瑜伽論記 4.269

4.269

The Abhidharma[-samuccaya] states: 'Few forms' refers to forms categorized as sentient beings, because their measure is small; 'many forms' refers to forms categorized as non-sentient, because their measure is large. In the Xianyang lun, the division into few and many is made solely on the basis of being requisites or non-requisites. Here, sentient beings and requisites are combined and designated 'few,' while palaces and the like are designated 'many,' due to the difference in quantity. Each relies on one valid perspective, so there is no contradiction. Good, bad, inferior, and superior are distinctions based on few and many forms, and therefore are not established separately. However, in the desire realm, the first four stations of mastery fully contemplate aggregated form-ayatanas possessing the four sensory dusts; in the form realm, they contemplate only aggregated form-ayatanas possessing sound and tangible objects. Only the first two vimokṣas contemplate the sensory dust of form, and therefore both contemplate the objective realm of form among the first four stations of mastery. The treatise says that 'inferior forms' refers to sound, smell, taste, and tangible objects that are unpleasing forms: this means that in the desire realm, the aggregated form-ayatanas that are the bases for sound and so forth are called inferior forms and so forth; these are what are contemplated by the first four, but it is not that the four [dusts] such as sound are themselves the cognitive objects of the stations of mastery.