THE PATH
OF PURIFICATION
(VISUDDHIMAGGA)
BY
BHADANTACARIYA BUDDHAGHOSA
Translated from the Pali
by
BHIKKHU NANAMOLI
FIFTH EDITION
BUDDHIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY
Kandy Sri Lanka
126. So if he wants to remain long in the jhana, he must enter upon it
after [first] purifying his mind from obstructive states.
[EXTENSION OF THE SIGN]
In order to perfect the development of consciousness he should be-
sides extend the counterpart sign according as acquired. Now there are
two planes for extension, namely, access and absorption; for it is pos-
sible to extend it on reaching access and on reaching absorption. But the
extending should be done consistently in one [or the other], which is
why it was said *he should besides extend the counterpart sign according
as acquired'.
127. The way to extend it is this. The meditator should not extend the
sign as a clay bowl or a cake or boiled rice or a creeper or a piece of
cloth is extended. He should first delimit with his mind successive sizes
for the sign, according as acquired, that is to say, one finger, two fingers,
three fingers, four fingers, and then extend it by the amount delimited,
just as a ploughman delimits with the plough the area to be ploughed and
then ploughs within the area delimited, or just as bhikkhus fixing a
boundary first observe the marks and then fix it. He should not, in fact,
extend it without having delimited [the amount it is to be extended by].
After that has been done, he can further extend it, doing so by delimiting
successive boundaries of, say, a span, a ratana (= 2 spans), the verandah,
the surrounding space,
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the monastery, and the boundaries of the
village, the town, the district, the kingdom and the ocean, [153] making
the extreme limit the world-sphere or even beyond.
128. Just as young swans first starting to use their wings soar a little
distance at a time, and by gradually increasing it eventually reach the
presence of the moon and sun, so too when a bhikkhu extends the sign
by successive delimitations in the way described, he can extend it up to
the limit of the world-sphere or even beyond.
129. Then that sign [appears] to him like an ox hide stretched out with a
hundred pegs
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over the earth's ridges and hollows, river ravines, tracts
of scrub and thorns, and rocky inequalities (see M.iii,105) in any area to
which it has been extended.
When a beginner has reached the first jhana in this sign, he should
enter upon it often without reviewing it much. For the first jhana factors
occur crudely and weakly in one who reviews it much. Then because of
that they do not become conditions for higher endeavour. While he is
endeavouring for the unfamiliar [higher jhana] he falls away from the
first jhana and fails to reach the second.
130. Hence the Blessed One said: 'Bhikkhus, suppose there were a
foolish stupid mountain cow, with no knowledge of fields and no skill in
walking on craggy mountains, who thought: "What if I walked in a
direction I never walked in before, ate grass I never ate before, drank
water I never drank before?", and without placing her forefoot properly
she lifted up her hind foot; then she would not walk in the direction she
never walked in before or eat the grass she never ate before or drink the
water she never drank before, and also she would not get back safely to
the place where she had thought, "What if I walked in a direction I never
walked in before ... drank water I never drank before?". Why is that?
Because that mountain cow was foolish and stupid with no knowledge of
fields and no skill in walking on craggy mountains. So too, bhikkhus,
here is a certain foolish stupid bhikkhu with no knowledge of fields and
no skill, quite secluded from sense desires, secluded from unprofitable
things, in entering upon and dwelling in the first jhana, which is accom-
panied by applied thought and sustained thought with happiness and
bliss bom of seclusion; he does not repeat, develop or cultivate that sign
or properly establish it. He thinks: "What if with the subsiding of applied
and sustained thought I entered upon and dwelt in the second jhana,
which is ... with happiness and bliss born of concentration?". [154] He
is unable with the subsiding of applied and sustained thought to enter
upon and dwell in the second jhana, which is ... with happiness and bliss
born of concentration. Then he thinks: "What if, quite secluded from
sense desires, secluded from unprofitable things, I entered upon and
dwelt in the first jhana, which is ... with happiness and bliss born of
seclusion?". He is unable, quite secluded from sense desires, secluded
from unprofitable things, to enter upon and dwell in the first jhana which
is ... with happiness and bliss born of seclusion. This bhikkhu is called
one who has slipped between the two, who has fallen between the two,
just like the foolish stupid mountain cow with no knowledge of fields
and no skill in walking on craggy mountains ...' (A.iv,418-19).
131. Therefore he should acquire mastery in the five ways first of all with
respect to the first jhana. Herein, these are the five kinds of mastery:
mastery in adverting, mastery in attaining, mastery in resolving (steady-
ing the duration), mastery in emerging, and mastery in reviewing. 'He
adverts to the first jhana where, when, and for as long as, he wishes; he
has no difficulty in adverting; thus it is mastery in adverting. He attains
the first jhana where ... he has no difficulty in attaining; thus it is mas-
tery in attaining' (Ps.i,100), and all the rest should be quoted in detail
(Ch. XXHI, §27).
132. The explanation of the meaning here is this. When he emerges from
the first jhana and first of all adverts to the applied thought, then, next to
the adverting that arose interrupting the life-continuum, either four or
five impulsions impel with that applied thought as their object. Then
there are two life-continuum [consciousnesses]. Then there is adverting
with the sustained thought as its object and followed by impulsions in
the way just stated. When he is able to prolong his conscious process
uninterruptedly in this way with the five jhana factors, then his mastery
of adverting is successful. But this mastery is found at its acme of per-
fection in the Blessed One's Twin Marvel (Ps.i,125), or for others on
the aforesaid occasions. There is no quicker mastery in adverting than
that.
133. The venerable Maha-Moggallana's ability to enter upon jhana quickly,
as in the taming of the royal naga-serpent Nandopananda (Ch.XII, §106f.),
is called mastery in attaining.
134. Ability to remain in jhana for a moment consisting in exactly a
finger-snap or exactly ten finger-snaps is called mastery in resolving
(steadying the duration).
Ability to emerge quickly in the same way is called mastery in
emerging.
135. The story of the Elder Buddharakkhita may be told in order to
illustrate both these last. [155] Eight years after his admission to the
Community that elder was sitting in the midst of thirty thousand bhikkhus
possessed of supernormal powers who had gathered to attend upon the
sickness of the Elder Maha-Rohanagutta at Therambatthala. He saw a
royal supanna (demon) swooping down from the sky intending to seize
an attendant royal naga-serpent as he was getting rice-gruel accepted for
the elder. The Elder Buddharakkhita created a rock meanwhile, and seiz-
ing the royal naga by the arm, he pushed him inside it. The royal supanna
gave the rock a blow and made off. The senior elder remarked: 'Friends,
if Rakkhita had not been there, we should all have been put to shame'.
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136. Mastery in reviewing is described in the same way as mastery in ad-
verting; for the reviewing impulsions are in fact those next to the advert-
ing mentioned there (§132).
137. When he has once acquired mastery in these five ways, then on
emerging from the now familiar first jhana he can regard the flaws in it
in this way: 'This attainment is threatened by the nearness of the hin-
drances, and its factors are weakened by the grossness of the applied and
sustained thought'. He can bring the second jhana to mind as quieter and
so end his attachment to the first jhana and set about doing what is
needed for attaining the second.
138. When he has emerged from the first jhana, applied and sustained
thought appear gross to him as he reviews the jhana factors with mind-
fulness and full awareness, while happiness and bliss and unification of
mind appear peaceful. Then, as he brings that same sign to mind as
'earth, earth' again and again with the purpose of abandoning the gross
factors and obtaining the peaceful factors, [knowing] 'now the second
jhana will arise', there arises in him mind-door adverting with that same
earth kasina as its object, interrupting the life-continuum. After that,
either four or five impulsions impel on that same object, the last one of
which is an impulsion of the fine-material sphere belonging to the sec-
ond jhana. The rest are of the sense sphere of the kinds already stated
(§74).
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