Sarvadarshanasangraha 11.27

11.27

Now, it was said that highest good results from the knowledge of reality. In that regard, does highest good occur immediately after the knowledge of reality? The answer is no; rather, it is through the knowledge of reality, upon the successive cessation of pain, birth, activity, fault, and false knowledge, that liberation occurs as the consequence of the cessation of that which immediately precedes. There, false knowledge means the notion of the self in what is non-self, such as the body. Passion is toward what is favorable to that; aversion is toward what is unfavorable to that. In reality, however, there is nothing that is unfavorable or favorable to the self. And because passion and the rest are reciprocally linked: one who is deluded feels passion; one who has passion becomes deluded; one who is deluded becomes angry; one who is angry becomes deluded. Then, impelled by these faults, a living being commits prohibited actions: with the body, violence, theft, and the like; with speech, falsehood and the like; with the mind, malice toward others and the like. This sinful activity is demerit. With the body, [one performs] commended actions, such as charity, protecting others, and the like; with speech, beneficial and truthful words and the like; with the mind, benevolence and the like. This meritorious activity is virtue. Such is twofold activity. From that, corresponding to oneself, commended or condemned, comes birth, [namely] the reappearance of a body and the rest. When that exists, pain consisting of affliction occurs through being experienced as unfavorable. [For no one supposes that pain befalls one who is inactive.] These factors, beginning with false knowledge and ending with pain, proceeding without interruption—which is the meaning of the word saṃsāra—continue without limit like a water-wheel. When some foremost person, through the maturation of previously accumulated merit, sees all this by the teacher's instruction as an abode of pain and attended by pain, then he recognizes all of it as something to be abandoned. Then he desires to terminate its causing factor, nescience and the rest. And the means for its termination is the knowledge of reality. For someone contemplating the knowable divided into four [noble truths], knowledge of reality is born as that which is known by the term 'correct vision.' From the knowledge of reality, false knowledge departs. Upon the departure of false knowledge, faults depart. Upon the departure of faults, activity departs. Upon the departure of activity, birth departs. Upon the departure of birth, pain absolutely ceases. That absolute cessation of pain is liberation. The absoluteness of cessation means the non-recurrence therein of that which belongs to the same class as the eliminated. And so runs the aphorism of the supreme sage: 'Liberation is the successive cessation of pain, birth, activity, fault, and false knowledge, through the cessation of that which immediately precedes.'