Editing Four Noble Truths (section)

===Acquiring the ''dhamma-eye'' and destroying the ''āsavās''===
In their symbolic function, the sutras present the insight into the four truths as the culmination of the Buddha's path to awakening. In the ''Vinayapitaka'' and the ''Sutta-pitaka'' they have the same symbolic function, in a reenactment by his listeners of the Buddha's awakening by attaining the ''dhamma-eye''. In contrast, here this insight serves as the starting point to path-entry for his audience.{{sfn|Anderson|2001|pp=126, 132, 143}}{{sfn|Bronkhorst|2000|pp=79, 80}} These sutras present a repeated sequence of events:{{sfn|Anderson|2001|pp=132–134}}
# ''Annupubbikathā'' ("graduated talk"), in which the Buddha explains the four truths; this talk frees the listener from the hindrances;
# This talk opens the ''dhammacakkhu'' ("dhamma eye"), and knowledge arises: "all that has the nature of arising has the nature of ending";{{sfn|Anderson|2001|p=132}}{{refn|group=note|In effect to the exposition of the four truths, as presented in the ''Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta'', the "dustless, stainless Dhamma eye" arose to Kondañña, stating: "Whatever is subject to origination is all subject to cessation."<ref group=web name="Dhammacakka"/>}}
# The request to become a member of the Buddhist order;
# A second talk by the Buddha, which destroys the ''āsavās'', impurities;
# The statement that "there are now ''x arahats'' in the world."

Yet, in other sutras, where the four truths have a propositional function, the comprehension of the four truths destroys the corruptions.{{sfn|Anderson|2001|p=146}} They do so in combination with the practice of the ''jhanas'' and the attainment of the divine eye, with which past lives and the working of rebirth are being seen.{{sfn|Anderson|2001|pp=146–147}}

According to Anderson, following Schmithausen and Bronkhorst, these two presentations give two different models of the path to liberation, reflecting their function as a symbol and as a proposition.{{sfn|Anderson|2001|p=149}} Most likely, the four truths were first associated with the culmination of the path in the destruction of the ''āsavās'', where they substituted the unspecified "liberating insight"; as the canon developed, they became more logically associated with the beginning of the Buddhist path.{{sfn|Anderson|2001|p=149}}{{sfn|Bronkhorst|2000|pp=79, 80}}