I have read somewhere I don’t remember, that most arahants have three higher knowledges.
Remembering past lives, seeing beings reborn due to their kamma, and the third I don’t remember exactly but it has something to do with their being an Arahant.
Is that based on the EBTs?
The third is the fact that got rid of all defilements. In Pali it is something like assvakkaye nana but I am not sure if it is EBT.
With Metta
2 Likes
These some of the abhiññā, higher knowledges and are known as the Tevijjas, the 3 knowledges.
- Remembering one’s former lives ( pubbe-nivāsanussati );
- Divine eye, seeing the workings of kamma ( dibba-cakkhu )
- Extinction of the taints ( āsavakkhaya)
They are mentioned in a few places in EBTs. Such as in the Mahāsaccaka Sutta MN 36 where the Buddha discusses attaining them in each successive watch of the night before his Enlightenment.
Also in the Cūḷahatthipadopama Sutta MN 27, below. They are closely associated with the Four Noble Truths.
- Remembering countless past lives (seeing the true scale of suffering, the first Noble Truth):
When their mind has become immersed in samādhi like this—purified, bright, flawless, rid of corruptions, pliable, workable, steady, and imperturbable—they extend it toward recollection of past lives. They recollect many kinds of past lives, that is, one, two, three, four, five, ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, a hundred, a thousand, a hundred thousand rebirths; many eons of the world contracting, many eons of the world expanding, many eons of the world contracting and expanding. … They recollect their many kinds of past lives, with features and details. This too is called ‘a footprint of the Realized One’ …
- Clairvoyance, seeing how beings arise in dependence on their past kamma, the second Noble Truth of the cause of suffering.
2441When their mind has become immersed in samādhi like this—purified, bright, flawless, rid of corruptions, pliable, workable, steady, and imperturbable—they extend it toward knowledge of the death and rebirth of sentient beings. With clairvoyance that is purified and surpasses the human, they understand how sentient beings are reborn according to their deeds. This too is called ‘a footprint of the Realized One’ …
- Ending of the mental defilement, the asavas, seeing cessation of suffering and the path that leads to cessation, third and fourth Noble Truths.
2542When their mind has become immersed in samādhi like this—purified, bright, flawless, rid of corruptions, pliable, workable, steady, and imperturbable—they extend it toward knowledge of the ending of defilements. They truly understand: ‘This is suffering’ … ‘This is the origin of suffering’ … ‘This is the cessation of suffering’ … ‘This is the practice that leads to the cessation of suffering.’ They truly understand: ‘These are defilements’ … ‘This is the origin of defilements’ … ‘This is the cessation of defilements’ … ‘This is the practice that leads to the cessation of defilements.’
Knowing and seeing like this, their mind is freed from the defilements of sensuality, desire to be reborn, and ignorance. When they’re freed, they know they’re freed.They understand: ‘Rebirth is ended, the spiritual journey has been completed, what had to be done has been done, there is no return to any state of existence.’
The last of the 3 knowledges—the destruction of the mental defilements—is the causal condition that occurs just before but almost simultaneously with the arahant’s awakening, providing them with the knowledge and vision of release.
12 Likes
Interestingly, the three knowledges appear mostly in AN and MN. Even though probably very old we still have a specific transmission (in brackets small variations):
- (SN 12.70, SN 16.9, SN 51.11, SN 52.22-24)
- AN 3.58, AN 3.59, (AN 3.101) AN 4.198, (AN 5.23, AN 5.28, AN 6.2) AN 6.64, (AN 6.70, AN 7.78, AN 7.82) AN 8.11 (AN 8.57, AN 9.35, AN 10.10, AN 10.21, AN 10.22, AN 10.30, AN 10.97, AN 10.102)
- MN 4, (MN 6, MN 12) MN 19, MN 27, MN 36, MN 39, MN 51, (MN 53, MN 54) MN 60, MN 65, (MN 71, MN 73) MN 76, (MN 77) MN 79, MN 85, MN 94, MN 100, MN 101, (MN 108, MN 119) MN 125
- DN 2, DN 10 (DN 25, DN 28, DN 34)
.
But the term tevijja (in a Buddhist sense) appears independently, also in verses, also in the SN, hence in a more ‘organic way’:
- SN 6.5, SN 7.8, SN 8.7, SN 8.9, SN 8.10, SN 8.12, SN 11.18
- AN 3.58, AN 3.59
- MN 56, MN 71, MN 73, MN 91, MN 98
There is a short reference to the three knowledges in Dhp 26 (v.423) and Snp 3.9 (v.653)
Apart from the standard prose description we find also an alternative poetic description in SN 7.8, SN 7.13, AN 3.58, AN 3.59, MN 91, Dhp 26 (and in variation Snp 3.9)
One who knows their past lives,
and sees heaven and places of loss,
and has attained the end of rebirth,
that sage has perfect insight.
10 Likes
The Brahmans basically talked about Tevijja about knowing the three Vedas, the Buddha redefined it as the three higher knowledges
2 Likes
sometimes yes, but in most contexts brahmins are not involved. And there are suttas like DN 13 for example which deal with the brahmin tevijja a lot without mentioning the Buddhist ones at all. And as shown above most suttas which feature the Buddhist ‘three knowledges’ don’t use the label at all.
1 Like
The three higher knowledges are a shortened form of six higher powers, five being mundane (supernormal) and the sixth, the extinction of all cankers through insight, is the only one which is supermundane and a necessary condition for arahantship (Nyantiloka).
“Brahman, such is my instruction for those monks who are learners who, perfection being not yet attained, dwell longing for the incomparable security from the bonds. But as for those monks who are perfected ones, the cankers destroyed, who have lived the life, done what was to be done, shed the burden, attained to their own goal, the fetters of becoming utterly destroyed, and who are freed by perfect profound knowledge — these things conduce both to their abiding in ease here and now as well as to their mindfulness and clear consciousness.”—MN 107
The cankers are a shortened form of the ten fetters.