THE PATH
OF PURIFICATION
(VISUDDHIMAGGA)
BY
BHADANTACARIYA BUDDHAGHOSA
Translated from the Pali
by
BHIKKHU NANAMOLI
FIFTH EDITION
BUDDHIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY
Kandy Sri Lanka
[(iv) VARIOUS]
299. As it spins thus:
(1) As to the source in the [four] truths,
(2) As to function, (3) prevention, (4) similes,
(5) Kinds of profundity, and (6) methods,
It should be known accordingly.
300. 1. Herein, [as to source in the truths:] profitable and unprofitable
kamma are stated in the Saccavibhahga (Vbh. 106f.) without distinction
as the origin of suffering, and so formations due to ignorance [stated
thus] 'With ignorance as condition there are formations' are the second
truth with the second truth as source. Consciousness due to formations is
the first truth with the second truth as source. The states beginning with
mentality-materiality and ending with resultant feeling, due respectively
to consciousness, etc., are the first truth with the first truth as source.
Craving due to feeling is the second truth with the first truth as source.
Clinging due to craving is the second truth with the second truth as
source. Becoming due to clinging is the first and second truths with the
second truth as source. Birth due to becoming is the first truth with the
second truth as source. Ageing-and-death due to birth is the first truth
with the first truth as source. This in the first place is how [the Wheel of
Becoming] should be known 'as to ... source in the four truths' in
whichever way is appropriate.
301. 2. [As to function:] ignorance confuses beings about physical ob-
jects [of sense desire] and is a condition for the manifestation of forma-
tions; likewise [kamma-] formations [582] form the formed and are a
condition for consciousness; consciousness recognizes an object and is a
condition for mentality-materiality; mentality-materiality is mutually
consolidating and is a condition for the sixfold base; the sixfold base
occurs with respect to its own [separate] objective fields and is a condi-
tion for contact; contact touches an object and is a condition for feeling;
feeling experiences the stimulus of the object and is a condition for
craving; craving lusts after lust-arousing things and is a condition for
clinging; clinging clings to clinging-arousing things and is a condition
for becoming; becoming flings beings into the various kinds of destiny
and is a condition for birth; birth gives birth to the aggregates owing to
its occurring as their generation and is a condition for ageing-and-death;
and ageing-and-death ensures the decay and dissolution of the aggre-
gates and is a condition for the manifestation of the next becoming
because it ensures sorrow, etc.
45
So this [Wheel of Becoming] should be
known accordingly as occurring in two ways 'as to function' in which-
ever way is appropriate to each of its parts.
302. 3. [As to prevention:] the clause 'With ignorance as condition there
are formations' prevents seeing a maker, the clause 'With formations as
condition, consciousness' prevents seeing the transmigration of a self;
the clause 'With consciousness as condition, mentality-materiality' pre-
vents perception of compactness because it shows the analysis of the
basis conjectured to be 'self; and the clauses beginning 'With mentality-
materiality as condition, the sixfold base' prevent seeing any self that
sees, etc., cognizes, touches, feels, craves, clings, becomes, is born, ages
and dies. So this Wheel of Becoming should be known 'as to prevention'
of wrong seeing appropriately in each instance.
303. 4. [As to similes:] ignorance is like a blind man because there is no
seeing states according to their specific and general characteristics; for-
mations with ignorance as condition are like the blind man's stumbling;
consciousness with formations as condition is like the stumbler's falling;
mentality-materiality with consciousness as condition is like the appear-
ance of a tumour on the fallen man; the sixfold base with mentality-
materiality as condition is like a gathering that makes the tumour burst;
contact with the sixfold base as condition is like hitting the gathering in
the tumour; feeling with contact as condition is like the pain due to the
blow; craving with feeling as condition is like longing for a remedy;
clinging with craving as condition is like seizing what is unsuitable
through longing for a remedy; [583] becoming with clinging as condi-
tion is like applying the unsuitable remedy seized; birth with becoming
as condition is like the appearance of a change [for the worse] in the
tumour owing to the application of the unsuitable remedy; and ageing-
and-death with birth as condition is like the bursting of the tumour after
the change.
Or again, ignorance here as 'no theory' and * wrong theory' (see
§52) befogs beings as a cataract does the eyes; the fool befogged by it
involves himself in formations that produce further becoming, as a
cocoon-spinning caterpillar does with the strands of the cocoon; con-
sciousness guided by formations establishes itself in the destinies, as a
prince guided by a minister establishes himself on a throne; [death] con-
sciousness conjecturing about the sign of rebirth generates mentality-
materiality in its various aspects in rebirth-linking, as a magician does an
illusion; the sixfold base planted in mentality-materiality reaches growth,
increase and fulfilment, as a forest thicket does planted in good soil;
contact is born from the impingement of the bases, as fire is born from
the rubbing together of fire sticks; feeling is manifested in one touched
by contact, as burning is in one touched by fire; craving increases in one
who feels, as thirst does in one who drinks salt water; one who is parched
[with craving] conceives longing for the kinds of becoming, as a thirsty
man does for drinks; that is his clinging; by clinging he clings to becom-
ing as a fish does to the hook through greed for the bait; when there is
becoming there is birth, as when there is a seed there is a shoot; and
death is certain for one who is born, as falling down is for a tree that has
grown up.
So this Wheel of Becoming should be known thus 'as to similes' too
in whichever way is appropriate.
304. 5. [Kinds of profundity:] Now the Blessed One's words, 'This de-
pendent origination is profound, Ananda, and profound it appears' (D.ii,*
55), refer to profundity (a) of meaning, (b) of law, (c) of teaching, and
(d) of penetration. So this Wheel of Becoming should be known 'as to
the kinds of profundity' in whichever way is appropriate.
305. (a) Herein, the meaning of ageing-and-death produced and origi-
nated with birth as condition is profound owing to difficulty in under-
standing its origin with birth as condition thus: Neither does ageing-and
death not come about from birth, nor, failing birth, does it come about
from something else; it arises [only] from birth with precisely that nature
[of ageing-and-death]. And the meaning of birth with becoming as con-
dition ... and the meaning of formations produced and originated with
ignorance as condition are treatable in like manner. That is why this
Wheel of Becoming is profound in meaning. This, firstly, is the profun-
dity of meaning here. [584] For it is the fruit of a cause that is called
'meaning', according as it is said, 'Knowledge about the fruit of a cause
is the discrimination of meaning' (Vbh. 293).
306. (b) The meaning of ignorance as condition for formations is pro-
found since it is difficult to understand in what mode and on what
occasion46
ignorance is a condition for the several formations.... The
meaning of birth as a condition for ageing-and-death is similiarly pro-
found. That is why this Wheel of Becoming is profound in law. This is
the profundity of law here. For 'law' is a name for cause, according as it
is said, 'Knowledge about cause is discrimination of law' (Vbh. 293).
307. (c) Then the teaching of this [dependent origination] is profound
since it needs to be given in various ways for various reasons, and none
but omniscient knowledge gets fully established in it; for in some places
in the Suttas it is taught in forward order, in some in backward order, in
some in forward and backward order, in some in forward or in backward
order starting from the middle, in some in four sections and three links,
in some in three sections and two links, and in some in two sections and
one link. That is why this Wheel of Becoming is profound in teaching.
This is the profundity of teaching.
308. (d) Then the individual essences of ignorance, etc., owing to the
penetration of which ignorance, etc., are rightly penetrated as to their
specific characteristic, are profound since they are difficult to fathom.
That is why this Wheel of Becoming is profound in penetration. For here
the meaning of ignorance as unknowing and unseeing and non-penetra-
tion of the truth is profound; so is the meaning of formations as forming
and accumulating with and without greed; so is the meaning of con-
sciousness as void, uninterested, and manifestation of rebirth-linking
without transmigration; so is the meaning of mentality-materiality as
simultaneous arising, as resolved into components or not, and as bending
[on to an object] (namana) and being molested (ruppana); so is the
meaning of the sixfold base as predominance, world, door, field, and
possession of objective field; so is the meaning of contact as touching,
impingement, coincidence, and concurrence; so is the meaning of feeling
as the experiencing of the stimulus of an object, as pleasure or pain or
neutrality, as soulless, and as what is felt; so is the meaning of craving as
a delighting in, as a committal to, as a current, as a bindweed, as a river,
as the ocean of craving, and as impossible to fill; so is the meaning of
clinging as grasping, seizing, misinterpreting, adhering, and hard to
get by; so is the meaning of becoming as accumulating, forming, and
flinging into the various kinds of generation, destiny, station, and abode;
so is the meaning of birth as birth, coming to birth, descent [into the
womb], rebirth, and manifestation; and so is the meaning of ageing-and-
birth as destruction, fall, break-up and change. This is profundity of
penetration.
309. 6. [As to methods*] Then [585] there are four methods of treating
the meaning here. They are (a) the method of identity, (b) the method of
diversity, (c) the method of uninterest,
47
and (d) the method of ineluc-
table regularity. So this Wheel of Becoming should also be known
accordingly 'as to the kinds of method'.
48
310. (a) Herein, the non-interruption of the continuity in this way, 'With
ignorance as condition there are formations; with formations as condi-
tion, consciousness', just like a seed's reaching the state of a tree through
the state of the shoot, etc., is called the 'method of identity'. One who
sees this rightly abandons the annihilation view by understanding the
unbrokenness of the continuity that occurs through the linking of cause
and fruit. And one who sees it wrongly clings to the eternity view by
apprehending identity in the non-interruption of the continuity that
occurs through the linking of cause and fruit.
311. (b) The defining of the individual characteristic of ignorance, etc.,
is called the 'method of diversity'. One who sees this rightly abandons
the eternity view by seeing the arising of each new state. And one who
sees it wrongly clings to the annihilation view by apprehending individ-
ual diversity in the events in a single continuity as though it were a
broken continuity.
312. (c) The absence of interestedness on the part of ignorance, such as
'Formations must be made to occur by me', or on the part of formations,
such as 'Consciousness must be made to occur by us', and so on, is
called the 'method of uninterestedness'. One who sees this rightly aban-
dons the self view by understanding the absence of a maker. One who
sees it wrongly clings to the moral-inefficacy-of-action view, because he
does not perceive that the causative function of ignorance, etc., is estab-
lished as a law by their respective individual essences.
313. (d) The production of only formations, etc., respectively and no
others with ignorance, etc., as the respective reasons, like that of curd,
etc., with milk, etc., as the respective reasons, is called the 'method of
ineluctable regularity'. One who sees this rightly abandons the no-cause
view and the moral-inefficacy-of-action view by understanding how the
fruit accords with its condition. One who sees it wrongly by apprehend-
ing it as non-production of anything from anything, instead of appre-
hending the occurrence of the fruit in accordance with its conditions,
clings to the no-cause view and to the doctrine of fatalism.
So this Wheel of Becoming:
As to source in the [four] truths,
As to function, prevention, similes,
Kinds of profundity, and methods,
Should be known accordingly.
314. There is no one, even in a dream, who has got out of the fearful
round of rebirths, which is ever destroying like a thunderbolt, unless he
has severed with the knife of knowledge well whetted on the stone of
sublime concentration, this Wheel of Becoming, which offers no footing
owing to its great profundity and is hard to get by owing to the maze of
many methods. [586]
And this has been said by the Blessed One: 'This dependent origina-
tion is profound, Ananda, and profound it appears. And, Ananda, it is
through not knowing, through not penetrating it, that this generation has
become a tangled skein, a knotted ball of thread, root-matted as a reed
bed, and finds no way out of the round of rebirths, with its states of loss,
unhappy destinies, ... perdition' (D.ii,55).
Therefore, practising for his own and others' benefit and welfare,
and abandoning other duties:
Let a wise man with mindfulness
So practise that he may begin
To find a footing in the deeps
Of the dependent origin.
The seventeenth chapter (concluding) 'The
Description of the Soil in which Understanding
Grows' in the Treatise on the Development of
Understanding in the Path of Purification com-
posed for the purpose of gladdening good people.
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