Avatārabhūmi: The Stage of Descent

II. The Stage of Descent

By these six [person-types]: the merely fit person, one endowed with mild wholesome roots, one endowed with middle wholesome roots, endowed with strong wholesome roots, one applied to the ultimate, and one arrived at the ultimate.

What is the merely fit person?

He who, on the basis of being established in the lineage, first of all gains faith in the dharma-vinaya proclaimed by the Tathāgata, and makes his view upright.

What is one endowed with mild wholesome roots?

He who, established in the lineage, first gains faith in the dharma-vinaya proclaimed by the Tathāgata, and so on up through making the view upright. This is called one endowed with mild wholesome roots. One endowed with middle wholesome roots — a person established in the lineage who, having first gained faith in the dharma-vinaya proclaimed by the Tathāgata and (in the same way as before) made his view upright, produces one, two, or several further births, proceeds toward distinction, passes beyond, but does not yet attain the final individual existence. [The one] established in [those further births who] attains final nirvāṇa — this is called the person endowed with strong wholesome roots.

What is the person applied to the ultimate?

He who, having attained [his] final individual existence, having received the right admonition-and-instruction for the destruction of the fluxes — or having heard the true dharma — rightly applies himself, and, no longer wavering, in every way and altogether practices, [Damaged/Conjectural]: but does not attain the destruction of the fluxes — and does not yet arrive at the ultimate. This is called the person applied to the ultimate.

What is the person arrived at the ultimate?

He who, rightly impelled, rightly instructed — namely for the destruction of the fluxes — practices accordingly, and in every way and altogether attains the destruction of the fluxes. He has done his task, attained supreme calming. This is called the person arrived at the ultimate.

Here, a person of fit-nature, relying on the lineage and established in it, attains the mild wholesome roots and becomes one who has descended. Having descended, relying on the mild wholesome roots and established in them, he attains the middle wholesome roots, and by these matures himself. Being thus matured, relying on the middle wholesome roots and established in them, he attains the strong wholesome roots and becomes matured. With the individual existence attained through the cause that is the strong wholesome roots, when he gathers the requisites and touches mental one-pointedness and enters the fixed course of rightness [samyaktva-niyāma], he realizes the fruit of stream-entry, or once-returning, or non-returning, but does not yet realize the supreme fruit, arhatship. Then he is called one applied to the ultimate. When he realizes the abandonment of all defilements, arhatship, then he becomes one arrived at the ultimate.

This whole course of the disciple, from beginning to middle to end, is shown by the six person-delineations. By the lineage, the beginning of the disciple-course is shown; by the ultimate, its end; by the others, the middle [is shown].

For persons who have descended, is the time required by all of them — for final nirvāṇa — of fixed measure and equal across all?

Or is it not of fixed measure?

Is the time-certainty different for each?

[Answer:] no — their time for final nirvāṇa is not of fixed measure, nor is it equal for all. Rather, their final nirvāṇa is to be understood as appropriate to each, according to their gaining of conditions. Some after long, some after very long, some again swiftly attain final nirvāṇa; but the person established in the lineage attains final nirvāṇa most swiftly. He necessarily produces three births. In one he descends, in one he is released. In one birth he becomes matured. And there itself he attains final nirvāṇa. If he does not attain final nirvāṇa, he necessarily spends time as a trainee. And he produces at most seven existences — this is called the delineation of descent.

What are the marks of a descended person?

Here, a person established in the lineage who has just descended — even when, through the transition to another birth, he experiences loss of memory; and even when, with a Teacher and the [true] dharma-vinaya present and available, an ill-stated dharma-vinaya is praised in many ways — hearing the praise, eulogy, and commendation of that ill-stated dharma-vinaya rather than the well-stated one, he does not descend [into it]; he does not go forth [in it]; and even if he has gone forth and descended [there], he turns back lightly, very lightly; and by nature distaste for it remains in him. Just as a creature born in honey, when thrown into vinegar — or a sensualist when cast into mire or a foul drain [cannot thrive there] — just so, by the prior force of conditioning, [the un-descended person] neither hears the praise, eulogy, and commendation of the well-stated dharma-vinaya, nor longs for it. Whereas [the descended person], having heard even a little — even just a scrap — lightly, very lightly descends and goes forth. And having so gone forth and descended, he does not turn back, and by nature delight in it remains in him — like a honey-creature in honey, or a sensualist in refined sense-pleasure, by the prior force of conditioning. This is the first mark of the descended person.

Further, the descended person is not yet free from the defilements that lead to unfavorable rebirth. And he is not reborn in the unfavorable moments. And, with reference to the descended person, the Blessed One said: ‘He who has strong worldly right view, even for thousands of births does not go to a bad destiny.’

When he is established in the strong wholesome roots in due order, progressing toward ripening, he is not reborn in unfavorable moments. but not [when established] in the others. This is the second mark of the descended person. Further, the descended person, hearing or recollecting the qualities of the Buddha, dharma, or saṅgha, gains clarity of mind — vast, wholesome, conjoined with renunciation — and again and again, with that as object, through the fluid quality of his cleared mind, he is moved to tears, horripilation, and the like. This is the third mark of the descended person. Further, the descended person is by nature endowed with intense moral shame and dread of evil in all blameworthy occasions of conduct. This is the fourth mark of the descended person.

Further, the descended person is eager — with intense eagerness for exposition, recitation, inquiry, yoga, and attention; he becomes a seeker of what is wholesome. This is the fifth mark of the descended person.

Further, the descended person, in every blameless act, in every undertaking, in every application to the wholesome side, is of firm resolve, stable resolve, determined resolve — namely for attainment [on the path]. This is the sixth mark of the descended person.

Further, the descended person is of little-dust nature. He produces only mild, mild outbreaks of defilement, and does not let them continue. He is non-deceitful, non-fraudulent, with conceit, pride, and egotism struck down, intent on good qualities, and averse to faults. This is the seventh mark of the descended person.

Further, the descended person is unshrinking in mind; in lofty matters to be attained, he does not despise himself, does not sink into a sense of incapacity. He is rich in conviction. This is the eighth mark of the descended person.

Such are the many marks of descended persons, to be understood.

Of these, this is only a portion that has been stated.

Further, these marks, in one established in the mild wholesome roots, who has descended, are mild. They have gaps, are interrupted, and are not thoroughly pure. In one established in the middle wholesome roots, middle; in one established in the strong wholesome roots, strong, continuous, thoroughly pure — these are called marks of the descended person. Endowed with which marks, he is reckoned ‘descended.’ Moreover, these are the inferential marks of those established in the lineage and of descended persons, to be understood. Only the blessed Buddhas, who have attained the supreme perfection, and the disciples who are protectors, are direct seers there. By perfectly purified knowing-and-vision they experience them directly. Namely, lineage and descent.

What are descended persons?

There is a descended person. Only descended, not yet maturing, not matured, not yet gone out.

There is the matured but not gone out. There is the gone-out but not matured. Their division is to be understood as before.

Those other [person-categories] — the persons of mild faculty and so on, set forth in the gotrabhūmi — their division here too is to be understood accordingly. The own-nature of descent, its delineation, the marks of the descended, and who the descended persons are — all this gathered into one is called the avatārabhūmi.

Summary verse.

Own-nature, the delineation, marks, and the person itself, the stage of descent is to be known — all this in brief.

In the Śrāvakabhūmi, the stage of descent is complete.