..續本文上一頁er invade the active processes of thought. But beneath the surface stillness the defilements lie latent, ready to spring up again if provoked. As long as the defilements remain present, even if only in dormant form, release from suffering has yet to be achieved, for the latencies of the defilements lying quietly in the mental continuum can still regenerate the samsaric round of continued birth and death. The latent tendencies are the seeds of renewed existence, which bring about a re-arising of the stream of consciousness and thence of all the remaining links in the samsaric chain. To end the round and attain deliverance the defilements must be completely destroyed; it is not enough merely to suppress them. The destruction of the defilements cannot be brought about by concentration alone, for concentration, even at its deepest levels, can only effect the suspension of their activity, not their eradication. To destroy the defilements down to their bottommost stratum of latency something more is needed -- paññá, the wisdom which penetrates the true mark of phenomena. Concentration gains its place in the Buddhist discipline in so far as it induces the mental one-pointed-ness of at least the access level required as the support for wisdom. Thus the Buddha enjoins his disciples to develop concentration, not as an end in itself, but because "one who is concentrated understands things as they really are."[22] Only a mind, which has been rendered pure and calm can comprehend things in accordance with actuality, and the discipline of concentration, by suppressing the hindrances, engenders the required purity and calm. The actual work, however, of extricating the defilements is performed exclusively by wisdom.

　　Wisdom is "the one thing needed" to cut off the defilements because the most fundamental of all the mental depravities is ignorance (avijja). Ignorance is the kingpost upon which all the other defilements converge and the lynchpin, which holds them all in place. While it remains the others remain, and for the others to be destroyed it must be destroyed. Doctrinally defined as nescience with regard to the four noble truths, ignorance signifies not so much the lack of specific pieces of information as a basic non-comprehension regarding the true nature of things as expressed in the four truths. Since the eradication of the defilements depends upon the eradication of ignorance, the one factor capable of abolishing the defilements is the factor capable of abolishing their fundamental root, and that is the direct antithesis of ignorance -- wisdom or "the knowledge and vision of things as they really are." For this reason, at the beginning of our Sutta, the Buddha proclaims: "The destruction of the cankers is for one who knows and sees, I say, not for one who does not know and does not see." The defilements, epitomized in the "cankers," are only destroyed for one who overcomes ignorance by the wisdom, which knows and sees things as they are.

　　The compound expression "knowledge and vision," indicates that the kind of knowledge to be developed is not mere conceptual understanding, but knowledge, which in its directness and immediacy is akin to visual perception. Conceptual understanding is often needed to clear away the intellectual obstructions to a correct perspective, but it must eventually yield to the light of direct experience. To achieve this experiential understanding it is necessary to enter upon the practice of the second system of Buddhist meditation, the development of insight. The practice of insight meditation aims at dislodging the defilements by eradicating the ignorance at their base. Ignorance is overcome by generating, through mindful observation, a direct insight into things as they really are. The material …

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