Recently I read the extended way of contemplating Three characteristics, in Visuddhimagga.
Chapter XX Purification by Knowledge & Vision of What Is & Is Not the Path
[Strengthening of Comprehension in Forty Ways]
18. Now, when the Blessed One was expounding conformity knowledge, he
[asked the question]: "By means of what forty aspects does he acquire liking that
is in conformity? By means of what forty aspects does he enter into the certainty
of Tightness?" (P'8). In the answer to it comprehension of impermanence, etc., is
set forth by him analytically in the way beginning: "[Seeing] the five aggregates
as impermanent, as painful, as a disease, a boil, a dart, a calamity, an affliction,
as alien, as disintegrating, as a plague, a disaster, a terror, a menace, as fickle,
perishable, unenduring, as no protection, no shelter, no refuge, as empty, vain,
void, not-self, as a danger, as subject to change, as having no core, as the root of
calamity, as murderous, as due to be annihilated, as subject to cankers, as formed,
as Mara's bait, as subject to birth, subject to ageing, subject to illness, subject to
death, subject to sorrow, subject to lamentation, subject to despair, subject to
defilement. Seeing the five aggregates as impermanent, he acquires liking that
is in conformity. And seeing that the cessation of the five aggregates is the
permanent Nibbana, he enters into the certainty of Tightness" (Patis II 238). So
in order to strengthen that same comprehension of impermanence, pain, and
not-self in the five aggregates, this [meditator] also comprehends these five
aggregates by means of that [kind of comprehension].
19. How does he do it? He does it by means of comprehension as impermanent,
etc., stated specifically as follows: He comprehends each aggregate as impermanent
because of non-endlessness, and because of possession of a beginning and an
end; as painful because of oppression by rise and fall, and because of being the
basis for pain; as a disease because of having to be maintained by conditions, and
because of being the root of disease; as a boil because of being consequent upon
impalement by suffering, because of oozing with the filth of defilements, and
because of being swollen by arising, ripened by ageing, and burst by dissolution;
as a dart because of producing oppression, because of penetrating inside, and
because of being hard to extract; as a calamity because of having to be condemned,
because of bringing loss, and because of being the basis for calamity; as an
affliction because of restricting freedom, and because of being the foundation for
affliction; as alien because of inability to have mastery exercised over them, and
because of intractability; as disintegrating because of crumbling through sickness,
ageing and death; as a plague because of bringing various kinds of ruin; as a
disaster because of bringing unforeseen and plentiful adversity, and because of
being the basis for all kinds of terror, and because of being the opposite of the
supreme comfort called the stilling of all suffering; as a menace because of being
bound up with many kinds of adversity, because of being menaced by ills, and
because of unfitness, as a menace, to be entertained; as fickle because of fickle
insecurity due to sickness, ageing and death, and to the worldly states of gain,
etc.; as perishable because of having the nature of perishing both by violence
and naturally; as unenduring because of collapsing on every occasion and because
of lack of solidity; as no protection because of not protecting, and because of
affording no safety; as no shelter because of unfitness to give shelter, and because
of not performing the function of a shelter for the unsheltered; as no refuge
because of failure to disperse fear in those who depend on them; as empty
because of their emptiness of the lastingness, beauty, pleasure and self that are
conceived about them; as vain because of their emptiness, or because of their
triviality; for what is trivial is called "vain" in the world; as void because devoid
of the state of being an owner, abider, doer, experiencer, director; as not-seZ/because
of itself having no owner, etc.; as danger because of the suffering in the process of
becoming, and because of the danger in suffering or, alternatively, as danger
(adinava) because of resemblance to misery (adina) since "danger" (adlnava)
means that it is towards misery (adina) that it moves (vati), goes, advances, this
being a term for a wretched man, and the aggregates are wretched too; as subject
to change because of having the nature of change in two ways, that is, through
ageing and through death; as having no core because of feebleness, and because
of decaying soon like sapwood; as the root of calamity because of being the cause
of calamity; as murderous because of breaking faith like an enemy posing as a
friend; as due to be annihilated because their becoming disappears, and because
their non-becoming comes about; as subject to cankers because of being the
proximate cause for cankers; as formed because of being formed by causes and
conditions; as Mara's bait because of being the bait [laid] by the Mara of death
and the Mara of defilement; as subject to birth, to ageing, to illness, and to death
because of having birth, ageing, illness and death as their nature; as subject to
sorrow, to lamentation and to despair because of being the cause of sorrow,
lamentation and despair; as subject to defilement because of being the objective
field of the defilements of craving, views and misconduct.
