[web 1]Alternate, and possibly older, sequences of the stages on the Buddhist path to liberation, can be found throughout the Pali Canon.
[2] According to Bucknell, in this sutta the Buddha gives the following list of "things that are to be done by recluses and brahmans":[2] According to Bucknell, in the Sekha sutta the Buddha prompts Ananda to teach a "learner's course" to a group of disciples, which goes thus:[2] According to Bhikkhu Sujato, the Chinese Madhyama Agama of the Sarvastivada school includes some exposition of the gradual path not available in the Pali Nikayas of the Theravada school.
[4]Ignorance → conceptual activities → cognition → name & form → six senses → contact → feeling → craving → grasping → existence → birth → aging & death → suffering → faith → right consideration → mindfulness & clear comprehension → protection of sense faculties → protection of precepts → non-remorse → gladness → rapture → bliss → samādhi → knowledge& vision of things as they have become → repulsion → fading of lust → liberation → Nibbana.
[note 2] Four establishments of mindfulness (cattāro satipaṭṭhānā) Four right exertions/efforts (cattāro sammappadhānā) Four bases of magical/mental/supernatural power (cattāro iddhipādā) Five spiritual faculties (pañca indriya) Five Strengths (pañca bala) Seven Factors of Awakening (bojjhanga) Noble Eightfold Path According to Rupert Gethin, the Buddhist path to awakening is frequently summarized in the Pali Canon in a short formula as abandoning the hindrances, practice of the four establishings of mindfulness, and development of the awakening factors.
The Sarvāstivāda Vaibhāṣika school developed an influential outline of the path to awakening, one which was later adapted and modified by the scholars of the Mahayana tradition.
In Mahāyāna Buddhism, the Prajñapāramitā Sūtras, the Lotus Sutra (Skt., Saddharma Puṇḍarīka Sūtra), and a large number of other texts, list the six perfections as follows: The Mahayana commentary the Abhisamayalamkara presents a progressive formula of five paths (pañcamārga, Wylie Tibetan lam lnga) adopted from the Sarvastivada tradition's Abhidharma exposition.
The Sanskrit term bhūmi literally means "ground" or "foundation", since each stage represents a level of attainment and serves as a basis for the next one.
Tsong Khapa mentions three essential elements:[25] In the highest class of tantra, two stages of practice are distinguished, namely generation and completion.
[note 4] In the generation stage of Deity Yoga, the practitioner visualizes the "Four Purities" (Tibetan: yongs su dag pa bzhi; yongs dag bzhi)[web 3] which define the principal Tantric methodology of Deity Yoga that distinguishes it from the rest of Buddhism:[26] In the next stage of completion, the practitioner can use either the path of method (thabs lam) or the path of liberation ('grol lam).
The "wind energy" is directed and dissolved into the heart chakra, where-after the Mahamudra remains,[28] and the practitioner is physically and mentally transformed.
At the path of liberation the practitioner applies mindfulness,[29] a preparatory practice for Mahamudra or Dzogchen, to realize the inherent emptiness of every-'thing' that exists.
[33][note 5] To enter by principle means to realize the essence through instruction and to believe that all living things share the same true nature, which isn't apparent because it's shrouded by sensation and delusion.
Those who turn from delusion back to reality, who "meditate on walls," the absence of self and other, the oneness of mortal and sage, and who remain unmoved even by scriptures, are in complete and unspoken agreement with principle.
Hereafter "sudden enlightenment" became one of the hallmarks of Chan Buddhism, though the sharp distinction was softened by subsequent generations of practitioners.
[40] Once the dichotomy between sudden and gradual was in place, it defined its own logic and rhetorics, which are also recognizable in the distinction between Caodong (Soto) and Lin-ji (Rinzai) chán.
In his analysis, sudden awakening points to seeing into one's true nature, but is to be followed by a gradual cultivation to attain Buddhahood.
To establish the superiority of the Chán-teachings, Chinul explained the sudden approach as not pointing to mere emptiness, but to suchness or the dharmadhatu.
[45] This gradual cultivation is described by Chan Master Sheng Yen as follows: Ch'an expressions refer to enlightenment as "seeing your self-nature".