The Vipassanā-ñāṇas ( Pali, Sinhala: Vidarshana-jñāna) or insight knowledges are various stages that a practitioner of Buddhist Vipassanā ("insight", "clear-seeing") meditation is said to pass through on the way to nibbana. [1] This "progress of insight" (Visuddhiñana-katha) is outlined in various traditional Theravada Buddhist commentary texts such as the Patisambhidamagga, the Vimuttimagga and the Visuddhimagga. In Sarvastivadin abhidharma texts, the "path of insight" (darśana-mārga) one of the five paths of progress in the dharma and is made up of several jñānas also called "thought moments".
The Vimuttimagga (Path to liberation, 解脫道論) is an early meditation manual by the arahant Upatissa preserved only in a sixth-century Chinese translation. The stages of insight outlined by the Vimuttimagga are: [2]
A similar presentation of these stages can be found in the Patisambhidamagga (dated between the 3rd century BCE to the 2nd century CE), an Abhidhamma work included in the fifth Nikāya of the Pāli Canon. In the Patisambhidamagga, there are only 5 stages presented. The first three stages are the same and the last two are "fear & disadvantage" (bhaya & ādīnava) and "wish for deliverance & equanimity towards formations" (muñcitukamyatā & saṅkhārupekkhā). [3]
As a description of a succession of different emotional stages before reaching an objective, it can be linked to the Five stages of grief, also the stages are not the same.
Buddhagosa's Visuddhimagga (Path of purification) (ca. 430 CE), while seemingly influenced by the Vimuttimagga, divides the insight knowledges further into sixteen stages: [4]
In the Abhidhammattha-sangaha (11th to 12th century), another widely used Buddhist commentarial text, there are only ten insight knowledges. [8]
The Abhidharma Mahāvibhāṣa Śāstra presents 'the process of the direct insight into the four truths' as follows: [9]
Darśana mārga (15 moments)(見道十五心)
Bhāvanā-mārga (The 16th moment)(修道第十六心)
The Abhidharma-kosa of Vasubandhu (4th or 5th century CE) lists the knowledges attained on the path of liberation according to the Sarvastivadin abhidharma: [10]
The Vipassanā-ñāṇas ( Pali, Sinhala: Vidarshana-jñāna) or insight knowledges are various stages that a practitioner of Buddhist Vipassanā ("insight", "clear-seeing") meditation is said to pass through on the way to nibbana. [1] This "progress of insight" (Visuddhiñana-katha) is outlined in various traditional Theravada Buddhist commentary texts such as the Patisambhidamagga, the Vimuttimagga and the Visuddhimagga. In Sarvastivadin abhidharma texts, the "path of insight" (darśana-mārga) one of the five paths of progress in the dharma and is made up of several jñānas also called "thought moments".
The Vimuttimagga (Path to liberation, 解脫道論) is an early meditation manual by the arahant Upatissa preserved only in a sixth-century Chinese translation. The stages of insight outlined by the Vimuttimagga are: [2]
A similar presentation of these stages can be found in the Patisambhidamagga (dated between the 3rd century BCE to the 2nd century CE), an Abhidhamma work included in the fifth Nikāya of the Pāli Canon. In the Patisambhidamagga, there are only 5 stages presented. The first three stages are the same and the last two are "fear & disadvantage" (bhaya & ādīnava) and "wish for deliverance & equanimity towards formations" (muñcitukamyatā & saṅkhārupekkhā). [3]
As a description of a succession of different emotional stages before reaching an objective, it can be linked to the Five stages of grief, also the stages are not the same.
Buddhagosa's Visuddhimagga (Path of purification) (ca. 430 CE), while seemingly influenced by the Vimuttimagga, divides the insight knowledges further into sixteen stages: [4]
In the Abhidhammattha-sangaha (11th to 12th century), another widely used Buddhist commentarial text, there are only ten insight knowledges. [8]
The Abhidharma Mahāvibhāṣa Śāstra presents 'the process of the direct insight into the four truths' as follows: [9]
Darśana mārga (15 moments)(見道十五心)
Bhāvanā-mārga (The 16th moment)(修道第十六心)
The Abhidharma-kosa of Vasubandhu (4th or 5th century CE) lists the knowledges attained on the path of liberation according to the Sarvastivadin abhidharma: [10]