So asks the Buddha in the _Mahāli Sutta_: “When a monk knows thus and sees thus, would that make him ready to take up the question: Is the soul the same as the body, or is the soul one thing and the body another?” It is thus evident that the Buddha’s teaching always centered in the practical realisation of Enlightenment as “āsavem khata-ñāṇa,” insight that destroys the Defilements and releases one from every attachment (_upādāna_). He did not shun the discussion of the metaphysical problems merely because they were metaphysical, but because they were not conducive to the attainment of the ultimate end of Buddhist life which is the purification of spirit and not the display of epistemological subtlety. Ignorance was to be dispelled in our inner experience, and not by intellectually understanding the principle of dependent origination whether expressed as the Paṭicca-samuppāda or as the Ariya-sacca. Further, that Enlightenment consists in seeing into things “yathābhūtam” or “yathātatham,” free from doubt, not disturbed by intellection or theorisation, may be gleaned from the last gāthā in the _Itivuttaka_, where the Buddha is praised for his various virtues. I quote the first three stanzas: “Having insight into all the world, In all the world as it really is, He is detached from all the world, And without compare in all the world. All surpassing in everything, steadfast. Freed from all ties, The highest repose belongs to him, Who has attained Nirvana, with no fear from any side. This Enlightened One, with Defilements destroyed, Undisturbed, and free from doubt, Has attained destruction of all karma, And is released in the destruction of the substratum.” V Viewing things “yathābhūtam” is, so to speak, the intellectual or noetic aspect of Enlightenment though not in the sense of discursive understanding; there is another aspect of Enlightenment which will be the subject of consideration here. I mean its relation to samadhi or dhyana. This is preliminary, as I said before, to the realisation, but it also shows that the realisation thus attained is something more than merely seeing into truth. If Enlightenment were just this seeing or having insight, it would not be so spiritually enlightening as to bring about a complete riddance of evil passions and the sense of perfect freedom. Intuitions could not go so penetratingly into the source of life and set all doubts at rest and sever all bonds of attachment, unless one’s consciousness were thoroughly prepared to take in the All in its wholeness as well as its suchness. Our senses and ordinary consciousness are only too apt to be disturbed and to turn away from the realisation of truth. Mental discipline thus becomes indispensable.