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B040101Visuddhimagga(purification path treatise)

English

and discernment-comprehension follows immediately after full-comprehension by knowing. Therefore, one who desires to achieve that purity of knowledge and vision of the path and not-path should first undertake the practice of contemplation by groups. 694. Here is the Pāli text: ‘‘How is the wisdom of contemplation-knowledge in the analysis of past, future, and present phenomena, summarized? Whatever form, past, future, or present, internal or... (etc.)... far or near, all form is analyzed as impermanent, one contemplation. It is analyzed as suffering, one contemplation. It is analyzed as not-self, one contemplation. Whatever feeling... (etc.)... whatever consciousness... (etc.)... is analyzed as not-self, one contemplation. ‘‘The eye... (etc.)... aging-and-death, past, future, or present, is analyzed as impermanent, one contemplation. It is analyzed as suffering and not-self, one contemplation. ‘‘Form, past, future, or present, is impermanent in the sense of perishing, suffering in the sense of fear, not-self in the sense of being without essence— this is the wisdom of contemplation-knowledge in the summarized analysis. Feeling... consciousness... the eye... (etc.)... aging-and-death... (etc.)... is contemplation-knowledge. ‘‘Form, past, future, or present, is impermanent, conditioned, dependently arisen, subject to perishing, subject to vanishing, subject to dispassion, subject to cessation— this is the wisdom of contemplation-knowledge in the summarized analysis. Feeling... consciousness... the eye... aging-and-death, past, future, or present, is impermanent, conditioned... (etc.)... subject to cessation— this is the wisdom of contemplation-knowledge in the summarized analysis. ‘‘With birth as condition, there is aging-and-death, when there is no birth, there is no aging-and-death— this is the wisdom of contemplation-knowledge in the summarized analysis. In the past time, and in the future time, with birth as condition, there is aging-and-death, when there is no birth, there is no aging-and-death— this is the wisdom of contemplation-knowledge in the summarized analysis. With existence as condition, there is birth... (etc.)... with ignorance as condition, there are volitional formations, when there is no ignorance, there are no volitional formations— summarized analysis... In the place, wisdom is the comprehension, knowledge is the discernment. Having condensed and established that in the past, and in the future, conditioned by ignorance are formations, and when ignorance is absent, there are no formations, wisdom is the comprehension, knowledge is the discernment. “It is knowledge by way of knowing. It is wisdom by way of understanding. Therefore it is said: wisdom is the comprehension, knowledge is the discernment, in the condensed establishment of phenomena of the past, future, and present.” And here, eye… and so on… old age and death— by this abbreviation, the phenomena arising from the doors, together with the doors and objects, the five aggregates, the six doors, the six objects, the six consciousnesses, the six contacts, the six feelings, the six perceptions, the six volitions, the six cravings, the six initial applications, the six sustained applications, the six elements, the ten kasinas, the thirty-two bodily parts, the twelve sense bases, the eighteen elements, the twenty-two faculties, the three elements, the nine abodes, the four jhanas, the four immeasurables, the four attainments, the twelve links of dependent origination— these masses of phenomena are to be understood as condensed. For this was said in the Abhiññeyyaniddesa: “All, monks, is to be fully known. And what, monks, is all to be fully known? The eye, monks, is to be fully known. Forms… eye-consciousness… eye-contact… and whatever feeling arises conditioned by eye-contact— whether pleasant, or painful, or neither-painful-nor-pleasant— that too is to be fully known. The ear… and so on… and whatever feeling arises conditioned by mind-contact— whether pleasant, or painful, or neither-painful-nor-pleasant— that too is to be fully known. “Form… and so on… consciousness… eye… and so on… mind… forms… and so on… mental phenomena… eye-consciousness… and so on… mind-consciousness… eye-contact… and so on… mind-contact…. “Feeling born of eye-contact… and so on… feeling born of mind-contact… perception of form… and so on… perception of mental phenomena… volition regarding form… and so on… volition regarding mental phenomena… craving for form… and so on… craving for mental phenomena… initial application to form… and so on… initial application to mental phenomena… sustained application to form… and so on… sustained application to mental phenomena…. “Earth element… and so on… consciousness…” earth element… earth kasina… consciousness kasina… hairs… urine… brain matter… Eye base… mind base… eye element… mind element… mind-consciousness element… eye faculty… faculty of knowing the unknown… Sense-sphere existence… form-sphere existence… formless-sphere existence… sense-sphere becoming… form-sphere becoming… formless-sphere becoming… percipient becoming… non-percipient becoming… neither-percipient-nor-non-percipient becoming… one-constituent becoming… four-constituent becoming… five-constituent becoming… First jhana… fourth jhana… liberation of mind through loving-kindness… liberation of mind through equanimity… attainment of the base of infinite space… attainment of the base of neither perception nor non-perception… ignorance is to be fully understood… aging-and-death is to be fully understood. Because these were stated there in detail, here everything is abbreviated with “…” (peyyāla). Among these abbreviated items, those supramundane qualities that appear are not to be taken up in this context, as they are not subject to contemplation. And among those that are subject to contemplation, whichever are clear to a person and easily grasped, with those should contemplation be begun by that person. 695. Here is the method of beginning contemplation based on the aggregates: Whatever form… all form is established as impermanent, this is one contemplation. It is established as suffering and not-self, this is one contemplation. Thus, this bhikkhu, having delimited all form, which is indicated as unspecified by “whatever form,” by the three times (past, future, present) and by the four pairs of internal and so on (internal-external, gross-subtle, inferior-superior, far-near)—that is, by eleven aspects—establishes all form as impermanent, and contemplates it as impermanent. How? In the manner stated below. For it is said: “Past, future, and present form is impermanent in the sense of destruction.” Therefore, that past form, since it was destroyed in the past itself, and did not reach this existence, is impermanent in the sense of destruction. That future form, which will arise in the next existence, will also be destroyed there, and will not go beyond that existence. impermanent in the sense of perishing. Whatever form is present, that too perishes right here, it does not go from here, thus impermanent in the sense of perishing. Whatever is internal, that too perishes internally, it does not go to an external state, thus impermanent in the sense of perishing. Whatever is external… gross… subtle… inferior… excellent… far… near, that too perishes right there, it does not go to a distant state, thus impermanent in the sense of perishing, so he contemplates. All this is one contemplation by way of "impermanent in the sense of perishing." But by distinction, it is elevenfold. And all of that is suffering in the sense of fear. In the sense of fear means because it is fraught with danger. For what is impermanent is fearful, like for the devas in the Lion Simile Sutta. Thus, this too is one contemplation by way of "suffering in the sense of fear." But by distinction, it is elevenfold. And just as it is suffering, so all of that is non-self in the sense of being without essence. In the sense of being without essence means due to the absence of the essence of self as conceived, "the self is an indweller, an agent, an experiencer, self-controlled." For what is impermanent, suffering, cannot prevent even its own impermanence or its arising, perishing, and oppression; how could it be an agent and so on? Therefore it is said: "If, bhikkhus, this form were self, this form would not lead to affliction," and so on. Thus, this too is one contemplation by way of "non-self in the sense of being without essence." But by distinction, it is elevenfold. This method applies to feelings and so on. 696. But what is impermanent, since it is necessarily of the nature of conditioned things and so on, therefore, to show its various aspects, or to show the occurrence of attention in various ways, the Pāli text is stated again: "Form, past, future, and present, is impermanent, conditioned, dependently arisen, subject to decay, subject to vanishing, subject to dispassion, subject to cessation." This method applies to feelings and so on. Discourse on the Fortyfold Contemplation 697. He, of that very For the sake of the stability of the contemplation of impermanence, suffering, and non-self in the five aggregates, in the exposition of that which was said by the Blessed One: "By which forty modes does one attain conformable patience? By which forty modes does one enter the fixed course of rightness?" – The five aggregates as impermanent, as suffering, as a disease, as a boil, as a dart, as a bane, as an affliction, as alien, as perishing, as a calamity, as a misfortune, as a terror, as a danger, as wavering, as breaking up, as unstable, as without protection, as without shelter, as without refuge, as empty, as void, as devoid, as non-self, as fraught with danger, as subject to change, as without essence, as the root of evil, as a slayer, as dissolution, as with taints, as conditioned, as Mara's bait, as subject to birth, as subject to aging,