In this paper I examine the idea of āsravakṣayajñānabala （the power of the wisdom of extinguishing outflows [of defilements]） within the Buddha’s daśabala （ten powers） as discussed in the Mahāvibhāṣā, an encyclopedic work of the middle period of Abhidharmic literature. To the best of my knowledge, among Northern Abhidharma works, the Mahāvibhāṣā is the first to discuss the ten powers of the Buddha, including the power of the wisdom of extinguishing outflows. There exist two Chinese translations, and in this paper, I compare the two texts to clarify the meaning of the idea of āsravakṣayajñānabala.
Depending on the cognitive objects, the range of categories differs. When wisdom cognizes the extinction of outflows, the categories of the categorical analysis are narrow. But when wisdom exists in a body that has extinguished all outflows, the categories of the categorical analysis are broad. In the former case, wisdom is non-defiled and cognizes clean objects only; but in the latter case, although the Buddha’s body has extinguished all outflows, the mind is non-defiled and the body is defiled, thus both defiled and non-defiled objects are broadly cognized. Tattvārtha nāma Abhidharmakośabhāṣyaṭīkā and Abhidharmadīpa with Vibhāṣāprabhāvṛtti further offer the explanation that, when the wisdom extinguishing defilements includes upāya （skillful means）, its analytical categories include broader objects.
