Closing Material: Rebirth, Lokottara Path, Arhatship

Segment 1.1 is transitional: it closes the preceding higher-knowledge/noble-qualities discussion, then 1.2–1.11 begin the rebirth mapping. The local extraction had dropped the leading clause evamābhir dvādaśabhiḥ saṁjñābhiḥ... sa pañcānām abhijñānām āryāṇāṁ ca; it has been restored in the root JSON from digitized Shukla witnesses. The compound apṛthagjana-sandhāraṇa is taken conservatively as 'not held by ordinary persons,' avoiding the earlier reversal 'among ordinary persons.' Paragraph 1 then maps each meditative attainment to its corresponding rebirth: each of the four dhyānas and the four ārūpya attainments has a three-tier cultivation that yields rebirth in a corresponding deva-realm. The second- and third-dhyāna lists and the Pure-Abode list are normalized with marked conjectural repairs where the printed root omits or corrupts expected realm names (Apramāṇābha, Apramāṇaśubha, Śubhakṛtsna, Sudṛśa). The Pure-Abode string at 1.8 in particular is heavily corrupt in the printed/root text (adahe hre ṣvatāpeṣu...); only the missing Sudṛśa is explicitly marked conjectural/corrupt, while the easily recoverable Avṛheṣv-atāpeṣu is silently regularized. A scholar collation packet should treat the whole 1.8 list as reconstructed against the announced count of five Pure Abodes at 1.7, not just the bracketed Sudṛśa.

The sapta-manaskāra (seven attentions) — lakṣaṇa-pratisaṃvedī (characteristic-knowing), ādhimokṣika (resolve-born), prāvivekya (seclusion), rati-saṃgrāhaka (delight-collecting), mīmāṃsā (investigation), prayoga-niṣṭhā (practice-culmination), prayoga-niṣṭhā-phala (fruit-of-practice-culmination) — were treated in detail under the laukika-mārga at [sbh4.1](sbh4.1.html). Here they are reused for the lokottara-mārga: the same seven applied to the different object (four noble truths instead of grossness/calmness). This is the chapter's central architectural argument: the seven-attention progression is the general form of meditative progression, applicable equally to laukika and lokottara. Compare [sbh3.1:15.2](sbh3.1.html#sbh3.1:15.2) for the same reusability claim about the four manaskāra across śamatha and vipaśyanā.

The ṣoḍaśa-ākāra ārya-satya — sixteen aspects of the four noble truths — is the canonical Sarvāstivāda-Yogācāra analytic framework. Four truths × four aspects = sixteen aspects. Of suffering: anitya-ākāra, duḥkha-ākāra, śūnya-ākāra, anātma-ākāra (impermanence, suffering, emptiness, not-self). Of arising: hetu, samudaya, prabhava, pratyaya (cause, arising, origination, condition). Of cessation: nirodha, śānta, praṇīta, niḥsaraṇa (cessation, calm, sublime, escape). Of path: mārga, nyāya, pratipatti, nairyāṇika (path, method, practice, deliverance). The original at 3.5 dropped the emptiness aspect (śūnya-ākāra); restored in brackets and marked conjectural/corrupt. The same sixteen are taken as the object of the darśana-mārga sixteen-moment penetration in Abhidharmakośa VI.27.

The ten aspects of suffering at 4.3–4.5 unfold the four aspects of duḥkha-satya in finer grain. Mapping (made explicit at 23.1–5): anityatā is comprised by five aspects — vipariṇāma (transformation), vināśa (destruction), viyoga (separation), sannihita (at-hand), dharmatā (nature-of-things). The printed/root 4.3 has avināśa ('non-destruction'), but impermanence requires vināśa and the later analysis at 22.7-22.9 confirms destruction-impermanence; the English marks this repair conjectural. The recap at 23.2 also omits destruction despite saying there are five impermanence aspects, so it is supplied there as a conjectural repair. Duḥkhatā is comprised by three aspects — saṃyojana-bandhana (fetter-and-bondage), aniṣṭa (unwished-for), ayogakṣema (insecurity). Śūnyatā is comprised by one aspect — anupalambha (non-apprehension). Anātmatā is comprised by one aspect — asvatantra (non-autonomy). The 5+3+1+1 partition is canonical and gives a doctrinal reason for the unequal weighting: impermanence is multi-modal (five distinct ways things change), suffering is tri-modal (three distinct ways things hurt), and emptiness/no-self are each grounded in a single decisive epistemological insight.

Note: the original at 4.5 has a damaged split form (anupa kāreṇa lambhākāreṇa), but the actual analysis at 22.34 and recap at 23.4 identify the ninth aspect as anupalambha (non-apprehension) — the aspect by which the practitioner enters śūnyatā. Corrected to non-apprehension to match the analysis-passage. Anupalambha / anupalabdhi is the standard Yogācāra epistemological term for what the meditator fails to find when looking for a self among the aggregates: 'mere aggregate, no self.'

Scribal duplication: 6.7–6.10 partially repeat 6.1–6.6 before the proper definition of outward-substance resumes at 6.11. The duplication appears mid-sentence (6.7 starts with the correct definition of inward-substance, then breaks off into a re-quotation of the introductory material). Preserved as-is, but flagged. The text resumes cleanly at 6.11 with the sixteenfold outward-substance enumeration.

Scribal slip: 8.7 mistakenly says water 'burns' (read up from 8.6 about fire-burning) — corrected to 'floods' at 8.8 immediately. Both versions preserved.

Segments 15.4-15.7 appear to be a partial dittography of 15.1-15.3: the body at 15.5-15.7 re-runs the illness example almost verbatim (disease-free, severely ill, then disease-free again), while only the heading at 15.4 differs by reading kleśakṛtāṁ ('made by defilement') instead of the vyādhikṛtāṁ ('made by illness') heading at 15.1. Two possibilities: (a) the printed kleśakṛtāṁ is itself a scribal corruption of vyādhikṛtāṁ; or (b) the heading preserves a fragment of a kleśa-made transformation section whose original body was lost and replaced by duplicated illness material. The English marks 'illness' at the heading conjectural/corrupt to match the actual body, but a scholar packet should treat the entire 15.4-15.7 block — not just the heading — as unstable.

The printed/root phrase harati tāni haritāni appears to duplicate or corrupt haritāni ('green') after the governing paśyati at 18.16. The context contrasts flourishing vegetation with later dried-up vegetation, so the English keeps the adjectival description and marks it conjectural/corrupt rather than rendering harati as 'carries off.'

The anti-Īśvara refutation at 21.1–21.10 is a compact reductio: if Īśvara is a creation-cause, either (a) creation is unmediated, in which case Īśvara and creation must be simultaneous (refuted: they are not); or (b) creation is mediated by Īśvara's resolve, in which case the resolve is either caused or uncaused (caused leads to regress; uncaused implies creation by Īśvara is itself causally indeterminate and not 'by Īśvara' in any robust sense). This is shared technical material with Vasubandhu's Abhidharmakośa II's anti-Īśvara refutation, with Dignāga's logical school, and (later) with Dharmakīrti's Pramāṇavārttika II. The Yogācāra position throughout is that this-world variation is karma-conditioned, not Īśvara-conditioned.

The printed/root phrase around sannihitākāra is damaged (sannihitākārāya rayā... saṁbhuravībhūtāmākārayati), but the function in the fivefold impermanence analysis is clear: the at-hand aspect makes the other impermanence aspects present to attention. The English therefore renders the operation as bringing transformation-, destruction-, and separation-impermanence into presence, not as the opaque 'at-hand-aspect is borne.'

Scribal slip: the printed Sanskrit at 22.25 has yogakṣemākāraṁ ('security-aspect'), but the recapitulation here lists the three aspects just named at 22.21–22.23, the third of which is ayogakṣemākāreṇa ('insecurity-aspect'). The missing 'a-' prefix is a transparent scribal omission; the doctrinal sense requires ayogakṣema. Translated literally as 'security-aspect' to match the printed text; the intended reading is ayogakṣema / insecurity-aspect.

The 'mere aggregate, no self' analysis at 22.26–34 is the canonical nairātmya argument: faculties alone are perceived, sense-objects alone, mere experience born from that, mere mind, mere name, mere seeing, mere designation — nothing beyond, nothing further. Through anupalambha (non-apprehension) the practitioner enters śūnyatā. Through asvatantra (non-autonomy: dependent arising entails non-autonomy entails not-self) the practitioner enters anātmatā. The two together complete the truth-of-suffering analysis. Note the deliberate epistemological framing: it is not that there is no self but that no self is found — Yogācāra characteristic epistemic restraint.

The path-truth explanation gives four meanings for the four path aspects: jñeya-parimārgaṇa (seeking the to-be-known) for mārga, bhūta-parimārgaṇa (seeking the actual/true) for nyāya, proceeding in accordance with the four sufferings for pratipatti, and the one way going to nirvāṇa for nairyāṇika. The prior English split 23.29 as a fragment; the updated wording carries the syntax through 23.30.

The inference block at 24.1–9 moves from personally present aggregates (pratyātmika skandha) examined through conditions to aggregates in dissimilar realms that are not directly present (viparokṣa visabhāga-dhātuka skandha). The point is epistemic extension: what has been established directly in one's own aggregate-stream is extended by inference to other realms. The earlier English left 24.7–9 as fragments; the updated translation restores the sequence from inferential extension to certainty in the truths and then to the transition from hearing/thinking-made attention into cultivation-mode resolve.

The printed/root line is badly corrupted after the 'I see the signless as signless' quotation, but the structure is recoverable: residual asmimāna ('I am' conceit) makes the mind fail to leap toward nirvāṇa; the yogi recognizes that conceit as the obstruction-maker, lets go of the attention proceeding by its own momentum, turns away from external knowable objects, and begins truth-investigation. The English is marked conjectural/corrupt rather than presenting the reconstruction as secure.

The nirvedha-bhāgīya progression at 26.17–19 maps onto the ākāra attainment via patience-grades: mild patience → ūṣma-gata (warmth); middling patience → mūrdhan (summit); strong patience → middling-conforming patience (madhya-satya-anulomikī kṣānti) — and (continuing into 27) the laukikāgra-dharma arises immediately before the darśana-mārga proper at 27.14. The root form at 26.18 is corrupt (mūḍhe ḍham), but the sequence requires mūrdhan; the English marks the restoration conjectural/corrupt. The knowledge named at 26.9 and 26.17 is rendered as 'knowledge in which object and grasper are evenly balanced' rather than the prior mechanical 'equal-equal-object-and-grasper-knowing.' The fire-stick simile at [sbh2.0:82.12](sbh2.0.html#sbh2.0:82.12) is the canonical figure for this same progression: warmth → smoke → flameless fire → flame.

The remarkable description at 27.3–11 of the mind appearing 'as if ceased,' 'as if without object,' 'as if gone away' — but not actually ceased, not actually without object, not actually gone away — is the canonical phenomenology of the laukikāgra-dharma (supreme worldly dharmas) moment. The mind reaches a state that resembles nirvāṇa (no object grasped, no defilement active) without yet being nirvāṇa. The warning at 27.10 that 'for some dull, perplexed ones this state becomes overweening' acknowledges that this resemblance can mislead a practitioner into thinking they have attained more than they have. Here samyaktva-nyāmāvakrānti is entry into the certainty/order of rightness, not right effort; the object immediately after the last non-conceptual mind is the previously investigated truths, not beings. Only the immediately-following moment (27.14: laukikāgra-dharma) and then the darśana-mārga (27.18+) constitute the actual entry into the noble lineage.

The printed/root madhukara-middha-avaṣṭabdham is corrupt or contaminated, but middha-avaṣṭabdham gives the recoverable sense 'obstructed by torpor.' The negation is important: this near-cessation-like state is not just torpor, and even when contrasted with torpor, the mind is not actually ceased. The English therefore removes the nonsensical 'sleep-honey-bound' phrase and marks the line conjectural/corrupt.

laukikāgra-dharma (supreme worldly dharmas) — the last moment of mundane consciousness before the darśana-mārga begins. As 27.17 says, 'this is the limit, the end of mundane formations.' Canonically the very last of the four nirvedha-bhāgīya (warmth, summits, patience, supreme-worldly-dharma), positioned at the gate between prayoga-mārga and darśana-mārga. From here the supramundane mind alone arises (27.15). See also [sbh2.0:67.19](sbh2.0.html#sbh2.0:67.19) for the canonical four-fold nirvedha-bhāgīya schema.

Pakṣyaṁ dauṣṭhulya-sanniśraya-sanniviṣṭam means that the seeing-abandonable defilements are abandoned together with the encumbrance-substrate belonging to their side. This follows the same pakṣya policy as 29.26: avoid the opaque 'side-conjoined' calque, but preserve that the encumbrance belongs to the defilement-side being abandoned.

anāgāmin (non-returner) — the third of the four fruits of asceticism (cf. [sbh2.0:88.4](sbh2.0.html#sbh2.0:88.4) for the canonical defilement-mapping: abandonment of the five lower fetters yields the non-returner). The chapter at 28.3–14 gives the alternate path-orderings depending on the practitioner's prior degree of dispassion: if previously without-lust toward sense-pleasures at supramundane-darśana, immediately to anāgāmin; if mostly or for-the-most-part without-lust, to sakṛdāgāmin; if still with-lust, to srotāpanna. This is an unusual non-sequential treatment — most Sarvāstivāda accounts have stream-entry first and then later progression — but is consistent with the Śrāvakabhūmi's persistent emphasis that path-stage depends on faculty-condition at the moment of darśana, not on a forced sequential schema.

The stream-enterer sign-list says four knowledges have been attained. Only three are syntactically obvious in 28.22 (dharmamātra-jñāna, anuccheda-jñāna, aśāśvata-jñāna); the fourth is carried into 28.23 as māyopama-jñāna whose object is dependently arisen formations. The English therefore makes the segment-boundary continuation explicit rather than leaving a four-versus-three mismatch.

The sukha lines at 28.33–35 are stream-enterer confidence language, not a generic pleasure-analysis. The point is that the practitioner no longer looks to other ascetics or brahmins for happiness, because he has seen and entered the dharma and is independent of another in the Teacher's teaching. Sukhaparīkṣakaḥ is kept as 'one who examines happiness' rather than over-translated into a doctrinal slogan.

The four avetya-prasāda (serenities of clear knowing) — confidence in Buddha, dharma, saṅgha, and the noble training (ārya-śīla) — are canonical and treated at [sbh2.0:81.27](sbh2.0.html#sbh2.0:81.27) as the predominant-effect of the śraddhā-indriya. Their reappearance here at 28.38 as a sign of stream-entry confirms the Sarvāstivāda standard: the four avetya-prasāda are precisely what mark out the stream-enterer (no more doubt about the three jewels and the training) as opposed to the pre-noble practitioner.

This sentence maps the seven-attention framework onto the supramundane sequence. Up through the laukikāgra-dharma moment the attention is still ādhimokṣika (resolve-born). Once the truths have been directly realized and the seeing-abandonable defilements have been abandoned, the sequence moves to prāvivekya manaskāra (seclusion attention) for the sake of further abandoning in the cultivation path.

The once-returner passage at 28.40–44 is a cultivation-path continuation after stream-entry. The practitioner cultivates the already-attained path and abandons the strong and middling desire-realm defilements. The phrase at 28.43 is compressed but contrasts the once-returner's still-possible strong defilement-obsession with his quick removal of it; the prior 'lower-defilement-resting field' calque obscured this practical point.

The root at 28.46 is unstable around mīmānsā māṁsa manaskāreṇa and the final aprabhāvitaḥ. The doctrinal function is clear enough: the cultivation path proceeds by repeated investigation of what has and has not been abandoned, using the paths already attained. The English is marked conjectural/corrupt because the exact syntax cannot be defended from the printed line alone.

The nature of cultivation is defined as repeated practice of wholesome conditioned dharmas by concentrated-plane attention, whether mundane or supramundane. The sequence abhyāsa, paricaya, sātatyasatkṛtya-kriyā is rendered as practice, familiarity, continuity, and careful performance. The final tanmayatā phrase is taken as the mind-continuum's becoming imbued with the practiced dharmas, not a literal 'identifying-with-that.'

The eight actions of cultivation are explained by examples: attaining, familiarizing, purifying, dispelling, fully understanding, abandoning, realizing, and distancing. In 28.61–68 the translation now keeps the sequence legible: attained-but-not-present dharmas are brought into presence through same-kind cultivation; arisen defiled dharmas are withstood and removed; not-yet-arisen to-be-abandoned dharmas are fully understood and faulted as disease, dart, boil, affliction, impermanent, suffering, empty, and not-self.

The elevenfold bhāvanā-prabheda (cultivation-typing) at 29.1–7 is the chapter's culminating typology: śamatha-cultivation, vipaśyanā-cultivation, mundane-path-cultivation, supramundane-path-cultivation, three by intensity (mild, middling, strong), and the four-fold mārga division — prayoga-mārga (preparation), ānantarya-mārga (immediacy), vimukti-mārga (liberation), viśeṣa-mārga (distinction). The same four-fold mārga analysis appears in Sarvāstivāda Abhidharmakośa VI.65–67 as the structure within each of the darśana- and bhāvanā-mārga. Each fruit (stream-entry, once-returning, non-returning, arhatship) is attained via this four-fold internal sequence — preparation establishes the conditions, ānantarya-mārga is the actual moment of defilement-abandonment, vimukti-mārga is the moment of post-abandonment freedom, viśeṣa-mārga is the consolidation thereof.

The printed/root phrase for viśeṣa-mārga-bhāvanā at 29.14 is damaged and repetitive (yayāsta yayā ta ta ūrdhvaṁ...). The working interpretation is that distinction-path cultivation is the post-liberation consolidation phase before a new preparation directed at defilements of another plane is undertaken, or, at the endpoint, before no further path is undertaken. The English is therefore marked conjectural/corrupt.

The delight-gathering attention at 29.17 is not generic 'delight.' It is a regulation practice: the meditator periodically investigates what has and has not been abandoned, arouses urgency with dharmas that should stir the mind, and gladdens the mind with dharmas that should gladden it. This anticipates the final trainee's diamond-like concentration at 29.18.

Sarva-kleśa-pakṣyaṁ dauṣṭhulya-bīja-samuddhātāt means that the encumbrance-seeds belonging to the whole defilement-side have been uprooted. The prior 'side-conjoined of all defilements' preserved pakṣya too mechanically and obscured the arhatship transition: after the diamond-like concentration, the remaining defilement-side seeds are uprooted and the mind resolves on finality.

The arhatship-result block keeps the established project rendering of śaikṣa/aśaikṣa as trainee/non-trainee. The diamond-like concentration is the last śaikṣa concentration; immediately after it, knowledge destroys the darkness of encumbrance and defilement, non-arising knowledge arises, and the practitioner becomes an arhat endowed with the ten dharmas of a non-trainee.

Damage note for 29.44–29.65: the Sanskrit in this closing block contains extensive lacunae, OCR/extraction corruption, and broken compounds. Partial translations are retained where the doctrinal formula is recognizable, but they should be treated as conjectural until checked against Tibetan/Chinese parallels or a better Sanskrit witness.

The mātṛkā (matrix) is the title-marker for the topical index of the treatise — the technical-vocabulary kāya-categories: nāma-kāya (the body of names), pada-kāya (the body of phrases), vyañjana-kāya (the body of letters/syllables), and kāvya-equivalent (poetic-form) treatises. The source has accumulating corruption around the closing of the treatise; the line is preserved as-is per the emendation policy.

The Yog IV uddāna is in śloka meter and enumerates the chapter's topics: characteristic-discerner, resolve-er, seclusion-taker, investigator, preparation-consummation, fruit, attention, dhyāna/ārūpya analysis, samāpatti, abhijñā, rebirth, marks, truth investigation, penetration, cultivation analysis, and consummation. The verse is corrupt in places; meaning is recoverable from the chapter contents above.

Closing colophon for Yogasthāna IV. The Śrāvakabhūmi's fourth yogasthāna treats the seven attentions, rebirth across the realms, the supramundane path proper, and arhatship as the culmination.

The final closing colophon of the entire Śrāvakabhūmi. Marks the structural endpoint of the work as a whole; the Yogācārabhūmi continues with the Pratyekabuddhabhūmi and Bodhisattvabhūmi following this.