清淨道論 觀之隨染・道非道之確定Visuddhimagga · The Corruptions of Insight and Determining What Is and Is Not the Path

The page most worth remembering in the whole book: when insight reaches tender insight knowledge, illumination, knowledge, rapture, tranquillity, happiness, resolution, exertion, manifestation, equanimity, and a trace of subtle delight surge up. Most are not bad; the problem is that you may take them to mean “I have attained the path.” Recognizing that “these ten are not the path” is purification by knowledge and vision of what is and is not the path

The Big Picture — The Moment the Counterfeit Appears, and This Arc’s Purest Application of the Book’s Measure

The final sentence of the preceding unit gives the practitioner the title “one who has initiated insight.” This unit’s first sentence immediately says that the ten corruptions of insight arise in such a person—and only in a clansman who practices rightly, works diligently, and has initiated insight. They do not arise in a noble disciple, someone on a wrong path, or an indolent person (§1). Their names are illumination, knowledge, rapture, tranquillity, happiness, resolution, exertion, manifestation, equanimity, and delight. The Commentator first treats “illumination” in detail: when it arises, the practitioner takes what is not the path to be the path and what is not the fruit to be the fruit, abandons the root meditation subject, and sits savoring illumination. The extent of illumination ranges from the place where one sits cross-legged to ten thousand worlds, and the text adds a story of two elders seeing flowers and fish on a dark night (§2). It then records three elders who believed themselves arahants and tells how Elder Dhammadinna tested Elder Mahānāga with a conjured elephant: the practitioner of sixty years rose to flee when he saw the elephant, recognized that he was still an ordinary person, and attained arahantship in three steps (§3). The remaining nine corruptions are then explained in turn (§4); the last, “delight,” arises as attachment in a subtle, peaceful guise and cannot even be apprehended as a defilement. Section 5 says that the ten become thirty according to grasping—by view, conceit, and craving—and that an undiscerning person is shaken by them. Section 6 gives the remedy: one endowed with understanding delimits the illumination as “impermanent, conditioned, dependently originated,” contemplates it as “not mine, not I, not my self,” untangles the thirtyfold tangle, and determines: “Illumination and the rest are not the path; insight knowledge free from corruptions and entered upon the course is the path.” This is purification by knowledge and vision of what is and is not the path. The chapter closes by determining three truths: purification of view determines the truth of suffering, purification by overcoming doubt the truth of origin, and this purification the truth of the path. 〔Observation〕 This is the page where the subtractive measure of this arc—and of the whole book—detonates. Read it together with what came before: when the rapture, happiness, and illumination of jhāna surged up in Chapter 4, the Commentator warned that they were scaffolding rather than the destination; the near enemy of loving-kindness in Chapter 9 was a counterfeit with almost the same feeling. Here is the highest level of the same lesson. The illumination, rapture, and happiness among the ten corruptions are almost the insight-path version of Chapter 4’s cup of wine, while the real corruption is the tenth, delight: subtle pleasure in the first nine. The first nine are not themselves bad; attachment makes them bad. The entire work of this purification comes down to one sentence: recognize that “these ten are not the path; continuing to see arising and passing away as impermanent, suffering, and not-self is the path.” Even a good state produced by your own practice must be seen through, not clung to, and released.

§01 The Names of the Ten Corruptions of Insight and the Person in Whom They Arise → Vernacular §1

The ten corruptions of insight arise in one who has initiated insight through tender insight. They do not arise in a noble disciple who has reached penetration, in one following a wrong path, or in an indolent person who has abandoned the meditation subject; they certainly arise in a clansman who is practicing rightly, devoted to the work, and has initiated insight. The ten are illumination, knowledge, rapture, tranquillity, happiness, resolution, exertion, manifestation, equanimity, and delight. The canonical text says: when one attends as impermanent, illumination arises; adverting to illumination with the thought “illumination is a phenomenon” produces distraction, which is agitation. A mind seized by that agitation does not understand the manifestation as impermanent as it actually is; the same applies when attending as suffering or not-self, and the same pattern extends from knowledge through delight (vernacular §1). 〔Reading〕 First notice who encounters these corruptions: only someone who practices rightly and diligently. This is both consolation and warning. Encountering them means you are on the right road, but precisely because you are on the right road, this trap exists. The canonical text classifies it as “agitation about phenomena.” Illumination itself is not agitation; adverting to it with the thought “illumination is a phenomenon” and thereby becoming distracted is agitation. 〔Observation〕 The first nine of the ten bear the names of good things—knowledge, rapture, happiness, mindfulness, equanimity—while only the tenth, “delight,” bears the name of a defilement. The Commentator places them side by side so that the reader does not rush to divide them into good and bad, but first sees how they draw the practitioner away from the course of insight.

§02 The Corruption of Illumination—In Extent from One’s Cross-Legged Seat to Ten Thousand Worlds → Vernacular §2

Illumination is the illumination of insight. When it arises, the meditator takes what is not the path to be the path and what is not the fruit to be the fruit: “I never had such illumination before; I must have attained the path and fruit.” He leaves the course of insight, abandons the root meditation subject, and sits savoring illumination. Its extent may light only the cross-legged seat, or the room, outside the room, the whole monastery, a quarter yojana, half a yojana, one yojana, and so on, even forming one mass of light from earth to the Brahmā world of Akaniṭṭha. The Blessed One’s illumination lit ten thousand worlds. In a double-walled house at Cittalapabbata on a dark-fortnight observance night, with clouds covering every direction, two elders sat in darkness: one said that he saw five-colored flowers on the lion throne in the shrine courtyard; the other said he saw fish and turtles in the ocean a yojana away (vernacular §2). 〔Reading〕 Illumination can truly be immense—large enough to light ten thousand worlds in the Buddha’s case, or to see fish in the deep ocean a yojana away on a dark night. The Commentator does not deny its reality; he only says it is not the path. “Leaving the course of insight” is precise: one has not fallen into a pit but taken a side road—from observing arising and passing away to watching light. 〔Observation〕 The two elders compare who can see farther in the dark. The story offers no explicit comment, yet what they compare is precisely “my illumination.” Readers can see for themselves where the road forked.

§03 Three Accounts—Two Elders, Three Elders, and Elder Dhammadinna’s Test of Elder Mahānāga → Vernacular §3

The corruption mostly arises in those who have attained serenity and insight. Since defilements suppressed by attainment do not occur, the thought “I am an arahant” arises—as with Elders Mahānāga, Mahādatta, and Cūḷasumana. The story: Elder Dhammadinna of Talaṅgara, who had attained the analytical knowledges and was a great one whose influxes were destroyed, wondered whether his teacher Elder Mahānāga’s ascetic task had reached its summit. Seeing that the teacher was still an ordinary person and knowing that without his visit the elder would die as one, he flew there, asked a thousand questions, and received an unhindered answer to each. Asked when he had attained the Dhamma, the elder replied, “Sixty years ago.” Dhammadinna asked him to use concentration, create a white elephant, and make it raise its ears, extend its tail, put its trunk into its mouth, sound a terrifying cry, and charge. The elder did so, but at the sight of the terrifying elephant rushing toward him, he rose to flee. Dhammadinna caught the corner of his robe: “Is there timidity in one whose influxes are destroyed?” The elder recognized that he was an ordinary person, squatted at Dhammadinna’s feet, and asked him to be his refuge. Dhammadinna taught him a meditation subject; the elder mounted the walking path and attained arahantship on the third step. He was of a hating temperament. Bhikkhus of this kind too are shaken by illumination (vernacular §3). 〔Reading〕 This is one of the book’s most moving stories: sixty years—an old practitioner able to answer a thousand questions and conjure a white elephant had believed himself an arahant for sixty years. His student used an elephant charging toward him to show him that fear remained. Then the teacher did the most remarkable thing: he squatted at his student’s feet and said, “Please be my refuge.” Three steps later he attained the fruit. 〔Observation〕 The point is not that the teacher was wrong for sixty years but how cleanly he responded when shown. That clean response proves the work of those sixty years. The Commentator records this story to leave a road open for everyone harmed by corruptions that “mostly arise in those who have attained serenity and insight”: when shown, release it immediately; the road is still beneath your feet.

§04 The Nine Remaining Corruptions Explained One by One—Knowledge, Rapture, Tranquillity, Happiness, Resolution, Exertion, Manifestation, Equanimity, and Delight → Vernacular §4

Knowledge is knowledge of insight: as material and immaterial phenomena are weighed and investigated, sharp, courageous, exceedingly clear knowledge arises with irresistible force like Indra’s released thunderbolt. Rapture is the rapture of insight: the five kinds—minor, momentary, showering, uplifting, and pervading—fill the whole body. Tranquillity is the tranquillity of insight: body and mind are free of distress, heaviness, rigidity, unwieldiness, illness, and crookedness; tranquil, light, malleable, wieldy, exceedingly clear, and upright; they experience superhuman delight. The verse says that a peaceful-minded bhikkhu in an empty dwelling, rightly seeing phenomena, has superhuman delight; whenever he comprehends the aggregates’ arising and passing away, he gains rapture and gladness—the deathless for one who knows. Happiness is the happiness of insight, exceedingly sublime and suffusing the whole body. Resolution is faith, a strong faith associated with insight that is exceptional clarity of mind and mental factors. Exertion is energy, neither slack nor over-strained, but well exerted. Manifestation is mindfulness, well and firmly established, deeply planted, immovable like the king of mountains; whatever one adverts to, gathers, attends to, or reviews becomes manifest to mindfulness like the other world to the divine eye. Equanimity is insight equanimity and equanimity in adverting: the first is forceful neutrality toward all formations, while the second occurs at the mind door and proceeds sharply like Indra’s thunderbolt or a red-hot iron arrow thrown into a leaf receptacle. Delight is delight in insight: toward insight adorned with illumination and the rest, it arises as attachment in a subtle, peaceful guise and cannot even be apprehended as a defilement. As with illumination, when any of these arises, the meditator takes what is not the path for the path and what is not the fruit for the fruit, leaves the course of insight, abandons the root meditation subject, and sits savoring delight (vernacular §4). 〔Reading〕 Read the nine one by one and notice that the Commentator uses the highest descriptors for each: thunderbolt knowledge, five raptures filling the body, superhuman delight, mindfulness like the king of mountains, equanimity like a red-hot iron arrow. They are genuinely good—good enough to resemble the fruit. The description of the tenth, “delight,” is the most dangerous: it has “a subtle, peaceful guise” and “cannot even be apprehended as a defilement.” It disguises itself as peace. 〔Observation〕 “Manifestation” here is mindfulness and belongs to a different category from the “insight leading to emergence” before conformity knowledge after 21-08. Here mindfulness has become as strong as “the other world to the divine eye.” Even mindfulness can become a corruption, showing that corruption does not mean “a bad thing appeared”; it means “a good thing was grasped.” This has the same root as the illness “I contemplate” in 20-05 §5.

§05 The Thirty Graspings of the Ten Corruptions—Grasping by View, Conceit, and Craving → Vernacular §5

Illumination and the rest are called corruptions because they are bases for corruption, not because they are unwholesome; delight is both corruption and basis. As bases there are ten, but as graspings there are thirty: grasping “my illumination has arisen” is grasping by view; grasping “how agreeable that illumination has arisen” is grasping by conceit; savoring illumination is grasping by craving. Thus illumination has three graspings—view, conceit, and craving—and so does each of the rest. An unskillful, undiscerning person is shaken and distracted by them, contemplating each as “this is mine, this I am, this is my self.” The Ancients’ verse says he is shaken by illumination, knowledge, and rapture; his mind trembles because of tranquillity and happiness; he is shaken by resolution, exertion, manifestation, adverting to equanimity, equanimity itself, and delight (vernacular §5). 〔Reading〕 Ten times three equals thirty: each good thing can be grasped in three ways—“mine” is view, “how agreeable” is conceit, and “savoring” is craving. These are the same illnesses as the three statements in 20-05 §5: “I contemplate,” “I contemplate well,” and “I am able to contemplate.” 〔Observation〕 “Not because they are unwholesome”: the Commentator clears the names of the first nine. Illumination, knowledge, rapture, tranquillity, happiness, faith, energy, mindfulness, and equanimity are wholesome phenomena; grasping is the corruption. This sentence rescues many practitioners: you need not fear illumination, only “mine.”

§06 Determining What Is and Is Not the Path—Determining Three Truths and the Chapter’s Close → Vernacular §6

When illumination and the rest arise, a skillful, wise, discerning person endowed with understanding delimits and examines them with wisdom: “This illumination of mine has arisen; yet it is impermanent, conditioned, dependently originated, subject to exhaustion, decay, dispassion, and cessation.” Or: “If illumination were self, it would be proper to apprehend it as self; yet it is not-self and is apprehended as self. Therefore it is not-self in the sense of not being subject to mastery, impermanent in the sense of having been and then not being, and suffering in the sense of being oppressed by arising and passing away.” The method of the sevenfold method for the immaterial should be applied in detail. Illumination through delight is contemplated as “this is not mine, this I am not, this is not my self,” and the practitioner is not shaken. The Ancients’ verse says that when these ten bases are fully understood by wisdom, one is skillful in agitation about phenomena and does not proceed to distraction. Untangling the thirtyfold tangle, one determines: “Illumination and the rest are not the path; insight knowledge free from corruptions and entered upon the course is the path.” Knowledge standing after knowing “this is the path; this is not the path” is purification by knowledge and vision of what is and is not the path. Three truths have now been determined: purification of view determines the truth of suffering through the delimitation of name-and-form; purification by overcoming doubt determines the truth of origin through apprehension of conditions; and this purification determines the truth of the path through determining the right path. Thus three truths are first determined by mundane knowledge. The chapter ends (vernacular §6). 〔Reading〕 The remedy is one action: observe illumination as any other formation—it is impermanent, conditioned, dependently originated, subject to exhaustion, decay, dispassion, and cessation; it is not mine, not I, not my self. This uses the three statements of 20-05 and the sevenfold formula of 20-01; there is no new method. “Insight knowledge free from corruptions and entered upon the course is the path.” The path is not another, higher state; it is the original road continued after seeing through these ten. 〔Observation〕 The determination of three truths is a beautiful close to the chapter: three purifications each determine one truth—suffering, origin, and the path—while cessation remains for purification by knowledge and vision. This is the purest application of the whole arc’s measure: even a good state produced by your own practice must be seen through, not clung to, and released. Chapter 1 dismantles the medal of virtue, Chapter 4 the wine of jhāna, Chapter 9 the near enemy of loving-kindness, and here the illumination of insight. The same lesson at its highest level.

For the General Reader

The sentence most worth remembering is: your best meditation experience is not the destination. Illumination, rapture, happiness, even insight equanimity and equanimity in adverting and mindfulness like the king of mountains can surge up. Most are genuinely good; the problem is that you may take them to mean “I have attained the path.” Attach to them and good things become obstacles. The real corruption is the tenth, that trace of subtle delight, which disguises itself as peace. The remedy is not a new trick: regard illumination as any other formation—impermanent, conditioned, dependently originated; not mine, not I, not my self. See through it, do not cling, and continue on the original road. Remember the old elder of sixty years: when a student used an elephant to show that fear remained, he squatted down for instruction and attained the fruit in three steps. How cleanly you respond when shown—that is the practice.

To read this unit in full: Vernacular §§1–6 gives the complete, paragraph-by-paragraph translation of the names of the ten corruptions of insight and the people in whom they arise; the corruption of illumination and its extent; the three elders and Dhammadinna’s test of Mahānāga; the remaining nine corruptions; the thirty graspings; determining what is and is not the path; and determining the three truths.