OF PURIFICATION
(VISUDDHIMAGGA)
BY
BHADANTACARIYA BUDDHAGHOSA
Translated from the Pali
by
BHIKKHU NANAMOLI
FIFTH EDITION
BUDDHIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY
Kandy Sri Lanka
He actually says 'one's own opinion is the weakest authority of all and should
only be accepted if it accords with the Suttas' (DA. 567-68). So it is likely that
he regarded what we should call original thinking as the province of the Bud-
dha, and his own task as the fortification of that thought by coordinating the ex-
planations of it. However, not every detail that he edited can claim direct sup-
port in the Suttas.
The following considerations lend some support to the assumptions just
made. It has been pointed out
10
that in describing in the Vinaya Commentary
how the tradition had been 'maintained up to the present day by the chain of
teachers and pupils' (VinA. 61-62) the list of teachers' names that follows con-
tains names only traceable down to about the middle of the 2nd century A.C.,
but not later. Again, there appear in his works numbers of illustrative stories, all
of which are set either in India or Ceylon. However, no single one of them can
be pointed to as contemporary. Stories about India in every case where a date
can be assigned are not later than Asoka (3rd cent. B.C.). Many stories about
Ceylon cannot be dated, but of those that can none seems later than the 2nd
century A.C. This suggests that the material which he had before him to edit
and translate had been already completed and fixed more than two centuries
earlier in Ceylon, and that the words 'present day' were not used by him to refer
to his own time, but were already in the material he was coordinating. This final
fixing, if it is a fact, might have been the aftermath of the decision taken in
Ceylon in the first century B.C. to commit the Pali Tipitaka to writing.
Something now needs to be said about the relation of the Visuddhimagga to
the other books. This author's work is characterized by relentless accuracy,
consistency and fluency of erudition, and much dominated by formalism. Not
only is this formalism evident in the elaborate pattern of the Visuddhimagga but
also that work's relationship to the others is governed by it. The Visuddhimagga
itself extracts from the Tipitaka all the central doctrines that pivot upon the Four
Noble Truths, presenting them as a coherent systematic whole by way of quota-
tion and explanation interspersed with treatises on subjects of more or less rela-
tive importance, all being welded into an intricate edifice. The work can thus
stand alone. But the aim of the commentaries to the four main Nikayas or Col-
lections of Suttas is to explain the subject matter of individual discourses and,
as well, certain topics and special doctrines not dealt with in the Visuddhimagga
(many passages commenting on identical material in the Suttas in different
NikAyas are reproduced verbatim in each commentary, and elsewhere, e.g., M.
Sutta 10, cf. D. Sutta 22, SatipatthAna Vibhahga, etc., etc., and respective com-
mentaries). But these commentaries always refer the reader to the Visuddhimagga
for explanations of the central doctrines. And though the Vinaya and Abhidhamma
Commentaries are less closely bound to the Visuddhimagga, still they too either
refer the reader to it or reproduce large blocks of it. The author himself says:
The treatises on virtue and on the ascetic's rules, all the meditation subjects,
the details of the attainments of the jhanas, together with the directions for each
temperament, all the various kinds of direct-knowledge, the exposition of the
definition of understanding, the aggregates, elements, bases, and faculties, the
Four Noble Truths, the explanation of the structure of conditions (dependent
origination), and lastly the development of insight, by methods that are purified
and sure and not divergent from Scripturer-since these things have already
been quite clearly stated in the Visuddhimagga I shall no more dwell upon them
here; for the Visuddhimagga stands between and in the midst of all four Collec-
tions (Nikayas) and will clarify the meaning of such things stated therein. It was
made in that way: take it therefore along with this same commentary and know
the meaning of the Long Collection (Digha Nikaya)' (prologue to the four
Nikayas).
This is all that can, without unsafe inferences, be gleaned of Bhadantacariya
Buddhaghosa himself from his own works (but see below).
Now there is the Mahdvamsa account. The composition of the second part
(often called Culavamsa) of that historical poem is attributed to an Elder Dham-
makitti, who lived in or about the thirteenth century. Here is a translation of the
relevant passage :
'There was a Brahman student who was born near the site of the Enlightenment
Tree. He was acquainted with the arts and accomplishments of the sciences and was
qualified in the Vedas. He was well versed in what he knew and unhesitant over any
phrase. Being interested in doctrines, he wandered over Jambudlpa (India) engaging in
disputation.
'He came to a certain monastery, and there in the night he recited Patafijali's system
with each phrase complete and well rounded. The senior elder there, Revata by name,
recognized, 'This is a being of great understanding who ought to be tamed." He said,
"Who is that braying the ass's bray?" The other asked, "What, then, do you know the
meaning of the ass's bray?" The elder answered, "I know it" and he then not only
expounded it himself, but explained each statement in the proper way and also pointed
out contradictions. The other then urged him, "Now expound your own doctrine," and
the elder repeated a text from the Abhidhamma, but the visitor could not solve its
meaning. He asked, "Whose system is this?", and the elder replied, "It is the Enlightened
One's system." "Give it to me," he said, but the elder answered, "You will have to take
the going forth into homelessness." So he took the going forth, since he was interested in
the system, and he learnt the three Pitakas, after which he believed, "This is the only
way" (M.i,55). Because his speech (ghosa) was profound (voice was deep) like that of
the Enlightened One (Buddha) they called him Buddhaghosa, so that like the Enlight-
ened One he might be voiced over the surface of the earth.
'He prepared a treatise there called Ndnodaya, and then the Atthasdlim, a commen-
tary on the Dhammasanganl. Next he began work on a commentary to the Paritta.
11
When the Elder Revata saw that, he said, "Here only the text has been preserved. There
is no commentary here, and likewise no Teachers' Doctrine; for that has been allowed to
go to pieces and is no longer known. However, a Sinhalese commentary still exists,
which is pure. It was rendered into the Sinhalese tongue by the learned Mahinda with
proper regard for the way of commenting that was handed down by the three Councils as
taught by the Enlightened One and inculcated by Sariputta and others. Go there, and after
you have learnt it translate it into the language of the Magadhans. That will bring benefit
to the whole world." As soon as this was said, he made up his mind to set out.
'He came from there to this island in the reign of this king (Mahanama). He came to
the Great Monastery, the monastery of all true men. There he stayed in a large work
room, and he learnt the whole Sinhalese Commentary of the Elders' Doctrine (theravdda)
under Sanghapala.
12
He decided, "This alone is the intention of the Dhamma's Lord."
So he assembled the Community there and asked, "Give me all the books to make a com-
mentary." Then in order to test him the Community gave him two stanzas, saying
"Show your ability with these; when we have seen that you have it, we will give you all
the books." On that text alone he summarized the three Pitakas together with the Com-
mentary as an epitome, which was named the Path of Purification {Visuddhimagga).
Then, in the precincts of the (sapling of the) Enlightenment Tree (in Anuradhapura), he
assembled the Community expert in the Fully Enlightened One's system, and he began
to read it out. In order to demonstrate his skill to the multitude deities hid the book, and
he was obliged to prepare it a second time, and again a third time. When the book was
brought for the third time to be read out, the gods replaced the other two copies with it.
Then the bhikkhus read out the three copies together, and it was found that there was no
difference between the three in either the chapters or the meaning or the order of the
material or the phrases and syllables of the Theravada texts. With that the Community
applauded in high delight and again and again it was said, "Surely this is (the Bodhisatta)
Metteyya."
They gave him the books of the three Pitakas together with the Commentary. Then,
while staying undisturbed in the Library Monastery, he translated the Sinhalese Com-
mentary into the Magadhan language, the root-speech of all, by which he brought benefit
to beings of all tongues. The teachers of the Elders' Tradition accepted it as equal in
authority with the texts themselves. Then, when the tasks to be done were finished, he
went back to Jambudipa to pay homage to the Great Enlightenment Tree.
'And when Mahanama had enjoyed twenty-two years' reign upon earth and had
performed a variety of meritorious works, he passed on according to his deeds' —
(Mahavamsa, ch. 37, vv. 215-47).
King Mahanama is identified with the *King Sirinivasa' and the 'King
Sirikudda' mentioned respectively in the epilogues to the Vinaya and Dham-
mapada Commentaries. There is no trace, and no other mention anywhere, of
the Ndnodaya. The Atthasdlini described as composed in India could not be the
version extant today, which cites the Ceylon Commentaries and refers to the
Visuddhimagga; it will have been revised later.
The prologues and epilogues of this author's works are the only instances
in which we can be sure that he is speaking of his own experience and not only
simply editing; and while they point only to his residence in South India, they
neither confute nor confirm the Mahavamsa statement than he was born in
Magadha (see note 8). The Ceylon Chronicles survived the historical criticismto
which they were subjected in the last hundred years. The independent evidence
that could be brought to bear supported them, and Western scholars ended by
pronouncing them reliable in essentials. The account just quoted is considered
to be based on historical fact even if it contains legendary matter.
It is not possible to make use of the body of Bhadantacariya Buddhaghosa's
works to test the Mahdvarhsa's claim that he was a learned Brahman from
central India, and so on. It has been shown already how the presumption is
always, where the contrary is not explicitly stated, that he is editing and translat-
ing material placed before him rather than displaying his own private knowl-
edge, experience and opinions. And so it would be a critical mistake to use any
such passage in his work for assessing his personal traits; for in them it is, pretty
certainly, not him we are dealing with at all but people who lived three or more
centuries earlier. Those passages probably tell us merely that he was a scrupu-
lously accurate and conscientious editor. His geographical descriptions are trans-
lations, not eye-witness accounts. Then such a sutta passage as that commented
on in Chapter I, 86-97 of the present work, which is a part of a sutta used by
bhikkhus for daily reflexion on the four requisites of the life of a bhikkhu, is
certain to have been fully commented on from the earliest times, so that it
would be just such a critical mistake to infer from this comment anything about
his abilities as an original commentator, or anything else of a personal nature
about him or his own past experience.
13
And again, the controversial subject of
the origin of the Brahman caste (see MA.ii,418) must have been fully explained
from the Buddhist standpoint from the very start. If then that account disagrees
with Brahmanical lore—and it would be odd, all things considered, if it did
not— there is no justification for concluding on those grounds that the author of
the Visuddhimagga was not of Brahman origin and that the Mahdvarhsa is
wrong. What does indeed seem improbable is that the authorities of the Great
Monastery, resolutely committed to oppose unorthodoxy, would have given him
a free hand to 'correct' their traditions to accord with Brahmanical texts or with
other alien sources, even if he had so wished. Again, the fact that there are
allusions to extraneous, non-Buddhist literature (e.g. Vis. Ch.VII, §58; XVI, §4
n.2; §85, etc.) hardly affects this issue because they too can have been already
in the material he was editing or supplied to him by the elders with whom he
was working. What might repay careful study is perhaps those things, such as
certain Mahayana teachings and names, as well as much Brahmanical philoso-
phy, which he ignores though he must have known about them. This ignoring
cannot safely be ascribed to ignorance unless we are sure it was not dictated by
policy; and we are not sure at all. His silences (in contrast to the author of the
Paramatthamahjusd) are sometimes notable in this respect.
The 'popular novel' called Buddhaghosuppatti, which was composed in
Burma by an elder called Mahamangala, perhaps as early as the 15th century, is
less dependable. But a survey without some account of it would be incomplete.
So here is a precis:
Near the Bodhi Tree at Gaya there was a town called Ghosa. Its ruler had a Brah-
man chaplain called Kesi married to a wife called Kesini. An elder bhikkhu, who was a
friend of Kesi, used to wonder, when the Buddha's teaching was recited in Sinhalese and
people did not therefore understand it, who would be able to translate it into Magadhan
(Pali). He saw that there was the son of a deity living in the Tavatimsa heaven, whose
name was Ghosa and who was capable of doing it. This deity was persuaded to be reborn
in the human world as the son of the Brahman Kesi. He learnt the Vedas. One day he sat
down in a place sacred to Vishnu and ate peas. Brahmans angrily rebuked him, but he
uttered a stanza, 'The pea itself is Vishnu; who is there called Vishnu? And how shall I
know which is Vishnu?', and no one could answer him. Then one day while Kesi was
instructing the town's ruler in the Vedas a certain passage puzzled him, but Ghosa wrote
down the explanations on a palm leaf, which was found later by his father—(Ch. I).
Once when the elder bhikkhu was invited to Kesi's house for a meal Ghosa's mat
was given him to sit on. Ghosa was furious and abused the elder. Then he asked him if
he knew the Vedas and any other system. The elder gave a recitation from the Vedas.
Then Ghosa asked him for his own system, whereupon the elder expounded the first triad
of the Abhidhamma schedule, on profitable, unprofitable, and indeterminate thought-
arisings. Ghosa asked whose the system was. He was told that it was the Buddha's and
that it could only be learnt after becoming a bhikkhu. He accordingly Went forth into
homelessness as a bhikkhu, and in one month he learnt the three Pitakas. After receiving
the full admission he acquired the four discriminations. The name given to him was
Buddhaghosa—(Ch. II).
One day the question arose in his mind: 'Which has more understanding of the
Buddha-word, I or my preceptor?'. His preceptor, whose cankers were exhausted, read
the thought in his mind and rebuked him, telling him to ask his forgiveness. The pupil
was then very afraid, and after asking for forgiveness, he was told that in order to make
amends he must go to Ceylon and translate the Buddha-word (sic) from Sinhalese into
Magadhan. He agreed, but asked that he might first be allowed to convert his father frorri
the Brahman religion to the Buddha's teaching. In order to achieve this he had a brick
apartment fitted with locks and furnished with food and water. He set a contrivance so
that when his father went inside he was trapped. He then preached to his father on the
virtues of the Buddha, and on the pains of hell resulting from wrong belief. After three
days his father was converted, and he took the Three Refuges. The son then opened the
door and made amends to his father with flowers and such things for the offence done to
him. Kesi became a stream-enterer—(Ch. III).
This done, he set sail in a ship for Ceylon. The Mahathera Buddhadatta
14
had set
sail that day from Ceylon for India. The two ships met by the intervention of Sakka
Ruler of Gods. When the two elders saw each other, the Elder Buddhaghosa told the
other: 'The Buddha's Dispensation has been put into Sinhalese; I shall go and translate it
and put it into Magadhan'. The other said, 'I was sent to go and translate the Buddha-
word and write it in Magadhan. I have only done the Jindlarikdra, the Dantavamsa, the
Dhdtuvamsa and the Bodhivamsa, not the commentaries and the sub-commentaries (Tika)
If you, sir, are translating the Dispensation from Sinhalese into Magadhan, do the com-
mentaries to the Three Pitakas'. Then praising the Elder Buddhaghosa, he gave him the
gall-nut, the iron stylus, and the stone given him by Sakka Ruler of Gods, adding 'If you
have eye trouble or backache, rub the gall-nut on the stone and wet the place that hurts;
then your ailment will vanish'. Then he recited a stanza from his Jinalarikdra. The other
said, 'Venerable sir, your book is written in very ornate style. Future clansmen will not
be able to follow its meaning. It is hard for simple people to understand it'. — 'Friend
Buddhaghosa, I went to Ceylon before you to work on the Blessed One's Dispensation.
But I have little time before me and shall not live long. So I cannot do it. Do it therefore
yourself, and do it well'. Then the two ships separated. Soon after they had completed
their voyages the Elder Buddhadatta died and was reborn in the Tusita heaven—(Ch.
IV).
The Elder Buddhaghosa stayed near the port of Dvijathana in Ceylon. While there
he saw one woman water-carrier accidentally break another's jar, which led to a violent
quarrel between them with foul abuse. Knowing that he might be called as a witness, he
wrote down what they said in a book. When the case came before the king, the elder was
cited as a witness. He sent his notebook, which decided the case. The king then asked to
see him—(Ch. V).
After this the elder went to pay homage to the Sangharaja,
15
the senior elder of
Ceylon. One day while the senior elder was teaching bhikkhus he came upon a difficult
point of Abhidhamma that he could not explain. The Elder Buddhaghosa knew its mean-
ing and wrote it on a board after the senior elder had left. Next day it was discovered and
then the senior elder suggested that he should teach the Order of Bhikkhus. The reply
was: 'I have come to translate the Buddha's Dispensation into Magadhan'. The senior
elder told him, 'If so, then construe the Three Pitakas upon the text beginning "When a
wise man, established well in virtue ..." '. He began the work that day, the stars being
favourable, and wrote very quickly. When finished, he put it aside and went to sleep.
Meanwhile Sakka Ruler of Gods abstracted the book. The elder awoke, and missing it,
he wrote another copy very fast by lamplight; then he put it aside and slept. Sakka
abstracted that too. The elder awoke, and not seeing his book, he wrote a third copy very
fast by lamplight and wrapped it in his robe. Then he slept again. While he was asleep
Sakka put the other two books beside him, and when he awoke he found all three copies.
He took them to the senior elder and told him what had happened. When they were read
over there was no difference even in a single letter. Thereupon the senior elder gave
permission for the translating of the Buddha's Dispensation. From then on the elder was
known to the people of Ceylon by the name of Buddhaghosa—-(Ch. VI).
He was given apartments in the Brazen Palace, of whose seven floors he occupied
the lowest. He observed the ascetic practices and was expert in all the scriptures. It was
during his stay there that he translated the Buddha's Dispensation. When on his alms
round he saw fallen palm leaves he would pick them up; this was a duty undertaken by
him. One day a man who had climbed a palm tree saw him. He left some palm leaves on
the ground, watched him pick them up, and then followed him. Afterwards he brought
him a gift of food. The elder concluded his writing of the Dispensation in three
months.When the rainy season was over and he had completed the Pavarana ceremony,
he consigned the books to the senior elder, the Sangharaja. Then the Elder Buddhaghosa
had the books written by Elder Mahinda piled up and burnt near the Great Shrine; the
pile was as high as seven elephants. Now that this work was done, and wanting to see his
parents, he took his leave before going back to India. Before he left, however, his knowl-
edge of Sanskrit was queried by bhikkhus; but he silenced this by delivering a sermon in
that language by the Great Shrine. Then he departed—(Ch. VIII).
On his return he went to his preceptor and cleared himself of his penance. His
parents too forgave him his offences; and when they died they were reborn in the Tusita
heaven. He himself, knowing that he would not live much longer, paid homage to his
preceptor and went to the Great Enlightenment Tree. Foreseeing his approaching death,
he considered thus: 'There are three kinds of death: death as cutting off, momentary
death, and conventional death. Death as cutting off belongs to those whose cankers are
exhausted (and are Arahants). Momentary death is that of each consciousness of the
cognitive series beginning with life-continuum consciousness, which arise each immedi-
ately on the cessation of the one preceding. Conventional death is that of all (so-called)
living beings.
16
Mine will be conventional death*. After his death he was reborn in the
Tusita heaven in a golden mansion seven leagues broad surrounded with divine nymphs.
When the Bodhisatta Metteyya comes to this human world, he will be his disciple. After
his cremation his relics were deposited near the Enlightenment Tree and shrines erected
over them—
is that where this imaginative tale differs from, or adds to, the Mahdvarhsa's
account it is in legend rather than history.
Finally there is the question of the Talaing Chronicles of Burma, which
mention an elder named Buddhaghosa, of brahman stock, who went from Thaton
(the ancient Buddhist stronghold in the Ramannadesa of Burma) to Ceylon
(perhaps via India) to translate the Buddha-word into Talaing and bring it back.
It is hard to evaluate this tradition on the evidence available; but according to
the opinion of the more reliable Western scholars another elder of the same
name is involved here.
17
What can be said of the Visuddhimagga's author without venturing into
unfounded speculation is now exhausted, at least in so far as the restricted scope
of this introduction permits. The facts are tantalizingly few. Indeed this, like
many scenes in Indian history, has something of the enigmatic transparencies
and uncommunicative shadows of a moonlit landscape—at the same time ines-
capable and ungraspable.
Some answer has, however, been furnished to the two questions: why did
he come to Ceylon? and why did his work become famous beyond its shores?
Trends such as have been outlined, working not quite parallel on the Theravada
of India and Ceylon, had evolved a situation favouring a rehabilitation of Pali,
and consequently the question was already one of interest not only to Ceylon,
where the old material was preserved. Again the author possessed outstandingly
just those personal qualities most fitted to the need—accuracy, an indefatigable
mental orderliness, and insight able to crystallize the vast unwieldy accumulated
exegesis of the Tipitaka into a coherent workable whole with a dignified vigor-
ous style, respect for authenticity and dislike of speculation, and (in the circum-
stances not at all paradoxically) preference for self-effacement. The impetus
given by him to Pali scholarship left an indelible mark on the centuries that
followed, enabling it to survive from then on the Sanskrit siege as well as the
continuing schism and the political difficulties and disasters that harassed Cey-
lon before the * Second Renascence*. A long epoch of culture stems from him.
His successors in the Great Monastery tradition continued to write in various
centres in South India till the 12th century or so, while his own works spread to
Burma and beyond. Today in Ceylon and South East Asia his authority is as
weighty as it ever was and his name is venerated as before.
The Vimuttimagga
Besides the books in Sinhala that Bhadantacariya Buddhaghosa names as
available to him (which have all disappeared) there was also a manual (existing
now only in a Chinese translation of the 6th century A.C.), presumed to have
been written in Pali. Bhadantacariya Buddhaghosa himself makes no mention of
it; but his commentator, Bhadantacariya Dhammapala (writing perhaps within
two centuries of him), mentions it by name (see Vis. Ch. DI, n.19). The Visud-
dhimagga refutes a certain method of classifying temperaments as unsound. The
Elder Dhammapala ascribes the theory refuted to the Vimuttimagga. The theory
refuted is actually found in the Chinese version. Then other points rejected by
the Visuddhimagga are found in the Vimuttimagga. Some of these are attributed
by the Elder Dhammapala to the Abhayagiri Monastery. However, the Vimutti-
magga itself contains nothing at all of the Mahayana, its unorthodoxies being
well within the 'Hinayana' field.
The book is much shorter than the Visuddhimagga. Though set out in the
same three general divisions of virtue, concentration, and understanding, it does
not superimpose the pattern of the seven purifications. Proportionately much
less space is devoted to understanding, and there are no stories. Though the
appearance in both books of numbers of nearly identical passages suggests that
they both drew a good deal from the same sources, the general style differs
widely. The four measureless states and the four immaterial states are handled
differently in the two books. Besides the 'material octads', 'enneads' and *dec-
ads\ it mentions 'endecads', etc., too. Its description of the thirteen ascetic
practices is quite different. Also Abhidhamma, which is the keystone of
Bhadantacariya Buddhaghosa's exegesis, is not used at all in the Vimuttimagga
(aggregates, truths, etc., do not in themselves constitute Abhidhamma in the
sense of that Pitaka). There is for instance even in its description of the con-
sciousness aggregate, no reference to the Dhammasahganrs classification of 89
types, and nothing from the PatthAna; and though the cognitive series is stated
once in its full form (in Ch. 11) no use is made of it to explain conscious
workings. This Vimuttimagga is in fact a book of practical instructions, not of
exegesis.
Its authorship is ascribed to an Elder Upatissa. But the mere coincidence of
names is insufficient to identify him with the Arahant Upatissa (prior to 3rd
cent. A.C.) mentioned in the Vinaya Parivara. A plausible theory puts its compo-
sition sometime before the Visuddhimagga, possibly inlndia. That is quite com-
patible with its being a product of the Great Monastery before the Visuddhimagga
was written, though again evidence is needed to support the hypothesis. That it
contains some minor points accepted by the Abhayagiri Monastery does not
necessarily imply that it had any special connexion with that centre. The source
may have been common to both. The disputed points are not schismatical.
BhadantAcariya Buddhaghosa himself never mentions it.
Trends in the Development ofTheravada Doctrine
The doctrines (Dhamma) of the Theravada Pali tradition can be conven-
iently traced in three main layers. (1) The first of these contains the main books
of the Pali Sutta Pitaka. (2) The second is the Abhidhamma Pitaka, notably the
closely related books, the DhammasahganI, Vibhahga, Patthana. (3) The third
is the system which the author of the Visuddhimagga completed, or found com-
pleted, and which he set himself to edit and translate back into Pali (some
further minor developments took place subsequently, particularly with the 12th-
century (?) Abhidhammatthasahgaha, but they are outside the present scope).
The point at issue here is not the much-debated historical question of how far
the Abhidhamma books (leaving aside the Kathavatthu) were contemporary
with the Vinaya and Suttas, but rather what discernible direction they show in
evolution of thought.
(1) The Suttas being taken as the original exposition of the Buddha's teach-
ing, (2) the Abhidhamma Pitaka itself appears as a highly technical and special-
ized systematization, or complementary set of modifications built upon that. Its
immediate purpose is, one may say, to describe and pin-point mental constitu-
ents and characteristics and relate them to their material basis and to each other
(with the secondary object, perhaps, of providing an efficient defence in dis-
putes with heretics and exponents of outsiders' doctrines). Its ultimate purpose
is to furnish additional techniques for getting rid of unjustified assumptions that
favour clinging and so obstruct the attainment of the extinction of clinging.
Various instrurnents have been forged in it for sorting and re-sorting experience
expressed as dhammas (see Ch. VII, n.l). These instruments are new to the
Suttas, though partly traceable to them. The principal instruments peculiar to it
are three: (a) the strict treatment of experience (or the knowable and knowledge,
using the words in their widest possible sense) in terms of momentary cogni-
zable states (dhamma) and the definition of these states, which is done in the
Dhammasangani and Vibhanga; (b) the creation of a 'schedule' (mdtika) con-
sisting of a set of triple (tika) and double (duka) classifications for sorting these
states; and (c) the enumeration of twenty-four kinds of conditioning relations
(paccaya), which is done in the PatthAna. The states as defined are thus, as it
were, momentary 'stills'; the structure of relations combines the stills into conti-
nuities; the schedule classifications indicate the direction of the continuities.
The three Abhidhamma books already mentioned are tjie essential basis for
what later came to be called the * Abhidhamma method': together they form an
integral whole. The other four books, which may be said to support them in
various technical fields, need not be discussed here. This, then, is a bare outline
of what is in fact an enormous maze with many unexplored side-turnings.
(3) The system found in the Commentaries has moved on (perhaps slightly
diverged) from the strict Abhidhamma-Pitaka standpoint. The Suttas offered
descriptions of discovery; the Abhidhamma map-making; but emphasis now is
not on discovery, or even on mapping, so much as on consolidating, filling in
and explaining. The material is worked over for consistency. Among the princi-
pal new developments here are these. The 'cognitive series' (citta-vithi) in the
occurrence of the conscious process is organized (see Ch. IV, n.13 and Table V)
and completed, and its association with three different kinds of kamma is laid
down. The term sabhdva ('individual essence', 'own-being' or 'it-ness', see
Ch. VII, n.68) is introduced to explain the key word dhamma, thereby submit-
ting that term to ontological criticism, while the samaya ('event' or 'occasion')
of the DhammasahganI is now termed a khana ('moment'), thus shifting the
weight and balance a little in the treatment of time. Then there is the specific
ascription of the three 'instants' (khana, too) of arising, presence and dissolu-
tion (uppdda-tthiti-bhariga) to each 'moment' (khana\ one 'material moment'
being calculated to last as long as sixteen 'mental moments' (Ch. XX, §24;
DhsA. 60).
18
New to the Pitakas are also the rather unwieldy enumeration of
concepts {pahhatti, see Ch. Vm, n.l 1), and the handy defining-formula of word-
meaning, characteristic, function, manifestation, and proximate cause (locus);
also many minor instances such as the substitution of the specific 'heart-basis'
for the Patthana's 'material basis of mind', the conception of 'material octads',
etc., the detailed descriptions of the thirty-two parts of the body instead of the
bare enumeration of the names in the Suttas (thirty-one in the four Nikayas and
thirty-two in the Khuddakapatha and the Patisambhidamagga), and many more.
And the word paramattha acquires a new and slightly altered currency. The
question of how much this process of development owes to the post-Maurian
evolution of Sanskrit thought on the Indian mainland (either through assimila-
tion or opposition) still remains to be explored, like so many others in this field.
The object of this sketch is only to point to a few landmarks.
The Paramatthamanjusd
The notes to this translation contain many quotations from the commentary
to the Visuddhimagga, called the Paramatthamanjusd or Mahd-Tikd. It is re-
garded as an authoritative work. The quotations are included both for the light
they shed on difficult passages in the Visuddhimagga and for the sake of ren-
dering for the first time some of the essays interspersed in it. The prologue and
epilogue give its author as an elder named Dhammapala, who lived at Pada-
ratirtha (identified as near Madras). This author, himself also an Indian, is
usually held to have lived within two centuries or so of Bhadantacariya Bud-
dhaghosa. There is nothing to say that he ever came to Ceylon.
The Visuddhimagga quotes freely from the Patisambhidamagga, the com-
mentary to which was written by an elder named Mahanama (date in the Middle
Period and place of residence uncertain). Mostly but not quite always, the Elder
Dhammapala says the same thing, when commenting on these quoted passages,
as the Elder Mahanama but in more words.
19
He relies much on syllogisms and
logical arguments. Also there are several discussions of some of the systems of
the 'Six Schools' of Brahmanical philosophy. There are no stories. This aca-
demic writer is difficult, formalistic, and often involved, very careful and accu-
rate. Various other works are attributed to him.
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