出家法

I. What This Concept Is Saying

The two characters 出家 (chūjiā, "leaving home") today often evoke one of two images: either someone who has retreated into the monastic life and shaved his head, or a long list of precepts—what one may and may not do. But the *Daśabhūmika-vibhāṣā* (《十住毘婆沙論》, translated by Kumārajīva in the Later Qin, T1521), when it discusses 出家法 (pravrajyādharma, "the Dharma of leaving home"), takes a completely different route. It does not directly tell you which rules a renunciant should observe. Instead, it sets out a long table of contrasts—one column for the household life, one for the renunciant life—and lets you see, from the tension between the two columns, what "出家法" is really pointing at.

This is a very distinctive way of teaching: it does not define the term in isolation, but uses its opposite as a mirror. The treatise states clearly: 「是事出家者所宜，非在家者所行」(chunk:36422)—*"This is what is fitting for the renunciant, not what is practiced by the householder."* In other words, "出家法" is not a category that can stand independently of 在家法 (gṛhastha-dharma, "the Dharma of the household life"); it has its own independent content precisely because it moves in a different direction from the household life. Householders have their own dharma to uphold, as the text says: 「在家法五戒，心应坚牢住」(chunk:36501)—*"The householder's Dharma is the five precepts; the mind should dwell in them firmly"*—thereby demarcating a separate track from the renunciant Dharma.

The passage below is the very bone and marrow of the entire discussion. Through thirteen pairs of contrasts, it sketches the direction toward which the renunciant Dharma tends. Note: these thirteen pairs are not thirteen isolated matters, but rather, from multiple facets—companions, offerings, banners, refuges, the body one wears, the spheres one enters—they layer by layer reveal the fundamental difference in temperament between the household life and the renunciant life. The original text (chunk:36579) reads:

在家随官法，出家随佛法。 在家有事故，出家无事故。 在家有苦果，出家有乐果。 在家则轻躁，出家则威重。 在家伴易得，出家伴难得。 在家以妇为伴，出家坚心为伴。 在家则入围，出家则解围。 在家则以侵恼他为贵，出家则以利益他为贵。 在家则贵财施，出家则贵法施。 在家则持魔幢，出家则持佛幢。 在家有归处，出家坏诸归处。 在家增长身，出家则离身。 在家入深榛，出家出深榛。

*"The householder follows the laws of the world; the renunciant follows the Buddha's Dharma. The householder is beset by affairs; the renunciant is free of affairs. The householder reaps bitter fruits; the renunciant reaps pleasant fruits. The householder is restless and agitated; the renunciant is grave and dignified. Companions are easy to find in the household life, hard to find in the renunciant life. The householder takes a wife as companion; the renunciant takes a steadfast mind as companion. The householder is encircled; the renunciant unties the encirclement. The householder prizes harming others; the renunciant prizes benefiting others. The householder prizes giving of material goods; the renunciant prizes giving of the Dharma. The householder bears Māra's banner; the renunciant bears the Buddha's banner. The householder has refuges; the renunciant breaks all refuges. The householder increases the body; the renunciant departs from the body. The householder enters the deep thicket; the renunciant emerges from the deep thicket."*

We must walk through this passage item by item, not swallow it whole—because its contrastive structure *is* the doctrine itself; flattening any single pair would lose its pointing.

1. The Different Objects of Compliance

「在家随官法，出家随佛法」is the general outline. The household life follows the order woven by worldly government, household registration, contracts, and public opinion; the renunciant life follows the Buddha's Dharma—taking refuge in the Three Jewels (三寶, triratna), in 缘起 (pratītyasamutpāda, "dependent origination"), in liberation. This is not to say that householders cannot study Buddhism, but that the two kinds of life have different "plumb lines."

2. The Different Density of Affairs

「在家有事故，出家无事故」—"being beset by affairs" does not mean that householders are constantly dealing with major incidents; rather, the "affairs" surrounding a householder—family matters, national matters, workplace matters, obligations of human feeling—are dense, inevitable, and uninvited. The renunciant life reduces "affairs" to a minimum. Later, when the treatise discusses the characteristics of a renunciant bodhisattva (菩薩, bodhisattva), it specifically notes 「少欲及少事，恶贱愦闹语」(chunk:36709)—*"few desires and few affairs, loathing idle chatter."* "Few affairs" is placed alongside "few desires"—when affairs are few, the mind has somewhere to rest.

3. The Different Inclination of Retribution

「在家有苦果，出家有乐果」does not say that the household life has no joy at all, but rather that because "affairs" are dense, "companions" are many, and "refuges" are many, the retribution on the household track tends toward suffering—birth, aging, sickness, death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, distress—all intertwined with "affairs." Because the renunciant life sets down external possessions, its retribution tends toward relative ease and calm. This is a judgment about the direction of cause and effect, not a judgment of superior and inferior value.

4. The Difference in Temperament

「在家则轻躁，出家则威重」—this is observed from visible states of body and mind. "Restless and agitated" (輕躁) is a state of movement without stillness: thoughts leap, emotions stir, the body is dragged about by external conditions. "Grave and dignified" (威重) is the majesty of non-movement, the weight of a mind that has something to rest upon. Later, the treatise also uses the phrase 「威德深重人」("a person of deep majestic virtue") to describe the renunciant bodhisattva. Dignity is not put on; it is the natural temperament that appears when the mind has concentration.

5. The Rarity of Companions

「在家伴易得，出家伴难得」—this is a very honest description. Companions in the household life are plentiful: colleagues, classmates, drinking buddies, relatives, neighbors. Finding someone to share a meal, a chat, or a movie with is almost always possible. But a "fellow cultivator" (同修道友)—someone who can go with you into the depths of dependent origination, practice 止觀 (śamatha-vipaśyanā, "calm and insight") together, live the renunciant life together—is extremely rare. This speaks of "quality," not "quantity."

6. The Different Object of Reliance

「在家以妇为伴，出家坚心为伴」—"wife" here need not be narrowly understood as a spouse; it should be understood as the most intimate object of reliance in household life, whether partner, parent, child, or the dearest person in the home. The renunciant leaves this intimate reliance behind and turns instead to his own "steadfast mind" (堅心)—the mind of vow, the mind of renunciation, the mind that does not turn back. This line does not deny the place of intimate relationships in household life; it says that the "renunciant Dharma" requires one to shift the mind's support from "persons" to "the Dharma."

7. Encirclement and Disencirclement

「在家则入围，出家则解围」—the householder is encircled: identity surrounds him, roles surround him, posts surround him, and family surrounds him. The renunciant moves in the opposite direction—"disencirclement": loosening, layer by layer, the boundaries that others have imposed on him.

8. The Different Coordinate System of Value

「在家则以侵恼他为贵，出家则以利益他为贵」—this contrast is especially sharp. In the worldly value system, "winning" often means the other loses; in the coordinate system of the renunciant Dharma, "worth" is redefined as "benefiting others"—only those things that bring benefit to others are worth doing. This is continuous with the spirit embodied by the many good spiritual friends (善知識, kalyāṇamitra) whom the youth 善财童子 (Sudhana) visits on 普陀山 (Mount Potalaka).

9. The Different Core of Giving

「在家则贵财施，出家则贵法施」—householders practice giving mostly through material wealth; renunciants, since they do not accumulate possessions, naturally turn to "dharma-giving" (法施, dharma-dāna)—explaining the Buddha's teaching and guiding others in practice. Later, the treatise also lists "dharma-giving" among the practices shared by both householder and renunciant bodhisattvas, showing that the circulation of the Dharma is the center of gravity of the entire bodhisattva path.

10. The Banner Raised

「在家则持魔幢，出家则持佛幢」—a "banner" (幢, dhvaja) is a flag, the emblem one holds aloft. What the householder raises are the banners of the world: the flags of wealth, status, reputation, and power. What the renunciant raises is the Buddha's banner: the flag of truth, liberation, and compassion.

11. The Presence or Absence of Refuges

「在家有归处，出家坏诸归处」—the householder has many "returns": the return home, the return to one's country, the return to some group. The renunciant "breaks" these refuges—what he returns to and dwells in is the Dharma itself, not a home, a nation, or an organization.

12. The Advance and Retreat of the Body

「在家增长身，出家则离身」—"body" (身) here is not simply the physical body; it is the "body of the five aggregates" (五蕴之身, pañcaskandha), the "provisional body" (假名之身)—the sense of self, the sense of identity. Worldly life continually feeds this "body"—my degree, my house, my influence, my boundaries, my story. The renunciant Dharma moves in the opposite direction: it "departs from" this body.

13. The Thicket and the Way Out

「在家入深榛，出家出深榛」—"榛" (zhēn) is a dense thicket of brambles, a metaphor for being entangled, encircled, lost in obscurity. The householder unknowingly walks into this thicket and goes ever deeper; the renunciant "emerges"—walks out of the thicket. This is a summarizing metaphor for the whole set of contrasts: the direction the renunciant takes is from the thicket toward the open plain.

II. Shared Practices: Householder and Renunciant Bodhisattvas Are Not Opposed

After the thirteen pairs of contrasts, the treatise raises an important question: 「当说在家、出家菩萨共行法」(chunk:36513)—*"Now we should speak of the practices shared by householder and renunciant bodhisattvas."* In other words, "出家法" does not mean a complete severance from the household Dharma. The answer the treatise gives is this group of common dharmas:

忍辱、法施、法忍、思惟、不曲法、尊重法、不障法、供养法、信解、修空、不贪嫉、随所说行、灯明施、伎乐施、乘施、正愿、摄法、思量利安众生、等心于一切。

*"Forbearance, dharma-giving, patient acceptance of the Dharma, reflection, not bending the Dharma, revering the Dharma, not obstructing the Dharma, making offerings to the Dharma, faith and understanding, cultivating emptiness, freedom from greed and jealousy, practicing as one teaches, giving of lamps and lights, giving of music, giving of vehicles, right vows, gathering the Dharma, contemplating how to benefit and comfort sentient beings, and an equal mind toward all."*

This long list of terms cannot be simplistically compressed into "doing good"; each item points to a specific dimension of practice. "Forbearance" (忍辱, kṣānti) is not losing control when harmed; "dharma-giving" (法施) and "patient acceptance of the Dharma" (法忍, dharma-kṣānti) are the two postures of teaching the Dharma and receiving the Dharma; "reflection" (思惟) is contemplating the meaning of the teachings; "not bending the Dharma," "revering the Dharma," and "not obstructing the Dharma" are three correct attitudes toward the true Dharma—not distorting it, not slighting it, not hindering it; "making offerings to the Dharma" takes the Dharma itself as the object of offering; "faith and understanding" (信解) combines faith and intellectual comprehension; "cultivating emptiness" (修空) is the practice of 空性 (śūnyatā, "emptiness"); "freedom from greed and jealousy" (不貪嫉) is cutting off attachment to what belongs to others; "practicing as one teaches" (隨所說行) is putting the teaching into practice; the three kinds of giving—"lamps and lights," "music," and "vehicles" (燈明施、伎樂施、乘施)—are traditional forms of material offering that both householders and renunciants can perform; "right vows" (正願) is generating the vow of unsurpassed, perfect awakening; "gathering the Dharma" (攝法) is encompassing all dharmas; "contemplating how to benefit and comfort sentient beings" (思量利安眾生) is constantly thinking about how to benefit and bring peace to beings; and "an equal mind toward all" (等心於一切) is treating all beings impartially.

This group of shared practices tells us: although the household Dharma and the renunciant Dharma move in different directions, the core virtues of the bodhisattva path are shared. A householder bodhisattva who can put into practice in daily life "forbearance, cultivating emptiness, and contemplating how to benefit sentient beings" may well have a quality of practice no lower than that of a renunciant who wears monastic robes but passes the days in indolence—this is information the original text itself gives us through its structure.

III. Samādhi and Seclusion: The Focus of a Renunciant Bodhisattva's Study

After the contrasts and the shared practices, the original text uses verses to point out the focus of a renunciant bodhisattva's study: 「出家诸菩萨，所学三昧法」(chunk:36685)—*"The dharmas of samādhi that renunciant bodhisattvas study."* 三昧 (samādhi, "meditative concentration") is the method of meditative absorption. Why should renunciant bodhisattvas especially cultivate samādhi? Because the cultivation of samādhi requires "few affairs," "few companions," "gravity and dignity," and "departure from the body" as its soil—the mind must first loosen before it can hold an object of focus. In the later prose section, the treatise details the characteristics of a renunciant bodhisattva: 「于声闻所行，十善道转胜，深禅不随他，常憙于远离。恒乐善修习，甚深因缘法，远离方便力，及以大悲心。少欲及少事，恶贱愦闹语，常乐远离处，威德深重人。喜为福田地，常观于出性，成办有理事，恭敬于诸主。已成就系心，知心在所缘，常乐于禅定，中人之势力。乐于出家法，善心不缩没」(chunk:36709).

*"In what the śrāvakas practice, the ten wholesome courses of action are further perfected; in deep meditation, he does not follow others but delights always in seclusion. He constantly delights in well cultivating the profound dharma of dependent origination; he is endowed with skill-in-means and great compassion. Few desires and few affairs, loathing idle chatter, always delighting in secluded places, a person of deep majestic virtue. He delights in being a field of merit, constantly observes the nature of emergence, accomplishes both worldly and supramundane matters, and reveres his teachers. He has already accomplished a collected mind, knows where the mind dwells and its object, always delights in meditative absorption, and has the strength of a person of the middle faculties. He delights in the renunciant Dharma, and his wholesome mind does not shrink or sink."*

This prose passage is dense with technical terms and must be explained with its original flavor preserved:

- 「于声闻所行，十善道转胜」 — *"In what the śrāvakas practice, the ten wholesome courses of action are further perfected"*: based on the ten wholesome courses of action (十善業道, daśakuśala-karmapatha), but going further and surpassing them. - 「深禅不随他」 — *"In deep meditation, does not follow others"*: deep meditative concentration does not depend on others' guidance, but is accomplished independently. - 「常憙于远离」 — *"Always delights in seclusion"*: delights in keeping distance, not fond of bustling markets or crowds. - 「恒乐善修习，甚深因缘法」 — *"Constantly delights in well cultivating the profound dharma of dependent origination"*: i.e., the deep meaning of dependent origination: when this exists, that exists; when this arises, that arises; when this does not exist, that does not exist; when this ceases, that ceases. - 「远离方便力，及以大悲心」 — *"Endowed with skill-in-means and great compassion"*: although the renunciant bodhisattva delights in seclusion, he is not without "skill-in-means" (方便力, upāya-bala)—the skillful means to liberate sentient beings—and "great compassion" (大悲心, mahākaruṇā-citta)—deep pity for beings. Seclusion and compassion do not cancel each other out; they operate as two wheels of a single chariot. - 「少欲及少事」 — *"Few desires and few affairs"*: few desires, hence few affairs; few affairs, hence a settled mind. - 「恶贱愦闹语」 — *"Loathing idle chatter"*: detesting noisy, meaningless talk. - 「常乐远离处」 — *"Always delighting in secluded places"*: delighting in quiet places. - 「威德深重人」 — *"A person of deep majestic virtue"*: one who is fully endowed with majestic virtue, calm and not flighty. - 「喜为福田地」 — *"Delights in being a field of merit"*: rejoices in serving as a field of merit (福田, puṇya-kṣetra) in which beings can plant good roots—that is, when others see you and make offerings to you, virtuous roots are planted in their minds. - 「常观于出性」 — *"Constantly observes the nature of emergence"*: constantly observes the inherent nature of "emergence" (出離, leaving behind). The term "出性" (the nature of emergence) is extremely economical: it is not occasional renunciation, but "emergence" as one's very nature. - 「成办有理事」 — *"Accomplishes both worldly and supramundane matters"*: accomplishes both kinds of tasks. - 「恭敬于诸主」 — *"Reveres his teachers"*: reveres teachers and the Three Jewels. - 「已成就系心」 — *"Has already accomplished a collected mind"*: has accomplished the work of "fastening the mind" (系心)—the mind can be fixed on one point without scattering. - 「知心在所缘」 — *"Knows where the mind dwells and its object"*: knows where one's mind is and what object (所緣, ālambana) it is focused on—this is self-awareness within concentration. - 「常乐于禅定」 — *"Always delights in meditative absorption"*: always delights in being in samādhi. - 「中人之势力」 — *"Has the strength of a person of the middle faculties"*: possesses the strength of a "middle person," not going to extremes. - 「乐于出家法，善心不缩没」 — *"Delights in the renunciant Dharma, and his wholesome mind does not shrink or sink"*: delights in cultivating the renunciant Dharma; the wholesome mind does not retreat or wither.

This section shows that the "renunciant Dharma" of a renunciant bodhisattva is not accomplished by shaving the head and changing into monastic robes, but is a state composed of many essential factors: "the ten wholesome deeds," "deep meditation," "dependent origination," "seclusion," "great compassion," "few desires," "few affairs," "a collected mind," and "the nature of emergence." Later, the text also mentions that "one comes by way of two or three superior abodes and, relying on the ten wholesome courses of action, reaches the ground of the pratyekabuddha (緣覺)"—this is a description of the renunciant bodhisattva's accomplishment: passing through two or three "superior abodes" (勝處, vijaya-sthāna) and relying on the ten wholesome courses of action, one can reach the fruition of the pratyekabuddha.

II. A Walk-Through in Daily Life

Below, using one day in the life of a contemporary person, we walk through this "table of contrasts." Most readers are not renunciants, but the contrast between "household" and "renunciation" can still be observed in your everyday life—not only observed, but each pair of contrasts corresponds to a familiar slice of contemporary life.

Scenario One: The Commuter Subway.

At eight in the morning on the subway, the car is packed with people staring down at their phones. On the screens: news, WeChat groups, stock prices, shopping apps. This is the contemporary version of 「在家随官法」—you are not following any government, but you are following a set of "official laws" woven from algorithms, employers, KPIs, and peer pressure. Who dispatches your attention? The algorithm does. Who cuts up your time? Meetings and messages do.

If at this moment you are willing to let the five characters 「出家随佛法」arise in your mind, you do not need to take off your suit—just shift this one second's "that which you follow" from "algorithm time" to "awareness": you are breathing; you are being carried from one car to another. For one second, your mind is "fastened."

This is the smallest possible moment of samādhi's "fastening the mind" and "knowing the mind's object"—only one second, but in that second you are "free of affairs." The subway is still the same subway, but you are no longer the person "pushed along by affairs." This is the smallest flower that "the householder is free of affairs" can bloom in secular life.

Scenario Two: A Late Night of Overtime.

You work until 1 a.m., finish the project, and on the way home a sudden emptiness surges up—this emptiness is not from hunger, but from the other side of 「在家有事故」: your sense of worth is entirely given by "affairs," and once the affairs stop, you do not know where to put yourself.

The renunciant Dharma's counterpart is "no affairs," "few affairs," and "gravity and dignity." This does not mean you should not work—it means your mind cannot define itself entirely by "affairs." A renunciant's "dignity" comes from "a settled mind"; a householder who wants to catch a breath from the squeezing of "affairs" can set aside even fifteen minutes a day to do something completely purposeless, something that produces no "result"—staring into space, taking a walk, watching the clouds. In those fifteen minutes you are "leaving home"—standing for a while outside the fence of "affairs."

Scenario Three: A Small Quarrel in an Intimate Relationship.

When couples quarrel, at the deepest point, one often hears: "You don't really love me." The real meaning of this sentence is often: "You are not my most solid support." This is the contemporary version of 「在家以妇为伴」: making one's partner the mind's final refuge.

The renunciant Dharma's counterpart is not "you should remain single"—the original text does not require this either—but rather 「出家坚心为伴」: what you ultimately rely on should not be a person, but your own mind, already soaked in the Dharma. This does not mean partners should not depend on each other; it means that if you hang your whole being on one person, then when that person leaves, you are empty. The stability of household life needs "a steadfast mind as companion" as its ground hue—this is the renunciant Dharma's invisible reminder to householders.

Scenario Four: Moments and Short Videos.

「在家则入围，出家则解围」. You open your feed and see an old colleague took the kids to Hawaii; then a high school classmate bought a second apartment; then a former coworker got promoted to VP—ten minutes in, your chest suddenly feels tight. This is the process of "being encircled": you are surrounded by mirrors, each one telling you "where your place is," "whether you measure up," "whom you should envy."

The renunciant Dharma's counterpart is not "delete the app" but "disencirclement"—at the moment the tightness rises after scrolling, being willing to turn and look at the mind that "is being encircled." Once that mind is seen, the encirclement loosens—even if only for an instant. That instant is "disencirclement."

Scenario Five: The Dilemma of Donating.

At the end of the year, a charity asks you to donate. You give a considerable sum, then notice a small voice of pride inside: "I donated so much; I'm a good person." This is the typical form of 「在家则贵财施」: at the same time as giving, the self is also fed.

The renunciant Dharma's counterpart is 「贵法施」: more precious than material wealth is explaining your understanding of something to another person in need. A friend's child has fallen into depression; you give no material thing, but you sit with the child for three hours of conversation about "impermanence" and "self"—in that moment, what you do is dharma-giving. Dharma-giving does not easily inflate you, because once the Dharma is given, it is no longer yours.

Scenario Six: The Stacking of Identity and Titles.

The business card reads "Director So-and-So," "Partner So-and-So," "Dr. So-and-So," "Founder So-and-So." Each added title grows your "body" by an inch. This is the contemporary version of 「在家增长身」: your sense of identity is continually fed by external labels, and the "I" swells larger and larger.

The renunciant Dharma's counterpart is 「离身」—not that you should not have titles, but that you know the titles are not you. Titles can remain, but the "I" does not have to grow with them. A person who has truly practiced "departure from the body" can wear any title without the inner self gaining weight from it. This is the one point most easily mis-mapped by modern people—many think "departure from the body" means hating one's physical body or self-deprecation. On the contrary, "departure from the body" means knowing the body is not the self, letting the "I" no longer be kidnapped by any identity.

Scenario Seven: Lost in the Thicket of Life.

Mortgage, children's school admissions, parents' health, partner relationships, career bottlenecks... these press down at once, and you feel like you are walking into a thorny thicket with no visible exit. This is 「在家入深榛」. The more you struggle, the tighter you are bound.

The renunciant Dharma's counterpart is 「出深榛」—but "emerging" is not immediately putting everything down (and you cannot put it down right away); it is "seeing through the fact that this thicket itself is not real." Each thorn is a product of causes and conditions—the mortgage is causes and conditions, the school admission is causes and conditions, the parents' health is causes and conditions. They seem solid and unbreakable, but each one is "born of causes and conditions." When you can see this, the thicket begins to loosen—not that the thicket disappears, but that your "I" is no longer stuck inside it.

Scenario Eight: The Banner Raised.

Every year you post a year-end summary: "This year I completed this many projects, signed this many contracts, earned this many figures." This is 「在家持魔幢」. The flag raised is numbers, accomplishments, evidence of surpassing others.

The renunciant Dharma raises the "Buddha's banner"—the flag of the Three Jewels. In your year-end summary, you can also honestly write down one thing you did this year out of pure altruism, expecting nothing in return—that one thing is a corner of the Buddha's banner. In household life, the "Buddha's banner" and "Māra's banner" can perfectly well exist on the same person at the same time. The difference is: which one are you holding up?

A Few Places Where Mis-mapping Happens Most Easily

After the walk-through, several mappings must be pointed out explicitly:

- 「出家坚心为伴」does not mean "you do not need people." Its point is "do not make a person your final reliance," not "reject all intimate relationships." - 「少欲少事」does not mean "the more miserable your life, the better." Its point is "let the mind not be turned by things," not "the more deprived your life, the more holy." The renunciant Dharma contains "seclusion," but not "self-punishment." - 「离身」does not mean "denying the body." "Body" here means "sense of self," "sense of identity," not the flesh-and-blood body. Renunciants also eat, also fall ill, and also one day relinquish this body. - 「贵法施」does not mean "do not let people give material gifts." Householders should certainly give material gifts; but if one only gives material gifts and never learns dharma-giving, that track is still "the household track." - 「佛幢」does not mean "the banner raised by monks." Any person—including a householder—who, in every gesture, raises toward truth rather than profit, toward benefiting others rather than lording over them, is holding up the Buddha's banner in that moment.

III. Why Contemporary People Need It

You may think: "I am not a renunciant. What does this table of contrasts have to do with me?"

The connection is precisely here.

The contrastive method of the *Daśabhūmika-vibhāṣā* is a diagnostic tool. It tells us: on the "household" track, "affairs" will be many, "companions" dense, "encirclement" deep, "the body" swollen, "the banner" inclined toward self, "refuges" resting on the illusory, and "the thicket" growing deeper the further one walks. These tendencies are not moral judgments; they are factual descriptions. Understanding these thirteen pairs of contrasts gives you a self-check list for "household life"—you do not have to leave home, but you need to see what track you are on.

Going further, what "出家法" offers contemporary people is a "support" (所緣, ālambana)—a place where the mind can temporarily fasten. In the example from our walk-through above—the one second of "awareness" arising on the subway—that "awareness" is the "support." Its function is to let your mind be temporarily disencircled from "algorithm time," to slip away for a moment from the continuous bombardment of "affairs." You do not have to cultivate samādhi (many people do not have the conditions for it either), but you can set aside a period of "few affairs," "few companions," "little noise" for yourself each day—this is the smallest possibility that "the direction of the renunciant Dharma" can open up in secular life.

At a deeper level, the reason "出家法" still needs to be discussed by modern people is that it is not "a special Dharma for a certain group of people," but "a direction shared by all who aspire to liberation." The original text has already made this clear itself: householder bodhisattvas and renunciant bodhisattvas share the common practices of "forbearance, cultivating emptiness, contemplating how to benefit sentient beings, and an equal mind toward all." In other words, within the two characters "出家" there is a certain vital spirit—a sense of direction toward liberation and away from entanglement—that should be awakened in everyone, regardless of position. If a householder can maintain this "nature of emergence" (出性, in the original text's language) in the mind, even while living at home, he can take a few steps in the direction marked by the renunciant Dharma.

Ultimately, "出家法" is not meant to make all readers go forth into homelessness; it is meant to make all readers see: what default tracks household life itself runs on, and whether there is any possibility of adjusting those tracks just a little. That little adjustment is the trace of "leaving home" on you and me.

IV. Common Misreadings and Clarifications

Misreading One: The renunciant Dharma = a list of precepts.

This is the most common misreading. The two characters "出家" immediately evoke specific provisions like "the five precepts, the ten precepts, the two hundred fifty precepts of a bhikṣu (比丘), the bodhisattva's threefold pure precepts (三聚淨戒)," and so "出家法" gets equated with "the rules a renunciant should observe." But when the *Daśabhūmika-vibhāṣā* discusses "出家法," what it lists is not a single specific precept, but the direction sketched by thirteen pairs of contrasts. Precepts are the vehicle of the renunciant Dharma, but the renunciant Dharma itself is broader than precepts—it touches on temperament, companions, values, refuges, views of self, and spheres of experience. Compressing it into precepts loses its richness as "a direction for living."

Misreading Two: The renunciant Dharma is superior to the household Dharma, so renunciation deserves more respect than household life.

This is explicitly denied by the original text. The text devotes a special section to "the practices shared by householder and renunciant bodhisattvas" and lists a long series of common dharmas, making the meaning very clear: the two paths of household and renunciation each suit their own conditions; "出家法" and "在家法" are dharmas of different directions, not of higher and lower rank. If a lay practitioner applies the mind to "forbearance, cultivating emptiness, and contemplating how to benefit sentient beings," there is no difference in direction from what the renunciant bodhisattva practices. Conversely, if a renunciant cannot put these shared practices into effect, then a monastic robe alone cannot truly place one on this path. The spirit of the original text is "each stays on its own track, each practices what suits it," not "renunciation is superior."

Misreading Three: The "body" in "increasing the body" means the physical body, so "departing from the body" means denying the body.

Here "body" is the "provisional body," the "body of the five aggregates"—the aggregate of identities, the story-sense of the "I." Renunciants still eat, dress, walk, and fall ill. "Departing from the body" is not about being at odds with the body; it is "not taking everything the body carries as a real self." This distinction is crucial: misreading "departure from the body" as hatred of the body or self-mortification actually falls into another kind of "attachment to body."

Misreading Four: Leaving home is escaping social responsibility.

「在家有事故，出家无事故」is the contrast most easily read as "leaving home is dodging affairs." But "affairs" here refers to the density of external possessions surrounding one, not to responsibility itself. If a renunciant is fleeing "responsibility," then he can accomplish neither the śrāvaka path nor the bodhisattva path—because 「成办有理事」(chunk:36709) explicitly requires him to "accomplish" both worldly and supramundane matters. The true "freedom from affairs" is "the mind is not filled up with affairs," not "there is nothing to do." A renunciant bodhisattva who can fasten the mind to its object while simultaneously accomplishing worldly and supramundane matters is the figure the original text describes.

Misreading Five: "Entering the deep thicket" and "emerging from the deep thicket" are literal references to deep mountain forests.

"榛" is a dense forest, but it is a metaphor for the state of entanglement, confusion, and not seeing a way out. A householder enters such a state not because the body walks into a forest, but because the mind does—mortgage, children, face, relationships, comparisons—these together form a "thicket" that can trap a person just as well. What the renunciant "emerges from" is also this state—the thicket of the mind. In this sense, whether you wear monastic robes or a business suit, you can ask yourself: Am I in the "thicket" right now? Am I on the road "out of the thicket"?

Misreading Six: Household life and renunciation are two identities that have nothing to do with each other.

The original text's section on "shared practices" exists precisely to break this dualism. Household and renunciation are not two parallel tracks, but two stretches of life interwoven on the bodhisattva path. If a householder bodhisattva can put into practice in daily life "forbearance, dharma-giving, cultivating emptiness, and contemplating how to benefit sentient beings," the mind is no different from that of a renunciant bodhisattva. Likewise, many renunciants lived in the secular world for years and know what the "household" state is like. So "出家法" is not only for renunciants; it is also for all who are willing to let their minds turn toward liberation—this is why this ancient table of contrasts is still worth reading today.

Having walked through the whole text, you will find: what is most distinctive about the *Daśabhūmika-vibhāṣā*'s discussion of "出家法" is not how many precepts it gives, but the fact that it uses a nearly literary set of antitheses to contrast the fundamental temperaments of the household life and the renunciant life. This way of speaking makes "出家法" not an article of rules but a direction—a direction toward seclusion, gravity, departure from the body, emergence from the thicket, holding the Buddha's banner, and disencirclement. Whether or not you actually walk out of your front door, you can take a few steps in this direction in your mind—even one step is enough, such as looking up at the subway window for one second.