THE PATH
OF PURIFICATION
(VISUDDHIMAGGA)
BY
BHADANTACARIYA BUDDHAGHOSA
Translated from the Pali
by
BHIKKHU NANAMOLI
FIFTH EDITION
BUDDHIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY
Kandy Sri Lanka
CHAPTER XVII
THE SOIL OF UNDERSTANDING—CONCLUSION:
DEPENDENT ORIGINATION
(Panna-bhumi-niddesa)
[SECTION A. DEFINITION OF DEPENDENT ORIGINATION / PATICCASAMUPPADA]
1. [517] The turn has now come for the exposition of the dependent
origination itself, and the dependently-originated states comprised by the
word 'etc.', since these still remain out of the states called the 'soil'
(bhumi), of which it was said above, 'The states classed as aggregates,
bases, elements, faculties, truths, and dependent origination, etc., are the
"soil" ' (Ch. XIV, §32).
2. Herein, firstly, it is the states beginning with ignorance that should
be understood as dependent origination. For this is said by the Blessed
One: 'And what is the dependent origination, bhikkhus? With ignorance
as condition there are [volitional] formations; with formations as condi-
tion, consciousness; with consciousness as condition, mentality-material-
ity; with mentality-materiality as condition, the sixfold base; with the
sixfold base as condition, contact; with contact as condition, feeling;
with feeling as condition, craving; with craving as condition, clinging;
with clinging as condition, becoming; with becoming as condition, birth;
with birth as condition there is ageing-and-death, and sorrow, lamenta-
tion, pain, grief, and despair; thus there is the arising of this whole mass
of suffering. This is called the dependent origination, bhikkhus' (S.ii,l).
3. Secondly, it is the states beginning with ageing-and-death that should
be understood as dependently-originated states. For this is said by the
Blessed One: 'And what are the dependently-originated states, bhikkhus?
Ageing-and-death is impermanent, bhikkhus, formed, dependency origi-
nated, subject to destruction, subject to fall, subject to fading away,
subject to cessation.
1
Birth is impermanent, bhikkhus, ... Becoming ...
Clinging ... Craving ... Feeling ... Contact ... The sixfold base ...
Mentality-materiality ... Consciousness ... Formations ... Ignorance is
impermanent, bhikkhus, formed, dependently originated, subject to de-
struction, subject to fall, subject to fading away, subject to cessation.
These are called the dependently-originated states, bhikkhus' (S.ii,26).
[518]
4. Here is a brief explanation. The states that are conditions should be
understood as the dependent origination. The states generated by such
and such conditions are dependently-originated states.
5. How is that to be known? By the Blessed One's word. For it is
precisely those states which are conditions, that with the synonyms be-
ginning with 'reality' have been called 'dependent origination' by the
Blessed One when teaching the dependent origination in the Sutta on the
Teaching of the Dependent Origination and Dependently-originated States
thus:
'And what is dependent origination, bhikkhus?
'With birth as condition, bhikkhus, there is ageing and death. Whether
Perfect Ones arise or do not arise, there yet remains that element, relat-
edness of states, regularity of states, specific conditionally. The Perfect
One discovers it, penetrates to it. Having discovered it, penetrated to it,
he announces it, teaches it, makes it known, establishes, exposes, ex-
pounds and explains it: "See", he says, "With birth as condition there is
ageing and death".
'With becoming as condition, bhikkhus, there is birth.... With igno-
rance as condition, bhikkhus, there are formations. Whether Perfect Ones
arise or do not arise, there yet remains that element, relatedness of states,
regularity of states, specific conditionally. The Perfect One discovers it,
penetrates to it. Having discovered it, penetrated to it, he announces it,
teaches it, makes it known, establishes, exposes, expounds and explains
it: "See", he says, "With ignorance as condition there are formations".
'So, bhikkhus, that herein which is reality, not unreality, not other-
ness, specific conditionality: that is called dependent origination'
Consequently, it should be understood that dependent origination
has the characteristic of being the conditions for the states beginning
with ageing-and-death. Its function is to continue [the process of] suffer-
ing. It is manifested as the wrong path.
6. Because particular states are produced by particular conditions, nei-
ther less nor more, it is called reality (suchness). Because once the
conditions have met in combination there is no non-producing, even for
an instant, of the states they generate, it is called not unreality (not
unsuchness). Because there is no arising of one state with another state's
conditions, it is called not otherness. Because there is a condition, or
because there is a total of conditions, for these states beginning with
ageing-and-death as already stated, it is called specific conditionality.
7. Here is the word meaning: idappaccaya (lit. that-conditions) = imesam
paccaya (conditions for those); idappaccaya (that-conditions) -
idappaccayata (that-conditionality, conditionality for those, specific con-
ditionality). Or alternatively, idappaccayata (that-conditionality) =
idappaccayanam samuho (the total of that-conditions, total specific con-
ditionality).
8. The characteristic must be sought from grammar. Some, in fact, [say
that the expression paticca samuppada (dependent origination) is char-
acterized thus:] 'having depended (paticca), a right (samma) arising
(uppada), [depending on causes rightly by] disregarding such causes
conjectured by sectarians as the Primordial Essence (Prakriti), World
Soul (Purusha), and so on'. So what they call dependent origination
(paticca samuppada) is a simple arising (uppada) [for they equate the
prefix sarh only with samma (rightly) and ignore sam (with, con-)]. That
is untenable. [519] Why? (1) There is no such sutta; (2) it contradicts
suttas; (3) it admits of no profound treatment; and (4) it is ungram-
matical.
9. (1) No sutta describes the dependent origination as simple arising.
(2) Anyone who asserts that dependent origination is of that kind
involves himself in conflict with the PadesavihAra Sutta. How? The Newly
Enlightened One's abiding (vihara) is the bringing of the dependent
origination to mind, because of these words of the Blessed One's: 'Then
in the first watch of the night the Blessed One brought to mind the
dependent origination in direct and reverse order' [as origination and
cessation] (Vin.i,l; Ud. 2). Now 'padesavihdra' is the abiding (vihdra)
in one part (desa) of that, according as it is said, 'Bhikkhus, I abode in a
part of the abiding in which I abode when I was newly enlightened'
(S.v,12; Ps.i,107). And there he abode in the vision of structure of condi-
tions, not in the vision of simple arising, according as it is said, 'So I
understood feeling with wrong view as its condition, and feeling with
right view as its condition, and feeling with wrong thinking as its condi-
tion ...' (S.v,12), all of which should be quoted in full. So anyone who
asserts that dependent origination is simple arising involves himself in
conflict with the PadesavihAra Sutta.
10. There is likewise contradiction of the Kaccana Sutta. For in the
KaccAna Sutta it is said, 'When a man sees correctly with right under-
standing the origination of the world, Kaccana, he does not say of the
world that it is not' (S.ii,17). And there it is the dependent origination in
forward order, not simple arising, that, as the origination of the world
from its conditions, is set forth in order to eliminate the annihilation
view. For the annihilation view is not eliminated by seeing simple aris-
ing; but it is eliminated by seeing the chain of conditions as a chain of
fruits following on a chain of conditions. So anyone who asserts that the
dependent origination is simple arising involves himself in contradiction
of the KaccAna Sutta.
11. (3) It admits of no profound treatment: this has been said by the
Blessed One, 'This dependent origination is profound, Ananda, and pro-
found it appears' (D.ii,55; S.ii,92). And the profundity is fourfold as we
shall explain below (Ch. XVII, §304f.); but there is none of that in
simple arising. And this dependent origination is explained [by the teach-
ers] as adorned with the fourfold method (Ch. XVII, §309); but there is
no [need of] any such tetrad of methods in simple arising. So dependent
origination is not simple arising, since that admits of no profound treat-
ment.
12. (4) It is ungrammatical: [520] this word paticca (lit. 'having de-
pended'; freely 'due to', 'dependent'), [being a gerund of the verb pan +
eti, to go back to], establishes a meaning [in a formula of establishment
by verb] when it is construed as past with the same subject [as that of the
principal verb], as in the sentence 'Having depended on (paticca = 'due
to') the eye and visible objects, eye-consciousness arises (uppajjatiy
(S.ii,72). But if it is construed here with the word uppdda (arising),
[which is a noun], in a formula of establishment by noun, there is a
breach of grammar, because there is no shared subject [as there is in the
above-quoted sentence], and so it does not establish any meaning at all.
So the dependent origination is not simple arising because that is un-
grammatical.
13. Here it might be [argued]: 'We shall add the words "comes to be"
(hoti) thus: "Having depended, arising comes to be" (paticca, samuppddo
hoti)\ That will not do. Why not? Because there is no instance in which
it has been added, and because the fallacy of the arising of an arising
follows. For in such passages as 'Paticca samuppadarh vo bhikkhave
desessdmi. Katamo ca bhikkhave paticca samuppddo ... Ay am vuccati
bhikkhave paticca samuppddo (I shall teach you the dependent origina-
tion, bhikkhus. And what is the dependent origination? ... This is called
the dependent origination, bhikkhus)' (S.ii,l), the words 'comes to be'
(hoti) are not added in any single instance. And there is no [such expres-
sion as] 'arising comes to be': if there were, it would be tantamount to
saying that arising itself had an arising too.
14. And those are wrong who imagine that specific conditionality (idap-
paccayata) is the specific conditions' [abstract] essence—what is called
'abstract essence' being a [particular] mode in ignorance, etc., that acts
as cause in the manifestation of formations, etc.—and that the term
'dependent origination' is used for an alteration in formations when
there is that [particular mode in the way of occurrence of ignorance].
Why are they wrong? Because it is ignorance, etc., themselves that are
called causes. For in the following passage it is ignorance, etc., them-
selves, not their alteration, that are called the causes [of these states]:
'Therefore, Ananda, just this is the cause, this is the source, this is the
origin, this is the condition, for ageing-and-death, that is to say, birth ...
for formations, that is to say, (ignorance)' (D.ii,57-63—the last clause is
not in the D. text). Therefore it is the actual states themselves as condi-
tions that should be understood as 'dependent origination'. So what was
said above (§4) can be understood as rightly said.
15. If any notion arises in the guise of a literal interpretation of the term
'dependent origination' (paticca samuppada) to the effect that it is only
arising that is stated, it should be got rid of by apprehending the meaning
of this expression in the following way. For:
In double form this term relates to a totality of states
Produced from a conditionally;
Hence the conditions for that sum
Through metaphor's device have come
To bear their fruits' name figuratively
In the Blessed One's exposition.
16. This term 'dependent origination', when applied to the total of states
produced from the [total] conditionality, must be taken in two ways.
[521] For that [total] ought to be arrived at (paticco—adj.),
2
since when
it is arrived at (patiyamano), it leads to [supramundane] welfare and
bliss and so the wise [regard] it as worthy to be arrived at (paccetum);
and then, when it arises (uppajjamano), it does so 'together with' (saha)
and 'rightly' (samma), not singly or causelessly, thus it is a co-arising
(samuppado). Consequently: it is to be arrived at (paticco) and it is a co-
arising (samuppado), thus it is dependent origination (paticca samuppada).
Again: it arises as a togetherness (saha), thus it is a co-arising
(samuppada); but it does so having depended (paticca—ger.) in combi-
nation with conditions, not regardless of them. Consequently: it, having
depended (paticca), is a co-arising (samuppada), thus in this way also it
is dependent origination (paticca samuppada). And the total of causes is
a condition for that [total of states produced from the conditionality], so,
because it is a condition for that, this [total of causes] is called, 'depend-
ent origination', using for it the term ordinarily used for its fruit just as
in the world molasses, which is a condition for phlegm, is spoken of
thus, 'Molasses is phlegm', or just as in the Dispensation the arising of
Buddhas, which is a condition for bliss, is spoken of thus, 'The arising of
Buddhas is bliss' (Dh. 194).
17. Or alternatively:
The sum of causes too they call
'Facing its counterpart', so all
Is in that sense 'dependent', as they tell;
This sum of causes too, as stated,
Gives fruits that rise associated,
So 'co-arising' it is called as well.
18. This total of causes—indicated severally under the heading of each
cause, beginning with ignorance—for the manifestation of formations,
etc., is called 'dependent' (paticco—adj.), taking it as 'facing, gone to,
its counterpart' (patimukham ito) owing to the mutual interdependence
of the factors in the combination, in the sense both that they produce
common fruit and that none can be dispensed with. And it is called a 'co-
arising' (samuppado) since it causes the states that occur in unresolved
mutual interdependence to arise associatedly. Consequently: it is de-
pendent (paticco) and a co-arising (samuppado), thus in this way also it
is dependent origination (paticca samuppada).
19. Another method:
This total conditionally, acting interdependently,
Arouses states together equally;
So this too is a reason here wherefore the Greatest Sage,
the Seer,
Gave to this term its form thus succinctly.
20. Among the conditions described under the headings of ignorance,
etc., the respective conditions that make the [conditionally-arisen] states
beginning with formations arise are incapable of making them arise when
not mutually dependent and when deficient. Therefore this conditionality
by depending (paticca—ger.) makes states arise (uppadeti) equally and
together (samam saha ca), not piecemeal and successively—so it has
been termed here thus by the Sage who is skilled in phraseology that
conforms to its meaning: it has been accurately termed 'dependent origi-
nation' (paticca samuppada), is the meaning.
21. And while so termed:
The first component will deny the false view of eternity
And so on, and the second will prevent
The nihilistic type of view and others like it, while the two
Together show the true way that is meant.
22. The first: the word 'dependent' (paticca) indicates the combination
of the conditions, [522] since states in the process of occurring exist in
dependence on the combining of their conditions; and it shows that they
are not eternal, etc., thus denying the various doctrines of eternalism, no-
cause, fictitious-cause, and power-wielder.
3
What purpose indeed would
the combining of conditions serve, if things were eternal, or if they
occurred without cause, and so on?
23. The second: the word 'origination' (samuppada) indicates the aris-
ing of the states, since these occur when their conditions combine, and it
shows how to prevent annihilationism, etc., thus preventing the various
doctrines of annihilation [of a soul], nihilism, ['there is no use in giving',
etc.,] and moral-inefficacy-of-action, ['there is no other world', etc.]; for
when states [are seen to] arise again and again, each conditioned by its
predecessor, how can the doctrines of annihilationism, nihilism, and moral-
inefficacy-of-action be maintained?
24. The two together: since any given states are produced without inter-
rupting the [cause-fruit] continuity of any given combination of condi-
tions, the whole expression 'dependent origination' {paticca samuppada)
represents the middle way, which rejects the doctrines, 'He who acts is
he who reaps' and 'One acts while another reaps' (S.ii,20), and which is
the proper way described thus, 'Not insisting on local language and not
overriding normal usage' (M.iii,234).
4
This in the first place is the meaning of the mere words 'dependent
origination' (paticca samuppada).
Showing posts with label panna. Show all posts
Showing posts with label panna. Show all posts
Monday, July 11, 2011
Visuddhimagga - THE FACULTIES AND TRUTHS - The truth of the way
THE PATH
OF PURIFICATION
(VISUDDHIMAGGA)
BY
BHADANTACARIYA BUDDHAGHOSA
Translated from the Pali
by
BHIKKHU NANAMOLI
FIFTH EDITION
BUDDHIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY
Kandy Sri Lanka
[THE TRUTH OF THE WAY]
75. In the description of the way leading to the cessation of suffering
eight things are given. Though they have, of course, already been ex-
plained as to meaning in the Description of the Aggregates, still we shall
deal with them here in order to remain aware of the difference between
them when they occur in a single moment [on the occasion of the path].
76. Briefly (see Ch. XXII, §31 for details), when a meditator is pro-
gressing towards the penetration of the four truths, his eye of under-
standing with nibbana as its object eliminates the inherent tendency to
ignorance, and that is right view. It has right seeing as its characteristic.
Its function is to reveal elements. It is manifested as the abolition of the
darkness of ignorance.
77. When he possesses such view, his directing of the mind on to
nibbana, which [directing] is associated with that [right view], abolishes
wrong thinking, and that is right thinking. Its characteristic is right
directing of the mind on to [its object]. Its function is to bring about
absorption [of the path consciousness in nibbana as object]. It is mani-
fested as the abandoning of wrong thinking.
78. And when he sees and thinks thus, his abstinence from wrong speech,
which abstinence is associated with that [right view], abolishes bad ver-
bal conduct, [510] and that is called right speech. It has the characteristic
of embracing.
19
Its function is to abstain. It is manifested as the abandon-
ing of wrong speech.
79. When he abstains thus, his abstinence from killing living things,
which abstinence is associated with that [right view], cuts off wrong
action, and that is called right action. It has the characteristic of originat-
ing.
20
Its function is to abstain. It is manifested as the abandoning of
wrong action.
80. When his right speech and right action are purified, his abstinence
from wrong livelihood, which abstinence is associated with that [right
view], cuts off scheming, etc., and that is called right livelihood. It has
the characteristic of cleansing.
21
Its function is to bring about the occur-
rence of a proper livelihood. It is manifested as the abandoning of wrong
livelihood.
81. When he is established on that plane of virtue called right speech,
right action, and right livelihood, his energy, which is in conformity and
associated with that [right view], cuts off idleness, and that is called
right effort. It has the characteristic of exerting. Its function is the non-
arousing of unprofitable things, and so on. It is manifested as the aban-
doning of wrong effort.
82. When he exerts himself thus, the non-forgetfulness in his mind,
which is associated with that [right view], shakes off wrong mindfulness,
and that is called right mindfulness. It has the characteristic of establish-
ing.
22
Its function is not to forget. It is manifested as the abandoning of
wrong mindfulness.
83. When his mind is thus guarded by supreme mindfulness, the unifi-
cation of mind, which is associated with that [right view], abolishes
wrong concentration, and that is called right concentration. It has the
characteristic of non-distraction. Its function is to concentrate. It is mani-
fested as the abandoning of wrong concentration.
This is the method in the description of the way leading to the
cessation of suffering.
This is how the exposition should be understood here as to defining
birth and so on.
[GENERAL]
84. 9. As to knowledge's function (see §14): the exposition should be
understood according to knowledge of the truths. For knowledge of the
truths is twofold, namely, knowledge as idea and knowledge as penetra-
tion (cf. S.v,431f.; also Ch. XXII, §92ff.). Herein, knowledge as idea is
mundane and occurs through hearsay, etc., about cessation and the path.
Knowledge consisting in penetration, which is supramundane, penetrates
the four truths as its function by making cessation its object, according
as it is said, 'Bhikkhus, he who sees suffering sees also the origin of suf-
fering, sees also the cessation of suffering, sees also the way leading to
the cessation of suffering' (S.v,437), and it should be repeated thus of all
[four truths]. But its function will be made clear in the purification by
knowledge and vision (Ch. XXII, §92f.). [511]
85. When this knowledge is mundane, then, occurring as the overcom-
ing of obsessions, the knowledge of suffering therein forestalls the [false]
view of individuality; the knowledge of origin forestalls the annihilation
view; the knowledge of cessation forestalls the eternity view; the knowl-
edge of the path forestalls the moral-inefficacy-of-action view. Or alter-
natively, the knowledge of suffering forestalls wrong theories of fruit, in
other words, [seeing] lastingness, beauty, pleasure, and self in the aggre-
gates, which are devoid of lastingness, beauty, pleasure, and self; and
knowledge of origin forestalls wrong theories of cause that occur as
finding a reason where there is none, such as The world occurs owing to
an Overlord, a Basic Principle, Time, Nature (Individual Essence)', etc.;
23
the knowledge of cessation forestalls such wrong theories of cessation as
taking final release to be in the immaterial world, in a World Apex
(Shrine), etc.; and the path knowledge forestalls wrong theories of means
that occur by taking to be the way of purification what is not the way of
purification and consists in devotion to indulgence in the pleasures of
sense desire and in self-mortification. Hence this is said:
As long as a man is vague about the world,
About its origin, about its ceasing,
About the means that lead to its cessation,
So long he cannot recognize the truths.
This is how the exposition should be understood here as to knowl-
edge's function.
86. 10. As to division of content: all states excepting craving and states
free from cankers are included in the truth of suffering. The thirty-six
modes of behaviour of craving24
are included in the truth of origin. The
truth of cessation is unmixed. As regards the truth of the path: the
heading of right view includes the fourth road to power consisting in
inquiry, the understanding faculty, the understanding power, and the
investigation-of-states enlightenment factor. The term right thinking in-
cludes the three kinds of applied thought beginning with that of renun-
ciation (D.iii,215). The term right speech includes the four kinds of good
verbal conduct (A.ii,131). The term right action includes the three kinds
of good bodily conduct (cf. M.i,287). The heading right livelihood in-
cludes fewness of wishes and contentment. Or all these [three] constitute
the virtue loved by noble ones, and the virtue loved by noble ones has to
be embraced by the hand of faith; consequently the faith faculty, the
faith power, and the road to power consisting in zeal are included be-
cause of the presence of these [three]. The term right effort includes
fourfold right endeavour, the energy faculty, energy power, and energy
enlightenment factor. The term right mindfulness includes the fourfold
foundation of mindfulness, the mindfulness faculty, the mindfulness
power, and the mindfulness enlightenment factor. The term right con-
centration includes the three kinds of concentration beginning with that
accompanied by applied and sustained thought (D.iii,219), conscious-
ness concentration, the concentration faculty, [512] the concentration
power, and the enlightenment factors of happiness, tranquillity, concen-
tration, and equanimity. This is how the exposition should be understood
as to division of content.
87. 11. As to simile: The truth of suffering should be regarded as a
burden, the truth of origin as the taking up of the burden, the truth of
cessation as the putting down of the burden, the truth of the path as the
means to putting down the burden (see S.iii,26). The truth of suffering is
like a disease, the truth of origin is like the cause of the disease, the truth
of cessation is like the cure of the disease, and the truth of the path is
like the medicine. Or the truth of suffering is like a famine, the truth of
origin is like a drought, the truth of cessation is like plenty, and the truth
of the path is like timely rain.
Furthermore, these truths can be understood in this way by applying
these similes: enmity, the cause of the enmity, the removal of the en-
mity, and the means to remove the enmity; a poison tree, the tree's root,
the cutting of the root, and the means to cut the root; fear, the cause of
fear, freedom from fear, and the means to attain it; the hither shore, the
great flood, the further shore, and the effort to reach it.
This is how the exposition should be understood as to simile.
88. 12. As to tetrad: (a) there is suffering that is not noble truth, (b)
there is noble truth that is not suffering, (c) there is what is both suffer-
ing and noble truth, and (d) there is what is neither suffering nor noble
truth. So also with origin and the rest.
89. Herein, (a) though states associated with the path and the fruits of
asceticism are suffering since they are suffering due to formations (see
§35) because of the words 'What is impermanent is painful' (S.ii,53;
iii,22), still they are not the noble truth [of suffering], (b) Cessation is a
noble truth but it is not suffering, (c) The other two noble truths can be
suffering because they are impermanent, but they are not so in the real
sense of that for the full-understanding of which (see §28) the life of
purity is lived under the Blessed One. The five aggregates [as objects] of
clinging, except craving, are in all aspects both suffering and noble truth.
[513] (d) The states associated with the pith and the fruits of asceticism
are neither suffering in the real sense of that for the full-understanding of
which the life of purity is lived under the Blessed One, nor are they
noble truth. Origin, etc., should also be construed in the corresponding
way. This is how the exposition should be understood here as to tetrad.
90. 13. As to void, singlefold, and so on: firstly, as to void: in the
ultimate sense all the truths should be understood as void because of the
absence of (i) any experiencer, (ii) any doer, (iii) anyone who is extin-
guished, and (iv) any goer. Hence this is said:
'For there is suffering, but none who suffers;
Doing exists although there is no doer;
Extinction is but no extinguished person;
Although there is a path, there is no goer'.
Or alternatively:
'So void of lastingness, and beauty, pleasure, self,
Is the first pair, and void of self the deathless state,
And void of lastingness, of pleasure and of self
Is the path too; for such is voidness in these four'.
91. Or three are void of cessation, and cessation is void of the other
three. Or the cause is void of the result, because of the absence of
suffering in the origin, and of cessation in the path; the cause is not
gravid with its fruit like the Primordial Essence of those who assert the
existence of Primordial Essence. And the result is void of the cause
owing to the absence of inherence of the origin in suffering and of the
path in cessation; the fruit of a cause does not have its cause inherent in
it, like the two atoms, etc., of those who assert inherence. Hence this is
said:
'Here three are of cessation void;
Cessation void, too, of these three;
The cause of its effect is void,
Void also of its cause the effect must be'.
This in the first place is how the exposition should be understood as
to void.
25
[514]
92. 14. As to singlefold and so on: and here all suffering is of one
kind as the state of occurrence. It is of two kinds as mentality-material-
ity. It is of three kinds as divided into rebirth-process becoming in the
sense sphere, fine-material sphere, and immaterial sphere. It is of four
kinds classed according to the four nutriments. It is of five kinds classed
according to the five aggregates [as objects] of clinging.
93. Also origin is of one kind as making occur. It is of two kinds as
associated and not associated with [false] view. It is of three kinds as
craving for sense desires, craving for becoming, and craving for non-
becoming. It is of four kinds as abandonable by the four paths. It is of
five kinds classed as delight in materiality, and so on. It is of six kinds
classed as the six groups of craving.
94. Also cessation is of one kind being the unformed element. But
indirectly it is of two kinds as 'with result of past clinging left' and as
'without result of past clinging left';
26
and of three kinds as the stilling of
the three kinds of becoming; and of four kinds as approachable by the
four paths; and of five kinds as the subsiding of the five kinds of delight;
and of six kinds classed according to the destruction of the six groups of
craving.
95. Also the path is of one kind as what should be developed. It is of
two kinds classed according to serenity and insight, or classed according
to seeing and developing. It is of three kinds classed according to the
three aggregates; for the [path], being selective, is included by the three
aggregates, which are comprehensive, as a city is by a kingdom, accord-
ing as it is said: 'The three aggregates are not included in the Noble
Eightfold Path, friend Visakha, but the Noble Eightfold Path is included
by the three aggregates. Any right speech, any right action, any right
livelihood: these are included in the virtue aggregate. Any right effort,
any right mindfulness, any right concentration: these are included in the
concentration aggregate. Any right view, any right thinking: these are
included in the understanding aggregate' (M.i,301).
96. For here the three beginning with right speech are virtue and so
they are included in the virtue aggregate, being of the same kind. For
although in the text the description is given in the locative case as 'in the
virtue aggregate', still the meaning should be understood according to
the instrumental case [that is, 'by the virtue aggregate'.]
As to the three beginning with right effort, concentration cannot of
its own nature cause absorption through unification on the object; but
with energy accomplishing its function of exerting and mindfulness ac-
complishing its function of preventing wobbling, it can do so.
97. Here is a simile: three friends, [thinking,] 'We will celebrate the
festival', entered a park. Then one saw a champak tree in full blossom,
but he could not reach the flowers by raising his hand. The second bent
down for the first to climb on his back. But although standing on the
other's back, he still could not pick them because of his unsteadiness.
[515] Then the third offered his shoulder [as support]. So standing on the
back of the one and supporting himself on the other's shoulder, he picked
as many flowers as he wanted and after adorning himself, he went and
enjoyed the festival. And so it is with this.
98. For the three states beginning with right effort, which are born to-
gether, are like the three friends who enter the park together. The object
is like the champak tree in full blossom. Concentration, which cannot of
its own nature bring about absorption by unification on the object, is like
the man who could not pick the flower by raising his arm. Effort is like
the companion who bent down, giving his back to mount upon. Mindful-
ness is like the friend who stood by, giving his shoulder for support. Just
as standing on the back of the one and supporting himself on the other's
shoulder he could pick as many flowers as he wanted, so too, when
energy accomplishes its function of exerting and when mindfulness
accomplishes its function of preventing wobbling, with the help so
obtained concentration can bring about absorption by unification on the
object. So here in the concentration aggregate it is only concentration
that is included as of the same kind. But effort and mindfulness are
included because of their action [in assisting].
99. Also as regards right view and right thinking, understanding cannot
of its own nature define an object as impermanent, painful, not-self. But
with applied thought giving [assistance] by repeatedly hitting [the ob-
ject] it can.
100. How? Just as a money changer, having a coin placed in his hand
and being desirous of looking at it on all sides equally, cannot turn it
over with the power of his eye only, but by turning it over with his
fingers he is able to look at it on all sides, similarly understanding cannot
of its own nature define an object as impermanent and so on. But [as-
sisted] by applied thought with its characteristic of directing the mind on
to [the object] and its function of striking and threshing, as it were,
hitting and turning over, it can take anything given and define it. So here
in the understanding aggregate it is only right view that is included as
of the same kind. But right thinking is included because of its action [in
assisting].
101. So the path is included by the three aggregates. Hence it was said
that it is of three kinds classed according to the three aggregates. And it
is of four kinds as the path of stream-entry and so on.
102. In addition, all the truths are of one kind because they are not
unreal, or because they must be directly known. They are of two kinds as
(i and ii) mundane and (iii and iv) supramundane, or (i, ii, and iv)
formed and (iii) unformed. They are of three kind as (ii) to be abandoned
by seeing and development, (iii and iv) not to be abandoned, and (i)
neither to be abandoned nor not to be abandoned. They are of four kinds
classed according to what has to be fully understood, and so on (see
§28).
This is how the exposition should be understood as to singlefold and
so on. [516]
103. 15. As to similar and dissimilar: all the truths are similar to each
other because they are not unreal, are void of self, and are difficult to
penetrate, according as it is said: 'What do you think, Ananda, which is
more difficult to do, more difficult to perform, that a man should shoot
an arrow through a small keyhole from a distance time after time without
missing or that he should penetrate the tip of a hair split a hundred times
with the tip [of a similar hair]?—This is more difficult to do, venerable
sir, more difficult to perform, that a man should penetrate the tip of a
hair split a hundred times with the tip [of a similar hair].—They pene-
trate something more difficult to penetrate than that, Ananda, who pene-
trate correctly thus, "This is suffering" ... who penetrate correctly thus,
"This is the way leading to the cessation of suffering" ' (S.v,454). They
are dissimilar when defined according to their individual characteristics.
104. And the first two are similar since they are profound because hard to
grasp, since they are mundane, and since they are subject to cankers.
They are dissimilar in being divided into fruit and cause, and being
respectively to be fully understood and to be abandoned. And the last
two are similar since they are hard to grasp because profound, since they
are supramundane, and since they are free from cankers. They are dis-
similar in being divided into object and what has an object, and in being
respectively to be realized and to be developed. And the first and third
are similar since they come under the heading of result. They are dis-
similar in being formed and unformed. Also the second and fourth are
similar since they come under the heading of cause. They are dissimilar
in being respectively entirely unprofitable and entirely profitable. And
the first and fourth are similar in being formed. They are dissimilar in
being mundane and supramundane. Also the second and the third are
similar since they are the state of neither-trainer-nor-non-trainer (see
Vbh. 114). They are dissimilar in being respectively with object and
without object.
A man of vision can apply
By suchlike means his talent so
That he among the truths may know
The similar and contrary.
The sixteenth chapter called 'The Descrip-
tion of the Faculties and Truths' in the Treatise on
the Development of Understanding in the Path of
Purification composed for the purpose of glad-
dening good people.
OF PURIFICATION
(VISUDDHIMAGGA)
BY
BHADANTACARIYA BUDDHAGHOSA
Translated from the Pali
by
BHIKKHU NANAMOLI
FIFTH EDITION
BUDDHIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY
Kandy Sri Lanka
[THE TRUTH OF THE WAY]
75. In the description of the way leading to the cessation of suffering
eight things are given. Though they have, of course, already been ex-
plained as to meaning in the Description of the Aggregates, still we shall
deal with them here in order to remain aware of the difference between
them when they occur in a single moment [on the occasion of the path].
76. Briefly (see Ch. XXII, §31 for details), when a meditator is pro-
gressing towards the penetration of the four truths, his eye of under-
standing with nibbana as its object eliminates the inherent tendency to
ignorance, and that is right view. It has right seeing as its characteristic.
Its function is to reveal elements. It is manifested as the abolition of the
darkness of ignorance.
77. When he possesses such view, his directing of the mind on to
nibbana, which [directing] is associated with that [right view], abolishes
wrong thinking, and that is right thinking. Its characteristic is right
directing of the mind on to [its object]. Its function is to bring about
absorption [of the path consciousness in nibbana as object]. It is mani-
fested as the abandoning of wrong thinking.
78. And when he sees and thinks thus, his abstinence from wrong speech,
which abstinence is associated with that [right view], abolishes bad ver-
bal conduct, [510] and that is called right speech. It has the characteristic
of embracing.
19
Its function is to abstain. It is manifested as the abandon-
ing of wrong speech.
79. When he abstains thus, his abstinence from killing living things,
which abstinence is associated with that [right view], cuts off wrong
action, and that is called right action. It has the characteristic of originat-
ing.
20
Its function is to abstain. It is manifested as the abandoning of
wrong action.
80. When his right speech and right action are purified, his abstinence
from wrong livelihood, which abstinence is associated with that [right
view], cuts off scheming, etc., and that is called right livelihood. It has
the characteristic of cleansing.
21
Its function is to bring about the occur-
rence of a proper livelihood. It is manifested as the abandoning of wrong
livelihood.
81. When he is established on that plane of virtue called right speech,
right action, and right livelihood, his energy, which is in conformity and
associated with that [right view], cuts off idleness, and that is called
right effort. It has the characteristic of exerting. Its function is the non-
arousing of unprofitable things, and so on. It is manifested as the aban-
doning of wrong effort.
82. When he exerts himself thus, the non-forgetfulness in his mind,
which is associated with that [right view], shakes off wrong mindfulness,
and that is called right mindfulness. It has the characteristic of establish-
ing.
22
Its function is not to forget. It is manifested as the abandoning of
wrong mindfulness.
83. When his mind is thus guarded by supreme mindfulness, the unifi-
cation of mind, which is associated with that [right view], abolishes
wrong concentration, and that is called right concentration. It has the
characteristic of non-distraction. Its function is to concentrate. It is mani-
fested as the abandoning of wrong concentration.
This is the method in the description of the way leading to the
cessation of suffering.
This is how the exposition should be understood here as to defining
birth and so on.
[GENERAL]
84. 9. As to knowledge's function (see §14): the exposition should be
understood according to knowledge of the truths. For knowledge of the
truths is twofold, namely, knowledge as idea and knowledge as penetra-
tion (cf. S.v,431f.; also Ch. XXII, §92ff.). Herein, knowledge as idea is
mundane and occurs through hearsay, etc., about cessation and the path.
Knowledge consisting in penetration, which is supramundane, penetrates
the four truths as its function by making cessation its object, according
as it is said, 'Bhikkhus, he who sees suffering sees also the origin of suf-
fering, sees also the cessation of suffering, sees also the way leading to
the cessation of suffering' (S.v,437), and it should be repeated thus of all
[four truths]. But its function will be made clear in the purification by
knowledge and vision (Ch. XXII, §92f.). [511]
85. When this knowledge is mundane, then, occurring as the overcom-
ing of obsessions, the knowledge of suffering therein forestalls the [false]
view of individuality; the knowledge of origin forestalls the annihilation
view; the knowledge of cessation forestalls the eternity view; the knowl-
edge of the path forestalls the moral-inefficacy-of-action view. Or alter-
natively, the knowledge of suffering forestalls wrong theories of fruit, in
other words, [seeing] lastingness, beauty, pleasure, and self in the aggre-
gates, which are devoid of lastingness, beauty, pleasure, and self; and
knowledge of origin forestalls wrong theories of cause that occur as
finding a reason where there is none, such as The world occurs owing to
an Overlord, a Basic Principle, Time, Nature (Individual Essence)', etc.;
23
the knowledge of cessation forestalls such wrong theories of cessation as
taking final release to be in the immaterial world, in a World Apex
(Shrine), etc.; and the path knowledge forestalls wrong theories of means
that occur by taking to be the way of purification what is not the way of
purification and consists in devotion to indulgence in the pleasures of
sense desire and in self-mortification. Hence this is said:
As long as a man is vague about the world,
About its origin, about its ceasing,
About the means that lead to its cessation,
So long he cannot recognize the truths.
This is how the exposition should be understood here as to knowl-
edge's function.
86. 10. As to division of content: all states excepting craving and states
free from cankers are included in the truth of suffering. The thirty-six
modes of behaviour of craving24
are included in the truth of origin. The
truth of cessation is unmixed. As regards the truth of the path: the
heading of right view includes the fourth road to power consisting in
inquiry, the understanding faculty, the understanding power, and the
investigation-of-states enlightenment factor. The term right thinking in-
cludes the three kinds of applied thought beginning with that of renun-
ciation (D.iii,215). The term right speech includes the four kinds of good
verbal conduct (A.ii,131). The term right action includes the three kinds
of good bodily conduct (cf. M.i,287). The heading right livelihood in-
cludes fewness of wishes and contentment. Or all these [three] constitute
the virtue loved by noble ones, and the virtue loved by noble ones has to
be embraced by the hand of faith; consequently the faith faculty, the
faith power, and the road to power consisting in zeal are included be-
cause of the presence of these [three]. The term right effort includes
fourfold right endeavour, the energy faculty, energy power, and energy
enlightenment factor. The term right mindfulness includes the fourfold
foundation of mindfulness, the mindfulness faculty, the mindfulness
power, and the mindfulness enlightenment factor. The term right con-
centration includes the three kinds of concentration beginning with that
accompanied by applied and sustained thought (D.iii,219), conscious-
ness concentration, the concentration faculty, [512] the concentration
power, and the enlightenment factors of happiness, tranquillity, concen-
tration, and equanimity. This is how the exposition should be understood
as to division of content.
87. 11. As to simile: The truth of suffering should be regarded as a
burden, the truth of origin as the taking up of the burden, the truth of
cessation as the putting down of the burden, the truth of the path as the
means to putting down the burden (see S.iii,26). The truth of suffering is
like a disease, the truth of origin is like the cause of the disease, the truth
of cessation is like the cure of the disease, and the truth of the path is
like the medicine. Or the truth of suffering is like a famine, the truth of
origin is like a drought, the truth of cessation is like plenty, and the truth
of the path is like timely rain.
Furthermore, these truths can be understood in this way by applying
these similes: enmity, the cause of the enmity, the removal of the en-
mity, and the means to remove the enmity; a poison tree, the tree's root,
the cutting of the root, and the means to cut the root; fear, the cause of
fear, freedom from fear, and the means to attain it; the hither shore, the
great flood, the further shore, and the effort to reach it.
This is how the exposition should be understood as to simile.
88. 12. As to tetrad: (a) there is suffering that is not noble truth, (b)
there is noble truth that is not suffering, (c) there is what is both suffer-
ing and noble truth, and (d) there is what is neither suffering nor noble
truth. So also with origin and the rest.
89. Herein, (a) though states associated with the path and the fruits of
asceticism are suffering since they are suffering due to formations (see
§35) because of the words 'What is impermanent is painful' (S.ii,53;
iii,22), still they are not the noble truth [of suffering], (b) Cessation is a
noble truth but it is not suffering, (c) The other two noble truths can be
suffering because they are impermanent, but they are not so in the real
sense of that for the full-understanding of which (see §28) the life of
purity is lived under the Blessed One. The five aggregates [as objects] of
clinging, except craving, are in all aspects both suffering and noble truth.
[513] (d) The states associated with the pith and the fruits of asceticism
are neither suffering in the real sense of that for the full-understanding of
which the life of purity is lived under the Blessed One, nor are they
noble truth. Origin, etc., should also be construed in the corresponding
way. This is how the exposition should be understood here as to tetrad.
90. 13. As to void, singlefold, and so on: firstly, as to void: in the
ultimate sense all the truths should be understood as void because of the
absence of (i) any experiencer, (ii) any doer, (iii) anyone who is extin-
guished, and (iv) any goer. Hence this is said:
'For there is suffering, but none who suffers;
Doing exists although there is no doer;
Extinction is but no extinguished person;
Although there is a path, there is no goer'.
Or alternatively:
'So void of lastingness, and beauty, pleasure, self,
Is the first pair, and void of self the deathless state,
And void of lastingness, of pleasure and of self
Is the path too; for such is voidness in these four'.
91. Or three are void of cessation, and cessation is void of the other
three. Or the cause is void of the result, because of the absence of
suffering in the origin, and of cessation in the path; the cause is not
gravid with its fruit like the Primordial Essence of those who assert the
existence of Primordial Essence. And the result is void of the cause
owing to the absence of inherence of the origin in suffering and of the
path in cessation; the fruit of a cause does not have its cause inherent in
it, like the two atoms, etc., of those who assert inherence. Hence this is
said:
'Here three are of cessation void;
Cessation void, too, of these three;
The cause of its effect is void,
Void also of its cause the effect must be'.
This in the first place is how the exposition should be understood as
to void.
25
[514]
92. 14. As to singlefold and so on: and here all suffering is of one
kind as the state of occurrence. It is of two kinds as mentality-material-
ity. It is of three kinds as divided into rebirth-process becoming in the
sense sphere, fine-material sphere, and immaterial sphere. It is of four
kinds classed according to the four nutriments. It is of five kinds classed
according to the five aggregates [as objects] of clinging.
93. Also origin is of one kind as making occur. It is of two kinds as
associated and not associated with [false] view. It is of three kinds as
craving for sense desires, craving for becoming, and craving for non-
becoming. It is of four kinds as abandonable by the four paths. It is of
five kinds classed as delight in materiality, and so on. It is of six kinds
classed as the six groups of craving.
94. Also cessation is of one kind being the unformed element. But
indirectly it is of two kinds as 'with result of past clinging left' and as
'without result of past clinging left';
26
and of three kinds as the stilling of
the three kinds of becoming; and of four kinds as approachable by the
four paths; and of five kinds as the subsiding of the five kinds of delight;
and of six kinds classed according to the destruction of the six groups of
craving.
95. Also the path is of one kind as what should be developed. It is of
two kinds classed according to serenity and insight, or classed according
to seeing and developing. It is of three kinds classed according to the
three aggregates; for the [path], being selective, is included by the three
aggregates, which are comprehensive, as a city is by a kingdom, accord-
ing as it is said: 'The three aggregates are not included in the Noble
Eightfold Path, friend Visakha, but the Noble Eightfold Path is included
by the three aggregates. Any right speech, any right action, any right
livelihood: these are included in the virtue aggregate. Any right effort,
any right mindfulness, any right concentration: these are included in the
concentration aggregate. Any right view, any right thinking: these are
included in the understanding aggregate' (M.i,301).
96. For here the three beginning with right speech are virtue and so
they are included in the virtue aggregate, being of the same kind. For
although in the text the description is given in the locative case as 'in the
virtue aggregate', still the meaning should be understood according to
the instrumental case [that is, 'by the virtue aggregate'.]
As to the three beginning with right effort, concentration cannot of
its own nature cause absorption through unification on the object; but
with energy accomplishing its function of exerting and mindfulness ac-
complishing its function of preventing wobbling, it can do so.
97. Here is a simile: three friends, [thinking,] 'We will celebrate the
festival', entered a park. Then one saw a champak tree in full blossom,
but he could not reach the flowers by raising his hand. The second bent
down for the first to climb on his back. But although standing on the
other's back, he still could not pick them because of his unsteadiness.
[515] Then the third offered his shoulder [as support]. So standing on the
back of the one and supporting himself on the other's shoulder, he picked
as many flowers as he wanted and after adorning himself, he went and
enjoyed the festival. And so it is with this.
98. For the three states beginning with right effort, which are born to-
gether, are like the three friends who enter the park together. The object
is like the champak tree in full blossom. Concentration, which cannot of
its own nature bring about absorption by unification on the object, is like
the man who could not pick the flower by raising his arm. Effort is like
the companion who bent down, giving his back to mount upon. Mindful-
ness is like the friend who stood by, giving his shoulder for support. Just
as standing on the back of the one and supporting himself on the other's
shoulder he could pick as many flowers as he wanted, so too, when
energy accomplishes its function of exerting and when mindfulness
accomplishes its function of preventing wobbling, with the help so
obtained concentration can bring about absorption by unification on the
object. So here in the concentration aggregate it is only concentration
that is included as of the same kind. But effort and mindfulness are
included because of their action [in assisting].
99. Also as regards right view and right thinking, understanding cannot
of its own nature define an object as impermanent, painful, not-self. But
with applied thought giving [assistance] by repeatedly hitting [the ob-
ject] it can.
100. How? Just as a money changer, having a coin placed in his hand
and being desirous of looking at it on all sides equally, cannot turn it
over with the power of his eye only, but by turning it over with his
fingers he is able to look at it on all sides, similarly understanding cannot
of its own nature define an object as impermanent and so on. But [as-
sisted] by applied thought with its characteristic of directing the mind on
to [the object] and its function of striking and threshing, as it were,
hitting and turning over, it can take anything given and define it. So here
in the understanding aggregate it is only right view that is included as
of the same kind. But right thinking is included because of its action [in
assisting].
101. So the path is included by the three aggregates. Hence it was said
that it is of three kinds classed according to the three aggregates. And it
is of four kinds as the path of stream-entry and so on.
102. In addition, all the truths are of one kind because they are not
unreal, or because they must be directly known. They are of two kinds as
(i and ii) mundane and (iii and iv) supramundane, or (i, ii, and iv)
formed and (iii) unformed. They are of three kind as (ii) to be abandoned
by seeing and development, (iii and iv) not to be abandoned, and (i)
neither to be abandoned nor not to be abandoned. They are of four kinds
classed according to what has to be fully understood, and so on (see
§28).
This is how the exposition should be understood as to singlefold and
so on. [516]
103. 15. As to similar and dissimilar: all the truths are similar to each
other because they are not unreal, are void of self, and are difficult to
penetrate, according as it is said: 'What do you think, Ananda, which is
more difficult to do, more difficult to perform, that a man should shoot
an arrow through a small keyhole from a distance time after time without
missing or that he should penetrate the tip of a hair split a hundred times
with the tip [of a similar hair]?—This is more difficult to do, venerable
sir, more difficult to perform, that a man should penetrate the tip of a
hair split a hundred times with the tip [of a similar hair].—They pene-
trate something more difficult to penetrate than that, Ananda, who pene-
trate correctly thus, "This is suffering" ... who penetrate correctly thus,
"This is the way leading to the cessation of suffering" ' (S.v,454). They
are dissimilar when defined according to their individual characteristics.
104. And the first two are similar since they are profound because hard to
grasp, since they are mundane, and since they are subject to cankers.
They are dissimilar in being divided into fruit and cause, and being
respectively to be fully understood and to be abandoned. And the last
two are similar since they are hard to grasp because profound, since they
are supramundane, and since they are free from cankers. They are dis-
similar in being divided into object and what has an object, and in being
respectively to be realized and to be developed. And the first and third
are similar since they come under the heading of result. They are dis-
similar in being formed and unformed. Also the second and fourth are
similar since they come under the heading of cause. They are dissimilar
in being respectively entirely unprofitable and entirely profitable. And
the first and fourth are similar in being formed. They are dissimilar in
being mundane and supramundane. Also the second and the third are
similar since they are the state of neither-trainer-nor-non-trainer (see
Vbh. 114). They are dissimilar in being respectively with object and
without object.
A man of vision can apply
By suchlike means his talent so
That he among the truths may know
The similar and contrary.
The sixteenth chapter called 'The Descrip-
tion of the Faculties and Truths' in the Treatise on
the Development of Understanding in the Path of
Purification composed for the purpose of glad-
dening good people.
Visuddhimagga - THE FACULTIES AND TRUTHS - The truth of the origin & cessation of suffering
THE PATH
OF PURIFICATION
(VISUDDHIMAGGA)
BY
BHADANTACARIYA BUDDHAGHOSA
Translated from the Pali
by
BHIKKHU NANAMOLI
FIFTH EDITION
BUDDHIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY
Kandy Sri Lanka
[THE TRUTH OF THE ORIGIN OF SUFFERING]
61. But in the description of the origin, the expression ydyarh tanhd
(that craving which) = ya ayam tanha. [As regards the expression] pro-
duces further becoming: it is a making become again, thus it is 'becom-
ing again' (punabbhava); becoming again is its habit, thus it 'produces
further becoming' (ponobbhavika). The expression nandiragasahagata
(accompanied by concern and greed) = nandiragena sahagata; what is
meant is that it is identical in meaning with delight and greed. Con-
cerned with this and that: wherever personality is generated there is
concern with that. The expression that is to say (seyyathidam) is a par-
ticle; its meaning is 'which is that'. Craving for sense desires, craving
for becoming, craving for non-becoming will be explained in the De-
scription of Dependent Origination (Ch. XVII, §§233ff.). Although this
is threefold, it should nevertheless be understood as 'the noble truth of
the origin of suffering', taking it as one in the sense of its generating the
truth of suffering.
[THE TRUTH OF THE CESSATION OF SUFFERING]
62. In the description of the cessation of suffering it is the cessation of
the origin that is stated by the words that which is ... of that same
craving, and so on. Why is that? Because the cessation of suffering
comes about with the cessation of its origin. For it is with the cessation
of its origin that suffering ceases, not otherwise. Hence it is said: [507]
'Just as a tree cut down grows up again
While yet its root remains unharmed and sound,
So with the tendency to crave intact
This suffering is ever reproduced' (Dh. 338).
63. So it is because suffering ceases only through the cessation of its
origin that, when teaching the cessation of suffering, the Blessed One
therefore taught the cessation of the origin. For the Perfect Ones behave
like lions.
15
When they make suffering cease and when they teach the
cessation of suffering, they deal with the cause, not the fruit. But the sec-
tarians behave like dogs. When they make suffering cease and when they
teach the cessation of suffering, by teaching devotion to self-mortifica-
tion, etc., they deal with the fruit, not the cause. This in the first place is
how the motive for teaching the cessation of suffering by means of the
cessation of its origin should be understood.
64. This is the meaning. Of that same craving: of that craving which, it
was said, 'produces further becoming', and which was classed as 'crav-
ing for sense desires' and so on. It is the path that is called fading away;
for 'With the fading away [of greed] he is liberated' (M.i,139) is said.
Fading away and cessation is cessation through fading away. Remain-
derless fading away and cessation is cessation through fading away that
is remainderless because of eradication of inherent tendencies. Or alter-
natively, it is abandoning that is celled fading away; and so the construc-
tion here can be regarded as 'remainderless fading away, remainderless
cessation.'
65. But as to meaning, all of them are synonyms for nibbana. For in the
ultimate sense it is nibbana that is called 'the noble truth of the cessation
of suffering'. But because craving fades away and ceases on coming to
that,
16
it is therefore called 'fading away' and 'cessation'. And because
there comes to be the giving up, etc., of that [craving] on coming to that
[nibbana], and since there is not even one kind of reliance here [to be
depended upon] from among the reliances consisting in the cords of
sense desires, etc., it is therefore called giving it up, relinquishing it,
letting it go, not relying on it.
66. It has peace as its characteristic. Its function is not to die; or its
function is to comfort. It is manifested as the signless; or it is manifested
as non-diversification.
17
[DISCUSSION ON NIBBANA]
67. [Question 1.] Is nibbana non-existent because it is unapprehend-
able, like the hare's horn?
[Answer.] That is not so, because it is apprehendable by the [right]
means. For it is apprehendable [by some, namely, the nobles ones] by
the [right] means, in other words, by the way that is appropriate to it,
[the way of virtue, concentration, and understanding]; it is like the supra-
mundane consciousness of others, [which is apprehendable only by cer-
tain of the noble ones] by means of knowledge of penetration of others'
minds. Therefore it should not be said that it is non-existent because un-
apprehendable; for it should not be said that what the foolish ordinary
man does not apprehend is unapprehendable.
68. Again, it should not be said that nibbana does not exist. Why not?
Because it then follows that the way would be futile. [508] For if nib-
bana were non-existent, then it would follow that the right way, which
includes the three aggregates beginning with virtue and is headed by
right understanding, would be futile. And it is not futile because it does
reach nibbana.
[Q.2.] But futility of the way does not follow because what is reached
is absence, [that is, absence of the five aggregates consequent upon the
cutting off of the defilements].
[A.] That is not so. Because, though there is absence of past and
future [aggregates], there is nevertheless no reaching of nibbana [simply
because of that].
[Q.3.] Then is the absence of present [aggregates] as well nibbana?
[A.] That is not so. Because their absence is an impossibility, since
if they are absent their non-presence follows. [Besides, if nibbana were
absence of present aggregates too,] that would entail the fault of exclud-
ing the arising of the nibbana element with result of past clinging left, at
the path moment, which has present aggregates as its support.
[Q.4.] Then will there be no fault if it is non-presence of defilements
[that is nibbana]?
[A.] That is not so. Because it would then follow that the noble path
was meaningless. For if it were so, then, since defilements [can be] non-
existent also before the moment of the noble path, it follows that the
noble path would be meaningless. Consequently that is no reason; [it is
unreasonable to say that nibbana is unapprehendable, that it is non-
existence, and so on].
69. [Q.5.] But is not nibbana destruction, because of the passage begin-
ning 'That, friend, which is the destruction of greed ... [of hate ... of
delusion ... is nibbana]' (S.iv,251)?
[A.] That is not so, because it would follow that Arahantship also
was mere destruction. For that too is described in the [same] way begin-
ning 4
That, friend, which is the destruction of greed ... of hate ... of de-
lusion ... is Arahantship]' (S.iv,252).
And what is more, the fallacy then follows that nibbana would be
temporary, etc.; for if it were so, it would follow that nibbana would be
temporary, have the characteristic of being formed, and be obtainable re-
gardless of right effort; and precisely because of its having formed char-
acteristics it would be included in the formed, and it would be burning
with the fires of greed, etc., and because of its burning it would follow
that it was suffering.
[Q.6.] Is there no fallacy if nibbana is that kind of destruction subse-
quent to which there is no more occurrence?
[A.] That is not so. Because there is no such kind of destruction.
And even if there were, the aforesaid fallacies would not be avoided.
Also because it would follow that the noble path was nibbana. For the
noble path causes the destruction of defects, and that is why it is called
'destruction'; and subsequent to that there is no more occurrence of the
defects.
70. But it is because the kind of destruction called Cessation consisting
in non-arising', [that is, nibbana,] serves figuratively speaking as deci-
sive-support [for the path] that [nibbana] is called 'destruction' as a
metaphor for it.
[Q.7.] Why is it not stated in its own form?
[A.] Because of its extreme subtlety. And its extreme subtlety is es-
tablished because it inclined the Blessed One to inaction, [that is, to not
teaching the Dhamma (see M.i,186)] and because a noble one's eye is
needed to see it (see (M.i,510).
71. It is not shared by all because it can only be reached by one who is
possessed of the path. And it is uncreated because it has no first begin-
ning.
[Q.8.] Since it is, when the path is, then it is not uncreated.
[A.] That is not so, because it is not arousable by the path; it is only
reachable, not arousable, by the path; that is why it is uncreated. It is
because it is uncreated that it is free from ageing and death. It is because
of the absence of its creation and of its ageing and death that it is
permanent. [509]
72. [Q.9.] Then it follows that nibbana, too, has the kind of permanence
[claimed] of the atom and so on.
[A.] That is not so. Because of the absence of any cause [that brings
about its arising].
[Q.10.] Because nibbana has permanence, then, these [that is, the
atom, etc.] are permanent as well.
[A.] That is not so. Because [in that proposition] the characteristic
of [logical] cause does not arise. [In other words, to say that nibbana is
permanent is not to assert a reason why the atom, etc., should be perma-
nent.]
[Q.11.] Then they are permanent because of the absence of their
arising, as nibbana is.
[A.] That is not so. Because the atom and so on have not been estab-
lished as facts.
73. The aforesaid logical reasoning proves that only this [that is, nib-
bana] is permanent [precisely because it is uncreated]; and it is immate-
rial because it transcends the individual essence of matter.
The Buddhas' goal is one and has no plurality. But this [single goal,
nibbana,] is firstly called with result of past clinging left since it is made
known together with the [aggregates resulting from past] clinging still
remaining [during the Arahant's life], being thus made known in terms
of the stilling of defilement and the remaining [result of past] clinging
that are present in one who has reached it by means of development. But
[secondly, it is called without result of past clinging left] since after the
last consciousness of the Arahant, who has abandoned arousing [future
aggregates] and so prevented kamma from giving result in a future [exis-
tence], there is no further arising of aggregates of existence, and those
already arisen have disappeared. So the [result of past] clinging that
remained is non-existent; and it is in terms of this non-existence, in the
sense that 'there is no [result of past] clinging here' that that [same goal
is called] without result of past clinging left (see Iti. 38).
74. Because it can be arrived at by distinction of knowledge that suc-
ceeds through untiring perseverance, and because it is the word of the
Omniscient One, nibbana is not non-existent as regards individual
essence in the ultimate sense; for this is said: *Bhikkhus, there is an
unborn, an unbecome, an unmade, an unformed' (Iti. 37; Ud. 8O).
18
This is the section of the definition dealing with the description of
the cessation of suffering.
OF PURIFICATION
(VISUDDHIMAGGA)
BY
BHADANTACARIYA BUDDHAGHOSA
Translated from the Pali
by
BHIKKHU NANAMOLI
FIFTH EDITION
BUDDHIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY
Kandy Sri Lanka
[THE TRUTH OF THE ORIGIN OF SUFFERING]
61. But in the description of the origin, the expression ydyarh tanhd
(that craving which) = ya ayam tanha. [As regards the expression] pro-
duces further becoming: it is a making become again, thus it is 'becom-
ing again' (punabbhava); becoming again is its habit, thus it 'produces
further becoming' (ponobbhavika). The expression nandiragasahagata
(accompanied by concern and greed) = nandiragena sahagata; what is
meant is that it is identical in meaning with delight and greed. Con-
cerned with this and that: wherever personality is generated there is
concern with that. The expression that is to say (seyyathidam) is a par-
ticle; its meaning is 'which is that'. Craving for sense desires, craving
for becoming, craving for non-becoming will be explained in the De-
scription of Dependent Origination (Ch. XVII, §§233ff.). Although this
is threefold, it should nevertheless be understood as 'the noble truth of
the origin of suffering', taking it as one in the sense of its generating the
truth of suffering.
[THE TRUTH OF THE CESSATION OF SUFFERING]
62. In the description of the cessation of suffering it is the cessation of
the origin that is stated by the words that which is ... of that same
craving, and so on. Why is that? Because the cessation of suffering
comes about with the cessation of its origin. For it is with the cessation
of its origin that suffering ceases, not otherwise. Hence it is said: [507]
'Just as a tree cut down grows up again
While yet its root remains unharmed and sound,
So with the tendency to crave intact
This suffering is ever reproduced' (Dh. 338).
63. So it is because suffering ceases only through the cessation of its
origin that, when teaching the cessation of suffering, the Blessed One
therefore taught the cessation of the origin. For the Perfect Ones behave
like lions.
15
When they make suffering cease and when they teach the
cessation of suffering, they deal with the cause, not the fruit. But the sec-
tarians behave like dogs. When they make suffering cease and when they
teach the cessation of suffering, by teaching devotion to self-mortifica-
tion, etc., they deal with the fruit, not the cause. This in the first place is
how the motive for teaching the cessation of suffering by means of the
cessation of its origin should be understood.
64. This is the meaning. Of that same craving: of that craving which, it
was said, 'produces further becoming', and which was classed as 'crav-
ing for sense desires' and so on. It is the path that is called fading away;
for 'With the fading away [of greed] he is liberated' (M.i,139) is said.
Fading away and cessation is cessation through fading away. Remain-
derless fading away and cessation is cessation through fading away that
is remainderless because of eradication of inherent tendencies. Or alter-
natively, it is abandoning that is celled fading away; and so the construc-
tion here can be regarded as 'remainderless fading away, remainderless
cessation.'
65. But as to meaning, all of them are synonyms for nibbana. For in the
ultimate sense it is nibbana that is called 'the noble truth of the cessation
of suffering'. But because craving fades away and ceases on coming to
that,
16
it is therefore called 'fading away' and 'cessation'. And because
there comes to be the giving up, etc., of that [craving] on coming to that
[nibbana], and since there is not even one kind of reliance here [to be
depended upon] from among the reliances consisting in the cords of
sense desires, etc., it is therefore called giving it up, relinquishing it,
letting it go, not relying on it.
66. It has peace as its characteristic. Its function is not to die; or its
function is to comfort. It is manifested as the signless; or it is manifested
as non-diversification.
17
[DISCUSSION ON NIBBANA]
67. [Question 1.] Is nibbana non-existent because it is unapprehend-
able, like the hare's horn?
[Answer.] That is not so, because it is apprehendable by the [right]
means. For it is apprehendable [by some, namely, the nobles ones] by
the [right] means, in other words, by the way that is appropriate to it,
[the way of virtue, concentration, and understanding]; it is like the supra-
mundane consciousness of others, [which is apprehendable only by cer-
tain of the noble ones] by means of knowledge of penetration of others'
minds. Therefore it should not be said that it is non-existent because un-
apprehendable; for it should not be said that what the foolish ordinary
man does not apprehend is unapprehendable.
68. Again, it should not be said that nibbana does not exist. Why not?
Because it then follows that the way would be futile. [508] For if nib-
bana were non-existent, then it would follow that the right way, which
includes the three aggregates beginning with virtue and is headed by
right understanding, would be futile. And it is not futile because it does
reach nibbana.
[Q.2.] But futility of the way does not follow because what is reached
is absence, [that is, absence of the five aggregates consequent upon the
cutting off of the defilements].
[A.] That is not so. Because, though there is absence of past and
future [aggregates], there is nevertheless no reaching of nibbana [simply
because of that].
[Q.3.] Then is the absence of present [aggregates] as well nibbana?
[A.] That is not so. Because their absence is an impossibility, since
if they are absent their non-presence follows. [Besides, if nibbana were
absence of present aggregates too,] that would entail the fault of exclud-
ing the arising of the nibbana element with result of past clinging left, at
the path moment, which has present aggregates as its support.
[Q.4.] Then will there be no fault if it is non-presence of defilements
[that is nibbana]?
[A.] That is not so. Because it would then follow that the noble path
was meaningless. For if it were so, then, since defilements [can be] non-
existent also before the moment of the noble path, it follows that the
noble path would be meaningless. Consequently that is no reason; [it is
unreasonable to say that nibbana is unapprehendable, that it is non-
existence, and so on].
69. [Q.5.] But is not nibbana destruction, because of the passage begin-
ning 'That, friend, which is the destruction of greed ... [of hate ... of
delusion ... is nibbana]' (S.iv,251)?
[A.] That is not so, because it would follow that Arahantship also
was mere destruction. For that too is described in the [same] way begin-
ning 4
That, friend, which is the destruction of greed ... of hate ... of de-
lusion ... is Arahantship]' (S.iv,252).
And what is more, the fallacy then follows that nibbana would be
temporary, etc.; for if it were so, it would follow that nibbana would be
temporary, have the characteristic of being formed, and be obtainable re-
gardless of right effort; and precisely because of its having formed char-
acteristics it would be included in the formed, and it would be burning
with the fires of greed, etc., and because of its burning it would follow
that it was suffering.
[Q.6.] Is there no fallacy if nibbana is that kind of destruction subse-
quent to which there is no more occurrence?
[A.] That is not so. Because there is no such kind of destruction.
And even if there were, the aforesaid fallacies would not be avoided.
Also because it would follow that the noble path was nibbana. For the
noble path causes the destruction of defects, and that is why it is called
'destruction'; and subsequent to that there is no more occurrence of the
defects.
70. But it is because the kind of destruction called Cessation consisting
in non-arising', [that is, nibbana,] serves figuratively speaking as deci-
sive-support [for the path] that [nibbana] is called 'destruction' as a
metaphor for it.
[Q.7.] Why is it not stated in its own form?
[A.] Because of its extreme subtlety. And its extreme subtlety is es-
tablished because it inclined the Blessed One to inaction, [that is, to not
teaching the Dhamma (see M.i,186)] and because a noble one's eye is
needed to see it (see (M.i,510).
71. It is not shared by all because it can only be reached by one who is
possessed of the path. And it is uncreated because it has no first begin-
ning.
[Q.8.] Since it is, when the path is, then it is not uncreated.
[A.] That is not so, because it is not arousable by the path; it is only
reachable, not arousable, by the path; that is why it is uncreated. It is
because it is uncreated that it is free from ageing and death. It is because
of the absence of its creation and of its ageing and death that it is
permanent. [509]
72. [Q.9.] Then it follows that nibbana, too, has the kind of permanence
[claimed] of the atom and so on.
[A.] That is not so. Because of the absence of any cause [that brings
about its arising].
[Q.10.] Because nibbana has permanence, then, these [that is, the
atom, etc.] are permanent as well.
[A.] That is not so. Because [in that proposition] the characteristic
of [logical] cause does not arise. [In other words, to say that nibbana is
permanent is not to assert a reason why the atom, etc., should be perma-
nent.]
[Q.11.] Then they are permanent because of the absence of their
arising, as nibbana is.
[A.] That is not so. Because the atom and so on have not been estab-
lished as facts.
73. The aforesaid logical reasoning proves that only this [that is, nib-
bana] is permanent [precisely because it is uncreated]; and it is immate-
rial because it transcends the individual essence of matter.
The Buddhas' goal is one and has no plurality. But this [single goal,
nibbana,] is firstly called with result of past clinging left since it is made
known together with the [aggregates resulting from past] clinging still
remaining [during the Arahant's life], being thus made known in terms
of the stilling of defilement and the remaining [result of past] clinging
that are present in one who has reached it by means of development. But
[secondly, it is called without result of past clinging left] since after the
last consciousness of the Arahant, who has abandoned arousing [future
aggregates] and so prevented kamma from giving result in a future [exis-
tence], there is no further arising of aggregates of existence, and those
already arisen have disappeared. So the [result of past] clinging that
remained is non-existent; and it is in terms of this non-existence, in the
sense that 'there is no [result of past] clinging here' that that [same goal
is called] without result of past clinging left (see Iti. 38).
74. Because it can be arrived at by distinction of knowledge that suc-
ceeds through untiring perseverance, and because it is the word of the
Omniscient One, nibbana is not non-existent as regards individual
essence in the ultimate sense; for this is said: *Bhikkhus, there is an
unborn, an unbecome, an unmade, an unformed' (Iti. 37; Ud. 8O).
18
This is the section of the definition dealing with the description of
the cessation of suffering.
Visuddhimagga - THE FACULTIES AND TRUTHS - The truth of suffering
THE PATH
OF PURIFICATION
(VISUDDHIMAGGA)
BY
BHADANTACARIYA BUDDHAGHOSA
Translated from the Pali
by
BHIKKHU NANAMOLI
FIFTH EDITION
BUDDHIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY
Kandy Sri Lanka
[THE TRUTH OF SUFFERING]
[(i) BIRTH]
32. Now this word birth (jati) has many meanings. For in the passage
'[He recollects...] one birth (jati), two births' (D.i,81) it is becoming. In
the passage 'Visakha, there is a kind (jati) of ascetics called Niganthas
(Jains)' (A.i,206) it is a monastic order. In the passage 'Birth (jati) is
included in two aggregates' (Dhk. 15) it is the characteristic of whatever
is formed. In the passage 'His birth is due to the first consciousness
arisen, the first cognition manifested, in the mother's womb' (Vin.i,93)
it is rebirth-linking. [499] In the passage 'As soon as he was born
(sampatijata), Ananda, the Bodhisatta ...' (M.iii,123) it is parturition. In
the passage 'One who is not rejected and despised on account of birth'
(A.iii,152) it is clan. In the passage 'Sister, since I was born with the
noble birth' (M.ii,103) it is the noble one's virtue.
33. Here it should be regarded as the aggregates that occur from the
time of rebirth-linking up to the exit from the mother's womb in the case
of the womb-born, and as only the aggregates of rebirth-linking in the
case of the rest. But this is only an indirect treatment. In the direct sense,
however, it is the first manifestation of any aggregates that are mani-
fested in living beings when they are born anywhere that is called 'birth'.
34. Its characteristic is the first genesis in any [sphere of] becoming. Its
function is to consign [to a sphere of becoming]. It is manifested as an
emerging here from a past becoming; or it is manifested as the varied-
ness of suffering.
But why is it suffering? Because it is the basis for many kind of suf-
fering.
8
For there are many kinds of suffering, that is to say, intrinsic
suffering (dukkha-dukkha),
9
suffering in change (viparinama-dukkha),
and suffering due to formations (sankhara-dukkha); and then concealed
suffering, exposed suffering, indirect suffering, and direct suffering.
35. Herein, bodily and mental painful feeling are called intrinsic suffering
because of their individual essence, their name, and their painftilness.
[Bodily and mental] pleasant feeling are called suffering in change be-
cause they are a cause for the arising of pain when they change (M.i,303).
Equanimous feeling and the remaining formations of the three planes are
called suffering due to formations because they are oppressed by rise and
fall. Such bodily and mental affliction as earache, toothache, fever born
of lust, fever born of hate, etc., is called concealed suffering because it
can only be known by questioning and because the infliction is not
openly evident; it is also called 'unevident suffering'. The affliction
produced by the thirty-two tortures,
10
etc., is called exposed suffering
because it can be known without questioning and because the infliction
is openly evident; it is also called 'evident suffering'. Except intrinsic
suffering, all given in the exposition of the truth of suffering [in the
Vibhahga] (Vbh. 99) beginning with birth are also called indirect suffering
because they are the basis for one kind of suffering or another. But
intrinsic suffering is called direct suffering.
36. Herein, this birth is suffering because it is the basis for the suffering
in the states of loss as made evident by the Blessed One by means of a
simile in the Balapandita Sutta (M.iii,165f.), etc., and for the suffering
that arises in the happy destinies in the human world and is classed as
'rooted in the descent into the womb', and so on. [500]
37. Here the suffering classed as 'rooted in the descent into the womb',
and so on, is this: When this being is born in the mother's womb, he is
not born inside a blue or red or white lotus, etc., but on the contrary, like
a worm in rotting fish, rotting dough, cess-pools, etc., he is born in the
belly in a position that is below the receptacle for undigested food (stom-
ach), above the receptacle for digested food (rectum), between the belly-
lining and the backbone, which is very cramped, quite dark, pervaded by
very fetid draughts redolent of various smells of ordure, and exception-
ally loathsome.
11
And on being reborn there, for ten months he under-
goes excessive suffering, being cooked like a pudding in a bag by the
heat produced in the mother's womb, and steamed like a dumpling of
dough, with no bending, stretching, and so on. So this, firstly, is the
suffering rooted in the descent into the womb.
38. When the mother suddenly stumbles or moves or sits down or gets
up or turns round, the extreme suffering he undergoes by being dragged
back and forth and jolted up and down, like a kid fallen into the hands of
a drunkard, or like a snake's young fallen into the hands of a snake-
charmer, and also the searing pain that he undergoes, as though he had
reappeared in the cold hells, when his mother drinks cold water, and as
though deluged by a rain of embers when she swallows hot rice gruel,
rice, etc., and as though undergoing the torture of the 'lye-pickling' (see
M.i,87), when she swallows anything salty or acidic, etc.—this is the
suffering rooted in gestation.
39. When the mother has an abortion, the pain that arises in him through
the cutting and rending in the place where the pain arises that is not fit to
be seen even by friends and intimates and companions—this is the suf-
fering rooted in abortion.
40. The pain that arises in him when the mother gives birth, through his
being turned upside-down by the kamma-produced winds [forces] and
flung into that most fearful passage from the womb, like an infernal
chasm, and lugged out through the extremely narrow mouth of the womb,
like an elephant through a keyhole, like a denizen of hell being pounded
to pulp by colliding rocks—this is the suffering rooted in parturition.
41. The pain that arises in him after he is born, and his body, which is as
delicate as a tender wound, is taken in the hands, bathed, washed, rubbed
with cloths, etc., and which pain is like being pricked with needle points
and gashed with razor blades, etc.—this is the suffering rooted in ventur-
ing outside the mother's womb. [501]
42. The pain that arises afterwards during the course of existence in one
who punishes himself, in one who devotes himself to the practice of
mortification and austerity according to the vows of the naked ascetics,
in one who starves through anger, and in one who hangs himself—this is
the suffering rooted in self-violence.
43. And that arising in one who undergoes flogging, imprisonment, etc.,
at the hands of others is the suffering rooted in others' violence.
So this birth is the basis for all this suffering. Hence this is said:
Now were no being born in hell again
The pain unbearable of scorching fires
And all the rest would then no footing gain;
Therefore the Sage pronounced that birth is pain.
Many the sorts of pain that beasts endure
When they are flogged with whips and sticks and goads,
Since birth among mem does this pain procure,
Birth there is pain: the consequence is sure.
While ghosts know pain in great variety
Through hunger, thirst, wind, sun and what not too,
None, unless born there, knows this misery;
So birth the Sage declares this pain to be.
In the world-interspace, where demons dwell
In searing cold and inspissated gloom,
Is pain requiring birth there for its spell;
So with the birth the pain ensues as well.
The horrible torment a being feels on coming out,
When he has spent long months shut up inside the mother's
womb—
A hellish tomb of excrement—would never come about
Without rebirth: that birth is pain there is no room for doubt.
But why elaborate? At any time or anywhere
Can there exist a painful state if birth do not precede?
Indeed this Sage so great, when he expounded pain, took care
First to declare rebirth as pain, the condition needed there.
This, firstly, is the exposition of birth. [502]
[(ii) AGEING]
44. Ageing is suffering: ageing is twofold; as a characteristic of what-
ever is formed, and in the case of a continuity, as the oldness of aggre-
gates included in a single becoming, which oldness is known as broken-
ness' and so on (see M.iii,249). The latter is intended here.
But this ageing has as its characteristic the maturing (ripening) of
aggregates. Its function is to lead on to death. It is manifested as the
vanishing of youth. It is suffering because of the suffering due to forma-
tions and because it is a basis for suffering.
45. Ageing is the basis for the bodily and mental suffering that arises
owing to many conditions such as leadenness in all the limbs, decline
and warping of the faculties, vanishing of youth, undermining of strength,
loss of memory and intelligence, contempt on the part of others, and so
on.
Hence this is said:
With leadenness in every limb,
With every faculty declining,
With vanishing of youthfulness*
With memory and wit grown dim,
With strength now drained by undermining,
With growing unattractiveness
To wife and family and then
With dotage coming on, what pain
Alike of body and of mind
A mortal must expect to find!
Since ageing all of this will bring,
Ageing is well named suffering.
This is the exposition of ageing.
[(iii) DEATH]
46. Death is suffering: death too is twofold, as a characteristic of the
formed, with reference to which it is said, 'Ageing and death are in-
cluded in the aggregates' (Dhk. 15), and as the severing of the connexion
of the life faculty included in a single becoming, with reference to which
it is said, 'So mortals are in constant fear ... that they will die' (Sn. 576).
The latter is intended here. Death with birth as its condition, death by
violence, death by natural causes, death from exhaustion of the life span,
death from exhaustion of merit, are names for it.
47. It has the characteristic of a fall. Its function is to disjoin. It is
manifested as absence from the destiny [in which there was the rebirth].
It should be understood as suffering because it is a basis for suffering.
Hence this is said:
Without distinction as they die
Pain grips their minds impartially
When wicked men their foul deeds see
Or sign of new rebirth, may be,
Also when good men cannot bear
To part from all that they hold dear.
Then bodily pain severs sinews,
Joints and so on, and continues [503]
Torture unbearable, which racks
All those whose vitals death attacks
With grip that shall no more relax.'
Death is the basis of such pain,
And this suffices to explain
Why death the name of pain should gain.
This is the exposition of death.
[(iv) SORROW]
48. As regards sorrow, etc., sorrow is a burning in the mind in one
affected by loss of relatives, and so on. Although in meaning it is the
same as grief, nevertheless it has inner consuming as its characteristic,
its function is completely to consume the mind. It is manifested as con-
tinual sorrowing. It is suffering because it is intrinsic suffering and be-
cause it is a basis for suffering. Hence this is said:
Sorrow is a poisoned dart
That penetrates a being's heart;
Setting up a burning there
Like burning with a red-hot spear.
This state of mind brings future pain (see Ch. XVII, §273f.)
Such as disease, and then again
Ageing and death, so one may tell
Wherefor it is called pain as well.
This is the exposition of sorrow.
[(v) LAMENTATION]
49. Lamentation is verbal clamour on the part of one affected by loss of
relatives and so on. It has crying out as its characteristic. Its function is
proclaiming virtues and vices. It is manifested as tumult. It is suffering
because it is a state of suffering due to formations and because it is a
basis for suffering. Hence this is said:
Now when a man is struck by sorrow's dart and he laments
The pain he is already undergoing he augments
With pain born of dry throat and lips and palate, hard to bear.
And so lamenting too is pain, the Buddha did declare.
This is the exposition of lamentation.
[(vi) PAIN]
50. Pain is bodily pain. Its characteristic is the oppression of the body.
Its function is to cause grief in the foolish. It is manifested as bodily af-
fliction. It is suffering because it is intrinsic suffering, and because it
brings mental suffering. Hence this is said:
Pain distresses bodily,
Thereby distressing mentally again;
So acting fundamentally,
It therefore is especially called pain.
This is the exposition of pain. [504]
[(vii) GRIEF]
51. Grief is mental pain. Its characteristic is mental oppression. Its func-
tion is to distress the mind. It is manifested as mental affliction. It is
suffering because it is intrinsic suffering, and because it brings bodily
suffering. For those who are gripped by mental pain tear their hair, weep,
thump their breasts, and twist and writhe; they throw themselves upside-
down,
12
use the knife, swallow poison, hang themselves with ropes, walk
into fires, and undergo many kinds of suffering. Hence this is said:
Though grief itself distresses mind,
It makes distress of bodily kind occur,
And that is why this mental grief
Is pain, as those that have no grief aver.
This is the exposition of grief.
[(viii) DESPAIR]
52. Despair is the same as the humour produced by excessive mental
suffering in one affected by loss of relatives, and so on. Some say that it
is one of the states included in the formations aggregate. Its characteris-
tic is burning of the mind. Its function is to bemoan. It is manifested as
dejection. It is suffering because it is suffering due to formations, be-
cause of the burning of the mind, and because of bodily dejection. Hence
this is said:
So great the pain despair imparts
It burns the heart as with fever's flame;
The body's function it impairs
And so despair borrows from pain its name.
This is the exposition of despair.
53. Sorrow is like the cooking [of oil, etc.]
13
in a pot over a slow fire.
Lamentation is like its boiling over from the pot when cooking over a
quick fire. Despair is like what remains in the pot after it has boiled over
and is unable to do so any more, going on cooking in the pot till it dries
up.
[(ix) ASSOCIATION WITH THE UNLOVED]
54. Association with the unloved is meeting with disagreeable beings
and formations (inanimate things). Its characteristic is association with
the undesirable. Its function is to distress the mind. It is manifested as a
harmful state. It is suffering because it is a basis for suffering. Hence this
is said:
The mere sight of an unloved thing
Brings firstly mental suffering,
And suffering of body too
Through touching it can then ensue.
And we therefore may recognize,
Since meeting the unloved gives rise
To either kind of pain, that He
Decided pain its name should be.
This is the exposition of association with the unloved. [505]
[(x) SEPARATION FROM THE LOVED]
55. Separation from the loved is to be parted from agreeable beings and
formations (inanimate things). Its characteristic is dissociation from de-
sirable objects. Its function is to arouse sorrow. It is manifested as loss.
It is suffering because it is a basis for the suffering of sorrow. Hence this
is said:
The dart of sorrow wounds the heart
Of fools who from their wealth must part or kin,
Which roughly should be grounds enough
For counting the loved lost as suffering.
This is the exposition of separation from the loved.
[(xi) NOT TO GET WHAT ONE WANTS]
56. Not to get what one wants: the want itself of some unobtainable
object [expressed] in such passages as 'Oh, that we were not subject to
birth!' (Vbh. 101) is called suffering since one does not get what is
wanted. Its characteristic is the wanting of an unobtainable object. Its
function is to seek that. It is manifested as disappointment. It is suffering
because it is a basis for suffering. Hence this is said:
When beings here expect to gain
Something they build their hopes upon
Which fails them, they are woebegone
With disappointment's numbing pain.
Thereof the cause is hope they wed
To something they cannot obtain:
'Not to get what one wants is pain'
The Conqueror has therefore said.
This is the exposition of not to get what one wants.
[(xii) THE FIVE AGGREGATES]
57. In short the five aggregates [as objects] of clinging:
Now birth and ageing and each thing
Told in describing suffering,
And those not mentioned, could not be
Were there no aggregates for clinging.
Wherefore these aggregates for clinging
Are taken in totality
As pain by Him, the Dhamma's King,
Who taught the end of suffering.
58. For birth, etc., thus oppress the pentad of aggregates [as objects] of
clinging as fire does fuel, as shooting does a target, as gadflies, flies,
etc., do a cow's body, as reapers do a field, as village raiders do a
village; and they are generated in the aggregates as weeds, creepers, etc.,
are on the ground, as flowers, fruits and sprouts are on trees.
59. And the aggregates [as objects] of clinging have birth as their initial
suffering, ageing as their medial suffering, and death as their final suf-
fering. The suffering due to burning in one who is the victim of the pain
that threatens death is sorrow. The suffering consisting in crying out by
one who is unable to bear that is lamentation. Next, the suffering con-
sisting in affliction of the body due to the contact of undesirable tangible
data, in other words, disturbance of the elements, is pain. [506] The
suffering oppressing the mind through resistance to that in ordinary people
oppressed by it, is grief. The suffering consisting in brooding14
in those
dejected by the augmentation of sorrow, etc., is despair. The suffering
consisting in frustration of wants in those whose hopes are disappointed
is not to get what one wants. So when their various aspects are exam-
ined, the aggregates [as objects] of clinging are themselves suffering.
60. It is impossible to tell it [all] without remainder, showing each kind
of suffering, even [by going on doing so] for many aeons, so the Blessed
One said 'In short the five aggregates [as objects] of clinging are suffer-
ing* in order to show in short how all that suffering is present in any of
the five aggregates [as objects] of clinging in the same way that the taste
of the water in the whole ocean is to be found in a single drop of its
water.
This is the exposition of the aggregates [as objects] of clinging.
This, firstly, is the method for the description of suffering.
OF PURIFICATION
(VISUDDHIMAGGA)
BY
BHADANTACARIYA BUDDHAGHOSA
Translated from the Pali
by
BHIKKHU NANAMOLI
FIFTH EDITION
BUDDHIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY
Kandy Sri Lanka
[THE TRUTH OF SUFFERING]
[(i) BIRTH]
32. Now this word birth (jati) has many meanings. For in the passage
'[He recollects...] one birth (jati), two births' (D.i,81) it is becoming. In
the passage 'Visakha, there is a kind (jati) of ascetics called Niganthas
(Jains)' (A.i,206) it is a monastic order. In the passage 'Birth (jati) is
included in two aggregates' (Dhk. 15) it is the characteristic of whatever
is formed. In the passage 'His birth is due to the first consciousness
arisen, the first cognition manifested, in the mother's womb' (Vin.i,93)
it is rebirth-linking. [499] In the passage 'As soon as he was born
(sampatijata), Ananda, the Bodhisatta ...' (M.iii,123) it is parturition. In
the passage 'One who is not rejected and despised on account of birth'
(A.iii,152) it is clan. In the passage 'Sister, since I was born with the
noble birth' (M.ii,103) it is the noble one's virtue.
33. Here it should be regarded as the aggregates that occur from the
time of rebirth-linking up to the exit from the mother's womb in the case
of the womb-born, and as only the aggregates of rebirth-linking in the
case of the rest. But this is only an indirect treatment. In the direct sense,
however, it is the first manifestation of any aggregates that are mani-
fested in living beings when they are born anywhere that is called 'birth'.
34. Its characteristic is the first genesis in any [sphere of] becoming. Its
function is to consign [to a sphere of becoming]. It is manifested as an
emerging here from a past becoming; or it is manifested as the varied-
ness of suffering.
But why is it suffering? Because it is the basis for many kind of suf-
fering.
8
For there are many kinds of suffering, that is to say, intrinsic
suffering (dukkha-dukkha),
9
suffering in change (viparinama-dukkha),
and suffering due to formations (sankhara-dukkha); and then concealed
suffering, exposed suffering, indirect suffering, and direct suffering.
35. Herein, bodily and mental painful feeling are called intrinsic suffering
because of their individual essence, their name, and their painftilness.
[Bodily and mental] pleasant feeling are called suffering in change be-
cause they are a cause for the arising of pain when they change (M.i,303).
Equanimous feeling and the remaining formations of the three planes are
called suffering due to formations because they are oppressed by rise and
fall. Such bodily and mental affliction as earache, toothache, fever born
of lust, fever born of hate, etc., is called concealed suffering because it
can only be known by questioning and because the infliction is not
openly evident; it is also called 'unevident suffering'. The affliction
produced by the thirty-two tortures,
10
etc., is called exposed suffering
because it can be known without questioning and because the infliction
is openly evident; it is also called 'evident suffering'. Except intrinsic
suffering, all given in the exposition of the truth of suffering [in the
Vibhahga] (Vbh. 99) beginning with birth are also called indirect suffering
because they are the basis for one kind of suffering or another. But
intrinsic suffering is called direct suffering.
36. Herein, this birth is suffering because it is the basis for the suffering
in the states of loss as made evident by the Blessed One by means of a
simile in the Balapandita Sutta (M.iii,165f.), etc., and for the suffering
that arises in the happy destinies in the human world and is classed as
'rooted in the descent into the womb', and so on. [500]
37. Here the suffering classed as 'rooted in the descent into the womb',
and so on, is this: When this being is born in the mother's womb, he is
not born inside a blue or red or white lotus, etc., but on the contrary, like
a worm in rotting fish, rotting dough, cess-pools, etc., he is born in the
belly in a position that is below the receptacle for undigested food (stom-
ach), above the receptacle for digested food (rectum), between the belly-
lining and the backbone, which is very cramped, quite dark, pervaded by
very fetid draughts redolent of various smells of ordure, and exception-
ally loathsome.
11
And on being reborn there, for ten months he under-
goes excessive suffering, being cooked like a pudding in a bag by the
heat produced in the mother's womb, and steamed like a dumpling of
dough, with no bending, stretching, and so on. So this, firstly, is the
suffering rooted in the descent into the womb.
38. When the mother suddenly stumbles or moves or sits down or gets
up or turns round, the extreme suffering he undergoes by being dragged
back and forth and jolted up and down, like a kid fallen into the hands of
a drunkard, or like a snake's young fallen into the hands of a snake-
charmer, and also the searing pain that he undergoes, as though he had
reappeared in the cold hells, when his mother drinks cold water, and as
though deluged by a rain of embers when she swallows hot rice gruel,
rice, etc., and as though undergoing the torture of the 'lye-pickling' (see
M.i,87), when she swallows anything salty or acidic, etc.—this is the
suffering rooted in gestation.
39. When the mother has an abortion, the pain that arises in him through
the cutting and rending in the place where the pain arises that is not fit to
be seen even by friends and intimates and companions—this is the suf-
fering rooted in abortion.
40. The pain that arises in him when the mother gives birth, through his
being turned upside-down by the kamma-produced winds [forces] and
flung into that most fearful passage from the womb, like an infernal
chasm, and lugged out through the extremely narrow mouth of the womb,
like an elephant through a keyhole, like a denizen of hell being pounded
to pulp by colliding rocks—this is the suffering rooted in parturition.
41. The pain that arises in him after he is born, and his body, which is as
delicate as a tender wound, is taken in the hands, bathed, washed, rubbed
with cloths, etc., and which pain is like being pricked with needle points
and gashed with razor blades, etc.—this is the suffering rooted in ventur-
ing outside the mother's womb. [501]
42. The pain that arises afterwards during the course of existence in one
who punishes himself, in one who devotes himself to the practice of
mortification and austerity according to the vows of the naked ascetics,
in one who starves through anger, and in one who hangs himself—this is
the suffering rooted in self-violence.
43. And that arising in one who undergoes flogging, imprisonment, etc.,
at the hands of others is the suffering rooted in others' violence.
So this birth is the basis for all this suffering. Hence this is said:
Now were no being born in hell again
The pain unbearable of scorching fires
And all the rest would then no footing gain;
Therefore the Sage pronounced that birth is pain.
Many the sorts of pain that beasts endure
When they are flogged with whips and sticks and goads,
Since birth among mem does this pain procure,
Birth there is pain: the consequence is sure.
While ghosts know pain in great variety
Through hunger, thirst, wind, sun and what not too,
None, unless born there, knows this misery;
So birth the Sage declares this pain to be.
In the world-interspace, where demons dwell
In searing cold and inspissated gloom,
Is pain requiring birth there for its spell;
So with the birth the pain ensues as well.
The horrible torment a being feels on coming out,
When he has spent long months shut up inside the mother's
womb—
A hellish tomb of excrement—would never come about
Without rebirth: that birth is pain there is no room for doubt.
But why elaborate? At any time or anywhere
Can there exist a painful state if birth do not precede?
Indeed this Sage so great, when he expounded pain, took care
First to declare rebirth as pain, the condition needed there.
This, firstly, is the exposition of birth. [502]
[(ii) AGEING]
44. Ageing is suffering: ageing is twofold; as a characteristic of what-
ever is formed, and in the case of a continuity, as the oldness of aggre-
gates included in a single becoming, which oldness is known as broken-
ness' and so on (see M.iii,249). The latter is intended here.
But this ageing has as its characteristic the maturing (ripening) of
aggregates. Its function is to lead on to death. It is manifested as the
vanishing of youth. It is suffering because of the suffering due to forma-
tions and because it is a basis for suffering.
45. Ageing is the basis for the bodily and mental suffering that arises
owing to many conditions such as leadenness in all the limbs, decline
and warping of the faculties, vanishing of youth, undermining of strength,
loss of memory and intelligence, contempt on the part of others, and so
on.
Hence this is said:
With leadenness in every limb,
With every faculty declining,
With vanishing of youthfulness*
With memory and wit grown dim,
With strength now drained by undermining,
With growing unattractiveness
To wife and family and then
With dotage coming on, what pain
Alike of body and of mind
A mortal must expect to find!
Since ageing all of this will bring,
Ageing is well named suffering.
This is the exposition of ageing.
[(iii) DEATH]
46. Death is suffering: death too is twofold, as a characteristic of the
formed, with reference to which it is said, 'Ageing and death are in-
cluded in the aggregates' (Dhk. 15), and as the severing of the connexion
of the life faculty included in a single becoming, with reference to which
it is said, 'So mortals are in constant fear ... that they will die' (Sn. 576).
The latter is intended here. Death with birth as its condition, death by
violence, death by natural causes, death from exhaustion of the life span,
death from exhaustion of merit, are names for it.
47. It has the characteristic of a fall. Its function is to disjoin. It is
manifested as absence from the destiny [in which there was the rebirth].
It should be understood as suffering because it is a basis for suffering.
Hence this is said:
Without distinction as they die
Pain grips their minds impartially
When wicked men their foul deeds see
Or sign of new rebirth, may be,
Also when good men cannot bear
To part from all that they hold dear.
Then bodily pain severs sinews,
Joints and so on, and continues [503]
Torture unbearable, which racks
All those whose vitals death attacks
With grip that shall no more relax.'
Death is the basis of such pain,
And this suffices to explain
Why death the name of pain should gain.
This is the exposition of death.
[(iv) SORROW]
48. As regards sorrow, etc., sorrow is a burning in the mind in one
affected by loss of relatives, and so on. Although in meaning it is the
same as grief, nevertheless it has inner consuming as its characteristic,
its function is completely to consume the mind. It is manifested as con-
tinual sorrowing. It is suffering because it is intrinsic suffering and be-
cause it is a basis for suffering. Hence this is said:
Sorrow is a poisoned dart
That penetrates a being's heart;
Setting up a burning there
Like burning with a red-hot spear.
This state of mind brings future pain (see Ch. XVII, §273f.)
Such as disease, and then again
Ageing and death, so one may tell
Wherefor it is called pain as well.
This is the exposition of sorrow.
[(v) LAMENTATION]
49. Lamentation is verbal clamour on the part of one affected by loss of
relatives and so on. It has crying out as its characteristic. Its function is
proclaiming virtues and vices. It is manifested as tumult. It is suffering
because it is a state of suffering due to formations and because it is a
basis for suffering. Hence this is said:
Now when a man is struck by sorrow's dart and he laments
The pain he is already undergoing he augments
With pain born of dry throat and lips and palate, hard to bear.
And so lamenting too is pain, the Buddha did declare.
This is the exposition of lamentation.
[(vi) PAIN]
50. Pain is bodily pain. Its characteristic is the oppression of the body.
Its function is to cause grief in the foolish. It is manifested as bodily af-
fliction. It is suffering because it is intrinsic suffering, and because it
brings mental suffering. Hence this is said:
Pain distresses bodily,
Thereby distressing mentally again;
So acting fundamentally,
It therefore is especially called pain.
This is the exposition of pain. [504]
[(vii) GRIEF]
51. Grief is mental pain. Its characteristic is mental oppression. Its func-
tion is to distress the mind. It is manifested as mental affliction. It is
suffering because it is intrinsic suffering, and because it brings bodily
suffering. For those who are gripped by mental pain tear their hair, weep,
thump their breasts, and twist and writhe; they throw themselves upside-
down,
12
use the knife, swallow poison, hang themselves with ropes, walk
into fires, and undergo many kinds of suffering. Hence this is said:
Though grief itself distresses mind,
It makes distress of bodily kind occur,
And that is why this mental grief
Is pain, as those that have no grief aver.
This is the exposition of grief.
[(viii) DESPAIR]
52. Despair is the same as the humour produced by excessive mental
suffering in one affected by loss of relatives, and so on. Some say that it
is one of the states included in the formations aggregate. Its characteris-
tic is burning of the mind. Its function is to bemoan. It is manifested as
dejection. It is suffering because it is suffering due to formations, be-
cause of the burning of the mind, and because of bodily dejection. Hence
this is said:
So great the pain despair imparts
It burns the heart as with fever's flame;
The body's function it impairs
And so despair borrows from pain its name.
This is the exposition of despair.
53. Sorrow is like the cooking [of oil, etc.]
13
in a pot over a slow fire.
Lamentation is like its boiling over from the pot when cooking over a
quick fire. Despair is like what remains in the pot after it has boiled over
and is unable to do so any more, going on cooking in the pot till it dries
up.
[(ix) ASSOCIATION WITH THE UNLOVED]
54. Association with the unloved is meeting with disagreeable beings
and formations (inanimate things). Its characteristic is association with
the undesirable. Its function is to distress the mind. It is manifested as a
harmful state. It is suffering because it is a basis for suffering. Hence this
is said:
The mere sight of an unloved thing
Brings firstly mental suffering,
And suffering of body too
Through touching it can then ensue.
And we therefore may recognize,
Since meeting the unloved gives rise
To either kind of pain, that He
Decided pain its name should be.
This is the exposition of association with the unloved. [505]
[(x) SEPARATION FROM THE LOVED]
55. Separation from the loved is to be parted from agreeable beings and
formations (inanimate things). Its characteristic is dissociation from de-
sirable objects. Its function is to arouse sorrow. It is manifested as loss.
It is suffering because it is a basis for the suffering of sorrow. Hence this
is said:
The dart of sorrow wounds the heart
Of fools who from their wealth must part or kin,
Which roughly should be grounds enough
For counting the loved lost as suffering.
This is the exposition of separation from the loved.
[(xi) NOT TO GET WHAT ONE WANTS]
56. Not to get what one wants: the want itself of some unobtainable
object [expressed] in such passages as 'Oh, that we were not subject to
birth!' (Vbh. 101) is called suffering since one does not get what is
wanted. Its characteristic is the wanting of an unobtainable object. Its
function is to seek that. It is manifested as disappointment. It is suffering
because it is a basis for suffering. Hence this is said:
When beings here expect to gain
Something they build their hopes upon
Which fails them, they are woebegone
With disappointment's numbing pain.
Thereof the cause is hope they wed
To something they cannot obtain:
'Not to get what one wants is pain'
The Conqueror has therefore said.
This is the exposition of not to get what one wants.
[(xii) THE FIVE AGGREGATES]
57. In short the five aggregates [as objects] of clinging:
Now birth and ageing and each thing
Told in describing suffering,
And those not mentioned, could not be
Were there no aggregates for clinging.
Wherefore these aggregates for clinging
Are taken in totality
As pain by Him, the Dhamma's King,
Who taught the end of suffering.
58. For birth, etc., thus oppress the pentad of aggregates [as objects] of
clinging as fire does fuel, as shooting does a target, as gadflies, flies,
etc., do a cow's body, as reapers do a field, as village raiders do a
village; and they are generated in the aggregates as weeds, creepers, etc.,
are on the ground, as flowers, fruits and sprouts are on trees.
59. And the aggregates [as objects] of clinging have birth as their initial
suffering, ageing as their medial suffering, and death as their final suf-
fering. The suffering due to burning in one who is the victim of the pain
that threatens death is sorrow. The suffering consisting in crying out by
one who is unable to bear that is lamentation. Next, the suffering con-
sisting in affliction of the body due to the contact of undesirable tangible
data, in other words, disturbance of the elements, is pain. [506] The
suffering oppressing the mind through resistance to that in ordinary people
oppressed by it, is grief. The suffering consisting in brooding14
in those
dejected by the augmentation of sorrow, etc., is despair. The suffering
consisting in frustration of wants in those whose hopes are disappointed
is not to get what one wants. So when their various aspects are exam-
ined, the aggregates [as objects] of clinging are themselves suffering.
60. It is impossible to tell it [all] without remainder, showing each kind
of suffering, even [by going on doing so] for many aeons, so the Blessed
One said 'In short the five aggregates [as objects] of clinging are suffer-
ing* in order to show in short how all that suffering is present in any of
the five aggregates [as objects] of clinging in the same way that the taste
of the water in the whole ocean is to be found in a single drop of its
water.
This is the exposition of the aggregates [as objects] of clinging.
This, firstly, is the method for the description of suffering.
Visuddhimagga - THE FACULTIES AND TRUTHS - Description of the truths
THE PATH
OF PURIFICATION
(VISUDDHIMAGGA)
BY
BHADANTACARIYA BUDDHAGHOSA
Translated from the Pali
by
BHIKKHU NANAMOLI
FIFTH EDITION
BUDDHIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY
Kandy Sri Lanka
[B. DESCRIPTION OF THE TRUTHS]
13. [494] The 'truths' next to that (Ch. XIV, §32) are the Four Noble
Truths; that is to say, the noble truth of suffering, the noble truth of the
origin of suffering, the noble truth of the cessation of suffering, the noble
truth of the way leading to the cessation of suffering.
14. Herein:
(I) As to class, and (2) derivation,
(3) Division by character, et cetera,
(4) As to meaning, (5) tracing out meaning,
And likewise (6) neither less nor more,
(7) As to order, (8) as to expounding
Birth and so on, (9) knowledge's function,
(10) As to division of the content,
(II) As to a simile, and (12) tetrad,
(13) As to void, (14) singlefold and so on,
(15) Similar and dissimilar—
Thus should be known the exposition
By those who know the teaching's order.
15. 1. Herein, as to class: the meanings of [the truths of] suffering,
etc., are analysed as four in each case that are 'real, not unreal, not other-
wise' (S.v,435) and must be penetrated by those penetrating suffering,
etc., according as it is said: * Suffering's meaning of oppressing, meaning
of being formed, meaning of burning, meaning of changing, these are
suffering's four meanings of suffering, which are real, not unreal, not
otherwise. Origin's meaning of accumulating, meaning of source, mean-
ing of bondage, meaning of impeding ... Cessation's meaning of escape,
meaning of seclusion, meaning of being unformed, meaning of death-
lessness ... The path's meaning of outlet, meaning of cause, meaning of
seeing, meaning of predominance, these are the path's meanings of path,
which are real, not unreal, not otherwise' (Ps.ii,104; cf. i,19). Likewise
'Suffering's meaning of oppressing, meaning of being formed, meaning
of burning, meaning of change, are its meaning of penetration to' (cf. Ps.
i,118), and so on. So suffering, etc., should be understood according to
the four meanings analysed in each case.
16. 2. As to derivation, 3. division by character, et cetera: here, how-
ever, firstly 'as to derivation' [of the word dukkha (suffering):] the word
du ('bad') is met with in the sense of vile (kucchita); for they call a vile
child a du-putta ('bad child'). The word kham ('-ness'), however is met
with in the sense of empty (tuccha), for they call empty space 'kham'.
And the first truth is vile because it is the haunt of many dangers, and it
is empty because it is devoid of the lastingness, beauty, pleasure, and
self conceived by rash people. So it is called dukkharh ('badness' =
suffering, pain), because of vileness and emptiness. [495]
17. [Samudaya (origin):] the word sam (= prefix 'con-') denotes con-
nection, as in the words samdgama (concourse, coming together), sameta
(congregated, gone together), and so on. The word u denotes rising up,
as in the words uppanna (arisen, uprisen), udita (ascended, gone up),
and so on. The word aya4
denotes a reason (karana). And this second
truth is the reason for the arising of suffering when combined with the
remaining conditions. So it is called dukkha-samudaya (the origin of
suffering) because it is the reason in combination for the arising of
suffering.
18. [Nirodha (cessation):] the word ni denotes absence, and the word
rodha, a prison.
5
Now the third truth is void of all destinies [by rebirth]
and so there is no constraint (rodha) of suffering here reckoned as the
prison of the round of rebirths; or when that cessation has been arrived
at, there is no more constraint of suffering reckoned as the prison of the
round of rebirths. And being the opposite of that prison, it is called
dukkha-nirodha (cessation of suffering). Or alternatively, it is called
'cessation of suffering' because it is a condition for the cessation of
suffering consisting in non-arising.
19. [Nirodha-gamini patipada (way leading to cessation):] because the
fourth truth goes (leads) to the cessation of suffering since it confronts
that [cessation] as its object, and being the way to attain cessation of suf-
fering, it is called dukkha-nirodha-gdmini patipadd, the way leading to
the cessation of suffering.
20. They are called noble truths because the noble ones, the Buddhas,
etc., penetrate them, according as it is said: 'Bhikkhus, there are these
Four Noble Truths. What four? ... These, bhikkhus are the Four Noble
Truths' (S.v,425). The noble ones penetrate them, therefore they are
called noble truths.
21. Besides, the noble truths are the Noble One's truths, according as it
is said: 'Bhikkhus, in the world with its deities, its Maras and its Brahmas,
in this generation with its ascetics and brahmans, with its princes and
men, the Perfect One is the Noble One. That is why they are called noble
truths' (S.v,435). Or alternatively, they are called noble truths because
of the nobleness implied by their discovery, according as it is said:
'Bhikkhus, it is owing to the correct discovery of these Four Noble
Truths that the Perfect One is called accomplished, fully enlightened'
(S.v,433).
22. Besides, the noble truths are the truths that are noble. To be noble is
to be not unreal; the meaning is, not deceptive, according as it is said:
'Bhikkhus, these Four Noble Truths are real, not unreal, not otherwise,
that is why they are called noble truths' (S.v,435).
This is how the exposition should be known here as to derivation.
23. 3. How as to division by character, et ceteral The truth of suffer-
ing has the characteristic of afflicting. [496] Its function is to burn. It is
manifested as occurrence (as the course of an existence). The truth of
origin has the characteristic of producing. Its function is to prevent inter-
ruption. It is manifested as impediment. The truth of cessation has the
characteristic of peace. Its function is not to die. It is manifested as the
signless.
6
The truth of the path has the characteristic of an outlet. Its
function is to abandon defilements. It is manifested as emergence. They
have, moreover, the respective characteristics of occurrence, making occur,
non-occurrence, and making not occur, and likewise the characteristics
of the formed, craving, the unformed, and seeing. This is how the expo-
sition should be understood here as to characteristic, et cetera.
24. 4. As to meaning, 5. tracing out the meaning: as to 'meaning'
firstly, what is the 'meaning of truth' (saccattha)? It is that which, for
those who examine it with the eye of understanding, is not misleading
like an illusion, deceptive like a mirage, or undiscoverable like the self
of the sectarians, but is rather the domain of noble knowledge as the real
unmisleading actual state with its aspects of affliction, production, quiet,
and outlet. It is this real unmisleading actualness that should be under-
stood as the 'meaning of truth' just as [heat is] the characteristic of fire,
and just as [it is] in the nature of the world [that things are subject to
birth, ageing and death], according as it is said, 'Bhikkhus, this suffering
is real, not unreal, not otherwise' (S.v,430), and so on, in detail.
25. Furthermore:
There is no pain but is affliction,
And naught that is not pain afflicts:
This certainty that it afflicts
Is what is reckoned here as truth.
No other source of pain than craving,
Nor aught that source provides but pain:
This certainty in causing pain
Is why it is considered truth.
There is no peace except nibbana,
Nibbana cannot but be peace:
This certainty that it is peace
Is what is reckoned here as truth.
No outlet other than the path,
Nor fails the path to be the outlet:
Its status as the very outlet
Has made it recognized as truth.
This real infallibility,
Which is their true essential core,
Is what the wise declare to be
Truth's meaning common to all four.
This is how the exposition should be understand as to meaning.
26. 5. How as to tracing out the meaning? This word 'truth' (sacca) is
met with in various meanings. In such passages as 'Let him speak truth
and not be angry' (Dh. 224) it is verbal truth. In such passages as 'As-
cetics and brahmans base themselves on truth' (? ) it is the truth of ab-
stinence [from lying]. In such passages as [497] 'Why do they declare
diverse truths, the clever talkers that hold forth?' (Sn. 885) it is truth as
views. And in such passages as 'Truth is one, there is no second' (Sn.
884) it is, as truth in the ultimate sense, both nibbana and the path. In
such passages as 'Of the four truths how many are profitable?' (Vbh. 112;
Ps.ii,108) it is noble truth. And here too it is proper as noble truth. This
is how the exposition should be understood as to tracing out the mean-
ing.
27. 6. As to neither less nor more: but why are exactly four noble
truths stated, neither less nor more? Because no other exists and because
none can be eliminated. For there is none extra to them, nor can any one
of them be eliminated, according as it is said: 'Bhikkhus, that an ascetic
or brahman here should come and say: "This is not the truth of suffering,
the truth of suffering is another; I shall set aside this truth of suffering
and make known another truth of suffering"—that is not possible' (? )
and so on, and according as it is said: 'Bhikkhus, that any ascetic or
brahman should say thus: "This is not the first noble truth of suffering
that is taught by the ascetic Gotama; rejecting this first noble truth of
suffering, I shall make known another first noble truth of suffering"—
that is not possible' (S.v,428) and so on.
28. Furthermore, when announcing occurrence, [that is, the process of
existence,] the Blessed One announced it with a cause, and he announced
non-occurrence as having a means thereto. So they are stated as four at
the most as occurrence and non-occurrence and the cause of each. Like-
wise, they are stated as four since they have to be respectively fully
understood, abandoned, realized, and developed; and also since they are
the basis for craving, craving, the cessation of craving, and the means to
the cessation of craving; and also since they are the reliance [depended
upon], the delight in the reliance, removal of the reliance, and the means
to the removal of the reliance.
This is how the exposition should be understood here as to neither
less nor more.
29. 7. As to order: this too is only order of teaching (see Ch. XIV,
§211). The truth of suffering is given first since it is easy to understand
because of its grossness and because it is common to all living beings.
The truth of origin is given next to show its cause. Then the truth of
cessation, to make it known that with the cessation of the cause there is
the cessation of the fruit. The truth of the path comes last to show the
means to achieve that. [498]
30. Or alternatively, he announced the truth of suffering first to instill a
sense of urgency into living beings caught up in the enjoyment of the
pleasure of becoming; and next to that, the truth of origin to make it
known that that [suffering] neither comes about of itself as something
not made nor is it due to creation by an Overlord, etc. (see §85), but that
on the contrary it is due to this [cause]; after that, cessation, to instill
comfort by showing the escape to those who seek the escape from suf-
fering with a sense of urgency because overwhelmed by suffering with
its cause. And after that, the path that leads to cessation, to enable them
to attain cessation. This is how the exposition should be understood here
as to order.
31. 8. As to expounding birth and so on: the exposition should be
understood here in accordance with the expositions of the things begin-
ning with birth given by the Blessed One when describing the Four
Noble Truths, that is to say, (i) the twelve things in the description of
suffering: 'Birth is suffering, ageing is suffering,
7
death is suffering,
sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, and despair are suffering, association
with the unloved is suffering, separation from the loved is suffering, not
to get what one wants is suffering, in short, the five aggregates [as
objects] of clinging are suffering' (Vbh. 99); and (ii) the threefold crav-
ing in the description of origin: 'That craving which produces further be-
coming, is accompanied by delight and greed, delighting in this and that,
that is to say, craving for sense desires, craving for becoming, craving
for non-becoming' (Vbh. 101); and (iii) nibbana, which has one meaning
only, in the description of cessation: 'That which is the remainderless
fading away and cessation of that same craving, giving it up, relinquish-
ing it, letting it go, not relying on it' (Vbh. 103); and (iv) the eight things
in the description of the path: 'What is the noble truth of the way leading
to the cessation of suffering? It is this Noble Eightfold Path, that is to
say, right view, right thinking, right speech, right action, right livelihood,
right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration' (Vbh. 104).
OF PURIFICATION
(VISUDDHIMAGGA)
BY
BHADANTACARIYA BUDDHAGHOSA
Translated from the Pali
by
BHIKKHU NANAMOLI
FIFTH EDITION
BUDDHIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY
Kandy Sri Lanka
[B. DESCRIPTION OF THE TRUTHS]
13. [494] The 'truths' next to that (Ch. XIV, §32) are the Four Noble
Truths; that is to say, the noble truth of suffering, the noble truth of the
origin of suffering, the noble truth of the cessation of suffering, the noble
truth of the way leading to the cessation of suffering.
14. Herein:
(I) As to class, and (2) derivation,
(3) Division by character, et cetera,
(4) As to meaning, (5) tracing out meaning,
And likewise (6) neither less nor more,
(7) As to order, (8) as to expounding
Birth and so on, (9) knowledge's function,
(10) As to division of the content,
(II) As to a simile, and (12) tetrad,
(13) As to void, (14) singlefold and so on,
(15) Similar and dissimilar—
Thus should be known the exposition
By those who know the teaching's order.
15. 1. Herein, as to class: the meanings of [the truths of] suffering,
etc., are analysed as four in each case that are 'real, not unreal, not other-
wise' (S.v,435) and must be penetrated by those penetrating suffering,
etc., according as it is said: * Suffering's meaning of oppressing, meaning
of being formed, meaning of burning, meaning of changing, these are
suffering's four meanings of suffering, which are real, not unreal, not
otherwise. Origin's meaning of accumulating, meaning of source, mean-
ing of bondage, meaning of impeding ... Cessation's meaning of escape,
meaning of seclusion, meaning of being unformed, meaning of death-
lessness ... The path's meaning of outlet, meaning of cause, meaning of
seeing, meaning of predominance, these are the path's meanings of path,
which are real, not unreal, not otherwise' (Ps.ii,104; cf. i,19). Likewise
'Suffering's meaning of oppressing, meaning of being formed, meaning
of burning, meaning of change, are its meaning of penetration to' (cf. Ps.
i,118), and so on. So suffering, etc., should be understood according to
the four meanings analysed in each case.
16. 2. As to derivation, 3. division by character, et cetera: here, how-
ever, firstly 'as to derivation' [of the word dukkha (suffering):] the word
du ('bad') is met with in the sense of vile (kucchita); for they call a vile
child a du-putta ('bad child'). The word kham ('-ness'), however is met
with in the sense of empty (tuccha), for they call empty space 'kham'.
And the first truth is vile because it is the haunt of many dangers, and it
is empty because it is devoid of the lastingness, beauty, pleasure, and
self conceived by rash people. So it is called dukkharh ('badness' =
suffering, pain), because of vileness and emptiness. [495]
17. [Samudaya (origin):] the word sam (= prefix 'con-') denotes con-
nection, as in the words samdgama (concourse, coming together), sameta
(congregated, gone together), and so on. The word u denotes rising up,
as in the words uppanna (arisen, uprisen), udita (ascended, gone up),
and so on. The word aya4
denotes a reason (karana). And this second
truth is the reason for the arising of suffering when combined with the
remaining conditions. So it is called dukkha-samudaya (the origin of
suffering) because it is the reason in combination for the arising of
suffering.
18. [Nirodha (cessation):] the word ni denotes absence, and the word
rodha, a prison.
5
Now the third truth is void of all destinies [by rebirth]
and so there is no constraint (rodha) of suffering here reckoned as the
prison of the round of rebirths; or when that cessation has been arrived
at, there is no more constraint of suffering reckoned as the prison of the
round of rebirths. And being the opposite of that prison, it is called
dukkha-nirodha (cessation of suffering). Or alternatively, it is called
'cessation of suffering' because it is a condition for the cessation of
suffering consisting in non-arising.
19. [Nirodha-gamini patipada (way leading to cessation):] because the
fourth truth goes (leads) to the cessation of suffering since it confronts
that [cessation] as its object, and being the way to attain cessation of suf-
fering, it is called dukkha-nirodha-gdmini patipadd, the way leading to
the cessation of suffering.
20. They are called noble truths because the noble ones, the Buddhas,
etc., penetrate them, according as it is said: 'Bhikkhus, there are these
Four Noble Truths. What four? ... These, bhikkhus are the Four Noble
Truths' (S.v,425). The noble ones penetrate them, therefore they are
called noble truths.
21. Besides, the noble truths are the Noble One's truths, according as it
is said: 'Bhikkhus, in the world with its deities, its Maras and its Brahmas,
in this generation with its ascetics and brahmans, with its princes and
men, the Perfect One is the Noble One. That is why they are called noble
truths' (S.v,435). Or alternatively, they are called noble truths because
of the nobleness implied by their discovery, according as it is said:
'Bhikkhus, it is owing to the correct discovery of these Four Noble
Truths that the Perfect One is called accomplished, fully enlightened'
(S.v,433).
22. Besides, the noble truths are the truths that are noble. To be noble is
to be not unreal; the meaning is, not deceptive, according as it is said:
'Bhikkhus, these Four Noble Truths are real, not unreal, not otherwise,
that is why they are called noble truths' (S.v,435).
This is how the exposition should be known here as to derivation.
23. 3. How as to division by character, et ceteral The truth of suffer-
ing has the characteristic of afflicting. [496] Its function is to burn. It is
manifested as occurrence (as the course of an existence). The truth of
origin has the characteristic of producing. Its function is to prevent inter-
ruption. It is manifested as impediment. The truth of cessation has the
characteristic of peace. Its function is not to die. It is manifested as the
signless.
6
The truth of the path has the characteristic of an outlet. Its
function is to abandon defilements. It is manifested as emergence. They
have, moreover, the respective characteristics of occurrence, making occur,
non-occurrence, and making not occur, and likewise the characteristics
of the formed, craving, the unformed, and seeing. This is how the expo-
sition should be understood here as to characteristic, et cetera.
24. 4. As to meaning, 5. tracing out the meaning: as to 'meaning'
firstly, what is the 'meaning of truth' (saccattha)? It is that which, for
those who examine it with the eye of understanding, is not misleading
like an illusion, deceptive like a mirage, or undiscoverable like the self
of the sectarians, but is rather the domain of noble knowledge as the real
unmisleading actual state with its aspects of affliction, production, quiet,
and outlet. It is this real unmisleading actualness that should be under-
stood as the 'meaning of truth' just as [heat is] the characteristic of fire,
and just as [it is] in the nature of the world [that things are subject to
birth, ageing and death], according as it is said, 'Bhikkhus, this suffering
is real, not unreal, not otherwise' (S.v,430), and so on, in detail.
25. Furthermore:
There is no pain but is affliction,
And naught that is not pain afflicts:
This certainty that it afflicts
Is what is reckoned here as truth.
No other source of pain than craving,
Nor aught that source provides but pain:
This certainty in causing pain
Is why it is considered truth.
There is no peace except nibbana,
Nibbana cannot but be peace:
This certainty that it is peace
Is what is reckoned here as truth.
No outlet other than the path,
Nor fails the path to be the outlet:
Its status as the very outlet
Has made it recognized as truth.
This real infallibility,
Which is their true essential core,
Is what the wise declare to be
Truth's meaning common to all four.
This is how the exposition should be understand as to meaning.
26. 5. How as to tracing out the meaning? This word 'truth' (sacca) is
met with in various meanings. In such passages as 'Let him speak truth
and not be angry' (Dh. 224) it is verbal truth. In such passages as 'As-
cetics and brahmans base themselves on truth' (? ) it is the truth of ab-
stinence [from lying]. In such passages as [497] 'Why do they declare
diverse truths, the clever talkers that hold forth?' (Sn. 885) it is truth as
views. And in such passages as 'Truth is one, there is no second' (Sn.
884) it is, as truth in the ultimate sense, both nibbana and the path. In
such passages as 'Of the four truths how many are profitable?' (Vbh. 112;
Ps.ii,108) it is noble truth. And here too it is proper as noble truth. This
is how the exposition should be understood as to tracing out the mean-
ing.
27. 6. As to neither less nor more: but why are exactly four noble
truths stated, neither less nor more? Because no other exists and because
none can be eliminated. For there is none extra to them, nor can any one
of them be eliminated, according as it is said: 'Bhikkhus, that an ascetic
or brahman here should come and say: "This is not the truth of suffering,
the truth of suffering is another; I shall set aside this truth of suffering
and make known another truth of suffering"—that is not possible' (? )
and so on, and according as it is said: 'Bhikkhus, that any ascetic or
brahman should say thus: "This is not the first noble truth of suffering
that is taught by the ascetic Gotama; rejecting this first noble truth of
suffering, I shall make known another first noble truth of suffering"—
that is not possible' (S.v,428) and so on.
28. Furthermore, when announcing occurrence, [that is, the process of
existence,] the Blessed One announced it with a cause, and he announced
non-occurrence as having a means thereto. So they are stated as four at
the most as occurrence and non-occurrence and the cause of each. Like-
wise, they are stated as four since they have to be respectively fully
understood, abandoned, realized, and developed; and also since they are
the basis for craving, craving, the cessation of craving, and the means to
the cessation of craving; and also since they are the reliance [depended
upon], the delight in the reliance, removal of the reliance, and the means
to the removal of the reliance.
This is how the exposition should be understood here as to neither
less nor more.
29. 7. As to order: this too is only order of teaching (see Ch. XIV,
§211). The truth of suffering is given first since it is easy to understand
because of its grossness and because it is common to all living beings.
The truth of origin is given next to show its cause. Then the truth of
cessation, to make it known that with the cessation of the cause there is
the cessation of the fruit. The truth of the path comes last to show the
means to achieve that. [498]
30. Or alternatively, he announced the truth of suffering first to instill a
sense of urgency into living beings caught up in the enjoyment of the
pleasure of becoming; and next to that, the truth of origin to make it
known that that [suffering] neither comes about of itself as something
not made nor is it due to creation by an Overlord, etc. (see §85), but that
on the contrary it is due to this [cause]; after that, cessation, to instill
comfort by showing the escape to those who seek the escape from suf-
fering with a sense of urgency because overwhelmed by suffering with
its cause. And after that, the path that leads to cessation, to enable them
to attain cessation. This is how the exposition should be understood here
as to order.
31. 8. As to expounding birth and so on: the exposition should be
understood here in accordance with the expositions of the things begin-
ning with birth given by the Blessed One when describing the Four
Noble Truths, that is to say, (i) the twelve things in the description of
suffering: 'Birth is suffering, ageing is suffering,
7
death is suffering,
sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, and despair are suffering, association
with the unloved is suffering, separation from the loved is suffering, not
to get what one wants is suffering, in short, the five aggregates [as
objects] of clinging are suffering' (Vbh. 99); and (ii) the threefold crav-
ing in the description of origin: 'That craving which produces further be-
coming, is accompanied by delight and greed, delighting in this and that,
that is to say, craving for sense desires, craving for becoming, craving
for non-becoming' (Vbh. 101); and (iii) nibbana, which has one meaning
only, in the description of cessation: 'That which is the remainderless
fading away and cessation of that same craving, giving it up, relinquish-
ing it, letting it go, not relying on it' (Vbh. 103); and (iv) the eight things
in the description of the path: 'What is the noble truth of the way leading
to the cessation of suffering? It is this Noble Eightfold Path, that is to
say, right view, right thinking, right speech, right action, right livelihood,
right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration' (Vbh. 104).
Visuddhimagga - THE FACULTIES AND TRUTHS - Description of the faculties
THE PATH
OF PURIFICATION
(VISUDDHIMAGGA)
BY
BHADANTACARIYA BUDDHAGHOSA
Translated from the Pali
by
BHIKKHU NANAMOLI
FIFTH EDITION
BUDDHIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY
Kandy Sri Lanka
CHAPTER XVI
THE FACULTIES AND TRUTHS
(Indriya-sacca-niddesa)
[A. DESCRIPTION OF THE FACULTIES]
1. [491] The 'faculties' listed next to the elements (Ch. XIV, §32) are
the twenty-two faculties, namely, eye faculty, ear faculty, nose faculty,
tongue faculty, body faculty, mind faculty, femininity faculty, masculin-
ity faculty, life faculty, [bodily] pleasure faculty, [bodily] pain faculty,
[mental] joy faculty, [mental] grief faculty, equanimity faculty, faith
faculty, energy faculty, mindfulness faculty, concentration faculty, under-
standing faculty, 'I shall-come-to-know-the-unknown' faculty, final-
knowledge faculty, final-knower faculty.
2. Herein:
(1) As to meaning, (2) character and so on,
(3) Order, (4) divided and undivided,
(5) Likewise function, and (6) also plane—
The exposition should be known.
3. 1. Herein, firstly, the meaning of eye, etc., is explained in the way
beginning 'It relishes (cakkhati), thus it is an eye (cakkhu)' (Ch. XV,
§3). But as regards the last three, the first is called the 'I-shall-come-to-
know-the-unknown' faculty because it arises in the initial stage [of the
stream-entry path moment] in one who has entered on the way thus 'I
shall come to know the deathless state, or the Dhamma of the Four
(Noble) Truths, not known',
1
and because it carries the meaning of fac-
ulty (rulership). The second of them is called the final-knowledge faculty
because of knowing finally, and because it carries the meaning of fac-
ulty. The third is called the final-knower faculty because it arises in one
who has destroyed cankers, who possesses final knowledge, and whose
task of getting to know the four truths is finished, and because it carries
the meaning of faculty.
4. But what is this meaning of faculty (rulership—indriyattha) that
they have? (a) The meaning of being the mark of a ruler (inda) is the
meaning of faculty (rulership). (b) The meaning of being taught by a
ruler is the meaning of faculty, (c) The meaning of being seen by a ruler
is the meaning of faculty, (d) The meaning of having been prepared by a
ruler is the meaning of faculty, (e) The meaning of having been fostered
by a ruler is the meaning of faculty.
2
And all that applies here in one
instance or another.
5. The Blessed One, Fully Enlightened, is a ruler (inda) because of
supreme lordship. And so is kamma, profitable and unprofitable; for no
one has lordship over the kinds of kamma. So here, the faculties (in-
driya), [492] which are created by kamma, are the mark of profitable
and unprofitable kamma. And since they are prepared by it, they are
faculties in the sense of (a) being the mark of a ruler and (d) in the sense
of having been prepared by a ruler. But since they have also been
correctly made evident and disclosed by the Blessed One, they are all
faculties (b) in the sense of being taught by a ruler and (c) in the sense
of being seen by a ruler. And since some of them were cultivated by the
Blessed One, Ruler of Sages, in his cultivation of domain and some in
his cultivation of development, they are faculties (e) in the sense of
being fostered by a ruler.
6. Furthermore, they are faculties (rulership) in the sense of lordship
called predominance. For predominance of the eye, etc., is implied in the
occurrence of eye-consciousness, etc., because of the (consciousness's)
keenness when that [faculty] is keen and slowness when it is slow.
This, firstly, is the exposition as to meaning.
7. 2. As to character and so on: the meaning is that the exposition of
the eye and so on should be known according to characteristic, function,
manifestation, proximate cause, and so on. But these characteristics, etc.,
of theirs are given above in the Description of the Aggregates (Ch. XIV,
§37ff.). For the four beginning with the understanding faculty are simply
non-delusion as to meaning. The rest are each given there as such.
8. 3. As to order: this too is only order of teaching (see Ch. XIV,
§211). Herein, the noble plane [which is the stage of stream-entry, etc.]
is attained through the full-understanding of internal states, and so the
eye faculty and the rest included in the selfhood are taught first. Then the
femininity faculty and masculinity faculty, to show on what account that
selfhood is called 'woman' or 'man'. Next, the life faculty, to make it
known that although that selfhood is twofold, still its existence is bound
up with the life faculty. Next the [bodily-] pleasure faculty, etc., to make
it known that there is no remission of these feelings as long as that [self-
hood] continues, and that all feeling is [ultimately] suffering. Next, the
faith faculty, etc., to show the way, since these things are to be devel-
oped in order to make that [suffering] cease. Next, the 'I-shall-come-to-
know-the-unknown' faculty to show that the way is not sterile, since it is
through this way that this state is first manifested in oneself. Next, the
final-knowledge faculty, because it is the fruit of the last-mentioned
faculty and so must be developed after it. Next, the final-knower faculty,
the supreme reward, is taught last to make it known that it is attained by
development, and that when it is attained there is nothing more to be
done. This is the order here. [493]
9. 4. As to divided and undivided: here there is only division of the
life faculty; for that is twofold as the material-life faculty and the imma-
terial-life faculty. There is no division of the others. This is how the
exposition should be known here as to divided and undivided.
10. 5. As to function: what is the faculties' function? Firstly, because
of the words 'The eye base is a condition, as faculty condition, for the
eye-consciousness element and for the states associated therewith'
(Ptn.1,5) the eye faculty's function is to cause by its own keenness,
slowness, etc., the occurrence of eye-consciousness and associated states,
etc., in a mode parallel to its own,
3
which is called their keenness, slow-
ness, etc., this function being accomplishable through the state of faculty
condition. So too in the case of the ear, nose, tongue, and body. But the
function of the mind faculty is to make conascent states subject to its
own mastery. That of the life faculty is to maintain conascent states.
That of the femininity faculty and the masculinity faculty is to allot the
modes of the mark, sign, work and ways of women and men. That of the
faculties of pleasure, pain, joy, and grief is to govern conascent states
and impart their own particular mode of grossness to those states. That
of the equanimity faculty is to impart to them the mode of quiet, superi-
ority and neutrality. That of the faculties of faith, etc., is to overcome
opposition and to impart to associated states the mode of confidence and
so on. That of the 'I-shall-come-to-know-the-unknown' faculty is both to
abandon three fetters and to confront associated states with the abandon-
ment of them. That of the final-knowledge faculty is both to attenuate
and abandon respectively lust, ill will, etc., and to subject conascent
states to its own mastery. That of the final-knower faculty is both to
abandon endeavour in all functions and to condition associated states by
confronting them with the Deathless. This is how the exposition should
be known here as to function.
11. 6. As to plane: the faculties of eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, femi-
ninity, masculinity, pleasure, pain, and grief are of the sense sphere only.
The mind faculty, life faculty, and equanimity faculty, and the faculties
of faith, energy, mindfulness, concentration, and understanding are in-
cluded in the four planes. The joy faculty is included in three planes,
namely, sense sphere, fine-material sphere, and supramundane. The last
three are supramundane only. This is how the exposition should be known
here as to plane.
The monk who knows the urgent need
To keep the faculties restrained
By fully understanding them
Will make an end of suffering.
12. This is the section of the detailed explanation dealing with the facul-
ties.
OF PURIFICATION
(VISUDDHIMAGGA)
BY
BHADANTACARIYA BUDDHAGHOSA
Translated from the Pali
by
BHIKKHU NANAMOLI
FIFTH EDITION
BUDDHIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY
Kandy Sri Lanka
CHAPTER XVI
THE FACULTIES AND TRUTHS
(Indriya-sacca-niddesa)
[A. DESCRIPTION OF THE FACULTIES]
1. [491] The 'faculties' listed next to the elements (Ch. XIV, §32) are
the twenty-two faculties, namely, eye faculty, ear faculty, nose faculty,
tongue faculty, body faculty, mind faculty, femininity faculty, masculin-
ity faculty, life faculty, [bodily] pleasure faculty, [bodily] pain faculty,
[mental] joy faculty, [mental] grief faculty, equanimity faculty, faith
faculty, energy faculty, mindfulness faculty, concentration faculty, under-
standing faculty, 'I shall-come-to-know-the-unknown' faculty, final-
knowledge faculty, final-knower faculty.
2. Herein:
(1) As to meaning, (2) character and so on,
(3) Order, (4) divided and undivided,
(5) Likewise function, and (6) also plane—
The exposition should be known.
3. 1. Herein, firstly, the meaning of eye, etc., is explained in the way
beginning 'It relishes (cakkhati), thus it is an eye (cakkhu)' (Ch. XV,
§3). But as regards the last three, the first is called the 'I-shall-come-to-
know-the-unknown' faculty because it arises in the initial stage [of the
stream-entry path moment] in one who has entered on the way thus 'I
shall come to know the deathless state, or the Dhamma of the Four
(Noble) Truths, not known',
1
and because it carries the meaning of fac-
ulty (rulership). The second of them is called the final-knowledge faculty
because of knowing finally, and because it carries the meaning of fac-
ulty. The third is called the final-knower faculty because it arises in one
who has destroyed cankers, who possesses final knowledge, and whose
task of getting to know the four truths is finished, and because it carries
the meaning of faculty.
4. But what is this meaning of faculty (rulership—indriyattha) that
they have? (a) The meaning of being the mark of a ruler (inda) is the
meaning of faculty (rulership). (b) The meaning of being taught by a
ruler is the meaning of faculty, (c) The meaning of being seen by a ruler
is the meaning of faculty, (d) The meaning of having been prepared by a
ruler is the meaning of faculty, (e) The meaning of having been fostered
by a ruler is the meaning of faculty.
2
And all that applies here in one
instance or another.
5. The Blessed One, Fully Enlightened, is a ruler (inda) because of
supreme lordship. And so is kamma, profitable and unprofitable; for no
one has lordship over the kinds of kamma. So here, the faculties (in-
driya), [492] which are created by kamma, are the mark of profitable
and unprofitable kamma. And since they are prepared by it, they are
faculties in the sense of (a) being the mark of a ruler and (d) in the sense
of having been prepared by a ruler. But since they have also been
correctly made evident and disclosed by the Blessed One, they are all
faculties (b) in the sense of being taught by a ruler and (c) in the sense
of being seen by a ruler. And since some of them were cultivated by the
Blessed One, Ruler of Sages, in his cultivation of domain and some in
his cultivation of development, they are faculties (e) in the sense of
being fostered by a ruler.
6. Furthermore, they are faculties (rulership) in the sense of lordship
called predominance. For predominance of the eye, etc., is implied in the
occurrence of eye-consciousness, etc., because of the (consciousness's)
keenness when that [faculty] is keen and slowness when it is slow.
This, firstly, is the exposition as to meaning.
7. 2. As to character and so on: the meaning is that the exposition of
the eye and so on should be known according to characteristic, function,
manifestation, proximate cause, and so on. But these characteristics, etc.,
of theirs are given above in the Description of the Aggregates (Ch. XIV,
§37ff.). For the four beginning with the understanding faculty are simply
non-delusion as to meaning. The rest are each given there as such.
8. 3. As to order: this too is only order of teaching (see Ch. XIV,
§211). Herein, the noble plane [which is the stage of stream-entry, etc.]
is attained through the full-understanding of internal states, and so the
eye faculty and the rest included in the selfhood are taught first. Then the
femininity faculty and masculinity faculty, to show on what account that
selfhood is called 'woman' or 'man'. Next, the life faculty, to make it
known that although that selfhood is twofold, still its existence is bound
up with the life faculty. Next the [bodily-] pleasure faculty, etc., to make
it known that there is no remission of these feelings as long as that [self-
hood] continues, and that all feeling is [ultimately] suffering. Next, the
faith faculty, etc., to show the way, since these things are to be devel-
oped in order to make that [suffering] cease. Next, the 'I-shall-come-to-
know-the-unknown' faculty to show that the way is not sterile, since it is
through this way that this state is first manifested in oneself. Next, the
final-knowledge faculty, because it is the fruit of the last-mentioned
faculty and so must be developed after it. Next, the final-knower faculty,
the supreme reward, is taught last to make it known that it is attained by
development, and that when it is attained there is nothing more to be
done. This is the order here. [493]
9. 4. As to divided and undivided: here there is only division of the
life faculty; for that is twofold as the material-life faculty and the imma-
terial-life faculty. There is no division of the others. This is how the
exposition should be known here as to divided and undivided.
10. 5. As to function: what is the faculties' function? Firstly, because
of the words 'The eye base is a condition, as faculty condition, for the
eye-consciousness element and for the states associated therewith'
(Ptn.1,5) the eye faculty's function is to cause by its own keenness,
slowness, etc., the occurrence of eye-consciousness and associated states,
etc., in a mode parallel to its own,
3
which is called their keenness, slow-
ness, etc., this function being accomplishable through the state of faculty
condition. So too in the case of the ear, nose, tongue, and body. But the
function of the mind faculty is to make conascent states subject to its
own mastery. That of the life faculty is to maintain conascent states.
That of the femininity faculty and the masculinity faculty is to allot the
modes of the mark, sign, work and ways of women and men. That of the
faculties of pleasure, pain, joy, and grief is to govern conascent states
and impart their own particular mode of grossness to those states. That
of the equanimity faculty is to impart to them the mode of quiet, superi-
ority and neutrality. That of the faculties of faith, etc., is to overcome
opposition and to impart to associated states the mode of confidence and
so on. That of the 'I-shall-come-to-know-the-unknown' faculty is both to
abandon three fetters and to confront associated states with the abandon-
ment of them. That of the final-knowledge faculty is both to attenuate
and abandon respectively lust, ill will, etc., and to subject conascent
states to its own mastery. That of the final-knower faculty is both to
abandon endeavour in all functions and to condition associated states by
confronting them with the Deathless. This is how the exposition should
be known here as to function.
11. 6. As to plane: the faculties of eye, ear, nose, tongue, body, femi-
ninity, masculinity, pleasure, pain, and grief are of the sense sphere only.
The mind faculty, life faculty, and equanimity faculty, and the faculties
of faith, energy, mindfulness, concentration, and understanding are in-
cluded in the four planes. The joy faculty is included in three planes,
namely, sense sphere, fine-material sphere, and supramundane. The last
three are supramundane only. This is how the exposition should be known
here as to plane.
The monk who knows the urgent need
To keep the faculties restrained
By fully understanding them
Will make an end of suffering.
12. This is the section of the detailed explanation dealing with the facul-
ties.
Visuddhimagga - THE BASES AND ELEMENTS - Description of the elements
THE PATH
OF PURIFICATION
(VISUDDHIMAGGA)
BY
BHADANTACARIYA BUDDHAGHOSA
Translated from the Pali
by
BHIKKHU NANAMOLI
FIFTH EDITION
BUDDHIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY
Kandy Sri Lanka
[B. DESCRIPTION OF THE ELEMENTS]
17. The "elements' next to that (XIV, §32) are the eighteen elements,
that is to say, eye element, visible-data element, eye-consciousness ele-
ment; ear element, sound element, ear-consciousness element; nose ele-
ment, odour element, nose-consciousness element; tongue element, fla-
vour element, tongue-consciousness element; body element, tangible-
data element, body-consciousness element; mind element, mental-data
element, mind-consciousness element.
18. Herein:
(1) As to meaning, (2) characteristic, et cetera,
(3) Order, (4) just so much, and (5) reckoning,
(6) Then condition, and (7) how to be seen—
Thus should be known the exposition.
19. 1. Herein, as to meaning: first the exposition of 'eye', etc., should
be known individually as to meaning in the way beginning: It relishes
(cakkhati), thus it is an eye (cakkhu); it makes visible (rupayati), thus it
is a visible datum; [485] and the consciousness of the eye is eye-con-
sciousness (see §3).
As to meaning in general: (a) it sorts out (vidahati), (b) it assorts
[well] (dhiyate), (c) a sorting out (vidhana), (d) it is sorted out (vidhiyate)
by means of that, or (e) it causes to be sorted (dhiyati) here, thus it is a
sort (dhatu = element).
10
20. (a) The mundane sorts (elements), when defined according to their
instrumentality, sort out (vidahanti) the suffering of the round of re-
births, which is of many kinds, just as the 'sorts' (ores—see Ch. XI, §20)
of gold and silver, etc., do gold and silver, and so on. (b) They assort
[well] (dhiyante) with living beings, as a burden does with burden bear-
ers; they are borne (dhariyanti), is the meaning, (c) And they are only
mere sortings out (vidhana) of suffering because no mastery is exer-
cisable over them, (d) And by means of them as instruments the suffer-
ing of the round of rebirths is continually being sorted out (anuvidhiyati)
by living beings, (e) And that [suffering], being sorted out (vihita) in this
way, is caused to be sorted (dhiyati) into those [sorts (elements)]; it is
caused to be placed in them, is the meaning. So each thing (dhamma)
among those beginning with the eye is called a 'sort' (dhatu—element)
in the meaning just stated beginning 'It sorts out, it assorts well'.
21. Furthermore, while the self of the sectarians does not exist with an
individual essence, not so these. These, on the contrary, are elements
(dhatu) since they cause [a state's] own individual essence to be borne
(dharenti).11
And just as in the world the variously-coloured constituents
of marble such as malachite, cinnabar, etc., are called 'elements', so too
these [beginning with the eye] are elements like those;
12
for they are the
'variously-coloured' constituents of knowledge and the knowable. Or
just as the general term 'elements' is used for juices, blood, etc., which
are constituents of the collection called the 'carcase', when they are
distinguished from each other by dissimilarity of characteristic, so too
the general term 'elements' should be understood as used for the con-
stituents of the selfhood (personality) called 'the pentad of aggregates';
for these things beginning with the eye are distinguished from each other
by dissimilarity of characteristic.
22. Furthermore, 'element' is a term for what is soulless; and for the
purpose of abolishing the perception of soul the Blessed One accord-
ingly taught the elements in such passages as 'Bhikkhu, this man has six
elements' (M.iii,239). Therefore the exposition should be understood
here firstly as to meaning thus: It is an eye and that is an element, thus it
is the eye-element.... It is mind-consciousness and that is an element,
thus it is mind-consciousness element.
23. 2. As to characteristic, et cetera: here too the exposition should be
understood as to the characteristic, etc., of the eye, and so on. And that
should be understood in the way given above in the Description of the
Aggregates (Ch. XIV, §§37ff.).
24. 3. As to order: here too, from among 'order of arising', etc., men-
tioned above (Ch. XIV, §211), only 'order of teaching' is appropriate. It
is set forth according to successive definition of cause and fruit.
13
For the
pair, eye element and visible-data element, are the cause and eye-con-
sciousness element is the fruit. So in each case.
25. 4. As to just so much: as just so many. What is meant is this: in
various places in the Suttas and Abhidhamma the following as well as
other [486] elements are met with—the illumination element, beauty
element, base-consisting-of-boundless-space element, base-consisting-of-
boundless-consciousness element, base-consisting-of-nothingness element,
base-consisting-of-neither-perception-nor-non-perception element, cessa-
tion-of-perception-and-feeling element (S.ii,150); sense-desire element,
ill-will element, cruelty element, renunciation element, non-ill-will ele-
ment, non-cruelty element (Vbh. 86); bodily-pleasure element, bodily-
pain element, joy element, grief element, equanimity element, ignorance
element (Vbh. 85); initiative element, launching element, persistence ele<*
ment (S.v,66); inferior element, medium element, superior element
(D.iii,215); earth element, water element, fire element, air element, space
element, consciousness element (Vbh. 82); formed element, unformed
element (M.iii,63); the world of many elements, of various elements
(M.i,70)—that being so, why is the classification only made according to
these eighteen instead of making it according to all of them? Because as
far as individual essence is concerned all existing elements are included
in that [classification].
26. The visible data-element itself is the illumination element. The beauty
element is bound up with visible-data and so on. Why? Because it is the
sign of the beautiful. The sign of the beautiful is the beauty element and
that does not exist apart from visible data and so on. Or since the visible
data, etc., that are objects consisting of profitable kamma-result are them-
selves the beauty element, that is thus merely visible data and so on. As
regards the base-consisting-of-boundless-space element, etc., the con-
sciousness is mind-consciousness element only, while the remaining
[states] are the mental-data element. But the cessation-of-perception-
and-feeling element does not exist as an individual essence; for that is
merely the cessation of two elements.
14
27. The sense-desire element is either merely the mental-data element,
according as it is said, * Herein, what is the sense-desire element? It is the
thought, applied thought,... wrong thinking, that is associated with sense
desires' (Von. 86), or it is the eighteen elements, according as it is said:
'Making the Avici hell the lower limit and making the Paranimmi-
tavasavatti deities the upper limit, the aggregates, elements, bases, materi-
ality, feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness that are in this
interval, that belong here, are included here: these are called the sense-
desire element' (Vbh. 86). [487]
28. The renunciation element is the mental-data element; also, because
of the passage 'Also all profitable states are the renunciation element'
(Vbh. 86), it is the mind-consciousness element too. The elements of ill-
will, cruelty, non-ill-will, non-cruelty, bodily pleasure, bodily pain, joy,
grief, equanimity, ignorance, initiative, launching, and persistence are
the mental-data element too.
29. The inferior, medium, and superior elements are the eighteen ele-
ments themselves; for inferior eyes, etc., are the inferior element, and
medium and superior eyes, etc., are the medium and superior elements.
But literally speaking, the unprofitable mental-data element and mind-
consciousness element are the inferior element; both these elements,
when mundane profitable or mundane indeterminate, and the eye ele-
ment, etc., are the medium element; but the supramundane mental-data
element and mind-consciousness element are the superior element.
30. The earth, fire, and air elements are the tangible-data element; the
water element and the space element are the mental-data element only;
'consciousness element' is a term summarizing the seven consciousness
elements beginning with eye-consciousness.
31. Seventeen elements and one part of the mental-data element are the
formed element; but the unformed element is one part of the mental-data
element only. The * world of many elements, of various elements' is
merely what is divided up into the eighteen elements.
So they are given as eighteen because, as to individual essence, all
existing elements are included in that [classification].
32. Furthermore, they are stated as eighteen for the purpose of eliminat-
ing the kind of perception to be found in those who perceive a soul in
consciousness, the individual essence of which is cognizing; for there
are beings who perceive a soul in consciousness, the individual essence
of which is cognizing. And so the Blessed One, who was desirous of
eliminating the long-inherent perception of a soul, has expounded the
eighteen elements thus making evident to them not only consciousness's
multiplicity when classed as eye-, ear- nose- tongue- and body-con-
sciousness elements, and mind, and mind-consciousness elements, but
also its impermanence, which is due to its existing in dependence on
eye-cum-visible-data, etc., as conditions.
33. What is more, the inclinations of those who are teachable in this
way [have to be considered]; and in order to suit the inclinations of
beings who are teachable by a teaching that is neither too brief nor too
long, eighteen are expounded. For:
By methods terse and long as need may be
He taught the Dhamma, so that from beings' hearts,
If they have wit to learn, the dark departs
Melting in the Good Dhamma's brilliancy.
This is how the exposition should be understood here as to just so
much.
34. 5. As to reckoning: the eye-element, firstly, is reckoned as one thing
according to kind, [488] namely, eye sensitivity. Likewise, the ear, nose,
tongue, body, visible-data, sound, odour, and flavour elements are reck-
oned as ear sensitivity, and so on (Ch. XIV, §37ff.). But the tangible-
data element is reckoned as three things, namely, earth, fire and air. The
eye-consciousness element is reckoned as two things, namely, profitable
and unprofitable kamma-result; and likewise the consciousness elements
of the ear, nose, tongue, and body. The mind element is reckoned as
three things, namely, five-door adverting (70), and profitable (39) and
unprofitable (55) resultant receiving. The mental-data element as twenty
things, namely, three immaterial aggregates, sixteen kinds of subtle mat-
ter, and the unformed element (see Vbh. 88).
15
Mind-consciousness ele-
ment is reckoned as seventy-six things, namely, the remaining profitable,
unprofitable, and indeterminate consciousnesses. This is how the exposi-
tion should be understood as to reckoning.
35. 6. Condition: the eye element, firstly, is a condition, in six ways,
namely, dissociation, prenascence, presence, non-disappearance, support,
and faculty for the eye-consciousness element. The visible-data element
is a condition, in four ways, namely, prenascence, presence, non-disap-
pearance, and object, for the eye-consciousness element. Similarly with
the ear-element and the sound element for the ear-consciousness element
and so on,
36. The adverting mind element (70) is a condition, as the five condi-
tions, namely, proximity, contiguity, absence, disappearance, and prox-
imity-decisive-support, for these five [beginning with the eye-conscious-
ness element]. And these five are so too for the receiving mind element
((39), (55)). And so is the receiving mind element for the investigating
mind-consciousness element ((40), (41), (56)). And so is that too for the
determining mind-consciousness element (71). And so is the determining
mind-consciousness element for impulsion mind-consciousness element.
But the impulsion mind-consciousness element is a condition, as the six
conditions, namely, as the five already stated and as repetition condition,
for the immediately following impulsion mind-consciousness element.
This, firstly, is the way in the case of the five doors.
37. In the case of the mind door, however, the life-continuum mind-con-
sciousness element is a condition, as the previously-stated five condi-
tions, for the adverting mind-consciousness element (71). And the ad-
verting mind-consciousness element is so for the impulsion mind-con-
sciousness element.
38. The mental-data element is a condition in many ways, as conas-
cence, mutuality, support, association, presence, non-disappearance, etc.,
16
for the seven consciousness elements. The eye element, etc., and some of
the mental-data element,
17
are conditions, as object condition, etc., for
some of the mind-consciousness element.
39. And not only are the eye and visible data, etc., conditions for the
eye-consciousness element, etc., [respectively], but also light, etc., are
too. Hence the former teachers said: 'Eye-consciousness arises due to
eye, visible datum, light, and attention. [489] Ear-consciousness arises
due to ear, sound, aperture, and attention. Nose-consciousness arises due
to nose, odour, air, and attention. Tongue-consciousness arises due to
tongue, flavour, water, and attention. Body-consciousness arises due to
body, tangible datum, earth, and attention. Mind-consciousness arises
due to life-continuum mind,
18
mental datum, and attention'.
This is in brief. But the kinds of conditions will be explained in
detail in the Description of Dependent Origination (Ch. XVII, §66ff.).
This is how the exposition should be understood here as to condi-
tion.
40. 7. How to be seen: the meaning is that here too the exposition
should be understood as to how they are to be regarded. For all formed
elements are to be regarded as secluded from the past and future,19 as
void of any lastingness, beauty, pleasure, or self, and as existing in
dependence on conditions.
41. Individually, however, the eye element should be regarded as the
surface of a drum, the visible-data element as the drumstick, and the eye-
consciousness element as the sound. Likewise, the eye element should
be regarded as the surface of a looking-glass, the visible-data element as
the face, and the eye-consciousness element as the image of the face. Or
else, the eye-element should be regarded as sugarcane or sesamum, the
visible-data element as the [sugarcane] mill or the [sesamum] wheel rod,
and the eye-consciousness element as the sugarcane juice or the ses-
amum oil. Likewise, the eye-element should be regarded as the lower
fire-stick, the visible-data element as the upper fire-stick,
20
and the eye-
consciousness element as the fire. So too in the case of the ear and so on.
42. The mind element, however, should be regarded as the forerunner
and follower of eye-consciousness, etc., as that arises.
As to the mental-data element, the feeling aggregate should be re-
garded as a dart and as a stake, the perception and formations aggregates
as a disease owing to their connexion with the dart and stake of feeling.
Or the ordinary man's perception should be regarded as an empty fist be-
cause it produces pain through [disappointed] desire; or as a forest deer
[with a scarecrow] because it apprehends the sign incorrectly. And the
formations aggregate should be regarded as men who throw one into a
pit of hot coals, because they throw one into rebirth-linking, or as thieves
pursued by the king's men because they are pursued by the pains of
birth; or as the seeds of a poison-tree, because they are the root-cause of
the aggregates' continuity, which brings all kinds of harm. And material-
ity should be regarded as a razor-wheel (see Ja.iv,3), because it is the
sign of various kinds of dangers.
The unformed element, however, should be regarded as deathless, as
peace, as safety. Why? Because it is the opposite of all ill. [490]
43. The mind-consciousness element should be regarded as a forest mon-
key, because it does not stay still on its object; or as a wild horse,
because it it difficult to tame; or as a stick flung into the air, because it
falls anyhow; or as a stage dancer, because it adopts the guise of the
various defilements such as greed and hate.
The fifteenth chapter called 'The Descrip-
tion of the Bases and Elements' in the Treatise
on the Development of Understanding in the
Path of Purification composed for the purpose
of gladdening good people.
OF PURIFICATION
(VISUDDHIMAGGA)
BY
BHADANTACARIYA BUDDHAGHOSA
Translated from the Pali
by
BHIKKHU NANAMOLI
FIFTH EDITION
BUDDHIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY
Kandy Sri Lanka
[B. DESCRIPTION OF THE ELEMENTS]
17. The "elements' next to that (XIV, §32) are the eighteen elements,
that is to say, eye element, visible-data element, eye-consciousness ele-
ment; ear element, sound element, ear-consciousness element; nose ele-
ment, odour element, nose-consciousness element; tongue element, fla-
vour element, tongue-consciousness element; body element, tangible-
data element, body-consciousness element; mind element, mental-data
element, mind-consciousness element.
18. Herein:
(1) As to meaning, (2) characteristic, et cetera,
(3) Order, (4) just so much, and (5) reckoning,
(6) Then condition, and (7) how to be seen—
Thus should be known the exposition.
19. 1. Herein, as to meaning: first the exposition of 'eye', etc., should
be known individually as to meaning in the way beginning: It relishes
(cakkhati), thus it is an eye (cakkhu); it makes visible (rupayati), thus it
is a visible datum; [485] and the consciousness of the eye is eye-con-
sciousness (see §3).
As to meaning in general: (a) it sorts out (vidahati), (b) it assorts
[well] (dhiyate), (c) a sorting out (vidhana), (d) it is sorted out (vidhiyate)
by means of that, or (e) it causes to be sorted (dhiyati) here, thus it is a
sort (dhatu = element).
10
20. (a) The mundane sorts (elements), when defined according to their
instrumentality, sort out (vidahanti) the suffering of the round of re-
births, which is of many kinds, just as the 'sorts' (ores—see Ch. XI, §20)
of gold and silver, etc., do gold and silver, and so on. (b) They assort
[well] (dhiyante) with living beings, as a burden does with burden bear-
ers; they are borne (dhariyanti), is the meaning, (c) And they are only
mere sortings out (vidhana) of suffering because no mastery is exer-
cisable over them, (d) And by means of them as instruments the suffer-
ing of the round of rebirths is continually being sorted out (anuvidhiyati)
by living beings, (e) And that [suffering], being sorted out (vihita) in this
way, is caused to be sorted (dhiyati) into those [sorts (elements)]; it is
caused to be placed in them, is the meaning. So each thing (dhamma)
among those beginning with the eye is called a 'sort' (dhatu—element)
in the meaning just stated beginning 'It sorts out, it assorts well'.
21. Furthermore, while the self of the sectarians does not exist with an
individual essence, not so these. These, on the contrary, are elements
(dhatu) since they cause [a state's] own individual essence to be borne
(dharenti).11
And just as in the world the variously-coloured constituents
of marble such as malachite, cinnabar, etc., are called 'elements', so too
these [beginning with the eye] are elements like those;
12
for they are the
'variously-coloured' constituents of knowledge and the knowable. Or
just as the general term 'elements' is used for juices, blood, etc., which
are constituents of the collection called the 'carcase', when they are
distinguished from each other by dissimilarity of characteristic, so too
the general term 'elements' should be understood as used for the con-
stituents of the selfhood (personality) called 'the pentad of aggregates';
for these things beginning with the eye are distinguished from each other
by dissimilarity of characteristic.
22. Furthermore, 'element' is a term for what is soulless; and for the
purpose of abolishing the perception of soul the Blessed One accord-
ingly taught the elements in such passages as 'Bhikkhu, this man has six
elements' (M.iii,239). Therefore the exposition should be understood
here firstly as to meaning thus: It is an eye and that is an element, thus it
is the eye-element.... It is mind-consciousness and that is an element,
thus it is mind-consciousness element.
23. 2. As to characteristic, et cetera: here too the exposition should be
understood as to the characteristic, etc., of the eye, and so on. And that
should be understood in the way given above in the Description of the
Aggregates (Ch. XIV, §§37ff.).
24. 3. As to order: here too, from among 'order of arising', etc., men-
tioned above (Ch. XIV, §211), only 'order of teaching' is appropriate. It
is set forth according to successive definition of cause and fruit.
13
For the
pair, eye element and visible-data element, are the cause and eye-con-
sciousness element is the fruit. So in each case.
25. 4. As to just so much: as just so many. What is meant is this: in
various places in the Suttas and Abhidhamma the following as well as
other [486] elements are met with—the illumination element, beauty
element, base-consisting-of-boundless-space element, base-consisting-of-
boundless-consciousness element, base-consisting-of-nothingness element,
base-consisting-of-neither-perception-nor-non-perception element, cessa-
tion-of-perception-and-feeling element (S.ii,150); sense-desire element,
ill-will element, cruelty element, renunciation element, non-ill-will ele-
ment, non-cruelty element (Vbh. 86); bodily-pleasure element, bodily-
pain element, joy element, grief element, equanimity element, ignorance
element (Vbh. 85); initiative element, launching element, persistence ele<*
ment (S.v,66); inferior element, medium element, superior element
(D.iii,215); earth element, water element, fire element, air element, space
element, consciousness element (Vbh. 82); formed element, unformed
element (M.iii,63); the world of many elements, of various elements
(M.i,70)—that being so, why is the classification only made according to
these eighteen instead of making it according to all of them? Because as
far as individual essence is concerned all existing elements are included
in that [classification].
26. The visible data-element itself is the illumination element. The beauty
element is bound up with visible-data and so on. Why? Because it is the
sign of the beautiful. The sign of the beautiful is the beauty element and
that does not exist apart from visible data and so on. Or since the visible
data, etc., that are objects consisting of profitable kamma-result are them-
selves the beauty element, that is thus merely visible data and so on. As
regards the base-consisting-of-boundless-space element, etc., the con-
sciousness is mind-consciousness element only, while the remaining
[states] are the mental-data element. But the cessation-of-perception-
and-feeling element does not exist as an individual essence; for that is
merely the cessation of two elements.
14
27. The sense-desire element is either merely the mental-data element,
according as it is said, * Herein, what is the sense-desire element? It is the
thought, applied thought,... wrong thinking, that is associated with sense
desires' (Von. 86), or it is the eighteen elements, according as it is said:
'Making the Avici hell the lower limit and making the Paranimmi-
tavasavatti deities the upper limit, the aggregates, elements, bases, materi-
ality, feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness that are in this
interval, that belong here, are included here: these are called the sense-
desire element' (Vbh. 86). [487]
28. The renunciation element is the mental-data element; also, because
of the passage 'Also all profitable states are the renunciation element'
(Vbh. 86), it is the mind-consciousness element too. The elements of ill-
will, cruelty, non-ill-will, non-cruelty, bodily pleasure, bodily pain, joy,
grief, equanimity, ignorance, initiative, launching, and persistence are
the mental-data element too.
29. The inferior, medium, and superior elements are the eighteen ele-
ments themselves; for inferior eyes, etc., are the inferior element, and
medium and superior eyes, etc., are the medium and superior elements.
But literally speaking, the unprofitable mental-data element and mind-
consciousness element are the inferior element; both these elements,
when mundane profitable or mundane indeterminate, and the eye ele-
ment, etc., are the medium element; but the supramundane mental-data
element and mind-consciousness element are the superior element.
30. The earth, fire, and air elements are the tangible-data element; the
water element and the space element are the mental-data element only;
'consciousness element' is a term summarizing the seven consciousness
elements beginning with eye-consciousness.
31. Seventeen elements and one part of the mental-data element are the
formed element; but the unformed element is one part of the mental-data
element only. The * world of many elements, of various elements' is
merely what is divided up into the eighteen elements.
So they are given as eighteen because, as to individual essence, all
existing elements are included in that [classification].
32. Furthermore, they are stated as eighteen for the purpose of eliminat-
ing the kind of perception to be found in those who perceive a soul in
consciousness, the individual essence of which is cognizing; for there
are beings who perceive a soul in consciousness, the individual essence
of which is cognizing. And so the Blessed One, who was desirous of
eliminating the long-inherent perception of a soul, has expounded the
eighteen elements thus making evident to them not only consciousness's
multiplicity when classed as eye-, ear- nose- tongue- and body-con-
sciousness elements, and mind, and mind-consciousness elements, but
also its impermanence, which is due to its existing in dependence on
eye-cum-visible-data, etc., as conditions.
33. What is more, the inclinations of those who are teachable in this
way [have to be considered]; and in order to suit the inclinations of
beings who are teachable by a teaching that is neither too brief nor too
long, eighteen are expounded. For:
By methods terse and long as need may be
He taught the Dhamma, so that from beings' hearts,
If they have wit to learn, the dark departs
Melting in the Good Dhamma's brilliancy.
This is how the exposition should be understood here as to just so
much.
34. 5. As to reckoning: the eye-element, firstly, is reckoned as one thing
according to kind, [488] namely, eye sensitivity. Likewise, the ear, nose,
tongue, body, visible-data, sound, odour, and flavour elements are reck-
oned as ear sensitivity, and so on (Ch. XIV, §37ff.). But the tangible-
data element is reckoned as three things, namely, earth, fire and air. The
eye-consciousness element is reckoned as two things, namely, profitable
and unprofitable kamma-result; and likewise the consciousness elements
of the ear, nose, tongue, and body. The mind element is reckoned as
three things, namely, five-door adverting (70), and profitable (39) and
unprofitable (55) resultant receiving. The mental-data element as twenty
things, namely, three immaterial aggregates, sixteen kinds of subtle mat-
ter, and the unformed element (see Vbh. 88).
15
Mind-consciousness ele-
ment is reckoned as seventy-six things, namely, the remaining profitable,
unprofitable, and indeterminate consciousnesses. This is how the exposi-
tion should be understood as to reckoning.
35. 6. Condition: the eye element, firstly, is a condition, in six ways,
namely, dissociation, prenascence, presence, non-disappearance, support,
and faculty for the eye-consciousness element. The visible-data element
is a condition, in four ways, namely, prenascence, presence, non-disap-
pearance, and object, for the eye-consciousness element. Similarly with
the ear-element and the sound element for the ear-consciousness element
and so on,
36. The adverting mind element (70) is a condition, as the five condi-
tions, namely, proximity, contiguity, absence, disappearance, and prox-
imity-decisive-support, for these five [beginning with the eye-conscious-
ness element]. And these five are so too for the receiving mind element
((39), (55)). And so is the receiving mind element for the investigating
mind-consciousness element ((40), (41), (56)). And so is that too for the
determining mind-consciousness element (71). And so is the determining
mind-consciousness element for impulsion mind-consciousness element.
But the impulsion mind-consciousness element is a condition, as the six
conditions, namely, as the five already stated and as repetition condition,
for the immediately following impulsion mind-consciousness element.
This, firstly, is the way in the case of the five doors.
37. In the case of the mind door, however, the life-continuum mind-con-
sciousness element is a condition, as the previously-stated five condi-
tions, for the adverting mind-consciousness element (71). And the ad-
verting mind-consciousness element is so for the impulsion mind-con-
sciousness element.
38. The mental-data element is a condition in many ways, as conas-
cence, mutuality, support, association, presence, non-disappearance, etc.,
16
for the seven consciousness elements. The eye element, etc., and some of
the mental-data element,
17
are conditions, as object condition, etc., for
some of the mind-consciousness element.
39. And not only are the eye and visible data, etc., conditions for the
eye-consciousness element, etc., [respectively], but also light, etc., are
too. Hence the former teachers said: 'Eye-consciousness arises due to
eye, visible datum, light, and attention. [489] Ear-consciousness arises
due to ear, sound, aperture, and attention. Nose-consciousness arises due
to nose, odour, air, and attention. Tongue-consciousness arises due to
tongue, flavour, water, and attention. Body-consciousness arises due to
body, tangible datum, earth, and attention. Mind-consciousness arises
due to life-continuum mind,
18
mental datum, and attention'.
This is in brief. But the kinds of conditions will be explained in
detail in the Description of Dependent Origination (Ch. XVII, §66ff.).
This is how the exposition should be understood here as to condi-
tion.
40. 7. How to be seen: the meaning is that here too the exposition
should be understood as to how they are to be regarded. For all formed
elements are to be regarded as secluded from the past and future,19 as
void of any lastingness, beauty, pleasure, or self, and as existing in
dependence on conditions.
41. Individually, however, the eye element should be regarded as the
surface of a drum, the visible-data element as the drumstick, and the eye-
consciousness element as the sound. Likewise, the eye element should
be regarded as the surface of a looking-glass, the visible-data element as
the face, and the eye-consciousness element as the image of the face. Or
else, the eye-element should be regarded as sugarcane or sesamum, the
visible-data element as the [sugarcane] mill or the [sesamum] wheel rod,
and the eye-consciousness element as the sugarcane juice or the ses-
amum oil. Likewise, the eye-element should be regarded as the lower
fire-stick, the visible-data element as the upper fire-stick,
20
and the eye-
consciousness element as the fire. So too in the case of the ear and so on.
42. The mind element, however, should be regarded as the forerunner
and follower of eye-consciousness, etc., as that arises.
As to the mental-data element, the feeling aggregate should be re-
garded as a dart and as a stake, the perception and formations aggregates
as a disease owing to their connexion with the dart and stake of feeling.
Or the ordinary man's perception should be regarded as an empty fist be-
cause it produces pain through [disappointed] desire; or as a forest deer
[with a scarecrow] because it apprehends the sign incorrectly. And the
formations aggregate should be regarded as men who throw one into a
pit of hot coals, because they throw one into rebirth-linking, or as thieves
pursued by the king's men because they are pursued by the pains of
birth; or as the seeds of a poison-tree, because they are the root-cause of
the aggregates' continuity, which brings all kinds of harm. And material-
ity should be regarded as a razor-wheel (see Ja.iv,3), because it is the
sign of various kinds of dangers.
The unformed element, however, should be regarded as deathless, as
peace, as safety. Why? Because it is the opposite of all ill. [490]
43. The mind-consciousness element should be regarded as a forest mon-
key, because it does not stay still on its object; or as a wild horse,
because it it difficult to tame; or as a stick flung into the air, because it
falls anyhow; or as a stage dancer, because it adopts the guise of the
various defilements such as greed and hate.
The fifteenth chapter called 'The Descrip-
tion of the Bases and Elements' in the Treatise
on the Development of Understanding in the
Path of Purification composed for the purpose
of gladdening good people.
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