From Theory to the Path Itself

From here on I shall speak, in due order, of the meditation subjects for the two kinds of development — of calm and of insight.

Therein, in the compendium of calm, first: ten kasiṇas, ten kinds of foulness, ten recollections, four illimitables, one perception, one analysis, and four immaterial states — thus the compendium of calm-meditation subjects is sevenfold.

How? The ten kasiṇas are: the earth-, water-, fire-, air-, blue-, yellow-, red-, white-, space-, and light-kasiṇa.

The ten kinds of foulness are: the bloated, the livid, the festering, the cut-up, the gnawed, the scattered, the hacked-and-scattered, the bleeding, the worm-infested, and the skeleton.

The ten recollections are: of the Buddha, the Dhamma, the Saṅgha, virtue, generosity, the deities, peace, death, the body, and the breath.

Loving-kindness, compassion, appreciative joy, and equanimity are called the four illimitables, also spoken of as the divine abodes.

The single perception is the perception of the repulsiveness of food. The single analysis is the analysis of the four elements.

The base of infinite space and so on are the four immaterial states. Thus, altogether, in the exposition of calm there are forty subjects of meditation.

The compendium of temperaments is sixfold: the lustful, the hateful, the deluded, the faithful, the intellectual, and the discursive.

The three developments are: preliminary development, access development, and absorption development.

The three signs should be understood: the preliminary sign, the learning sign, and the counterpart sign.

Among temperaments, the ten kinds of foulness and mindfulness of the body's parts are suitable for the lustful. The four illimitables and the four colour kasiṇas, for the hateful. Mindfulness of breathing, for the deluded and the discursive. The six recollections beginning with the Buddha, for the faithful. [Recollection of] death, of peace, [the] perception [of loathsomeness in food], and [the] analysis [of the elements], for the intellectual. All the remaining subjects are suitable for everyone.

Preliminary development is obtained in all [forty]. In ten subjects — the eight recollections beginning with the Buddha, the perception, and the analysis — only access development is accomplished, not absorption. In the remaining thirty subjects, absorption development is also accomplished.

Among these: the ten kasiṇas and mindfulness of breathing produce all five jhānas. The ten kinds of foulness and mindfulness of the body produce only the first jhāna. The first three illimitables produce four jhānas. Equanimity produces only the fifth jhāna. Thus these twenty-six subjects produce the fine-material jhānas; and the four immaterial states, the immaterial jhānas.

In the meditation subjects of insight, the compendium of purifications is sevenfold: purification of virtue, purification of mind, purification of view, purification by overcoming doubt, purification by knowledge and vision of what is path and not-path, purification by knowledge and vision of the way, and purification by knowledge and vision.

There are three characteristics: impermanence, suffering, and non-self. There are three contemplations: of impermanence, of suffering, and of non-self.

There are ten insight-knowledges: (1) knowledge of comprehension, (2) knowledge of rise and fall, (3) knowledge of dissolution, (4) knowledge of the fearful, (5) knowledge of danger, (6) knowledge of disenchantment, (7) knowledge of desire for deliverance, (8) knowledge of reflective contemplation, (9) knowledge of equanimity towards formations, and (10) knowledge of conformity.

There are three emancipations: the void, the signless, and the desireless. And three doors to emancipation should be understood: contemplation of the void, of the signless, and of the desireless.

How? Restraint according to the Pātimokkha, restraint of the sense faculties, purity of livelihood, and [virtue] connected with the use of requisites: thus the fourfold purified virtue is called purification of virtue.

Access concentration and absorption concentration, both: this twofold concentration is called purification of mind.

The discernment of mind-and-matter by way of characteristic, function, manifestation, and proximate cause is called purification of view.

The discernment of the conditions of that same mind-and-matter is called purification by overcoming doubt.

An aura, zest, tranquillity, resolution, and exertion; happiness, knowledge, established mindfulness, equanimity, and attachment.

The determination of the characteristics of path and not-path, by discerning these imperfections of insight — the aura and the rest — as obstacles: this is called purification by knowledge and vision of what is path and what is not path.

Thereafter, having thus discerned the formations of the three planes together with their conditions — divided as past and the rest — he gathers them into groups by way of the aggregates and the like, and comprehends, with the knowledge of comprehension, the three characteristics: impermanence in the sense of destruction, suffering in the sense of fearfulness, non-self in the sense of coreless-ness — by way of duration, continuity, or moment. And he observes, with the knowledge of rise and fall, their rising and falling, by way of condition and by way of moment.

For one practicing thus, owing to the ripening of insight — "now absorption will arise" — the life-continuum is arrested, and immediately after mind-door-adverting arises, two or three moments of insight consciousness occur, having as object any one of the characteristics such as impermanence, under the names preparation, access, and conformity.

Thereafter, the change-of-lineage citta, taking Nibbāna as object, occurs, overcoming the lineage of the worldling and evolving the lineage of the noble one. Immediately after it, the path — fully understanding the truth of suffering, abandoning the truth of its origin, realizing the truth of its cessation, developing the truth of the path — descends, by way of development, into the course of absorption. After that, two or three fruition cittas occur and cease. After that, subsidence into the life-continuum.

Again, the life-continuum being arrested, the reviewing knowledges occur.

The wise one reviews the path, the fruit, and Nibbāna; the defilements destroyed, and those remaining, he may or may not review. Thus the fourfold path, to be developed in this way by the sequence of the sixfold purity, is called purification by knowledge and vision.

Herein, the contemplation of non-self, releasing the adherence to self, becomes the door to emancipation called the contemplation of the void. The contemplation of impermanence, releasing the sign of perversion, is called the contemplation of the signless. The contemplation of suffering, releasing the aspiration of craving, is called the contemplation of the desireless.

Therefore, if the insight leading to emergence contemplates by way of non-self, the path is called the void emancipation; if by way of impermanence, the signless emancipation; if by way of suffering, the desireless emancipation.

Herein: having developed the path of stream-entry, by abandoning wrong view and doubt, one whose way to the woeful states is cut off, [reborn] seven times at most, is called a stream-enterer.

Having developed the path of once-returning, by the attenuation of greed, hatred, and delusion, one who comes back to this world only once more is called a once-returner.

Having developed the path of non-returning, by the complete abandoning of sensual lust and ill will, one who does not come back to this state is called a non-returner.

Having developed the path of Arahantship, by the complete abandoning of defilements, one whose taints are destroyed, the foremost recipient of offerings in the world, is called an Arahant.

Herein, fruition attainments are common to all [noble persons], each according to their own fruit. But the attainment of cessation is obtained only by non-returners and Arahants.

At the time of emergence, in a non-returner the fruition of non-returning, and in an Arahant the fruition of Arahantship, occurs just once, then subsidence into the life-continuum. After that, reviewing knowledge occurs.

Herein, this is the analysis of attainments. And the method of insight-meditation is finished.

Thus this twofold development — so excellent — should be cultivated by one who longs to taste the flavour of practice within this Dispensation.

Thus ends, in the Compendium of the Things Contained in the Abhidhamma, the ninth chapter, called the Compendium of Meditation Subjects.