Knowledge and Vision of Things as They Really Are

In the Tathagata’s teaching, the path unfolds step by step through the Gradual Training. When Right Concentration has been fully established, the mind is described as purified, bright, unblemished, free from defilements, malleable, wieldy, steady, and imperturbable (MN 27). Having reached this stability and clarity, the mind is then capable of being directed toward knowledge and vision of things as they really are (yathābhūtañāṇadassana).

This marks a decisive transition in practice. The work of unification is complete, and the collected mind now turns toward clear seeing. At this stage, phenomena are seen correctly, but without the final severing. Form, feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness are discerned as impermanent, unsatisfactory, and not to be taken as “mine.” This seeing is accurate, steady, and grounded in direct experience, yet it has not produced irreversible release.

Because of this clear seeing, a natural response arises. As things are seen as they really are, disenchantment develops. From disenchantment comes dispassion. From dispassion comes liberation. And only after liberation does there arise knowledge that liberation has occurred.

Direct Knowledge, Not Interpretation

In MN 27, the Tathagata describes how the disciple inclines the concentrated mind:

In this way he develops knowledge and vision of things as they really are.

MN27

This phase is not a matter of reflection or analysis. It is the beginning of insight proper, where seeing replaces inference, and where the conditions for release are firmly established, even though the work of letting go has not yet reached its final completion.

The Core Practice: Seeing Impermanence, Suffering, and Not-self

The essence of this phase is the clear seeing of all conditioned phenomena as impermanent, unsatisfactory, and not self. While these characteristics are known and reflected upon earlier in the training, here they are seen in a fundamentally different way.

With Right Concentration established, the mind is unified, steady, and imperturbable. Because of this stability, impermanence, suffering, and not self are no longer approached as ideas to be applied or themes to be recalled. They become directly evident in whatever arises.

Whatever appears is seen as impermanent, subject to arising and passing away. When this instability is clearly discerned, the stress bound up with it becomes apparent. From there, phenomena are understood as not self, not subject to ownership or control, and not who or what one is.

The Tathagata shows that these perceptions unfold naturally together. Seeing impermanence supports the perception of suffering, and from seeing suffering, the perception of not self becomes established. In SN 22.45:

Seeing thus, one becomes disenchanted … through dispassion, liberated.

SN22.45

And in SN 22.12:

With the perception of non-self, he becomes disenchanted. Through disenchantment, he becomes dispassionate. Through dispassion, his mind is liberated.

SN22.12

In this phase, the central work is the steady contemplation of impermanence, suffering, and not self in all phenomena that arise, without selection, rejection, or abstraction.

How the Practice Is Experienced

For the disciple, this phase is not a matter of holding views or deliberately applying labels, but of direct observation.

Earlier in the training, impermanence and not self are often brought to mind intentionally, used to guide reflection and restrain unskillful tendencies. Here, no such effort is required. Because attention is unified, arising and passing away are immediately apparent.

When a thought, feeling, or bodily sensation appears, its impermanence is evident. As its instability is seen, the stress bound up with it becomes clear. As its lack of ownership and control is recognized, it is known as not mine, not me, not my self.

Sometimes letting go follows immediately. At other times, insight matures gradually through repeated seeing. In both cases, the task of this phase remains the same: to keep seeing clearly, again and again, without interference.

What distinguishes this phase from earlier contemplation is not the content, but the quality of seeing: direct, steady, and non contrived.

Why This Phase Is Transitional

Knowledge and vision of things as they really are is not yet the culmination of the path. It does not itself constitute disenchantment or liberation. Rather, it marks a decisive shift in how experience is met.

In earlier phases, insight coexists comfortably with clinging. Here, seeing and clinging can no longer fully coexist. Phenomena are still experienced, but they no longer provide a stable footing. Because of this, disenchantment becomes possible in a sustained way.

From seeing things as they really are, disenchantment arises. From disenchantment comes dispassion. From dispassion comes liberation. And only after liberation does there arise knowledge that liberation has occurred.

The Perception of Non Satisfaction in Every World

The perception of dissatisfaction in every world when developed and cultivated, is of great fruit and benefit, leading to the deathless, having the deathless as their culmination, thus it has indeed been said. Why has this been said?

Disciples, with frequent contemplation of the perception of dissatisfaction in every world, the mind becomes devoid of craving for sensual pleasures, does not incline towards them, either indifference or repulsion stands.

Just as a leaf or a piece of meat thrown into the fire recoils, does not spread out.

Similarly with frequent contemplation of the perception of dissatisfaction in every world, the mind becomes devoid of craving for sensual pleasures, does not incline towards them, either indifference or repulsion stands.

AN7.49

At this stage of the Gradual Training, knowledge and vision of things as they really are, we are training the mind to recognize the structure of experience itself. The perception of non satisfaction in every world is developed at this stage for that purpose.

What we are learning to see is not that experience is unpleasant, but that no conditioned mode of existence can satisfy the expectation placed upon it by craving. Non satisfaction here does not mean pain or misery. It means incapacity. The inability of any world to deliver lasting satisfaction.

We do not cultivate this perception to reject the world or to turn against experience. We cultivate it to stop misusing experience as a solution.

What We Are Training to See

Craving quietly assumes that somewhere, in some form of existence, across some stretch of time, there must be a way of being that finally resolves the sense of lack. Because of this assumption, we keep moving.

We move from coarse pleasure to refined pleasure. From sensual enjoyment to absorptive calm. From human life to imagined higher realms. From agitation to peace. From pain to relief. From clarity to identity built around clarity.

What we are training ourselves to see is that all of these movements share the same structure.

What Is Meant by “Every World"

When the discourse speaks of “every world,” we are not meant to limit this to a single domain. We are training ourselves to see the entire range of conditioned existence.

At one level, this includes the realms of existence spoken of in the teachings. Sensual realms, deva and godly realms, Brahma realms, and the refined worlds corresponding to jhānic absorption. Beings may move through these realms over vast spans of time, even over billions of years. Though they differ greatly in pleasure, longevity, and subtlety, they are all sustained by becoming.

At another level, we are training ourselves to recognize the worlds we inhabit within this very life. Worlds built around relationships, roles, achievements, possessions, and identities. These worlds may last years or decades, yet they function in exactly the same way.

At the most immediate level, we observe worlds forming moment by moment. A mood becomes a world. A mental state becomes a place to dwell. A view becomes a position we stand on. A refined meditative experience becomes somewhere we want to remain.

Wherever attention settles with the sense that “this is where satisfaction lies,” a world has been established.

Seeing the Common Structure

What we are learning to recognize is not the variety of worlds, but what they have in common.

Every world arises dependent on contact. From contact, feeling arises. When feeling is not clearly understood, desire arises. Desire leans toward continuation, toward being. With that leaning, becoming is established. With becoming, a world appears.

This pattern operates whether the world is coarse or refined, brief or vast, painful or pleasurable. Because the aggregates themselves are conditioned and impermanent, any world built from them carries the same instability.

The non satisfaction we are contemplating is not something that happens later when a world collapses. It is already present in the structure of becoming itself. As long as a world requires maintenance, repetition, and continuation, it cannot finally satisfy.

What We Are Undoing

Without this perception, we tend to believe that dissatisfaction belongs to the particular world we are in now. We assume that if we could just change conditions, refine experience, or move elsewhere, satisfaction would be secured.

The perception of non satisfaction in every world trains us to undo this assumption.

We do not need to visit every possible world to be convinced. In a single moment of desire, the whole pattern is visible. In a single leaning toward “more” or “stay,” the logic of becoming is already present.

By seeing this repeatedly, we learn that moving to another world does not solve the problem. It simply recreates it under new conditions.

How We Cultivate the Perception

We cultivate this perception by staying close to experience and observing how worlds are formed.

When a pleasant feeling arises, we notice the impulse to extend it. When a refined state arises, we notice the assumption that it can be relied upon. When meaning or identity arises, we notice the leaning that wants to remain there.

Each time, we recognize the same structure. Contact, feeling, desire, becoming. We see that non satisfaction is not a failure of experience, but a feature of leaning itself.

As this becomes clear, the mind begins to recoil naturally. Not through aversion, but through understanding. Just as a leaf or a piece of meat thrown into fire recoils and does not spread out, the mind no longer spreads itself into worlds whose nature it has clearly seen.

The Aim of the Perception

What we are training toward is not withdrawal from life, but freedom from compulsion. When the common denominator is understood, the urge to search for satisfaction through becoming weakens. We no longer feel compelled to test every possibility, refine every state, or secure every form of existence.

At this point, the mind no longer inclines toward worlds. Either indifference or dispassion stands. This is the maturation of knowledge and vision of things as they really are. And because the danger in becoming has been clearly seen, letting go becomes possible, not by force, but because the illusion that sustained the search has been fully understood.

Direct and Irreversible Realization in the Dhamma: Entering the Stream

Understanding the nature of realization is essential for anyone walking the path. In the Tathagata’s teaching, entry into the stream of the Dhamma is defined by two inseparable qualities: directness and irreversibility. Together, they distinguish genuine realization from understanding that remains merely conceptual, and they mark the point at which seeing becomes transformative.

Direct Realization: Seeing the Truth for Oneself

In the discourses, Right View becomes noble, taintless, and supra mundane only when it is no longer based on trust, reflection, or inference, but on direct seeing. The Four Noble Truths are not accepted as correct teachings, they are personally discerned.

This is illustrated in the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta (SN 56.11). When Koṇḍañña attains the vision of the Dhamma, the text records:

Whatever is subject to origination is all subject to cessation. And as this was said, there arose in the Venerable Koṇḍañña the dust-free, stainless vision of the Dhamma.

SN56.11

This moment marks the arising of the Dhamma eye, a form of knowing that does not rely on memory, reasoning, or agreement with doctrine. It is immediate and experiential. What is seen is not an idea about impermanence, but the fact of it, directly present in experience.

For this reason, the Tathagata often speaks of the Dhamma as something to be seen for oneself. This seeing is not partial or theoretical. It is clear enough that doubt about what has been seen no longer has a foothold.

Irreversible Transformation: The Point of No Return

When this direct seeing arises, the disciple is said to have entered the stream, becoming a sotāpanna. From this point onward, their relationship to view and delusion is fundamentally changed.

In the Sotāpanna Sutta (SN 25.1), the Tathagata describes the consequences of having seen the Dhamma:

The noble disciple who has seen the Dhamma is no longer capable of doing six things: taking another teacher, regarding anything as superior to the Buddha, or falling back to views that deny karma, rebirth, generosity, or the continuation of beings after death.

SN25.1

This is what irreversibility means in practice. The vision of the Dhamma is so clear and so grounded that it cannot be undone. Just as one who has seen fire cannot believe it to be cold, one who has seen the truth cannot return to fundamental confusion.

Though subtle tendencies and defilements may remain, the underlying delusion that sustains wrong view has been permanently cut off. The direction of the path is now fixed.

From Conceptual Understanding to Direct Knowledge

Many practitioners understand teachings such as impermanence or not self at an intellectual level. They can explain them accurately and reflect on them thoughtfully. Yet as long as these truths remain ideas, clinging can continue alongside them.

One may know that all conditioned things are impermanent, yet still relate to them as if they could provide lasting satisfaction or security. With the opening of the Dhamma eye, this disconnect collapses. Seeing and perception align. It becomes evident that there is nothing here that can truly be held onto.

This is the shift from mundane Right View to noble Right View, from understanding that informs practice to seeing that transforms it.

Knowledge and Vision for a Noble One

For a noble disciple, specifically a stream enterer or once returner, the phase of knowledge and vision that follows Right Concentration functions differently than it does for one who has not yet entered the stream. Identity view has already been abandoned. There is no longer any uncertainty about whether the aggregates are self or owned. Because of this, knowledge and vision is no longer concerned with discovering non self, but with directly observing how the remaining taints continue to operate.

The truth has already been seen. What remains is to watch, with precision and clarity, how delusion still expresses itself in subtle ways.

Observing the Activity of the Taints

At this stage, the noble disciple is not examining views, but processes. With the immovable stability of Right Concentration, they observe how the taints of sensual desire and existence continue to seep into experience.

Attention is directed toward the conditions that sustain becoming. Rather than questioning whether the aggregates are self, which is already resolved, the focus turns to the nutriments that keep mental proliferation and renewed existence in motion.

This is a direct and non conceptual observation. The taints are not interpreted or judged. They are seen functioning, moment by moment, as conditioned phenomena.

Seeing Dependent Origination in Real Time

Although a noble disciple already understands dependent origination, here it is no longer known conceptually or intuitively, but seen as it unfolds.

They observe the simple pattern, when this is, that is. With the arising of this, that arises. Particular attention falls on the link between feeling and craving. Even without identity view, pleasant feeling can still carry a pull, and unpleasant feeling a push.

Knowledge and vision at this stage is the clear recognition of these movements as impersonal dhammas, arising due to conditions and ceasing when conditions fade.

Reviewing the Factors of Awakening

The noble disciple also turns this same clarity toward the factors present in their own mind. The factors of awakening and the jhāna factors themselves become objects of knowledge and vision.

Joy, tranquility, concentration, and equanimity are experienced fully, yet they are also seen as conditioned, constructed, and dependent on intention. Even these refined states are known to arise and cease.

This is knowledge and vision of cessation, the direct seeing that whatever arises does so dependent on conditions and therefore cannot endure.

Preparation for the Ending of the Taints

For a noble one, this phase functions as preparation for the destruction of the taints. The mind is fully collected, the field is clearly illuminated, and the remaining taints can no longer hide within unexamined experience.

Knowledge and vision reveals the subtle ways ignorance still colors perception, even in refined meditative states. The support structures of the taints are exposed, not through force, but through sustained clarity.

As the discourses describe, the concentrated mind is directed toward the ending of the taints. When the taints are fully seen, they lose the conditions they depend on. With nothing left to sustain them, they wither and cease.

Difference in Lived Experience

For a worldling, knowledge and vision often carries the force of revelation. There is a sudden clarity, an undeniable shift in how experience is understood.

For a noble disciple, knowledge and vision is quieter and more exacting. It is surveillance rather than discovery. The immovable mind of Right Concentration watches the remaining movements of the taints with calm precision.

Nothing dramatic is required. When the taints are no longer overlooked, they can no longer persist. This is how knowledge and vision matures into the destruction of the taints, not by struggle, but by complete and unwavering seeing.