俱舍論頌疏論本 5.20

5.20

Regarding "Noble ones attain [it] through preparation": "Noble ones" clarifies the persons who cultivate it. This absorption of cessation is attained only by noble ones. The treatise says: "Ordinary worldlings are not capable of generating it, because they fear annihilation, because it is only within the capacity of the power of the noble path to generate it, and because one enters it through the resolute intention of nirvāṇa in the present life." The explanation says: This means that the absorption of cessation is generated based on the Peak of Existence, which already lacks form. If mind were to be further extinguished, it would become total annihilation, and hence they fear it. When a noble one enters the absorption of cessation, they produce a mind of resolute intention as though entering nirvāṇa; therefore, ordinary worldlings do not generate it. "Attained through preparation": this absorption of cessation is attained only through preparation, not through detachment from defilement; because mind is absent, it requires great preparation before it can be attained. Furthermore, at the moment of initial attainment, one attains [possession of] it only in the present period. From the second moment onward until it has not yet been lost, one possesses it across both past and present. If one has already emerged from the contemplation, one possesses it only in the past.