English
That too, having obtained practice, becoming sharp, heroic, clear, having proceeded in that same object, in that same manner, having dispelled the medium amount of truth-concealing darkness, having made the three characteristics more and more evident, ceases. Immediately after that, the third adaptation arises. For that, the second is practiced. That too, having obtained practice, becoming sharp, heroic, clear, having proceeded in that same object, in that same manner, having dispelled the remaining subtle truth-concealing darkness, having made it entirely without remainder, having made the three characteristics more and more evident, ceases. Thus, when the truth-concealing darkness has been dispelled by the three adaptations, immediately after that, the knowledge of change-of-lineage arises, making Nibbāna its object. Here is an analogy: It seems that a certain man with sight, thinking, "I will know the conjunction of stars," having gone out at night, looked upwards to see the moon. Because it was covered by clouds, the moon was not visible. Then a certain wind arose, and scattered the thick clouds. Another, the medium ones. Another, the subtle ones. Then that man, having seen the moon in the cloudless sky, knew the conjunction of stars. There, the three clouds are like the thick, medium, and subtle darkness of defilements that conceal the truth. The three winds are like the three adaptation-cittas. The man with sight is like the change-of-lineage. Knowledge. Like the moon, nibbāna. Just as each wind, in order, destroys the three layers of clouds, so each അനുലോമ-citta dispels the darkness that conceals the truth. As in the cloudless sky, that man sees the pure moon, so when the truth-concealing darkness is gone, the gotrabhu-ñāṇa makes nibbāna its very pure object. Just as those three winds can only dispel the clouds that cover the moon, but cannot see the moon, so the അനുലോമ-cittas can only dispel the darkness that conceals the truth, but cannot make nibbāna their object. Just as that man can only see the moon, but cannot dispel the clouds, so the gotrabhu-ñāṇa can only make nibbāna its object, but cannot dispel the darkness of defilements. Thus, the അനുലോമ-citta has conditioned things as its object, the gotrabhu-ñāṇa has nibbāna as its object. For if the gotrabhu were to take the object taken by the അനുലോമ-citta, then the അനുലോമ-citta would follow it again, and there would be no arising of the path. But the gotrabhu-ñāṇa, without taking the object of the അനുലോമ-citta, making it something that turns away from behind, and itself, being like non-attention, standing in the place of attention, ceases, as if giving a signal to the path, "Be produced thus!" The path, not abandoning the signal given by it, following that knowledge with uninterrupted continuity, is produced, piercing and splitting the mass of greed, the mass of hatred, the mass of delusion, which had never been pierced before, never been split before. Here is an analogy: It is said that a certain archer, having had a hundred planks placed at a hundred bow-lengths, and having wrapped his face with cloth, stood at a wheel mechanism, fitting an arrow. Another man, turning the wheel mechanism, when it was facing the archer's hundred planks, gave a signal there with a stick. The archer, not abandoning the stick signal, shooting the arrow, pierces the hundred planks. There, the gotrabhu-ñāṇa is like the stick signal. The path-knowledge is like the archer. The stick signal of the archer... Just as, without releasing the old perception, a plank is pierced with a hundred nails, so too, without releasing the old perception given by the Gotrabhuñana, the Path-knowledge, with Nibbana as its object, pierces and tears apart the previously unpierced and unbroken aggregates of greed, etc. This is also the act of uprooting the bridge, the causeway, once the ground is gained. For the Path has only one function: the abandoning of latent tendencies. Thus, in abandoning these latent tendencies, it is said to arise from a sign, it is said to cut off the current. 'Sign' means the sign of form, feeling, perception, mental formations, and consciousness. 'Current' also means the current of form, feeling, perception, mental formations, and consciousness. That is of two kinds: appropriated and unappropriated. Among these, they said that the shadow of arising from the unappropriated is seen, and so they declared that it arises from the unappropriated. For with the Stream-entry Path, five types of consciousness are abandoned: the four associated with views, and the one accompanied by doubt. These give rise to form. That is the unappropriated aggregate of form. Those types of consciousness are the aggregate of consciousness. The feeling, perception, and mental formations associated with them are the three immaterial aggregates. Here, if the Stream-enterer's Stream-entry Path had not been cultivated and developed, those five types of consciousness would reach a state of obsession in the six sense objects. But the Stream-entry Path, preventing their reaching a state of obsession, making the uprooting of the bridge, a state of non-arising, is said to arise from the unappropriated. With the Once-returning Path, six types of consciousness are abandoned in terms of gross sensual desire and ill-will: the four disassociated from views, and the two accompanied by displeasure. With the Non-returning Path, those same six types of consciousness are abandoned in terms of subtle sensual desire and ill-will. With the Arahant Path, five unwholesome types of consciousness are abandoned: the four disassociated from views, and the one accompanied by restlessness. Here, if those Paths of those noble ones had not been cultivated, those types of consciousness would reach a state of obsession in the six sense objects. But those Paths, preventing their reaching a state of obsession, making the uprooting of the bridge, Making that state of not being able to arise, it is said to rise from the appropriated. Having said that a shadow of rising from the appropriated is seen, they also said that it rises from the appropriated. If the stream-enterer's path of stream-entry were not developed, leaving aside seven existences, it would cause the round of existence in beginningless samsara to proceed with the process of appropriation. Why? Because of the existence of the causes for its continuation. The three fetters, the underlying tendency to views, and the underlying tendency to doubt, the path of stream-entry eradicates these five defilements as it arises. Now, how could the stream-enterer, leaving aside seven existences, cause the process of appropriation to proceed in beginningless samsara? Thus, the path of stream-entry, making the process of appropriation not proceed, is said to rise from the appropriated. If the once-returner's path of once-returning were not developed, leaving aside two existences, it would cause the process of appropriation to proceed in five existences. Why? Because of the existence of the causes for its continuation. The gross fetters of sensual desire and aversion, the gross underlying tendency to sensual desire, and the underlying tendency to aversion, that path eradicates these four defilements as it arises. Now, how could the once-returner, leaving aside two existences, cause the process of appropriation to proceed in five existences? Thus, the path of once-returning, making the process of appropriation not proceed, is said to rise from the appropriated. If the non-returner's path of non-returning were not developed, leaving aside one existence, it would cause the process of appropriation to proceed in a second existence. Why? Because of the existence of the causes for its continuation. The subtle fetters of sensual desire and aversion, the subtle underlying tendency to sensual desire, and the underlying tendency to aversion, that path eradicates these four defilements as it arises. Now, how could the non-returner, leaving aside one existence, cause the process of appropriation to proceed in a second existence? Thus, the path of non-returning, making the process of appropriation not proceed, is said to rise from the appropriated. If the Arahant If the path of arahantship were not cultivated, it would cause the round of clinging-produced kamma in the realms of form and formlessness. Why? Because the causes for its arising exist. But this path, as it arises, uproots these eight defilements: craving for form, craving for the formless, conceit, restlessness, ignorance, the underlying tendency to conceit, the underlying tendency to craving for existence, and the underlying tendency to ignorance. Now, how could the round of clinging-produced kamma arise again for one who is liberated? Thus, the path of arahantship, by not causing the round of clinging-produced kamma to arise, is said to be a departure from what is clinging-produced. Here, the path of stream-entry is a departure from the plane of misery, the path of once-returning from a part of the plane of happy destiny, the path of non-returning from the plane of sensual desire, and the path of arahantship from the realms of form and formlessness, from all planes of existence, so they say. To clarify this meaning, this is the Pāli passage: "With the cessation of the volitional consciousness by the knowledge of the path of stream-entry, having kept seven existences, whatever name and form would arise in the beginningless round of existence, here they cease, subside, go to their end, and are stilled. 'With the cessation of the volitional consciousness by the knowledge of the path of once-returning, having kept two existences, whatever name and form would arise in the five existences, here they cease, subside, go to their end, and are stilled. 'With the cessation of the volitional consciousness by the knowledge of the path of non-returning, having kept one existence, whatever name and form would arise