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characteristic of the Buddha?2. This knowing and perceiving is connected with the Four Noble Truths ( ariyasaccani avecca passat:18). After being eliminated the five impediments (pañcanivaranepahaya14 ) the Buddha is said to have known and perceived the Four Noble Truths with the last three ahhiññas. He knows "this is the truth of suffering, this is 'the cause of suffering, this is the cessation of suffering, and this is the path leading to the cessation of defiling of impulses 15
The Buddha is one who has knowledge and insight into all realities ( sabbesu dhammesu ca fianadassi ),16 which can be comprehended by mental concentration (samidhi ). Through this insight the Buddha could know that Sunakhatta would die after seven days, and that of epilepsy and on dying he would be reborn as one of the Kalakanjas, the very lowest of the Asura group 17, Once when the bhikkhus were conversing in his absence, he was able to say that they hed been discussing18. In the Kevaddha Sutta he is said to have claimed to answer a quesion which even Brahma was ignorant of19.
All these references indicate that because of some short of insight the Budddha could know and perceive things. He is said to have a three-fold knowledge (tisso-vnja ),20 six intellectual powers (cha imāni..........Tathii gatavalini ),21 ten intell. ectual powers ( dusa balans )22 and so forth. He is therefore considered sometimes an omniscient. Keith refers to a passage from the Anguttarani haya28 where the Buddha is compared to a granary, whence men every good word, and points out the same view.24
These are the negative references to the Buddha's omniscience. They have been the stepping stones to establish omniscience positively in the Buddha in later Pāli as well as Buddhist philosophical literature. The Pafisambhidāmagga says in this respect that the Tathāgata's omniscience consists in knowing everything conditioned and unconditioned, and also knowing everything in the past, present and future.
