Early Indian and Theravada Buddhism: Soteriological Controversy a ...

Further proof that there were separate approaches in the early tradition can be provided by comparing two of the most prominent types of noble persons: the cetovimutta, one who is “liberated of mind,” and the paññāvimutta, one who is “liberated by insight.” This project will be taken up in full in chapter 2, but it is worth noting that although one of the most standard definitions of the arahant is a person who is liberated both of mind and by insight, one also finds a number of contexts in which the arahant is described as being one but not the other. For example, in one dialogue with the Buddha, the disciple Ānanda asks why some monks are called liberated of mind while others are called liberated by insight (MN I.437). “Because of a difference in their faculties,” the Buddha replies, somewhat cryptically, without making any further mention of what that difference might be. Fortunately, the commentary (Papañcasūdanī [MA] 776, III.147) briefly elucidates what might have been the common interpretation in earlier periods. It states that a person liberated of mind is one who advances by the power of samatha and whose cultivation of one-pointedness of mind is always at the forefront. A person liberated by insight is one who advances by the power of vipassanā and whose insight is always at the forefront. This comment certainly points to the major difference between these two types, but one has to look elsewhere for more detailed explications of their paths, as will be done shortly.

Another sign of divergence between tranquility-based paths and insight-based paths can be found in suttas 74 and 111 of the MN, both of which involve one of the Buddha’s two main disciples, Sāriputta, and treat ways to liberation. In sutta 74 (Dīghanakha Sutta), Sāriputta listens as the Buddha explains to the samaṇa Dīghanakha that the way to nibbāna consists of seeing the body as impermanent, void, and not-self and seeing pleasant, painful, and neutral feelings as impermanent, dependently arisen, and ceasing. Seeing feelings as such, one becomes disenchanted with them. Disenchanted, one becomes dispassionate, and through dispassion the mind comes to know that it is liberated. Upon hearing this, Sāriputta considers the Buddha’s teaching