Visuddhimagga

Contents

Summary

The Visuddhimagga is composed of three sections, which discuss: 1) Sīla (ethics or discipline); 2) Samādhi (meditative concentration); 3) Pañña (understanding or wisdom).

• The first section (part 1) explains the rules of discipline, and the method for finding a correct temple to practice, or how to meet a good teacher.
• The second section (part 2) describes samatha practice, object by object (see Kammatthana for the list of the forty traditional objects). It mentions different stages of concentration.
• The third section (part 3-7) is a description of the five skandhas (aggregates), ayatanas, the Four Noble Truths, dependent origination (Pratitya-samutpada), and the practice of vipassana through the development of wisdom. It emphasizes different forms of knowledge emerging because of the practice. This part shows a great analytical effort specific to Buddhist philosophy.

Seven Stages of Purification

This comparison between practice and "seven relay chariots" points at the goal. Each purity is needed to attain the next. They are often referred to as the "Seven Stages of Purification" (satta-visuddhi):

1. Purification of Conduct (sīla-visuddhi)
2. Purification of Mind (citta-visuddhi)
3. Purification of View (ditthi-visuddhi)
4. Purification by Overcoming Doubt (kankha-vitarana-visuddhi)
5. Purification by Knowledge and Vision of What Is Path and Not Path (maggamagga-ñanadassana-visuddhi)
6. Purification by Knowledge and Vision of the Course of Practice (patipada-ñanadassana-visuddhi)
   1. Knowledge of contemplation of rise and fall (udayabbayanupassana-nana)
   2. Knowledge of contemplation of dissolution (bhanganupassana-nana)
   3. Knowledge of appearance as terror (bhayatupatthana-nana)
   4. Knowledge of contemplation of danger (adinavanupassana-nana)
   5. Knowledge of contemplation of dispassion (nibbidanupassana-nana)
   6. Knowledge of desire for deliverance (muncitukamyata-nana)
   7. Knowledge of contemplation of reflection (patisankhanupassana-nana)
   8. Knowledge of equanimity about formations (sankharupekka-nana)
   9. Conformity knowledge (anuloma-nana)
7. Purification by Knowledge and Vision (ñanadassana-visuddhi)
   1. Change of lineage
   2. The first path and fruit
   3. The second path and fruit
   4. The third path and fruit
   5. The fourth path and fruit

The "Purification by Knowledge and Vision" is the culmination of the practice, in four stages leading to liberation and Nirvana. The emphasis in this system is on understanding the three marks of existence, dukkha, anatta, anicca. This emphasis is recognizable in the value that is given to vipassana over samatha in the contemporary vipassana movement.

Siddhis

According to scholars, the Visuddhimagga is one of the relatively rare texts within the extensive Jain, Buddhist, and Hindu literary traditions to provide explicit descriptions of how spiritual practitioners were believed to develop and exercise supernormal abilities. The text describes abilities such as flying through the air, passing through solid obstructions, entering the ground and walking on water, which are explained in terms of transforming the perception or manifestation of one element, such as earth, into another, such as air. According to the text, mastery of kasina meditation is a prerequisite for developing such abilities. Dipa Ma, who trained in practices associated with the Visuddhimagga, was reported by her students and biographers to have demonstrated such abilities.

Influence

Traditional Theravada

The Visuddhimagga is considered the most important Theravada text outside of the Tipitaka canon of scriptures, along with the Milindapañha. According to Nanamoli Bhikkhu, the Visuddhimagga is "the hub of a complete and coherent method of exegesis of the Tipitaka, using the ‘Abhidhamma method' as it is called. And it sets out detailed practical instructions for developing purification of mind."

The work left traces in the Buddhist epigraphy of mainland Southeast Asia. Eng Jin Ooi and Peter Skilling record five verses inscribed on an octagonal pillar found with a Dvaravati-period wheel of the law at Chai Nat in Thailand. The same verses recur in the Visuddhimagga and in Buddhaghosa's Sammohavinodanī, and in Mahānāma's Saddhammapakāsinī, which they place in the early sixth century. They also stand in the Sāratthadīpanī, which is later than the inscription and which they assign to the second half of the twelfth century. The spokes of the same wheel carry keywords of a sixteen-aspect analysis of the four realities. Because that passage stands both in the Visuddhimagga and in the Paṭisambhidāmagga, they say they cannot determine which of the two the inscription draws on.

Contemporary Theravada

The Visuddhimagga is one of the main texts on which the contemporary vipassana method (and the vipassana movement itself) is based, together with the Satipatthana Sutta. Yet, its emphasis on kasina-meditation and its claim of the possibility of "dry insight" has also been criticised and rejected by some contemporary Theravada scholars and vipassana-teachers.

According to Thanissaro Bhikkhu, "the Visuddhimagga uses a very different paradigm for concentration from what you find in the Canon." Bhante Henepola Gunaratana also notes that what "the suttas say is not the same as what the Visuddhimagga says [...] they are actually different," leading to a divergence between a [traditional] scholarly understanding and a practical understanding based on meditative experience. Gunaratana further notes that Buddhaghosa invented several key meditation terms which are not to be found in the suttas, such as "parikamma samadhi (preparatory concentration), upacara samadhi (access concentration), appanasamadhi (absorption concentration)." Gunaratana also notes that Buddhaghosa's emphasis on kasina-meditation is not to be found in the suttas, where dhyana is always combined with mindfulness.

Bhikkhu Sujato has argued that certain views regarding Buddhist meditation expounded in the Visuddhimagga are a "distortion of the Suttas" since it denies the necessity of jhana. The Australian monk Shravasti Dhammika is also critical of contemporary practice based on this work. He concludes that Buddhaghosa did not believe that following the practice set forth in the Visuddhimagga will really lead him to Nirvana, basing himself on the postscript to the Visuddhimagga:

Even Buddhaghosa did not really believe that Theravada practice could lead to Nirvana. His Visuddhimagga is supposed to be a detailed, step by step guide to enlightenment. And yet in the postscript [...] he says he hopes that the merit he has earned by writing the Vishuddhimagga will allow him to be reborn in heaven, abide there until Metteyya (Maitreya) appears, hear his teaching and then attain enlightenment.

However, according to the Burmese scholar Venerable Pandita, the postscript to the Visuddhimagga is not by Buddhaghosa.

Editions

Printed Pali editions

• Caroline A. F. Rhys Davids, Visuddhimagga Pali Text Society, London, 1920 & 1921. (Latin script)
• Warren, H. C. & Kosambi, D. D. Visuddhimagga of Buddhaghosâcariya, Harvard Oriental Series, Vol. 41, 1950.(Latin script)
• Hewavitarne Bequest edition, Colombo, Sri Lanka (Sinhala script)

South-East Asia

Sinhala

• Sinhala Visuddhimargaya, Pandita Matara Sri Dharmavamsa Sthavira, Matara, Sri Lanka, 1953 (Sinhala)

Burmese

• Hanthawaddy Press edition, Rangoon, Myanmar (Burmese script)

Thai

• Royal Siamese edition, Bangkok, Thailand (Thai script)
• คัมภีร์วิสุทธิมรรค (Khamphi Wisutthimak), Somdej Phra Buddhacarya (Ard Asabhamahathera), sixth edition. Bangkok: Mahachulalongkornrajvidyalaya University, B.E. 2548 (2005). ISBN 974-91641-5-6

English translations

• The Path of Purity, Pe Maung (trans.), Pali Text Society, London, 3 vols., 1922–31 Part 1: Of Virtue Archived 2021-07-09 at the Wayback Machine, Part 2: Of Concentration Archived 2021-07-09 at the Wayback Machine & Part 3: Of Understanding Archived 2021-07-09 at the Wayback Machine
• Bhikkhu Nyanamoli (trans.), The Path of Purification, Visuddhimagga, Buddhist Publication Society, Kandy 2011, ISBN 955-24-0023-6.
  • This translation is available in several digital formats (PDF, HTML, ePub) from https://eudoxos.github.io/vism
• Buddhist Meditation, Edward Conze (trans.), NB: Partial translation, 2002, ISBN 81-215-0781-2

Other European translations

• Der Weg zur Reinheit, Nyanatiloka & Verlag Christiani (trans.), Konstanz, 1952 (German)
• Le chemin de la pureté, Christian Maës, Fayard 2002 (Français), ISBN 978-2213607658