---
title: "Dissociated Factors: Conceptual Constructs"
author: "釋慧鏡 (Shi Huijing)"
series: "Pointing at the Moon · S3 Practice: Hundred Dharmas · Paper Twelve"
series_short: "S3"
paper_id: "S3-P12"
paper_number: 12
date: "2026-04"
version: "1.0"
license: "CC BY-NC-SA 4.0"
---
# Dissociated Factors: Conceptual Constructs

**The Twenty-Four Dharmas of the Fourth Category in the Hundred Dharmas —
Positional Designation and Yogācāra Deconstruction**

*不相應行法：概念的假立——
百法明門論第四位・二十四法的分位假立與唯識解構*

## Abstract

The *citta-viprayukta-saṃskāra* (factors dissociated from mind) constitute the most "insubstantial" conditioned dharmas among the five categories of the Hundred Dharmas. They are neither mind (lacking discernment), nor mental factors (not arising with mind), nor form (lacking material resistance), but are "positionally designated" (*fen-wei jia-li* 分位假立): conceptual existences provisionally established based on positional differences among form, mind, and other dharmas. The *Cheng weishi lun* provides the core judgment: "Unlike form, mind, and mental factors whose essential characteristics can be apprehended, they are merely provisionally established based on positional differences of form, mind, and so forth." This paper systematically analyzes the twenty-four dharmas of the fourth category — acquisition (*prāpti*), life-faculty (*jīvitendriya*), species-similarity (*nikāya-sabhāga*), ordinary-being nature (*pṛthagjana-tva*), attainment of non-perception (*asaṃjñi-samāpatti*), cessation attainment (*nirodha-samāpatti*), non-perceptual reward (*asaṃjñi-sattva*), name-bodies (*nāma-kāya*), sentence-bodies (*pada-kāya*), syllable-bodies (*vyañjana-kāya*), arising (*jāti*), aging (*jarā*), abiding (*sthiti*), impermanence (*anityatā*), transmigration, fixed differentiation, correspondence, momentum, sequence, direction, time, number, conjunction, and disjunction — revealing that these twenty-four dharmas encompass humanity's most fundamental conceptual frameworks: time, space, quantity, causal sequence, language, life, and individuality. Yogācāra tells us that these seemingly most "objective" conceptual frameworks are entirely provisional products of consciousness-activity. From form dharmas (the material aspect of consciousness-projection) to dissociated factors (the conceptual aspect of consciousness-activity), the Hundred Dharmas are progressively moving from "being" toward "emptiness."

心不相應行法是百法五位中最「虛」的有為法——它們不是心法（沒有了別性），不是心所有法（不隨心起），不是色法（沒有變礙相），而是「分位假立」的法。本文系統分析百法明門論第四位心不相應行法二十四法，揭示這二十四法涵蓋了人類認知中最基本的概念框架——時間、空間、數量、因果序列、語言、生命、個體性——唯識學告訴你，這些看起來最「客觀」的概念框架，全部是識活動的假立產物。

**Keywords:** *citta-viprayukta-saṃskāra*, positional designation, *Śatadharmaprakāśamukha-śāstra*, *Cheng weishi lun*, *prāpti*, *jīvitendriya*, four marks, *nāma-kāya*, *pada-kāya*, *vyañjana-kāya*, time-direction-number / 心不相應行法、分位假立、百法明門論、成唯識論、得、命根、四相、名身句身文身、時方數

---

## I. The Problem

In our exploration of the five categories of the Hundred Dharmas, we have traversed mind dharmas (S3-P02 through P06), mental factors (S3-P07 through P10), and form dharmas (S3-P11). Mind dharmas constitute the basic structure of consciousness — the driver. Mental factors are the psychological content of consciousness-activity — the driver's state of mind. Form dharmas are the material aspect projected by consciousness — the road and scenery. Now we arrive at the fourth category: factors dissociated from mind (*citta-viprayukta-saṃskāra*).

If mind dharmas, mental factors, and form dharmas all have discernible "essential characteristics" — mind dharmas possess discernment, mental factors arise with mind, form dharmas have material resistance — then the defining characteristic of dissociated factors is precisely that **they have no essential characteristics at all**. They are not mind (they lack discernment), they do not arise with mind (they are not mental factors), and they have no materiality (they are not form) — yet they are categorized as conditioned dharmas. What are they, exactly?

The answer: **concepts**.

More precisely, they are "positionally designated" (*fen-wei jia-li* 分位假立) — conceptual existences provisionally established through nominal designation based on positional differences among form, mind, and other dharmas. The *Cheng weishi lun*'s verdict is precise and incisive:

> 「不相應行亦非實有……非如色、心及諸心所體相可得；非異色、心及諸心所作用可得，由此故知定非實有，但依色等分位假立。」
>
> "Dissociated factors are also not real existences … Unlike form, mind, and mental factors, no essential characteristics can be apprehended for them; unlike form, mind, and mental factors, no distinct functions can be apprehended for them. Therefore they are definitely not real existences, but are merely provisionally established based on positional differences of form and so forth."[^1]

These twenty-four dharmas encompass the most fundamental conceptual frameworks of human cognition:

- **Life and individuality**: acquisition, life-faculty, species-similarity, ordinary-being nature
- **Three forms of consciousness-suspension**: attainment of non-perception, cessation attainment, non-perceptual reward
- **Language**: name-bodies, sentence-bodies, syllable-bodies
- **Marks of conditioned existence**: arising, aging, abiding, impermanence
- **Causation and relationship**: transmigration, fixed differentiation, correspondence, momentum, sequence
- **Basic coordinates of cognition**: direction, time, number
- **Conjunction and disjunction**: conjunction, disjunction

Yogācāra delivers a startling message: **these seemingly most "objective" and "self-evident" concepts — that time flows, space has directions, quantities are determinate, causation follows sequence — are entirely provisional products of consciousness-activity.** They are not independently existing objective frameworks, but conceptual tools "constructed" by consciousness to organize its own experience.

This is the inner logic of the Hundred Dharmas' five-category practice path: from mind dharmas (the transformer) through mental factors (psychological content) to form dharmas (the transformed), we observe how consciousness operates and projects a "world." Now, from form dharmas to dissociated factors, we observe how consciousness **conceptualizes** its own operations — form dharmas still possess "material resistance" as an existential characteristic, while dissociated factors lack even this. They are pure nominal designation.

Continuing the S3 series' vehicle metaphor: if mind dharmas are the driver, mental factors the driving mindset, and form dharmas the road and scenery, then dissociated factors are the **map, timetable, and odometer** — the conceptual tools you use to describe the journey. The map is not the road itself, the timetable is not time itself, the odometer reading is not distance itself — but you need them to "understand" the journey. The problem arises when you mistake the map for the road, the timetable for time — that is the error of *parikalpita* (imagined nature).

This paper takes scriptural evidence as its foundation and the *Cheng weishi lun*'s "positional designation" framework as its core, systematically analyzing the doctrinal structure and practice significance of these twenty-four dharmas, and their structural role in the Hundred Dharmas' progression from "being" toward "emptiness."

---

## II. Scriptural Foundations

### A. Sūtra Sources

#### 2.1 The Āgamas — Lifespan, Warmth, and Consciousness

The concept of "life-faculty" (*jīvitendriya*) among the dissociated factors appears in the Āgamas as the triad of lifespan, warmth, and consciousness. The *Madhyama Āgama*'s *Dharmadinā Bhikṣunī Sūtra* records a precise teaching:

> 「有三法生身死已，身棄塚間，如木無情。云何為三？一者壽，二者暖，三者識。」
>
> "There are three dharmas whose departure from the living body leaves it abandoned at the charnel ground, like senseless wood. What three? First, lifespan; second, warmth; third, consciousness."[^2]

When lifespan, warmth, and consciousness depart, the body becomes like wood and stone — this is the definition of death. The same sūtra further illustrates the mutual dependence of lifespan and warmth through a lamp metaphor:

> 「因壽故有暖，因暖故有壽……猶如因油因炷，故得燃燈，彼中因㷿故有光，因光故有㷿。」
>
> "Because of lifespan there is warmth, and because of warmth there is lifespan … Just as oil and wick enable the lamp to burn, and in the flame, light depends on heat and heat depends on light."[^3]

Most critically, this sūtra distinguishes death from the cessation attainment:

> 「死者壽命滅訖，溫暖已去，諸根敗壞。比丘入滅盡定者，壽不滅訖，暖亦不去，諸根不敗壞。」
>
> "In death, lifespan is extinguished, warmth departs, and the sense faculties deteriorate. When a bhikṣu enters the cessation attainment, lifespan is not extinguished, warmth does not depart, and the sense faculties do not deteriorate."[^4]

This distinction is crucial for understanding the interrelationship between "life-faculty," "cessation attainment," and "attainment of non-perception" — in cessation attainment, consciousness-activity is suspended while life-faculty is maintained.

#### 2.2 The Āgamas — The Four Marks and Impermanence

The four marks of conditioned existence — arising, aging, abiding, impermanence — appear in the Āgamas as the core teaching on "dharmas of arising and ceasing." The Buddha's final verse at the threshold of parinirvāṇa:

> 「諸行無常，是生滅法，生滅滅已，寂滅為樂。」
>
> "All formations are impermanent — such is the dharma of arising and ceasing. When arising and ceasing themselves cease, that quiescence is bliss."[^5]

This is Buddhism's most distilled teaching on the four marks — formations have arising and ceasing (the marks of arising and impermanence); when arising and ceasing themselves are transcended (beyond the four marks), that is true quiescence.

The *Saṃyukta Āgama* repeatedly teaches the arising-and-ceasing nature of the five aggregates:

> 「觀此五受陰，是生滅法。」
>
> "Observe these five grasped aggregates — they are dharmas of arising and ceasing."[^6]

The distinction between ignorance and understanding is defined precisely through knowledge of arising and ceasing:

> 「色生滅法，色生滅法如實不知……是名無明。色生滅法，色生滅法如實知……是名為明。」
>
> "Not knowing as they truly are that form is a dharma of arising and ceasing … this is called ignorance. Knowing as they truly are that form is a dharma of arising and ceasing … this is called understanding."[^7]

The Buddha further declares:

> 「我以一切行無常故……說諸所有受悉皆是苦。」
>
> "Because all formations are impermanent … I declare that all feelings are suffering."[^8]

The four marks — especially impermanence — are not abstract philosophical concepts but practical insights directly connected to the truth of suffering.

#### 2.3 The Āgamas — Transmigration, Species-Similarity, and the Ordinary-Saint Divide

"Transmigration" appears repeatedly in the Āgamas through the imagery of saṃsāra. The *Saṃyukta Āgama*'s tethered-dog simile is the most vivid:

> 「譬如狗子繫柱，彼繫不斷，長夜繞柱，輪迴而轉。如是，比丘！愚夫眾生不如實知色……長夜輪迴，順色而轉。」
>
> "It is like a dog tethered to a post — the tether unbroken, it circles the post through the long night, revolving and turning. Just so, bhikṣus, foolish sentient beings who do not know form as it truly is … revolve through the long night, turning along with form."[^9]

The tethered dog — thinking it is "going somewhere" while merely circling the same post. This is the true face of transmigration: not knowing the five aggregates as they truly are, one revolves endlessly through the long night.

"Species-similarity" (*nikāya-sabhāga*) — the resemblance among same-type beings — also has Āgama roots. The *Ekottara Āgama* teaches: "All share the same type without distinction of high and low"[^10] — beings of the same species share certain commonalities, a phenomenon that the Yogācāra tradition would later explain through the concept of shared-karma seeds.

"Ordinary-being nature" (*pṛthagjana-tva*) — the fundamental difference between ordinary beings and noble ones — is most vividly expressed in the Āgamas' two-arrow simile:

> 「愚癡無聞凡夫生苦樂受、不苦不樂受，多聞聖弟子亦生苦樂受、不苦不樂受。諸比丘！凡夫、聖人有何差別？」
>
> "The foolish, unlearned ordinary person experiences pleasant, painful, and neutral feelings; the well-learned noble disciple also experiences pleasant, painful, and neutral feelings. Bhikṣus, what is the difference between ordinary beings and noble ones?"[^11]

The ordinary person is struck by two arrows (bodily pain plus mental suffering); the noble one is struck by only one (bodily pain without mental suffering). The difference lies not in circumstances but in the response to feeling — and the core of this difference is the presence or absence of "ordinary-being nature."

The Āgamas clearly mark the threshold of stream-entry (seeing the path):

> 「斷三結，謂身見、戒取、疑，斷此三結，得須陀洹。」
>
> "Severing the three fetters — identity-view, attachment to rules and rituals, and doubt — one attains stream-entry."[^12]

In the Yogācāra framework, seeing the path is precisely the severing of ordinary-being nature — the transformation from *pṛthagjana* (ordinary being) to *ārya* (noble one).

#### 2.4 The Saṃdhinirmocana Sūtra — Provisional Designation and the Three Natures

The "provisionally designated" character of dissociated factors receives its most profound scriptural support in the *Saṃdhinirmocana Sūtra*. The chapter on the character of ultimate truth:

> 「言有為者，乃是本師假施設句……然非無事而有所說……即於如是離言法性，為欲令他現等覺故，假立名想謂之有為。」
>
> "The term 'conditioned' is the Original Teacher's provisional designation … Yet it is not that there is nothing at all spoken of … It is precisely with regard to this dharma-nature beyond words, wishing to enable others to directly realize it, that he provisionally established the conceptual label 'conditioned.'"[^13]

The core insight: even fundamental Buddhist concepts like "conditioned" and "unconditioned" are "provisional designation-phrases." The true dharma-nature is "beyond words"; all verbal concepts are fingers pointing at the moon, not the moon itself.

The chapter on the characteristics of all dharmas further defines the three natures:

> 「云何諸法遍計所執相？謂一切法名假安立自性差別。」
>
> "What is the imagined characteristic of all dharmas? It is the nominal provisional establishment of intrinsic nature and distinctions for all dharmas."[^14]

Dissociated factors as "positionally designated" dharmas are quintessential instances of "nominal provisional establishment."

The chapter on the absence of intrinsic nature reveals the hidden meaning:

> 「此由假名安立為相，非由自相安立為相，是故說名相無自性性。」
>
> "Their characteristics are established through nominal designation, not through intrinsic characteristics — therefore they are called 'lacking intrinsic nature with respect to characteristics.'"[^15]

#### 2.5 The Śūraṅgama Sūtra — Non-Perception Attainment, Cessation Attainment, and Space-Time

The *Śūraṅgama Sūtra* provides unique perspectives on several key concepts among the dissociated factors.

On the heaven of non-perception:

> 「是人既以生滅為因，不能發明不生滅性……如是一類名無想天。」
>
> "This person, having taken arising-and-ceasing as the cause, cannot discover the nature of non-arising and non-ceasing … Such beings are called the non-perception heaven."[^16]

The *Śūraṅgama*'s assessment is sharp: the non-perception heaven "takes arising-and-ceasing as cause" while attempting to achieve the "non-arising and non-ceasing" result — a fundamental methodological error. The Fifty Māra-States further classifies it as "emptying the mind into vacancy, achieving the fruit of void extinction."[^17]

By contrast, the *Śūraṅgama* describes voice-hearers who have attained cessation as having "long extinguished the mind-faculty, clearly knowing without relying on mental thought"[^18] — a radically different state where cognition transcends the mental faculty.

On time and space, the *Śūraṅgama* provides the most direct scriptural definitions for the Hundred Dharmas' "time" and "direction":

> 「世為遷流，界為方位……方位有十，流數有三。一切眾生織妄相成。」
>
> "'World' (*shì*) means temporal flow; 'realm' (*jiè*) means spatial direction … Directions number ten, temporal flows number three. All sentient beings weave these through deluded mutual construction."[^19]

"World" is the provisional name for temporal flow; "realm" is the provisional name for spatial direction. "All sentient beings weave these through deluded mutual construction" — space-time is a conceptual structure woven from sentient beings' delusions, not an independently existing container.

The Seven Locations for Seeking Mind further deconstructs the substantiality of spatial direction:

> 「覺知分別心性，既不在內，亦不在外，不在中間，俱無所在。」
>
> "The nature of the discriminating mind is neither inside, nor outside, nor in between — it is nowhere at all."[^20]

If mind is not "in" any spatial direction, then "direction" cannot be mind's objective container — direction itself is a concept provisionally designated by consciousness.

#### 2.6 The Avataṃsaka Sūtra — Time, Number, Direction, Sequence

The *Avataṃsaka Sūtra* provides the most spectacular scriptural vista for the dissociated factors of "time," "number," "direction," and "sequence."

On time, the Lifespan Chapter displays the relativity of time:

> 「此娑婆世界釋迦牟尼佛剎一劫，於極樂世界阿彌陀佛剎為一日一夜……」
>
> "One kalpa in this Sahā world of Śākyamuni Buddha equals one day and night in Amitābha Buddha's Land of Bliss …"[^21]

Time increases geometrically across different Buddha-lands — one kalpa here equals one day there, cascading through hundreds of millions of asaṃkhyeya worlds. Time is not a fixed objective measure but a provisional designation of the resultant world.

The Chapter on the Merit of Initial Aspiration proclaims the interpenetration of thought-instant and kalpa:

> 「不可說劫與一念平等，一念與不可說劫平等；一切劫入非劫，非劫入一切劫。」
>
> "Ineffable kalpas equal a single thought-instant, a single thought-instant equals ineffable kalpas; all kalpas enter into non-kalpa, non-kalpa enters into all kalpas."[^22]

If one thought-instant can equal ineffable kalpas, then "duration of time" cannot be an objectively fixed reality. The Jeweled King of the Cosmic Treasury Chapter goes further, pointing directly to time's source:

> 「始從一念終成劫，悉依眾生心想生。」
>
> "Beginning from a single thought-instant culminating in a kalpa — all arise depending on sentient beings' mental activity."[^23]

Kalpas arise from mind — time is a provisional product of consciousness-activity.

The Gaṇḍavyūha chapter further illustrates subjective temporal dilation: Sudhana, entering Maitreya's tower, "in a short time, perceives immeasurable kalpas"[^24] — the same "objective" duration, experienced as vastly different "subjective" lengths.

On number, the Asaṃkhyeya Chapter presents Buddhism's most systematic numerical progression — a complete 124-level system from *koṭi* to "ineffable-ineffable-turn," each level being the square of the previous.[^25] Yet even such inconceivably vast quantities:

> 「不可說劫猶可盡，歎佛功德無能盡。」
>
> "Ineffable kalpas can still be exhausted, but praising the Buddha's merit can never be exhausted."[^26]

No matter how large, numbers remain finite (conditioned dharmas), while the Buddha's merit is infinite — "number" as a provisionally designated conceptual tool can never exhaust reality.

On direction, the *Avataṃsaka*'s teaching that all worlds can enter a single hair-pore reaches the extreme:

> 「於一微細毛孔中，不可說剎次第入，毛孔能受彼諸剎，諸剎不能遍毛孔。」
>
> "Within a single fine hair-pore, ineffable lands enter in sequence; the hair-pore can receive those lands, yet those lands cannot fill the hair-pore."[^28]

Space can fold and interpenetrate — countless lands enter a hair-tip without crowding, and the hair-tip does not enlarge. The Bodhisattva Dwelling-Places Chapter assigns the great bodhisattvas to sacred mountains in the eight directions[^27], yet this spatial framework is itself interpenetrated and non-fixed. The *Avataṃsaka* also teaches that one can "know the sequence of transmigration in the ocean of three times without obstruction"[^29] — linking direction and sequence within the same visionary field. The *Avataṃsaka*'s spatial vision of mutual containment without obstruction thoroughly dismantles the substantiality of "direction."

#### 2.7 The Mahāprajñāpāramitā-śāstra — Nominal Designation

Nāgārjuna's analysis of "nominal designation" in the *Mahāprajñāpāramitā-śāstra* provides the Prajñā-tradition's theoretical support for positional designation.

The most essential teaching:

> 「此名強作假施設……一切和合法皆是假名，以名取諸法，是故為名。一切有為法但有名相。」
>
> "These names are forcefully and provisionally imposed … All composite dharmas are merely nominal designations. We use names to grasp dharmas — this is why they are called names. All conditioned dharmas have only nominal characteristics."[^30]

"Forcefully and provisionally imposed" — names do not naturally correspond to the essences of things; they are "forcibly" designated. "All composite dharmas are merely nominal designations" — all conditioned dharmas, including dissociated factors, are nominal.

The *Mahāprajñāpāramitā-śāstra* systematizes this into three types of provisional designation: "name-designation, reception-designation, dharma-designation"[^32] — encompassing the provisional nature of language, perception, and doctrinal categories respectively.

The *Mahāprajñāpāramitā-śāstra* further reveals through layered analysis that everything from gross to subtle is nominal:

> 「頭、足、腹、脊和合故，假名為身；髮、眼、耳、鼻……假名為頭……是故微塵但有虛名……無有實定。」
>
> "Head, feet, abdomen, and spine combine, and we nominally designate this 'body.' Hair, eyes, ears, nose … combine, and we nominally designate this 'head' … Therefore even atoms are merely empty names … nothing has real fixity."[^31]

#### 2.8 The Āgamas — Distinguishing Non-Perception Attainment from Cessation Attainment

The *Dharmadinā Bhikṣunī Sūtra* provides the most detailed comparison:

> 「入滅盡定者，想及知滅。入無想定者，想知不滅。」
>
> "In cessation attainment, ideation and cognition cease. In non-perception attainment, ideation and cognition do not cease."[^33]

> 「從滅盡定起時，不作是念：『我從滅盡定起。』從無想定起時，作如是念：『我為有想，我為無想？』」
>
> "When arising from cessation attainment, one does not think: 'I am arising from cessation attainment.' When arising from non-perception attainment, one thinks: 'Was I perceiving or not perceiving?'"[^34]

This distinction is crucial: cessation attainment extinguishes both ideation and cognition (the sixth consciousness and the afflicted aspect of the seventh), with no "self" reflection upon emergence. Non-perception attainment merely suppresses coarse ideation, with self-reflection persisting upon emergence. The former is a noble one's accomplishment; the latter is a technical meditative feat of ordinary beings.

The entry mechanism is also telling: "When entering cessation attainment, one does not think 'I am entering cessation attainment' — rather, through prior cultivation of mind, one naturally tends toward it."[^35] The sequence of cessation follows a precise order: "First bodily formations cease, then verbal formations, then mental formations … upon emerging, first mental formations arise, then verbal, then bodily."[^37]

The mechanism of exiting cessation attainment is especially significant:

> 「然因此身及六處緣命根，是故從定起。」
>
> "Rather, it is due to this body, the six sense-bases, and the condition of life-faculty that one arises from the attainment."[^36]

The continuation of life-faculty is what enables emergence from cessation attainment. This is a key piece of evidence linking "life-faculty" and "cessation attainment" — and indirect proof that the ālaya-vijñāna maintains the body even when the first six consciousnesses are entirely inactive.

The Buddha's own entry into the nine successive attainments (*nava-anupūrva-samāpatti*) before parinirvāṇa[^38] — ascending from the first dhyāna through the formless absorptions to cessation attainment — demonstrates the relationship between these states in actual practice.

#### 2.9 The Mahāprajñāpāramitā-śāstra — The Dialectics of the Four Marks

Nāgārjuna's analysis of the four marks is among the *Mahāprajñāpāramitā-śāstra*'s most brilliant dialectical passages:

> 「有為法不應有三相。何以故？三相不實故。若諸法生、住、滅是有為相者，今『生』中亦應有三相，『生』是有為相故；如是一一處亦應有三相，是則無窮。」
>
> "Conditioned dharmas should not have three marks. Why? Because the three marks are not real. If arising, abiding, and ceasing are the marks of conditioned dharmas, then 'arising' itself, being conditioned, should also have three marks — and so on for each, leading to infinite regress."[^39]

If "arising" is a mark of conditioned dharmas, then "arising" itself is conditioned and should have its own marks of arising, abiding, and ceasing — the "arising" of "arising" should also have three marks — infinite regress. This argument directly denies the possibility of the four marks being "real dharmas."

The *Mahāprajñāpāramitā-śāstra* further explores the mutual contradiction: "Arising and ceasing are mutually contradictory … if there were no arising, abiding, and ceasing, there would be no mental dharmas; without mental dharmas, there would be no dissociated factors."[^40] — the four marks are logically entangled with the very dharmas they characterize.

> 「有為性三相：生、住、滅……有為性尚空，何況有為法！無為性尚空，何況無為法！」
>
> "The three marks of conditioned nature — arising, abiding, ceasing … Even conditioned nature is empty; how much more so conditioned dharmas! Even unconditioned nature is empty; how much more so unconditioned dharmas!"[^41]

A further passage confirms: "These three marks are nominal and without reality … therefore the unconditioned has only names, no intrinsic characteristics."[^42]

#### 2.10 The Āgamas — Ordinary-Being Nature and Seeing the Path

"Ordinary-being nature" is the fundamental positional designation distinguishing ordinary beings from noble ones. The *Saṃyukta Āgama* marks the transformation of seeing the path as "purification of the dharma-eye":

> 「見法、得法、知法、入法，度諸狐疑，不由於他，於正法中，心得無畏。」
>
> "Seeing the Dharma, attaining the Dharma, knowing the Dharma, entering the Dharma — transcending all doubts, relying on no other, gaining fearlessness in the true Dharma."[^43]

This is the concrete description of ordinary-being nature's elimination: seeing the path is not merely acquiring knowledge but a fundamental transformation from *pṛthagjana* to *ārya*. The *Saṃyukta Āgama* further specifies the four fruits of the śramaṇa — from stream-entry through arhatship, where "greed is permanently exhausted"[^44] — each fruit marking a progressive diminishment of ordinary-being nature.

### B. Treatise Sources

#### 2.11 The Śatadharmaprakāśamukha-śāstra and Cheng weishi lun — General Statement on Positional Designation

The *Śatadharmaprakāśamukha-śāstra* lists:

> 「第四心不相應行法，略有二十四種：一得、二命根、三眾同分、四異生性……二十四不和合性。」
>
> "The fourth category, factors dissociated from mind, comprises approximately twenty-four types: (1) acquisition, (2) life-faculty, (3) species-similarity, (4) ordinary-being nature … (24) disjunction."[^45]

The *Cheng weishi lun* (fascicle 1) provides the core argument denying their substantial reality:

> 「不相應行亦非實有……非如色、心及諸心所體相可得；非異色、心及諸心所作用可得，由此故知定非實有，但依色等分位假立。」[^46]

The argument's logical structure: (1) dissociated factors lack the apprehendable "essential characteristics" that form, mind, and mental factors possess; (2) they also lack distinct observable "functions"; (3) therefore they are not real existences; (4) they are merely provisionally established based on "positional differences" of form, mind, and so forth.

A supplementary argument from aggregate-subsumption reinforces this: "These definitely do not, apart from form, mind, and mental factors, have real substance and function … not subsumed under other real dharmas, like other provisional dharmas, they have no real substance."[^47]

On life-faculty, the *Cheng weishi lun* (fascicle 7) is maximally concise:

> 「命根但依本識親種分位假立，非別有性。」
>
> "Life-faculty is merely provisionally established based on the positional differences of the root consciousness's direct seeds — it has no separate nature."[^48]

#### 2.12 The Cheng weishi lun — Acquisition, Life-Faculty, Species-Similarity, Ordinary-Being Nature

The *Cheng weishi lun*'s debate on "acquisition" is a classic passage refuting the Sarvāstivāda position. The Sarvāstivāda cites "accomplishing wholesome and unwholesome" as proof of acquisition's reality; the *Cheng weishi lun* rebuts: "The sūtra does not say this has real substance and function apart from form and mind — your evidence does not hold."[^49]

The decisive counter-example:

> 「亦說：輪王成就七寶。豈即成就他身、非情？若謂於寶有自在力，假說成就，於善、惡法，何不許然？」
>
> "It is also said that the wheel-turning king 'possesses' seven treasures. Does he really 'acquire' the substantial being of other bodies and non-sentient things? If you accept that 'possession' of treasures means having power over them and is spoken of provisionally, why not accept the same for wholesome and unwholesome dharmas?"[^50]

The *Cheng weishi lun* ultimately replaces substantive "acquisition" with three types of accomplishment:

> 「假立三種成就：一、種子成就；二、自在成就；三、現行成就。翻此假立不成就名……假立非得，名異生性。」
>
> "Three types of accomplishment are provisionally established: (1) seed-accomplishment, (2) mastery-accomplishment, (3) manifest-accomplishment. The reverse is provisionally designated as non-accomplishment … the provisional non-acquisition regarding path-of-seeing-severed seeds not yet permanently destroyed is designated 'ordinary-being nature.'"[^51]

On species-similarity:

> 「若同智、言，因斯起故，知實有者，則草、木等應有同分。」
>
> "If one claims real existence based on the fact that similar cognitions and expressions arise toward [similar things], then grasses and trees should also have species-similarity."[^52]

If resemblance requires a real "species-similarity" entity to explain it, then the resemblance among grasses would also require one — and the resemblance among species-similarities would require yet another, leading to infinite regress.

On life-faculty, the *Cheng weishi lun* provides a more detailed seed-based definition: "Based on the directly producing seeds of this consciousness, with karmic-guided functional differences and determinate duration, life-faculty is provisionally established."[^53]

#### 2.13 The Cheng weishi lun — Non-Perception Attainment, Cessation Attainment, Non-Perceptual Reward

The *Cheng weishi lun* (fascicle 7) on the three dharmas:

Non-perception attainment:

> 「無想定者，謂有異生……由出離想，作意為先，令不恒行心、心所滅……非聖所起。」
>
> "Non-perception attainment: an ordinary being … with the aspiration for liberation as the preceding mental attention, causes the non-constantly-active mind and mental factors to cease … It is not undertaken by noble ones."[^54]

Cessation attainment:

> 「滅盡定者，謂有無學或有學聖……令不恒行、恒行染污心、心所滅……異生不能。」
>
> "Cessation attainment: a noble one, whether advanced learner or no-more-learner … causes both non-constantly-active and constantly-active afflicted mind and mental factors to cease … Ordinary beings cannot [achieve this]."[^55]

Key distinction: cessation attainment extinguishes not only the first six consciousnesses but also the afflicted aspect of the seventh (the "constantly-active afflicted"). It is an uncontaminated (*anāsrava*) attainment exclusive to noble ones.

Non-perceptual reward is the retribution-body born from cultivating the non-perception attainment: "Those who cultivated that attainment, by the power of aversion to coarse ideation, are born in that heaven."[^56]

The debate on the two mindless attainments:

> 「遮礙心何須實法，如堤塘等，假亦能遮。故此三法，亦非實有。」
>
> "Why would obstructing mind require a real dharma? Just as embankments and reservoirs — themselves provisional composites — can obstruct water. Therefore these three dharmas are also not real existences."[^57]

#### 2.14 Treatise Sources — Name-Bodies, Sentence-Bodies, Syllable-Bodies, and the Four Marks

The complete definitions of name-bodies, sentence-bodies, and syllable-bodies appear in the *Abhidharmasamuccaya-vyākhyā*:

> 「名身者，謂於諸法自性增言，假立名身。句身者，謂於諸法差別增言，假立句身。文身者，謂於彼二所依諸字，假立文身。」
>
> "Name-bodies: augmented speech regarding the intrinsic nature of dharmas, provisionally established as name-bodies. Sentence-bodies: augmented speech regarding the distinctions of dharmas, provisionally established as sentence-bodies. Syllable-bodies: the letters on which the preceding two depend, provisionally established as syllable-bodies."[^58]

The four marks are defined in the *Abhidharmasamuccaya-vyākhyā*:

> 「生者，謂於眾同分諸行本無今有性，假立為生。老者，謂於眾同分諸行相續變異性，假立為老。住者，謂於眾同分諸行相續不斷性，假立為住。無常者，謂於眾同分諸行相續變壞性，假立無常。」
>
> "Arising: the nature of formations previously absent now becoming present within species-similarity — provisionally established as 'arising.' Aging: the nature of continuous change — provisionally established as 'aging.' Abiding: the nature of continuous non-interruption — provisionally established as 'abiding.' Impermanence: the nature of continuous deterioration — provisionally established as 'impermanence.'"[^60]

Four instances of "provisionally established" — the four marks are not four entities existing independently outside conditioned dharmas that "make" things arise, age, abide, or perish. They are characteristics appearing at different positions within conditioned dharmas' process, provisionally designated as "arising," "aging," "abiding," and "impermanence."

The *Abhidharmasamuccaya-vyākhyā* further specifies:

> 「當知此中依相續位建立生等，不依剎那。」
>
> "Know that herein, arising and so forth are established in terms of the continuity-position, not in terms of the instant."[^61]

The *Yogācāra-bhūmi-śāstra* further subdivides each of the four marks into three types (e.g., instantaneous arising, continuity arising, and positional arising), providing a more refined analytical framework.[^62]

#### 2.15 Treatise Sources — Transmigration through Disjunction: The Final Ten

The complete definitions of the final ten dharmas appear in the *Abhidharmasamuccaya-vyākhyā* and the *Pañcaskandhaka-prakaraṇa*:

> 「流轉者，謂諸行因果相續不斷性。定異者，謂諸行因果各異性。相應者，謂諸行因果相稱性。勢速者，謂諸行流轉迅疾性。次第者，謂諸行一一次第流轉性。時者，謂諸行展轉新新生滅性。方者，謂諸色行遍分齊性。數者，謂諸行等各別相續體相流轉性。和合者，謂諸行緣會性。不和合者，謂諸行緣乖性。」[^63]

Note that every definition concludes with "the nature of formations …" — each describes some aspect of formations (conditioned dharmas), not an independent entity existing apart from them.

The *Abhidharmasamuccaya-vyākhyā*'s threefold division of "time" is particularly precise:

> 「已生已滅立過去時，未生立未來時，已生未滅立現在時。」
>
> "That which has arisen and ceased is established as past time; that which has not yet arisen is established as future time; that which has arisen and not yet ceased is established as present time."[^64]

"Direction" carries a notable specification:

> 「唯說色法所攝因果。」
>
> "Spoken only of causal results subsumed under form dharmas."[^65]

Direction (spatial orientation) has meaning only in the context of form dharmas — consistent with Yogācāra's position that direction is provisionally established based on the relative positions of form dharmas. Without form dharmas, there are no directions; space is not an empty container preceding form.

#### 2.16 The Yogācāra-bhūmi-śāstra — Six Types of Provisional Existence

The *Yogācāra-bhūmi-śāstra* (fascicle 100) proposes a systematic classification of "six types of provisional existence," with "positional provisional existence" directly applicable to dissociated factors:

> 「分位假有者，謂生等諸心不相應行。即於諸行，由依前後、有及非有、同類、異類相續分位，假立生等；非此生等離諸行外，有真實體而別可得。」
>
> "Positional provisional existence: arising and such factors dissociated from mind. Based precisely on the positions of formations — before and after, present and absent, same-type and different-type continuity — 'arising' and so forth are provisionally established. These — arising and the rest — have no real substance separately apprehendable apart from formations."[^66]

#### 2.17 The Abhidharmasamuccaya-vyākhyā — Five-Gate Framework and Summary

The *Abhidharmasamuccaya-vyākhyā* establishes a systematic five-gate framework for analyzing dissociated factors: "These dissociated factors should be established through five gates: basis, self-nature, provisional establishment, mental attention, and ground."[^68]

The summary is the most essential doctrinal assessment:

> 「如是等心不相應行法，唯依分位差別而建立故，當知皆是假有。」
>
> "These factors dissociated from mind, being established solely based on positional differences, should be known as merely provisionally existent."[^69]

This is followed by a precise classification mapping each of the twenty-four dharmas to its specific type of positional difference: increase-decrease of wholesome/unwholesome → acquisition; mind and mental factor positions → the two attainments + non-perceptual reward; abiding position → life-faculty; similarity position → species-similarity; characteristic position → four marks; verbal expression position → name-sentence-syllable bodies; non-attainment position → ordinary-being nature; causal-result position → the final ten dharmas.

The *Xianyang shengjiao lun* reinforces this assessment with a verse: "Know that all dissociated factors are provisionally designated existences, of six types of provisional nature, because both carry two faults."[^70]

#### 2.18 The Bashi guiju song — Indirect Connections

The *Bashi guiju song* (Verses on the Eight Consciousnesses) contains no direct mention of "dissociated factors." However, several lines are indirectly related[^71]: the eighth consciousness's "departing last, arriving first, as master" relates to life-faculty; "receiving perfuming, maintaining seeds, body and world" relates to life-faculty's basis in the ālaya-vijñāna; and "wholesome karma cools from below, unwholesome from above" relates to the dispersal of the lifespan-warmth-consciousness triad at death.

---

## III. Core Argument

### 3.1 Positional Designation — The Ontological Status of Dissociated Factors

The ontological status of dissociated factors within the five categories can be captured through a precise negative definition: **they are dharmas that "are nothing in particular."**

Mind dharmas have discernment — they cognize. Mental factors arise with mind — they influence the quality of cognition. Form dharmas have material resistance — they occupy space. Dissociated factors? They cannot cognize (not mind), they do not arise with mind (not mental factors), they do not occupy space (not form) — yet they are also not unconditioned (they are conditioned, dependent on causes).

Kuiji's *Cheng weishi lun shuchao* provides a concise etymology:

> 「具足應言非色不相應行。言非色者，即簡於色。不相應者，復簡於心，心是相應，以非心故名不相應，行簡無為。」
>
> "The complete designation should be 'non-form dissociated formations.' 'Non-form' excludes form. 'Dissociated' excludes mind — mind is 'associated,' so 'not being mind' is called 'dissociated.' 'Formations' excludes the unconditioned."[^72]

"Not form" — not form dharmas. "Dissociated" — not associated with mind (therefore not mind or mental factors). "Formations" — part of the formation aggregate (not unconditioned). Four-sided exclusion yields the designation "dissociated factors."

So what **are** they? The answer: **they are concepts**. More precisely, "positionally designated" — conceptual existences provisionally established through nominal designation based on differences in the "positions" (stages, states, relationships) of form, mind, and other dharmas.

This means dissociated factors are not "fictions" — they genuinely describe real aspects of consciousness-activity (dependent-nature, *paratantra*). But they are also not "real existences" — they have no independent substance apart from form and mind (not the reified imagined-nature, *parikalpita*).

A daily-life analogy: you see a group of people queuing for coffee. The concept "queue" describes a real spatial arrangement — these people really are standing in a line. But "queue" is not an independently existing entity — it has no essential characteristics of its own; remove the people, and there is no "queue" to speak of. Dissociated factors are like "queue" — they describe certain relationships or states among form and mind dharmas, but they themselves are not "things."

✅ **Thesis**: The ontological status of dissociated factors is "nominally designated dependent-nature" — they arise depending on positional differences among form and mind (dependent-nature), exist in the mode of nominal designation (not substantially real), but fall into imagined-nature if reified as real dharmas.

### 3.2 Acquisition and Life-Faculty — The Provisionally Designated Basis of Individual Existence

"Acquisition" (*prāpti*) and "life-faculty" (*jīvitendriya*) are the two dissociated factors most directly related to individual existence.

**Acquisition** is the provisional designation for the "possession-relationship" between a sentient being and dharmas. The *Cheng weishi lun* replaces the Sarvāstivāda's substantial "acquisition" with three types of accomplishment: seed-accomplishment (having seeds in the ālaya-vijñāna), mastery-accomplishment (seeds capable of free activation), and manifest-accomplishment (the dharma currently active).[^51]

All three can be explained through ālaya-vijñāna seed-theory — there is no need for an additional "acquisition" entity separate from form and mind. The essence of practice is changing the state of "acquisition" in the ālaya-vijñāna: from "acquiring" affliction (ordinary-being stage) to "acquiring" purity (noble stage) to "acquiring" uncontaminated wisdom (buddhahood). Yet ultimately, "acquisition" itself is provisionally designated — the Prajñā sūtras' "nothing to be attained" (*anupālambha*) is precisely the realization that "acquisition" has no intrinsic nature.

**Life-faculty** is the nominal designation for "lifespan" in the triad of lifespan, warmth, and consciousness. The *Cheng weishi lun*'s assessment: "Life-faculty is merely provisionally established based on the root consciousness's direct seeds in the position of determinate duration of life — it has no separate nature."[^48]

The development from the Āgamic lifespan-warmth-consciousness framework[^2][^3] to the Yogācāra life-faculty assessment is clear: the Āgamas explain life-maintenance through three dharmas, and Yogācāra further asks — what is the "substance" of lifespan? Answer: there is no independent "lifespan" entity; lifespan is merely the nominal designation for the ālaya-vijñāna's function of continuously maintaining the body under karmic guidance, at the position of "determinate duration."

### 3.3 Species-Similarity and Ordinary-Being Nature — The Provisional Designation of Category and Identity

"Species-similarity" (*nikāya-sabhāga*) describes the resemblance among beings of the same type; "ordinary-being nature" (*pṛthagjana-tva*) describes the positional difference distinguishing ordinary beings from noble ones. Together they form horizontal and vertical coordinates.

Species-similarity is anti-essentialist. The *Cheng weishi lun*'s argument[^52] shows: if "resemblance" requires a real "species-similarity" entity, then species-similarity's own resemblance requires another — infinite regress. Yogācāra's answer: "based on the resemblance of sentient beings' bodies and minds, at the position of difference, species-similarity is provisionally established." Resemblance results from shared-karma seeds in the ālaya-vijñāna manifesting similar results, not from any "essence of humanity."

This directly connects with the "shared-characteristic seeds" and "many-lamps simile" from S3-P11: the resemblance among same-type beings (species-similarity) is, at the deeper level, the result of shared-characteristic seeds manifesting individually yet overlapping in similar patterns ("like many lamps whose lights each pervade and seem as one").

Ordinary-being nature is the nominal designation for "the state of being ordinary." The *Cheng weishi lun*'s definition: "At the position where path-of-seeing-severed seeds have not yet been permanently destroyed, non-acquisition is provisionally established and designated 'ordinary-being nature.'"[^51]

The horizontal species-similarity and vertical ordinary-being nature together sketch an "identity map" — what "type" of being you are (species-similarity), and "where" you stand on the ordinary-noble spectrum (ordinary-being nature). Yogācāra tells you: both coordinates are provisionally designated — you do not "have" any essential category, nor are you "at" any fixed position. The possibility of practice is precisely built on this provisional designation: if identity were a fixed essence, transformation would be impossible. Precisely because these are provisionally designated positional differences, they can be changed through practice.

### 3.4 Non-Perception Attainment, Cessation Attainment, Non-Perceptual Reward — Three Forms of Consciousness-Suspension

All three describe states where "mind and mental factors are not active," yet their natures are radically different.

**Non-perception attainment**: an ordinary being's achievement. Entered through the mental attention of "aspiration for liberation" (attempting to escape perception), extinguishing the non-constantly-active mind and mental factors of the first six consciousnesses. The *Cheng weishi lun* determines: "not undertaken by noble ones."[^54] The non-perceptual reward is the heavenly rebirth lasting five hundred great kalpas (though some texts record sixteen kalpas[^73]). The *Śūraṅgama Sūtra* classifies the non-perception heaven as the erroneous path of "taking arising-and-ceasing as cause while seeking non-arising-and-non-ceasing."[^16] As the *Śūraṅgama* commentary clarifies: "Not understanding that delusion's nature is empty, grasping at the weariness of arising-ceasing, seeking non-arising-non-ceasing — this is not true nirvāṇa."[^74]

**Cessation attainment**: a noble one's achievement. Entered through the mental attention of "cessation of ideation," extinguishing not only the first six consciousnesses but also the afflicted aspect of the seventh. The *Cheng weishi lun* determines: "ordinary beings cannot [achieve this]."[^55] The *Dharmadinā Bhikṣunī Sūtra*'s precise description of the exit-mechanism: "due to this body, the six sense-bases, and the condition of life-faculty, one arises from the attainment"[^36] — life-faculty's continuation is the condition for emerging from cessation.

The three dharmas reveal a profound practice principle: identical phenomenology (mind and mental factors inactive) with radically different methodologies and motivations produces entirely different results. Non-perception attainment "suppresses delusion with delusion"; cessation attainment "stills delusion with wisdom." The methodological difference is fundamental.

### 3.5 Name-Bodies, Sentence-Bodies, Syllable-Bodies — The Yogācāra Deconstruction of Language

Name-bodies (*nāma-kāya*), sentence-bodies (*pada-kāya*), and syllable-bodies (*vyañjana-kāya*) are the three dissociated factors directly concerning language.

Name-bodies are words expressing the intrinsic nature of things (like "form," "feeling"), sentence-bodies are sentences expressing distinctions among things (like "form is impermanent"), and syllable-bodies are the phonetic elements on which the preceding two depend.[^58] The *Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra* provides a parallel definition: "Name-bodies designate things … sentence-bodies express meanings decisively … syllable-bodies form names and sentences."[^59]

The three-layered provisional structure: syllable-bodies (phonemes) → name-bodies (words) → sentence-bodies (sentences). Phonemes compose words, words compose sentences — but all three layers are "provisionally established." Apart from consciousness's interpretive activity, phonemes are merely sound waves, words merely combinations of phonemes, sentences merely arrangements of words. "Meaning" is not built into language; it is endowed by consciousness-activity.

The *Mahāprajñāpāramitā-śāstra*'s "these names are forcefully and provisionally imposed"[^30] is the most direct proclamation of language's provisionally designated nature. The *Saṃdhinirmocana Sūtra*'s teaching goes deeper: "Their characteristics are established through nominal designation, not through intrinsic characteristics"[^15] — this means that all our "cognition" of the world passes through the mediating provisional establishment of name-sentence-syllable bodies. We never directly cognize "things as they are" but rather cognize "things as conceptually processed."

Name-sentence-syllable bodies hold a special position among dissociated factors: they are the provisional designation of consciousness's **conceptualizing activity itself**. If other dissociated factors (time, direction, number) are conceptual frameworks consciousness uses to conceptualize the world, then name-sentence-syllable bodies are the tools used in conceptualization — **language is the tool of concepts, and the tool itself is a provisionally designated concept**. This is a meta-level designation.

### 3.6 The Four Marks — The Provisionally Designated Character of Conditioned Existence's Own Signatures

Arising, aging, abiding, and impermanence are the four signatures of conditioned existence. Every conditioned dharma has arising (previously absent, now present), aging (continuous change), abiding (continuous non-interruption), and impermanence (continuous deterioration).[^60]

The problem: if the four marks are signatures of conditioned dharmas, then the marks themselves are also conditioned and should also have four marks — the "arising" of "arising" should have its own "arising," "abiding," and "impermanence" — leading to Nāgārjuna's infinite regress.[^39] The four marks, if real dharmas, are logically untenable.

Yogācāra's resolution: the four marks are not four entities existing independently outside conditioned dharmas; they are characteristics appearing at different positions within conditioned dharmas' process, provisionally designated as four marks. "The arising of form" — "arising" belongs to "form"; apart from "form," there is no independent "arising."[^67]

The practice significance: "impermanence" in the Āgamas is the starting point of awakening — "all formations are impermanent; such is the dharma of arising and ceasing."[^5] But Yogācāra further specifies: when you cultivate contemplation of impermanence, do not reify "impermanence" as a substantial thing — it too is provisionally designated. The purpose of contemplating impermanence is not to fixate on the concept "everything is changing" but to transcend the four marks themselves through this contemplation — "when arising and ceasing themselves cease, that quiescence is bliss."

### 3.7 Time, Direction, Number — The Provisional Designation of Cognitive Frameworks

Time (*kāla*), direction (*deśa*), and number (*saṃkhyā*) are the three most basic coordinates of human cognition — time, space, quantity. Yogācāra tells us that these three seemingly most "objective" and "impossible to doubt" coordinates are entirely provisional products of consciousness-activity.

**Time**: "Based on the continuous flow of causal results among formations, time is provisionally established. That which has arisen and ceased establishes past time; that which has not yet arisen establishes future time; that which has arisen and not yet ceased establishes present time."[^64]

Past, present, and future are not three parallel rivers of time but three markers of consciousness's flow-states. The *Śūraṅgama*'s "world means temporal flow"[^19] — time is the nominal designation for "flowing." The *Avataṃsaka*'s "beginning from a single thought culminating in a kalpa, all arising dependent on beings' mental activity"[^23] — kalpas "arise dependent on mind." Sudhana's experience in Maitreya's tower — "in a short time, perceiving immeasurable kalpas"[^24] — and the samādhi state where practitioners pass through ineffable kalpas "without any awareness of time's length"[^75] both confirm that temporal experience is not fixed but consciousness-dependent. The interpenetration of thought-instant and kalpa — "ineffable kalpas equal a single thought-instant"[^22] — if time were objectively fixed, how could one instant equal ineffable kalpas?

**Direction**: "Spoken only of causal results subsumed under form dharmas."[^65] — spatial direction has meaning only in the context of form dharmas. The *Śūraṅgama*'s Seven Locations for Seeking Mind[^20] denies that mind is "inside, outside, or in between" — if mind is not in any direction, direction is not mind's objective container. The *Avataṃsaka*'s "within a single fine hair-pore, ineffable lands enter in sequence"[^28] — mutual containment of great and small, foldable space — space is not a fixed framework.

**Number**: described as "the nature of separate continuous flow of each formation's characteristics."[^63] Quantity is a provisional marker of "separateness." The *Avataṃsaka*'s Asaṃkhyeya Chapter[^25] displays a 124-level number system — yet "ineffable kalpas can still be exhausted, but praising the Buddha's merit can never be exhausted"[^26] — no matter how vast, numbers are finite, and only the Buddha's merit transcends quantitative limitation.

The provisionally designated nature of time, direction, and number is the easiest to overlook because they constitute our cognition's "operating system" — we can scarcely imagine a world without time, space, and quantity. But precisely for this reason, their provisional nature is also the most profound teaching: **your most "self-evident" cognitive frameworks — that time flows, space has directions, quantities are determinate — are entirely constructions of consciousness.** If you can see through these three provisional designations, you begin to approach the domain of non-discriminating wisdom.

### 3.8 Dissociated Factors' Structural Significance Within the Five Categories

Returning to the overall architecture of the five categories:

```
Mind (8) → Mental Factors (51) → Form (11) → Dissociated Factors (24) → Unconditioned (6)
Transformer    Psychological      Transformed      Conceptual            Mind's true
               content            material aspect   provisional aspect    nature
```

From mind dharmas to form dharmas, the Hundred Dharmas display "how consciousness projects a world." From form dharmas to dissociated factors, the Hundred Dharmas display "how consciousness **conceptualizes** the world" — consciousness not only projects a world but also performs a "conceptualization" of its own projection, provisionally establishing conceptual frameworks of time, space, quantity, causal sequence, and language.

Form dharmas still have "material resistance" — they possess a sense of material existence. Dissociated factors lack even this — they are pure conceptual provisional designation, where "no essential characteristics like those of form, mind, and mental factors can be apprehended."[^46] From form to dissociated factors is from "the visible projection" to "the invisible provisional designation" — from "seen transformations" to "unseen concepts."

This trajectory has its practice logic: the Hundred Dharmas are progressively moving from "being" toward "emptiness." Mind dharmas are the most "substantial" (consciousness itself), mental factors less so (arising with mind), form dharmas still less (consciousness's object-aspect — S3-P11 already demonstrated that "object-aspects depend on consciousness-transformation and are not as real as consciousness's nature within dependent-arising"), and dissociated factors the most "insubstantial" (pure conceptual framework). The next step — unconditioned dharmas (S3-P13) — will leap beyond the entire conditioned framework to arrive at thusness (*tathatā*).

Continuing the vehicle metaphor: mind dharmas are the driver, mental factors the driving mindset, form dharmas the road and scenery, and dissociated factors are the **map, timetable, and odometer**. You use the map to describe the road, the timetable to describe time, the odometer to describe distance — but the map is not the road itself, the timetable is not time itself, the odometer reading is not distance itself.

Going deeper: if you think simply "throwing away the map" solves the problem, that too is another form of attachment. The map is provisionally designated (not substantially real), but it genuinely has descriptive function (dependently arisen existence). Practice is not discarding all concepts but realizing concepts' provisionally designated nature, skillfully using without grasping. This is S3-P12's preparation for S5 (the *Diamond Sūtra*'s "neither hundred dharmas, yet named hundred dharmas") — first thoroughly understanding the structure of provisional designation, then in S5 using prajñā-wisdom to "cut through" attachment to those designations.

✅ **Thesis**: The arrangement of the five categories from mind dharmas to dissociated factors displays an ontological diminishment from "transformer" through "transformed" to "conceptual provisional designation" — the internal structure of the Hundred Dharmas itself is a practice path from "being" toward "emptiness."

---

## IV. Cross-Disciplinary Resonances

### 4.1 Name-Sentence-Syllable Bodies and Semiotics

⚠️ **Heuristic analogy, not theoretical equivalence**

Ferdinand de Saussure's structural linguistics distinguishes "signifier" (sound-image or written form) from "signified" (concept), arguing that their relationship is "arbitrary" — no natural or necessary connection exists.

Yogācāra's analysis of name-sentence-syllable bodies is structurally parallel: names are "augmented speech regarding intrinsic nature," sentences are "augmented speech regarding distinctions," and syllables are the phonetic substrate. All three are "provisionally established" — linguistic signs have no intrinsic connection to what they designate. The *Mahāprajñāpāramitā-śāstra*'s "these names are forcefully and provisionally imposed"[^30] aligns with Saussure's "arbitrariness of the sign" in its core insight.

**Boundary**: Saussure's analysis operates at the level of linguistic structure; Yogācāra's operates at the ontological level. Yogācāra does not merely say linguistic signs are arbitrary but that language itself (name-sentence-syllable bodies) is "positionally designated" and arises dependent on consciousness-activity. Saussure analyzes "how language works"; Yogācāra asks "why language exists."

### 4.2 Time and Direction with Kant's Transcendental Aesthetic

⚠️ **Heuristic analogy, not theoretical equivalence**

Immanuel Kant's *Critique of Pure Reason* argues that time and space are not objectively existing entities nor inherent properties of things, but "a priori forms of intuition" belonging to the knowing subject. We experience the world "through" time and space, but time and space themselves are structural conditions of the cognitive subject.

Yogācāra's assessment of "time" and "direction" aligns directionally: time and space are not objective containers independent of consciousness but provisional products of consciousness-activity. The *Śūraṅgama*'s "world means temporal flow; realm means spatial direction"[^19] structurally resonates with Kant's "time is the form of inner sense; space is the form of outer sense."

**Boundary**: Kant still presupposes a "thing-in-itself" (*Ding an sich*) — an unknowable reality "behind" spatiotemporal forms. Yogācāra does not admit a thing-in-itself; all dharmas (including time and space) are consciousness-projected, with no "reality behind" separate from consciousness. Kant's time and space are a priori (transcendentally necessary cognitive structures that cannot be surpassed); Yogācāra's are provisionally designated (conceptual constructions that can be transcended). The *Avataṃsaka*'s interpenetration of thought-instant and kalpa[^22] directly demonstrates the possibility of "transcending temporal frameworks" — impossible within Kant's system.

### 4.3 Positional Designation and Conceptual Engineering

⚠️ **Heuristic analogy, not theoretical equivalence**

Contemporary analytic philosophy's "conceptual engineering" argues that concepts do not fixedly correspond to external reality but can be "engineered" — modified, replaced, redesigned — to better serve cognitive and practical purposes. Concepts are tools, not mirrors.

Yogācāra's "positional designation" assessment of dissociated factors is methodologically parallel: the twenty-four dharmas are not fixed "conceptual mirrors" corresponding to external reality but conceptual tools consciousness "provisionally establishes" to organize experience. Their existence is functional (helping organize experience), not ontological (corresponding to independent reality).

**Boundary**: Conceptual engineering aims to "optimize concepts"; Yogācāra aims to "transcend concepts." Conceptual engineering says "concepts can be improved"; Yogācāra says "concepts can be transcended."

### 4.4 Species-Similarity and Prototype Category Theory

⚠️ **Heuristic analogy, not theoretical equivalence**

Eleanor Rosch's prototype theory argues that human categorization is not based on strict necessary-and-sufficient conditions but on "prototypes" — the most typical members of a category. Categorization is fuzzy and graded, not precise and binary.

Yogācāra's species-similarity resonates structurally: "resemblance among same-type beings" exists not because of a precise "human essence" definition but because shared-karma seeds in the ālaya-vijñāna are similar, producing similar manifest results — resemblance is "graded" (more or less similar), not "essential" (possessing or lacking a defining feature).

**Boundary**: Rosch's theory is empirical cognitive psychology; Yogācāra's species-similarity is ontological analysis. Rosch analyzes "how humans categorize"; Yogācāra asks "what categorization itself is" (provisional designation) and "what the basis of categorization is" (shared-karma seeds).

### 4.5 The Four Marks and Process Philosophy

⚠️ **Heuristic analogy, not theoretical equivalence**

Alfred North Whitehead's process philosophy argues that reality's basic units are not "substances" but "events" or "actual occasions." All existence is process; "becoming" is more fundamental than "being."

Yogācāra's four-marks analysis aligns directionally: arising, aging, abiding, and impermanence are not attributes added to substances but different aspects of conditioned dharmas as "processes." The *Abhidharmasamuccaya-vyākhyā* specifies that the four marks "are established in terms of continuity-position, not in terms of the instant"[^61] — they describe stages of process, not attributes of substance.

**Boundary**: Whitehead's process philosophy still presupposes some form of reality for "actual occasions." Yogācāra's analysis ultimately points to the four marks themselves being provisionally designated — not "process is real" but "process-markers are provisionally designated." Nāgārjuna's infinite regress argument[^39] thoroughly deconstructs the possibility of the four marks as real dharmas — going further than Whitehead.

---

## V. Middle Way Corrections

### ❌ Correction 1: "Provisionally designated means nonexistent" — The Nihilist Trap

"Provisionally designated" (*prajñapti*) does not mean "nonexistent." Dissociated factors are "provisionally existent," not "utterly nothing." Acquisition, life-faculty, time, direction, number — these concepts genuinely describe real aspects of consciousness-activity. Practice really does have "sequence," life really does have "life-faculty," conditioned dharmas really do have "four marks." Denying these is nihilism (*ucchedavāda*).

The *Cheng weishi lun* says "merely provisionally established based on positional differences of form and so forth"[^46] — "merely" (*but*) limits what is denied to "substantial self-nature," not to "provisional function." Dissociated factors have functional existence at the dependent-nature level — one simply must not mistake this functional existence for independent substance.

### ❌ Correction 2: "Time doesn't exist so there's no need to cherish time" — The Practical Fallacy

Knowing "time" is a provisionally designated concept does not mean practitioners may squander time. Provisionally designated concepts have genuine function at the conventional-truth level. Time's provisional nature is an ultimate-truth insight; cherishing one's precious human life is a conventional-truth practice. The two truths are not contradictory: precisely because time is provisionally designated and ungraspable, each "now" should be treasured all the more — for "now" will not wait.

The *Avataṃsaka*'s "beginning from a single thought-instant culminating in a kalpa"[^23] does not mean time is irrelevant but that a single thought-instant contains infinite possibility — every present moment is a complete field for practice.

### ❌ Correction 3: "Dissociated factors are a Yogācāra invention" — Ignoring Sectarian Heritage

Dissociated factors have their heritage in Abhidharma sectarian Buddhism. The Sarvāstivāda had long listed "acquisition," "life-faculty," "species-similarity," and others as independent dharmas, but asserted them to be "substantially real." Yogācāra did not invent these concepts but **re-assessed** their ontological status — from "substantially real" to "provisionally existent." This re-assessment's significance lies in preserving these concepts' analytical function while denying their substantial nature.

### ❌ Correction 4: "All concepts are obstacles; practice means eliminating concepts" — The Anti-Intellectual Trap

Knowing dissociated factors are provisionally designated does not mean one should "eliminate" all concepts. Concepts — including the four marks, sequence, name-sentence-syllable bodies — are tools of practice. The Buddha's own teaching is transmitted in the form of name-sentence-syllable bodies. If all concepts were obstacles, the Buddha should not have taught the Dharma.

The *Saṃdhinirmocana Sūtra* teaches: "provisionally established conceptual labels called 'conditioned' … wishing to enable others to directly realize"[^13] — the Buddha "provisionally establishes conceptual labels" precisely to guide beings toward awakening. Concepts are not the destination but a necessary means. The goal of practice is not annihilating concepts but not being bound by them — skillfully using concepts without grasping, just as one skillfully uses a map without mistaking it for the road.

### ⚠️ Correction 5: Boundaries of Cross-Disciplinary Analogies

This paper's five cross-disciplinary analogies (semiotics, Kant's transcendental aesthetic, conceptual engineering, prototype theory, process philosophy) are all "heuristic analogies," not "theoretical equivalences." Each has explicit boundaries — especially:

- All modern philosophical and scientific frameworks operate at the level of consciousness's *content*; Yogācāra inquires into the *source* and *structure* of consciousness itself.
- Kant's a priori forms are "insurpassable"; Yogācāra's provisional designations are "transcendable" — this is a fundamental difference.
- We reason with logic, not "prove" the Dharma with physics. Analogies are bridging gestures, not reductionist equations.

---

## VI. Conclusion

The factors dissociated from mind represent the most refined category of conditioned dharmas in the five divisions of the Hundred Dharmas. Their twenty-four dharmas encompass humanity's most fundamental conceptual frameworks — the continuity of life (life-faculty), individual identity (acquisition, species-similarity, ordinary-being nature), suspension of consciousness (non-perception attainment, cessation attainment, non-perceptual reward), the structure of language (name-bodies, sentence-bodies, syllable-bodies), the signatures of existence (arising, aging, abiding, impermanence), causal sequence (transmigration, fixed differentiation, correspondence, momentum, sequence), cognitive coordinates (time, direction, number), and relational dynamics (conjunction, disjunction) — and Yogācāra, with a single phrase, "merely provisionally established based on positional differences of form and so forth," assesses all twenty-four as "conceptually provisionally designated."

"Provisionally designated" is not "fictitious." The twenty-four dharmas genuinely describe real aspects of consciousness-activity — practice has sequence, life has life-faculty, conditioned dharmas have four marks. But "provisionally designated" is also not "substantially real" — the twenty-four lack independent substance apart from form and mind; they are consciousness's conceptualization of its own activity.

From the overall arc of the five categories, P12's dissociated factors mark the thinnest point of conditioned dharmas. Mind dharmas are the transforming consciousness itself; mental factors are consciousness's psychological content; form dharmas are the material aspect projected by consciousness — these three each possess some form of "sense of reality." Dissociated factors lack even this — they are a pure conceptual architecture where "no essential characteristics like those of form, mind, and mental factors can be apprehended."

The next step takes us into the fifth and final category — unconditioned dharmas (S3-P13), the destination of the Hundred Dharmas. If dissociated factors are the thinnest point of conditioned dharmas, unconditioned dharmas are the "true nature of consciousness" reached after traversing the conditioned — thusness (*tathatā*). The Hundred Dharmas begin from "all dharmas are without self" (P01), pass through the construction of mind dharmas, the operations of mental factors, the projection of form dharmas, the provisional designation of dissociated factors, and ultimately arrive at: all dharmas are consciousness-only, and the nature of consciousness is thusness. From "being" to "emptiness," from "emptiness" to "thusness" — this is the complete route-map the *Śatadharmaprakāśamukha-śāstra* has to offer.

---

## References

### I. Primary Buddhist Sources

1. *Śatadharmaprakāśamukha-śāstra* 《百法明門論》, by Vasubandhu, trans. Xuanzang, *Taishō* vol. 31, No. 1614.
2. *Cheng weishi lun* 《成唯識論》, by Dharmapāla et al., trans. Xuanzang, *Taishō* vol. 31, No. 1585.
3. *Yogācāra-bhūmi-śāstra* 《瑜伽師地論》, by Maitreya, trans. Xuanzang, *Taishō* vol. 30, No. 1579.
4. *Pañcaskandhaka-prakaraṇa* 《大乘五蘊論》, by Vasubandhu, trans. Xuanzang, *Taishō* vol. 31, No. 1612.
5. *Abhidharmasamuccaya* 《大乘阿毘達磨集論》, by Asaṅga, trans. Xuanzang, *Taishō* vol. 31, No. 1605.
6. *Abhidharmasamuccaya-vyākhyā* 《大乘阿毘達磨雜集論》, compiled by Sthiramati, trans. Xuanzang, *Taishō* vol. 31, No. 1606.
7. *Xianyang shengjiao lun* 《顯揚聖教論》, by Asaṅga, trans. Xuanzang, *Taishō* vol. 31, No. 1602.
8. *Bashi guiju buzhu* 《八識規矩補註》, by Mingchang, *Taishō* vol. 45, No. 1865.
9. *Cheng weishi lun shuji* 《成唯識論述記》, by Kuiji, *Taishō* vol. 43, No. 1830.
10. *Saṃdhinirmocana Sūtra* 《解深密經》, trans. Xuanzang, *Taishō* vol. 16, No. 676.
11. *Saṃyukta Āgama* 《雜阿含經》, trans. Guṇabhadra, *Taishō* vol. 2, No. 99.
12. *Madhyama Āgama* 《中阿含經》, trans. Gautama Saṅghadeva, *Taishō* vol. 1, No. 26.
13. *Ekottara Āgama* 《增壹阿含經》, trans. Gautama Saṅghadeva, *Taishō* vol. 2, No. 125.
14. *Dīrgha Āgama* 《長阿含經》, trans. Buddhayaśas et al., *Taishō* vol. 1, No. 1.
15. *Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra* 《大般涅槃經》 (Yóuxíng jīng), trans. Bai Fazhu, *Taishō* vol. 1, No. 7.
16. *Qishi jing* 《起世經》, trans. Jñānagupta, *Taishō* vol. 1, No. 24.
17. *Avataṃsaka Sūtra* (80-fasc.) 《大方廣佛華嚴經》, trans. Śikṣānanda, *Taishō* vol. 10, No. 279.
18. *Avataṃsaka Sūtra* (60-fasc.) 《大方廣佛華嚴經》, trans. Buddhabhadra, *Taishō* vol. 9, No. 278.
19. *Śūraṅgama Sūtra* 《大佛頂首楞嚴經》, trans. Pāramiti, *Taishō* vol. 19, No. 945.
20. *Mahāprajñāpāramitā-śāstra* 《大智度論》, by Nāgārjuna, trans. Kumārajīva, *Taishō* vol. 25, No. 1509.
21. *Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra* 《大乘入楞伽經》, trans. Śikṣānanda, *Taishō* vol. 16, No. 672.

### II. Modern Scholarship

1. Saussure, Ferdinand de. *Course in General Linguistics*. Trans. Wade Baskin. New York: Philosophical Library, 1959.
2. Kant, Immanuel. *Critique of Pure Reason*. Trans. Paul Guyer and Allen W. Wood. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998.
3. Cappelen, Herman. *Fixing Language: An Essay on Conceptual Engineering*. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018.
4. Rosch, Eleanor. "Natural Categories." *Cognitive Psychology* 4, no. 3 (1973): 328–350.
5. Whitehead, Alfred North. *Process and Reality: An Essay in Cosmology*. New York: Macmillan, 1929.

### III. Sūtra & Śāstra Index

| # | Text | Taishō Vol. | No. | Fascicles Cited |
|---|------|-------------|------|-----------------|
| 1 | Śatadharmaprakāśamukha-śāstra 百法明門論 | T31 | 1614 | Complete |
| 2 | Cheng weishi lun 成唯識論 | T31 | 1585 | Fasc. 1, 7 |
| 3 | Yogācāra-bhūmi-śāstra 瑜伽師地論 | T30 | 1579 | Fasc. 3, 16, 56, 100 |
| 4 | Pañcaskandhaka 大乘五蘊論 | T31 | 1612 | Complete |
| 5 | Abhidharmasamuccaya 大乘阿毘達磨集論 | T31 | 1605 | Fasc. 1 |
| 6 | Abhidharmasamuccaya-vyākhyā 雜集論 | T31 | 1606 | Fasc. 2 |
| 7 | Xianyang shengjiao lun 顯揚聖教論 | T31 | 1602 | Fasc. 1, 18 |
| 8 | Bashi guiju buzhu 八識規矩補註 | T45 | 1865 | Fasc. 2 |
| 9 | Cheng weishi lun shuji 述記 | T43 | 1830 | Fasc. 1 |
| 10 | Saṃdhinirmocana Sūtra 解深密經 | T16 | 676 | Fasc. 1, 2 |
| 11 | Saṃyukta Āgama 雜阿含經 | T2 | 99 | Fasc. 2, 3, 5, 6, 10, 17, 34, 41 |
| 12 | Madhyama Āgama 中阿含經 | T1 | 26 | Fasc. 58 |
| 13 | Ekottara Āgama 增壹阿含經 | T2 | 125 | Fasc. 11, 22, 34 |
| 14 | Dīrgha Āgama 長阿含經 | T1 | 1 | Fasc. 20, 21 |
| 15 | Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra 大般涅槃經 | T1 | 7 | Fasc. 3 |
| 16 | Qishi jing 起世經 | T1 | 24 | Fasc. 1, 5, 7 |
| 17 | Avataṃsaka Sūtra (80-fasc.) 華嚴經 | T10 | 279 | Fasc. 7, 17, 40, 42, 45, 62, 73, 79 |
| 18 | Avataṃsaka Sūtra (60-fasc.) 華嚴經 | T9 | 278 | Fasc. 5, 25, 29, 48 |
| 19 | Śūraṅgama Sūtra 楞嚴經 | T19 | 945 | Fasc. 1, 4, 7, 9, 10 |
| 20 | Mahāprajñāpāramitā-śāstra 大智度論 | T25 | 1509 | Fasc. 1, 6, 8, 15, 31, 35, 41, 42, 83, 89 |
| 21 | Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra 大乘入楞伽經 | T16 | 672 | Fasc. 3 |

---

## Cross-Reference Index

| Paper | Relationship to This Paper |
|-------|---------------------------|
| S3-P01 All Dharmas Are Without Self | P01 establishes the five-category framework and three-nature observation; P12 unfolds "positional designation" in the fourth category — P01's "all dharmas are without self" receives concrete demonstration in P12's twenty-four provisionally designated dharmas |
| S3-P02 The Panorama of Eight Consciousnesses | P02 establishes the eight-consciousness framework; P12's life-faculty, two attainments, four marks, etc. are all provisionally designated within this system |
| S3-P03 Ālaya-vijñāna: The Hard Drive of Life | Life-faculty is provisionally designated based on the eighth consciousness's direct seeds; the eighth consciousness maintaining the body during cessation attainment is key evidence for ālaya-vijñāna's existence; species-similarity's basis is shared-characteristic seeds |
| S3-P04 Manas: The Invisible Ego | Non-perception attainment extinguishes only the first six consciousnesses, not manas; cessation attainment extinguishes manas's afflicted aspect — the distinction between the two attainments directly involves manas's "constantly-active" character |
| S3-P05 The Sixth Consciousness: The Only Mirror | Name-sentence-syllable bodies' designation depends on the sixth consciousness's discriminative activity; contemplation of the four marks (observing impermanence) is the sixth consciousness's practice task |
| S3-P11 Form Dharmas: The World Projected by Mind | P11 argues form dharmas are consciousness-projected; P12 argues dissociated factors are conceptually provisionally designated — from "the material aspect of consciousness-projection" to "the conceptual aspect," an ontological diminishment |
| S1-P01 The Butterfly Effect of Initial Aspiration | S1-P01 discusses "acquisition" (initial aspiration as a form of acquisition); P12 analyzes acquisition's provisional nature — initial aspiration's preciousness lies in this: though "acquisition" is provisionally designated, the perfuming of seeds is a genuine function |
| S2-P04 Illuminating the Emptiness of the Five Aggregates | S2-P04 illuminates emptiness of the five aggregates from the Prajñā perspective; P12 deconstructs dissociated factors within the formation aggregate from the Yogācāra perspective — Prajñā's emptiness-observation and Yogācāra's provisionality-observation complement each other |
| S5-P01 The Diamond Prajñā Tripartite Formula | P12's "positional designation" prepares for S5's "neither X, yet named X": the provisionally designated nature of dissociated factors is the concrete unfolding of "neither hundred dharmas, yet named hundred dharmas" |

---

## Footnotes

[^1]: *Cheng weishi lun* 《成唯識論》 fasc. 1, "不相應行亦非實有……但依色等分位假立" (Dissociated factors are not real existences … merely provisionally established based on positional differences of form, etc.), core assessment passage, *Taishō* vol. 31, No. 1585.
[^2]: *Madhyama Āgama* 《中阿含經》 fasc. 58, Dharmadinā Bhikṣunī Sūtra, "一者壽，二者暖，三者識" (First lifespan, second warmth, third consciousness), the triad teaching, *Taishō* vol. 1, No. 26.
[^3]: *Madhyama Āgama* 《中阿含經》 fasc. 58, Śāriputra questioning Mahākauṣṭhila, "因壽故有暖……猶如因油因炷故得燃燈" (Because of lifespan there is warmth … just as oil and wick enable the lamp), lamp simile for lifespan-warmth interdependence, *Taishō* vol. 1, No. 26.
[^4]: *Madhyama Āgama* 《中阿含經》 fasc. 58, Dharmadinā Bhikṣunī Sūtra, "死者壽命滅訖……比丘入滅盡定者壽不滅訖" (In death, lifespan is extinguished … in cessation attainment, lifespan is not extinguished), distinguishing death from cessation attainment, *Taishō* vol. 1, No. 26.
[^5]: *Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra* 《大般涅槃經》 fasc. 3, "諸行無常，是生滅法，生滅滅已，寂滅為樂" (All formations are impermanent, such is the dharma of arising and ceasing; when arising and ceasing cease, that quiescence is bliss), the Buddha's final verse, *Taishō* vol. 1, No. 7. Parallel verses in *Saṃyukta Āgama* fasc. 22 and 34, *Taishō* vol. 2, No. 99.
[^6]: *Saṃyukta Āgama* 《雜阿含經》 fasc. 3 (sūtra 59), "觀此五受陰，是生滅法" (Observe these five grasped aggregates — they are dharmas of arising and ceasing), *Taishō* vol. 2, No. 99.
[^7]: *Saṃyukta Āgama* 《雜阿含經》 fasc. 10 (sūtra 256), "色生滅法如實不知……是名無明" (Not knowing as it truly is that form is a dharma of arising and ceasing … this is ignorance), defining ignorance and understanding through knowledge of arising-ceasing, *Taishō* vol. 2, No. 99.
[^8]: *Saṃyukta Āgama* 《雜阿含經》 fasc. 17, "我以一切行無常故……說諸所有受悉皆是苦" (Because all formations are impermanent … I declare all feelings are suffering), *Taishō* vol. 2, No. 99.
[^9]: *Saṃyukta Āgama* 《雜阿含經》 fasc. 10 (sūtra 266), "譬如狗子繫柱……長夜輪迴順色而轉" (Like a dog tethered to a post … revolving through the long night, turning along with form), tethered-dog simile, *Taishō* vol. 2, No. 99.
[^10]: *Ekottara Āgama* 《增壹阿含經》 fasc. 22, "皆共同類無有尊卑" (All share the same type without distinction of high and low), shame-and-conscience teaching touching on species-type, *Taishō* vol. 2, No. 125.
[^11]: *Saṃyukta Āgama* 《雜阿含經》 fasc. 17 (sūtra 470), "愚癡無聞凡夫……凡夫聖人有何差別" (The foolish unlearned ordinary person … what is the difference between ordinary beings and noble ones?), two-arrow simile, *Taishō* vol. 2, No. 99.
[^12]: *Saṃyukta Āgama* 《雜阿含經》 fasc. 34 (sūtra 956), "斷三結謂身見戒取疑得須陀洹" (Severing three fetters — identity-view, rule-attachment, doubt — one attains stream-entry), *Taishō* vol. 2, No. 99.
[^13]: *Saṃdhinirmocana Sūtra* 《解深密經》 fasc. 1, chapter on ultimate-truth characteristics, "言有為者乃是本師假施設句……假立名想謂之有為" (The term 'conditioned' is the Original Teacher's provisional designation … provisionally establishing the conceptual label 'conditioned'), *Taishō* vol. 16, No. 676.
[^14]: *Saṃdhinirmocana Sūtra* 《解深密經》 fasc. 2, chapter on characteristics of all dharmas, "云何諸法遍計所執相？謂一切法名假安立自性差別" (What is the imagined characteristic? The nominal provisional establishment of intrinsic nature and distinctions), *Taishō* vol. 16, No. 676.
[^15]: *Saṃdhinirmocana Sūtra* 《解深密經》 fasc. 2, chapter on absence of intrinsic nature, "此由假名安立為相非由自相安立為相" (Characteristics established through nominal designation, not through intrinsic characteristics), *Taishō* vol. 16, No. 676.
[^16]: *Śūraṅgama Sūtra* 《楞嚴經》 fasc. 9, "是人既以生滅為因不能發明不生滅性……名無想天" (Taking arising-ceasing as cause, unable to discover non-arising-non-ceasing nature … called non-perception heaven), *Taishō* vol. 19, No. 945.
[^17]: *Śūraṅgama Sūtra* 《楞嚴經》 fasc. 10, "圓虛無心成空亡果……無想天中諸舜若多成其伴侶" (Emptying mind into vacancy, achieving void extinction … non-perception heavenly beings become companions), *Taishō* vol. 19, No. 945.
[^18]: *Śūraṅgama Sūtra* 《楞嚴經》 fasc. 4, "諸滅盡定得寂聲聞……久滅意根圓明了知不因心念" (Voice-hearers who attain the quiescence of cessation … long having extinguished the mind-faculty, they clearly know without relying on mental thought), *Taishō* vol. 19, No. 945.
[^19]: *Śūraṅgama Sūtra* 《楞嚴經》 fasc. 4, "世為遷流界為方位……一切眾生織妄相成" (World means temporal flow, realm means spatial direction … all sentient beings weave these through deluded construction), *Taishō* vol. 19, No. 945.
[^20]: *Śūraṅgama Sūtra* 《楞嚴經》 fasc. 1, "覺知分別心性既不在內亦不在外不在中間俱無所在" (The discriminating mind-nature is neither inside nor outside nor in between — it is nowhere), seven locations for seeking mind conclusion, *Taishō* vol. 19, No. 945.
[^21]: *Avataṃsaka Sūtra* (80-fasc.) 《華嚴經》 fasc. 45, Lifespan Chapter, "此娑婆世界釋迦牟尼佛剎一劫於極樂世界阿彌陀佛剎為一日一夜" (One kalpa in Śākyamuni's Sahā world equals one day-night in Amitābha's Sukhāvatī), cascading temporal relativity, *Taishō* vol. 10, No. 279.
[^22]: *Avataṃsaka Sūtra* (80-fasc.) 《華嚴經》 fasc. 17, Chapter on Merit of Initial Aspiration, "不可說劫與一念平等一念與不可說劫平等" (Ineffable kalpas equal one thought-instant, one thought-instant equals ineffable kalpas), thought-kalpa interpenetration, *Taishō* vol. 10, No. 279.
[^23]: *Avataṃsaka Sūtra* (80-fasc.) 《華嚴經》 fasc. 7, Jeweled Treasury Chapter, "始從一念終成劫悉依眾生心想生" (Beginning from one thought culminating in a kalpa, all arising dependent on beings' mental activity), *Taishō* vol. 10, No. 279.
[^24]: *Avataṃsaka Sūtra* (80-fasc.) 《華嚴經》 fasc. 79, Maitreya's Tower in the Gaṇḍavyūha, "於少時間謂無量劫" (In a short time, perceiving immeasurable kalpas), subjective temporal dilation, *Taishō* vol. 10, No. 279.
[^25]: *Avataṃsaka Sūtra* (80-fasc.) 《華嚴經》 fasc. 45, Asaṃkhyeya Chapter, the complete 124-level numerical progression from koṭi to "ineffable-ineffable-turn," *Taishō* vol. 10, No. 279.
[^26]: *Avataṃsaka Sūtra* (80-fasc.) 《華嚴經》 fasc. 45, Asaṃkhyeya Chapter verses, "不可說劫猶可盡歎佛功德無能盡" (Ineffable kalpas can still be exhausted, praising the Buddha's merit can never be exhausted), *Taishō* vol. 10, No. 279.
[^27]: *Avataṃsaka Sūtra* (80-fasc.) 《華嚴經》 fasc. 45, Bodhisattva Dwelling-Places Chapter, the eight directional sacred mountains with their resident bodhisattvas, *Taishō* vol. 10, No. 279.
[^28]: *Avataṃsaka Sūtra* (80-fasc.) 《華嚴經》 fasc. 45, "於一微細毛孔中不可說剎次第入" (Within one fine hair-pore, ineffable lands enter in sequence), mutual containment of great and small, *Taishō* vol. 10, No. 279.
[^29]: *Avataṃsaka Sūtra* (80-fasc.) 《華嚴經》 fasc. 62, "知三世海流轉次第無所障礙" (Knowing the sequence of transmigration in the ocean of three times without obstruction), *Taishō* vol. 10, No. 279.
[^30]: *Mahāprajñāpāramitā-śāstra* 《大智度論》 fasc. 89, "此名強作假施設……一切和合法皆是假名" (These names are forcefully provisionally imposed … all composite dharmas are nominal designations), *Taishō* vol. 25, No. 1509.
[^31]: *Mahāprajñāpāramitā-śāstra* 《大智度論》 fasc. 89, "頭足腹脊和合故假名為身……微塵但有虛名" (Head, feet, abdomen, spine combine — nominally designated 'body' … atoms are merely empty names), layered deconstruction of nominal designation, *Taishō* vol. 25, No. 1509.
[^32]: *Mahāprajñāpāramitā-śāstra* 《大智度論》 fasc. 41, "名假施設受假施設法假施設" (Name-designation, reception-designation, dharma-designation), three types of provisional designation, *Taishō* vol. 25, No. 1509.
[^33]: *Madhyama Āgama* 《中阿含經》 fasc. 58, Dharmadinā Bhikṣunī Sūtra, "入滅盡定者想及知滅入無想定者想知不滅" (In cessation attainment, ideation and cognition cease; in non-perception attainment, they do not cease), *Taishō* vol. 1, No. 26.
[^34]: *Madhyama Āgama* 《中阿含經》 fasc. 58, "從滅盡定起時不作是念……從無想定起時作如是念" (When arising from cessation attainment, no self-reflection arises … when arising from non-perception attainment, self-reflection arises), *Taishō* vol. 1, No. 26.
[^35]: *Madhyama Āgama* 《中阿含經》 fasc. 58, "入滅盡定時不作是念……然本如是修習心" (When entering cessation attainment, no thought 'I am entering' arises … but through prior cultivation of mind, one thus tends toward it), *Taishō* vol. 1, No. 26.
[^36]: *Madhyama Āgama* 《中阿含經》 fasc. 58, "然因此身及六處緣命根是故從定起" (Due to this body, the six sense-bases, and the condition of life-faculty, one arises from the attainment), life-faculty as condition for emerging from cessation, *Taishō* vol. 1, No. 26.
[^37]: *Madhyama Āgama* 《中阿含經》 fasc. 58, "先滅身行次滅口行後滅意行……先生意行次生口行後生身行" (First bodily formations cease, then verbal, then mental … first mental formations arise, then verbal, then bodily), sequence of three formations in entering/exiting cessation, *Taishō* vol. 1, No. 26.
[^38]: *Mahāparinirvāṇa Sūtra* 《大般涅槃經》 fasc. 3, the Buddha's complete process of entering the nine successive attainments before parinirvāṇa, *Taishō* vol. 1, No. 7.
[^39]: *Mahāprajñāpāramitā-śāstra* 《大智度論》 fasc. 1, "有為法不應有三相……三相不實故……是則無窮" (Conditioned dharmas should not have three marks … because the three marks are not real … leading to infinite regress), Nāgārjuna's infinite regress argument against the four marks, *Taishō* vol. 25, No. 1509.
[^40]: *Mahāprajñāpāramitā-śāstra* 《大智度論》 fasc. 15, "生滅性相違……若無生住滅則無心數法無心數法則無心不相應諸行" (Arising and ceasing are mutually contradictory … if no arising, abiding, ceasing, then no mental dharmas; without mental dharmas, no dissociated factors), *Taishō* vol. 25, No. 1509.
[^41]: *Mahāprajñāpāramitā-śāstra* 《大智度論》 fasc. 31, "有為性三相生住滅……有為性尚空何況有為法" (The three marks of conditioned nature … even conditioned nature is empty, how much more conditioned dharmas!), *Taishō* vol. 25, No. 1509.
[^42]: *Mahāprajñāpāramitā-śāstra* 《大智度論》 fasc. 83, "是三相假名無實……是故無為但有名字無有自相" (These three marks are nominal and without reality … therefore the unconditioned has only names, no intrinsic characteristics), *Taishō* vol. 25, No. 1509.
[^43]: *Saṃyukta Āgama* 《雜阿含經》 fasc. 5 (Nakula's father attaining purification of the dharma-eye), "見法得法知法入法度諸狐疑不由於他於正法中心得無畏" (Seeing, attaining, knowing, entering the Dharma, transcending all doubts, relying on no other, gaining fearlessness in the true Dharma), *Taishō* vol. 2, No. 99.
[^44]: *Saṃyukta Āgama* 《雜阿含經》 fasc. 41 (sūtra 1129), "何等為須陀洹果謂三結斷……何等為阿羅漢果若彼貪欲永盡" (What is stream-entry? Severing three fetters … What is arhatship? Complete exhaustion of greed), the four fruits of the śramaṇa, *Taishō* vol. 2, No. 99.
[^45]: *Śatadharmaprakāśamukha-śāstra* 《百法明門論》, "第四心不相應行法略有二十四種" (The fourth category, factors dissociated from mind, approximately twenty-four types), complete enumeration, *Taishō* vol. 31, No. 1614.
[^46]: *Cheng weishi lun* 《成唯識論》 fasc. 1, "不相應行亦非實有……但依色等分位假立" (Dissociated factors are not real existences … merely provisionally established based on positional differences of form, etc.), core argument. Referenced multiple times throughout this paper. *Taishō* vol. 31, No. 1585.
[^47]: *Cheng weishi lun* 《成唯識論》 fasc. 1, "此定非異色心心所有實體用……或餘實法所不攝故如餘假法非實有體" (These definitely do not, apart from form/mind/mental factors, have real substance and function … not subsumed under other real dharmas, like other provisional dharmas, they have no real substance), supplementary argument from aggregate-subsumption, *Taishō* vol. 31, No. 1585.
[^48]: *Cheng weishi lun* 《成唯識論》 fasc. 7, "命根但依本識親種分位假立非別有性" (Life-faculty is merely provisionally established based on the root consciousness's direct seeds — no separate nature), *Taishō* vol. 31, No. 1585.
[^49]: *Cheng weishi lun* 《成唯識論》 fasc. 1, the Sarvāstivāda cites "accomplishing wholesome and unwholesome" as proof of acquisition's reality; the *Cheng weishi lun* rebuts: "The sūtra does not say this has real substance and function apart from form and mind — your evidence does not hold," *Taishō* vol. 31, No. 1585.
[^50]: *Cheng weishi lun* 《成唯識論》 fasc. 1, "亦說輪王成就七寶豈即成就他身非情" (It is also said the wheel-turning king 'accomplishes' seven treasures — does he really acquire the substance of other bodies and non-sentient things?), counter-example refuting substantial acquisition, *Taishō* vol. 31, No. 1585.
[^51]: *Cheng weishi lun* 《成唯識論》 fasc. 1, "然依有情可成諸法分位假立三種成就……假立非得名異生性" (Three types of accomplishment are provisionally established … non-acquisition at the position of uneliminated path-of-seeing seeds is designated 'ordinary-being nature'), *Taishō* vol. 31, No. 1585.
[^52]: *Cheng weishi lun* 《成唯識論》 fasc. 1, "若同智言因斯起故……草木等應有同分……然依有情身心相似分位差別假立同分" (If real because similar cognitions arise … grasses and trees should also have species-similarity … provisionally established based on positional differences of beings' similar body-mind), *Taishō* vol. 31, No. 1585.
[^53]: *Cheng weishi lun* 《成唯識論》 fasc. 1, "然依親生此識種子由業所引功能差別住時決定假立命根" (Based on the directly producing seeds of this consciousness, with karmic-guided functional differences and determinate duration, life-faculty is provisionally established), *Taishō* vol. 31, No. 1585.
[^54]: *Cheng weishi lun* 《成唯識論》 fasc. 7, "無想定者謂有異生……由出離想作意為先令不恒行心心所滅……非聖所起" (Non-perception attainment: ordinary beings … with aspiration for liberation as preceding attention, causing non-constantly-active mind/mental factors to cease … not undertaken by noble ones), *Taishō* vol. 31, No. 1585.
[^55]: *Cheng weishi lun* 《成唯識論》 fasc. 7, "滅盡定者謂有無學或有學聖……令不恒行恒行染污心心所滅……異生不能" (Cessation attainment: noble ones, learners or beyond-learners … causing both non-constantly-active and constantly-active afflicted mind/mental factors to cease … ordinary beings cannot), *Taishō* vol. 31, No. 1585.
[^56]: *Cheng weishi lun* 《成唯識論》 fasc. 7, "無想天者謂修彼定厭麁想力生彼天中" (Non-perception heaven: those who cultivated that attainment, by the power of aversion to coarse ideation, are born in that heaven), *Taishō* vol. 31, No. 1585.
[^57]: *Cheng weishi lun* 《成唯識論》 fasc. 1, "遮礙心何須實法如堤塘等假亦能遮故此三法亦非實有" (Why would obstructing mind require a real dharma? Just as embankments — themselves provisional composites — can obstruct. Therefore these three are also not real), *Taishō* vol. 31, No. 1585.
[^58]: *Abhidharmasamuccaya-vyākhyā* 《雜集論》 fasc. 2, "名身者謂於諸法自性增言假立名身。句身者謂於諸法差別增言假立句身。文身者謂於彼二所依諸字假立文身" (Name-bodies: augmented speech regarding intrinsic nature, provisionally established. Sentence-bodies: augmented speech regarding distinctions, provisionally established. Syllable-bodies: the letters on which both depend, provisionally established), *Taishō* vol. 31, No. 1606.
[^59]: *Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra* 《大乘入楞伽經》 fasc. 3, "名身者謂依事立名……句身者謂能顯義決定究竟……文身者謂由於此能成名句" (Name-bodies designate things; sentence-bodies express meanings decisively; syllable-bodies form names and sentences), *Taishō* vol. 16, No. 672.
[^60]: *Abhidharmasamuccaya-vyākhyā* 《雜集論》 fasc. 2, "生者謂於眾同分諸行本無今有性假立為生……" (Arising: the nature of formations previously absent now present, provisionally established as 'arising' …), four marks defined as provisional, *Taishō* vol. 31, No. 1606.
[^61]: *Abhidharmasamuccaya-vyākhyā* 《雜集論》 fasc. 2, "當知此中依相續位建立生等不依剎那" (Know that arising etc. are established by continuity-position, not by instant), *Taishō* vol. 31, No. 1606.
[^62]: *Yogācāra-bhūmi-śāstra* 《瑜伽師地論》 fasc. 56, each of the four marks subdivided into three types (e.g., arising: instantaneous arising, continuity arising, positional arising), *Taishō* vol. 30, No. 1579.
[^63]: *Pañcaskandhaka* 《大乘五蘊論》, complete definitions of the final ten dharmas from transmigration through disjunction, *Taishō* vol. 31, No. 1612. Parallel definitions in *Abhidharmasamuccaya* 《集論》 fasc. 1 (T1605).
[^64]: *Abhidharmasamuccaya-vyākhyā* 《雜集論》 fasc. 2, "於因果相續流轉假立為時。已生已滅立過去時未生立未來時已生未滅立現在時" (Time provisionally established based on continuous causal flow. Arisen-and-ceased = past; not-yet-arisen = future; arisen-and-not-ceased = present), *Taishō* vol. 31, No. 1606.
[^65]: *Abhidharmasamuccaya-vyākhyā* 《雜集論》 fasc. 2, direction defined as "唯說色法所攝因果" (spoken only of causal results subsumed under form dharmas), *Taishō* vol. 31, No. 1606.
[^66]: *Yogācāra-bhūmi-śāstra* 《瑜伽師地論》 fasc. 100, "分位假有者謂生等諸心不相應行……非此生等離諸行外有真實體而別可得" (Positional provisional existence: arising and such dissociated factors … having no real substance separately apprehendable apart from formations), six types of provisional existence, *Taishō* vol. 30, No. 1579.
[^67]: *Yogācāra-bhūmi-śāstra* 《瑜伽師地論》 fasc. 16, "如說生時此誰之生……謂色之生……當知此處是假相有" (When speaking of arising — whose arising? The arising of form … know this is provisional-characteristic existence), belonging-to-master correlated discourse, *Taishō* vol. 30, No. 1579.
[^68]: *Abhidharmasamuccaya-vyākhyā* 《雜集論》 fasc. 2, "如是心不相應行應以五門建立差別謂依處故自體故假立故作意故地故" (These dissociated factors should be established through five gates: basis, self-nature, provisional establishment, mental attention, and ground), *Taishō* vol. 31, No. 1606.
[^69]: *Abhidharmasamuccaya-vyākhyā* 《雜集論》 fasc. 2, "如是等心不相應行法唯依分位差別而建立故當知皆是假有" (These dissociated factors, being established solely based on positional differences, should all be known as merely provisionally existent), summary classification mapping all 24 dharmas to eight types of positional difference, *Taishō* vol. 31, No. 1606.
[^70]: *Xianyang shengjiao lun* 《顯揚聖教論》 fasc. 18, "當知不相應皆假施設有假有性六種彼皆二過故" (Know that all dissociated factors are provisionally designated existences, of six types of provisional nature, because both carry two faults), *Taishō* vol. 31, No. 1602.
[^71]: The *Bashi guiju song* contains no direct mention of "dissociated factors." Indirectly related: the eighth consciousness's "去後來先作主公" (departing last, arriving first, as master) relates to life-faculty; "受熏持種根身器" (receiving perfuming, maintaining seeds, body and world) relates to life-faculty's basis; "善業從下冷惡業從上冷" (wholesome karma cools from below, unwholesome from above) relates to the dispersal of the lifespan-warmth-consciousness triad. See *Bashi guiju buzhu* 《八識規矩補註》 fasc. 2, *Taishō* vol. 45, No. 1865.
[^72]: *Cheng weishi lun shuji* 《述記》 fasc. 1, "具足應言非色不相應行。言非色者即簡於色。不相應者復簡於心" (The complete designation is 'non-form dissociated formations.' 'Non-form' excludes form. 'Dissociated' excludes mind), etymology of dissociated factors, *Taishō* vol. 43, No. 1830.
[^73]: Lifespan of the non-perception heaven varies across texts: *Qishi jing* 《起世經》 fasc. 7 records "non-perception beings, lifespan sixteen kalpas" (T1 No. 24); *Dīrgha Āgama* 《長阿含經》 fasc. 20 records "non-perception heaven lifespan five hundred kalpas" (T1 No. 1); *Cheng weishi lun* fasc. 7 records "five hundred kalpas." These differences may involve different measurement standards.
[^74]: *Śūraṅgama* commentary (T1799 fasc. 7), "不了妄想體空乃執生滅勞累厭此生滅求不生滅……非真涅槃也" (Not understanding that delusion's nature is empty, grasping at the weariness of arising-ceasing, seeking non-arising-non-ceasing … this is not true nirvāṇa), assessment of non-perception attainment, *Taishō* vol. 39, No. 1799.
[^75]: *Avataṃsaka Sūtra* (80-fasc.) 《華嚴經》 fasc. 42, "各經不可說不可說億那由他劫而不想念時節長短" (Each passing through ineffable nayutas of kalpas without any awareness of time's length), temporal perception dissolving in samādhi, *Taishō* vol. 10, No. 279.

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*GitHub: [pointing-at-the-moon/dharma-research](https://github.com/pointing-at-the-moon/dharma-research)*

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*Pointing at the Moon · 指月 · 2026*
*The true nature of all dharmas, just as it is.*