Visuddhimagga - Purification by Overcoming Doubt - Ways of discerning cause and condition

THE PATH
OF PURIFICATION
(VISUDDHIMAGGA)
BY
BHADANTACARIYA BUDDHAGHOSA
Translated from the Pali
by
BHIKKHU NANAMOLI
FIFTH EDITION
BUDDHIST PUBLICATION SOCIETY
Kandy Sri Lanka


CHAPTER XIX
PURIFICATION BY OVERCOMING DOUBT
(Kankhavitarana-visuddhi-niddesa)

1. [598] Knowledge established by overcoming doubt about the three
divisions of time by means of discerning the conditions of that same
mentality-materiality is called purification by overcoming doubt'.
[WAYS OF DISCERNING CAUSE AND CONDITION]
2. The bhikkhu who wants to accomplish this sets about seeking the
cause and condition for that mentality-materiality; just as when a skilled
physician encounters a disease he seeks its origin, or just as when a com-
passionate man sees a tender little child lying on its back in the road he
wonders who its parents are.
[NEITHER CREATED BY A CREATOR NOR CAUSELESS]
3. To begin with, he considers thus: 'Firstly this mentality-materiality
is not causeless, because if that were so, it would follow that [having no
causes to differentiate it,] it would be identical everywhere always and
for all. It has no Overlord, etc., because of the non-existence of any
Overlord, etc. (Ch. XVI, §85), over and above mentality-materiality. And
because, if people then argue that mentality-materiality itself is its Over-
lord, etc., then it follows that their mentality-materiality, which they call
the Overlord, etc., would itself be causeless. Consequently there must be
a cause and a condition for it. What are they?'.
4. Having thus directed his attention to mentality-materiality's cause
and condition, he first discerns the cause and condition for the material
body in this way: 'When this body is born it is not born inside a blue, red
or white lotus or water-lily, etc., or inside a store of jewels or pearls,
etc.; on the contrary, like a worm in rotting fish, in a rotting corpse, in
rotting dough, in a drain, in a cesspool, etc., it is born in between the
receptacle for undigested food and the receptacle for digested food, be-
hind the belly lining, in front of the backbone, surrounded by the bowel
and the entrails, in a place that is stinking, disgusting, repulsive and
extremely cramped, being itself stinking, disgusting and repulsive. When
it is bom thus, its causes (root-causes) are the four things, namely, igno-
rance, craving, clinging, and kamma, [599] since it is they that bring
about its birth; and nutriment is its condition, since it is that that con
solidates it. So five things constitute its cause and condition. And of
these, the three beginning with ignorance are the decisive-support for


this body, as the mother is for her infant, and kamma begets it, as the
father does the child; and nutriment sustains it, as the wet-nurse does the
infant'.
[ITS OCCURRENCE IS ALWAYS DUE TO CONDITIONS]
5. After discerning the material body's conditions in this way, he again
discerns the mental body in the way beginning: 'Due to eye and to
visible object eye-consciousness arises' (S.ii,72; M.i,lll).
When he has thus seen that the occurrence of mentality-materiality
is due to conditions, then he sees that, as now, so in the past too its oc-
currence was due to conditions, and in the future too its occurrence will
be due to conditions.
6. When he sees it in this way, all his uncertainty is abandoned, that is
to say, the five kinds of uncertainty about the past stated thus: 'Was I in
the past? Was I not in the past? What was I in the past? How was I in the
past? Having been what, what was I in the past?' (M.i,8); and also the
five kinds of uncertainty about the future stated thus: 'Shall I be in the
future? Shall I not be in the future? What shall I be in the future? How
shall I be in the future? Having been what, what shall I be in the
future?' (M.i,8); and also the six kinds of uncertainty about the present
stated thus: 'Am I? Am I not? What am I? How am I? Whence will this
being have come? Whither will it be bound?' (M.i,8).
[GENERAL AND PARTICULAR CONDITIONS]
7. Another sees the condition for mentality as twofold, according to
what is common to all and to what is not common to all, and that for
materiality as fourfold, according to kamma, and so on.
8. The condition for mentality is twofold, as that which is common to
all and that which is not common to all. Herein, the six doors beginning
with the eye and the six objects beginning with visible data are a condi-
tion-common-to-all for mentality because the occurrence of all kinds [of
mentality] classed as profitable, etc., is due to that [condition]. But atten-
tion, etc., are not common to all; for wise attention, hearing the Good
Dhamma, etc., are a condition only for the profitable, [600] while the
opposite kinds are a condition for the unprofitable. Kamma, etc., are a
condition for the resultant mentality; and the life-continuum, etc., are a
condition for the functional.
9. Kamma, consciousness, temperature and nutriment constitute this
fourfold condition for materiality beginning with kamma. Herein it is
only when it is past that kamma is a condition for kamma-originated
materiality; consciousness is a condition, when it is arising, for con-
sciousness-originated materiality. Temperature and nutriment are condi-


tions at the instant (moment) of their presence for temperature-originated
and nutriment-originated materiality.
1
This is how one man discerns the conditions for mentality-material-
ity.
10. When he has seen that the occurrence of mentality-materiality is due
to conditions in this way, he sees also that, as now, so too in the past its
occurrence was due to conditions, and in the future its occurrence will be
due to conditions. When he sees it in this way, his uncertainty about the
three periods of time is abandoned in the way already stated.
[DEPENDENT ORIGINATION IN REVERSE ORDER]
11. Another, when he has seen that the formations called mentality-
materiality arrive at ageing and that those that have aged dissolve, dis-
cerns mentality-materiality's conditions by means of dependent origina-
tion in reverse order in this way: 'This is called the ageing-and-death of
formations; it comes to be when there is birth, and birth when there is
becoming, and becoming when there is clinging, and clinging when
there is craving, and craving when there is feeling, and feeling when
there is contact, and contact when there is the sixfold base, and the
sixfold base when there is mentality-materiality, and mentality-material-
ity when there is consciousness, and consciousness when there are for-
mations, and formations when there is ignorance'. Then his uncertainty
is abandoned in the way already stated.
[DEPENDENT ORIGINATION IN DIRECT ORDER]
12. Another discerns mentality-materiality's conditions by means of de-
pendent origination in direct order as already shown (Ch. XVII, §29) in
detail, doing so in this way: 'So, with ignorance as condition there are
formations' (M.i,261). Then his uncertainty is abandoned in the way
already stated.
[KAMMA AND KAMMA-RESULT]
13. Another discerns mentality-materiality's conditions by means of the
round of kamma and the round of kamma-result in this way:
'In the previous kamma-process becoming there is delusion, which
is ignorance; there is accumulation, which is formations; there is attach-
ment, which is craving; there is embracing, which is clinging; there is
volition, which is becoming; thus these five things in the previous kamma-
process becoming are conditions for rebirth-linking here [in the present
becoming].
'Here [in the present becoming] there is rebirth-linking, which is
consciousness; there is descent [into the womb], which is mentality-


materiality; there is sensitivity, which is sense base; there is what is
touched, which is contact; there is what is felt, which is feeling; thus
these five things here in the [present] rebirth-process becoming have
their conditions in kamma done in the past.
'Here [in the present becoming] with the maturing of the bases there
is delusion, which is ignorance; there is accumulation, which is forma-
tions; there is attachment, which is craving; there is embracing, which
is clinging; there is volition, which is becoming; thus these five things
here in the [present] kamma-process becoming are conditions for rebirth-
linking in the future.
'In the future there is rebirth-linking, which is consciousness; there
is descent [into the womb], which is mentality-materiality; there is sensi-
tivity, which is sense base; there is what is touched, which is contact;
there is what is felt, which is feeling; thus these five things in the future
rebirth-process becoming have their conditions in kamma done here [in
the present becoming]' (Ps.i,52). [601]
14. Herein, kamma is fourfold: to be experienced here and now, to be
experienced on rebirth, to be experienced in some subsequent becoming,
and lapsed kamma.
2
Of these, (i) the volition, either profitable or unprofitable, of the first
of the seven impulsion consciousnesses in a single cognitive series of
impulsions is called kamma to he experienced here and now: it gives its
result in this same selfhood. But if it cannot do so, it is called (iv) lapsed
kamma (ahosi-kamma), according to the triad described thus, 'There has
been (ahosi) kamma, there has been no kamma-result, there will be no
kamma-result' (see Ps.ii,78). (ii) The volition of the seventh impulsion
that accomplishes its purpose is called kamma to be experienced on
rebirth: it gives its result in the next selfhood. If it cannot do so, it is
called (iv) lapsed kamma in the way already described, (iii) The volition
of the five impulsions between these two is called kamma to be experi-
enced in some subsequent becoming: it gives its result in the future when
it gets the opportunity, and however long the round of rebirths continues
it never becomes lapsed kamma.
15. Another fourfold classification of kamma is this: weighty, habitual,
death-threshold, and kamma [stored up] by being performed.
3
Herein, (v) when there is weighty and unweighty kamma, the weight-
ier, whether profitable or unprofitable, whether kamma consisting in
matricide or kamma of the exalted spheres, takes precedence in ripening,
(vi) Likewise when there is habitual and unhabitual kamma, the more
habitual, whether consisting in good or bad conduct, takes precedence in
ripening, (vii) Death-threshold kamma is that remembered at the time of
death; for when a man near death can remember [kamma], he is born


according to that, (viii) Kamma not included in the foregoing three kinds
that has been often repeated is called kamma [stored up] by being per-
formed. This brings about rebirth-linking if other kinds fail.
16. Another fourfold classification of kamma is this: productive, con-
solidating, frustrating, and supplanting.
4
Herein, (ix) what is called productive is both profitable and unprof-
itable. It produces the material and immaterial aggregates both at rebirth-
linking and during the course of an existence, (x) Consolidating kamma
cannot produce result, but when result has already been produced in the
provision of rebirth-linking by other kamma, it consolidates the pleasure
or pain that arises and makes it last, (xi) And when result has already
been produced in the provision of rebirth-linking by other kamma, frus-
trating kamma frustrates and obstructs the pleasure or pain that arises
and does not allow it to last, (xii) Supplanting kamma is itself both
profitable and unprofitable; [602] and it supplants other, weaker kamma,
prevents its resulting and usurps that kamma's opportunity in order to
cause its own result. But when the opportunity has thus been furnished
by the [other] kamma, it is that [supplanting kamma's] result that is
called arisen.
5
17. The succession of kamma and its result in the twelve classes of
kamma is clear in its true nature only to the Buddhas' 'knowledge of
kamma and its result', which knowledge is not shared by disciples.
6
But
the succession of kamma and its result can be known in part by one
practising insight. That is why this explanation of difference in kamma
shows only the mere headings.
This is how one man discerns mentality-materiality by means of the
round of kamma and the round of kamma-result, applying this twelve-
fold kamma classification to the round of kamma.
18. When he has thus seen by means of the round of kamma and the
round of kamma-result how mentality-materiality's occurrence is due to
a condition, he sees that as now, so in the past, its occurrence was due to
a condition by means of the round of kamma and the round of kamma-
result, and that in the future its occurrence will be due to a condition by
means of the round of kamma and the round of kamma-result. This is
kamma and kamma-result, the round of kamma and the round of kamma-
resulj, the occurrence of kamma and the occurrence of kamma-result, the
continuity of kamma and the continuity of kamma-result, action and the
fruit of action:
Kamma-result proceeds from kamma,
Result has kamma for its source,
Future becoming springs from kamma,
And this is how the world goes round.


19. When he sees thus, he abandons all his uncertainty, that is to say,
the sixteen kinds described in the way beginning 'Was I in the past?'
[see §6].
[NO DOER APART FROM KAMMA AND RESULT]
In all kinds of becoming, generation, destiny, station and abode
there appears only mentality-materiality, which occurs by means of link-
ing of cause with fruit. He sees no doer over and above the doing, no ex-
periencer of the result over and above the occurrence of the result. But
he sees clearly with right understanding that the wise say 'doer' when
there is doing and 'experiencer' when there is experiencing simply as a
mode of common usage.
20. Hence the Ancients said:
'There is no doer of a deed
Or one who reaps the deed's result;
Phenomena alone flow on—
No other view than this is right.
'And so, while kamma and result
Thus causally maintain their round,
As seed and tree succeed in turn,
No first beginning can be shown.
'Nor in the future round of births
Can they be shown not to occur:
Sectarians, not knowing this,
Have failed to gain self-mastery. [603]
'They assume a being, see it as
Eternal or annihilated.
Adopt the sixty-two wrong views,
Each contradicting one another.
'The stream of craving bears them on
Caught in the meshes of their views:
And as the stream thus bears them on
They are not freed from suffering.
'A monk, disciple of the Buddha,
With direct knowledge of this fact
Can penetrate this deep and subtle
Void conditionality.
'There is no kamma in result,
Nor does result exist in kamma;


Though they are void of one another,
There is no fruit without the kamma.
'As fire does not exist inside
The sun, a gem, cowdung, nor yet
Outside them, but is brought to be
By means of its component parts,
'So neither can result be found
Within the kamma, nor without;
Nor does the kamma still persist
[In the result it has produced].
'The kamma of its fruit is void;
No fruit exists yet in the kamma;
And still the fruit is born from it,
Wholly depending on the kamma.
'For here there is no Brahma God,
Creator of the round of births,
Phenomena alone flow on—
Cause and component their condition'.