La Vallée Poussin Musīla and Nārada. The Path - Gampo Abbey

Musıla and N›rada. The Path of Nirv›˚a: by Louis de La Vallée Poussin
According to the Abhidharma, unless I am mistaken, these perfected beings possess at least the
‘preparatory meditation’ (an›gamya), but usually possess the meditations (dhy›na): the equipoises
that they lack are the four formless equipoises and the ‘equipoise of cessation’ (nirodhasam›patti).
According to the Majjhima, I, 477, ‘those liberated through discrimination’ (paññ›vimutta) are the
perfected beings who have not touched the calm formless liberations (or equipoises [of
cessation]). Therefore, it would seem, they possess the meditations (jh›na).
But in the Puggalapaññatti, the perfected beings are those who have not touched the eight
liberations [namely, the four meditations (jh›na) and the four formless equipoises].
25 Visuddhimagga, 702: Ordinary persons (p¸thagjana), the noble persons (›rya) of the first two classes, the
never-returners (an›gamin) and the perfected beings (arhat) of the sukkhavipassaka class, do not enter into the
‘equipoise of cessation’ (nirodhasam›patti). The never-returners and the perfected beings who possess the
eight equipoises (sam›patti) (four meditations, four formless equipoises) do enter into it, not the others.
Compendium (transl. of the Abhidhammatthasa˚gaha, a treatise of the 10 th (?) century, in P.T.S., 1910, with
good introduction by Shwe Zan Aung), 55: “…it must be borne in mind that jh›na is not absolutely necessary
to Arahantship, as e.g., in the case of the Arahants termed ‘dry-visioned’ (sukkhavipassak›)”; Childers, s.v.,
samatha: the Arahant of this class is so called because he attains sanctification by contemplating the ‘dry’
facts of physical and moral phenomena, such as impermanence, etc. – Geiger, transl. of Sa˙yutta, II, 172,
which I [LVP] have not seen.
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