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Did the Buddha teach that insight into reality can be Therefore, the term sudden and gradual has nothing to
attained suddenly (e.g. instant enlightenment) or do with a superior or inferior way of practice. We might
must it be gradual? say that the distinction between ‘sudden’ and ‘gradual’

awakening is simply dependent on the spiritual capacity
Ven Aggacitta: As can be seen in the previous answer, of the practitioner.
it is both gradual and sudden. In other words, the Geshe Dadul: The so-called instant and gradual insights
repeated observation of constructions and insight is a relative thing. None of them overrides the law of
into their true nature is a gradual process culminating causality. It is just a matter of whether the causes are
in the breakthrough which is a sudden realisation. cultivated in the immediate timeline apparent to the
This is corroborated by the similes of the profile that contemporaries or in the long past, only remaining to be
gradually formed on the carpenter’s adze handle and stimulated in the present. Examples at hand are cases
the rotting of weathered ropes mooring a ship to the of Śāriputra and Maudgalyāyana under the guidance of
pier respectively (AN 7.71). the Buddha, Naropa under his teacher Tilopa, Milarepa
under Marpa, etc.
However, it may be possible that the fourth path
mentioned in AN 4.170 (refer answer to Q3 above) Written by Geshe Dadul Namgyal and edited by Martha
could be a sudden one as it is not preceded by insight Leslie Baker.
development. This path may also overlap with the
enlightenment achieved while listening to the Buddha’s Venerable Āyasmā Aggacitta is
discourse. the founder of the Sāsanārakkha
Buddhist Sanctuary (SBS) in
Ven Min Wei: In Mahāyāna tradition, the term “sudden Taiping, Perak, a Pāli scholar and a
enlightenment” generally refers to the idea that insight meditation teacher.
into Buddha-nature, or the nature of mind, is sudden. It
may be posited as opposite to gradualism, the original
Buddhist approach which says that following the Geshe Dadul Namgyal is a Geshe
Dharma can be achieved only step by step, through an Lharampa and senior resident
arduous practice. teacher at Drepung Loseling
Monastery in Atlanta, Georgia, USA
As regards to this, the Sixth Patriarch addressed as
follows:
“So far as the Dharma is concerned, there can be only
one School. It may happen that the founder of one Ven. Min Wei is a teacher of e-learning at the
school may be a northern person while the other is International Buddhist College (IBC) and an
a southerner. While there is only one Dharma, some independent translator of Buddhism. EH
disciples realize it more quickly than others. The reason
why the names ‘Sudden’ and ‘Gradual’ are given is
that some disciples are superior to others in mental
dispositions. So far as the Dharma is concerned, the
distinction of ‘Sudden’ and ‘Gradual’ does not exist.”