Ubhato-bhāga-vimutta: Liberated from Both Parts or Through Both Ways?

Abstract

The interpretation of the term and the varying definitions of the ubhatobhāgavimutta has been an issue at present as could be seen from contradictory modern translations and also in the past as could be observed from references to a debate in the Commentaries. In this paper, four Canonical definitions supported by other Canonical references and Commentarial discussions will be examined in order to show that the ubhatobhāgavimutta is a rare type of arahants who could here and now experience both freedom of mind and freedom by wisdom, a unique experience of freedom from both the body of form and the body of name. He is free from the body of name by practicing Insight meditation and attaining the paths and fruitions of the supra-mundane path culminating in the arahatta, and that he is free from the body of form as he could now, as an arahant, enter into and reach through experiencing the four form jhānas, the formless attainments, and the cessation state, which could also be identified as peaceful deliverances or eight deliverances.