The Practice Which leads to Nibbana - A Buddhist Library

the present will produce which nŒmas rèpas in the future. So thatwithout knowing the nŒmas and rèpas of the past and future andtheir causes a meditator cannot be said to have achieved the knowledgethat discerns the causes of mind and matter (paccaya pariggaha–Œöa).And so if a meditator has not yet really achieved these threeknowledges he is as far away as the sky is from the ground fromattaining real vipassanŒ insight knowledge and also in turn from therealisation of the Noble Path, Noble Fruition and NibbŒna.So that if a meditator is that far away from attaining NibbŒna,because he has not developed true insight, he should really takeheed of the statement in the Visuddhimagga that a person who developsany particular meditation object and attains upacŒra concentrationor something equivalent to upacŒra concentration can fallinto bhavaºga.This is because there are some meditators who fall into bhavaºgaand say ÒI knew nothingÓ or Ò Both the objects and the mind notingthem ceased,Ó and they believe wrongly that they have realisedNibbŒna, but actually all they have done is to fall into bhavaºga.Because they do not have the ability to discern the bhavaºgamind and its object they say that ÒI knew nothingÓ or Ò Both theobjects and the mind noting them ceased.ÓBut if they go on to really develop paccaya pariggaha –Œöa theywill find that at that time there was still bhavaºga cittas present whichhave as their objects the object of the consciousness close to death inthe previous life. It is simply because of the subtlety of that consciousnessand their lack of true knowledge of mind, matter andcauses that the meditators are not able to perceive it.It must be also pointed out that there is no cessation of consciousnesswhen one realises the unconditioned state of NibbŒna. Thew 169