present in himself, saying, "Thus do I know; thus do I see," such that regardless of whether or not he is cross-examined on a later occasion, he — being remorseful and desirous of purification — might say, "Friends, not knowing, I said I know; not seeing, I said I see — vainly, falsely, idly," unless it was from over-estimation, he also is defeated and no longer in affiliation.
All conscious lies are forbidden by the first pācittiya rule, but knowingly to make a false claim to a superior human state is one of the most heinous lies a bhikkhu can tell, so here it receives its own rule and the heaviest possible penalty.
The seriousness with which the Buddha regarded a breach of this training rule is indicated by his statements to the original instigators:
"You worthless men, how can you for the sake of your stomachs speak praise of one another's superior human states to householders? It would be better for you that your bellies be slashed open with a sharp butcher's knife than that you should for the sake of your stomachs speak praise of one another's superior human states to householders. Why is that? For that reason you would undergo death or death-like suffering, but you would not on that account, at the break-up of the body, after death, fall into deprivation, the bad destination, the abyss, hell. But for this reason
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you would, at the break-up of the body, after death, fall into deprivation, the bad destination, the abyss, hell... Bhikkhus, in this world with its devas, māras, and brahmās, its generations with brahmans and contemplatives, princes and men, this is the ultimate great thief: he who claims an unfactual, non-existent superior human state. Why is that? You have consumed the nation's almsfood through theft."
The full offense under this rule has four factors.
1) Object: a superior human state.
2) Perception: One perceives it as not present in oneself.
3) Effort: One addresses a human being, mentioning that state in connection with oneself — either the state as within oneself, or oneself as in the state —
4) Intention: with the intent to misrepresent the truth, motivated by an evil desire.
The commentaries add a fifth factor — result — saying that one's listener must understand what one is saying for there to be the full offense, but as we will see below, this factor appears to be based on a misreading of the Vibhaṅga.
Object. The Vibhaṅga lists many superior human states, defining them as follows:
meditative absorption (jhāna): the four jhānas;
emancipation (vimokkha): the emptiness (suññatā) emancipation, the theme-less (animitta) emancipation, and the non-directed (appaṇihita) emancipation;
concentration (samādhi): the emptiness concentration, the theme-less concentration, and the non-directed concentration;
meditative attainments (samāpatti): the emptiness attainment, the theme-less attainment, and the non-directed attainment;
knowledge-and-vision (ñāṇa-dassanā): knowledge of past lives, knowledge of the passing away and arising of beings, and knowledge of the ending of mental effluents (āsava);
path-development (magga-bhāvanā): the 37 Wings to Awakening (bodhipakkhiya-dhamma) — the four establishings of mindfulness, the four right exertions, the four bases of power, the five faculties, the five strengths, the seven factors for Awakening, and the noble eightfold path;
the realization of the noble fruits (phala-sacchikiriya): the fruit of stream-entry, the fruit of once-returning, the fruit of non-returning, and the fruit of arahantship;
the abandoning of defilements (kilesappahāna): the abandoning of passion, aversion, and delusion;
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the mind's freedom from hindrance (vinīvaraṇatā cittassa): the mind unhindered by passion, aversion, and delusion; and
delight in an empty dwelling (suññāgāre abhirati): the delight in an empty dwelling stemming from the four jhānas.
The Commentary classifies these states into two broad categories: mahaggata dhamma — "enlarged" or "expanded" states — related to the practice of meditative absorption; and lokuttara dhamma — transcendent states — related to the absolute eradication of the mental fetters that bind the mind to the cycle of rebirth.
a. Mahaggata dhamma. The discourses describe the four jhānas as follows:
"There is the case where a bhikkhu — quite withdrawn from sensuality, withdrawn from unskillful (mental) qualities — enters and remains in the first jhāna: rapture and pleasure born from withdrawal, accompanied by directed thought and evaluation.
He permeates and pervades, suffuses and fills this very body with the rapture and pleasure born from withdrawal...
"And furthermore, with the stilling of directed thought and evaluation, he enters and remains in the second jhāna: rapture and pleasure born of composure, unity of awareness free from directed thought and evaluation — internal assurance. He permeates and pervades, suffuses and fills this very body with the rapture and pleasure born of composure...
"And furthermore, with the fading of rapture, he remains equanimous, mindful, &
alert, and senses pleasure with the body. He enters & remains in the third jhana, of which the Noble Ones declare, 'Equanimous & mindful, he has a pleasant abiding.' He permeates and pervades, suffuses and fills this very body with the pleasure divested of rapture...
"And furthermore, with the abandoning of pleasure and pain — as with the earlier disappearance of elation and distress — he enters and remains in the fourth jhāna:
purity of equanimity and mindfulness, neither pleasure nor pain. He sits permeating the body with a pure, bright awareness, so that nothing of his entire body is unpervaded by pure, bright awareness." — DN 2; MN 119; AN V.28
The Commentary notes that four formless states — what the Canon calls
"formlessnesses beyond form," and the Commentary calls "formless jhānas" — are based on the fourth jhāna, and so would count as superior human states as well.
The Canon describes them as follows:
"With the complete transcending of perceptions of form, and the passing away of perceptions of resistance, and not heeding perceptions of diversity, (perceiving) 'Infinite space,' one enters and remains in the dimension of the infinitude of space...
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"With the complete transcending of the dimension of the infinitude of space, (perceiving) 'Infinite consciousness,' one enters and remains in the dimension of the infinitude of consciousness...
"With the complete transcending of the dimension of the infinitude of consciousness, (perceiving) 'There is nothing,' one enters and remains in the dimension of nothingness...
"With the complete transcending of the dimension of nothingness, one enters and remains in the dimension of neither perception nor non-perception." — DN 15
A fifth state, the cessation of perception and feeling, is reached by transcending the dimension of neither perception nor non-perception, and all who reach it become either non-returners or arahants. The Commentary argues that this state does not count as a superior human state, on the technical grounds that it is neither worldly (lokiya) nor transcendent, but nothing in the Canon indicates that a superior human state has to be clearly one or the other. Using the Commentary's own reasoning with regard to the four formless states — that they are based on the fourth jhāna — the same argument can be used to include the cessation of perception and feeling as a superior human state as well.
From the inclusion of the three knowledges in the Vibhaṅga's list, the Commentary takes up the issue of whether the remaining five of the eight knowledges should be included as well. The three knowledges, as described in DN 2, are:
Recollection of past lives (pubbenivāsānusati-ñāṇa): "He recollects his manifold past lives, i.e., one birth, two births, three births, four, five, ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, one hundred, one thousand, one hundred thousand, many aeons of cosmic contraction, many aeons of cosmic expansion, many aeons of cosmic contraction and expansion, (recollecting,) 'There I had such a name, belonged to such a clan, had such an appearance. Such was my food, such my experience of pleasure and pain, such the end of my life. Passing away from that state, I re-arose there. There too I had such a name, belonged to such a clan, had such an appearance. Such was my food, such my experience of pleasure and pain, such the end of my life.
Passing away from that state, I re-arose here.' Thus he recollects his manifold past lives in their modes and details."
Knowledge of the passing away and reappearing of beings (cutūpapāta-ñāṇa): "He sees — by means of the divine eye, purified and surpassing the human — beings passing away and re-appearing, and he discerns how they are inferior and superior, beautiful and ugly, fortunate and unfortunate in accordance with their kamma:
'These beings — who were endowed with bad conduct of body, speech, and mind, who reviled the noble ones, held wrong views and undertook actions under the influence of wrong views — with the break-up of the body, after death, have re-appeared in the plane of deprivation, the bad destination, the lower realms, in hell.
But these beings — who were endowed with good conduct of body, speech, and mind, who did not revile the noble ones, who held right views and undertook actions under the influence of right views — with the break-up of the body, after death, have re-appeared in the good destinations, in the heavenly world.' Thus — by
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means of the divine eye, purified and surpassing the human — he sees beings passing away and re-appearing, and he discerns how they are inferior and superior, beautiful and ugly, fortunate and unfortunate in accordance with their kamma."
Knowledge of the ending of mental effluents (āsavakkhaya-ñāṇa): "He discerns, as it has actually come to be, that 'This is stress... This is the origination of stress...
This is the cessation of stress... This is the way leading to the cessation of stress...
These are (mental) effluents... This is the origination of effluents... This is the cessation of effluents... This is the way leading to the cessation of effluents.' His heart, thus knowing, thus seeing, is released from the effluent of sensuality, the effluent of becoming, the effluent of ignorance. With release, there is the knowledge, 'Released.' He discerns that 'Birth is ended, the holy life fulfilled, the task done.
There is nothing further for this world.'"
The first two of these knowledges, even though they comprised part of the Buddha's Awakening, are mundane, in that people may develop them without necessarily attaining any of the transcendent paths and fruitions. Thus they belong under the category of mahaggata dhamma, as they are based on the attainment of jhāna either in this or in a previous life. The third knowledge, however — because it describes the arising of the transcendent paths and fruitions — comes under the category of lokuttara dhamma, and is the only one of the eight knowledges to do so.
DN 2 describes the remaining five knowledges as:
Insight knowledge (vipassanā-ñāṇa): "He discerns: 'This body of mine is endowed with form, composed of the four primary elements, born from mother and father, nourished with rice and porridge, subject to inconstancy, rubbing, pressing, dissolution, and dispersion. And this consciousness of mine is supported here and bound up here.'"
Mind-made body (manomayiddhi): "From this body he creates another body, endowed with form, made of the mind, complete in all its parts, not inferior in its faculties, just as if a man were to draw a reed from its sheath."
Supranormal powers (iddhividhī): "He wields manifold supranormal powers. Having been one he becomes many; having been many he becomes one. He appears. He vanishes. He goes unimpeded through walls, ramparts, and mountains as if through space. He dives in and out of the earth as if it were water. He walks on water without sinking as if it were dry land. Sitting cross-legged he flies through the air like a winged bird. With his hand he touches and strokes even the sun and moon, so mighty and powerful. He exercises influence with his body even as far as the Brahmā worlds."
Clairaudience (dibba-sota): "He hears — by means of the divine ear-property, purified and surpassing the human — both kinds of sounds: divine and human, whether near or far."
Mind-reading (cetopariya-ñāṇa): "He knows the awareness of other beings, other individuals, having encompassed it with his own awareness. He discerns a mind
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with passion as a mind with passion, and a mind without passion as a mind without passion (etc.)."
The Commentary argues that all of these knowledges except vipassanā-ñāṇa count as superior human states. It does not explain why it excludes vipassanā-ñāṇa from the list, although it is probably following the belief current in its time, that vipassanā-ñāṇa does not require jhāna as a basis, even though the Canon clearly lists this ñāṇa — as distinct from vipassanā as a more general mental quality of clear-seeing — as dependent on jhāna.
There are other occult abilities that are not based on jhāna and for this reason do not count as mahaggata dhamma: such things as divination, giving protective charms, casting malevolent spells, psychic healing, practicing as a medium, etc.
The discourses list these and other similar activities as tiracchāna-vijjā, animal knowledge, which — as the name implies — is far removed from superior human states. (See BMC2, Chapter 10.)
b. Lokuttara dhamma, in its fullest sense, refers to the series of mental states, called paths and fruitions, in which the fetters that bind the mind to the cycle of rebirth are eradicated; and to the ultimate state of nibbāna, or liberation.
The paths and fruitions occur in four pairs. In the first pair, the path to and fruition of stream-entry, three fetters are abandoned: self-identity views (sakkāya-diṭṭhi), uncertainty (vicikicchā), and grasping at precepts and practices (silabbata-parāmāsa). In the second pair — the path to and fruition of once-returning — passion aversion, and delusion are weakened, but no additional fetters are cut. In the third pair, the path to and fruition of non-returning, two additional fetters are abandoned: sensual passion (kāma-rāga) and irritation (paṭigha); and in the fourth pair, the path to and fruition of arahantship, five: rūpa-rāga — passion for forms (e.g., the objects of rūpa jhāna); arūpa-rāga — passion for formless phenomena (e.g., the objects of arūpa jhāna); māna — conceit; uddhacca — restlessness; and avijjā — ignorance. With the cutting of this last set of fetters, all bonds with the cycle of rebirth are cut for good, and the mind attains nibbāna.
The term nibbāna literally means extinguishing, as of a fire. The commentarial explanation of this term that best fits the way it is used in the Canon is found at Vism.VIII,247, where Buddhaghosa derives it etymologically from nir, a negative prefix, and vāna, binding: thus, unbinding or liberation. In the physics of the Buddha's time, fire as it burned was said to be in a state of agitation, dependence, attachment, and entrapment — both clinging to and being trapped by its sustenance. Extinguished, it was said to become calm, independent, and unattached. It let go of its sustenance and was released. In the mind's extinguishing, or unbinding, a parallel change occurs.
Nibbāna is one; the paths and their fruitions, eight. Thus there are nine lokuttara dhammas. Although the Vibhaṅga explicitly mentions only the four transcendent fruitions in its list of superior human states, the Commentary argues that the remaining five implicitly qualify as well. There is support for the Commentary's
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argument in that the Vibhaṅga includes the noble eightfold path in its list, and SN LV.5 equates this path with the stream.
The Commentary classifies the three types of concentration and emancipation in the Vibhaṅga's list — emptiness, theme-less, and non-directed — as equivalent to the transcendent paths, and the three corresponding attainments as transcendent fruitions. A passage in MN 121, however, indicates that at least the theme-less concentration would count as a mahaggata dhamma because it can be attained without full insight into its fabricated nature, and the same classification might hold for all three of these concentrations and emancipations. Regardless of which class they fall into, however, they are all superior human states. As for the Wings to Awakening, the Commentary maintains that they count as superior human states only when developed to the level of any of the transcendent paths. It also adds that any other attainment equivalent to a lokuttara dhamma — such as complete comprehension of the four noble truths — would fulfill the factor of object here as well.
Perception. Claiming a superior human state that one mistakenly thinks one has achieved is no offense under this rule, although if addressed to a lay person the claim would come under Pc 8. The same holds for a claim that is actually true.
There is the question, however, of what offense there would be for a bhikkhu who has attained a superior human state — such as the first jhāna — without realizing the fact, and then claims to have attained it, thinking his statement to be false. The Vibhaṅga defines non-existent as "not to be found; not knowing, not seeing a skillful state within oneself, (yet saying,) 'There is a skillful state within me.'" Also, under the factor of intention, it states that misrepresenting one's view or opinion would fulfill that factor. This implies that a superior human state would count as non-existent if one did not see it as existent. If one then misrepresented one's view to another person, claiming the state to be existent, one would fulfill the factors of the full offense here.
Unlike the Vibhaṅga to Pc 1, the Vibhaṅga to this rule does not consider the case where a bhikkhu, doubtful of his attainment, states it as an undoubted fact. This suggests that the compilers of the Vibhaṅga saw the full offense here as applying only to cases where a bhikkhu knows without a doubt that his claim to a superior human state is untrue. From this it would follow that if one is in doubt about one's attainment of such a state and yet makes a definite claim to it, one would incur a pācittiya under Pc 1.
Effort. According to the Vibhaṅga, a statement mentioning oneself in connection with a superior human state is one indicating either that the state is present in oneself or that one is present in the state. Such a statement fulfils this factor only if it explicitly mentions oneself, although the reference to the state may be either explicit or implicit. Explicit mention of the state would include saying such things as,
"I have attained the first jhāna," "I have seen the heavenly realms," "I know my previous lifetimes." The Vibhaṅga's example of an implicit mention of a state is the statement, "I delight in an empty dwelling," the implication being that one's delight comes from the attainment of jhāna. At present, many meditation communities have
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developed their own idioms for describing superior human attainments — one being
"I have no doubts about the Buddha's teaching" as a way of claiming stream-entry
— and, in the context of such communities, idioms of this sort would count as
— and, in the context of such communities, idioms of this sort would count as