大乘百法明門論開宗義決 1.162

1.162

As for "there are those who grasp four doctrines of eternalism regarding the prior extreme": in the "Brahmajāla Chapter" of the Dīrgha-āgama and in fascicle eighty-seven of the Yogācārabhūmi, although both explain them fully, there is a slight difference. Now, following the Yogācārabhūmi to elucidate this meaning, it is said that relying on dhyāna, one attains recollection of past abodes to a superior, middling, or inferior degree; because their perception extends to far or near distances, they grasp at eternalism regarding the prior extreme and there are four doctrines: (1) recollecting the formation and disintegration of past twenty kalpas; (2) recollecting the formation and disintegration of past forty kalpas; (3) recollecting the formation and disintegration of past eighty kalpas; [seeing that] the sentient beings therein neither increase nor decrease, because of this they know that the self and the world are both eternal. (4) With the divine eye they see sentient beings passing from a prior world to a subsequent world without interruption, and therefore they grasp that the self and the world are both eternal. This corresponds to the aforementioned doctrine that all phenomena are eternal.