The Practice Which leads to Nibbana - A Buddhist Library

5. addhŒna pariggaha = discerning of dhammas which arecauses and dhammas which are results of the past and futurenŒmas and rèpas.The objects of insight meditation are nŒmas, rèpas, dhammasthat are causes, and dhammas that are effects, and these are alsocalled saºkhŒra dhammas (conditioned phenomena).The understanding (pa––a) that sees all these saºkhŒra dhammasas impermanent, painful, and not-self is called insight (vipassanŒ).Therefore, a meditator who wishes to develop vipassanŒ which beginsfrom maggŒmagga –Œöa dassana visuddhi onwards must firsthave completed diÊÊhi visuddhi and kaºkhŒvitarana visuddhi becauseit is the nŒmas rèpas and the causes and effects discerned inthose purifications (visuddhi) to which the three characteristics ofimpermanence, pain, and not-self must be applied and which haveto be seen with insight.In the practice of insight the meditator must alternately apply thethree characteristics at one time to the internal five khandhas, at anothertime to the external five khandhas, at one time to the rèpas andat another time to the nŒmas (see vsm.XXI, 86). The Visuddhimaggaalso instructs to apply the three characteristics to the dhammas in thepast and future at the time of doing insight on the factors of dependentorigination during sammasana –Œöa and udayabbaya –Œöa (seevsm. XX, 6 - 9 ). The concentration that occurs while doing insightis called khaöika samŒdhi, because it does not remain on a singleobject continuously as it does in samatha.To be able to systematically practise insight as described above,the practice must certainly be based upon upacŒra or appanŒ jhŒnaconcentration. Here upacŒra concentration refers to that producedby four elements meditation or samatha meditation. Only the concentrationthat occurs when doing insight in the above way can becalled vipassanŒ khaöika samŒdhi.w 165