What This Concept Is About
隨法行 (dharmānusārin, "one who follows the Dharma"; Pali: dhammānusārin), broken apart, means "walking in accord with the true Dharma." But this "following" (隨) is not obedience, not submission to the voice of some authority — it means that a person looks with his own eyes, sees clearly, and then his feet naturally step in that direction.
The definition given in the 雜阿含經 (Saṃyuktāgama) is extremely concise: 「若於此法增上智慧思惟、觀察、忍，是名隨法行。」 *"If, with regard to this Dharma, one reflects, observes, and endures with superior wisdom, this is called one who follows the Dharma."* In this sentence there are three actions, one quality, and one object — and none of them can be glossed over.
The object: 五受陰 (pañcopādānaskandha, "the five aggregates of clinging"). The sūtra first lays out the field of observation — the five aggregates of clinging, namely form, feeling, perception, volitional formations, and consciousness — all being 無常 (anitya, "impermanent"), 苦 (duḥkha, "suffering"), 變易 (vipariṇāma, "subject to change"). Note that the text uses 五受陰 rather than the later, more common 五蘊 (pañcaskandha, "the five aggregates"). The character 受 ("clinging") makes clear that this is not a discussion of five abstract categories but of five types of "grasped" experiential aggregates — the things you are right now grasping at, right now identifying as "I" and "mine." 色受陰 (rūpa-upādānaskandha, "the aggregate of clinging to form") is not just the physical body; it is all form composed of the four great elements, including the screen before your eyes, the color of the sky outside the window, the chair you are sitting on. 受受陰 (vedanā-upādānaskandha, "the aggregate of clinging to feeling") is the reception of painful, pleasant, and neither-painful-nor-pleasant feelings. 想受陰 (saṃjñā-upādānaskandha, "the aggregate of clinging to perception") is the grasping of marks and recognition — recognizing "this is red," "that is his voice." 行受陰 (saṃskāra-upādānaskandha, "the aggregate of clinging to volitional formations") is volitional construction — the movement in the mind that is calculating, approaching, avoiding. 識受陰 (vijñāna-upādānaskandha, "the aggregate of clinging to consciousness") is discriminative cognition itself. What the one who follows the Dharma observes is precisely the true nature of these five things: they are impermanent, they are suffering, they are changing at every moment.
The quality: 增上智慧 (adhiprajñā, "superior wisdom"). "Superior" (增上) does not mean "having wisdom" — it means wisdom has become strong enough to be the dominant force: it overrides inertia, overrides emotion, overrides the resistance of "I would rather believe things are not so." In the 摩訶男 (Mahānāma) chapter of the 雜阿含經, within the framework of the five dharmas — faith, energy, mindfulness, concentration, and wisdom — the text distinguishes 隨法行 from 隨信行 (śraddhānusārin, "one who follows by faith"): 「於五法增上智慧，審諦堪忍……乃至隨法行」 *"One who has superior wisdom regarding the five dharmas, who earnestly and truly endures… up to following the Dharma"*; 「於五法少慧，審諦堪忍……乃至隨信行」 *"One who has lesser wisdom regarding the five dharmas, who earnestly and truly endures… up to following by faith."* Both "earnestly and truly endure" (審諦堪忍) — both seriously and solidly accept the true Dharma — but the difference lies in the depth of wisdom. The one who follows by faith has stronger faith; he more often hears the teachings of a good spiritual friend, accepts them with faith, and then practices. The one who follows the Dharma has stronger wisdom; he opens the scriptures himself, observes himself, confirms himself, and only then walks forward.
The three actions: 思惟 (manasikāra, "reflection"), 觀察 (darśana, "observation"), 忍 (kṣānti, "endurance"). There is a detail here that is easy to overlook: when the sūtra defines the one who follows by faith, it uses four words — 「智慧思惟、觀察、分別、忍」 ("wisdom, reflection, observation, discrimination, endurance"); when defining the one who follows the Dharma, it uses only three — 「增上智慧思惟、觀察、忍」 ("superior wisdom, reflection, observation, endurance") — without 分別 (vikalpa, "discrimination"). This is not a scribal error. The one who follows by faith still needs "discrimination" — he still needs conceptual deconstruction, needs another person's analytical framework, in order to understand. The one who follows the Dharma no longer needs that scaffolding; his wisdom is sufficient to illuminate directly. 思惟 is repeated 如理作意 (yoniśo manasikāra, "systematic attention in accordance with reality"); 觀察 is sustained, deepening scrutiny; 忍 is the final confirmation and abiding — not endurance in the sense of tolerating pain, but 堪忍 ("capable endurance") — the mind, having seen the facts clearly, no longer resists, no longer wavers, and settles stably onto that cognition.
The stage: having transcended the ground of the ordinary person, yet not attained the first fruit. The sūtra says the one who follows the Dharma has already 「超昇離生，越凡夫地」 *"transcended and risen above the realm of birth, surpassed the ground of the ordinary person"* — he is no longer an ordinary person. But it immediately adds: 「未得須陀洹果，中間不死，必得須陀洹果」 *"not yet attained the fruit of stream-entry; if he does not die in between, he will certainly attain the fruit of stream-entry."* This is an extremely special position: he has already left the near shore, has not yet set foot on the far shore, but the direction is fixed and the outcome is fixed. He is walking through the process of 見道 (darśana-mārga, "the path of seeing") — directly contemplating the four noble truths with outflow-free (無漏, anāsrava) wisdom — and as long as he does not die in between, the first fruit is certain. This "certainly" (必得) is not consolation; it is a structural guarantee: once the path of seeing has been set in motion, it is like an arrow already released from the bow — there is no such thing as "stopping halfway."
The supplementary dimension of the 《俱舍論》 (Abhidharmakośa, "Treasury of Abhidharma"). 世親 (Vasubandhu) enters from another angle in the Abhidharmakośa: there are two types of noble ones in the path of seeing, 「由根鈍利別立二名」 *"because of dull and sharp faculties, two names are established separately"* — those of dull faculties are called 隨信行 ("followers by faith"), those of sharp faculties are called 隨法行 ("followers of the Dharma"). The treatise specifically explains the origin of the name: the one who follows the Dharma 「於先時由自披閱契經等法隨行」 *"in an earlier time walked in accordance with the Dharma by personally opening and reading the sūtras (契經, sūtra) and other teachings."* That is, before entering the path of seeing, this person was already one who opened the scriptures himself and cultivated according to the Dharma himself. This is not a spur-of-the-moment cleverness but "habitual formation of character" (串習成性) — long-term habitual cultivation of contemplating phenomena with wisdom, forming a natural disposition.
The Abhidharmakośa also supplements an important piece of information: depending on the degree of defilements already abandoned prior, the one who follows the Dharma may belong to the path direction toward stream-entry (預流向, srota-āpanna-pratipannaka), toward once-returning (一來向, sakṛdāgāmin-pratipannaka), or toward non-returning (不還向, anāgāmin-pratipannaka). If, before the path of seeing, he had abandoned no portion of the defilements of cultivation (fully bound), or had already abandoned the first through fifth grades of the desire realm, then in the path of seeing he is in the direction of the first fruit; if he has abandoned the sixth through eighth grades, he is in the direction of the second fruit; if he has already departed from all nine grades of the desire realm, even completely departed from the sphere of nothingness (無所有處, ākiṃcanyāyatana), he is in the direction of the third fruit. This means that 隨法行 describes a type of faculty within the path of seeing, not a fixed fruition — even among sharp-facultied ones who see the path, the starting points can differ.
And at the sixteenth mind, the mind of knowledge of the path category (道類智, mārga-anvaya-jñāna) — the moment the path of seeing is completed — 「不復名隨信法行」 *"one is no longer called a follower of faith or a follower of the Dharma"*; the sharp-facultied person is then called 見至 (dṛṣṭi-prāpta, "one who has arrived by vision"). The name 隨法行 exists only during the process of the path of seeing. Once the path of seeing is completed, he becomes 見至 — one who has arrived through wisdom-vision. In the complete sequence of the seven noble persons — 隨信行, 隨法行, 信解 (śraddhādhimukta, "one liberated by faith"), 見至, 身證 (kāya-sākṣin, "bodily witness"), 慧解脫 (prajñā-vimukta, "liberated by wisdom"), 俱解脫 (ubhayato-bhāga-vimukta, "liberated both ways") — 「一切聖者皆此中攝」 *"all noble ones are included within these."* 隨法行 occupies the second position; it is the name of the starting point of the sharp-facultied noble one traversing from the path of seeing into the path of cultivation.
There is also a directional piece of information that must not be omitted: the sūtra says that what the one who follows the Dharma observes is not limited to "impermanent, suffering, changeable" — he also observes the five aggregates of clinging in their 「永斷、捨離、滅盡、不復相續」 *"permanent cutting off, abandoning, cessation, no longer continuing"* — what he sees is not only "these things are changing, these things are suffering," but also "they can be utterly stilled, no longer continuing," and this stilling 「名為妙、寂靜、捨離一切有餘愛盡、無欲、滅盡、涅槃」 *"is called wonderful, tranquil, the abandoning of all residual clinging, the exhaustion of craving, desirelessness, cessation, nirvāṇa (涅槃, nirvāṇa)."* The wisdom of the one who follows the Dharma does not stop at the level of diagnosis; it simultaneously sees the way out.
A Walkthrough in Daily Life
Let us walk through an extremely common contemporary scenario: you are scrolling through your phone late at night, and you see a message that makes you anxious — perhaps news of industry layoffs, perhaps a peer's achievement post in your social feed.
The level of 色受陰: Your eyes are fixed on the screen, light striking the retina, fingers swiping mechanically. This is form — form composed of the four great elements, including your body (the sore eyeballs, the tense shoulders and neck) and the external scene (the glowing pane of glass, the pixels arranged on the screen). What the one who follows the Dharma observes here is: this "form" is impermanent, subject to change — the information on the screen is covered by the next swipe three seconds later, your bodily posture is minutely adjusting every moment, not a single frame is still.
The level of 受受陰: The instant you see that message, your chest tightens, and a feeling arises that is neither pleasant nor unpleasant but leaning toward pain. Note: this is not a "thought" — this is feeling — pure reception, a painful feeling. It is like a bubble: it rises up from the depths, and when it reaches the surface it bursts. Before you have time to "think" anything, the body has already reacted.
The level of 想受陰: Immediately after, the grasping of marks and recognition activates — "this is a layoff notice," "this concerns me," "he is better than me." This is perception — labeling, recognizing, cutting the chaotic sensory data into recognizable patterns. Note: this is not a "thought" or an "opinion" but a more basic cognitive act — recognizing "what this is."
The level of 行受陰: Then volitional construction takes the stage — the mind begins calculating: "Should I update my résumé," "Should I ask that headhunter," "Or pretend I didn't see it and keep scrolling." This movement of pursuing benefit and avoiding harm, this volition that is brewing the next action, is volitional formation. It is not an external action you have taken; it is the inner force that is constructing.
The level of 識受陰: And running through all of this is consciousness — knowing that you are looking, knowing that you are anxious, knowing that you are calculating. This "knowing" itself is consciousness.
Now, how does an ordinary person operate within these five layers? He most likely gets stuck in "perception" and "volitional formation" and cannot get out — repeatedly recognizing "what does this mean for me," repeatedly calculating "what should I do," and never stepping back to see: this entire five-layered process is itself impermanent, suffering, and changing. He identifies with the anxiety, takes it as "my anxiety," takes the calculation as "me thinking."
What does the one who follows the Dharma do differently? He engages in 思惟, 觀察, 忍 with 增上智慧 — he does not merely know "I am anxious" (this is ordinary 正念 (samyak-smṛti, "right mindfulness")); with wisdom strong enough, he illuminates that all five layers are dharmas of change, none of which is a graspable "I" or "mine." And he "endures" — his mind confirms this, no longer argues with the anxiety, no longer tries to soothe itself by scrolling more. He abides in the cognition, "this is impermanent, this is suffering, this is changing," just as it is.
The place where mapping most often goes wrong: Many people understand 隨法行 as "strong rational-analytical ability" — "I am the type who doesn't take things on faith, who has to verify for himself." But the 增上智慧 of the one who follows the Dharma is not secular critical thinking. The object of critical thinking is the truth or falsehood of external information; the object of the wisdom of the one who follows the Dharma is the nature of the five aggregates of clinging themselves — impermanent, suffering, not-self. A person can be extremely skilled at detecting fake news yet never have observed that the act of "detecting" is itself a construction of the 行陰, itself a dharma of change. The "Dharma" in 隨法行 is not an external knowledge system; it is the actual reality of present bodily-and-mental experience.
Let us walk through another scenario: conflict in an intimate relationship. Your partner says something that wounds you.
The ordinary mode: feeling (a painful feeling arises) → perception (grasping marks: "he is negating me") → volitional formation (the impulse to counterattack or give the cold shoulder) → consciousness (cognizing the whole process but being swept along by it). The whole process is completed within seconds; you "react" rather than "see."
The observational mode of the one who follows the Dharma: with superior wisdom, he sees — that painful feeling is watery in nature; it arises, stays a few seconds, and will change; that perception of "he is negating me" is only the functioning of the 想陰, it is not the facts; that impulse to counterattack is a construction of the 行陰, it is not "me," it is merely a volitional movement occurring. Then "endurance" — the mind no longer entangles with the painful feeling, no longer feeds the perception, no longer is pushed around by the construction. This is not suppression; it is that, having seen clearly, one naturally no longer grasps.
But it must be said clearly here: this does not mean that the one who follows the Dharma is in this contemplative mode at every moment of daily life. 隨法行 is a stage-name within the path of seeing, describing his type of faculty during that process of the path of seeing — the direct contemplation of the four noble truths. The daily-life walkthrough above is meant to help understand the structure of the set of actions "思惟、觀察、忍 with 增上智慧," not to say that a 隨法行 practitioner is doing this exercise every moment. He is called 隨法行 because, at the decisive moment of the path of seeing, his wisdom-power was strong enough, direct enough, that he did not need another's analytical framework to directly see the four noble truths.
There is one more scenario involving the trait of 「自披閱契經等法隨行」 ("personally opening and reading the sūtras and walking in accordance with the Dharma"): contemporary people are flooded with Buddhist information — podcasts, short videos, WeChat articles, various meditation retreats. If a person always needs someone else to tell him "the meaning of this passage is…," "you should understand it this way," and then accepts and practices it with faith, this is closer to the temperament of 隨信行. Another person will go read the primary texts himself, compare different translations himself, verify in his own meditation whether "is the impermanence the sūtra speaks of really the same as what I experience" — and if he has not verified it, he cannot rest — this is closer to the temperament of 隨法行. But note: this is not the difference between "self-study" and "studying with a teacher." The one who follows the Dharma does not reject good spiritual friends; rather, his disposition determines that he must see for himself before he will walk. Another person's words can only point the way; they cannot replace his eyes.
Why Contemporary People Need It
Contemporary life has a deep structural predicament: we are drowned in information, yet extremely deficient in the capacity for "confirming for oneself."
Algorithms filter what you see; recommendation systems decide what is worth your attention; social media like-counts judge what is right. You make hundreds of "choices" every day — but how many of them are ones you have truly observed with your own wisdom, confirmed, and then "endured" — the mind abiding upon them? Most of the time, you are merely following by faith — following the algorithm's faith, following the KOL's faith, following the group emotion's faith.
This is not a critique of "faith." 隨信行 is a completely legitimate entry into the path in Buddhism — dull faculties are not a pejorative; one whose faith-power is supreme equally transcends the ground of the ordinary person, equally certainly attains the fruit of stream-entry. But the contemporary problem is not "too much faith"; it is "faith that is too scattered, too shallow, too unreflective" — you believe in a thousand sources, yet there is not a single one you have truly "earnestly and truly endured." You have neither the steadfastness of the follower by faith (because you do not truly believe in any one), nor the clarity of the follower of the Dharma (because you have not observed for yourself). You hang in between — you have scrolled past everything, and taken in nothing.
What the concept of 隨法行 provides as a reference point is: there exists a mode of cognition whose core is not "acquire more information" but "see what is already in your experience deeply enough, and with enough certainty." The five aggregates of clinging do not require you to search for them — they are everything you are experiencing right now. 色受陰 is your body and the world before your eyes; 受受陰 is your present feeling; 想受陰 is the recognition you are performing right now; 行受陰 is the next step brewing in your mind; 識受陰 is that "knowing" of yours. The 增上智慧 of the one who follows the Dharma is not knowing more; it is seeing these five things through more thoroughly.
This has a special significance for contemporary people: it redefines what "sharp faculties" (利根, tīkṣṇendriya) means. In secular contexts, "intelligent" usually means learns fast, remembers a lot, reacts quickly. But what the Abhidharmakośa calls "sharp faculties" is something else — it refers to wisdom-power strong enough that one can directly illuminate reality without depending on another's analytical framework. A person with little formal education but extremely sharp observation in meditation may be sharp-facultied; a PhD in Buddhist studies who cannot observe the five aggregates himself the moment he leaves his papers is, in this sense, not sharp-facultied. This is not anti-intellectualism; it is pointing out that the direction of wisdom is not outward accumulation but inward penetration.
There is another aspect contemporary people desperately need: the structural guarantee of 「必得須陀洹果」 ("certainly attain the fruit of stream-entry"). Contemporary life is full of "quitting halfway" — courses bought halfway through and abandoned, gym memberships used three times, five meditation apps downloaded each used for two days. We are all too familiar with the feeling of "started many things, finished none." And the stage of 隨法行 tells us: on the path of liberation, there is a kind of "beginning" that is truly irreversible — once the path of seeing is set in motion, it is like water brought to its boiling point; there is no such thing as "stopping at ninety-nine degrees." This is not the chicken-soup-for-the-soul "persist and you will succeed"; it is a structural description of what happens once observation of reality reaches a critical threshold. It gives the practitioner an extremely deep sense of stability: you do not need to worry about "whether I can make it"; what you need to attend to is "whether my observation at this moment is true enough, deep enough." If the direction is right, arrival is structural.
In the 雜阿含經 there is a verse that can serve as a poetic footnote to the spirit of 隨法行: 「以法善調伏，不隨於諸見，雖復著睡眠，則能隨時悟。」 *"Well-tamed by the Dharma, not following the various views, even if still overtaken by sleep, one can awaken at any time."* This is not a person tensely vigilant at every moment, but a person whose inner direction is already fixed. He may still get drowsy, may still get distracted — but his root is already planted in the Dharma; the moment the wind stops, he stands straight again.
Common Misreadings and Clarifications
Misreading one: "隨法行 means being a rationalist — not trusting authority, needing to prove everything yourself."
Clarification: the 隨法行 practitioner's 「自披閱契經等法隨行」 ("personally opening and reading the sūtras and walking in accordance with the Dharma") does indeed emphasize observing with one's own wisdom, but this is not secular skepticism or an anti-authority stance. The object of his observation is the impermanence, suffering, and changeability of the five aggregates of clinging — not "whether this piece of information is true." What he "endures" is not a logical proposition but a direct confirmation of reality. And he remains within the framework of the Dharma — what he opens and reads is "the sūtras and other teachings" (契經等法), not a theory he has invented out of thin air. 隨法行 is not "I am smarter than the Buddha, I can awaken on my own"; it is "the Buddha pointed the direction, and my own eyes also see that the direction is indeed correct."
Misreading two: "隨法行 is higher than 隨信行."
Clarification: the Abhidharmakośa says 「由根鈍利別立二名」 ("because of dull and sharp faculties, two names are established separately") — this is indeed a distinction between sharp and dull faculties. But "dull faculties" (鈍根, mṛdvindriya) in Buddhism is not a pejorative — the follower by faith equally "transcends the ground of the ordinary person," equally "certainly attains the fruit of stream-entry." Both arrive at exactly the same destination; only the entry route differs: one takes faith as the guide, the other takes wisdom as the guide. Moreover, the Abhidharmakośa explicitly states that both types can, depending on the degree of defilements previously abandoned, belong to the path direction toward stream-entry, toward once-returning, or toward non-returning — a follower by faith who has previously abandoned eight grades of desire-realm defilements has a higher starting point than a fully-bound follower of the Dharma. Faculty type and progress on the path are two independent dimensions; they must not be conflated.
Misreading three: "隨法行 is a fixed identity / fruition."
Clarification: 隨法行 is only a name within the path of seeing. The Abhidharmakośa states with complete clarity: at the sixteenth mind, the mind of knowledge of the path category, 「不復名隨信法行」 ("one is no longer called a follower of faith or a follower of the Dharma"); the sharp-facultied person is then called 見至 ("one who has arrived by vision"). The name 隨法行 exists only during the process of the path of seeing — from entering the path of seeing up to the fifteenth mind (the patient acceptance of knowledge of the path category). Once the path of seeing is complete and one enters the path of cultivation (修道位, bhāvanā-mārga), he is 見至. Treating 隨法行 as an identity label one can hold long-term is a structural misunderstanding of the concept. It is the name of a transitional state — like "crossing the river." You cannot be "crossing the river" forever.
Misreading four: "增上智慧 means high IQ, high education, extensive Buddhist knowledge."
Clarification: the "superior wisdom" (增上智慧) in the sūtra has a very specific referent — it is the power of observation regarding the impermanent, suffering, changeable nature of the five aggregates of clinging, and the power of endurance (堪忍) toward this. A person who can recite the entire Āgama canon but has never in meditation truly observed his own body and mind does not, in this sense, possess "superior wisdom." Conversely, a person who is inarticulate but can in sitting meditation clearly illuminate the arising and passing of the feeling aggregate, the mark-grasping of the perception aggregate, the construction of the volitional-formation aggregate, and whose mind truly "endures" — no longer entangling with these phenomena — his wisdom-power is superior. The direction of wisdom is penetration, not accumulation.
Misreading five: "The 雜阿含經 and the Abhidharmakośa are talking about the same thing, just with different wording."
Clarification: as classical scholarship has already clearly indicated, "each of the two relies on its own system of exposition to explain this name; they should not be forcibly merged into a single stage-model." (二者各依自身论述体系说明此名，不宜裁并为单一阶位模式) The 隨法行 of the 雜阿含經 is defined within the context of contemplating the five aggregates of clinging; the core is the set of actions "思惟、觀察、忍 with 增上智慧"; the fruition statement is "not yet attained the fruit of stream-entry, certainly will attain the fruit of stream-entry" — it describes a stage of practice that has transcended the ordinary person's ground and is still in the process of approaching the first fruit. The 隨法行 of the Abhidharmakośa, by contrast, is strictly confined to the path of seeing, defined by faculty type (sharp faculties) and the mode of practice before entering the path (personally opening and reading the teachings), and is allowed to belong to any of the first three path directions. The two frameworks differ: the sūtra emphasizes the content and direction of contemplation; the treatise emphasizes stage classification and faculty type. When reading the sūtra, understand according to the sūtra's framework; when reading the treatise, understand according to the treatise's system; they should not be forcibly unified.
Misreading six: "隨法行 is what Chan Buddhism calls 'not relying on words, directly pointing to the mind' (不立文字、直指人心)."
Clarification: the two do have a resonance in spirit — both emphasize directly seeing without relying on another's words. But 隨法行 has an extremely clearly defined object of contemplation (the impermanence, suffering, and changeability of the five aggregates of clinging) and an extremely clear stage classification (the path of seeing), whereas Chan's "direct pointing" is far broader in method and expression. More importantly, the Abhidharmakośa explicitly says that the one who follows the Dharma is 「自披閱契經等法隨行」 ("personally opening and reading the sūtras and walking in accordance with the Dharma") — he is precisely one who reads the scriptures and relies on the Dharma, not one who sets them aside. His "not relying on others" is not "not needing the Dharma"; it is "not needing others to understand the Dharma for me."
A terminological point requiring special attention: The original text of the 雜阿含經 uses 五受陰, not 五蘊. There is a subtle doctrinal difference between the two terms — 受陰 emphasizes that these five categories of dharmas are objects of clinging (upādāna-skandha), whereas 五蘊 is a more neutral classification. In discussing the scriptural evidence for 隨法行, the original translation's wording should be respected and not casually replaced. This is not pedantry; it is because the character 受 itself is a reminder: what you are observing is not five abstract categories but five things you are grasping at right now.
Finally, a word on where this concept sits within the entire path of liberation. 隨法行 is not the destination, nor even the starting point — it is the state of "crossing through." Before it is a long period of accumulation during which a person has been 「自披閱契經等法隨行」 ("personally opening and reading the sūtras and walking in accordance with the Dharma"); after it is 見至 — the noble one who has completed the path of seeing and arrived through wisdom-vision. Its entire meaning lies in that crossing itself: a person of sharp faculties, with wisdom strong enough, in those dozen or so mind-moments of the path of seeing, directly contemplates the four noble truths, cuts off the defilements abandoned by seeing (見所斷, darśana-heya), and steps from the ground of the ordinary person into the stream of the noble ones.
The sūtra uses an extremely powerful expression: 「超昇離生，越凡夫地」 ("transcends and rises above the realm of birth, surpasses the ground of the ordinary person"). These eight characters describe an irreversible crossing. Not improvement, not progress — departure. It is like a person who has finally seen clearly the structure of the entire building — not one room, but the whole building — and then he walks out. He may still turn back and look, but he will not move back in.
The name 「隨法行」 itself is that figure of a back, walking out through the doorway.