Early Monastic Buddhism v1.c15.s3.3

v1.c15.s3.3

By intellectual discipline it means popularly the comprehension of the four ariyasaccas,² but actually, it means realisation of the fact that the khandhas, dhātus, āyatanas etc. are devoid of any real substance (anattā).³ According to the Visuddhimagga⁴ sīlavisuddhi (moral purification) and cittavisuddhi (perfection in mental exercises) form the two legs of Buddhism, its body being the *diṭṭhivisuddhi* (the true or the Buddhistic view about the nature of the Reality. For attaining *diṭṭhivisuddhi* one must comprehend the nature of
(i) *khandhas* (constituents of a being),
(ii) *āyatanas* (organs of sense and their spheres),
(iii) *indriyas* (faculties), and
(iv) the characteristics of the four *dhātus* (spheres of existence), the true meaning of the *ariyasaccas* (truths), and *paṭiccasamuppāda* (the theory of causation).¹