What this chapter covers: This chapter explains the four remaining direct knowledges (abhinnas) that arise from deep concentration: the divine ear, mind-reading, recollection of past lives, and the divine eye. It also describes the cosmic cycles of world destruction and renewal, and concludes with a detailed analysis of how each direct knowledge relates to its objects.
The Divine Ear
The divine ear element (dibba-sota-dhatu) is a kind of hearing that goes far beyond normal human ability. It works like the hearing of heavenly beings, whose ears are not blocked by bile, phlegm, blood, or other physical impairments. But instead of arising from good past actions as it does for heavenly beings, this ability arises from the meditator’s own effort in practice. It is also called “divine” because it is developed through the divine abidings as its foundation.
It is called an “ear element” in the sense of hearing, and to show there is no soul behind it. It surpasses normal human hearing by reaching sounds far beyond the human range.
What It Can Hear
The meditator hears two kinds of sound: divine sounds and human sounds. This includes sounds far away — even in other world-systems — and sounds close by, even the sounds of creatures living inside his own body.
How to Develop It
The meditator should enter the fourth absorption (jhana) as the basis for direct knowledge, then emerge. Using the consciousness of preliminary concentration, he should first pay attention to the gross sounds normally within hearing range:
- The roar of lions in the forest
- The sound of a gong, drum, or conch in the monastery
- Novices and young monks reciting loudly
- Ordinary talk like “What, venerable sir?” or “What, friend?”
- Birds, wind, footsteps
- The fizzing of boiling water
- Palm leaves drying in the sun
- Even the sound of ants
Starting with the loudest sounds, he should gradually turn to subtler and subtler sounds. He should pay attention to the sound sign in every direction — east, west, north, south, above, below, and in between.
These sounds are already evident to normal consciousness. But they become especially clear to the preliminary-work consciousness. As he gives attention to the sound sign, thinking “Now the divine ear will arise,” mind-door adverting arises with one of these sounds as its object. When that ceases, four or five mental impulses follow. The first three or four are sense-sphere consciousness. The last one is fine-material absorption consciousness of the fourth absorption. The knowledge that arises together with this absorption consciousness is the divine ear element.
Extending Its Range
Once established, the meditator should gradually extend the range. He starts by resolving “I will hear sounds within this area” — first a single finger-breadth, then two, four, eight, a span, the interior of the room, the veranda, the building, the surrounding walkway, the monastery park, the alms village, the district, and on up to the entire world-system or even beyond.
Once he has mastered this, he can hear any sound within the area covered by his basic absorption without needing to re-enter it. Even if there is a tremendous uproar of conch shells, drums, and cymbals right up to the highest heavens, he can still pick out each individual sound: “This is a conch, this is a drum.”
Mind-Reading
Knowledge of penetration of minds (cetopariya-nana) means the ability to know the mental states of other beings. The meditator penetrates and delimits the minds of others, understanding their consciousness in sixteen ways:
- Consciousness with greed and without greed
- Consciousness with hatred and without hatred
- Consciousness with delusion and without delusion
- Cramped consciousness (stiff with torpor) and distracted consciousness (scattered by restlessness)
- Exalted consciousness (of the refined planes) and unexalted consciousness
- Surpassed consciousness (of the three mundane planes) and unsurpassed consciousness (supramundane)
- Concentrated consciousness (at access or full absorption) and unconcentrated consciousness
- Liberated consciousness and unliberated consciousness
How to Develop It
This knowledge is developed through the divine eye, which serves as its preliminary work. The meditator extends light and then observes the colour of blood around the physical heart of another person:
- When joyful consciousness is present, the blood is red like a banyan fig
- When sorrowful consciousness is present, it is dark like a rose-apple fruit
- When equanimous consciousness is present, it is clear like sesame oil
By observing these colour changes, the meditator identifies which mental faculty — joy, grief, or equanimity — has produced this physical state. This is how he consolidates the knowledge of mind-reading.
Once consolidated, he can gradually understand not only all sense-sphere consciousness but also fine-material and immaterial consciousness. He traces one state of mind from another without needing to see the physical heart any more.
Background Note: The method of observing heart-blood colour is for beginners only. An advanced practitioner knows another’s consciousness directly, wherever it is, according to the sixteen categories — without needing any physical observation. This applies even when reading the minds of beings in the formless realms, who have no physical heart to observe.
Recollection of Past Lives
Knowledge of recollection of past lives (pubbe-nivasanussati-nana) is the ability to remember one’s own former existences in detail. The meditator recollects one birth, two, three, five, ten, twenty, fifty, a hundred, a thousand, a hundred thousand births — and even many cosmic ages of world contraction and expansion.
For each past life he recalls: “There I had such a name, such a family, such an appearance. Such was my food, my experience of pleasure and pain, and the length of my life. Passing away from there, I reappeared elsewhere.” He remembers all this with its full details and particulars.
Six Kinds of Beings Who Recollect
There are six kinds of beings who can recollect past lives, each with a different range:
- Practitioners of other traditions — up to forty cosmic ages only, because their understanding is weak
- Ordinary disciples — up to a hundred thousand cosmic ages
- Great disciples — up to a hundred thousand cosmic ages
- Chief disciples — up to an incalculable age plus a hundred thousand cosmic ages
- Solitary Buddhas (Paccekabuddha) — up to two incalculable ages plus a hundred thousand cosmic ages
- Fully Awakened Buddhas — no limit at all
How Each Type Recollects
Practitioners of other traditions can only follow the chain of mental and physical events step by step. They cannot skip ahead. They are like blind people who cannot let go of their walking sticks.
Ordinary and great disciples can both follow the chain step by step and trace by death-and-rebirth-linking. Chief disciples and Solitary Buddhas skip the chain entirely — they see one death, then the rebirth, then the next death, and the next rebirth.
Buddhas have nothing to do with either method. Whatever instance they choose across many millions of cosmic ages is immediately evident to them. They descend with the “lion’s descent” wherever they want, skipping over vast stretches as if they were a gap in a text. Like an arrow shot by a master archer, their knowledge never gets stuck in intermediate births or misses the target.
Comparing Their Vision
The vision of other traditions is like the light of a glow-worm. That of ordinary disciples, like the light of a candle. That of the great disciples, like the light of a torch. That of the chief disciples, like the light of the morning star. That of Solitary Buddhas, like the light of the moon. That of Buddhas, like the glorious autumn sun with its thousand rays.
Other traditions see past lives as blind men go tapping with a stick. Ordinary disciples, as men crossing on a log bridge. Great disciples, as men on a foot bridge. Chief disciples, as men on a cart bridge. Solitary Buddhas, as men on a main footpath. Buddhas, as men travelling on a wide highway.
How a Beginner Develops It
A beginner who wants to recollect past lives should go into solitary retreat after his meal. He attains the four absorptions in succession, then emerges from the fourth absorption as his basis for direct knowledge.
He then works backward through time, step by step:
- His most recent act of sitting down
- Preparing the seat, entering the lodging
- Putting away his bowl and robe
- Eating, returning from the village, walking for alms
- Entering the village, setting out from the monastery
- Paying homage at the shrine and the Bodhi tree
- Washing the bowl, picking it up
- Things done in the early morning, the middle watch, the first watch
He continues in reverse order through everything done during the whole night and day. This much is evident even to normal consciousness, but it becomes especially clear to preliminary-work consciousness. If anything is not evident, he should re-enter the basic absorption, emerge, and attend again. It then becomes as clear as when a lamp is lit.
He continues backward — two days, three, four, five, ten days, a fortnight, a year. Then ten years, twenty years, all the way back to the moment of rebirth-linking in this life. He should then attend to the mind-and-body at the moment of death in the previous existence.
Crossing the Gap Between Lives
A wise practitioner can do this at the first attempt. But the mind-and-body of the previous existence has ceased completely. Another has arisen in its place. That past moment is, as it were, shut away in darkness.
He should not give up. He should enter the basic absorption again and again, and each time he emerges, attend to that moment of rebirth-linking.
This is like a man felling a big tree. When his axe gets blunt from lopping branches, he does not give up. He goes to the smithy, sharpens it, and returns. Each time, he does not need to re-chop what is already chopped — only what remains. Eventually the tree falls. So too, each time the meditator emerges, he attends only to the rebirth-linking, until he finally breaks through.
Once he gets back beyond the rebirth-linking, mind-door adverting arises with the mind-and-body at the death moment of the previous life as its object. Four or five mental impulses follow. The last one is fine-material absorption consciousness of the fourth absorption. The knowledge that arises with it is what is properly called “knowledge of recollection of past lives.”
What Each Past Life Reveals
For each past existence, the meditator recalls:
- Name and family — “I was called Tissa, of the Kassapa clan”
- Appearance — fair or dark
- Food — fine rice and meat, or wild fruits
- Experience — bodily and mental pleasure and pain
- Life span — a century, or eighty-four thousand cosmic ages
He sees himself passing away from one existence and reappearing in the next, through all the various realms of becoming.
The Cosmic Cycles
When the text speaks of “many cosmic ages of world contraction and expansion,” it refers to the great cycles of universal destruction and renewal.
There are three kinds of destruction: by fire, by water, and by wind. Each has a different upper limit:
- Fire burns everything below the Streaming-Radiance heaven (Abhassara)
- Water dissolves everything below the Refulgent-Glory heaven (Subhakinha)
- Wind demolishes everything below the Great-Fruit heaven (Vehapphala)
In each case, it is an entire Buddha-field that is destroyed — one hundred thousand million world-systems, all at once.
Destruction by Fire
When the cosmic age is to end by fire, a great rain cloud first appears. Rain falls everywhere. People are delighted and sow their seeds. But once the sprouts grow, the rain stops completely — for many hundreds of thousands of years.
Beings who depend on rain die and are reborn in higher heavens. Then heavenly beings called “world-marshals” travel among humans with dishevelled hair and tearful faces, announcing:
“Good people, at the end of a hundred thousand years this world will be destroyed. Even the ocean will dry up. This great earth and Mount Sineru will be consumed. Develop loving-kindness, compassion, gladness, and equanimity. Care for your mothers and fathers. Honour your elders.”
Hearing this, people are filled with urgency. They become kind to each other, make merit, and are reborn in heavenly worlds. There they develop absorption through meditation on the air totality device and are eventually reborn in the higher heavens that survive the destruction.
Then a second sun appears. Night and day become indistinguishable. Rivers begin to dry up. A third sun appears, and the great rivers dry up. A fourth, and the great lakes of the Himalayas vanish. A fifth, and not enough water remains in the ocean to wet a single finger joint. A sixth, and the entire world becomes nothing but vapour. A seventh sun appears, and the whole world-system catches fire.
Even the summits of Mount Sineru, a hundred leagues high, crumble and vanish. The fire rises through the heavenly realms one by one. It stops only at the Streaming-Radiance heaven. As long as anything the size of an atom remains, the fire burns. When everything is consumed, it goes out — leaving no ash, like a flame that has burnt all its fuel.
Reconstruction of the World
After a long time, a great cloud arises and rains gently at first, then in ever heavier torrents — like lotus stems, like rods, like pestles, like palm trunks. The water fills all the burnt areas. Winds compress and shape it. As it gradually subsides, the heavenly worlds reappear in their places.
When it sinks to the level of the former earth, strong winds hold it still. As the water settles, an essential humus appears on its surface — with colour, smell, and taste, like the film on rice porridge when it cools.
Beings who had been reborn in the Streaming-Radiance heaven fall from there when their life span or merit runs out. They reappear here, self-luminous and wandering through the sky. They eat the essential humus and are overcome by craving. Their self-luminosity vanishes. Darkness falls. They are afraid.
To remove their fear, the sun appears — fifty leagues across. They are delighted and say: “It has appeared to give us courage, so let it be called the sun!” When the sun sets, they are afraid again. Then the moon appears — forty-nine leagues across. They say: “It appeared as if it knew our wish, so let it be called the moon!” After that, the stars appear, and the cycle of night and day, months, seasons, and years begins again.
On the day the sun and moon appear, the mountains and continents appear too. As the essential humus is consumed, beings gradually differentiate — some become handsome, some ugly. The handsome despise the ugly. The humus vanishes. Other foods appear in succession, each coarser than the last, until rice appears that ripens without tilling.
Vessels appear. Fire arises spontaneously to cook the rice, which tastes however they wish. But with this coarser food, bodily functions develop. Sexual differences appear. Craving and desire arise. Beings begin to live in houses, hoard food, and set boundaries. Theft, lying, and violence follow.
Eventually they agree to elect a leader — the most handsome, capable, and restrained among them. In this cosmic age, that was the being who would become the Buddha himself. Because he was chosen by the majority, he was called the “Great Elected One.” Because he was lord of the fields, he was called a “warrior noble.” Because he made others happy through righteousness, he was a “king.”
Destruction by Water and Wind
When the cosmic age ends by water, the process is similar, but instead of a second sun, a cloud of caustic waters appears. It dissolves everything up to the Refulgent-Glory heaven. Beings fall from there to rebuild the world starting from the Streaming-Radiance heaven.
When it ends by wind, a great wind arises that lifts dust, sand, gravel, stones, and great trees into space, where they shatter and disappear. The wind tears up the earth itself, hurling fragments hundreds of leagues across into space. World-systems collide with each other — mountain against mountain — until everything is destroyed. The wind demolishes up to the Great-Fruit heaven.
The Pattern of Destruction
Each of these four phases — contraction, post-contraction, expansion, and post-expansion — is one incalculable period. Together they make one great cosmic age.
The pattern follows a cycle: seven destructions by fire, then one by water. This repeats seven times (fifty-six by fire, seven by water). Then, at the sixty-fourth turn, wind takes the place of water and destroys up to the higher heaven.
The root cause of destruction corresponds to the three unwholesome roots: when greed is dominant, the world is destroyed by fire; when hatred, by water; when delusion, by wind.
The Divine Eye
The divine eye (dibba-cakkhu), also called knowledge of the passing away and reappearance of beings (cutupapata-nana), allows the meditator to see beings dying and being reborn throughout all realms.
It is called “divine” for the same reasons as the divine ear — it resembles the vision of heavenly beings, it is developed through the divine abidings, it illuminates by discerning light, and it sees visible forms behind walls and across vast distances. It is “purified” because it purifies one’s view by showing both death and rebirth.
Background Note: Seeing only death without rebirth leads to the annihilation view — the mistaken belief that beings simply cease to exist. Seeing only rebirth without death leads to the view that entirely new beings spontaneously appear. By seeing both, the meditator avoids both errors.
What It Reveals
With the divine eye, the meditator sees beings:
- Passing away and reappearing — though not at the exact moment of death or rebirth, but rather those about to die and those who have just been reborn
- Inferior and superior — despised or honoured, depending on their past actions
- Fair and ugly — with pleasant or unpleasant appearance, from the results of non-hatred or hatred
- Happy or unhappy in their destiny — reborn in fortunate or unfortunate realms, from the results of non-greed or greed
He understands beings as faring according to their deeds. This is a distinct function: seeing beings is the divine eye’s work, but understanding the connection between their actions and their destiny is the work of knowledge of faring according to deeds.
How This Understanding Arises
The meditator extends light downward toward the hells and sees beings suffering greatly. He asks himself: “After doing what deeds do they suffer like this?” Knowledge then arises showing him what they did.
He extends light upward toward the heavenly groves and sees beings enjoying great fortune. He asks: “After doing what deeds do they enjoy this?” Knowledge arises showing him the answer.
The Consequences of Actions
Regarding the kinds of beings he sees in unfortunate realms:
Those who were ill-conducted in body, speech, and mind — who reviled noble ones and held wrong views — reappear after death in states of loss, in unhappy destinies, in perdition, in hell.
Those who were well-conducted in body, speech, and mind — who did not revile noble ones and held right views — reappear after death in happy destinies, in the heavenly world.
Reviling Noble Ones
Reviling awakened beings is singled out for special emphasis because of its great seriousness. It resembles actions with immediate karmic consequences. Whether done knowingly or unknowingly, it obstructs both heavenly rebirth and the path to liberation.
The following story illustrates this:
An elder monk and a young monk were walking for alms in a village. At the first house they received only a spoonful of hot gruel. The elder’s stomach was paining him with wind. He thought: “This gruel is good for me. I should drink it before it gets cold.”
People brought a stool to the doorstep. He sat down and drank the gruel right there.
The young monk was disgusted. “The old man has let his hunger get the better of him,” he said. “He has done something he should be ashamed of.”
After returning to the monastery, the elder asked the young monk: “Do you have any footing in this teaching, friend?”
“Yes, venerable sir. I am a stream-enterer.”
“Then, friend, do not try for the higher paths. One whose taints are destroyed has been reviled by you.”
The young monk asked for forgiveness and was restored to his former state.
How to Seek Forgiveness
One who has reviled a noble one — even if he is one himself — should go to that person. If he is senior, he should squat down and say: “I have said such and such. Please forgive me.” If he is junior, he should bow, hold his palms together, and ask forgiveness.
If the person has gone away, he should go to them or send someone. If that is impossible, he should go to the monks in that monastery and ask them to relay his apology. If the noble one has attained final liberation and is no longer alive, he should go to the place where that person passed away and ask forgiveness there. When this is done, the obstruction is removed.
How a Beginner Develops the Divine Eye
A beginner should first make his basic absorption fully responsive to his guidance. Then he should take one of three totality devices — fire, white, or light (light being the best) — and work it up to access concentration, not full absorption. He extends the light from this access level. Whatever is visible within the area he has extended the light to, he can see.
While seeing, the preliminary-work period runs out. The light disappears. He no longer sees. He should re-enter the basic absorption, emerge, and pervade with light again. Gradually the light gets stronger.
The simile of the grass torch: A man set out on a journey at night with a grass torch. It stopped flaming, and he could no longer see the path. He struck the torch on the ground and it blazed up again — brighter than before. It kept dying out and flaring up. Eventually the sun rose. He threw the torch away and travelled by daylight.
In this simile: the initial light from the totality device is like the torch. Losing the light when the preliminary work runs out is like the torch dying. Re-entering absorption is like striking the torch. The stronger light each time is like the torch blazing brighter. The stable, powerful light that remains is like the sunrise. Seeing all day long in that strong light is like travelling by daylight after throwing the torch away.
When visible objects that are not within the range of the meditator’s physical eye — objects inside his belly, beneath the earth, behind walls and mountains, or in other world-systems — become as clear as if seen with the physical eye, then the divine eye has arisen.
But this presents a danger for an ordinary person. Wherever he determines “Let there be light,” it becomes light — even penetrating through earth, sea, and mountains. He may then see the frightening forms of spirits and demons. Fear arises, his mind is distracted, and he loses his absorption. So he must be careful.
Summary of the Direct Knowledges and Their Objects
The Helper, knower of the five aggregates, Had these five direct knowledges to tell. When they are known, there are concerning them These general matters to be known as well.
The divine eye has two additional kinds of knowledge: knowledge of the future and knowledge of faring according to deeds. Together with the five main direct knowledges, this makes seven kinds in total.
How Each Knowledge Relates to Its Objects
To avoid confusion, the Buddha taught four sets of object-classifications. Here is how each of the seven direct knowledges maps to them:
Supernormal power — seven kinds of object. When the meditator converts the body to follow the mind (to travel invisibly), its object is limited (the physical body). When he converts the mind to follow the body, its object is exalted (the refined consciousness). It can have past, future, or present objects depending on the situation. When transforming his own body and mind, the object is internal. When projecting elephants, horses, and other external forms, it is external.
The divine ear — four kinds of object. Its object is always limited (sound is limited). Always present (it hears only existing sounds). Internal when hearing sounds in one’s own body. External when hearing others’ sounds.
Mind-reading — eight kinds of object. Limited when knowing sense-sphere consciousness. Exalted when knowing fine-material or immaterial consciousness. Measureless when knowing path and fruition consciousness. It can have past, future, or present objects — though “present” here means present by continuity or present by extent, not strictly present by moment. Always external, since it knows only another’s mind.
Background Note: Regarding who can read whose mind: an ordinary person cannot know a stream-enterer’s consciousness. A stream-enterer cannot know a once-returner’s. Each higher level can know all those below it. But an awakened being can know the consciousness of everyone.
Recollection of past lives — eight kinds of object. Limited when recollecting sense-sphere aggregates. Exalted when recollecting fine-material or immaterial aggregates. Measureless when recollecting a path or fruition from the past. Always past. Internal when recollecting one’s own aggregates. External when recollecting another’s. Not-so-classifiable when recollecting conventional concepts like names and family lineages. This knowledge is on a par with omniscient knowledge regarding past states — there is nothing past that falls outside its range.
The divine eye — four kinds of object. Always limited (its object is material form, which is limited). Always present (it sees only existing material form). Internal when seeing material form inside one’s own body. External when seeing another’s.
Knowledge of the future — eight kinds of object. Limited when knowing future sense-sphere rebirth. Exalted when knowing future fine-material or immaterial rebirth. Measureless when knowing future path or fruition. Always future. Internal when knowing one’s own future rebirth. External when knowing another’s. Not-so-classifiable when knowing future conventional concepts like names and lineages.
Knowledge of faring according to deeds — five kinds of object. Limited when knowing sense-sphere actions. Exalted when knowing fine-material or immaterial actions. Always past. Internal when knowing one’s own past actions. External when knowing another’s.
When any of these knowledges alternates between internal and external objects, it is said to have an internal-external object as well.
This is the thirteenth chapter, “The Description of Direct Knowledge,” in the section on the Development of Concentration in the Path of Purification, composed for the purpose of gladdening good people.