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

declaring, “I am a great meditator, skilled in the calming of mind. I have attained the true goal; the Buddha’s teaching has been accomplished.” But as for sati, one of the repeated stock phrases in these two texts is, “Looking at the arising and passing away of the elements of existence as they really are, I stood up with my mind completely liberated.” Another passage that could be read as asserting the exclusive superiority of mindfulness is SN V.85, in which the Buddha, sitting in meditation under the bodhi tree, reflects, “This is the one path [ekayāna] for the liberation of beings, for the overcoming of sorrow and lamentation, for the passing away of pain and displeasure, for the achievement of the method, for the realization of nibbāna, that is, the four foundations of mindfulness.”²⁰ This statement is actually found in several places in the Satipaṭṭhānasaṃyutta.

It must be acknowledged again at this early juncture that Theravāda orthodoxy²¹ historically has regarded the path as entailing both calm concentration and analytical insight. For example, one kind of noble person whom I analyze as representative of a samatha-based path, the “one liberated of mind” (cetovimutta), and one kind of noble person whom I analyze as representative of a vipassanā-based path, the “one liberated by insight” (paññāvimutta), are often not seen as separate in stock formulas that describe arahantship. Three examples are:

A monk, through the elimination of the impure influences [āsavas], reaches in this very life the undefiled liberation of the mind [cetovimutti] and liberation by insight [paññāvimutti], which he has realized through his own understanding. (DN I.156)

When a monk develops non-enmity, non-hated and a heart full of loving-kindness and, eliminating the āsavas, realizes and dwells in the undefiled liberation of mind and liberation by insight, having realized them in this very life by his own understanding, then…that monk is called a samaṇa and a brāhmaṇa. (MN I.42)

By the destruction of the āsavas, one enters into and abides in the liberation of mind, [and] the liberation by insight that are without