I. What This Concept Is Saying
"Superior roots of goodness" (*adhimātra-kuśala-mūla*) is a criterion found in the *Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra* (*瑜伽師地論*) that appears simple on the surface but is in fact extremely penetrating. It does not ask "how many good deeds have you done?" but rather "to what depth has this force of goodness in you actually taken root?"
To understand "superior grade" (*adhimātra*), two foundations must first be laid: **what "roots of goodness" (*kuśala-mūla*) are, and what "grade" (*mātra*) means**.
1. What Are Roots of Goodness? — Five Roots Are the True Ground of Good
"Roots of goodness" are not "good deeds" or "virtuous actions"—they are the inner capacity that supports all wholesome dharmas in growing forth. The *Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra* states this clearly: the roots of goodness are the five faculties—**faith (*śraddhā*), vigor (*vīrya*), mindfulness (*smṛti*), concentration (*samādhi*), and wisdom (*prajñā*)**. These five are called "roots" because all the branches, leaves, flowers, and fruits of goodness—upholding precepts, giving, patience, meditative absorption, and contemplative insight—must grow from them. If the root is not established, goodness is merely goodwill floating on the surface, soon withered.
- **Faith root (*śraddhā*): A fundamental trust in causality, in the Three Jewels, and in the principle of liberation. It is not "believing in a particular person" but having confidence in "this path itself." - Vigor root (*vīrya*): The power to apply sustained effort in wholesome dharmas without retreating. It is not a burst of enthusiasm but the ability, year after year, to think "I can still practice." - Mindfulness root (*smṛti*): The ability to remember. To remember the true Dharma, to remember why one is on this path, to remember to return to the present moment amid chaos. - Concentration root (*samādhi*): The mind's ability to abide steadily on one object, not scattered by the five desires and six sense objects. - Wisdom root (*prajñā*)**: The power of luminous awareness that contemplates the true nature of all dharmas as they are. Among the five roots, it is the most excellent, "accomplishing much whether at the beginning or at the end."
These five roots are like the five kinds of root-hairs of a tree—if even one is missing, the tree cannot grow large enough to shelter from wind and rain. When ordinary people do good deeds, they often draw only on the surface of faith and a momentary flash of vigor—moved by emotion, they donate some money; touched by a story, they make a vow. These are the leaves of good deeds, not roots of goodness. Roots of goodness are that stable inner quality in a person from which wholesome dharmas can repeatedly grow forth.
2. Grade — The Three Levels of Roots of Goodness
"Grade" is not a moral ranking, not "superior-grade good person / inferior-grade good person." It concerns **the strength of the roots of goodness in counteracting afflictions (*kleśa*), and the depth of the ground on which they stand**. The *Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra* gives a highly precise three-tier criterion:
Inferior-grade (mṛdu, "soft") roots of goodness: All roots of goodness in the "unconcentrated ground" (*aniyata-bhūmi*), or those in the "concentrated ground" (*niyata-bhūmi*) that can only counteract superior-grade afflictions. What is the unconcentrated ground? It is the state of scattered mind, not yet entered into meditative absorption—the ordinary state of ordinary people, where all good thoughts and deeds not conjoined with greed, hatred, and delusion occur. What does "only able to counteract superior-grade afflictions" mean? For example, someone may use great forbearance to suppress a violent rage—on the surface, they hold it in, but the habitual tendency in the depths of the mind has not moved. This is soft roots of goodness: able to suppress the coarsest afflictions, but powerless against subtle ones.
**Medium-grade (*madhyama*) roots of goodness**: Worldly roots of goodness in the concentrated ground, or those able to counteract medium-grade afflictions. The concentrated ground means that the mind has entered some degree of meditative absorption—not necessarily the four *dhyānas* and four *samāpattis* of Buddhism, but broadly a state in which the mind can abide stably with a certain depth of focus. Such roots of goodness can counteract afflictions of medium intensity, such as subtle self-grasping, attachment to objects, and so forth. But because they are still "worldly" roots of goodness, not yet beyond the three realms, this is as far as they can go.
Superior-grade roots of goodness: **All supramundane (*lokottara*) roots of goodness, or those able to counteract inferior-grade afflictions. This is the most crucial judgment. What is "supramundane"? It is that goodness which is no longer grounded in self-grasping, no longer making saṃsāra its home—goodness that leads toward nirvāṇa, toward true insight. What does "able to counteract inferior-grade afflictions" mean? Inferior-grade afflictions are the subtlest layer of affliction—attachment to the subtle dharma-self, attachment to nirvāṇa itself, and misunderstanding of emptiness itself**. Roots of goodness that can counteract this layer of affliction are naturally the deepest, most stable, and most thorough.
There is a counterintuitive wisdom here: why is "able to counteract the coarsest" the inferior grade, while "able to counteract the subtlest" is the superior grade? Because the standard for the superior grade is not "overcoming the greatest difficulty" but "being able to reach the deepest attachment." Surface-level rage and coarse greed can be endured and passed over; but the deep inner confusion—"Who am I? What is the world? Where is the ultimate ground of existence?"—is the root that only superior-grade roots of goodness can shake.
3. The Five Causal Conditions of Superior-Grade Roots of Goodness
How does one "raise the grade" of one's roots of goodness? The *Yogācārabhūmi-śāstra* lists five causal conditions:
- **Power of application (*prayoga-bala*): Correct effort at the outset—the motivation must be right, the method must be correct, and the reliance must be pure. - Power of habituation (*abhyāsa-bala*): The power of repeated practice—practicing the same wholesome dharma once versus a thousand times produces entirely different root-natures. - Power of intrinsic nature (*svabhāva-bala*): The nature of the roots of goodness themselves—among the five roots, the wisdom root is intrinsically the sharpest, hence the most excellent. - Power of field and benefactor (*kṣetra-varṣa-bala*): The field of merit and spiritual teachers one relies upon—good teachers, good companions, and a pure practice environment can amplify roots of goodness. - Power of purification (*viśuddhi-bala*)**: The purification of karmic obstructions—repentance, upholding precepts, and departing from defilement, so that the mind is not obscured by stains.
Taken together, these five show that superior-grade roots of goodness are not an innate blessing, but something that can be cultivated through causes and conditions, and pursued through methods.
4. The Position of Superior-Grade Roots of Goodness in the Path
Superior-grade roots of goodness are not an isolated reward; they occupy a key pivotal position along the entire path of liberation.
From the perspective of the *śrāvaka* vehicle: after the five faculties and five powers, through gradual cultivation, gradual practice, and gradual multiplication of practice, one can arouse the **four roots of goodness of the stage of discernment (*nirvedha-bhāgīya*)—warmth (*uṣman*), summit (*mūrdhan*), forbearance (*kṣānti*), and supreme worldly dharma (*laukikāgra-dharma*)**. These four roots of goodness are the final preparation before the path of seeing (*darśana-mārga*, the first fruit), and each of them is further divided into inferior, medium, and superior grades. The maturation of superior-grade roots of goodness at the stage of discernment is precisely the entry into the path of seeing—from that point on, one enters a state "without gap, already uninterrupted, already well purified."
From the perspective of the bodhisattva vehicle: when the bodhisattva first arouses the mind, "the excellent roots that encompass all factors of enlightenment are foremost," and this is called "good, supremely good; noble, supremely noble; sublime, supremely sublime." **Through the purification of the ten kinds of intention (*āśaya*), "because they become superior grade, because they become utterly complete," the bodhisattva enters the second abode of superior precepts.** The treatise uses the simile of "a skilled craftsman placing refined gold in *kāśīsa* (a powder used for polishing gold), putting it in the fire and smelting it again and again, until it becomes ever more bright and pure"—superior-grade roots of goodness are like gold refined repeatedly in the fire: the more it is refined, the purer it becomes, and the purer it becomes, the more it can be fashioned into the most exquisite vessels.
Thus superior-grade roots of goodness are both a high-level achievement at a particular stage of practice (the key quality around the path of seeing) and a core characteristic of the bodhisattva path (the completion of the ten kinds of intention into the superior grade). It is not a badge one earns upon completing a task, but rather whether the force of goodness deep within a person has truly taken root to the point where it can shake the subtlest afflictions.
5. The Fruition and Function of Superior-Grade Roots of Goodness
The treatise contains a highly striking statement:
「若有世间上品正见，虽历千生不堕恶趣。彼若已入上品善根，渐向成熟，尔时便能不生无暇及余恶趣。」
*"If one possesses superior-grade worldly right view, even after a thousand lifetimes one will not fall into the lower destinies. If one has already entered superior-grade roots of goodness and is gradually approaching maturity, then one will not be born in the eight inopportune states (*akṣaṇa*) or other lower destinies."*
This means: once superior-grade roots of goodness are accomplished, they are in themselves the most secure form of insurance—not insurance that you will prosper or that things will go smoothly, but insurance that amid the long wandering of saṃsāra, you will not fall, will not enter the inopportune states. This assurance does not come from external blessings but from the stability of the inner root-nature itself.
II. A Walkthrough in Everyday Life
Superior-grade roots of goodness is a highly abstract classificatory concept, but its criteria can be applied very concretely to contemporary people. Let us walk through the "inferior / medium / superior" distinction using several scenarios.
Scenario One: Facing Anger
On your commute, someone cuts in front of your car, nearly hitting you.
- Inferior-grade response: You curse inwardly, drive on, and forget it. This is a wholesome thought in the unconcentrated ground—"forget it, forget it"—without even concentration, let alone counteracting any deep affliction. This is a leaf of good deeds. - Medium-grade response: You notice that anger has arisen, and when you get home you sit quietly with your eyes closed for a while, and your mind calms down. This is worldly roots of goodness in the concentrated ground—you can settle the mind once or twice. - Superior-grade response: In that moment, you neither curse nor forcibly suppress, but clearly see the entire process by which the thought "anger" arises—from the tension in the body, to the accusation in the mind, to the construction of the story "I have been wronged." You are present throughout, but you do not follow along. This is the power of counteracting the subtlest affliction. Where is the subtlety? It is in the grasping at the story of "I"—you think that person who cut you off has wronged "you," but when you contemplate as it is, who is "you"? What is the actual appearance of "I have been wronged"? This is the function of superior-grade roots of goodness—it can shake the subtlest attachment to self.
Where people most commonly mis-map this scenario: Taking "holding back one's anger" as the superior grade. In fact, holding back is only suppression, and suppression is soft roots of goodness that counteracts superior-grade afflictions. The true superior grade is "not arising and naturally not transgressing," not "arising and then forcibly suppressing."
Scenario Two: Mindfulness While Scrolling on Your Phone
It is 2 a.m. You know you should sleep, but you are still unconsciously scrolling through short videos.
- Inferior-grade roots of goodness: You know you should not be scrolling, but you scroll anyway. This is the unconcentrated ground—the roots of goodness float on the surface and cannot block habitual tendencies at all. - Medium-grade roots of goodness: Occasionally you become aware that you are scrolling, so you put down the phone and sit for ten minutes of meditation. This is worldly roots of goodness in the concentrated ground—you can briefly abide. - Superior-grade roots of goodness: You can clearly see the entire chain behind the act of "scrolling" —not the behavior itself, but "why am I scrolling"—boredom, emptiness, the desire to be filled, the expectation that "the next moment will bring something more interesting." And these expectations themselves are impermanent, unsatisfactory, and empty. You do not need to quit the phone; you directly see the unreality of the belief that "the next moment will be better." This seeing is the entry point of supramundane roots of goodness. It counteracts the subtlest attachment—the instinctive belief that "there is something desirable to grasp."
Where people most commonly mis-map this scenario: Thinking that "practice means setting rules for yourself—early to bed, early to rise." Setting rules is medium-grade roots of goodness (self-management), but superior-grade roots of goodness is seeing clearly that the grasping behind the act of "setting rules" is still grasping, and then relaxing at that level. Rules can be set, but one must not mistake setting rules for liberation itself.
Scenario Three: Conflict in an Intimate Relationship
You have a fight with your partner. It is fierce, and neither of you will yield.
- Inferior-grade roots of goodness: After the fight, you calm down, apologize, and the next time it happens again. Goodwill in the unconcentrated ground—the heart is soft, but the root is not deep. - Medium-grade roots of goodness: After the fight, you can reflect on yourself, see your own emotions, and take the initiative to communicate. Worldly roots of goodness in the concentrated ground—you can abide in reflection. - Superior-grade roots of goodness: You are not "processing emotions"; you are seeing the process by which the two concepts "I" and "you" arise in that moment—who is angry? Who is the one who is angry? In which moment—past, present, or future—is that "I" real? When you can contemplate in this way, the conflict itself is no longer a conflict but an opportunity to see reality clearly. This kind of root of goodness counteracts the subtlest grasping at the two poles of "I" and "other."
Where people most commonly mis-map this scenario: Taking "being able to communicate," "being able to apologize," and "having empathy" as the superior grade. In fact, these are excellent worldly qualities—medium-grade roots of goodness. Superior-grade roots of goodness are not techniques for making relationships better; they are the thorough seeing-through of the very concept of "relationship."
Scenario Four: Workplace Pressure and Death Anxiety
You are in your forties, at a career plateau, and have begun to occasionally think about death.
- Inferior-grade roots of goodness: You stop thinking about it and go back to work. The unconcentrated ground—covering anxiety with busyness. - Medium-grade roots of goodness: You find time to read books about the meaning of life, see a counselor, and can face some of it. Worldly roots of goodness in the concentrated ground—you can abide in thinking. - Superior-grade roots of goodness: You are not merely thinking about death; you contemplate death itself as it is—this present body and life are impermanent, "I" will pass away, and everything you thought you could rely on (career, family, reputation) is in the process of decaying. This contemplation is not pessimistic; it is the complete release of dependence on impermanent things. This is supramundane roots of goodness, counteracting the final layer of attachment to "I" and "mine" —that deep-seated illusion that "all of this will continue forever."
Where people most commonly mis-map this scenario: Taking "having thought it through" or "having let it go" as the superior grade. "Having thought it through" may simply be a different way of suppressing. The "through" of superior-grade roots of goodness is a natural release after contemplating things as they are, not a temporary diversion after psychological adjustment.
Scenario Five: A Test for Long-Term Practitioners
You have studied Buddhism for ten years, maintained pure precepts, practiced meditation regularly, and read many scriptures and treatises.
So how do you judge which grade your roots of goodness belong to?
- If your practice is mostly about "maintaining order"—I uphold precepts, I sit in meditation, I give, I endure—then you may still be in the domain of medium-grade roots of goodness. - If your practice begins to develop a quality of "looking back"—you can see the subtle grasping of "I am practicing" behind your practice—then superior-grade roots of goodness are beginning to sprout. - If one day you no longer need the stories "I am a practitioner," "I am accumulating merit," "I am progressing toward liberation" to sustain your forward movement, but fully abide in the reality of the Dharma, without the appearance of practice, without subject and object, with only pure luminous awareness—then that is a sign of the maturation of superior-grade roots of goodness.
Where people most commonly mis-map this scenario: Thinking that superior-grade roots of goodness mean "practicing better, practicing more, practicing longer." The direction of superior-grade roots of goodness is not "more" but "deeper"—deep enough to penetrate the subtlest grasping. This requires precisely that you reduce—reduce self-imposed burdens, reduce attachment to the appearance of practice.
III. Why Contemporary People Need It
Contemporary people do not lack good intentions—social media is full of them. They do not lack good deeds—donating steps, donating points, forwarding charity appeals. What contemporary people lack is the discernment to distinguish the depth of goodness.
1. In the Flood of "Self-Improvement," Distinguishing the Depth of Goodness
Contemporary culture excels at packaging everything as "upgrading"—upgrade your skills, upgrade your cognition, upgrade your social circle. In this discourse, "goodness" is easily conflated with "a better self," "a higher state," "more refined altruism." The concept of superior-grade roots of goodness reminds us: goodness has grades, and the highest grade is not "more refined goodness" but goodness that no longer needs a "self" as its fulcrum. This is precisely the deepest blind spot of contemporary self-improvement discourse—it presupposes that the "self" is forever an object to be upgraded, without knowing that the "self" itself is an attachment to be seen through.
2. Between the Two Poles of "Involution" and "Lying Flat," Finding the True Root
Contemporary young people do not lack the will to strive; they have been worn down by "even if I strive, it may be meaningless." They do not want to lie flat; but when they do, they are tormented by self-reproach: "What value does such a life have?" This inner tug-of-war is precisely the symptom of the grade of roots of goodness not having been established—only surface-level intention (inferior-grade roots of goodness), without the power of abiding (medium-grade roots), and without the supramundane ease and freedom that comes from thoroughly seeing through "I" and "mine" (superior-grade roots).
The cultivation path of superior-grade roots of goodness precisely allows contemporary people not to have to choose between "involution" and "lying flat" —because it points to a third option: in contemplating things as they are, seeing that both poles are products of self-grasping.
3. In the Algorithm-Driven Attention Economy, Guarding the Root of Awareness
Contemporary people's attention is fed by algorithms—whatever you want to see, the algorithm feeds you; you think you are choosing, but in fact you are being shaped. In this environment, the degeneration of the mindfulness root is the deepest poverty of contemporary people. In the cultivation path of superior-grade roots of goodness, the mindfulness root is key—remembering the true Dharma, remembering yourself, remembering that even in the moment of scrolling on your phone, you can still turn back.
More importantly, the wisdom root needs to be awakened in this environment—not by learning more knowledge, not by mastering more tools, but by seeing that "the self you think you are" is an image shaped by algorithms—this itself is the entry-level work of supramundane roots of goodness.
4. In an Age of Accelerating Impermanence, Dwelling in the Fruit of Superior-Grade Roots
The treatise says that when superior-grade roots of goodness mature, one "will not be born in the inopportune states or other lower destinies." This gives contemporary people an extremely deep sense of psychological security—not the security of "my life will go smoothly," but the security of "even in the deepest impermanence, my inner roots of goodness have become stable enough that no external condition can uproot them."
This security does not come from the controllability of the external environment—which in the contemporary world is increasingly uncontrollable—but from the stability of the inner root-nature. A person with mature superior-grade roots of goodness does not avoid difficulties; rather, whatever difficulties arise, they have a root to rely on and a power to use.
IV. Common Misreadings and Clarifications
Misreading One: "Superior-Grade Roots of Goodness = A First-Class Good Person"
Clarification: Superior-grade roots of goodness is not about ranking "good people" into grades; it is a qualitative analysis of the force of goodness. An ordinary farmer who can contemplate the emptiness of the five aggregates as it is has superior-grade roots of goodness in that moment; a famous Dharma master performing on the stage of fame and profit may still have inferior-grade roots. The grade is not a label attached to one's identity; it is a CT scan of the force present in this very moment.
Misreading Two: "One Must Reach a Very High Level of Cultivation to Have Superior-Grade Roots of Goodness"
Clarification: The criterion for superior-grade roots of goodness has two paths—"all supramundane roots of goodness" and "able to counteract inferior-grade afflictions." Supramundane roots of goodness do not require full attainment of the path of seeing to exist. The first time you give without the stance of "I," sit in meditation without the attachment of "I am cultivating well," love without the expectation of "you should repay me"—that single thought is supramundane roots of goodness. Even if you have not yet attained a fruit, that single thought of goodness is superior grade. Thus superior-grade roots of goodness are not a prize at the mountain's summit but a quality available to any single thought in the present moment.
Misreading Three: "Superior-Grade Roots of Goodness Are a Departure from the World"
Clarification: This is the deepest misreading. "Supramundane" does not mean "leaving the world"; it means "not grounded in the eight worldly dharmas"—not taking "what I want to gain, what I want to avoid" as the starting point. A person with truly mature superior-grade roots of goodness is precisely the one living most deeply in the world—they give their full effort to everything they do, but their full effort does not come from the craving of "I" but from bearing the Dharma and compassion for sentient beings. Thus superior-grade roots of goodness do not leave the world; on the contrary, they enter the world most deeply—only the manner of entry is entirely different.
Misreading Four: "The Cultivation of Superior-Grade Roots of Goodness Depends on Individual Effort"
Clarification: The treatise explicitly lists five causal conditions. Besides the power of application and the power of habituation (individual effort), there are also the power of field and benefactor (relying on spiritual teachers and pure fields of merit) and the power of intrinsic nature (the nature of the roots of goodness itself). From the very beginning, the cultivation of superior-grade roots of goodness is not a solitary struggle—it requires a pure lineage of teaching, good companions on the path, and an environment of wholesomeness. A person who cultivates alone with the door shut may produce roots of goodness below the medium grade—no matter how excellent the root-capacity, without soil and field, a great tree cannot grow.
Misreading Five: "Superior-Grade Roots of Goodness = No Afflictions"
Clarification: Superior-grade roots of goodness can counteract inferior-grade afflictions (the subtlest afflictions), but this does not mean that a person with mature superior-grade roots has no afflictions at all. Afflictions at the coarse level will still manifest—they will still encounter things that provoke anger, still experience emotional fluctuations. The difference is that their "sticking" to these afflictions has changed—they can see them immediately, are not carried away, and no longer organize the entire emotional reaction around "I." This is the actual state of superior-grade roots of goodness—not that there are no waves, but that one knows oneself to be the ocean.
Misreading Six: "Superior-Grade Roots of Goodness = Sudden Enlightenment"
Clarification: The cultivation of superior-grade roots of goodness is precisely *not* sudden enlightenment. The treatise says, "through gradual cultivation, gradual practice, and gradual multiplication of practice as causes and conditions"—it is a gradual process. Each of the four roots of goodness at the stage of discernment (warmth, summit, forbearance, supreme worldly dharma) is divided into inferior, medium, and superior grades, and superior-grade roots of goodness at the stage of discernment are the final moment before the path of seeing—this moment is the completion of gradual cultivation, not another sudden enlightenment. Thus superior-grade roots of goodness neither depend on sudden enlightenment nor abandon gradual cultivation—it is the natural manifestation of gradual cultivation brought to its extreme.
Concluding Remarks
What is most moving about the concept of superior-grade roots of goodness is not that it gives practitioners an advanced goal, but that it provides contemporary people with an entirely new framework for discerning "goodness."
Within this framework: - Goodness is not behavior; it is root-nature. - The depth of goodness lies not in how much one does, but in how deep an attachment one can shake. - The highest expression of goodness is not "becoming a better person" but no longer needing an "I" to do good.
This is precisely the insight contemporary culture most lacks—we are so attached to "doing" good (behavior, image, story) that we forget that the act of "doing" itself requires a ground. Superior-grade roots of goodness remind us: the "I who does good" that you take for granted may be precisely the last attachment you need to release.
May those who read this far taste, in some single thought of their present moment, that little bit of supramundane goodness that does not take "I" as its fulcrum—that single thought is the sprout of superior-grade roots of goodness.