成唯識論演祕 7.555

7.555

Fascicle 8 of the Mahāyānasaṃgraha has sixteen gates, which are now briefly cited: 'Herein, non-conceptual knowledge takes being free from five kinds of characteristics as its intrinsic nature.' The root treatise is as in the Commentary. Asabhāva's commentary states: 'If lack of mental application were non-conceptual knowledge, deep sleep, intoxication, and so forth would be non-conceptual knowledge. If passing beyond the stage of investigation and examination were non-conceptual knowledge, all ordinary persons and śrāvakas above the second dhyāna would be non-conceptual knowledge. If cessation of ideation and feeling were non-conceptual knowledge, the substantial characteristics of this knowledge could hardly be established, since within the state of non-ideation and so forth, apart from the mind, there are no mental factors. If being like matter were non-conceptual knowledge, it could not be established as non-conceptual knowledge, just like matter derived from the great elements. If conceptualizing different characteristics regarding true reality were non-conceptual knowledge, this knowledge would not achieve non-conceptuality, because conceptualizing different characteristics regarding true reality by saying "This is true, this is non-conceptual" involves conceptualization.' Second, the basis of knowledge: because the basis of non-conceptual knowledge is not the mind in the sense of thinking, yet it does not take non-mind as its basis, because it is of the category of mind. Taking mind as the cause, through the force of repeated practice, one induces this state, which is called 'of the category of mind.' This reveals that the mind upon which knowledge relies transcends all deliberation and conceptualization.