清淨道論 義疏通講 · 冊16Visuddhimagga · Exposition Throughout · Vol. 16

Faculties are the phenomena that “hold sway”: from the eye to the one who has known, twenty-two positions of predominance line up into a single road from full understanding of the internal phenomena to the supreme security

The Big Picture — The Coordinate System of the Ground of Wisdom, Part Three: Who Holds Sway

The aggregates laid out the heap of phenomena (Chapter 14); the bases and elements laid out the coordinates of experience (Chapter 15); this chapter goes on to open the faculties and the truths. This unit first opens the twenty-two faculties: eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, mind; femininity, masculinity, life; pleasure, pain, joy, grief, equanimity; faith, energy, mindfulness, concentration, wisdom; coming to know the unknown, having known, the one who has known. The word “faculty” (indriya) is “lord”—ruler, sovereign: whatever has predominant power in the occurrence of a given class is established as a faculty. The Commentator establishes six modes in a single verse—meaning, characteristic and the rest, order, distinction and non-distinction, task, and plane (vernacular §1)—and analyzes mode by mode, in a form continuous with the two preceding units. What is most remarkable about this list is its arrangement: from the eye faculty all the way to the faculty of the one who has known, the Commentator himself says that this order is a path (vernacular §3). The twenty-two faculties are not a parts list; they are a route map running from “full understanding of the internal phenomena” to “the supreme security.” 〔Observation〕

§01 The List of the Twenty-Two Faculties and the Verse of Analysis; the Meaning of the Last Three Faculties → Vernacular §1

The twenty-two faculties are listed by name, and a verse establishes six modes. The three least familiar faculties, the last three, are then explained first: the faculty of coming to know the unknown arises in one practicing in the former part—“I shall know the deathless state not known before, or the Dhamma of the four truths”; the faculty of having known arises in one who has known; the faculty of the one who has known arises in one whose taints are destroyed, in whom the task of knowledge is complete (vernacular §1). 〔Reading〕 The names of the first nineteen faculties are familiar; the last three are technical names for the supramundane: the mind of the first path, the minds of the six intermediate stages, and the mind of the fruit of arahantship, each established as a faculty by its predominance—the final stretch of the road is lit up first.

§02 The Sense of Faculty—The Five Senses of “Lord” and the Sense of Predominance; Characteristic and the Rest → Vernacular §2

“The sense of faculty” is explained through “lord,” in five senses: the lord’s mark, what is spoken by the lord, what is seen by the lord, what is made by the lord, what is enjoyed by the lord. The Blessed One, possessing supreme sovereignty, is the lord; wholesome and unwholesome kamma, since among kammas no one has sovereignty, is also the lord—the faculties produced by kamma indicate kamma and are made by kamma (the lord’s mark, what is made by the lord); all the faculties are shown by the Blessed One as they really are and directly awakened to by him (what is spoken by the lord, what is seen by the lord); the lord of sages enjoyed some of them by the enjoyment of resort and others by the enjoyment of development (what is enjoyed by the lord). Then, by the sense of sovereignty called “predominance”: when the eye is keen, eye-consciousness is keen; when the eye is dull, eye-consciousness is dull—predominance is established, and so it is a faculty. The mode of characteristic refers back to the chapter on the aggregates; the four faculties beginning with wisdom are in meaning non-delusion (vernacular §2). 〔Reading〕 Two “lords” hide inside the five senses: the Blessed One and kamma. A faculty is a faculty because one end is tied to kamma (who made it) and the other to predominance (who has the say). “Holding sway” does not mean there is someone who holds sway; it means that this phenomenon has the greatest power in that occurrence.

§03 Order, and Distinction and Non-Distinction → Vernacular §3

Order means the order of teaching, and its arrangement is a road: the noble plane is attained by fully understanding the internal phenomena, so the six faculties beginning with the eye come first; what that individual existence takes up to be called woman or man—hence next the femininity and masculinity faculties; both occur bound to the life faculty—hence next the life faculty; while the life faculty occurs, feelings do not cease, and whatever is felt is suffering—hence next pleasure, pain, joy, grief, and equanimity; for the cessation of suffering these phenomena should be developed—hence next faith, energy, mindfulness, concentration, and wisdom; through this way of practice the Dhamma first becomes manifest in oneself—hence next the faculty of coming to know the unknown; it is the fruit of that and should be developed further—hence next the faculty of having known; develop it and attain, with nothing further to be done—hence last the faculty of the one who has known, the supreme security. The mode of distinction and non-distinction: only the life faculty has the distinction of the material life faculty and the immaterial life faculty; the rest have no distinction (vernacular §3). 〔Reading〕 This section is the heart of the unit: the Commentator turns the sequence of the list into a narrative of the path—there is this body, this sex, this life, hence these feelings, hence this development, hence these three fruits and stages. Read the twenty-two faculties backward and you have a graded path that reasons from fruit to cause.

§04 Task—What Each of the Twenty-Two Faculties Does → Vernacular §4

Each faculty is given its task: the eye faculty, by the nature of faculty condition, makes eye-consciousness and the rest occur in accordance with its own mode through its own keenness or dullness, and ear, nose, tongue, and body follow the same pattern; the mind faculty makes the conascent phenomena occur under its own power; the life faculty guards the conascent phenomena; the femininity and masculinity faculties act in accordance with the marks, appearance, deportment, and bearing of woman and man; the pleasure, pain, joy, and grief faculties overcome the conascent phenomena and each bring them to a gross mode, and the equanimity faculty brings them to a peaceful, superior, and neutral mode; the five faculties beginning with faith overcome their respective opposites and make the associated phenomena attain the nature of confidence and the rest; the faculty of coming to know the unknown abandons the three fetters and makes the associated phenomena face toward abandoning them; the faculty of having known attenuates and abandons sensual desire, ill will, and the rest, and makes the conascent phenomena occur under its own power; the faculty of the one who has known abandons striving in every task and is a condition for the associated phenomena facing toward the deathless (vernacular §4). 〔Reading〕 The mode of task brings “predominance” down to cases: the jurisdiction of every faculty can be written out—the life faculty is the preserver, the feeling faculties are amplifiers (bringing things to a gross mode), the equanimity faculty is the tuner (bringing things to the neutral), and the five wholesome faculties are the commanders against their opposites. Once this section is read, “faculty” is no longer a term; it is twenty-two powers exercising their jurisdiction in your body and mind right now.

§05 Plane—The Division into Four Planes and the Closing Verse → Vernacular §5

Assignment by plane: the ten faculties of eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, femininity, masculinity, pleasure, pain, and grief belong only to the sense sphere; the eight of mind, life, equanimity, and faith, energy, mindfulness, concentration, and wisdom extend through the four planes; the joy faculty extends through three planes, the sense sphere, the fine-material sphere, and the supramundane; the last three faculties are exclusively supramundane. The closing verse: the bhikkhu of much urgency, abiding in restraint of the faculties, fully understanding the faculties, will make an end of suffering (vernacular §5). 〔Reading〕 The assignment by plane gives the list depth: some faculties cannot leave the sense sphere; others reach all the way to the supramundane. The closing verse then gathers the whole unit back into the door of practice—the use of fully understanding the faculties is “to make an end of suffering”; the work of restraint of the faculties was established in the training in virtue in Chapter 1, and here the beginning and the end answer each other. 〔Observation〕

For the General Reader

The twenty-two faculties can be held like this: they are a list of “who holds sway”—when you look at something the eye faculty holds sway (keen eye, keen consciousness); in the matter of being alive the life faculty holds sway; over the intensity of feeling the feeling faculties hold sway; over the success or failure of practice the five faculties of faith, energy, mindfulness, concentration, and wisdom hold sway. The ordering of the list speaks for itself: from having this body, to having these feelings, to “whatever is felt is suffering,” to developing the five faculties for the cessation of suffering, to the three supramundane faculties entering one after another—to read the order once (vernacular §3) is to read the whole path once. The four truths are opened in the next unit, which is exactly where the starting point (suffering) and the end point (cessation) of this road are formally established as noble truths.

To read this unit in full: vernacular §1–§5 is the complete paragraph-by-paragraph rendering of the list of the twenty-two faculties, the meaning of the last three faculties, the five senses of lord and predominance, the narrative of order, the task of each faculty, and the assignment by four planes with the closing verse.

One verse establishes fourteen modes: the four truths have their names taken apart, their meaning tested, their number fixed, and their order set—the four words “real, not inverted, and actual” hold up the whole

The Big Picture — The Framework of Fourteen Modes and This Unit’s Share

The four truths are the axis of the whole book’s division on wisdom: everything laid out by the aggregates, bases, elements, and faculties is here gathered into the single frame of “suffering and the stilling of suffering.” At the opening the Commentator establishes fourteen modes in a single verse—division, derivation, the distinctions of characteristic and the rest, meaning, the drawing-out of meanings, neither less nor more, order, the analysis of birth and the rest, the task of knowledge, the distinction of what is included, simile, tetrad, emptiness and singlefold and the rest, similar and dissimilar (vernacular §1). This is the largest analytical machine in the whole chapter, and its frame stretches to the chapter’s end: this unit runs the first eight modes, and the remaining six are distributed across 16-06 and 16-07. The eight modes of this unit do the foundation work: taking the word “truth” apart to the bottom (derivation, the five positions), setting the meaning of truth firmly (real, not inverted), nailing down the number four (neither less nor more), making the order intelligible (order), and finally issuing the list of the twelve phenomena, the three cravings, nibbāna, and the eight factors—the five units that follow are the item-by-item redemption of that list. 〔Observation〕

§01 The List of the Four Truths; the Verse of Analysis; the Sixteen Meanings by Division → Vernacular §1

The four noble truths are listed by name, and the verse on fourteen modes sets the frame. The first mode, “division”: suffering and the rest each have four meanings, real, not unreal, not otherwise—oppression, the conditioned, burning, and change for suffering; accumulation, source, bond, and impediment for origin; escape, seclusion, the unconditioned, and the deathless for cessation; leading out, cause, seeing, and predominance for the path; what the one who directly realizes should directly realize is precisely these sixteen (vernacular §1). 〔Reading〕 The sixteen meanings are the “operational definition” of the four truths: each truth is established not by tautology but by four verifiable meanings each—the insight knowledges of Chapters 18 to 22 later contemplate exactly these sixteen aspects.

§02 Derivation—Explanation of the Four Names, Suffering, Origin, Cessation, and Path → Vernacular §2

The four names are taken apart sound by sound: du is used for the vile (the du of a bad son), khaṃ for the empty (the kha of empty space)—the first truth is vile (the haunt of many dangers) and empty (lacking permanence, beauty, pleasure, and self), hence called suffering. saṃ indicates conjunction, u arising, aya reason—the second truth, when the remaining conditions come together, is the reason for the arising of suffering, hence called the origin of suffering. ni indicates absence, rodha a prison—in the third truth there is no prison of suffering that is the prison of saṃsāra; or, when it is attained, the prison of suffering is no more; and it is the opposite of that and the condition for the cessation that is the non-arising of suffering, hence called the cessation of suffering. The fourth truth faces toward cessation by way of its object, leads to the cessation of suffering, and is the way that reaches it, hence called the way leading to the cessation of suffering (vernacular §2). 〔Reading〕 The mode of derivation reduces the four names to constructions of syllables—a name is not a label but a compressed definition: the single word “suffering” holds the two meanings of vile and empty, and the single word “cessation” holds the meaning of no prison.

§03 Four Explanations of “Noble Truth” → Vernacular §3

Four explanations of “noble truth”: the noble ones penetrate them, hence noble truths; they are the truths of the Noble One (the Tathāgata), hence noble truths; nobility is accomplished by directly awakening to them, hence noble truths; they are truths that are noble—“noble” being real, not unreal, not deceptive—hence noble truths. Each explanation has its scriptural witness (vernacular §3). 〔Reading〕 The four explanations are four grammatical cases of the same word: who penetrates, who possesses, the effect of penetration, and the case of the truth itself—the last explanation moves the word “noble” from the person onto the teaching: the nobility of truth lies in its not deceiving.

§04 The Distinctions of Characteristic, Function, and Manifestation → Vernacular §4

Each of the four truths is given its characteristic, function, and manifestation: suffering—oppression, burning, occurrence; origin—production, causing non-interruption, impediment; cessation—peace, the deathless, the signless; path—leading out, abandoning of defilements, emergence. Then two further compact sets are given: occurrence, causing occurrence, turning back, causing turning back; the conditioned, craving, the unconditioned, seeing (vernacular §4). 〔Reading〕 The three sets of characteristics go from the full to the simple: the first set is for working use, the second is the dynamic skeleton of the four truths (occurrence and turning back each with its causer), and the third nails each truth with a single word—the conditioned is suffering, craving is origin, the unconditioned is cessation, seeing is the path. Memorize the last set and the four truths go with you.

§05 The Meaning of Truth—Reality That Is Not Unreal, with Verses → Vernacular §5

Where does the meaning of truth lie? Not inverted like an illusion, not deceptive like a mirage, not of undiscoverable nature like the self of the outsiders; rather, in the modes of oppression, production, peace, and leading out, real, not inverted, actual, truly the resort of noble knowledge—like the characteristic of fire, like the natural order of the world. The verses test each truth in four stages: suffering is not non-oppressing, nor is there any oppressor other than suffering; apart from origin there is no suffering, and suffering does not come from anything else (hence the “net” is truth); apart from nibbāna there is no peace, and nibbāna is not non-peaceful; apart from the path there is no leading out, and the path is not non-leading-out—the conclusion: the nature of being real, not inverted, and actual is the meaning of truth (vernacular §5). 〔Reading〕 This section is the four truths’ theory of truth: a truth is a truth not by authoritative proclamation but by “certainty”—the oppressing nature belongs to suffering alone and suffering always has it; the peaceful nature belongs to cessation alone and cessation always has it. The four stages of the verse are the same test run four times.

§06 The Drawing-Out of Meanings—The Five Positions of the Word “Truth” → Vernacular §6

The five positions of the word “truth” (sacca): the truth of speech (one should speak the truth), the truth of abstinence (standing in truth), the truth of view (declaring various truths), the ultimate truth (truth is one only, there is no second—nibbāna and the path), and the noble truths (of the four noble truths, how many are wholesome)—what this chapter uses is the position of the noble truths (vernacular §6). 〔Reading〕 Awareness that one word has many positions is a hallmark skill of this treatise (the same spirit as the mode of tetrad in 16-06): before saying “truth,” first ask in which position it is said—among the five positions, “truth is one only” refers to nibbāna and does not conflict with “four truths,” because the positions differ.

§07 Neither Less nor More, and Order—Why Only Four, and Why This Sequence → Vernacular §7

Why only four? No other is possible, and none can be removed—two scriptural witnesses (to make known another noble truth of suffering is impossible). Three groups of reasons from meaning: occurrence is stated together with its cause and turning back together with its means, and taking this as the limit there are four; what is to be fully understood, abandoned, realized, and developed, hence four; the basis of craving, craving, the cessation of craving, and the means for its cessation, hence four (and again by the four positions of attachment). Order too is the order of teaching: suffering is gross and common, hence first; to show its cause, next origin; when the cause ceases the fruit ceases, hence next cessation; the means for attaining cessation, hence last the path. Or, by way of guiding beings: suffering is stated first to arouse urgency in beings bound by pleasure; origin next, to make it known that suffering is neither without cause nor created by a sovereign deity; cessation next, to comfort the mind by showing the escape; the path last, for attainment (vernacular §7). 〔Reading〕 “Four” is here proved rather than stipulated—occurrence, turning back, and the cause of each: mathematically exactly four. The second group of reasons for the order is a lesson in pedagogy: first alarm, then explanation, then reassurance, finally practice—the order of the Blessed One’s teaching is itself the course of treatment.

§08 The Analysis of Birth and the Rest—The Phenomena Set Out under the Four Truths → Vernacular §8

The phenomena set out in the explanation of the four truths are named: twelve phenomena in the explanation of suffering (birth, aging, death; sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, despair; association with the disliked, separation from the liked, not getting what one wants; the five aggregates of clinging); three cravings in the explanation of origin (leading to renewed existence, accompanied by delight and lust, delighting here and there—craving for sensuality, craving for existence, craving for non-existence); in the explanation of cessation, what is in meaning the single nibbāna (remainderless fading-away-and-cessation, giving up, relinquishment, release, non-attachment); eight phenomena in the explanation of the path (right view through right concentration). The analysis of these is the business of the modes and units that follow (vernacular §8). 〔Reading〕 This section is the table of contents for the second half of the chapter: the twelve phenomena are analyzed item by item in 16-03 and 16-04, the three cravings and nibbāna in 16-05, the eight factors in 16-06—once the list is issued, the general account is complete.

For the General Reader

This unit is the “switchboard” of the four truths; three things are enough to take away: first, the sixteen meanings (four for each truth—suffering is oppression, the conditioned, burning, change …), which are the observation chart for the insight knowledges that follow; second, the four-word compact set—the conditioned, craving, the unconditioned, seeing—one word per truth, to carry with you; third, the reading of the order as a course of treatment—first alarm (suffering), then explanation (origin), then reassurance (cessation), finally practice (path), which is the archetypal structure of the whole book and of Buddhist teaching. The five positions of the word “truth” (§6) clear away a common doubt for you: the sutta’s “truth is one only” and “four truths” do not conflict—the positions differ. Reading on: birth, aging, and death go under the knife in the next unit.

To read this unit in full: vernacular §1–§8 is the complete paragraph-by-paragraph rendering of the list of the four truths and the verse on fourteen modes, the sixteen meanings, the derivation of the four names, the four explanations of noble truth, the three sets of characteristic, function, and manifestation, the verses on the meaning of truth, neither less nor more and order, and the list of birth and the rest.

The twelve phenomena of the truth of suffering go under the knife from the top: the seven positions of the word birth, the seven kinds of suffering, the realism of the seven sources beginning with entry into the womb, the proof of six stanzas—then aging and death, one cut each

The Big Picture — The First Three of the Twelve Phenomena

The last section of the preceding unit issued the list of the twelve phenomena of the truth of suffering; this unit analyzes the first three: birth, aging, death. The form is clear: first the word is examined (the seven positions of the word birth; the two kinds each of aging and death—settling which position this unit takes), then characteristic, function, and manifestation are given, then the judgment “why is it suffering” (suffering as basis), and finally a verse closes. The proportions are extremely uneven: birth alone takes five sections—because the Commentator here places the most realistic passage in the whole book, the suffering rooted in the seven sources beginning with entry into the womb, written from the anatomical position of the womb to the birth passage at delivery, without avoiding the unclean. This is the demonstration of the truth of suffering taught not as abstract terms but as lived experience. 〔Observation〕

§01 The Seven Positions of the Word “Birth” → Vernacular §1

The seven positions of the word “birth” (jāti): used of existence (one birth, two births), of a class (a class of ascetics), of the conditioned characteristic (birth is included in two aggregates), of rebirth-linking (the first mind arising in the mother’s womb), of delivery (the Bodhisatta has just been born), of family (not despised in terms of talk about birth), of noble virtue (born with the noble birth) (vernacular §1). 〔Reading〕 Before the knife, the word is tested—the same technique as the five positions of “truth” in 16-02 §6: first lay out the many positions of one word, then declare which position this unit takes; most doctrinal melees die before this step is over.

§02 The Birth Taken in This Unit; the Characteristic, Function, and Manifestation of Birth → Vernacular §2

What this unit takes: for womb-born beings, the aggregates that occur from rebirth-linking to emergence from the mother’s womb; for the rest, only the aggregates at rebirth-linking—and even this is a qualified statement; in the direct sense, the first appearance of the aggregates of a being taking rebirth in this or that destination is birth. Characteristic, function, manifestation: the first generation in this or that existence as characteristic, handing over as function, emergence here from a past existence as manifestation (or the variety of suffering as manifestation) (vernacular §2). 〔Reading〕 The single word “handing over” (the function) is vivid: birth hands a new set of aggregates into the hands of suffering—the second manifestation, “the variety of suffering,” is precisely the receipt.

§03 Why Birth Is Suffering—The List and Explanation of Seven Kinds of Suffering → Vernacular §3

Birth is suffering because it is the basis (the ground) of many sufferings. Suffering is of seven kinds: intrinsic suffering (bodily and mental painful feeling, suffering by nature and by name), suffering as change (pleasant feeling becoming a cause of suffering when it changes), suffering as formations (equanimous feeling and the formations of the three planes oppressed by rise and fall), concealed suffering (earache and toothache, the burning of lust and hate—known only by asking, harm not evident), unconcealed suffering (the afflictions of the thirty-two punishments—known without asking, harm evident), suffering in the qualified sense (birth and the rest set out in the analysis of the truth of suffering apart from intrinsic suffering—being the basis of suffering), suffering in the direct sense (intrinsic suffering itself). Birth is the basis of the suffering of the states of loss (shown in the Bālapaṇḍita Sutta) and of the suffering rooted in entry into the womb and the rest in the human state among the good destinations, hence suffering (vernacular §3). 〔Reading〕 The seven kinds of suffering are a general table of the taxonomy of suffering: the first three (intrinsic, change, formations) by nature, the middle two (concealed, unconcealed) by visibility, the last two (qualified, direct) by indirect and direct. The item “pleasant feeling is suffering as change” especially deserves a pause: the suffering of pleasure lies not in the moment but in the inevitability of its change.

§04 Suffering Rooted in the Seven Sources Beginning with Entry into the Womb → Vernacular §4

The seven sources written realistically one by one: entry into the womb—not born in blue or red lotuses but below the receptacle of undigested food, above the receptacle of digested food, between belly-lining and backbone, in a cramped, dark, corpse-stinking place, like a worm born in rotten fish or a cesspool, cooked for ten months by the heat of the womb like something baked in a leaf wrapper, like dough, unable to bend or stretch; the mother’s carrying of the womb—dragged and shaken when the mother stumbles, walks, sits, rises, or turns, like a goat in a drunkard’s hands, a young snake in a snake-charmer’s hands; the mother drinks cold water and it is as in a cold hell, swallows hot gruel and it is as under a rain of embers, eats salty and sour things and it is as under the punishment of the lye-bath; the calamity of the womb—when the fetus lies wrong, cut and split in a place not fit for intimates to see; parturition—thrust by the kamma-born winds into a birth passage like a hell-pit, dragged out through the cramped gate of birth, like an elephant through a keyhole, like a hell-being crushed by the crushing mountains; emergence from the mother’s womb—the body like a fresh wound held, washed, and rubbed, like piercing by needle-points and razor-edges; self-inflicted harm—suicide, the self-burning and self-tormenting of the naked ascetics’ observances, refusing food out of anger, hanging oneself; harm inflicted by others—undergoing killing and binding. Birth is the very basis of all this suffering (vernacular §4). 〔Reading〕 This is the most unsparing passage in the whole treatise: it turns “birth is suffering” from a proposition into the scene itself. The Commentator’s similes are all drawn from visible things (goat, young snake, keyhole, dough); what is taught is the method of contemplating the body—only when the starting point is not beautified can one speak of escape.

§05 The Verses on the Suffering of Birth—Six Stanzas → Vernacular §5

Six stanzas verify destination by destination: the burning of the hells, the whips and sticks of the animals, the hunger, thirst, wind, and sun of the petas, the thick darkness and extreme cold of the asuras between the worlds, the long dwelling in the mother’s womb like a hell of excrement and the terror of coming out—every stanza with the same formula: if there were no birth, where would this suffering find a footing? The final stanza gathers it all: wherever and whenever, whatever suffering there is, none of it exists apart from birth—hence the Great Seer declared birth to be suffering first of all (vernacular §5). 〔Reading〕 The six stanzas are one proof by contradiction run through five destinations: suffering needs a footing, and the footing is handed over by birth—so the thorough cessation of suffering can only be the cessation of birth, a cut that runs straight through to the wheel of existence in Chapter 17 and the cutting-off in Chapter 22.

§06 Explanation of Aging, with Verse → Vernacular §6

Aging is of two kinds: aging as a conditioned characteristic, and the oldness of the aggregates included in a single existence (loss of teeth and the rest)—this unit takes the latter. Characteristic, function, manifestation: the maturing of the aggregates as characteristic, leading on to death as function, the loss of youth as manifestation. Its suffering comes from its nature as suffering as formations and also from being the basis of suffering: slackness of the limbs, alteration of the faculties, ugliness, loss of youth, decline of strength, departure of mindfulness and intelligence, contempt from others—bodily and mental suffering all has aging as its cause. The verse follows the same list, adding at the end “contempt of one’s own children” and “falling into foolishness” (vernacular §6). 〔Reading〕 The two harshest entries on aging’s list are not physical: the departure of mindfulness and intelligence, and contempt from one’s own children—the Commentator enters social suffering, too, on aging’s account.

§07 Explanation of Death, with Verse → Vernacular §7

Death is of two kinds: death as a conditioned characteristic, and the cutting off of the continuity of the life faculty included in a single existence—this unit takes the latter; its other names are death conditioned by birth, death by violence, natural death, death by exhaustion of life-span, death by exhaustion of merit. Characteristic, function, manifestation: passing away as characteristic, separation as function, departure from the destination as manifestation. Its suffering lies in being the basis of suffering: the evil person at death sees the signs of evil kamma, the good person cannot bear separation from what is dear—the mental suffering is the same; all people have their joints and sinews cut and their vital spots pierced—the bodily suffering is the same; unbearable, without remedy (vernacular §7). 〔Reading〕 The verse on death is frighteningly even-handed: the evil person sees the signs of kamma, the good person cannot bear separation—at the moment of death, mental suffering is the same for good and evil alike; what can be remedied is not death but birth. With this the three phenomena are analyzed; the remaining nine are in the next unit.

For the General Reader

This unit is for slow reading, especially §4: the seven sources beginning with entry into the womb are the most honest “report on the starting point of life” in the Buddhist canon—read it not to grow weary of the world but to restore “birth is suffering” from a slogan to a verifiable observation. The classification of the seven kinds of suffering (§3) is worth copying down, especially “pleasant feeling is suffering as change”—pleasure is not the opposite of suffering but its delayed form. The formula of the six stanzas can be used as a question to oneself: whatever suffering there is at this moment, if there were no birth, where would it find a footing? The two sections on aging and death remind us: on aging’s account stand “departure of mindfulness and intelligence, contempt of one’s children,” and on death’s account “good and evil alike at the end”—while mindfulness and intelligence remain is exactly the time to work. The remaining nine phenomena (sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, despair; the three encounters; the five aggregates of clinging) continue in the next unit.

To read this unit in full: vernacular §1–§7 is the complete paragraph-by-paragraph rendering of the seven positions of the word birth, the position taken in this unit and its characteristic, function, and manifestation, the seven kinds of suffering, the seven sources beginning with entry into the womb, the six stanzas, the two kinds of aging with verse, and the two kinds of death with verse.

From sorrow to despair is one pot at four stages of cooking; when the twelve phenomena are gathered at the end, all suffering is included in the five aggregates of clinging—as the taste of the sea is in one drop

The Big Picture — The Second Half of the List of the Truth of Suffering, and Its Conclusion

The first three items of the twelve phenomena of the truth of suffering (birth, aging, death) were analyzed one by one in the preceding unit; this unit gathers the remaining nine: sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, despair; association with the disliked, separation from the liked, not getting what one wants; the five aggregates of clinging. The form is orderly: each item is given its characteristic, function, and manifestation, judged as to why it is suffering, then closed with a verse, with the tag “This is the analysis concerning such-and-such” appended. Of the nine items, the first five are the inner spectrum of suffering (burning of mind, raving of speech, oppression of body, oppression of mind, the burning of hate), the middle three are suffering’s forms of encounter (meeting what one hates, parting from what one loves, not getting what one seeks), and the last is the conclusion—the single item of the five aggregates of clinging gathers up all suffering, stated and unstated, and the list of the truth of suffering closes here. 〔Observation〕

§01 Sorrow—The Characteristic of Inner Burning, with Verse → Vernacular §1

Sorrow is the burning of the mind of one touched by the misfortune of relatives and the like: in meaning it is simply grief, yet it has inner burning as characteristic, thoroughly burning the mind as function, and continued sorrowing as manifestation; its suffering comes from intrinsic suffering and from being the basis of suffering. Verse: sorrow pierces the minds of beings like a poisoned arrow, burns again and again like an iron arrow heated in fire, and brings on the ruin of sickness, aging, and death and manifold sufferings (vernacular §1). 〔Reading〕 Note “in meaning simply grief, yet set up separately as sorrow”—the same mental suffering occupies separate items among the twelve phenomena according to its mode: sorrow’s special characteristic is inner burning, burning inside, not yet out of the mouth.

§02 Lamentation—The Characteristic of Wailing, with Verse → Vernacular §2

Lamentation is the verbal raving produced by the same kind of contact: wailing as characteristic, proclaiming the virtues of what is lost and one’s own loss as function, agitation as manifestation; its suffering comes from the nature of suffering as formations and from being the basis of suffering. Verse: one who laments, wounded by the arrow of sorrow, undergoes yet more the unbearable suffering born of the drying of throat, lips, and palate (vernacular §2). 〔Reading〕 Sorrow burns in the mind; lamentation overflows at the mouth—the verse even enters crying until the throat is dry on the account of suffering; the Commentator’s observation is at the physiological level.

§03 Pain and Grief—The Two Sufferings of Body and Mind, with Verses → Vernacular §3

Pain is bodily suffering: oppressing the body as characteristic, producing grief in those weak in wisdom as function, bodily affliction as manifestation; its suffering comes from intrinsic suffering and from bringing on mental suffering. Grief is mental suffering: oppressing the mind as characteristic, distress of mind as function, mental affliction as manifestation; its suffering comes from intrinsic suffering and from bringing on bodily suffering—people possessed by mental suffering weep with hair disheveled, beat their breasts, roll about, toss and turn, throw themselves down head first, take up a knife, swallow poison, hang themselves, throw themselves into fire (vernacular §3). 〔Reading〕 This pair writes out fully the mutual detonation of bodily and mental suffering: bodily pain forces out mental grief (in those weak in wisdom), and mental grief forces out bodily harm (the list of self-injury)—the two verses share one formula, “oppresses this and brings on that”; suffering plays back and forth between body and mind.

§04 Despair—The Simile of Cooking for Despair Together with Sorrow and Lamentation → Vernacular §4

Despair is hate itself produced by excessive mental suffering (some say it is a single phenomenon included in the formations aggregate—the Commentator preserves the view): burning up the mind as characteristic, groaning as function, dejection as manifestation; its suffering comes from the nature of suffering as formations, from burning up the mind, and from causing dejection of the body. A simile then views the three together: sorrow is like cooking inside a pot over a slow fire; lamentation is like boiling over out of the pot over a fierce fire; despair is what remains after boiling over and can boil over no more, cooking on inside the pot until dried up (vernacular §4). 〔Reading〕 The simile of cooking is the best picture in this unit: sorrow, lamentation, and despair are not three sufferings but three degrees of heat in one pot of suffering—simmering, boiling over, burning dry. By the time of “despair,” one cannot even cry any longer; only groaning and dejection remain.

§05 Association with the Disliked—Meeting the Disagreeable, with Verse → Vernacular §5

Association with the disliked is meeting with disagreeable beings and formations: the coming together of the undesirable as characteristic, distressing the mind as function, detriment as manifestation; its suffering comes from being the basis of suffering. Verse: on merely seeing the undesirable there is first suffering in the mind, afterward bodily suffering from their harm—the Great Seer declared the meeting to be suffering because it is the basis of these two sufferings (vernacular §5). 〔Reading〕 “Beings and formations” are named together: association with the disliked is not limited to persons; meetings with circumstances are included; and the verse divides it into two beats, first mind, then body.

§06 Separation from the Liked—Parting from the Agreeable, with Verse → Vernacular §6

Separation from the liked is parting from agreeable beings and formations: the loss of what is dear as characteristic, producing sorrow as function, misfortune as manifestation; its suffering comes from being the basis of the suffering of sorrow. Verse: fools, through separation from relatives and wealth, are struck and pierced by the arrow of sorrow (vernacular §6). 〔Reading〕 Its “function” is producing sorrow—separation itself is one beat, after which it hands the person back to the sorrow of §1; among the twelve phenomena there are relay lines of this kind.

§07 Not Getting What One Wants—Desire for the Unobtainable, with Verse → Vernacular §7

“Whatever one wants and does not get”: the very desire for unobtainable things such as “Oh, that we were not subject to birth!” is this item—desiring unobtainable things as characteristic, searching as function, not obtaining as manifestation; its suffering comes from being the basis of suffering. Verse: wishing for this or that and not getting it, the suffering made of harm that arises—the wish for unobtainable things is its very cause (vernacular §7). 〔Reading〕 The deepest item: what suffers is not “not getting” but desire arising toward the unobtainable—wanting not to age, not to sicken, not to die, this desire itself is established as suffering. The edge of the knife points back to desire, not at the world.

§08 The Five Aggregates of Clinging—The Conclusion That Includes All Suffering → Vernacular §8

The final item concludes: “in brief, the five aggregates of clinging are suffering.” Verse: the suffering beginning with birth that has been stated, and all suffering unstated, does not exist apart from the aggregates of clinging; hence the Great Seer who declared the end of suffering stated in brief that the aggregates of clinging are suffering. What birth and the rest afflict in manifold ways is only the five aggregates of clinging—as fire does fuel, weapons a target, gadflies and mosquitoes cattle, reapers a field, village-raiders a village; and they arise only in the aggregates of clinging—as grasses and creepers in the earth, flowers, fruits, and young shoots on trees. Then one more full ordering: birth is the initial suffering, aging the middle, death the final; burning up under the blow of death is sorrow, wailing because it cannot be borne is lamentation, bodily affliction from the disturbance of the elements is pain, the ordinary person’s ill will over it and the resulting mental affliction is grief, groaning through the growth of sorrow and the rest is despair, the thwarting of desire in those whose wishes are thwarted is not getting what one wants—under examination, only the aggregates of clinging are suffering. To state them one by one could not be finished in many aeons, so the Blessed One included all suffering in the five aggregates of clinging, as the taste of the water of the whole ocean is included in a single drop of water (vernacular §8). 〔Reading〕 Here the twelve phenomena are gathered into one sentence: from beginning to end the bearer of suffering is only the aggregates of clinging. The simile of the drop of water is the closing stroke of the truth of suffering—the list can go on without end; one drop tastes it all. The names and analysis of the five aggregates of clinging are in Chapter 14; the thread “whatever is felt is suffering” links back to the passage on the feeling faculties among the twenty-two faculties (16-01 in this chapter). 〔Observation〕

For the General Reader

This unit is the second half of the anatomy of suffering. Three things can be taken away: first, the simile of cooking—sorrow is simmering in the pot, lamentation is boiling over, despair is burning dry after the boiling over—so that the next time an emotion passes through, you can recognize which degree of heat you are at; second, the edge of the knife in not getting what one wants—the cause of suffering is not that the world withholds, but that desire has arisen toward the unobtainable; this item turns the spearhead from the outer world back to one’s own mind; third, the simile of the drop of water—all suffering, in brief, is only the five aggregates of clinging, a sentence that turns the truth of suffering from a long list into a single thing that can be picked up whole and contemplated. The truth of origin then asks where this suffering arises from—the next unit.

To read this unit in full: vernacular §1–§8 is the complete paragraph-by-paragraph rendering of the five items of sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, and despair each with characteristic, function, manifestation, and verse; the simile of cooking; the three items of association with the disliked, separation from the liked, and not getting what one wants with their verses; and the inclusion in the five aggregates of clinging with the simile of the drop of water.

To end suffering, cut at the cause—the lion goes for the man, not the stick; and nibbāna is not non-existent: a debate of seven rounds establishes “the unborn, the unbecome, the unmade, the unconditioned”

The Big Picture — From Craving to the Argument That Nibbāna Is Real

With the twelve phenomena of the truth of suffering analyzed, this unit runs through origin and cessation in one breath: first the set formula of the truth of origin is explained (the four phrases on craving and the three cravings, §1); then a sharp question is answered—why does the set formula of the truth of cessation speak of the cessation of origin rather than the cessation of suffering (§2)—which leads into the meaning of the phrases of the truth of cessation and the characteristic, function, and manifestation of nibbāna (§3). Then comes the centerpiece of the unit: the discussion of nibbāna—seven consecutive rounds of attack and defense between the Commentator and an objector (§4–§6), arguing from “nibbāna does not exist because it is undiscoverable” all the way through “destruction is nibbāna” and “non-existence is nibbāna,” until it is finally established that nibbāna in the ultimate sense is not non-existent by its nature—“there is the unborn, the unbecome, the unmade, the unconditioned.” This is the place in the whole treatise where nibbāna as a real phenomenon is argued head-on; the words are extremely spare and the edge extremely sharp. 〔Observation〕

§01 Explanation of the Truth of Origin—The Four Phrases on Craving and the Three Cravings → Vernacular §1

The set formula of the truth of origin is explained phrase by phrase: “it is this craving”—this craving; “leading to renewed existence”—having the making of renewed existence as its habit; “accompanied by delight and lust”—become one with delight and lust in meaning; “delighting here and there”—wherever individual existence arises, there it delights; “that is” poses the question; “craving for sensuality, craving for existence, craving for non-existence”—the three cravings are left to the explanation of dependent arising (Chapter 17). The three cravings are made one by the meaning of producing the truth of suffering, and so it is called the noble truth of the origin of suffering (vernacular §1). 〔Reading〕 The phrase “delighting here and there” is the sketch of the truth of origin: wherever one is born—however bad the circumstances—craving can delight on the spot and take root on the spot; the three cravings are made one because there is only one criterion for judging them to be origin: they produce suffering.

§02 Why Cessation Is Taught as the Cessation of Origin; the Verse on the Root; the Lion and the Dog → Vernacular §2

The question is posed: the set formula of the truth of cessation speaks of the cessation of craving (the cessation of origin); why is it called the cessation of suffering? The answer: suffering ceases only through the cessation of origin, not otherwise—when the root is firm, a tree, though cut down, grows again; when the latent tendency of craving is not uprooted, suffering arises again and again. Hence the Blessed One taught the cessation of suffering only by way of the cessation of origin. A simile then distinguishes two family styles: the Tathāgatas behave like lions—they end suffering by working on the cause, not the fruit; the outsiders behave like dogs—with devotion to self-torment and the like they work on the fruit, not the cause (vernacular §2). 〔Reading〕 The simile of the lion and the dog is biting and exact: throw a stick, and the dog chases the stick while the lion goes for the man. Suffering is the stick; origin is the hand that throws it—every practice of the “grit your teeth and bear the result” kind is chasing the stick; the reason the whole treatise’s project of insight knowledge finally points at craving and ignorance lies in this section.

§03 The Meaning of the Phrases of the Truth of Cessation, and the Characteristic, Function, and Manifestation of Nibbāna → Vernacular §3

The set formula is connected phrase by phrase: “of that same craving” takes up what precedes; “fading-away” refers either to the path (through fading-away one is released) or to abandoning—fading-away-and-cessation that is remainderless through the uprooting of the latent tendency is remainderless fading-away-and-cessation; in meaning all of these are synonyms of nibbāna—in the ultimate sense “the noble truth of the cessation of suffering” refers to nibbāna: in dependence on it craving fades away and ceases, hence it is called fading-away and cessation; only in dependence on it is there the giving up and the rest of craving, and in it there is no attachment whatever to the five strands of sensuality, hence it is called giving up, relinquishment, release, non-attachment. Nibbāna has peace as its characteristic, the deathless (or bringing comfort) as its function, and the signless (or non-proliferation) as its manifestation (vernacular §3). 〔Reading〕 The five names of the truth of cessation are all fingers pointing at the moon: fading-away, cessation, giving up, relinquishment, non-attachment—though the names are tied to the stilling of craving, what they point at is the unconditioned phenomenon that lets the stilling happen. The three columns of characteristic, function, and manifestation (peace・the deathless・the signless) are the only positive description nibbāna receives, and not one column more is given.

§04 The Discussion That Nibbāna Is Not Non-Existent—Undiscoverability, and the Way of Practice Not Fruitless → Vernacular §4

First round of the debate: “nibbāna is undiscoverable like a hare’s horn, hence non-existent”—not so: it is discoverable by the means of the appropriate way of practice, as the supramundane mind of others is known through the knowledge of others’ minds; “what the foolish ordinary person does not discover does not exist” does not hold. Second round: if nibbāna did not exist, the way of practice led by right view and included in the three aggregates would be fruitless—but the way of practice is not fruitless, because it leads to nibbāna. Third round: “it suffices that the way of practice leads to ‘non-existence’”—not so: in the non-existence of the past and the future there is no attainment of nibbāna. Fourth round: “the non-existence of present phenomena is nibbāna”—not so: the non-existence of present phenomena is impossible (if non-existent, they would be non-present); and at the moment of the path there is the arising of the nibbāna element with residue remaining, so to call it non-existence is a fault. Fifth round: “at that time the defilements are not present, so there is no fault”—not so: then even before the moment of the noble path the defilements would not exist, and the noble path would become useless (vernacular §4). 〔Reading〕 The five rounds share one opponent, a common undertone: reading nibbāna as pure negation (non-existence, absence). The Commentator’s counterattack lands on the same point every time—if nibbāna were merely non-existence, the real efficacy of path and fruit would have nowhere to rest. The sentence “what the foolish ordinary person does not discover does not exist” especially deserves remembering: undiscoverability judges the rank of the observer, not the existence or non-existence of the object.

§05 Refutation of “Destruction Is Nibbāna” → Vernacular §5

Sixth round: “the sutta says ‘whatever is the destruction of lust,’ hence destruction is nibbāna”—not so: then the fruit of arahantship too would become mere destruction (being indicated by the same formula); and nibbāna would become temporary, with the characteristics of the conditioned, attainable without regard to right effort—included in the conditioned, it would be burned by the fires of lust and the rest, and being burned, it would be suffering. Seventh round: “after destruction there is no further occurrence; that non-occurrence is nibbāna”—not so: there is no such destruction; even if there were, it would not escape the earlier faults; and the noble path too would become nibbāna (since the path brings about the destruction of the faults, it too is called destruction). The correct account: nibbāna is the decisive support of that destruction called the cessation that is non-arising, and so is called destruction by the figurative designation “of what it is the decisive support.” A supplementary question: why not state it by its own characteristic?—Because it is extremely subtle: subtle to the point of bringing on the Blessed One’s disinclination to teach, and to be seen only by the noble eye (vernacular §5). 〔Reading〕 The distinction concerning “destruction” is the finest cut in the unit: destruction is an event, nibbāna is what it rests on—treat the event as the terminus and nibbāna collapses into the conditioned. The final words, “extremely subtle,” are movingly honest: even the set formula approaches it through synonyms and figurative designations, because at the point of its own characteristic it is visible only to the noble eye—at this point the treatise hands the baton back to practice and realization.

§06 The Qualities of Nibbāna—Unshared, Beginningless, Permanent; With Residue and Without Residue → Vernacular §6

The qualities are stated positively: to be attained by one possessed of the path, hence unshared; having no former limit, hence unoriginated—“it exists only when there is the path” is not so: nibbāna is only to be attained by the path, not to be produced; unoriginated, hence without aging and death, hence permanent. “Then atoms and the rest are also permanent”—not so: there is no reason, the characteristic of the reason is not established, and atoms themselves are not established. Hence only nibbāna is permanent; transcending the nature of materiality, it is immaterial; the consummation of the Buddhas has no distinction, hence one consummation only. The distinction of with residue remaining and without residue remaining: where the defilements are stilled but the residue remains, with residue remaining is made known on that basis; where one has abandoned origin and the future fruit of kamma is destroyed, so that after the final mind the aggregates do not arise and those that have arisen disappear, without residue remaining is made known on the basis of the non-existence of the residue. The concluding proof: it can be reached by the distinction of knowledge accomplished through unremitting endeavor, and there is the word of the Omniscient One—nibbāna in the ultimate sense is not non-existent by its nature: “Bhikkhus, there is the unborn, the unbecome, the unmade, the unconditioned” (vernacular §6). 〔Reading〕 “To be attained, not produced” is the pivot of this section: the path does not manufacture nibbāna, the path arrives at nibbāna—whatever is manufactured must belong to the conditioned; what is arrived at may be unborn from the first. The distinction of with and without residue is also made perfectly clear: what is distinguished is the basis of the designation (whether the residue remains), not a twofold nibbāna. The closing citation, “there is the unborn, the unbecome, the unmade, the unconditioned,” establishes one “there is” through four “un-”s—the unit’s seven rounds of debate come to rest on this one sentence of scripture. 〔Observation〕

For the General Reader

This unit answers two great questions. First question: where should one start in ending suffering?—The simile of the lion and the dog gives the answer: the dog chases the stick, the lion goes for the one who threw it; suffering is the stick, craving is the hand; to fell a tree, cut the root. Second question: is nibbāna “nothing at all”?—Seven rounds of debate take this misunderstanding apart piece by piece: if nibbāna were mere non-existence, the practice of the path would have no fruit to reach and the noble path would have no use; nibbāna is “the unborn, the unbecome, the unmade, the unconditioned”—four negations fence in one reality, subtle to the point of being visible only to the noble eye, yet by means attainable along the path. If the seven rounds of argument are too much, remember just two sentences: cessation is at the cause, and nibbāna is not non-existent. The truth of the path then tells how to walk—the next unit.

To read this unit in full: vernacular §1–§6 is the complete paragraph-by-paragraph rendering of the phrase-by-phrase explanation of the set formula of the truth of origin, the verse on the root and the simile of the lion and the dog, the phrases of the truth of cessation and the characteristic, function, and manifestation of nibbāna, the five rounds of debate that nibbāna is not non-existent, the refutation of “destruction is nibbāna” and the answer of extreme subtlety, and the qualities of nibbāna with the distinction of with and without residue.

The eight factors occur together in a single moment, each doing its own work; then four modes fire in succession—the four views dispelled by knowledge, the phenomena included in the path, seven sets of similes, the tetrad and emptiness

The Big Picture — The Anatomy of the Path and the General Modes of the Four Truths

This unit takes its title from its first section: the opening passage is the proper explanation of the truth of the path—each factor of the noble eightfold path is given its characteristic, function, and manifestation (vernacular §1); and under the same section the base text goes on to open four of the general modes of the four truths: the task of knowledge (§2), the distinction of what is included (§3), simile (§4), tetrad (§5), emptiness (§6)—modes that no longer speak only of the truth of the path but turn the four truths as a whole over and over for examination. It reads most smoothly in two halves: first see how the eight factors occur together in a single moment (this is the point of the section as the Commentator himself marks it—the chapter on the aggregates already explained the eight phenomena in meaning, and here the division of labor in their simultaneous operation is treated specially), then see how the four truths have their grasping dispelled by knowledge, are lit up by similes, and are scraped to the bottom by tetrad and emptiness. 〔Observation〕

§01 The Characteristic, Function, and Manifestation of Each Factor of the Noble Eightfold Path → Vernacular §1

The Commentator first declares: these eight phenomena are already clear in meaning in the explanation of the aggregates; here the point is to show the distinction among them as they occur together in a single moment. Right view is the eye of wisdom of the practicing meditator, with nibbāna as its object, uprooting the latent tendency of ignorance—right seeing as characteristic, elucidating the elements as function, dispelling the darkness of ignorance as manifestation; right intention, associated with it, fixes the mind on the state of nibbāna—right fixing as characteristic, absorption as function; right speech abstains from wrong speech—embracing as characteristic, abstaining as function; right action abstains from killing and the rest—originating as characteristic; right livelihood is the purification of right speech and right action, abstaining from scheming and the rest—cleansing as characteristic, the occurrence of livelihood according to the true way as function; right effort stands on the ground of virtue and cuts off laziness—exertion as characteristic, the non-arising of unarisen unwholesome states as function; right mindfulness shakes off wrong mindfulness, the non-forgetting of the mind—establishing as characteristic, non-forgetting as function; right concentration is the one-pointedness of a mind guarded by mindfulness—non-distraction as characteristic, coordinating as function, the abandoning of wrong concentration as manifestation (vernacular §1). 〔Reading〕 The ordering of the eight factors is a production line: only after seeing can one intend; only after intending does one guard speech, action, and livelihood (three factors that together form the ground of virtue); only standing on the ground of virtue does one arouse effort; in effort mindfulness becomes established; only when mindfulness guards does concentration come about—each factor is “associated with” the one before. Occurring together in a single moment is not eight things standing in line; it is eight faces of one path-mind taking their places at once.

§02 The Task of Knowledge of the Truths—Comprehension and Penetration; the Four Views Dispelled by the Four Knowledges → Vernacular §2

Knowledge of the truths is of two kinds: knowledge of comprehension, mundane, occurring with respect to cessation and the path in dependence on hearsay and the like; knowledge of penetration, supramundane, penetrating the four truths by its task with cessation as its object—“whoever sees suffering also sees the origin of suffering, the cessation of suffering, the way leading to the cessation of suffering”; its task is left to the purification by knowledge and vision (Chapter 22). Among the mundane knowledges: knowledge of suffering wards off identity view, knowledge of origin the annihilationist view, knowledge of cessation the eternalist view, knowledge of the path the view of non-action. Or else: knowledge of suffering wards off the wrong practice regarding the fruit (perceiving permanence, beauty, pleasure, and self where there is none), knowledge of origin the wrong practice regarding the cause (taking a sovereign deity, a primal substance, time, inherent nature, and the like as the cause when they are not), knowledge of cessation the wrong practice regarding cessation (grasping the immaterial realm or the summit of the world as final release), knowledge of the path the wrong practice regarding the means (grasping indulgence in sensual pleasure and devotion to self-torment as the path of purity). Verse: concerning the world, the origin of the world, the passing away of the world, and the means of reaching it, a person remains bewildered so long as he does not understand the truths (vernacular §2). 〔Reading〕 Each of the four knowledges is matched to one view and one wrong practice—this is the side of the four truths as antidote: each truth cures one specific delusion. The two sets of matching (four views／four wrong practices) are worth remembering side by side: the first set treats “self,” the second treats “mistaking cause, effect, and the way out.”

§03 The Distinction of What Is Included—What Each of the Four Truths Includes → Vernacular §3

The truth of suffering includes all phenomena except craving and the taintless phenomena; the truth of origin includes the thirty-six courses of craving; the truth of cessation is unmixed; and the truth of the path, through the eight factors as doors, includes the requisites of enlightenment: under the door of right view, the basis of power of investigation, the wisdom faculty, the power of wisdom, and the enlightenment factor of investigation of phenomena; under right intention, the three thoughts; under right speech, the four kinds of verbal good conduct; under right action, the three kinds of bodily good conduct; under right livelihood, fewness of wishes and contentment—and because right speech, right action, and right livelihood are the virtue dear to the noble ones, to be taken up with the hand of faith, the faith faculty, the power of faith, and the basis of power of desire also follow from this; under right effort, the four right endeavors, the faculty and power of energy, and the enlightenment factor of energy; under right mindfulness, the four foundations of mindfulness, the faculty and power of mindfulness, and the enlightenment factor of mindfulness; under right concentration, the three concentrations, concentration of mind, the faculty and power of concentration, and the four enlightenment factors of rapture, tranquillity, concentration, and equanimity (vernacular §3). 〔Reading〕 This section hangs the whole set of thirty-seven requisites of enlightenment back under the eight factors—the truth of the path is not one item alongside the foundations of mindfulness, the right endeavors, the faculties, powers, and enlightenment factors; it is their general outline. The sentence “virtue is taken up with the hand of faith” especially repays reflection: in this table faith is not a ninth factor; it is the hand that holds the virtue.

§04 Similes—Seven Sets: The Burden, the Disease, the Famine, and the Rest → Vernacular §4

Seven sets of four similes: burden, taking up the burden, laying down the burden, means of laying it down; disease, cause of the disease, subsiding of the disease, medicine; famine, bad rain, plenty, good rain; enemy, root of the enmity, uprooting of the enmity, means of uprooting; poison tree, root of the tree, cutting of the root, means of cutting; fear, root of the fear, freedom from fear, means of attaining it; near shore, great flood, far shore, effort of reaching it (vernacular §4). 〔Reading〕 The seven sets share one skeleton: present condition, cause, release, method—the meter of the four truths is stamped once by each of seven situations of human life; the set of disease and medicine is the oldest and the set of near shore and far shore comes last, moving just so from the sickroom to the ferry landing.

§05 The Analysis by Tetrad → Vernacular §5

The tetrad: there is what is suffering but not a noble truth (the phenomena associated with the path and the fruits of asceticism—suffering by the nature of suffering as formations, not a noble truth); what is a noble truth but not suffering (cessation); what is both suffering and a noble truth (the five aggregates of clinging except craving); what is neither suffering nor a noble truth (the phenomena associated with the path and the fruits of asceticism, in the sense of “that for whose full understanding the holy life is lived”). The same method for origin and the rest (vernacular §5). 〔Reading〕 The tetrad is a precision instrument: the same group of phenomena (path and fruit) changes cell under two criteria—by “impermanent, therefore suffering” it is suffering; by “that for whose full understanding the holy life is lived” it is not. What this mode teaches is awareness of the criterion: before saying whether a phenomenon is suffering, first ask which measure is being used.

§06 Emptiness—No Experiencer and No Doer, with Two Verses → Vernacular §6

In the ultimate sense all the truths are empty by the absence of an experiencer, a doer, one who attains final nibbāna, and one who goes. Verse: “There is only suffering, but no one who suffers; no doer, but only the deed. There is quenching, but no one who attains final nibbāna; there is the path, but no one who goes.” Again: the first two truths are empty of permanence, beauty, pleasure, and self, the deathless state is empty of self, the path is devoid of permanence, pleasure, and self; or three truths are empty of cessation and cessation is empty of the three; or the cause is empty of the fruit (no suffering in origin, no cessation in the path—unlike those who assert a primal nature, for whom the womb holds the fruit), and the fruit is empty of the cause (suffering and origin, cessation and the path, are not conjoined—unlike the dyad of atoms of those who assert inherence). Verse: “Here three are empty of cessation, and quenching too is empty of those three; the cause is empty of the fruit, and the fruit too is empty of its cause” (vernacular §6). 〔Reading〕 At the summit the four truths hollow themselves out: suffering without a sufferer, the path without one who goes—even “the one who practices the path” is not in the ultimate sense. The two incidental refutations (the womb-cause of the primal-nature school, the atoms of the inherence school) are named without being developed; they are the Commentator’s boundary stones against outside doctrines. This verse is of one blood with the “only name-and-form, no person” of the purification of view (Chapter 18). 〔Observation〕

For the General Reader

Take first the production-line reading of the eight factors: right view opens the eye, right intention sets the direction, the three factors of speech, action, and livelihood lay the ground of virtue, right effort lights the fire, right mindfulness guards the door, right concentration completes the work—the eight factors are not eight rules but eight faces of one path-mind in a single moment. Then take one set of similes to carry with you: the four truths as disease, cause of the disease, subsiding of the disease, medicine—the easiest calling card in the whole book to remember. If there is strength to spare, memorize the verse of §6: “There is only suffering, but no one who suffers … there is the path, but no one who goes”—it will be waiting for you at the purification of view in Chapter 18. The next unit passes the four truths through the last round of modes (the analysis by singlefold and the rest), and the chapter closes.

To read this unit in full: vernacular §1–§6 is the complete paragraph-by-paragraph rendering of the characteristic, function, and manifestation of each of the eight factors, the two knowledges of comprehension and penetration with the dispelling of the four views and four wrong practices, the phenomena included in the four truths, the seven sets of similes, the analysis by tetrad, and the threefold reading of emptiness.

Each of the four truths is opened from singlefold to sixfold, and they mirror one another as similar and dissimilar; the two similes of the three friends picking flowers and the goldsmith turning the coin explain “who helps whom” to a hair’s breadth

The Big Picture — The Last Two Modes and the Close of the Chapter

The fourteen modes of the four truths reach their last two: singlefold and the rest (opening each truth from singlefold to sixfold according to different divisions) and similar and dissimilar (setting the four truths against one another in pairs to show the aspects they share and those in which they differ). Between them are inserted the two most vivid similes in the chapter—the three friends picking flowers and the goldsmith turning the coin—answering a fine question: when the eight factors of the path are included in the three aggregates of virtue, concentration, and wisdom, by what right do energy and mindfulness go into the aggregate of concentration, and intention into the aggregate of wisdom? The answer is inclusion by task: they are helpers. The chapter closes with the citation on piercing the hair as its finale—penetrating the four truths is harder than piercing the tip of a hair split into a hundred strands with another tip—and a closing verse ends the chapter. 〔Observation〕

§01 Suffering, Origin, and Cessation as Singlefold through Sixfold → Vernacular §1

Suffering: singlefold by its nature of occurrence; twofold as name and form; threefold as the three kinds of existence; fourfold as the four nutriments; fivefold as the five aggregates of clinging. Origin: singlefold as what causes occurrence; twofold as associated and not associated with view; threefold as the three cravings; fourfold as what is to be abandoned by the four paths; fivefold as delight in visible form and the rest; sixfold as the six bodies of craving. Cessation: singlefold by its nature as the unconditioned element; twofold in a qualified sense as with residue remaining and without residue remaining; threefold as the stilling of the three kinds of existence; fourfold as what is to be attained by the four paths; fivefold as the stilling of the five delights; sixfold as the destruction of the six bodies of craving (vernacular §1). 〔Reading〕 The same truth opens and closes freely under different scales—what this mode trains is the hand that changes scale: suffering is at bottom one thing (occurrence), yet it can be spread out as the five aggregates of clinging; cessation is at bottom one thing (the unconditioned), yet it can be divided into four by the four paths that cut it off. The number is not a substance; it is a way of dividing.

§02 The Path as Singlefold and the Rest; the Citation on Inclusion in the Three Aggregates → Vernacular §2

The path: singlefold as what is to be developed; twofold as serenity and insight, or seeing and development; threefold as the three aggregates. The sutta to Visākha is cited: it is not that the three aggregates are included in the eightfold path, but that the eightfold path is included in the three aggregates—as a city in a kingdom; right speech, right action, and right livelihood enter the aggregate of virtue, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration the aggregate of concentration, right view and right intention the aggregate of wisdom. The three beginning with right speech enter the aggregate of virtue by their own kind; though the wording of the scripture is the locative “in the aggregate of virtue,” its meaning should be understood by the instrumental. But concentration by its own nature cannot be absorbed in the object; only when energy accomplishes exertion and mindfulness accomplishes not floating away, and it has their help, can it (vernacular §2). 〔Reading〕 The simile “a city included in a kingdom” first sets the direction right: the larger includes the smaller. The question that follows is finer: among the three factors of the aggregate of concentration, only concentration is the proper member, while energy and mindfulness are outside help—and that is where the similes have to come on stage.

§03 Concentration with Energy and Mindfulness—The Simile of the Three Friends Picking Flowers → Vernacular §3

Three friends enter a park to celebrate the festival of the constellation: one sees a campaka tree in full bloom and raises his hand but cannot reach it; the second bends and offers his back, but standing on it he still sways; the third offers his shoulder—standing on the back, holding the shoulder, he picks the flowers as he pleases and adorns himself. The application: the three phenomena arisen together are like the three friends; the object is like the flowering tree; concentration is like the one who raises his hand and cannot reach; energy is like the one who gives his back; mindfulness is like the one who gives his shoulder—energy exerts, mindfulness does not float away, and concentration with their help can be absorbed in the object with one-pointedness. Hence in the aggregate of concentration only concentration is included by its own kind, while energy and mindfulness are included by task (vernacular §3). 〔Reading〕 This simile turns “association” into bodily movement: concentration is not an achievement accomplished alone; it is a flower reached only by standing on energy’s back and holding mindfulness’s shoulder. Those who have practiced concentration will mostly smile in recognition at this section—distraction is not that concentration is too weak; it is usually that the back and the shoulder are not in place.

§04 Wisdom and Applied Thought—The Simile of the Goldsmith Turning the Coin, and the Conclusion → Vernacular §4

The aggregate of wisdom likewise: wisdom by its own nature cannot determine the object as “impermanent, suffering, not-self”; only when applied thought strikes again and again and presents it can it. As a goldsmith looking at a kahāpaṇa: he cannot turn the coin with his eyes alone, but by turning it again and again with his knuckles he can look at it from this side and that. Applied thought has fixing the mind as its characteristic and striking and thorough striking as its function; as if striking, as if turning, it takes up and presents the object again and again, and only then can wisdom determine it. Hence in the aggregate of wisdom only right view is included by its own kind, while right intention is included by task. With the path’s threefold division established, it is further fourfold by way of the path of stream-entry and the rest (vernacular §4). 〔Reading〕 The simile of the goldsmith and the simile of the flowers are a pair: concentration needs to be held up (exerted and kept steady); wisdom needs to be turned (the object turned to show its faces). “Applied thought” here is not a wandering thought; it is wisdom’s knuckle—turning the same object until all three faces, impermanent, suffering, and not-self, have been seen.

§05 The General Account of All the Truths as Singlefold through Fourfold → Vernacular §5

The general account of all the truths: singlefold by their nature of not being unreal, or as to be directly known; twofold as mundane and supramundane, or conditioned and unconditioned; threefold as to be abandoned by seeing, to be abandoned by development, and not to be abandoned; fourfold as to be fully understood, to be abandoned, to be realized, to be developed (vernacular §5). 〔Reading〕 The last division is the four tasks regarding the four truths (full understanding・abandoning・realization・development)—the fourteen modes make a great circuit and come to rest on “what is to be done with” each truth: the terminus of classification is the door of practice.

§06 Similar and Dissimilar; the Citation on Piercing the Hair; the Closing Verse and the Close of the Chapter → Vernacular §6

The mode of similar and dissimilar: all the truths are similar to one another—not unreal, empty of self, hard to penetrate. For the hardness of penetration the Blessed One’s question to Ānanda is cited: is it harder to shoot arrow after arrow through a keyhole, or to pierce the tip of a hair split into a hundred strands with another tip?—the latter is harder; and to penetrate the four truths as they really are is harder still. By the determination of their own characteristics they are dissimilar, set against one another in six pairs: the first two are similar (deep, mundane, with taints) and dissimilar (fruit and cause, to be fully understood and to be abandoned); the last two are similar (deep, supramundane, without taints) and dissimilar (object and possessor of the object, to be realized and to be developed); the first and third are similar (indicated by way of the fruit) and dissimilar (conditioned and unconditioned); the second and fourth are similar (indicated by way of the cause) and dissimilar (exclusively wholesome and exclusively unwholesome); the first and fourth are similar (conditioned) and dissimilar (mundane and supramundane); the second and third are similar (neither of the trainee nor of the one beyond training) and dissimilar (with an object and without an object). The closing verse: thus should the wise understand, by these characteristics and reasons, the similar and dissimilar in the noble truths. The colophon of the chapter: in the Visuddhimagga, composed for the gladdening of good people, in the section on the development of wisdom, the sixteenth chapter, called the Explanation of the Faculties and Truths, is concluded (vernacular §6). 〔Reading〕 The six pairs are a precise table of kinship: take any two truths and one can say where they are of one family and where they part—only when this table can be recited smoothly are the four truths truly in hand. The citation on piercing the hair sets in advance the level of difficulty for the training in wisdom: this is not the difficulty of understanding terms but the difficulty of penetration as it really is; it is precisely because it is so hard that the whole road of the seven purifications (Chapters 18–22) is needed afterward. 〔Observation〕

For the General Reader

This unit is suited to being read as the “closing review” of the four truths: first use §1 and §5 to practice changing scale (counting each truth from singlefold to sixfold), then use §6 to practice comparing in pairs (the six pairs of similar and dissimilar)—after two rounds the four truths in your hand are no longer four nouns but a living structure that opens, closes, and mirrors itself. Please take the two similes with you: picking the flowers (concentration stands on energy’s back and holds mindfulness’s shoulder) and turning the coin (wisdom relies on the knuckle of applied thought to turn the object and see its faces)—in later practice of serenity and insight they will serve better than any definition. With this the faculties and truths are finished and the coordinates of the five units on the ground of wisdom are complete; how the body of wisdom begins to contemplate continues from Chapter 17 on dependent arising and Chapter 18 on the purification of view.

To read this unit in full: vernacular §1–§6 is the complete paragraph-by-paragraph rendering of the opening of suffering, origin, cessation, and path each from singlefold to sixfold, the citation on inclusion in the three aggregates with the two similes, the general account of all the truths, the six pairs of similar and dissimilar, the citation on piercing the hair, the closing verse, and the colophon of the chapter.