The Seven Purifications
7. Purification by Knowledge and Vision (ñā3adassanavisuddhi) Change-of lineage (gotrabhū)
mind then sinks into the life-continuum (bhava/ga). Following the life continuum there arises in the stream of consciousness a mind-door adverting (manodvārāvajjana) apprehending formations as impermanent, or suffering, or selfless, in accordance with the previous process of equanimity-knowledge. Immediately after the adverting two or three impulsions occur making formations their object in terms of the same characteristic. The three are individually called “preliminary work” (parikamma),
“access” (upacāra), and “conformity” (anuloma), but they are most commonly collected under the group name “conformity.” In very quick-witted meditators the moment of preliminary work is passed over and only the two moments of access and conformity occur. Conformity knowledge receives its name because it conforms to the functions of truth in the eight kinds of insight-knowledge preceding it and in the thirty-seven states partaking of enlightenment to follow.1 It is the last moment of insight-knowledge before the change over to the supramundane path supervenes.
7. Purification by Knowledge and Vision (ñā3adassanavisuddhi)
knowledge, which arises right after conformity, is the first state of consciousness to make nibbāna its object. It is the initial advertance to nibbāna, functioning as the proximate, immediate and decisive-support condition for the arising of the first path.
The first path and fruit
Change-of-lineage knowledge perceives nibbāna but cannot destroy the defilements. The eradication of defilements is the work of the four supramundane paths (lokuttaramagga).
Each path attainment is a momentary experience apprehending nibbāna, understanding the Four Noble Truths, and cutting off certain defilements. The first path, as Buddhaghosa explains, arises in immediate succession to change-of-lineage:
…After, as it were, giving a sign to the path to come into being it [change-of-lineage] ceases. And without pausing after the sign given by that change-of-lineage knowledge the path follows upon it in uninterrupted continuity, and as it comes into being it pierces and explodes the mass of greed, the mass of hatred, and the mass of delusion, never pierced and exploded before.1
The first path is called the path of stream entry (sotāpattimagga) since the disciple who has reached this path has entered the stream of the Dhamma (dhammasota), the Noble Eightfold Path, which will take him to nibbāna as surely as the waters in a stream will be carried to the ocean.2 On entering this path he has passed beyond the level of a worldling (puthujjana) and become a noble one, an ariyan, who has seen and understood the Dhamma for himself. The path gives him real experience of the seven noble treasures: faith, virtue, conscience, shame, learning, generosity, and wisdom.3 With the attainment of the path he acquires the eight factors of the Noble Eightfold Path, abandons the eightfold wrong path, and is on the way to becoming a breast-born son of the Buddha.4
As the passage cited above makes clear, when the path-knowledge arises it breaks through the mass of greed, hatred, and delusion, the root-defilements which drive living beings from birth to birth in beginningless sa.sāra. Each supramundane path has the special function of eradicating defilements. The defilements cut off by the successive paths are classified into a set of ten “fetters” (sa.yojana), so called because they keep beings chained to the round of existence. The ten fetters, which all arise out of the three unwholesome roots, are: [1] wrong views of personality (sakkāyadi((hi), [2] doubt (vicikicchā), [3] clinging to rites and rituals (sīlabbata parāmāsa), [4] sensual desire (kāmacchanda), [5] ill will (vyāpāda), [6] lust for fine material existence (rūparāga), [7]
1. PP., pp. 787-88. “…EvaJ nibbattahi ti maggassa saññaJ datvā viya nirujjhati. Maggo pi tena dinnasaññaJ amuñcitvā va avīcisantativasena taJ ñāLaJ anubandhamāno anibbiddhapubbaJ apadālitapubbaJ lobhakkhandhaJ dosakkhandhaJ mohakkhandhaJ nibbijjhamāno vā padālayamāno vā nibbattati.” Vism., p. 579.
2. SN. 5:347.
3. “Saddhā, sīla, hiri, ottappa, suta, cāga, paññā.” DN. 3:251.
4. SN. 2:221.
lust for immaterial existence (arūparāga), [8] conceit (māna), [9] restlessness (uddhacca), and [10] ignorance (avijjā). The ten are divided into two groups: the first five are called the fetters pertaining to the lower worlds (orambhāgiyāni samyojanāni) because they keep beings tied to the sensuous realms; the last five are called the fetters pertaining to the higher worlds (uddhambhāgiyāni samyojanāni) because they remain operative even in the fine material and immaterial realms.1 Some of these fetters – doubt, sensual desire, ill will, and restlessness – are identical in nature with the five hindrances abandoned by jhāna. But whereas mundane jhāna only suppresses the manifest eruptions of these defilements, leaving the latent tendencies untouched, the supramundane paths cut them off at the root. With attainment of the fourth path the last and subtlest of the fetters are eradicated. Thus the arahat, the fully liberated one, is described as “one who has eliminated the fetters of existence”
(parikkhī5abhavasa.yojana).2
The path of stream-entry eradicates the first three fetters – the fetters of false views of personality, doubt, and clinging to rites and rituals. The first is the view that the five aggregates can be identified with a self or can be seen as containing, contained in, or belonging to a self.3 The more theoretical forms of this view are attenuated by insight-knowledge into impermanence, suffering, and selflessness, but the subtle latent holding to such views can only be destroyed by path-knowledge. “Doubt” is uncertainty with regard to the Buddha, Dhamma, Sangha, and the training; it is eliminated when the disciple sees for himself the truth of the Dhamma.4 “Clinging to rites and rituals” is the belief that liberation from suffering can be obtained merely by observing rites and rituals. Having followed the path to its climax, the disciple understands that the Noble Eightfold Path is the one way to the end of suffering, and so can no more fall back on rites and rituals. The path of stream entry not only cuts off these fetters but also eliminates greed for sense pleasures and resentment that would be strong enough to lead to states of loss, i.e. to rebirth in the four lower realms of the hells, tormented spirits, animals, and titans.5 For this reason the stream-enterer is released from the possibility of an unfortunate rebirth.6
The path of stream-entry is followed by another occasion of supramundane experience called the fruit of stream entry (sotāpatti-phala). Fruition follows immediately upon the path, succeeding it without a gap. It occurs as the result of the path, sharing its object, nibbāna, and its world-transcending character. But whereas the path performs the active and demanding function of cutting off defilements, the fruit simply enjoys the bliss and peace that result from the path’s completion of its function. Also, whereas the path is limited to only a single moment of consciousness, fruition covers either two or three
1. AN. 5:17.
2. MN. 1:4.
3. MN. 1:300.
4. MN. 1:101.
5. Dhs., p. 208.
6. PP., p. 801. Vism., p. 588.
moments. In the case of a quick-witted meditator who passes over the moment of preliminary work the cognitive process of the path contains only two moments of conformity knowledge. Thus in his thought-process, immediately after the path has arisen and ceased, three moments of fruition occur. In the case of an ordinary meditator there will be three moments of conformity knowledge and thus, after the path, only two moments of fruition.
The three moments of conformity knowledge and the moment of change-of-lineage are wholesome states of consciousness pertaining to the sense sphere (kāmāvacarakusala-citta). The path consciousness and the fruition that follows it are supramundane states of consciousness (lokuttara citta), the former wholesome (kusala) and the latter resultant (vipāka). The path and fruit necessarily occur at the level of one of the jhānas – from the first to the fourth jhāna in the fourfold scheme, from the first to the fifth in the fivefold scheme. They partake of the character of jhāna because they contain the jhāna-factors endowed with an intensity of absorption corresponding to that of the fine material sphere jhānas. But unlike the mundane jhānas these jhānas of the path and fruit are supramundane, having an altogether different object and function than their counterparts, as we will see in the next chapter.
The following diagram illustrates the thought-process of the path and fruit of stream-entry in the case of a normal meditator with three moments of conformity preceding the path and two moments of fruition succeeding it:
A B
_______________ _______________________________
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
… … … … bh l ch d p u a g m ph ph bh bh bh bh bh bh Here line A represents the four thought-moments preceding the path process. This comprises the past bhava/ga or life-continuum (bh), its vibration (l), its cutting off (ch), and the mind’s advertance to formations as impermanent, suffering, or selfless through the mind-door (d). Line B represents the lapsing of the mind back into the passive life-continuum after the fruition phase is over. P represents the moment of preliminary work (parikamma), u the moment of access (upacāra), a the moment of conformity (anuloma), and g the moment of change-of-lineage (gotrabhū) where the ordinary stream of consciousness belonging to the sensual plane changes over to the lineage of the noble path. The following m represents the noble path consciousness (magga citta).
After this there are two ph’s representing the fruit of stream-entry, then the mind relapses into the life-continuum (bhava/ga) which is represented by bh repeated six times. The groups of three dots in each citta represent the birth (uppāda), transformation or duration ((hiti), and dissolution (bha/ga) of each thought moment.1
It is evident from this diagram that the noble path consciousness is limited to only a single conscious moment. Immediately after this moment ceases it yields to its fruition moment. The diagram also shows the two distinct thought-moments of path and fruit
1. Adopted from Nārada, Manual., pp. 214-19. Vism., pp. 111-12. Compendium. pp. 54-55.
linked directly together for the reason that it is impossible to have the thought-moment of the stream-entry path without the fruit following in immediate succession. After two thought-moments of fruition the mental process returns to the life continuum.
After the attainment of fruition the stream-enterer reviews the path, fruition, and nibbāna. He will generally also review the defilements he has destroyed by the path and the defilements remaining to be destroyed by the higher paths; this, however, is not invariably fixed and is sometimes omitted by some meditators. The ariyan disciples who have passed through the next two fruitions will likewise review their attainments in the same way. Thus for each there will be at a minimum three and at a maximum five items to be reviewed.1 For the arahat, however, there will be a maximum of four since he has no more defilements to be eliminated. In this way there are a maximum of nineteen kinds of reviewing (paccavekkha5a) following the supramundane attainments.2
The disciple at the moment of the path of stream-entry is called “one standing on the path of stream-entry” or the first noble person; from the moment of fruition up to the attainment of the next path he is called a stream-enterer (sotāpanna), reckoned as the second noble person. Though conventionally the person standing on the path and the one abiding in the fruit can be described as one and the same individual at two different moments, the philosophical perspective requires another kind of descriptive device.
From the standpoint of ultimate truth, according to Buddhism, an individual endures as such for only one thought-moment. Therefore, in classifying the types of noble persons, the Buddha drew upon the distinction between the thought-moments of path and fruition as the basis for a distinction between two types of noble persons. This bifurcation applies to each of the four stages of deliverance: for each, the individual at the path-moment is reckoned as one type of noble person, the same individual from the moment of fruition on as another type of noble person.
The texts extoll the stream-enterer as acquiring incalculable benefits as a result of his attainment. He has closed off the doors to rebirth in the woeful states of existence and can declare of himself:
Destroyed for me is rebirth in the hells, in the animal kingdom, in the spirit realm, in the planes of misery, the bad destinations, the downfall. I am a stream-enterer, no longer subject to decline, assured of and destined for full enlightenment.3 (Wr. tr.).
1. Nārada, Manual, p. 410. Vism., p. 581.
2. Anuruddha, Abhidharmartha Sa/grahaya, Translated [into Sinhalese] by Sariputra Sangharāja Mahāthera. Revised and edited by the Very Rev. Pannamoli Tissa Thera. 2d ed. (Randombe, Ceylon:
W. E. De Silva, Hetumuni Semaneris De Silva and R. C. P. Weerasuriya Waidyaratna, 1916), p. 249.
Sumangala, [Vibhāvani )īkā] Anuruddhācariya’s Abhidhammattha Sa/gaha with Abhidhammattha Vibhāvani(īkā, revised and edited by Bhadanta Revatadhammatthera. [Pāli Text in Devanagari script].
(Vārānasi, India: Bauddha Svādhyāya Sātrā, 1965), pp. 157-58 (hereafter cited as Vibhāvani )īkā).
3. “KhīLanirayomhi khīLatiracchānayoniyo khīLapettivisayo khīLāpāyaduggativinipāto; sotāpanno’haJ asmi avinipātadhammo niyato sambodhiparāyano.” SN. 2:68.
He can be certain that he is released from five kinds of fear and hostility: the fear and hostility that come from taking life, from stealing, from sexual misconduct, from false speech, and from taking intoxicants.1 He is endowed with the four factors of stream-entry (sotāpattiya/gāni); unwavering confidence in the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Sangha, and unblemished moral discipline.2 He has penetrated and seen the truth with correct understanding.3 By so penetrating the truth he has limited his future births to a maximum of seven in the happy realms of the human and heaven worlds, drying up the great ocean of suffering that laid beyond this.4 Thus the Buddha says that for the stream-enterer who has seen the Dhamma the amount of suffering that remains is like a pinch of dust on the finger nail, while the suffering that has been exhausted is like the dust on the mighty earth.5
The second path and fruit
A disciple who has attained to stream-entry is not debarred from progressing to higher stages of deliverance in that same life, but can advance all the way to arahatship if he has sufficient supporting conditions and puts forth the necessary effort. Therefore the yogin abiding at the stage of stream-entry is advised to strive for the next higher path, the path of the once-returner (sakadāgāmimagga), either in the same session or at a later time.
He should stir up the spiritual faculties, the powers, and the factors of enlightenment, and with this equipment contemplate the whole range of formations included in the five aggregates in the light of impermanence, suffering, and selflessness. As before he again passes through the progressive series of insights beginning with knowledge of rise and fall and culminating in knowledge of equanimity about formations. If his faculties have not yet reached sufficient maturity his contemplation will remain in equanimity about formations. But if and when his faculties mature, he passes through the moments of conformity-knowledge and change-of-lineage knowledge and attains to the second noble path, the path of the once-returner.6
Unlike the other noble paths, the second path does not eradicate any fetters completely.
However, when it arises it attenuates sensual desire and ill will to such a degree that they
1. Ibid. 69.
2. Ibid. 70 3. Ibid.
4. Stream-enterers are divided into three kinds: assuming that they will not go further in that same lifetime, one with sluggish faculties will be reborn seven times in the happy destinations; one with medium faculties will be reborn an intermediary number of times; and one with keen faculties will be reborn once more in the human world and there make an end of suffering. (See PP., pp. 833-34. Vism., pp. 61l-12).
5. SN. 2:133-34.
6. The thought-moment immediately preceding the three higher paths only receives the name “change-of-lineage” figuratively, due to its similarity to the moment preceding the path of stream-entry. The yogi actually crossed over to the noble one’s lineage (ariyagotta) earlier, with the moment before the first path.
Hence the moment immediately preceding the three higher paths is technically known by another name, vodāna, meaning “cleansing”, so called “because it purifies from certain defilements and because it makes absolute purification (i.e. nibbāna) its object.” (Wr. tr.). “Ekaccasamkilesavisuddhiyā, pana accantavisuddhiyā ārammaLakaraLato ca vodānanti vuccati.” Vism.T. 2:487-88.
no longer occur strongly or frequently but remain only as weak residues. The three unwholesome roots are weakened along with the other fetters derived from them.
Following the path-consciousness in immediate succession come two or three moments of the fruit of the once-returner (sakadāgāmi-phala), the inevitable consequence of the path. After fruition reviewing knowledge occurs, as described. The meditator at the moment of the path is known as the third noble person, from the moment of the fruit on as a once-returner (sakadāgāmi), the fourth noble person. He is called a “once-returner”
because, if he does not go further in this life, he is bound to make an end of suffering after returning to this world one more time. The standard sutta description reads:
“After the vanishing of the (first) three fetters and the attenuation of greed, hate, and delusion, the monk ‘returns only once more’ to this world. And only once more returning to this world, he puts an end to suffering.”1
The third path and fruit
As before, the ardent meditator resumes contemplation on the impermanence, suffering, and selflessness of the aggregates, striving to attain the third stage of deliverance, the stage of a non-returner (anāgāmi). When his faculties mature he passes through the preliminary insights and reaches the third path, the path of the non-returner (anāgāmimagga). This path destroys sensual desire and ill will, the two fetters weakened by the second path. Immediately after the third path its fruition occurs, after which he reviews his position as before. At the moment of the path the yogin is known as one standing on the path of a non-returner, the fifth noble person, from the moment of fruition on as a non-returner, the sixth noble person. He is called a non-returner because he no longer returns to the sensuous realm. If he does not penetrate further he is reborn spontaneously in some higher realm, generally in the pure abodes (suddhāvāsa) of the fine material sphere, and there reaches final nibbāna: “After the vanishing of the five lower fetters, however, the monk appears in a higher world, and there he reaches nibbāna, ‘no more returning’ from that world.2
The fourth path and fruit
Again, either in the same session or at some future time, the meditator sharpens his faculties, powers, and enlightenment factors, contemplating the three characteristics of formations. He ascends through the series of insights up to equanimity about formations.
When his faculties mature there arise in him conformity and change-of-lineage, followed by the fourth and final path, the path of arahatship (arahattamagga). This path eradi-cates the remaining five fetters – desire for existence in the fine material realm
1. Nyanatiloka, Comp., trans. and ed., The Buddha’s Path to Deliverance in its Threefold Division and Seven Stages of Purity Being a Systematic Exposition in the Work of the Sutta Pi(aka, (Colombo, Ceylon:
The Bauddha Sahitya Sabha, 1952; rev. 3d ed. Colombo, Ceylon: The Bauddha Sahitya Sabha, 1969), p. 189 (hereafter cited as Path to Deliverance). “… Bhikkhu tiLLaJ saJyojanānaJ parikkhayā -rāgadosamohānaJ tanuttā sakadāgāmi hoti sakid eva imaJ lokaJ āgantvā dukkhass’antaJ karoti.”
AN. 2:238.
2. Path to Deliverance. p. 189. “… Bhikkhu pañcannaJ orambhāgiyānaJ saJyojanānaJ parikkhayā opapātiko hoti tatthaparinibbāyī anāvattidhammo tasmā lokā.” AN. 2:238.
(rūparāga), desire for existence in the immaterial realm (arūparāga), conceit (māna), restlessness (uddhacca), and ignorance (avijjā). The fourth path is followed immediately by its fruition, the fruit of arahatship (arahatta-phala), after which reviewing knowledge occurs. The text reads:
But after the vanishing of all biases [ten fetters] he reaches already in this world, the liberation of mind and the liberation through wisdom, after realizing and understanding it in his own person.1
At the moment of the path the yogin is reckoned as one standing on the path of arahatship, the seventh noble person; at the moment of fruition he becomes an arahat, the eighth noble person. At this point he has completed the development of the path and reached the goal of full liberation.
He is one of the Great Ones with cankers destroyed, he bears his last body, he has laid down the burden, reached his goal and destroyed the fetter of becoming, he is rightly liberated with [final] knowledge and worthy of the highest offerings of the world with its deities.2
The eight individuals, from the person standing on the path of stream-entry to the arahat, make up the ariyan Sangha, the community of noble persons forming the third refuge and third jewel of Buddhist veneration. As the Buddha says:
Bhikkhus, there are these eight persons worthy of offerings and hospitality, of gifts and homage, an incomparable field of merit to the world.
The stream-enterer, he who has entered the path to the realization of the fruit of stream-entry, the once-returner, he who has entered the path to the realization of the fruit of once-returner, the non-returner, he who has entered the path to the realization of the fruit of non-returner, the arahat, and he who has entered the path to arahatship.3 (Wr. tr.).
1. Path to Deliverance. p. 189. “… Bhikkhu āsavānaJ khayā anāsavaJ cetovimuttiJ paññāvimuttiJ di::h’eva dhamme sayaJ abhiññā sacchikatvā upasampajja viharati.” AN. 2:238.
2. PP., p. 792. “mahākhīLasavo antimadehadāri ohitabhāro anuppattasadattho parīkkhiLabhavasaJyojano sammaññāvimutto sadevakassa lokassa aggadakkhiLeyyoti.” Vism., p. 582.
3. “A::h’ime bhikkhave puggalā āhuneyyā, pāhuneyyā, dakkhineyyā, añjalikaranīyā anuttaraJ puñña-kkhettaJ lokassa.
Sotāpanno sotāpattiphalasacchikiriyāya pa:ipanno, sakadāgāmi sakadāgāmiphalasacchikiriyāya pa:ipanno, anāgāmi anāgāmiphalasacchikiriyāya pa:ipanno, arahā arahattāya pa:ipanno.” AN. 4:292-93.