..續本文上一頁onstitute a basic level of knowledge, like the primary education offered in schools.

　　2. Cintamaya-pañña refers to thinking and evaluating so as to learn the meaning and truth of one”s beginning education. This level of education draws out the meaning of the knowledge we have gained through studying. When we gain information, we should reflect on it until we understand it so that we will be led by our sense of reason and not by gullibility or ignorance. This is like a person who has used his knowledge of the alphabet to gain knowledge from books to complete his secondary education. Such a person has reached the level where he can think things through clearly.

　　In the area of the Dhamma, the same holds true. Once we have learned the basics, we should research and think through the content of the Teaching until we give rise to an understanding so that we can conduct ourselves correctly in line with the methods and aims taught by the sages of the past. This level of discernment is what prepares us to conduct ourselves properly in line with the true essence of the Doctrine and Discipline. This is classed as an aspect of pariyatti dhamma, Dhamma on the level of theory. By learning the language and meaning of the Teaching, we can become astute as far as theory is concerned; but if we don”t use that knowledge to train ourselves, it”s as if we studied a profession — such as law — but then went out to become bandits, so that our knowledge wouldn”t give its proper results. For this reason, we”ve been taught still another method, which is the well-spring of discernment or mastery — i.e., the mental activity termed bhavanamaya-pañña.

　　3. Bhavanamaya-pañña: discernment that arises exclusively from the practice of concentration. In other words, this level of discernment isn”t related to the old observations we have gained from the past, because our old observations are bound to obscure the new observations, endowed with the truth, that can arise only right at the mind. When you engage in this form of practice, focus exclusively on the present, taking note of a single thing, not getting involved with past or future. Steady the mind, bringing it into the present. Gather virtue, concentration, and discernment all into the present. Think of your meditation object and bring your powers of evaluation to bear on it — say, by immersing mindfulness in the body, focusing on such objects as the in-and-out breath. When you do this, knowledge will arise.

　　”Ñanam udapadi”: Intuitive knowledge of things we have never before studied or known will appear. For example: pubbenivasanussati-ñana — the ability to remember our present life and past lives; cutupapata-ñana — the ability to know living beings as they die and are reborn — well or poorly, happily or miserably — knowing the causes and results of how they fare; asavakkhaya-ñana — the ability to cleanse ourselves of the effluents that defile the mind, thinning them out or eliminating them altogether, as we are able. These three forms of knowledge don”t arise for people who simply study or think things through in ordinary ways. They form a mental skill that arises from the practice of concentration and are an aspect of Dhamma on the level of practice (patipatti-dhamma).

　　Another aspect — ”pañña udapadi”: Clear discernment of the true nature of the properties (dhatu), aggregates, and sense media arises. We can focus on these things by way of the mind and know them in terms of the four Noble Truths: stress (dukkha), which arises from a cause (samudaya), i.e., ignorance and craving; and then nirodha, the ceasing and disbanding of stress, which occurs as the result of a cause, i.e., the Path (magga), composed of practices for the …

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