Understanding as interpreting the external (Buddhism)

This understanding is initiated when one has grasped the complex aggregate of elements of which another person or inanimate matter - external material not bound up with the faculties - is made up.

On the Path of Purification of Hinayana Buddhism, panna (understanding) is considered as of one kind (monad), of two kinds (dyads), of three kinds (triads) or of four kinds (tetrads). There are five dyads, four triads and two tetrads. All have the characteristic of penetrating the individual essences or true nature of states (monad). In the fourth triad, this is compared with understanding as interpreting the internal or as interpreting the internal and the external.