non-Buddhist teachers as masters, nor will they regard those non-Buddhists as fields of merit. Toward other śramaṇas and brāhmaṇas and the like, they will never gaze up at their faces, watch their countenances, value what they say, or seek the Dharma from their mouths; they only see the Dharma and attain the Dharma by themselves, know the Dharma and attain the Dharma on their own, realize the very source and depths of the Dharma, transcend and cross over all doubts, not relying on external conditions. Being able to realize the depths of the Dharma is due to the instruction of a good spiritual friend (kalyāṇamitra), not drawn from anywhere other than that good spiritual friend. The practitioner is fearless amid all dharmas, will never falsely cling to worldly auspicious signs and good omens as being purity, will never again undergo an eighth birth in existence, and will perfectly accomplish the four certainties of realization (the four factors of stream-entry). Such a practitioner, up until before the "foremost of worldly dharmas" (laukikāgra-dharma), is said to be engaged in the attention of thorough determination (adhimokṣa-manaskāra).

After a practitioner attains the four knowledges of direct realization and cultivates the four aids to penetration, all contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) before the "foremost of worldly dharmas," which is the fourth of the aids to penetration, is called the attention of thorough determination. This means that all deliberation and investigation prior to direct, present-moment realization should be called thorough determination and comprehension of the Dharma; only after thorough determination can one observe and attain it directly, which is called actual realization. Actual realization occurs from the stage of the srotāpanna fruit and above, while thorough determination occurs in the stage of the srotāpanna-ānaṃya (one entering the stream) or in the "foremost of worldly dharmas" stage of the four aids to penetration; only after the four aids to penetration can one actually realize and see the Path. Therefore one should observe one's own wisdom as it truly is: is it the wisdom of direct observation, or thorough determination, or mere conjecture, inference, and analysis? Only by understanding the level of one's own wisdom can one properly plan the next step of one's cultivation.

A practitioner who possesses the four knowledges of direct realization never obtains or knows the Dharma from elsewhere, and does not take what others say as the ultimate refuge; they always rely on their own direct observation to achieve actual realization. As for seeing the Dharma and attaining the Dharma, one can only rely on one's own effort in investigation and contemplative practice—others cannot help; whatever others point out or instruct cannot substitute for one's own direct contemplative observation. Doubts must be resolved by oneself through contemplative practice; what others say cannot dispel the doubts within one's own mind, because it is not what one has personally seen and realized. Some people try every means to extract the fruits of others' cultivation, but the Buddha-Dharma is such that whoever cultivates it attains it; what is extracted from others cannot become one's own, nor can one thereby attain the wisdom of seeing the Path. With the Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra as a guide, the principles of the Dharma become ever clearer; as for realizing the fruits and seeing the mind, no one's refusal to accept it matters—otherwise, go find Bodhisattva Maitreya and have a debate with Him.