釋禪波羅蜜次第法門 7.76

7.76

Sixteenth, contemplating abandonment: this corresponds to neither-perception-nor-non-perception. Why is that? Neither-perception is the antidote of dual abandonment. From the first dhyāna onwards, there is only pervasive abandonment, not dual abandonment, so the name “abandonment” was not yet given. Now, since this neither-perception involves the dual abandonment of both existence and non-existence, it is named abandonment. It is also because this absorption is the ultimate among abandonments that it receives this name at the very end. When ordinary people attain this absorption, they think it is nirvāṇa, lacking the wisdom of contemplation to realize [the truth], and are unable to abandon it. Now, to explain abandonment: when one attains this absorption, one immediately knows that it is constituted through the combination of the four aggregates, the twelve sense bases, the three realms, and the ten kinds of subtle mental factors, and so on. One should know that this absorption is impermanent, suffering, empty, and non-self, deceptive and untrue; it should not be conceived as nirvāṇa, nor should one generate notions of peace and happiness toward it. Once one knows it is empty and quiescent, one does not grasp it; this is named contemplating abandonment. Although one does not grasp at marks of absorption, one nonetheless completes this absorption, at which time one is endowed with two kinds of abandonment: first, fundamental abandonment; second, nirvāṇa abandonment. Because one eternally abandons birth and death, it is called contemplating abandonment. When the practitioner at that time deeply contemplates abandonment, they immediately awaken to the nirvāṇa of the three vehicles. This is just like Subhadra, whom the Buddha instructed to contemplate the subtle perception within neither-perception, whereupon he immediately attained the fruit of an arhat.