'group', 'unit':

• 1. 'corporeal unit' (s. rūpa-kalāpa);

• 2. It has the meaning of 'group of existence' (khandha) in kalāpasammasana (s. sammasana), i.e. 'comprehension by groups', which is the application of 'methodical (or inductive) insight' (naya-vipassanā) to the comprehension of the 5 aggregates (khandha) as impermanent, painful and not-self. It is a process of methodical summarization, or generalization, from one's own meditative experience that is applied to each of the 5 aggregates, viewed as past, present, future, as internal and external, etc. In Vis.M. XX, where the 'comprehension by groups' is treated in detail, it is said to constitute 'the beginning of insight' as it leads to the 'knowledge of rise and fall', being the first of the 8 insightknowledges (s. visuddhi VI). It is necessary for accomplishing the 5th purification (s. visuddhi V; Vis.M. XX, 2, 6ff.).