The Place Beyond Learning

Once an individual has cut the first five (gross) fetters — that is, once they have overcome bondage to the realm of sense consciousness and become anagami — they approach what is called “The Place Beyond Learning.” It may be that only arahants achieve this, or that it arises through arahantship itself. Nevertheless, one must progress as a student of dharma until a certain point on the path is reached.

The dharma (learning) serves two purposes.

Firstly, one develops the so-called “dharma-eye” — an inner perspective that manifests as vipassana, or insight. Through the clumsy apparatus of language and symbol, one is pointed towards reality, allowing for insights and realisation. This language is never the truth itself, only the guide toward it.

Secondly, learning fosters faith. Faith is necessary in increasing amounts to allow the practitioner to break free from one paradigm and embrace what might at first seem unbelievable. Each stage requires a letting go of what seems essential, and faith provides the courage to do so — whether in recognising one’s current paradigm as false or trusting there exists something greater beyond it.

The practitioner oscillates between continuous spiritual heat — tirelessly dissecting subjective experience, fuelled by relentless learning and analysis — and spiritual crescendos which, while profound, leave one grounded in a surprisingly mundane, practical reality.

I first encountered the term “The Place Beyond Learning” in an audio reading of the Surangama Sutra many years ago, describing arahants who had reached this state. For years, it remained mysterious. But as my study shifted from Theravada Buddhism towards Dzogchen and the Tibetan schools, clarity arose.

In the context of the Surangama Sutra, “The Place Beyond Learning” refers to Buddhic enlightenment — the mirror-like great enlightenment. At this stage, learning, meditation, or any form of habitual intention clouds the pure, empty nature of the mind. Arahants still experience this to some degree, though free from unwholesome states of mind. They function like ordinary people, often becoming highly effective learners due to their freedom from distraction.

However, when an arahant or Bodhisattva seeks full Buddhahood, their practice shifts entirely to the practical. They may consult the pointing-out or pith instructions to receive final guidance, but beyond this, there is nothing left to learn conceptually. At this stage, knowledge itself becomes an obstacle. The work becomes transcendental; progress unfolds inevitably. The only hindrance is any effort to force or hurry the process.

Here, one learns to abide within the dharmakaya — empty timelessness — where beginnings and endings dissolve, and all existence becomes perfectly present in each instant, free of direction or motive. As awareness expands into this timeless field, the five skandhas of form, feeling, perception, thought, and consciousness appear ghost-like — cognitive phantoms, empty of inherent existence.

Gradually, thoughts cease to arise; objects vanish. As the mind field becomes clearer and emptier, without differentiated objects, the notion of “subject” evaporates. Finally, one experiences the pristine, boundless array of awareness, where object and subject dissolve and all spheres of consciousness align perfectly as Buddha-nature is realised.

“When you reach the state of no learning, you are free from birth and death.”
— Surangama Sutra, BTTS translation, Volume 5, Section 8