Path and not-path

In one sentence

The fifth purification consists in recognising ten uplifting states as a detour — and precisely at the moment when the practice first really bears.

In today's language

Up to here the investigation was work. In chapter XX that changes. The practitioner now sees how things come up and pass away again, and this knowledge — it is called udayabbaya-ñāṇa, knowledge of arising and passing away — brings with it states that nobody expected.

Light. A knowing that seems to come without effort. Rapture that goes through the body. A stillness that was not there before. Happiness. Confidence. Strength. A mindfulness that stands of itself. An equanimity that touches nothing any longer. And right at the end: a fine clinging to all of it.

The book enumerates exactly these ten and calls them imperfections of insight.

The point is not that these states would be bad. Nine out of ten are things that on the path are expressly to be developed — mindfulness, equanimity, rapture, strength. The clouding does not come from them but from what attaches itself to them: the delight in them, and the conclusion one draws from them.

Precisely this conclusion is the not-path. One takes the state for the arrival — and stays put.

Why this matters

Because this is the place at which a serious practitioner can fail without noticing it. With the hindrances one knows that something is not right: one is restless, tired, doubting. Here everything is right. It feels like the goal.

The canon has a discourse of its own for this. In MN 128 Anuruddha and his companions see light and forms and lose both again. The Buddha thereupon reports his own way and enumerates in order eleven states at each of which his light disappeared — doubt, inattention, rigidity, terror, elation, excessive exertion, too weak exertion, longing, perception of diversity, excessive regarding of forms.

It is the same matter in canonical form: good signs one can get stuck on.

Canonical basis

Beside MN 128 stands the method from MN 19: the Buddha divides his thoughts according to their direction, not according to their pleasantness. Where does this lead? That is the only question that helps here.

SN 22.95 supplies the antidote in the form of an image: a lump of foam too looks solid. If the five aggregates are of this nature, then an experience of light and happiness is not exempt from it either — it is feeling, perception, formation, and so the same material.

Components

• The knowledge of arising and passing away — the gate to this chapter.
• Ten imperfections: illumination, knowledge, rapture, tranquillity, happiness, resolution, exertion, presence of mindfulness, equanimity, attachment.
• Agitation about the truth (dhammuddhacca) — the name the canon gives to the condition of being seized by these things.
• The distinction: this is not the path; the observing of its arising and passing away is the path.
• The purpose of the practice (chapter XXI): to observe the three characteristics — impermanent, suffering, not-self.

Connection with other teachings

The chapter is the application of not-self to one's own progress. As long as the characteristics are applied to the world, the observer is spared. Here it strikes him: insight too is conditioned, equanimity too passes away, the light too has no owner.

And it is the practical place at which calm and insight part company. The concentration has brought the states forth; insight distinguishes them.

Significance for practice

The most usable sentence of the chapter is the plainest: the imperfection is not the state but the grasping of the state. From that follows an instruction that is not an avoidance. One does not have to get rid of the light. One only has to notice that it has come up and disappears again — then it is no longer a not-path but material.

And there follows a warning about language: whoever begins to speak of “my experience” has already passed the point the chapter warns of.

Common misinterpretations

“These states are to be avoided.” No — they are to be recognised. The chapter is called “path and not-path”, not “dangers”.

“Whoever has them is far along.” The book says they come up in the person who practises rightly — and that it is exactly there that many get stuck. They are a sign of progress and of the danger at once.

“But equanimity is the goal.” The equanimity of this list is not the equanimity towards formations that comes in chapter XXI. It is a state in which nothing stirs any more — and which wants to become an owner.