s water, when one chooses the small amount of blue that exists and extends it to see everything as blue and so on, those are subjective considerations that are not objective.
4. Vimokṣas four to seven
The four formless vimokṣas (ārūpyavimokṣa) are similar to meditations practiced in the four formless absorptions (ārūpyasamāpatti). The person who wants to acquire these vimokṣas first enters into the formless absorptions: the latter are the gateway into these vimokṣas, for the sphere of the infinity of space (ākāśānantyāyatana) ‘turns the back on and rejects’ material objects (rūpyālambana).
Question. – If it is the same for the formless absorptions, how do [the formless vimokṣas] differ?
Answer. – The worldly person (pṛthagjana) who acquires the formless absorptions is arūpin [‘without form’ or without the concept of form]. But when the saint (āryapudgala) with high resolve (adhyāśaya) acquires these formless absorptions, [he is arūpin] absolutely and without regression: that is why it is called vimokṣa.
It is the same for the other vimokṣas coming within the spheres of infinity of consciousness (vijñānānantyāyatana), nothing at all (ākiṃcanyāyatana) and neither identification nor non-identification (naivasaṃjñānāsaṃjñāyatana).
5. The eighth vimokṣa
Turning the back on and suppressing feelings (vedita) and concepts (saṃjñā) as well as all mind (citta) and all mental events (caitasikadharma) is what is called ‘liberation consisting of the cessation of feeling and concept’ (saṃjñāveditanirodhavimokṣa).
Question. – Why is the absorption of non-identification (asaṃjñāsamāpatti) not a vimokṣa?
Answer. – Because when beings with wrong view (mithyādarśin) who do not discern the defects (doṣa) of dharmas enter into the absorption [216a] [of non-identification], they identify it with nirvāṇa and when they emerge from of this absorption, they feel regret (vipratisāra) and fall back into their wrong views (mithyādṛṣṭi). This is why the absorption [of non-identification] is not a vimokṣa.
On the other hand, by the cessation of feeling and concept that suppresses all distraction (vikṣiptacitta), the yogin penetrates into a nirvāna-like cessation (nirodha). Since he acquires it by attaching to it [just] his body, the Sūtra says that he ‘actualizes it physically’ (kāyena sākṣātkaroti).
Footnotes and references:
In place of the canonical phrase rūpī rūpāṇi paśyati, the Traité substitutes this new wording borrowed from the definition of the first abhibhu. Harivarman does the same in his Satyasiddhiśāstra, T 1646, k. 12, p. 339a17.
This paragraph is undoubtedly a note by Kumārajīva aimed at justifying the translation of vimokṣa by the Chinese characters pei-chö.
For the Indian exegesis, see Athasālinī, p. 191–192: Āraṃmane adhimuccanaṭṭhena paccanīkadhammehi vimuccanaṭṭhena vimokkho ti vuttaṃ; Kośavyākhyā, p. 689: sarvasaṃskṛtavaimukhyād vimoṣaḥ, samāpattyāvaraṇavimokṣaṇād vimokṣa iti.
Actually, during the first two vimokṣas, the ascetic cultivates the nine notions regarding the decomposing corpse, notions that will be the subject of the next chapter.
For these two kinds of behavior, see Nettippakaraṇa, p. 7, 109; Kośa, IV, p. 174, 208; V, p. 82; Kośavyākyā, p. 427.
An adhimuktimanasikāra or adhimuktisaṃjñāna or ‘voluntary seeing’ of the object; see Kośa, VIII, p. 198–199 and notes.
I.e., in the five vimokṣas and the two kṛtsnas called ārūpya.
This detail is necessary because, in the course of the first eight kṛtsnas, the yogin contemplates the four great elements and the four colors in their most pure form, without the intrusion of foreign elements or colors. This is what the Visuddhimagga calls the ‘counter-sign’ (paṭihāganimitta) of the object: see above, p. 1287F.
This must be a flower or a blue metal. However, there is a mountain in Kiang-Si with this name.
Cf. Kośa, VIII, p. 215.
The third of the four errors consisting of taking what is impure to be pure (aśucau śucir iti viparyāsaḥ).
The third vimokṣa is the root of good, alobha: cf. Kośa, VIII, p. 206; Abhidharmadīpa, p. 430.
Cf. the aṭṭikāni satāni saṅkhavaṇṇūpanibhāni about which