THE PATH
OF PURIFICATION
(VISUDDHIMAGGA)
BY
BHADANTACARIYA BUDDHAGHOSA
Translated from the Pali
by
BHIKKHU NANAMOLI
FIFTH EDITION
BUDDHIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY
Kandy Sri Lanka
[How Kamma is a Condition]
146. Up to this point there has been shown the occurrence of the nine-
teenfold consciousness as rebirth-linking. Also all this [is further classi-
fied; for]
While it occurs in linking thus,
It has a double class beside
Through kamma, and as mixed and not,
And is still further classified.
147. When this nineteenfold kamma-resultant consciousness occurs thus
in rebirth-linking, it does so by means of kamma in two ways; for ac-
cording to the way in which the kamma that generates it occurs, the
kamma can be its condition both as kamma condition acting from a
different time and as decisive-support condition, since this is said: 'Prof-
itable ... [and] unprofitable kamma is a condition, as decisive-support
condition, for [its] result' (Ptn. 1,167 and 169).
148. It should be understood that when it occurs thus, its double class,
etc., is mixed and not, and it is still further classified.
For example: though this [type of consciousness] occurs in one way
only as rebirth-linking, still it is twofold as divided into mixed and
unmixed with materiality; [552] it is threefold as divided according to
sense-desire, fine-material, and immaterial becoming (M.i,50); it is four-
fold as egg-born, womb-born, putrescence- (moisture-) born, and of
apparitional generation (M.i,73); it is fivefold according to destiny
(M.i,73); it is sevenfold according to the stations of consciousness
(D.iii,253), and it is eightfold according to the abodes of beings [exclud-
ing non-percipient beings] (see D.iii,263).
149. Herein:
The mixed is double, sexed and not,
And that with sex is double too;
The least decads the first has got
Respectively are three and two.
150. The mixed is double, sexed and not: that rebirth-linking conscious-
ness, which, leaving aside the immaterial becoming, arises here mixed
with materiality, is twofold as 'with sex' and 'without sex',
25
because it
arises in the fine-material sphere without the sex called femininity fac-
ulty and masculinity faculty, and because—leaving aside the rebirth-
linking of one born as a eunuch—it arises in the sense-sphere becoming
together with that [twofold] sex.
And that with sex is double too: there also that with sex is twofold
because it arises in association with either the female or the male sex.
151. The least decads the first has got respectively are three or two:
together with the rebirthr-linking consciousness that is mixed with materi-
ality and comes first in the pair 'mixed and unmixed', there arise, at the
least, the two decads (see Ch. XVIII, §5f.) of physical basis and body, or
else the three decads of physical basis, body, and sex. There is no reduc-
ing the materiality below that.
152. But when that minimal amount arises in the two kinds of generation
termed egg-born and womb-born, it amounts to no more than a drop of
cream of ghee on a single fibre of new-born [kid's] wool, and it is
known as the 'embryo in the first stage' (S.i,206).
153. Herein, how the different kinds of generation come about may be
understood according to the kind of destiny. For as regards these:
No first three generations are
In hell, or with the deities,
Save those of earth; all four are found
In the three other destinies.
154. Herein, by the words with deities it should be understood that, as in
hell and among deities—excepting earth deities—so also among the ghosts
consumed with thirst, the first three kinds of generation are not found;
for they are apparitional only. But in the remaining three kinds of des-
tiny, in other words, among animals, ghosts and human beings, and
among the earth deities excepted above, there are all four kinds of gen-
eration.
155. Now:
The fine material gods have thirty-nine;'
The apparitional and moisture-born
Have seventy material instances
At most, and they have thirty at the least.
156. Firstly, among the fine-material Brahmas of apparitional generation
there arise together with rebirth-linking consciousness thirty and also
nine material instances [553] with the four groups, namely, the decads of
the eye, ear, and physical basis, and the ennead of life. But leaving the
fine-material Brahmas aside, among the others of apparitional generation
and those of the moisture-born generation there are seventy instances of
materiality at the most with the decads of the eye, ear, nose, tongue,
body, physical basis and sex. And these are invariably to be found among
deities [of the sense sphere]. Now the group of material states compris-
ing the ten material instances, namely, colour, odour, flavour, nutritive
essence, and the four primary elements, with eye sensitivity and life, are
called the 'eye decad\ The remaining [groups of material states] should
be understood in the same way.
157. At the least, thirty material instances arise with the decads of the
tongue, body, and physical basis, in those who are blind from birth, deaf,
noseless,
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and sexless. Between the most and the least, the allotment
should be understood according as appropriate.
158. After knowing this, again:
One ought to consider the [pair] death and birth
Under aggregates, object, cause, destiny, feeling,
Happiness, and then thinking applied and sustained,
Distinguishing them by unlikeness and likeness.
159. The meaning is this: there is rebirth-linking that is twofold as mixed
and unmixed [with materiality], and there is the death consciousness
next before it, and their unlikeness and likeness according to these ag-
gregates, etc., must be known. How?
160. Sometimes, next to a four-aggregate immaterial death there is a
four-aggregate rebirth-linking having a like object; sometimes there is an
exalted rebirth-linking with an internal object next to an unexalted death
with an external object. This, firstly, is the method in the case of the
immaterial planes.
Sometimes there is a five-aggregate sense-sphere rebirth-linking next
to a four-aggregate immaterial death. Sometimes there is a four-aggre-
gate immaterial rebirth-linking next to a five-aggregate sense-sphere death
or fine-material-sphere death.
Thus there is rebirth-linking with a present object
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next to a death
with a past object, there is rebirth-linking in a certain unhappy destiny
next to death in a certain happy destiny, there is rebirth-linking with
root-cause next to root-causeless death, there is triple-root-cause rebirth-
linking next to double-root-cause death, there is rebirth-linking accom-
panied by joy next to death accompanied by equanimity, there is rebirth-
linking with happiness next to death without happiness, there is rebirth-
linking with applied thought next to death without applied thought, there
is rebirth-linking with sustained thought next to death without sustained
thought, there is rebirth-linking with applied and sustained thought next
to death without applied and sustained thought.
In this way they can be coupled together by opposites as appropri-
ate.
161. A mere state that has got its conditions
Ushers in the ensuing existence;
While it does not migrate from the past,
With no cause in the past it is not.
162. So it is a mere material and immaterial state, arising when it has ob-
tained its conditions, that is spoken of, saying that it comes into the next
becoming; it is not a lasting being, [554] not a soul. And it has neither
transmigrated from the past becoming nor yet is it manifested here with-
out cause from that.
163. We shall explain this by the normal process of human death and
rebirth-linking. When in the past becoming a man near to a natural or
violent death is unable to bear the onset of the unbearable daggers of the
[painful] feelings that end in death as they sever the ligatures of the
joints in all the limbs, his body gradually withers like a green palm leaf
lying in the glare of the sun, and when the faculties of the eye, etc., have
ceased and the body faculty, mind faculty, and life faculty remain on in
the heart-basis alone, then consciousness, which has as its support the
heart-basis still remaining at that moment, either occurs contingent upon
some kamma classed as 'weighty', 'repeated', performed 'near' [to death]
or previously,
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in other words, the formation that has obtained the re-
maining conditions, or contingent upon the objective field made to ap-
pear by that kamma, in other words, the sign of the kamma or sign of the
destiny.
29
And while it is occurring thus, because craving and ignorance
have not been abandoned, craving pushes it and the conascent forma-
tions fling it forward30
on to that objective field, the dangers in which are
concealed by ignorance. And while, as a continuous process,
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it is being
pushed by craving and flung forward by formations, it abandons its
former support, like a man who crosses a river by hanging on to a rope
tied to a tree on the near bank, and, whether or not it gets a further
support originated by kamma, it occurs by means of the conditions con-
sisting only in object condition, and so on.
164. The former of these [two states of consciousness] is called 'death'
(cuti) because of falling (cavana), and the latter is called 'rebirth-link-
ing' (patisandhana) because of linking {patisandhana) across the gap
separating the beginning of the next becoming. But it should be under-
stood that it has neither come here from the previous becoming nor has it
become manifest without the kamma, the formations, the pushing, the
objective field, etc., as cause.
165. An echo, or its like, supplies
The figures here; connectedness
By continuity denies
Identity and otherness.
166. And here let the illustration of this consciousness be such things as
an echo, a light, a seal impression, a looking-glass image, for the fact of
its not coming here from the previous becoming and for the fact that it
arises owing to causes that are included in past becomings. For just as an
echo, a light, a seal impression, and a shadow have respectively sound,
etc., as their cause and come into being without going elsewhere, so also
this consciousness.
167. And with a stream of continuity there is neither identity nor other-
ness. For if there were absolute identity in a stream of continuity, there
would be no forming of curd from milk. And yet if there were absolute
otherness, the curd would not be derived from the milk. And so too with
all causally arisen things. And if that were so there would be an end to
all worldly usage, which is hardly desirable. So neither absolute identity
nor absolute otherness should be assumed here. [555]
168. Here it might be asked: 'If no transmigration is manifested, then
after the cessation of the aggregates in this human person, that fruit
could be another person's or due to other [kamma], since the kamma that
is the condition for the fruit does not pass on there [to where the fruit
is]? And whose is the fruit since there is no experiencer? Therefore this
formulation seems to be unsatisfactory'.
169. Here is the reply:
In continuity the fruit
Is neither of nor from another;
Seed's forming processes will suit
To show the purport of this matter.
170. When a fruit arises in a single continuity, it is neither another's nor
from other [kamma] because absolute identity and absolute otherness are
excluded32
there. The formative processes of seeds establish the meaning
of this. For once the formative processes of a mango seed, etc., have
been set afoot, when the particular fruit arises in the continuity of the
seed's [growth], later on owing to the obtaining of conditions, it does so
neither as the fruit of other seeds nor from other formative processes as
condition; and those seeds or formative processes do not themselves pass
on to the place where the fruit is. This is the analogy here. And the
meaning can also be understood from the fact that the arts, crafts, medi-
cine, etc., learnt in youth give their fruit later on in maturity.
171. Now it was also asked, * Whose is the fruit, since there is no experi-
encer?' Herein:
'Experienced is a convention
For mere arising of the fruit;
They say 'It fruits' as a convention,
When on a tree appears its fruit.
172. Just as it is simply owing to the arising of tree fruits, which are one
part of the phenomena called a tree, that it is said 'The tree fruits' or
'The tree has fruited', so it is simply owing to the arising of the fruit
consisting of the pleasure and pain called experience, which is one part
of the aggregates called 'deities' and 'human beings', that it is said 'A
deity or a human being experiences or feels pleasure or pain'. There is
therefore no need at all here for a superfluous experiencer.
173. But it may be said: 'That may be so; but then these formations must
be the conditions for the fruit either when they are present or when they
are not present, and if it is when they are present, their result must come
about only at the moment of their occurrence; but if it is when they are
not present, they must bear fruit constantly both before and after their
occurrence'. It can be replied:
They are conditions when performed;
They bear fruit once, but not again;
The agent and such similes
Will serve to make the meaning plain.
174. Formations are conditions for their own fruit because they have
been performed, not because of presence or non-presence, according as
it is said: [556] 'Due to profitable kamma of the sense sphere having
been performed, stored up [in the past], resultant eye-consciousness arises
[in the present]' (Dhs. §431), and so on. Having become conditions for
their own fruit according to their capacity, they do not again bear fruit
since the result has already ripened. And in explaining the meaning of
this the analogy of the agent, etc., should be understood. For just as in
the world when someone becomes an agent with the aim of completing
some business or other, and he buys goods, say, or obtains a loan, it is
simply the fact of his performing the transaction that is the condition for
completing that business, not the transaction's actual presence or non-
presence; and after the completion of the business he has no further
liability. Why not? Because the business has been completed. So it is
because they have been performed that formations are conditions for
their own fruit, and they do not bear fruit after they have already given
fruit according to their capacity.
Up to this point the occurrence, with formations as condition, of
rebirth-linking consciousness that occurs in the two ways as mixed and
unmixed [with materiality] has been illustrated.
[(3) How Formations are a Condition for Consciousness]
175. Now in order to eliminate confusion about all these thirty-two kinds
of resultant consciousness:
One should of these formations see
For which and how they are conditions
In birth and life in all the three
Kinds of becoming and the rest.
176. Herein, the three kinds of becoming, the four kinds of generation,
the five kinds of destiny, the seven stations of consciousness, and the
nine abodes of beings are what are called 'The kinds of becoming and
the rest*. The meaning is that it should be recognized for what kinds of
resultant consciousness these [formations] are conditions in rebirth-link-
ing and in the course of an individual existence, and in what way they
are conditions in the various kinds of becoming and so on.
177. Herein, firstly as regard the formation of merit: the formation of
merit comprising the eight volitions of the sense sphere ((l)-(8)) is a
condition in two ways, as kamma condition acting from a different time
and as decisive-support condition, equally for all the nine kinds of resul-
tant consciousness ((41)-(49)) in rebirth-linking in a happy destiny in the
sense-sphere becoming. That formation comprising the five profitable
volitions of the fine-material sphere ((9)-(13)) [is a condition] in like
manner for the five kinds of rebirth-linking in the fine-material becom-
ing ((57)-(61)).
178. That of the sense sphere divided up as aforesaid is a condition in
two ways, as aforesaid, for seven kinds of limited [-sphere] resultant
consciousness ((34)-(40))—excluding the root-causeless mind-conscious-
ness element accompanied by equanimity (41)—in the course of an exis-
tence, but not in rebirth-linking, in the happy destinies in the sense-
sphere becoming. And that same formation is a condition likewise for
five kinds of resultant consciousness ((34), (35), (39)-(41)) in the course
of an existence, not in rebirth-linking, in the fine-material becoming. It is
a condition likewise for eight kinds of limited [-sphere] resultant con-
sciousness ((34)-(41)) in the course of existence, not in rebirth-linking,
in the unhappy destinies in the sense-sphere becoming. [557] For then it
is a condition [for such profitable-resultant consciousness occurring] in
hell encountering a desirable object [on such occasions] as the Elder
Maha-MoggallAna's visits to hell, and so on. But among animals and
powerful ghosts too a desirable object is obtained [through the same
condition].
179. This eightfold formation of merit is also a condition likewise for
sixteen kinds of profitable-resultant consciousness in the course of an
existence ((34)-(41)) and in rebirth-linking ((42)-(49)) in the happy des-
tinies in the sense-sphere becoming. It is also a condition equally for all
ten kinds of resultant consciousness in the course of an existence ((34),
(35), (39)-(41)) and in rebirth-linking ((57)-(61)) in the fine-material
becoming.
180. The formation of demerit, comprising the twelve unprofitable voli-
tions ((22)-(33)), is a condition likewise in the unhappy destinies in the
sense-sphere becoming for one kind of consciousness in rebirth-linking
(56), not in the course of an existence; also for six kinds in the course of
an existence ((50)-(55)), not in rebirth-linking; and for all the seven
kinds partly in the course of an existence and partly in rebirth-linking.
And in the happy destinies in the sense-sphere becoming it is a condition
likewise for those same seven kinds in the course of an existence, not in
rebirth-linking. In the fine-material becoming it is a condition likewise
for four kinds of resultant consciousness ((50)-(51), (55), (56)) in the
course of an existence, not in rebirth-linking. Then it is a condition for
[BrahmAs*] seeing undesirable visible data and hearing undesirable sounds
that are in the sense sphere: there are no undesirable visible data, etc., in
the BrahmA-world itself; and likewise in the divine world of the sense
sphere.
33
181. The formation of the imperturbable is a condition likewise for four
kinds of resultant consciousness ((62)-(65)) in the course of an existence
and in rebirth'-linking in the immaterial becoming.
This, firstly, is how it should be understood what kinds of resultant
consciousness these formations are conditions for in rebirth-linking and
in the [three] kinds of becoming, and in what way they are conditions.
And it should also be understood in the same way of the kinds of genera-
tion and so on.
182. Here is a statement of the bare headings starting from the beginning.
Of these [three kinds of] formations, firstly the formation of merit,
when giving rebirth-linking, produces the whole of its result in two of
the kinds of becoming; likewise in the four kinds of generation begin-
ning with the egg-born, in two of the kinds of destiny, in other words,
the divine and the human; in four of the stations of consciousness, [the
human, and the planes of the first, second and third jhanas,] described
thus, *Different in body and different in perception ... different in body
and same in perception ... same in body and different in perception ...
same in body and same in perception ...' (D.iii,253); and in only four of
the abodes of beings, because in the abode of non-percipient beings it
only forms materiality. Therefore it is a condition in the way already
stated for twenty-one kinds of resultant consciousness in these two kinds
of becoming, four kinds of generation, two kinds of destiny, four stations
of consciousness, and four abodes of beings according as they are pro-
duced in rebirth-linking ((41)-(49), (57)-(61)) [558] and the course of an
existence ((34)-(41)), as appropriate.
183. The formation of demerit as rebirth-linking ripens in the sense-sphere
becoming only, in the four kinds of generation, in the remaining three
destinies, in the one station of consciousness described thus different in
body and same in perception' (D.iii,253), and in the one corresponding
abode of beings. Therefore it is a condition in the way already stated for
seven kinds of resultant consciousness in one kind of becoming, in four
kinds of generation, in three kinds of destiny, in one station of con-
sciousness, and in one abode of beings, both in rebirth-linking (56) and
in the course of an existence ((50)-(56)).
184. The formation of the imperturbable as rebirth-linking ripens in the
immaterial becoming, in the apparitional kind of generation only, in the
divine destiny only, in the three stations of consciousness beginning with
the base consisting of boundless space, and in the four abodes of beings
beginning with the base consisting of boundless space ((62)-(65)). There-
fore it is a condition in the way already stated for the four kinds of
consciousness in one kind of becoming, in one kind of generation, in one
kind of destiny, in three stations of consciousness, and in four abodes of
beings, both in rebirth-linking and in the course of becoming.
34
185. This is how:
One should of these formations see
For which and how they are conditions
In birth and life and the three
Kinds of becoming and the rest.
This is the detailed explanation of the clause 'With formations as
condition, consciousness'.
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