AN 9.42 talks of the ‘five kinds of sensual stimulation’ as ‘confinement’. It then lists the 4 jhānas a 4 immaterial attainments as ‘openings amid confinement in a qualified sense’. But the 9th attainment is not in a qualified sense:
Furthermore, take a mendicant who, going totally beyond the dimension of neither perception nor non-perception, enters and remains in the cessation of perception and feeling. And, having seen with wisdom, their defilements come to an end.
Puna caparaṃ, āvuso, bhikkhu sabbaso nevasaññānāsaññāyatanaṃ samatikkamma saññāvedayitanirodhaṃ upasampajja viharati, paññāya cassa disvā āsavā parikkhīṇā honti.
This seems to be saying that enlightenment is gained by ‘seeing with wisdom’ the ‘cessation of perception and feeling’.
Now in the previous sutta, AN 9.41, we have the Buddha talking about the drawbacks of sensual pleasures, and his step by step training through meditative states with progressively fewer drawbacks. All the way up through those same 8 attainments, until he gets to the 9th.
And so, going totally beyond the dimension of neither perception nor non-perception, I was entering and remaining in the cessation of perception and feeling. And, having seen with wisdom, my defilements were ended.
So kho ahaṃ, ānanda, sabbaso nevasaññānāsaññāyatanaṃ samatikkamma saññāvedayitanirodhaṃ upasampajja viharāmi, paññāya ca me disvā āsavā parikkhayaṃ agamaṃsu.
As long as I hadn’t entered into and withdrawn from these nine progressive meditative attainments in both forward and reverse order, I didn’t announce my supreme perfect awakening in this world with its gods, Māras, and Brahmās, this population with its ascetics and brahmins, its gods and humans.
Yāvakīvañcāhaṃ, ānanda, imā nava anupubbavihārasamāpattiyo na evaṃ anulomapaṭilomaṃ samāpajjimpi vuṭṭhahimpi, neva tāvāhaṃ, ānanda, sadevake loke samārake sabrahmake sassamaṇabrāhmaṇiyā pajāya sadevamanussāya ‘anuttaraṃ sammāsambodhiṃ abhisambuddho’ti paccaññāsiṃ.
Again, his enlightenment seems to have ben dependent on ‘seeing with wisdom’ the 9th attainment, for which he needed to go through the previous 8.
I am not saying this is the only view in the suttas. But it does seem to be a view. So, how widespread is this idea that enlightenment is dependent on ‘seeing with wisdom’ ‘the cessation of perception and feeling’? And, could this be the original teaching of the Buddha?