Clarifying the Marks of the Truth of the Path through the Four Practices

Original text of the Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra, Volume 34:于灭谛相正觉了已。复正觉了真对治道。于所知境能通寻求义故。能实寻求义故。由于四门随转义故。一向能趣涅槃义故。所以说名道如行出。如是行者由四种行了道谛相。

Explanation: The truth of the path is understood through the four contemplative practices of path, accordance, practice, and emergence. After the practitioner has genuinely and correctly awakened to the characteristic of the truth of cessation, he must finally also genuinely and correctly awaken to the path he cultivates, in order to extinguish suffering and attain liberation. The path cultivated in order to extinguish suffering and sever origination is called "path." Because one can thoroughly seek the true meaning of the knowable object, and can truthfully seek its true meaning, it is called "accordance." In the course of cultivating the path, when one's bodily, verbal, and mental actions accord with the meaning of suffering, emptiness, impermanence, and non-self, and no longer violate the truth of suffering by accumulating suffering through actions, this is called "practice." After cultivating the path, the mental activities gradually become tranquil and cease, ceaselessly tending toward nirvāṇa, transcending birth and death—this is called "emergence." Thus the yogic practitioner, through these four contemplative practices of path, accordance, practice, and emergence, understands the characteristic of the truth of the path.

What does the true counteractive path refer to? "Path" refers to the manner, method, and route; "counteractive" refers to counteracting the afflictions of greed, hatred, delusion, and ignorance in the mind. Ignorance is not knowing suffering, not knowing the origination of suffering; therefore one must counteract this not-knowing and turn it into knowing. If there were no ignorance, no counteraction would be needed. This process is precisely cultivating the path—cultivating precepts, meditation, and wisdom, the thirty-seven factors of enlightenment, and contemplating and practicing contemplative practice (vipaśyanā-caryā) on the Four Noble Truths. This is the practice of the path.

The practice of accordance means making the mind accord with the truths and Dharma principles of suffering, emptiness, impermanence, and non-self. Regarding the knowable object of the Dharma of the Four Noble Truths, one can thoroughly and deeply deliberate on its true principle, can truthfully contemplate and practice its Dharma principles, and comprehend the correct principle contained in the knowable object, thereby realizing the truth of the Four Noble Truths. The practice of practice: on the basis of severing ignorance through the practice of accordance, the mental activities transform, and all one's mental activities accord with the truths one has cognized, no longer contradicting the true principles of suffering, emptiness, impermanence, and non-self. The practice of emergence: through cultivating the path, one severs afflictions, purifies one's bodily, verbal, and mental actions, no longer grasps at the world of the five aggregates, becomes tranquil and unconditioned, attains liberation of body and mind, tends toward nirvāṇa, accords with nirvāṇa, transcends the three realms, and is liberated from the suffering of the cycle of birth and death in saṃsāra.

From the above four practices, it can be seen that in the course of cultivating the path, precepts, meditation, and wisdom grow, one's cognition of the world of the five aggregates accords with the true principle, ignorance becomes thinner, afflictions become lighter, mental activities no longer contradict the noble path, and the body-mind world gradually transforms. When the transformation reaches a certain degree, according with the path and according with the sages, one realizes the noble path. It is not that one only begins to slowly transform body and mind after realizing the fruits; if one does not transform body and mind to accord with the sages, one cannot become a sage. It is just like a student taking an examination: if he does not pass, he cannot be admitted to school—the principle is the same.