Ch. 27 - Questions and Answers on the Fruition Attainment
Meditation on Cessation (Nirodha)
Path Knowledge and Fruition Knowledge
Cittamayapaññā and Bhāvanāmayapaññā
“Rest Effortlessly within yourself, Leave Everything As It Is”
[These questions and answers were given to clear up when a yogi is or is not meditating on Nibbāna and the role jhāna plays in being able to meditate on cessation post Path Knowledge.]
Meditation on Cessation (Nirodha)
Q: When you mention the cessation attainment are you talking about nirodha samāpatti?
A: No I am talking about being able to meditate on cessation. The practice of nirodha samāpatti is a very special and rare attainment and something different from this. I have not met anyone who I know that can attain this. It is not the same as what is sometimes called the fruition attainment, which is to take cessation as the object of meditation having reached Path Knowledge. You must understand there is a big difference between contemplation of the non-arising of nāma and rūpa and meditating and abiding in the non-arising of nāma and rūpa.
Many yogis will start to contemplate the non-arising of nāma and rūpa as insight begins to mature. But the danger is taking this contemplation as the path. Contemplation of states is not the same as abiding in these states. Samatha practice is developed to allow us to abide in these subtle states as insight matures systematically. Contemplation of the non-arising of nāma rūpa is not the same as abiding in cessation.
Path Knowledge and Fruition Knowledge
The quality of the fruition attainment after Path Knowledge and whether you are able to meditate on cessation will depend upon whether you have jhāna or not prior to that Path Knowledge. The next mind-moment after Path Knowledge is what is traditionally called Fruition Knowledge. At this point the experience of cessation registers in bhavaṅga and Nibbāna is now known by you. But this Fruition moment may be a very fleeting moment for some.
It performs its function of cutting off attachment but it may still be the case that due to lack of meditative stability we are not thereafter able to take cessation as the object of our meditation and enter into absorption or abiding upon it. This is the point at which previous levels of meditative stability bring fruit. The moment of Path Knowledge itself is always a moment of absorption. There is of course the cutting off of bhavaṅga and the absence of any sense of self in the experience. In a way that is its function – to cut off self.
But if there is not enough meditative stability we will not be able to revisit that experience and take the subtlest of all objects, which is the non-arising of nāma and rūpa, as the object of our meditation. If you do not have jhāna you will not be able to meditate on cessation because the object is too subtle for someone without jhāna concentration to abide in. If a yogi practices the dry vipassanā route and realises Path Knowledge they will not be able to meditate on cessation even though the moment of Path Knowledge will perform the function of cutting off certain kamma.
That is why we talk about the contemplation of cessation. One who cannot enter into the fruition attainment of cessation as a meditative absorption will only be able to contemplate cessation. What I am talking of here as the ‘fruition attainment’ is that meditative state that comes to rest upon the non-arising of nāma and rūpa and stays there. Literally nāma and rūpa are gone and you know they are gone. This is the refuge of one who has taken Path Knowledge with jhāna attainment as support. And it is at this point that Nibbāna becomes your teacher.
Really this is why we practise the immaterial jhāna’s, not because in themselves they are significant. In many ways they are no more rewarding than deep absorption in fourth jhāna on any suitable object. But their value is that they teach us in stages to abide upon ever subtler objects. This then becomes a tremendous support when later we seek to enter into the subtlest object of all which is the Nibbāna object, or cessation itself.
But this is not the same as nirodha samāpatti, or the cessation attainment, which is a very rare state where consciousness itself comes to cessation. In the fruition attainment nāma and rūpa come to cessation and we know it. This attainment will deepen the more deeply we enter into cessation with each stage of Path Knowledge.
Cittamayapaññā and Bhāvanāmayapaññā
We would call contemplation of states cittamayapaññā and the abiding in them bhāvanāmayapaññā. These are very different things. Cittamayapaññā is the knowledge that comes from the contemplation of states and this knowledge is not the same as the wisdom that comes from direct experience. However, there is insight to be gained from such contemplation that may be the prompt for letting go. Bhāvanāmayapaññā with regards to cessation is the wisdom that comes from the direct experience and is the result of samādhi. So the ability to abide in cessation depends upon whether or not the yogi has jhāna.
So this brings us to a very important point. If the yogi is practising vipassanā and has the feeling that the mind comes to cessation but the Path and Fruition moment are very fleeting, how then does he know if he has reached some attainment or not? The truth is, he doesn’t. If we are practising vipassanā without deep levels of meditative stability there will not be the capacity to review fleeting states skilfully enough to be sure what they are.
This is the reason we learn to review the jhāna dhammas in bhavaṅga mind-door, this is the reason we learn to review states in such detail, so that we can be clear about what they contain. If Path and Fruition knowledge are very brief and not entered into deeply we may not be able to know whether they are genuine experiences. This is why I always tell you, that even if you think you may have reached some level of supramundane attainment, the best thing by far is to assume that you have not.
In a way your willingness to assume that you have not is a sign that you are close to being willing to let go attachment to self. Only if you have deep levels of meditative stability, which comes with advanced jhāna practice, are you likely to first enter into cessation and stay there for anything more than a brief moment. And as you emerge you will no more be able to be sure of your attainment than if you think you may have fleetingly dropped into jhāna while practising samatha.
So the only reliable way to review your practice at this stage is in hindsight. You may have to spend months, even years, watching for how your mind now behaves, until you are sure that those states that should have been cut off by Path Knowledge have actually been cut off in you. Those yogis who are constantly seeking verification for their progress may still be attached to self. There is danger in this. It may be many years before you can know for sure what level of attainment you might have reached. Be prepared for this.
Q: So what then is the fruition attainment of the dry vipassanā yogi who has realised Path Knowledge?
A: Saṅkhār’upekkhāñāṇa. Their refuge meditation would be on the equanimity to formations. This type of yogi will only be able to contemplate the non-arising of nāma rūpa, even though when they realised Path Knowledge, in that mind-moment there was what you could call a moment of absorption. However, after this the yogi will only be able to contemplate cessation because the object is too subtle for one without jhāna to concentrate on.
“Rest effortlessly within yourself, leave everything as it is”
So this is where the instruction: “Rest effortlessly within yourself, leave everything as it is”, becomes our main practice. There is maybe no desire or need to constantly be reviewing formations. We can let equanimity perform its function of showing us what is peace and what is not peace. We can abide upon the equanimity that leaves everything as it is. This then may become the door that opens us towards deeper capacity for samādhi, because it is likely that once this point has been reached the yogi will find it far easier to develop jhāna samādhi.
Thereafter the second stage of Path Knowledge is more likely to be supported by jhāna. It is often the case that stream entry Path Knowledge does not cut deeply enough to leave the yogi totally satisfied and thereafter Nibbāna becomes the teacher and prompt for further progress. As the yogi develops the meditation upon equanimity to formations up to jhāna the door opens to higher Path Knowledge. There is a point where many beings become satisfied with their attainment, often for long periods and so don’t feel the urge to progress further.
For as long as wholesome kamma fruits for them they will feel they know enough peace without relinquishing all the way to Arahant Path Knowledge. Many beings practise this way. This is the basis of the practice of Chan and Dzogchen where the teaching is simply to “rest effortlessly within yourself and leave everything as it is”. This is the practice of one who has attained saṅkhār’upekkhāñāṇa. All of the direct approaches to awakening are directed to those whose practice (in this or previous lives) has already matured up to this stage of knowledge of equanimity.
