The sixth abhiññā: the knowledge of the destruction of the cankers (āsavakkhayañā3a)

The sixth direct-knowledge available to a meditator is the knowledge of the destruction of the cankers. The “cankers” are called in Pāli āsavas, meaning literally that which flows out; thus the word is sometimes translated “outflows.” The term signifies certain fundamental defilements which “flow out” from the mind, causing spiritual corruption and sustaining the process of sa.sāra. In the earliest texts the āsavas are usually given as three in number: the canker of sensual desire (kāmāsava), the canker of (craving for) existence (bhavāsava), and the canker of ignorance (avijjāsava). Other texts, particularly those of the Abhidhammapi:aka, add a fourth, the canker of wrong views (di((hāsava).¹ The meditator’s attainment of the destruction of the cankers is described in the suttas in the following passage:

With his mind thus concentrated… he applies, he directs his mind to the knowledge of the destruction of the cankers. He knows suffering as it is; he knows the origin of suffering as it is; he knows the cessation of suffering as it is; he knows the path leading to the cessation of suffering as it is. He knows the cankers as they are; he knows the origin of the cankers as it is; he knows the cessation of the cankers as it is; he knows the path leading to the cessation of cankers as it is. The mind of him who knows thus is liberated from the canker of sensual desire, from the canker of existence, and from the canker of ignorance. In him who is liberated the knowledge arises that he is liberated.

He understands: ‘Rebirth is destroyed; the noble life has been lived; what was to be done has been done; nothing else remains to be done henceforth’.² (Wr. tr.).

According to the commentary, in this passage the destruction of the cankers can signify either nibbāna or the fourth supramundane path, the path of arahatship.³ Nibbāna is called the destruction of the cankers because it is the state wherein the cankers are utterly destroyed; the path of arahatship is called thus because it brings about the destruction of the cankers. The “knowledge of the destruction of the cankers” is the faculty of knowledge contained in the consciousness belonging to the path of arahatship.

As the stock description makes clear, the content of this knowledge is the Four Noble Truths. By knowing and seeing for himself with direct perception the Four Noble Truths in their full depth and range, the meditator eradicates the mental corruptions and attains

1. Dhs., p. 221.

2. “So evaJ samāhite citte… āsavānaJ khaya-ñāLāya cittaJ abbhinīharati abhininnāmeti. So ’idaJ dukkhan’ti yatthābhūtaJ pajānāti, ’ayaJ samudayo’ti yatthābhūtaJ pajānāti, ’ayaJ dukkha-nirodho’ti yathā-bhūtaJ pajānāti, ’ayaJ dukkhanirodhagāminī pa:ipadā’ti yathā bhūtaJ pajānāti, ’ime āsavā’ ti yathābhūtaJ pajānāti, ’ayaJ āsavasamudayo’ti yathābhūtaJ pajānāti, ’ayaJ āsavanirodho’ti yathābhūtaJ pajānāti, ’ayaJ āsavanirodhagāminīpa:ipadā’ti yathābhūtaJ pajānāti. Tassa evaJ jānato evaJ passato kāmāsavā pi cittaJ vimuccati bhavāsavā pi cittaJ vimuccati avijjāsavā pi cittaJ vimuccati,

’vimuttasmim vimuttaJ’ ti ñāLaJ hoti, ’khīnā jāti vusitaJ brahmacariyaJ kataJ karaLīyaJ nāparaJ itthattāyā’ti pajānāti.” DN. 1:83-84.

3. DN.A. 1:200-201.

complete emancipation. As this realization results from insight, we will discuss it more fully in the next chapter, in connection with the supramundane paths.

For the present two observations should be made concerning the sixth abhiññā. First, we should note that though the texts often show the knowledge of the destruction of the cankers as following the fourth jhāna, the latter is not indispensable for its attainment.

The realization of the Four Noble Truths can arise with any jhāna as its basis, and it is even recognized that some meditators can achieve the liberating knowledge without any previous experience in the mundane jhānas, solely by the power of their faculty of wisdom. What is required in all cases for the attainment of the noble paths is the development of insight (vipassanābhāvanā), which can be either based upon some prior attainment in jhānic concentration or proceed in a “dry” manner based solely upon the momentary concentration connected with mindful observation of phenomena. In this respect the sixth abhiññā differs from the other five, which all presuppose proficiency in the eight attainments belonging to absorption-concentration.

For this reason the sixth abhiññā differs from the other five in a second respect, namely, that it is regarded as an acquisition exclusive to the Buddha’s dispensation. The other five abhiññās are all mundane, being based solely upon the development of concentration, since the methods of developing concentration are available in non-Buddhist disciplines, those who follow these disciplines and achieve sufficient power of concentration can also acquire the five mundane abhiññās. However, the knowledge of the destruction of the cankers is a supramundane attainment which arises out of insight into the nature of phenomena. Hence it can only be gained by Buddhas, paccekabuddhas, and arahant disciples. In the case of the Buddhas and paccekabuddhas it arises out of their own self-evolved wisdom (saya.bhūñā5a); in the case of disciples it arises by practising insight meditation in accordance with the instructions received from a Buddha or from teachers who transmit his dispensation.

Because of these differences between the sixth abhiññā and the others, the abhiññās are collected together into two groups, overlapping, but distinct. On the one hand there is the five abhiññās, comprising the five kinds of mundane direct-knowledge; on the other there is the six abhiññās, comprising the five mundane forms of direct-knowledge together with the knowledge of the destruction of the cankers. While the mundane abhiññās are regarded as ornaments of a yogin within the Buddha’s dispensation, the sixth abhiññā is regarded as its vital essence, the supreme goal of the entire practice of meditation.

Other Kinds of Supernormal Knowledge

In addition to the six abhiññās, certain suttas mention two other kinds of superior knowledge following the fourth jhāna. These are called “knowledge and vision”

(ñā5adassana) and “the knowledge of the mind-created body” (manomaya iddhi ñā5a).

In the texts they immediately precede the six abhiññās, though the eight are not collected together into a single group with a collective name.¹

1. DN. 1:76-77. MN. 2:l7-18.

The textual description of “knowledge and vision” is as follows:

With his heart thus serene…, he applies and bends down his mind to that insight that comes from knowledge [knowledge and vision]. He grasps the fact: ‘This body of mine has form, it is built up of the four elements, it springs from father and mother, it is continually renewed by so much boiled rice and juicy foods, its very nature is impermanence, it is subject to erosion, abrasion, dissolution, and disintegration; and therein is this consciousness of mine, too, bound up, on that does it depend.¹

According to the commentary, “knowledge and vision” in this passage signifies the knowledge arising through insight (vipassanāñā5a).² After emerging from the fourth jhāna, the yogin directs his attention to his body and mind. He first discerns the body, and sees it as material, compounded, dependently arisen, impermanent, subject to destruction. He then directs his attention to the mind, and sees the mind occuring in dependence on the body, sharing its conditioned, impermanent, and insubstantial nature.

This knowledge of insight, brought to its apex, issues in the knowledge of the destruction of the cankers. A fuller account of insight-knowledge will be given in the next chapter.

The second auxiliary type of higher knowledge is the knowledge of the mind-created body. This knowledge seems similar to the iddhis, and is in fact called manomayiddhi, but it is not included in the iddhividhañā5a. The textual description reads:

With his mind thus concentrated…, he creates from this body another body which has material form, is mind-made, having all its major and minor parts, not deficient in any sense organ.³ (Wr. tr.).

The Buddha compares the process by which a bhikkhu mentally creates another body resembling his own and draws it out from the original to the act by which a man draws a reed from its sheath, a sword from its scabbard, or a snake from its slough. In each case the extracted article resembles its container but can be seen as clearly distinct from it.⁴ The Visuddhimagga explains that if a meditator wishes to create the mind-made body he should emerge from the basic fourth jhāna, advert to his own body, and resolve that his body be hollow. When it presents itself to him as hollow, he should do the preliminary work and then resolve: “Let there be another body inside it.” Another body then appears within his original body which he can draw out “like a reed from its sheath, like a sword from its scabbard, like a snake from its slough.”⁵

1. Dial. 1:86-87. “So evaJ samāhite citte… ñāLadassanāya cittaJ abhinīharati abhininnāmeti. So evaJ pajānāti: ‘AyaJ kho me kāyo rūpī cātummahābhūtiko mātāpettikasambhavo odānakummāsupacayo aniccucchādanaparimaddanabhedanaviddhaJsanadhammo, idaJ ca pana me viññāLaJ ettha sitaJ ettha pa:ibaddhaJ’ ti.” DN. 1:76.

2. DN.A. 1:197.

3. “So evaJ samāhite citte… So imamhā kāyā aññaJ kāyaJ abhinimmināti rūpiJ manomayaJ sabbaLgapaccangiJ ahīnindriyaJ.” DN. 1:77.

4. Ibid.

5. PP., p. 444. Vism., p. 342.

The Pa:isambhidāmagga describes one other supernormal power of the iddhi type not explicitly mentioned in the suttas, though implied by certain incidents. This is the supernormal power of transformation (vikubba5a iddhi). The Pa:isambhidāmagga exposition of this power reads:

He abandons his normal appearance and shows the appearance of a boy or the appearance of a Naga (serpent), or the appearance of a Supanna (winged demon), or the appearance of an Asura (demon), or the appearance of the Ruler [of Gods] (Indra), or the appearance of some [other sensual sphere]

deity, or the appearance of a Brahmā, or the appearance of the sea, or the appearance of a rock or the appearance of a lion, or the appearance of a tiger, or the appearance of a leopard, or he shows an elephant, or he shows a horse, or he shows a chariot, or he shows a foot soldier, or he shows a manifold military array.¹

To attain this power, according to the Visuddhimagga, the meditator should first resolve to appear in a particular form, such as the form of a boy. Then he should enter and emerge from the basic fourth jhāna and advert to his appearance in the form chosen.

Again he should enter the jhāna, emerge, and resolve, “Let me be a boy, etc. of such and such a type.” Simultaneously with his resolution he appears as a boy or as anything else he chooses. However, it is not necessary for the meditator to effect the transformation on his own body. He can simply resolve upon showing some form, such as an elephant, a horse, etc., and that form will become manifest before himself and others.²