THE PATH
OF PURIFICATION
(VISUDDHIMAGGA)
BY
BHADANTACARIYA BUDDHAGHOSA
Translated from the Pali
by
BHIKKHU NANAMOLI
FIFTH EDITION
BUDDHIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY
Kandy Sri Lanka
57. Approach the good friend, the giver of a meditation subject (§28):
meditation subjects are of two kinds, that is, generally useful meditation
subjects and special meditation subjects. Herein, lovingkindness towards
the Community of Bhikkhus, etc., and also mindfulness of death are
what are called generally useful meditation subjects. Some say percep-
tion of foulness, too.
58. When a bhikkhu takes up a meditation subject, he should first de-
velop lovingkindness towards the Community of Bhikkhus within the
boundary,
16
limiting it at first [to 'all bhikkhus in this monastery'], in
this way: 'May they be happy and free from affliction*. Then he should
develop it towards all deities within the boundary. Then towards all the
principal people in the village that is his alms resort; then to [all human
beings there and to] all living beings dependent on the human beings.
With lovingkindness towards the Community of Bhikkhus he produces
kindliness in his co-residents; then they are easy for him to live with.
With lovingkindness towards the deities within the boundary he is pro-
tected by kindly deities with lawful protection. [98] With lovingkindness
towards the principal people in the village that is his alms resort his
requisites are protected by well-disposed principal people with lawful
protection. With lovingkindness to all human beings there he goes about
without incurring their dislike since they trust him. With lovingkindness
to all living beings he can wander unhindered everywhere.
With mindfulness of death, thinking 'I have got to die', he gives up
improper search (see S.ii,194; MA.i,115), and with a growing sense of
urgency he comes to live without attachment. When his mind is familiar
with the perception of foulness, then even divine objects do not tempt
his mind to greed.
59. So these are called generally useful and they are called meditation
subjects since they are needed17
generally and desirable owing to their
great helpfulness and since they are subjects for the meditation work
intended.
60. What is called a 'special meditation subject* is that one from among
the forty meditation subjects that is suitable to a man's own tempera-
ment. It is 'special' (pdrihdriya) because he must carry it (pariharitab-
battd) constantly about with him, and because it is the proximate cause
for each higher stage of development.
So it is the one who gives this twofold meditation subject that is
called the giver of a meditation subject.
61. The good friend is one who possesses such special qualities as these:
'He is revered and dearly loved,
And one who speaks and suffers speech;
The speech he utters is profound,
He does not urge without a reason' (A.iv,32), and so on.
He is wholly solicitous of welfare and partial to progress.
62. Because of the words beginning ' Ananda, it is owing to my being a
good friend to them that living beings subject to birth are freed from
birth' (S.i,88), it is only the Fully Enlightened One who possesses all the
aspects of the good friend. Since that is so, while he is available only a
meditation subject taken in the Blessed One's presence is well taken.
But after his final attainment of nibbana, it is proper to take it from
any one of the eighty great disciples still living. When they are no more
available, one who wants to take a particular meditation subject should
take it from someone with cankers destroyed, who has, by means of that
particular meditation subject, produced the fourfold and fivefold jhana,
and has reached the destruction of cankers by augmenting insight that
had that jhana as its proximate cause.
63. But how then, does someone with cankers destroyed declare himself
thus: * I am one whose cankers are destroyed'? Why not? He declares
himself when he knows that his instructions will be carried out. Did not
the Elder Assagutta [99] spread out his leather mat in the air and sitting
cross-legged on it explain a meditation subject to a bhikkhu who was
starting his meditation subject, because he knew that that bhikkhu was
one who would carry out his instructions for the meditation subject?
64. So if someone with cankers destroyed is available, that is good. If
not, then one should take it from a non-returner, a once-returner, a stream-
enterer, an ordinary man who has obtained jhana, one who knows three
Pitakas, one who knows two Pitakas, one who knows one Pitaka, in
descending order [according as available]. If not even one who knows
one Pitaka is available, then it should be taken from one who is familiar
with one Collection together with its commentary and one who is him-
self conscientious. For a teacher such as this, who knows the texts,
guards the heritage, and protects the tradition, will follow the teachers'
opinion rather than his own. Hence the Ancient Elders said three times,
'One who is conscientious will guard it'.
65. Now those beginning with one whose cankers are destroyed, men-
tioned above, will describe only the path they have themselves reached.
But with a learned man, his instructions and his answers to questions are
purified by his having approached such and such teachers, and so he will
explain a meditation subject showing a broad track, like a big elephant
going through a stretch of jungle, and he will select suttas and reasons
from here and there, adding [explanations of] what is suitable and un-
suitable. So a meditation subject should be taken by approaching the
good friend such as this, the giver of a meditation subject, and by doing
all the duties to him.
66. If he is available in the same monastery, it is good. If not, one
should go to where he lives.
When [a bhikkhu] goes to him, he should not do so with feet washed
and anointed, wearing sandals, with an umbrella, surrounded by pupils,
and bringing oil tube, honey, molasses, etc.; he should do so fulfilling
the duties of a bhikkhu setting out on a journey, carrying his bowl and
robes himself, doing all the duties in each monastery on the way, with
few belongings, and living in the greatest effacement. When entering
that monastery, he should do so [expecting nothing, and even provided]
with a tooth-stick that he has had made allowable on the way [according
to the rules]. And he should not enter some other room, thinking 'I shall
go to the teacher after resting awhile and after washing and anointing my
feet, and so on'.
67. Why? If there are bhikkhus there who are hostile to the teacher, they
might ask him the reason for his coming and speak dispraise of the
teacher, saying 'You are done for if you go to him'; [100] they might
make him regret his coming and turn him back. So he should ask for the
teacher's dwelling and go straight there.
68. If the teacher is junior, he should not consent to the teacher's receiv-
ing his bowl and robe, and so on. If the teacher is senior, then he should
go and pay homage to him and remain standing. When told Tut down
the bowl and robe, friend', he may put them down. When told 'Have
some water to drink, he can drink if he wants to. When told *You may
wash your feet', he should not do so at once, for if the water has been
brought by the teacher himself, it would be improper. But when told
'Wash, friend, it was not brought by me, it was brought by others', then
he can wash his feet, sitting in a screened place out of sight of the
teacher, or in the open to one side of the dwelling.
69. If the teacher brings an oil tube, he should get up and take it care-
fully with both hands. If he did not take it, it might make the teacher
wonder 'Does this bhikkhu resent sharing so soon?'; but having taken it,
he should not anoint his feet at once. For if it were oil for anointing the
teacher's limbs, it would not be proper. So he should first anoint his
head, then his shoulders, etc.; but when told 'This is meant for all the
limbs, friend, anoint your feet', he should put a little on his head and
then anoint his feet. Then he should give it back, saying when the teacher
takes it 'May I return this oil tube, venerable sir?'.
70. He should not say 'Explain a meditation subject to me, venerable
sir' on the very day he arrives. But starting from the next day, he can, if
the teacher has a habitual attendant, ask his permission to do the duties.
If he does not allow it when asked, they can be done when the opportu-
nity offers. When he does them, three tooth-sticks should be brought, a
small, a medium and a big one, and two kinds of mouth-washing water
and bathing water, that is, hot and cold, should be set out. Whichever of
these the teacher uses for three days should then be brought regularly. If
the teacher uses either kind indiscriminately, he can bring whatever is
available.
71. Why so many words? All should be done as prescribed by the Blessed
One in the Khandhakas as the right duties in the passage beginning:
'Bhikkhus, a pupil should perform the duties to the teacher [101] rightly.
Herein, this is the right performance of duties. He should rise early;
removing his sandals and arranging his robe on one shoulder, he should
give the tooth-sticks and the mouth-washing water, and he should pre-
pare the seat. If there is rice gruel, he should wash the dish and bring the
rice gruel' (Vin.i,61).
72. To please the teacher by perfection in the duties he should pay
homage in the evening, and he should leave when dismissed with the
words * You may go'. When the teacher asks him 'Why have you come?',
he can explain the reason for his coming. If he does not ask but agrees to
the duties being done, then after ten days or a fortnight have gone by he
should make an opportunity by staying back one day at the time of his
dismissal, and announcing the reason for his coming; or he should go at
an unaccustomed time, and when asked 'What have you come for?', he
can announce it.
73. If the teacher says 'Come in the morning', he should do so. But if
his stomach burns with a bile affliction at that hour, or if his food does
not get digested owing to sluggish digestive heat, or if some other ail-
ment afflicts him, he should let it be known, and proposing a time that
suits himself, he should come at that time. For if a meditation subject is
expounded at an inconvenient time, one cannot give attention.
This is the detailed explanation of the words 'approach the good
friend, the giver of a meditation subject'.
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