觀心論疏 1.28

1.28

The verse states: “Guarding the nasal septum with ānāpāna / and cultivating the contemplation of impurity: / through ānāpāna one attains the four dhyānas, / yet does not escape karmic retribution in Niraya. / Through impurity one presumes oneself to be an aśaikṣa; / turning over the bowl, one receives food from a woman. / Even if one is reborn in accordance with dhyāna, / one falls into the difficult circumstance of the heaven of long life. / It is for this reason / that one must compose the Treatise on Contemplating the Mind.” These two and a half verses explain the inversions of cultivating dhyāna in phenomenal characteristics. The line “Guarding the nasal septum with ānāpāna” marks the heading for cultivating the four dhyānas with outflows, and the line “and cultivating the contemplation of impurity” marks the heading for cultivating phenomenal dhyāna without outflows. “Guarding the nasal septum” means placing the mind on the nose. “Ānāpāna” means counting the breaths. Because of counting the breaths, one is able to attain the four dhyānas and eight absorptions. But in the past, there was a monk who cultivated counting the breaths and attained the four dhyānas; he then presumed himself to be an arhat and to have no future rebirth. On the verge of death, seeing the place of rebirth in the intermediate state, he immediately slandered the Buddha, saying: “He is a great liar, saying that an arhat is free from rebirth, yet how do I now see a place of rebirth?” Because of slandering the Buddha, he immediately fell into hell. Hence the verse states: “through ānāpāna one attains the four dhyānas, / yet does not escape karmic retribution in Niraya.” In the past, there was a monk who studied the contemplation of impurity; subduing his mind for a short time so that thoughts of desire did not arise, he immediately presumed that he had attained arhatship. Later, going out into a village to beg for food, he saw a woman bringing food; thoughts of desire immediately flared up, and his emotions were bewitched and his mind intoxicated; thereupon he turned over his bowl and received food from the woman. Hence the verse states: “Through impurity one presumes oneself to be an aśaikṣa; / turning over the bowl, one receives food from a woman.” Moreover, when one attains dhyāna through counting the breaths, even if one does not give rise to slander, so that one does not fall into hell, yet being reborn in accordance with dhyāna, one falls into the difficult circumstance of the heaven of long life. Hence the verse states: “Even if one is reborn in accordance with dhyāna, / one falls into the difficult circumstance of the heaven of long life.” Now, when exhorting practitioners to cultivate dhyāna, the aim is to rely on a calmed mind to bring forth the wisdom of contemplative illumination, so that one clearly sees the unreal errors and perils of saṃsāra and afflictions, knows the causes from which they arise, and immediately severs them with wisdom, uprooting the root of saṃsāra. A sūtra states: “Vipaśyanā can destroy afflictions; why is śamatha also needed? The Buddha said: ‘First shake them with concentration, and later uproot them with wisdom; it is not cultivated out of greed for the bliss of dhyāna.’” A sūtra states: “Craving and clinging to the taste of dhyāna is the bondage of a bodhisattva.”