[ Sitting Practice ]
To Be Seen For One's Self[1]
Four things one may see the reality of for one' self:
Past lives,[2] seeing for one's self using the memory.
Disappearance and reappearance,[3] seeing for one's self using the eye.[4]
The Eight releases,[5] seeing for one's self using the body.[6]
The elimination of the āsavas,[7] seeing for one's self using wisdom.
[1] Dīgha Nikāya III.33: Sangiti Suttanta: 4.30
[2] Pubbe-nivāso: See Knowledge of Former Habitations
[3] PED: Cuta (pp. of cavati; Sk. cyuta) 1. (adj.) shifted, disappeared, deceased, passed from one existence to another Vin IV.216; Sn 774, 899 - 2. (n.) in cpd. cutūpapāta disappearance & reappearance, transmigration
[4] cakkhunā: eye. Both Walshe and Rhys Davids turn this into the Dibba Cakkhu. I suggest the Dibba Cakkhu is a special case of cakkhu. We see with the fleshy eye the coming and going of the seasons, crops, people, etc., we see the decease of individuals, seers see the manner of their reappearance with the Dibba Cakkhu. The Dhamma is helpful in the beginning! It is helpful in determining the value of the Four Truths for beginners to be able to see decease and rebirth in common terms.
[5] PED: Vimokkha (and Vimokha) (fr. vi + muc, cp. mokkha1) deliverance, release, emancipation, dissociation from the things of the world, Arahantship D II.70, 111); III.34, 35, 230, 288; M I.196 (samaya- and a-samaya-); S I.159 (cetaso v.); II.53, 123; III.121; IV.33; A II.87; IV.316; V.11; Vin V.164 (cittassa). The three vimokkhas are: suññato v., animitto v., appaṇihito v. The eight vimokkhas or stages of emancipation, are: the condition of rūpī, a-rūpa-saññī, recognition of subha, realization of ākāsa-nañc'āyatana, of viññāṇ'a-nañc'āyatana, ākiñcaññ'āyatana, n'eva-saññā-n'a-saññ'āyatana, saññā-vedayita-nirodha D III.262 (cp. Dial. III.242), A I.40; IV.306. — In sequence jhāna vimokkha samādhi samāpatti (magga phala) at Vin I.97, 104; III.91; IV.25; A III.417, 419; V.34, 38.
See also The Seven Types of Individuals.
[6] kāyena: Both Walshe and Rhys Davids rely on the Abhidhamma interpretation which forces this from meaning body as it is usually used in the Suttas into meaning Mind (PED: ... Abhidhamma distinguished kāya as = the cetasikas (mental properties, or the vedanā, saññā and sankhārā khandhas), body being excluded ... )(and I think this also warps the meaning of sankhara). This, in turn, forces the meaning of kaya-sakkin to be the "mental realizer" of Horner.
It may well be that it is here in this sutta that the Abhidhamma idea began: if the modifiers are methods rather than mediums, and the a-rūpa-jhānas are purely mental, then it would not be possible to use the body to attain these vimokkhas, so kaya must be made to be "mind-body" or the body of things making up what we understand to be mind. The whole issue is made much simpler by understanding the modifiers to be mediums: One may understand the eight vimokkhas with (while still in the; or in the case of this sutta 'by way of reference to (or seeing) the bodily state') body.
(See also: Glossology: kaya)
