THE PATH
OF PURIFICATION
(VISUDDHIMAGGA)
BY
BHADANTACARIYA BUDDHAGHOSA
Translated from the Pali
by
BHIKKHU NANAMOLI
FIFTH EDITION
BUDDHIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY
Kandy Sri Lanka
CHAPTER IV
THE EARTH KASINA
(pathavi-kasina-niddesa)
1. [118] Now it was said earlier: After that he should avoid a monas-
tery unfavourable to the development of concentration and go to live in
one that is favourable (Ch. HI, §28). In the first place one who finds it
convenient to live with the teacher in the same monastery can live there
while he is making certain of the meditation subject. If it is inconvenient
there, he can live in another monastery—a suitable one—a quarter or a
half or even a whole league distant. In that case, when he finds he is in
doubt about, or has forgotten, some passage in the meditation subject,
then he should do the duties in the monastery in good time and set out
afterwards, going for alms on the way and arriving at the teacher's
dwelling place after his meal. He should make certain about the medita-
tion subject that day in the teacher's presence. Next day, after paying
homage to the teacher, he should go for alms on his way back and so he
can return to his own dwelling place without fatigue. But one who finds
no convenient place within even a league should clarify all difficulties
about the meditation subject and make quite sure it has been properly
attended to. Then he can even go far away and, avoiding a monastery
unfavourable to development of concentration, live in one that is favour-
able.
[THE EIGHTEEN FAULTS OF A MONASTERY]
2. Herein, one that is unfavourable has any one of eighteen faults.
These are: largeness, newness, dilapidatedness, a nearby road, a pond,
[edible] leaves, flowers, fruits, famousness, a nearby city, nearby timber
trees, nearby arable fields, presence of incompatible persons, a nearby
port of entry, nearness to the border countries, nearness to the frontier of
a kingdom, unsuitability, lack of good friends. [119] One with any of
these faults is not favourable. He should not live there. Why?
3. 1. Firstly, people with varying aims collect in a large monastery.
They conflict with each other and so neglect the duties. The Enlighten-
ment-tree terrace, etc., remain unswept, the water for drinking and wash-
ing is not set out. So if he thinks 'I shall go to the alms-resort village for
alms' and takes his bowl and robe and sets out, perhaps he sees that the
duties have not been done or that a drinking-water pot is empty, and so
the duty has to be done by him unexpectedly. Drinking water must be
maintained. By not doing it he would commit a wrongdoing in the breach
of a duty. But if he does it, he loses time. He arrives too late at the
village and gets nothing because the alms giving is finished. Also, when
he goes into retreat, he is distracted by the loud noises of novices and
young bhikkhus, and by acts of the Community [being carried out].
However, he can live in a large monastery where all the duties are done
and where there are none of the other disturbances.
4. 2. In a new monastery there is much new building activity. People
criticize someone who takes no part in it. But he can live in such a
monastery where the bhikkhus say, 'Let the venerable one do the as-
cetic's duties as much as he likes. We shall see to the building work'.
5. 3. In a dilapidated monastery there is much that needs repair.
People criticize someone who does not see about the repairing of at least
his own lodging. When he sees to the repairs, his meditation subject
suffers.
6. 4. In a monastery with a nearby road, by a main street, visitors
keep arriving night and day. He has to give up his own lodging to those
who come late, and he has to go and live at the root of a tree or on top of
a rock. And next day it is the same. So there is no opportunity [to
practise] his meditation subject. But he can live in one where there is no
such disturbance by visitors.
7. 5. A pond is a rock pool. Numbers of people come there for drink-
ing water. Pupils of city-dwelling elders supported by the royal family
come to do dyeing work. When they ask for vessels, wood, tubs, etc.,
[120] they must be shown where these things are. So he is kept all the
time on the alert.
8. 6. If he goes with his meditation subject to sit by day where there
are many sorts of edible leaves, then women vegetable-gatherers, singing
as they pick leaves nearby, endanger his meditation subject by disturbing
it with sounds of the opposite sex.
7. And where there are many sorts of flowering shrubs in bloom
there is the same danger too.
9. 8. Where there are many sorts of fruits such as mangoes, rose-
apples and jak-fruits, people who want fruits come and ask for them, and
they get angry if he does not give them any, or they take them by force.
When walking in the monastery in the evening he sees them and asks,
'Why do you do so, lay followers?', they abuse him as they please and
even try to evict him.
10. 9. When he lives in a monastery that is famous and renowned in
the world, like Dakkhinagiri,
1
Hatthikucchi, Cetiyagiri or Cittalapabbata,
there are always people coming who want to pay homage to him, sup-
posing that he is an Arahant, which inconveniences him. But if it suits
him, he can live there at night and go elsewhere by day.
11. 10. In one with a nearby city objects of the opposite sex come into
focus. Women-pot carriers go by bumping into him with their jars and
giving no room to pass. Also important people spread out carpets in the
middle of the monastery and sit down.
12. 11. One with nearby timber trees where there are timber trees and
osiers useful for making framework is inconvenient because of the wood-
gatherers there, like the gatherers of branches and fruits already men-
tioned. If there are trees in a monastery, people come and cut them down
to build houses with. When he has come out of his meditation room in
the evening and is walking up and down in the monastery, if he sees
them and asks, 'Why do you do so, lay followers?', they abuse him as
they please and even try to evict him.
13. 12. People make use of one with nearby arable fields, quite sur-
rounded by fields. They make a threshing floor in the middle of the
monastery itself. They thresh corn there, dry it in the forecourts,
2
and
cause great inconvenience. And where there is extensive property be-
longing to the Community, the monastery attendants impound cattle be-
longing to families and deny the water supply [to their crops]. [121]
Then people bring an ear of paddy and show it to the Community saying
'Look at your monastery attendants' work'. For one reason or another he
has to go to the portals of the king or the king's ministers. This [matter
of property belonging to the Community] is included by [a monastery
that is] near arable fields.
14. 13. Presence of incompatible persons: where there are bhikkhus
living who are incompatible and mutually hostile, when they clash and it
is protested, 'Venerable sirs, do not do so', they exclaim, 'We no longer
count now that this refuse-rag wearer has come'.
15. 14. One with a nearby water port of entry or land port of entry3
is
made inconvenient by people constantly arriving respectively by ship or
by caravan and crowding round, asking for space or for drinking water
or salt.
16. 15. In the case of one near the border countries, people have no
trust in the Buddha, etc., there.
16. In one near the frontier of a kingdom there is fear of kings. For
perhaps one king attacks that place, thinking 'It does not submit to my
rule', and the other does likewise, thinking 'It does not submit to my
rule'. A bhikkhu lives there when it is conquered by one king and when
it is conquered by the other. Then they suspect him of spying, and they
bring about his undoing.
17. 17. Unsuitability is that due to the risk of encountering visible
data, etc., of the opposite sex as objects or to haunting by non-human
beings. Here is a story. An elder lived in a forest, it seems. Then an
ogress stood in the door of his leaf hut and sang. The elder came out and
stood in the door. She went to the end of the walk and sang. The elder
went to the end of the walk. She stood in a chasm a hundred fathoms
deep and sang. The elder recoiled. Then she suddenly grabbed him say-
ing, * Venerable sir, it is not just one or two of the likes of you I have
eaten'.
18. 18. Lack of good friends: where it is not possible to find a good
friend as a teacher or the equivalent of a teacher or a preceptor or the
equivalent of a preceptor, the lack of good friends there is a serious fault.
One that has any of those eighteen faults should be understood as
unfavourable. And this is said in the commentaries:
'A large abode, a new abode,
One tumbling down, one near a road,
One with a pond, or leaves, or flowers,
Or fruits, or one that people seek; [122]
In cities, among timber, fields,
Where people quarrel, in a port,
In border lands, on frontiers,
Unsuitableness, and no good friend—
These are the eighteen instances
A wise man needs to recognize
And give them full as wide a berth
As any footpad-hunted road*.
[THE FIVE FACTORS OF THE RESTING PLACE]
19. One that has the five factors beginning with *not too far from and
not too near to' the alms resort is called favourable. For this is said by
the Blessed One: 'And how has a lodging five factors, bhikkhus? Here,
bhikkhus, (1) a lodging is not too far, not too near, and has a path for
going and coming. (2) It is little frequented by day with little sound and
few voices by night. (3) There is little contact with gadflies, flies, wind,
burning [sun] and creeping things. (4) One who lives in that lodging
easily obtains robes, alms food, lodging, and the requisite of medicine as
cure for the sick. (5) In that lodging there are elder bhikkhus living who
are learned, versed in the scriptures, observers of the Dhamma, observers
of the Vinaya, observers of the Codes, and when from time to time one
asks them questions, "How is this, venerable sir? What is the meaning of
this?", then those venerable ones reveal the unrevealed, explain the un-
explained, and remove doubt about the many things that raise doubts.
This, bhikkhus, is how a lodging has five factors' (A.v,15).
These are the details for the clause 'After that he should avoid a
monastery unfavourable to the development of concentration and go to
live in one that is favourable' (Ch. Ill, §28).
[THE LESSER IMPEDIMENTS]
20. Then he should sever the lesser impediments (Ch. HI, §28): one
living in such a favourable monastery should sever any minor impedi-
ments that he may still have, that is to say, long head hair, nails, and
body hair should be cut, mending and patching of old robes should be
done, or those that are soiled should be dyed. If there is a stain on the
bowl the bowl should be baked. The bed, chair, etc., should be cleaned
up. These are the details for the clause 'Then he should sever the lesser
impediments'.
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