Wisdom Wide and Deep

by Shaila Catherine

  10. The knowledge of reviewing the three characteristics. At this stage mindfulness is strong, the capacity for discerning subtle conditions is highly refined, insight is sharp, and the mind is exceedingly quick, light, agile, concentrated, and stable. Invigorated by the desire for freedom, you will be earnestly committed to the contemplation of formations as impermanent, unsatisfactory, and not-self. You may emphasize whichever contemplations produce the greatest calm and clarity—build momentum through your strongest abilities. If you prefer to contemplate materiality, then emphasize the contemplation of matter; if you prefer to contemplate dependent arising, then contemplate the cycle of causality. Although all the characteristics should, to some extent, still be included in the meditations, you may highlight impermanence, unsatisfactoriness, or emptiness. If you have mastered the jhānas, emphasizing the mental factors associated with jhāna as either impermanent, unsatisfactory, or not-self can build powerful momentum.

  This stage does not require a great deal of time; it is not labored. Inspired by the desire for deliverance, you will zealously recognize phenomena as they are actually occurring and discover a remarkably equanimous response toward all things. The sequence of these knowledges is illustrated by the story of a fisherman who reaches into his net to grab a fish that he has caught, when, to his horror, discovers that he has actually grabbed a huge snake. As soon as he sees it, he is frightened, recognizes the danger, is repulsed by the experience, and feels no enchantment toward the snake—he desires only release from it. Motivated to safely free himself from the grip of this dangerous and disagreeable beast, he carefully unwinds the coils from his arm and systematically weakens it by rapidly circling it above his head a few times before flinging it away. Similarly, a meditator will view psychophysical experience as a fearful and dangerous ground that breeds attachment. Systematic contemplation of the three characteristics is likened to the whirling of the snake overhead; it weakens the arising of formations and renders them incapable of appearing as permanent, satisfying, and self-existing.318 Essentially, you are preparing the mind to effectively remove the source of suffering.

  11. The knowledge of equanimity toward formations. Now, having thoroughly discerned the three characteristics inherent to all formations, both terror and delight will disappear and you will discover a pervasive neutrality toward formations. You will see everything as a mere cluster of causally related mental and material processes, and you will remain utterly unimpressed by phenomena. The mind will remain composed while observing the rapidly appearing and disappearing mental and material formations. Practice will be effortless now, and you will sail through the meditative exercises without struggle; it may seem like the practice has all come together and flows easily. Each subtle perception will appear as unadorned functions and characteristics. Practice will be pleasant and dominated by joy and calmness. You’ll engage with an impartial and equanimous view toward all formations while you effortlessly continue the vipassanā meditations. This stage can be quite a relief after the intensity and turmoil of preceding stages.

  If you delight in this equanimity though, and enjoy the smoothness of the endeavor, a false sense of pride or subtle attachment might arise along with such corrupting thoughts as, “It is going so well now, I must be doing it right.” It is important to maintain a consistent contemplation of the impermanence, suffering, and emptiness of phenomena to prevent psychophysical processes from becoming a support for concepts of I, me, or mine. With the development of the knowledge of equanimity toward formations, all aggregates are known as void of self. You will know that there is no “myself” and nothing belonging to “myself”; there is no “another self” and nothing belonging to “another self.”319

  Contemplate all phenomena until this stage matures. You may emphasize the phenomena that are easiest for your mind to contemplate, but sometimes meditate on impermanence, sometimes unsatisfactoriness, and sometimes selflessness; sometimes meditate on matter, sometimes mental formations; sometimes contemplate phenomena that is internal, sometimes external; sometimes recognize causes, sometimes effects; and also include past, present, and future formations. If you have mastery of jhānas, you can build greater momentum by emphasizing the thirty-one to thirty-five mental formations associated with jhāna states as preferred vipassanā objects. You will enjoy a calm and composed facility with practice now—but this is not nibbāna. Don’t stop with mere equanimity!

  The knowledge of equanimity toward formations seems to be a stage in which even diligent meditators can get stuck—there is comfort, calmness, clarity, and balanced attention, so no obvious hindrance is apparent. But the experience of equanimity might become a foundation for clinging.320 Subtle errors can hide attachment and prevent progress. The meditator may not even be aware that a great opportunity is present for full awakening. You may need a teacher to point you beyond the peaceful but limited stage of equanimity toward formations.

  Eventually, a moment comes when material and mental formations seem to disappear or fade. Sometimes materiality vanishes first and only mental phenomena are seen perishing; continue to meditate upon that perishing mentality. In a short time, all material and mental phenomena will seem to cease. This is the critical moment when the mind must accept only the authentic experience of nibbāna as the object, free of all conceptual configurations.

  When fascination with impermanent things ends, a great spaciousness opens where the unconditioned may reveal itself. At this juncture, a critical shift may occur, beyond all possible manipulations and efforts. Now there is nothing familiar to hold on to, nothing to cling to. Even the activities related to these meditative procedures cease. In this moment of cessation, insight knowledge may naturally turn toward the deathless element and see nibbāna as peaceful. The mind may enter the experience of nibbāna—the unformed, unfabricated, deathless element. This difficult-to-describe transition is illustrated with the simile of a land-finding crow that accompanied seafaring ships. The crow will be released while the ship is at sea. If it sees land, it will fly directly toward the shore; if it does not see land it will return to the crow’s nest on the mast of the ship.321 Similarly, at this stage, the mind is released from clinging to the aggregates of experience. If the mind turns toward the deathless element and sees it as peaceful, it will not turn back. If the mind does not see nibbāna, or perceive nibbāna as peaceful, it will turn back to the stage of equanimity toward formations. This may occur repeatedly, and the meditator may coast along calmly perceiving formations pass away, unaware of being stuck.322

  By this stage the process is unfolding out of the momentum of dispassion. You must let go of all attachment; do not cling to either equanimity or meditative exercises. Allow the inclination of your practice to carry you to the peace of nibbāna.

  12. The knowledge of conformity with truth. The knowledge of conformity with truth coincides with the maturity of the knowledge of equanimity toward formations and lasts for a duration of three impulsion consciousness moments (see Table 18.2). This spontaneous transitional phase is so brief that meditators rarely can recognize it as a distinctive stage. Conformity knowledge describes an automatic series of mind-moments through which the mind adapts itself to the new object. It functions as a bridge between the consciousness that has taken mental and material formations as the object and the consciousness that is about to arise with nibbāna as object. This stage of conformity can be illustrated by the technique used by relay racers who match the speed of the previous runner even before the baton is passed. The moment of conformity prevents an abrupt shift between the previous stages that took the five aggregates as object, to the succeeding stages that will take nibbāna as object.

  Now, one of the three characteristics may become predominant and serve as the doorway to nibbāna. If impermanence comes to the fore, then the realization that follows is classified as the “signless liberation of mind.” If the characteristic of suffering is dominant, the realization will be called the “desireless liberation of mind.” If not-se
lf is emphasized, the realization is classified as the “voidness liberation of mind.” Any of the three characteristics can be a gateway to the deathless. Each door can be a portal to the same supramundane knowledge: a glimpse of what lies beyond mundane mental and material processes. Each designation—signless, desireless, voidness—reflects the particular contemplation that impelled the final release.

  13. The knowledge of change of lineage. This knowledge represents the fourth impulsion consciousness in the cognitive process that takes nibbāna as object. Although this insight has nibbāna as object, it does not destroy defilements. It is immediately followed by the path knowledge which has an inherently purifying effect. The Visuddhimagga explains, “Conformity is able to dispel the murk of defilements that conceal the truth, but is unable to make nibbāna its object. Change of lineage is only able to make nibbāna its object, but is unable to dispel the murk that conceals the truth.”323 This series of knowledges is amazingly quick—just a matter of a few mind-moments that occur in the process of perceiving nibbāna and constitute the cognitive series of the path. Although incredibly brief, each is listed as a distinct knowledge in order to highlight its specific function in this significant transformation that marks the change of lineage from an ordinary person to a noble one (see Table 18.2).

  Now the mind has turned away from all material and mental processes; it has opened to another reality—the unconditioned, unborn, deathless, nibbāna. Ultimate reality is not a concept. Nibbāna is not a place or a thing. Nibbāna contains no materiality and includes no mentality. It includes no space or properties. There is a total absence of characteristics of diversity or changing factors that would create instability. It is void of all conditioned formations. It is described as:

  Consciousness without feature, without end,

  Luminous all around:

  Here water, earth, fire, and wind have no footing;

  Here long and short, course and fine,

  Fair and foul, mentality and materiality

  Are all brought to an end.

  With the stopping of consciousness,

  Each is here brought to an end.324

  14. The path knowledge. Although you may earnestly and consistently cultivate the eightfold path, it is not designated as a “noble path” until a significant realization has occurred. The entrance to the noble path is the moment when both consciousness and object are supramundane. This realization encompasses a perfection of right view of the peaceful state, right thought of nibbāna, right mindfulness of nibbāna, right effort toward nibbāna, right concentration on nibbāna as object, and also the three abstinences regarding speech, action, and livelihood; hence, it is equated with the fulfillment and realization of the noble eightfold path.

  TABLE 18.1

  Four Stages of Enlightenment

  STAGES/PATHS FETTERS REMOVED OR REDUCED REBIRTH POTENTIALS

  Stream-enterer Removes: 1. the erroneous view of self

  2. doubt regarding the efficacy of Buddha’s teaching

  3. belief that purification comes through performing rites and rituals

  Maximum of seven more rebirths in sensory realms

  Once-returner Does not cut off any fetters completely, but greatly reduces sensual desires and ill will Maximum of one more rebirth in sensory realms

  Nonreturner Completely cuts off sensual desire and ill will No further sense-sphere births, but may have further existences in nonsensory realms

  Arahant Removes the remaining five fetters: 1. desire for existence in the fine-material sphere

  2. desire for existence in the immaterial spheres

  3. conceit

  4. restlessness

  5. ignorance

  No further existence in either sensory or nonsensory realms

  Although the consciousness that realized nibbāna operates with the five aggregates, nibbāna does not reflect any diverse attributes. Nibbāna is causeless and without feature. The realization of nibbāna, however, is temporal and transient. Nibbāna may be described as “coolness” since the realization of nibbāna cools, quenches, and extinguishes the fires of greed, hate, and delusion. Attempts to describe this encounter with unconditioned reality embrace many words: unformed, taintless, truth, other shore, subtle, undiversified, peace, deathless, supreme goal, safety, exhaustion of craving, wonderful, freedom, shelter, refuge, beyond.325 Since it is impossible to reduce to language, many meditators prefer to express this profound cessation of greed, hatred, and delusion with the Pali term nibbāna. Likened to the ocean that possesses a uniform flavor of salt, nibbāna is of one taste—the taste of liberation.326

  Path knowledge, as a potent encounter with nibbāna, follows inevitably after the knowledge of change of lineage, lasts for merely one moment of consciousness, and will be immediately followed by fruition knowledge. More precisely, path knowledge is the fifth impulsion consciousness in the cognitive process that takes nibbāna as object (see Table 18.2). Path knowledge has an immediate effect—it results in the radical weakening or complete destruction of defilements. This is the moment of triumph—the profitable moment that eradicates defilements and cleanses the mind. In this moment, suffering has been fully understood, craving has been abandoned, the mind has plunged into nibbāna, the eightfold path has been developed, and the maturation of liberating insight is ensured.327 As described in the Visuddhimagga, “The path follows upon [the knowledge of change of lineage] in uninterrupted continuity, and as it comes into being it pierces and explodes the mass of greed, the mass of hate, and the mass of delusion never pierced and exploded before.”328 It is traditionally believed that once path knowledge has been attained, one will never fall away from this realization; it assures one of progress and closes the door to woeful states.

  The four paths: Four distinct stages of path knowledge mark four significant moments when fetters are weakened or destroyed. In conjunction with the direct experience of nibbāna, four supramundane paths can occur, commonly called the four paths or four supramundane paths. They may occur in rapid succession, although more often they are separated by days, years, or lifetimes of practice. Although stories are told of meditators who experience rapid or sudden realization, most people relinquish these defilements gradually over the course of years or lifetimes of practice. Whenever it occurs, the moment of path knowledge is significant—it radically weakens or completely uproots these binding forces and enables the mind to realize its liberation from the defilement. The four paths identify the state of the meditator and mark the moment of paramount significance when the mind sheds its attachment to predictable defilements.329 Each path moment is similar in that each takes nibbāna as object and is the result of non-clinging to mental and material phenomena. Each path moment differs by the particular fetters that it weakens or removes. Complete enlightenment is realized when the greed, hatred, and delusion that bind beings to the wheel of existence are completely eradicated.

  With the attainment of the first path of entering the stream (sotāpattimagga), three fetters (saṃyojana) are removed: personality view (sakkāyadiṭṭhi), which maintains the belief that self is the five aggregates, skeptical doubt about the efficacy of Buddha’s teachings (vicikicchā), and the erroneous belief that rites and rituals will purify the mind (sīlabbataparāmāsa). With this attainment the meditator is assured that liberation will occur in the course of, at most, seven lifetimes. When the second path is reached with the stage of once-returner (sakadāgāmimagga), the fetters of sensual lust (kāmarāga) and ill will (vyāpāda) are attenuated, but not eradicated, and the meditator may return to the sense-sphere of human existence for at most one more lifetime. The third path attainment eradicates sensual lust and ill will. Someone at the stage of nonreturner (anāgāmimagga) can never again be reborn in the sense-sphere because there is no desire that could pull one into a sensory realm. A nonreturner may be reborn in heavenly abodes and is assured of sequentially higher births until final nibbāna is attained. The fourth path attainment, referred to as the arahant path (
arahattamagga), is the final and complete cessation of all suffering in which the remaining five fetters are abandoned: (1) desire for fine material existence (rūpa-rāga) including attachment to jhāna states; (2) desire for immaterial existence (arūpa-rāga), which refers to attachment to the immaterial states; (3) conceit (māna), which is the subtle formation of a self concept often fueled by comparing things as better, worse, or equal; (4) restlessness (uddhacca) that continues to seek for more satisfying experiences; and (5) ignorance (avijjā) regarding the ultimate nature of things.

  Without ignorance there can be no further becoming. When all defilements are removed, the five aggregates will continue to function through the current life span only as long as they are supported by previous kamma. An arahant who performs action without attachment creates no causes that could produce future results. Like a flame that is extinguished when the support of the wick burns away and the wax is spent, when the fuel of defilement has ended with the arhant path, there is no support for continued becoming.

  15. The fruition knowledge. Immediately following the impulsion consciousness of path knowledge comes fruition knowledge, which spans the sixth and seventh impulsion consciousnesses that have taken nibbāna as the object. This is the moment when one experiences the taste of this peace. Nibbāna is an ultrasubtle realization; it is so refined that in comparison even the highest immaterial jhānas appear unbearably gross. The mind inclines toward it and prefers it to all other objects. The Buddha explained that “One directly knows Nibbāna as Nibbāna. One does not conceive of oneself as one with Nibbāna. One does not conceive of oneself as in Nibbāna. One does not conceive of oneself apart from Nibbāna. Why is that? So that one may fully understand it.”330