The Nature of the Eight-factored Ariya, Lokuttara Magga in the Suttas Compared to the Pali Commentarial Idea of it as Momentary

Religions of South Asia 8.1 (2014) 31-52 doi:10.1558/rosa.v8i1.31 ISSN (print) 1751-2689 ISSN (online) 1751-2697 The Nature of the Eight-factored Ariya, Lokuttara Magga in the Suttas Compared to the Pali Commentarial Idea of it as Momentary PETEr HarvEy1 Emeritus Professor of Buddhist Studies University of Sunderland b.peter.harvey@gmail.com ABSTRACT: It is widely recognized that the key practice of Theravāda Buddhism is the ‘Noble Eightfold Path’ (ariya aṭṭhaṅgika magga). While this is sometimes loosely seen as encompassing all Theravāda Buddhist practices, the developed tradition, as expressed in the Pali commentaries, sees it as a momentary state, the culmination of prior practice, that glimpses the transcendent Nibbāna and is immediately followed by the attainment of ‘fruit’ consciousnesses that signiies becoming a stream-enterer, once-returner, non-returner or Arahat. In the Pali Suttas, however, the noble path can be seen to be a speciic kind of calm and open mind state that is a skilful, eight-factored method. Once it arises it is certain to bring stream-entry, and its seeing of Nibbāna, later in the present life, but for this it needs to be developed to full strength, which usually takes some period of time, as a person intently works to directly see the unconditioned. KEYWORDS: Abhidhamma; emptiness; momentariness; Noble Eight-factored Path; stream-entry; Theravāda; transcendent. In this article, I wish to investigate the idea of the Eight-factored Path as ariya, or noble. To begin, I just wish to note that though we are used to hearing of the ‘Noble Truths’, I think that the ariya-saccas are in fact ‘true realities for the noble ones’, that is, only the spiritually ennobled really see them in their fullness (Harvey 2009). This is why the Buddha only taught on the ariya-saccas, including the ariya magga, to those who were in a prepared state, with a calm and open mind, ready to beneit from having them pointed out. 1. Peter Harvey is editor of Buddhist Studies Review, co-founder of the UK Association for Buddhist Studies, and author of: The Selless Mind: Personality, Consciousness and Nirvana in Early Buddhism (Curzon, 1995); An Introduction to Buddhist Ethics: Foundations, Values and Issues (Cambridge University Press, 2000); and An Introduction to Buddhism: Teachings, History and Practices (2nd edn, Cambridge University Press, 2013). © Equinox Publishing ltd 2014, Oice 415, The Workstation, 15 Paternoster Row, Sheield S1 2Bx. RElIgIONS Of SOUTh ASIA 32 Before turning to the ariya magga, I will start by briely looking at how certain persons are seen as ‘ariya’ in the Pali Suttas. NOBlE PERSONS MN I.280 explains: and how is a bhikkhu a noble one (ariyo)? Evil, unskilful (pāpakā akusalā) states that deile (saṅkilesikā), bring renewal of being (ponabhavikā), give trouble, ripen in dukkha, and lead to future birth, ageing and death are far away from him (ārakā’ssa). The same explanation is given for how a person is an Arahat. AN Iv.145 says that by being far (ārakā) from the irst three of the ten fetters, and from attachment, hatred, delusion and conceit, one is a noble one from ‘slaying [them], as an enemy’ (arīhatattā), and one is an Arahat from being far from (ārakattā) them.2 It is also said that the Buddha is ‘the Noble One (ariyo)’ (SN V.435), by implication the most noble one. Vibh 259 thus explains that noble ones are ‘Buddhas and Buddha-disciples (Buddha-sāvakā)’. The above kind of explanation is taken up in the commentaries, and informs their explanation of the Noble Eight-factored Path: Ariyo: it is noble because of being distant (ārakattā) from those deilements which are destroyed by the respective paths, because of making the noble state (ariyabhāva-karattā), and because of making obtainable the noble fruition… ‘It is traced out (maggīyati) by those seeking Nibbāna, or it traces out (maggati) Nibbāna, or it goes killing (mārento gacchati) the deilements’, therefore it is called ‘path’ (maggo). (Vibh-a 114; cf. Gethin 2001: 223) rupert Gethin (2001: 205) points out that ‘the term ariya/ārya in post-Nikāya literature…is applied to anything that is directly associated with the worldtranscending (lokuttara) knowledge of the stream-attainer, the once-returner, the non-returner and the arahant/arhat’. The members of the Buddha’s ‘community of disciples’ (sāvaka-saṅgha), which is ‘the unsurpassed ield of puñña (karmic fruitfulness or “merit”) for the world’ are identiied at AN Iv.292 (cf. DN III.255) as: The stream-enterer (sotāpanno), one practising for realisation of the stream-entryfruit (sotāpatti-phala-sacchikiriyāya paṭipanno), the once-returner, one practising for realisation of the once-returner-fruit, the non-returner, one practising for realisation of the non-returner-fruit, the Arahat, one practising for Arahatship. These are the kinds of people that came to be identiied as the ariya-puggalas, noble persons.3 SN v.202 makes it clear that the least developed of the eight 2. Cf. AKB III.44c-d: ‘What is an Āryan? One in whom the Path arises, that is the taintless [anāśrava] Path. he is an Āryan because he “has gone far” (ārād yātaḥ) from evil, since he possesses disconnection (visaṃyoga, 2.55d) from the deilements.’ 3. Pug 14. for a detailed discussion of these eight in the Suttas, see harvey (2013), and see also Anālayo (2012b: 77–80). © Equinox Publishing Ltd 2014. HArVEy ThE NATURE Of ThE EIghT-fACTORED ArIyA 33 is the one practising for realization of the stream-entry-fruit, that is, for the fruit that is stream-entry, and the highest is the Arahat. One who is not any of these kinds of person is an ‘ordinary person’ (puthujjana) (AN Iv.372). The listing of sāvaka types at MN I.477-79 has them as Arahats and six types of ‘trainees’ (sekhas), the lowest two of which are the Dhamma-follower (dhammānusārī) and faith-follower (saddhānusārī). as the latter have not yet destroyed any taints (āsavās), they must be two forms of the person practising for realization of the fruit that is stream-entry, as no fetters are destroyed prior to stream-entry. By implication, the above persons, other than the ordinary person, make up the ‘noble assembly’ (ariyā parisā), one in which the monks have understood, as it really is, ‘this is dukkha’ and so on. an assembly where this is not the case is an ‘ignoble’ (anariyā) one (AN I.71-72). The above ideas imply that a ‘noble one’, in being far from deilements, is a ‘pure one’. While for Brahmanism, an ariya/ārya is ideally free from ritual impurity, for Buddhism an ariya is free from moral and spiritual impurity. as the Buddha is ‘the Noble One’, the practice he teaches is often referred to as the ‘discipline of the Noble One’ (ariyassa vinayo),4 and AN v.263-68 explains that in contrast to Brahmin puriicatory rites, puriication ‘in the disciple of the Noble One’ is abstaining from the ten unskilful ways of acting—three of body, four of speech and three of mind—and doing the opposite, including having right view, in the sense of belief in the principles of karma and rebirth and the possibility of direct spiritual insight (AN v.268). for Brahmanism, it is clear from the Manu Smṛti 10.67-68 that only the top three varṇas are truly ārya ones. Members of one of these classes are ‘twiceborn’ (dvija), as their males underwent the upanayana initiation, after which they could study the Vedas (flood 1996: 49, 62–63). An echo of this, though with a diferent meaning, is seen in Buddhist texts, where it is said that those with unshakeable faith in the Buddha (i.e. stream-enterers etc.) are ‘born’ of his mouth, and born of the Dhamma (DN III.84) and where the one-time murderous bandit Aṅgulimāla refers to his change of life after having been taught by the Buddha as when ‘I was born with the noble birth (ariyāya jātiyiyā jāto)’ (MN II.103). Similarly, the Arahat is seen as the true Brahmin (Dhp 383-423). These are examples of how the Buddhist Suttas consistently took Brahmanical language and recast its meaning. THE THrEE ArIyA KHANDHAS AND ThE STRUCTURAl PlACINg AND NATURE Of ThE ArIyA MAggA at DN I.206, Ānanda explains that the Buddha was a speaker in praise of the ‘noble collection of virtue’ (ariyo sīla-kkhandho), the ‘noble collection of samādhi’ 4. ‘Death’ in this is said to be when the Buddha and fellow monks will not admonish a monk, due to his not submitting to training (AN I.112-13). © Equinox Publishing Ltd 2014. RElIgIONS Of SOUTh ASIA 34 and the ‘noble collection of wisdom (paññā)’. These are respectively attained: (i) when a Buddha arises and teaches Dhamma, a person is inspired, ordains, and perfects sīla through restraint; (ii) when he guards the sense-doors and goes on to attain the four jhānas; (iii) when he develops various insights, and the higher knowledges (abhiññās) up to knowing the four true realities for the noble ones and ending the taints. At this stage, there is nothing more to be done. Now we know that the irst two factors of the magga are classiied as paññā, the next three as sīla, and the last three as samādhi (MN I.301), which puts things in a diferent order from the usual sīla, samādhi, paññā, which can be confusing. however, the Noble Eight-factored Path is only part of the collections of sīla, samādhi and paññā (MN I.301), albeit the most important part. Gethin (2001: 212) sees it as the ‘essential distillation’ of them. The sīla, samādhi and paññā order seems to be primarily the order in which these three aspects are fully perfected in those who utilize the Noble Eightfactored Path. This is seen from AN I.231-32, which explains that: • • • stream-enterers and once-returners have completely fulilled (paripūrakārī) sīla, so as to quickly re-establish their adherence to the monastic training rules after any small lapses from them, and they have some measure (mattaso kārī) of samādhi and wisdom. non-returners have also completely fulilled their samādhi, and they have a measure of wisdom, and Arahats have completely fulilled all three. Stream-enterers have already experienced the sīla, samādhi and paññā aspects of the Noble Eightfold Path, but having done so, only their sīla is, in their general conduct and not just when in magga-related states, perfected. While the Eight-factored Path is not a sequence of eight steps, it is said that ‘right view comes irst’ (MN III.71), and that ‘for one of right view, right resolve springs up. for one of right resolve, right speech springs up’, and so on up to the springing up of right concentration (SN V.2). This, however, seems to be an order of conditionality, an order in which the component factors of the magga are assembled, before—together —they can do their eight-factored work. Right view comes irst, as one must begin with a clear vision and understanding of what factors one is going to assemble, and why. As Bhikkhu Bodhi puts it (1984: 12), the factors can be ‘described as components rather than as steps, comparable to the intertwining strands of a single cable that requires the contributions of all for maximal strength’. The magga, then, is not a ‘path’ as a series of steps, but a particular way of approach, a way of operating, an orientation that is fully equipped only when it has eight factors. It can then do its work of perfecting noble sīla, then noble samādhi and then noble paññā. The idea of a magga as a ‘way of approach’ seems supported by the ariya magga being a kind of skilful ‘method’ (ñāya). SN v.19 says that when anyone © Equinox Publishing Ltd 2014. HArVEy ThE NATURE Of ThE EIghT-fACTORED ArIyA 35 undertakes right view through to right concentration—‘the right way of practice (sammā-paṭipadā)’—from this cause, he ‘attains the method, the Dhamma that is skilful (ñāyaṃ dhammaṃ kusalaṃ)’. MN II.181 seems to equate this with ‘the noble world-transcendent (lokuttaraṃ) Dhamma’—and elsewhere ‘skilful dhammas’ is explained as right view to right concentration (SN v.18). THE ABHIDHAMMA-CUm-COmmENTARIAl VIEW Of ThE ArIyA MAggA In the developed Theravādin Abhidhamma view, as expressed in the commentaries, the noble path is lokuttara/world-transcendent and is something that lasts only one micro-moment immediately prior to when stream-entry is attained— and likewise before a person becomes a once-returner, non-returner or Arahat. Whenever any of the four magga-cittas arises, it simultaneously penetrates by four insight-penetrations: by understanding the irst sacca (dukkha), by abandoning the second (craving), by experiencing the third (Nibbāna), and by development (bhāvanā-) of the fourth (the Noble Eight-factored Path; MN-a II.338). The commentaries airm that when a magga eradicates deilements, there is no lokuttara level which lasts for more than one moment: This assiduous practice (āsevanā) is of one citta moment, this development (bhāvanā) is of one citta moment, this cultivation (bahulīkammaṃ) is of one citta moment. There is no lokuttara magga, going to destruction (khayagāmī), of many moments; it is of one citta moment. (MN-a II.364 (on MN I.301), cf. MN-a II.230, MN-a II.404) While a transcendent magga moment is followed by some transcendent ‘fruit’ (phala) moments—‘transcendent’ in that they have Nibbāna as their direct object—even noble persons then return to non-transcendent states of mind. They may re-experience ‘fruit’ moments of their level of spiritual nobility, but to experience the next world-transcendent, noble path moment, they must practise a path which is again lokiya, worldly, in not having Nibbāna as its object of awareness. This commentarial view is expressed when Bhikkhu Bodhi says (1984: ch. 8, 125–26): Because it still deals with the world of conditioned events, the Eightfold Path in the stage of insight is called the mundane path (lokiyamagga). This designation in no way implies that the path of insight is concerned with mundane goals, with achievements falling in the range of saṃsāra. It aspires to transcendence, it leads to liberation, but its objective domain of contemplation still lies within the conditioned world. however, this mundane contemplation of the conditioned serves as the vehicle for reaching the unconditioned, for attaining the supramundane. When insight meditation reaches its climax, when it fully comprehends the impermanence, unsatisfactoriness, and sellessness of everything formed, the mind breaks through the conditioned and realizes the unconditioned, nibbāna. It sees nibbāna with direct vision, makes it an object of immediate realization. © Equinox Publishing Ltd 2014. RElIgIONS Of SOUTh ASIA 36 The breakthrough to the unconditioned is achieved by a type of consciousness or mental event called the supramundane path (lokuttaramagga). The supramundane path occurs in four stages, four ‘supramundane paths’, each marking a deeper level of realization and issuing in a fuller degree of liberation, the fourth and last in complete liberation. After the fruit moments of each of these, which have Nibbāna as their object, then the mind descends to the mundane level again (pp. 128–29). This seems to imply that, as it is a momentary attainment of a prior path of practice, the Noble Eight-factored Path is not itself something that can be practised. Within one micro-moment, there is no time to ‘develop’ or practise anything, in spite of what the commentaries say; such a moment can only be the product of prior development. The world-transcendent magga is like a wafer-thin door, with an eight-lever lock, or eight-digit combination: all eight aspects need to be in place at the same time, and in suicient strength, so that all is aligned simultaneously and noble energy, so to speak, momentarily lows. While the idea of momentary breakthroughs is not problematic in itself, and the irst of them seems to correspond to the arising of the Dhamma-eye in the Suttas, the question arises: what aspects of practice are seen as ‘noble’ and ‘world-transcendent’ in the Suttas? are these understood as precisely or narrowly as in the developed Abhidhamma, or do they have a broader view, in which it makes sense to say that there is an Eight-factored Path that is truly noble and lokuttara, and yet exists for long enough to actually be practised? ThE TWO TYPES Of RIghT VIEW IN ThE SuttAS The developed Abhidhamma idea of a lokuttara magga seems to build on a point in the Mahācattārīsaka Sutta (MN 117), a discourse on ‘noble right concentration (ariyo sammāsamādhi) with its supports and requisites (saupanisaṃ saparikkāraṃ)’, that is, one-pointedness of mind equipped with right view through to right mindfulness (MN III.71). This Sutta makes a clear distinction between two kinds of right view (sammā-diṭṭhi): Right view, I say, is twofold: there is right view that is with taints (sāsavā), partaking of puñña (puñña-bhāgiyā), ripening on the side of attachment (upadhi-vepakkā); and there is right view that is noble (ariyā), taintless (anāsavā), world-transcendent (lokuttarā), a factor of the magga (maggaṅgā). (MN III.72) The irst of these two is belief in the value of giving, in the results of actions, that there is another world, that some beings are reborn spontaneously, and that some people have direct knowledge of such things. The second is: © Equinox Publishing Ltd 2014. HArVEy ThE NATURE Of ThE EIghT-fACTORED ArIyA 37 Wisdom (paññā), the faculty of wisdom, the power of wisdom, the investigationof-states factor of awakening, the right view magga-factor (maggaṅgā) of one who, developing the noble magga (ariya-maggaṃ bhāvayato), is of noble mind (ariyacittassa), of taintless mind (anāsava-cittassa), endowed with the noble magga (ariyamaggassa samaṅgino). In this deinition, there is clearly a reference to factors concerning wisdom that are found in the seven sets of qualities that came to be called the bodhipakkhiya dhammas: the four applications of mindfulness, the four right eforts, the four bases of success, the ive faculties, the ive powers, the seven factors of awakening, and the Noble Eight-factored Path. Indeed SN v.49 says that for a monk who ‘develops and cultivates’ the Noble Eight-factored Path, the previous six sets of qualities ‘go to fulilment by development (bhāvanā pāripurim gacchanti)’. In the Vinaya, the ‘development of the magga (magga-bhāvanā)’ is explained as the seven sets (Vin III.93), and Paṭi II.166-67 includes the above seven sets, along with the four ‘noble maggas’, four fruits and the Nibbāna, as the lokuttara. Note that in the above, at irst it is said only of the second kind of right view that it is a ‘factor of the magga’, though this right view is then said to be ‘the right view magga-factor of one who…is of noble mind’, implying that there can also be a ‘magga’ in one without a ‘noble mind’, that is, a non-transcendent magga—what came to be called the lokiya, worldly, magga. More importantly, the idea that one can be both ‘endowed with the noble magga’ and also ‘developing the noble magga’ suggests that such a magga is not momentary, as this would leave no time in which to develop it further. In MN 117, right resolve, speech, action and livelihood are also divided in the above way (with taints etc. or noble and taintless etc.), with the irst kinds being explained in the usual way as the three right resolves, the four forms of right speech, the three forms of right action, and having a right livelihood, but the second kind being the mental application (vitakka), or the abstinence from wrong speech, action or livelihood, of one ‘who, developing the noble magga, is of noble mind, of taintless mind, endowed with the noble magga’ (MN III.73-75). There is no explicit reference to two forms of the last three magga factors in this Sutta, though the introduction is about noble right concentration, and the Sutta sees right efort and right mindfulness, along with right view as aiding all the other factors.5 Now it is possible that the above description of two kinds of right view and so on is one that has itself been inluenced by Abhidhamma concepts. Bhikkhu Bodhi points out that:6 5. Indeed, as mindfulness of dhammas includes mindfulness of the four ariya-saccas (DN II.305), this can occur at the time of the lokuttara magga, and the right efort that sustains skilful states can likewise exist at this time. 6. Email correspondence. © Equinox Publishing Ltd 2014. RElIgIONS Of SOUTh ASIA 38 The counterpart in the Chinese Madhyama Āgama does not make a distinction between two kinds of path, lokiya/upadhivepakka and lokuttara/anāsava. This arouses a suspicion that the Pali sutta is actually the refurbished version of a more archaic original, modiied under the inluence of the emergent Pali Abhidhamma system. Look at the Vibhaṅga, chapter on the Magga [pp. 235–43]. Note that the Suttanta section simply gives the standard deinitions of the path factors [on right view, as knowledge in regard to the four saccas], while the Abhidhamma section [pp. 237–37] gives deinitions that correspond closely (almost fully) with those of MN 117 (MN III.71-78) [as wisdom, etc.]. This suggests that this Abhidhamma way of treating the path factors had fed back into the older version of MN 117 and resulted in the newer, modiied version that we now have in MN. Bhikkhu Anālayo (2005: 98–100; 2011b: 660–61) notes the same diference between MN and Madhyama Āgama as Bhikkhu Bodhi, but adds: a somewhat similar exposition of the path factors in their supramundane manifestations can be found in a discourse in the Saṃyukta-āgama [Saṃyukta-āgama 785 at T II 203a21]…[showing] that diferent Buddhist traditions gave importance to this type of presentation. Its occurrence further supports the assumption that this type of treatment could stem from an early Indian exegetical tradition… (Anālayo 2011b: 661) Elsewhere, Anālayo (2012a: 312–24) translates the Chinese Saṃyukta-āgama passage, noting that this Āgama probably stems from the mūlasarvāstivāda tradition, and sees here and in the MN passage traces of ‘the beginning stages of abhidharmic thought’ (2012a: 324). So this may not be a case of fully-formed Abhidhamma ideas feeding back into a sutta, but the ‘beginning stages’ of Abhidhamma inluencing a sutta. Accordingly, while the wording on noble right view corresponds to developed Abhidhamma ideas on it, the meaning may not be the same. Certainly the idea that such a magga is momentary need not be intended, and hence the lokuttara magga may in MN 117 refer to something that can be experienced as part of a practice over some period of time, at least when the mind is free of active taints. That practice involves time is seen at MN I.301, which says that the ‘assiduous practice, development, and cultivation (āsevanā bhāvanā bahulikammaṃ)’ of the four right strivings (‘the requisites of concentration (samādhi-parikkhārā)’) and the four applications of mindfulness (‘the basis of concentration (samādhi-nimittā)’) is the ‘development of concentration (samādhi-bhāvanā)’. That a person who still has taints can at least momentarily be ‘taintless’ is of course accepted in the developed idea of the momentary magga. The Sabbāsava Sutta says that people are without actively arising taints when there is wise attention (yoniso manasikāra; MN I.7). ThE NOBlE AND IgNOBlE SEARChES The above MN 117 passage on the two kinds of right view and so on is rich in terminology, so understanding it may well be aided by examining this, and © Equinox Publishing Ltd 2014. HArVEy ThE NATURE Of ThE EIghT-fACTORED ArIyA 39 how it is used elsewhere in the Suttas. at DN II.216-17, right view through to right mindfulness are again the ‘supports and requisites (saupanisaṃ saparikkāraṃ)’ of noble right concentration, and from teaching on this it is said that the ‘doors to the deathless are open’. ‘Noble’ right concentration, then, is that which leads to knowing the ‘deathless’, namely Nibbāna. The nature of upadhis, the ‘attachment’ or perhaps ‘objects of attachment’7 that MN 117 sees the irst kind of right view as linked to, is seen in the Sutta on the Noble Search (Ariya-pariyesanā, MN 26), where the Buddha talks of two kinds of ‘search’: • • The ‘ignoble search (anariyā ca pariyesanā)’: ‘Here someone himself being subject to birth ( jāti-dhammo) seeks what is also subject to birth’—then likewise with respect to ageing, sickness, death, sorrow, deilement (saṅkilesa-) (MN I.161-62). What is ‘subject to birth’ etc. are wife and children, slaves, various animals, gold and silver. ‘These objects of attachment (upadhayo-) are subject to birth; and one who is tied to these things, infatuated with them, and utterly committed to them, being himself subject to birth, seeks also what is subject to birth’ etc. (I.162). This is then repeated for ageing etc.8 The ‘noble search (ariyā pariyesanā)’: ‘Here someone being himself subject to birth, having understood the danger in what is subject to birth, seeks the unborn supreme security from bondage, Nibbāna; being himself subject to ageing, having understood the danger in what is subject to ageing, seeks the unageing supreme security from bondage, Nibbāna…seeks the deathless…’ (I.162–63). The Buddha recounts that when he decided to seek the unborn, and so on, he went forth ‘in search of what is skilful (kiṃ-kusala-gavesī), seeking the supreme state of sublime peace (anuttaraṃ santi-vara-padaṃ pariyesamāno)’ (I.163). here, then, a ‘search’ or quest is ‘ignoble’ when directed at attaining what is subject to birth, ageing, sickness, death, and so on, and ‘noble’ when directed towards what is beyond these, which are dukkha, to Nibbāna. It need not yet have attained any experience of Nibbāna (as with the developed Abhidhamma lokuttara magga), but it must be directed towards doing so. The irst kind of right view in MN 117 is also said to ‘partake of puñña’. Puñña, karmic fruitfulness (or ‘merit’) is of course that which leads to happy results within the round of rebirths, but not beyond this. When māra tries 7. Ñāṇamoli and Bodhi (1995: 1215 n. 299) say on upadhi: ‘The root meaning is foundation, basis, ground (PED)… I have tried to capture the several connotations of the word by rendering it “objects of attachment” where its objective meaning is prominent (as it is here) and as “attachment” where its subjective meaning is prominent. At MN 26.19 [MN I.167] Nibbāna is called “the relinquishing of all attachments” (sabb’ūpadhipaṭinissagga), with both meanings intended.’ 8. Except that gold and silver are not mentioned as subject to sickness, death and sorrow. © Equinox Publishing Ltd 2014. RElIgIONS Of SOUTh ASIA 40 to tempt gotama to give up his quest, he suggests instead going for a Brahmanic holy life and generating puñña (Sn 428), but gotama says he has no further need of puñña (Sn 431). Donors gain heavenly rebirths, but ‘when one has obtained the path (maggañca laddhā) that leads to no more renewed existence, having become broad in wisdom, one is not born again and again’ (SN I.174). hence, AN II.236 (cf. MN I.389-91) sees the eight factors of the path as ‘action that is neither dark nor bright with neither-dark-nor-bright ripening’: they lead to neither unpleasant nor pleasant rebirths. The path factors are truly factors of the noble path, world-transcendent, when they truly aim at abandoning all rebirths. ThE mEANINg Of LoKuttARA IN THE SuttAS In the word lokuttara, loka means ‘world’ and uttara is an adjective meaning either higher or beyond, or, in a diferent derivation, from uttarati (to cross over or go beyond), crossed over. The word logically has three potential referents: (i) the unconditioned, Nibbāna as that which is totally beyond the conditioned world; (ii) those conditioned states which directly see the unconditioned; (iii) anything aiming at attaining such a state. The commentaries in efect see only the irst two of these meanings as applicable: In the expression ‘worldly phenomena (lokiyā dhammā)’, the round (of rebirths) is called the world (loko) due to its dissolving and crumbling. Therein, what is joined (niyuttā) to the world by being included in it (pariyāpanna-) are worldly. To have crossed beyond (uttiṇṇā), that is to be ‘beyond’ (uttarā). What are beyond (uttarā) the world by not being included in it (pariyāpanna-) are lokuttara. (Asl 47-48) If the Dhammasaṅgaṇī uses the term magga only in the sense of what directly sees Nibbāna, then it shares this view, as it sees lokuttara states as the maggas that are not included (apariyāpannā), their fruits, and the unconditioned (Dhs 1094), these being also the states that are taintless (Dhs 1104); the ‘included’ are with-taint states and states of the sense-desire, form or formless realms (Dhs 1287). The Paṭisambhidāmagga (II.166-67) lists lokuttara dhammas as the seven sets making up the bodhi-pakkhiya dhammas, including the ‘Eight-factored Path’, and the ‘four noble paths’, their fruits and Nibbāna—ambiguously listing the Eight-factored Path, without the descriptor ‘noble’, separately from the four noble paths. It then says that states are lokuttara as ‘they cross from the world…they do not stand in the world…they are puriied from the world… they emerge from the world…they turn away from the world…’ This leaves it rather open as to which of the above three senses of lokuttara are encompassed by this explanation. What kind of meaning is ascribed to lokuttara in the Suttas, though? At SN v.407 (cf. SN II.267), the Buddha urges the layman Dhammadinna to from time to time ‘enter and dwell upon those discourses spoken by the Tathāgata that © Equinox Publishing Ltd 2014. HArVEy ThE NATURE Of ThE EIghT-fACTORED ArIyA 41 are deep, deep in meaning, lokuttara, dealing with emptiness (suññata-)’, but Dhammadinna says that it is not easy for laypeople to do this, so the Buddha urges him to develop the four factors of stream-entry (irm assurance in the refuges, and pure virtue), which Dhammadinna says he has already done. The commentary (SN-a III.291) says those Suttas that deal with the lokuttara are such as the Asaṅkhata-saṃyutta (SN 43), on the unconditioned, that is Nibbāna. at SN II.267, the Buddha laments that in future, his disciples will not be eager to listen to those Suttas that are ‘deep, deep in meaning, lokuttara, dealing with emptiness’, but will listen only to those composed by outsider poets or their disciples. The lokuttara Suttas should be the subject of questioning, to discern their meaning (AN I.72). Note, here, that as Suttas can be ‘world-transcendent’, something being world-transcendent can be this in terms simply of aiming towards or concering Nibbāna (i.e. sense (iii) above), without being a mind-state immediately aware of Nibbāna (sense (ii)), as in the developed Theravāda view. What is the ‘emptiness’ that is associated with what is world-transcendent? In the Cūḷasuññata Sutta (MN 121), the Buddha explains that he often abides in emptiness (suññatā), and then explains various ‘genuine, undistorted, pure descents into emptiness’ (MN III.105): • • • • a monk in the forest knows that his ield of perception is empty of the perception of village or of people, but that the ‘singleness (ekattaṃ) dependent on the perception of the forest’ is a non-emptiness (III.104). the parallel applies when he no longer perceives the forest, but only ‘earth’ (as his meditative object), then each of the four formless states. then, further, he attains ‘singleness dependent on the signless concentration of mind (animittaṃ samādhiṃ)’ (III.107), where the nonemptiness aspect is ‘that connected with the six bases that are dependent on the body and conditioned by life’ (i.e. the senses, though not their objects). then further he realizes that the signless concentration of mind is conditioned and impermanent, so that he is liberated from the three taints.9 his ield of perception is empty of the taints, and the nonemptiness aspect remains ‘that connected with the six bases that are 9. relating to sense-pleasures (kāma), continued being in the conditioned world, and ignorance. An interesting question for further consideration is whether these three are themselves āsavas, or whether the āsavas are ‘tainting inclinations’ lowing towards these three. Otherwise, why should bhava, ‘being’, be a ‘taint’, and why should ignorance be both an āsava and what conditions and is conditioned by the āsavas (MN I.54-55)? It makes sense, though, to say that ignorance conditions tainting inclinations towards various things, including ignorance, which would of course lead to further ignorance. Anālayo (2012b: 80–82), though, argues for āsava as an ‘inlow’, based on such passages as MN I.180 and Dhs 1097, and takes kāma, in the sense of ‘sensuality’, as itself an āsava, though Dhs 1098 says bhavāsava is attachment (rāga) to bhava. © Equinox Publishing Ltd 2014. RElIgIONS Of SOUTh ASIA 42 dependent on the body and conditioned by life’. This is the ‘supreme and unsurpassed descent into emptiness’. here, then, ‘emptiness’ concerns emptying the mind of gross, then subtle inputs, and, ultimately, of the taints. It is an inner stillness’s lack of what it is empty of. The following Mahā-suññata Sutta (MN 122) begins by explaining that a monk who delights in company will not easily obtain the bliss of seclusion, peace and enlightenment (MN III.110). When the Buddha is surrounded by people, his mind ‘enters and abides in emptiness internally by giving no attention to any (perceptual) signs…inclining to seclusion, withdrawn…done with things that are a basis for taints’ (III.111). Then (III.111-15), he explains that a monk concentrates his mind by developing the four jhānas, then gives attention to emptiness, both internally and externally. If his mind does not enter into internal or external emptiness, or imperturbability, he has full awareness (samajāno) of this. If it does so enter into these, he has full awareness of this. Abiding thus, he knows that whether he walks, stands, sits or lies down, he has no unskilful states, and has full awareness of this. he resolves to avoid low, ignoble talk, and, when he talks, to talk of things related to disenchantment, peace and Nibbāna, and has full awareness of this. When thinking, he avoids the three kinds of wrong, ignoble thought (on sense-pleasures, ill-will or cruelty) and resolves on the three right thoughts, that are ‘noble and emancipating and lead the one who practises in accordance with them to the complete destruction of dukkha’; and he has full awareness of this. He has full awareness of whether desire and lust for the ive sense-objects that may excite these is still sometimes present in him, or completely abandoned. he abides contemplating the rise and fall of the khandhas, and thus ends the ‘I am’ conceit, and has full awareness of this. Accordingly, ‘These states have an entirely skilful basis (ekanta-kusalāyatikā); they are noble, lokuttara, and inaccessible to māra’ (MN III.115). here, the context implies that this statement applies to all the above forms of full awareness. The ‘emptiness’ of this Sutta is likely to be both the lack of ordinary sensory input in subtler states, as in MN 121, and also the state of knowing things as empty of Self or what pertains to it (SN IV.54), this being ‘liberation of mind by emptiness (suññatā cetovimutti)’ (SN Iv.296-97); moreover the Arahat’s unshakeable liberation of mind is empty of attachment, hatred and delusion (SN Iv.297). The relevant states in MN 122 are ‘world-transcendent’ in that they tend beyond the world, not that they are themselves beyond the world or necessarily include direct awareness of Nibbāna, as with the developed Abhidhamma lokuttara magga, though they may do. BRIDgINg ThE gAP BETWEEN ThE TWO KINDS Of RIghT VIEW The MN 117 distinction between two kinds of right view sees them as about that which aids a good rebirth, and that which leads beyond rebirths. how© Equinox Publishing Ltd 2014. HArVEy ThE NATURE Of ThE EIghT-fACTORED ArIyA 43 ever, in which of these two camps is one to log the kinds of insight developed by Buddhist practice that falls short of direct seeing of that which is deathless, beyond the world? Is it of the irst or the second kind? for the commentaries, it remains of the irst kind. The commentary on MN 117 (MN-a Iv.131) distinguishes between right view that is concerned with ordinary vipassanā and that concerned with the path—the lokuttara magga. Elsewhere, the commentaries expand the two kinds of right view into four, those of: the ownership of karma (kammassasakata-), jhāna, vipassanā, and magga and fruit (AN-a II.24 and 162). That is, the second kind at MN III.72 is seen as magga and fruit right view, and MN III.72’s irst kind, that afected by taints, has two kinds added, to include the right view of samatha and vipassanā meditative states which lead up to attainments of magga and fruit states. Similarly, Paṭi I.167 talks of four kinds of ‘singleness (ekattā)’, with only the last being noble— those: (i) ‘consisting in the will-to-relinquish a gift’; (ii) ‘consisting in establishing (-upaṭṭhān-) the sign of samatha’; (iii) and ‘consisting in establishing the characteristic of falling away (vaya-)’ which ‘belongs to those practising insight (vipassakānaṃ)’; and (iv) ‘consisting in establishing cessation’ which ‘belongs to noble persons’. WhEN AND hOW DOES NOBlE RIghT VIEW, A fACTOR Of ThE PATh, ARISE? The above commentarial view sees the right view pertaining to samatha and vipassanā as not yet of the level of the right view of the noble magga. This builds on a Sutta passage at AN II.156-57, where Ānanda says that those who have become Arahats have done so by one of four ways: (i) ‘he develops (bhāveti) vipassanā preceded by samatha’; (ii) ‘he develops samatha preceded by vipassanā’; (iii) ‘he develops samatha and vipassanā yoked together (yuganaddhaṃ)’; or (iv) ‘his mind is gripped by Dhamma excitement (dhammuddhacca-viggahīta-manā)’.10 ‘There is, friend, (later) a time (so āvuso samayo) when his citta is internally steadied, composed, uniied and concentrated (santiṭṭhati sannisīdati ekodihoti samādhiyati).’11 In each case, for the person doing this, ‘the magga is born (sañjāyati). he pursues, develops and cultivates (āsevati bhāveti bahulīkaroti) that magga. for him pursuing, developing and cultivating that magga, the fetters are abandoned and the latent tendencies eliminated.’ 10. But as quoted at Paṭi II.93, -viggahītaṃ mānasaṃ. 11. The fourth of these most likely refers to what happens in the preparation for the arising of the Dhamma-eye (usually meaning stream-entry) when the Dhamma-eye only arises at a later time. at Udāna 49, after the Dhamma-eye has arisen to Suppabuddha, the Buddha says that the latter had been one ‘who had been made to bristle with excitement (sampahaṃsito)’. Perhaps with most people for whom the Dhamma-eye arises, there is an initial excitement that is quickly calmed, allowing the Dhamma-eye to arise, but for others this takes time. The four ways are discussed at Paṭi I.93-103. © Equinox Publishing Ltd 2014. RElIgIONS Of SOUTh ASIA 44 It is clear from this passage that, even in the Suttas, the cultivation of meditative calm and insight are not themselves necessarily the same as practising the path—here, presumably meaning the noble path. This accords with the Samaññaphala Sutta, in which a practitioner does not know ‘this is the way leading to the cessation of dukkha’ till after he has attained the jhānas and developed various preliminary insights (DN 1.83). Calm and insight prepare the way for the ‘birth’ of the path, which must then be further developed in order for fetters to be abandoned. They are then part of this: at SN IV.360, samatha and vipassanā are the path to the unconditioned. The above passage on the birth of the path shows that the ‘development’ of it is distinct from its initial ‘birth’—unlike in the commentarial view, where both are simultaneous, in one moment. That said, the path’s ‘birth’ in the passage might either mean that the noble path arises at stream-entry, with all the remaining fetters destroyed by the time of Arahatship, or that it arises prior to stream-entry, so that its development then destroys the irst three fetters in the state that brings stream-entry, before going on to destroy the remaining fetters, up to Arahatship. That the Noble Eight-factored Path does exist prior to stream-entry is indicated by SN V.26, which says that it is what the ‘holy life’ (brahmacariya) is, and leads to the four fruits, stream-entry up to Arahatship. moreover, in the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta, the middle way which is the Noble Eight-factored Path is said to ‘give rise to vision (cakkhu-karaṇī), give rise to knowledge (ñāṇa-karaṇī)’ (SN V.421), which surely means that the arising of the Dhamma-eye (dhamma-cakkhu), typically at stream-entry, comes after the path has done its work, and is not something simultaneous with the arising of the path. The noble path prepares for stream-entry, and samatha and vipassanā prepare for the arising of the noble path. The minimum mental state that is open to experiencing the four true realities for the noble ones, including the noble path, seems to be the suspension of the ive hindrances.12 In Suttas, this is already within the irst jhāna, though the later tradition came to divide the initial hindrance-free state into irst jhāna ‘proper’, as a full ‘absorption’ in the object of contemplation, and a state immediately leading up to this, called by the Theravādins access concentration (upacāra-samādhi, Vism 126) and the Sarvāstivādins ‘not(-yet)-arriving’ (anāgamya, AKB VI.47). On many occasions in the Suttas, a person attains the Dhamma-eye, that is, at least stream-entry, when the Buddha talks to them on the four ariya-saccas after he had talked them into a state without the hindrances: Then the Blessed One gave the householder Upāli a step-by-step discourse, that is, talk on giving, talk on moral virtue, talk on the heaven worlds; he made known the danger, the inferior nature and tendency to deilement of sense-pleasures, and the advantage of renouncing them. When the Blessed One knew that the 12. Desire for sense-pleasures, ill-will, dullness and lethargy, restlessness and worry, and vacillation. © Equinox Publishing Ltd 2014. HArVEy ThE NATURE Of ThE EIghT-fACTORED ArIyA 45 householder Upāli’s mind was ready (kalla-), pliable (mudu-), without hindrances (vi-nīvaraṇa-), inspired (udagga-), calm and clear (pasanna-), then he expounded to him the Dhamma-teaching special to the buddhas (buddhānaṃ sāmukkaṃsikā): dukkha, (its) origin, (its) cessation, the path. (MN I.379-80) That a state free of the hindrances is conducive to attaining stream-entry accords with the above MN I.280 idea that noble ones are far from unskilful states that deile. When might the mind be hindrance-free and imbued with insight so as to be poised for the birth of the noble path? We see that DN III.241-43 describes ive domains in which liberation (vimutti) may be attained, namely when gladness (pāmojja), joy (pīti), bodily tranquility (passaddha-kāya), happiness (sukha) and then samādhi13 arise when: listening to someone else teach Dhamma, while teaching it oneself, while making a detailed repetition (vittārena sajjhāyam karoti) of Dhamma, while thinking and pondering on and attentively considering (anuvitakketi anuvicāreti manasānupekkhati) Dhamma, or when a samādhinimitta (a ‘sign’ or mental image in samatha meditation14) is grasped, well attended to and is penetrated with wisdom. Within meditation, penetration of the four true realities is often from jhāna. In the Vibhaṅga, in its Abhidhamma analysis of the path-factors, as with the Dhs 277 on the irst kind of lokuttara citta, it is said (236-37): at the time when a monk develops lokuttara jhāna that is emancipating (niyyānikaṃ), going to diminution (apacaya-gāmin) (of rebirth); he, for the abandoning of being gone to (wrong) view, for the entering of (pattiyā) the irst stage (bhūmiyā, i.e. stream-entry),15 secluded from sense pleasures…attains and dwells in the irst jhāna…at that time there is the Eight-factored Path. In the Suttas, penetration of the four ariya-saccas is often from the fourth jhāna, when open to ‘knowing and seeing’, so that a person’s mind is: ‘serene, puriied, cleansed, lawless, free from corruptions, become pliable, workable, irm, imperturbable (samāhite citte parisuddhe pariyodāte anaṅgaṇe vigatūpakkilese mūdū-bhūte kammaniye ṭhite ānejjappatte)’ (DN I.76). The aspects of being ‘puriied, cleansed, lawless, free from corruptions’ is also found in right view through to right concentration (SN V.15), which are also seen as without taints (AN V.242), though these right factors must add something more, as the jhānic lawless state is one from which the psychic powers are practised, these still being not yet noble or free from taints (DN III.112-13). rupert Gethin comments that ‘nibbāna can be understood in some sense as standing in the same relationship to the conditioned world in its entirety, 13. This list includes several of the seven factors of awakening. 14. Though at MN I.301, the four satipaṭṭhānas are described as the samādhi-nimitta, in the sense of the cause of samādhi. my thanks to Ven. Anālayo for pointing this out. 15. Vibh 265 makes it clear that the ‘irst stage’ must mean stream-entry, rather than simply the irst jhāna, as the phrase is used also in relation to the second jhāna, when this is lokuttara. © Equinox Publishing Ltd 2014. RElIgIONS Of SOUTh ASIA 46 as the irst jhāna stands in relation to the world of the ive senses’ (2001: 204). The suspension of the ive hindrances (‘access concentration’) is the transition from the world of the ive senses to that of (full-strength) irst jhāna and also seems to be the minimum state from which the noble magga—that is the transition state for knowing Nibbāna—can arise. The noble magga can itself be seen as a kind of world-transcendent ‘access’ state, that builds on the ive-sense-world-transcending access samādhi. While in what came to be called ‘access concentration’, the ive factors of jhāna are present but need to be developed to full strength before full-strength irst jhāna is attained. In the case of the noble magga, the eight path factors are present but need to be developed to full strength before stream-entry can be attained, when the four true realities for the noble ones are irst directly seen and known. Just as the Theravāda tradition came to see only full absorption as ‘jhāna’, excluding what it called ‘access concentration’, it reserved the title of ‘noble magga’ for the moment when fetters are broken, excluding the level of practice that leads to this. ThE fIRST ARISINg Of ThE PATh AS ‘ENTERINg ThE fIxED COURSE Of RIghTNESS’ What else, though, do the Suttas say on the irst arising of the noble path? an important passage at SN III.225, in a short saṃyutta on ‘entering (okkanti)’, talks of a state that guarantees the attainment of stream-entry later in the present life. It says that the six senses are impermanent, changing, becoming otherwise, and then that: One who places faith in these teachings and resolves on them (saddahati adhimuccati) is called a faith-follower (saddhānusārī), one who has entered the ixed course of rightness (okkanto sammatta-niyāmaṃ), entered the plane of genuine persons (sappurisa-bhūmim), transcended the plane of ordinary persons (puthujjana-bhūmiṃ). He is incapable of doing any deed by reason of which he might be reborn in hell, in the animal realm, or in the domain of ghosts; he is incapable of passing away without having realised the fruit that is stream-entry (abhabbo ca tāva kālaṃ kātuṃ yāva na sotāpatti-phalaṃ sacchikaroti). One for whom these teachings are accepted with a measure of appreciative understanding through his wisdom (ime dhammā evaṃ paññāya mattaso nijjhānaṃ khamanti) is called a Dhamma-follower (dhammānusārī), one who has entered the ixed course of rightness…he is incapable of passing away without having realised the fruit that is stream-entry. One who knows and sees (jānāti passati) these dhammas thus is called a streamenterer, no longer bound to the nether world, ixed in destiny (niyato), with awakening as his destination (sambodhi-parāyano). here, the faith- and Dhamma-follower are the kind of persons who have ‘entered the ixed course of rightness’ and are certain to become streamenterers at some time later in their current life. During this time they are © Equinox Publishing Ltd 2014. HArVEy ThE NATURE Of ThE EIghT-fACTORED ArIyA 47 ‘practising for the realization of the fruit that is stream-entry’. While the commentaries16 see this kind of person as only lasting one moment, the moment of the magga, this implausible idea is belied by the fact that they last at least long enough to be able to abstain from doing a bad action. moreover, the above quote sees stream-entry as not coming in the next moment, but simply some time later in the present life. Bhikkhu Bodhi, in discussing SN III.225, says: At a certain point in the course of contemplation, when insight becomes sharp and penetrative, the disciple enters the ixed course of rightness (sammattaniyāma), the supramundane path, either as a faith-follower or a Dhamma-follower, and thereby becomes one bound to win the fruit of stream-entry within this life itself. Now he or she is described as one practising for the realization of the fruit of stream-entry…. When the practice of the path is fully ripe, all eight factors converge and join forces, setting of the ‘breakthrough to the Dhamma’ by which the disciple directly sees the four Noble Truths and cuts of the three lower fetters. Now the disciple has truly plunged into the stream of Dhamma, the transcendental eightfold path, which will bear him or her onwards to the great ocean of Nibbāna. But the disciple must continue to cultivate the eight path factors until the remaining fetters are eradicated and the underlying fetters uprooted. (Bodhi 2000: 1496) In the above, it seems that ‘supramundane’ means lokuttara in the sense of aiming to see beyond the world, and ‘transcendent’ means lokuttara in the sense of actually doing so. however, in the 1984 quote on p. 35 above, when explaining the commentarial view, Bodhi uses ‘supramundane’ only for what he means by ‘transcendent’ here. In the SN III.225 passage, the ‘ixed course of rightness’ (sammattaniyāmaṃ) is ‘ixed’ or ‘certain’ in that it will certainly lead to stream-entry in the current life.17 The ‘ixed course’ is the noble magga, its eight ‘right’ factors being its ‘rightness’; ‘rightness’ is not something that arises at streamentry. This is shown when Sn 55 says ‘attained the ixed course (niyāmaṃ), having gained the magga’, and it is said that the Buddha taught for the beneit of the person who will ‘enter the ixed course that is rightness in regard to skilful dhammas (okkamati niyāmaṃ kusalesu dhammesu sammattaṃ)’ (AN I.122)—with ‘skilful dhammas’ being explained as right view to right concentration (SN V.18), which is also the meaning of ‘rightness’ (SN v.18). Hence the ‘ixed course of rightness’ that the person practising for the realization of stream-entry has entered is itself the Noble Eight-factored Path. 16. E.g. SN-a II.346, on this passage, which sees it as meaning that the faith-follower and Dhamma-follower are in the (momentary) noble magga, such that there is no cause that can prevent the immediate (anantarāya) arising of the stream-entry-fruit. Cf. Pug I.20 (p. 13) says that a world eon cannot end before one practising for the realization of the stream-entryfruit attains that fruit, such that this may even hold up the end of an eon. 17. Cf. AN III.441-42, which says that one cannot experience the fruit that is stream-entry unless one has ‘entered the ixed course of rightness’. © Equinox Publishing Ltd 2014. 48 RElIgIONS Of SOUTh ASIA They have the ‘the right way of practice’ (sammā-paṭipadā), ‘the method, the Dhamma that is skilful (ñāyaṃ dhammaṃ kusalaṃ)’ (SN v.19). moreover, the person ‘practising for the realization of the fruit that is streamentry’ is already on the noble path as he or she is clearly one who is ‘rightly practising’ (sammā-paṭipanno), who is in turn ‘of right view’ (sammādiṭṭhiko) through to ‘of right concentration’ (SN V.23), with the next Sutta identifying these as the ‘Noble Eight-factored Path’. he has the ive faculties (indriyas) in some measure (SN V.202), and of these, wisdom (paññā) is deined as being noble: ‘here, monks, the disciple of the Noble One is wise; he possesses wisdom directed to arising and passing away, which is noble and penetrative (ariyāya nibbedhikāya), leading to the complete destruction of dukkha’ (SN v.197). The ‘practising’ person must be included in those who are a trainee (sekho), one who ‘possesses a trainee’s right view (sekhāya sammādiṭṭhiyā sammannāgato hoti)…a trainee’s right concentration’ (SN v.14). That said, SN v.347-48 says that a stream-enterer is ‘one who possesses (samannāgato) this Noble Eight-factored Path’, which is ‘the stream’, implying that one who is not yet a stream-enterer does not yet possess this ‘stream’. Now MN III.72 says that the second kind of right view is had by one ‘who, developing the noble magga (ariya-maggaṃ bhāvayato), is…endowed with (samaṅgino) the noble magga’. Perhaps the person practising for the realization of stream-entry is the irst to be ‘endowed with’ the path, but the stream-enterer fully ‘possesses’ it. The ‘practising’ person is on the noble path, but the stream-enterer is one who ‘knows and sees’, implying that he or she has directly seen that the noble path actually does lead to that which is beyond dukkha, the unconditioned. Both kinds of persons should be ‘developing’ the path, though. Prior to stream-entry, the right view of the Noble Eight-factored Path, which is a noble wisdom, need not include direct ‘knowing and seeing’ of that which is the cessation of dukkha, as it is often explained simply as knowledge (ñāna) concerning dukkha and the other three ariya-saccas, with the objects of knowledge being in the locative case: for example, dukkhe ñāṇaṃ (SN v.8-9; similarly DN II.311-13, MN III.251-52, Vibh 235-36). It is also explained as seeing as impermanent the ive khandhas (SN III.51) or the six senses and their objects (SN IV.142), in which cases its objects are still conditioned ones. One with the ‘ixed course of rightness’ has the factors of the noble path, and this course will deinitely lead to stream-entry in this life. This makes it very unlikely that it could consist of the non-noble, non-lokuttara path factors of MN 117. It is far more likely to be the lokuttara one, though not only in the later sense of this as a momentary state that sees Nibbāna. The person ‘practising for the realization of the fruit that is stream-entry’, being on the ‘ixed course of rightness’, and endowed with but not fully possessed of the Noble Eight-factored Path, is a kind of trainee trainee for Arahatship. he or she is on an apprenticeship course that will deinitely lead, in this life, to the training stages that will then deinitely lead to Arahatship within © Equinox Publishing Ltd 2014. HArVEy ThE NATURE Of ThE EIghT-fACTORED ArIyA 49 seven lives. he can perhaps also be seen as a trainee noble person, attuned to and absorbing Dhamma in a way that in some ways paralleled how, in Brahmanism, an ārya-varṇa boy had his upanayana ceremony that rendered him ‘twice-born’ and then studied the Vedas in his brahmacarya stage. WhAT ONE ON ThE NOBlE PATh DOES PRIOR TO STREAm-ENTRY As to how those practising for stream-entry conduct themselves, they must clearly have the four factors for stream-entry (sotāpattiyaṅgas18), which ‘when developed and cultivated lead to the realization of the fruit that is streamentry’, or to the other three noble fruits, or to the growth of wisdom. These four factors, which must surely arise in sequence, are (SN v.410-11): association with genuine persons (sappurisas), hearing the true Dhamma (sadhamma), wise attention (yoniso-manasikāra), that is, probing attention in meditative practice or mindful relection, and practice of Dhamma in accordance with Dhamma (dhammānudhamma-paṭipatti) (SN V.347, DN III.227). It 81-82 explains a dhammānudhamma-paṭipanna monk as one who speaks only of Dhamma when he speaks, and thinks only of Dhamma when he thinks (vitakketi), so as to have equanimity and be mindful and with clear comprehension. hence he is delighting in Dhamma (Dhammārāmo) and one who ponders (anuvicintayaṃ) and recollects (anussaraṃ) Dhamma. Whatever he is doing, he causes his citta to settle internally. CONClUSION We have seen that in the Suttas, the Noble Eight-factored Magga is neither the general practice of Buddhism, including ordinary levels of samatha and vipassanā meditation, nor, as in the developed Abhidhamma-cum-commentarial view, only the instant prior to stream-entry. It is a speciic eight-factored way of approach, or skilful method that can arise when the mind is free of the ive hindrances, especially during a sermon on the four ariya-saccas or when there is samatha and strong vipassanā into the three marks, especially impermanence. as the Noble Eight-factored Path is one of the four ‘True realities for the Noble Ones’, and one that needs to be both understood (SN v.414) and developed (SN V.422), it is important to understand what exactly it is. The noble magga is a basic orientation in a state of open readiness. It is a ‘ixed course of rightness’ that is certain to bring stream-entry at some time in the current life. It is like a plane revving its engines and then start18. DN III.227 makes clear that the four ‘factors of stream-entry’, also sotāpattiyaṅgas, mean factors of the stream-enterer (sotāpannassa aṅgāni): serene faith in the three refuges, and pure virtue. © Equinox Publishing Ltd 2014. 50 RElIgIONS Of SOUTh ASIA ing to take of from its runway, or perhaps better, like the Star trek space-ship powering up its warp-drive engines and the irst moment of their use as the space-ship zooms of; or it is like a wedge being skilfully driven into a block of stone, then its starting to split, or a person calmly singing ready for the sound to shatter a glass, up to the moment of its splintering. The take-of, splitting of the stone or shattering of the glass are the moment when the irst three fetters are, in a lash, being destroyed, and Nibbāna, the cessation of dukkha, is briely glimpsed through the ‘crack’ in saṃsāra, so to speak; by contrast, the conditioned realm is recognized as that which is dukkha. In this respect, the ‘noble magga’ is also like a ticking happiness-bomb, primed to explode, up to moment when the detonator goes of. for the developed Abhidhamma, the term ‘noble magga’ is reserved for the fetter-destroying moment, but in the Suttas this moment is the inal one of the Noble magga, immediately prior to the moment when a person is irst a streamenterer, one free of the irst three fetters. The Suttas seem to see the noble magga as a whole as lasting some time, as experienced by the faith-follower and Dhamma-follower who are those who are ‘practising for the realization of the fruit that is stream-entry’. as this is a state in which a person is wholly taken up with Dhamma, it seems that the noble magga is a persistent state, rather than one that is periodically re-entered, such that it will not be left until streamentry is attained. This suggests that, while it may not be momentary, it may well not last a very long time. This is also suggested by the fact that MN II.95-96 says that for a monk with faith, wisdom, honesty, good health and energy for abandoning unskilful states, then when taught by a Tathāgata, the entire spiritual transition up to arahatship will only take from seven years down to half a day, where, ‘being instructed in the morning, he attains distinction (visesaṃ) in the evening’. As an approach or method, the noble path of the Suttas is compared to a forgotten forest path to a forgotten city (SN II.105-106). It also seems akin to a previously obscured passageway or tunnel that has been opened up and that leads to a ‘door’ to the deathless, and its unlocking. for the developed Abhidhamma and commentaries, the noble magga is the door itself (SN-a II.59), or rather the moment when it unlocks and clicks open to allow a few following moments of ‘fruit’ consciousness before the door closes (though remaining unlocked so as to allow further ‘fruit’ glimpses). Being a stream-enterer does not mean that one is necessarily a person practising for a higher realization, for a stream-enterer may be negligent (SN V.398). To reach a higher state, a person must not only revisit what they have already experienced —what came to be called the ‘fruit’ of the relevant path—but must bring about and develop the path to a new level. In terms of the above passageway analogy, they need to not only look through the door they have previously opened, but also to enlarge the door using the skilful method of the Noble Eight-factored Path. Ajahn Sucitto (2011: 240–41) gives the graphic image of a stream-enterer as like a prisoner who has made a small © Equinox Publishing Ltd 2014. HArVEy ThE NATURE Of ThE EIghT-fACTORED ArIyA 51 hole in his prison wall, so as to enjoy the fresh air and daylight from outside; a once-returner is like a prisoner who has enlarged the hole and got his head through it; the non-returner is like a prisoner who has got out through an even larger hole, but keeps returning to the prison ‘to rest, eat and do business’; the Arahat is like a prisoner who gets out and stays out: ‘It is only this last type, who perseveres and develops the conidence to get out, walk away and live outside the prison, that is truly free’. ABBREVIATIONS AKB AN Asl Dhp Dhs DN It MN MN-a Paṭi PED Pug SN SN-a Sn Vibh Vibh-a Vin Vism Abhidharma-kośa-bhāṣya Aṅguttara-nikāya Atthasālinī: commentary on Dhs Dhammapada Dhammasaṅgaṇī Dīgha-nikāya Itivuttaka Majjhima-nikāya Majjhima Nikāya commentary: Papañcasūdanī Paṭisambhidāmagga Pali-English Dictionary (Rhys Davids and Stede 1921–1925). Puggala-paññati Saṃyutta-nikāya Saṃyutta Nikāya commentary: Sāratthappakāsinī Sutta-nipāta Vibhaṅga Vibhaṅga commentary: Sammohavinodanī Vinaya Visuddhimagga REfERENCES Anālayo. 2005. ‘Some Pali Discourses in the light of their Chinese Parallels Part II.’ Buddhist Studies Review 22(2): 93–105. — 2011a and b. A Comparative Study of the Majjhima-nikāya, 2 vols. Taipei: Dharma Drum Publishing Corporation. — 2012a. Madhama-āgama Studies. Taipei: Dharma Drum Publishing Corporation. — 2012b. ‘Puriication in Early Buddhist Discourse and Buddhist Ethics.’ Bukkyō Kenkyū 40: 67–97. Bodhi, Bhikkhu. 1984. 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Oxford: One World. © Equinox Publishing Ltd 2014. 52 RElIgIONS Of SOUTh ASIA harvey, Peter. 2009. ‘The four Ariya-saccas as “True Realities for the Spiritually Ennobled”—the Painful, its Origin, its Cessation, and the Way going to This—Rather than “Noble Truths” Concerning These.’ Buddhist Studies Review 26(2): 197–227. — 2013. ‘The Saṅgha of Noble Sāvakas, with Particular Reference to their Trainee member, the Person “Practising for the realisation of the Stream-entry-fruit”.’ Buddhist Studies Review 30(1): 3–70. http://dx.doi.org/10.1558/bsrv.v30i1.3 Ñāṇamoli, Bhikkhu, and Bhikkhu Bodhi. 1995. The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha: A New Translation of the Majjhima Nikāya. Boston: Wisdom. Rhys Davids, T. W., and W. Stede. 1921–1925. The Pali Text Society’s Pali-English Dictionary. Chipstead: Pali Text Society. Sucitto, Ajahn. 2011. Meditation: A Way of Awakening. Great Gaddesden: amaravati Publications. © Equinox Publishing Ltd 2014.