The Foundations of Buddhism

The Buddhist Path 195

the general basis of the spiritual life in the form of faith, gen-

erosity, good conduct, and the preliminary development of calm

and insight. The path of application consists of the further

development of calm and particularly insight. The path of see-

ing involves a direct seeing of the four truths in the manner of

the seventh purification of Buddhaghosa's scheme. The path of

development is twofold: either ordinary (laukika) or transcend-

ent (lokottara ). The ordinary path of development consists in

mastery of calm, the attainment of the dhyiinas and formless

attainments. The transcendent path of development consists in

the final eradication of attachment to these meditative attainments

and the realms of the cosmos that correspond to them. The

ordinary path of development may thus precede or succeed the

paths of application and seeing: in the case of a practitioner who

develops the dhyiinas before turning to insight it precedes, and
· in the case of one who develops them after stream-attainment

(accomplished by the path of seeing) it succeeds. The path of

completion is equivalent to the final attainment of arhatship. As

we shall see in Chapter 9, in the Mahayana this scheme of five

paths becomes the basis for the ten stages of the bodhisattva path

(see Table 7).

In his Abhidharmakosa, Vasubandhu describes the immediate

preparation for the path of application in terms of the practice

of calm meditation based either on meditation on the different

types of 'ugliness' or on mindfulness of breathing. The practi-

tioner develops one of these until he or she attains concentra-

tion (samiidhi); Vasubandhu does not specify of what degree but

no doubt access or dhyiina is intended. The meditator then turns

the mind towards insight by means of the practice of the four

'establishings of mindfulness' (smrtyupasthiina/satipa{{hiina). This

is an extremely old and important set of meditations based on

different contemplations: of the body, of feeling, of the mind, and

fourthly of physical and ment~il processes (dharma).^40

Essentially what is assumed by the practice of the four 'estab-

lishings of mindfulness' is that one attains a certain degree of

mental clarity and calm and then turns one's attention first of all

to watching various kinds of physical phenomena and activities,