The SignatureThe Two LiberationsThe Three Knowledges and Six PowersThe Eight Liberations and CessationNo-More-Becoming and the Worthy
13
Part 3 · The Three Knowledges and Six Powers
Arhat’s Mastery · 2 papers
The most dazzling face of the arhat's mastery is the supernormal powers — and the face most apt to dazzle the eye into error. The canon does not hush the powers up: the three knowl[ from the book's part intro ]
論Study the papersfootnotes · abstracts
04Exhaustion as the PivotThis paper opens Part 3, "The Three Knowledges and Six Powers," with a question that points straight at the axis: among the arhat's cognitive freedoms, which is the defining mark? The thesis: only the power of the exhaustion of taints (āsavakkhaya-abhiññā) is the arhat's pivot and defining mark — among the three knowledges, only the knowledge of exhaustion is the arhat's own; among the six powers, only the sixth is restricted to the noble ones, while the first five (psychic motion, the divine eye, the divine ear, knowledge of others' minds, recollection of past lives) the worldling also attains. So among the powers, only the one power of exhaustion can sign "the mastery of exhaustion"; the rest, however possessed, do not suffice as the arhat's mark. The argument runs in three layers: the canonical terms and śāstric nature of the three knowledges and six powers (the six having wisdom as their nature, subsumed under the path of liberation; the three knowledges curing the delusions of the prior, posterior, and middle bounds); the power of exhaustion as the pivot — the first five shared with the worldling and resting only on the four meditations, while the power of exhaustion rests on every stage, takes every object, and is gained by the noble alone; and the criterion of mastery — the power of exhaustion is the defining mark because it (and it alone) is the cognitive face of exhaustion, while the first five are a worldly-shared augmentation of "competence," not where the mastery of exhaustion lies. Conclusion: holding to P01's frame — the three knowledges and six powers are not outside the signature of exhaustion; the power of exhaustion is the pivot, the first five worldly-shared competences turning about it. This paper sets the pivot; P05 breaks the error "the first five powers are mastery."05Supernormal Powers Are Not MasteryContinuing P04's pivot (the power of exhaustion as pivot, the first five shared with the worldling), this paper takes the Madhyamaka correction as the whole paper's subject, breaking head-on the most widespread error: taking supernormal powers (the first five, the transformations) for the arhat's mastery. The thesis: the first five powers are fundamentally not where mastery lies — even when the arhat possesses them. Three grounds: the first five are gained by the worldling (the ordinary person, the non-Buddhist meditator) too (continuing P04), and whatever competence is shared with the not-yet-exhausted cannot, by definition, sign a supramundane mastery; what liberates a person is "the demonstration of instruction" (the Dharma, the wisdom, subsumed under exhaustion), not transformation — among the Buddha's three demonstrations, psychic motion and others'-minds are display, and only the demonstration of instruction makes the thousand monks "raise no taints, the mind liberated"; and the value of supernormal power is "no wonder," the supreme being the eye of wisdom alone — Aniruddha avows the divine eye, though it see a thousand worlds, is "no wonder at all," while a Brahmā of a thousand eyes, "having no supreme eye of wisdom," cannot even see his own body. Conclusion: 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. This is the axis's concentrated paper of "Madhyamaka correction," breaking the root of "powers are mastery."Same part, two ways in — papers keep the scholarly apparatus; the book is continuous prose for reading. Same source.