Overview
During advanced vipassanā (insight) meditation, as the mind becomes highly concentrated and begins to see the rapid arising and passing away of phenomena, a practitioner will invariably experience profound, blissful side-effects. The danger is that the meditator will mistake these byproducts for Nibbāna. They are called “corruptions” (upakkilesa) because attachment to them halts all spiritual progress.
The List
- Obhāsa - Illumination: Experiencing brilliant, blinding mental light or auras.
- Ñāṇa - Knowledge: Experiencing extraordinarily sharp, rapid intellectual understanding of phenomena.
- Pīti - Joy / Rapture: Experiencing overwhelming physical thrill and ecstasy.
- Passaddhi - Tranquility: Experiencing an impossibly deep, unshakeable calmness of body and mind.
- Sukha - Bliss: Experiencing a profound, subtle happiness that surpasses all worldly pleasure.
- Adhimokkha - Resolve / Extreme Faith: Experiencing a surging, unshakeable devotion and faith.
- Paggaha - Exertion: Experiencing perfectly balanced, effortless energy that never tires.
- Upaṭṭhāna - Assurance / Mindfulness: Experiencing perfectly sharp, unwavering mindfulness.
- Upekkhā - Equanimity: Experiencing supreme, effortless neutrality toward all objects.
- Nikanti - Attachment: The actual subtle craving and delight that arises in response to the first nine experiences, causing the mind to stick to them.
Textual References
- Commentary: Visuddhimagga (Chapter XX) – Details the “Purification by Knowledge and Vision of What Is and Is Not the Path,” explaining exactly how a meditator must overcome these ten corruptions.