(3) Penetration of Minds

8. As to the explanation of knowledge of penetration of minds, [the text is as follows: “He directs, he inclines, his mind to the knowledge of penetration of minds. He penetrates with his mind the minds of other beings, of other persons, and understands them thus: he understands [the manner of] consciousness affected by greed as affected by greed, and understands [the manner of] consciousness unaffected by greed as unaffected by greed; he understands consciousness affected by hate as affected by hate, and consciousness unaffected by hate as unaffected by hate; he understands consciousness affected by delusion as affected by delusion, and consciousness unaffected by delusion as unaffected by delusion; he understands cramped consciousness as cramped, and distracted consciousness as distracted; he understands exalted consciousness as exalted, and unexalted consciousness as unexalted; he understands surpassed consciousness as surpassed and unsurpassed consciousness as unsurpassed; he understands concentrated consciousness as concentrated and unconcentrated consciousness as unconcentrated; he understands the liberated [manner of] consciousness as liberated, and the unliberated [manner of] consciousness as unliberated” (D I 79). Here, it goes all round (pariyāti), thus it is penetration (pariya); the meaning is that it delimits (paricchindati). The penetration of the heart (cetaso pariyaṃ) is “penetration of minds” (cetopariya). It is penetration of hearts and that is knowledge, thus it is knowledge of penetration of minds (cetopariyañāṇa). [He directs his consciousness] to that, is what is meant.

Of other beings: of the rest of beings, himself excluded. Of other persons: this has the same meaning as the last, the wording being varied to suit those susceptible of teaching [in another way], and for the sake of elegance of exposition. With his mind the minds: with his [manner of] consciousness the [manner of] consciousness of other beings. Having penetrated (paricca): having delimited all round. He understands: he understands them to be of various sorts beginning with that affected by greed.

9. But how is this knowledge to be aroused? That is successfully done through the divine eye, which constitutes its preliminary work. Therefore the bhikkhu should extend light, and he should seek out (pariyesitabba) another’s [manner of] consciousness by keeping under observation with the divine eye the colour of the blood present with the matter of the physical heart as its support.^[1] For when [a manner of] consciousness accompanied by joy is present, the blood is red like a banyan-fig fruit; when [a manner of] consciousness accompanied by grief is present, it is blackish like a rose-apple fruit; when [a manner of] consciousness accompanied by serenity is present, it is clear like sesame oil. So he should seek out another’s [manner of] consciousness by keeping under observation the colour of the blood in the physical heart thus, “This matter is originated by the joy faculty; this is originated by the grief faculty; this is originated by the equanimity faculty,” and so consolidate his knowledge of penetration of hearts.

10. It is when it has been consolidated in this way that he can gradually get to understand not only all manner of sense-sphere consciousness but those of fine-material and immaterial consciousness as well by tracing one [manner of] consciousness from another without any more seeing the physical heart’s matter. For this is said in the Commentary: “When he wants to know another’s [manner of] consciousness in the immaterial modes, whose physical-heart matter can he observe? Whose material alteration [originated] by the faculties can he look at? No one’s. The province of a possessor of supernormal power is [simply] this, namely, wherever the [manner of] consciousness he adverts to is, there he knows it according to these sixteen classes.” But this explanation [by means of the physical heart] is for one who has not [yet] done any interpreting.^[2]

11. As regards [the manner of] consciousness affected by greed, etc., the eight [manners of] consciousness accompanied by greed (see Table III, nos. (22)–(29)) [410] should be understood as [the manner of] consciousness affected by greed. The remaining profitable and indeterminate [manners of] consciousness in the four planes are unaffected by greed. The four, namely, the two consciousnesses accompanied by grief (nos. (30) and (31)), and the two consciousnesses [accompanied respectively by] uncertainty (32) and agitation (33) are not included in this dyad, though some elders include them too. It is the two consciousnesses accompanied by grief that are called consciousness affected by hate. And all profitable and indeterminate consciousnesses in the four planes are unaffected by hate. The remaining ten kinds of unprofitable consciousnesses (nos. (22)–(29) and (32) and (33)) are not included in this dyad, though some elders include them too. Affected by delusion … unaffected by delusion: here only the two, namely, that accompanied by uncertainty and that accompanied by agitation, are affected by delusion alone [without being accompanied by the other two unprofitable roots]. But [all] the twelve kinds of unprofitable consciousnesses (nos. (22)–(33)) can also be understood as [the manner of] consciousness affected by delusion since delusion is present in all kinds of unprofitable consciousnesses. The rest are unaffected by delusion.

12. Cramped is that attended by stiffness and torpor. Distracted is that attended by agitation. Exalted is that of the fine-material and immaterial spheres. Unexalted is the rest. Surpassed is all that in the three [mundane] planes. Unsurpassed is the supramundane. Concentrated is that attained to access and that attained to absorption. Unconcentrated is that not attained to either. Liberated is that attained to any [of the five kinds of] deliverance, that is to say, deliverance by substitution of opposites [through insight], by suppression [through concentration], by cutting off [by means of the path], by tranquillization [by means of fruition], and by renunciation [as Nibbāna] (see Paṭis I 26 under “abandoning”). Unliberated is that which has not attained to any of the five kinds of liberation.

So the bhikkhu who has acquired the knowledge of penetration of hearts understands all these [manners of consciousness, namely, the manner of] consciousness affected by greed as affected by greed … [the unliberated manner of] consciousness as unliberated.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

The “matter of the heart” is not the heart-basis, but rather it is the heart as the piece of flesh described as resembling a lotus bud in shape outside and like a kosātakī fruit inside (VIII.111). For the blood mentioned here is to be found with that as its support. But the heart-basis occurs with this blood as its support” (Vism-mhṭ 403).

[2]:

“Of one who has not done any interpreting (abhinivesa) reckoned as study for direct-knowledge” (Vism-mhṭ 407). A rather special use of the word abhinivesa, perhaps more freely renderable here as “practice.”