..续本文上一页ctice, others may perhaps read it with advantage, too.

　　Now these are my concluding good wishes for the latter type of readers: Just as a very delicious, appetizing, tasty and nutritious meal can be appreciated fully only by one who has himself eaten it, and not without partaking of it, in the same way, the whole series of knowledges described here can be understood fully only by one who has himself seen it by direct experience, and not otherwise. So may all good people reach the stage of indubitable understanding of this whole series of knowledges! May they also strive to attain it!

　　This treatise on the purities and insights,

　　For meditators who have seen things clear,

　　Although their store of learning may be small —

　　The Elder, Mahasi by name, in insight”s method skillful,

　　Has written it in Burmese tongue and into Pali rendered it.

　　The Treatise on the Purities and Insights

　　composed on 22.5.1950

　　is here concluded.

　　Notes

　　1. Here, and in the title of this treatise, the Pali term ñana has been rendered by "insight," as at the outset the word "knowledge," the normal rendering of ñana, might not be taken by the reader with the full weight and significance which it will receive in the context of the present treatise. In all the following occurrences, however, this Pali term has been translated by "knowledge," while the word "insight" has been reserved for the Pali term vipassana. When referring to the several types and stages of knowledge, the plural "knowledges" has been used, in conformity with the Pali ñanani.

　　2. In the canonical Buddhist scriptures, the seven stages of purification (visuddhi) are mentioned in the Discourse on the Stage Coaches (Majjhima Nikaya No. 24). They are also the framework of the Venerable Buddhaghosa”s Path of Purification (Visuddhimagga), where they are explained in full. (Translation by Ñanamoli Thera, publ. by BPS.)

　　3. "Motion" (vayo, lit. wind, air) refers to the last of the four material elements (dhatu), or primary qualities of matter. The other three are: earth (solidity, hardness), water (adhesion), and fire (caloricity). These four elements, in varying proportional strength, are present in all forms of matter. The so-called "inner wind element" which applies in this context is active in the body as motion, vibration, and pressure manifesting itself in the passage of air through the body (e.g., in breathing), in the movement and pressure of limbs and organs, and so on. It becomes perceptible as a tactile process, or object of touch (photthabbarammana), through the pressure caused by it.

　　4. The attention directed to the movement of the abdomen was introduced into the methodical practice of insight-meditation by the author of this treatise, the Venerable Mahasi Sayadaw, and forms here the basic object of meditative practice. For details see The Heart of Buddhist Meditation by Nyanaponika Thera (London: Rider & Co., 1962; BPS, 1992), pp. 94f., 106. If preferred, the breath itself may instead be taken as the basic object of meditative attention, according to the traditional method of "mindfulness of breathing" (anapanasati); see Heart of Buddhist Meditation, pp.108ff. Mindfulness of Breathing by Ñanamoli Thera (BPS, 1982).

　　5. According to the Buddhist Abhidhamma teachings, only the three elements of earth, fire, and wind constitute the tactile substance in matter. The element of water is not held to be an object of touch even in cases where it predominates, as in liquids. What is tactile in any given liquid is the contribution of the other three elements to its composite nature.

　　6. "Door" is a figurative expression for the sense organs (which, including the mind, are sixfold), because they provide, as it were, the access to the world of objects.

　　7. The prece…

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