Yogācārabhūmi Śāstra, Volume 34 (53)

Original text: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。如是名为于四圣谛。自内现观了相作意。

Explanation: After the practitioner has correctly and truly awakened to the characteristic of the truth of cessation, he must finally also correctly and truly awaken to the path that is cultivated as the true antidote to suffering, in order to extinguish suffering and attain liberation. Regarding the knowable object, being able to comprehensively seek its true meaning, and being able to genuinely seek its true meaning, is called "suchness" (如). During the course of cultivating the path, his bodily, verbal, and mental actions accord with the principle of the Four Noble Truths and are continuously transformed toward purity; this is called "practice" (行). After cultivating the path, the mental activities gradually become tranquil and cease, tending toward nirvāṇa and departing from birth and death; this is called "emergence" (出). In this way, the yogi, through these four practices—path, suchness, practice, and emergence—clearly understands the characteristic of the truth of the path. This is called the aspect-clarifying attention (了相作意) of direct realization from within oneself regarding the Four Noble Truths.

What does the true antidotal path refer to? "Path" refers to the manner, method, and route; "antidote" refers to counteracting the afflictions of greed, hatred, delusion, and ignorance in the mind. Ignorance is not knowing suffering, not knowing the accumulation of suffering; therefore one must counteract this not-knowing and turn it into knowing. If there were no ignorance, no antidote would be needed. The path cultivated in order to extinguish suffering and sever accumulation is called the path; the process of extinguishing suffering is precisely cultivating the path—cultivating precepts, meditative concentration (samādhi), and wisdom (prajñā), the thirty-seven factors of enlightenment, and contemplating and practicing the Four Noble Truths. This is the practice of the path.

The practice of suchness 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 genuinely contemplate and practice its Dharma principles, and comprehend the true principle contained in the knowable object, thereby realizing the truth of the Four Noble Truths. The practice of practice (行行), on the basis of the practice of suchness eradicating ignorance, the mental activities are transformed, 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 means that through cultivating the path, afflictions are severed, bodily, verbal, and mental actions become pure, one no longer grasps at the world of the five aggregates (pañca-skandha), one becomes tranquil and unconditioned, body and mind are liberated, one tends toward nirvāṇa and accords with nirvāṇa, departs from the three realms, and is liberated from the suffering of the cycle of birth and death in saṃsāra.

Through the four practices of path, suchness, practice, and emergence, one clearly understands the truth of the path. From the above four practices, it can be known that in the process of cultivating the path, precepts, meditative concentration, and wisdom grow, one's cognition of the world of the five aggregates accords with true principle, ignorance becomes thinner, afflictions become lighter, mental activities do not contradict the noble path, and the body-mind world is gradually transformed; when purity 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—the principle is the same.