The Foundations of Buddhism

The Buddhist Path 197

glow' is the first of four 'stages of penetrating insight' (nirvedha-

bhtigzya); the subsequent three stages are known as summit

(murdhan), acceptance (k~anti), and the highest ordinary state

( laukikagra-dharma).

The first three of the four stages of penetrating insight are

each divided into three stages of weak, medium, and strong,

making ten stages of penetrative insight in all. These stages rep-

resent successive attainments of states of concentration through

the practice of the fourth manifestation of mindfulness in which

the meditator's direct understanding of the four truths in all

their aspects is gradually deepened. The culmination of this

process is a single moment of insight-the highest 'ordinary'

state. This is immediately followed by a direct vision of the four

truths in sixteen aspects-'the path of seeing'. In contrast to the

Theravadins, the Sarvastivadins suggest that it takes sixteen

'thought' moments to see the truths. This appears to be a the-

oretically constructed notion, in part connected with the idea that,

since one can only know one thing at a time, one could not directly

know sa111sara and nirval)a (suffering and itscessation, the con-

ditioned and the unconditioned) in a single moment of thought.

Interestingly the Theravadins suggest one can. But the length of

a moment of thought is m1derstood as so short that even for the

Sarvastivadins the path of seeing is still understood as in effect

instantaneous. Strictly the path of seeing endures for only fifteen

moments, and is once more understood as the fulfilment of all

the thirty-seven conditions contributing to awakening; the six-

teenth moment is taken as belonging to the transcendent path

of development and constitutes the attainment of the transcend-

ent 'fruit'.

What happens in the attainment of the transcendent path and

fruit is said to depend on one's previous practice. The meditator

who has previously mastered the attainment of the dhyanas (by

the ordinary path of development) and thereby already estab-

lished a certain ability to let go of craving as far as the world of

the five senses is concerned will, in the path of seeing, once and

for all abandon that craving and become either a once-returner
or a never-returneL The meditator who has not previously