The Abhidharmika Ghosaka, while highlighting the distinction between those who have attained the “peak state” (murdhan-labhin) and those who abide in the peak (murdhan-viharin) coined the term “forbearance” (ksanti) for the “peak state” (murdhan) connected with non-retrogression. Therefore it becomes the first instance in which the ksanti of the virtuous root of nonretrogression is established for the first time.
Persons with middling capacity and the sage can benefit from “not falling to undesirable transmigrations (anapayaga)”; however, the mediocre person acquires the way of not falling to undesirable transmigration (aparihana-dharma) by attaining the forbearance virtuous root (ksanti-kusalamula) whereas the sage acquires the same aparihana-dharma through attaining forbearance and the wisdom of the law of suffering (duhkhadharma-jñana-ksanti).
Regarding the “peak” of bodhisattva-dharma, it can be explained in the three terms: “peak”, “the seat of bodhisattva” (bodhisatttvaniyama), and “resting the mind in no generation and no annihilation” (anutpattika-dharma-ksanti). The relation between the first two is that of “the precursor and successor” while the latter two are one and the same. Those who have attained the “peak state” may backslide whereas those who abide in the “peak” will never fall back.
