The difference between Cessation of Perception and Feeling and arahattaphalasamāpatti
is that while in the latter state one is ‘percipient
(conscious) and awake’ (saññi samāno jāgaro) as is evident from
the M.P.S. episode of the Buddha being unaware of the torrential
downpour with streaks of lightning and peals of thunder while
being awake and conscious. What he was conscious of was the
very cessation of existence (‘bhava nirodho Nibbānaṁ’)
summed up in the dictum ‘etaṁ santaṁ… etc’. ‘This is peaceful
this is excellent… etc’. The same experience is called
‘saḷāyatananirodha’ cessation of the six sense spheres. Nibbānic
consciousness is non-manifestative consciousness –
anidassanaviññāṇa which does not manifest a nāma-rūpa. Here
is the blissful experience of ‘bhavanirodha’ in the light of Paññā
(wisdom).
This is not the case with the CPF. As Ven Dhammadinnā
Therī explains in reply to Visākha Upāsaka’s question: ‘How
lady does the attainments of the cessation of perception and
feeling come about? One is even not aware of the fact that one is
in that attainment.
‘Na kho āvuso Visākha saññāvedayitanirodhaṁ
samāpajjantassa bhikkhuno evaṁ hoti ahaṁ saññāvedayitanirodhaṁ
samāpajjissanti vā ahaṁ saññāvedayitanirodhaṁ
samāpajjāmīti vā ahaṁ saññāvedayitanirodhaṁ samāpannoti vā.
Atha khvāssa pubbeva tathā cittṁ bhāvitaṁ hoti yantaṁ
tathattāya upanetīti!’
‘Friend Visakha, when a monk is attaining the cessation
of perception and feeling it does not occur to him: I shall attain
the cessation of perception and feeling or I am attaining the
cessation of perception and feeling or I have attained the
cessation of perception and feeling; but rather his mind has
previously been developed in such a way that it leads him to that
state.’
VI. Although Mahā Nidāna Sutta mentions C.P.F. as the eight
vimokkha it does not equate it to the experience of Nibbāna as
could be gleaned from a careful scrutiny of the ‘summing up of
the section on ‘‘one who is liberated both ways’ (ubhatobhāga
vimutta).
Yato kho Ānanda bhikkhu ime aṭṭha vimokkhe
anulomampi samāpajjati paṭilomampi samāpajjati anulomapaṭilomampi
samāpajjati, yatthicchakaṁ yadicchakaṁ
yāvaticchakaṁ samāpajjatipi vuṭṭhātipi āsavānañca khayā
anāsavam cetovimuttiṁ paññāvimuttiṁ diṭṭheva dhamme sayaṁ
abhiññā sacchikatvā upasampajja viharati. Ayaṁ vuccati Ānanda
bhikkhu ubhatobhāgavimutto imāya ca ānanda ubhatobhāgavimuttiyā
aññā ubhatobhāgavimutti uttaritarā vā paṇītatarā vā
natthi ti.
“Ananda when once a monk attains these eight liberations
in direct order in reverse order and in direct and reverse order,
entering them and emerging from them as and when, and for as
long as he wishes and has gained by his own higher knowledge
here and now by the destruction of influxes both the
liberation of the mind and the liberation through wisdom, that
monk is called both ways liberated and Ananda there is no other
way of both ways liberation that is higher or more excellent than
this.”
Note: Maurice Walshe’s translation is not accurate (p. 230
Long Discourses of the Buddha).
He has here and now both the destruction of the
corruptions … – which is incorrect. The liberation through
wisdom comes after emerging from C.P.F. as we have pointed
out above.
VII. Perhaps the most convincing argument against the general
belief that saññāvedayitanirodha samāpatti itself is Nibbāna, is
the fact that according to Mahā parinibbāna Sutta the Buddha
passed away or attained parinibbāna not while he was in Nirodha
Samāpatti but having come down from it to the fourth jhāna. It is
immediately after arising from the fourth jhāna that he passed
away.
(catutthajjhānā vuṭṭhahitvā samanantarā Bhagavā
parinibbāyi.)
How easy it is to mistake Nirodha Samāpatti as Nibbāna
is well illustrated by Venerable Ananda’s remark when the
Buddha by stages reached the nirodha samāpatti on that
occasion.
‘Parinibbuto bhante Anuruddha Bhagavā’
‘Ven Sir Anuruddha the Exalted One has attained
parinibbāna.’
But Venerable Anuruddha corrected him with the
following authoritative statement: ‘Na āvuso Ānanda Bhagavā
parinibbuto saññāvedayita nirodhaṁ samāpannoti.’
“No friend Ananda the Exalted One has not attained
parinibbāna, he has (only) attained to the cessation of perception
and feeling.”