Turning The Mundane Path into the Transcendent Path

　　The path of the Noble Ones — beginning with the path to stream-entry — is to take the mundane eightfold path and bring it to bear on the five aggregates — body, feelings, labels, fashionings, and consciousness — or, in short, to bring it to bear on physical and mental phenomena. Focus on these phenomena with right discernment until you see them all in terms of their three inherent characteristics, i.e., until you see all the physical and mental phenomena arising and disbanding in the present as inconstant, stressful, and not-self. You see with the eye of intuitive knowledge, the eye of discernment, the eye of meditative skill, the eye of Dhamma. Your vision is true and correct. It”s Right View, the path in harmony, with no admixture of wrong view at all. Your vision of physical phenomena is correct in line with virtue, concentration, and discernment; your vision of mental phenomena is correct in line with virtue, concentration, and discernment. You trace things forward and back. You have an adamantine sword — liberating insight — slashing back and forth. You are engaged in focused investigation: This is what forms the path.

　　You fix your attention on the Noble Truths as two: cause and effect. When your mind is absolutely focused and fixed on examining cause and effect, that”s the path to stream-entry. Once you have gained clear insight into cause and effect through the power of your discernment, making the heart radiant and bright, destroying whatever mental and physical phenomena are fetters (sanyojana), the opening to nibbana will appear. If your powers of discernment are weak, your mind will then return to its dependence on mental and physical phenomena, but even so, it will no longer be deceived or deluded by them, for it has seen their harm. It will never again dare fall into the three fetters that it has borne for so long.

　　Those who reach this stage have reached the transcendent — the path and fruition of stream-entry — and form one class of the Noble Disciples.

　　There are nine transcendent qualities — four paths, four fruitions, and one nibbana: the path to stream-entry and the fruition of stream-entry; the path to once-returning and the fruition of once-returning; the path to nonreturning and the fruition of nonreturning; the path to arahantship and the fruition of arahantship; all of which come down to the one nibbana, which makes nine. The term lokuttara dhamma — transcendent qualities — means superior qualities, special and distinct from mundane qualities, reaching a "world" above and beyond all worlds, destined to go only higher and higher, never to return to anything low.

　　The word magga, or path, refers simply to the way leading to nibbana. It”s called the ariya magga, the path free from enemies, because it”s the path that Death cannot trace. It”s called the eightfold path because on the transcendent level it has abandoned the eight wrong factors of the mundane path, leaving only the eight right: Right View and Right Resolve, which compose right discernment, let us see physical and mental phenomena that arise and disband in the present in terms of their three inherent characteristics, so that we let go of them completely with no remaining doubts about the truth we have seen. As for Right Speech, Right Action, and Right Livelihood, our words and deeds reach purity, free from the fetter of self-identification. And as for Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, and Right Concentration, we reach a level of mind that is firm and imperturbable. Our thoughts, words, and deeds are free from groping with regard to precepts and practices, and are truly in keeping with nibbana, not side-tracking or going slack the way the actions of ordinary people do.

　　People who have attained s…

《The Craft of the Heart - Turning The Mundane Path into the Transcendent Path》全文未完，请进入下页继续阅读…