The Ten Imperfections of Insight

105. Now, when he is a beginner of insight with this tender insight, ten imperfections of insight arise in him. For imperfections of insight do not arise either in a noble disciple who has reached penetration [of the truths] or in persons erring in virtue, neglectful of their meditation subject and idlers. They arise only in a clansman who keeps to the right course, devotes himself continuously [to his meditation subject] and is a beginner of insight. But what are these ten imperfections? They are: (1) illumination, (2) knowledge, (3) rapturous happiness, (4) tranquillity, (5) bliss (pleasure), (6) resolution, (7) exertion, (8) assurance, (9) equanimity, and (10) attachment.

106. For this is said: “How does the mind come to be seized by agitation about higher states? When a man is bringing [formations] to mind as impermanent, illumination arises in him. He adverts to the illumination thus, ‘Illumination is a [Noble One’s] state.’^[1] The distraction due to that is agitation. When his mind is seized by that agitation, he does not understand correctly [their] appearance as impermanent, he does not understand correctly [their] appearance as painful, he does not understand correctly [their] appearance as not-self.

“Likewise, when he is bringing [formations] to mind as impermanent, knowledge arises in him … happiness … tranquillity … bliss … resolution … exertion … establishment … equanimity … attachment arises in him. He adverts to the attachment thus, ‘Attachment is a [Noble One’s] state.’ The distraction due to that is agitation. When his mind is seized by that agitation, he does not correctly understand [their] appearance as impermanent, [634] he does not correctly understand [their] appearance as painful, he does not correctly understand [their] appearance as not-self” (Paṭis II 100).

107. 1. Herein, illumination is illumination due to insight.^[2] When it arises, the meditator thinks, “Such illumination never arose in me before. I have surely reached the path, reached fruition;” thus he takes what is not the path to be the path and what is not fruition to be fruition. When he takes what is not the path to be the path and what is not fruition to be fruition, the course of his insight is interrupted. He drops his own basic meditation subject and sits just enjoying the illumination.

108. But this illumination arises in one bhikkhu illuminating only as much as the seat he is sitting on; in another, the interior of his room; in another, the exterior of his room; in another the whole monastery … a quarter league … a half league … a league … two leagues … three leagues; in another bhikkhu it arises making a single light from the earth’s surface up to the Brahmā-world. But in the Blessed One it arose illuminating the ten-thousandfold world-element.

109. This story illustrates how it varies. Two elders, it seems, were sitting inside a room with a double wall at Cittalapabbata. It was the Uposatha of the dark of the moon that day. All directions were covered by a blanket of cloud, and at night the four-factored gloom^[3] prevailed. Then one elder said, “Venerable sir, the flowers of the five colours on the lion table on the shrine terrace are visible to me now.” The other said, “What you say is nothing wonderful, friend. Actually the fishes and turtles in the ocean a league away are visible to me now.”

110. This imperfection of insight usually arises in one who has acquired serenity and insight. Because the defilements suppressed by the attainments do not manifest themselves, he thinks, “I am an Arahant,” like the Elder Mahā-Nāga who lived at Uccavālika, like the Elder Mahā-Datta who lived at Haṅkana, like the Elder CūḷaSumana who lived in the Nikapenna meditation house at Cittalapabbata.

111. Here is one story as an illustration. The Elder Dhammadinna, it seems, who lived at Talaṅgara—one of the great ones with cankers destroyed who possessed the categories of discrimination—was the instructor of a large community of bhikkhus. One day, as he was sitting in his own daytime quarters, he wondered, “Has our teacher, the Elder Mahā-Nāga who lives at Uccavālika, [635] brought his work of asceticism to its conclusion, or not?” He saw that he was still an ordinary man, and he knew that if he did not go to him, he would die an ordinary man. He rose up into the air with supernormal power and alighted near the elder, who was sitting in his daytime quarters. He paid homage to him, doing his duty, and sat down at one side. To the question, “Why have you come unexpectedly, friend Dhammadinna?” he replied, “I have come to ask a question, venerable sir.” He was told, “Ask, friend. If we know, we shall say.” He asked a thousand questions.

112. The elder replied without hesitation to each question. To the remark, “Your knowledge is very keen, venerable sir; when was this state attained by you?” he replied, “Sixty years ago, friend.” “Do you practice concentration, venerable sir?”—“That is not difficult, friend.”—“Then make an elephant, venerable sir.” The elder made an elephant all white. “Now, venerable sir, make that elephant come straight at you with his ears outstretched, his tail extended, putting his trunk in his mouth and making a horrible trumpeting.” The elder did so. Seeing the frightful aspect of the rapidly approaching elephant, he sprang up and made to run away. Then the elder with cankers destroyed put out his hand, and catching him by the hem of his robe, he said, “Venerable sir, is there any timidity in one whose cankers are destroyed?”

113. Then he recognized that he was still an ordinary man. He knelt at Dhammadinna’s feet and said, “Help me, friend Dhammadinna.”—“Venerable sir, I will help you; that is why I came. Do not worry.” Then he expounded a meditation subject to him. The elder took the meditation subject and went up on to the walk, and with the third footstep he reached Arahantship. The elder was a bhikkhu of hating temperament, it seems. Such bhikkhus waver on account of illumination.

114. 2. Knowledge is knowledge due to insight. As he is estimating and judging material and immaterial states perhaps knowledge that is unerring, keen, incisive, and very sharp arises in him, like a lightning flash.

115. 3. Rapturous happiness is happiness due to insight. Perhaps at that time the five kinds of happiness, namely, minor happiness, momentary happiness, showering happiness, uplifting happiness, and pervading (rapturous) happiness arise in him filling his whole body.

116. 4. Tranquillity is tranquillity due to insight. As he is sitting at that time in his night or day quarters perhaps [636] there is no fatigue or heaviness or rigidity or unwieldiness or sickness or crookedness in his body and his mind, but rather his body and mind are tranquillized, light, malleable, wieldy, quite sharp, and straight. With his body and mind aided by this tranquillity, etc., he experiences at that time the superhuman delight with reference to which it is said:

A bhikkhu when his mind is quiet
Retires to an empty place,
And his right insight in the Dhamma
Gives him superhuman delight.
It is because he comprehends
The rise and fall of aggregates
That he finds happiness and joy
And knows it to be deathless (Dhp 373f.).

This is how tranquillity, associated with lightness, etc., arises in him, bringing about this superhuman delight.

117. 5. Bliss (pleasure) is bliss due to insight. At that time perhaps there arises in him exceedingly refined bliss (pleasure) flooding his whole body.

118. 6. Resolution is faith. For strong faith arises in him in association with insight in the form of extreme confidence of consciousness and its concomitants.

119. 7. Exertion is energy. For well-exerted energy, neither too lax nor too strained, arises in him in association with insight.

120. 8. Assurance (lit. establishment) is mindfulness. For well-established (wellassured), well-founded mindfulness, which is dug in and as immovable as the king of mountains, arises in him in association with insight. Whatever subject he adverts to, consciously reacts to, gives attention to, reviews, appears to him (he is assured of) owing to mindfulness, which descends into it,^[4] enters into it, just as the other world does to one who has the divine eye.

121. 9. Equanimity is both equanimity about insight and equanimity in adverting.^[5] For equanimity about insight, which is neutrality about formations, arises strongly in him at that time. It is also equanimity in adverting in the mind door. For whatever the subject he adverts to, his adverting works as incisively and sharply as a lightning flash, like a red-hot spear plunged into a basket of leaves.

122. 10. Attachment is attachment due to insight. For when his insight is adorned with illumination, etc., attachment arises in him, which is subtle and peaceful in aspect, and it relies on (clings to) that insight; and he is not able to discern that attachment as a defilement. [637]

123. And as in the case of illumination, so too in the case of the other imperfections that may arise, the meditator thinks thus: “Such knowledge … such rapturous happiness … tranquillity … bliss … resolution … exertion … assurance … equanimity … attachment never arose in me before. I have surely reached the path, reached fruition.” Thus he takes what is not the path to be the path and what is not fruition to be fruition. When he takes what is not the path to be the path and what is not fruition to be fruition, the course of his insight is interrupted. He drops his basic meditation subject and sits just enjoying the attachment.

124. And here illumination, etc., are called imperfections because they are the basis for imperfection, not because they are [kammically] unprofitable. But attachment is both an imperfection and the basis for imperfection.

As basis only they amount to ten; but with the different ways of taking them they come to thirty.

125. How? When a man takes it thus, “illumination has arisen in me,” his way of taking is due to [false] view. When he takes it thus, “How agreeable this illumination that has arisen is,” his way of taking is due to pride (conceit). When he relishes the illumination, his way of taking is due to craving. So there are three ways of taking it in the case of illumination, that is to say, due to [false] view, to pride (conceit), and to craving. Likewise with the rest. So they come to thirty with the three ways of taking them. Owing to their influence an unskilful, unwary meditator wavers and gets distracted about illumination, etc., and he sees each one of them-illumination and the rest-as “This is mine, this is I, this is my self” (M I 135). Hence the Ancients said:

He wavers about illumination,
And knowledge, rapturous happiness,
About the tranquilness, the bliss,
Whereby his mind becomes confused;
He wavers about resolution,
Exertion, and assurance, too,
The adverting-equanimity,
And equanimity and attachment (Paṭis II 102).

126. But when illumination, etc., arise, a skilful, wary meditator who is endowed with discretion either defines and examines it with understanding thus: “This illumination has arisen.^[6] But it is impermanent, formed, conditionally arisen, subject to destruction, subject to fall, subject to fading away, subject to cessation.” Or he thinks: “If illumination were self, it would be right to take it as self; but being not-self, it is taken as self. Therefore it is not-self in the sense of no power being exercisable over it; it is impermanent in the sense of non-existence after having come to be; it is painful in the sense of oppression by rise and fall,” all of which should be treated in detail according to the method given under the immaterial septad (§83). And as in the case of illumination, so too with the rest.

127. Having investigated it thus, he sees the illumination as “This is not mine, this is not I, this is not my self.” [638] He sees knowledge … (etc.) … attachment as “This is not mine, this is not I, this is not my self.” Seeing thus, he does not waver or vacillate about the illumination, and so on. Hence the Ancients said:

So when a man of understanding has
Examined these ten things and is now skilled
In agitation about higher states
He no more falls a prey to wavering (Paṭis II 102).

128. So he unravels this thirtyfold skein of imperfections without falling a prey to wavering. He defines what is the path and what is not the path thus: “The states consisting in illumination, etc., are not the path;but it is insight knowledge that is free from imperfections and keeps to its course that is the path.”

129. The knowledge that is established in him by his coming to know the path and the not-path thus, “This is the path, this is not the path,” should he understood as the purification by knowledge and vision of what is the path and what is not the path.

130. So at this point the defining of three truths has been effected by him. How? The defining of the truth of suffering has been effected with the defining of mentality-materiality in the purification of view. The defining of the truth of origination has been effected with the discerning of conditions in the purification by overcoming doubt. The defining of the truth of the path has been effected with the emphasizing of the right path in this purification by knowledge and vision of what is the path and what is not the path. So the defining of three truths has been effected firstly by means of mundane knowledge only.

The twentieth chapter called “The Description of Purification by Knowledge and Vision of What Is the Path and What is Not the Path” in the Treatise on the Development of Understanding in the Path of Purification composed for the purpose of gladdening good people.

Footnotes and references:

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[1]:

“He adverts to it as Nibbāna or as the path or as fruition” (Vism-mhṭ 816). “The agitation, the distraction, that occurs about whether or not the illumination, etc., are noble states is ‘agitation about higher states’” (Vism-mhṭ 815). In this connection Vismmhṭ quotes the following text: “Friends, any bhikkhu or bhikkhunī who declares the attainment of Arahantship in my presence has always arrived there by four paths or by one of them. What four? Here, friends, a bhikkhu develops insight preceded by serenity. While he is developing insight preceded by serenity the path is born in him. He cultivates, develops, repeats that path. As he does so his fetters are abandoned and his inherent tendencies are brought to an end. Again, friends, a bhikkhu develops serenity preceded by insight … He develops serenity and insight yoked equally. Again, friends, a bhikkhu’s mind is seized by agitation about highest states. When that consciousness settles down internally, becomes steady, unified and concentrated, then the path is born in him … his inherent tendencies are brought to an end” (A II 157).

[2]:

“‘Illumination due to insight’ is the luminous materiality originated by insight consciousness, and that originated by temperature belonging to his own continuity. Of these, that originated by insight consciousness is bright and is found only in the meditator’s body. The other kind is independent of his body and spreads all round over what is capable of being experienced by knowledge. It becomes manifest to him too, and he sees anything material in the place touched by it” (Vism-mhṭ 816).

[3]:

Caturaṅga-samannāgataṃ tamaṃ—“four-factored gloom” is mentioned also at S-a I 170, M-a V 16 (c. andhakāra), and Ud-a 66, 304.

[4]:

Okkhandati—“to descend into”: not in PED; see XXII.34 and M-a I 238.

[5]:

“‘Equanimity about insight’ is neutrality in the investigation of formations owing to the objective field having been already investigated. But in meaning, when it occurs thus, it is only neutrality. The volition associated with mind-door adverting is called ‘equanimity (upekkhā) in adverting’ because it occurs in adverting as onlooking (ajjhupekkhana)” (Vismmhṭ 819).

[6]:

Be Vism-mhṭ reads “ayaṃ kho so” instead of the “ayaṃ kho me” in the Ee and Ae editions.