Realization · Four Śrāmaṇa FruitionsPart 5Paper 9 of 9

The Approach to the Exhaustion of Taints

SRAMANA-P09 · v1.0 · 2026-06

Why the Last Cut Is at Once the Threshold

中文主題：漏盡之向——最後一刀何以同時是門檻

I. The Question

Eight of nine walls are down. The stream-enterer takes down the first three fetters (orientation), the once-returner thins the desire-realm's greed and hatred (by grade), the non-returner exhausts the five lower (crossing the desire-realm), the arahant-approach severs the five higher (the subtlest five walls, the previous paper). The subtraction has come this far: only the last cut remains — the instant the last grade of the five higher is fully severed. This cut settled, it is "the exhaustion of taints": the taints of sensuality, of being, and of ignorance forever ended, all defilements forever ended.

But this instant of "exhaustion of taints" has a peculiarity the prior eight steps lacked: it is at once an endpoint and a starting point. As endpoint, it is the completion of the subtraction — the last wall taken down, nothing left to take. As starting point, it is the beginning of the arahant's mastery — the liberation of mind and wisdom, the three knowledges and six higher knowledges, the worthy-of-offerings beyond training, all unfold from here. One and the same instant: looking forward it is "all taken down," looking back it is "mastery."

This axis (Realization) and its twin (Attainment) are seamed precisely here. This paper is the seam paper: it reads, with the Attainment axis's "The Exhaustion of Taints Is Mastery," the same passage on the exhaustion of taints, two-facedly — Realization reading it as "the last cut completes" (exhaustion-as-completion), Attainment reading it as "freedom begins here" (exhaustion-as-mastery). This paper writes only the Realization face: the exhaustion of taints as the close of the subtractive journey. Inside the threshold (how one severs to the exhaustion of taints) is the Realization axis's charge; beyond the threshold (what the mastery after exhaustion tastes like) is the Attainment axis's. The Realization axis writes to the threshold, and there — the last cut settled — withdraws, its work done.

The thesis: the exhaustion of taints is the completed aspect of the subtraction — not "one more fruit" but the full stop of the whole subtraction (all ten fetters exhausted); and this full stop is at the same time the opening of another writing (mastery). The argument: Section II presents the basis (the core passage of the realization-knowledge of the exhaustion of taints, the definition of the three taints, the exhaustion of taints as the completion of the path); Section III, the core argument, establishes in three layers that the exhaustion of taints is "the last cut completing" (the three taints exhausted = the completed aspect of all ten fetters exhausted; the self-verification formula is wholly the language of subtraction; the identity of the last cut and the threshold); Section IV omits convergence; Section V offers corrections; Section VI concludes (and closes the whole axis, marking the seam).

II. The Canonical Basis

2.1 The realization-knowledge of the exhaustion of taints: the three taints liberated in mind, followed by the self-verification formula (the seam's core passage)

The standard scriptural proof of the exhaustion of taints lies in the third of the three knowledges (recollection of past lives, the divine eye, the exhaustion of taints), "the realization-knowledge of the exhaustion of taints." Saṃyukta-āgama, fascicle 31:

云何漏盡智證明？謂聖弟子此苦如實知，此苦集、此苦滅、此苦滅道跡如實知；彼如是知、如是見，欲有漏心解脫、有有漏心解脫、無明漏心解脫，解脫知見：「我生已盡，梵行已立，所作已作，自知不受後有。」是名漏盡智證明。¹

"What is the realization-knowledge of the exhaustion of taints? A noble disciple knows as it is: this is suffering; knows as it is: this is its origin, this its cessation, this the path to its cessation. Knowing thus, seeing thus, the mind is liberated from the taint of sensuality, liberated from the taint of being, liberated from the taint of ignorance; and there is the knowledge of liberation: 'Birth is exhausted, the holy life has been lived, what was to be done is done, I know of myself that there is no more coming to any state of being.' This is called the realization-knowledge of the exhaustion of taints."

This passage is the seam's core passage: the three taints exhausted (the taints of sensuality, being, ignorance liberated in mind) and the self-verification formula (birth is exhausted… no more coming to being) appear in one and the same passage. Precisely because the two are in one passage, this instant can be read two ways — "the three taints liberated in mind" can be read as "the last cut severs completely" (Realization) or as "the free state of liberation" (Attainment); the self-verification formula can be read as "the declaration of finishing" (Realization) or as "the confirmation of mastery" (Attainment). This paper takes its Realization face: by the true knowledge-and-vision of the four truths the three taints are exhausted, which is the close of the subtraction (severing the taints); the formula is its language of finishing.

2.2 The definition of the three taints: from ignorance taints arise, ignorance ceased taints cease

The "taints" exhausted, their names and path-of-cessation the Madhyama-āgama, fascicle 7 (Sāriputta questioning Mahākoṣṭhila), defines through the structure of the four truths:

云何知漏如真？謂有三漏：欲漏、有漏、無明漏……云何知漏習如真？謂因無明便有漏……云何知漏滅如真？謂無明滅漏便滅……云何知漏滅道如真？謂八支聖道，正見乃至正定為八。²

"How does one know the taints as they are? There are three taints: the taint of sensuality, of being, of ignorance — this is to know the taints as they are. How does one know their origin as it is? Because of ignorance, the taints arise… How does one know their cessation as it is? Ignorance ceased, the taints cease… How does one know the path to their cessation as it is? The eightfold noble path, right view through right concentration as the eight."

Three senses: first, the taints are three — sensuality, being, ignorance. Second, "because of ignorance the taints arise" — ignorance is the cause of the taints (echoing the previous paper, P08, "ignorance is the root of all fetters"). Third, "ignorance ceased, the taints cease" — ignorance being the root of the taints, ignorance ceased, the taints cease. This passage points up the mechanism of the exhaustion of taints: its key lies in the cessation of ignorance; ignorance (the tenth wall, the root of all taints) once severed, the three taints accordingly all exhaust. The last cut is "last" precisely because what it severs is the root — the root severed, the branch-ends (the residual momentum of the prior nine fetters) have nothing to rest on and all finish.

The Dīrgha-āgama, fascicle 8 (the Saṅgīti sūtra, the threefold sets) further gives the clean confirmation of the three taints' names: 「復有三法，謂三有漏：欲漏、有漏、無明漏」 — "Again, three things: the three taints — the taint of sensuality, of being, of ignorance."³

2.3 The exhaustion of taints as the completion of the path: the endpoint of the virtue-concentration-wisdom sequence

The exhaustion of taints is placed at the endpoint of the path of cultivation. Dīrgha-āgama, fascicle 2:

修戒獲定，得大果報；修定獲智，得大果報；修智心淨，得等解脫，盡於三漏——欲漏、有漏、無明漏。已得解脫生解脫智：生死已盡，梵行已立，所作已辦，不受後有。⁴

"Cultivating virtue, one gains concentration, of great fruit; cultivating concentration, one gains wisdom, of great fruit; cultivating wisdom, the mind purified, one gains full liberation, exhausting the three taints — sensuality, being, ignorance. Having gained liberation, the knowledge of liberation arises: 'Birth-and-death is exhausted, the holy life has been lived, what was to be done is done, there is no more coming to any state of being.'"

Virtue → concentration → wisdom accomplished in sequence, up to "the mind purified, full liberation gained," exhausts the three taints, followed by the formula. This passage places the exhaustion of taints plainly at the endpoint of the virtue-concentration-wisdom sequence — it is the path's completion-item, not a station within the path. This is the scriptural proof of "exhaustion-as-completion": the exhaustion of taints is the step at which the whole path (virtue-concentration-wisdom, the journey of the four śrāmaṇya-phalas) reaches its end.

⚠️ A note on register: the realization-knowledge of the exhaustion of taints and the self-verification formula (2.1), the definition of the three taints and "ignorance ceased, taints cease" (2.2), and virtue-concentration-wisdom exhausting the three taints (2.3) are all stated outright in the Āgamas. The treatise system of the three taints (the opening-or-folding of the "view" member in "taints set as three, floods set as four," the Kośa's Latent-Defilements chapter, T29n1558_p0107b21) and "the knowledge-of-exhaustion co-arising with the exhaustion of all taints makes an arahant" (the Kośa's Noble-Ones chapter, T29n1558_p0126c24) are the treatises' fine teaching; this paper, on its Realization face, takes their one sense of "the exhaustion of taints = the pivot of the path's completion," marking its register as treatise.⁵

III. The Core Argument

3.1 The three taints exhausted is the completed aspect of all ten fetters exhausted

"The exhaustion of taints" and "all ten fetters exhausted" are two ways of saying one and the same thing. The subtraction of the ten fetters proceeds fruit by fruit: the first three (stream-enterer), thinning the desire-realm's greed and hatred (once-returner), the five lower exhausted (non-returner), the five higher exhausted (arahant-approach). The five higher exhausted, all ten fetters are exhausted; all ten exhausted, not one taint's root remains — hence "the exhaustion of taints." The three taints (sensuality, being, ignorance) cover exactly the defilements of the ten fetters: the taint of sensuality covers the desire-realm fetters (sensual greed and so on), the taint of being covers the upper-two-realm fetters (greed for form and the formless, binding to "being"), the taint of ignorance covers ignorance (the root of all fetters). The three taints exhausted, the root and branches of all fetters alike finish.

So the exhaustion of taints is not an "eleventh thing" beyond the ten fetters but the completed aspect of all ten exhausted — the name of the same subtraction when it reaches "nothing left to take." As in demolishing a house: when the last brick falls, it is called "demolished"; "demolished" is not an eleventh brick but the name of the completed state "the bricks are exhausted." The exhaustion of taints is to the ten fetters as "demolished" is to the bricks.

The key to this completed aspect lies in "the cessation of ignorance" (2.2). Ignorance being the root of all taints (also as the previous paper showed — among the five higher, ignorance is the root of all fetters), what the last cut severs is precisely this root. The root severed, the residual momentum of the prior nine fetters has nothing to rest on — so the "exhaustion" of the exhaustion of taints is thoroughgoing: not "severed nearly enough" but, the root pulled up, no possibility of sprouting again (echoing the whole axis — cessation cannot re-arise). The last cut is "last" precisely because it severs the root; the root severed, the taints "all exhaust," and the subtraction reaches its close.

3.2 The self-verification formula is wholly the language of subtraction

The self-verification formula of the exhaustion of taints — "birth is exhausted, the holy life has been lived, what was to be done is done, I know of myself there is no more coming to any state of being" (2.1; variant "birth-and-death is exhausted… no more coming to being," 2.3) — is, in its grammar, wholly subtraction.

Clause by clause: "birth is exhausted" (the fuel of birth exhausted), "no more coming to being" (further being no longer taken) — the first and last clauses are both negative finishings (exhausted, no longer). "The holy life has been lived, what was to be done is done" — though seemingly affirmative (lived, done), their real sense is still a declaration of completion, "what was to be severed is wholly severed, what was to be finished wholly finished," not a declaration of accumulation, "some new state gained." The whole formula is a statement of accounts settled, not a statement of acquisition: it declares "the account of saṃsāra is settled, with no remaining debt," not "I have newly gained something."

This is tightly of a piece with the whole axis's master-thesis of subtraction (P01 already took this formula as proof of subtraction). The self-verification of the exhaustion of taints refuses, even grammatically, addition — it does not say "I have realized a vast luminous mastery," but "here, what was to be exhausted is exhausted, what was to be finished finished, no more being." The self-verification of the highest fruit is the language of subtraction at its utmost: all finished, nothing added. This is the internal proof of "exhaustion-as-completion" — the formula is itself a declaration of "completion," not a description of "the content of mastery." (The content of mastery — the three knowledges and six higher knowledges and so on — the formula does not reach, precisely because that belongs to the Attainment axis.)

✅ Doctrinally sound: the self-verification formula (birth exhausted, holy life lived, what was to be done done, no more being) is wholly the language of finishing (exhausted, lived, done, no more), a declaration of completion of the subtraction, not a declaration of acquisition. The formula does not describe the content of mastery, precisely showing that the Realization axis halts at "completion" and the unfolding of mastery belongs to the Attainment axis.

3.3 The identity of the last cut and the threshold: the Realization axis halts here

The peculiarity of the exhaustion of taints is that it is the last cut of the subtraction, and this last cut is precisely the threshold to mastery. The two are not two successive matters but two faces of one instant.

Why the same? Because "the last wall taken down" and "no wall remaining to obstruct" are two statements of one and the same state. Looking to the past (the Realization eye): this is the close of the subtraction — the last fetter severed, all ten finished, the writing reaching its full stop here. Looking to the future (the Attainment eye): this is the opening of mastery — no wall obstructing, the mastery of mind and wisdom, the wondrous function of the three knowledges and six higher knowledges, unfold from here unobstructed. One and the same instant of the exhaustion of taints: Realization reads it as "all taken down" (completion, the close of the moving aspect), Attainment reads it as "unobstructed" (mastery, the opening of the resting aspect).

What the Realization axis governs halts at this threshold. Closing through the approach-fruit grammar (continuing P02, the gathering of the whole axis): this paper is the last step of the arahant-approach — the moving aspect of the five higher being severed, completing at the settling of the last cut. The resting aspect of the arahant-fruit (the mastery the exhaustion of taints accomplishes) belongs to the Attainment axis. The Realization axis writes "how the last cut settles" (inside the threshold, the journey); the Attainment axis writes "what the mastery beyond the threshold tastes like" (the fruit's mastery). This paper writes to "the last cut settles" — one step further (the description of mastery) would cross the bound of the Realization axis.

★ Seam marker: this paper reads, with the Attainment axis's "The Exhaustion of Taints Is Mastery," the core passage of 2.1 (T02n0099_p0223c01 — the three taints liberated in mind + the self-verification formula). Same passage, same sentence; Realization reads "the last cut completes," Attainment reads "freedom begins here." The two readings are not contradictory but two faces of one and the same instant of the exhaustion of taints: the subtraction's last step and freedom's first step are one and the same step. This paper completes only the Realization-face reading; the Attainment-face reading (the unfolding of mastery) is written in parallel by the Attainment axis's ARHAT-P01. The two papers meet at the same passage on the exhaustion of taints without occluding each other — this is the seam of the twin axes. ★

IV. Interdisciplinary Convergence

(This paper deliberately omits the interdisciplinary-convergence section; the rationale appears in Section VI. Although "the endpoint is the starting point, completion is opening" resembles mathematics' "a limit is both the close of a sequence and the start of a new domain" or physics' "the critical point of a phase transition," those are descriptions of conditioned processes, alike in face but unlike in spirit with the exhaustion of taints (unconditioned, all taints forever ceased) being both close and opening; a forced convergence would misrepresent, so better omitted.)

V. Middle-Way Corrections

❌ Misreading 1: "the exhaustion of taints is an eleventh fruit / state beyond the ten fetters." The whole paper dismantles this. The exhaustion of taints is not a separate thing beyond the ten fetters but the completed aspect of all ten exhausted — the name of the same subtraction reaching "nothing left to take" (3.1), as "demolished" is not an eleventh brick. To read the exhaustion of taints as "gaining another high state" falls again into both addition and experience — its reality is the completed state "the taints are now gone," not "newly gaining something."

⚠️ Correction 2: this paper halts at exhaustion-as-completion (the Realization face) and does not write exhaustion-as-mastery (the Attainment face). The instant of the exhaustion of taints is two-faced: Realization reads it as completion (the last cut), Attainment reads it as mastery (the opening of the threshold). This paper, being the Realization axis, writes only to "the last cut settled, the threshold"; the mastery after exhaustion (the content of the liberation of mind and wisdom, the three knowledges and six higher knowledges, the worthy-of-offerings, and so on) belongs to the Attainment axis's ARHAT-P01, and this paper does not, and should not, treat it. The self-verification formula is read here as "the declaration of finishing"; its face of "the confirmation of mastery" is left to the Attainment axis. Do not take this paper as having said all there is of the arahant — this paper says "how the last cut settles," not "the mastery after the settling."

⚠️ Correction 3: the systemic divergence of three taints / four floods this paper states as it stands, without taking sides. The Āgamas and the Kośa set "taints" as three (sensuality, being, ignorance, the "view" member not separately set); while the Kośa sets "floods / yokes" as four (separating out the view member as the flood-of-views). This is an opening-or-folding of terms within the treatise system (the view, being sharp, is not separately named among the "taints"), not a contradiction of doctrine. This paper follows the Āgamas' and the Kośa's threefold "taints" (the three taints exhausted = the exhaustion of taints), noting as it stands the separate setting of the view member among the four floods without developing it — its detail belongs to the theory of latent defilements, beyond this paper's seam-theme.

VI. Conclusion

Essential restatement. The exhaustion of taints is the completed aspect of The Four Śrāmaṇya-phalas' subtraction: the three taints exhausted (sensuality, being, ignorance) is all ten fetters exhausted, the name of the same subtraction reaching "nothing left to take" (3.1); its mechanism lies in the cessation of ignorance (the root of the taints severed, the branch-ends all finish), so the exhaustion of taints is thoroughgoing to the root. The self-verification formula is wholly the language of finishing (exhausted, lived, done, no more being), a declaration of completion not of acquisition (3.2). And the last cut of the exhaustion of taints is precisely the threshold to mastery — one and the same instant, Realization reading "all taken down" (completion), Attainment reading "unobstructed" (mastery); the Realization axis halts at the threshold, the unfolding of mastery handed to the Attainment axis (3.3).

Guidance for practice. The understanding a practitioner should form of the exhaustion of taints is not a longing for "I shall gain a supreme great mastery-state" (which takes the endpoint as another thing to "acquire," still an additive mind), but the recognition that "the exhaustion of taints is a finishing, not an acquisition." The work of trending to the exhaustion of taints is the severing of the root of ignorance — to see, at the most fundamental place, the impermanence and not-self of all (including "self," including the subtlest grasping), so the taints exhaust to the root. Above all, recall the sense of the threshold: the practitioner's task is to settle the last cut (sever completely); the mastery after the settling is gained not by "seeking yet another mastery" but is naturally disclosed once "the last wall is taken down" — to seek mastery as a thing becomes a new grasping. Take down the walls, and the door opens of itself; one need not seek, beyond taking down the walls, another door.

Closing the axis (and marking the seam). With this, the nine papers of The Four Śrāmaṇya-phalas are complete, and the journey-writing of the Realization axis's first division (sramana) is done: P01–02 establish the master-thesis of subtraction and the approach-fruit grammar, P03–04 the stream-enterer (orientation, non-regress), P05 the once-returner (by-grade, thinning), P06–07 the non-returner (crossing the realm, the five courses), P08–09 the arahant-approach (the subtlest five walls, the threshold of the exhaustion of taints). The whole axis is of one sense: the four śrāmaṇya-phalas are a measurable subtraction, measuring "what is gone," from the severance of the first three fetters to the exhaustion of taints of all ten exhausted, wall by wall taken down, until nothing remains to take, and there it closes.

And this paper, as the seam paper, meets the Attainment axis's "The Exhaustion of Taints Is Mastery" at the threshold of the exhaustion of taints: the same passage (2.1), Realization reading "the last cut completes," Attainment reading "freedom begins here." The subtraction's last step and freedom's first step are two faces of one and the same step. The Realization axis has written all of "how one walks to the threshold"; the scene beyond the threshold — the arahant's mastery — is the Attainment axis's opening. This paper writes only to the threshold; the last cut settled, the Realization axis withdraws, its work done, and the remaining mastery is handed to the Attainment axis's parallel pen.

Open questions. This paper cut Section IV because, though "completion is opening" formally resembles a limit or a phase-transition critical point, those are conditioned processes, alike in face but unlike in spirit with the exhaustion of taints' unconditioned being-both-close-and-opening. A genuine question for later (and a shared question of the seam): if "the last cut completes" (Realization) and "freedom begins here" (Attainment) are two faces of one instant, what is the temporal structure of this "one instant" — a simultaneity without before-and-after, or a most-subtle sequence of "severance-complete" and "mastery-arising" (as in the Kośa's teaching of the knowledge-of-exhaustion "co-arising" with the exhaustion of all taints, T29n1558_p0126c24)? This question spans both axes and is fit to be adjudicated together at the seam of the two, not decided by the Realization axis alone — fitting to this paper's nature as seam: some questions, by their very nature, become clear only when both faces are seen together.

Notes

References

I. Buddhist Primary Sources

Saṃyukta-āgama (雜阿含經). Trans. Guṇabhadra. T02, no. 0099. (Fascicle 31, the realization-knowledge of the exhaustion of taints, the seam's core passage.)
Madhyama-āgama (中阿含經). Trans. Gautama Saṅghadeva. T01, no. 0026. (Fascicle 7, the definition of the three taints, taints arising from ignorance.)
Dīrgha-āgama (長阿含經). Trans. Buddhayaśas and Zhu Fonian. T01, no. 0001. (Fascicle 2, virtue-concentration-wisdom exhausting the three taints; fascicle 8, the Saṅgīti sūtra, the three taints.)
Abhidharmakośa-bhāṣya (阿毘達磨俱舍論). By Vasubandhu, trans. Xuanzang. T29, no. 1558. Chapter on the Latent Defilements (分別隨眠品, fascicle 20, "taints are three"); Chapter on the Noble Ones (分別賢聖品, fascicle 24, the knowledge-of-exhaustion making an arahant).

II. Modern Scholarship

(This paper cites no modern scholarship; the argument rests entirely on Buddhist primary sources, following the open-source spirit of "return to the source." The interdisciplinary-convergence section having been cut, no corresponding modern literature appears.)

III. Index of Canonical Citations

Point	Source	CBETA id
Realization-knowledge of the exhaustion of taints; three taints liberated in mind; self-verification formula (seam core)	SĀ fasc. 31	T02n0099_p0223c01
Definition of the three taints; taints arise from ignorance, ignorance ceased taints cease; eightfold path	MĀ fasc. 7	T01n0026_p0462a12
The three taints' names (Saṅgīti sūtra, threefold sets)	DĀ fasc. 8	T01n0001_p0050a22
Virtue-concentration-wisdom exhausting the three taints; the exhaustion of taints as the path's endpoint	DĀ fasc. 2	T01n0001_p0012a22
Treatise: taints three / floods four; knowledge-of-exhaustion co-arising with the exhaustion of taints makes an arahant	Kośa fasc. 20, 24	T29n1558_p0107b21 · p0126c24

Cross-Reference Index

SRAMANA-P01, "Measuring Fruit by Subtraction," §2.3, §3: this paper's §3.2 self-verification formula directly inherits P01 — the formula is the language of subtraction, the exhaustion of taints the ultimate confirmation of fruit measured by severance.
SRAMANA-P08, "The Five Higher Fetters Exhausted," §3.2: this paper's §3.1 "ignorance ceased, taints cease" directly inherits P08's "ignorance is the root of all fetters"; the last cut severs the root, so all taints exhaust.
SRAMANA-P02, "The Hinge of Approach and Fruit," §3.3: this paper's §3.3 closes the whole axis through the approach-fruit grammar — this paper is the arahant-approach's last step (the threshold), the fruit's mastery belonging to the Attainment axis.
★ Attainment axis ARHAT-P01, "The Exhaustion of Taints Is Mastery" (parallel, seam paper): this paper reads with it the same passage on the exhaustion of taints (T02n0099_p0223c01). Realization reads "the last cut completes," Attainment reads "freedom begins here"; two faces of one and the same instant of the exhaustion of taints. The shared question of doctrinal adjudication (simultaneity or most-subtle sequence) is fit to be decided together at the seam of the two axes.

Paper: SRAMANA-P09 · 漏盡之向 · The Four Śrāmaṇya-phalas · Part 5 · Arahant Author: 釋慧鏡 (Shi Huijing) · Project: 指月 / Pointing-at-the-Moon · Series: The Realization Paths（行階位歷程） 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、《長阿含經》T0001、《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/realization-paths

Footnotes

Saṃyukta-āgama, fascicle 31, T02n0099_p0223c01. The third of the three knowledges, "the realization-knowledge of the exhaustion of taints": the three taints (sensuality, being, ignorance) liberated in mind, followed by the self-verification formula "birth is exhausted, the holy life has been lived, what was to be done is done, I know of myself there is no more coming to any state of being." ★ The seam's core passage (Realization reads completion, Attainment reads mastery). Collated against the CBETA digital canon. ↩
Madhyama-āgama, fascicle 7 (Sāriputta questioning Mahākoṣṭhila), T01n0026_p0462a12. The definition of the three taints: sensuality, being, ignorance; "because of ignorance the taints arise," "ignorance ceased the taints cease"; the path of cessation is the eightfold noble path. ↩
Dīrgha-āgama, fascicle 8 (the Saṅgīti sūtra, the threefold sets), T01n0001_p0050a22. "Again, three things: the three taints — sensuality, being, ignorance." The clean confirmation of the three taints' names. ↩
Dīrgha-āgama, fascicle 2, T01n0001_p0012a22. The virtue → concentration → wisdom sequence, "the mind purified, full liberation gained, exhausting the three taints," followed by the formula "birth-and-death is exhausted, the holy life has been lived, what was to be done is done, there is no more coming to any state of being"; the exhaustion of taints placed at the endpoint of the path-sequence (exhaustion-as-completion). ↩
Treatise reference: Abhidharmakośa-bhāṣya, fascicle 20 (Chapter on the Latent Defilements), T29n1558_p0107b21 ("taints are three: sensuality, being, ignorance"; the opening-or-folding of the view member between the threefold taints and the fourfold floods/yokes); fascicle 24 (Chapter on the Noble Ones), T29n1558_p0126c24 ("the knowledge-of-exhaustion co-arises with the exhaustion of all taints… at the arising of the knowledge-of-exhaustion one becomes the arahant fruit beyond training"). This paper, on its Realization face, takes their sense of "the exhaustion of taints = the pivot of the path's completion"; the face of "the knowledge-of-exhaustion and the establishment of the arahant fruit" inclines to the Attainment-axis angle. By Vasubandhu, trans. Xuanzang. ↩