大乘起信論廣釋卷第三．四．五 4.6

4.6

Treatise: "Third, the discriminative […] because of leaving it ultimately behind." / Commentary: That is, among the five intents, it is called the cognitive consciousness; among the earlier six defilements, it is called the characteristic of cognition. Discriminating defilement and purity is called discriminative cognition; defiling the pure mind, it is called a defilement. From the second bhūmi to the sixth bhūmi, one does not abide for a prolonged period in the uncontaminated contemplation; when emerging from contemplation to condition phenomenal things, there are subtle discriminations, so this grasping at dharmas cannot yet be permanently abandoned. However, at each bhūmi, upon entering contemplation, it can be eliminated portion by portion, so it is said to be "gradually abandoned." When reaching the seventh bhūmi, abiding for a long time in contemplation, this never functions again, which is called "leaving it ultimately behind." The ground of endowed morality refers to the second bhūmi, because this bhūmi is endowed with the threefold moral precept. The expedient means of signlessness refers to the seventh bhūmi, because one constantly applies attention to abide in the contemplation of signlessness; it does not mean the cause of signlessness of the eighth bhūmi—all who say that offer erroneous interpretations. What the new translation states as "from the ground endowed with morality to the ground endowed with wisdom, it is abandoned in part" means reaching the sixth bhūmi, which is called endowed with wisdom, because it possesses the higher wisdom associated with the aids to awakening, truth contemplation, and conditioned arising of the preceding three bhūmis.