Some Reflections on the Two Models of Early Buddhist Liberating Insights

Abstract

The article investigates the two different soteriological theories of liberating insights in the early Buddhist discourses: (i) liberating insight into the Four Noble Truths—unsatisfactoriness, cause of unsatisfactoriness, cessation of unsatisfactoriness and the path leading to cessation of unsatisfactoriness and (ii) two-fold liberating insights—insight into the Four Noble Truths and insight into impulses (āsava), their origin, cessation, and the path leading to their cessation. The main thesis of this paper is, the two schemes of liberating insight in the Early Buddhist theory of liberating insight is redundant. This article argues that this redundant theory was developed due to socio-religious influenced of the contemporary society than authentic experience of the Buddha. The article argues that due to the influence of the two different soteriological views of Brahmaṇa tradition and the Śramaṇa tradition, there was a kind of soft tension among early Buddhist community regarding the role of knowledge and impulses in the Buddhist soteriological theory and practice. The Early Buddhists harmonized this soft tension through the development of two-fold liberating insights. The main sources investigated for this article are the Pāli canonical and commentarial literature.