Non-Contention, and Wish-Knowledge
Two further qualities of the accomplished arhat: non-contention, the capacity to foresee, before ever approaching another being, whether one's own presence might provoke affliction in them, and thereby avoid it entirely; and wish-knowledge, the ability to know exactly what one has resolved in advance to know, simply by entering a deeper concentration on the strength of that prior resolve.
1. Non-Contention
無諍者，謂依止靜慮，於防護他所應起煩惱住具足中若定若慧，及彼相應諸心心所。
Non-contention is, resting on the foundation of dhyāna, the concentration and wisdom fully present within an abiding that guards against whatever affliction might otherwise arise in others on one's account, together with the associated mind and mental factors.
T1606 explains exactly how this quality operates in practice: one who abides in non-contention, before actually going to visit any place where sentient beings might be encountered, first uses the very power of wish-knowledge described next to examine, from where one already stands, whether one's own presence there would cause affliction — craving, hatred, stinginess, envy, and the like — to actually arise in those beings on one's own account. Having examined this in advance, if it becomes clear that such affliction would indeed arise, one simply declines to go; only if it is clear that no such affliction would arise does one proceed. It is precisely this capacity to guard others from the contention affliction would otherwise stir up — checking in advance rather than dealing with the consequences afterward — that gives this quality its name.
2. Wish-Knowledge
願智者，謂依止靜慮，於為了所知願具足中若定若慧，餘如前說。
Wish-knowledge is, resting on that same foundation, the concentration and wisdom fully present within an aspiration formed in order to know what is to be known, the remainder exactly as already stated.
T1606 describes exactly how wish-knowledge unfolds in sequence: one who has attained wish-knowledge, wishing to know some particular matter belonging to the past, present, or future, first forms a correct and specific aspiration directed at that very matter — "may I truly know it, exactly as it is" — and then enters an elevated state of dhyāna on the strength of that aspiration. Having risen from that concentration, the original aspiration is thereby fulfilled: whatever was specifically wished to be known is now, in fact, known. Non-contention already relies on precisely this capacity — the advance knowledge that lets a practitioner foresee whether their presence would provoke affliction is itself an application of wish-knowledge, directed at that one specific question before actually visiting anywhere at all.
Part 103 Complete
Non-contention and wish-knowledge are now examined. Part 104 turns to the four unhindered understandings — of the teaching itself, of its meaning, of correct expression across every dialect, and of eloquent, fearless discourse — the analytical mastery that lets a teacher explain the Dharma without ever faltering.
Continue to Part 104 — The Four Unhindered Understandings →