Attainment · Arhat’s MasteryPart 3Paper 5 of 8

Supernormal Powers Are Not Mastery

ARHAT-P05 · v1.0 · 2026-06

Why the First Five Powers Are Not Where the Arhat's Freedom Lies

中文主題：神通不是自在——前五通何以非阿羅漢自在之所在

I. The Live Question

Supernormal power most easily dazzles the eye, and most easily steals the sense. The popular image of the arhat condenses to a sentence: "he can fly, recall past lives, read minds." So "arrival" is quietly converted into "marvelous competence" — as if, the day I too cultivate such abilities, I have realized mastery. This is the most widespread, most stubborn of misunderstandings.

P04 set the pivot: among the three knowledges and six powers, only the power of exhaustion is restricted to the noble, the pivot; the first five are shared with the worldling. This paper continues from that, but does something more positive: not merely "the first five turn about the pivot," but breaking head-on the root of "the first five are mastery." The question: why are supernormal powers (the first five, the transformations) fundamentally not mastery? Even granting that the arhat does possess supernormal powers, does the conclusion still hold?

This paper's answer: it still holds, and must. The paper breaks it with three strokes: (continuing P04, the breaking-by-sharing) the first five are shared with the ordinary person and the non-Buddhist, and a competence shared with the not-yet-exhausted cannot, by definition, sign a supramundane mastery; (the breaking-by-instruction) scripture plainly shows that "what liberates is the demonstration of instruction (the Dharma), not transformation" — among the Buddha's three demonstrations, only the demonstration of instruction makes the monks' minds liberated, psychic motion and others'-minds being mere display; (the breaking-by-the-eye-of-wisdom) scripture plainly deflates supernormal power and marks the eye of wisdom as supreme — the divine eye, though it see a thousand worlds, is "no wonder at all," and one without the eye of wisdom cannot even see his own body.

This paper is the axis's concentrated paper of "Madhyamaka correction" — where other papers' §V is a local correction, here correction is the whole paper's subject, concentratedly breaking the root of "powers are mastery." The argument: §II presents canon and śāstra (the nature of the six powers and the judgment that the first five are shared with the worldling; the three demonstrations; Aniruddha deflating the divine eye and marking the eye of wisdom); §III argues in three layers (shared with the worldling and so not mastery; instruction liberates, not transformation; the eye of wisdom is supreme, supernormal power no wonder); §IV is cut; §V corrects (the body of the paper being already correction, §V gathers the roots of the errors); §VI concludes.

II. Canonical Basis

2.1 The Nature of the Six Powers and the Judgment: The First Five Shared with the Worldling, Only Exhaustion Restricted to the Noble (Continuing P04, the Corrective Reading)

The nature and judgment of the six powers, Abhidharmakośa, 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 knowledge of past abodes; sixth, of 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 [first] four are subsumed under conventional knowledge alone. The knowledge of others' minds under five knowledges … the power of exhaustion as stated of the [ten] powers, namely six or ten knowledges.¹

This paper takes the corrective reading of this passage: the first four powers (psychic motion, the divine eye, the divine ear, past abodes) are "subsumed under conventional knowledge alone" — conventional knowledge, untouching the taintless. Conventional knowledge is a knowledge the worldling too can cultivate and gain; a power subsumed under conventional knowledge alone is of itself not the noble's own. The śāstra further clarifies that the first five are shared with the worldling, only the sixth restricted to the noble. 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 rest on the four meditations.²

"The first five the worldling too gains," "shared with the worldling" — this is the śāstric ground for the paper's first stroke. The first five powers (including psychic motion's transformations, the divine eye's seeing death-and-birth, others'-minds' knowing of minds) the worldling (the ordinary person, the non-Buddhist meditator) too gains; the concentration-power of the four meditations alone can induce them, not awaiting exhaustion. A competence shared with the not-yet-exhausted is not "what exhaustion signs" (see 3.1).

2.2 The Three Demonstrations: Only Instruction Liberates the Mind (Transformation and Others'-Minds Are Display)

The witness for "what liberates is the Dharma, not transformation" lies in the Buddha's three demonstrations. Saṃyukta-āgama, fascicle 8:

The World-Honored One performed three kinds of demonstration to teach a thousand monks. What three? The demonstration of psychic-motion transformation, the demonstration of others' minds, the demonstration of instruction. … [In the demonstration of psychic motion the World-Honored One rose into the air and manifested various transformations, then sat amid the assembly — this is the demonstration of psychic motion. In the demonstration of others' minds he showed forth according to their minds, thoughts, and consciousness — this is the demonstration of others' minds. In the demonstration of instruction he taught the Dharma of "all is burning" …] Then the thousand monks, hearing what the Buddha said, raised no taints, their minds liberated.³

This is the witness for the paper's second stroke. The Buddha teaches the thousand monks by three demonstrations: psychic-motion transformation (rising into the air, manifesting transformations), others'-minds (discerning their minds, thoughts, consciousness), instruction (teaching the Dharma of "all is burning," the teaching of the four truths and dependent arising). The effects of the three are plainly distinct: the first two (psychic motion, others'-minds) astonish and convince, yet do not liberate; only the third, the demonstration of instruction, having taught the Dharma of "all is burning," makes the thousand monks "raise no taints, their minds liberated." Scripture lays out the causation in the plainest way: the transformations done, the crowd marvels at the wonder and no more; the instruction taught, the crowd's taints are exhausted and they are liberated. The power that turns delusion to awakening, that severs taints and liberates, lies in the Dharma (instruction), not in the marvelous (transformation). Transformation can move the eye but cannot sever taints; only instruction (the Dharma subsumed under exhaustion) can liberate the mind. This is the iron witness for "supernormal power is not what liberates."

2.3 Aniruddha Deflates the Divine Eye: Supernormal Power Is No Wonder, the Eye of Wisdom Is Supreme

The witness for "supernormal power is no wonder, only the eye of wisdom is ultimate," Ekottarika-āgama, fascicle 7 (Aniruddha answering a brahmin):

Yet again, brahmin! this divine eye — what wonder is it! … [A Brahmā] of a thousand eyes … does not see the garment on his own body. … Because that god has no supreme eye of wisdom, he does not see his own [body].⁴

Aniruddha is foremost in the divine eye, yet he avows: the divine eye, though it penetrate and see a thousand worlds, is "no wonder at all" (not the ultimate). He shows it by a simile the sharper: a Brahmā possessed of a thousand eyes, whose ocular power could hardly be called narrow, yet "does not see the garment on his own body" — why? "Because he has no supreme eye of wisdom." The eye of supernormal power (the divine eye), however broadly it sees, is a breadth of "seeing outward" (seeing the distant, the many, others); one without the eye of wisdom cannot see even "his own body" (a figure for not seeing his own defilement, not realizing his own liberation). Only the supreme eye of wisdom (exhaustion, seeing into non-self) can illumine oneself and liberate. This deflates supernormal power (the breadth of the divine eye) and marks the eye of wisdom (exhaustion) as supreme — supernormal power, however marvelous, has no part in liberation; the eye of wisdom, though it see not a thousand worlds, is the essential to liberation.

✅ Doctrinally sound: 2.2 (the three demonstrations, only instruction liberating the mind) and 2.3 (Aniruddha deflating the divine eye, marking the eye of wisdom) are explicit canon; 2.1 (the nature of the six powers, the first five shared with the worldling, subsumed under conventional knowledge) is Kośa śāstric precision (Chapter on Knowledge, continuing P04). The three witnesses together show: the first five are shared with the worldling (not the noble's own), transformation does not liberate (only instruction liberates), supernormal power is no wonder (only the eye of wisdom is supreme) — supernormal powers are not mastery, not the ultimate, not what liberates; canon is consistent. The mechanics of psychic transformation, the realm-bindings of what the divine eye sees, and the like lie beyond this paper's theme and are not unfolded.

III. Core Argument

3.1 Shared with the Worldling, and So Not Mastery: A Competence Shared with the Not-Yet-Exhausted Cannot Sign a Supramundane Freedom

The first stroke, continuing P04's pivot and establishing it positively. Mastery is the signature of exhaustion (P01) — the noble's own, what the one fact of "exhaustion" signs. And the first five powers are gained by the worldling too (2.1): the ordinary person and the non-Buddhist meditator, not yet exhausted, can also gain psychic motion, the divine eye, the divine ear, others'-minds, and past lives. This fact alone suffices to judge the first five not mastery.

The argument: if the first five powers were where mastery lies (the signature of exhaustion), then whoever gains the first five should already be exhausted (should bear the signature). Yet the worldling, not exhausted, also gains the first five — showing that gaining the first five does not entail exhaustion. A competence that does not entail exhaustion has no necessary tie to "the mastery of exhaustion"; what has no necessary tie cannot serve as its signature. So the first five powers are not the signature of exhaustion, not where mastery lies. The crux of the breaking is wholly in the word "shared": the competence of transformation is shared with the ordinary person within the round of birth-and-death — that one still bound in saṃsāra can also rise and transform is precisely the proof that rising and transforming is a different matter from "the freedom of liberation."

So even granting that the arhat fully possesses the first five, these are only his "incidental competence shared with the ordinary person," not his "mastery of exhaustion." As the rich man and the poor man can both hold the same umbrella — holding an umbrella does not entail wealth, so "holding an umbrella" is not the signature of "wealth." The first five relate to the arhat as umbrella-holding to the rich man: possessable, yet not where his being-rich (being-noble, being-free) lies.

3.2 Instruction Liberates, Transformation Does Not: What Turns Delusion to Awakening Is the Dharma, Not the Marvelous

The second stroke, the most pointed of the three. However marvelous the first five, there is one thing they cannot do: they cannot liberate. And "liberating" is just what the Dharma does. What can liberate is instruction (the Dharma, wisdom); transformation can only move the eye, not sever taints.

The witness is the three demonstrations (2.2). The Buddha teaches the thousand monks by three: psychic motion (rising and transforming), others'-minds (discerning minds), instruction (teaching the Dharma). Their effects are plainly distinct: the first two astonish and convince, yet do not liberate; only the third, the demonstration of instruction, having taught the Dharma of "all is burning," makes the thousand monks "raise no taints, their minds liberated." Scripture lays out the cause-and-effect in the plainest way: the transformations done, the crowd sighs at the wonder and no more; the instruction taught, the crowd's taints are exhausted and they are liberated. The power to turn delusion to awakening, to sever taints and liberate, is in the Dharma (instruction), not in the marvelous (transformation).

The deep sense of this breaking: mastery (the signature of exhaustion) being liberation, "what liberates" is nearest the root of mastery. Transformation does not liberate, so transformation is not the root of mastery; instruction liberates, so the Dharma (the wisdom subsumed under exhaustion) is what mastery hangs on. A competence that can make one marvel yet cannot make one free has nothing to do with "the freedom of liberation." That the Buddha, among the three demonstrations, takes instruction alone as the substance of guidance is precisely because the work of the Dharma is "to liberate," not "to astonish." To take supernormal power for mastery mistakes "the competence to astonish" for "the path that liberates" — the two poles apart.

✅ Doctrinally sound: among the three demonstrations, psychic motion and others'-minds are display (astonishing, convincing), only the demonstration of instruction makes the thousand monks "raise no taints, the mind liberated" (2.2). What liberates is instruction (the Dharma, wisdom, subsumed under exhaustion), not transformation. Mastery being liberation, transformation is not the root of mastery; only the Dharma (exhaustion) is what mastery hangs on.

3.3 The Eye of Wisdom Is Supreme, Supernormal Power No Wonder: Though One See a Thousand Worlds, Without the Eye of Wisdom One Does Not See One's Own Body

The third stroke, marking positively that "the supreme is the eye of wisdom (exhaustion) alone, and supernormal power, however broad, is no wonder." The first two strokes establish "the first five are not mastery, transformation does not liberate" (negative, breaking their usurpation); this stroke marks positively what is ultimate — the eye of wisdom.

The witness is Aniruddha deflating the divine eye (2.3). Aniruddha is foremost in the divine eye, yet avows that the divine eye, though it penetrate and see a thousand worlds, is "no wonder at all." His simile is the sharper: a Brahmā of a thousand eyes, of the broadest ocular power, yet "does not see the garment on his own body" — because "he has no supreme eye of wisdom." The simile cuts to the bone: however broadly the eye of supernormal power (the divine eye) sees, it is a breadth of "seeing outward" (seeing the distant, the many, others); one without the eye of wisdom cannot see even "his own body" (a figure for his own defilement, his own bondage). Supernormal power is the breadth of outward searching; the eye of wisdom is the depth of inward illumination (seeing into non-self, seeing into exhaustion). One who can see a thousand worlds yet not see his own defilement has no part in liberation; only the eye of wisdom (the knowledge of exhaustion, seeing into non-self) can illumine oneself and sever taints and liberate.

So the ultimate eye is the eye of wisdom, not the eye of supernormal power. However broad the eye of power, it is the quantity of "seeing much"; though the eye of wisdom see not a thousand worlds, it is the quality of "severing taints and being free." One who takes supernormal power for mastery admires its quantity of "seeing much, being able in much," and does not know that mastery lies in the quality of "severing taints, self-illumining" — keeping the casket and returning the pearl, admiring the breadth and losing the essential. Aniruddha, in the very person of one foremost in the divine eye, deflates the divine eye and marks the eye of wisdom — this is the word of a noble one's own realization: the marvelous is not what is prized; self-illumining liberation is supreme.

⚠️ A note on level: the paper's three strokes all argue from "where mastery lies" — the first five not mastery, transformation not liberating, supernormal power not ultimate. It does not claim supernormal power has no place at all in the Dharma: psychic motion's guiding-by-conversion, others'-minds' reading of capacities, the divine eye's observing of conditions have a skillful use in benefiting others and teaching (belonging to the faces of skillful means and capability, not the face of mastery). The paper breaks only the usurpation of "taking supernormal power for mastery, for the ultimate, for what liberates"; it does not abolish the powers' skillful use. The use of skillful means and where mastery lies are plainly two matters — the paper breaks the former's usurpation and preserves the latter's distinction.

IV. Interdisciplinary Convergence

(This paper deliberately omits the interdisciplinary section; the reason is given in §VI. The discrimination of "breadth of competence (supernormal power) vs the quality of liberation (the eye of wisdom)" does resemble the modern distinction of "instrumental vs value rationality" or "competence vs virtue"; yet both are worldly categories, only superficially like "supernormal power (a worldly-shared conditioned competence) vs exhaustion (a supramundane unconditioned liberation)." The worldly "competence vs virtue" are both still facets of a conditioned personality; supernormal power and exhaustion are one conditioned-worldly, one unconditioned-supramundane, other in kind at the root. To force the convergence would lead the reader to take exhaustion for "a higher worldly virtue," losing its unconditioned supramundane sense. Better to leave it out.)

V. Madhyamaka Corrections

(This whole paper is the concentrated unfolding of Madhyamaka correction; this section gathers the roots of the error "powers are mastery" and marks them against right view.)

❌ Root error one: "to cultivate supernormal powers is to realize mastery." Broken at 3.1. The first five powers are gained by the worldling too (2.1); gaining the first five does not entail exhaustion; what does not entail exhaustion is not the signature of exhaustion. So cultivating supernormal powers and realizing mastery are two matters — the worldling cultivating concentration also gains powers yet is not liberated, the very iron proof. To take "cultivating marvelous abilities" for "realizing the freedom of liberation" mistakes a worldly-shared competence for a supramundane realization.

❌ Root error two: "supernormal power can liberate (others, or oneself)." Broken at 3.2. Among the three demonstrations, transformation and others'-minds do not liberate, only instruction (the Dharma) liberates the mind (2.2). Transformation can move the eye but cannot sever taints. To take supernormal power for the path of liberation (cultivating powers to seek liberation, or liberating others by powers) mistakes "the competence to astonish" for "the Dharma that liberates" — liberation is by wisdom (instruction, exhaustion), not by the marvelous.

❌ Root error three: "the broader the powers, the higher the stage (the freer)." Broken at 3.3. Supernormal power is the quantity of seeing outward (a thousand worlds), the eye of wisdom the quality of illumining inward (seeing one's own defilement, seeing into non-self); one without the eye of wisdom, though he see a thousand worlds, does not see his own body (2.3). To take the breadth of powers for the height of stage falsifies quality by quantity — admiring seeing-much and losing that mastery lies in severing-taints, self-illumining. However broad the power, it has no part in liberation; however narrow the eye of wisdom, it is the essential to liberation.

⚠️ Correction four: breaking supernormal power's usurpation does not abolish supernormal power's skillful use. The paper's three strokes all argue from "where mastery lies" (supernormal power not mastery, not ultimate, not what liberates); it does not claim supernormal power has no place in the Dharma. The skillful use of psychic motion's guiding-by-conversion, others'-minds' reading of capacities, the divine eye's observing of conditions is recorded in scripture, belonging to the faces of skillful means and capability. The paper preserves this distinction while breaking the usurpation of "taking supernormal power for mastery, the ultimate, the path of liberation." The reader should not take the paper as a blanket denial of the powers — what it denies is the powers' "usurping the seat of mastery," not the powers' "skillful use."

VI. Conclusion

Restatement. Supernormal powers (the first five) are not mastery. Three strokes establish it: the first five are gained by the worldling too (2.1), do not entail exhaustion, and so are not the signature of exhaustion, not where mastery lies (3.1); among the three demonstrations only instruction liberates the mind, transformation and others'-minds do not (2.2), so what liberates is the Dharma (the wisdom subsumed under exhaustion), not transformation (3.2); supernormal power is the quantity of seeing outward, the eye of wisdom the quality of illumining inward, and one without the eye of wisdom, though he see a thousand worlds, does not see his own body (2.3), so the ultimate is the eye of wisdom (exhaustion) alone, and supernormal power, however broad, is no wonder (3.3). Holding to the frame of P01 and P04: mastery is signed by exhaustion alone; supernormal powers are a worldly-shared competence, display, skillful means, not mastery, not the ultimate, not what liberates.

Practice guidance. What the practitioner should understand about supernormal powers is, decidedly, not to take the marvelous for realization, nor powers for the path. Let there arise no thought that "to cultivate powers is to have attained" (the worldling too gains the first five, powers are not realization), no notion that "by powers one can sever defilement and be liberated" (what liberates is instruction and wisdom alone, not transformation), no admiration that "the broader the powers, the higher the stage" (mastery lies in the quality of severing taints and self-illumining, not the quantity of seeing-much, being-able-in-much). The right path that tends toward mastery lies only in severing taints by wisdom (what the demonstration of instruction teaches — all is burning, therefore turn away) and illumining non-self inward (the eye of wisdom), not in broadly seeking the marvelous outward. Should powers come of themselves (as the both-ways arhat gains them with concentration), regard them as scenery glimpsed on the road, not the goal; the self-illumining liberation of exhaustion is the goal. One who admires powers is often one in whom the mind that "admires surpassing others" has not yet ceased — and that mind is precisely bondage, not mastery.

Carrying the axis forward. This paper and P04 compose the full breadth of Part 3, "The Three Knowledges and Six Powers": P04 sets the pivot (the power of exhaustion as pivot, the first five turning about), this paper sets the breaking (powers are not mastery, only instruction liberates, the eye of wisdom is supreme). The pivot set and the breaking accomplished, the frame "the exhaustion of taints is mastery" is consummated in the domain of supernormal powers — the three knowledges and six powers are not outside the signature of exhaustion, what can sign mastery is exhaustion alone, and supernormal powers, however possessed, are not where mastery lies. This paper is the axis's concentrated paper of Madhyamaka correction, breaking the root of "powers are mastery"; the principle it establishes — "positive competence (powers) is not where mastery lies, only exhaustion (the quality of liberation) is mastery" — is one with P03's "concentrative mastery is a distinct face, not the face of taints," and opens onto Part 4 (cessation-attainment): the concentrations (the both-ways arhat's eight liberations and cessation-attainment) too are positive competence, likewise a distinct face of mastery (concentrative mastery), not where the mastery of exhaustion lies; yet cessation-attainment has its distinctive point of "freedom within stilling," treated in full by P06.

Open questions. First, the paper breaks "supernormal power is not mastery"; yet how the first five powers' positive skillful use in the arhat (guiding-by-conversion, reading capacities) coexists with the mastery of exhaustion without either usurping the other, and where the boundary lies, the paper only establishes the distinction of "skillful use vs where mastery lies," the detail awaiting the studies of capability and benefiting others. Second, the paper cuts §IV (the discrimination of power / exhaustion is only superficially like instrumental / value rationality); whether the "unconditioned supramundane exhaustion," other in kind from all "worldly competence / virtue," admits a positively constructible deep structure, is left to a later paper. Third, the relation of "the eye of wisdom" (the knowledge of exhaustion, seeing into non-self) to the prior paper's "power of exhaustion (the cognitive face of exhaustion)" — whether the eye of wisdom is another name for the power of exhaustion or has a distinct reference — the paper does not finely distinguish, to be viewed together in the papers on knowledge and concentration.

Notes

References

Primary Buddhist Sources

Saṃyukta-āgama (雜阿含經). Trans. Guṇabhadra. T02, no. 0099. (Fasc. 8, the three demonstrations, only instruction liberating the mind.)
Ekottarika-āgama (增壹阿含經). Trans. Gautama Saṅghadeva. T02, no. 0125. (Fasc. 7, Aniruddha deflating the divine eye, marking the eye of wisdom.)
Abhidharmakośa-bhāṣya (阿毘達磨俱舍論). By Vasubandhu, trans. Xuanzang. T29, no. 1558. (Chapter on Knowledge, fasc. 27, the nature of the six powers, the first five shared with the worldling and subsumed under conventional knowledge; the three knowledges curing the three-bound delusions.)

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 nature of the six powers · the first four under conventional knowledge · the power of exhaustion taking every object	Kośa, fasc. 27	T29n1558_p0142c24
The first five gained by the worldling · shared with the worldling · resting on the four meditations	Kośa, fasc. 27	T29n1558_p0142c26
The three demonstrations · only the demonstration of instruction makes the thousand monks raise no taints, the mind liberated	Saṃyukta-āgama, fasc. 8	T02n0099_p0050b17
Aniruddha deflates the divine eye · no wonder · without the eye of wisdom one does not see one's own body	Ekottarika-āgama, fasc. 7	T02n0125_p0581a05
The three knowledges curing the three-bound delusions · only exhaustion cures the middle bound (side-reference)	Kośa, fasc. 27	T29n1558_p0143b23

Series Cross-Reference Index

ARHAT-P04, "Exhaustion as the Pivot" (prior paper, also Part 3): this paper continues P04's pivot (the power of exhaustion as pivot, the first five shared with the worldling), advancing from "setting the pivot" to "setting the breaking." P04 §2.4, §3.2's "the first five shared with the worldling" is the direct ground for this paper's first stroke (3.1).
ARHAT-P01, "The Exhaustion of Taints Is Mastery" §3.3, §V: this paper is the full unfolding and positive breaking of P01's "mastery is not in supernormal power." P01 sets the frame (mastery is negative freedom, not the accumulation of powers); this paper exhausts it with three strokes (shared with the worldling, instruction liberates, the eye of wisdom is supreme).
ARHAT-P03, "Liberation by Wisdom and Liberation Both-Ways Distinguished" §3.3: this paper's "supernormal power (positive competence) is 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 is where mastery lies.
ARHAT-P06, "Cessation-Attainment" (forthcoming, Part 4): this paper breaks "supernormal power (the first five) is mastery"; P06 takes up "the concentrations (the eight liberations and cessation-attainment)" — likewise a distinct face of mastery (concentrative mastery), not where the mastery of exhaustion lies, yet cessation-attainment has its distinctive "freedom within stilling," treated in full by P06.

Paper: ARHAT-P05 · 神通不是自在 · 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、《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

Abhidharmakośa, fascicle 27 (Chapter on Knowledge), T29n1558_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 under conventional knowledge alone. Others' minds under five knowledges … the power of exhaustion as stated of the powers, namely six or ten knowledges." The first four under conventional knowledge alone (this paper's corrective reading). By Vasubandhu, trans. Xuanzang. Continuing ARHAT-P04 §2.3. ↩
Abhidharmakośa, fascicle 27, T29n1558_p0142c26. "Though among the six the sixth is restricted to the noble, yet its first five the worldling too gains, shared with the worldling … the first five rest on the four meditations." The first five shared with the worldling — the śāstric ground for the paper's first stroke (3.1). Continuing ARHAT-P04 §2.4. ↩
Saṃyukta-āgama, fascicle 8, T02n0099_p0050b17. The Buddha performs three demonstrations for a thousand monks: psychic-motion transformation, others' minds, instruction; the demonstration of instruction having taught the Dharma of "all is burning," "the thousand monks, hearing what the Buddha said, raised no taints, their minds liberated." The witness for the paper's second stroke (3.2): only instruction liberates the mind, psychic motion and others'-minds being display. ↩
Ekottarika-āgama, fascicle 7 (Aniruddha answering a brahmin), T02n0125_p0581a05. Aniruddha avows the divine eye is "no wonder"; a Brahmā of a thousand eyes "does not see the garment on his own body," "because he has no supreme eye of wisdom." The witness for the paper's third stroke (3.3): supernormal power is no wonder, only the supreme eye of wisdom is ultimate. ↩