English (machine translation)

Translation of ཆས་མངན་པའ་མཛད་ཀྱ་ཚག་ལའར་བྱས་པ (ཆོས་མངོན་པའི་མཛོད་ཀྱི་ཚིག་ལེའུར་བྱས་པ)

Language: English
Extent: 49 passages, 17,017 words
Text: complete digital text
Source: pramana-mt · Machine translation by Gemini 3.8 Flash (2026-10-21) of… · Machine output without human authorship: no copyright is claimed (CC0 1.0). The original text keeps its own…

Text

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The Verses on the Treasury of Abhidharma (Abhidharmakośakārikā) reside herein.

In the language of India: Abhidharmakośakārikā.
In the language of Tibet: Chos mngon pa'i mdzod kyi tshig le'ur byas pa.

Homage to Mañjuśrīkumārabhūta!

Having bowed down to the Teacher who taught according to reality,
Who completely destroyed all darkness regarding everything
And rescued living beings from the mire of saṃsāra,
I shall explain the treatise of the Abhidharmakośa.
Abhidharma is pure discernment along with its attendants,
And whatever [discernment] and whatever treatises enable its attainment.
Because it enters into its meaning correctly here,
Or because it is the basis for it, this is the Abhidharmakośa.
Because without the discernment of dharmas,
There is no means for pacifying the afflictions,
And because of afflictions beings wander in this ocean of existence in the world,
It is said that for that reason it was spoken by the Teacher.
Dharmas are sāsrava and anāsrava.
Except for the path, saṃskṛta dharmas
Are sāsrava, because in them

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The āsravas increase.
The anāsrava path is the truth [of the path]
And the three asaṃskṛtas as well:
Space and the two nirodhas.
Among them, space is non-obstruction.
That which is pratisaṃkhyānirodha
Is separation; each is distinct.
That which permanently obstructs arising,
The other nirodha, is apratisaṃkhyānirodha.
Those saṃskṛta dharmas
Are also the five skandhas of rūpa and so forth.
They alone are the bases of time, of discourse,
Endowed with liberation, and endowed with bases.
Those that are sāsrava are upādānaskandhas,
And they are also accompanied by conflict,
And they are duḥkha, samudaya, the world,
The basis of views, and existence.
Rūpa is the five indriyas, the five
Objects, and avijñapti.
The supports of consciousness among them
Are the clear rūpas of the eye and so on.
Rūpa is of two kinds and twenty kinds;
Sound is of eight kinds;
Taste is of six kinds; odor is of four kinds;
Tangibles are eleven in nature.
Even when distracted or unconscious,
Whatever connects with virtue and non-virtue,
Caused by the mahābhūtas,
Is called avijñapti.
The mahābhūtas are the earth

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Dhātu, and the dhātus of water, fire, and wind;
They are established by their actions of holding and so forth;
Their natures are solidity, fluidity, heat, and motility.
In worldly convention,
Color and shape are called earth;
Water and fire likewise; wind is both the collection
And the dhātu itself, or something similar to that.
Just those indriyas and objects
Are held to be the ten āyatanas and dhātus.
Vedanā is experience; saṃjñā
Has the nature of apprehending signs.
The saṃskāraskandha consists of those other than the four.
Those three, together with avijñapti
And the asaṃskṛtas,
Are called the dharmāyatana and the dharmadhātu.
Vijñāna is individual awareness;
That is also the manāyatana.
It is also held to be seven dhātus:
The six vijñānas and manas.
Whichever vijñāna has just ceased
Among the six is manas.
In order to establish the support of the sixth,
Eighteen dhātus are accepted.
All are subsumed by one skandha,
One āyatana, and one dhātu,
By their intrinsic nature,
Because they do not possess the reality of others.
Although the eye and so forth are two,
Because their type, sensory range, and consciousness
Are similar, they are just a single dhātu;
Two arose for the sake of beauty.
The meanings of skandha, āyatana, and dhātu
Are heap, gate of arising, and lineage.
Because of the threefold delusion, capacities, and inclinations,
The three, skandhas and so on, were taught.
Because of being the root of disputes,
The cause of saṃsāra, and because of the order,
From among caittas, vedanā and
Saṃjñā are posited as separate skandhas.
Asaṃskṛtas were not spoken of
Among the skandhas, because they do not fit the meaning.
The order corresponds to coarseness, defilement,
And the analogy of vessels, in accordance with the dhātus.
The first five are because of present objects;
Four are because their objects are derived from the elements;
The other is because it functions quickly and not too far,
Or else their order is as they are situated.
Because of particular meaning and prominence,
And because of gathering many and superior dharmas,
One is called the rūpāyatana

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And one is designated as dharma.
The eighty thousand bundles of dharma (dharmaskandha)
Which were spoken by the Sage—
They are phrases or names, and they
Are included in rūpa and saṃskāra.
Some say their measure is that of a treatise;
They are topics like the skandhas and so forth;
As antidotes to behaviors,
The dharmaskandhas were spoken accordingly.
Likewise, other [dharmas] as appropriate,
Having properly examined their own characteristics,
Are to be subsumed under the skandhas,
Āyatanas, and dhātus, as explained.
Apertures are known as the ākāśadhātu;
They are said to be light and darkness.
Sāsrava vijñāna
Is the vijñānadhātu, the support of rebirth.
Here only rūpa is visible;
The ten corporeal ones are with obstruction.
Those eight are neutral;
Except for rūpa and sound, the others are of three kinds.
All belong to the desire realm;
Fourteen are in the form realm,
Excluding odor, taste, and the dhātus
Of nose and tongue vijñāna.
Belonging to the formless realm are manas,
Dharmas, and the manovijñānadhātu.
Those three are sāsrava and anāsrava;
The rest are sāsrava.
Accompanied by vitarka and vicāra
Are the five vijñānadhātus;
The last three are of three kinds;
The rest are free from both.
Due to conceptualization consisting of investigation and recollection,
They are not conceptual.
Those are distraction of mental discernment;
All mental mindfulness is likewise.
Those possessing an intentional object are the seven mind dhātus
And half of dharma; nine are unappropriated:
Those eight and sound.
The other nine are of two kinds.
Tangibles are of two kinds;
The remaining nine corporeal ones
Are derived matter; a part of the dharmadhātu is also.
The ten corporeal ones are accumulated.
That which cuts and that which is cut
Are the four external dhātus;
Likewise that which is burned and that which weighs

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Or is weighed. As for burning and weighing, there are differing assertions.
Produced from vipāka
And produced from growth are the five internal ones.
Sound is not born of vipāka;
It arises from similar causes and is born of vipāka.
The eight unobstructed ones are of three other kinds.
One possesses substance; the last three
Are momentary; the eye and
Vijñānadhātus are acquired
Separately as well as together.
The twelve internal ones, excluding rūpa and so forth,
And that which is called dharma,
Possess application; the remaining
Are also similar to them,
Which do not perform their own function.
Ten are to be abandoned by cultivation;
Five also; the last three are of three kinds.
That which is non-defiled is not abandoned by seeing;
That which is non-corporeal and not the sixth is not born.
The eye and a part of the dharmadhātu
Are views, and are of eight kinds.
An intellect co-arisen with the five vijñānas,
Because it lacks determination, is not a view.
The eye with application sees rūpas;
Not the consciousness supported by it,
Because rūpa which is obscured
Is not seen, it is said.
The eyes also see by means of both,
Because they see clearly.
The eye, mind, and ear
Do not contact their objects; the other three do.
By means of the three beginning with the nose,
Objects are held to be apprehended as equal [in size].
The support of the last has passed; of the five,
They are co-arisen as well.
Because of changing when they change,
The supports are the eye and so forth.
Therefore, because they are uncommon,
Consciousness is designated by them.
For a body [of a lower realm], there is no eye of a lower one;
For an eye, there is no rūpa of a higher one;
Consciousness also [perceives] rūpa of that [realm];
For the body both are everywhere.
The ear is likewise; three are
All of their own level.
The body consciousness belongs to the lower and
Its own level; the mind is not definite.
External five are consciousnesses by two.
Asaṃskṛta dharmas are permanent.
Half of dharmas and those which
Are explained as the twelve internal ones are indriyas;
Dharmas

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From the Abhidharmakośakārikā, the first chapter: Exposition of the Dhātus.
The five are sovereign over four matters;
the four are sovereign over two, they say;
those five and eight are sovereign
over defilement and purification.
Because they govern the apprehension of their own objects
and everything, there are six faculties.
Because they govern female-ness and male-ness,
the female and male faculties are [derived] from the body.
Because they govern the continuation of the family,
defilement, and purification,
vitality, the feelings, and the five faculties
beginning with faith are maintained [as faculties].
Because they govern obtaining nirvāṇa and so forth,
higher and higher,
there are the faculty of making known what is not known, the faculty of knowing,
and likewise the faculty of one who possesses complete knowledge.
As many as there are bases of mind and their distinctions,
continuation, defilement,
assemblages, and purification,
just so many are the faculties.
Alternatively, from the basis of worldly engagement,
its arising, continuation, and enjoyment,
there are fourteen; likewise, for reversal,
the faculties are other.
Whatever bodily feeling is not pleasant
is the faculty of suffering; what is pleasant
is pleasure; in the third dhyāna,
that of the mind is the faculty of pleasure;
elsewhere, that is mental pleasure.
Mental unpleasantness
is mental displeasure; equanimity
is intermediate, because both are non-conceptualizing.
Nine belong to the paths of seeing, meditation, and no-more-learning;
three are [those paths]; three are immaculate.
The physical, vitality, and suffering
are sāsrava; nine are of two kinds.
Vitality is vipāka; twelve are twofold,
excluding the last eight
and mental displeasure; that one
is possessed of vipāka; ten are twofold.
Mind, the other feelings, faith, and so forth,
eight are virtuous; mental displeasure
is twofold; the mind and the other feelings
are threefold; the others are of one kind.
Except for the immaculate, they belong to the desire realm;
except for the female and male faculties and suffering,
they belong to the form realm; except for the physical

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and pleasure, they belong to the formless realm.
Mind and three feelings are threefold;
mental displeasure is to be abandoned by two;
nine by meditation; five are not
to be abandoned, nor are three.
In the desire realm, two vipākas are obtained
at the beginning, but not through apparitional birth:
by that, six, seven, or eight [are obtained];
in the form realm, six; in the higher, one.
When dying in the formless realm,
vitality, mind, and equanimity
cease; in the form realm, eight;
in the desire realm, ten, nine, or eight;
for those dying gradually, four.
In the virtuous, in all, five.
The last two fruits are obtained by nine;
two by seven, eight, and nine;
arhatship by eleven;
some are explained because of existence.
One who possesses equanimity, vitality,
and mind definitely possesses three.
One with pleasure and body possesses four;
one with the eye and so on possesses five;
one with mental pleasure or suffering possesses
seven; one with the female faculty and so on
eight; one possessing the faculty
of one who possesses complete knowledge has eleven;
one possessing the faculty of making known what is not known
possesses thirteen.
Among those lacking virtue, the fewest possessed
are eight: body, feelings, vitality, and mind.
An ordinary being in the formless realm is also like that:
equanimity, vitality, mind, and the virtuous ones;
for one possessing the most, there are nineteen,
excepting the immaculate ones.
An ārya with two physical marks possesses desire;
excepting one physical mark and two immaculate ones.
In the desire realm, an infinitesimal particle without faculties
and without sound has eight substances;
with the bodily faculty, nine substances;
with another faculty, ten substances.
Mind and caittas are definitely together;
all the marks of the saṃskṛta
and acquisition; or caittas are of five kinds,
because the many grounds and so forth are distinct:
feeling, intention, perception,
zeal, contact, intelligence, mindfulness,
mental engagement, resolve, and
samādhi [accompany] every mind.

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Faith, heedfulness, pliancy,
equanimity, conscientiousness, shame,
the two roots, non-harming, and
vigor always arise in the virtuous.
Delusion, heedlessness, laziness,
lack of faith, lethargy, and agitation
always arise in the defiled.
In the non-virtuous, shamelessness
and lack of conscientiousness. Anger,
enmity, dissimulation,
jealousy, spite, concealment, avarice,
deceit, pride, and harm
belong to the plane of minor defilements.
In a virtuous mind of the desire realm,
because it possesses examination and analysis,
twenty-two caittas [arise];
in some, remorse is added.
In the non-virtuous, unmixed,
and in one possessing view, twenty also arise;
four kleśas, anger and so forth,
and remorse make twenty-one.
In the veiled, eighteen; in the neutral,
twelve others are held.
Because sleep is not contradictory with all,
it is added to whichever possesses it.
Of those, remorse, sleep, and the non-virtuous
do not exist in the first dhyāna;
examination also [is absent] in the intermediate dhyāna;
above that, analysis also.
Disrespect is shamelessness and lack of conscientiousness;
not looking at fear in faults.
Joy and respect are conscientiousness.
Those two are in the desire and form realms.
Examination and analysis are coarseness and subtlety;
pride is haughtiness; complacency is
the mind's complete attachment
to one's own dharmas.
Citta, manas, and vijñāna
are one in meaning. Citta and caittas
have the same basis, object, aspect,
and associated; they are of five kinds.
The non-associated saṃskāras are:
acquisition, non-acquisition, generic similarity,
the meditative absorption of non-perception,
vitality, the characteristics,
and groups of words and so forth.
Acquisition is finding and possession.
Acquisition and non-acquisition belong
to one's own continuum; those of the two cessations
are of three kinds belonging to the three times.
Virtuous and so forth belong to the virtuous and so forth;
of those belonging

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there, they belong to their own realm;
of those not belonging, they are of four kinds;
of the trainee, non-trainee, and neither, there are three;
of that which is not to be abandoned, two are held.
Acquisition of the undetermined arises simultaneously,
except for superknowledges and magical creations;
also for veiled form; in the desire realm,
form has no prior arising.
Non-acquisition is unobscured-undetermined;
that of the past and unarisen is of three kinds;
belonging to the desire realm and so on, and also of the immaculate.
Non-acquisition of the path is maintained to be
an ordinary being; when that is obtained
and upon changing planes, it is completely lost.
Generic similarity is resemblance among sentient beings.
Non-perception is the cessation of mind
and caittas in [the realm of] non-perception;
its vipāka is great fruition.
Likewise, the meditative absorption of non-perception
is wished to occur in the final dhyāna;
it is virtuous; it is to be experienced after birth;
it is not of an ārya; it is obtained at one time.
That called 'cessation' is likewise;
arisen in the peak of existence for the sake of dwelling;
it is virtuous; it is to be experienced in two [lives]
and indefinite; it is obtained by an ārya through preparation.
The Sage's is obtained by enlightenment,
not initially, because it is obtained
by thirty-four moments.
Both are based on the desire and form realms;
cessation is initially [obtained] among humans.
Vitality is lifespan; that which is the basis
of warmth and vijñāna.
The characteristics are arising,
aging, duration, and impermanence.
They are the arisen of the arising, and so on;
they apply to eight dharmas and to one.
Without cause and conditions,
arising does not produce what is to be produced.
The collection of words and so forth
are the collections of words, phrases, and phonemes;
they belong to the desire and form realms, show sentient beings,
result from flow, and are undetermined; likewise,
generic similarity is also vipāka;
belonging to the three realms; acquisition is of two kinds;
the characteristics also, and the meditative absorptions,
and the non-associated are results of flow.
Efficient cause, co-emergent,
generically similar, associated, and

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Universal, and fruitional; / The causes are held to be sixfold. / What is other than itself is the efficient cause. / Those which arise together are mutual effects, / Just like the elements, those conforming to mind, / Mind, and the characteristics with that which is characterized. / Caittas, the two disciplines, / Mind, and the characteristics of those / Are conformers to mind, by time, / Fruit and so forth, virtue and so forth. / The cause of equal status is similar; / It belongs to its own class and plane, arisen earlier. / The paths of the nine planes are mutually / [Causes] for the equal and the superior. / Acquired by preparation belong only to those two; / Namely, those arisen from study, reflection, and so forth. / The associated cause is the minds and / Caittas possessing a common support. / The universal [cause] is for the afflicted ones / Arisen earlier in one's own plane. / The fruitional cause consists of non-virtuous / And sāsrava virtuous [dharmas] only. / The universal and equal status exist in two times; / The [other] three exist in three times. / The conditioned with disconnection is the fruit; / In the unconditioned those do not exist. / The fruit of ripening belongs to the last; / The sovereign fruit belongs to the first; / The outflow fruit to the cause of equal status and universal; / The fruit of human endeavor belongs to two. / Ripened [fruit] is an unspecified dharma; / It is said to belong to sentient beings, specified, arising later. / Outflow is similar to its cause. / Disconnection is cessation through discernment. / What is arisen through the power of whichever [cause], / That fruit is arisen from human endeavor. / What is conditioned and not prior / Is the sovereign fruit of the conditioned alone. / Five apprehend the fruit in the present; / Two yield [it]: / The present and the past; / One yields [it] when past. / Afflicted, born of ripening, / The rest, and the first noble [minds] respectively / Arise from the rest except ripening, / Universal, those two, and equal status. / That applies to mind and caittas; / The others are likewise, except for associated. / The conditions are taught to be four: / That called 'cause' consists of five causes. / Mind

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And caittas that have arisen, / Non-final, are the immediately preceding similar [condition]. / The objective condition comprises all dharmas. / That called 'efficient cause' is explained as the sovereign [condition]. / Two causes exercise their function / At the time of cessation; three / At the time of arising; the other conditions / Are the reverse of that. / Through four, mind and caittas [arise]; / Through three, the two samāpattis; / Others arise from two. / Not [from] Īśvara and so forth, because of sequence and so forth. / As a cause of that, the elements are of two kinds; / For secondary matter, of five kinds; / For secondary matter among themselves, of three kinds; / For the elements [among themselves], of one kind. / The desire-realm mind is virtuous, non-virtuous, / Obscured, and unobscured. / In the form and formless realms / There are those other than the non-virtuous, and two anāsrava [minds]. / From a virtuous desire mind, nine minds [arise]; / That arises from eight alone. / From a non-virtuous, ten [arise]; / From that, four; obscured is likewise. / From an unobscured, five [arise]; / Immediately following that, seven minds [arise]. / In form, from a virtuous [mind], eleven [arise]; / That [arises] immediately following nine. / From an obscured, eight; from that, six. / From an unobscured, three; / From that, six. The formless as well / Is in that manner: from a virtuous [mind], / Nine minds [arise]; that from six. / From an obscured, seven; from that likewise. / From a learner, four; from that, five. / A non-learner [arises] from five; / From that, four minds [arise]. / Those twelve are also divided into twenty: / In the three [realms], having distinguished virtuous into two: / Acquired by birth and arisen from preparation; / And into four unspecified in desire: / Born of ripening, belonging to deportment, / An artisan's trade, and magical creation; / In form, artisan's trade is excluded. / The afflicted of the three realms / Acquire six, six, and two [minds]. / For the virtuous born in form, three; / For the learner, four; for the rest, that. / In the Verses of the Abhidharmakośa, the exposition of the faculties: the second chapter.

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The hells, hungry ghosts, animals, / Humans, and the six gods / Are the desire realm; by dividing the hells / And continents, that is twenty. / The seventeen upper abodes / Are the form realm; there, each / Dhyāna plane is threefold; / The fourth plane is eightfold. / In the formless realm there are no abodes; / By birth it is of four kinds. / There, upon the homogeneous class and vital faculty, / The mind-stream relies. / There, the five destinies, hells and so forth, / Are designated by their own names; they / Are non-afflicted and unspecified; / Sentient beings are not the intermediate state. / Diversity of body and diversity of saṃjñā; / Diversity of body and one saṃjñā; / The reverse; and one body and saṃjñā: / These, and the three formless ones, / Are the seven stations of consciousness. The rest, / Those possessing their destruction, the peak of existence, / And the non-conscious beings / Are explained as the nine abodes of sentient beings; / Others are not, because of residing involuntarily. / Stations are again four: / The four sāsrava skandhas / Belonging to one's own plane; consciousness / Alone is not taught as a station. / In brief, the alternatives are four. / There, in the four birth-places of sentient beings, / Egg-born and so forth: / Humans and animals have the four kinds; / The hells, gods, / And the intermediate existence are born miraculously; / Hungry ghosts are also womb-born. / Here, that which arises between / Death and birth-existence: / Because it has not reached the destination, / It is not an intermediate state that has arisen. / Because of the similarity with the stream of a grain, / Existence does not arise from cessation. / Because a reflected image is not established, / And because of dissimilarity, it is not an example. / If it were one, because two do not exist together, / Because it is not a continuum, and because it arises from two. / Because it was spoken by the throat, it exists; gandharva; / And it is established from the sūtra of the five destinies taught. / Because it has the same projector, / Its shape is that of the former existence; / That is prior to death, / From the moment of birth

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Onward. / It is seen by the pure divine eye of the same class; / It possesses the speed of karmic miraculous power; / It has all indriyas complete, is unobstructed, / Irreversible; it is the gandharva. / Its mind having become inverted, / It goes to the destination of rebirth with delight; / Others desire scents and abodes; / The hellish are upside down. / One enters with awareness; / Another also resides [with awareness]; another / Also emerges [with awareness]; another is confused in all; / Egg-born is always so. / There are three who enter the womb: / The wheel-turning king and the two self-arisen; / Because karman, or wisdom, or both / Are vast, respectively. / It is merely self-less skandhas; / Conditioned by kleśa and karman, / Through the continuum of the intermediate state, / Like a lamp, it goes into the womb. / The continuum, just as projected, gradually / Having been born, through karman and kleśa / Goes to the other world: / The wheel of bhava has no beginning. / That comprises the twelve links / Of dependent origination in three sections. / Two each in the prior and posterior limits, / And eight in between, for the complete. / Avidyā is the stage of manifest kleśa; / The saṃskāras are those of former karman; / Vijñāna is the reconnecting skandhas; / Nāmarūpa is beyond that, / Up to the arising of the six āyatanas; / That is up to the meeting of the three; / Contact is up to the ability to know / The causes of pleasure, suffering, and so forth; / Up to the copulation of vedanā is thirst; / Of one attached to enjoyments and copulation; / Clinging is running all about / In order to obtain enjoyments; / Performing karman that will yield / The fruit of future existence: that is bhava; / Reconnection is birth; / Up to vedanā is old age and death. / This is held to be situational; / Because of prominence, the links are proclaimed, / In order to dispel confusion / Concerning the prior, posterior, and middle limits. / Kleśas are three; karman is two; / The seven bases are likewise the fruit. / The cause of the two

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are summarized into fruit. / From inferring the intermediate [states], / from defilement arise defilement / and action; from that, the basis; / from that, the basis and defilement arise. / This is the manner of the limbs of existence. / Here, what arises is the cause, / and that which has arisen is held to be the fruit. / The opposite of knowledge is another dharma, / like non-friend, untruth, and the like, / because of terms like 'fetter' and so forth. If [it were held to be] / inferior wisdom, that is not so, because it is a view; / because of being associated with that view; / and because it is taught as defiled wisdom. / Name refers to the non-material skandhas. / The six contacts are what arise from their gathering. / Five are contact of resistance; / the sixth is called contact of designation. / Contact of knowledge, of ignorance, and other contact / are taintless, defiled, and the rest. / Contact associated with malice and with attachment; / those experiencing pleasure, and so on, are three. / Sensation arisen from that is twofold: / five are bodily, the other is mental. / From mental roaming, / they are again of eighteen kinds. / In the desire [realm], all have their own object; / the material domain is twelve. / In the upper three dhyānas, / in two there are twelve, directed toward desire; / eight directed toward themselves; two of the formless. / In the two [higher] dhyānas, there are six: / six of desire, four of their own; / one is the object of the higher. / In the preparation of the formless, there are four: / those directed toward form, one directed toward the higher. / In the actual [absorptions] there is one, having its own sphere. / All eighteen are sāsrava. / Others will be explained and are being explained. / Here, defilements are like seeds, / like a nāga, like grass, like a tree, / and likewise are held to be like a husk. / Karman is like unhusked grain, / and likewise like medicine and a flower. / The basis is like prepared food and drink. / Among those four existences, / the existence of birth is defiled / by all defilements of its own level. / The other three, and three of the formless [existences]. / Beings are maintained by food. / Material food in the desire [realm] / consists of three āyatanas;

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it is not the form āyatana, because that / does not benefit the senses that are its support. / Contact, intention, and consciousness / are sāsrava foods in the three [realms]. / Mind-made, seeking existence, / gandharva, intermediate existence, / and arising. Among these, for maintaining / and increasing the support are two; / for projecting and actualizing another existence / are two, respectively. / Severing, linking, free from desire, / falling, death, and rebirth / are held to be only mental consciousness. / Death and rebirth are in equanimity; / not in one-pointedness or non-mind. / Nirvāṇa and the unmanifest are two. / For those going to lower [existences], gods, and humans, who do not take rebirth, / when dying gradually, mind transfers / at the feet, navel, and heart. / Severing the vital points is by water and so forth. / The noble ones and those who commit the immediate [sins] / are determined respectively in truth and falsity. / In that regard, beneath the desire [realm] / of the container world, / the wind mandala is in depth / one million six hundred thousand, inestimable. / The depth of water is eleven hundred thousand / and twenty thousand. / Later, in depth it is eight hundred thousand, / and the remainder turns to gold. / The diameter of the water and gold mandalas / is twelve hundred thousand / and three thousand and / four hundred and fifty. / The circumference is three times that. / Therein are Meru, Yugandhara, / Īṣādhara, Khadiraka, / likewise Mount Sudarśana, / Aśvakarṇa, Vinataka, / and Mount Nimindhara; thereafter / are the continents, and beyond them / on the outside is the Cakravāḍa; / seven are of gold, that is of iron. / Meru is of the nature of four jewels. / Eighty thousand [yojanas] are submerged / in the water, and likewise above / it is eighty thousand yojanas. / The eight [mountains] decrease in height by half and half; / their depths are also equal to their heights. / The seven intervals between them are the play lakes; / the first is eighty thousand [yojanas]. / That is the inner ocean; / its width is three times that.

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The other play lakes are half and half. / The remainder is the great outer ocean: / three hundred thousand and / twenty-two thousand. In that is / Jambūdvīpa, with three sides of / two thousand [yojanas], the shape of a cart; / one side is three and a half yojanas. / Pūrvavideha in the east is like a half-moon; / three sides are like this, one / is three hundred and fifty yojanas. / Aparamahāgodānīya is round, / seven and a half thousand [yojanas], / its center is three and a half thousand. / Uttarakuru is eight [thousand], equal and square. / The eight intermediate islands between them are / Deha, Videha, Kurava, / Kaurava, / Cāmara, Apara-cāmara, / Śāṭhā, and Uttaramantrina. / North from here, past nine black mountains, / is the Snow Mountain; thereafter, / on this side of the Gandhamādana, / is a lake of fifty [yojanas] in breadth and length. / Twenty thousand below this / is the Incessant [Hell]; it is of that size. / Above it are the seven hells; / from all eight, sixteen are distinct. / On the four sides of those / are embers, rotting corpses, / the path of razor blades, and so on, and the river. / The cold [hells] of Arbuda and the rest are eight others. / The sun and moon are at half of Meru, / with [a diameter of] fifty-one yojanas. / Midnight, sunset, / midday, and sunrise occur at the same time. / From the ninth day of the last / second summer month, the night grows long; / in the fourth of winter / it becomes short; the day is reversed. / The day and night lengthen by a moment / when the sun moves south and north. / By its proximity to the sun, / it appears eclipsed by its own shadow. / On this there are four tiers; / the distance between them is ten thousand [yojanas]. / They project sixteen thousand, / eight, four, and two [thousand]. / There, the Bowl-bearers, / Garland-bearers, and Ever-intoxicated, / and the gods of the Four Great Kings dwell. / On the seven mountains also. / On the summit of Meru are the Thirty-Three; / its sides are eighty thousand [yojanas]. / At the four elevated corners / are the Vajra-in-hand

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dwellers. In the center is / the city called Sudarśana, / with sides of two thousand five hundred, / and one and a half yojanas [in height], of the nature of gold, / having a variegated, soft ground. / There is the Vaijayanta [palace], / with sides of two hundred and fifty. / Outside it are adorned with the Caitraratha, / Pāruṣyaka, Miśrakāvana, and Nandanavana [groves]. / In the four directions from these, / bounded by twenty [yojanas], are excellent grounds. / In the northeast corner is the Pāriyātra tree, / in the southwest corner is the Sudharmā [assembly hall]. / Above that are the celestial palaces of the gods. / The realm of desire has six [levels]. / By pairwise embracing, holding hands, / laughing, and gazing, sexual union occurs. / Like children of five years old, / up to those of ten years old, / they are born there; those of the form [realm] / are fully developed and clothed. / The three births of desire / include the gods of desire and humans; / the three births of bliss / are nine grounds in the three dhyānas. / From one station to the station below, as far as it is, / so far it is from that to the one above. / Except by relying on miraculous powers, / they do not see those above. / The four continents, the sun and moon, / Mount Meru, the gods of the desire realm, / and a thousand Brahma worlds / are held to be a thousandfold universe (sāhasracūḍika). / A thousand of those is a second-thousand, / intermediate world system. / A thousand of those is a trichiliocosm. / They are destroyed and arise together. / The height of the people of Jambūdvīpa / is four cubits and three and a half [cubits]. / East, Godānīya, and / North are increased by twice and twice. / The bodies of the gods possessing desire / increase from a quarter [yojana] up to / one and a half krosa. / The first of the form realm is half a yojana; / the higher ones increase by half and half. / Above the Parīttābhas, / the body doubles and doubles; / the Anabhrakas drop three yojanas. / In Uttarakuru, the lifespan is a thousand [years]; / in two it is halved and halved. / Here it is indefinite: at the end, / ten years; at first, immeasurable. / Fifty human years / are [one day and night] for the gods of desire

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from [the heavens of] desire, one day and night equals [fifty human years] in the lowest; / therefore their lifespan is five hundred [years]. / The higher ones are successively doubled. / In the form realm, without day and night, lifespan / is measured in kalpas equal to their body's size. / In the formless realm, [lifespans are] twenty / thousand kalpas greater successively. / From Parīttābha onward, it is a great kalpa, / while those below that are half. / For Saṃjīva and the six [hells] successively, / a day and night equals the lifespan of the desire gods; / therefore their lifespan / is equal to that of the desire gods. / In Pratāpana it is half an intermediate kalpa; in Avīci / it is an intermediate kalpa. For animals, / the longest is a kalpa; for pretas, / five hundred [years] where a month is a day and night. / For the Arbuda [hell], the lifespan is the time / it takes to exhaust a vessel of sesame / by removing one sesame seed every hundred years; / the lifespans of the others are multiplied by twenty. / Except in Uttarakuru, all die prematurely. / The ultimate limit of form, name, and time are the subtle atom, the syllable, and / the instant. A paramāṇu, / an aṇu, and likewise / an iron dust, water dust, hare dust, sheep dust, and ox dust, / sunbeam dust, a nit, / and what arises from it, and likewise / a barley corn and an angula-joint are successively multiplied by seven. / Twenty-four finger-widths are a cubit; / four cubits are a bow-span; / five hundred of those / are a krośa, which is considered a wilderness; / eight of those are called a yojana. / One hundred and twenty instants / are a tatkṣaṇa; sixty of those / are a lava; / a muhūrta, a day-and-night, and a month / are successively multiplied by thirty. / Twelve months, including intercalary days, / make one year. / Regarding the kalpas explained as manifold: / the kalpa of destruction lasts from when the hell / realm is emptied until the vessel is exhausted; / the kalpa of formation is from the first wind / until the existence of the hells. / An intermediate kalpa is from immeasurable [lifespan] / down to a lifespan of ten years. / Then there are eighteen other kalpas / that increase and decrease, / and one that increases; / their lifespan reaches up to eighty thousand [years]. / Thus this formation of the world / endures for twenty

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intermediate kalpas; / formation, destruction, / and the period of destruction are equal. / Eighty of these make a great kalpa. / In three immeasurable [kalpas], Buddhas / arise; during the decline, / down to [lifespans of] one hundred, they appear. / Pratyekabuddhas arise in both; / the rhinoceros-like one through causes over a hundred kalpas. / A wheel-turning king does not appear / later than [lifespans of] eighty thousand [years]. / The kings with wheels of gold, silver, copper, and iron / rule over one, two, / three, and four continents in reverse order. / Two do not appear simultaneously, just like Buddhas. / Welcomed by foes, advancing himself, preparing for battle, / and raising weapons, they conquer without harm. / Because they possess the marks of a Sage, dwell in their domain, / and are clear and complete, [the marks] are noble. / Former beings were like those of the form realm; / then gradually they became attached to taste. / Through laziness they stored food, / and having possessiveness, they appointed a lord of the fields. / Then, through the proliferation of courses of action, / lifespan shortened to ten years. / The kalpa is brought to an end by weapons, disease, / and famine / for seven days, months, / and years respectively. / Destruction by fire, water, and wind / is again threefold; / the second dhyāna and the others, three, / are the peaks of these respectively, / because of conformity with their faults. / It is not in the fourth because it is unmoving. / Its mansions are impermanent / because they arise and perish together with the sentient beings. / Seven by fire and one by water; / after seven times by water has thus passed, / seven by fire again, and then / at the end it is destroyed by wind. / In the Abhidharmakośakārikā, this is the third chapter, called 'Exposition of the World'. // The diverse world is born from karma; / it is intention and what is produced by it. / Intention is mental karma; / what is produced by it is bodily and vocal karma. / These are vijñapti and avijñapti. / Bodily vijñapti is held to be shape, / not motion, because saṃskṛtas / are momentary, since they perish. / Nothing arises without a cause, / and the cause would also be the destroyer. / It would be apprehended by both; it does not exist in subtle atoms. / Vocal vijñapti is vocal sound. / Because it is taught that stainless form is threefold, / and because of increase, unperformed, the path, etc., / avijñapti belonging to the desire realm is momentary; / thereafter it arises from past elements. / Sāsrava bodily and vocal karma / have their own great elements as causes; / anāsrava has those of wherever one is born. / Avijñapti is unappropriated, / and arises from causes resembling the effect; it indicates sentient beings. / It arises from appropriated elements of similar cause. / Elements arising from meditative absorption are unappropriated, / and arise from the nourished and are non-distinct. / There is no non-clarified avijñapti; / the others are threefold. Unvirtuous is / in the desire realm; avijñapti is also in the form realm; / vijñapti is in [realms] having investigation. / In the desire realm it is also unobstructed. / Because it lacks motivation, liberation is / ultimate; virtuous roots, / a sense of shame and conscience are intrinsic; / what is associated with them is by association; / action and so forth are by motivation. / The opposite is unvirtuous. Ultimately, / non-clarified things are explained. / Motivation is twofold: the cause / and the motivation of that time. / Of the two, the first initiates; / the second directs. / The consciousness to be abandoned by seeing / is the initiator; the mental [consciousness] / to be abandoned by cultivation is both; / the five are the directors. / From a virtuous or other initiator, / the director also becomes threefold. / That which is like a Muni's is that, or it is virtuous; / that born of maturation is neither. / Avijñapti should be understood as threefold: / prātimokṣa, non-vow, and other. / Prātimokṣa is the prātimokṣa vow; / likewise, the anāsrava and dhyāna-born vows. / Prātimokṣa is of eight types; / in substance it is of four types. / Because the name changes from the gender characteristics, / their difference is not contradictory. / Abandoning five, eight, ten, / and undertaking the abandonment of all, / produces upāsaka, upavāsa, / śrāmaṇera, and bhikṣu. / It is called discipline, good conduct, / karma, and restraint. / The initial vijñapti and avijñapti / are the prātimokṣa and the course of action. / Eight possess prātimokṣa; / those endowed with the dhyāna-born possess that; / the noble sentient beings possess the anāsrava; / the latter two follow the mind. / Those two born of the unobstructed path / in the unhindered [concentration] are called abandonment. / Clear comprehension and mindfulness / are the restraint of the mind and the faculties. / As long as one abiding in the prātimokṣa / has not given it up, one possesses the present / avijñapti; from the first moment / onward, the past; / one abiding in non-vow is the same. / One possessing the dhyāna restraint / always has the past and future; / a noble one, at first, does not have the past. / Those two, when in equipoise and noble path, / possess the present; for one in the intermediate state, / if it exists, at first [one possesses] the intermediate, / and thereafter the two times. / For one abiding in non-vow, virtuous [avijñapti], / and for one abiding in vows, unvirtuous / avijñapti exists as long as / the force of intense faith or affliction lasts. / Vijñapti, in all cases, / exists in the present for the performer; / until given up, from that moment / onward one possesses the past, but not the future. / One does not possess past / veiled or unveilded [non-clarified karma] either. / Non-vow, bad conduct, / corrupted discipline, and its course of action: / if one in the intermediate state performs them / with a weak mind, one possesses vijñapti alone. / When vijñapti is abandoned or unborn, / a noble person has avijñapti. / That born of dhyāna is obtained by / the level of dhyāna itself; anāsrava / by that noble one. Prātimokṣa / is through another's vijñapti, etc. / For as long as life lasts, or for a day and night, / vows should be properly taken. / There is no one-day-and-night non-vow; / it is renowned that it cannot be taken so. / Sitting lower, speaking, repeating, / without ornaments, or

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taking up the abandonment of all, / produces upāsaka, upavāsa, / śrāmaṇera, and bhikṣu. / It is called discipline, good conduct, / karma, and restraint. / The initial vijñapti and avijñapti / are the prātimokṣa and the course of action. / Eight possess prātimokṣa; / those endowed with the dhyāna-born possess that; / the noble sentient beings possess the anāsrava; / the latter two follow the mind. / Those two born of the unobstructed path / in the unhindered [concentration] are called abandonment. / Clear comprehension and mindfulness / are the restraint of the mind and the faculties. / As long as one abiding in the prātimokṣa / has not given it up, one possesses the present / avijñapti; from the first moment / onward, the past; / one abiding in non-vow is the same. / One possessing the dhyāna restraint / always has the past and future; / a noble one, at first, does not have the past. / Those two, when in equipoise and noble path, / possess the present; for one in the intermediate state, / if it exists, at first [one possesses] the intermediate, / and thereafter the two times. / For one abiding in non-vow, virtuous [avijñapti], / and for one abiding in vows, unvirtuous / avijñapti exists as long as / the force of intense faith or affliction lasts. / Vijñapti, in all cases, / exists in the present for the performer; / until given up, from that moment / onward one possesses the past, but not the future. / One does not possess past / veiled or unveilded [non-clarified karma] either. / Non-vow, bad conduct, / corrupted discipline, and its course of action: / if one in the intermediate state performs them / with a weak mind, one possesses vijñapti alone. / When vijñapti is abandoned or unborn, / a noble person has avijñapti. / That born of dhyāna is obtained by / the level of dhyāna itself; anāsrava / by that noble one. Prātimokṣa / is through another's vijñapti, etc. / For as long as life lasts, or for a day and night, / vows should be properly taken. / There is no one-day-and-night non-vow; / it is renowned that it cannot be taken so. / Sitting lower, speaking, repeating, / without ornaments, or

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In the morning / the limbs of the upavāsa are taken in their completeness / in the morning from another. / The limbs of morality, the limb of heedfulness, / and the limbs of ascetic observance / are four, one, and three, respectively. / By that [intoxicant], mindfulness degenerates and pride arises. / Although others also have upavāsa, / there is none for one who has not gone for refuge. / By accepting the status of an upāsaka, / the vows are expounded, like a monk. / If all are restrained, / how can there be one who observes a single part and so forth? / It is said that they are taught in view of observing those. / They correspond to a small mind and so forth. / Whoever goes for refuge to the three, / goes for refuge to the qualities that make a Buddha and a Saṅgha— / the aśaikṣa and both— / and to nirvāṇa. / Because sexual misconduct is extremely censured, / and because [avoiding the other] is easy, it is attained without undertaking. / The vows are attained as they are undertaken, / not from [the mere continuity of] the mental stream. / If all training rules were transgressed, / it would follow that it is a lie; / therefore, the transgression that is proscribed / is for the sake of guarding against intoxicants and the rest. / All those belonging to the desire realm are attained from both / and from the present. / The dhyāna and anāsrava vows, however, / are from all entities and times. / The vows are from all sentient beings; / there is a distinction in the limbs and the causes. / Non-restraint is from all [beings] / and all limbs, not through causes. / Non-restraint is attained through action / or through undertaking. / The remaining avijñapti is attained through fields, / taking [vows], and respectful actions. / Through relinquishing the trainings, death and transference, / the emergence of both genders, / the severance of roots, or the passing of the night, / the prātimokṣa discipline is abandoned. / Some say: from an incurred downfall; / others: from the decline of the true Dharma; / the Kāśmīras maintain that when it occurs, / both exist, like debt and wealth. / Virtue belonging to the dhyānas / is abandoned through shifting planes and degeneration; / likewise, that belonging to the formless realm. The Ārya / [abandons it] through attaining results,

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training, and degeneration. / Non-restraint is abandoned through attaining the vows, / dying, and the appearance of both genders. / The intermediate is abandoned through the exhaustion of the momentum undertaken, actions, / purpose, lifespan, and severance of roots. / Non-physical virtue belonging to the desire realm / is abandoned through the severance of roots and rebirth in higher realms. / Non-physical defilement / is impaired by the arising of an antidote. / In hermaphrodites, neuters, and those of Uttarakuru, / excepting those of two genders, [it exists] among humans; / non-restraint is likewise, and vows as well. / Among gods too; among humans there are three. / Among gods born in desire and form realms, / there is that born of dhyāna; the anāsrava / is also in the formless realm, excepting the dhyāna distinction, / non-conceptual beings, and [certain others]. / Pleasant, unpleasant, and other karmas / are virtuous, non-virtuous, and other. / Merit, non-merit, and the immovable; / three such as that experienced as pleasure, and so forth. / Merit is the virtuous karma of the desire realm; / the immovable is that born of higher realms, / because on those planes, / karma ripens there, hence it is immovable. / Virtue up to the third dhyāna / is experienced as pleasure; above that, / it is experienced as neither suffering nor pleasure. / That experienced as suffering is the non-virtuous of this [realm]. / Some say that intermediate [experience] exists below as well, / because / the vipāka of the dhyāna distinction / is asserted to ripen as three without prior and subsequent. / By essential nature, conjunction, / object of observation, vipāka, / and actual manifestation, / that which is experienced is of five kinds. / Furthermore, it is determinate and indeterminate, / and because it is experienced in the present life and so on, / the determinate is of three kinds. / Some say karma is of five kinds; / others say there are four alternatives. / Three project a life-state; / in all, there are four projections. / In the hells, there are three virtuous ones. / Relying on detachment from which, / an ordinary person who is born there does not experience it; / an Ārya does not experience it elsewhere either; / nor does the unstable one of the peak of existence. / The intermediate existence in the desire realm / has twenty-two kinds of projectives. / That is an effect in this life; / it is only of a single kind.

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