THE PATH
OF PURIFICATION
(VISUDDHIMAGGA)
BY
BHADANTACARIYA BUDDHAGHOSA
Translated from the Pali
by
BHIKKHU NANAMOLI
FIFTH EDITION
BUDDHIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY
Kandy Sri Lanka
[STRENGTHENING OF COMPREHENSION IN FORTY WAYS]
18. Now when the Blessed One was expounding conformity knowledge,
he [asked the question]: 'By means of what forty aspects does he acquire
liking that is in conformity? By means of what forty aspects does he
enter into the certainty of lightness?' (Ps.ii,238).
4
In the answer to it
comprehension of impermanence, etc., is set forth by him analytically in
the way beginning: * [Seeing] the five aggregates as impermanent, as
painful, as a disease, a boil, a dart, a calamity, an affliction, as alien, as
disintegrating, as a plague, a disaster, a terror, a menace, as fickle, per-
ishable, unenduring, as no protection, no shelter, no refuge, as empty,
vain, void, not-self, as a danger, as subject to change, as having no core,
as the root of calamity, as murderous, as due to be annihilated, as subject
to cankers, as formed, as Mara's bait, as subject to birth, subject to
ageing, subject to illness, subject to death, subject to sorrow, subject to
lamentation, subject to despair, subject to defilement. Seeing the five
aggregates as impermanent, he acquires liking that is in conformity. And
seeing that the cessation of the five aggregates is the permanent nibbana,
he enters into the certainty of lightness* (Ps.ii,238). So in order to
strengthen that same comprehension of impermanence, pain, and not-self
in the five aggregates, this [meditator] also comprehends these five
aggregates by means of that [kind of comprehension].
19. How does he do it? He does it by means of comprehension as
impermanent, etc., stated specifically as follows: He comprehends each
aggregate as impermanent because of non-endlessness, and because of
possession of a beginning and an end; as painful because of oppression
by rise and fall, and because of being the basis for pain; as a disease be-
cause of having to be maintained by conditions, and because of being the
root of disease; as a boil because of being consequent upon impale-
ment by suffering, because of oozing with the filth of defilements, and
because of being swollen by arising, ripened by ageing, and burst by dis-
solution; as a dart because of producing oppression, because of penetrat-
ing inside, and because of being hard to extract; as a calamity because
of having to be condemned, because of bringing loss, and [612] because
of being the basis for calamity; as an affliction because of restricting
freedom, and because of being the foundation for affliction; as alien
because of inability to have mastery exercised over them, and because
of intractability; as disintegrating because of crumbling through sick-
ness, ageing and death; as a plague because of bringing various kinds of
ruin; as a disaster because of bringing unforeseen and plentiful adver-
sity, and because of being the basis for all kinds of terror, and because of
being the opposite of the supreme comfort called the stilling of all suf-
fering; as a menace because of being bound up with many kinds of
adversity, because of being menaced5
by ills, and because of unfitness,
as a menace, to be entertained; as fickle because of fickle insecurity
due to sickness, ageing and death and to the worldly states of gain, etc.;
6
as perishable because of having the nature of perishing both by violence
and naturally; as unenduring because of collapsing on every occasion7
and because of lack of solidity; as no protection because of not protect-
ing, and because of affording no safety; as no shelter because of unfit-
ness to give shelter,
8
and because of not performing the function of a
shelter for the unsheltered;
9
as no refuge because of failure to disperse
fear
10
in those who depend on them; as empty because of their emptiness
of the lastingness, beauty, pleasure and self that are conceived about
them; as vain because of their emptiness, or because of their triviality;
for what is trivial is called 'vain' in the world; as void because devoid of
the state of being an owner, abider, doer, experiencer, director; as not-
self because of itself having no owner, etc.; as danger because of the
suffering in the process of becoming, and because of the danger in suf-
fering—or alternatively, as danger (ddinava) because of resemblance to
misery (ddina)
n
since 'danger' (ddinava) means that it is towards misery
(ddina) that it moves (vdti), goes, advances, this being a term for a
wretched man, and the aggregates are wretched too; as subject to change
because of having the nature of change in two ways, that is, through
ageing and through death; as having no core because of feebleness, and
because of decaying soon like sapwood; as the root of calamity because
of being the cause of calamity; as murderous because of breaking faith
like an enemy posing as a friend; as due to be annihilated because their
becoming disappears, and because their non-becoming comes about; as
subject to cankers because of being the proximate cause for cankers; as
formed because of being formed by causes and conditions; as Mdra's
bait because of being the bait [laid] by the Mara of death and the Mara
of defilement; as subject to birth, to ageing, to illness, and to death
because of having birth, ageing, illness and death as their nature; as
subject to sorrow, to lamentation and to despair because of being the
cause of sorrow, lamentation and despair; as subject to defilement
because of being the objective field of the defilements of craving, views
and misconduct.
20. Now there are [613] fifty kinds of contemplation of impermanence
here by taking the following ten in the case of each aggregate: as imper-
manent, as disintegrating, as fickle, as perishable, as unenduring, as sub-
ject to change, as having no core, as due to be annihilated, as formed, as
subject to death. There are twenty-five kinds of contemplation of not-
self by taking the following five in the case of each aggregate: as alien,
as empty, as vain, as void, as not-self. There are one hundred and twenty-
five kinds of contemplation of pain by taking the rest beginning with 'as
painful, as a disease' in the case of each aggregate.
So when a man comprehends the five aggregates by means of this
comprehending as impermanent, etc., in its two hundred aspects, his
comprehending as impermanent, painful and not-self, which is called
'inductive insight', is strengthened. These in the first place are the direc-
tions for undertaking comprehension here in accordance with the method
given in the texts.
[NINE WAYS OF SHARPENING THE FACULTIES, ETC.]
21. While thus engaged in inductive insight, however, if it does not
succeed, he should sharpen his faculties [of faith, etc.,] in the nine ways
stated thus: 'The faculties become sharp in nine ways: (1) he sees only
the destruction of arisen formations; (2) and in that [occupation] he
makes sure of working carefully, (3) he makes sure of working persever-
ingly, (4) he makes sure of working suitably, and (5) by apprehending
the sign of concentration and (6) by balancing the enlightenment factors
(7) he establishes disregard of body and life, (8) wherein he overcomes
[pain] by renunciation and (9) by not stopping halfway.
12
He should
avoid the seven unsuitable things in the way stated in the Description of
the Earth Kasina (Ch. IV, §34) and cultivate the seven suitable things,
and he should comprehend the material at one time and the immaterial at
another.
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