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
Susıma asks the perfected beings:
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Is it true that you declared arhathood or final cognition in the presence of the Blessed One,
saying: ‘We understand: Destroyed is birth, the holy life has been lived, what had to be
done has been done, there is no more for this state of being’? – Yes.
Do you possess the supernatural powers, the divine ear, the cognition of the mind of
another, the recollection of past existences, the divine eye, the calm equipoises beyond
form? – No.
What? Did you make the declaration of arhathood or final cognition without possessing
(asam›patti) these spiritual qualities (dhamma)? – We have been liberated by means of
discrimination (prajñ›).
The Blessed One explains to Susıma the ‘cognition of the stability of the factors’
(dhamma˛˛hitiñ›˚a; [i.e., dependent origination in forward order]) which is followed by the
‘cognition of Nibb›na’ (nibb›˚e ñ›˚a; dependent origination in reverse order). 28 In brief: Form
(rÒpa) is impermanent, etc.: seeing this, one becomes disgusted by it; disgusted, one becomes
detached from it; detached, one is liberated from it; and one cognizes that one is
liberated. Then one says:
Destroyed is birth,… Susıma, do you see that death has birth as cause…, that the karma-
formations (sa˙sk›ra) are destroyed by the destruction of ignorance? – Yes.
And do you possess the supernatural powers… the equipoises beyond form? – No.
BAB. HARIVARMAN, CHAP. 162, ON THE SEVEN CONCENTRATIONS; F 203-204
a. There are seven bases or resources. By relying (1) on the first meditation (dhy›na)… (7) on
the ‘perception-sphere of nothingness’ (aki˙canıy›yatana), one obtains the ‘destruction of the
fluxes’ (›sravak˝aya). Basis or resource, 29 i.e., ‘cause’. In these seven spheres (›yatana), one obtains
noble discrimination (›ryaprajña). As is said. “The concentrated mind engenders right
cognition”. 30 – There is a man who obtains meditation (dhy›na) and says that that is enough. The
28 See below, pp. F 204, 207.
Bhikkhu Bodhi: S›ratthappak›sinı: “Insight knowledge is ‘knowledge of the stability of the Dhamma’
(dhamma˛˛hitiñ›˚a˙), which arises first. At the end of the course of insight, path knowledge arises; that is
‘knowledge of Nibb›na’, which arises later.”
S›ratthappak›sinı-pur›˚a-˛ık›: “The ‘stability of the Dhamma’ is the stableness of phenomena, their intrinsic
nature (dhamm›na˙ ˛hitat› ta˙sabh›vat›): namely, impermanence, suffering, nonself. Knowledge of that is
‘knowledge of the stability of the Dhamma’.”
29 ›Ÿraya, perhaps, niŸraya. [Sastri has niŸraya].
30 Above, p. 198, note.