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with formations as its object.
Vism. XXI, 65
If the meditator is well acquainted with the
Dhamma and has discriminative wisdom, he will
understand what has happened. Then he can
again reflect on formations and go up to Con-
formity Knowledge.
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By now the meditator has gained a good
understanding of the nature of all compounded
things (sankhatadhammà). So he is in a position
to make an inference as to the nature of the
Uncompounded (asankhata). There are three
distinctive qualities of compounded things:
(1) the impeding quality, (2) the signifying
quality, and (3) the desiring quality.
Regarding the first of these, the meditator
thinks:  Compounded things are bound up with
impediments. Nibbàna, which I am seeking, is
free from impediments. By  impediment is
meant something that has the nature of imped-
ing. The impediments have the nature of causing
a moral person to violate his moral precepts and
of making him unrestrained; the nature of dis-
rupting the concentration of one who is bent on
attaining concentration and of driving him to
distraction; and the nature of obscuring the
wisdom of one who is developing wisdom and of
casting him into delusion. Compounded things
impede by way of lust, hatred, delusion, conceit,
jealousy, views, and so on. In the Uncom-
pounded there is no impediment whatsoever.
The main impediment is the personality
view. One who is deceived by this view must
abandon it. The impediment brought about by
views can be eliminated only by getting rid of
views. Nibbàna is free from the impediment of
108
views. It is free from the impediment of uncer-
tainty. In fact, it is free from all the impediments
brought about by defilements.
The meditator now sees that all compounded
things are oppressed by impediments. He feels
that the day he is free from these compounded
things he can attain Nibbàna.
As to the signifying quality, the meditator un-
derstands that all compounded things become
manifest through signs and modes. Everything
in mind-and-matter (nàma-råpa) is defined by
way of various modes, such as time, place, direc-
tion, occasion, colour, shape, etc. As the Buddha
says:
 If, ânanda, all those modes, character-
istics, signs and exponents by which there
comes to be a designation of mind-and-
matter were absent, would there be manifest
any contact?
 There would not, Lord.
 Wherefore, ânanda, this itself is the
cause, this is the origin, this is the condition
for contact. That is to say, mind-and-matter.
Mahà-Nidàna Sutta, D.II,62
Everything compounded rests on a mass of suf-
fering:  The world rests on suffering (S.I,40).
The meditator understands that Nibbàna is free
from suffering. Compounded things are liable to
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decay and death. In the Uncompounded there is
no decay and death. The idea that Nibbàna is a
tranquillization also occurs to the meditator now.
 Desire means wish or longing. Compounded
things cater to wishes. Their very existence is
bound up with longing and desire. Food and
drink, clothes and dwellings, the cake of soap, the
razor and the broom  all these things are always
in a process of wearing away. Various efforts are
required to check this process of decay, and all
these efforts are the outcome of longing. When
one object of desire breaks up, man hankers for
another. He goes on hankering like this because of
the wish-begetting nature of compounded things
and the nagging impulses they create.
When the meditator is in a position to infer
that the Uncompounded is free from this charac-
teristic, he is much relieved at heart. So he turns
his attention to the Uncompounded, trying his
best to attain it. Knowing well that the com-
pounded is fraught with suffering, and that the
Uncompounded is free from suffering, he puts
forth the necessary effort with the determina-
tion:  Somehow I will attain it. It is when he
makes such an endeavour that insight leading to
emergence develops within him.
Insight leading to emergence is the climax of
insight knowledge. This insight leads directly
and infallibly to the supramundane path,
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referred to by the term  emergence. The insight
leading to emergence comprises three kinds of
knowledge: fully-matured knowledge of equa-
nimity about formations, conformity know-
ledge, and change-of-lineage (still to be
discussed). It covers the mundane moments of
consciousness in the cognitive series issuing in
the supramundane path  that is, the mind-
moments called preliminary work (parikamma),
access (upacàra), and conformity (anuloma).
Since the phase of preliminary work has the task
of attending to deficiencies in the balancing of
the spiritual faculties, some meditators with
sharp and well-balanced faculties skip this
phase and go through only access and conform-
ity. The rest must pass through all three. The
mind at this stage is working with such rapidity
that the entire process has to be reckoned in
terms of thought-moments. (See Appendix 3.)
Up to the time of insight leading to emer-
gence, the meditator had been contemplating
the three characteristics of all formations 
impermanence, suffering and not-self. As he
continues reflecting on the three characteristics
with keen insight, when he reaches insight
leading to emergence, one characteristic stands
forth more prominently than the others. Which
one stands forth depends on his dominant spir-
itual faculty. One in whom faith is predominant
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will discern impermanence and subsequently
apprehend Nibbàna as the signless (animitta);
his path is called the signless liberation. One in
whom concentration is predominant will
discern the mark of suffering and apprehend
Nibbàna as the desireless (appaõihita); his path
is called the desireless liberation. One in whom
wisdom is predominant will discern the mark of
not-self and subsequently apprehend Nibbàna
as voidness (su¤¤atà); his path is called the
voidness liberation. The particular outstanding
characteristic comes up distinctly in the most
developed phase of knowledge of equanimity
about formations, and persists as the mode of
apprehension through three phases of insight
leading to emergence: preliminary work, access
and conformity.
2. Change-of-Lineage Knowledge
(Gotrabhå¤àõa)
During these three phases, the meditator s mind
is working with formations as its object. He is
seeing formations as impermanent, suffering or
not-self. But with the next step, Change-of-
Lineage Knowledge, a radical change takes
place. As soon as Change-of-Lineage Knowledge
occurs, the mind lets go of formations and takes
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Nibbàna as its object. This knowledge gains its
name because at this point the meditator
 changes lineage, that is, he passes from the [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]