觀心論疏 3.7

3.7

The treatise says: "Question: How is the contemplation of the spontaneously arising mind skillfully perfected? / [Answer:] Through the twenty-five preparatory practices, one tunes the mind and enters the correct path." This is the fifth verse, which clarifies that the wondrous principle cannot be ascended to all at once; if one wishes to advance toward the correct path, one must rely on skillful means. Here, explaining "preparatory practices" (upāya), "upāya" means skillful ingenuity. The practitioner contemplates the mind in a single thought-moment and practices skillfully; through minimal good roots, they are able to cause immeasurable practices to be perfected, understanding to arise, and enter the bodhisattva stages. Furthermore, "upāya" means the harmonious combination of various conditions. Because they can harmoniously combine to form causes, they can also harmoniously combine to obtain the fruit. A sūtra says: "The Tathāgata's body does not arise from a single cause or a single condition; from immeasurable merits the Tathāgata's body is born." To reveal this skillful capacity, the treatise discusses preparatory practices. If considered according to the gradual sequence, there are four kinds of preparatory practices, each having remote and proximate [levels]. For example, the Abhidharma explains the fivefold stilling of the mind as remote and the four good roots as proximate. The preparatory practices of the shared and distinct [teachings] can be understood by analogy. In the perfect teaching, because stages such as the five grades of disciples' contemplative practice are still far from truth under conventional designations, they are called remote preparatory practices; the stage of the purity of the six sense faculties, which is a semblance [realization] bordering on truth, is called proximate preparatory practices. Now, regarding the conventional-designation stages prior to the five grades, remote and proximate are further discussed: the twenty-five dharmas are the remote preparatory practices, and the ten kinds of objective realms are the proximate preparatory practices. Comprehensively encompassing both horizontal and vertical dimensions, fulfilling the ten contemplations, they constitute the stage of contemplative practice, being able to give rise to true and semblance [realizations] as preparatory practices. Now, to explain the remote preparatory practices, they are briefly five: first, fulfilling the five conditions; second, rebuking the five desires; third, abandoning the five hindrances; fourth, regulating the five matters; fifth, practicing the five dharmas. Indeed, the Path does not operate in isolation; its broadening depends on the person. When a person broadens the supreme Dharma, they rely on conditions to advance on the Path; hence they must fulfill the five conditions. Once the power of conditions is fulfilled, one should cut off all cravings and desires. When cravings and desires are screened off externally, one should internally purify one's mind. When one's mind is tranquil, one should regulate and adjust the five matters. Once the five matters are regulated, if one practices the five dharmas, one will certainly arrive at the goal. For example, if a potter wishes to make vessels, he first selects a good place—a site where there is no sand or brine, and grass and water are abundant, suitable for work. Next, he suspends other secondary tasks; if secondary tasks are not set aside, how can the work be accomplished? Although external conditions are suspended, if there is illness within the body, how can he engage in work? Even if the body is healthy and strong, if the potter's wheel is not properly adjusted, it will not produce vessels. Even if the above conditions are in order, if he is not dedicated to the craft and neglects it without continuity, it will never be accomplished. The cultivation of the five conditions is also like this: an embodied being must rely on resources and provisions, just like that good location; reviling and wearying of worldly desires is like severing external conditions; abandoning and cutting off the five hindrances is like curing internal illness; regulating the five matters is like mastering the wheel and cord; practicing the five dharmas is like working without interruption. In mundane matters of shallow import, nothing comes together without conditions; how much more so for the supramundane Path! If there is no prelude, how could it be easily climbed? Therefore, traversing the twenty-five dharmas, taking factual matters as contemplation, tuning the coarse to enter the subtle, and relinquishing distraction to bring about tranquility, these serve as the remote preparatory practices for beginners. Regarding these five dharmas: three headings come from the Dazhidulun, one kind comes from the Chan jing, and one was established by the various dhyāna masters (and so forth).