Exhaustion as the Pivot

Why the Three Knowledges and Six Powers Take the Exhaustion of Taints as the Arhat's Defining Mark

中文主題：漏盡通為樞——三明六通何以以漏盡為阿羅漢之定相

I. The Live Question

Mention the arhat's "supernormal powers" and what first comes to mind is rising into the air, transformation, recollecting past lives, reading minds — those dazzling "competences." The axis's P01 already declared, one step ahead, that mastery does not lie in supernormal powers. But P01 argued from "the substance of mastery" (negative freedom, not the accumulation of powers); it did not yet examine "supernormal powers" themselves. This paper and the next take up the powers head-on: this paper asks "among the three knowledges and six powers, which truly is the arhat's defining mark," and P05 breaks head-on "the powers are mastery."

The sharpness of the problem is here: the arhat is indeed recorded as possessing the three knowledges and six powers — explicit canon, not to be erased. So how does granting the arhat supernormal powers stand together with "mastery does not lie in supernormal powers" (P01)? This paper's answer is one word — pivot: among the three knowledges and six powers, only the power of exhaustion is the arhat's pivot and defining mark; the first five powers the worldling (the ordinary person, the non-Buddhist meditator) also attains, and so they do not suffice to sign the arhat's mastery. Granting that the arhat has the powers, and "among the powers only the one power of exhaustion is its defining mark," do not conflict — just as granting that a person has ten fingers, and "only the fingerprint, not the number of fingers, identifies the person," do not conflict.

This paper argues: only the power of exhaustion is the arhat's defining mark, because it (and it alone) is the cognitive face of "exhaustion." Among the three knowledges, only the knowledge of exhaustion is the arhat's own (the knowledges of past lives and the divine eye non-Buddhists too can have); among the six powers, only the sixth, the power of exhaustion, is restricted to the noble, the first five resting on the four meditations and shared with the worldling. So the powers turn about the one pivot of "exhaustion": what can sign the mastery of exhaustion is the one power of exhaustion; the first five are a worldly-shared augmentation of "competence," not where the mastery of exhaustion lies.

This paper opens Part 3, "The Three Knowledges and Six Powers," and sets its pivot. The argument: §II presents canon and śāstra (the three knowledges defined item by item; the nature of the six powers; the cure of the three-bound delusions); §III argues in three layers (the power of exhaustion as the pivot; the first five shared with the worldling and so not the arhat's mastery; the power of exhaustion as the cognitive face of exhaustion and so the defining mark); §IV is cut; §V corrects; §VI concludes, opening P05's "breaking."

II. Canonical Basis

2.1 The Three Knowledges Defined: The Knowledge of Exhaustion Marked by the Four Truths Known, the Mind Liberated, No More Becoming

The backbone witness for the three knowledges (the knowledge of past lives, the divine eye / knowledge of death-and-birth, the knowledge of exhaustion) the Saṃyukta-āgama, fascicle 31 (sūtra 885), defines item by item:

There are three knowledges of the adept. What are the three? The adept's realization-power of the knowledge of past lives, the adept's realization-power of the knowledge of death-and-birth, the adept's realization-power of the knowledge of the exhaustion of taints. … This is the realization-knowledge of past lives. … This is the realization-knowledge of death-and-birth. … "Birth is exhausted, the holy life has been lived, what was to be done is done, one knows there is no more becoming." This is the realization-knowledge of the exhaustion of taints.¹

The three knowledges stand in parallel, yet the knowledge of exhaustion alone has the self-verification 定型句 (birth exhausted … no more becoming) as its mark — precisely the core sentence of exhaustion read in P01. The knowledge of exhaustion is not "one more supernormal power" but "the self-knowing of exhaustion" — its content just is exhaustion itself (the four truths known as they really are, the three taints liberated in mind, no more becoming). The three knowledges are induced in sequence from a purified concentrated mind; the Madhyama-āgama, fascicle 19, narrates the three realizations in series:

Gaining the unshaken mind, one trains in the realization of the power of the knowledge of past lives. … One trains in the realization of the power of the knowledge of death-and-birth. Friends! With the purified divine eye surpassing the human, I see beings at the time of death and birth … One trains in the realization of the power of the knowledge of the exhaustion of taints. Friends! I know this suffering as it really is … the mind liberated from the taint of sensuality, the taint of being, the taint of ignorance … birth is exhausted, the holy life has been lived, what was to be done is done, there is no more taking up of being — known as it really is.²

From "the unshaken mind" (pure concentration) the three realizations of past lives, death-and-birth, and exhaustion are induced in sequence; the power of exhaustion still has the four truths known-as-they-really-are and the three taints liberated as its mark. The order of the three knowledges shows that the first two (past lives, death-and-birth) are a breadth of knowledge-and-vision drawn out by concentration, while only the third (exhaustion) directly engages liberation — what it "knows" is not "the past, or beings" but "the taints exhausted, no more becoming."

2.2 The Śāstric Definition: The Fifth, Second, and Sixth Powers, Curing the Three-Bound Delusions

The relation of the three knowledges to the six powers the Abhidharmakośa, fascicle 27 (Chapter on Knowledge), plainly judges:

The three knowledges are: first, the realization-knowledge of past abodes; second, the realization-knowledge of death-and-birth; third, the realization-knowledge of the exhaustion of taints. In order, they have as their nature the fifth, second, and sixth powers as subsumed at the adept stage. Of the six, three alone are named "knowledge" because in order they cure the delusions of the three bounds: the knowledge of past abodes cures the delusion of the prior bound, the knowledge of death-and-birth the delusion of the posterior bound, the knowledge of exhaustion the delusion of the middle bound.³

The śāstra defines the three knowledges as the fifth (past abodes), second (death-and-birth), and sixth (exhaustion) of the six powers, as subsumed at the adept stage; of the six, these three alone are named "knowledge" (vijjā, illuminating wisdom) because they in order cure the "three-bound delusions" — past abodes curing the prior-bound delusion (the delusion of the past), death-and-birth the posterior-bound delusion (the delusion of the future), exhaustion the middle-bound delusion (the delusion of the present, the here-and-now). The point is here: only the knowledge of exhaustion cures the "middle-bound delusion" — the root of ignorance at this very moment; the cure of the prior and posterior bounds is still a breadth of "knowing past and future," while only the cure of the middle bound directly severs the ignorance in operation. The distinctiveness of the knowledge of exhaustion is that it cures "the delusion of this thought now binding," not a matter at the other ends of the time-axis.

2.3 The Nature of the Six Powers: Wisdom as Their Nature, Subsumed under the Path of Liberation

The formal listing and nature of the six powers, Kośa, fascicle 27:

The powers are of six kinds: first, the realization-knowledge of psychic motion; second, of the divine eye; third, of the divine ear; fourth, of others' minds; fifth, the recollective realization-knowledge of past abodes; sixth, of the exhaustion of taints. … These six powers are subsumed under the path of liberation, with wisdom as their nature, like the śrāmaṇya-fruits. … Psychic motion and the other [first] four are subsumed under conventional knowledge alone. The knowledge of others' minds is subsumed under five knowledges … the power of exhaustion is as stated of the [ten] powers, namely six or ten knowledges.⁴

The six powers are listed item by item, their nature set as "wisdom, subsumed under the path of liberation." Yet finely judged by which knowledges subsume them, the difference is plain: psychic motion, the divine eye, the divine ear, and past abodes — these four — are "subsumed under conventional knowledge alone"; the knowledge of others' minds is "subsumed under five knowledges"; only the power of exhaustion is "as stated of the ten powers, namely six or ten knowledges" — taking every object, subsuming the taintless knowledges. So the cognition of the first five powers is confined to the broad use of conventional knowledge (knowing the distant, knowing others, knowing the past), while only the power of exhaustion engages taintless knowledge and takes every object. This difference of nature is the śāstric ground for the "pivot" of the next section. The Āgama layer too has a witness for the powers' terms, Saṃyukta-āgama, fascicle 29:

A monk gains measureless ranges of supernormal power: the divine ear, the knowledge of others' minds, the knowledge of past lives, the knowledge of death-and-birth, the knowledge of the exhaustion of taints.⁵

The Āgama gathers the knowledges under "measureless ranges of supernormal power," the knowledge of exhaustion listed last — and the one that comes last is the pivot.

2.4 The Power of Exhaustion as the Pivot: The Sixth Restricted to the Noble, the First Five Gained by the Worldling Too

The śāstric witness that, among the six powers, the power of exhaustion alone is the pivot, Kośa, fascicle 27:

Though among the six powers the sixth is restricted to the noble, yet its first five the worldling too gains; spoken of by general character, they are shared with the worldling. … The power of exhaustion rests on every stage and takes every object. The first five powers rest on the four meditations.⁶

This is the paper's pivotal argument. First, "the sixth is restricted to the noble" — only the power of exhaustion is confined to the noble (the arhat), the worldling cannot gain it. Second, "the first five the worldling too gains" — psychic motion, the divine eye, the divine ear, others' minds, and past lives, these five, the worldling (the ordinary person, the non-Buddhist meditator) too can gain. Third, the difference by stage: the power of exhaustion "rests on every stage, takes every object," the first five "rest on the four meditations" (confined to the four-meditation stages). The first five being shared with the worldling, they cannot sign "the mastery of the noble" — a competence that the ordinary person too gains by cultivating concentration, how could it be the arhat's mark? Only the power of exhaustion, gained by the noble alone, is the arhat's defining mark. The Ekottarika-āgama further marks the power of exhaustion's finality by "realizing it last," Ekottarika-āgama, fascicle 3 (Chapter on Disciples):

The one who last realizes and gains the power of the exhaustion of taints — namely the monk Subhadda.⁷

The Chapter on Disciples lists disciples each exemplifying one virtue, and the one who comes last, Subhadda (the Buddha's last disciple), is marked by "realizing and gaining the power of exhaustion" — the power of exhaustion stands at the end of the powers, the ultimate to be realized. (Note: this is an illustrative witness, not a systematic definition.)

✅ Doctrinally sound: 2.1 (the three knowledges item by item, the knowledge of exhaustion marked by no-more-becoming) and the end of 2.4 (Subhadda realizing the power of exhaustion) are explicit canon; 2.2 (the three knowledges = the 5th/2nd/6th powers, curing the three-bound delusions), 2.3 (the nature of the six powers, the difference in knowledge-subsumption), 2.4 (the sixth restricted to the noble, the first five gained by the worldling, the difference by stage) are Kośa śāstric precision (Chapter on Knowledge). The paper takes the sense "the power of exhaustion is restricted to the noble, the first five shared with the worldling" to set the pivot, marking it as śāstra. The reality of the first five powers, the mechanics of transformation, and the like lie beyond this paper's theme and are not unfolded.

III. Core Argument

3.1 The Power of Exhaustion as the Pivot of the Three Knowledges and Six Powers

The three knowledges and six powers are not six (or three) parallel "competences," but a set of cognitive competences turning about exhaustion as their pivot. A pivot is an axle-center — the rest turn about it, and remove the pivot and the rest do not constitute "the arhat's merit."

Why is the power of exhaustion the pivot? From the śāstric judgment of 2.4: among the six powers, "the sixth is restricted to the noble, the first five the worldling too gains." The first five powers (psychic motion, the divine eye, the divine ear, others' minds, past lives) the worldling (the ordinary person, the non-Buddhist meditator) too can gain — they are a worldly-shared competence drawn out by cultivating concentration, not confined to the noble. Only the sixth, the power of exhaustion, is "restricted to the noble," confined to the taint-exhausted arhat. A competence that the ordinary person too gains by cultivating concentration cannot serve as "the mark of the noble"; only what the noble alone gains suffices to sign the noble station. So among the six powers, what can sign the arhat's mastery is the one power of exhaustion.

So too the three knowledges (2.2). The three knowledges are the sixth (exhaustion), fifth (past abodes), and second (death-and-birth) of the six powers. Of these, the knowledge of past lives and the divine-eye (death-and-birth) knowledge still belong to the worldly-shared competence of the first five — non-Buddhists too can recollect past lives and see death-and-birth. Only the knowledge of exhaustion is subsumed under the sixth power, gained by the noble alone. The three knowledges are named "knowledge" (vijjā, the wisdom that breaks darkness), the śāstra judges, because they "cure the three-bound delusions" (2.2); and only the knowledge of exhaustion cures the "middle-bound delusion" — the root of ignorance binding at this very moment. The cure of the prior and posterior bounds is a breadth of "knowing the other ends of the time-axis"; only the cure of the middle bound directly severs what is in operation. So among the three knowledges too, only the knowledge of exhaustion directly engages liberation, and is the pivot.

A simile: a ring has six keys; five open the doors of the outer courts (hall, storehouse, garden — other people's craftsmen too can cut these five), only the sixth opens the lock of the inner chamber (held by the house's master alone). To recognize this house's master is not a matter of how many outer-court keys he has (those are shared) but of his holding that one inner-chamber key. The power of exhaustion is just that sixth key — held by the noble alone, opening the inner chamber of "exhaustion."

3.2 The First Five Powers, Shared with the Worldling, Are Not the Arhat's Mastery

3.1 having shown the first five shared with the worldling, the doctrinal consequence must be drawn: the first five powers are not where the arhat's mastery lies.

The ground is in the word "shared." Mastery is the signature of exhaustion (P01) — the noble's own. Whatever competence is shared with the worldling is by definition not "the signature of exhaustion": for the worldling has not exhausted taints, yet also gains the first five, showing that the gaining of the first five does not hang on exhaustion. A thing that does not hang on exhaustion cannot serve as exhaustion's signature. So the first five powers, however fully the arhat possesses them, are only his "incidental worldly-shared competence," not where his "mastery of exhaustion" lies. As 2.3's judgment of knowledge-subsumption: the first five (but for others' minds) are "subsumed under conventional knowledge alone," resting on the four meditations; only the power of exhaustion engages taintless knowledge, resting on every stage — the first five's cognition is confined to the broad use of conventional knowledge (knowing the distant, others, the past), with no necessary tie to "severing taints."

This refines P01 §3.3. P01 established "mastery is negative freedom (nothing left to bind), not the accumulation of powers"; this paper proves it through the judgment of the three knowledges and six powers: the powers (the first five) indeed are shared with the worldling and have no necessary tie to exhaustion, and so indeed are not where mastery lies. P01 is the frame (mastery not in powers); this paper is the detail (the judgment of the six powers shows the first five shared with the worldling, proving the frame in the domain of the three knowledges and six powers).

✅ Doctrinally sound: the first five powers are gained by the worldling too (2.4), and so do not hang on exhaustion; whatever does not hang on exhaustion is not exhaustion's signature (P01). So the first five powers are not where the arhat's mastery lies, only an incidental worldly-shared competence. This, in the domain of the three knowledges and six powers, proves P01's frame that "mastery is not in powers."

3.3 The Power of Exhaustion Is the Cognitive Face of Exhaustion, and So the Defining Mark

Finally, to establish positively "why the power of exhaustion is the defining mark." The answer: because the power of exhaustion (and it alone) is the cognitive face of "exhaustion" itself — it is not a competence beyond exhaustion, but exhaustion's self-knowing.

From 2.1: the mark of the knowledge of exhaustion is the self-verification 定型句, "birth is exhausted … no more becoming." Its content is precisely exhaustion itself (the four truths known, the three taints liberated, no more becoming). The knowledge of exhaustion does not, like the knowledge of past lives (knowing past affairs) or the divine-eye knowledge (seeing beings' death-and-birth), have an "object known beyond exhaustion"; what the knowledge of exhaustion "knows" is the very fact that "the taints are exhausted." So the power of exhaustion and exhaustion are not the relation of "a competence" to "another object," but exhaustion's "self-knowing" — the cognitive face of exhaustion.

Just for this, the power of exhaustion is the arhat's defining mark: it is one with exhaustion (exhaustion's self-knowing just is the power of exhaustion), so to see the power of exhaustion is to see exhaustion, and to see exhaustion is to see mastery (P01). The first five powers are "a competence the taint-exhausted incidentally also has" (dispensable, shared with the worldling); the power of exhaustion is "the cognitive face of exhaustion itself" (indispensable, gained by the noble alone). A defining mark is what defines a thing as having a certain aspect — the power of exhaustion defines the arhat's aspect, precisely because it just is the cognitive side of exhaustion (what mastery signs).

So, judging the three knowledges and six powers by P01's frame: the powers are not outside the signature of exhaustion, and the power of exhaustion is the pivot. The power of exhaustion is the pivot, the defining mark (the cognitive face of exhaustion); the first five are worldly-shared competences turning about the pivot (incidental, not the defining mark). The next paper, P05, establishes positively, on this "first five are not mastery," that "supernormal powers are not mastery."

⚠️ A note on level: this paper establishes "the power of exhaustion is the pivot, the first five are not the defining mark" on the single sense of "where the arhat's mastery lies." It does not claim the first five powers are useless to the arhat — their skillful use in benefiting others, in teaching, in liberating beings is recorded in scripture (e.g. psychic motion's guiding-by-conversion), and has its own value (belonging to the faces of skillful means and capability). The paper shows only: with respect to "the mastery of exhaustion," the first five are not where it lies, only the power of exhaustion is the pivot. The first five's use as skillful means and "where mastery lies" are two matters, not to be conflated.

IV. Interdisciplinary Convergence

(This paper deliberately omits the interdisciplinary section; the reason is given in §VI. The structure of "a core competence as pivot, peripheral competences turning about it" does resemble the modern "core competence vs peripheral skills" or a system's "hub node"; yet both are organizational descriptions of worldly competences, only superficially like "the power of exhaustion = the cognitive face of exhaustion (the self-knowing of unconditioned liberation)." A worldly hub is still one competence among many (central in quantity); the power of exhaustion is not "one power among many, situated centrally" but "the cognitive side of liberation itself, about which the powers turn" (categorially other in kind). To force "hub node" upon it would lead the reader to mistake the power of exhaustion for "the strongest kind of supernormal power," losing its sense as "not of the supernormal-power kind, but the self-knowing of liberation." Better to leave it out.)

V. Madhyamaka Corrections

❌ Misreading one: "the arhat's mastery lies in the three knowledges and six powers (the competences of rising into the air, past lives, others' minds, and the like)." 3.2 breaks this. The first five powers are gained by the worldling (the ordinary person, the non-Buddhist meditator) too (2.4), do not hang on exhaustion, and so are not exhaustion's signature, not where mastery lies. Mastery is signed by exhaustion alone (P01); only the power of exhaustion is gained by the noble alone and is the cognitive face of exhaustion (3.3). To take the first five's transformations for the arhat's mastery mistakes "a competence shared with the ordinary person" for "the mastery the noble alone has" — how could a worldly-shared competence sign a supramundane mastery? (The full breaking of "powers are not mastery": see P05.)

❌ Misreading two: "the three knowledges and six powers are six (three) parallel competences, with no principal and subordinate." 3.1 breaks this. The three knowledges and six powers are one set of competences turning about exhaustion as pivot, not six parallel items. Only the power of exhaustion is restricted to the noble, the pivot, the defining mark; the first five are shared with the worldling, turning about, not the defining mark. To read the three knowledges and six powers as a "parallel list of powers" loses the pivot, and so easily takes "the more powers the more mastery" (falling into addition and subject-object), against P01's frame that "mastery is subtraction, not accumulation."

⚠️ Correction three: showing "the first five are not where mastery lies" does not claim the first five are useless to the arhat. The first five powers' skillful use in benefiting others, in teaching, in liberating beings is recorded in scripture (psychic motion's guiding-by-conversion, others'-minds' reading of capacities), with its own value, belonging to the faces of skillful means and capability. The paper shows only, on the single sense of "where the mastery of exhaustion lies," that the first five are not where it lies, only the power of exhaustion is the pivot (3.3's note on level). The reader should not take the paper as disparaging the use of the powers — it distinguishes "where mastery lies" from "the competence of skillful means," disparaging not the first five's skillful means.

⚠️ Correction four: the "mechanics of transformation, the reality of the first five," and the like, the paper does not unfold. The paper takes the one judgment "the power of exhaustion is restricted to the noble, the first five shared with the worldling" to set the pivot; as to the mechanics of psychic transformation, the reality and realm-bindings of the first five powers, which belong to the special topics of the theory of powers and of concentration, beyond this paper's theme of "the defining mark of mastery," it marks them as-is without entering. The reader should not take the paper as having treated the full substance of the powers.

VI. Conclusion

Restatement. Among the three knowledges and six powers, only the power of exhaustion is the arhat's pivot and defining mark. The three knowledges and six powers are one set of cognitive competences turning about exhaustion as pivot, not parallel (3.1); the first five powers are shared with the worldling and rest on the four meditations, only the sixth, the power of exhaustion, restricted to the noble, resting on every stage, taking every object (2.4), and so the first five do not hang on exhaustion and are not where mastery lies (3.2); only the power of exhaustion is the cognitive face of exhaustion (its mark the self-verification 定型句, curing the middle-bound delusion), one with exhaustion, and so the defining mark (3.3). Holding to P01's frame: the powers are not outside the signature of exhaustion, the power of exhaustion is the pivot, the first five worldly-shared competences turning about it.

Practice guidance. What the practitioner should understand about the three knowledges and six powers is not the demand "I must broadly cultivate supernormal powers to realize mastery" (which mistakes a competence shared with the ordinary person for the noble's mastery, falling into addition and subject-object, against P01 and this paper), but the recognition that "the powers turn about exhaustion as pivot — only the power of exhaustion is the defining mark, the rest turn about it." The essential of tending toward it still lies in severing taints (severing the root of ignorance, curing the middle-bound delusion), not in broadly seeking the first five transformations. Though the first five be gained, if the taints are not exhausted one is not an arhat (the worldling too gains the first five); the taints exhausted, though one lack the breadth of the first five (as the wisdom-liberated arhat need not have the concentration-powers), one's mastery of exhaustion is in no way deficient. So do not, by "not having gained supernormal powers," doubt that one "has not realized"; nor, by "having gained powers," presume that one "has realized" — the defining mark of realization lies only in the power of exhaustion (the self-knowing of exhaustion), not in the breadth of the first five.

Carrying the axis forward (opening the next paper). This paper opens Part 3 and sets the pivot of the three knowledges and six powers (the power of exhaustion), showing the first five shared with the worldling and not where mastery lies. Yet "the first five are not mastery" this paper establishes only from the side of the "pivot" (the first five turning about, not the defining mark); its positive breaking — "why the powers (the first five) are fundamentally not mastery, even when the arhat possesses them" — requires a paper of its own. The next paper, P05, "Supernormal Powers Are Not Mastery," takes the Madhyamaka correction as the whole paper's subject, breaking head-on the error "powers are mastery": the first five are not final, only the demonstration of instruction (the Dharma subsumed under exhaustion) liberates, and the eye of wisdom (exhaustion) is supreme. This paper sets the pivot, the next sets the breaking; the pivot set, the breaking has its ground, and the breaking accomplished, the frame "the exhaustion of taints is mastery" is consummated in the domain of supernormal powers.

Open questions. First, this paper judges "the power of exhaustion is the cognitive face of exhaustion"; yet the precise sense of the "oneness" of the power of exhaustion (the knowledge of exhaustion, the knowledge of non-arising) with exhaustion (the unconditioned, cessation-through-discernment) — how the cognitive face and the unconditioned dharma known are non-dual — touches the fine debates of the Chapter on Knowledge and on the unconditioned; the paper only posits their mutual identity, the detail awaiting the studies on severing defilement and knowledge. Second, this paper cuts §IV (the power of exhaustion is only superficially like a hub node); whether the power of exhaustion, "not of the supernormal-power kind but the self-knowing of liberation," distinct in kind from all "hubs of worldly competence," admits a positively constructible deep structure, is left to a later paper. Third, the order of the three knowledges (past lives, the divine eye, exhaustion) — why so arranged (curing the prior, posterior, middle bounds in sequence) — and its relation to the actual order of induction in realization (2.2), the paper does not reach, to be revisited in the papers on concentration and the powers.

Notes

References

Primary Buddhist Sources

• Saṃyukta-āgama (雜阿含經). Trans. Guṇabhadra. T02, no. 0099《雜阿含經》Saṃyukta-āgamaT2, No. 99View on CBETA online reader ↗. (Fasc. 31, the three knowledges of the adept item by item; fasc. 29, the powers' terms listing the five knowledges.)
• Madhyama-āgama (中阿含經). Trans. Gautama Saṅghadeva. T01, no. 0026《中阿含經》MadhyamāgamaT1, No. 26View on CBETA online reader ↗. (Fasc. 19, the three realizations induced from the unshaken mind.)
• Ekottarika-āgama (增壹阿含經). Trans. Gautama Saṅghadeva. T02, no. 0125《增壹阿含經》EkottarāgamaT2, No. 125View on CBETA online reader ↗. (Fasc. 3, Chapter on Disciples, Subhadda realizing the power of exhaustion.)
• Abhidharmakośa-bhāṣya (阿毘達磨俱舍論). By Vasubandhu, trans. Xuanzang. T29, no. 1558《阿毘達磨俱舍論》Abhidharmakośa-bhāṣyaT29, No. 1558View on CBETA online reader ↗. (Chapter on Knowledge, fasc. 27, the nature of the six powers, the three knowledges curing the three-bound delusions, the sixth restricted to the noble and the first five gained by the worldling.)

Modern Scholarship

(This paper cites no modern scholarship; its argument rests entirely on the Buddhist canon, in the open-source spirit of "returning to the source." The interdisciplinary section having been cut, there is no associated modern literature.)

Sūtra & Śāstra Index

Citation	Source	CBETA id
The three knowledges of the adept item by item · the knowledge of exhaustion marked by no-more-becoming	Saṃyukta-āgama, fasc. 31	T02n0099《雜阿含經》Saṃyukta-āgamaT2, No. 99View on CBETA online reader ↗_p0223b13
The three realizations induced in sequence from the unshaken mind	Madhyama-āgama, fasc. 19	T01n0026《中阿含經》MadhyamāgamaT1, No. 26View on CBETA online reader ↗_p0553b23
The three knowledges = the 5th/2nd/6th powers · curing the prior, posterior, middle bounds	Kośa, fasc. 27	T29n1558《阿毘達磨俱舍論》Abhidharmakośa-bhāṣyaT29, No. 1558View on CBETA online reader ↗_p0143b23
The six powers listed · wisdom as nature, path of liberation · the difference in knowledge-subsumption	Kośa, fasc. 27	T29n1558《阿毘達磨俱舍論》Abhidharmakośa-bhāṣyaT29, No. 1558View on CBETA online reader ↗_p0142c24
The ranges of supernormal power listing the five knowledges (ear, others' minds, past lives, death-birth, exhaustion)	Saṃyukta-āgama, fasc. 29	T02n0099《雜阿含經》Saṃyukta-āgamaT2, No. 99View on CBETA online reader ↗_p0209c27
The sixth restricted to the noble · the first five gained by the worldling · the difference by stage	Kośa, fasc. 27	T29n1558《阿毘達磨俱舍論》Abhidharmakośa-bhāṣyaT29, No. 1558View on CBETA online reader ↗_p0142c26
Subhadda last realizing the power of exhaustion (the ultimate of the powers)	Ekottarika-āgama, fasc. 3	T02n0125《增壹阿含經》EkottarāgamaT2, No. 125View on CBETA online reader ↗_p0558c16

Series Cross-Reference Index

• ARHAT-P01, "The Exhaustion of Taints Is Mastery" §3.3, §V: this paper's 3.2 directly continues P01's "mastery is negative freedom, not the accumulation of powers" — proving the frame in the domain of the three knowledges and six powers by the judgment of the six powers (the first five shared with the worldling); the power of exhaustion as the pivot is the cognitive-face realization of P01's "mastery is signed by exhaustion alone."
• ARHAT-P05, "Supernormal Powers Are Not Mastery" (next paper, also Part 3): this paper sets the pivot (the power of exhaustion as pivot, the first five not the defining mark); P05 sets the breaking (powers are fundamentally not mastery, only instruction liberates, the eye of wisdom is supreme). This paper's 3.2 and §V prepare P05's breaking.
• ARHAT-P03, "Liberation by Wisdom and Liberation Both-Ways Distinguished" §3.3: this paper's "the first five powers (worldly-shared competence) are not where mastery lies" is on the same principle as P03's "the both-ways' concentrative mastery is a distinct face, not the face of taints" — positive competences (powers, concentration) are all a distinct face; only exhaustion (the face of taints) is where mastery lies.
• ★ Realization-axis SRAMANA-P09, "The Approach to the Exhaustion of Taints" (seam side-reference): this paper's power of exhaustion (the cognitive face of exhaustion) bears on the Realization axis's exhaustion (the last cut) — Realization speaks of exhaustion's severing (how exhausted), Attainment of exhaustion's self-knowing (the power of exhaustion, the defining mark).

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Paper: ARHAT-P04 · 漏盡通為樞 · The Mastery of the Arhat · Part 3 · The Three Knowledges and Six Powers Author: 釋慧鏡 (Shi Huijing) · Project: 指月 / Pointing-at-the-Moon · Series: The Attainment Signatures（證 自在簽名） License: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 CBETA collation: 全文引用均依 CBETA 電子佛典核校（《雜阿含經》T0099、《中阿含經》T0026、《增壹阿含經》T0125、《阿毘達磨俱舍論》T1558）。Pāli 引文採 PTS reference 雙軌標示（vault 未收者俟後補）。 Repository: https://github.com/pointing-at-the-moon/attainment-signatures

Footnotes

1. Saṃyukta-āgama, fascicle 31 (sūtra 885), T02n0099《雜阿含經》Saṃyukta-āgamaT2, No. 99View on CBETA online reader ↗_p0223b13. "There are three knowledges of the adept … the realization-power of the knowledge of past lives, of death-and-birth, of the exhaustion of taints … 'Birth is exhausted, the holy life has been lived, what was to be done is done, one knows there is no more becoming.' This is the realization-knowledge of the exhaustion of taints." The three knowledges item by item, the knowledge of exhaustion marked by the self-verification 定型句. CBETA-verified. ↩

2. Madhyama-āgama, fascicle 19, T01n0026《中阿含經》MadhyamāgamaT1, No. 26View on CBETA online reader ↗_p0553b23. From "the unshaken mind," in sequence, the three realizations of past lives, death-and-birth, and exhaustion; the power of exhaustion marked by the four truths known as they really are, the three taints liberated, "birth exhausted … no more taking up of being." ↩

3. Abhidharmakośa, fascicle 27 (Chapter on Knowledge), T29n1558《阿毘達磨俱舍論》Abhidharmakośa-bhāṣyaT29, No. 1558View on CBETA online reader ↗_p0143b23. "The three knowledges: first, of past abodes; second, of death-and-birth; third, of the exhaustion of taints … having as their nature the fifth, second, and sixth powers subsumed at the adept stage. Of the six, three alone are named 'knowledge' because they cure the delusions of the three bounds." The three knowledges = the 5th/2nd/6th powers, curing the prior, posterior, middle bounds. By Vasubandhu, trans. Xuanzang. ↩

4. Abhidharmakośa, fascicle 27, T29n1558《阿毘達磨俱舍論》Abhidharmakośa-bhāṣyaT29, No. 1558View on CBETA online reader ↗_p0142c24. "The powers are of six kinds: first, psychic motion … sixth, the exhaustion of taints. These six are subsumed under the path of liberation, with wisdom as their nature, like the śrāmaṇya-fruits. Psychic motion and the four are subsumed under conventional knowledge alone. The knowledge of others' minds under five knowledges … the power of exhaustion as stated of the powers, namely six or ten knowledges." The six powers listed, their nature, the difference in knowledge-subsumption. ↩

5. Saṃyukta-āgama, fascicle 29, T02n0099《雜阿含經》Saṃyukta-āgamaT2, No. 99View on CBETA online reader ↗_p0209c27. "A monk gains measureless ranges of supernormal power: the divine ear, the knowledge of others' minds, of past lives, of death-and-birth, of the exhaustion of taints." The Āgama witness for the powers' terms, the knowledge of exhaustion listed last. ↩

6. Abhidharmakośa, fascicle 27, T29n1558《阿毘達磨俱舍論》Abhidharmakośa-bhāṣyaT29, No. 1558View on CBETA online reader ↗_p0142c26. "Though among the six the sixth is restricted to the noble, yet its first five the worldling too gains … the power of exhaustion rests on every stage and takes every object. The first five rest on the four meditations." The power of exhaustion restricted to the noble, the first five shared with the worldling, the difference by stage. The śāstric pivot for this paper's setting of the pivot. ↩

7. Ekottarika-āgama, fascicle 3 (Chapter on Disciples), T02n0125《增壹阿含經》EkottarāgamaT2, No. 125View on CBETA online reader ↗_p0558c16. "The one who last realizes and gains the power of the exhaustion of taints — namely the monk Subhadda." The Chapter on Disciples marks its last, Subhadda, by realizing the power of exhaustion — the power of exhaustion as the ultimate to be realized (an illustrative witness, not a systematic definition). ↩