Comm. Nyanamoli thera: For the rendering of sekha as 'Initiate ' (and of asekha as 'Adept') see Appx. I. 'Sukkhavipassaka —Bare-insight worker ' (or 'Dry-insightworker '): a commentarial term for one who practises insight not on jhana.There is no clear definition anywhere, apparently; but it is perhaps in someways connected with the Pitaka term pannävimutta, several descriptions ofwiiich are given in the Suttas: see e.g. A.iv. 452 (cf. M.i. 435-6), where Arahantship is reached with minimum of 1st jhana; or M. i. 477 (cf. D. ii. 70), where reached without the 8 Liberations (collectively); or S. ii. 119ff., where reached without the 5 kinds of mundane direct-knowledge (abhinna) and 4 formless states (äruppa) (N.B. deliberate omission of the 4 jhanas here from the ' dispensable ' kinds of concentration). The 4 ways of declaring Arahantship (A. ii. 157) may be also compared. It is nowhere stated in the Suttas that the Path can be actually attained in the absence of jhana. Pitaka definitions of the Path itself define its eighth factor, sammäsamädhi, as jhana (e.g. D. ii. 313; Vbh. 236), and the enumeration of the (20) kinds of Path-cognizance in the Dhammasangani (§§ 277-364) contain none without at least the 1st jhana. So a sukkhavipassaka would seem to be one who, at minimum, does not use jhana for insight for attaining the Path. The intention isperhaps to emphasize that jhana-concentration never leads of itself alone to the Path and so should not be over-valued for its own sake: but the subject needs careful handling. ' One whose vehicle is quiet ' uses jhana as object of his insight. See
Vis.ch. xviii.у