清淨道論 義疏通講 · 冊13Visuddhimagga · Exposition Throughout · Vol. 13

“Divine” means resembling the divine—the deities’ sensitive ear is unobstructed by bile, phlegm, and blood, and the bhikkhu’s knowledge-ear element, born of energetic cultivation, is likewise so. The cultivation proceeds from coarse to subtle and expands from one finger’s breadth as far as the world-system

The Big Picture — the First of the Other Four Direct Knowledges

With the chapter on supernormal power complete, this chapter continues with the other four mundane direct knowledges: knowledge of the divine ear element (this unit), knowledge that penetrates minds, knowledge of the recollection of past lives, and knowledge of the death and rebirth of beings, followed by miscellaneous discussion. At the opening the commentator declares that the meaning of phrases such as “with his mind thus concentrated ...” is known from the preceding chapter and that “throughout, we shall explain only what is distinctive.” Every direct knowledge in this chapter therefore has only three parts: meaning (a phrase-by-phrase explanation of the canonical statement), method of cultivation, and arising of the knowledge. The divine ear element is the shortest of them and makes this threefold framework especially clear. This unit also carries the chapter title. [What is seen]

§01 The Meaning of the Divine Ear Element and Explanation of the Canonical Phrases → Vernacular §1

“Divine” means resembling the divine. Deities possess a sensitive divine ear born of wholesome kamma, unobstructed by bile, phlegm, and blood, free from imperfections, and capable of apprehending distant objects; the bhikkhu’s knowledge-ear element, born through the power of energetic cultivation, is the same in this respect. It is also obtained by reliance on divine abiding and itself relies on divine abiding, hence “divine.” It is an “ear element” in the senses of hearing and lifelessness, and because it performs the function of an ear element, like an ear element. “Purified” means fully purified and free from imperfections. “Surpassing the human” means surpassing the human range and standing beyond the human fleshly ear by hearing sounds. “He hears both kinds of sound”—divine and human—is limited inclusion; “far and near”—from sounds in another world-system to sounds of creatures dependent on one’s own body—is unlimited inclusion (Vernacular §1). [How to read] The explanation of “divine” is consistent throughout this chapter and occurs again with the divine eye: it is not a power but resemblance to the unobstructed faculties of deities. Limited and unlimited inclusion are the commentator’s paired classificatory terms: the former includes by class (divine and human), while the latter includes without remainder by distance.

§02 Method of Cultivation—the Sound Sign from Coarse to Subtle → Vernacular §2

After entering and emerging from the jhāna that is the basis for direct knowledge, he uses a mind in preliminary concentration to advert first to a distant coarse sound within ordinary hearing—the roar of lions in the forest—and then to the monastery gong, drum, conch, the forceful recitation of novices and young bhikkhus, ordinary conversation, birds, wind, footsteps, boiling water, palmyra leaves drying in the sun, and tiny ants and ants. He adverts in sequence from coarse to subtle, then attends to the sound sign of sounds in the east, west, north, south, below, above, and the four intermediate directions, and to the signs of coarse and subtle sounds. The sounds are clear to the ordinary mind and exceedingly clear to the mind in preliminary concentration (Vernacular §2). [How to read] This list runs from a lion’s roar to the movement of ants. The point is the sequence: first what can be heard, then what ordinarily cannot. What he attends to is not sound itself but the “sound sign.”

§03 Arising, Expansion, and Mark of Accomplishment of the Knowledge → Vernacular §3

As he attends to the sound sign, thinking, “Now the divine ear element will arise,” mind-door adverting arises with a particular sound as object; after it ceases, four or five impulsions run. The first three or four are sense-sphere states of preliminary work, access, conformity, and change-of-lineage, and the fourth or fifth is form-sphere fourth-jhāna absorption. The knowledge arising together with that absorption state is the divine ear element, after which he enters its current. To strengthen it, he delimits a range one finger wide with “I shall hear sounds within this range” and expands it through two, four, and eight fingers, a span, a cubit, an inner room, portico, mansion, dwelling, monastery park, alms village, district, the world-system, or farther. One who has obtained direct knowledge can hear sounds in the space touched by the foundational jhāna’s object without re-entering that jhāna. Even if the Brahmā world is filled with the tumult of conches and drums, an intention to distinguish them one by one lets him determine, “This is a conch; this is a drum” (Vernacular §3). [How to read] The practice begins with “one finger’s breadth”: the divine ear does not open all at once upon three thousand worlds, but is trained from a narrow range. The cognitive process is the familiar absorption sequence—mind-door adverting, preliminary work, access, conformity, change-of-lineage, and fourth-jhāna absorption. The direct knowledge is simply the knowledge conascent with that fourth-jhāna absorption state.

For the General Reader

In this book the divine ear element has only three points: “divine” means unobstructed like the divine; its cultivation runs from hearing a lion’s roar to the movement of ants and from one finger’s breadth to a world-system; and its arising is a fourth-jhāna cognitive process. There is no mysterious phrase here. Once this unit is understood, the framework of the next three direct knowledges is already visible.

To read this unit in full: Vernacular §§1–3 give the complete paragraph-by-paragraph rendering of the meaning of the divine ear element and its canonical phrases, the cultivation from coarse to subtle, and the knowledge’s arising, expansion, and mark of accomplishment.

The divine eye is the preliminary work for penetrating minds: first one sees the blood connected with another’s heart-materiality—red like banyan fruit with joy, black like rose-apple fruit with grief, and clear like sesame oil with equanimity—then enters mind through materiality; once strengthened, the knowledge no longer needs to see materiality, and it proceeds through the sixteen kinds of mind in pairs

The Big Picture — the Second Direct Knowledge

Knowledge that penetrates minds has three parts: meaning (§1), method of cultivation (§2), and analysis of the sixteen kinds of mind (§3). It has two special features. First, cultivation does not begin from oneself but uses the divine eye as preliminary work: one sees with the divine eye the color of another’s blood arising in dependence on heart-materiality, and enters the mind through that materiality. Second, the commentator analyzes in pairs the sixteen kinds listed in the canonical phrases—possessing greed, without greed, through liberated and unliberated—and twice reports without adjudication the alternative view that “some elders include them.” [What is seen]

§01 Meaning of Knowledge That Penetrates Minds → Vernacular §1

“Penetration” thoroughly takes up and thus delimits; penetration of a mind is another’s mind, and penetration of another’s mind that is knowledge is knowledge that penetrates minds. “Of other beings” excludes oneself. “Of other persons” has the same meaning, with different wording for those to be tamed and through skill in teaching. “Mind with mind” means knowing another’s mind with one’s own. “Having thoroughly taken up, he understands” means understanding in various aspects—possessing greed and so on—after delimitation (Vernacular §1). [How to read] Thorough taking-up is like drawing a boundary around that person’s mind. Knowledge that penetrates minds is determinate knowledge after delimitation, not vague sensitivity.

§02 Method of Cultivation—the Three Marks of Heart-Materiality and the Commentary’s Questions and Answers → Vernacular §2

This knowledge is accomplished by the divine eye, which is its preliminary work. The bhikkhu expands the light and, with the divine eye, sees the color of the blood occurring in dependence on another’s heart-materiality: with a joyful mind it is red like banyan fruit; with a grieving mind, black like rose-apple fruit; with an equanimous mind, clear like sesame oil. He seeks the mind by determining, “This color is produced by the faculty of joy, this by grief, this by equanimity,” and strengthens knowledge that penetrates minds. Once strengthened, it progressively understands minds of the sense, form, and formless spheres, entering mind directly through mind without seeing heart-materiality. The Commentary asks: “When one wishes to know another’s mind in the formless realm, whose heart-materiality and whose alteration of the faculties does one see? One sees no one’s. This is the range of one with direct knowledge: wherever he adverts to a mind, he knows the sixteen minds—though this concerns one who has not made a resolution” (Vernacular §2). [How to read] The three colors of blood are the most concrete passage in the chapter: joy is red, grief black, and equanimity clear. But they are only the entrance. Once the practitioner has entered mind through materiality, materiality is no longer needed. Since there is no materiality in the formless realm, the Commentary answers crisply: no one’s is seen.

§03 Analysis of the Sixteen Kinds of Mind → Vernacular §3

Possessing greed means the eight minds associated with greed; without greed means the profitable and indeterminate minds of the remaining four planes. The two grief minds and the two of doubt and agitation do not enter this pair, though some elders include them. Possessing hate means the two grief minds; without hate means all profitable and indeterminate minds of the four planes. The remaining ten unprofitable minds do not enter this pair, though some elders include them. Deluded, on the basis of factors specific to each type, means the two accompanied by doubt and agitation; because delusion occurs in all unprofitable states, however, all twelve unprofitable minds are deluded and the rest undeluded. Contracted follows sloth and torpor; distracted follows agitation. Exalted comprises form- and formless-sphere minds, unexalted the rest. Surpassable comprises the three planes, unsurpassed the supramundane. Concentrated reaches access or absorption; unconcentrated reaches neither. Liberated reaches the five liberations by substitution of opposites, suppression, complete cutting off, tranquillization, and escape; unliberated reaches none. One with knowledge that penetrates minds understands all kinds in this way (Vernacular §3). [How to read] The sixteen are eight pairs, and the commentator supplies the number of minds for each—eight greed-rooted minds, two grief minds, twelve unprofitable minds, and so forth. This is where the eighty-nine-mind classification from the consciousness aggregate becomes operative. The two instances of “some elders include them” address the same issue: where to place minds that do not fall within the stated pair. The commentator records the alternative without deciding it.

For the General Reader

In this book, penetrating minds is a cultivation that “enters through the color of blood and proceeds from materiality into mind,” not mind-reading. Remember the three colors—red, black, and clear—and the statement “one sees no one’s.” Remember also that the sixteen kinds of mind are eight pairs, each drawn from the classification of mind in the chapter on the aggregates.

To read this unit in full: Vernacular §§1–3 give the complete paragraph-by-paragraph rendering of the meaning of knowledge that penetrates minds, the divine-eye preliminary cultivation and commentarial questions and answers, and the analysis of the sixteen kinds of mind in eight pairs.

Six kinds of recollector each have a limit and two sets of similes—from firefly to autumn sun and from staff-tip to great carriage road. Cultivation works backward from the last sitting to rebirth-linking: recast the damaged axe and do not abandon the tree until rebirth-linking is broken through and the mentality-materiality at the preceding death is taken as object

The Big Picture — the First Half of the Third Direct Knowledge

Knowledge of the recollection of past lives is divided between two units. This unit gives its meaning and cultivation: meaning (§1); the limits of six kinds of recollector and two sets of similes (§2); backward-working cultivation (§3); the tree-felling simile and arising of the knowledge (§4); and the explanation of the canonical phrases “one birth, two births, many aeons of dissolution,” with headings for dissolution and evolution (§5). The next unit takes up the expression “aeon of dissolution” and unfolds the full account of the world’s dissolution and evolution. This unit centers on two points: the table of six limits, from forty aeons for adherents of other schools to no limit for Buddhas, and the highly operational cultivation of working backward to rebirth-linking. [What is seen]

§01 Meaning of the Recollection of Past Lives → Vernacular §1

“Past lives” are the aggregates lived in during former births. “Lived” means inhabited and experienced, arisen and ceased within one’s own continuity, or lived by the abiding of one’s range—known and delimited by one’s own consciousness. It can also mean lives known by another’s consciousness, as in recollection of those whose track has been cut off, which only Buddhas attain. “Recollection of past lives” is the mindfulness by which past lives are recollected; “knowledge” is the knowledge associated with that mindfulness (Vernacular §1). [How to read] “Lived” has two levels: what one personally experienced and what was known by another and is available only to a Buddha, as in recollecting one whose track has been cut off. The operative factor in recollection of past lives is mindfulness; knowledge is associated with it.

§02 Six Kinds of Recollector, Their Limits, and Two Sets of Similes → Vernacular §2

“He recollects” means remembering repeatedly by the sequence of the aggregates or by death and rebirth-linking. There are six kinds of recollector: adherents of other schools recollect only forty aeons because their understanding is weak through lacking delimitation of mentality-materiality; ordinary disciples, a hundred or a thousand aeons; the eighty great disciples, a hundred thousand; the two chief disciples, one incalculable period and a hundred thousand; Paccekabuddhas, two incalculable periods and a hundred thousand, because their aspiration extends just so far; Buddhas, without limit. Adherents of other schools proceed only by the sequence of the aggregates, unable to use death and rebirth-linking, like blind people who never release their staff. Ordinary and great disciples can use both. Chief disciples have no need for aggregate sequence but move from each death directly to rebirth-linking; Paccekabuddhas do likewise. Buddhas use neither: whatever point above or below through innumerable millions of aeons they wish for is clear. They abbreviate the interval like an abbreviated canonical passage, travel by the lion’s leap, and their knowledge is like a skilled archer’s arrow, caught on no intervening tree or creeper and falling precisely on the target. In the first set of similes, the arising vision of past lives is a firefly for an adherent of another school, lamp for an ordinary disciple, torch for a great disciple, healing star for a chief disciple, moon for a Paccekabuddha, and thousand-rayed autumn sun for a Buddha. In the second, the path of recollection is respectively a blind person following a staff-tip, a staff bridge, a footbridge, a cart bridge, a broad footpath, and a great carriage road. The section intends the recollection of a disciple (Vernacular §2). [How to read] The limits form a ladder of capacity, but the commentator gives one explanation: strength of understanding. Those of other schools are weak because they lack delimitation of mentality-materiality, the work of Purification of View. Read the two sets of six similes together: increasing light describes clarity of vision; widening roads describe freedom of movement. “A blind person who does not let go of the staff” must feel backward one aggregate at a time and cannot leap.

§03 Method of Cultivation—Working Backward from the Last Sitting → Vernacular §3

A beginner returns from alms after the meal, withdraws alone, enters the four jhānas in sequence, emerges from the foundational fourth jhāna, and adverts to the last sitting. Then he works backward through spreading the seat, entering the lodging, putting away bowl and robe, eating, returning from the village, going for alms, entering the village, leaving the monastery, paying homage at the shrine and Bodhi-tree courts, washing and taking up the bowl, everything between taking it and washing his face, dawn, the middle watch, and the first watch. The whole day and night is clear to the ordinary mind and exceedingly clear in preliminary concentration. If a point is unclear, he re-enters and emerges from the foundational jhāna and adverts again, making it clear like lighting a lamp. He works backward through the second and third day, ten days, half a month, a month, a year, ten or twenty years, as far as rebirth-linking in this existence, then adverts to the mentality-materiality at the moment of death in the preceding existence. A discerning bhikkhu can break through rebirth-linking on the first attempt. Since the previous mentality-materiality ceased without remainder and another arose, this point is obstructed like darkness and difficult for weak understanding. Even so, he does not abandon the yoke with “I cannot,” but repeatedly enters, emerges, and adverts (Vernacular §3). [How to read] This is the book’s most concrete recollection technique: begin with the sitting just completed and reverse through one act, one day, and one year at a time. The decisive threshold is rebirth-linking, the first moment of this life. Beyond it lies the mentality-materiality at death in the previous life. The commentator admits that point is “like darkness,” yet gives only one instruction: do not abandon the yoke; enter and emerge again.

§04 The Tree-Felling Simile and Arising of Knowledge of the Recollection of Past Lives → Vernacular §4

A strong man felling a great tree for the pinnacle of a mansion damages his axe after cutting the branches. He does not abandon the yoke but has the axe sharpened by a smith, returns, and chops; whenever it is damaged, he repeats the process. What is severed need not be cut again, so by cutting what remains he soon fells the tree. Likewise, after emerging from the foundational jhāna, one does not advert again to what was already covered but only to rebirth-linking, and soon breaks through it to take the mentality-materiality at death as object; a wood-splitter or barber can illustrate the same point. Knowledge from the last sitting until rebirth-linking is taken as object is not knowledge of past lives but knowledge of preliminary concentration. Some call it knowledge concerning the past, which is inappropriate because it is a form-sphere state. Once the bhikkhu passes beyond rebirth-linking and takes the mentality-materiality at death as object, mind-door adverting arises and ceases and four or five impulsions run: the earlier are sense-sphere states of preliminary work and so forth, the last a form-sphere fourth-jhāna absorption state. The knowledge conascent with it is knowledge of the recollection of past lives, and with the associated mindfulness he recollects one birth, two births, and so on in their aspects and particulars (Vernacular §4). [How to read] The tree-felling simile says that “what has been cut need not be cut again”: at each emergence, advert only to the point of rebirth-linking rather than replaying the entire sequence. The name of the knowledge also has a boundary. Everything in the rewind up to rebirth-linking is still knowledge of preliminary concentration; only the knowledge conascent with fourth-jhāna absorption when it passes beyond rebirth-linking is knowledge of the recollection of past lives.

§05 Explanation of One Birth and So Forth, and the Headings of Dissolution and Evolution Aeons → Vernacular §5

“One birth” is one continuity of aggregates rooted in rebirth-linking and ending in death; the method is the same for two births and so forth. In “many aeons of dissolution,” a contracting aeon is dissolution and an expanding one evolution; dissolution includes remaining dissolved and evolution includes remaining evolved, thus including all four incalculable periods of an aeon. Dissolution has three kinds—water, fire, and wind—and three limits—Streaming Radiance, Refulgent Glory, and Great Fruit. Fire burns below Streaming Radiance; water dissolves below Refulgent Glory; wind destroys below Great Fruit. Broadly, one Buddha-field always dissolves. There are three fields: the field of birth, ten thousand world-systems, which trembles when a Tathāgata takes rebirth-linking; the field of authority, a hundred thousand million world-systems, within which the Jewel Discourse, Aggregates Protection, Banner-Pinnacle Protection, Āṭānāṭiya Protection, and Peacock Protection operate; and the boundless field of range, in which a Tathāgata knows whatever he wishes. One field of authority dissolves, and its field of birth dissolves with it; they dissolve and are established together (Vernacular §5). [How to read] This passage is the outline of the next unit: four incalculable periods, three kinds of dissolution, three limits, and three Buddha-fields. “One field of authority dissolves” means that a hundred thousand million world-systems dissolve and arise together. The next unit unfolds dissolution by fire, water, and wind in turn.

For the General Reader

The first half of the recollection-of-past-lives discussion teaches two things: who can remember how far—a six-level table explained by strength of understanding—and how to remember—working backward from the last sitting, one day and year at a time, to the threshold of rebirth-linking, the first moment of this life. That point is like darkness; the instruction is to refuse to abandon the yoke and re-enter and emerge again. The tree simile adds that what is cut need not be cut again. Remember the two sets of six: firefly, lamp, torch, star, moon, sun; staff-tip, staff bridge, footbridge, cart bridge, broad path, great road. The final four incalculable periods and three kinds and limits of dissolution form the next unit’s table of contents.

To read this unit in full: Vernacular §§1–5 give the complete paragraph-by-paragraph rendering of the meaning of recollection of past lives; the limits and double similes of the six recollectors; the backward-working cultivation; the tree-felling simile and arising of the knowledge; and the explanation of one birth, dissolution and evolution, the three kinds of dissolution, and the three Buddha-fields.

Fire-dissolution: the great cloud ceases, seven suns appear, and flame stops at Streaming Radiance. Evolution: the great cloud rains, earth-essence forms, beings descend from Streaming Radiance, the sun and moon appear, and Mahāsammata is appointed—four incalculable periods make one great aeon. Water reaches Refulgent Glory, wind reaches Great Fruit. The roots of the unprofitable cause dissolution: seven by fire, one by water, and one by wind in the sixty-fourth aeon

The Big Picture — the Second Half of the Third Direct Knowledge

Continuing the phrase “many aeons of dissolution and many aeons of evolution” from the previous unit, this is the treatise’s sole cosmic history: dissolution by fire (§1); the beginning of evolution (§2); beings’ gradual fall, establishment of kingship, and the four incalculable periods (§3); dissolution by water (§4); dissolution by wind (§5); the cause and sequence of seven by fire and one by water (§6); and finally a return to the canonical phrases “I was there, named thus, of such a clan ...,” completing the discussion of knowledge of the recollection of past lives (§7). The commentator places the whole account under that knowledge for one reason: these dissolutions and evolutions are what one who recollects aeons recollects. This unit inherits its superior section heading. [What is seen]

§01 Dissolution by Fire—the Cessation of the Great Cloud and Appearance of the Seven Suns → Vernacular §1

The great aeon-destroying cloud rains once over a hundred thousand million world-systems. People sow, but when the shoots reach grazing height the cloud brays like a donkey and yields not a drop: rain ceases for many years, many hundreds of years, many thousands of years, many hundreds of thousands of years. Rain-dependent beings, deities dependent on flowers and fruits, fish, turtles, and beings in hell die and are reborn in the Brahmā world; some say hell beings perish only with the seventh sun. How can those without jhāna be born there? Through jhāna obtained in a deva world. World Arranger deities wander human roads with disheveled hair, weeping faces, red clothes, and a profoundly disordered appearance, warning: “In a hundred thousand years the aeon will dissolve, the ocean and earth will dry, Sineru will burn, and destruction will reach the Brahmā world. Cultivate loving-kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity; attend upon your parents and honor elders.” Humans and earthbound deities, stirred and softened, make merit and are reborn in heaven, where they obtain jhāna through the wind kasiṇa; the rest arrive through kamma to be experienced later (there is no being wandering in saṃsāra without such kamma) and likewise obtain jhāna. With the second sun night and day disappear under continual scorching; unlike the ordinary sun it has no sun deity, and the sky is stainless like a mirror; all water except the five great rivers dries. The third dries the great rivers; the fourth the seven Himalayan lakes—Sīhapapāta, Haṃsapātana, Kaṇṇamuṇḍaka, Rathakāra, Anotatta, Chaddanta, and Kuṇāla; the fifth leaves not a finger-joint’s wetness in the ocean; the sixth makes the world-system one mass of smoke; the seventh makes it one flame. Sineru’s peaks vanish; the flame consumes the Four Great Kings and Thirty-three, reaches the first-jhāna plane, burns its three Brahmā worlds, and stops at Streaming Radiance. Until every formation, even the most minute, is gone it does not go out; then like a ghee flame it leaves not even ash, and upper and lower space become one darkness (Vernacular §1). [How to read] The commentator’s cosmic destruction is a narrative of where beings go, not merely an apocalypse. Beings ascend layer by layer to the Brahmā world until even the hells empty. The World Arrangers’ appeal to loving-kindness and care for parents is the human center of the passage. The seven suns show in order the drying of water, arising of flame, and limit of destruction. When all conditioned things are exhausted, the fire goes out by itself.

§02 Beginning of Evolution—the Great Cloud, Earth-Essence, Sun and Moon, and Mountains → Vernacular §2

After a long time the great cloud rains first in fine drops, then in streams as thick as lotus stalks, poles, pestles, and palmyra trunks, fills the burned region, and vanishes. Winds below and to the sides gather the water into a round mass like a drop on a lotus leaf; by giving it spaces, they compact it. As the water descends, Brahmā and upper sense-sphere heavens reappear. At the former earth powerful winds hold the water like a closed filter; as the sweet water diminishes, earth-essence arises, complete in color, fragrance, and taste, like the skin on milk-rice without water. Beings whose life or merit ends in Streaming Radiance descend here, self-luminous and moving through the air. Following the Discourse on the Arising of the World, they taste earth-essence, are overcome by craving, form it into lumps, and eat; their light disappears, darkness comes, and they fear. A fifty-league sun appears and they rejoice, naming it for dispelling their fear. When it sets they fear again; a forty-nine-league moon appears “as though knowing our desire,” and they name it moon. Stars follow, then night and day, months, seasons, and years. Sineru, the encircling mountains, and the Himalayas appear simultaneously on the full moon of Phagguna, like bubbles rising together in millet gruel: raised parts become mountains, hollows seas, and level parts continents (Vernacular §2). [How to read] Evolution is narrated as a history of decline. Self-luminous beings taste earth-essence, craving arises, light is lost, fear follows, and the sun and moon receive their names in response to that fear. The millet-bubble simile turns the formation of mountains, seas, and continents into the surface of a pot of gruel.

§03 Beings’ Gradual Fall, the Appointment of the Great Elect, and the Four Incalculable Periods → Vernacular §3

Consumers of earth-essence become well or poorly colored; the former despise the latter. Conceit makes earth-essence disappear and earth-cakes arise; these disappear and creepers arise; those disappear and uncultivated rice appears, free of husk and bran. Vessels arise, fire cooks the rice, and it acquires any desired flavor. Coarse food produces excrement and urine, bodily openings and sexual characteristics appear, excessive gazing produces sensual fever, and intercourse begins. Reproached by the wise, beings build houses to hide it; following a lazy being they store food, so husk and bran cover the grain and reaped rice no longer regrows. They lament, “Evil states have arisen; formerly we were mind-made,” set boundaries, and then taking what is not given, rebuke, false speech, and punishment with sticks arise. They decide to appoint someone to censure, rebuke, and banish properly in exchange for rice. The Blessed One, then the Bodhisatta, is fairest, most authoritative, intelligent, and capable of rebuke and reward. Because appointed by the multitude he is Mahāsammata, because lord of fields Khattiya, and because he gladdens others by Dhamma and impartiality Rājā. The Bodhisatta is the first wherever something rare arises; from him the Khattiya order and then the other classes begin. The four incalculable periods are: from the destructive cloud to cessation of flame, dissolution; from cessation of flame to the evolving cloud, remaining dissolved; from the evolving cloud to sun and moon, evolution; from sun and moon to the next destructive cloud, remaining evolved. Four make one great aeon (Vernacular §3). [How to read] This is an epitome of the Discourse on the Arising of the World. Two points matter to the commentator: the lament “formerly we were mind-made,” in which beings recognize their fall, and the threefold explanation of Mahāsammata, the Bodhisatta as the first human king—appointed, lord of fields, and gladdening through Dhamma. Remember the markers of the four incalculable periods: cloud, end of flame, cloud, sun and moon.

§04 Dissolution by Water → Vernacular §4

The opening “first the great aeon-destroying cloud arises” is as above; the distinction is that in place of the second sun a cloud of caustic water appears. Fine rain becomes great streams filling a hundred thousand million world-systems; earth and mountains dissolve wherever touched. Winds hold the water; it rises from the earth to the second-jhāna plane, dissolves three Brahmā worlds, and stops at Refulgent Glory. It continues while the smallest formation remains, then vanishes at once; darkness is as above. The world reappears beginning from Streaming Radiance, with beings falling from Refulgent Glory reborn there. The four incalculable periods follow the same scheme (Vernacular §4). [How to read] Water-dissolution reaches one level higher, to Refulgent Glory; reappearance likewise begins one level higher, from Streaming Radiance.

§05 Dissolution by Wind → Vernacular §5

Here wind replaces the second sun: it raises coarse and fine dust, fine and coarse sand, stones, mansion-sized rocks, and great trees, which rise and shatter in the sky. Wind beneath the earth overturns it and hurls portions one to five hundred leagues across into space. It lifts the encircling mountains and Sineru; mountains collide and shatter. It destroys terrestrial and aerial palaces, six sense-sphere heavens, and a hundred thousand million world-systems, with encircling mountains striking their counterparts, Himalayas other Himalayas, and Sinerus other Sinerus. It reaches the third-jhāna plane, destroys three Brahmā worlds, and stops at Great Fruit. Having destroyed all formations it destroys itself; darkness is as above. The world begins from Refulgent Glory, with beings falling from Great Fruit reborn there. The four incalculable periods follow the same scheme (Vernacular §5). [How to read] Wind-dissolution reaches highest, to Great Fruit. The full order of the three limits is fire—Streaming Radiance, water—Refulgent Glory, wind—Great Fruit.

§06 Causes of Dissolution and the Sequence of Seven by Fire and One by Water → Vernacular §6

The roots of the unprofitable are the cause: when they are prominent, the world dissolves. Prominent greed produces fire and prominent hate water; some reverse these, assigning hate to fire and greed to water. Prominent delusion produces wind. The sequence is seven consecutive dissolutions by fire and an eighth by water; this repeats until seven water-dissolutions, followed by seven more fires. Sixty-three aeons have passed. Although water’s turn then comes, it is blocked, and wind destroys the Refulgent-Glory devas whose lifespan is sixty-four aeons and dissolves the world (Vernacular §6). [How to read] “The world dissolves through the roots of the unprofitable”: cosmic dissolution is ethical, with greed, hate, and delusion corresponding to fire, water, and wind. The commentator gives a periodic table—seven fires and one water, wind in the sixty-fourth aeon—and records without adjudication the two assignments of greed and hate to fire and water.

§07 Recollection of Aeons and Word-by-Word Explanation of the Canonical Phrases → Vernacular §7

A bhikkhu recollecting past lives and aeons remembers many aeons of dissolution, evolution, and both, according to “I was there.” “I was there” means in a particular aeon, mode of existence, birth, destination, station of consciousness, abode, or class of beings. “Named thus” means Tissa or Phussa; “of such a clan,” Kaccāyana or Kassapa. He may recollect appearance, coarse or refined livelihood, pleasure and pain, or short and long life: “such appearance” means fair or dark; “such food,” rice and meat or fallen fruit; “such experience of pain and pleasure,” bodily and mental, savoring or not savoring food; “such lifespan,” a hundred years or eight million four hundred thousand aeons. Then come “passing from there, I arose there,” “there too I was,” and “passing from there, I arose here,” in a Khattiya or Brahmin family. “In aspects and particulars” means name and clan are particulars—who, such as Tissa or Kassapa—while appearance and the rest are aspects—how, such as fair or dark. “I was there” is recollection at will when tracing backward; “passing from there” reviews while returning forward; “arose there” refers to the birth immediately before this one. Thus ends the discussion of knowledge of the recollection of past lives (Vernacular §7). [How to read] The cosmic history ends by returning to one person’s dossier: name, clan, appearance, food, pleasure and pain, and lifespan. Name and clan particularize “who”; the others characterize “how.” The commentator tells the history of dissolution and evolution to give that dossier a timeline.

For the General Reader

This is the book’s sole cosmic history, and it should be read as one: fire burns to Streaming Radiance, water dissolves to Refulgent Glory, wind destroys to Great Fruit; the causes are greed, hate, and delusion; one great aeon has four incalculable periods marked by cloud, end of flame, cloud, sun and moon. Yet the commentator’s reason for placing it here is simple: a person recollecting past lives recollects these aeons. Remember two moments—the World Arrangers weeping along the road and urging loving-kindness and care for parents, and the joy with which beings name sun and moon after losing their own light. The final dossier of name, clan, appearance, food, pleasure, pain, and lifespan is the content of recollection.

To read this unit in full: Vernacular §§1–7 give the complete paragraph-by-paragraph rendering of fire-dissolution and the seven suns; the beginning of evolution and the sun, moon, and mountains; beings’ fall, Mahāsammata, and the four incalculable periods; water-dissolution; wind-dissolution; the cause and sequence of dissolution; and recollection of aeons with word-by-word explanation of the canonical phrases.

Seeing both death and rebirth makes the divine eye a cause for Purification of View. Its cultivation keeps the light kasiṇa at access without entering absorption. In the torch simile, whenever the torch goes out it is rubbed and relit until sunrise makes it disposable. Reviling noble ones is weighty kamma but can be remedied

The Big Picture — the Fourth Direct Knowledge

Knowledge of the death and rebirth of beings is knowledge of the divine eye: one section, two names. Its seven parts are the six meanings of divine (§1); explanation of eye, purified, surpassing the human, and seeing death and rebirth (§2); arising of knowledge of where beings go according to kamma (§3); bodily misconduct and the offense of reviling noble ones (§4); the method of asking forgiveness (§5); the gravity of wrong view and names of bad destinations (§6); and cultivation of the divine eye through the light kasiṇa, the grass-torch simile, its danger to ordinary persons, and the arising of the knowledge (§7). The word-by-word explanation of the canonical sentence—seeing beings passing away and being reborn, inferior and superior, beautiful and ugly, in good and bad destinations, going according to kamma; those beings who practiced bodily misconduct, reviled noble ones, and held wrong view arising in misery, a bad destination, a place of downfall, hell—occupies most of the unit. Here the commentator gives his longest treatment to one doctrinal point: the offense of reviling noble ones and the method of making amends. [What is seen]

§01 Six Meanings of “Divine” → Vernacular §1

“For knowledge of death and rebirth” means knowledge of the divine eye. “He directs and inclines his mind” means the preliminary-work mind. “Divine” means resembling the divine—the deities’ sensitive eye is born of wholesome kamma, unobstructed by bile, phlegm, and blood, free from imperfections, and capable of apprehending distant objects, and the bhikkhu’s knowledge-eye born of energetic cultivation is likewise so. It is obtained through and depends on divine abiding; takes up light and so has great illumination; and sees forms beyond walls and so has great range. These are to be understood through linguistic analysis (Vernacular §1). [How to read] The divine ear gave two meanings of “divine”; the divine eye gives four: resemblance, dependence on divine abiding, great light, and great range. The eye adds “light” because its cultivation is precisely a cultivation of light.

§02 Explanation of Eye, Purified, Surpassing the Human, and Seeing Death and Rebirth → Vernacular §2

It is an “eye” because it sees and performs the work of an eye. It is “purified” because seeing both death and rebirth makes it a cause for Purification of View: seeing only death produces annihilation view, seeing only rebirth the view that new beings appear, while one who sees both transcends both attachments; the sons of the Buddha see both. It “surpasses the human” range and physical eye. “Sees beings” means as with the physical eye. The actual moments of death and birth are not seen by the divine eye; those approaching death are “passing away,” and those who have just taken rebirth-linking are “being reborn.” Inferior follows an outcome of delusion, superior non-delusion; beautiful non-hate, ugly hate; a good destination or wealth follows non-greed, a bad destination or poverty greed (Vernacular §2). [How to read] “Seeing both death and rebirth” is the doctrinal core. Seeing only death is annihilationism; seeing only birth is one kind of eternalist appearance theory. The divine eye is called “purified” because it sees both sides. Even the divine eye is made to remain within the meaning of Purification of View. Inferiority and superiority, beauty and ugliness, poverty and wealth are each paired with a particular outcome of delusion, hate, or greed.

§03 Knowledge of Where Beings Go According to Kamma and Its Sequence of Arising → Vernacular §3

“Going according to their kamma” concerns the knowledge of where beings go according to accumulated kamma; the preceding phrases concern the divine eye. The bhikkhu expands light downward, sees hell beings experiencing great suffering—this seeing is the divine eye—and asks what kamma produced it; knowledge arises with that kamma as object. He expands light upward to the deva gardens Nandana, Missaka, and Phārusaka, sees beings enjoying great prosperity, and similarly knows their kamma. This is knowledge of where beings go according to kamma. It has no separate preliminary work, and neither does knowledge concerning the future: both have the divine eye as their footing and are accomplished only with it (Vernacular §3). [How to read] These are two accessory knowledges of the divine eye. They have no separate cultivation; when the divine eye opens, they open with it. The miscellaneous unit distinguishes their objects.

§04 Bodily Misconduct and So Forth, and the Offense of Reviling Noble Ones → Vernacular §4

“Misconduct” is conduct badly performed or corrupted by defilements; there are bodily, verbal, and mental forms. “Reviling noble ones” means wishing harm to Buddhas, Paccekabuddhas, noble disciples, even lay stream-enterers, and reviling them by the extreme charge “they have no ascetic practice and are not ascetics,” or by denying their qualities: “they have no jhāna, liberation, path, or fruit.” Knowing or unknowing reviling is equally reviling. It is weighty kamma comparable to immediate-result kamma, obstructing heaven and path, but remediable. In the case account, an elder with wind in the belly receives hot gruel, sits on a threshold timber, and drinks before it cools. A young bhikkhu says, “This old man, overcome by extreme greed, has shamed us.” Back at the monastery the elder asks if he has a foothold in the teaching. “Yes; I am a stream-enterer.” “Then do not strive for a higher path; the one you reviled has destroyed the taints.” The young bhikkhu asks forgiveness, and the kamma returns to its original condition (Vernacular §4). [How to read] The elder who drinks the gruel is an arahant and the younger critic is a stream-enterer: reviling can occur between noble ones because both knowing and unknowing cases count. Yet the commentator immediately says it is remediable and gives the remedy: “Please forgive me,” and the kamma returns to its original condition.

§05 Method of Asking Forgiveness → Vernacular §5

One who reviled a noble person should go to that person. For a senior, squat and ask forgiveness; for a junior, bow, squat with hands joined, and ask. If the person has gone elsewhere, travel or send a co-resident. If neither is possible, go to the bhikkhus at that monastery and ask according to seniority, “May that venerable sir forgive me,” even if the person refused in person. If the solitary bhikkhu’s destination is unknown, tell a discerning bhikkhu, “Whenever I remember it, remorse arises; what should I do?” He says, “Do not worry; the elder forgives you. Settle your mind.” Face the direction in which the noble one went, join hands, and ask forgiveness. If the person has attained final Nibbāna, go to the deathbed or even the charnel ground and ask. Thus heaven and path are no longer obstructed and the kamma returns to its original condition (Vernacular §5). [How to read] This is the chapter’s gentlest passage: from asking face to face, through sending another and joining hands toward the person’s direction, to asking at the grave, every level says that there is always a way. The weighty kamma is remediable, and the remedy is an apology.

§06 Gravity of Wrong View and Explanation of the Names of Bad Destinations → Vernacular §6

One “possessing wrong view” has distorted vision; one “undertaking action based on wrong view” acts and encourages others through it. Reviling noble ones is already verbal misconduct and wrong view mental misconduct, but both are repeated to show the magnitude of fault: reviling is comparable to immediate-result kamma, with the cited warning that unless speech, mind, and view are abandoned, one is “as if carried and placed in hell”; wrong view is the greatest fault. “Breakup of the body” means relinquishing appropriated aggregates or the end of the life faculty; “after death,” taking newly arisen aggregates or after death-consciousness. State of misery, bad destination, place of downfall, and hell first all mean hell: absence of beneficial merit and pleasure, destination of suffering, involuntary falling and bodily destruction, and absence of pleasant benefit. Alternatively, state of misery indicates animals—outside a good destination but not wholly bad because of mighty dragon kings; bad destination ghosts—both miserable and bad but not fallen like asuras; place of downfall asuras, fallen from every accumulation; and hell Avīci and the other hells. Reversed terms give the bright side. Good destination includes humans, “heaven” only devas; all are “world” through dissolution. The rest are concluding phrases (Vernacular §6). [How to read] The four names of bad destination receive two explanations: one makes all four names of hell, the other assigns them individually to animals, ghosts, asuras, and hell. As usual, the commentator preserves both without adjudication.

§07 Cultivation of the Divine Eye—the Light Kasiṇa and the Torch Simile → Vernacular §7

A beginner first makes the kasiṇa-based foundational jhāna malleable in every respect, then brings near one of fire, white, or light kasiṇa. It is established and expanded at access, not brought into absorption: absorption would make it the support for foundational jhāna instead of preliminary work. Light is best; expand it while remaining at access. Forms are seen within the expansion. While seeing them, the preliminary-work occasion passes, light disappears, and forms vanish; one repeatedly enters and emerges from foundational jhāna and suffuses light until it becomes strong and remains wherever delimited with “Let there be light here,” allowing vision all day. In the grass-torch simile, a night traveler loses sight of level and uneven ground when the torch goes out, rubs and relights it to greater brightness, repeats this until sunrise, then discards it and walks all day. Preliminary kasiṇa light is torchlight; disappearance while seeing is the extinguished torch; re-entering jhāna is rubbing; stronger suffusion is the brighter flame; strengthened delimited light is sunrise; discarding lesser light and seeing all day is discarding the torch. When forms beyond physical vision—inside the belly, at the heart basis, below ground, beyond wall, mountain, or enclosure, or in another world-system—appear to the knowledge-eye as to the physical eye, the divine eye has arisen; only it sees them, not the preliminary states. For an ordinary person it is dangerous: the resolution for light pierces earth, sea, and mountain, revealing frightening yakkhas and rakkhasas; fear disturbs the mind and causes loss of jhāna. The arising sequence is mind-door adverting to form, four or five impulsions, preliminary sense-sphere states with applied and sustained thought, and a final accomplishing form-sphere fourth-jhāna state; its conascent knowledge is both knowledge of death and rebirth and divine-eye knowledge. Thus ends the discussion (Vernacular §7). [How to read] The key is one prohibition: the light kasiṇa must not enter absorption. At absorption it becomes foundational jhāna and ceases to serve as preliminary work. Every one of the torch simile’s correspondences is explicit; “throw away the torch and walk all day” is the sign of strengthened vision. The divine eye is also dangerous to an ordinary person: frightening yakkhas and rakkhasas can cause loss of jhāna. The commentator includes the danger of direct knowledge within its cultivation. [What is seen]

For the General Reader

The divine eye has two sides here. Doctrinally, seeing only death is annihilationism and seeing only birth the view that new beings appear; seeing both makes the eye “purified.” Reviling noble ones is weighty kamma, but the remedy is “Please forgive me”—face to face, through another, toward a direction, or even at the grave, there is always a way. Practically, the light kasiṇa remains at access, not absorption; the grass torch is rubbed and relit until sunrise; an ordinary person can fear yakkhas and lose jhāna.

To read this unit in full: Vernacular §§1–7 give the complete paragraph-by-paragraph rendering of the six meanings of divine; eye, purified, surpassing the human, and seeing death and rebirth; arising of knowledge according to kamma; bodily misconduct, reviling noble ones and its case; asking forgiveness; gravity of wrong view and two explanations of bad-destination names; and cultivation of the divine eye, the torch simile, its dangers, and arising sequence.

How many kinds of object belong to each of the seven direct knowledges? Supernormal power has seven, divine ear four, penetration of minds eight, past lives eight, divine eye four, future eight, and kamma five. For penetration of minds, the present means only continuity and period, not the momentary present—the flower-stalk simile is rejected by the Commentaries

The Big Picture — the Chapter’s Concluding Miscellany Discussion

With the five direct knowledges complete, the chapter closes with a miscellany discussion. The divine eye’s two accessories—knowledge concerning the future and knowledge according to kamma—join the five to make seven direct knowledges. Their objects are analyzed under four triads established in the Abhidhamma matrix: limited, path, past, and internal (§1 heading; §§2–7 the seven knowledges). This is an Abhidhamma-style conclusion: each knowledge receives a table of its objects. The longest discussion concerns penetration of minds (§4), because it must first distinguish three kinds of present—momentary, continuity, and period—and reject the position that the momentarily present mind is its object. The base text lacks a number for the unit’s opening paragraph, §413, and that absence is preserved. [What is seen]

§01 Heading of the Miscellany Discussion—Seven Direct Knowledges and Four Object Triads → Vernacular §1

The opening verses say that once the five direct knowledges taught by the Knower of the Five Aggregates have been understood, the miscellany discussion should be known. The divine eye, or knowledge of death and rebirth, has two accessory knowledges—future and kamma—which with the five beginning with supernormal power make seven. To avoid confusion about their objects, the seven are shown according to four object triads taught by the Great Sage: limited, path, past, and internal (Vernacular §1). [How to read] Each triad is threefold: limited, exalted, immeasurable; path and non-path; past, future, present; internal, external, internal-external. Together they yield more than ten kinds of object, of which each knowledge takes a particular set.

§02 Seven Objects of Knowledge of Supernormal Power → Vernacular §2

The seven are limited, exalted, past, future, present, internal, and external. Transforming the body through mind to travel invisibly, placing the material body in an exalted mind, takes the body as object and is limited. Transforming mind through a visible body, placing the foundational mind in the body, takes an exalted mind and is exalted. Taking a past ceased mind is past. A resolution directed to the future is future: Mahākassapa resolved at the Great Relic Deposit that perfume remain fresh, flowers unwithered, and lamps lit for 218 years; Assagutta resolved that a pond taste of curd before meals. Transforming the body through mind while traveling invisibly is present. Transforming mind by means of the body, transforming the body by means of mind, or creating one’s own boy-form is internal; manifesting elephants and horses externally is external (Vernacular §2). [How to read] Future is among the seven objects because a resolution can point to the future, as in perfume remaining fresh and lamps burning for 218 years.

§03 Four Objects of Knowledge of the Divine Ear Element → Vernacular §3

Limited, because sound is limited; present, because the sound exists now; internal, for sounds inside one’s belly; and external, for another’s sounds (Vernacular §3).

§04 Eight Objects of Knowledge That Penetrates Minds and Analysis of Three Kinds of Present → Vernacular §4

The eight are limited, for a sense-sphere mind; exalted, for form- and formless-sphere minds; immeasurable, for path and fruition, with each higher person knowing those below and an arahant knowing all; path, when a path mind is object; past and future, for another’s mind within seven days backward or forward; present; and external. The present has three kinds: momentary present, what has reached arising, presence, and cessation; continuity present, one or two continuity sequences—an object gradually becoming clear when moving from dark to light or light into a room, or, according to the Middle reciters, seeing from a distance the hand gestures of dyers and the motions of striking gongs and drums before hearing the sound; or material continuity, such as water footprints not yet settled, road heat not yet cooled, indoor darkness not gone, eye trembling not ceased, and immaterial continuity of two or three impulsions according to the Connected reciters; and period present, delimited by one existence and supported by the Discourse on One Fortunate Night. Continuity present occurs in the Commentaries, period present in the discourse. Some say the momentarily present mind is the object because the direct knower and another’s mind arise in the same moment. They compare it to a tossed flower bundle in which one stalk necessarily pierces another: when adverting to a crowd’s minds, one mind must pierce another at arising, presence, or cessation. The position is unreasonable: the adverting mind and known mind never coexist, and adverting and impulsion would undesirably have different objects. The Commentaries reject it. Continuity and period present are the objects. Another’s mind within two or three impulsion processes around the current process is continuity present; the Connected Commentary says period present is demonstrated through impulsion sequence, which is well said. The direct knower adverts to a momentarily present mind and ceases with it; four or five impulsions then take the same ceased mind as object, the last being direct knowledge. All have one object present by period, but only the direct-knowledge state knows, just as only eye-consciousness sees at the eye door. Since continuity falls within period, the object can be understood as present solely by period. It is external because another’s mind is object (Vernacular §4). [How to read] This is the unit’s doctrinal center. A present mind lasts only a moment and has ceased by the time it is known—so how can it count as present? The answer is that present has three senses, and penetration of minds uses continuity, two or three processes wide, and period, a span of time, not the momentary present. The flower-stalk simile is beautiful, but the commentarial rejection is exact: the two minds never share one simultaneous moment. [What is seen]

§05 Eight Objects of Knowledge of Past Lives → Vernacular §5

The eight are limited, for sense-sphere aggregates; exalted, for form and formless aggregates; immeasurable, for paths and fruitions cultivated or attained by self or other; path, for the cultivated path alone; necessarily past; internal, for one’s own aggregates; external, for another’s; and inexpressible, for names, clans, and signs of the earth in “There was the Blessed One Vipassī, whose mother was Bandhumatī and father Bandhuma.” Although mind-penetrating and kamma knowledge can also have past objects, the first is limited to minds within seven days and the latter to past volition; past-life knowledge leaves no past aggregate or aggregate-connected phenomenon untouched and acts like omniscience toward them. This is the Commentary’s method. Yet the Paṭṭhāna says profitable aggregates are object condition for five knowledges, so four aggregates also serve mind and kamma knowledge, though only profitable and unprofitable for the latter. “Name and clan” are conventional word meanings dependent on aggregates, not spoken words themselves; speech is limited as sound, as shown by “analytical knowledge of language has a limited object.” This is our position (Vernacular §5). [How to read] Names and clans are “inexpressible objects” because they are neither material form nor mind and do not enter the limited, exalted, immeasurable triad. The commentator marks both “this is the Commentary’s method” and “this is our position” in one paragraph, an uncommon disclosure of two positions.

§06 Four Objects of Divine-Eye Knowledge and Eight Objects of Knowledge Concerning the Future → Vernacular §6

Divine eye: limited for form, present for presently existing form, internal for forms within one’s belly, external for another’s forms. Future knowledge: limited for future sense-sphere birth, exalted for form or formless birth, immeasurable for future path and fruition, path for path alone, necessarily future, internal for “I shall be born there,” external for “another will be born there,” and inexpressible for names and clans such as “the future Buddha Metteyya will arise; his father will be the Brahmin Subrahmā and his mother Brahmavatī.” Mind-penetrating knowledge has future objects only within seven days; future knowledge leaves nothing in the future untouched (Vernacular §6). [How to read] Future knowledge mirrors past-life knowledge: one leaves nothing backward untouched, the other nothing forward, while penetration of minds reaches only seven days in either direction.

§07 Five Objects of Knowledge According to Kamma and the Chapter Colophon → Vernacular §7

Limited for sense-sphere kamma, exalted for form and formless kamma, past because it knows only the past, internal for one’s own kamma, and external for another’s; when internal and external are known at different times, the knowledge can also have internal-external objects. The colophon states that Chapter 13, the Exposition of Direct Knowledge, is complete (Vernacular §7). [How to read] The seven tables close here. The two chapters on direct knowledge end; Chapter 14 enters the ground of understanding, and the concentration division’s aftermath concludes with a table of objects.

For the General Reader

This is the final and most technical section of the two chapters on direct knowledge: one table for what each of seven knowledges can take as object—limited, exalted, immeasurable, path, three times, internal, external, and inexpressible. The most rewarding discussion concerns knowing another’s “present” mind when that mind lasts only one moment. The answer is that present has three senses, and penetration of minds takes continuity and period, not the momentary present. Remember the flower-stalk simile and why the Commentaries reject it: the two minds never coexist for a single moment.

To read this unit in full: Vernacular §§1–7 give the complete paragraph-by-paragraph rendering of the miscellaneous heading and four object triads; seven objects of supernormal knowledge; four of the divine ear; eight of mind penetration and analysis of three presents; eight of past-life knowledge and inexpressible objects; four of divine eye and eight of future knowledge; and five of knowledge according to kamma with the chapter colophon.