Exposition on the Twelve Links of Dependent Origination in the Yogācārabhūmi

Chapter 3  Volume Fifty-Five — The Three Direct Realizations  

Original text:复次。此三种杂染。谓烦恼杂染。业杂染。生杂染。为欲断故。修六种现观。应知何等为六。谓思现观。信现观。戒现观。现观智谛现观。现观边智谛现观。究竟现观。

Explanation: Furthermore, there are the defilement of afflictions, the defilement of karma, and the defilement of birth. In order to sever these three kinds of defilement, one must cultivate the six kinds of direct realization (abhisamaya). What are these six? They are: the direct realization of deliberation, the direct realization of faith, the direct realization of precepts, the direct realization of truth through the wisdom of direct realization, the direct realization of truth through the wisdom of the limit of direct realization, and the ultimate direct realization.

The defilement of afflictions refers to the mental actions of greed, anger, and delusion. Because of the defilement of greed, anger, and delusion, one will create karmic actions defiled by greed, anger, and delusion; having created karmic actions defiled by greed, anger, and delusion, this will lead to a defiled body of birth in future lives. To sever these defiled dharmas, one must cultivate the six kinds of direct-perception contemplative practice. Below, these several kinds of direct realization are introduced one by one.

The direct realization of deliberation means having a direct, careful, and resolute deliberation regarding the principle of the Four Noble Truths, being able to decisively understand and realize the principle that all dharmas are suffering, empty, impermanent, and non-self, such that non-Buddhist teachings cannot influence this resolute deliberation, and there is no more retrogression regarding the principle of the Four Noble Truths. When the direct realization of deliberation is accomplished, there is right conduct, the mind-ground is pure, the mind gives rise to joy, all doubts are severed, one forever abides in wholesome destinies, and does not proceed to evil destinies. This is the deliberation of the mind consciousness and the manas. The deliberation of the mind consciousness alone cannot change mental actions, sever doubts, purify the mind-ground, or forever end the evil destinies. Of course, the direct realization of deliberation also includes deliberation on the Mahāyāna Dharma. Since it is called direct realization, it must accord with reality and accord with truth, and there is wisdom of actual realization within it.

The direct realization of faith refers to having resolute and pure faith in the Three Jewels, without hesitation or divided loyalty, and consequently one will no longer create karma of slander. Resolute faith represents wisdom; only with wisdom can there be direct realization; otherwise, there can be no direct realization, only deluded discrimination. A person who has the direct realization of faith will no longer create karmic actions that slander the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Saṅgha. Slandering the Buddha includes saying that the Buddha was merely an arhat, that the fruit of a Pratyekabuddha has only the realization of the Four Noble Truths and the twelve links of dependent origination and no other realization; slandering the Buddha by saying he had no great supernatural powers or immeasurable supernatural powers, that the Buddha was about the same as worldly people and quite ordinary; slandering the Buddha by saying he was a layperson who also engaged in laypeople's affairs, or slandering the Buddha's flesh and hair as being that of worldly people, and so on without end. These statements are neither pure faith nor resolute faith, and therefore at the end of life they will all proceed to the three evil destinies to receive retribution. A person who has the direct realization of faith can truly understand the immeasurable merits, virtues, wisdom, and supernatural powers of all the Buddhas of the three times without giving rise to misunderstanding; such a person has determination (adhimokṣa) regarding the Three Jewels, is not superstitious, has right conduct, and has wholesome karma.

Slandering the Dharma is a widespread phenomenon in the Dharma-ending age; having seen much of it, one no longer finds it strange. The most serious is the claim that "the Mahāyāna is not the Buddha's teaching." These people cannot understand at all whether the Mahāyāna Dharma principles are correct, whether they accord with reason, or whether they are supreme; with a severely deluded mind, they blindly and baselessly conclude that it is not the Buddha's teaching. There are also those who proclaim the Dharma as non-Dharma and non-Dharma as Dharma—various such inversions are all very serious acts of slandering the Dharma, and at the end of life they will certainly invoke hellish retribution.

The phenomenon of slandering the Saṅgha is also very widespread. Declaring a member of the Saṅgha to be not of the Saṅgha, or declaring a non-member to be of the Saṅgha, is slandering the Saṅgha. Criticizing and publicizing the various faults in the bodily, verbal, and mental actions of monastics—whether such things actually happened or not—constitutes slandering the Saṅgha. It damages the image of the Saṅgha in the minds of sentient beings, creates bad influence, causes sentient beings to lose faith in the Saṅgha Jewel, and no longer accept the Three Jewels, destroying sentient beings' faculty of faith. These karmic offenses are extremely grave; most are hellish offenses, with retribution in the hells.

The direct realization of precepts means being able to firmly uphold without violation the various precepts established by the Buddha, and no longer being able to create karmic actions leading to the three evil destinies. A person who has accomplished the direct realization of precepts will absolutely never again intentionally kill, take what is not given, commit sexual misconduct, speak falsely, or consume alcohol; their bodily, verbal, and mental karma is pure and untainted, they have already been liberated from the suffering of the three evil destinies, have distanced themselves from the ten unwholesome paths, and their body of birth is that of a srotāpanna up to an arhat of the fourth fruit, as well as the fruit of a Pratyekabuddha, the fruit of a Bodhisattva, and the fruit of Buddhahood. That is to say, only those who have accomplished the noble fruits can possess the direct realization of precepts.

According to what is said in Volume Fifty-Five of the Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra above, noble persons of the initial fruit and above who are endowed with the direct realization of precepts will no longer violate the five precepts or the various precepts they have received and upheld; their minds do not correspond to the three evil destinies, so they will not create the ten unwholesome karmic actions leading to the three evil destinies, and will not violate the five precepts, the bhikṣu precepts, the bhikṣuṇī precepts, or the Bodhisattva precepts. If a person cannot even uphold the five precepts, then based on the Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra and the Prakaraṇāryavācā-śāstra (Xianyang Shengjiao Lun), one can conclude that this person has no realization of the initial fruit or above; the claimed attainment of fruit is a misjudgment, a false attainment, and cannot be trusted.

After a person has eradicated the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi-prahāṇa) and attained the initial fruit, they will no longer fall into the three evil destinies. Why is this so? Because their mind has changed; the mind no longer corresponds to the karma of the three evil destinies and will no longer create karmic actions of the three evil destinies, and thus will no longer fall into the three evil destinies to suffer. When the mind realizes non-self, it becomes empty; a person whose mind is empty cannot possibly create karmic actions of the three evil destinies. What are the karmic actions of the three evil destinies? They are karmic actions that violate the five precepts and karmic actions that violate the ten wholesome deeds. Only by upholding the five precepts can one obtain a human body and not the body of beings in the three evil destinies; only by upholding the ten wholesome deeds can one obtain a human or heavenly body and not the body of beings in the three evil destinies. The mental actions of a person who has eradicated the view of self and realized the fruit will certainly correspond to the five precepts and ten wholesome deeds; only thus can they be exempted from the karma and bodies of the three evil destinies.

Then, this mind that has eradicated the view of self, this mind that corresponds to the five precepts and ten wholesome deeds, this mind that does not correspond to the karma of the three evil destinies—which mind is it? The mind consciousness is certainly such a mind, and the manas, which is the most crucial, should absolutely be such a mind. Moreover, the manas is an uninterrupted mind. Only after the view of self has been eradicated will the manas uninterruptedly possess the merit of the combined path of vipaśyanā and śamatha. Whether sleeping, unconscious, dead, or in the antarābhava at any time, the merit of having eradicated the view of self is present in the body, and one will take rebirth, enter the womb, and conceive by means of this merit. Thus, whatever mental actions the manas has and whatever karma it holds, there will be a corresponding embryonic body. If one wishes not to enter the three evil destinies, the manas must eradicate the view of self and be endowed with all merits. With only the mind consciousness's wisdom of hearing the Dharma, wisdom of inference, wisdom of speculation, and wisdom of emotional thought and intellectual understanding, there is absolutely no guarantee of severing the manifest current of gross afflictions (dausthulya), no guarantee of not creating karmic actions of the three evil destinies, no guarantee of not violating the five precepts and ten wholesome deeds, and consequently no guarantee of not entering the three evil destinies at the end of life.

The direct realization of truth through the wisdom of direct realization: according to what is said in Volume Fifty-Five of the Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra, during the process of cultivating the path of preparation, one must first accumulate the merit-provisions for seeing the path to the utmost degree of completeness, and the mind must have been effectively subdued and softened. Relying on and conforming to the limit of the worldly determination of the nirvedhabhāgīya (decisive division), uninterrupted wholesome roots arise. This means that through cultivating the path of preparation, the manas has been sufficiently permeated and influenced by wholesome dharmas, the mind-ground has become soft, subdued, and tamed, and the wholesome roots have manifested. In the cultivation of the path in the Buddha's Dharma, "uninterrupted" generally refers to the manas. The mind consciousness is intermittent, constantly ceasing, and unreliable. Only when cultivation reaches the manas can the wholesome dharmas be considered to have reached a stage, and only then is there a qualitative leap, and the path-work can ascend to a higher level.

After the manas gives rise to wholesome roots, the mind will preliminarily eliminate the imputed dharmas of sentient beings, meaning that one has preliminarily realized the path, realizing that the five aggregates are empty, false, and illusory. At this time, one can remove the gross afflictions severed at the first seeing of the path. This meaning has already been stated very clearly: seeing the path at the initial fruit does sever the manifest current of gross afflictions and can remove some gross afflictions. Only after the manas has also seen the path can gross afflictions be severed; the mind consciousness has no way to sever afflictions.

After attaining the initial fruit, the wisdom-realization of seeing the path of the initial fruit will manifest and continue uninterruptedly; then, for the second time, the merit and wisdom of seeing the path arise, and the mind further eliminates the various imputed dharmas of the sentient beings of the five aggregates. The view of self is further deeply eradicated, and the second fruit is attained, removing the medium-grade gross afflictions severed at seeing the path. This means that seeing the path at the initial fruit is not ultimate; the view of self has only been severed in the initial, soft grade, and there remain the second, medium-grade severance and the third-grade ultimate severance. The gross afflictions are also not severed ultimately; at seeing the path of the second fruit and the third and fourth fruits, gross afflictions must continue to be severed. The second fruit, of course, is also attained by the manas; only then can uninterrupted wisdom arise and gross afflictions be further severed.

After attaining the second fruit, the wisdom-realization of seeing the path of the second fruit will manifest and continue uninterruptedly; then, for the third time, the merit and wisdom of seeing the path arise, more deeply and universally eliminating the imputed dharmas of the five aggregates of all sentient beings. The view of self is further, more deeply, and ultimately eradicated, and by this merit, all the manifest currents of gross afflictions to be severed at seeing the path are severed. Volume Fifty-Five of the Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra says that this seeing of the path is the combined path of the first dhyāna meditative concentration and the wisdom of contemplative practice. Not only must there be profound contemplative wisdom of eradicating the view of self, but there must also be first-dhyāna meditative concentration in order to sever all gross afflictions. This is the eradication of the view of self by the noble ones of the third and fourth fruits, called the seeing of the path of the third and fourth fruits.

The earlier initial and second fruits do not require first-dhyāna meditative concentration, but they absolutely require preparatory concentration (anāgamya-samādhi), and the preparatory concentration must be complete; otherwise, the contemplative wisdom of eradicating the view of self will not arise, and one cannot eradicate the view of self and attain the initial and second fruits. When attaining the third fruit, one is endowed with the three grades of vipaśyanā contemplative wisdom from the three eradications of the view of self, and is simultaneously endowed with the three grades of meditative-concentration minds of śamatha for seeing the path; adding the combined operation of meditative concentration and wisdom, these together are established as the three minds. Thus, in a single instant, the śamatha and vipaśyanā of the third and fourth fruits are all completely endowed.

All benevolent ones who study the Four Noble Truths must rely on the Dharma, not on persons. You should all rely on the standard for eradicating the view of self and seeing the path taught by Bodhisattva Maitreya in the Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra to measure whether oneself or others have truly seen the path with the equal cultivation of Samādhi and Prajñā, or whether it is a false seeing of the path of self-promotion. By clarifying the standard for seeing the path, one will not confuse and mislead, commit the grave offense of false speech, or damage the Buddha's teachings.

The direct realization of truth through the wisdom of direct realization: a person who possesses the direct realization of truth through the wisdom of direct realization can attain all the fruits of the monastic life, can induce all pure merits, can give rise to the remaining direct-realization wisdoms, and can help invoke pure fruits and karma within wholesome destinies. If a trainee (śaikṣa) or one beyond training (aśaikṣa) has accomplished the direct realization of truth through the wisdom of direct realization, they will never again act on the basis of the false view of self; all their actions are non-self. They will never have doubts about the Dharma they have realized themselves, will never again be born in places that are defiled and contaminated, and in the places where they are born, they will no longer have greed and defilement. In their present life of living and practice, all worldly phenomena have become pure, without defilement or impurity; they will no longer slander the śrāvakas, the Pratyekabuddhas, or the Mahāyāna Dharma, will no longer create evil karma, and even less can they commit the five rebellious acts and seven rebellious acts; they will never again be born in the three realms for the eighth time—this is the meaning of the initial fruit exhausting the seven existences.

The direct realization of truth through the wisdom of the limit of direct realization: this wisdom can only be obtained after seeing the path. After which seeing of the path can it be obtained? It is obtained at the third-grade seeing of the path, the direct-realization wisdom obtained after the seeing of the path of the third and fourth fruits with the combined operation of first-dhyāna meditative concentration and wisdom. It takes as its object the previously attained worldly wisdom, observing the lower realm (the desire realm) and the higher realm (the first dhyāna heaven of the form realm), as well as the two established true principles of the desire realm and the first dhyāna heaven of the form realm; the realm thus obtained belongs to the worldly wisdom subsumed under dharma-knowledge (dharma-jñāna) and analogous knowledge (anvaya-jñāna), spanning both worldly wisdom and supramundane wisdom. In the contemplative practice of each of the Four Noble Truths, there will appear the wisdom of acquiescent delight and the wisdom of decisive direct realization. In this way, relying on the direct realization of the preceding truth, two kinds of direct-realization wisdom will arise in the contemplative practice of the preceding and following truths—this is the direct realization of truth through the wisdom of the limit of direct realization. Persons of the third and fourth fruits who have accomplished the direct realization of truth through the wisdom of the limit of direct realization will never fear the challenging questions of others, because their direct-realization wisdom is deep and sharp, and they have thoroughly penetrated the Dharma principles of the path of liberation; no one can stump them, and they can skillfully answer all challenges.

The ultimate direct realization: this is the direct-perception contemplative wisdom attained by the arhat of the fourth fruit. Because the arhat of the fourth fruit has exhausted all the manifest currents of afflictions to be severed on the path of cultivation, they have obtained the wisdom of extinguishing existence in the three realms, the wisdom of being able to never be born again in future lives; or, out of compassion for sentient beings, they give rise to the mind to save and liberate sentient beings and will still be born into the world in future lives, but without any manifest currents of affliction, and they still abide in the world relying on their wisdom of the eternal extinction of the world—this is the ultimate direct realization. Realizing the wisdom of the eternal extinction of the world is the most ultimate; realizing the wisdom that the world is ultimately empty is the most ultimate—this is the ultimate direct realization. The previous direct realizations still had taints not exhausted, and therefore were not yet the ultimate direct realization.

The great arhat who has accomplished the ultimate direct realization will never again violate the five precepts, no longer intentionally killing, taking what is not given, engaging in sexual desire, speaking falsely, or accumulating wealth and treasures for personal use. Sexual desire here refers to any kind of sexual desire, regardless of severity, regardless of whether worldly conventions permit it, regardless of whether it is moral or immoral; because anyone who has attained the fruit of arhatship is necessarily a monastic, with no laypersons among them, they will have no family members, and thus there is no such thing as permitted sexual relations. False speech here refers to any kind of false speech, including worldly false speech intentionally spoken incorrectly within worldly conventions. An arhat will never fear unknowable things that may happen in the future, nor will they falsely reckon all the world's suffering and happiness as self-made, made by another, or made by both self and other, nor will they falsely remember it as arising without cause, neither from self nor from other. The great arhat who has accomplished the ultimate direct realization has been liberated from all the great suffering of birth and death in the world; this body is the final body, and they will no longer receive subsequent existence—except for those who retain their form and abide in the world.