Meditators can review their practice and consider if any of these ten imperfections (upakkilesa) are inhibiting progress.
(a) Illumination. The brightness of consciousness during vipassanā practice can surpass anything previously known, even in jhāna practice. It may manifest as a bright light in the mind like a spot light, headlight, or torch, or appear as radiant light emitting from the body. This illumination may be perceived with eyes open or closed, and appear to fill the room, the mind, or the whole world. If you become interested in this illumination or attribute much significance to it, this intense luminosity might be mistaken for a greater accomplishment than in fact it represents.
(b) Knowledge. The direct knowledge of mentality and materiality is keen, incisive, and sharp at this stage of vipassanā practice. You may comprehend the teachings you have learned from books or discourses more deeply than ever before. What you have read about is now vividly clear in your direct perception. This confirmation of knowledge creates enormous enthusiasm for the Dhamma and could inspire preaching or proselytizing that would detract from your meditative pursuits. This clear and vivid knowledge should not be mistaken for the goal.
(c) Rapturous happiness. Your body and mind may be filled with rapture. Buoyancy might become so intense that you could feel as though you are floating, flying, or rising into the air. Intensely happy feelings can foster attachment; therefore focus on the impermanence, unsatisfactoriness, and emptiness of happy feelings in order to diligently protect the mind from potential attachment.
(d) Tranquility. The tranquility (passaddhi) of body and mind arises together with a set of factors that includes lightness (lahutā), malleability (mudutā), workability (kammaññatā), proficiency (pāguññatā), and uprightness (ujukatā). These six conditions will enable you to sit without fatigue, heaviness, or discomfort. The lightness brings a lively, buoyant, dynamic quality to the mind that enables your attention to move quickly and easily between objects. The malleability contributes a soft, flexible, pliant, and gentle quality that dispels rigidity and coarseness, and allows consciousness to adapt well to changing circumstances. The quality of work-ability introduces a healthy and capable quality to your practice, which counters fatigue, stiffness, pain, or distraction. Proficiency is expressed in a strong, efficient, and effective functioning of the mind that proceeds without hesitation, procrastination, or sluggishness. And the upright quality manifests by honest and straight-forward engagement with phenomena free of hypocrisy or deceit.
Although pleasant, these experiences should not become a reason for pride, attachment, or satisfaction to fester. Meditators who do not identify this imperfection may fritter away precious time attempting to recreate pleasant meditations only to find that their practice stagnates.
(e) Bliss and pleasure. A sublime pleasure may fill consciousness; pain and distress are quelled. A traditional simile warns that a man who wishes to live and not die will avoid knowingly drinking poison from a cup, even if it has a pleasing taste.303 Remain cautious, and do not be seduced by these happy states.
(f) Resolution or decision. The intensification of faith, confidence, and powerful resolution can inspire overwhelming adoration of the Buddha or teacher and extreme enthusiasm for the teachings. Ecstatic devotion can sometimes lead to emotional attachments, arrogant and overconfident opinions, or tearful outbursts that disrupt the forward movement of practice. A skillful meditator will recognize the imperfection in excessive fervor and the imbalance in captivating states, and then he or she will restore equilibrium through the mindful development of insight.
(g) Exertion. Balanced energy, neither lax nor strained, will dominate this stage of the knowledge of arising and passing away. You may discover that you can sit for many hours and function brilliantly with very little sleep. The vast energy resources that are tapped through strong concentration and insight practice must be carefully channeled toward further development or the power of this energy might become a basis for arrogance or pride.
(h) Assurance or mindfulness. Whatever object you direct your attention to will be known effortlessly with mindfulness. Mindfulness will be sturdy, established, and automatically arise in conjunction with each perception. Mindfulness, although an essential and faultless attribute, is not an appropriate cause for attachment. Mindfulness should not be distorted into serving as a feature of personality or personal asset.
(i) Equanimity. Equanimity arises as neutrality toward formations—if neutrality is excessive, it might degenerate into a superficially detached attitude. Attachment to the quietly peaceful feeling of equanimity can inhibit the production of the intense urgency that is needed for genuine awakening. The Buddha warns that if “he delights in that equanimity, welcomes it, and remains holding to it … [then] his consciousness becomes dependent on it and clings to it. A bhikkhu … who is affected by clinging does not attain Nibbāna.”304 When equanimity is present, concentration and insight develop easily. Like a well-balanced wheel that is already turning, the meditator will enjoy a smooth unfolding of insight, fueled by the momentum of equanimity. Be careful, however, to not mistake this adroitness with enlightenment or confuse the conditioned quality of equanimity with the realization of the unconditioned.
Contemplating the Ten Corruptions of Insight
Examine the ten imperfections if and when they arise. Review the list and dutifully watch out for them. If you recognize any corruption, acknowledge both its advantages and limitations. Then, contemplate it as impermanent, unsatisfactory, and not-self. Recognize that imperfections are neither a sign of awakening nor the liberating path.
(j) Attachment. Subtle attachment to pleasant accomplishments might halt further development. The imperfection of attachment is latent in all the previous imperfections, and it might arise through the modes of craving, conceit, or wrong view. Notice when attachment is evident; bring mindfulness to even the subtle tendency to be impressed by your own insight knowledge. Even after genuine attainments, you may be vulnerable to these corruptions; therefore, the Buddha warned, “do not become intoxicated with that attainment … laud yourself or disparage others … fall into negligence … and stop short with that.”305 You may discover many wonderful things about reality, and experience authentic and sublime attainments, yet a genuine purification of mind demands that you “do not be proud of yourself on that account.”306
Beyond the ten corruptions. Not every meditator will experience the full configuration of these ten corruptions of insight. You may discover that certain imperfections captivate your mind, while other imperfections never manifest. To make real progress, it is essential that you eliminate those impediments that do occur. Confront these corruptions with mindfulness whenever they appear.
This phase of the tender knowledge of arising and passing away requires intense effort—it is still a struggle to see the arising and passing of things, and the mind periodically falls prey to the ten corruptions.307 Through a continuity of wise, gentle, and diligent practice, you will become confident that these flimsy imperfections cannot seduce you. The surmounting of these corruptions marks the completion of the tender knowledge of arising and passing away.
MEDITATION INSTRUCTION 18.3
Contemplating Insight Knowledge
As the perception of the arising and passing of phenomena becomes clear and quick, you may incorporate the contemplation of the impermanent, unsatisfactory, and not-self characteristics of the consciousness and cognitive processes associated with insight knowledge as explained in meditation instruction 17.11. Recognize that insight knowledge is also impermanent, unsatisfactory, and not-self. For instance, when you are meditating on the impermanence of a sound, consciousness arises in conjunction with a cognitive series that is not just hearing the sound; it is knowing the impermanence of the sound. The cognitive process of insight knowledge is a mind-door process; it is distinct from the sense-door cognitive process that hears the sound. Contemplating the impermanent, unsatisfactory, and not-self characteristics of the meditating
consciousness extends the comprehensive arena for contemplation and breaks down the compactness of object as described in chapter 11.
4b. The mature knowledge of arising and passing away. The initial knowledges that comprise stages 1–4a bring forth a pervasive recognition of specific attributes of phenomena, including causation, characteristics, and imperfections. The mature knowledge of arising and passing away occurs when the imperfections are overcome and insight into the three characteristics is sharp. This stage will further dismantle any misperceptions that could distort the clear seeing of reality. In the mature phase, with the absence of the corruptions, attention will be keen, agile, and steadfast. The arising phase with the cause of arising, and the ending phase with the cause of ending, will be evident. Insight into the changing, unsatisfactory, and not-self characteristics of any formation will be proficient and the contemplation of all phenomena can continue unrestrained. The mind that is now unimpeded by any of the ten imperfections is “free from imperfections and steady in its course”;308 it is capable of penetrating to the source of attachment.
5. The knowledge of dissolution. Now the instructions change slightly. Stop giving attention to the arising and existence phases of mental or material phenomena; focus primarily on the dissolution, falling, or perishing phase of formations. This shift in emphasis may occur naturally or it may be an intentional choice. Don’t bother to notice particular details about each formation. Focus only on the dissolution, falling, perishing, disappearing, vanishing. Insight will be sharp at this stage, and the incessant ceasing of phenomena will be vivid. Contemplate all things as perishing, perishing. The traditional analogy is of fragile pottery being smashed, or of fine dust being dispersed by a wind, in that, “He sees only their break up.”309 Direct your attention to exclusively perceive the passing phase of all formations. This awareness is likened to the view of a man who watches the surface of a pond during a heavy rainstorm and sees large bubbles break up as soon as they appear.310 Consciousness and object perish simultaneously. Contemplate both phenomena and insight knowledge as impermanent, unsatisfactory, and not-self while you observe the stream of perishing phenomena within cognitive processes. You may still see the arising and standing stages, but an emphasis on dissolution at this critical juncture will generate a powerful inclination that can propel the mind through the remaining sequence of insights.
When stages 1–4 are practiced thoroughly, then the next several stages (5–11) happen very quickly. The knowledges from stage 5 and beyond often occur so quickly and fluidly that meditators might not recognize them all as distinct stages. When conditions are favorable, they may occur within the course of a few days, a few sittings, or even a single sitting. The final five knowledges in this sequence (stages 12–16) will occupy only a few moments. Therefore, don’t rush these early stages. The mind must be able to discern the perishing of all things with lightening speed, develop a strong momentum through persistent insight, and maintain an undeterrable inclination toward release.
6. The knowledge of appearance as terror. Now you are perched on the brink of a startling discovery. At this stage, you will witness the perishing of all phenomena so completely that you will see everything that you have relied upon for your sense of self dissolving with each passing moment. You will lose the familiar illusion of security that is habitually gained through self constructions. Grief, fear, or terror might arise with the loss of all cherished worldly experiences. This will not be a dramatic manifestation of emotional sorrow, personalized dread, or chronic anxiety; instead it manifests as an acute awareness that everything that arises is also dying, dissolving, and disappearing. The Visuddhimagga describes it as “simply the mere judgment that past formations have ceased, present ones are ceasing, and future ones will cease.”311
The knowledge of appearance as terror has a dramatic name; it arises out of the realization that all formations are perishing. Don’t let fear or grief dissuade you from your pursuit of truth. Be mindful, and earnestly continue the practice of contemplating all phenomena as impermanent, unsatisfactory, and not-self. Fear and grief will soon fade and be replaced by unshakable wisdom, clarity, and confidence.
7. The knowledge of danger. When you realize that your grief, fear, and suffering arise because of clinging to the five aggregates, you will view this clinging process as a danger. The stage of knowledge of danger is intimately aligned with the previous stage, appearance as terror. When you see everything perishing, you find no secure refuge in any configuration of past, present, or future material and mental formations. You realize that within the entire gamut of existence, no material and mental experience is capable of providing a stable resting place for identity. This recognition fosters a subtle and transformative repulsion toward impermanent perceptions.
Now you will see both the danger of attachment to formations and recognize that an escape from that danger is possible. This stage is not burdened by a feeling of fear; you have already comprehended the implications of the previous fear response. Now, you comprehend that the five aggregates pose a continuous danger as a basis for attachment. The Visuddhimagga states that when seeing formations as danger, one “takes no delight in the manifold field of formations.”312 This is not an aversive reaction to experience, but a profound understanding that clinging to the five aggregates of experience is keeping you bound to repeatedly bring consciousness into being and to fuel the cycle of suffering. The understanding of the ungraspable and unsatisfactory characteristic of all conditioned things is deep. The five aggregates are now exposed as a dangerous trap.
8. The knowledge of disenchantment and dispassion. When the mind is fortified by wisdom and equanimity, and unseduced by mental and material processes, profound disenchantment arises. This is a dispassionate stance toward phenomena; it is not aversion. The knowledges of terror (no. 6), danger (no. 7), and disenchantment and dispassion (no. 8) can occur for some meditators as distinct stages each having a noticeable duration. In fact, although they are listed as separate knowledges, they may occur in such rapid succession that they appear to be aspects of the same perception. The knowledges of terror, danger, and dispassion may be considered “one in meaning, only the letter is different,”313 because when appearance as terror occurs, you will naturally recognize the inherent danger and will experience dispassion toward those same formations. If you have done the exhaustive preparations associated with the tender and mature knowledges of arising and passing away (nos. 4a and 4b), you may discover that the stages of terror, danger, and disenchantment happen remarkably quickly and fluidly.
Persistence is needed to prevent the stalling of momentum. For now, even things that previously interested you, such as personal growth, sensual pleasures, meditative attainments, and heavenly potentials, will not appeal to the mind so infused with disenchantment and dispassion. Some meditators may also lose interest in the meditation practice, or find their commitments derailed by finding fault with food, housing, or teaching styles. Suspend all complaints. Strive to sever attachment. Remember your aim. Continue with diligence. And let nothing deter you from your search for peace.
The Visuddhimagga compares disenchantment toward phenomena to the preferences of a golden swan or a powerful lion. This swan loves the expansive great lakes of spacious Himalayan foothills and does not seek satisfaction in a filthy mud hole at the outskirts of a village; the lion loves to roam freely and would not enjoy a gilded cage. Similarly, the meditator finds no pleasure in formations and inclines only toward the contemplation of the characteristics that will lead to freedom. When your mind stops seeking sensual entertainments and pleasures, it may incline only toward the peace of nibbāna.314
Consistent meditation on the ubiquitous characteristics of impermanence, suffering, and not-self will culminate in the desire for deathless liberation. You don’t need to conjure up the desire; it arises as a natural consequence of the systematic unfolding of insight. By this point in the progression, you will have done many exercises and contemplated many mental
and material objects in light of those characteristics. Although you might long to be finished with the exercises, the deeper and genuine yearning is to be freed from formations that continually oppress the mind. Burdened by the ceaseless bending of mind toward matter and the continuous death of all that arises, a poignant realization occurs—it is utterly useless to reach toward sensory experience for happiness. It boils down to the insight that nothing is permanent, and so nothing is worth getting attached to. You may have experienced similar understandings previously in this training, but at this stage, empowered by the momentum of concentration and insight, the dispassion causes a cascading series of transformations. Deeply wearied and disgusted with all transitory phenomena, your mind will seek release.
9. The knowledge of desire for deliverance. When disenchantment is strong through the maturation of the previous stage, the mind yearns for freedom; it wants only to be delivered. Just as an animal that is caught in a trap will have a consuming wish to be released, you will experience a profound desire to escape from the trap of conditioned formations. The Visuddhimagga describes it this way: “Just as a fish in a net, a frog in a snake’s jaws, a jungle fowl shut into a cage, a deer fallen into the clutches of a strong snare, a snake in the hands of a snake charmer, an elephant stuck fast in a great bog,…a man encircled by enemies, etc., … just as these are desirous of being delivered, of finding an escape from these things, so too this meditator’s mind is desirous of being delivered from the whole field of formations and escaping from it.”315 No temporary pleasure, no material comfort, no personal accomplishment will dissuade you from this deep and earnest need for deliverance from the bonds of suffering. You will sense the profound truth of Venerable Sariputta’s exclamation, “To be reborn is suffering; not to be reborn is happiness.”316 You will understand the necessity and power of relinquishment, as the Buddha taught, “Not apart from enlightenment and austerity, not apart from restraint of the sense faculties, not apart from relinquishing all, do I see any safety for living beings.”317
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