directly eradicate the defilements. It serves to prepare the way for the second type of wisdom, the wisdom of the supramundane paths, which emerges when insight has been brought to its climax. The wisdom of the path, occurring in the four distinct stages of the supramundane Noble Eightfold Path (to be discussed below), simultaneously realizes nibbāna, fathoms the Four Noble Truths, and cuts off the defilements. This wisdom is called “supramundane” (lokuttara) because it rises up (uttarati) from the world (loka) of the five aggregates to realize the state transcendent to the world, nibbāna.
[5] The Buddhist yogin, striving for deliverance, begins the development of wisdom by first securely establishing its roots – purified moral discipline and concentration. He then learns and masters the basic material upon which wisdom is to work – the aggregates, elements, sense bases, dependent arising, the Four Noble Truths, etc. He commences the actual practice of wisdom by cultivating insight into the impermanence, suffering, and selflessness of the five aggregates. When this insight reaches its apex it issues in supramundane wisdom, the right view factor of the Noble Eightfold Path. The wisdom of the path turns from conditioned formations to the unconditioned nibbāna, destroying thereby the latent defilements at their root.
[6] The removal of the defilements, the experiencing of nibbāna, and the achievement of the states of holiness culminating in arahatship – these, according to Buddhaghosa, are the benefits in developing wisdom.1
without entering and emerging from jhāna, he proceeds directly to insight-contem-plation on the mental and material phenomena that appear in the six spheres of sense experience – the five outer senses and thought. By means of this bare insight he reaches the noble path, which as in the former case again includes supramundane jhāna as a matter of necessity.
The kingpost of the vipassanāyānika’s approach is the practice of mindfulness (sati), the bare non-discursive observation of the changing phenomena of mind and body. The Buddha expounds the practice of mindfulness in terms of four contemplations – the contemplation of body (kāya), feelings (vedanā), states of mind (citta), and mind-objects (dhamma). These four contemplations, the four “foundations of mindfulness” (sati-pa((hāna), bring to the focus of the observational field the diverse classes of mental and material phenomena with their universal marks of impermanence, suffering, and selflessness. The samathayānika, too, at the time he emerges from jhāna and begins insight-contemplation, has to practice the four foundations of mindfulness, as these have been called by the Buddha “the only way that leads to the attainment of purity, to the overcoming of sorrow and lamentation, to the end of pain and grief, to the entering upon the right path and the realization of Nibbāna.”1
The classical source for the distinction between the two vehicles of serenity and insight is the Visuddhimagga, where it is explained that when a meditator begins the development of wisdom
… if, firstly, his vehicle is serenity, [he] should emerge from any fine material or immaterial jhāna except the base consisting of neither perception nor non-perception, and he should discern, according to characteristic, function, etc. the jhāna factors consisting of applied thought, etc. and the states associated with them.2
The meditator whose vehicle is pure insight, on the other hand, is advised to begin by discerning material and mental phenomena directly, without utilizing a jhāna for this purpose.3
A contemporary meditation master, the Venerable Mahāsī Sayadaw, draws the distinc-tion between the two types of meditators in more general terms:
A person who, of these two, has first developed tranquility, and after having established himself in either access concentration or full concentration, subsequently contemplates the five groups of grasping, is called a samathayānika, i.e. one who has tranquility as his vehicle… He, however, who
1. Nyanatiloka, The Word of the Buddha, p. 61.
2. PP., pp. 679-80. “TaJ sampādetukāmena samathayānikena tāva, :hapetvā nevasaññānāsaññāyatanaJ avasesarūpārūpavacarajjhānānaJ aññatarato vu::hāya vitakkādīni jhānaKgāni taJsampayuttā ca dhammā lakkhaLarasādivasena pariggahetabbā.” Vism., p. 503. NB: Other commentarial passages allow access concentration (upacārasamādhi) to suffice for the vehicle of serenity. The last āruppa is excluded because its factors are too subtle to be discerned by a beginning meditator.
3. PP., p. 680. Vism., p. 503.
has neither produced access concentration nor full concentration, but from the very start applies insight to the five groups of grasping, is called a suddhavipassanāyānika, i.e. one who has pure insight as his vehicle.1
This second type of meditator is sometimes referred to by another name, sukkhavipassaka or “dry insight worker,” which the commentary to the Visuddhimagga explains in a way that accentuates his lack of jhāna:
The dry insight worker is one who does not obtain [mundane] jhāna, but makes pure insight his vehicle. He is called a “dry insight worker” because his insight is dry and rough, as this insight has not been moistened with the moisture of jhāna.2 (Wr. tr.).
Although, as we mentioned earlier, the three terms – samathayānika, vipassanāyānika, and sukkhavipassaka – are terms of commentarial coinage, the distinction of vehicles and practitioners seems to draw directly from the Pāli Canon. The Buddha generally includes the four jhānas in complete expositions of his system of training, placing them before the development of insight and the attainment of the path, but a number of suttas give evidence for alternative approaches to the practice. In the AKguttara Nikāya the Buddha states:
There is, monks, one person who gains internal serenity of mind but does not gain the higher wisdom of insight into phenomena;… one person who gains the higher wisdom of insight into phenomena but does not gain internal serenity of mind;… one person who gains neither;… and one person who gains both…3 (Wr. tr.).
He urges the first, established on his serenity of mind, to strive to gain the wisdom of insight into phenomena, and the second, established on his wisdom or insight into phenomena, to strive to gain serenity of mind. The commentary explains “serenity of mind” as mental concentration of absorption (appanācittasamādhi) and the “higher wisdom of insight into phenomena” as the insight-knowledge discerning formations (sa/khārapariggahavipassanāñā5a), i.e. insight into the five aggregates.4 The fact that individuals are capable of one attainment in the absence of the other provides a starting point for a differentiation of vehicles adapted to their differing capacities. In the end,
1. Mahāsi Sayadaw (U Sobhana Mahāthera of Burma), The Progress of Insight Through the Stages of Purification, A Modern Pali Treatise on Buddhist Satipa((hāna Meditation, translated by Nyanaponika Thera with notes and the original Pāli text. (Kandy, Ceylon: The Forest Hermitage, 1965; reprint, Kandy, Sri Lanka: Buddhist Publication Society, 1973), p. 2 (hereafter cited as PI.).
2. “Ajhānalābhī suddhavipassanāyānikova sukkhavipassako. So hi jhānasinehena vipassanāya asiniddha-bhāvato sukkhā lūkhā vipassanā etassāti sukkhavipassakoti vuccati.” Vism.T. 2:474.
3. “Tatra bhikkhave yāyaJ puggalo lābhī ajjhattaJ cetosamathassa na lābhī adhipaññādhamma-vipassanāya;… lābhī adhipaññādhammavipassanāya na lābhī ajjhattaJ cetosamathassa;… na c’eva lābhī ajjhattaJ cetosamathassa na lābhī adhipaññādhammavipassanāya;… yāyaJ puggalo lābhī c’eva ajjhattaJ cetosamathassa lābhī adhipaññādhammavipassanāya.” AN. 2:92-93.
4. AN.A. 2:325.
however, all meditators have to enter upon the development of insight in order to reach the liberating path.
An even clearer enunciation of alternative vehicles to the goal is presented in a sutta spoken by the Venerable Ānanda. On one occasion Ānanda declared to a group of monks that there are some monks who develop insight preceded by serenity (samathapubba/gama. vipassana.) and some who develop serenity preceded by insight (vipassanāpubba/gama. samatha.). Both approaches, in his account, issue in the supramundane path:
Herein, your reverences, a monk develops insight preceded by calm. In him thus developing insight preceded by calm is born the Way. He follows along that Way, makes it grow, makes much of it. In him following, developing, making much of that Way, the fetters are abandoned, the lurking tendencies come to an end. Or again, your reverences, a monk develops calm preceded by insight. In him developing calm preceded by insight is born the Way. He follows along that Way, makes it grow,… come to an end.1
The commentarial exegesis of this passage (found in the Majjhima Nikāya commentary) explains the procedure for developing insight preceded by serenity thus:
Here, someone first produces access concentration or absorption concen-tration; this is serenity. He contemplates with insight that serenity and its concomitant phenomena as impermanent, etc.; this is insight. Thus first comes serenity, afterwards insight.2 (Wr. tr.).
The procedure for developing serenity preceded by insight is described as follows:
Here, someone contemplates with insight the five aggregates of clinging as impermanent, etc. without having produced the aforesaid kinds of serenity (access and absorption); this is insight. With the completion of insight there arises in him mental one-pointedness having as object the renunciation of the phenomena produced therein; this is serenity. Thus first comes insight, afterwards serenity.3 (Wr. tr.).
In case it should be suspected that the second type of meditator still attains mundane jhāna after developing insight, the subcommentary to the passage points out: “the mental one-pointedness he gains is right concentration of the supramundane path
1. GS. 2:162. “Idha āvuso bhikkhu samathapubbaKgamaJ vipassanaJ bhāveti, tassa samathapubb-aKgamaJ vipassanaJ bhāvayato maggo sañjāyati. So taJ maggaJ āsevati bhāveti bahulīkaroti. Tassa taJ maggaJ āsevato bhāvayato bahulīkaroto saññojanāni pahīyanti anusayā vyanti honti. Puna ca paraJ āvuso bhikkhu vipassanāpubbaKgamaJ samathaJ bhāveti, tassa vipassanāpubbaKgamaJ samathaJ bhāvayato maggo sañjāyati… vyanti honti.” AN. 2:157.
2. “Idhekacco pa:hamaJ upacārasamādhiJ vā appanāsamādhiJ vā uppādeti. AyaJ samatho. So taJ ca taJ sampayutte ca dhamme aniccādihi vipassati. AyaJ vipassanā. Iti pa:hamaJ samatho pacchā vipass-anā.” MN.A. 1:112.
3. “Idha panekacco vuttappakāraJ samathaJ anuppādetvā’va pañcupādānakkhandhe aniccādihi vipassati.
AyaJ vipassanā. Tassa vipassnāpāripūriyā tattha jātānaJ dhammānaJ vossaggārammaLato uppajjati cittassa ekaggatā. AyaJ samatho. Iti pa:hamaJ vipassanā; pacchā samatho.” MN.A. 1:113.
(maggasammāsamādhi) and its object, called ‘renunciation’ (vavassagga), is nibbāna.”1 (Wr. tr.). The AKguttara subcommentary explicitly identifies the second meditator with the vipassanāyānika: “‘He develops serenity preceded by insight’: this is said with reference to the vipassanāyānika.”2 (Wr. tr.).
Thus the samathayānika attains in order first access concentration or mundane jhāna and then insight-knowledge, by means of which he reaches the supramundane path containing wisdom under the heading of right view (sammādi((hi) and supramundane jhāna under the heading of right concentration (sammāsamādhi). The vipassanāyānika, in contrast, skips over mundane jhāna and goes directly into insight-contemplation.
When he reaches the end of the progression of insight-knowledge he arrives at the supramundane path which, as in the previous case, brings together wisdom with supramundane jhāna. This jhāna counts as his accomplishment of serenity.