瑜伽論記 4.230

4.230

Perfuming has five classes: 1. Perfuming and cultivation through purely tainted meditation, meaning rebirth in the lower four dhyānas excluding the five pure abodes; as explained below, because of cultivation of inferior, middling, and superior grades, one receives the fruits of three levels; 2. Perfuming through purely taintless meditation, meaning that from the eighth stage onward, in transformational saṃsāra, tainted meditation is exhausted; 3. Mixed cultivation of tainted and taintless, which is what is explained here: in order to attain mastery over meditative attainments and in order to receive the fruits of mastery over meditative attainments, cultivating them alternately to be born in the five pure abodes and so forth; 4. Mixed perfuming and cultivation of tainted meditative and distracted [minds], meaning an arhat who renounces the formations of merit and lifespan to sustain the fruits of lifespan and merit; 5. Mixed perfuming and cultivation of taintless meditative and distracted [minds], meaning the transformational saṃsāra of the two vehicles and of bodhisattvas prior to the seventh stage.
In this third [class], mixed cultivation, tainted [moments] form the two flanks, and a single taintless moment dwells in the middle, which is called the completion of cultivation. For example, when the karma of the five pure abodes is created by the body of an ordinary worldling, its seeds residing in the body naturally are only capable of eradicating rebirth in lower heavens. Due to giving rise to aspiration, the power of taintless meditation brought to complete cultivation reinforces those past karmic seeds, making their potency extraordinary so that one is born into the five pure abodes. Thus, the tainted is not in the middle because its power is inferior. Thus it is different from the mixed cultivation of the Hīnayāna, where the Abhidharma and so forth say that one first generates the taintless contemplation of the sixteen aspects in a succession of many moments; next, one enters the tainted contemplation of the sixteen aspects, also in a succession of many moments; gradually condensing the aspects and objects in this manner until there are two moments each of taintless and tainted, which is called the completion of preparation; next, one again generates one moment of taintless, and again generates one moment of tainted, which is the path of immediate succession; next, one again generates one moment of taintless, which is the path of liberation, termed the perfuming completion of the five grades. The term 'cultivation through perfuming' involves three minds, namely using the taintless at both ends to perfume the tainted in the middle. Furthermore, the first moment of tainted is the preparatory path, suppressing and eliminating obstacles to meditation; the next moment of taintless is the path of immediate succession, directly eliminating obstacles to meditation; the next moment of tainted is the path of liberation, so that perfuming and cultivation are fulfilled. If tainted were in the middle and taintless were the initial and final, would taintless be the preparation and tainted be the path of immediate succession? Next, because the final liberation is that which reinforces, the reinforcer and reinforced are concordant.
Regarding "Suppose one has already attained the four dhyānas, tainted and taintless, etc.": generally, when perfuming meditation, one must have fully attained the tainted and taintless meditations of the four dhyānas before beginning to perfume and cultivate. First, one uses the taintless of the fourth dhyāna to perfume the tainted of that level; next, one enters the taintless of the third dhyāna to perfume the tainted of that level, down to the first dhyāna. It is stated this way because it streams downward from above into the lower levels.