Purification by Knowledge and Vision
This page carries Ru-Yi's translation of the Visuddhimagga's chapter 22, Ñāṇadassanavisuddhiniddesa ("The Description of Purification by Knowledge and Vision") — the fifth and final "body" purification, and the treatise's own account of the actual moment of supramundane breakthrough. It opens by defining change-of-lineage knowledge (gotrabhū) in its own right for the first time, then walks through all four path-knowledges and their fruits — stream-entry, once-return, non-return, and arahantship — and the eight noble persons they produce, illustrated by three unforgettable similes: a man swinging across an irrigation canal by an overhanging rope, three winds clearing clouds from the moon, and an archer piercing a hundred targets on a single unreleased signal. It then reduces the thirty-seven aids to awakening to fourteen genuinely distinct states, maps seventeen separate categories of defilement across the four paths in exhaustive detail, resolves the classic Paṭisambhidāmagga dialectic on whether defilements are abandoned in the past, present, or future by way of a young tree cut at the root, and closes by analyzing the single, simultaneous fourfold function performed at the moment of truth-penetration. With this chapter, the entire five-part "body" of the development of wisdom, begun at chapter eighteen, stands complete.
Translation Method
The Pāli source is the Chaṭṭha Saṅgāyana (Sixth Council) romanized edition maintained by the Vipassana Research Institute (VRI, tipitaka.org), cross-checked against the Pali Text Society's Rhys Davids edition (1920–21) as digitized on GRETIL. The VRI text is used under its stated terms — freely available for non-commercial use, with attribution to the Vipassana Research Institute — while the GRETIL/PTS digitization, which carries its own CC BY-SA licence, is used only to verify readings, never copied.
The English translation is Ru-Yi's own, made directly from the Pāli. No existing English translation of the Visuddhimagga — including Bhikkhu Ñāṇamoli's copyrighted The Path of Purification — is consulted, paraphrased, or used as a guide for wording or structure. Reading notes are grounded only in the text's own internal citations and in the general, uncontested conventions of the Pāli commentarial (aṭṭhakathā) genre — never in a modern scholar's specific interpretation. Each translated passage carries a short vocabulary list for readers learning Pāli alongside the text, continuing the same format established on this site's earlier Visuddhimagga chapters.
Change-of-Lineage Knowledge Defined; the Four Path-Knowledges Named
The chapter opens exactly where the last one closed: immediately after conformity-knowledge comes change-of-lineage knowledge (gotrabhū), which Buddhaghosa is careful to place in neither purification — it belongs to neither purification by knowledge and vision of the way nor to purification by knowledge and vision itself, since its sole function is to turn the mind toward the path. Having placed gotrabhū in this precise, almost weightless "in-between" position, the text then names its true subject: the four supramundane path-knowledges — of stream-entry, once-return, non-return, and arahantship — are what this chapter's own title, purification by knowledge and vision, actually refers to.
Ito paraṃ gotrabhuñāṇaṃ hoti, taṃ maggassa āvajjanaṭṭhāniyattā neva paṭipadāñāṇadassanavisuddhiṃ na ñāṇadassanavisuddhiṃ bhajati, antarā abbohārikameva hoti. Vipassanāsote patitattā pana vipassanāti saṅkhaṃ gacchati. Sotāpattimaggo sakadāgāmimaggo anāgāmimaggo arahattamaggoti imesu pana catūsu maggesu ñāṇaṃ ñāṇadassanavisuddhi nāma.
Tattha paṭhamamaggañāṇaṃ tāva sampādetukāmena aññaṃ kiñci kātabbaṃ nāma natthi. Yañhi anena kātabbaṃ siyā, taṃ anulomāvasānaṃ vipassanaṃ uppādentena katameva. Evaṃ uppannaanulomañāṇassa panassa tehi tīhipi anulomañāṇehi attano balānurūpena thūlathūle saccapaṭicchādake tamamhi antaradhāpite sabbasaṅkhāragatesu cittaṃ na pakkhandati, na santiṭṭhati, nādhimuccati, na sajjati, na laggati, na bajjhati. Padumapalāsato udakaṃ viya patilīyati patikuṭati pativattati. Sabbaṃ nimittārammaṇampi sabbaṃ pavattārammaṇampi palibodhato upaṭṭhāti. Athassa sabbasmiṃ nimittapavattārammaṇe palibodhato upaṭṭhite anulomañāṇassa āsevanante animittaṃ appavattaṃ visaṅkhāraṃ nirodhaṃ nibbānaṃ ārammaṇaṃ kurumānaṃ puthujjanagottaṃ puthujjanasaṅkhaṃ puthujjanabhūmiṃ atikkamamānaṃ ariyagottaṃ ariyasaṅkhaṃ ariyabhūmiṃ okkamamānaṃ nibbānārammaṇe paṭhamāvaṭṭanapaṭhamābhogapaṭhamasamannāhārabhūtaṃ maggassa anantarasamanantarāsevanaupanissayanatthivigatavasena chahi ākārehi paccayabhāvaṃ sādhayamānaṃ sikhāppattaṃ vipassanāya muddhabhūtaṃ apunarāvaṭṭakaṃ uppajjati gotrabhuñāṇaṃ.
Yaṃ sandhāya vuttaṃ –
"Kathaṃ bahiddhā vuṭṭhānavivaṭṭane paññā gotrabhuñāṇaṃ? Uppādaṃ abhibhuyyatīti gotrabhu. Pavattaṃ…pe… upāyāsaṃ abhibhuyyatīti gotrabhu. Bahiddhā saṅkhāranimittaṃ abhibhuyyatīti gotrabhu. Anuppādaṃ pakkhandatīti gotrabhu. Appavattaṃ…pe… anupāyāsaṃ nirodhaṃ nibbānaṃ pakkhandatīti gotrabhu. Uppādaṃ abhibhuyyitvā anuppādaṃ pakkhandatīti gotrabhū"ti sabbaṃ vitthāretabbaṃ.
After this comes change-of-lineage knowledge. Because it consists in the path's own turning-toward, it belongs neither to purification by knowledge and vision of the way nor to purification by knowledge and vision — it is, in between the two, simply not reckoned as either. But because it has fallen into the stream of insight, it is classed as insight. Now, in these four paths — of stream-entry, once-return, non-return, and arahantship — the knowledge is called purification by knowledge and vision.
Herein, for one wishing to accomplish the first path-knowledge, there is, first, nothing further at all to be done. For whatever there might be for him to do, that is done simply by producing insight that culminates in conformity. When conformity-knowledge has thus arisen, the mind — through those same three moments of conformity-knowledge, each according to its own strength dispersing the coarser and coarser darkness that conceals the truth — does not launch itself into, does not settle upon, does not resolve upon, does not cling to, does not adhere to, does not become bound to any of the states of formations; it shrinks back, draws away, turns back, just as water does from a lotus leaf. Every object taken as a sign and every object taken as an occurrence presents itself as an impediment. Then, when every sign-object and occurrence-object has thus presented itself as an impediment to him, at the very end of the run of conformity-knowledge, change-of-lineage knowledge arises — taking as its object the signless, the non-occurring, the unformed, cessation, Nibbāna; transcending the lineage, the classification, and the plane of the ordinary person; entering upon the lineage, the classification, and the plane of the noble ones; being, with respect to Nibbāna as object, the path's first swinging-toward, first application, first bringing-to-mind; accomplishing, in six ways — as proximity-condition, contiguity-condition, repetition-condition, dependence-condition, absence-condition, and disappearance-condition — the state of being a condition for the path; having reached the very summit, being the very head of insight; not turning back again.
With reference to which it was said —
"How is understanding of the turning-away and turning-about with respect to what is external change-of-lineage knowledge? 'It overcomes arising' — thus is it change-of-lineage. 'It overcomes occurrence… it overcomes distress' — thus is it change-of-lineage. 'It overcomes, with respect to what is external, the sign of formations' — thus is it change-of-lineage. 'It leaps forward into non-arising' — thus is it change-of-lineage. 'It leaps forward into non-occurrence… into the cessation without distress, into Nibbāna' — thus is it change-of-lineage. 'Having overcome arising, it leaps forward into non-arising' — thus is it change-of-lineage" — all this should be given in full.
This opening paragraph performs a small but important act of architectural housekeeping before the chapter can properly begin. Change-of-lineage knowledge was already named repeatedly across chapter twenty-one's great subhead on equanimity toward formations — it kept appearing as the thing conformity-knowledge is the immediate prelude to — but it was never, until now, defined in its own right or given a settled place in the sevenfold-purification scheme. Buddhaghosa's answer is almost paradoxical: gotrabhū belongs to neither of the two purifications on either side of it. It is not part of purification by knowledge and vision of the way (chapter twenty-one's own subject, since that purification is defined, at the start of that chapter, as exactly eight knowledges plus conformity — gotrabhū is a ninth thing again), and it is not yet part of purification by knowledge and vision either, since that purification, as this very paragraph states, consists specifically in the four path-knowledges that come after gotrabhū, not in gotrabhū itself. It is, in the text's own vivid phrase, "not reckoned" — merely a hinge, classed with insight only because it happens to occur within insight's own onward stream.
The long unnumbered paragraph that follows is worth reading slowly, since it is really tracking a single mental event through several distinct descriptive vocabularies at once: first phenomenologically (the mind "shrinks back... just as water does from a lotus leaf" — the same non-adhering quality chapter twenty's closing "ever-new" similes and chapter twenty-one's own padumapalāsa image both already used for insight at its most mature), then technically as a six-condition relationship to the path that immediately follows it (proximity, contiguity, repetition, dependence, absence, disappearance — the standard Paṭṭhāna vocabulary for how one mental event conditions the very next one), and finally as a boundary-crossing (from the lineage, classification, and plane of the ordinary worldling into those of the noble ones) that happens in this single, unrepeatable moment, before the path-knowledge itself has even arisen.
change-of-lineage (knowledge) — gotra (lineage, clan) + bhū (becoming); the single mind-moment that takes Nibbāna as its object for the very first time, crossing from the "lineage" of the ordinary worldling (puthujjana) into that of the noble ones (ariya), yet belonging to neither purification on either side of it.
purification by knowledge and vision — ñāṇa (knowledge) + dassana (vision) + visuddhi (purification); the fifth and final "body" purification, defined in this opening paragraph as nothing other than the knowledge present in the four supramundane path-moments themselves.
turning-toward, adverting — ā (toward) + vajjana (turning); the specific mental function gotrabhū performs for the path that immediately follows it, named explicitly at the end of paragraph 808 below as the reason gotrabhū is called the path's own "āvajjana."
"the state of being a condition in six ways" — the six Paṭṭhāna-conditions (anantara, samanantara, āsevana, upanissaya, natthi, vigata — proximity, contiguity, repetition, dependence, absence, disappearance) by which gotrabhū conditions the path-moment that immediately follows it.
The Man Crossing the Canal: How Conformity and Change-of-Lineage Differ
A single extended simile now distinguishes the three moments of conformity-knowledge from the one moment of change-of-lineage knowledge that follows them, even though — remarkably — all four moments occur within a single act of adverting, along a single cognitive process, with a single object-taking. A man determined to reach the far bank of a great irrigation canal runs, seizes an overhanging rope or branch on the near bank, and swings across without ever letting go of what he first grasped: conformity-knowledge is like his initial grip and his launch, while change-of-lineage knowledge is like his actual landing — and the path-knowledge that immediately follows is like his final, steady footing.
Tatrāyaṃ ekāvajjanena ekavīthiyaṃ pavattamānānampi anulomagotrabhūnaṃ nānārammaṇe pavattanākāradīpikā upamā – yathā hi mahāmātikaṃ laṅghitvā paratīre patiṭṭhātukāmo puriso vegena dhāvitvā mātikāya orimatīre rukkhasākhāya bandhitvā olambitaṃ rajjuṃ vā yaṭṭhiṃ vā gahetvā ullaṅghitvā paratīraninnapoṇapabbhārakāyo hutvā paratīrassa uparibhāgaṃ patto taṃ muñcitvā vedhamāno paratīre patitvā saṇikaṃ patiṭṭhāti, evamevāyaṃ yogāvacaropi bhavayonigatiṭṭhitinivāsānaṃ paratīrabhūte nibbāne patiṭṭhātukāmo udayabbayānupassanādinā vegena dhāvitvā attabhāvarukkhasākhāya bandhitvā olambitaṃ rūparajjuṃ vā vedanādīsu aññataradaṇḍaṃ vā aniccanti vā dukkhanti vā anattāti vāti anulomāvajjanena gahetvā taṃ amuñcamānova paṭhamena anulomacittena ullaṅghitvā dutiyena paratīraninnapoṇapabbhārakāyo viya nibbānaninnapoṇapabbhāramānaso hutvā tatiyena paratīrassa uparibhāgaṃ patto viya idāni pattabbassa nibbānassa āsanno hutvā tassa cittassa nirodhena taṃ saṅkhārārammaṇaṃ muñcitvā gotrabhucittena visaṅkhāre paratīrabhūte nibbāne patati. Ekārammaṇe pana aladdhāsevanatāya vedhamāno so puriso viya na tāva suppatiṭṭhito hoti, tato maggañāṇena patiṭṭhātīti.
Here is a simile illustrating how the moments of conformity and change-of-lineage, though occurring by way of a single act of adverting, along a single cognitive process, proceed with different objects: just as a man wishing to stand established on the far bank, having leapt across a great irrigation canal, runs at speed, and, on the near bank of the canal, grasps hold of a rope or pole tied to and hanging from a tree-branch, swings up and, with his body leaning and inclining toward the far bank, reaches the space above the far bank, releases it, and, wavering, lands on the far bank and gradually becomes established — in just the same way, this meditator, too, wishing to become established in Nibbāna, the far bank beyond the abodes of the states of becoming, birth, destiny, station, and habitation, runs at speed by means of the contemplation of rise and fall and the rest, grasps hold — by way of the adverting of conformity — of the rope of matter, or of one or another of the poles of feeling and the rest, as "impermanent," or "suffering," or "not-self," which is tied to and hanging from the branch of his own individual existence; and, without releasing that very grip, having swung up by the first moment of conformity-consciousness, and, being, like the man with body leaning and inclining toward the far bank, with mind now leaning and inclining toward Nibbāna, by the second moment; and, like the man who has reached the space above the far bank, being now close to the Nibbāna soon to be attained, by the third moment — through the ceasing of that consciousness, he releases that object which was the formations, and, by the change-of-lineage consciousness, lands in Nibbāna, the far bank beyond formations. But, being, in a single object, not yet established, for want of a further repetition, wavering like that man — from there, he becomes established by path-knowledge.
The precision of this simile's mapping repays close attention: it is not merely "conformity is like running and gotrabhū is like landing," but a four-stage correspondence in which each of the three conformity-moments gets its own distinct phase of the man's single continuous swing — the first conformity-moment is the grasp-and-launch, the second is the mid-air lean toward the far side, the third is arrival directly above the far bank while still airborne — and only then does gotrabhū correspond to the actual moment of touching down, with path-knowledge corresponding to the settling of the feet that follows a moment later. The simile's final sentence is easy to miss but doctrinally important: the meditator's landing in gotrabhū is itself described as "wavering," not yet firmly established, precisely because — as paragraph 811 below will explain in more technical language — a single moment of change-of-lineage knowledge has not yet had the chance to build up the "repetition" (āsevana) that only a second occurrence of the same object could provide. It is path-knowledge, arising in the very next moment, that finally provides the firm footing gotrabhū itself could not.
"a single adverting," "a single cognitive process" — eka (one, single) + āvajjana (adverting) / vīthi (process, course); stresses that conformity and change-of-lineage, despite taking different objects, all occur within one uninterrupted stream of consciousness, not as separate, re-triggered acts of attention.
the far bank — para (other, far) + tīra (bank, shore); here an explicit metaphor for Nibbāna itself, "the far bank beyond the abodes of the states of becoming, birth, destiny, station, and habitation" — echoing the "far shore" imagery used throughout the Nikāyas and already met in this project's earlier chapters.
"for want of a further repetition" — a (not) + laddha (obtained) + āsevana (repetition, practice); explains gotrabhū's momentary instability by the fact that a single occurrence of an object cannot yet supply the repetition-condition (āsevana-paccaya) a second occurrence would.
The Clouded Moon: Why Conformity Cannot See Nibbāna
A second simile sharpens the division of labor between conformity and change-of-lineage still further: conformity can only disperse the darkness of the defilements that conceal the truth, while only change-of-lineage can actually take Nibbāna as its object. A man wanting to observe a planetary conjunction goes out at night to look for the moon, but clouds hide it; three winds, one after another, blow away the coarse, then the middling, then the fine clouds, and only then, with the sky finally clear, does he see the moon itself and learn what he set out to learn.
Tattha anulomaṃ saccapaṭicchādakaṃ kilesatamaṃ vinodetuṃ sakkoti, na nibbānamārammaṇaṃ kātuṃ. Gotrabhu nibbānameva ārammaṇaṃ kātuṃ sakkoti, na saccapaṭicchādakaṃ tamaṃ vinodetuṃ. Tatrāyaṃ upamā – eko kira cakkhumā puriso "nakkhattayogaṃ jānissāmī"ti rattibhāge nikkhamitvā candaṃ passituṃ uddhaṃ ullokesi, tassa valāhakehi paṭicchannattā cando na paññāyittha. Atheko vāto uṭṭhahitvā thūlathūle valāhake viddhaṃseti. Aparo majjhime, aparo sukhumeti. Tato so puriso vigatavalāhake nabhe candaṃ disvā nakkhattayogaṃ aññāsi.
Tattha tayo valāhakā viya saccapaṭicchādakathūlamajjhimasukhumaṃ kilesandhakāraṃ, tayo vātā viya tīṇi anulomacittāni, cakkhumā puriso viya gotrabhuñāṇaṃ, cando viya nibbānaṃ, ekekassa vātassa yathākkamena valāhakaviddhaṃsanaṃ viya ekekassa anulomacittassa saccapaṭicchādakatamavinodanaṃ, vigatavalāhake nabhe tassa purisassa visuddhacandadassanaṃ viya vigate saccapaṭicchādake tame gotrabhuñāṇassa visuddhanibbānadassanaṃ.
Yatheva hi tayo vātā candapaṭicchādake valāhakeyeva viddhaṃsetuṃ sakkonti, na candaṃ daṭṭhuṃ, evaṃ anulomāni saccapaṭicchādakaṃ tamaññeva vinodetuṃ sakkonti, na nibbānaṃ daṭṭhuṃ. Yathā so puriso candameva daṭṭhuṃ sakkoti, na valāhake viddhaṃsetuṃ, evaṃ gotrabhuñāṇaṃ nibbānameva daṭṭhuṃ sakkoti, na kilesatamaṃ vinodetuṃ. Teneva cetaṃ maggassa āvajjananti vuccati. Tañhi anāvajjanampi samānaṃ āvajjanaṭṭhāne ṭhatvā "evaṃ nibbattāhī"ti maggassa saññaṃ datvā viya nirujjhati. Maggopi tena dinnasaññaṃ amuñcitvāva avīcisantativasena taṃ ñāṇaṃ anuppabandhamāno anibbiddhapubbaṃ apadālitapubbaṃ lobhakkhandhaṃ dosakkhandhaṃ mohakkhandhaṃ nibbijjhamānova padālayamānova nibbattati.
Herein, conformity is able to dispel the darkness of the defilements that conceals the truth, but not to make Nibbāna its object. Change-of-lineage is able to make only Nibbāna its object, but not to dispel the darkness that conceals the truth. Here is a simile: a certain clear-sighted man, thinking "I shall know the planetary conjunction," went out at night, and, wishing to see the moon, looked upward; but, because it was concealed by clouds, the moon did not appear. Then a certain wind arose and dispersed the coarser clouds; another dispersed the middling ones; another, the fine ones. Then that man, seeing the moon in the now cloud-free sky, knew the planetary conjunction.
Herein, the three clouds are like the coarse, middling, and fine darkness of the defilements concealing the truth; the three winds are like the three moments of conformity-consciousness; the clear-sighted man is like change-of-lineage knowledge; the moon is like Nibbāna; each wind's dispersing of its cloud in due order is like each conformity-consciousness's dispelling of the darkness concealing the truth; and that man's seeing the moon purified, once the clouds are gone, is like change-of-lineage knowledge's seeing Nibbāna purified, once the darkness concealing the truth is gone.
For just as the three winds are able only to disperse the clouds concealing the moon, not to see the moon, so too the conformity-moments are able only to dispel the very darkness concealing the truth, not to see Nibbāna. And just as that man is able only to see the moon, not to disperse the clouds, so too change-of-lineage knowledge is able only to see Nibbāna, not to dispel the darkness of the defilements. It is precisely for this reason that it is called "the path's adverting." For, though it is not itself an act of adverting, it ceases having, as it were, stood in the place of adverting and given the path the signal, "arise thus." And the path, too, without releasing the signal thus given, continuing that knowledge by way of an uninterrupted continuity, arises piercing through and splitting open the never-before-pierced, never-before-split aggregate of greed, aggregate of hatred, and aggregate of delusion.
This is one of the most exact functional distinctions the whole treatise draws between two adjacent mind-moments, and it is worth stating baldly: conformity clears obstruction but sees nothing; gotrabhū sees but clears nothing. Neither, on its own, is sufficient — it takes both, in strict sequence, to make the breakthrough possible, exactly as it takes both wind and eyesight to know a planetary conjunction by moonlight. The closing image, of gotrabhū as a kind of silent relay-runner that "gives the path a signal" and then immediately ceases, having handed off its unreleased momentum to the very next moment, anticipates the archer simile that follows immediately in the next paragraph, where the same handoff will be pictured even more vividly as a marksman who never releases his aim from the signal he has just been given.
"concealing the truth" — sacca (truth) + paṭicchādaka (concealing, covering); describes exactly what the defilement-darkness (kilesatama) that conformity-knowledge dispels actually does — it hides the four noble truths from view, rather than hiding Nibbāna as such.
"uninterrupted continuity" — avīci (without gap) + santati (continuity, succession); describes how the path-moment continues gotrabhū's momentum without any break, receiving its "signal" and never releasing it until the piercing of the defilement-aggregates is complete.
The Archer and the Signal-Giver; the Benefits of the Path of Stream-Entry
A third simile makes the same relay even more concrete: an archer who has agreed with a signal-giver never to release his arrow until the signal is given, and, once it is given, releases it without hesitation, piercing a hundred targets he could never have pierced unaided — exactly as path-knowledge, receiving change-of-lineage's silent signal, pierces defilement-aggregates that no knowledge has ever pierced before. The subhead then closes by cataloguing the path of stream-entry's own further benefits — drying the ocean of saṃsāra, sealing every door to the lower realms — before its closing colophon.
Tatrāyaṃ upamā – eko kira issāso aṭṭhausabhamatte padese phalakasataṃ ṭhapāpetvā vatthena mukhaṃ veṭhetvā saraṃ sannahitvā cakkayante aṭṭhāsi. Añño puriso cakkayantaṃ āvijjhitvā yadā issāsassa phalakaṃ abhimukhaṃ hoti, tadā tattha daṇḍakena saññaṃ deti. Issāso daṇḍakasaññaṃ amuñcitvāva saraṃ khipitvā phalakasataṃ nibbijjhati. Tattha daṇḍakasaññaṃ viya gotrabhuñāṇaṃ, issāso viya maggañāṇaṃ. Issāsassa daṇḍakasaññaṃ amuñcitvāva phalakasatanibbijjhanaṃ viya maggañāṇassa gotrabhuñāṇena dinnasaññaṃ amuñcitvāva nibbānaṃ ārammaṇaṃ katvā anibbiddhapubbānaṃ apadālitapubbānaṃ lobhadosamohakkhandhānaṃ nibbijjhanapadālanaṃ.
Na kevalañcesa maggo lobhakkhandhādīnaṃ nibbijjhanameva karoti, apica kho anamataggasaṃsāravaṭṭadukkhasamuddaṃ soseti, sabbaapāyadvārāni pidahati, sattannaṃ ariyadhanānaṃ sammukhībhāvaṃ karoti, aṭṭhaṅgikaṃ micchāmaggaṃ pajahati, sabbaverabhayāni vūpasameti, sammāsambuddhassa orasaputtabhāvaṃ upaneti, aññesañca anekasatānaṃ ānisaṃsānaṃ paṭilābhāya saṃvattatīti evaṃ anekānisaṃsadāyakena sotāpattimaggena sampayuttaṃ ñāṇaṃ sotāpattimagge ñāṇanti.
Paṭhamamaggañāṇaṃ niṭṭhitaṃ.
Here is a simile: a certain archer, it is said, having had a hundred boards set up over a space of about eight ox-yokes' length, having bound a cloth around his mouth, and having fitted his arrow, stood at a rotating device. Another man, turning the rotating device, whenever the board came to face the archer, gave him a signal there with a stick. The archer, without releasing the signal of the stick, shot his arrow and pierced through the hundred boards. Herein, the stick's signal is like change-of-lineage knowledge; the archer is like path-knowledge. Just as the archer, without releasing the stick's signal, pierced through the hundred boards, so too path-knowledge, without releasing the signal given by change-of-lineage knowledge, taking Nibbāna as its object, pierces through and splits open the never-before-pierced, never-before-split aggregates of greed, hatred, and delusion.
And this path does not merely accomplish the piercing-through of the aggregate of greed and the rest; rather, it dries up the ocean of the suffering of the round of saṃsāra, whose beginning cannot be known; it seals all the doors to the states of loss; it brings about the presence of the seven kinds of noble wealth; it abandons the eightfold wrong path; it calms all enmities and dangers; it brings one to the state of being the Fully Awakened One's own legitimate son; and it conduces to the attainment of many hundreds of further benefits besides. Thus, the knowledge associated with the path of stream-entry, which bestows so many benefits, is called "the knowledge in the path of stream-entry."
The first path-knowledge is finished.
Three similes in a row — the canal-crossing, the clouded moon, the archer and signal-giver — approach the same single mind-moment transition from three different angles, and reading them together rather than in isolation reveals a deliberate escalation. The canal simile establishes the basic two-phase structure (grasp/launch, then landing); the moon simile explains why the two phases must be strictly sequential and cannot substitute for each other (clearing obstruction and seeing the object are simply different acts); and the archer simile adds the crucial detail of force and continuity — the archer does not pause between receiving the signal and releasing the arrow, exactly as path-knowledge does not pause between receiving gotrabhū's "signal" and piercing defilements that, in the technical phrase repeated across all three similes, have "never before been pierced, never before been split." That repeated phrase is itself worth noting: it marks path-knowledge's piercing as categorically different from anything the seven prior insight-knowledges accomplished, no matter how much those knowledges may have weakened, suppressed, or seen through the very same defilements from the outside.
The catalogue of the stream-enterer's path's benefits — drying an ocean, sealing every door to loss, becoming the Buddha's own legitimate son — deliberately echoes the register of chapter nineteen's closing description of the "lesser stream-enterer" (cūḷasotāpanna) and looks forward to this same chapter's own next subhead, where the actual title "stream-enterer" (sotāpanna) will finally be conferred in full, no longer as a provisional or metaphorical designation but as the second of the eight noble persons in the fullest technical sense.
a rotating device, wheel-mechanism — cakka (wheel) + yanta (mechanism, device); the target-rotating apparatus in the archer simile, operated by an assistant who signals the exact moment a target faces the blindfolded archer.
"whose beginning cannot be known" — an (not) + amata (known) + agga (beginning, first point); the standard canonical epithet for saṃsāra's beginninglessness, here applied to the "ocean" of its suffering that the path of stream-entry dries up.
"of the seven kinds of noble wealth" — the canonical list of seven "noble treasures" (saddhā-faith, sīla-virtue, hiri-moral shame, ottappa-moral dread, suta-learning, cāga-generosity, paññā-wisdom), whose presence the path of stream-entry is said here to bring about.
How Many Fruition-Moments Arise After the Path
A technical question now settles a point of dispute: immediately after path-knowledge, how many fruition-consciousnesses — its own direct results — arise? Buddhaghosa answers "two or three," and explains why by way of the fixed seven-consciousness limit on a single cognitive process, rejecting rival views that would allow for one, or for four.
Imassa pana ñāṇassa anantaraṃ tasseva vipākabhūtāni dve tīṇi vā phalacittāni uppajjanti. Anantaravipākattāyeva hi lokuttarakusalānaṃ "samādhimānantarikaññamāhū"ti ca "dandhaṃ ānantarikaṃ pāpuṇāti āsavānaṃ khayāyā"ti ca ādi vuttaṃ. Keci pana ekaṃ dve tīṇi cattāri vā phalacittānīti vadanti, taṃ na gahetabbaṃ.
Anulomassa hi āsevanante gotrabhuñāṇaṃ uppajjati. Tasmā sabbantimena paricchedena dvīhi anulomacittehi bhavitabbaṃ. Na hi ekaṃ āsevanapaccayaṃ labhati, sattacittaparamā ca ekāvajjanavīthi. Tasmā yassa dve anulomāni, tassa tatiyaṃ gotrabhu catutthaṃ maggacittaṃ tīṇi phalacittāni honti. Yassa tīṇi anulomāni, tassa catutthaṃ gotrabhu pañcamaṃ maggacittaṃ dve phalacittāni honti. Tena vuttaṃ "dve tīṇi vā phalacittāni uppajjantī"ti.
Keci pana yassa cattāri anulomāni, tassa pañcamaṃ gotrabhu chaṭṭhaṃ maggacittaṃ ekaṃ phalacittanti vadanti, taṃ pana yasmā catutthaṃ pañcamaṃ vā appeti, na tato paraṃ āsannabhavaṅgattāti paṭikkhittaṃ. Tasmā na sārato paccetabbaṃ.
Immediately after this knowledge, two or three fruition-consciousnesses, which are its own resultants, arise. For it is precisely because the supramundane wholesome states have immediate resultants that it was said, "they call it concentration with an immediate result," and, "he attains, though slowly, the immediate destruction of the taints," and so on. But some say that one, or two, or three, or four fruition-consciousnesses arise; that should not be accepted.
For change-of-lineage knowledge arises at the end of conformity's own repetition. Therefore, at the outermost limit, there must be two conformity-consciousnesses. For a single one does not obtain the repetition-condition, and a single cognitive process of one adverting has, at most, seven consciousness-moments. Therefore, for one who has two conformity-moments, the third is change-of-lineage, the fourth is the path-consciousness, and there are three fruition-consciousnesses. For one who has three conformity-moments, the fourth is change-of-lineage, the fifth is the path-consciousness, and there are two fruition-consciousnesses. It was with reference to this that it was said, "two or three fruition-consciousnesses arise."
But some say that, for one who has four conformity-moments, the fifth is change-of-lineage, the sixth is the path-consciousness, and there is one fruition-consciousness; but this is rejected, since it applies only up to the fourth or fifth moment, and not beyond, because of the nearness of the life-continuum thereafter. Therefore, it should not be accepted as authoritative.
The arithmetic here is exact and depends on a single fixed constraint stated almost in passing: "a single cognitive process of one adverting has, at most, seven consciousness-moments" (sattacittaparamā ekāvajjanavīthi) — the same seven-javana-moment ceiling this project has already met in earlier chapters' treatments of ordinary cognitive processes. Since a minimum of two conformity-moments is required (a single occurrence cannot supply its own repetition-condition), and since gotrabhū and the path-moment itself each take up one slot, the seven-moment ceiling leaves room for either two or three fruition-moments to fill out the process — never four, and never, on Buddhaghosa's own careful reckoning, just one, since a five-conformity-moment scenario would push the process so close to its seven-moment limit that the life-continuum (bhavaṅga) would have to intrude before even a single fruition-moment could arise.
fruition-consciousness — phala (fruit, result) + citta (consciousness/mind-moment); the resultant consciousness that arises immediately after a path-consciousness, sharing its supramundane object (Nibbāna) but functioning as vipāka (ripened result) rather than as the path's own active kamma-producing moment.
"a single cognitive process of one adverting has at most seven [javana] consciousness-moments" — the fixed upper limit on how many impulsion-moments (javana) can occur within a single unbroken run of a cognitive process, the constraint that fixes the two-or-three fruition-moment arithmetic worked out in this paragraph.
the repetition-condition — āsevana (repeated practice, cultivation) + paccaya (condition); one of the twenty-four Paṭṭhāna conditions, requiring at least two occurrences of a similar mental state in succession, which is why a single conformity-moment alone cannot yet supply it.
The Stream-Enterer: Five Kinds of Reviewing-Knowledge
With the arithmetic settled, the text finally confers the title in full: the person who has now attained this knowledge is the stream-enterer, the second of the eight noble persons — guaranteed release from suffering within at most seven more rounds of rebirth among gods and humans. A precise sequence of reviewing-consciousnesses follows immediately after the fruition-moments subside, letting the noble disciple examine, in turn, the path just traversed, the fruit just attained, the defilements abandoned, those still remaining, and Nibbāna itself — five reviewings that, multiplied across the four stages (with the arahant lacking only the fourth), total nineteen in all.
Ettāvatā ca panesa sotāpanno nāma dutiyo ariyapuggalo hoti. Bhusaṃ pamattopi hutvā sattakkhattuṃ devesu ca manussesu ca sandhāvitvā saṃsaritvā dukkhassantassa karaṇasamattho hoti. Phalapariyosāne panassa cittaṃ bhavaṅgaṃ otarati, tato bhavaṅgaṃ upacchinditvā maggapaccavekkhaṇatthāya uppajjati manodvārāvajjanaṃ, tasmiṃ niruddhe paṭipāṭiyā satta maggapaccavekkhaṇajavanānīti. Puna bhavaṅgaṃ otaritvā teneva nayena phalādīnaṃ paccavekkhaṇatthāya āvajjanādīni uppajjanti. Yesaṃ uppattiyā esa maggaṃ paccavekkhati, phalaṃ paccavekkhati, pahīnakilese paccavekkhati, avasiṭṭhakilese paccavekkhati, nibbānaṃ paccavekkhati.
So hi "iminā vatāhaṃ maggena āgato"ti maggaṃ paccavekkhati, tato "ayaṃ me ānisaṃso laddho"ti phalaṃ paccavekkhati. Tato "ime nāma me kilesā pahīnā"ti pahīnakilese paccavekkhati. Tato "ime nāma me kilesā avasiṭṭhā"ti uparimaggattayavajjhe kilese paccavekkhati. Avasāne ca "ayaṃ me dhammo ārammaṇato paṭividdho"ti amataṃ nibbānaṃ paccavekkhati. Iti sotāpannassa ariyasāvakassa pañca paccavekkhaṇāni honti. Yathā ca sotāpannassa, evaṃ sakadāgāmianāgāmīnampi. Arahato pana avasiṭṭhakilesapaccavekkhaṇaṃ nāma natthīti. Evaṃ sabbānipi ekūnavīsati paccavekkhaṇāni nāma.
Ukkaṭṭhaparicchedoyeva ceso. Pahīnāvasiṭṭhakilesapaccavekkhaṇañhi sekkhānampi hoti vā na vā. Tassa hi paccavekkhaṇassa abhāveneva mahānāmo bhagavantaṃ pucchi "kosu nāma me dhammo ajjhattaṃ appahīno, yena me ekadā lobhadhammāpi cittaṃ pariyādāya tiṭṭhantī"ti sabbaṃ vitthārato veditabbaṃ.
By this much, this person is called a stream-enterer, the second noble person. Even should he become exceedingly negligent, running on and wandering through no more than seven further rounds among gods and among humans, he is capable of making an end of suffering. Now, at the conclusion of the fruition, his mind descends into the life-continuum; then, having cut off the life-continuum, mind-door adverting arises for the purpose of reviewing the path; that having ceased, seven impulsion-moments of reviewing the path follow in succession. Then, having descended again into the life-continuum, by the same method, advertings and the rest arise for the purpose of reviewing the fruit, and so on. Through the arising of these, he reviews the path, reviews the fruit, reviews the defilements abandoned, reviews the defilements remaining, and reviews Nibbāna.
For he reviews the path thus: "By this path indeed have I come." Then he reviews the fruit thus: "This benefit has been obtained by me." Then he reviews the defilements abandoned thus: "These are the defilements abandoned by me." Then he reviews the defilements to be abandoned by the remaining three higher paths thus: "These are the defilements remaining in me." And finally he reviews the deathless Nibbāna thus: "This state has been penetrated by me as an object." Thus, for the noble disciple who is a stream-enterer, there are five reviewings. And just as for the stream-enterer, so too for the once-returner and the non-returner. But for the arahant, there is no reviewing of remaining defilements at all. Thus, altogether, there are nineteen reviewings in all.
But this is only the highest reckoning. For the reviewing of defilements abandoned and remaining does not necessarily occur even for those still in training. It was precisely because of the absence of that reviewing that Mahānāma asked the Blessed One: "What, then, is this state within me not yet abandoned, on account of which states of greed still, at times, overpower and remain in my mind?" — all this should be understood in detail.
The five-fold reviewing sequence gives concrete cognitive-process detail to what might otherwise sound like a purely doctrinal claim — that a noble disciple "knows" what has been attained. Each reviewing is its own complete cognitive process, descending into and re-emerging from the life-continuum between each of the five topics, so that a stream-enterer's post-path experience is, quite literally, a rapid sequence of five distinct acts of retrospective knowing, not one diffuse awareness. The nineteen-total arithmetic (five reviewings times four stages, minus the arahant's missing fourth reviewing, since an arahant has no remaining defilements left to review) is a tidy piece of Abhidhamma bookkeeping, but the honest qualification that follows it — "this is only the highest reckoning... does not necessarily occur even for those still in training" — is characteristic of Buddhaghosa's care in this whole chapter to distinguish the theoretically complete case from what actually, reliably happens.
The cross-reference to Mahānāma is a lovely piece of textual honesty: it cites a real canonical episode (from the Mahānāma Sutta) in which a confirmed stream-enterer — Mahānāma the Sakyan, a well-known lay disciple — directly asks the Buddha why greed can still, at times, overwhelm his mind, apparently in some tension with his own attainment. Buddhaghosa's gloss is precise rather than evasive: Mahānāma's confusion is explained exactly by the fact that the reviewing of remaining defilements is not guaranteed to occur for a trainee (sekkha), so a stream-enterer can, in principle, hold the attainment without ever having explicitly catalogued to himself exactly which defilements still remain — which is why the still-present greed could genuinely surprise him.
reviewing, reflective examination — paṭi (back, again) + ave (down) + īkṣ (to look, Sanskrit root); the retrospective cognitive process by which a noble disciple examines the path, fruit, abandoned and remaining defilements, and Nibbāna after each of the four supramundane attainments.
"seven times" — satta (seven) + khattuṃ (times, an adverbial multiplicative suffix); refers to the traditional maximum of seven further rebirths among gods and humans guaranteed to a stream-enterer, however negligent, before the definitive end of suffering.
a trainee, one still in higher training — from sikkhati (to train); denotes the first three of the four noble persons (stream-enterer, once-returner, non-returner), who remain "in training" until arahantship, contrasted with the arahant, who is asekkha, "beyond training."
The Second and Third Path-Knowledges: Once-Return and Non-Return
The same mechanism now repeats twice more, each time in the barest outline, since everything of substance — the run-up through insight, the conformity moments, gotrabhū, the fruition-moments, the five reviewings — has already been explained in full for the first path and need only be invoked "by the already-stated method." The stream-enterer, at his own initiative, resumes the very same contemplation of the five aggregates as impermanent, suffering, and not-self in order to weaken sensual desire and ill will, and the once-returner, having attained that second path, resumes it again in order to abandon them without remainder.
Evaṃ paccavekkhitvā pana so sotāpanno ariyasāvako tasmiññeva vā āsane nisinno, aparena vā samayena kāmarāgabyāpādānaṃ tanubhāvāya dutiyāya bhūmiyā pattiyā yogaṃ karoti. So indriyabalabojjhaṅgāni samodhānetvā tadeva rūpavedanāsaññāsaṅkhāraviññāṇabhedaṃ saṅkhāragataṃ aniccaṃ dukkhamanattāti ñāṇena parimaddati, parivatteti, vipassanāvīthiṃ ogāhati. Tassevaṃ paṭipannassa vuttanayeneva saṅkhārupekkhāvasāne ekāvajjanena anulomagotrabhuñāṇesu uppannesu gotrabhuanantaraṃ sakadāgāmimaggo uppajjati. Tena sampayuttaṃ ñāṇaṃ sakadāgāmimagge ñāṇanti.
Dutiyañāṇaṃ niṭṭhitaṃ.
Imassāpi ñāṇassa anantaraṃ vuttanayeneva phalacittāni veditabbāni. Ettāvatā cesa sakadāgāmī nāma catuttho ariyapuggalo hoti sakiṃdeva imaṃ lokaṃ āgantvā dukkhassantakaraṇasamattho. Tato paraṃ paccavekkhaṇaṃ vuttanayameva.
Evaṃ paccavekkhitvā ca so sakadāgāmī ariyasāvako tasmiññeva vā āsane nisinno aparena vā samayena kāmarāgabyāpādānaṃ anavasesappahānāya tatiyāya bhūmiyā pattiyā yogaṃ karoti, so indriyabalabojjhaṅgāni samodhānetvā tadeva saṅkhāragataṃ aniccaṃ dukkhamanattāti ñāṇena parimaddati, parivatteti, vipassanāvīthiṃ ogāhati. Tassevaṃ paṭipannassa vuttanayeneva saṅkhārupekkhāvasāne ekāvajjanena anulomagotrabhuñāṇesu uppannesu gotrabhuanantaraṃ anāgāmimaggo uppajjati, tena sampayuttaṃ ñāṇaṃ anāgāmimagge ñāṇanti.
Tatiyañāṇaṃ niṭṭhitaṃ.
Having reviewed in this way, that noble disciple who is a stream-enterer, whether seated in that very same seat or at another time, makes the effort for the attainment of the second plane, for the attenuation of sensual desire and ill will. Bringing together the faculties, the powers, and the enlightenment-factors, he kneads, turns over, and plunges into the course of insight with that same formations-based classification of matter, feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness, by knowledge, as impermanent, suffering, and not-self. For one thus practicing, by the already-stated method, at the conclusion of equanimity toward formations, when the conformity and change-of-lineage knowledges have arisen by way of a single adverting, immediately after change-of-lineage the path of once-return arises. The knowledge associated with it is called "the knowledge in the path of once-return."
The second knowledge is finished.
Immediately after this knowledge, too, the fruition-consciousnesses should be understood by the already-stated method. By this much, this person is called a once-returner, the fourth noble person, capable of making an end of suffering after coming back to this world only once more. The reviewing that follows is exactly by the already-stated method.
Having reviewed in this way, that noble disciple who is a once-returner, whether seated in that very same seat or at another time, makes the effort for the attainment of the third plane, for the abandoning of sensual desire and ill will without remainder. Bringing together the faculties, the powers, and the enlightenment-factors, he kneads, turns over, and plunges into the course of insight with that same formations-based classification, as impermanent, suffering, and not-self. For one thus practicing, by the already-stated method, at the conclusion of equanimity toward formations, when the conformity and change-of-lineage knowledges have arisen by way of a single adverting, immediately after change-of-lineage the path of non-return arises. The knowledge associated with it is called "the knowledge in the path of non-return."
The third knowledge is finished.
The deliberate terseness here is itself a piece of exposition: having spent five full sections establishing every mechanical detail of how a path-knowledge arises — the run-up through insight, the exact conformity/gotrabhū transition, the archer's signal, the fruition-count arithmetic, the fivefold reviewing — Buddhaghosa now trusts the reader to supply all of it again for the second and third paths, needing only to name what changes: which fetters are the target (sensual desire and ill will, first weakened, then eliminated outright) and which plane is attained. The phrase "bringing together the faculties, the powers, and the enlightenment-factors" (indriyabalabojjhaṅgāni samodhānetvā) is a compact reminder that every fresh push toward a higher path is not a different kind of practice but the very same thirty-seven aids to awakening — already catalogued in this chapter's own next subhead — brought to bear once more on the same five aggregates.
It is worth pausing on what is quietly not being said: nothing here suggests that a stream-enterer or once-returner must wait any particular length of time, complete any additional preliminary practice, or receive any external instruction before resuming the ascent — the text's own phrase "whether seated in that very same seat or at another time" (tasmiññeva vā āsane nisinno, aparena vā samayena) leaves entirely open whether the next path follows within moments or only much later, placing the initiative for further practice squarely with the noble disciple's own continuing effort.
attenuation, thinning-out — tanu (thin, slight) + bhāva (state); describes precisely what the second path accomplishes with respect to sensual desire and ill will — not yet their full abandonment (reserved for the third path), but their reduction to a merely occasional, weakened residue.
"abandoning without remainder" — an (not) + avasesa (remaining) + pahāna (abandoning); the complete, residue-free eradication that distinguishes the third path's work on sensual desire and ill will from the second path's merely partial attenuation of the same two fetters.
once-returner (sakiṃ, once + āgamana, coming) and non-returner (an, not + āgamana, coming); the fourth and sixth of the eight noble persons, named for how many more times, if any, they will return to this sense-desire world before final liberation.
The Fourth Path-Knowledge and the Arahant
The same pattern completes itself a fourth and final time: the non-returner, resuming the identical practice once more, abandons the five remaining higher fetters — craving for fine-material and immaterial existence, conceit, restlessness, and ignorance — without remainder, and becomes the arahant, the eighth and final noble person, described here through a cluster of canonical epithets that will recur, expanded, throughout the rest of the treatise.
Evaṃ paccavekkhitvā ca so anāgāmī ariyasāvako tasmiññeva vā āsane nisinno, aparena vā samayena rūpārūparāgamānauddhaccaavijjānaṃ anavasesappahānāya catutthāya bhūmiyā pattiyā yogaṃ karoti, so indriyabalabojjhaṅgāni samodhānetvā tadeva saṅkhāragataṃ aniccaṃ dukkhamanattāti ñāṇena parimaddati, parivatteti, vipassanāvīthiṃ ogāhati. Tassevaṃ paṭipannassa vuttanayeneva saṅkhārupekkhāvasāne ekāvajjanena anulomagotrabhuñāṇesu uppannesu gotrabhuanantaraṃ arahattamaggo uppajjati, tena sampayuttaṃ ñāṇaṃ arahattamagge ñāṇanti.
Catutthañāṇaṃ niṭṭhitaṃ.
Imassapi ñāṇassa anantaraṃ vuttanayeneva phalacittāni veditabbāni. Ettāvatā cesa arahā nāma aṭṭhamo ariyapuggalo hoti mahākhīṇāsavo antimadehadhārī ohitabhāro anuppattasadattho parikkhīṇabhavasaṃyojano sammādaññā vimutto sadevakassa lokassa aggadakkhiṇeyyoti.
Iti yaṃ taṃ vuttaṃ "sotāpattimaggo sakadāgāmimaggo anāgāmimaggo arahattamaggoti imesu pana catūsu maggesu ñāṇaṃ ñāṇadassanavisuddhi nāmā"ti, taṃ imāni iminā anukkamena pattabbāni cattāri ñāṇāni sandhāya vuttaṃ.
Having reviewed in this way, that noble disciple who is a non-returner, whether seated in that very same seat or at another time, makes the effort for the attainment of the fourth plane, for the abandoning, without remainder, of craving for fine-material existence, craving for immaterial existence, conceit, restlessness, and ignorance. Bringing together the faculties, the powers, and the enlightenment-factors, he kneads, turns over, and plunges into the course of insight with that same formations-based classification, as impermanent, suffering, and not-self. For one thus practicing, by the already-stated method, at the conclusion of equanimity toward formations, when the conformity and change-of-lineage knowledges have arisen by way of a single adverting, immediately after change-of-lineage the path of arahantship arises. The knowledge associated with it is called "the knowledge in the path of arahantship."
The fourth knowledge is finished.
Immediately after this knowledge, too, the fruition-consciousnesses should be understood by the already-stated method. By this much, this person is called an arahant, the eighth noble person — one with the great taints destroyed, bearing his final body, one who has laid down the burden, one who has attained his own true goal, one whose fetters of existence are utterly worn away, one liberated by right final knowledge, the foremost recipient of offerings in the world together with its gods.
Thus, what was said — "in these four paths, of stream-entry, once-return, non-return, and arahantship, the knowledge is called purification by knowledge and vision" — was said with reference to these four knowledges, attainable in this very sequence.
The seven-fold string of epithets for the arahant deserves to be read slowly rather than skimmed as decorative formula, since each phrase names a distinct completed achievement: "the great taints destroyed" (mahākhīṇāsavo) names what has been eliminated; "bearing his final body" and "one who has laid down the burden" both name, from different angles, the guarantee that no further rebirth will follow; "one who has attained his own true goal" and "one whose fetters of existence are utterly worn away" name the positive attainment and its completeness; "liberated by right final knowledge" names the mode of liberation itself, distinguishing it from a merely temporary or partial release; and "the foremost recipient of offerings in the world together with its gods" is not primarily about material generosity at all, but names the arahant's field of merit — that any gift given to such a person yields the highest possible fruit precisely because nothing remains in the recipient capable of corrupting the gift's result.
The closing sentence performs a small but satisfying piece of textual bookkeeping: it explicitly loops back to this chapter's very own opening line — "in these four paths... the knowledge is called purification by knowledge and vision" — now that all four paths have actually been walked through in sequence, confirming that the promise made in paragraph 806 has been fully discharged. Everything from here forward in the chapter turns to a different task: not attaining the four knowledges, but understanding their inner workings and their relationship to the wider architecture of the thirty-seven aids to awakening and the four noble truths.
one with taints destroyed — khīṇa (destroyed) + āsava (taint, canker); the standard designation for an arahant, referring to the eradication of all four āsavas (sensual desire, desire for existence, wrong view, and ignorance), a term this project has already met as one of the four taints discussed under saṃyojana and anusaya below.
"one who has laid down the burden" — ohita (laid down, set down) + bhāra (burden, load); a vivid canonical metaphor for the arahant's release from the "burden" of the five aggregates and their continued production through kamma and defilement.
"the foremost recipient of offerings" — agga (foremost, chief) + dakkhiṇeyya (worthy of a religious offering, from dakkhiṇā, a gift or donation); names the arahant's unique status as the field of merit that yields the highest possible fruit for any gift given.
Four Things to Understand About the Power of This Fourfold Knowledge
Having now walked through the attainment of all four paths, Buddhaghosa turns to a different task entirely: understanding the inner workings and full power (ānubhāva) of this fourfold knowledge. A single opening verse-pair announces four topics still to be examined in turn — the completeness of the thirty-seven aids to awakening present at each path-moment, the union of emergence and dual strength, which states are abandoned by which knowledge, and the various functions accomplished at the moment of truth-penetration.
Idāni imissāyeva catuñāṇāya ñāṇadassanavisuddhiyā ānubhāvavijānanatthaṃ –
"Paripuṇṇabodhipakkhiya, bhāvo vuṭṭhānabalasamāyogo; Ye yena pahātabbā, dhammā tesaṃ pahānañca.
Kiccāni pariññādīni, yāni vuttāni abhisamayakāle; Tāni ca yathāsabhāvena, jānitabbāni sabbānīti."
Now, for the sake of understanding the very power of this fourfold-knowledge purification by knowledge and vision —
"The state of the fullness of the aids to awakening, the union of emergence and the two strengths; the states to be abandoned by each, and the abandoning of them;
and the functions — full understanding and the rest — that are spoken of at the time of the penetration of the truths: all these should be known according to their true nature."
This short transitional verse functions as a table of contents for everything remaining in the chapter, and it is worth holding onto as a map while working through the dense material ahead: "the fullness of the aids to awakening" names the next subhead's own subject (the complete presence of all thirty-seven bodhipakkhiyadhammā at each path-moment); "the union of emergence and the two strengths" names the subhead after that (vuṭṭhānabalasamāyoga); "the states to be abandoned by each, and the abandoning of them" names the chapter's single largest subhead, on what each path-knowledge specifically eliminates; and "the functions... spoken of at the time of the penetration of the truths" names the final two subheads, on the simultaneous fourfold task performed at the moment of awakening and the precise varieties of full understanding, abandoning, realization, and development. The verse itself will be quoted again, word for word, at the chapter's very close — a deliberate framing device bookending everything in between.
power, majesty, potency — anu (following, in accordance with) + bhāva (state, being); here refers to the full range of what the fourfold path-knowledge accomplishes beyond its bare act of Nibbāna-apprehension, cashed out across the chapter's remaining four topics.
aids to awakening, allies of enlightenment — bodhi (awakening) + pakkhiya (belonging to the side of, allied with); the standard umbrella term for the thirty-seven factors — four satipaṭṭhāna, four sammappadhāna, four iddhipāda, five indriya, five bala, seven bojjhaṅga, and the eight-factored path — treated in full in the subhead immediately following.
The Thirty-Seven Aids to Awakening; Foundations of Mindfulness and Right Effort
The thirty-seven aids to awakening are now named as a complete set — four foundations of mindfulness, four right efforts, four bases of power, five faculties, five powers, seven enlightenment-factors, and the eight-factored noble path — and etymologized as "allies of awakening" because they stand on the side of, and support, the very path that has earned the name "awakening" through its function of understanding. Two of the seven categories are then defined in turn: mindfulness, fourfold through its object (body, feeling, mind, and mental phenomena) and its twin functions of grasping the repulsive/painful/impermanent/not-self aspect while abandoning the perception of the attractive/pleasant/permanent/self; and right effort, fourfold through its four distinct tasks of preventing, abandoning, developing, and maintaining wholesome and unwholesome states.
Tattha paripuṇṇabodhipakkhiya, bhāvoti bodhipakkhiyānaṃ paripuṇṇabhāvo. Cattāro satipaṭṭhānā, cattāro sammappadhānā, cattāro iddhipādā, pañcindriyāni, pañca balāni, satta bojjhaṅgā, ariyo aṭṭhaṅgiko maggoti hi ime sattatiṃsa dhammā bujjhanaṭṭhena bodhoti laddhanāmassa ariyamaggassa pakkhe bhavattā bodhipakkhiyā nāma. Pakkhe bhavattāti upakārabhāve ṭhitattā.
Tesu tesu ārammaṇesu okkhanditvā pakkhanditvā upaṭṭhānato paṭṭhānaṃ. Satiyeva paṭṭhānaṃ satipaṭṭhānaṃ. Kāyavedanācittadhammesu panassā asubha-dukkha-anicca-anattākāragahaṇavasena subha-sukha-nicca-atta-saññāpahānakiccasādhanavasena ca pavattito catudhā bhedo hoti. Tasmā cattāro satipaṭṭhānāti vuccanti.
Padahanti etenāti padhānaṃ. Sobhanaṃ padhānaṃ sammappadhānaṃ. Sammā vā padahanti etenāti sammappadhānaṃ. Sobhanaṃ vā taṃ kilesavirūpattavirahato padhānañca hitasukhanipphādakattena seṭṭhabhāvāvahanato padhānabhāvakāraṇato cāti sammappadhānaṃ. Vīriyassetaṃ adhivacanaṃ. Tayidaṃ uppannānuppannānaṃ akusalānaṃ pahānānuppattikiccaṃ anuppannuppannānañca kusalānaṃ uppattiṭṭhitikiccaṃ sādhayatīti catubbidhaṃ hoti, tasmā cattāro sammappadhānāti vuccanti.
Herein, "the state of the fullness of the aids to awakening" means the complete state of the aids to awakening. For these thirty-seven states — the four foundations of mindfulness, the four right efforts, the four bases of power, the five faculties, the five powers, the seven enlightenment-factors, and the noble eight-factored path — are called "aids to awakening" because they stand on the side of the noble path, which has obtained the name "awakening" in the sense of understanding. "Standing on the side of" means being established in a state of assistance.
"Foundation" (paṭṭhāna) is so called from its establishing itself by descending into and springing forth upon this or that object. Mindfulness itself, as a foundation, is a "foundation of mindfulness." Its fourfold division comes about through its occurring, with respect to the body, feeling, mind, and mental phenomena, by way of grasping the mode of the repulsive, the painful, the impermanent, and the not-self, and by way of accomplishing the function of abandoning the perception of the attractive, the pleasant, the permanent, and the self. Therefore they are called "the four foundations of mindfulness."
"Exertion" (padhāna) is that by which one exerts oneself. A beautiful exertion is "right exertion." Or: that by which one exerts oneself rightly is "right exertion." Or, again, it is called "right exertion" because it is beautiful, through the absence of any deformity by defilement, and because it is an exertion, through bringing about the highest state by accomplishing benefit and happiness, and through being the cause of the state of exertion. This is a designation for energy. It accomplishes the fourfold function of the non-arising and abandoning of unwholesome states, whether arisen or not yet arisen, and of the arising and establishing of wholesome states, whether not yet arisen or already arisen. Therefore they are called "the four right exertions."
The etymology of "bodhipakkhiya" given here is worth setting beside chapter seventeen's own treatment of etymological method throughout this project: awakening itself (bodhi) is defined here purely functionally, as whatever "has obtained the name in the sense of understanding" (bujjhanaṭṭhena) — that is, the noble path itself, not some separate mystical event distinct from the path's own act of understanding the four truths. The thirty-seven factors are then "allies" or "aids" in the most literal sense of standing on the path's side (pakkhe) as its supporting cast, not as thirty-seven independent routes to the same goal.
The fourfold right exertion's own definition rewards attention for its precise, non-overlapping structure: two of its four tasks concern unwholesome states (preventing their arising, abandoning them once arisen) and two concern wholesome states (generating their arising, then maintaining and developing what has arisen) — a clean, symmetrical division that will be illustrated with concrete, first-person examples two paragraphs ahead, when the text turns to showing how all thirty-seven factors actually appear together within a single ordinary act of practice.
foundation of mindfulness — sati (mindfulness) + paṭṭhāna (foundation, establishing); fourfold by object (body, feeling, mind, mental phenomena) and by its dual function of grasping the true, repulsive/impermanent/painful/not-self nature of its object while abandoning the opposite, distorted perception.
right exertion — sammā (rightly) + padhāna (exertion, striving); a designation for energy (vīriya) in its fourfold application to preventing unarisen unwholesome states, abandoning arisen ones, generating unarisen wholesome states, and maintaining arisen ones.
"descending into and springing forth upon [an object], and thereby being established" — the etymological gloss on paṭṭhāna ("foundation"), describing mindfulness's characteristic manner of taking hold of its object as if plunging directly into it.
Bases of Power, Faculties, Powers, Enlightenment-Factors, and the Path
The remaining five categories of the thirty-seven are now defined in swift succession: the four bases of power (success achieved through zeal, mind, energy, or investigation, whether mundane or supramundane); the five faculties and five powers, sharing the same fivefold content (faith, energy, mindfulness, concentration, wisdom) but distinguished by their function — dominance over their opposing weaknesses for the faculties, unshakeability by those same weaknesses for the powers; and finally the seven enlightenment-factors and eight path-factors, named respectively for being components of the enlightened being and for their outlet-producing quality.
Pubbe vuttena ijjhanaṭṭhena iddhi. Tassā sampayuttāya pubbaṅgamaṭṭhena phalabhūtāya pubbabhāgakāraṇaṭṭhena ca iddhiyā pādoti iddhipādo. So chandādivasena catubbidho hoti, tasmā cattāro iddhipādāti vuccanti. Yathāha – "cattāro iddhipādā chandiddhipādo cittiddhipādo vīriyiddhipādo vīmaṃsiddhipādo"ti. Ime lokuttarāva. Lokiyā pana "chandañce bhikkhu adhipatiṃ karitvā labhati samādhiṃ, labhati cittassa ekaggataṃ. Ayaṃ vuccati chandasamādhī"tiādivacanato chandādiadhipativasena paṭiladdhadhammāpi honti.
Assaddhiyakosajjapamādavikkhepasammohānaṃ abhibhavanato abhibhavanasaṅkhātena adhipatiyaṭṭhena indriyaṃ. Assaddhiyādīhi ca anabhibhavanīyato akampiyaṭṭhena balaṃ. Tadubhayampi saddhādivasena pañcavidhaṃ hoti, tasmā pañcindriyāni pañca balānīti vuccanti.
Bujjhanakasattassa pana aṅgabhāvena satiādayo satta bojjhaṅgā. Niyyānikaṭṭhena ca sammādiṭṭhiādayo aṭṭha maggaṅgā honti. Tena vuttaṃ "satta bojjhaṅgā ariyo aṭṭhaṅgiko maggo"ti.
"Success" (iddhi), in the sense already stated, means succeeding. A "basis of success" (iddhipāda) is so called because it is a basis for success — either in the sense of being the forerunner associated with it, as its resultant, or in the sense of being the cause belonging to its preliminary stage. It is fourfold by way of zeal and the rest; therefore they are called "the four bases of success." As it is said: "the four bases of success are the basis of success consisting in zeal, the basis of success consisting in mind, the basis of success consisting in energy, the basis of success consisting in investigation." These are exclusively supramundane. But mundane ones also occur, obtained through the dominance of zeal and the rest, according to the statement, "if a monk obtains concentration, obtains one-pointedness of mind, having made zeal the dominant factor, this is called concentration through zeal," and so on.
Through overcoming faithlessness, laziness, negligence, distraction, and delusion, in the sense of dominance, reckoned as overcoming, it is a "faculty." And, through not being overcome by faithlessness and the rest, in the sense of being unshakeable, it is a "power." Both of these, being fivefold by way of faith and the rest, are called "the five faculties" and "the five powers."
Now, for a being capable of awakening, mindfulness and the rest, in the sense of being its components, are "the seven enlightenment-factors." And, in the sense of leading outward, right view and the rest are "the eight path-factors." With reference to this it was said: "the seven enlightenment-factors, the noble eight-factored path."
The faculty/power distinction given here is a small masterpiece of Abhidhamma economy: the very same five mental qualities — faith, energy, mindfulness, concentration, wisdom — receive two different names depending purely on how their relationship to their five opposing weaknesses (faithlessness, laziness, negligence, distraction, delusion) is being described. Called "faculty" (indriya) when the emphasis is on active dominance — actively overcoming the opposing weakness — and called "power" (bala) when the emphasis is on stability — simply being unshakeable, no longer even vulnerable to being overcome. It is the same five things seen from two angles, a point the text will make explicit and quantitative two paragraphs ahead when it shows that these ten factor-slots (five faculties plus five powers) are actually filled by only five distinct mental factors occurring simultaneously.
The single most striking detail in this paragraph is easy to read past: the four bases of power are declared "exclusively supramundane" (lokuttarāva) in their strict, canonical Vibhaṅga definition — meaning, in the context of this chapter, that iddhipāda as one of the thirty-seven bodhipakkhiyadhammā refers specifically to the path-moment's own zeal, mind, energy, and investigation, not to any of the worldly psychic powers this project's own chapter twelve, Iddhividhaniddesa, spent so much space cataloguing. The text is careful to add, however, that mundane versions "also occur" wherever any of the four qualities is simply made the dominant factor for ordinary concentration — a reminder that the same technical vocabulary can shift its precise reference depending on context, a caution this project has met before with other polysemous Abhidhamma terms.
basis of success/power — iddhi (success, accomplishment) + pāda (basis, foot); fourfold as zeal, mind, energy, and investigation, exclusively supramundane in this bodhipakkhiya context, distinct from the worldly psychic-power iddhis of chapter twelve.
faculty and power — the identical fivefold set (faith, energy, mindfulness, concentration, wisdom) named "faculty" when emphasizing active dominance over an opposing weakness, and "power" when emphasizing unshakeable stability against that same weakness.
enlightenment-factor — bujjhana (awakening) + aṅga (factor, component); the seven factors (mindfulness, investigation-of-states, energy, rapture, tranquility, concentration, equanimity) named for being components of a being capable of awakening (bujjhanakasatta).
The Thirty-Seven Factors in a Single Moment of Ordinary Practice
Having defined all thirty-seven factors, the text now shows them at work — not as thirty-seven separate practices requiring thirty-seven separate mind-moments, but as the very same qualities already latent in a single ordinary moment of insight practice. Four concrete first-person illustrations, one for each right exertion, show a meditator resolving not to repeat another's fault, abandoning his own habitual fault, striving to produce meditation or insight for the first time, and striving to maintain what has already arisen; a fifth and sixth illustration show zeal-as-basis-of-power and abstention-from-wrong-speech arising in their own distinct moments. The upshot: all thirty-seven can indeed occur together within a single citta at the moment a path-knowledge actually arises — with the sole exception of the four right exertions themselves, which, being fundamentally one and the same energy under four names, never occur four-at-once even then.
Iti ime sattatiṃsa bodhipakkhiyadhammā pubbabhāge lokiyavipassanāya vattamānāya cuddasavidhena kāyaṃ pariggaṇhato ca kāyānupassanāsatipaṭṭhānaṃ, navavidhena vedanaṃ pariggaṇhato ca vedanānupassanāsatipaṭṭhānaṃ, soḷasavidhena cittaṃ pariggaṇhato ca cittānupassanāsatipaṭṭhānaṃ, pañcavidhena dhamme pariggaṇhato ca dhammānupassanāsatipaṭṭhānaṃ. Imasmiṃ attabhāve anuppannapubbaṃ parassa uppannaṃ akusalaṃ disvā "yathā paṭipannassetaṃ uppannaṃ, na tathā paṭipajjissāmi evaṃ me etaṃ nuppajjissatī"ti, tassa anuppādāya vāyamanakāle paṭhamaṃ sammappadhānaṃ. Attano samudācārappattaṃ akusalaṃ disvā tassa pahānāya vāyamanakāle dutiyaṃ. Imasmiṃ attabhāve anuppannapubbaṃ jhānaṃ vā vipassanaṃ vā uppādetuṃ vāyamantassa tatiyaṃ. Uppannaṃ yathā na parihāyati, evaṃ punappunaṃ uppādentassa catutthaṃ sammappadhānaṃ. Chandaṃ dhuraṃ katvā kusaluppādanakāle chandiddhipādo. Micchāvācāya viramaṇakāle sammāvācāti evaṃ nānācittesu labbhanti. Imesaṃ pana catunnaṃ ñāṇānaṃ uppattikāle ekacitte labbhanti. Phalakkhaṇe ṭhapetvā cattāro sammappadhāne avasesā tettiṃsa labbhanti.
Evaṃ ekacitte labbhamānesu cetesu ekāva nibbānārammaṇā sati kāyādīsu subhasaññādippahānakiccasādhanavasena cattāro satipaṭṭhānāti vuccati. Ekameva ca vīriyaṃ anuppannānaṃ anuppādādikiccasādhanavasena cattāro sammappadhānāti vuccati. Sesesu pana hāpanavaḍḍhanaṃ natthi.
Thus, these thirty-seven aids to awakening, in the preliminary stage, occur in mundane insight by grasping the body through fourteen modes, in the foundation of mindfulness regarding the body; grasping feeling through nine modes, in the foundation of mindfulness regarding feeling; grasping mind through sixteen modes, in the foundation of mindfulness regarding mind; and grasping mental phenomena through five modes, in the foundation of mindfulness regarding mental phenomena. In this present existence, having seen an unwholesome state, never before arisen, arisen in another, and thinking, "just as this arose for one who so practiced, I shall not so practice; thus this shall not arise for me" — at the time of striving for its non-arising, this is the first right exertion. Having seen an unwholesome state that has reached actual occurrence in himself, at the time of striving for its abandoning, this is the second. Striving to produce, in this present existence, a meditative absorption or insight never before produced, this is the third. Striving, again and again, to produce what has arisen, so that it does not decline, this is the fourth right exertion. At the time of producing a wholesome state by making zeal the chief concern, this is the basis of power consisting in zeal. At the time of abstaining from wrong speech, this is right speech. Thus, these are obtained in various distinct mind-moments. But at the time these four knowledges arise, they are all obtained within a single mind-moment. Setting aside the moment of fruition, the remaining thirty-three are obtained.
Thus, of these obtained within a single mind-moment, it is a single mindfulness, having Nibbāna as its object, that, by way of accomplishing the function of abandoning the perception of the attractive and the rest with respect to the body and the other objects, is called "the four foundations of mindfulness." And it is a single energy that, by way of accomplishing the function of the non-arising of unarisen unwholesome states and the rest, is called "the four right exertions." But, among the rest, there is no such diminishing or increasing.
This is one of the more quietly remarkable analytical moves in the whole treatise: rather than treating "thirty-seven aids to awakening" as thirty-seven separate mental events that must somehow all be scheduled into a single moment, Buddhaghosa shows that the number thirty-seven is itself a kind of optical illusion produced by counting the same handful of underlying mental factors multiple times under different functional descriptions. A single mindfulness, taking Nibbāna as its object at the path-moment, gets counted as all four foundations of mindfulness simply because it happens, in that one moment, to be simultaneously accomplishing the function that each of the four separately-defined foundations was defined by; a single energy, likewise, gets counted as all four right exertions for the identical reason. The genuinely important qualification comes in the closing sentence — "among the rest, there is no such diminishing or increasing" — meaning that unlike mindfulness and energy, the remaining categories (faith, concentration, wisdom, and so on) do not each collapse into a single factor wearing several different hats; that fuller numerical reckoning is exactly what the next paragraph's own verse will now work out in full.
"having reached actual occurrence" — samudācāra (actual conduct, habitual occurrence) + patta (reached, arrived at); distinguishes a fault one has actually committed from a fault merely witnessed in someone else, the distinction that separates the second right exertion from the first.
"diminishing and increasing" — hāpana (causing to decrease) + vaḍḍhana (causing to increase); denied of the remaining bodhipakkhiya categories beyond mindfulness and energy, meaning their numerical count is not similarly collapsible to a single underlying factor multiply-counted.
Reducing Thirty-Seven Factors to Fourteen Real States
The subhead closes with a compact verse performing the same reduction exercise across every remaining category: of the thirty-seven named factors, nine occur only under a single description each (never doing double duty), one occurs under two descriptions, one under four, one under five, one under eight, and one under nine — a total, the text notes, of fourteen genuinely distinct underlying mental states (dhammas) accounting for all thirty-seven names, each fully accounted for either by its own distinct function or by its own distinct essential nature.
Apica tesu –
"Nava ekavidhā eko, dvedhātha catu pañcadhā; Aṭṭhadhā navadhā ceva, iti chaddhā bhavanti te."
Nava ekavidhāti chando, cittaṃ, pīti, passaddhi, upekkhā, saṅkappo, vācā, kammanto, ājīvoti ime nava chandiddhipādādivasena ekavidhāva honti, na aññaṃ koṭṭhāsaṃ bhajanti. Eko dvedhāti saddhā indriya, balavasena dvedhā ṭhitā. Atha catu pañcadhāti athañño eko catudhā, añño pañcadhā ṭhitoti attho. Tattha samādhi eko indriya, bala, bojjhaṅga, maggaṅgavasena catudhā ṭhito. Paññā tesañca catunnaṃ iddhipādakoṭṭhāsassa ca vasena pañcadhā. Aṭṭhadhā navadhā cevāti aparo eko aṭṭhadhā, eko navadhā ṭhitoti attho. Catusatipaṭṭhāna, indriya, bala, bojjhaṅga, maggaṅgavasena sati aṭṭhadhā ṭhitā. Catusammappadhāna, iddhipāda, indriya, bala, bojjhaṅga, maggaṅgavasena vīriyaṃ navadhāti. Evaṃ –
"Cuddaseva asambhinnā, hontete bodhipakkhiyā; Koṭṭhāsato sattavidhā, sattatiṃsappabhedato.
Sakiccanipphādanato, sarūpena ca vuttito; Sabbeva ariyamaggassa, sambhave sambhavanti teti."
Evaṃ tāvettha paripuṇṇabodhipakkhiyabhāvo jānitabbo.
And further, among these —
"Nine occur in a single way; one in two ways; then, one in four, one in five; one in eight, and one in nine ways: thus do they become sixfold."
"Nine occur in a single way": zeal, mind, rapture, tranquility, equanimity, intention, speech, action, and livelihood — these nine occur only in a single way, by way of the basis of power consisting in zeal and the rest, and do not partake of any other category. "One in two ways": faith is established in two ways, by way of faculty and power. "Then, one in four, one in five": this means that one further state is established in four ways, and another in five ways. Herein, concentration, one state, is established in four ways, by way of faculty, power, enlightenment-factor, and path-factor. Wisdom is established in five ways, by way of these same four and by way of its share as a basis of power. "One in eight, and one in nine": this means that one further state is established in eight ways, and one in nine ways. Mindfulness is established in eight ways, by way of the four foundations of mindfulness, faculty, power, enlightenment-factor, and path-factor. Energy is established in nine ways, by way of the four right exertions, basis of power, faculty, power, enlightenment-factor, and path-factor. Thus —
"These aids to awakening, fourteen in number and unmixed with one another, are sevenfold by category, and thirty-seven-fold by their distinct enumeration.
All of them, whether by way of accomplishing their own particular function or by way of their own essential nature as stated, come to be present at the arising of the noble path."
Thus, herein, the state of the fullness of the aids to awakening should first be understood.
The final tally is elegant once assembled: nine factors appear only once each (zeal, mind, rapture, tranquility, equanimity, and the four path-factors of intention, speech, action, and livelihood, none of which double as anything else); faith appears twice (as faculty and power); concentration appears four times (faculty, power, enlightenment-factor, path-factor); wisdom five times (those same four, plus its role as a basis of power); mindfulness eight times (the four foundations, plus faculty, power, enlightenment-factor, path-factor); and energy the most of all, nine times (the four right exertions, plus basis of power, faculty, power, enlightenment-factor, path-factor). Nine plus one plus one plus one plus one plus one genuinely distinct states — fourteen in total — multiplied out by how many category-slots each one fills (1×9 + 2×1 + 4×1 + 5×1 + 8×1 + 9×1 = 9+2+4+5+8+9 = 37) precisely reconstructs the famous number thirty-seven, confirming the verse's own arithmetic.
What makes energy and mindfulness the two "busiest" factors is worth noting for what it reveals about the architecture of the path itself: energy, filling nine of the thirty-seven slots, and mindfulness, filling eight, together account for seventeen of the thirty-seven names between them — well under half the individual factors but comfortably closer to half the total name-count — which is a technical way of confirming something this whole translation project's earlier chapters on meditation practice already suggested in less quantitative language: sustained effort and continuous mindful attention are, in the Abhidhamma's own reckoning, the single most structurally central qualities the path actually requires, showing up under more names and in more functional roles than any of wisdom, concentration, or faith.
"unmixed," not conflated — a (not) + sambhinna (mixed, blended together); describes the fourteen genuinely distinct underlying states once the thirty-seven names' overlaps have been resolved, each remaining a clearly separate mental factor even while wearing several functional names.
"accomplishing one's own particular function" — sa (own) + kicca (task, function) + nipphādana (accomplishing); the criterion by which a single mental factor earns multiple bodhipakkhiya names — not by resembling several different things, but by actually performing several distinct functions.
Emergence: Why Only the Four Paths Emerge in Both Ways
The second of the chapter's four topics now takes up "emergence" (vuṭṭhāna) — and shows, by a careful process of elimination, that only the four path-knowledges qualify as fully "emerging." Mundane insight, though it emerges from the sign it takes as object, never cuts off the arising-cause itself (craving), so it never emerges from occurrence; change-of-lineage, taking the signless Nibbāna as object, does emerge from occurrence in that sense, but, not itself cutting off craving either, still fails to emerge from the sign. Only the four paths, taking the signless as object and actually severing craving, emerge in both ways at once.
Vuṭṭhānabalasamāyogoti vuṭṭhānañceva balasamāyogo ca. Lokiyavipassanā hi nimittārammaṇattā ceva pavattikāraṇassa ca samudayassa asamucchindanato neva nimittā na pavattā vuṭṭhāti. Gotrabhuñāṇaṃ samudayassa asamucchindanato pavattā na vuṭṭhāti. Nibbānārammaṇato pana nimittā vuṭṭhātīti ekato vuṭṭhānaṃ hoti. Tenāha "bahiddhāvuṭṭhānavivaṭṭane paññā gotrabhuñāṇa"nti. Tathā "uppādā vivaṭṭitvā anuppādaṃ pakkhandatīti gotrabhu, pavattā vivaṭṭitvā"ti sabbaṃ veditabbaṃ. Imāni pana cattāripi ñāṇāni animittārammaṇattā nimittato vuṭṭhahanti, samudayassa samucchindanato pavattā vuṭṭhahantīti dubhato vuṭṭhānāni honti.
Tena vuttaṃ –
"Kathaṃ dubhato vuṭṭhānavivaṭṭane paññā magge ñāṇaṃ?
"The union of emergence and the two strengths" means both emergence and the union of the two strengths. Mundane insight, both because it takes a sign as its object and because it does not cut off craving, the cause of occurrence, emerges neither from the sign nor from occurrence. Change-of-lineage knowledge, because it does not cut off craving, does not emerge from occurrence; but, because it takes Nibbāna as its object, which is without a sign, it does emerge from the sign — so it has emergence in one respect only. With reference to this it was said, "how is understanding of the turning-away and turning-about, with respect to what is external, change-of-lineage knowledge?" Likewise, "'having turned away from arising, it leaps forward into non-arising' — thus is it change-of-lineage; 'having turned away from occurrence' [it leaps forward into non-occurrence]" — all this should be understood. But these four knowledges — the four paths — because they take as their object what is without a sign, emerge from the sign; and because they cut off craving, they emerge from occurrence, being occurrence. Thus they have emergence in both respects.
With reference to this it was said —
"How is understanding of the turning-away and turning-about, in both respects, path-knowledge?
This paragraph completes a three-way comparison that has been building since this chapter's own opening subhead's canal-crossing and clouded-moon similes, now stated in fully technical terms: mundane insight sees the sign clearly enough but cannot cut its root (craving keeps generating fresh occurrence); gotrabhū, by contrast, achieves the more radical feat of taking the signless Nibbāna as object but still cannot itself cut craving's root, since — as established back in paragraph 808's cloud-and-moon simile — gotrabhū can only see, never dispel. Only the path itself accomplishes both at once, which is precisely why "emergence" (vuṭṭhāna) becomes the technical marker distinguishing genuine liberating knowledge from every preparatory stage, however advanced, that came before it. The phrase "being occurrence" applied to the four paths in the English above needs a word of explanation: even the path-consciousness itself is technically a conditioned, "occurring" mental event, yet by cutting off the very cause that would otherwise perpetuate further occurrence, it counts as "emerging from occurrence" in the specific, functional sense meant here — an emergence achieved through elimination of the cause, not through the path-moment somehow existing outside conditioned reality altogether.
emergence — vi (out, away) + uṭṭhāna (rising, standing up); the technical criterion distinguishing knowledge that merely observes conditioned phenomena from knowledge that actually emerges from them, achieved here in two distinct senses (from the sign, and from occurrence) that only the four paths satisfy simultaneously.
the sign and occurrence — nimitta (a mark, sign — here, any conditioned phenomenon taken as an object of attention) and pavatta (ongoing occurrence, continuation); the two things a knowledge must "emerge from" to count as fully liberating, corresponding respectively to the object taken and the causal continuity sustaining rebirth.
The Paṭisambhidāmagga's Fetter-by-Fetter Account of Each Path's Emergence
A long canonical quotation from the Paṭisambhidāmagga now specifies, path by path, exactly which fetters and underlying tendencies each of the four supramundane knowledges emerges from — stream-entry's path emerging from wrong view together with its associated defilements and aggregates and from all signs externally; the once-returner's path emerging additionally from the coarse forms of sensual-desire and ill-will fetters and their underlying tendencies; the non-returner's path from their residual, subtle forms; and the arahant's path from craving for fine-material and immaterial existence, conceit, restlessness, and ignorance, together with their underlying tendencies.
"Sotāpattimaggakkhaṇe dassanaṭṭhena sammādiṭṭhi micchādiṭṭhiyā vuṭṭhāti, tadanuvattakakilesehi ca khandhehi ca vuṭṭhāti, bahiddhā ca sabbanimittehi vuṭṭhāti. Tena vuccati dubhato vuṭṭhānavivaṭṭane paññā magge ñāṇaṃ. Abhiniropanaṭṭhena sammāsaṅkappo micchāsaṅkappā…pe… pariggahaṭṭhena sammāvācā micchāvācāya. Samuṭṭhānaṭṭhena sammākammanto. Vodānaṭṭhena sammāājīvo. Paggahaṭṭhena sammāvāyāmo. Upaṭṭhānaṭṭhena sammāsati. Avikkhepaṭṭhena sammāsamādhi micchāsamādhito vuṭṭhāti, tadanuvattakakilesehi ca khandhehi ca vuṭṭhāti, bahiddhā ca sabbanimittehi vuṭṭhāti. Tena vuccati 'dubhato vuṭṭhānavivaṭṭane paññā magge ñāṇa'nti.
"Sakadāgāmimaggakkhaṇe dassanaṭṭhena sammādiṭṭhi…pe… avikkhepaṭṭhena sammāsamādhi oḷārikā kāmarāgasaṃyojanā paṭighasaṃyojanā oḷārikā kāmarāgānusayā paṭighānusayā vuṭṭhāti…pe….
"Anāgāmimaggakkhaṇe dassanaṭṭhena sammādiṭṭhi…pe… avikkhepaṭṭhena sammāsamādhi anusahagatā kāmarāgasaṃyojanā paṭighasaṃyojanā anusahagatā kāmarāgānusayā paṭighānusayā vuṭṭhāti…pe….
"Arahattamaggakkhaṇe dassanaṭṭhena sammādiṭṭhi…pe… avikkhepaṭṭhena sammāsamādhi rūparāgā arūparāgā mānā uddhaccā avijjāya mānānusayā bhavarāgānusayā avijjānusayā vuṭṭhāti, tadanuvattakakilesehi ca khandhehi ca vuṭṭhāti, bahiddhā ca sabbanimittehi vuṭṭhāti. Tena vuccati 'dubhato vuṭṭhānavivaṭṭane paññā magge ñāṇa'"nti.
"At the moment of the path of stream-entry, right view, in the sense of vision, emerges from wrong view, emerges from the defilements and aggregates that follow along with it, and emerges externally from all signs. With reference to this it is said, 'understanding of the turning-away and turning-about, in both respects, is path-knowledge.' Right intention, in the sense of directing the mind onto the object, [emerges] from wrong intention... right speech, in the sense of full grasping, from wrong speech; right action, in the sense of originating, [from wrong action]; right livelihood, in the sense of cleansing, [from wrong livelihood]; right effort, in the sense of exertion, [from wrong effort]; right mindfulness, in the sense of establishment, [from wrong mindfulness]; right concentration, in the sense of non-distraction, emerges from wrong concentration, emerges from the defilements and aggregates that follow along with it, and emerges externally from all signs. With reference to this it is said, 'understanding of the turning-away and turning-about, in both respects, is path-knowledge.'
"At the moment of the path of once-return, right view, in the sense of vision... right concentration, in the sense of non-distraction, emerges from the coarse fetter of sensual desire, the fetter of ill will, the coarse underlying tendency to sensual desire, and the underlying tendency to ill will...
"At the moment of the path of non-return, right view, in the sense of vision... right concentration, in the sense of non-distraction, emerges from the residual fetter of sensual desire, the fetter of ill will, the residual underlying tendency to sensual desire, and the underlying tendency to ill will...
"At the moment of the path of arahantship, right view, in the sense of vision... right concentration, in the sense of non-distraction, emerges from craving for fine-material existence, craving for immaterial existence, conceit, restlessness, and ignorance, from the underlying tendency to conceit, the underlying tendency to craving for existence, and the underlying tendency to ignorance, emerges from the defilements and aggregates that follow along with these, and emerges externally from all signs. With reference to this it is said, 'understanding of the turning-away and turning-about, in both respects, is path-knowledge.'"
This dense canonical passage is worth reading as a fetter-by-fetter progress report on the same four paths already narrated in ordinary language earlier in the chapter: it now specifies, for each of the eight path-factors individually (right view through right concentration), precisely which wrong counterpart and which specific defilements each path-moment simultaneously emerges from. Two small but significant refinements over the earlier prose account deserve notice. First, the quotation distinguishes "coarse" (oḷārika) sensual-desire and ill-will fetters, eliminated by the second path, from their "residual" (anusahagata) or subtle remainder, eliminated only by the third — a distinction the chapter's own earlier prose account of the second and third paths left implicit. Second, the fourth path's emergence-list specifies underlying tendencies to conceit, craving-for-existence, and ignorance by name, filling in exactly which of the seven underlying tendencies (catalogued in full two subheads ahead, under anusaya) survive even the non-returner and require the arahant's path to finally uproot.
coarse and residual/subtle — oḷārika (gross, coarse) versus anusahagata (accompanied by a remaining trace, from anu + saha + gata); distinguishes the grosser degree of sensual-desire and ill-will eliminated by the path of once-return from the subtler residue eliminated only by the path of non-return.
"the defilements that follow along with it" — tad (that) + anuvattaka (following, conforming to) + kilesā (defilements); the wider cluster of associated defilements swept away together with each fetter's own elimination at each path-moment, not just the named fetter in isolation.
The Union of Tranquility and Insight at the Path-Moment
The subhead's second component, "union of the two strengths," is now explained: in the eight mundane meditative attainments, tranquility's strength predominates; in the contemplation of impermanence and the rest, insight's strength predominates; but at the moment of the noble path, the two are yoked evenly together, neither ever outrunning the other — a state the Paṭisambhidāmagga itself calls "developing tranquility and insight as a yoked pair."
Lokiyānañca aṭṭhannaṃ samāpattīnaṃ bhāvanākāle samathabalaṃ adhikaṃ hoti. Aniccānupassanādīnaṃ bhāvanākāle vipassanābalaṃ. Ariyamaggakkhaṇe pana yuganaddhā te dhammā pavattanti aññamaññaṃ anativattanaṭṭhena. Tasmā imesu catūsupi ñāṇesu ubhayabalasamāyogo hoti. Yathāha –
"Uddhaccasahagatakilesehi ca khandhehi ca vuṭṭhahato cittassa ekaggatā avikkhepo samādhi nirodhagocaro, avijjāsahagatakilesehi ca khandhehi ca vuṭṭhahato anupassanaṭṭhena vipassanā nirodhagocarā. Iti vuṭṭhānaṭṭhena samathavipassanā ekarasā honti, yuganaddhā honti, aññamaññaṃ nātivattantīti. Tena vuccati vuṭṭhānaṭṭhena samathavipassanaṃ yuganaddhaṃ bhāvetī"ti.
Evamettha vuṭṭhānabalasamāyogo veditabbo.
Now, at the time of developing the eight mundane attainments, the strength of tranquility is predominant. At the time of developing the contemplation of impermanence and the rest, the strength of insight is predominant. But, at the moment of the noble path, these states occur yoked together as a pair, in the sense of neither exceeding the other. Therefore, in these same four knowledges, there is a union of both strengths. As it is said —
"For one emerging from the defilements and aggregates accompanied by restlessness, one-pointedness of mind, non-distraction, concentration, has cessation as its resort; for one emerging from the defilements and aggregates accompanied by ignorance, insight, in the sense of contemplation, has cessation as its resort. Thus, in the sense of emergence, tranquility and insight have a single function; they are yoked together as a pair; they do not exceed one another. With reference to this it is said, 'one develops tranquility and insight yoked together as a pair, in the sense of emergence.'"
Thus, herein, the union of emergence and the two strengths should be understood.
The precise formulation "neither exceeding the other" (aññamaññaṃ anativattanaṭṭhena) captures something genuinely distinctive about the path-moment as opposed to every preparatory stage of practice: mundane jhāna is lopsided toward stillness, ordinary insight-contemplation is lopsided toward discernment, but only at the instant of actual breakthrough do the two forces finally arrive in a perfectly matched, self-sustaining balance — which is presumably part of why that single moment, and only that moment, is capable of the double emergence (from both the sign and from occurrence) established in this subhead's first section. The Paṭisambhidāmagga's own gloss adds a further precision worth noting: it identifies concentration's "resort" as cessation via emergence from restlessness-accompanied defilements, and insight's resort as cessation via emergence from ignorance-accompanied defilements — meaning tranquility and insight are not simply doing the same job twice, but converging on the identical destination (Nibbāna, "cessation") from what are, right up to the very last step, two distinct directions.
yoked together as a pair — yuga (yoke) + naddha (bound, tied); the canonical term (from the Paṭisambhidāmagga and the Yuganaddha Sutta) for tranquility and insight developed in perfect balance, neither ever outrunning the other, achieved fully only at the moment of the noble path.
"having cessation as its resort/pasture" — nirodha (cessation, Nibbāna) + gocara (pasture, feeding-ground, range); describes both concentration and insight as converging on the identical object at the path-moment, despite emerging from two different clusters of defilement (restlessness-linked versus ignorance-linked).
Seventeen Categories of Defilement; the Ten Fetters
The chapter's third and largest topic now opens: which states are abandoned by which of the four path-knowledges. Buddhaghosa first lists the full range of defilement-categories to be mapped — seventeen distinct classificatory schemes drawn from across the canon and Abhidhamma, from fetters and defilements down to unwholesome courses of action and unwholesome consciousnesses — before defining each in turn. The fetters come first: ten states that bind beings to the round of rebirth, divided into five "lower-branch" fetters (that lead to rebirth in the lower, sense-desire realm) and five "upper-branch" fetters (that lead to rebirth in the higher, fine-material and immaterial realms).
Ye yena pahātabbā dhammā, tesaṃ pahānañcāti imesu pana catūsu ñāṇesu ye dhammā yena ñāṇena pahātabbā, tesaṃ pahānañca jānitabbaṃ. Etāni hi yathāyogaṃ saṃyojanakilesamicchattalokadhammamacchariyavipallāsaganthaagatiāsavaoghayoganīvaraṇaparāmāsaupādānaanusayamalaakusalakammapathacittuppādasaṅkhātānaṃ dhammānaṃ pahānakarāni.
Tattha saṃyojanāti khandhehi khandhānaṃ phalena kammassa dukkhena vā sattānaṃ saṃyojakattā rūparāgādayo dasa dhammā vuccanti. Yāvañhi te, tāva etesaṃ anuparamoti. Tatrāpi rūparāgo arūparāgo māno uddhaccaṃ avijjāti ime pañca uddhaṃnibbattanakakhandhādisaṃyojakattā uddhaṃbhāgiyasaṃyojanāni nāma. Sakkāyadiṭṭhi vicikicchā sīlabbataparāmāso kāmarāgo paṭighoti ime pañca adhonibbattanakakhandhādisaṃyojakattā adhobhāgiyasaṃyojanāni nāma.
"The states to be abandoned by each, and the abandoning of them": in these same four knowledges, it should be known which states are to be abandoned by which knowledge, and the abandoning of them. For these, in due order, are what accomplish the abandoning of the states reckoned as fetters, defilements, wrongnesses, worldly conditions, stinginesses, distortions, ties, courses of bias, taints, floods, yokes, hindrances, misapprehension, clingings, underlying tendencies, stains, unwholesome courses of action, and unwholesome consciousnesses.
Herein, "fetters" (saṃyojana) are so called because they fetter beings — the aggregates to the aggregates, by way of result to cause, or by way of kamma to suffering — and are reckoned as the ten states beginning with craving for fine-material existence. For, so long as these exist, there is no cessation of the aggregates and the rest. Among these, craving for fine-material existence, craving for immaterial existence, conceit, restlessness, and ignorance — these five, because they fetter one to the higher-arising aggregates and the rest, are called "the upper-branch fetters." Personality-view, doubt, misapprehension of rules and observances, sensual desire, and ill will — these five, because they fetter one to the lower-arising aggregates and the rest, are called "the lower-branch fetters."
This opening paragraph's list of seventeen categories functions as a table of contents for the entire remaining stretch of this subhead — one of the longest single lists of Abhidhamma classificatory schemes gathered together anywhere in the treatise so far. Rather than treating each category as an isolated topic, it helps to notice that the same handful of specific defilements (wrong view, sensual desire, ill will, ignorance, and so on) simply keep reappearing under different organizing principles: "fetters" groups them by what they bind one to; "defilements" (in the next section) groups a subset of them by their own inherently corrupting nature, and so on through all seventeen. The payoff for this apparent redundancy comes at paragraph 830, several sections ahead, when all seventeen lists get cross-mapped against the four paths at once — a genuinely useful cross-reference for anyone trying to know exactly what is left to abandon at any given stage of the noble path.
The upper/lower-branch division of the ten fetters is worth committing to memory, since it will recur explicitly at paragraph 830: the five lower-branch fetters (personality-view, doubt, misapprehension of rules and observances, sensual desire, ill will) are precisely what binds a being to further rebirth in the sense-desire realm, and are fully eliminated across the first three paths (the first three abandoned entirely by stream-entry, sensual desire and ill will only fully eliminated by non-return); the five upper-branch fetters (craving for fine-material existence, craving for immaterial existence, conceit, restlessness, ignorance) bind one only to the higher fine-material and immaterial realms, and survive even the non-returner, requiring the arahant's path alone to finally uproot them.
fetter — saṃ (together) + yojana (yoking, binding); the ten states — five "lower-branch" and five "upper-branch" — that bind beings to the round of rebirth, distinguished from the related term anusaya (underlying tendency, defined below) by referring to the active binding function rather than the dormant, latent state.
upper-branch and lower-branch — uddhaṃ (upward, above) / adho (downward, below) + bhāgiya (pertaining to a portion, branch); distinguishes the five fetters binding to the higher fine-material/immaterial realms from the five binding to the lower sense-desire realm.
personality-view — sakkāya (the existing body, one's own person, from sat + kāya) + diṭṭhi (view); the view that identifies a permanent self with, or as owner of, one or more of the five aggregates — the very first fetter eliminated, in full, by the path of stream-entry.
Defilements and Wrongnesses
Two more categories follow in quick succession: the ten defilements proper (kilesa) — greed, hatred, delusion, and seven further corrupting states — named for their own inherently corrupting nature and their capacity to corrupt whatever mental states they accompany; and the ten wrongnesses (micchatta) — the eight-factored wrong path (mirroring, in reverse, the noble eight-factored path) together with wrong liberation and wrong knowledge — named simply for occurring wrongly.
Kilesāti sayaṃ saṃkiliṭṭhattā sampayuttadhammānañca saṃkilesikattā lobho doso moho māno diṭṭhi vicikicchā thinaṃ uddhaccaṃ ahirikaṃ anottappanti ime dasa dhammā.
Micchattāti micchāpavattanato micchādiṭṭhi micchāsaṅkappo micchāvācā micchākammanto micchāājīvo micchāvāyāmo micchāsati micchāsamādhīti ime aṭṭha dhammā. Micchāvimuttimicchāñāṇehi vā saddhiṃ dasa.
"Defilements" (kilesā), because they are themselves corrupted and because they corrupt the states associated with them, are these ten states: greed, hatred, delusion, conceit, [wrong] view, doubt, sloth, restlessness, shamelessness, and lack of moral dread.
"Wrongnesses" (micchattā), because they occur wrongly, are these eight states: wrong view, wrong intention, wrong speech, wrong action, wrong livelihood, wrong effort, wrong mindfulness, and wrong concentration. Or, together with wrong liberation and wrong knowledge, ten.
Notice the deliberate overlap between this defilement-list and the fetter-list just given: greed, delusion, conceit, wrong view, and doubt already appeared, in various guises, among the ten fetters, while hatred, sloth, restlessness, shamelessness, and lack of moral dread are genuinely new additions specific to this "defilements" category. This is not redundancy for its own sake but reflects a real difference in classificatory principle — "fetter" names a state by what it binds a being to, while "defilement" names the very same (and some additional) states purely by their own corrupting quality, independent of any binding function. The eight-factored wrong path deserves a moment's attention for its precise, item-by-item mirroring of the noble eightfold path treated throughout this project since chapter sixteen — each wrong factor is not some entirely distinct third thing, but simply the corrupted, unwholesome counterpart occupying the very same functional slot (wrong view opposing right view, wrong effort opposing right effort, and so on).
defilement — from kilissati (to be soiled, corrupted); ten states named for being both inherently corrupted and corrupting of whatever mental states occur alongside them, several of which also appear under other classificatory headings such as fetter and underlying tendency.
shamelessness and lack of moral dread — a (without) + hirika (moral shame) / ottappa (moral dread, fear of wrongdoing); the paired "un-guardians of the world" (contrasted with hiri and ottappa, their wholesome opposites, briefly mentioned in this project's chapter fourteen), included here among the ten defilements.
Worldly Conditions, Stinginesses, and Distortions
Three more categories follow: the eight worldly conditions (gain and loss, fame and disrepute, praise and blame, pleasure and pain) — here understood, by a figurative extension, to stand for the favorable-leaning and unfavorable-leaning reactions of attraction and resentment they provoke, rather than the neutral conditions themselves; the five stinginesses (over dwellings, families, gains, the Dhamma, and praise) — the ungenerous unwillingness to share what should be held in common; and the three distortions of perception, mind, and view, all three converging on the same fourfold mistake of seeing the impermanent, painful, not-self, and repulsive as permanent, pleasant, self, and beautiful.
Lokadhammāti lokappavattiyā sati anuparamadhammakattā lābho alābho yaso ayaso sukhaṃ dukkhaṃ nindā pasaṃsāti ime aṭṭha. Idha pana kāraṇopacārena lābhādivatthukassa anunayassa alābhādivatthukassa paṭighassa cetaṃ lokadhammaggahaṇena gahaṇaṃ katanti veditabbaṃ.
Macchariyānīti āvāsamacchariyaṃ kulamacchariyaṃ lābhamacchariyaṃ dhammamacchariyaṃ vaṇṇamacchariyanti imāsu āvāsādīsu aññesaṃ sādhāraṇabhāvaṃ asahanākārena pavattāni pañca macchariyāni.
Vipallāsāti aniccadukkhaanattaasubhesuyeva vatthūsu "niccaṃ sukhaṃ attā subha"nti evaṃ pavatto saññāvipallāso cittavipallāso diṭṭhivipallāsoti ime tayo.
"Worldly conditions" (lokadhammā), because they are states that do not cease so long as the world continues, are these eight: gain, loss, fame, disrepute, pleasure, pain, blame, and praise. Here, however, it should be understood that, by figurative extension from the cause to the effect, this term "worldly conditions" is used to include the favorable reaction grounded in gain and the rest, and the resentful reaction grounded in loss and the rest.
"Stinginesses" (macchariyāni) are these five: stinginess about one's dwelling, stinginess about one's family, stinginess about one's gains, stinginess about the Dhamma, and stinginess about one's reputation — occurring, with respect to these things — one's dwelling and the rest — in the manner of not tolerating their being shared in common with others.
"Distortions" (vipallāsā) are these three: the distortion of perception, the distortion of mind, and the distortion of view, occurring, with respect to precisely the impermanent, the painful, the not-self, and the repulsive as their basis, in the manner of "permanent, pleasant, self, beautiful."
The figurative extension noted for "worldly conditions" is a small but characteristic piece of Abhidhamma precision: the eight conditions themselves (gain, loss, fame, disrepute, and so on) are simply neutral facts of worldly existence, unavoidable and, in themselves, neither wholesome nor unwholesome — it is only the attached delight or resentful aversion they provoke in an unenlightened mind that counts as something to be "abandoned" by a path-knowledge. The text is careful to flag this as a case of naming a cause by its effect (kāraṇopacāra), a move already familiar from this project's treatment of similar figurative extensions in earlier chapters.
The threefold distortion — of perception, mind, and view, all converging on the identical fourfold mistake — anticipates and connects directly to this chapter's tenth subhead, several sections ahead, where the eighteen great insight-contemplations (aniccānupassanā and the rest) will each be shown abandoning one specific distorted perception in turn. It is worth noting here that only the distortion of view is actually eliminated outright, and only by the path of stream-entry (as paragraph 830 will specify); the distortions of perception and mind concerning the pleasant-in-the-painful survive, in weakened form, until as late as the fourth path — a reminder that seeing correctly (view) and no longer being perceptually or emotionally drawn in by the same old mistake (perception, mind) are two different achievements, unlocked at different stages.
stinginess, avarice — an unwillingness to share what should be held in common, fivefold by its object: one's dwelling, one's family or supporters, one's material gains, the Dhamma itself, and one's own reputation or praise.
distortion, perversion — vi (away, wrongly) + pallāsa (turning); threefold as perception, mind, and view, all converging on the same fourfold mistake of taking the impermanent, painful, not-self, and repulsive to be permanent, pleasant, self, and beautiful — the distortion of view alone is eliminated entirely by stream-entry, the other two only gradually.
"figurative extension from cause to effect" — kāraṇa (cause) + upacāra (figurative usage, application); the interpretive principle explaining why "worldly conditions" (properly the eight neutral facts themselves) is here used to mean the attachment or aversion they provoke.
Ties, Courses of Bias, Taints, Floods, and Yokes
Five further categories follow in a tighter cluster: the four bodily ties (covetousness, ill will, misapprehension of rules and observances, and dogmatic adherence to "this alone is truth") that bind both the mental and physical bodies together; the four courses of bias (acting wrongly out of desire, hatred, delusion, or fear); and the taints, floods, and yokes — three different names for the identical set of four states (sensual desire, desire for existence, wrong view, and ignorance), distinguished only by the particular image each name evokes: taints "flow" continuously like water through an unguarded, cracked vessel; floods and yokes both name the same states' power to drag beings into, or fail to release them from, the ocean of existence.
Ganthāti nāmakāyassa ceva rūpakāyassa ca ganthanato abhijjhādayo cattāro. Tathā hi te abhijjhā kāyagantho, byāpādo kāyagantho, sīlabbataparāmāso kāyagantho, idaṃsaccābhiniveso kāyagantho icceva vuttā.
Agatīti chandadosamohabhayehi akattabbakaraṇassa, kattabbākaraṇassa ca adhivacanaṃ. Tañhi ariyehi agantabbattā agatīti vuccati.
Āsavāti ārammaṇavasena āgotrabhuto, ābhavaggato ca savanā, asaṃvutehi vā dvārehi ghaṭachiddehi udakaṃ viya savanato niccapaggharaṇaṭṭhena saṃsāradukkhassa vā savanato kāmarāgabhavarāgamicchādiṭṭhiavijjānametaṃ adhivacanaṃ.
Bhavasāgare ākaḍḍhanaṭṭhena duruttaraṇaṭṭhena ca oghātipi, ārammaṇaviyogassa ceva dukkhaviyogassa ca appadānato yogātipi tesaññeva adhivacanaṃ.
"Ties" (ganthā), because they tie together the mental body and the physical body, are these four: covetousness, ill will, misapprehension of rules and observances, and dogmatic adherence to "this alone is the truth." For it is thus that they have been spoken of: covetousness is a bodily tie, ill will is a bodily tie, misapprehension of rules and observances is a bodily tie, dogmatic adherence to "this alone is the truth" is a bodily tie.
"Courses of bias" (agatī) is a designation for the doing of what should not be done, and the not-doing of what should be done, out of desire, hatred, delusion, and fear. For it is called a "course of bias" because it is a course the noble ones do not go.
"Taints" (āsavā) is a designation for sensual desire, desire for existence, wrong view, and ignorance, either in the sense of flowing, by way of their object, as far as change-of-lineage, and as far as the peak of existence; or in the sense of continually oozing, as water does through an unguarded door, through the cracks of a broken jar; or in the sense of causing the flow of the suffering of saṃsāra.
In the sense of dragging one into the ocean of existence, and in the sense of being difficult to cross, they are also called "floods"; in the sense of not granting release from the object, and not granting release from suffering, they are also called "yokes" — both being designations for these very same states.
The taints/floods/yokes cluster is a good illustration of a pattern already noted at paragraph 829's opening — the very same underlying states (here, sensual desire, desire for existence, wrong view, and ignorance) simply keep reappearing under fresh names, each name capturing a slightly different aspect of their danger. "Taint" (āsava) emphasizes their continuous, hard-to-notice seepage, like water leaking through an unguarded door or a cracked jar — a domestic, almost mundane image for something with such vast doctrinal weight. "Flood" (ogha) emphasizes their sheer overwhelming force, dragging a being into the ocean of existence against their will. "Yoke" (yoga) emphasizes their binding, restraining function — not permitting release. All three images point at the identical four states, which is precisely why the text says outright that floods and yokes are merely "designations for these very same states" already named as taints.
The four "courses of bias" (agati) deserve a brief note for their distinctly ethical, rather than purely meditative, application: unlike most of the categories in this long list, agati names patterns of unfair or corrupt decision-making — favoritism from desire, unjust harshness from hatred, poor judgment from delusion, or capitulation from fear — the kind of everyday moral failure a person in a position of judgment or authority is specifically warned against in several suttas concerned with fair conduct toward others.
tie, bond — from granth (to tie, knot); four states (covetousness, ill will, misapprehension of rules/observances, dogmatic adherence to one's own view as sole truth) said to "tie together" the mental and physical bodies, binding present experience to its habitual patterns.
taint, canker, influx — from ā + savati (to flow); four states (sensual desire, desire for existence, wrong view, ignorance) named for their continuous, seeping quality, and given the same referents under two further names, ogha (flood) and yoga (yoke), each capturing a different aspect of their power.
"dogmatic adherence to 'this alone is the truth'" — idaṃ (this) + sacca (truth) + abhinivesa (adherence, entrenchment); the fourth bodily tie, naming specifically the conviction that one's own view is the sole correct one, distinct from wrong view (diṭṭhi) itself as a separate fetter.
Hindrances, Misapprehension, and Clingings
Three more familiar categories from earlier chapters are briefly redefined here in their specific bearing on this subhead's abandonment-mapping: the five hindrances that obstruct and conceal the mind; misapprehension itself, treated here as a single state — a synonym for wrong view — that seizes upon a false nature for something by overstepping its true nature; and the four clingings (to sensual pleasures, to views, to rules and observances, and to a doctrine of self), defined by cross-reference to their full treatment already given in the dependent-origination chapter.
Nīvaraṇānīti cittassa āvaraṇanīvaraṇapaṭicchādanaṭṭhena kāmacchandādayo pañca.
Parāmāsoti tassa tassa dhammassa sabhāvaṃ atikkamma parato abhūtaṃ sabhāvaṃ āmasanākārena pavattanato micchādiṭṭhiyā etaṃ adhivacanaṃ.
Upādānānīti sabbākārena paṭiccasamuppādaniddese vuttāni kāmupādānādīni cattāri.
"Hindrances" (nīvaraṇāni), in the sense of obstructing and concealing the mind, are these five, beginning with sensual desire.
"Misapprehension" (parāmāso) is a designation for wrong view, on account of its occurring in the manner of laying hold of a false nature for this or that state by overstepping that state's own true nature.
"Clingings" (upādānāni) are these four, beginning with clinging to sensual pleasures, as already stated in every respect in the description of dependent origination.
Buddhaghosa's brevity here is itself informative — he simply points back to chapter seventeen's own exhaustive treatment of the four clingings within the dependent-origination sequence rather than repeating it, trusting the reader to recall the thief-reaching-in-the-dark-versus-thief-grasping-goods distinction already drawn there between craving and clinging. The definition of "misapprehension" as a synonym for wrong view, rather than as some separate fifth thing, is worth flagging since the term will recur, entirely on its own, as one of the eighteen "great insight-contemplations" catalogued near the chapter's close, where "conformity" (anuloma) is specifically said to abandon the misapprehension that opposes acceptance of the truths — the very same parāmāsa defined here.
hindrance — nī (down) + vṛ (to cover, obstruct); the five states (sensual desire, ill will, sloth-and-torpor, restlessness-and-worry, doubt) that obstruct and conceal the mind, most fully treated in this project's earlier chapters on the development of jhāna.
misapprehension, wrong grasping — parā (beyond, wrongly) + āmasana (touching, handling); here treated as a straightforward synonym for wrong view (diṭṭhi), named for the specific manner in which it seizes upon a false nature for something by exceeding that thing's actual nature.
Underlying Tendencies, Stains, and Unwholesome Courses of Action and Consciousness
The final four categories close out the list: the seven underlying tendencies — dormant, deeply rooted forms of the same defilements already met above, so called because they "lie along with" a being, continually reasserting themselves as the cause for the same defilements' repeated arising; the three stains of greed, hatred, and delusion, so called by comparison to an oil-lamp's own grime, both impure in themselves and a cause of impurity in others; the ten unwholesome courses of action, the standard canonical list from killing through wrong view; and the twelve unwholesome states of consciousness — eight rooted in greed, two in hatred, two in delusion.
Anusayāti thāmagataṭṭhena kāmarāgānusayo, paṭigha, māna, diṭṭhi, vicikicchā, bhavarāga, avijjānusayoti evaṃ vuttā kāmarāgādayo satta. Te hi thāmagatattā punappunaṃ kāmarāgādīnaṃ uppattihetubhāvena anusentiyevāti anusayā.
Malāti telañjanakalalaṃ viya sayañca asuddhattā, aññesañca asuddhabhāvakaraṇato lobhadosamohā tayo.
Akusalakammapathāti akusalakammabhāvena ceva duggatīnañca pathabhāvena pāṇātipāto adinnādānaṃ kāmesumicchācāro musāvādo pisuṇavācā pharusavācā samphappalāpo abhijjhā byāpādo micchādiṭṭhīti ime dasa.
Akusalacittuppādāti lobhamūlā aṭṭha dosamūlā dve mohamūlā dveti ime dvādasa.
"Underlying tendencies" (anusayā), in the sense of having gone into deep-rootedness, are these seven, so called: the underlying tendency to sensual desire, the underlying tendency to aversion, the underlying tendency to conceit, the underlying tendency to view, the underlying tendency to doubt, the underlying tendency to craving for existence, and the underlying tendency to ignorance. For, because they have gone into deep-rootedness, they simply lie along, again and again, as the very cause for the arising of sensual desire and the rest; therefore they are "underlying tendencies."
"Stains" (malā) are these three: greed, hatred, and delusion — like the grime of a lamp's oil, both impure in themselves and a cause of the impure state of others.
"Unwholesome courses of action" (akusalakammapathā), being both a state of unwholesome kamma and a course leading to states of misfortune, are these ten: killing living beings, taking what is not given, sexual misconduct, false speech, malicious speech, harsh speech, idle chatter, covetousness, ill will, and wrong view.
"Unwholesome states of consciousness" (akusalacittuppādā) are these twelve: eight rooted in greed, two rooted in hatred, and two rooted in delusion.
The distinction between a "fetter" and its corresponding "underlying tendency" — both lists share nearly identical membership (sensual desire, ill will/aversion, conceit, view, doubt, craving for existence, ignorance) — is worth stating explicitly, since Buddhaghosa himself leaves it implicit here: a fetter names the state in its active, binding function whenever it actually arises, while an underlying tendency names the very same defilement in its dormant, unmanifest condition, lying latent even when no active occurrence of greed or ill will is currently present in the mind. This distinction becomes doctrinally load-bearing two subheads ahead, in the extended discussion of "plane-gained" (bhūmiladdha) defilements — a category invented precisely to explain how a path-knowledge can be said to "abandon" a defilement that, at the very moment of abandoning, is not even actively occurring.
With this paragraph, all seventeen defilement-categories promised at the start of the subhead have now been defined in full — fetters, defilements, wrongnesses, worldly conditions, stinginesses, distortions, ties, courses of bias, taints, floods, yokes, hindrances, misapprehension, clingings, underlying tendencies, stains, unwholesome courses of action, and unwholesome consciousnesses. The next paragraph turns from definition to application, mapping every single one of these seventeen lists against the four paths to specify exactly what each path-knowledge abandons.
underlying tendency — anu (along with) + śī (to lie); seven deeply rooted, dormant forms of defilement (sensual desire, aversion, conceit, view, doubt, craving for existence, ignorance) that "lie along" with a being as the latent cause for the same defilements' repeated active arising.
stain, impurity — three states (greed, hatred, delusion) compared to the grime (añjana-kalala) that collects in an oil-lamp, both dirty in themselves and a source of dirtying whatever else they touch.
unwholesome course of action — the standard canonical list of ten (three bodily, four verbal, three mental) unwholesome acts, each functioning both as unwholesome kamma in itself and as a "course" or "path" (patha) leading toward states of misfortune.
Mapping the First Five Categories Across the Four Paths
With all seventeen categories now defined, Buddhaghosa works systematically through each one, specifying exactly which of its members falls to which path-knowledge. A single governing convention is announced first: wherever a state is later said to be "an upper-knowledge's task" without further qualification, this means it has already been destroyed with respect to leading to the states of loss and the like by the earlier knowledges, and is finished off completely only by the higher path named.
Iti etesaṃ saṃyojanādīnaṃ dhammānaṃ etāni yathāyogaṃ pahānakarāni. Kathaṃ? Saṃyojanesu tāva sakkāyadiṭṭhi vicikicchā sīlabbataparāmāso apāyagamanīyā ca kāmarāgapaṭighāti ete pañca dhammā paṭhamañāṇavajjhā, sesā kāmarāgapaṭighā oḷārikā dutiyañāṇavajjhā, sukhumā tatiyañāṇavajjhā, rūparāgādayo pañcapi catutthañāṇavajjhā eva. Paratopi ca yattha yattha evasaddena niyamaṃ na karissāma. Tattha tattha yaṃ yaṃ "upariñāṇavajjho"ti vakkhāma, so so purimañāṇehi hatāpāyagamanīyādibhāvova hutvā upariñāṇavajjho hotīti veditabbo.
Kilesesu diṭṭhivicikicchā paṭhamañāṇavajjhā, doso tatiyañāṇavajjho, lobhamohamānathinauddhaccaahirikaanottappāni catutthañāṇavajjhāni.
Micchattesu micchādiṭṭhi musāvādo micchākammanto micchāājīvoti ime paṭhamañāṇavajjhā, micchāsaṅkappo pisuṇavācā pharusavācāti ime tatiyañāṇavajjhā, cetanāyeva cettha vācāti veditabbā. Samphappalāpamicchāvāyāmasatisamādhivimuttiñāṇāni catutthañāṇavajjhāni.
Lokadhammesu paṭigho tatiyañāṇavajjho, anunayo catutthañāṇavajjho, yase ca pasaṃsāya ca anunayo catutthañāṇavajjhoti eke. Macchariyāni paṭhamañāṇavajjhāneva.
Thus, these are the states, beginning with fetters, whose abandoning is accomplished, in due order, by these knowledges. How? Among the fetters, first, personality-view, doubt, misapprehension of rules and observances, and the sensual desire and ill will that lead to the states of loss — these five states are to be slain by the first knowledge; the remaining, coarse sensual desire and ill will are to be slain by the second knowledge; their subtle form, by the third knowledge; and craving for fine-material existence and the remaining four are, every one of them, to be slain only by the fourth knowledge. And, further on too, wherever we do not make a restriction with the word "only," it should be understood, in each such case, that whatever we shall call "to be slain by an upper knowledge" has already had its capacity to lead to the states of loss and the like destroyed by the earlier knowledges, and is to be slain by the upper knowledge only in the sense of its complete elimination.
Among the defilements, [wrong] view and doubt are to be slain by the first knowledge; hatred is to be slain by the third knowledge; greed, delusion, conceit, sloth, restlessness, shamelessness, and lack of moral dread are to be slain by the fourth knowledge.
Among the wrongnesses, wrong view, false speech, wrong action, and wrong livelihood are to be slain by the first knowledge; wrong intention, malicious speech, and harsh speech are to be slain by the third knowledge — here it should be understood that "speech" means precisely the volition involved. Idle chatter, wrong effort, wrong mindfulness, wrong concentration, wrong liberation, and wrong knowledge are to be slain by the fourth knowledge.
Among the worldly conditions, resentment is to be slain by the third knowledge; favorable reaction is to be slain by the fourth knowledge — favorable reaction with respect to fame and to praise, too, is to be slain by the fourth knowledge, according to some. The stinginesses are to be slain only by the first knowledge.
The governing convention stated at the outset — that "to be slain by an upper knowledge," unqualified, means the state's dangerous, rebirth-determining power was already broken earlier, with only its final residue left for the higher path to finish — is a genuinely important interpretive key for reading everything that follows, and it is easy to misread the mapping without it. When the text says, for instance, that craving for fine-material existence is "to be slain only by the fourth knowledge," this does not mean the first three paths leave it entirely untouched; it means only that no path before the fourth removes even a trace of it, which is a real claim, distinct from the more common pattern (as with the fetters of sensual desire and ill will) where a state is first weakened, then only later fully eliminated.
The pattern across all four categories mapped in this section is worth noticing as a whole: wrong view, doubt, misapprehension, and their closely allied wrongnesses (false speech, wrong action, wrong livelihood, stinginess) are uniformly first-knowledge casualties — confirming that stream-entry's single decisive accomplishment is the total uprooting of wrong view in every one of its many guises, while hatred-linked states cluster at the third knowledge (non-return, which fully removes ill will) and the more stubborn, subtle defilements — greed, delusion, conceit, restlessness, the two worldly-condition reactions of resentment's counterpart and favorable attachment — persist all the way to the fourth.
"to be slain by the first/third/fourth knowledge" — vajjha (to be killed, slain, from vadh); the recurring technical shorthand used throughout this mapping to assign each defilement to the specific path-knowledge that finally eliminates it (no state in this whole mapping is assigned uniquely to the second knowledge — once-return only ever weakens what stream-entry has not yet touched).
favorable reaction and resentment — anunaya (attraction, indulgence, from anu + nī) and paṭigha (repugnance, aversion, from paṭi + han, to strike against); the two opposite reactions to the eight worldly conditions, treated here as what the "worldly conditions" category actually refers to by figurative extension, as explained above.
Mapping the Remaining Twelve Categories Across the Four Paths
The exhaustive cross-mapping continues through all twelve remaining categories — distortions, ties, the single course of bias, taints and floods and yokes together, hindrances, misapprehension, clingings, underlying tendencies, stains, unwholesome courses of action, and unwholesome states of consciousness — before a single closing sentence states the underlying principle running through the entire enumeration: whatever is "to be slain" by a given knowledge simply is, by definition, "to be abandoned" by that same knowledge.
Vipallāsesu anicce niccaṃ, anattani attāti ca saññācittadiṭṭhivipallāsā, dukkhe sukhaṃ, asubhe subhanti diṭṭhivipallāso cāti ime paṭhamañāṇavajjhā, asubhe subhanti saññācittavipallāsā tatiyañāṇavajjhā, dukkhe sukhanti saññācittavipallāsā catutthañāṇavajjhā.
Ganthesu sīlabbataparāmasaidaṃsaccābhinivesakāyaganthā paṭhamañāṇavajjhā, byāpādakāyagantho tatiyañāṇavajjho, itaro catutthañāṇavajjho.
Agati paṭhamañāṇavajjhāva.
Āsavesu diṭṭhāsavo paṭhamañāṇavajjho, kāmāsavo tatiyañāṇavajjho, itare dve catutthañāṇavajjhā. Oghayogesupi eseva nayo.
Nīvaraṇesu vicikicchānīvaraṇaṃ paṭhamañāṇavajjhaṃ, kāmacchando byāpādo kukkuccanti tīṇi tatiyañāṇavajjhāni, thinamiddhauddhaccāni catutthañāṇavajjhāni.
Parāmāso paṭhamañāṇavajjhova.
Upādānesu sabbesampi lokiyadhammānaṃ vatthukāmavasena kāmāti āgatattā rūpārūparāgopi kāmupādāne patati, tasmā taṃ catutthañāṇavajjhaṃ, sesāni paṭhamañāṇavajjhāni.
Anusayesu diṭṭhivicikicchānusayā paṭhamañāṇavajjhāva, kāmarāgapaṭighānusayā tatiyañāṇavajjhā, mānabhavarāgāvijjānusayā catutthañāṇavajjhā.
Malesu dosamalaṃ tatiyañāṇavajjhaṃ, itarāni catutthañāṇavajjhāni.
Akusalakammapathesu pāṇātipāto adinnādānaṃ micchācāro musāvādo micchādiṭṭhīti ime paṭhamañāṇavajjhā, pisuṇavācā pharusavācā byāpādoti tayo tatiyañāṇavajjhā, samphappalāpābhijjhā catutthañāṇavajjhā.
Akusalacittuppādesu cattāro diṭṭhigatasampayuttā vicikicchāsampayutto cāti pañca paṭhamañāṇavajjhāva, dve paṭighasampayuttā tatiyañāṇavajjhā, sesā catutthañāṇavajjhāti.
Yañca yena vajjhaṃ, taṃ tena pahātabbaṃ nāma. Tena vuttaṃ "iti etesaṃ saṃyojanādīnaṃ dhammānaṃ etāni yathāyogaṃ pahānakarānī"ti.
Among the distortions, the distortion of perception, mind, and view that occurs as "permanent" with respect to the impermanent, and as "self" with respect to the not-self, together with the distortion of view that occurs as "pleasant" with respect to the painful, and as "beautiful" with respect to the repulsive — these are to be slain by the first knowledge; the distortion of perception and mind that occurs as "beautiful" with respect to the repulsive is to be slain by the third knowledge; the distortion of perception and mind that occurs as "pleasant" with respect to the painful is to be slain by the fourth knowledge.
Among the ties, the bodily ties of misapprehension of rules and observances, and of dogmatic adherence to "this alone is the truth," are to be slain by the first knowledge; the bodily tie of ill will is to be slain by the third knowledge; the remaining one, by the fourth knowledge.
The course of bias is to be slain only by the first knowledge.
Among the taints, the taint of view is to be slain by the first knowledge; the taint of sensual desire is to be slain by the third knowledge; the remaining two are to be slain by the fourth knowledge. The same method applies to the floods and the yokes as well.
Among the hindrances, the hindrance of doubt is to be slain by the first knowledge; sensual desire, ill will, and worry — these three — are to be slain by the third knowledge; sloth-and-torpor and restlessness are to be slain by the fourth knowledge.
Misapprehension is to be slain only by the first knowledge.
Among the clingings, since even craving for fine-material and immaterial existence has come down as included under "sensual" by way of being a basis for all mundane states, it too falls under clinging to sensual pleasures; therefore it is to be slain by the fourth knowledge; the rest are to be slain by the first knowledge.
Among the underlying tendencies, the underlying tendencies to view and to doubt are to be slain only by the first knowledge; the underlying tendencies to sensual desire and to aversion are to be slain by the third knowledge; the underlying tendencies to conceit, to craving for existence, and to ignorance are to be slain by the fourth knowledge.
Among the stains, the stain of hatred is to be slain by the third knowledge; the remaining ones are to be slain by the fourth knowledge.
Among the unwholesome courses of action, killing living beings, taking what is not given, sexual misconduct, false speech, and wrong view — these are to be slain by the first knowledge; malicious speech, harsh speech, and ill will — these three — are to be slain by the third knowledge; idle chatter and covetousness are to be slain by the fourth knowledge.
Among the unwholesome states of consciousness, the four associated with wrong view, together with the one associated with doubt — these five — are to be slain only by the first knowledge; the two associated with aversion are to be slain by the third knowledge; the rest are to be slain by the fourth knowledge.
And whatever is to be slain by a given knowledge is called "to be abandoned" by that same knowledge. With reference to this it was said, "thus, these are the states, beginning with fetters, whose abandoning is accomplished, in due order, by these knowledges."
Read across all seventeen categories at once, a single unmistakable pattern emerges, one the text itself never states in so many words but clearly intends the reader to notice: the first path-knowledge is overwhelmingly the "view and doubt" knowledge, eliminating every single view-linked and doubt-linked item across every one of the seventeen lists in one stroke — personality-view, the view-underlying-tendency, the view-taint, the doubt-hindrance, wrong view among the unwholesome courses of action, and so on — while contributing almost nothing to the elimination of greed, hatred, or delusion as such. The third knowledge is, with equal consistency, the "aversion/ill-will" knowledge, and the fourth knowledge mops up everything else: the subtler forms of greed, conceit, restlessness, delusion, and ignorance that no earlier path even begins to touch. No single item, across all seventeen lists and dozens of named states, is ever assigned uniquely to the second knowledge (once-return) — a striking asymmetry that confirms once-return's own more modest role, announced back in paragraph 813, as a knowledge that only attenuates what stream-entry has already begun to weaken, rather than completing the elimination of anything new in its own right.
The single closing sentence of this immense enumeration — "whatever is to be slain by a given knowledge is called 'to be abandoned' by that same knowledge" — looks almost too simple to need stating after such an elaborate mapping, but it performs real philosophical work: it establishes that "abandoning" (pahāna) throughout this whole subhead means nothing more mysterious than what the ordinary verb "to slay" (vajjha) already meant, forestalling any temptation to read some additional, separate act of "abandoning" happening after the "slaying" is already complete. This distinction between slaying and a further, separate abandoning is precisely what the next paragraph's philosophical puzzle will interrogate from an entirely different angle.
worry, remorse — often paired with uddhacca (restlessness) as the fourth hindrance, but distinguished here and assigned separately to the third knowledge (unlike restlessness itself, which survives to the fourth) — worry over past misdeeds naturally subsides once the ill-will-driven agitation behind it is uprooted by non-return.
"associated with wrong view" — diṭṭhigata (gone into [wrong] view, i.e. wrong view itself) + sampayutta (associated, conjoined); describes four of the eight greed-rooted unwholesome consciousnesses, distinguished from the other four greed-rooted consciousnesses that arise without any accompanying wrong view.
A Hard Question: Are Defilements Abandoned in the Past, Future, or Present?
Having mapped exactly which defilements each path abandons, the text now interrogates the very notion of "abandoning" itself with a classic Paṭisambhidāmagga dialectic. If defilements are abandoned in the past or future, the effort is fruitless, since what is past or future does not exist to be abandoned. If they are abandoned in the present, the effort is equally fruitless, since a present defilement would have to coexist, absurdly, with the very path-consciousness abandoning it — and no defilement is ever actually dissociated from its own consciousness in that way. All three possibilities are systematically refuted by direct quotation from the Paṭisambhidāmagga itself, driving the argument to an apparently devastating conclusion: if none of the three times will do, then there is no path-development, no realization of fruition, no abandoning of defilements, and no penetration of the truths at all.
Kiṃ panetāni ete dhamme atītānāgate pajahanti udāhu paccuppanneti. Kiṃ panettha yadi tāva atītānāgate, aphalo vāyāmo āpajjati. Kasmā? Pahātabbānaṃ natthitāya. Atha paccuppanne, tathāpi aphalo, vāyāmena saddhiṃ pahātabbānaṃ atthitāya, saṃkilesikā ca maggabhāvanā āpajjati, vippayuttatā vā kilesānaṃ, na ca paccuppannakileso cittavippayutto nāma atthīti. Nāyaṃ āveṇikā codanā. Pāḷiyaṃyeva hi "svāyaṃ kilese pajahati, atīte kilese pajahati, anāgate kilese pajahati, paccuppanne kilese pajahatī"ti vatvā, puna "hañci atīte kilese pajahati, tenahi khīṇaṃ khepeti, niruddhaṃ nirodheti, vigataṃ vigameti, atthaṅgataṃ atthaṅgameti. Atītaṃ yaṃ natthi, taṃ pajahatī"ti ca vatvā, "na atīte kilese pajahatī"ti paṭikkhittaṃ.
Tathā "hañci anāgate kilese pajahati, tenahi ajātaṃ pajahati, anibbattaṃ pajahati, anuppannaṃ pajahati, apātubhūtaṃ pajahati. Anāgataṃ yaṃ natthi, taṃ pajahatī"ti ca vatvā, "na anāgate kilese pajahatī"ti paṭikkhittaṃ.
Tathā "hañci paccuppanne kilese pajahati, tenahi ratto rāgaṃ pajahati. Duṭṭho dosaṃ, mūḷho mohaṃ, vinibaddho mānaṃ, parāmaṭṭho diṭṭhiṃ, vikkhepagato uddhaccaṃ, aniṭṭhaṅgato vicikicchaṃ, thāmagato anusayaṃ pajahati. Kaṇhasukkā dhammā yuganaddhāva vattanti. Saṃkilesikā maggabhāvanā hotī"ti ca vatvā, "na atīte kilese pajahati, na anāgate, na paccuppanne kilese pajahatī"ti sabbaṃ paṭikkhipitvā, "tenahi natthi maggabhāvanā, natthi phalasacchikiriyā, natthi kilesappahānaṃ, natthi dhammābhisamayo"ti pañhāpariyosāne "na hi natthi maggabhāvanā…pe… natthi dhammābhisamayo"ti paṭijānitvā "yathā kathaṃ viyā"ti vutte idaṃ vuttaṃ –
But do these knowledges abandon these states in the past and future, or in the present? Now, herein, if, first, in the past and future, then the effort turns out to be fruitless. Why? Because of the non-existence of what is to be abandoned. But if in the present, then likewise it turns out to be fruitless, because of the existence, together with the effort, of what is to be abandoned; moreover, this would entail either that the development of the path is defiling, or that the defilements are dissociated from the mind — yet there is no such thing as a present defilement dissociated from consciousness. This is not an objection peculiar to us. For, in the very text itself, having said, "this person abandons defilements: he abandons defilements of the past, he abandons defilements of the future, he abandons defilements of the present," it was then said, "if he abandons defilements of the past, then he uses up what is already used up, he causes the cessation of what has already ceased, he causes the disappearance of what has already disappeared, he causes the ending of what has already ended. He abandons what does not exist, the past" — and then it was refuted: "he does not abandon defilements of the past."
Likewise, having said, "if he abandons defilements of the future, then he abandons what is unborn, he abandons what has not come to be, he abandons what has not arisen, he abandons what has not become manifest. He abandons what does not exist, the future" — it was refuted: "he does not abandon defilements of the future."
Likewise, having said, "if he abandons defilements of the present, then one who is inflamed abandons lust; one who is hating abandons hatred; one who is deluded abandons delusion; one who is bound abandons conceit; one who has misapprehended abandons view; one who is distracted abandons restlessness; one who is unresolved abandons doubt; one whose latent tendency has gone into deep-rootedness abandons the underlying tendency. Dark and bright states occur yoked together as a pair. The development of the path turns out to be defiling" — and having thus refuted all three, "he does not abandon defilements of the past, nor of the future, nor of the present" — then, at the conclusion of the question, "if so, then there is no development of the path, no realization of the fruit, no abandoning of defilements, no penetration of the states" — it was acknowledged: "it is not so that there is no development of the path... no penetration of the states." And when it was asked, "how, then, is it?", this was said —
This is a genuine philosophical aporia, deliberately constructed and deliberately pushed to its most uncomfortable conclusion before any resolution is offered — a rhetorical strategy this project has already met in chapter sixteen's dialectical defense of Nibbāna's existence against its own series of objections. The trap has three jaws, each closing off one of the only three times a defilement could logically be abandoned in: the past and future fail simply because what does not currently exist cannot meaningfully be said to be acted upon at all (one cannot "use up what is already used up"); the present fails for a subtler reason — a defilement, by definition, cannot be simultaneously present in a mind and also be the object that very same mind's path-consciousness is in the process of eliminating, since a present defilement is never dissociated from the consciousness it defiles (an inflamed mind cannot, at that very moment, also be the undefiled mind abandoning inflammation).
The passage's own procedure is worth appreciating on its own terms: rather than softening or hedging the objection, the text states it in the sharpest possible form — driving all the way to the extreme conclusion that there is, therefore, no path-development, no fruition, no abandoning, and no truth-penetration whatsoever — before immediately and flatly rejecting that conclusion as false, and only then, in the paragraph that follows, actually supplying the resolution. This willingness to state the strongest form of an objection before answering it is a mark of intellectual honesty rare enough to be worth noting explicitly, and it sets up the tree-root simile that follows as something earned through genuine argumentative pressure, not merely asserted.
"an objection peculiar to us" — āveṇika (unique, exclusive) + codanā (objection, challenge); Buddhaghosa's own aside noting that this dialectic is not an invented rhetorical device of his own but is drawn directly from the canonical Paṭisambhidāmagga itself, lending it full scriptural authority.
"dissociated from consciousness" — citta (mind, consciousness) + vippayutta (dissociated, unassociated); the impossible condition a present-tense defilement would need to satisfy in order to be simultaneously present and yet separately abandonable — a condition the text flatly denies can ever obtain.
"dark and bright states occurring yoked together as a pair" — kaṇha (dark, black) + sukka (bright, white) + yuganaddha (yoked as a pair, met already above in the union of tranquility and insight); here used pointedly to describe the absurd consequence of the present-abandonment thesis — a defiled ("dark") state and the very path ("bright") eliminating it occurring simultaneously, as though yoked together.
The Resolution: The Young Tree Cut at the Root
The Paṭisambhidāmagga now supplies its own resolution, by way of a single agricultural image: a young tree that has not yet borne fruit, cut down at its root, will never produce the fruits it would otherwise have produced — not because those never-existing future fruits are somehow directly destroyed, but because their cause, the arising-condition itself, has been eliminated. Path-knowledge abandons defilements in exactly this sense: not by reaching into the past or future to strike at defilements that do not exist there, and not by coexisting absurdly with present ones, but by seeing the danger in arising itself and thereby destroying the very cause — arising, occurrence, the sign, effort — through which future defilements would otherwise, without fail, have come to be.
"Seyyathāpi taruṇo rukkho ajātaphalo, tamenaṃ puriso mūle chindeyya, ye tassa rukkhassa ajātaphalā, te ajātāyeva na jāyanti, anibbattāyeva na nibbattanti, anuppannāyeva na uppajjanti, apātubhūtāyeva na pātubhavanti, evameva uppādo hetu uppādo paccayo kilesānaṃ nibbattiyāti uppāde ādīnavaṃ disvā anuppāde cittaṃ pakkhandati, anuppāde cittassa pakkhandattā ye āyūhanapaccayā kilesā nibbatteyyuṃ, te ajātāyeva na jāyanti…pe… apātubhūtāyeva na pātubhavanti, evaṃ hetunirodhā dukkhanirodho. Pavattaṃ hetu…pe… nimittaṃ hetu…pe… āyūhanā hetu…pe… anāyūhane cittassa pakkhandattā ye āyūhanapaccayā kilesā nibbatteyyuṃ, te ajātāyeva…pe… apātubhūtāyeva na pātubhavanti, evaṃ hetunirodhā dukkhanirodho. Evaṃ atthi maggabhāvanā, atthi phalasacchikiriyā, atthi kilesappahānaṃ, atthi dhammābhisamayo"ti.
"Just as a young tree, whose fruits have not yet come to be, were a man to cut it at the root, then whatever fruits of that tree have not yet come to be — being unborn, they simply do not come to birth; being unproduced, they simply are not produced; being unarisen, they simply do not arise; being unmanifest, they simply do not become manifest — in just the same way: arising is the cause, arising is the condition, for the production of defilements. Having seen the danger in arising, the mind leaps forward into non-arising. Because of the mind's having leapt forward into non-arising, whatever defilements would have been produced through the condition of accumulation — being unborn, they simply do not come to birth... being unmanifest, they simply do not become manifest. Thus, through the cessation of the cause, there is the cessation of suffering. Occurrence is the cause... the sign is the cause... accumulation is the cause... because of the mind's having leapt forward into non-accumulation, whatever defilements would have been produced through the condition of accumulation — being unborn... being unmanifest, they simply do not become manifest. Thus, through the cessation of the cause, there is the cessation of suffering. Thus, there is development of the path, there is realization of the fruit, there is abandoning of defilements, there is penetration of the states."
The tree-root simile resolves the three-times puzzle by quietly rejecting its own hidden premise — that "abandoning a defilement" must mean directly striking some already-existing or someday-to-exist particular defilement-instance, located at some point on the timeline. What actually happens, the simile insists, is structurally different: the path-knowledge does not travel back or forward in time to strike defilements where they are not; it strikes the single, ever-present cause (arising itself, hetu) whose ongoing operation would otherwise, without fail, have gone on producing fresh defilement-instances indefinitely into the future. Cut the root, and the countless fruits the tree would have borne over its whole remaining lifespan simply never occur — not one of them individually destroyed, since none of them ever came into being to be destroyed in the first place. This is why the passage can say, with a straight face, both that future defilements do not exist to be abandoned and that path-knowledge genuinely, truly abandons them: the "abandoning" operates one causal step upstream of the defilements themselves, on arising, occurrence, the sign, and accumulation — the four causal factors named here, each explicitly given the same treatment via the source text's own peyyāla abbreviation.
This same "cut the cause, not the effect" logic quietly underwrites everything this entire multi-chapter translation project has been building toward since chapter seventeen's treatment of dependent origination: if defilements arose from genuinely independent, freestanding causes with no shared root, no single moment of insight could ever eliminate an entire category of future suffering at a stroke. It is precisely because craving and ignorance function as the shared "root" for endlessly proliferating future defilement-instances that a single path-moment, striking that root once, can be said to accomplish what looks, from the outside, like an almost impossibly large task — guaranteeing, with total certainty, that specific classes of defilement will never arise again for the rest of that person's existence.
"having seen the danger in arising" — uppāda (arising) + ādīnava (danger, drawback, a term already familiar from this project's earlier chapters' contemplation of danger) + disvā (having seen); names the specific insight that triggers the mind's "leap forward" into non-arising, treating arising itself, not any particular arisen thing, as the object of danger-contemplation.
"leaps forward into" — pa (forward) + khandati (to jump, leap); the same verb already used in this chapter's own opening definition of gotrabhū ("it leaps forward into non-arising") and now explained as the specific mechanism by which insight into arising's danger converts directly into the elimination of future defilement-production.
"through the cessation of the cause, there is the cessation of suffering" — hetu (cause) + nirodha (cessation) + dukkha (suffering); a compact restatement of the dependent-origination principle from chapter seventeen, applied here specifically to explain how eliminating a cause (arising, occurrence, sign, or accumulation) eliminates effects that, from the causal standpoint, never even needed to exist independently in order to be truly prevented.
What Is Actually Abandoned: Four Kinds of "Arisen"
Having resolved the puzzle, Buddhaghosa now names, precisely, what kind of defilement genuinely gets abandoned: not past, future, or ordinarily present defilements, but specifically "plane-gained" (bhūmiladdha) ones. A fresh, fourfold classification of "arisen" (uppanna) is introduced to make this precise: arising as actually-occurring in the present moment; arising as a spent, already-experienced-and-gone event (including even a fully time-lapsed but still result-producing kamma); arising as an "opportunity-made" certainty (kamma that, though itself past, has secured an opportunity for its own future result); and arising as "plane-gained" — the specific technical sense meant here, referring to unabandoned unwholesome states not yet uprooted from their proper "plane."
Etena kiṃ dīpitaṃ hoti? Bhūmiladdhānaṃ kilesānaṃ pahānaṃ dīpitaṃ hoti. Bhūmiladdhā pana kiṃ atītānāgatā udāhu paccuppannāti. Bhūmiladdhuppannā eva nāma te.
Uppannaṃ hi vattamānabhūtāpagatokāsakatabhūmiladdhavasena anekappabhedaṃ. Tattha sabbampi uppādajarābhaṅgasamaṅgisaṅkhātaṃ vattamānuppannaṃ nāma. Ārammaṇarasaṃ anubhavitvā niruddhaṃ anubhūtāpagatasaṅkhātaṃ kusalākusalaṃ uppādādittayaṃ anuppatvā niruddhaṃ bhūtāpagatasaṅkhātaṃ sesasaṅkhatañca bhūtāpagatuppannaṃ nāma. "Yānissa tāni pubbekatāni kammānī"ti evamādinā nayena vuttaṃ kammaṃ atītampi samānaṃ aññaṃ vipākaṃ paṭibāhitvā attano vipākassokāsaṃ katvā ṭhitattā tathā katokāsañca vipākaṃ anuppannampi samānaṃ evaṃ kate okāse ekantena uppajjanato okāsakatuppannaṃ nāma. Tāsu tāsu bhūmīsu asamūhataṃ akusalaṃ bhūmiladdhuppannaṃ nāma.
What is illuminated by this? The abandoning of plane-gained defilements is illuminated by this. But are plane-gained defilements past, future, or present? They are simply called "plane-gained-arisen."
For "arisen" is of many kinds, by way of the actually-occurring, the been-and-gone, the opportunity-made, and the plane-gained. Herein, all that is reckoned as possessing arising, aging, and dissolution is called "actually-occurring-arisen." Wholesome and unwholesome kamma that, having experienced the flavor of its object, has ceased, is reckoned as "experienced-and-gone"; and the remaining conditioned states that, having reached the triad beginning with arising, have ceased, reckoned as "been-and-gone" — this is called "been-and-gone-arisen." Kamma spoken of by the method beginning, "whatever deeds were previously done by him" — though itself past, because, by having warded off any other result, it has secured an opportunity for its own result, that result, though itself not yet arisen, arises without fail once the opportunity has thus been secured — this is called "opportunity-made-arisen." Unwholesome states not yet eradicated in their respective planes are called "plane-gained-arisen."
This fourfold classification is doing very careful conceptual work, and it helps to see all four side by side as answers to a single implicit question: "in what sense can something be called 'arisen' without simply meaning 'occurring right now'?" The first kind, "actually-occurring," is indeed just the ordinary present-tense sense already ruled out by the previous section's dialectic. The second, "been-and-gone," covers anything — wholesome, unwholesome, or neutral — that has already run its full course and ceased; this too is not what path-knowledge abandons, since it no longer exists to be abandoned. The third, "opportunity-made," is a genuinely striking category: a kamma that is itself long past can nonetheless be said to have "secured an opportunity" for a specific future result in the sense that it has already foreclosed other possible results from occupying that same causal slot — a subtle point about how kamma can determine a future outcome's shape without the kammic act itself needing to persist across time.
It is only the fourth category, "plane-gained," that finally answers the puzzle: a plane-gained defilement is neither actually occurring, nor already spent, nor merely a secured future opportunity — it is, quite specifically, an unwholesome state not yet eradicated from its "plane" (bhūmi), a term the next paragraph will define with great precision as the five aggregates themselves, taken as vipassanā's own object, rather than as any particular timed event. This is the technical maneuver that finally escapes the three-times trap: a plane-gained defilement's "existence" is not a matter of temporal location at all, but of an ongoing latent liability attached to a particular basis (vatthu) — exactly the distinction the next section develops in full.
plane-gained — bhūmi (plane, ground, sphere) + laddha (obtained, gained); the specific technical sense of "arisen" that a path-knowledge actually abandons — not a temporally located event, but an unwholesome state's continuing, unabandoned liability with respect to a given "plane" of the five aggregates.
"opportunity-made-arisen" — okāsa (opportunity, room) + kata (made) + uppanna (arisen); describes a past kamma's peculiar capacity to secure, in advance, the specific causal "slot" its own future result will occupy, even while the kamma itself no longer exists as an active event.
Plane and Plane-Gained: Not the Same Thing
A crucial distinction now follows: "plane" (bhūmi) means the five aggregates of the three planes of existence taken as insight's own object, while "plane-gained" (bhūmiladdha) means specifically the not-yet-arisen defilement-potential lodged within those same aggregates as their basis (vatthu) — never determined merely by whether a given aggregate happens to be an object of attention. A vivid counter-example makes the point unmistakably: defilements can and do arise even with reference to a fully liberated arahant's own aggregates as their object — as when the wealthy merchant Soreyya, or the young man Nanda, felt lustful attraction on seeing the elder Mahākaccāna or the enlightened nun Uppalavaṇṇā respectively — proving decisively that "plane-gained" cannot mean "wherever a defilement happens to take its object," but only "wherever, as an unabandoned basis, it continues to lie latent."
Ettha ca bhūmiyā bhūmiladdhassa ca nānattaṃ veditabbaṃ. Bhūmīti hi vipassanāya ārammaṇabhūtā tebhūmakā pañcakkhandhā. Bhūmiladdhaṃ nāma tesu khandhesu uppattirahaṃ kilesajātaṃ. Tenahi sā bhūmi laddhā nāma hotīti tasmā bhūmiladdhanti vuccati, sā ca kho na ārammaṇavasena. Ārammaṇavasena hi sabbepi atītānāgate pariññātepi ca khīṇāsavānaṃ khandhe ārabbha kilesā uppajjanti mahākaccānauppalavaṇṇādīnaṃ khandhe ārabbha soreyyaseṭṭhi nandamāṇavakādīnaṃ viya. Yadi ca taṃ bhūmiladdhaṃ nāma siyā, tassa appaheyyato na koci bhavamūlaṃ pajaheyya. Vatthuvasena pana bhūmiladdhaṃ veditabbaṃ. Yattha yattha hi vipassanāya apariññātā khandhā uppajjanti, tattha tattha uppādato pabhuti tesu vaṭṭamūlaṃ kilesajātaṃ anuseti. Taṃ appahīnaṭṭhena bhūmiladdhanti veditabbaṃ.
And here, the difference between "plane" and "plane-gained" should be understood. "Plane" (bhūmi) means the five aggregates belonging to the three planes of existence, which are the object of insight. "Plane-gained" means the kind of defilement fit to arise within those very aggregates. Because that plane has thus, as it were, "been gained" by the defilement, it is therefore called "plane-gained" — but not in the sense of being its object. For, taken in the sense of object, defilements arise even with reference to the aggregates of those whose taints are destroyed — past, future, and even fully-understood aggregates alike — just as, with reference to the aggregates of the elders Mahākaccāna and Uppalavaṇṇā and the like, defilements arose in the merchant Soreyya, the young man Nanda, and the like. And if that were what "plane-gained" meant, then, since it would be impossible to abandon, no one could ever abandon the root of existence at all. Rather, "plane-gained" should be understood by way of basis. For, wherever aggregates not fully understood by insight arise, there, from the very moment of their arising, the defilement that is the root of the round of existence lies latent within them. That, in the sense of not yet being abandoned, should be understood as "plane-gained."
The Soreyya and Nanda examples are doing exactly the kind of decisive philosophical work a well-chosen counter-example should do: both stories (drawn from well-known canonical narratives — Soreyya's infamous sex-change episode brought on by lustful thoughts toward the elder Mahākaccāna, and the young Nanda's attraction toward the arahant nun Uppalavaṇṇā) establish beyond doubt that a fully purified arahant's own aggregates can serve as the mere object of someone else's arising lust, without this implying anything whatsoever about defilement lurking within the arahant. If "plane-gained" meant simply "any aggregate that can serve as an object for defilement to arise regarding," the text points out with almost comic bluntness, then no root of existence could ever be abandoned by anyone, since literally any aggregate anywhere — including a Buddha's own — can, in principle, become the object of someone else's misdirected craving.
The positive definition that resolves this — plane-gained is a matter of "basis" (vatthu), not "object" (ārammaṇa) — draws on a distinction already familiar from earlier chapters' Abhidhamma analysis of mental factors, where a citta's "object" (what it is aware of) and its physical or aggregate "basis" (what it depends on for its own arising) are carefully kept separate. Here the distinction does heavier lifting than usual: it is only the meditator's own unabandoned, insight-untouched aggregates — never someone else's, however defiled the observer's reaction to them might be — that carry the latent "root of existence" the text is actually concerned with abandoning.
basis, foundation, physical support — distinguished sharply here from ārammaṇa (object): a defilement's "basis" is the set of aggregates it latently depends on and continues to lie within, whereas its "object" is merely whatever it happens to be aware of or directed toward, which may belong to someone else entirely.
"the root of the round of existence" — vaṭṭa (the round, i.e. of rebirth, saṃsāra) + mūla (root); the deep-seated defilement-potential that keeps a being circulating through rebirth, which is what "plane-gained," properly understood by way of basis rather than object, is actually tracking.
two figures from well-known canonical narratives cited here purely as illustrative examples: Soreyya, a wealthy young man whose lustful thought toward the elder Mahākaccāna triggered a dramatic change of sex, and the young Nanda, drawn to the beauty of the arahant nun Uppalavaṇṇā — both proving that a fully purified person's aggregates can be the innocent object of another's defiled reaction.
Which Aggregates Are the Basis for Which Unabandoned Defilements
The basis-principle is now applied with exacting precision: for any given person, only that person's own specific unabandoned aggregates — past, future, sense-sphere, fine-material, or immaterial, according to whichever ones the latent defilement has not yet been uprooted from — actually count as that defilement's "basis," never some other person's aggregates, however superficially similar. For a stream-enterer, once-returner, or non-returner, the aggregates in which a given path has already eliminated its corresponding root-defilement no longer count as a "plane" for that defilement at all. For the uninstructed worldling, by contrast, every kammic act — wholesome or unwholesome — keeps the round turning, because the root of the round remains, without exception, unabandoned across all five aggregates equally, never confined to any single one of them alone.
Tattha ca yassa yesu khandhesu appahīnaṭṭhena anusayitā kilesā, tassa te eva khandhā tesaṃ kilesānaṃ vatthu, na aññesaṃ santakā khandhā. Atītakkhandhesu ca appahīnānusayitānaṃ kilesānaṃ atītakkhandhāva vatthu, na itare. Esa nayo anāgatādīsu. Tathā kāmāvacarakkhandhesu appahīnānusayitānaṃ kilesānaṃ kāmāvacarakkhandhāva vatthu, na itare. Esa nayo rūpārūpāvacaresu. Sotāpannādīsu pana yassa yassa ariyapuggalassa khandhesu taṃ taṃ vaṭṭamūlaṃ kilesajātaṃ tena tena maggena pahīnaṃ, tassa tassa te te khandhā pahīnānaṃ tesaṃ tesaṃ vaṭṭamūlakilesānaṃ avatthuto bhūmīti saṅkhaṃ na labhanti. Puthujjanassa sabbasova vaṭṭamūlakilesānaṃ appahīnattā yaṃkiñci kariyamānaṃ kammaṃ kusalaṃ akusalaṃ vā hoti. Iccassa kammakilesapaccayā vaṭṭaṃ vaṭṭati. Tassetaṃ vaṭṭamūlaṃ rūpakkhandheyeva, na vedanākkhandhādīsu. Viññāṇakkhandheyeva vā, na rūpakkhandhādīsūti na vattabbaṃ. Kasmā? Avisesena pañcasupi khandhesu anusayitattā.
Herein, in whatever aggregates of a given person defilements lie latent in the sense of not yet being abandoned, those very aggregates, and no others belonging to anyone else, are the basis for those defilements. And, among past aggregates, only the past aggregates — not the others — are the basis for defilements latent there in the sense of not yet being abandoned. The same method applies to future aggregates, and so on. Likewise, among sense-sphere aggregates, only the sense-sphere aggregates — not the others — are the basis for defilements latent there in the sense of not yet being abandoned. The same method applies to the fine-material-sphere and immaterial-sphere aggregates. But, among the stream-enterers and the rest, whatever noble person's aggregates have had that particular root-of-the-round defilement abandoned by that particular path — for that person, those very aggregates, being devoid of any basis for those particular root-of-the-round defilements now abandoned, no longer receive the designation "plane" at all. But, for the worldling, since the root-of-the-round defilements are, without exception, entirely unabandoned, whatever kamma he performs, whether wholesome or unwholesome, becomes, through the condition of kamma and defilement, that by which the round continues to turn. It should not be said that this root of the round belongs only to the aggregate of matter, and not to feeling and the rest; nor that it belongs only to the aggregate of consciousness, and not to matter and the rest. Why? Because it lies latent, without distinction, in all five aggregates equally.
This paragraph works out the basis-principle's full combinatorial precision: the "plane" for any given latent defilement is drawn narrowly along every relevant axis at once — the specific person, the specific time (past versus future versus present), and the specific realm (sense-sphere versus fine-material versus immaterial) — with no cross-contamination permitted between categories. A defilement latent in someone's past aggregates has only those past aggregates as its basis, never that same person's future ones; a defilement rooted in sense-sphere aggregates has only sense-sphere aggregates as its basis, never fine-material ones, even for the very same person. This precision is what finally makes sense of the noble persons' progressive status: once the path of stream-entry has genuinely uprooted personality-view, doubt, and misapprehension of rules and observances from a given person's aggregates, those very same aggregates simply cease, from that point forward, to count as "plane" with respect to those three particular defilements — not because the aggregates themselves have vanished or changed in any visible way, but because the specific liability attached to them has been permanently discharged.
The closing point about the worldling deserves special emphasis for how starkly it differs from the noble ones' partial, defilement-by-defilement liberation: for an ordinary, unenlightened being, the root of the round is present "without distinction" across all five aggregates simultaneously, which is precisely why the text insists it cannot be localized to matter alone or to consciousness alone. This sets up, in the very next paragraph, one of this chapter's most memorable images — the flavor of the earth permeating an entire tree from root to fruit without being confined to any single part of it — as the perfect visual analogy for exactly this kind of pervasive, non-localized latency.
"being devoid of basis," "without a basis" — a (without) + vatthu (basis) + to (ablative/adverbial suffix); describes aggregates in a noble person that, once a corresponding path has eliminated its target defilement, no longer function as a "basis" for that particular defilement and therefore no longer count as its "plane" at all.
"without distinction," indiscriminately — a (without) + visesa (distinction, particularity); describes how the root-of-the-round defilement lies latent equally across all five aggregates for the unenlightened worldling, refusing any attempt to localize it to one aggregate over another.
Two Similes: The Earth's Flavor in a Tree, and the Poisoned Thorn
Two vivid images now make the abstract basis-principle unforgettable. First, just as the earth's own flavor and the water's own flavor permeate an entire great tree — root, trunk, branch, twig, leaf, flower, and fruit alike — without being localizable to any single part, so too the root of the round permeates all five aggregates equally, never confined to root or fruit alone. Second, a disenchanted man who drives poisoned thorns into that same tree from all four directions renders it permanently incapable of ever bearing fruit again — precisely as a noble person, disenchanted with the continuity of the aggregates, drives the "poison" of the fourfold path into his own mental continuum from every side, rendering every future kammic act incapable of ever again generating a further continuity of existence, until, at the final consciousness's cessation, he attains final Nibbāna like a fire gone out for want of fuel.
Kathaṃ? Pathavīrasādi viya rukkhe. Yathā hi mahārukkhe pathavītalaṃ adhiṭṭhāya pathavīrasañca āporasañca nissāya tappaccayā mūlakhandhasākhapasākhapallavapalāsapupphaphalehi vaḍḍhitvā nabhaṃ pūretvā yāva kappāvasānā bījaparamparāya rukkhapaveṇiṃ santānayamāne ṭhite taṃ pathavīrasādi mūleyeva, na khandhādīsu…pe… phaleyeva vā, na mūlādīsūti na vattabbaṃ. Kasmā? Avisesena sabbesu mūlādīsu anugatattāti.
Yathā pana tasseva rukkhassa pupphaphalādīsu nibbinno koci puriso catūsu disāsu maṇḍūkakaṇṭakaṃ nāma visakaṇṭakaṃ ākoṭeyya, atha so rukkho tena visasamphassena phuṭṭho pathavīrasaāporasānaṃ pariyādiṇṇattā appasavanadhammataṃ āgamma puna santānaṃ nibbattetuṃ na sakkuṇeyya, evameva khandhapavattiyaṃ nibbinno kulaputto tassa purisassa catūsu disāsu rukkhe visayojanaṃ viya attano santāne catumaggabhāvanaṃ ārabhati. Athassa so khandhasantāno tena catumaggavisasamphassena sabbaso vaṭṭamūlakakilesānaṃ pariyādiṇṇattā kiriyabhāvamattaupagatakāyakammādisabbakammappabhedo hutvā āyatiṃ punabbhavānabhinibbattanadhammataṃ āgamma bhavantarasantānaṃ nibbattetuṃ na sakkoti. Kevalaṃ carimaviññāṇanirodhena nirindhano viya jātavedo anupādāno parinibbāyati, evaṃ bhūmiyā bhūmiladdhassa ca nānattaṃ veditabbaṃ.
How? Like the flavor of the earth in a tree. For, just as, in a great tree, resting upon the surface of the earth, and depending on the flavor of the earth and the flavor of water, growing, through that condition, by way of its root, trunk, branch, twig, leaf, flower, and fruit, filling the sky, and, remaining, through the succession of seeds, continuing the tree's own line until the end of the aeon — one should not say that that flavor of earth and the rest exists only in the root, and not in the trunk and the other parts; nor that it exists only in the fruit, and not in the root and the other parts. Why? Because it pervades, without distinction, all of the root and the other parts equally.
But, just as, should some man, disenchanted with that very tree's flowers, fruits, and the rest, drive so-called "frog-thorns" — poisoned thorns — into it from the four directions, then that tree, touched by that poisonous contact, its earth-flavor and water-flavor being used up, reaching a state incapable of further growth, would be unable to produce any further continuity — in just the same way, a clansman disenchanted with the occurrence of the aggregates, like that man's application of poison to the tree from the four directions, undertakes the development of the fourfold path within his own mental continuum. Then, that continuity of his aggregates, its root-of-the-round defilements being, in every respect, used up by that poisonous contact of the fourfold path, having become one in which every kind of kamma — bodily and the rest — has come to be a mere functional act, is, through reaching a state incapable of producing any further existence in the future, unable to produce any further continuity in another state of becoming. Simply, through the cessation of the final consciousness, he attains final Nibbāna without clinging, like a fire without fuel. Thus should the difference between "plane" and "plane-gained" be understood.
These paired similes complete the "plane"-versus-"plane-gained" discussion with exactly the right closing image, since they let the reader hold both halves of the distinction in mind at once, in a single continuous picture. The earth-flavor image illustrates "plane" itself — the aggregates as insight's whole object, permeated evenly by a pervasive quality with no privileged location — while the poisoned-thorn image illustrates the actual mechanics of "plane-gained" abandonment: the four paths do not need to hunt down and individually destroy each of countless future defilement-instances one by one, any more than the disenchanted man needs to individually pluck every future fruit the tree would otherwise have borne. Four thorns, driven in from four directions at the root's own level, are enough to render the entire tree's earth-flavor and water-flavor "used up," guaranteeing no future growth of any kind — a striking numerical echo of the four path-knowledges themselves.
The final image — a fire going out "without fuel" (nirindhano jātavedo anupādāno) rather than being forcibly extinguished — deserves particular attention as this project's own recurring, carefully non-nihilistic way of describing final Nibbāna, already anticipated in chapter sixteen's extended philosophical defense of Nibbāna against the charge of being "mere destruction." A fire that goes out for want of fuel is not annihilated by some external force; it simply ceases because the specific causal conditions (fuel, in this analogy standing for clinging, upādāna) that were sustaining it are no longer being supplied — precisely paralleling how the arahant's final passing does not destroy anything that continues to exist, but simply allows a causally sustained process, its sustaining causes now permanently exhausted, to cease on its own.
"frog-thorn," a poisoned thorn — maṇḍūka (frog) + kaṇṭaka (thorn); a specific kind of toxin-treated thorn, driven into a tree from all four directions in this simile to render it permanently sterile — mapped onto the fourfold path's total elimination of the root-of-the-round defilements.
"a mere functional act" — kiriyā (mere action, functional activity, without kammic result) + bhāva (state) + matta (mere, only); describes what all of an arahant's bodily, verbal, and mental acts become once the root-of-the-round defilements are entirely used up — action without any further kammic potency to generate rebirth.
"a fire without fuel" — nir (without) + indhana (fuel) + jātaveda (fire, literally "knower of what is born," a poetic epithet); the closing image for final Nibbāna (parinibbāna) without clinging (anupādāno) — cessation through the exhaustion of sustaining causes, not through external destruction.
A Second Fourfold "Arisen": What Path-Knowledge Does and Does Not Abandon
A further, complementary fourfold classification of "arisen" now refines the picture still further: the "actually-occurring" kind already named above is also called "occurring-in-conduct"; a defilement that has not yet actually arisen but is guaranteed to arise later purely because its object has already been seized upon is called "object-seized-arisen" — illustrated by the elder Mahātissa, on almsround, whose later-arising lust was already guaranteed the moment he glimpsed a discordant sight; a defilement not yet suppressed by either serenity or insight, even though it has not entered the mental continuum, is called "unsuppressed-arisen" — illustrated by a flying monk with the eight attainments, picking flowers, whose defilement arose merely on hearing a woman's beautiful singing; and a defilement suppressed by serenity or insight but not yet eradicated by the noble path, still liable to arise since it has not truly passed beyond arising, is called "uneradicated-arisen." All three of these last varieties, the text notes, are simply gathered under "plane-gained" already defined above.
Apica aparampi samudācāraārammaṇādhiggahitaavikkhambhitaasamūhatavasena catubbidhaṃ uppannaṃ. Tattha vattamānuppannameva samudācāruppannaṃ. Cakkhādīnaṃ pana āpāthagate ārammaṇe pubbabhāge anuppajjamānampi kilesajātaṃ ārammaṇassa adhiggahitattā eva aparabhāge ekantena uppattito ārammaṇādhiggahituppannanti vuccati, kalyāṇigāme piṇḍāya carato mahātissattherassa visabhāgarūpadassanena uppannakilesajātaṃ viya. Samathavipassanānaṃ aññataravasena avikkhambhitaṃ kilesajātaṃ cittasantatimanārūḷhampi uppattinivārakassa hetuno abhāvā avikkhambhituppannaṃ nāma. Samathavipassanāvasena pana vikkhambhitampi ariyamaggena asamūhatattā uppattidhammataṃ anatītatāya asamūhatuppannanti vuccati, ākāsena gacchantassa aṭṭhasamāpattilābhino therassa kusumitarukkhe upavane pupphāni uccinantassa madhurena sarena gāyato mātugāmassa gītasavanena uppannakilesajātaṃ viya. Tividhampi cetaṃ ārammaṇādhiggahitāvikkhambhitaasamūhatuppannaṃ bhūmiladdheneva saṅgahaṃ gacchatīti veditabbaṃ.
Furthermore, "arisen" is also fourfold in another way, by way of the occurring-in-conduct, the object-seized, the unsuppressed, and the uneradicated. Herein, that which is actually-occurring is precisely called "occurring-in-conduct-arisen." But, with respect to eye and the other doors, when an object has entered their avenue, that kind of defilement which, though it does not arise in the earlier phase, does arise without fail in the later phase, precisely because the object has already been seized upon, is called "object-seized-arisen" — like the kind of defilement that arose in the elder Mahātissa, walking for alms in the village of Kalyāṇī, through the seeing of a discordant form. That kind of defilement which, though not risen up into the mental continuum, has not been suppressed by way of either serenity or insight, is, for want of any cause preventing its arising, called "unsuppressed-arisen." But that which, though suppressed by way of serenity or insight, has, because it has not been eradicated by the noble path, not yet passed beyond its own nature of being liable to arise, is called "uneradicated-arisen" — like the kind of defilement that arose, in the elder who possessed the eight attainments and was traveling through the air, through hearing the sweet-voiced singing of a woman gathering flowers in a flowering grove in a garden park below. All three of these — object-seized, unsuppressed, and uneradicated-arisen — should be understood to be gathered together simply under "plane-gained."
These two narrative similes, though told in a single compressed sentence each, are recognizable set-pieces from the commentarial tradition, and each illustrates a distinct and subtly different failure-mode worth distinguishing carefully. The elder Mahātissa's story illustrates "object-seized": the moment his eye actually met the discordant sight (traditionally, a woman's teeth bared in laughter, in the fuller version of this famous story), the lustful reaction that would follow was already, in a sense, locked in, even though it had not yet technically arisen as an active mental event — a sobering illustration of how little control remains once an object has genuinely been "seized" by the sense-faculties, however briefly.
The flying monk's story illustrates something different and, in its way, more surprising: here is a meditator who has already attained all eight mundane absorptions, capable of traveling bodily through the air — an extraordinary accomplishment by any measure — and yet a purely auditory encounter with beautiful singing, encountered by pure happenstance while gathering flowers, is enough to trigger defilement's arising. The lesson is precise and important: even the most advanced mundane concentration attainments only ever suppress defilement (vikkhambhana-pahāna, a term that will be defined formally two subheads ahead), never eradicate it, which is exactly why "uneradicated-arisen" remains a live category even for someone who has, by ordinary standards, achieved an enormous amount. Both stories converge on the same conclusion already established in the previous section: none of these three varieties differ, in the end, from "plane-gained" as already defined — they are simply three different circumstances under which a plane-gained defilement's latency becomes newly relevant to notice.
"object-seized" — ārammaṇa (object) + adhiggahita (seized, grasped firmly); describes a defilement guaranteed to arise in a later phase of a cognitive process purely because the triggering object has already been apprehended in an earlier phase, even though the defilement itself has not yet technically occurred.
unsuppressed and uneradicated — a (not) + vikkhambhita (suppressed, pushed back, from vi + khambheti) / samūhata (eradicated, rooted out); the two remaining sub-varieties of latent defilement, distinguished by whether even temporary suppression through meditative attainment has occurred — neither counts as genuinely abandoned until the noble path itself intervenes.
"one who has attained the eight attainments" — aṭṭha (eight) + samāpatti (attainment) + lābhī (possessor of); refers to a meditator who has mastered all eight mundane jhānic absorptions (the four fine-material and four immaterial jhānas), here shown still vulnerable to defilement despite this considerable accomplishment.
Closing the Subhead: What No Knowledge Can Abandon, and What the Path Alone Can
The great subhead on abandonment now closes with a clean, decisive synthesis: of the two fourfold classifications of "arisen" just given, the first kind in each set — actually-occurring/occurring-in-conduct, been-and-gone, and opportunity-made — is, precisely because it does not fall to any path's blow, not abandonable by any knowledge whatsoever; but plane-gained, in every one of its guises (object-seized, unsuppressed, uneradicated), is exactly what each of the mundane and supramundane knowledges, in destroying its very state of having arisen, genuinely and completely abandons.
Iccetasmiṃ vuttappabhede uppanne yadetaṃ vattamānabhūtāpagatokāsakatasamudācārasaṅkhātaṃ catubbidhaṃ uppannaṃ, taṃ amaggavajjhattā kenacipi ñāṇena pahātabbaṃ na hoti. Yaṃ panetaṃ bhūmiladdhārammaṇādhiggahitaavikkhambhitaasamūhatasaṅkhātaṃ uppannaṃ, tassa taṃ uppannabhāvaṃ vināsayamānaṃ yasmā taṃ taṃ lokiyalokuttarañāṇaṃ uppajjati, tasmā taṃ sabbampi pahātabbaṃ hotīti. Evamettha ye yena pahātabbā dhammā, tesaṃ pahānañca jānitabbaṃ.
Thus, among "arisen" as thus explained, that fourfold "arisen" reckoned as the actually-occurring, the been-and-gone, the opportunity-made, and the occurring-in-conduct — this, because it does not fall to the blow of any path, is not to be abandoned by any knowledge at all. But that "arisen" reckoned as the plane-gained, the object-seized, the unsuppressed, and the uneradicated — since it is precisely in order to destroy this very state of having arisen that each corresponding mundane or supramundane knowledge arises, therefore all of this is indeed to be abandoned. Thus, herein, it should be understood which states are to be abandoned by which knowledge, and the abandoning of them.
This closing sentence quietly resolves the entire three-times puzzle raised many paragraphs earlier, by revealing that the puzzle's apparent force depended on a category error the reader may not have noticed while working through the intervening material: the objection assumed "abandoning a defilement" must mean striking an already-occurring, already-past, or securely-future defilement-event — precisely the four varieties (occurring-in-conduct, been-and-gone, opportunity-made) this closing paragraph now explicitly confirms are indeed unabandonable by any knowledge whatsoever, past or present, exactly as the original objection claimed. The escape route was never to deny the objection's logic about those four varieties; it was to identify a fifth thing — plane-gained latency, in its three further guises — that the objection never considered in the first place, and it is precisely this fifth thing, and only this fifth thing, that path-knowledge genuinely destroys.
With this synthesis, the chapter's third and by far largest topic — spanning ten numbered paragraphs, seventeen separately defined defilement-categories, a full four-path cross-mapping, a classic canonical dialectic, two unforgettable similes, and two further fourfold classifications of "arisen" — finally closes. The next subhead turns to a different, more compact question: not what is abandoned, but what happens, all at once, in the single moment the truths are actually penetrated.
"the state of not falling to the blow of any path" — a (not) + magga (path) + vajjha (to be slain) + tta (abstract-noun suffix); the technical reason given for why occurring-in-conduct, been-and-gone, and opportunity-made "arisen" simply lie outside any path-knowledge's reach altogether, rather than being abandoned in some special sense.
"mundane and supramundane knowledge" — lokiya (mundane, worldly) + lokuttara (supramundane) + ñāṇa (knowledge); notes that even mundane knowledges (such as the insight-knowledges of chapters twenty and twenty-one) genuinely abandon plane-gained defilements in their own respective ways, not only the four supramundane path-knowledges this chapter has focused on.
Four Functions, One Moment: The Lamp That Does Four Things at Once
The chapter's fourth topic opens: at the moment of penetrating the truths, a single path-knowledge accomplishes, without any before or after, four distinct functions simultaneously — full understanding of suffering, abandoning of its origin, development of the path, and realization of cessation. A lamp provides the illustrating image: lit for the first time, it burns its wick, dispels darkness, gives off light, and uses up oil, all four at once, without any of the four preceding or following the others — precisely as a single path-knowledge simultaneously penetrates all four truths.
Kiccāni pariññādīni, yāni vuttāni abhisamayakāle; Tāni ca yathāsabhāvena, jānitabbāni sabbānīti.
Saccābhisamayakālaṃ hi etesu catūsu ñāṇesu ekekassa ekakkhaṇe pariññā pahānaṃ sacchikiriyā bhāvanāti etāni pariññādīni cattāri kiccāni vuttāni, tāni yathāsabhāvena jānitabbāni. Vuttaṃ hetaṃ porāṇehi –
"Yathā padīpo apubbaṃ acarimaṃ ekakkhaṇe cattāri kiccāni karoti, vaṭṭiṃ jhāpeti, andhakāraṃ vidhamati, ālokaṃ parividaṃseti, sinehaṃ pariyādiyati, evameva maggañāṇaṃ apubbaṃ acarimaṃ ekakkhaṇe cattāri saccāni abhisameti, dukkhaṃ pariññābhisamayena abhisameti, samudayaṃ pahānābhisamayena abhisameti, maggaṃ bhāvanābhisamayena abhisameti, nirodhaṃ sacchikiriyābhisamayena abhisameti. Kiṃ vuttaṃ hoti? Nirodhaṃ ārammaṇaṃ karitvā cattāripi saccāni pāpuṇāti passati paṭivijjhatī"ti.
Vuttampi cetaṃ "yo, bhikkhave, dukkhaṃ passati, dukkhasamudayampi so passati, dukkhanirodhampi passati, dukkhanirodhagāminiṃ paṭipadampi passatī"ti sabbaṃ veditabbaṃ.
Aparampi vuttaṃ "maggasamaṅgissa ñāṇaṃ, dukkhepetaṃ ñāṇaṃ, dukkhasamudayepetaṃ ñāṇaṃ, dukkhanirodhepetaṃ ñāṇaṃ, dukkhanirodhagāminiyā paṭipadāyapetaṃ ñāṇa"nti.
Tattha yathā padīpo vaṭṭiṃ jhāpeti, evaṃ maggañāṇaṃ dukkhaṃ parijānāti. Yathā andhakāraṃ vidhamati, evaṃ samudayaṃ pajahati. Yathā ālokaṃ parividaṃseti, evaṃ sahajātādipaccayatāya sammāsaṅkappādidhammasaṅkhātaṃ maggaṃ bhāveti. Yathā sinehaṃ pariyādiyati, evaṃ kilesapariyādānaṃ nirodhaṃ sacchikarotīti evaṃ upamāsaṃsandanaṃ veditabbaṃ.
"And the functions — full understanding and the rest — that are spoken of at the time of the penetration of the truths: all these should be known according to their true nature."
At the time of the penetration of the truths, in each single one of these four knowledges, in a single moment, four functions — full understanding, abandoning, realization, and development — are spoken of as these functions, "full understanding and the rest"; these should be known according to their true nature. This was said by the ancient teachers —
"Just as a lamp, without before or after, in a single moment, performs four functions — it burns the wick, it dispels darkness, it makes light manifest, it uses up the oil — in just the same way, path-knowledge, without before or after, in a single moment, penetrates the four truths: it penetrates suffering by way of the penetration that is full understanding; it penetrates the origin by way of the penetration that is abandoning; it penetrates the path by way of the penetration that is development; it penetrates cessation by way of the penetration that is realization. What is meant by this? Taking cessation as its object, it reaches, sees, and penetrates all four truths."
And this, too, was said: "Bhikkhus, one who sees suffering also sees the origin of suffering; one who sees the origin of suffering also sees the cessation of suffering; one who sees the cessation of suffering also sees the way leading to the cessation of suffering" — all this should be understood.
And this, too, was further said: "The knowledge of one endowed with the path — this is knowledge with respect to suffering, this is knowledge with respect to the origin of suffering, this is knowledge with respect to the cessation of suffering, this is knowledge with respect to the way leading to the cessation of suffering."
Herein, just as the lamp burns the wick, so too path-knowledge fully understands suffering. Just as it dispels darkness, so too it abandons the origin. Just as it makes light manifest, so too, by way of being a co-nascent condition and the rest, it develops the path, reckoned as the states beginning with right intention. Just as it uses up the oil, so too it realizes cessation by way of the using-up of the defilements. Thus should this correlation with the simile be understood.
The lamp simile's power lies in showing that "simultaneous" here means something stronger than merely "very close together in time" — it means genuinely one single event described under four different aspects, exactly as a lamp's burning of its wick, dispelling of darkness, giving of light, and consuming of oil are not four separate events that happen to coincide, but four inseparable descriptions of one and the same physical process. The two canonical citations that follow reinforce this from opposite directions: the first ("one who sees suffering also sees the origin...") stresses that seeing one truth guarantees seeing all four, since they are aspects of a single act of seeing; the second stresses that all four descriptions genuinely apply to "the knowledge of one endowed with the path" taken as a single, undivided cognitive event.
It is worth pausing on why nirodha, cessation, is described as the object taken while all four functions occur: the passage states outright, "taking cessation as its object, it reaches, sees, and penetrates all four truths" — meaning the path-consciousness's own direct object throughout this single moment is Nibbāna alone, and the other three truths (suffering, origin, and the path itself) are penetrated not by being separately attended to, but as a kind of automatic byproduct of that single act of taking cessation as object. This is the same architecture already established at this chapter's very opening, where gotrabhū and the four paths alike were said to take Nibbāna, and nothing else, as their object.
penetration, full comprehension — abhi (thoroughly) + sam (together) + i (to go, come); the technical term for the direct, non-conceptual apprehension of a truth at the path-moment, fourfold here as pariññābhisamaya, pahānābhisamaya, bhāvanābhisamaya, and sacchikiriyābhisamaya, corresponding respectively to the four truths.
"without before or after," simultaneously — a (not) + pubba (prior) / a (not) + carima (last, final); the recurring formula (already met in this project's earlier chapters describing simultaneous multi-function events) stressing that all four functions occur in one and the same instant, with no temporal sequence among them.
"the state of being a co-nascent condition" — sahajāta (born together, co-arisen) + paccayatā (condition-hood); explains how the path-moment "develops" its own accompanying path-factors (right intention and the rest) — not by producing them as a separate prior stage, but simply by being their co-arising condition within the very same mind-moment.
Two More Similes: The Rising Sun and the River-Crossing Boat
Two further images reinforce the same simultaneous fourfold structure from different angles. The rising sun, appearing for the first time, illuminates forms, dispels darkness, shows light, and calms the cold, all at once — mapped, in slightly different but equally apt correspondences, onto the same four truth-functions. And a boat crossing a river, in a single stroke, abandons the near shore, cuts the current, carries its cargo, and moors at the far shore — the clearest of the three images for conveying motion toward a destination, with "abandoning the near shore" corresponding to fully understanding suffering, and "mooring at the far shore" corresponding to realizing cessation itself.
Aparo nayo – yathā sūriyo udayanto apubbaṃ acarimaṃ saha pātubhāvā cattāri kiccāni karoti, rūpagatāni obhāseti, andhakāraṃ vidhamati, ālokaṃ dasseti, sītaṃ paṭippassambheti, evameva maggañāṇaṃ…pe… nirodhaṃ sacchikiriyābhisamayena abhisameti. Idhāpi yathā sūriyo rūpagatāni obhāseti, evaṃ maggañāṇaṃ dukkhaṃ parijānāti. Yathā andhakāraṃ vidhamati, evaṃ samudayaṃ pajahati. Yathā ālokaṃ dasseti, evaṃ sahajātādipaccayatāya maggaṃ bhāveti. Yathā sītaṃ paṭippassambheti, evaṃ kilesapaṭippassaddhiṃ nirodhaṃ sacchikarotīti evaṃ upamāsaṃsandanaṃ veditabbaṃ.
Aparo nayo – yathā nāvā apubbaṃ acarimaṃ ekakkhaṇe cattāri kiccāni karoti, orimatīraṃ pajahati, sotaṃ chindati, bhaṇḍaṃ vahati, pārimatīraṃ appeti, evameva maggañāṇaṃ…pe… nirodhaṃ sacchikiriyābhisamayena abhisameti. Etthāpi yathā nāvā orimatīraṃ pajahati, evaṃ maggañāṇaṃ dukkhaṃ parijānāti. Yathā sotaṃ chindati, evaṃ samudayaṃ pajahati. Yathā bhaṇḍaṃ vahati, evaṃ sahajātādipaccayatāya maggaṃ bhāveti. Yathā pārimatīraṃ appeti, evaṃ pārimatīrabhūtaṃ nirodhaṃ sacchikarotīti evaṃ upamāsaṃsandanaṃ veditabbaṃ.
Here is another way: just as the sun, rising, without before or after, together with its very appearing, performs four functions — it illuminates forms, dispels darkness, shows light, and calms the cold — in just the same way, path-knowledge... penetrates cessation by way of the penetration that is realization. Here too, just as the sun illuminates forms, so too path-knowledge fully understands suffering. Just as it dispels darkness, so too it abandons the origin. Just as it shows light, so too, by way of being a co-nascent condition and the rest, it develops the path. Just as it calms the cold, so too it realizes cessation by way of the calming of the defilements. Thus should this correlation with the simile be understood.
Here is yet another way: just as a boat, without before or after, in a single moment, performs four functions — it abandons the near shore, it cuts the current, it carries its cargo, it moors at the far shore — in just the same way, path-knowledge... penetrates cessation by way of the penetration that is realization. Here too, just as the boat abandons the near shore, so too path-knowledge fully understands suffering. Just as it cuts the current, so too it abandons the origin. Just as it carries its cargo, so too, by way of being a co-nascent condition and the rest, it develops the path. Just as it moors at the far shore, so too it realizes cessation, which is the far shore itself. Thus should this correlation with the simile be understood.
Three similes for the identical fourfold structure — lamp, sunrise, river-crossing — might seem redundant at first glance, but each brings out a slightly different nuance worth noticing. The lamp emphasizes the destructive/consumptive side of the process (burning wick, using up oil) alongside its illuminating side; the sunrise emphasizes comfort and relief (calming the cold, alongside illuminating), giving nirodha's realization an almost sensory, felt quality rather than a purely cognitive one; and the boat, alone among the three, is explicitly about directed motion toward a destination, which is precisely why it can map "abandoning the near shore" onto pariññā (full understanding of suffering) in a way the other two similes could not — one does not "burn" or "illuminate" suffering away, but one can very naturally be described as leaving it behind, the way a boat leaves a shore.
The final phrase of the boat simile — "realizes cessation, which is the far shore itself" — deliberately echoes this chapter's own opening canal-crossing simile from many sections earlier, where Nibbāna was likewise called paratīra, "the far bank." The recurrence is not accidental: this chapter has now used the far-shore image twice, once for the meditator's own individual crossing at the moment of gotrabhū, and once here for cessation itself as the destination reached by all four simultaneous functions — two views of the identical single event.
"it calms the cold" — sīta (cold, coolness) + paṭippassambheti (calms, allays, tranquilizes); the sun's fourth simultaneous function, mapped onto nirodha's realization via kilesapaṭippassaddhi, "the calming of the defilements" — giving cessation's realization a felt, almost bodily register distinct from the lamp simile's more purely visual "using up of oil."
the near shore and the far shore — orima (nearer) / pārima (farther) + tīra (bank, shore); the boat simile's own vocabulary, deliberately echoing paratīra from this chapter's opening canal-crossing simile, both images using the "far shore" as a figure for Nibbāna.
Sixteen Aspects, One Penetration; Why Exactly Four Truths
A Paṭisambhidāmagga citation now formalizes the fourfold-function analysis into a full sixteen-aspect scheme — four aspects of "suchness" (tathaṭṭha) for each of the four truths — before Buddhaghosa raises and answers a pointed question: given that suffering, for instance, could equally well be described by countless other true qualities (as a disease, a boil, a dart, and so on, as earlier chapters have shown), why does the tradition settle on exactly four truths rather than any other number? The answer: these four, and no others, are what become manifest specifically through the mutual, cross-referential seeing of one truth via another — a manifestation the very next section will trace out aspect by aspect.
Evaṃ saccābhisamayakālasmiṃ ekakkhaṇe catunnaṃ kiccānaṃ vasena pavattañāṇassa panassa soḷasahākārehi tathaṭṭhena cattāri kiccāni ekapaṭivedhāni honti. Yathāha –
"Kathaṃ tathaṭṭhena cattāri kiccāni ekapaṭivedhāni? Soḷasahi ākārehi tathaṭṭhena cattāri kiccāni ekapaṭivedhāni. Dukkhassa pīḷanaṭṭho, saṅkhataṭṭho, santāpaṭṭho, vipariṇāmaṭṭho, tathaṭṭho. Samudayassa āyūhanaṭṭho, nidānaṭṭho, saṃyogaṭṭho, palibodhaṭṭho, tathaṭṭho. Nirodhassa nissaraṇaṭṭho, vivekaṭṭho, asaṅkhataṭṭho, amataṭṭho, tathaṭṭho. Maggassa niyyānaṭṭho, hetuṭṭho, dassanaṭṭho, adhipateyyaṭṭho, tathaṭṭho. Imehi soḷasahi ākārehi tathaṭṭhena cattāri saccāni ekasaṅgahitāni. Yaṃ ekasaṅgahitaṃ, taṃ ekattaṃ. Yaṃ ekattaṃ, taṃ ekena ñāṇena paṭivijjhatīti cattāri saccāni ekapaṭivedhānī"ti.
Tattha siyā yadā dukkhādīnaṃ aññepi rogagaṇḍādayo atthā atthi, atha kasmā cattāroyeva vuttāti. Ettha vadāma, aññasaccadassanavasena āvibhāvato. "Tattha katamaṃ dukkhe ñāṇaṃ? Dukkhaṃ ārabbha yā uppajjati paññā pajānanā"tiādinā hi nayena ekekasaccārammaṇavasenāpi saccañāṇaṃ vuttaṃ. "Yo, bhikkhave, dukkhaṃ passati, samudayampi so passatī"tiādinā nayena ekaṃ saccaṃ ārammaṇaṃ katvā sesesupi kiccanipphattivasenāpi vuttaṃ.
Thus, for the knowledge that occurs, at the time of the penetration of the truths, in a single moment, by way of the four functions, these four functions, in the sense of suchness, are penetrated as one through sixteen aspects. As it is said —
"How are the four functions, in the sense of suchness, penetrated as one? Through sixteen aspects, in the sense of suchness, the four functions are penetrated as one. Of suffering: the sense of oppressing, the sense of being conditioned, the sense of burning, the sense of changing — the sense of suchness. Of the origin: the sense of accumulating, the sense of being a source, the sense of binding, the sense of impeding — the sense of suchness. Of cessation: the sense of escape, the sense of seclusion, the sense of being unconditioned, the sense of the deathless — the sense of suchness. Of the path: the sense of leading out, the sense of being a cause, the sense of vision, the sense of dominance — the sense of suchness. Through these sixteen aspects, in the sense of suchness, the four truths are gathered as one. What is gathered as one is a unity. What is a unity is penetrated by a single knowledge. Thus are the four truths penetrated as one."
Herein, it might be asked: since suffering and the rest also have other meanings, such as being a disease, a boil, and so on, then why are only four spoken of? Here we say: because of their becoming manifest by way of seeing one truth through another. For, by the method beginning, "herein, what is knowledge with respect to suffering? It is the understanding, the discernment, that arises taking suffering as its object" — thus, truth-knowledge is also spoken of by way of each single truth as its own object. And, by the method beginning, "bhikkhus, one who sees suffering also sees the origin" — thus, having made one truth the object, it is also spoken of, with respect to the remaining truths as well, by way of the accomplishment of their function.
The sixteen-aspect formula given here is the same one this project's own chapter sixteen already introduced in its treatment of the four noble truths under the heading "vibhāgato," though there it was presented as simply one classificatory method among fourteen; here, by contrast, it returns specifically to explain how a single path-knowledge, taking only cessation as its direct object, nonetheless genuinely penetrates all sixteen aspects — four per truth — in that same single moment. The logic of the closing syllogism deserves to be read slowly: "what is gathered as one is a unity; what is a unity is penetrated by a single knowledge" is not a loose rhetorical flourish but a tightly reasoned inference from the prior premise that all sixteen aspects have already been shown, by the sixteen-aspect analysis itself, to collapse into a single underlying "suchness" (tathaṭṭha) — a genuine unity, not merely a convenient grouping.
The question about why exactly four truths, rather than some other number drawn from suffering's many other true descriptions (disease, boil, dart, and so on — all names this project's own chapter sixteen already catalogued under "atthuddhārato"), receives an answer that is easy to state but subtle to fully absorb: it is not that dukkha-as-disease or dukkha-as-boil are somehow false, but that they do not participate in the specific cross-referential structure by which seeing one truth automatically discloses aspects of the other three — a structure the very next paragraph will trace out in exhaustive, aspect-by-aspect detail.
"the sense of suchness," the sense of being just-so — tathā (thus, in that very way) + aṭṭha (meaning, sense); the unifying quality shared by all sixteen aspects of the four truths, which is precisely what allows a single act of knowledge to penetrate all sixteen as one undivided act rather than as sixteen separate cognitions.
"gathered as one" and "unity" — eka (one) + saṅgahita (gathered, included) / eka + tta (abstract-noun suffix); the two-step logical bridge in the Paṭisambhidāmagga's own syllogism, moving from the sixteen aspects' shared inclusion under one heading to their genuine ontological unity, and from there to their penetrability by a single knowledge.
How Seeing Samudaya Reveals Dukkha, and Seeing Dukkha Reveals Samudaya
The promised cross-mapping now unfolds in careful, systematic detail: each truth's own defining characteristic is directly evident simply by seeing that truth itself, but its remaining three aspects (of the full sixteen) become manifest only indirectly, through the seeing of one of the other three truths. Seeing the origin makes suffering's "being conditioned" aspect manifest (since what is conditioned is precisely what has been accumulated by craving); seeing the path makes suffering's "burning" aspect manifest, illustrated by the venerable Nanda's own story, in which the sight of a celestial nymph made his former sweetheart Sundarī suddenly seem unlovely by contrast; and cessation's changeless nature needs no separate demonstration, since it simply has no "changing" aspect to begin with. Symmetrically, seeing suffering makes the origin's "being a source" aspect manifest, just as seeing a disease arising from unsuitable food reveals that food's role as the disease's source.
Tattha yadā ekekaṃ saccaṃ ārammaṇaṃ karoti, tadā samudayadassanena tāva sabhāvato pīḷanalakkhaṇassāpi dukkhassa, yasmā taṃ āyūhanalakkhaṇena samudayena āyūhitaṃ saṅkhataṃ rāsikataṃ, tasmāssa so saṅkhataṭṭho āvibhavati. Yasmā pana maggo kilesasantāpaharo susītalo, tasmāssa maggassa dassanena santāpaṭṭho āvibhavati āyasmato nandassa accharādassanena sundariyā anabhirūpabhāvo viya. Avipariṇāmadhammassa pana nirodhassa dassanenassa vipariṇāmaṭṭho āvibhavatīti vattabbamevettha natthi.
Tathā sabhāvato āyūhanalakkhaṇassāpi samudayassa, dukkhadassanena nidānaṭṭho āvibhavati asappāyabhojanato uppannabyādhidassanena bhojanassa byādhinidānabhāvo viya. Visaṃyogabhūtassa nirodhassa dassanena saṃyogaṭṭho. Niyyānabhūtassa ca maggassa dassanena palibodhaṭṭhoti.
Herein, when one takes each single truth as object: first, through the seeing of the origin, the "sense of being conditioned" of suffering — which, in its own essential nature, has the characteristic of oppressing — becomes manifest, since suffering, having been accumulated by the origin whose characteristic is accumulating, is conditioned and heaped-up. And, because the path removes the burning of the defilements and is exceedingly cooling, through the seeing of the path, suffering's "sense of burning" becomes manifest — just as, through the seeing of a celestial nymph, the venerable Nanda's former sweetheart Sundarī became, by contrast, unlovely. But there is simply nothing to be said about cessation's "sense of changing" becoming manifest through the seeing of cessation, since cessation is by nature unchanging.
Likewise, through the seeing of suffering, the "sense of being a source" of the origin — which, in its own essential nature, has the characteristic of accumulating — becomes manifest, just as, through seeing a disease arisen from unsuitable food, food's status as the source of the disease becomes manifest. Through the seeing of cessation, which is disjunction, [the origin's] "sense of binding" [becomes manifest]. And through the seeing of the path, which is a means of leading out, [the origin's] "sense of impeding" [becomes manifest].
The Nanda simile deserves a moment's unpacking for readers unfamiliar with the story it references: Nanda was the Buddha's own half-brother, ordained somewhat reluctantly on his own wedding day, and, according to the well-known canonical narrative, deeply preoccupied with longing for his bride-to-be Sundarī back home — until the Buddha, by supernormal means, showed him a vision of celestial nymphs far more beautiful than Sundarī could ever be, after which Nanda's former sweetheart suddenly seemed, by pure contrast, thoroughly unlovely. The simile's logic is precise: it is not that Sundarī herself changed in any way, but that a genuinely superior comparison-point (the path's own cooling, defilement-removing quality, standing in for the celestial nymphs) exposed by contrast just how much "burning" (santāpa) suffering's ordinary, unexamined condition actually involves — a burning invisible until something genuinely cooler is directly experienced alongside it.
The remarkable structural symmetry running through this whole cross-mapping exercise deserves to be named explicitly: each truth's second, third, and fourth aspects are disclosed, in strict rotation, by each of the other three truths respectively — origin discloses dukkha's conditioned-ness, path discloses dukkha's burning quality, and (trivially) cessation needs no further demonstration of its own changelessness since that is already dukkha's very opposite. The same three-way rotation, as the next section will show, repeats itself for samudaya, nirodha, and magga in turn, producing a genuinely elegant, fully reciprocal sixteen-aspect lattice in which every truth illuminates every other.
"the sense of burning" — santāpa (burning, torment, from san + tap) + aṭṭha (sense, meaning); one of suffering's four aspects, made manifest specifically by contrast with the path's own cooling quality, illustrated by the Nanda-and-Sundarī simile.
"having the nature of not changing" — a (not) + vipariṇāma (change, alteration) + dhamma (nature); describes cessation (nirodha, Nibbāna) as categorically excluded from the "changing" aspect that applies to conditioned suffering, which is precisely why no separate demonstration is needed for that particular non-application.
How Seeing the Other Truths Reveals Cessation and the Path
The cross-mapping now completes itself for cessation and the path. Seeing the origin, which lacks seclusion, reveals cessation's own "sense of seclusion" by contrast; seeing the path, which is itself conditioned despite never before having been trodden in beginningless saṃsāra, reveals cessation's "sense of being unconditioned" all the more vividly; and seeing suffering — poison itself — reveals cessation's "sense of the deathless," since suffering is poison and the deathless is its opposite. Finally, seeing the origin reveals the path's "sense of being a cause" (since the origin is precisely not a cause for reaching Nibbāna); seeing cessation, whose calm brings a lucidity comparable to eyes made bright by seeing exceedingly subtle forms, reveals the path's "sense of vision"; and seeing suffering — comparable to the many sick and afflicted people whose plight highlights, by contrast, a ruler's own greatness — reveals the path's "sense of dominance." The subhead closes by noting that these detailed correlations apply to the four truths taken singly; at the actual moment of the path, all of this occurs, undivided, through a single fourfold-function knowledge.
Tathā nissaraṇalakkhaṇassāpi nirodhassa, avivekabhūtassa samudayassa dassanena vivekaṭṭho āvibhavati. Maggadassanena asaṅkhataṭṭho, iminā hi anamataggasaṃsāre maggo nadiṭṭhapubbo, sopi ca sappaccayattā saṅkhatoyevāti appaccayadhammassa asaṅkhatabhāvo ativiya pākaṭo hoti. Dukkhadassanena panassa amataṭṭho āvibhavati, dukkhaṃ hi visaṃ, amataṃ nibbānanti.
Tathā niyyānalakkhaṇassāpi maggassa, samudayadassanena "nāyaṃ hetu nibbānassa pattiyā, ayaṃ hetū"ti hetuṭṭho āvibhavati. Nirodhadassanena dassanaṭṭho, paramasukhumāni rūpāni passato "vippasannaṃ vata me cakkhū"nti cakkhussa vippasannabhāvo viya. Dukkhadassanena adhipateyyaṭṭho, anekarogāturakapaṇajanadassanena issarajanassa uḷārabhāvo viyāti evamettha salakkhaṇavasena ekekassa, aññasaccadassanavasena ca itaresaṃ tiṇṇaṃ tiṇṇaṃ āvibhāvato ekekassa cattāro cattāro atthā vuttā. Maggakkhaṇe pana sabbe cete atthā ekeneva dukkhādīsu catukiccena ñāṇena paṭivedhaṃ gacchantīti. Ye pana nānābhisamayaṃ icchanti, tesaṃ uttaraṃ abhidhamme kathāvatthusmiṃ vuttameva.
Likewise, through the seeing of the origin, which lacks seclusion, cessation's "sense of seclusion" — which, in its own essential nature, has the characteristic of escape — becomes manifest. Through the seeing of the path, [cessation's] "sense of being unconditioned" [becomes manifest]; for, by this, the path has not been seen before in beginningless saṃsāra, and yet it, too, being dependent on conditions, is indeed itself conditioned — so, by contrast, the unconditioned nature of that which has no such conditions becomes exceedingly evident. Through the seeing of suffering, [cessation's] "sense of the deathless" becomes manifest — for suffering is poison, and the deathless is Nibbāna.
Likewise, through the seeing of the origin, the path's "sense of being a cause" — which, in its own essential nature, has the characteristic of leading out — becomes manifest, thus: "this is not a cause for the attainment of Nibbāna; this, however, is a cause." Through the seeing of cessation, [the path's] "sense of vision" [becomes manifest] — just as, for one seeing exceedingly subtle forms, the clearness of the eye becomes evident, thus: "indeed, my eye is clear." Through the seeing of suffering, [the path's] "sense of dominance" [becomes manifest] — just as, through seeing many people afflicted by disease and reduced to poverty, the greatness of a sovereign person becomes evident. Thus, herein, by way of its own characteristic, each single one, and by way of the seeing of another truth, three further aspects for each — thus, four meanings each have been stated. But at the moment of the path, all of these meanings alike, through this single fourfold-function knowledge, arrive at penetration with respect to suffering and the rest. But, for those who wish for a diversified penetration, the further answer to that is stated in precisely the Kathāvatthu of the Abhidhamma.
The two closing similes here — the eye made clear by seeing exceedingly subtle forms, and the sovereign's greatness thrown into relief by the poverty and disease of ordinary subjects — deserve a moment's separate attention, since both work by the identical logic already seen in the Nanda simile: a quality becomes noticeable specifically through contrast with something that highlights it, not through direct inspection alone. An eye's own clarity is not something one normally notices about one's own eye at all; it becomes vividly apparent only when that eye succeeds at an unusually demanding visual task, such as discerning something exceedingly fine. Likewise, a ruler's "greatness" (uḷārabhāva) is not an intrinsic, freestanding property inspectable in isolation, but something that becomes evident precisely by contrast with the visible suffering of those over whom the ruler has dominion — mapped here onto how seeing suffering directly reveals the path's own "sense of dominance" (adhipateyyaṭṭha) by contrast.
The closing sentence performs an important scholarly courtesy: rather than claiming this sixteen-aspect, single-moment analysis is the only defensible account of how truth-penetration works, Buddhaghosa explicitly acknowledges a rival position — that truth-penetration might instead be "diversified" (nānābhisamaya), occurring truth-by-truth in sequence rather than all at once — and points the interested reader directly to the Kathāvatthu, the Abhidhamma's own dedicated treatise for adjudicating exactly this kind of doctrinal dispute between different early schools. This is characteristic of Buddhaghosa's approach throughout this project: settling on and defending one clear position (here, simultaneous single-moment penetration) while still pointing honestly toward where a fuller treatment of the genuine controversy can be found.
"the sense of dominance" — adhipateyya (dominance, sovereignty, from adhipati, overlord) + aṭṭha (sense); one of the path's four aspects, made manifest by contrast with suffering, just as a sovereign's greatness becomes evident by contrast with the poverty and disease of ordinary subjects.
"diversified penetration" — nānā (various, separate) + abhisamaya (penetration, already met above); the rival position, mentioned here only to be set aside with a pointer to the Kathāvatthu, that truth-penetration might occur truth-by-truth in temporal sequence rather than as a single simultaneous act.
"Points of Controversy" — kathā (discussion, debate) + vatthu (topic, subject-matter); one of the seven books of the Abhidhamma Piṭaka, traditionally attributed to the elder Moggaliputtatissa at the Third Council, dedicated specifically to refuting heterodox positions on points such as the one raised here.
Three Kinds of Full Understanding
The chapter's final subhead closes out the four functions with their own precise internal distinctions, opening with full understanding's threefold division: understanding as the known (ñātapariññā), directly quoting the Paṭisambhidāmagga's own definition and its sweeping "all is to be directly known" formula, with its own specific sphere being the direct knowledge of mind-and-matter together with their conditions; and understanding as judgment (tīraṇapariññā), similarly quoted, with its sphere running from the initial comprehension-by-groups all the way up to conformity-knowledge, judging phenomena as impermanent, suffering, and not-self.
Idāni yāni tāni pariññādīni cattāri kiccāni vuttāni, tesu –
"Tividhā hoti pariññā, tathā pahānampi sacchikiriyāpi; Dve bhāvanā abhimatā, vinicchayo tattha ñātabbo."
Tividhā hoti pariññāti ñātapariññā tīraṇapariññā pahānapariññāti evaṃ pariññā tividhā hoti. Tattha "abhiññāpaññā ñātaṭṭhena ñāṇa"nti evaṃ uddisitvā "ye ye dhammā abhiññātā honti, te te dhammā ñātā hontī"ti evaṃ saṅkhepato, "sabbaṃ, bhikkhave, abhiññeyyaṃ. Kiñca, bhikkhave, sabbaṃ abhiññeyyaṃ? Cakkhuṃ, bhikkhave, abhiññeyya"ntiādinā nayena vitthārato vuttā ñātapariññā nāma. Tassā sappaccayanāmarūpābhijānanā āveṇikā bhūmi.
"Pariññāpaññā tīraṇaṭṭhena ñāṇa"nti evaṃ uddisitvā pana "ye ye dhammā pariññātā honti, te te dhammā tīritā hontī"ti evaṃ saṅkhepato, "sabbaṃ, bhikkhave, pariññeyyaṃ. Kiñca, bhikkhave, sabbaṃ pariññeyyaṃ? Cakkhuṃ, bhikkhave, pariññeyya"ntiādinā nayena vitthārato vuttā tīraṇapariññā nāma. Tassā kalāpasammasanato paṭṭhāya aniccaṃ dukkhamanattāti tīraṇavasena pavattamānāya yāva anulomā āveṇikā bhūmi.
Now, among those four functions already spoken of, beginning with full understanding —
"Full understanding is threefold; abandoning, likewise; realization, too. Two kinds of development are held to be correct. The determination in each case should be known."
"Full understanding is threefold": full understanding is threefold thus — understanding as the known, understanding as judgment, and understanding as abandoning. Herein, having set out, "understanding by way of direct knowledge is knowledge in the sense of the known," then, in brief, "whatever states have been directly known, those states are known"; and, in detail, by the method beginning, "bhikkhus, everything is to be directly known. And what, bhikkhus, is the everything to be directly known? The eye, bhikkhus, is to be directly known" — thus stated, this is called "understanding as the known." Its own specific sphere is the direct knowledge of mind-and-matter together with their conditions.
But having set out, "understanding by way of full understanding is knowledge in the sense of judgment," then, "whatever states have been fully understood, those states are judged"; and, in detail, by the method beginning, "bhikkhus, everything is to be fully understood. And what, bhikkhus, is the everything to be fully understood? The eye, bhikkhus, is to be fully understood" — thus stated, this is called "understanding as judgment." Its own specific sphere runs from the comprehension of groups onward, occurring by way of judgment as impermanent, suffering, and not-self, as far as conformity.
The threefold pariññā scheme given here is worth setting against its earlier, briefer appearance in chapter twenty's Sammasanañāṇakathā, where the same three terms — ñāta, tīraṇa, pahāna — were introduced primarily to map onto different ranges of insight-practice, without the fuller canonical grounding supplied here. This section supplies exactly that grounding, quoting the Paṭisambhidāmagga's own precise wording for each of the first two: understanding-as-the-known is defined through the verb abhijānāti (to directly know), with its own scope being specifically the direct cognition of mind-and-matter and their conditions — corresponding, in the sequence of purifications this whole project has been tracing, to the second and third purifications (purification of view and purification by overcoming doubt) — while understanding-as-judgment, defined through the verb parijānāti (to fully understand, judge), covers the entire span of insight-practice from the initial comprehension-by-groups (chapter twenty's own opening topic) all the way up through conformity-knowledge itself.
The opening verse's own promise — "the determination in each case should be known" (vinicchayo tattha ñātabbo) — signals that what follows is not simply a repetition of earlier material but a genuine sharpening of definitions already used more loosely in earlier chapters, now given their most precise and technically complete statement at the very close of the "body" of wisdom's five purifications.
full understanding as the known — ñāta (known, from jānāti) + pariññā (full understanding); the first of the three pariññās, corresponding to the direct cognition of mind-and-matter together with their conditions — roughly, this project's earlier chapters eighteen and nineteen.
full understanding as judgment — tīraṇa (judging, determining, from tīreti) + pariññā; the second of the three, spanning from the initial comprehension-by-groups through conformity-knowledge, judging phenomena by way of the three characteristics.
Understanding as Abandoning; a Threefold Function Serving One Task
The third kind of full understanding — understanding as abandoning (pahānapariññā) — is now defined, its sphere running from the contemplation of dissolution all the way to path-knowledge itself, and it is this third kind, specifically, that the earlier discussion of "full understanding" (as one of the four simultaneous path-functions) actually intended. A closing observation then ties all three together: since the earlier two kinds of full understanding exist only for the sake of this third one, and since whatever states a person abandons are, by definition, already both known and judged, all three kinds of pariññā can, in this wider sense, be regarded as functions of path-knowledge alone.
"Pahānapaññā pariccāgaṭṭhena ñāṇa"nti evaṃ pana uddisitvā "ye ye dhammā pahīnā honti, te te dhammā pariccattā hontī"ti evaṃ vitthārato vuttā "aniccānupassanāya niccasaññaṃ pajahatī"tiādinayappavattā pahānapariññā. Tassā bhaṅgānupassanato paṭṭhāya yāva maggañāṇā bhūmi, ayaṃ idha adhippetā.
Yasmā vā ñātatīraṇapariññāyopi tadatthāyeva, yasmā ca ye dhamme pajahati, te niyamato ñātā ceva tīritā ca honti, tasmā pariññāttayampi iminā pariyāyena maggañāṇassa kiccanti veditabbaṃ.
But having set out, "understanding by way of abandoning is knowledge in the sense of relinquishment," then, in detail, "whatever states have been abandoned, those states are relinquished" — this pahānapariññā, proceeding by the method beginning, "through the contemplation of impermanence, he abandons the perception of permanence," and so on, is thus stated. Its own specific sphere, running from the contemplation of dissolution as far as path-knowledge, is precisely what is intended here.
Or rather: since understanding-as-the-known and understanding-as-judgment also exist for that very purpose, and since whatever states one abandons are, without exception, already both known and already judged, therefore, in this manner, all three kinds of full understanding, too, should be understood as a function of path-knowledge.
The closing move here is a small but elegant piece of architectural reasoning that ties the entire threefold pariññā scheme back into a single unity: rather than treating "understanding as the known," "understanding as judgment," and "understanding as abandoning" as three genuinely separate and independent functions occurring at three separate stages, Buddhaghosa points out that the first two are, in effect, entirely instrumental to the third — nothing is ever abandoned that has not already, by strict logical necessity, first been known and judged. This means that when the earlier subhead spoke simply of "full understanding" as one of the four simultaneous path-functions, it was implicitly invoking all three senses of pariññā at once, compressed into path-knowledge's single decisive act, even though only the third sense (pahānapariññā) technically applies at that exact moment.
This is also a good moment to notice how neatly the pahānapariññā's stated sphere — "from the contemplation of dissolution... to path-knowledge" — dovetails with this entire translation project's own chapter sequence: bhaṅgānupassanā was the second of chapter twenty-one's nine insight-knowledges, meaning this third kind of full understanding spans essentially everything from the middle of chapter twenty-one through the path-attainments narrated at the start of this very chapter — a tidy confirmation of just how continuous and cumulative this whole multi-chapter stretch of the treatise actually is.
full understanding as abandoning — pahāna (abandoning) + pariññā; the third and, for this chapter's purposes, most directly relevant kind of full understanding, spanning from the contemplation of dissolution (chapter twenty-one) through the actual path-knowledge (this chapter).
"without exception," necessarily — niyama (fixed rule, necessity) + to (adverbial suffix); marks the logical necessity of the claim that whatever is abandoned has already been known and judged — not a mere generalization but a strict entailment.
Three Kinds of Abandoning: Suppression by Concentration
"Abandoning" (pahāna) is likewise threefold, exactly like full understanding: suppression-abandoning, substitution-abandoning, and cutting-off-abandoning. The first, suppression-abandoning (vikkhambhana-pahāna), is illustrated by an image already familiar from this project's own treatment of jhāna-development in earlier chapters — a pot lowered into algae-covered water pushes the algae back only temporarily, exactly as any of the various kinds of mundane concentration push back the hindrances and their opposing states for as long as that concentration lasts, without permanently removing them.
Tathā pahānampīti pahānampi hi vikkhambhanappahānaṃ tadaṅgappahānaṃ samucchedappahānanti pariññā viya tividhameva hoti. Tattha yaṃ sasevāle udake pakkhittena ghaṭena sevālassa viya tena tena lokiyasamādhinā nīvaraṇādīnaṃ paccanīkadhammānaṃ vikkhambhanaṃ, idaṃ vikkhambhanappahānaṃ nāma. Pāḷiyaṃ pana "vikkhambhanappahānañca nīvaraṇānaṃ paṭhamaṃ jhānaṃ bhāvayato"ti nīvaraṇānaññeva vikkhambhanaṃ vuttaṃ, taṃ pākaṭattā vuttanti veditabbaṃ. Nīvaraṇāni hi jhānassa pubbabhāgepi pacchābhāgepi na sahasā cittaṃ ajjhottharanti, vitakkādayo appitakkhaṇeyeva. Tasmā nīvaraṇānaṃ vikkhambhanaṃ pākaṭaṃ.
"Abandoning, likewise": for abandoning, too, is exactly threefold, like full understanding — suppression-abandoning, substitution-abandoning, and cutting-off-abandoning. Herein, that suppression of the opposing states, beginning with the hindrances, by this or that mundane concentration — like the suppression of algae by a pot lowered into algae-covered water — this is called "suppression-abandoning." In the text, however, it is said, "and suppression-abandoning, for one developing the first meditative absorption, is with respect to the hindrances," speaking of the suppression only of the hindrances; that should be understood as having been said because of its being evident. For the hindrances do not suddenly overwhelm the mind, either in the preliminary or in the subsequent stage of the meditative absorption — it is only at the very moment of full absorption that initial application of mind and the rest [suppress them]. Therefore, the suppression of the hindrances is evident.
The algae-and-pot simile does double duty here: it is vivid enough to be immediately memorable, but it also carries an honest built-in warning about suppression-abandoning's own limits — algae pushed back by a lowered pot has not been removed from the pond at all, and will simply drift back the moment the pot is lifted, exactly as hindrances suppressed by jhāna reassert themselves the moment concentration is lost. The clarifying note about why the canonical text mentions only the hindrances, rather than every possible "opposing state" a given jhāna might suppress, is a small but genuinely useful piece of textual close-reading: it is not that jhāna suppresses nothing but the hindrances, but that the hindrances' suppression is simply the most conspicuous, easily observed case, since — as the text notes — the hindrances do not creep up gradually but are held off decisively, all at once, at the precise moment of absorption's initial application of mind.
suppression-abandoning — vikkhambhana (pushing back, suppressing, from vi + khambheti) + pahāna (abandoning); the weakest of the three kinds of abandoning, achieved by mundane concentration alone and lasting only as long as that concentration is sustained — illustrated by algae pushed back, not removed, by a lowered pot.
evident, conspicuous — explains why the canonical citation names only the hindrances as what jhāna's first absorption suppresses, even though other opposing states are suppressed as well; the hindrances are simply the most readily observable case.
Substitution-Abandoning: A Lamp in the Dark, and Thirteen Stages of Insight
The second kind of abandoning, substitution-abandoning (tadaṅga-pahāna), is illustrated by a lamp lit at night, which does not suppress darkness the way a pot suppresses algae but positively replaces it, factor for factor, through its own component of light. Thirteen specific stages of insight practice are then listed, each abandoning one specific wrong perception by substituting its own correct, opposing insight — determining mind-and-matter replacing personality-view, grasping conditions replacing the view of no-cause or a false cause together with the stain of doubt, comprehension-by-groups replacing the mass-perception of "I" and "mine," and onward through the entire insight sequence this project has traced since chapter twenty, up to conformity-knowledge itself replacing any grasping contrary to the truths.
Yaṃ pana rattibhāge samujjalitena padīpena andhakārassa viya tena tena vipassanāya avayavabhūtena ñāṇaṅgena paṭipakkhavaseneva tassa tassa pahātabbadhammassa pahānaṃ, idaṃ tadaṅgappahānaṃ nāma. Seyyathidaṃ – nāmarūpaparicchedena tāva sakkāyadiṭṭhiyā. Paccayapariggahena ahetuvisamahetudiṭṭhiyā ceva kaṅkhāmalassa ca. Kalāpasammasanena "ahaṃ mamā"ti samūhagāhassa. Maggāmaggavavatthānena amagge maggasaññāya. Udayadassanena ucchedadiṭṭhiyā. Vayadassanena sassatadiṭṭhiyā. Bhayatupaṭṭhānena sabhaye abhayasaññāya. Ādīnavadassanena assādasaññāya. Nibbidānupassanena abhiratisaññāya. Muñcitukamyatāya amuñcitukāmabhāvassa. Paṭisaṅkhānena appaṭisaṅkhānassa. Upekkhāya anupekkhanassa. Anulomena saccapaṭilomagāhassa pahānaṃ.
But that abandoning of this or that state to be abandoned, by way of the direct opposite alone, through this or that knowledge-factor that is a component part of insight — like the abandoning of darkness by a lamp lit at night — this is called "substitution-abandoning." That is to say: by the determining of mind-and-matter, the abandoning of personality-view; by the grasping of conditions, the abandoning of the view of no cause and of a false cause, and of the stain of doubt; by the comprehension of groups, the abandoning of the mass-apprehension of "I" and "mine"; by the determination of the path and the not-path, the abandoning of the perception of a path in what is not the path; by the seeing of arising, the abandoning of the view of annihilation; by the seeing of passing away, the abandoning of the view of eternalism; by the appearance as fear, the abandoning of the perception of fearlessness in what is fearful; by the seeing of danger, the abandoning of the perception of relish; by the contemplation of disenchantment, the abandoning of the perception of delight; by desire for deliverance, the abandoning of the state of not wishing for deliverance; by reflection, the abandoning of the state of not reflecting; by equanimity, the abandoning of the state of not being equanimous; by conformity, the abandoning of a grasping contrary to the truths.
This thirteen-item list is, in effect, a compressed retrospective of everything this multi-chapter translation project has covered since chapter eighteen, and it repays being read as a kind of index to the whole journey: "determining mind-and-matter" is chapter eighteen's own subject, "grasping conditions" is chapter nineteen's, "comprehension of groups" and "determination of the path and not-path" are chapter twenty's two central topics, and the seven remaining items — from "seeing arising" through "conformity" — trace, in exact order, chapter twenty-one's own nine-knowledge sequence (with dissolution-knowledge and its own specific abandonment left for the fuller eighteen-item list the very next paragraph will supply). The lamp-in-darkness image, unlike the previous section's pot-and-algae image, captures something genuinely different about how this second kind of abandoning works: darkness is not merely pushed to one side by light, the way algae is pushed aside by a lowered pot, but is positively replaced, precisely because light and darkness cannot coexist in the same space at all — a stronger, more permanent-feeling kind of abandonment than mere suppression, even though (as the very next subhead will make explicit) it, too, still falls short of the noble path's own final, irreversible cutting-off.
substitution-abandoning — tad (that) + aṅga (factor, component) + pahāna (abandoning); abandoning a specific wrong perception by directly substituting its correct opposite, factor for factor — like light replacing darkness rather than merely suppressing it — achieved throughout the insight-knowledge sequence of chapters eighteen through twenty-one.
"the view of no cause and of a false cause" — a + hetu (no cause) / visama + hetu (a wrong, uneven, or incongruous cause); two wrong causal theories abandoned specifically by the grasping of conditions (paccayapariggaha), chapter nineteen's own central subject.
Eighteen Great Insight-Contemplations and What Each Abandons
A second, more comprehensive eighteen-item list now supplements the thirteen already given, drawn from the canonical set of "great insight-contemplations" (mahāvipassanā): each of eighteen distinct contemplations — impermanence, suffering, not-self, disenchantment, dispassion, cessation, relinquishment, and eleven more besides — is paired with the specific perception or clinging it abandons, the first seven already explained under the dissolution-knowledge of chapter twenty-one, and the remaining eleven now glossed for the first time, beginning with the contemplation of destruction (which abandons the perception of compactness) and the contemplation of passing away, illustrated by its own verse on how correctly seeing dissolution stops any inclination toward further accumulation.
Yaṃ vā pana aṭṭhārasasu mahāvipassanāsu aniccānupassanāya niccasaññāya. Dukkhānupassanāya sukhasaññāya. Anattānupassanāya attasaññāya. Nibbidānupassanāya nandiyā. Virāgānupassanāya rāgassa. Nirodhānupassanāya samudayassa. Paṭinissaggānupassanāya ādānassa. Khayānupassanāya ghanasaññāya. Vayānupassanāya āyūhanassa. Vipariṇāmānupassanāya dhuvasaññāya. Animittānupassanāya nimittassa. Appaṇihitānupassanāya paṇidhiyā. Suññatānupassanāya abhinivesassa. Adhipaññādhammavipassanāya sārādānābhinivesassa. Yathābhūtañāṇadassanena sammohābhinivesassa. Ādīnavānupassanāya ālayābhinivesassa. Paṭisaṅkhānupassanāya appaṭisaṅkhāya. Vivaṭṭānupassanāya saṃyogābhinivesassa pahānaṃ. Idampi tadaṅgappahānameva.
Tattha yathā aniccānupassanādīhi sattahi niccasaññādīnaṃ pahānaṃ hoti, taṃ bhaṅgānupassane vuttameva.
Khayānupassanāti pana ghanavinibbhogaṃ katvā aniccaṃ khayaṭṭhenāti evaṃ khayaṃ passato ñāṇaṃ. Tena ghanasaññāya pahānaṃ hoti.
Vayānupassanāti –
"Ārammaṇānvayena, ubho ekavavatthānā; Nirodhe adhimuttatā, vayalakkhaṇavipassanāti." –
Evaṃ vuttā paccakkhato ceva anvayato ca saṅkhārānaṃ bhaṅgaṃ disvā tasmiññeva bhaṅgasaṅkhāte nirodhe adhimuttatā, tāya āyūhanassa pahānaṃ hoti. Yesaṃ hi atthāya āyūheyya, "te evaṃ vayadhammā"ti vipassato āyūhane cittaṃ na namati.
Or, alternatively, among the eighteen great insight-contemplations: by the contemplation of impermanence, the abandoning of the perception of permanence. By the contemplation of suffering, the abandoning of the perception of pleasure. By the contemplation of not-self, the abandoning of the perception of self. By the contemplation of disenchantment, the abandoning of delight. By the contemplation of dispassion, the abandoning of passion. By the contemplation of cessation, the abandoning of the origin. By the contemplation of relinquishment, the abandoning of grasping. By the contemplation of destruction, the abandoning of the perception of compactness. By the contemplation of passing away, the abandoning of accumulation. By the contemplation of change, the abandoning of the perception of stability. By the contemplation of the signless, the abandoning of the sign. By the contemplation of the desireless, the abandoning of desire. By the contemplation of voidness, the abandoning of adherence. By the higher-wisdom contemplation of states, the abandoning of adherence through the grasping of an essence. By knowledge and vision of things as they really are, the abandoning of adherence through delusion. By the contemplation of danger, the abandoning of adherence through attachment. By the contemplation of reflection, the abandoning of non-reflection. By the contemplation of turning-away, the abandoning of adherence through bondage. This, too, is precisely substitution-abandoning.
Herein, how the abandoning of the perception of permanence and the rest is accomplished by the seven contemplations, beginning with the contemplation of impermanence, has already been stated in the treatment of the contemplation of dissolution.
"The contemplation of destruction," however, is the knowledge of one who sees destruction thus: having broken up compactness, [seeing that] it is impermanent in the sense of destruction. By this, the abandoning of the perception of compactness is accomplished.
"The contemplation of passing away" is —
"Through the sequence of the object, both are determined as one; the resolve toward cessation — this is the insight into the characteristic of passing away." —
Thus stated, this is the insight that, having seen the dissolution of formations both directly and by inference, resolves precisely upon that very cessation reckoned as dissolution; by that, the abandoning of accumulation is accomplished. For, to one who contemplates thus, "those things are of a nature to pass away," with respect to whatever purpose he might otherwise accumulate for, the mind does not incline toward accumulation.
This eighteen-item list is deliberately more expansive than the thirteen-item list just given, and the two should be read as complementary rather than competing: the earlier list mapped named stages of practice (determining mind-and-matter, grasping conditions, and so on) onto what each stage abandons, while this list maps eighteen named contemplations — several of which (the signless, the desireless, voidness) are the very same "three doors to liberation" already explored at length in chapter twenty-one's massive saṅkhārupekkhā subhead — onto a parallel but not identical set of eighteen things abandoned. The overlap between the first seven items here and chapter twenty-one's own dissolution-knowledge (bhaṅgānupassanā) is explicitly acknowledged rather than silently repeated, with Buddhaghosa simply cross-referencing back to that earlier, fuller treatment.
The contemplation of passing away's own verse deserves a moment's unpacking, since its compressed phrasing can obscure a genuinely important point: "through the sequence of the object, both are determined as one" refers to the meditator seeing dissolution twice over — once directly, by observing an object's own actual cessation, and once by inference, extending that same observation to countless other formations not directly observed — and finding that both modes of seeing converge on and are "determined as one" single insight into passing-away. The practical payoff, spelled out in the prose that follows, is that this contemplation specifically dissolves any motivation to accumulate further karmic activity for the sake of some future goal, since a mind that has genuinely internalized "these things are of a nature to pass away" simply stops inclining toward the kind of striving (āyūhana) that presupposes some stable future beneficiary worth accumulating for.
great insight-contemplation — mahā (great) + vipassanā (insight); the canonical set of eighteen named contemplations enumerated here, several of which (impermanence, suffering, not-self, disenchantment, dispassion, cessation) reprise terminology from this project's own chapter twenty-one.
accumulation, exertion toward future becoming — from ā + ūhana (heaping up, striving); the specific thing abandoned by the contemplation of passing away — the karmically productive striving that presupposes a stable continuity worth striving for, undermined once dissolution is seen as universal and inevitable.
"the perception of compactness" — ghana (dense, solid, compact) + saññā (perception); the ordinary, unexamined sense that a body or process is one solid mass rather than a rapidly dissolving series of distinct events, abandoned specifically by the contemplation of destruction (khayānupassanā).
The Remaining Contemplations: Change, Signlessness, Voidness, and Beyond
The glosses continue through the remaining eleven contemplations: change (seeing alteration beyond any fixed boundary, or seeing arising followed by aging-and-death), abandoning the perception of stability; signlessness — simply another name for the contemplation of impermanence — abandoning the sign of permanence; the desireless — another name for the contemplation of suffering — abandoning the longing for pleasure; voidness — another name for the contemplation of not-self — abandoning the adherence to "there is a self"; the higher-wisdom contemplation of states — a distinct, more advanced insight defined by its own verse as seeing an object, seeing the dissolution of the consciousness that took that object, and thereby directly apprehending voidness — abandoning any grasping after an essence; and finally, knowledge and vision of things as they really are, the contemplation of danger, the contemplation of reflection, and the contemplation of turning-away, each named and glossed in turn, closing this second, more comprehensive account of substitution-abandoning as fully explained.
Vipariṇāmānupassanāti rūpasattakādivasena taṃ taṃ paricchedaṃ atikkamma aññathāpavattidassanaṃ. Uppannassa vā jarāya ceva maraṇena ca dvīhākārehi vipariṇāmadassanaṃ, tāya dhuvasaññāya pahānaṃ hoti.
Animittānupassanāti aniccānupassanāva, tāya niccanimittassa pahānaṃ hoti.
Appaṇihitānupassanāti dukkhānupassanāva, tāya sukhapaṇidhisukhapatthanāpahānaṃ hoti.
Suññatānupassanāti anattānupassanāva, tāya "atthi attā"ti abhinivesassa pahānaṃ hoti.
Adhipaññādhammavipassanāti –
"Ārammaṇañca paṭisaṅkhā, bhaṅgañca anupassati; Suññato ca upaṭṭhānaṃ, adhipaññā vipassanā"ti. –
Evaṃ vuttā rūpādiārammaṇaṃ jānitvā tassa ca ārammaṇassa tadārammaṇassa ca cittassa bhaṅgaṃ disvā "saṅkhārāva bhijjanti, saṅkhārānaṃ maraṇaṃ, na añño koci atthī"ti bhaṅgavasena suññataṃ gahetvā pavattā vipassanā. Sā adhipaññā ca dhammesu ca vipassanāti katvā adhipaññādhammavipassanāti vuccati, tāya niccasārābhāvassa ca attasārābhāvassa ca suṭṭhu diṭṭhattā sārādānābhinivesassa pahānaṃ hoti.
Yathābhūtañāṇadassananti sappaccayanāmarūpapariggaho, tena "ahosiṃ nu kho ahaṃ atītamaddhāna"ntiādivasena ceva, "issarato loko sambhotī"tiādivasena ca pavattassa sammohābhinivesassa pahānaṃ hoti.
Ādīnavānupassanāti bhayatupaṭṭhānavasena uppannaṃ sabbabhavādīsu ādīnavadassanañāṇaṃ, tena "kiñci allīyitabbaṃ na dissatī"ti ālayābhinivesassa pahānaṃ hoti.
Paṭisaṅkhānupassanāti muñcanassa upāyakaraṇaṃ paṭisaṅkhāñāṇaṃ, tena appaṭisaṅkhāya pahānaṃ hoti.
Vivaṭṭānupassanāti saṅkhārupekkhā ceva anulomañca. Tadā hissa cittaṃ īsakapoṇe padumapalāse udakabindu viya sabbasmā saṅkhāragatā patilīyati, patikuṭati, pativattatīti vuttaṃ. Tasmā tāya saṃyogābhinivesassa pahānaṃ hoti, kāmasaṃyogādikassa kilesābhinivesassa kilesappavattiyā pahānaṃ hotīti attho. Evaṃ vitthārato tadaṅgappahānaṃ veditabbaṃ. Pāḷiyaṃ pana "tadaṅgappahānañca diṭṭhigatānaṃ nibbedhabhāgiyaṃ samādhiṃ bhāvayato"ti saṅkhepeneva vuttaṃ.
"The contemplation of change" is the seeing of an altered mode of occurring, having passed beyond this or that boundary, by way of the sevenfold division of matter and the rest; or, the seeing of change in two modes — through aging and through death, with respect to what has arisen. By this, the abandoning of the perception of stability is accomplished.
"The contemplation of the signless" is simply the contemplation of impermanence itself; by it, the abandoning of the sign of permanence is accomplished.
"The contemplation of the desireless" is simply the contemplation of suffering itself; by it, the abandoning of the longing and yearning for pleasure is accomplished.
"The contemplation of voidness" is simply the contemplation of not-self itself; by it, the abandoning of adherence to "there is a self" is accomplished.
"The higher-wisdom contemplation of states" is —
"It contemplates both the object and, through reflection, its dissolution; and the appearance of voidness — this is higher-wisdom insight." —
Thus stated, this is the insight that occurs, having known an object such as matter and the rest, and having seen the dissolution of both that object and the consciousness that had that object, by taking up voidness by way of dissolution, thus: "it is only formations that break up; the death of formations; there is nothing else at all." Because it is both a higher wisdom and an insight with respect to states, it is called "the higher-wisdom contemplation of states"; by it, because the absence of an essence that is permanent and the absence of an essence that is a self have both been thoroughly seen, the abandoning of adherence through the grasping of an essence is accomplished.
"Knowledge and vision of things as they really are" is the grasping of mind-and-matter together with their conditions; by it, the abandoning of adherence through delusion, occurring by way of such notions as "was I, then, in the past?" and "the world came to be through a creator," is accomplished.
"The contemplation of danger" is the knowledge of seeing danger, arisen by way of the appearance as fear, with respect to all states of existence and the rest; by it, the abandoning of adherence through attachment, in the sense of "nothing at all is seen fit to be clung to," is accomplished.
"The contemplation of reflection" is the knowledge of reflection that constitutes the means for release; by it, the abandoning of non-reflection is accomplished.
"The contemplation of turning-away" is equanimity toward formations, together with conformity. For it was said that, at that time, his mind, like a drop of water on a slightly tilted lotus leaf, shrinks back, draws away, and turns back from the entirety of the state of formations. Therefore, by it, the abandoning of adherence through bondage is accomplished — meaning, the abandoning of the occurrence of the defilements, that is, of the defiled adherence beginning with the bondage of sensual pleasure. Thus, in detail, should substitution-abandoning be understood. In the text, however, it is stated only in brief: "and substitution-abandoning, for one developing concentration partaking of penetration with respect to what has gone into wrong view."
A pattern worth flagging explicitly: several of these eighteen contemplations turn out, on inspection, not to be genuinely new practices at all, but simply alternative names for three contemplations already very familiar from earlier in this list — "the signless" is flatly identified as nothing but impermanence-contemplation under another name, "the desireless" as suffering-contemplation, and "voidness" as not-self-contemplation. This threefold renaming is not incidental: these three particular names (animitta, appaṇihita, suññata) are the technical names of the three "doors to liberation" already explored at exhaustive length in chapter twenty-one's saṅkhārupekkhā subhead, so their reappearance here confirms, from a different angle, that the three doors to liberation are not a fourth alternative to the three-characteristics contemplation but simply that same contemplation viewed through the lens of what it opens onto.
The higher-wisdom contemplation of states deserves special notice as the one genuinely new and more advanced item in this stretch of the list: unlike ordinary impermanence-contemplation, which sees an object's own dissolution, this contemplation sees the dissolution of both the object and the consciousness that cognized it — a doubled, reflexive seeing that yields directly the emphatic conclusion "it is only formations that break up... there is nothing else at all," which is precisely why it earns the name adhipaññā, "higher wisdom," among these eighteen. With this paragraph, both the thirteen-item and eighteen-item accounts of substitution-abandoning are now complete, closing with a brief canonical citation that compresses everything just explained into a single terse sentence — a reminder, familiar by now from this whole project's approach, that the commentarial tradition's own elaborations exist to unpack, never to override, the compressed brevity of the source text itself.
the higher-wisdom contemplation of states — adhipaññā (higher wisdom) + dhamma (states, phenomena) + vipassanā (insight); a reflexive contemplation seeing the dissolution of both an object and the consciousness cognizing it, yielding a doubled, more thorough apprehension of voidness than ordinary not-self-contemplation alone.
the signless, the desireless, and voidness — here identified explicitly as simply impermanence-, suffering-, and not-self-contemplation respectively under alternative names, the same three terms serving elsewhere (as in chapter twenty-one) as the technical names for the "three doors to liberation."
"concentration partaking of penetration" — nibbedha (penetration, breaking through) + bhāgiya (partaking of, sharing in) + samādhi (concentration); the canonical text's own compact term for the entire stretch of practice this long substitution-abandoning discussion has just unpacked in full detail.
Cutting-Off-Abandoning: The Thunderbolt-Struck Tree and the New King
The third and final kind of abandoning is now defined: cutting-off-abandoning (samuccheda-pahāna), the noble path's own unique accomplishment, compared to a tree struck by a thunderbolt, which can never again put forth what it once did — the specific fetters and other states so eliminated never recur. This is what "abandoning" has actually meant throughout this entire chapter's long third subhead on what each path-knowledge eliminates. A final simile closes the discussion: exactly as a new king, having slain a rival claimant and taken the throne, is credited with everything accomplished during the campaign that led to his victory — even actions technically performed before his actual coronation — so too path-knowledge's climactic cutting-off is credited with the entire preparatory work of suppression and substitution that came before it, even though, strictly speaking, those were accomplished by different, earlier kinds of abandoning.
Yaṃ pana asanivicakkābhihatassa rukkhassa viya ariyamaggañāṇena saṃyojanādīnaṃ dhammānaṃ yathā na puna pavatti, evaṃ pahānaṃ, idaṃ samucchedappahānaṃ nāma. Yaṃ sandhāya vuttaṃ "samucchedappahānañca lokuttaraṃ khayagāmimaggaṃ bhāvayato"ti. Iti imesu tīsu pahānesu samucchedappahānameva idha adhippetaṃ. Yasmā pana tassa yogino pubbabhāge vikkhambhanatadaṅgappahānānipi tadatthāneva, tasmā pahānattayampi iminā pariyāyena maggañāṇassa kiccanti veditabbaṃ. Paṭirājānaṃ vadhitvā rajjaṃ pattena hi yampi tato pubbe kataṃ, sabbaṃ "idañcidañca raññā kata"ntiyeva vuccati.
But that abandoning, by noble path-knowledge, of the states beginning with the fetters, such that they do not occur again — like a tree struck by a thunderbolt — this is called "cutting-off-abandoning." With reference to which it was said, "and cutting-off-abandoning, for one developing the supramundane path leading to destruction." Thus, among these three kinds of abandoning, it is precisely cutting-off-abandoning that is intended here. But, since that meditator's own earlier suppression-abandoning and substitution-abandoning were also for that very purpose, therefore, in this manner, all three kinds of abandoning, too, should be understood as a function of path-knowledge. For, indeed, whatever was done before by one who, having slain a rival king, attained the kingdom — all of it is simply said, "this and that was done by the king."
The thunderbolt-struck tree provides a sharper, more final image than either of the two similes preceding it in this subhead: a pot lowered into algae-covered water can always be lifted again, and even a lamp's light can be extinguished, letting darkness return — but a tree struck by lightning does not merely wilt temporarily; it is rendered permanently incapable of the specific growth that made it what it was. This finality is exactly what distinguishes samuccheda-pahāna from the two preceding kinds, and it is why, of the three, only this one is "intended" whenever this entire long third subhead spoke of a path "abandoning" a defilement — everything worked out across the seventeen defilement-categories, the four-path mapping, and the bhūmiladdha discussion earlier in this chapter was, precisely and exclusively, this third and final kind of abandoning.
The usurper-king simile that closes this section performs the identical unifying maneuver already seen twice before in this closing subhead — first for the three kinds of full understanding, now again for the three kinds of abandoning — and it is worth appreciating as a genuinely satisfying piece of textual architecture: rather than treating suppression, substitution, and cutting-off as three competing or mutually exclusive theories of what abandonment "really" is, Buddhaghosa shows all three cooperating as successive phases of one single campaign, with the final, decisive victory (cutting-off) retroactively claiming credit for every earlier phase of preparation that made it possible — exactly as a new king's reign is understood to include, and be built upon, every maneuver of the campaign that won him the throne.
cutting-off-abandoning — samuccheda (complete cutting-off, from saṃ + ud + chid, to cut) + pahāna; the third and only truly final kind of abandoning, accomplished exclusively by the supramundane path, rendering the eliminated states permanently incapable of ever recurring.
a thunderbolt, lightning-strike — asani (thunderbolt) + vicakka (a disc-shaped weapon, or here used to intensify the destructive image); the simile for cutting-off-abandoning's permanence, contrasted with the more reversible suppression (algae-and-pot) and substitution (lamp-and-darkness) similes given earlier in this subhead.
a rival king, a usurper's opponent — paṭi (against, opposing) + rājā (king); the defeated claimant in the closing simile, whose defeat retroactively credits the victor with every action of the campaign that preceded the actual coronation.
Realization and Development; the Body of Wisdom Complete
The chapter's final section defines the remaining two functions and, with them, closes the entire five-part "body" of wisdom this project has been tracing since chapter eighteen. Realization (sacchikiriyā) is threefold — mundane realization (the direct, experiential "touching" of an attainment such as jhāna, as when a monk truthfully claims mastery of the first absorption), and two modes of supramundane realization (realization through vision, accomplished only by the first path's own act of seeing Nibbāna for the first time, and realization through development, accomplished by each of the three remaining paths). Development (bhāvanā) is twofold, mundane and supramundane, with only the supramundane kind meant here — the generating and repeated cultivation of the four knowledges together with their associated states. The chapter's opening verse is then repeated verbatim, followed by a closing canonical verse on the person established in virtue who develops mind and wisdom, with a final sentence confirming that the entire architecture promised at chapter fourteen's very opening — the ground, the root, and the body of the development of wisdom — now stands complete.
Sacchikiriyāpīti lokiyasacchikiriyā lokuttarasacchikiriyāti dvedhā bhinnāpi lokuttarāya dassanabhāvanāvasena bhedato tividhā hoti. Tattha "paṭhamassa jhānassa lābhīmhi, vasīmhi, paṭhamajjhānaṃ sacchikataṃ mayā"tiādinā nayena āgatā paṭhamajjhānādīnaṃ phassanā lokiyasacchikiriyā nāma. Phassanāti adhigantvā "idaṃ mayā adhigata"nti paccakkhato ñāṇaphassena phusanā. Imameva hi atthaṃ sandhāya "sacchikiriyā paññā phassanaṭṭhe ñāṇa"nti uddisitvā "ye ye dhammā sacchikatā honti, te te dhammā phassitā hontī"ti sacchikiriyaniddeso vutto.
Apica attano santāne anuppādetvāpi ye dhammā kevalaṃ aparappaccayena ñāṇena ñātā, te sacchikatā honti. Teneva hi "sabbaṃ, bhikkhave, sacchikātabbaṃ. Kiñca, bhikkhave, sabbaṃ sacchikātabbaṃ? Cakkhu, bhikkhave, sacchikātabba"ntiādi vuttaṃ.
Aparampi vuttaṃ "rūpaṃ passanto sacchikaroti. Vedanaṃ…pe… viññāṇaṃ passanto sacchikaroti. Cakkhuṃ…pe… jarāmaraṇaṃ…pe… amatogadhaṃ nibbānaṃ passanto sacchikarotīti. Ye ye dhammā sacchikatā honti, te te dhammā phassitā hontī"ti.
Paṭhamamaggakkhaṇe pana nibbānadassanaṃ dassanasacchikiriyā. Sesamaggakkhaṇesu bhāvanāsacchikiriyāti. Sā duvidhāpi idha adhippetā. Tasmā dassanabhāvanāvasena nibbānassa sacchikiriyā imassa ñāṇassa kiccanti veditabbaṃ.
Dve bhāvanā abhimatāti bhāvanā pana lokiyabhāvanā lokuttarabhāvanāti dveyeva abhimatā. Tattha lokiyānaṃ sīlasamādhipaññānaṃ uppādanaṃ, tāhi ca santānavāsanaṃ lokiyabhāvanā. Lokuttarānaṃ uppādanaṃ, tāhi ca santānavāsanaṃ lokuttarabhāvanā. Tāsu idha lokuttarā adhippetā. Lokuttarāni hi sīlādīni catubbidhampetaṃ ñāṇaṃ uppādeti. Tesaṃ sahajātapaccayāditāya tehi ca santānaṃ vāsetīti lokuttarabhāvanāvassa kiccanti.
Evaṃ –
"Kiccāni pariññādīni, yāni vuttāni abhisamayakāle; Tāni ca yathāsabhāvena, jānitabbāni sabbānīti."
Ettāvatā ca –
"Sīle patiṭṭhāya naro sapañño, cittaṃ paññañca bhāvaya"nti. –
Evaṃ sarūpeneva ābhatāya paññābhāvanāya vidhānadassanatthaṃ yaṃ vuttaṃ "mūlabhūtā dve visuddhiyo sampādetvā sarīrabhūtā pañca visuddhiyo sampādentena bhāvetabbā"ti, taṃ vitthāritaṃ hoti. Kathaṃ bhāvetabbāti ayañca pañho vissajjitoti.
Iti sādhujanapāmojjatthāya kate visuddhimagge
Paññābhāvanādhikāre
Ñāṇadassanavisuddhiniddeso nāma
Bāvīsatimo paricchedo.
"Realization, too": though divided in two as mundane realization and supramundane realization, it is, by way of the further division of the supramundane into vision and development, threefold. Herein, that touching of the first meditative absorption and the rest, which has come down by the method beginning, "I am one who has obtained the first meditative absorption, I have mastery over it, the first meditative absorption has been realized by me" — this is called "mundane realization." "Touching" means the contacting, by direct knowledge-contact, of what has been attained, thus: "this has been attained by me." For it was precisely with reference to this meaning that, having set out, "realization is knowledge in the sense of touching," the exposition of realization was stated: "whatever states have been realized, those states are touched."
Moreover, whatever states, without having been generated in one's own mental continuum, are known merely through knowledge that is independent of another condition — those, too, are said to be "realized." For it was precisely with reference to this that it was said, "bhikkhus, everything is to be realized. And what, bhikkhus, is the everything to be realized? The eye, bhikkhus, is to be realized," and so on.
And this, too, was further said: "Seeing matter, one realizes it. Seeing feeling... seeing consciousness, one realizes it. Seeing the eye... seeing aging-and-death... seeing Nibbāna, which has the deathless as its base, one realizes it. Whatever states have been realized, those states are touched."
Now, at the moment of the first path, the seeing of Nibbāna is realization through vision. At the remaining path-moments, it is realization through development. Both of these are intended here. Therefore, the realization of Nibbāna, by way of both vision and development, should be understood as the function of this knowledge.
"Two kinds of development are held to be correct": development, however, is held to be of exactly two kinds — mundane development and supramundane development. Herein, the generating of the mundane states of virtue, concentration, and wisdom, and the perfuming of the mental continuum by them, is mundane development. The generating of the supramundane states, and the perfuming of the mental continuum by them, is supramundane development. Of these, it is the supramundane that is intended here. For the supramundane states of virtue and the rest generate this same fourfold knowledge; and, by way of being its co-nascent conditions and the rest, they perfume the mental continuum with it. This, then, is the function of supramundane development.
Thus —
"And the functions — full understanding and the rest — that are spoken of at the time of the penetration of the truths: all these should be known according to their true nature."
By this much —
"Established in virtue, a person of wisdom, developing mind and wisdom..." —
Thus, for the sake of showing the actual carrying-out of the development of wisdom, brought forward here in its own proper form, what was said — "having accomplished the two purifications that are the root, one should develop, accomplishing the five purifications that are the body" — has now been explained in detail. And this very question, "how should it be developed?", has thus been answered.
Thus, in the Path of Purification, composed for the joy of good people,
in the section on the development of wisdom,
the discussion called "The Description of Purification by Knowledge and Vision"
constitutes the twenty-second chapter.
The distinction between "realization through vision" and "realization through development," reserved for the very last technical point of this entire chapter, deserves to be read as a quiet but genuinely important refinement of everything narrated in the chapter's opening subheads: it is only the very first path — stream-entry — that realizes Nibbāna through vision in the strict sense of seeing it for the very first time; the second, third, and fourth paths, though each still takes Nibbāna as their object exactly as the first did, realize it through development instead, since what is happening at those later moments is no longer a first encounter but a deepening cultivation of an already-seen truth. This distinction has been implicit since paragraph 813's account of the second path, but it is only named and explained explicitly here, at the very close of the chapter — a fitting final technical refinement for a chapter that has, throughout, favored precision over premature simplification.
With this section, the entire "body" (sarīra) of the development of wisdom — the five purifications running from purification of view (chapter eighteen) through this fifth and final purification by knowledge and vision — stands complete, fulfilling the promise made all the way back at chapter fourteen's own opening, when Buddhaghosa first laid out the ground/root/body architecture governing everything from that point forward: the six-fold "ground" (the aggregates, bases, elements, faculties, truths, and dependent origination), the two-fold "root" (purification of virtue and of mind, already accomplished long before this project's wisdom-chapters even began), and now, finally, the five-fold "body" itself, in its entirety. Only one chapter of the whole Visuddhimagga now remains: chapter twenty-three, Paññābhāvanānisaṃsaniddesa, "The Description of the Benefits of Developing Wisdom" — the treatise's own final chapter, which will close out the entire multi-year translation project by cataloguing what this long-cultivated wisdom actually accomplishes, from the abandonment of the defilements this very chapter has spent so long enumerating, to the taste of the fruit of recluseship, and to Nibbāna itself as wisdom's own final benefit.
realization through vision and realization through development — dassana (seeing) / bhāvanā (development, cultivation) + sacchikiriyā (realization); distinguishes the first path's unique act of seeing Nibbāna for the first time from the three later paths' cultivation of that same already-seen truth.
"the perfuming of the mental continuum" — santāna (continuity, mental stream) + vāsana (perfuming, impregnating, from vāseti); describes how developed states of virtue, concentration, and wisdom leave a lasting impression on one's ongoing mental continuum, rather than arising and vanishing without further trace.
"the two purifications that are the root" and "the five purifications that are the body" — mūla (root) / sarīra (body) + bhūta (being, state of); the ground/root/body architecture first announced in chapter fourteen, now confirmed complete: purification of virtue and of mind as the root, and the five purifications from view through knowledge-and-vision as the body.