法界次第初門 1.233

1.233

Now, the four dhyānas are explained following the various categories of precepts because, although the aspects of the precepts clarified above differ in coarseness and fineness, they ultimately both prevent the external evils of body and speech in the desire realm; since subtle distraction has not yet been removed, how could one transcend the realm of desire? If one's own śīla is spotless and one fixes one's resolve on the gate of dhyāna, exclusively cultivating the five dharmas (the five dharmas will be brought out under separate headings below), then the pure four great elements of the form realm will naturally manifest within one's body. Dependent on this, one sequentially attains the various excellent and marvelous factors and forest of virtues of the fundamental four dhyānas; only then, having transcended the net of desire as a cause, does one reside in the form realm as a fruition. They are universally called dhyāna: dhyāna is the sound of the Western lands, translated here as "casting off evil"; because it can cast off all evils such as the five hindrances of the desire realm, it is called "casting off evil." Alternatively, it is translated as "grove of virtues," or translated as "cultivation through thought"; these are not fully explained here. As for calling them "fundamental," it is because the immeasurable minds, liberations, bases of mastery, kṛtsnāyatanas, superknowledges, transformations, and untainted contemplative wisdom—the various dhyānas and samādhis—all issue forth from the four dhyānas; hence they are called "fundamental."