The Seven Purifications
6. Purification by Knowledge and Vision of the Way (pa9ipadāñā3adassana visuddhi)
Having relinquished attachment to the ten imperfections of insight and correctly distinguished the true path from the false, the disciple now enters upon a steady progression of insights which will lead him through increasingly deeper levels of understanding right up to the threshold of the supramundane path. These insights, nine in number, begin with mature knowledge of rise and fall and culminate in conformity knowledge (anulomañā5a), the pinnacle of mundane insight. Together with the previously accomplished comprehension-knowledge (sammasanañā5a), these nine insights complete the ten kinds of insight-knowledge mentioned in the Abhidhammattha Sa/gaha.
Knowledge of contemplation of rise and fall (udayabbayānupassanā-ñā5a)
After distinguishing the right path from the wrong the meditator resumes the contemplation of rise and fall. Though he had previously cultivated this knowledge in part, his contemplation was disabled by the imperfections of insight and could not clearly observe the three characteristics. But now that the imperfections have been removed contemplation becomes extremely sharp, causing the three characteristics to stand out in bold relief. By attending to the rise and fall of formations the yogin sees the mark of impermanence – formations changing constantly at every moment, produced and stopped with inconceivable rapidity. As impermanence becomes more conspicuous suffering begins to stand out in its fundamental form, as continuous oppression by rise and fall. The yogin then realizes that whatever changes and causes suffering is insusceptible to the exercise of mastery, hence incapable of being identified as a self or the belongings of a self; this brings the understanding of the mark of selflessness into view. Having uncovered the three characteristics, the meditator sees that the so-called being is nothing but a becoming, a flux of evanescent, painful, impersonal happenings which does not remain the same for two consecutive moments.
1. PP., pp. 739ff. “Obhāsa, ñāLa, pīti, passaddhi, sukha, adhimokkha, paggaha, upa::hāna, upekkhā, nikanti.” Vism., pp. 544-45.
Knowledge of contemplation of dissolution (bhangānupassanā-ñā5a)
As the meditator persists in his contemplation of rise and fall, it becomes increasingly apparent that conditioned formations undergo three phases of becoming: a phase of arising (uppāda), a phase of presence ((hiti), and a phase of dissolution (bha/ga). When he can discern these phases clearly, the yogin no longer extends his mindfulness to their arising or presence, but focusses exclusively upon the final phase – their momentary cessation, dissolution, or breaking up. He then sees how formations break up all the time
“like fragile pottery being smashed, like fine dust being dispersed, like sesamum seeds being roasted.”1 Applying his direct knowledge of present dissolution to the past and future, he draws the inference that all past formations dissolved and all future ones will dissolve. Since dissolution is the culminating point of impermanence, the most salient aspect of suffering, and the strongest negation of selfhood, the three marks stand forth more distinctly than ever before. The whole field of formations thus becomes evident to contemplation as impermanent, suffering, and selfless. With the insight that formations break up constantly without a pause, and that this ceaseless process of momentary dissolution holds sway over the three periods of time, the meditator arrives at knowledge of contemplation of dissolution.
Knowledge of appearance as terror (bhayatūpa((hāna-ñā5a)
As he repeats and cultivates his insight into the destruction, fall, and breakup of formations,
formations classed according to all kinds of becoming, generation, destiny, station, or abode of beings, appear to him in the form of a great terror, as lions, tigers, leopards,… appear to a timid man who wants to live in peace.2
When he sees how past formations have ceased, present ones are ceasing, and future ones will cease, there arises in him knowledge of appearance as terror, born of the understanding that whatever is bound for destruction cannot be relied upon and is therefore fearful.
Knowledge of contemplation of danger (ādīnavānupassanā-ñā5a)
The next stage of insight-knowledge arises naturally out of the previous one. As the meditator cultivates the knowledge of appearance as terror he finds that there is no shelter, protection, or refuge in any kind of becoming. He sees that since there is no shelter in any state of existence there is not a single formation he can pin his hopes on:
all hold nothing but danger. Then “the three kinds of becoming appear like charcoal pits full of glowing coals,… and all formations appear as a huge mass of dangers destitute of satisfaction or substance.”3 The meditator discerns the potential danger in all existence
1. PP., p. 752. Vism., p. 553.
2. PP., p. 753. Vism., pp. 554-55.
3. PP., p. 755. Vism., p. 556.
just as a timid man sees the danger in a delightful forest thicket infested with wild beasts.1
The Pa:isambhidāmagga explains how the knowledge of appearance as terror (or the knowledge of the presence of fear) becomes the knowledge of danger thus:
Birth is fear – thus understanding in the presence of fear becomes knowledge of danger. Existence is fear… decay is fear… sickness is fear… death is fear…
sorrow is fear… lamentation is fear… despair is fear, thus understanding in the presence of fear is knowledge of danger.2
Danger arises out of fearful conditions and fearful conditions give rise to danger. Birth, existence, decay, etc., being fearful states threaten danger to those exposed to them. For a meditator who perceives the dangers in all these fearful conditions, the knowledge of appearance as terror becomes transformed into the knowledge of contemplation of danger.
Knowledge of contemplation of dispassion (nibbidānupassanā-ñā5a)
Seeing the danger in all compounded things the meditator becomes dispassionate towards them. He finds no delight in any state of worldly existence but turns away from them all. Even before he came to this knowledge the meditator had reduced his gross attachments but now, having seen the fear and danger in formations, he gains dispassion towards the five aggregates on account of their impermanent, fearful, and insecure nature. It should be noted that according to the Pa:isambhidāmagga these last three insights – knowledge of terror, of danger, and of dispassion – represent phases of one kind of insight-knowledge apprehending its object in three different ways.3
Knowledge of desire for deliverance (muñcitukamyatā-ñā5a)
When the meditator becomes dispassionate towards the formations in all the kinds of becoming, his mind no longer cleaves to them. The desire then arises in him to get rid of formations, to be released and liberated from them all. The knowledge that arises in association with this desire is knowledge of desire for deliverance.
Knowledge of contemplation of reflection (pa(isa/khānupassanā-ñā5a)
In order to be released from the whole field of conditioned phenomena the meditator returns to the contemplation of formations, examining them again and again in terms of impermanence, suffering and selflessness. Looking at them from a variety of angles in the light of the three characteristics, he sees formations as impermanent because they are non-continuous, temporary, limited by rise and fall, disintegrating, perishable, subject to change, etc.; as suffering because they are continuously oppressed, hard to bear, the basis of pain, a disease, a tumor, a dart, a calamity, an affliction, etc.; as not self because
1. Ibid.
2. BMTP., p. 377. “Uppādo bhayanti bhayatūpa::hāne paññā ādīnave ñāLaJ. PavattiJ bhayanti… jarā bhayanti… byādhi bhayanti… maraLaJ bhayanti… soko bhayanti… paridevo bhayanti… upāyāso bhayanti, bhayatūpa::hāne paññā ādīnave ñāLaJ.” Pts., p. 377. SN. 4:173-75.
3. Pts., p. 259.
they are alien, empty, vain, void, ownerless, without an overlord, with none to wield power over them, etc.1 This extended understanding of the three characteristics is the knowledge of contemplation of reflection.
Knowledge of equanimity about formations (sa/khārupekkhā-ñā5a)
To deepen his understanding of selflessness the meditator contemplates voidness (suññatā) in various ways. He sees that all compounds are empty of self or of anything belonging to a self, that nothing can be identified as “I” or as the property of an “I”, as an “other” or as the property of an “other”.2 Perceiving the voidness of selfhood in formations, the meditator abandons both terror and attachment. He develops instead a sense of detached equanimity:
This [meditator], wanting to get free from all formations, discerns formations by the contemplation of reflection; then, seeing nothing to be taken as ‘I’ or
‘mine’, he abandons both terror and delight and becomes indifferent and neutral towards all formations.3
With the arising of this knowledge the disciple’s mind retreats, retracts, and recoils from all the planes of becoming and no longer goes out to them “just as a fowl’s feather or a shred of sinew thrown on a fire retreats, retracts, and recoils, and does not spread out.”4 At this stage, if contemplation should perceive nibbāna, the meditator’s goal, then it will reject formations and focus on nibbāna. But if it does not see nibbāna the meditator will continue in the knowledge of equanimity about formations until his contemplation acquires further maturity.
When the meditator’s knowledge ripens and the move to the supramundane path becomes imminent, insight tends to settle down in one of the three contemplations – on impermanence, suffering, or selflessness – as determined by the meditator’s disposition.
Because they lead directly to the liberating experience of the noble path, these contemplations, at the pinnacle of insight, are called the three gateways to liberation (tī5i vimokkhamukhāni). The contemplation of impermanence becomes the gateway to the signless liberation (animitta vimokkha) for it directs the mind to nibbāna as the signless element; the contemplation of suffering becomes the gateway to the desireless liberation (appa5ihitavimokkha) for it directs the mind to nibbāna as the desireless element; and the contemplation of non-self becomes the gateway to the void liberation (suññatavimokkha) for it directs the mind to nibbāna as the void element.
The liberation to which these contemplations are gateways is the supramundane path.
Though one in essence the path gains three names according to the aspect of nibbāna it focusses upon. As Buddhaghosa explains:
1. PP., p. 760. Vism., p. 559.
2. PP., pp. 762-63. Vism., p. 561. SN. 3:167.
3. PP., p. 765. Vism., p. 563.
4. PP., p. 766. Vism., p. 564.
And here the signless liberation should be understood as the noble path that has occurred by making nibbana its object through the signless aspect. For that path is signless owing to the signless element having arisen, and it is a liberation owing to deliverance from defilements. In the same way the path that has occurred by making nibbana its object through the desireless aspect is desireless. And the path that has occurred by making nibbana its object through the void aspect is void.1
The factor that determines which particular “gateway” will be entered and which liberation attained is the spiritual faculty predominant in the meditator’s mental makeup.
One with strong faith (saddhā) tends to settle down in contemplation of impermanence, one with strong concentration (samādhi) in the contemplation of suffering, and one with strong wisdom (paññā) in the contemplation of selflessness; thereby they each attain the path of liberation corresponding to their specific contemplation. As it is said in the Pa:isambhidāmagga:
When one who has great resolution brings [formations] to mind as impermanent, he acquires the signless liberation. When one who has great tranquility brings [them] to mind as painful, he acquires the desireless liberation. When one who has great wisdom brings [them] to mind as not-self, he acquires the void liberation.2
Insight-knowledge that has reached its climax and is about to issue in the supramundane path is also known by another name, “insight leading to emergence” (vu((hānagāminī-vipassanā).3 This name covers three kinds of knowledge: fully matured equanimity about formations and the two that follow it – conformity knowledge (anuloma ñā5a) and change-of-lineage knowledge (gotrabhū ñā5a). The word “emergence” (vu((hāna) signi-fies the supramundane path, which is called thus because externally it rises up from formations to apprehend nibbāna and internally it rises up from defilements and the aggregates consequent upon them to a state of complete purity. Since these last three kinds of mundane knowledge lead immediately to the path they are collectively named insight leading to emergence.
Conformity knowledge (anuloma-ñā5a)
As the meditator cultivates equanimity about formations his faculties grow stronger and sharper. Then, at a certain point, the realization dawns that the path is about to arise. A thought-process of equanimity-knowledge occurs comprehending formations through one of the three characteristics – as either impermanent, or suffering, or selfless; the
1. PP., p. 768. “Ettha ca, animittavimokkho ti animittākārena nibbānaJ ārammaLaJ katvā pavatto ariyamaggo. So hi animittāya dhātuyā uppannattā animitto, kilesehi ca vimuttattā vimokkho. Eten’eva nayena appaLihitākārena nibbānaJ ārammaLaJ katvā pavatto appaLihito, suññatākārena nibbānaJ ārammaLaJ katvā pavatto suññato ti veditabbo.” Vism., p. 565.
2. PP., p. 768. “Aniccato manasikaronto adhimokkhabahulo animittavimokkhaJ pa:ilabhati. Dukkhato manasikaronto passaddhibahulo appaLihitavimokkhaJ pa:ilabhati. Anattato manasikaronto vedabahulo suññatavimokkhaJ pa:ilabhati.” Pts., p. 254.
3. PP., pp. 772-75. Vism., pp. 567-69.
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)