THE PATH
OF PURIFICATION
(VISUDDHIMAGGA)
BY
BHADANTACARIYA BUDDHAGHOSA
Translated from the Pali
by
BHIKKHU NANAMOLI
FIFTH EDITION
BUDDHIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY
Kandy Sri Lanka
CHAPTER IX
THE DIVINE ABIDINGS
(Brahmavihara-niddesa)
[(1) LOVINGKINDNESS / METTA]
1. [295] The four divine abidings were mentioned next to the recollec-
tions as meditation subjects (Ch. IE, §105). They are lovingkindness,
compassion, gladness and equanimity. A meditator who wants to de-
velop firstly lovingkindness among these, if he is a beginner, should
sever the impediments and learn the meditation subject. Then, when he
has done the work connected with the meal and got rid of any dizziness
due to it, he should seat himself comfortably on a well-prepared seat in a
secluded place. To start with, he should review the danger in hate and
the advantage in patience.
2. Why? Because hate has to be abandoned and patience attained in the
development of this meditation subject, and he cannot abandon unseen
dangers and attain unknown advantages.
Now the danger in hate should be seen in accordance with such
suttas as this: 'Friends, when a man hates, is a prey to hate and his mind
is obsessed by hate, he kills living things, and ...' (A.i,216). And the ad-
vantage in patience should be understood according to such suttas as
these:
'No higher rule, the Buddhas say, than patience,
And no nibbana higher than forbearance' (D.ii,49; Dh.184);
'Patience in force, in strong array:
'Tis him I call a brahman' (Dh. 399);
'No greater thing exists than patience' (S.i,222).
3. Thereupon he should embark upon the development of lovingkind-
ness for the purpose of secluding the mind from hate seen as a danger
and introducing it to patience known as an advantage.
But when he begins, he must know that some persons are of the
wrong sort at the very beginning and that lovingkindness should be
developed towards certain kinds of persons and not towards certain other
kinds at first. [296]
4. For lovingkindness should not be developed at first towards the fol-
lowing four kinds of persons: an antipathetic person, a very dearly loved
friend, a neutral person, and a hostile person. Also it should not be
developed specifically (see §49) towards the opposite sex, or towards a
dead person.
5. What is the reason why it should not be developed at first towards
an antipathetic person and the others? To put an antipathetic person in a
dear one's place is fatiguing. To put a very dearly loved friend in a
neutral person's place is fatiguing; and if the slightest mischance befalls
the friend, he feels like weeping. To put a neutral person in a respected
one's or a dear one's place is fatiguing. Anger springs up in him if he
recollects a hostile person. That is why it should not be developed at first
towards an antipathetic person and the rest.
6. Then, if he develops it specifically towards the opposite sex, lust
inspired by that person springs up in him. An elder supported by a
family was asked, it seems, by a friend's son, 'Venerable sir, towards
whom should lovingkindness be developed?' The elder told him, To-
wards a person one loves'. He loved his own wife. Through developing
lovingkindness towards her he was fighting against the wall all the night.
1
That is why it should not be developed specifically towards the opposite
sex.
7. But if he develops it towards a dead person, he reaches neither ab-
sorption nor access. A young bhikkhu, it seems, had started developing
lovingkindness inspired by his teacher. His lovingkindness made no head-
way at all. He went to a senior elder and told him, 'Venerable sir, I am
quite familiar with attaining jhana through lovingkindness, and yet I
cannot attain it. What is the matter?'. The elder said, 'Seek the sign,
friend, [the object of your meditation]'. He did so. Finding that his
teacher had died, he proceeded with developing lovingkindness inspired
by another and attained absorption. That is why it should not be devel-
oped towards one who is dead.
8. First of all it should be developed only towards oneself, doing it
repeatedly thus: 'May I be happy and free from suffering' or 'May I
keep myself free from enmity, affliction and anxiety and live happily'.
9. If that is so, does it not conflict with what is said in the texts? For
there is no mention of any development of it towards oneself in what is
said in the Vibhahga: 'And how does a bhikkhu dwell pervading one
direction with his heart filled with lovingkindness? Just as he would feel
lovingkindness on seeing a dearly loved person, so he pervades all beings
with lovingkindness' (Vbh. 272); and in what is said in the Patisambhida:
'In what five ways is the mind-deliverance of lovingkindness [practised]
with unspecified pervasion? May all beings be free from enmity, afflic-
tion and anxiety and live happily. May all breathing things [297] ... all
who are born ... all persons ... all those who have a personality be free
from enmity, affliction and anxiety and live happily' (Ps.ii,130); and in
what is said in the Metta Sutta: 'In joy and safety may all beings be
joyful at heart' (Sn. 145). [Does it not conflict with those texts?]
10. It does not conflict. Why not? Because that refers to absorption. But
this [initial development towards oneself] refers to [making oneself] an
example. For even if he developed lovingkindness for a hundred or a
thousand years in this way, 'I am happy' and so on, absorption would
never arise. But if he develops it in this way: * I am happy. Just as I want
to be happy and dread pain, as I want to live and not to die, so do other
beings, too', making himself the example, then desire for other beings'
welfare and happiness arises in him. And this method is indicated by the
Blessed One's saying:
* I visited all quarters with my mind
Nor found I any dearer than myself;
Self is likewise to every other dear;
Who loves himself will never harm another' (S.i,75; Ud. 47).
11. So he should first, as example, pervade himself with lovingkindness.
Next after that, in order to proceed easily, he can recollect such gifts,
2
kind words, etc., as inspire love and endearment, such virtue, learning,
etc., as inspire respect and reverence met with in a teacher or his equiva-
lent or a preceptor or his equivalent, developing lovingkindness towards
him in the way beginning *May this good man be happy and free from
suffering'. With such a person, of course, he attains absorption.
12. But if this bhikkhu does not rest content with just that much and
wants to break down the barriers, he should next, after that, develop lov-
ingkindness towards a very dearly loved friend, then towards a neutral
person as a very dearly loved friend, then towards a hostile person as
neutral. And while he does so, he should make his mind malleable and
wieldy in each instance before passing on to the next.
13. But if he has no enemy, or he is of the type of a great man who does
not perceive another as an enemy even when the other does him harm,
he should not interest himself as follows: 'Now that my consciousness of
lovingkindness has become wieldy towards a neutral person, I shall ap-
ply it to a hostile one'. [298] Rather it was about one who actually has an
enemy that it was said above that he should develop lovingkindness
towards a hostile person as neutral.
[Getting Rid of Resentment]
14. If resentment arises in him when he applies his mind to a hostile
person because he remembers wrongs done by that person, he should get
rid of the resentment by entering repeatedly into lovingkindness [jhana]
towards any of the first-mentioned persons and then, after he has emerged
each time, directing lovingkindness towards that person.
15. But if it does not die out in spite of his efforts, then:
Let him reflect upon the saw
With other figures of such kind,
And strive, and strive repeatedly,
To leave resentment far behind.
He should admonish himself in this way:
4
Now, you who get angry, has
not the Blessed One said this: "Bhikkhus, even if bandits brutally sev-
ered limb from limb with a two-handled saw, he who entertained hate in
his heart on that account would not be one who carried out my teaching"
(M.i,129)? And this:
"To repay angry men in kind
Is worse than to be angry first;
Repay not angry men in kind
And win a battle hard to win.
"The weal of both he does promote,
His own and then the other's too,
Who shall another's anger know
And mindfully maintain his peace" (S.i,162)?
And this: "Bhikkhus, there are seven things gratifying and helpful to an
enemy that happen to one who is angry, whether woman or man. What
seven? Here, bhikkhus, an enemy wishes thus for his enemy, *Let him be
ugly!'. Why is that? An enemy does not delight in an enemy's beauty.
Now this angry person is a prey to anger, ruled by anger; though well
bathed, well anointed, with hair and beard trimmed and clothed in white,
yet he is ugly, being a prey to anger. This is the first thing gratifying and
helpful to an enemy that befalls one who is angry, whether woman or
man. Furthermore, an enemy wishes thus for his enemy, 'Let him lie in
pain!'... *Let him have no good fortune!' ... 'Let him not be wealthy!'...
'Let him not be famous!'... 'Let him have no friends!' [299]...
4
Let him
not on the breakup of the body, after death, reappear in a happy destiny
in the heavenly world!'.
3
Why is that? An enemy does not delight in an
enemy's going to a happy destiny. Now this angry person is a prey to
anger, ruled by anger, he misconducts himself in body, speech and mind.
Misconducting himself thus in body, speech and mind, on the breakup of
the body, after death, he reappears in a state of loss, in an unhappy
destiny, in perdition, in hell, being a prey to anger" (A.iv,94)? And this:
"As a log from a pyre, burnt at both ends and fouled in the middle,
serves neither for timber in the village nor for timber in the forest, so is
such a person as this I say" (A.ii,95, Iti. 90)? If you are angry now, you
will be one who does not carry out the Blessed One's teaching; by
repaying an angry man in kind you will be worse than the angry man and
not win the battle hard to win; you will yourself do to yourself the things
that help your enemy; and you will be like a pyre log'.
16. If his resentment subsides when he strives and makes effort in this
way, it is good. If not, then he should remove irritation by remembering
some controlled and purified state in that person, which inspires confi-
dence when remembered.
17. For one person may be controlled in his bodily behaviour with his
control in doing an extensive course of duty known to all, though his
verbal and mental behaviour are not controlled. Then the latter should be
ignored and the control in his bodily behaviour remembered.
18. Another may be controlled in his verbal behaviour, and his control
known to all—he may naturally be clever at welcoming kindly, easy to
talk with, congenial, open-countenanced, deferential in speech, and he
may expound the Dhamma with a sweet voice and give explanations of
Dhamma with well-rounded phrases and details—though his bodily and
mental behaviour are not controlled. Then the latter should be ignored
and the control in his verbal behaviour remembered.
19. Another may be controlled in his mental behaviour, and his control
in worshipping at shrines, etc., evident to all. For when one who is
uncontrolled in mind pays homage at a shrine or at an Enlightenment
Tree or to elders, he does not do it carefully, [300] and he sits in the
Dhamma-preaching pavilion with mind astray or nodding, while one
whose mind is controlled pays homage carefully and deliberately, listens
to the Dhamma attentively, remembering it, and evincing the confidence
in his mind through his body or his speech. So another may be only
controlled in his mental behaviour, though his bodily and verbal behav-
iour are not controlled. Then the latter should be ignored and the control
in his mental behaviour remembered.
20. But there may be another in whom not even one of these three
things is controlled. Then compassion for that person should be aroused
thus: 'Though he is going about in the human world now, nevertheless
after a certain number of days he will find himself in [one of] the eight
great hells or the sixteen prominent hells'.
4
For irritation subsides too
through compassion. In yet another all three may be controlled. Then he
can remember any of the three in that person, whichever he likes; for the
development of lovingkindness towards such a person is easy.
21. And in order to make the meaning of this clear the following sutta
from the Book of Fives should be cited in full: 'Bhikkhus, there are five
ways of dispelling annoyance whereby annoyance arisen in a bhikkhu
can be entirely dispelled' (A.iii, 186-90).
22. But if irritation still arises in him in spite of his efforts, then he
should admonish himself thus:
'Suppose an enemy has hurt
You now in what is his domain,
Why try yourself as well to hurt
Your mind?—That is not his domain.
'In tears you left your family.
They had been kind and helpful too.
So why not leave your enemy,
The anger that brings harm to you?
'This anger that you entertain
Is gnawing at the very roots
Of all the virtues that you guard—
Who is there such a fool as you?
'Another does ignoble deeds,
So you are angry—How is this?
Do you then want to copy too
The sort of acts that he commits?
'Suppose another, to annoy,
Provokes you with some odious act,
Why suffer anger to spring up,
And do as he would have you do?
'If you get angry, then maybe
You make him suffer, maybe not;
Though with the hurt that anger brings
You certainly are punished now.
'If anger-blinded enemies
Set out to tread the path of woe,
Do you by getting angry too
Intend to follow heel to toe?
'If hurt is done you by a foe
Because of anger on your part,
Then put your anger down, for why
Should you be harassed groundlessly? [301]
'Since states last but a moment's time
Those aggregates, by which was done
The odious act, have ceased, so now
What is it you are angry with?
'Whom shall he hurt, who seeks to hurt
Another, in the other's absence?
Your presence is the cause of hurt;
Why are you angry, then, with him?'
23. But if resentment does not subside when he admonishes himself
thus, then he should review the fact that he himself and the other are
owners of their deeds (kamma).
Herein, he should first review this in himself thus: *Now what is the
point of your getting angry with him? Will not this kamma of yours that
has anger as its source lead to your own harm? For you are the owner of
your deeds, heir of your deeds, having deeds as your parent, deeds as
your kin, deeds as your refuge; you will become the heir of whatever
deeds you do (see A.iii,186). And this is not the kind of deed to bring
you to full enlightenment, to undeclared enlightenment or to the dis-
ciple's grade, or to any such position as the status of Brahma or Sakka,
or the throne of a Wheel-turning Monarch or a regional king, etc.; but
rather this is the kind of deed to lead to your fall from the Dispensation,
even to the status of the eaters of scraps, etc., and to the manifold
suffering in the hells, and so on. By doing this you are like a man who
wants to hit another and picks up a burning ember or excrement in his
hand and so first burns himself or makes himself stink'.
24. Having reviewed ownership of deeds in himself in this way, he
should review it in the other also: *And what is the point of his getting
angry with you? Will it not lead to his own harm? For that venerable one
is owner of his deeds, heir of his deeds ... he will become the heir of
whatever deeds he does. And this is not the kind of deed to bring him to
full enlightenment, to undeclared enlightenment or to the disciple's grade,
or to any such position as the status of Brahma or Sakka, or to the throne
of a Wheel-turning Monarch or a regional king, etc.; but rather this is the
kind of deed to lead to his fall from the Dispensation, even to the status
of the eaters of scraps, etc., and to the manifold suffering in the hells,
and so on. By doing this he is like a man who wants to throw dust at
another against the wind and only covers himself with it'. For this is said
by the Blessed One:
'When a fool hates a man that has no hate,
Is purified and free from every blemish, [302]
Such evil he will find comes back on him,
As does fine dust thrown up against the wind' (Dh. 125).
25. But if it still does not subside in him when he reviews ownership of
deeds in this way, then he should review the special qualities of the
Master's former conduct.
26. Here is the way of reviewing it: *Now you who have gone forth, is it
not a fact that when your Master was a Bodhisatta before discovering
full enlightenment, while he was still engaged in fulfilling the perfec-
tions during the four incalculable ages and a hundred thousand aeons, he
did not allow hate to corrupt his mind even when his enemies tried to
murder him on various occasions?
27. Tor example, in the Silavant Birth Story (Ja.i,261) when his friends
rose to prevent his kingdom of three hundred leagues being seized by an
enemy king who had been incited by a wicked minister in whose mind
his own queen had sown hate for him, he did not allow them to lift a
weapon. Again when he was buried, along with a thousand companions,
up to the neck in a hole dug in the earth in a charnel ground, he had no
thought of hate. And when, after saving his life by a heroic effort helped
by jackals scraping away soil when they had come to devour the corpses,
he went with the aid of a spirit to his own bedroom and saw his enemy
lying on his own bed, he was not angry but treated him as a friend,
undertaking a mutual pledge, and he then exclaimed:
"The brave aspire, the wise will not lose heart;
I see myself as I had wished to be" (Ja.i,267).
28. * And in the Khantivadin Birth Story he was asked by the stupid king
of Kasi (Benares), "What do you preach, monk?", and he replied, "I am
a preacher of patience"; and when the king had him flogged with scourges
of thorns and had his hands and feet cut off, he felt not the slightest
anger (see Ja.iii,39).
29. 'It is perhaps not so wonderful that an adult who had actually gone
forth into homelessness should have acted in that way; but also as an
infant he did so. For in the Cula-Dhammapala Birth Story his hands and
feet were ordered to be lopped off like four bamboo shoots by his father,
King Mahapatapa, and his mother lamented over him thus:
"Oh, Dhammapala's arms are severed
That had been bathed in sandalwood;
He was the heir to all the earth:
O king, my breath is choking me!" (Ja.iii,181). [303]
*Then his father, still not satisfied, commanded that his head be cut
off as well. But even then he had not the least trace of hate, since he had
firmly resolved thus: "Now is the time to restrain your mind; now, good
Dhammapala, be impartial towards these four persons, that is to say,
towards your father who is having your head cut off, the man who is
beheading you, your lamenting mother, and yourself.
30. 'And it is perhaps not so wonderful that one who had become a
human being should have acted in that way; but also as an animal he did
so. For while the Bodhisatta was the elephant called Chaddanta he was
pierced in the navel by a poisoned shaft. But even then he allowed no
hate towards the hunter who had wounded him to corrupt his mind,
according as it is said:
"The elephant, when struck by the stout shaft,
Addressed the hunter with no hate in mind:
'What is your aim? What is the reason why
You kill me thus? What can your purpose be?' " (Ja.v,51).
'And when the elephant had spoken thus and was told, "Sir, I have
been sent by the king of Kasi's queen to get your tusks", in order to fulfil
her wish he cut off his own tusks whose gorgeous radiance glittered with
the flashes of the six-coloured rays and gave them to him.
31. 'And when he was the Great Monkey, the man whom he had pulled
out of a rocky chasm thought:
"Now this is food for human kind
Like other forest animals,
So why then should a hungry man
Not kill the ape to eat? [I ask.]
1*1 1 travel independently
Taking his meat as a provision;
Thus I shall cross the waste, and that
Will furnish my viaticum" (Ja.v,71).
Then he took up a stone and dashed it on his head. But the monkey
looked at him with eyes full of tears and said:
"Oh, act not so, good sir, or else
The fate you reap will long deter
All others from such deeds as this
That you would do to me today" (Ja.v,71).
And with no hate in his mind and regardless of his own pain he saw to it
that the man reached his journey's end in safety.
32. 'And while he was the royal naga (serpent) Bhuridatta, [304] when
he had undertaken the Uposatha precepts and was lying on the top of an
ant-hill, though he was [caught and] sprinkled with medicinal charms
resembling the fire that ushers in the end of an aeon, and was put into a
box and treated as a plaything throughout the whole of Jambudipa, yet
he had no trace of hate for that brahman, according as it is said:
"While being put into the coffer
And being crushed down with his hand,
I had no hate for Alambana
Lest I should break my precept vow" (Cp. 85)'.
33. 'And when he was the royal naga Campeyya he let no hate spring
up in his mind while he was being cruelly treated by a snake charmer,
according as it is said:
"While I was living in the Law
Observing the Uposatha
A snake charmer took me away
To play with at the royal gate.
Whatever hue he might conceive,
Blue and yellow, and red as well,
So in accordance with his thought
I would become what he had wished;
I would turn dry land into water,
And water into land likewise.
Now had I given way to wrath
I could have seared him into ash,
Had I relaxed mind-mastery
I should have let my virtue lapse;
And one who lets his virtue lapse
Cannot attain the highest goal" (Cp. 85).
34. "And when he was the royal naga Sankhapala, while he was being
carried along on a carrying pole by the sixteen village boys after they
had wounded him in eight places with sharp spears and inserted thorn
creepers into the wounds' orifices, and while, after threading a strong
rope through his nose, they were causing him great agony by dragging
him along bumping his body on the surface of the ground, though he was
capable of turning those village boys to cinders with a mere glance, yet
he did not even show the least trace of hate on opening his eyes, accord-
ing as it is said:
"On the fourteenth and the fifteenth too, Alara,
I regularly kept the Holy Day,
Until there came those sixteen village boys
Bearing a rope and a stout spear as well.
The hunters cleft my nose, and through the slit
They passed a rope and dragged me off like that.
But though I felt such poignant agony,
I let no hate disturb my Holy Day" (Ja.v,172). [305]
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