The Stages of Vipassana - Summary

Summarizing the vipassana nanas, they are:
Knowledge of the difference between nama and rupa (nama-rupa- pariccheda-nana), Discerning conditions for nama and rupa (paccayapariggaha-nana), Comprehension by groups (sammasana nana), Knowledge of arising and falling away (udayabbaya nana), Knowledge of dissolution (bhanga nana), Knowledge of terror (bhaya nana), Knowledge of danger (adinava nana), Knowledge of dispassion (nibbida nana), Knowledge of desire for deliverance (mucitukamyata nana), Knowledge of reflexion (patisankha nana), Knowledge of equanimity about conditioned dhamma (sankharupekkha nana), Adaptation or conformity knowledge (anuloma nana), Change-of-lineage knowledge (gotrabhu nana), Path knowledge (magga nana), Fruition knowledge (phala nana), Reviewing knowledge (paccavekkhana nana).
Vipassana nanas have been classified here as sixteen. However, in some texts they are classified as nine, that is, when the classification begins with the first principal insight (maha-vipassana), knowledge of the arising and falling away (uddayabbaya nana), and ends with adaptation knowledge (anuloma nana). These nine stages of vipassana nana which do not include the three beginning stages of “tender insight” are “vipassana as power” (balava vipassana).
Sometimes vipassana nanas are classified as ten, when the classification begins with the third stage of tender insight, comprehension by groups (sammasana nana) and ends with adaptation knowledge.
The exposition of all the different stages of insight, from the first stage up to adaptation knowledge, arising before the attainment of enlightenment, shows that the development of insight is a long process. Very gradually insight can become keener and more accomplished, so that adaptation knowledge can arise and conform to the realisation of nibbana.