瑜伽論記 2.267

2.267

依下中上靜慮等者，此四一切常論。八十七云：謂計前際三常論中，由下中上清淨差別，名宿住隨念俱行，意顯依下品定，起宿住念知過去二十成劫；依中品定憶四十成劫；依上品定憶八十成劫，皆悉是常。由執世間空劫為隱，有劫為顯非生滅故，四依天眼見現在世不知生滅，或見諸識此滅彼生，無斷絕故，見麁非細遂執為常，天眼為先方見生死現在故，是未來前際。此中前三憶過去世，後一見現在，未來前故合名前際，此諸見中，過去名前際，未來名後際，現在通二，待望別故。

Regarding 'relying on the lower, middling, and superior dhyānas' and so forth: these are the four universal eternalist theories. Fascicle eighty-seven says: among the three eternalist theories posited regarding the past limits, through the differences of lower, middling, and superior purity, they are termed 'concomitant with the mindfulness of previous abodes'. This indicates that relying on lower-grade absorption, one arouses the memory of previous abodes and knows the past twenty aeons of formation; relying on middling-grade absorption, one recalls forty aeons of formation; relying on superior-grade absorption, one recalls eighty aeons of formation—all of which are taken to be eternal. Because they grasp the aeons of cosmic emptiness as hidden and the aeons of existence as manifest, rather than being birth and cessation. The fourth relies on the divine eye to see the present world without knowing birth and cessation; or seeing various consciousnesses ceasing here and arising there without interruption, they see the coarse rather than the subtle and consequently grasp it as eternal. Because the divine eye comes first before one sees the present birth-and-death, this is the prior limit of the future. Herein, the first three recall past times and the latter one sees the present; because it precedes the future, together they are termed the prior limit. Among these views, the past is called the prior limit, the future is called the posterior limit, and the present applies to both, depending on the relative perspective.