清淨道論 義疏通講 · 冊3Visuddhimagga · Exposition Throughout · Vol. 3

This Chapter Stands at a Threshold: Once Virtue Is Established, How Is the Mind Trained to Become Concentrated?

The Big Picture — Why This Chapter Is the Most Important “Table of Contents” to Read First

Once virtue is established (Chapters 1–2), concentration comes next. But the concentration division is vast—eleven chapters, from Chapter 3 through Chapter 13, the largest middle section of the whole work. A reader who opens it can easily become lost among forty methods of cultivation, different meditation signs, and successive absorptions. Chapter 3 was written to keep you from becoming lost. It does not teach which method you should cultivate; it teaches you how to choose: it spreads every method on a single table (the forty meditation subjects; see 03-05), then gives you a method for choosing among them (according to the kind of person you are; see 03-04). Once this chapter is understood, Chapters 4–11 change from a wall into a menu you can read. This chapter also contains the most “empirical” moment in the Visuddhimagga: it does not believe that a single method can treat everyone. Buddhaghosa divides practitioners into six temperaments and prescribes a different medicine for each. Here the whole work most resembles an experienced clinician: different illnesses require different medicines, not a single cure-all. That thought is itself a way of breaking attachment: it first dismantles the fantasy that there must be some supreme method suitable for everyone. 〔What Is Seen〕 This unit is the first page of that map. The author sets eight questions about concentration (Vernacular §1), and this unit answers the first six—what concentration is, in what sense it is concentration, its characteristic, function, manifestation, and proximate cause, how many kinds there are, and its defilement and purification (Vernacular §§2–8). The seventh question, “How should it be developed?” opens the remaining four units of this chapter and the eleven-chapter concentration division. The answer to the eighth, “What is the benefit of developing concentration?” does not appear in this chapter; the author leaves it for later. 〔What Is Seen〕

§01 The Eight Questions on Concentration → Vernacular §1

Chapter 3 is a turning point. The first two chapters ask “How should you live before practice?” Only here does the work formally ask: How is the mind trained to become concentrated? The author first connects with the preceding chapter: once a person is established in virtue purified by such qualities as fewness of wishes brought to fulfillment through observing the ascetic practices, then, according to the line “Having become established in virtue, a person with wisdom develops mind and wisdom,” the concentration indicated under the heading of “mind” should be developed (Vernacular §1). Yet concentration has been stated so briefly that it is difficult even to understand, much less to develop, and so this set of questions follows. The eight are: What is concentration? In what sense is it concentration? What are its characteristic, function, manifestation, and proximate cause? How many kinds are there? What is its defilement? Its purification? How should it be developed? What is the benefit of developing it? 〔Reading〕 These eight questions are the table of contents for this chapter and the entire concentration division. This unit answers the first six. The answer to the seventh, “How should it be developed?” extends from the ten impediments in 03-02 through Chapter 13; the eighth is left for later. A reader might copy these eight questions onto the flyleaf: at the beginning of every subsequent chapter, the author is answering one of them.

§02 What Is Concentration?—Its Nature, Characteristic, Function, Manifestation, and Proximate Cause → Vernacular §2

“What is concentration?”—concentration is of many kinds and many varieties; if the answer tried to explain them all, it would only lead to distraction. Therefore, with reference solely to what is intended here: wholesome one-pointedness of mind is concentration (Vernacular §2). “In what sense is it concentration?”—in the sense of “coordinating”: mind and mental factors are placed and set evenly and rightly upon a single object; when through the power of a certain state mind and mental factors remain evenly and rightly upon one object without distraction or dispersion, that is “coordinating.” Its four defining aspects are these: concentration has non-distraction as its characteristic, eliminating distraction as its function, and unwavering as its manifestation; according to the line “The mind of one who has pleasure becomes concentrated,” pleasure is its proximate cause. 〔Reading〕 The point to carry away is this causal joint: pleasure is the proximate cause of concentration. This connects directly with the chain at the end of Chapter 1, “non-remorse → gladness → … → pleasure → concentration” (01-03 Vernacular §2). Virtue is the foundation of concentration precisely because it delivers the mind to the threshold called “pleasure,” from which concentration can arise. Another word worth pausing over is “wholesome”: wholesome one-pointedness of mind. One-pointedness by itself is not the whole of concentration; an unwholesome mind can also focus (the mind of a hunter taking aim is one-pointed too). By deliberately placing “wholesome” in front, the author distinguishes concentration from mere focus. 〔What Is Seen〕

§03 How Many Kinds?—One Kind and the General Enumeration → Vernacular §3

“How many kinds of concentration are there?” (Vernacular §3): one, by way of its characteristic of non-distraction; two—access and absorption, mundane and supramundane, with rapture and without rapture, with pleasure and with equanimity; three—inferior, middling, and superior; with applied and sustained thought and so forth; with rapture and so forth; limited, exalted, and measureless; four—painful practice with slow penetration and so forth, limited with a limited object and so forth, the four absorption factors, conducive to decline and so forth, the sensual sphere and so forth, and dominance; five—the five absorption factors of the fivefold system. 〔Reading〕 This is a general table, unfolded one by one in §§4–7. If the reader remembers only one pair, remember “access and absorption.” It is the basic scale repeatedly used through the eleven chapters on concentration: access is the threshold; absorption is entering through the door.

§04 Four Pairs of Twofold Classification → Vernacular §4

First pair: one-pointedness obtained through the six bases of recollection, mindfulness of death, recollection of peace, perception of repulsiveness in food, and defining of the four elements, together with the one-pointedness preceding the various absorption concentrations, is access concentration; according to statements such as “The preliminary work for the first absorption is a condition for the first absorption by way of proximity condition,” the one-pointedness arising immediately after preliminary work is absorption concentration (Vernacular §4). Second pair: wholesome one-pointedness in the three planes is mundane concentration, while one-pointedness associated with a noble path is supramundane concentration. Third pair: one-pointedness in the first two absorptions of the fourfold system and the first three of the fivefold system is concentration accompanied by rapture, while that of the remaining two absorptions is without rapture; access may be accompanied by rapture or be without it. Fourth pair: the first three absorptions of the fourfold system and the first four of the fivefold system are accompanied by pleasure, while the remaining absorption is accompanied by equanimity; access may be accompanied by pleasure or by equanimity. 〔Reading〕 The first pair already anticipates one of the ten perspectives in 03-05, “leading to access and leading to absorption”: which meditation subjects reach access only (the eight recollections, perception of repulsiveness in food, and defining of the four elements) and which can enter absorption—the list first shows itself here.

§05 Four Groups of Threefold Classification → Vernacular §5

First group: what has only just been obtained is inferior, what has not been fully developed is middling, and what has been well developed and brought to mastery is superior (Vernacular §5). Second group: first-absorption concentration together with access is accompanied by applied and sustained thought; second-absorption concentration in the fivefold system is without applied thought and has sustained thought only—this is said of a person who sees the danger in applied thought but not in sustained thought and seeks only to abandon applied thought in passing beyond the first absorption; the three absorptions from the second onward in the fourfold system and the three from the third onward in the fivefold system are without applied or sustained thought. Third group: the first two absorptions in the fourfold system and the first three in the fivefold are accompanied by rapture; the third and fourth are accompanied by pleasure; the final absorption is accompanied by equanimity; access may be accompanied by rapture and pleasure or by equanimity. Fourth group: one-pointedness on the plane of access is limited concentration, one-pointedness in wholesome consciousness of the fine-material and immaterial spheres is exalted concentration, and one-pointedness associated with a noble path is measureless concentration. 〔Reading〕 The group “inferior, middling, superior” gives the reader a scale for self-measurement: obtaining something is not the same as mastering it, and mastering it is not the same as complete command. The “five masteries” later in the concentration division (04-08) are the graduations on this scale.

§06 The First Group of Fourfold Classification—Practice and Penetration → Vernacular §6

The four are painful practice with slow penetration, painful practice with quick penetration, pleasant practice with slow penetration, and pleasant practice with quick penetration (Vernacular §6). Practice means the development of concentration occurring from the first act of attention until access to a given absorption arises; penetration means the wisdom occurring from access until absorption. Practice is painful when opposing states such as the hindrances repeatedly arise and take hold, making cultivation difficult and unpleasant; in their absence it is pleasant. Penetration is slow when it is sluggish and does not proceed swiftly, and quick in the contrary case. Its differences arise from suitability and unsuitability, cutting off impediments and other preliminary work, and skill in absorption (one who cultivates what is unsuitable has painful practice and slow penetration; when what is unsuitable is cultivated in the earlier part and what is suitable in the later part, or the reverse, the case is mixed; failure to complete the preliminaries makes practice painful; failure to complete skill in absorption makes penetration slow); craving and ignorance (one overcome by craving has painful practice, and one overcome by ignorance has slow penetration); prior cultivation of tranquility and insight (one who has not cultivated tranquility has painful practice, and one who has not cultivated insight has slow penetration); and defilements and faculties (sharp defilements with dull faculties make practice painful and penetration slow; sharp defilements with sharp faculties make penetration quick; mild defilements with dull faculties make practice pleasant and penetration slow; mild defilements with sharp faculties make penetration quick). 〔Reading〕 This is the passage in the unit closest to practitioners’ actual circumstances. It acknowledges that people’s paths are not equally quick or equally painful, and distinguishes the reasons with precision—is the cause the environment (suitable or unsuitable), preparation (cutting off impediments and skill), habitual tendencies (craving and ignorance), or the faculties? It also explicitly says that “suitable and unsuitable conditions, cutting off impediments, and skill in absorption” will be explained later. That is a preview of 03-02 (the ten impediments) and Chapter 4 (the seven suitable conditions and tenfold absorption-skill).

§07 The Remaining Five Groups of Fourfold Classification and the Fivefold System → Vernacular §7

Second group: limited with a limited object, limited with a measureless object, measureless with a limited object, and measureless with a measureless object. Concentration that is not mastered and cannot become a condition for a higher absorption is limited, while concentration occurring with an unenlarged object has a limited object; concentration that is mastered and well developed and can become a condition for a higher absorption is measureless, while concentration occurring with an enlarged object has a measureless object (Vernacular §7). Third group, by way of four absorption factors: when the hindrances have been suppressed, the first absorption has five factors—applied thought, sustained thought, rapture, pleasure, and concentration; the second has three factors after applied and sustained thought have become still; the third has two after rapture has faded; the fourth has two by way of concentration accompanied by equanimous feeling after pleasure has been abandoned. Fourth group: conducive to decline, maintenance, distinction, and penetration—recurrence of an opposing state makes concentration conducive to decline, establishment of mindfulness in conformity with it makes it conducive to maintenance, attainment of a higher distinction makes it conducive to distinction, and recurrence of perceptions and attention accompanied by disenchantment makes it conducive to penetration; as stated, “In one who has obtained the first absorption, perceptions and attention accompanied by sensual desire recur: this is wisdom conducive to decline; mindfulness in conformity with it becomes established: this is wisdom conducive to maintenance; perceptions and attention accompanied by the absence of applied thought recur: this is wisdom conducive to distinction; perceptions and attention accompanied by disenchantment recur: this is wisdom conducive to penetration and associated with dispassion.” Fifth group: concentration of the sensual sphere (all one-pointedness of access), the fine-material sphere, the immaterial sphere, and unclassified concentration. Sixth group, by dominance: concentration through desire, energy, mind, and investigation. In the fivefold system, the second absorption of the fourfold system is divided into a second through surmounting applied thought alone and a third through surmounting both applied and sustained thought, making five absorptions and five concentrations. 〔Reading〕 The fourfold division “conducive to decline, maintenance, distinction, and penetration” is written for someone already cultivating: the same first absorption declines if the mind comes with sensual desire, is maintained if mindfulness becomes established, advances if it moves toward the absence of applied thought, and turns toward insight if accompanied by disenchantment. Attaining concentration is not the finish line; it is a living condition that can decline or advance. This group prepares the answer to the later two questions, “What is defilement and what is purification?”

§08 What Is Defilement and What Is Purification? → Vernacular §8

“What is defilement? What is purification?” (Vernacular §8)—the author directly quotes the Vibhaṅga: “Defilement is a state conducive to decline; purification is a state conducive to distinction.” The state conducive to decline is understood through the statement “In one who has obtained the first absorption, perceptions and attention accompanied by sensual desire recur: this is wisdom conducive to decline”; the state conducive to distinction through “Perceptions and attention accompanied by the absence of applied thought recur: this is wisdom conducive to distinction.” 〔Reading〕 The two questions come down to one sentence: concentration’s defilement and purification are found nowhere else than in the first and third members of the preceding fourfold division. When concentration declines, that is called defilement; when it advances, that is called purification. There is no mysterious contaminant—only the direction in which the mind is moving.

For the General Reader

This unit is the vocabulary lesson for the concentration division. If you retain only three things: first, concentration is wholesome one-pointedness of mind—focus is not the same as concentration; “wholesome” is the threshold. Second, pleasure is the proximate cause of concentration—before cultivating concentration, ask whether your mind is free of remorse and capable of gladness (that is the work of Chapter 1). Third, remember the words access and absorption; the next eleven chapters use them as their scale. You need not memorize the whole classification from onefold to fivefold. Know that the table exists and return when you need it. The actual beginning—cutting off entanglements, finding the right teacher, and choosing the right meditation subject—starts in the next unit.

To read this unit in full: Vernacular §§1–8 give the complete paragraph-by-paragraph rendering of the eight questions and the answers to the first six.

The First Thing at the Beginning: Cut Off Entanglements

The Big Picture — The First Answer to “How Should It Be Developed?”

The answer to the seventh of the eight questions, “How should it be developed?” (03-01 Vernacular §1), begins with this unit. The body of this chapter is not a theory of concentration but an account of how to begin. Three things are required: first cut off entanglements (the ten impediments in this unit), find the right teacher (03-03), and choose the right meditation subject (03-04 and 03-05). This chapter explains these things thoroughly so that the following nine chapters can move. At the opening of this unit, the author first gives a summary of how mundane concentration is developed (Vernacular §1): become established in thoroughly purified virtue; cut off whichever of the ten impediments applies; approach the good friend who gives a meditation subject and take one suited to your temperament; leave an unsuitable dwelling and live in a suitable one; cut off the minor impediments; and develop concentration without omitting any part of the method. These six statements are the table of contents for this chapter’s remaining four units and Chapter 4. The development of supramundane concentration, associated with a noble path, is included in the development of wisdom and is not separately explained in this chapter. 〔What Is Seen〕 The remaining seven sections of this unit (Vernacular §§2–7) explain the ten impediments one by one. Three of them—dwelling, family, and scripture—each carry a long narrative and form the chapter’s most vivid passages.

§01 Summary of the Development of Concentration and the Summary Verse on the Ten Impediments → Vernacular §1

Supramundane concentration is distinguished first: its method of development is included within the development of wisdom, and when wisdom is developed it is developed as well, so no separate method is stated (Vernacular §1). Then come the six statements summarizing mundane concentration (see the Larger View). The detailed explanation begins from “cut off whichever of the ten impediments applies.” The summary verse runs: dwelling, family, gain, a group, and work as the fifth; travel, relatives, illness, scripture, and supernormal power—these are the ten. The dwelling itself is the impediment of dwelling, and so with family and the rest. 〔Reading〕 The ten impediments are not ten precepts; they are ten places where the mind gets tethered. Under every impediment the author first asks, “For whom does it become an impediment?” That is the key for reading the unit: the impediment is not in the thing but in concern and attachment.

§02 The Impediment of Dwelling → Vernacular §2

“Dwelling” includes a room, a monastic residence, and an entire monastery, but it does not become an impediment for everyone. It is an impediment only to someone occupied with new building work and the like, someone who has accumulated many possessions, or someone concerned about the place and attached to it in mind for one reason or another (Vernacular §2). The account: two sons of good family left Anurādhapura and went forth at Thūpārāma. One went to Pācinakhaṇḍarāji, stayed there a long time, became an elder, and returned to invite his companion. During one night and morning at Thūpārāma, the visiting elder’s companion sent nothing; they went for alms together and ate only what was received. The visitor therefore said, “Pācinakhaṇḍarāji is comfortable; let us go there.” Yet on leaving by the southern gate, the elder immediately took the road to Kumbhakāragāma. “After living here so long, do you have no extra requisites?” “The bed and chair are Saṅgha property and have been put away; there is nothing else.” “But my walking stick, oil tube, and sandal bag are still there.” “After staying for a single day, have you left so much behind?” The visitor’s heart filled with confidence: for someone like you, every place is a forest dwelling—Thūpārāma contains the relics of four Buddhas, Lohapāsāda offers suitable hearing of the Dhamma, and the Great Stūpa and the elders can be seen; remain here. On the next day he took his own bowl and robe and left. For a person like this, dwelling is not an impediment. 〔Reading〕 The story’s blade lies in the contrast between “one day” and “so long”: the person who stayed one night had already left three things behind; the person who lived there for years had not left a single possession. The measure of an impediment is not how long you stay, but how much you leave behind.

§03 The Impediment of Family → Vernacular §3

“Family” means a family of relatives or a family of supporters (Vernacular §3). For some, even a family of supporters is an impediment: living entangled according to such patterns as “happy when they are happy,” the person will not go even to a nearby monastery to hear the Dhamma without that family’s members. For others, even parents are no impediment. The young bhikkhu, nephew of the elder at Koraṇḍakavihāra, went to Rohaṇa for instruction. Years later he returned to see his preceptor and mother, the laywoman; meeting the preceptor on the bank of the Ganges, he was sent onward to spend the rains in his home village. The lodging allotted to him was the one his father had built, and his father asked him to take food in the family home for three months and to inform them before leaving. He ate for three months in the house of the mother who had borne him, but no one recognized him. At the end of the rains he received oil, molasses, and a cloth nine cubits long. On meeting his preceptor during the return journey, he rubbed the elder’s feet with the oil, made a drink from the molasses, gave him the cloth, and departed saying, “For me, only Rohaṇa is suitable.” When his mother saw the elder return alone, she thought her son had died and fell weeping at his feet. The elder drew out the cloth, showed it to her, and told the whole story. Filled with confidence, the laywoman lay prone in the direction her son had taken and paid homage: “Surely it was by taking a bhikkhu like my son as bodily witness that the Blessed One taught the practice of the Relay Chariots, the practice of Nālaka, the practice of Tuvaṭṭaka, and the great practice of the noble lineage that reveals contentment with the four requisites and delight in cultivation. Though eating for three months in the house of the mother who bore him, he never said, ‘I am your son; you are my mother.’ What a marvelous person!” For such a person, even parents are no impediment, much less another family of supporters. 〔Reading〕 This is the chapter’s longest single narrative, and the author writes it almost like a novella. It does not teach emotional severance—the young bhikkhu gives all the oil, molasses, and cloth to his preceptor, and his mother’s grief is written without concealment. It demonstrates something harder: in the place where there was the greatest reason to be recognized, he chose not to be recognized. Family is cut off as an impediment at the thought “I am your son; you are my mother,” not at affection itself. 〔What Is Seen〕

§04 The Four Impediments of Gain, a Group, Work, and Travel → Vernacular §4

“Gain” means the four requisites (Vernacular §4). Wherever a fortunate bhikkhu goes, people gather in crowds and offer things; he blesses them and teaches the Dhamma, association continues from sunrise until the first watch, and before dawn others arrive saying that such-and-such a person wishes to see him. Continually occupied, requisites become an impediment only for him. The remedy is to leave the group and travel alone where no one knows him. “A group” means students of the discourses or Abhidhamma; if recitation and answering inquiries leave no opportunity to practice the ascetic’s Dhamma, the group is an impediment. If little remains, finish it and enter the forest; if much remains, entrust the group to another instructor within a league; if none can be found, say, “Friends, I have a task; go wherever you find suitable.” “Work” means new building work: the person undertaking it must track what carpenters and the rest have and have not received and attend to what has and has not been completed, so it is constantly an impediment. If little remains, finish it; if much remains and it belongs to the Saṅgha, hand it to the Saṅgha or a bhikkhu who bears responsibility for it; if personal, hand it to a personal steward; if no such person exists, relinquish it to the Saṅgha and go. “Travel” means going by road: if a person somewhere wishes to go forth or a requisite must be obtained and the matter cannot be borne unfinished, even in the forest the “mind bent on travel” is hard to dispel. The remedy is to complete the matter first and then devote effort to the ascetic’s Dhamma. 〔Reading〕 The remedies for all four impediments share a shape: either finish it or hand it over, but do not leave it suspended. The author does not tell a person to suppress the “mind bent on travel”; he acknowledges that it cannot easily be suppressed, and therefore says to complete the task. This is practical psychology: an unfinished task binds more tightly than a completed one.

§05 The Two Impediments of Relatives and Illness → Vernacular §5

“Relatives” include, within the monastery, teachers, preceptors, co-resident and resident pupils, and fellow pupils sharing a preceptor or teacher; within the family, mother, father, siblings, and so forth. When they are ill, they become an impediment, and the impediment is removed by attending to them until they recover (Vernacular §5). The detailed rules are these: if a preceptor does not recover quickly, care continues to the end of his life; the same applies to a going-forth teacher, higher-ordination teacher, co-resident pupil, a resident pupil whom he has ordained or caused to go forth, and someone sharing the preceptor. A dependence teacher, recitation teacher, dependent resident pupil, resident pupil receiving recitation, and someone sharing the teacher are cared for while that dependence or recitation continues, and longer if one is able. Parents are treated like a preceptor—even if they occupy a throne and expect service from their son, it must be given; if they lack medicine, give one’s own or seek it on almsround. For siblings, use what belongs to them; if they have none, lend one’s own and take it back later, but do not demand it if they cannot replace it. For a sister’s husband who is not a relative, medicine may neither be prepared nor given directly; it may be given to the sister with the words “Give this to your husband.” The same applies to a brother’s wife; their children are relatives and may be treated. “Illness” means any afflicting disease. It is treated with medicine; if it does not subside after several days, the body is rebuked: “I am not your slave or hired servant. It is precisely through sustaining you that I have suffered in beginningless saṃsāra,” and the ascetic’s Dhamma is practiced. 〔Reading〕 The rules concerning relatives have the precision of Vinaya: who must be cared for to the end, who for a limited time, and to whom medicine may and may not be given. They draw the boundary of obligation, not of feeling. The final sentence addressed to the body under the impediment of illness is the unit’s hardest: the body needs care, but it is not the master.

§06 The Impediment of Scripture → Vernacular §6

“Scripture” means carrying the canonical learning; it is an impediment only to someone continually occupied with recitation (Vernacular §6). Three accounts follow. The Elder Deva, a reciter of the Majjhima, asked Malayavāsi-Devatthera for a meditation subject. “The Majjhima is difficult to maintain: while reciting the Root Fifty, the Middle Fifty presents itself; while reciting that, the Final Fifty presents itself. Where is there room for your meditation subject?” “Once I receive the meditation subject from you, I shall not look at it again.” He did not recite for nineteen years, attained arahantship in the twentieth, and told bhikkhus who came for recitation, “I have not looked at the canonical learning for twenty years; nevertheless, I am familiar with it. Begin.” From beginning to end he doubted not one letter. The Elder Nāga of Karuḷiyagiri set the canonical learning aside for eighteen years, then taught the Dhātukathā to bhikkhus; comparison with village-dwelling elders found not a single question out of sequence. The Elder Tipiṭaka-Cūḷābhaya had a golden drum beaten and proposed to teach the three baskets before having studied the Commentary. The Order allowed him to state only what had been transmitted by his own teachers, and his preceptor stopped him three times: “What you stated first was precisely the teachers’ way, but because you did not receive it from a teacher’s mouth, you could not stand firmly and say, ‘The teachers explain it this way.’” He sent him to the Elder Mahādhammarakkhita at Tulādhārapabbatavihāra. Abhaya recited at night and the elder explained during the day. When the sequence was complete, the elder sat before him on a mat and said, “Friend, teach me a meditation subject.” “This is another matter; this is called the path of one who has gone.” It is said that Abhaya was then a stream-enterer. After the elder’s final nibbāna, Abhaya said at Lohapāsāda: “Our teacher was an upright thoroughbred. He sat on a mat before his own Dhamma pupil and said, ‘Teach me a meditation subject.’ The path of arahantship was fitting for that elder.” For such people, scripture is no impediment. 〔Reading〕 The three accounts make the same counterintuitive statement: when they set the scriptures down, the scriptures did not fall away from them. Twenty years without looking at the Majjhima, yet no doubt about one letter; eighteen years without touching the Dhātukathā, yet no disruption of sequence. The third account turns the point once more: an elder who knew the whole canonical learning sat on a mat and asked his own student for a meditation subject. Beyond the summit of learning there remained “the path of one who has gone.” This does not disparage scripture; it returns scripture to its proper place. 〔What Is Seen〕

§07 The Impediment of Supernormal Power → Vernacular §7

“Supernormal power”—the supernormal power of an ordinary person—is as difficult to maintain as an infant lying on its back or a young crop; the slightest thing breaks it (Vernacular §7). It is an impediment to insight, not to concentration, because it is obtained only after concentration. A person seeking insight should therefore cut off the impediment of supernormal power, while the other kind of person cuts off the remaining nine. This is the detailed explanation of the discussion of impediments. 〔Reading〕 At the end of the ten impediments, the author draws a precise boundary: the first nine obstruct concentration; the tenth obstructs insight. Supernormal power does not obstruct concentration—it is a product of concentration—but it can tether someone who should proceed toward insight to the task of “maintaining supernormal power.” This line also anticipates the work’s direction: the wisdom division follows the concentration division, and one fruit of concentration has to be left behind.

For the General Reader

After reading the ten impediments, do not rush to blame yourself by saying, “I have all ten.” Under every impediment the author first asks, “For whom does it become an impediment?” The answer is always: for the person whose mind is attached. The question for self-examination is therefore not “Do I have a dwelling, family, learning, or work?” but “Which of these is tethering me now and keeping me from sitting down?” Once you find it, the author’s remedy is plain: finish it, hand it over, or care for it until you can let go. Do not forcibly suppress it or pretend it is absent. The impediment of “scripture” leaves a sentence for people today who read many books: knowledge does not fall away when you put it down; what tethers you is not the book but the thought, “I have not finished reading.”

To read this unit in full: Vernacular §§1–7 give the complete paragraph-by-paragraph rendering of the summary, summary verse, and the explanation of each of the ten impediments.

First Find a “Good Friend”—Concentration Is a Craft, and a Craft Is Best Learned with Guidance

The Big Picture — The Second Requirement for Beginning

Buddhaghosa holds that concentration should not be explored alone: the meditation subject should be received from a good friend (kalyāṇamitta). This unit explains the statement “go to a good friend who gives a meditation subject” from the sixfold summary (03-02 Vernacular §1). It first divides meditation subjects into two kinds (Vernacular §1), then establishes the qualities of a good friend and the hierarchy for seeking a teacher (Vernacular §2), and finally uses two sections to describe the way to the teacher, the etiquette of the first meeting, service to the teacher, and the time for declaring the purpose of the visit (Vernacular §§3–4). What deserves a pause here is not the hierarchical chart “Buddha → destroyer of the influxes → … → bearer of one Piṭaka,” but the judgment behind it: the fine points of a meditation subject cannot all be written in a book. How to select the initial object, how to recognize a meditation sign when it appears, and how to adjust when practice stalls—these things must be taught hand to hand. This is why the author devotes considerable space to the etiquette between teacher and student: how the student approaches and entrusts himself, and how the teacher first observes the student’s temperament before giving the practice—for the latter, see 03-04 Vernacular §6 and 03-05 Vernacular §7. 〔What Is Seen〕

§01 The Two Kinds of Meditation Subject—Universally Needed and Constantly Maintained → Vernacular §1

Meditation subjects are of two kinds: the universally needed meditation subject and the constantly maintained meditation subject (Vernacular §1). The universally needed meditation subject is loving-kindness toward the Saṅgha of bhikkhus and so forth together with mindfulness of death—some also say the perception of foulness. First delimit the range and develop loving-kindness toward the Saṅgha of bhikkhus within the boundary with the thought, “May they be happy and free from affliction”; then toward the deities within the boundary; then toward the influential people in the alms-resort village; and then toward all sentient beings. Loving-kindness toward the Saṅgha makes one’s companions tender-minded and permits happy communal living; loving-kindness toward the deities brings lawful protection; loving-kindness toward influential people brings protection for one’s requisites; loving-kindness toward the villagers allows a person to move about without being despised; and loving-kindness toward all sentient beings allows unobstructed movement everywhere. Through mindfulness of death, the reflection “I shall certainly die” abandons improper seeking, steadily increases the sense of urgency, and produces unflagging conduct. When the mind is steeped in the perception of foulness, even divine objects cannot overwhelm it through greed. Because these practices are so beneficial and should be sought and desired everywhere, they are called universally needed meditation subjects. The constantly maintained meditation subject is whichever of the forty accords with a person’s temperament; it should be constantly maintained and serves as the proximate cause for each successively higher stage of development. A person who gives both is the “giver of the meditation subject.” 〔Reading〕 This division is highly practical: no matter what your main practice is, loving-kindness and mindfulness of death are two things everyone should carry—one keeps you in harmony with the people around you, and the other keeps you from growing negligent. That is what “universally needed” says: no practice can set out without loving-kindness and mindfulness of death.

§02 The Seven Qualities of a Good Friend and the Hierarchy for Seeking a Teacher → Vernacular §2

The qualities of a good friend are these: lovable, respected, worthy of esteem, able to admonish, patient in receiving words, able to speak on profound matters, and unwilling to urge a person toward what is unfitting. A person endowed with such qualities and others like them, who seeks welfare exclusively and stands on the side of growth, is a good friend (Vernacular §2). On the authority of such words as, “Ānanda, it is through reliance on me as a good friend that beings subject to birth are freed from birth,” only the Rightly and Fully Enlightened One is a good friend complete in every respect. While the Buddha was alive, only a meditation subject received in his presence was well received. After his parinibbāna, it should be received from whichever of the eighty great disciples was still living; if none was available, then from a destroyer of the influxes who had produced the fourfold and fivefold absorptions through the desired subject, developed insight with absorption as its proximate cause, and reached the destruction of the influxes. Does a destroyer of the influxes reveal himself? He does so after knowing that the other person is a practitioner: thus a certain elder knew that a bhikkhu had undertaken a meditation subject, spread a piece of hide in the air, sat cross-legged upon it, and taught him the subject. The hierarchy is: a destroyer of the influxes; failing that, a non-returner, a once-returner, a stream-enterer, an ordinary person who has attained absorption, a bearer of the Three Piṭakas, a bearer of two Piṭakas, or a bearer of one Piṭaka, taking the first available in this order. If even the last is unavailable, receive it from a person proficient in one recitation together with its commentary who also has moral shame. Such a bearer of the canonical text, guardian of the lineage, and keeper of the tradition follows the teachers’ opinion, not personal opinion; the elders of old therefore said three times, “One with moral shame will guard it.” Destroyers of the influxes and the other realized teachers teach only the path they themselves attained. A learned teacher, however, has approached many teachers and purified learning-grasp and inquiring, can examine canonical texts and reasons from various sources, and can relate the suitable to the unsuitable, showing the way as a great elephant opens a broad road through dense forest. 〔Reading〕 The bottom of this hierarchy is more revealing than its summit: if no noble person can be found, a teacher who has moral shame, preserves the tradition, and follows teachers rather than personal opinion is enough. A learned teacher may even possess a strength the noble person lacks: knowing more than a single path. 〔What Is Seen〕

§03 The Way to the Teacher and the Etiquette of the First Meeting → Vernacular §3

If the right person is found in the same monastery, that is good; if not, go to where he lives (Vernacular §3). Do not set out after washing and oiling the feet, wearing sandals and carrying an umbrella, making others carry an oil tube and honey, and surrounding yourself with resident pupils. Fulfill the duties of a traveler, carry your own bowl and robes, perform the duties of respectful service in each monastery entered along the way, and go with few requisites and in a manner of utmost austerity. On entering the monastery, have a tooth-stick made allowable along the way and carry it in. Do not enter another dwelling thinking, “I shall rest for a moment.” Bhikkhus there who are at odds with the teacher might speak of the teacher’s faults and cause regret, making the visitor turn back. Ask where the teacher lives and go straight there. If the teacher is younger, do not accept services such as his taking the bowl and robes; if older, pay homage and stand. Put the bowl and robes down only when he says, “Put them down”; drink only if desired when he says, “Drink water”; but do not wash the feet as soon as he says, “Wash your feet”—it would be unfitting if he had brought the water. Only when he says, “I did not bring it; others did,” wash them in a screened place beyond his sight. If the teacher brings an oil tube, rise and receive it respectfully with both hands. Refusal might make him think, “This bhikkhu is already beginning to break fellowship.” Do not begin by anointing the feet, since the oil may be for the teacher’s body; first anoint the head and then the shoulders. Only when told, “This oil is for general use; anoint your feet too,” apply a little to the head, anoint the feet, and return the tube as the teacher receives it. 〔Reading〕 This section is minutely detailed—down to where the oil is first applied. Only one principle lies behind the details: a person seeking the Dhamma first lowers himself and treats the teacher’s requisites as belonging to the teacher. The words “do not think of resting for a moment” are especially true to life: the author understands how easily someone who pauses at the gate to hear others criticize the teacher may turn back then and there.

§04 Serving the Teacher and the Time for Declaring One’s Purpose → Vernacular §4

Do not say “Teach me a meditation subject” on the day of arrival (Vernacular §4). Beginning on the second day, if the teacher already has a regular attendant, ask that person’s permission before performing the duties; if permission is refused, perform them only when an opportunity arises. Offer three tooth-sticks—small, medium, and large. Prepare both cold and hot water for washing the face, as well as bathing water. Whichever kind the teacher uses for three days, offer that kind thereafter; if he follows no fixed rule, offer whatever is available. What need is there to say more? Every proper practice for a resident pupil’s conduct toward a teacher laid down by the Blessed One in the Khandhaka—rising at the appropriate time, removing sandals, arranging the upper robe over one shoulder, offering a tooth-stick and water for washing the face, preparing a seat, and, when there is rice gruel, washing a vessel and offering it—should be carried out. A person who pleases the teacher through fulfillment of these duties leaves after paying homage in the evening when dismissed, and states the purpose of the visit only when asked, “Why have you come?” If the teacher does not ask but continues to accept the service, after ten days or a fortnight the visitor should, on a certain day, remain after being dismissed, request an opportunity, and declare the purpose. Or the visitor may go at an unusual time and explain when asked why. If told, “Come early in the morning,” go early. But if at that time the person suffers a burning abdomen from a bile disorder, poor digestion from weak digestive fire, or another illness, disclose it truthfully, state a suitable time, and approach then—a meditation subject taught at an unsuitable time cannot be attended to. This completes the detailed explanation of “having approached a good friend who is a giver of the meditation subject.” 〔Reading〕 Ten days or a fortnight of service before speaking: this is not empty ceremony but time for the teacher to see your temperament (03-04 Vernacular §6: a person with mind-reading knowledge observes the mind, while others must ask—and before asking, they first need to look). The last sentence shows care in both directions: a sick person cannot absorb the teaching, so speak honestly and arrange a time. The timing for seeking the Dhamma is itself part of the Dhamma.

For the General Reader

In one decoded sentence, this passage’s use for a modern reader is not “you must ordain and find a master,” but an attitude: concentration is a craft, and a craft is best learned with guidance. Even if you practice at home, finding an experienced person further along the road and asking questions can save an immense amount of blind stumbling. Do not worry if no noble person can be found. The bottom of the author’s hierarchy leaves the gate wide open: a teacher with moral shame who preserves the tradition and does not rely on personal opinion is enough. And the statement “the teacher first observes the temperament and then gives a corresponding meditation subject” is the source of the diagnostic chart in the next unit.

To read this unit in full: Vernacular §§1–4 provide the complete section-by-section translation of the two kinds of meditation subject, the qualities of a good friend and hierarchy for seeking a teacher, the way to the teacher, and service to the teacher.

The Moment Most Like a Clinician in the Whole Work: Diagnose First, Then Prescribe

The Big Picture — Six Temperaments, a Prescription Chart Tailored to the Condition

The forty meditation subjects are not a menu from which anything may be chosen at random. Buddhaghosa first diagnoses you, then prescribes: he divides people into six temperaments—greed, aversion, delusion, faith, discernment, and discursive thought (Vernacular §1); asks their causes (Vernacular §§2–3); teaches “how to recognize which you are” by observing posture, work, food, seeing, and the occurrence of states (Vernacular §§4–6); and then gives each temperament suitable lodging, robes, bowl, food, posture, and object (Vernacular §§7–8). Which meditation subjects match each temperament is reserved for the next unit (03-05 Vernacular §4). The decoding here has two focal points. First is the subtlety of recognition: Buddhaghosa teaches you to judge your type by how you walk, sit, lie down, eat, and react on seeing something. The passage resembles an old clinician who has observed people for years and relies not on a questionnaire but on conduct. The second, deeper point is that the logic of prescribing is itself a way of breaking attachment 〔the decoder’s reading〕. The text does not say, “Everyone should practice this or that method.” It says, “The kind of person you are determines the method with which you should begin.” Prescribe the wrong medicine—give foulness practice to a person prone to anger, or an attractive color kasiṇa to a person dominated by greed—and the whole practice stalls. Choose wrongly at the start and everything downstream is blocked. This clear refusal to offer a single universal cure first dismantles the fantasy that there must be one highest method suitable for everyone. 〔What Is Seen〕

§01 Establishing the Six Temperaments and Their Contraction or Expansion → Vernacular §1

There are six temperaments: greed, aversion, delusion, faith, discernment, and discursive thought (Vernacular §1). Some posit four more through mixing and combination, and likewise four beginning with faith, making fourteen; but if so, mixing greed and the rest with faith and the rest yields innumerable temperaments. Thus in brief there are only six. “Temperament,” “natural disposition,” and “predominance” have one meaning, and people are likewise of only six kinds. The logic of similarity is this. When wholesome states occur in a greed-tempered person, faith is strong: faith has qualities near to greed; greed is unctuous rather than rough, and so is faith; greed seeks sensual objects, while faith seeks qualities such as virtue; greed does not relinquish what is harmful, while faith does not relinquish what is beneficial. Thus faith temperament is similar to greed temperament. When wholesome states occur in an aversion-tempered person, understanding is strong: understanding has qualities near to aversion; aversion is dry and does not cling to the object, and so is understanding; aversion seeks even unreal faults, while understanding seeks real faults; aversion turns by avoiding sentient beings, while understanding turns by avoiding formations. Thus discerning temperament is similar to aversion temperament. When a delusion-tempered person strives to arouse wholesome states, obstructive discursive thoughts frequently arise: discursive thought has a characteristic near to delusion; delusion is confused and unsettled, while discursive thought is unsettled through thinking in many ways; delusion wavers by failing to penetrate, while discursive thought wavers through light conjecture. Thus discursive-thought temperament is similar to delusion temperament. Others posit three temperaments based on craving, conceit, and views: craving is greed and conceit is associated with it, so they do not leave the greed temperament; views arise from delusion and return to the delusion temperament. 〔Reading〕 The “six” are really three pairs: greed and faith, aversion and discernment, delusion and discursive thought—each is the manifestation of one texture on the defiled and purified sides. This is the unit’s most perceptive statement: your affliction and your strength are often made of the same material. People strong in greed may also come quickly to faith; a fault-finder, turned around, possesses discernment; and a person with many thoughts is experiencing delusion in motion, not stupidity. 〔What Is Seen〕

§02 The Causes of Temperament—Statement and Refutation of Two Accounts → Vernacular §2

Three questions are asked: what causes temperament, how can a person’s temperament be known, and what is suitable for each temperament (Vernacular §2)? Some say the first three are caused by past habits or by elements and bodily faults: someone who formerly performed many agreeable acts and beautiful kamma or came from a heavenly realm is greed-tempered; someone who performed acts of cutting, killing, binding, and enmity or came from hell or the nāga realm is aversion-tempered; someone who drank much alcohol and lacked learning and inquiring or came from the animal realm is delusion-tempered. Predominance of earth and water makes a person delusion-tempered, predominance of the other two elements aversion-tempered, and balance among the elements greed-tempered. Excess phlegm makes a person greed-tempered and excess wind delusion-tempered—or the reverse. The author refutes this: not everyone from a heavenly realm is greed-tempered, and similarly for the others; the elements have no fixed rule of predominance; the account of bodily faults treats only greed and delusion and contradicts itself; and it completely omits the cause of every temperament beginning with faith. Therefore all of this is an indeterminate account. 〔Reading〕 Notice how the author refutes it: not by pressing down another theory, but by showing that the first is incomplete, self-contradictory, and omits half the field. This is the attitude found throughout the work: state a traditional account, test it, and discard it when it fails.

§03 The Causes of Temperament—Determination through Eight Cases of Rebirth-Producing Kamma → Vernacular §3

The determination following the commentary teachers (Vernacular §3) cites the “Description of Predominance”: through the fixed order of past causes, beings have predominance of greed, aversion, delusion, non-greed, non-aversion, or non-delusion. All eight cases depend on the relative strength and weakness of these six states at the “moment of accumulating kamma.” Strong greed and weak non-greed, with strong non-aversion and non-delusion, produce a person who is greedy, pleasant-natured, not irascible, discerning, and possessed of knowledge like a diamond. Strong greed and aversion with strong non-delusion produce a person both greedy and averse but discerning. Strong greed, non-aversion, and delusion produce a person greedy and dull but good-natured and not irascible. Strong greed, aversion, and delusion produce a person greedy, averse, and deluded. Strong non-greed, aversion, and delusion produce a person non-greedy and with few defilements, unmoved even by a divine object, but averse and dull in understanding. Strong non-greed, non-aversion, and delusion produce a person non-greedy, non-averse, and good-natured but dull. Strong non-greed, aversion, and non-delusion produce a person non-greedy and discerning but averse and irascible. Strong non-greed, non-aversion, and non-delusion produce a person non-greedy, non-averse, and discerning. The judgment is: the greedy person is greed-tempered; the averse and dull persons are aversion- and delusion-tempered; the discerning person has the discerning temperament; and the non-greedy and non-averse person, being naturally confident, is faith-tempered. Alternatively, a person reborn through kamma accompanied by non-delusion is discerning; a person reborn through kamma accompanied by strong faith is faith-tempered; one reborn through kamma accompanied by thoughts of sensual desire and so forth is discursive-thought-tempered; and one reborn through kamma accompanied by a mixture of greed and the rest has mixed temperament. Rebirth-producing kamma accompanied by one of the states beginning with greed is the cause of the temperaments. 〔Reading〕 The eight cases are every combination of three switches—greed/non-greed, aversion/non-aversion, and delusion/non-delusion. Two to the third power gives eight, with none missing. The author locates the cause in “the mind at the moment kamma is made,” not in an inborn bodily fluid. This is more testable than the accounts in §02 and leaves greater room: temperament is not destiny but something made, and therefore something that can be remade. 〔What Is Seen〕

§04 The Verse on Discerning Temperament and the Door of Posture → Vernacular §4

The verse says: temperaments should be discerned from posture, work, food, seeing and so forth, and the occurrence of states (Vernacular §4). Posture: a greed-tempered person’s natural gait is graceful, placing the foot slowly and lifting it evenly, leaving a close-stepping footprint. An aversion-tempered person seems to dig with the tips of the feet, setting them down and lifting them suddenly, leaving a dragged footprint. A delusion-tempered person walks confusedly as though frightened, leaving a hurriedly pressed footprint. The verse in the origin story of the Māgaṇḍiya Sutta agrees: the lustful person steps close, the averse person drags, the deluded person presses hurriedly, and the person whose covering has been removed steps in this way. When standing, the greed-tempered person is pleasing and gentle, the aversion-tempered person stiff, and the delusion-tempered person confused; the same applies to sitting. In lying down, the greed-tempered person unhurriedly spreads the bedding evenly, lies down slowly, draws in the limbs, and sleeps pleasingly; when awakened, the person does not rise quickly and answers slowly. The aversion-tempered person hurriedly spreads the bedding any which way, flings down the body, and sleeps frowning; when awakened, the person rises quickly and answers as though angry. The delusion-tempered person spreads the bedding shapelessly, sleeps sprawled and usually face downward, and rises slowly with grunts when awakened. Faith-tempered and the other persons follow those similar to them. 〔Reading〕 This section needs little explanation. Simply spend a day watching how you walk, sit, lie down, and respond when awakened. The author offers no psychological test but a mirror of behavior: it does not ask what you think you are; it watches how you set down your foot.

§05 The Three Doors of Work, Food, and Seeing → Vernacular §5

Work (Vernacular §5): when sweeping, the greed-tempered person holds the broom properly, proceeds unhurriedly without scattering sand, and sweeps cleanly and evenly as if laying a bed of sinduvāra flowers; the aversion-tempered person grips tightly and hurries, pushing sand to both sides with a harsh sound and leaving the ground unclean and uneven; the delusion-tempered person holds loosely, stirs about here and there, and leaves it unclean and uneven. Washing and dyeing robes and all other work follow the same pattern: the greed-tempered person works delicately, gently, evenly, and carefully; the aversion-tempered person tightly, rigidly, and unevenly; the delusion-tempered person without delicacy, confusedly, unevenly, and without bounds. In wearing robes, the greed-tempered person is neither too tight nor too loose, pleasing and even; the aversion-tempered person is too tight and uneven; the delusion-tempered person is loose and disordered. Food: the greed-tempered person likes rich, sweet food, makes a moderately sized, rounded morsel, experiences the taste, eats unhurriedly, and becomes joyful on receiving something delicious. The aversion-tempered person likes rough, sour food, makes a mouth-filling morsel, fails to experience the taste, eats hurriedly, and becomes dejected on receiving something unpalatable. The delusion-tempered person’s preference is unsettled; the morsel is small and misshapen, food is dropped into the vessel, the mouth is soiled, and the person eats distractedly while thinking of this and that. Seeing and so forth: seeing a slightly agreeable form, the greed-tempered person gazes as though astonished, clings to the slightest virtue, does not apprehend a real fault, and leaves with lingering concern. Seeing a slightly disagreeable form, the aversion-tempered person soon looks away as though wearied, is repelled by the slightest fault, does not apprehend a real virtue, and leaves intent only on letting go. Seeing anything at all, the delusion-tempered person follows others—criticizing after hearing criticism, praising after hearing praise—and remains personally equanimous only through ignorance. The same applies to sounds and so forth. Faith-tempered and the other persons follow the first three. 〔Reading〕 Of these three doors, “seeing” has the sharpest edge: the greed-tempered person “does not apprehend even a real fault,” the aversion-tempered person “does not apprehend even a real virtue,” and the delusion-tempered person “follows others.” All three see inaccurately; only the direction of distortion differs. The third is the easiest to mistake for easygoing behavior.

§06 The Door of Occurring States and the Author’s Own Limitation of the Account → Vernacular §6

Occurrence of states (Vernacular §6): guile, deceit, conceit, evil wishes, great wishes, discontent, posturing, and fickleness frequently occur in the greed-tempered person; anger, resentment, denigration, rivalry, envy, and avarice in the aversion-tempered person; stiffness, torpor, agitation, remorse, doubt, obstinate grasping, and difficulty in relinquishing in the delusion-tempered person; open-handed generosity, desire to see noble persons and hear the true Dhamma, abundant joy, absence of deceit and guile, and confidence in what inspires confidence in the faith-tempered person; amenability to instruction, possession of good friends, moderation in eating, mindfulness and clear comprehension, devotion to wakefulness, urgency regarding what arouses urgency, and wise striving once urgency has arisen in the discerning person; and talkativeness, delight in company, discontent with wholesome cultivation, instability in work, smoking by night, blazing by day, and running here and there in the discursive-thought-tempered person. The author’s own limitation: this method of discernment is not found in every respect in the canonical text or in the commentary but is stated only according to teachers’ opinions, so it should not be accepted as essential. The postures attributed to greed-tempered persons can also be adopted by aversion-tempered persons living diligently, and mutually different signs cannot all apply to a mixed-tempered person. Only the commentarial method should be accepted as essential: “A teacher with mind-reading knowledge knows the temperament and then teaches a meditation subject; another teacher should ask the resident pupil.” Thus the reliable methods are mind-reading knowledge or asking the person. 〔Reading〕 The section’s most important point is not its six lists but the brake the author himself applies after them: this observational method is teachers’ opinion, not canonical text; do not make it an iron law. A fast walker is not necessarily aversion-tempered; the person may simply be in a hurry. The two genuinely reliable methods are plain: use mind-reading knowledge if you have it; if not, ask. This self-limitation turns §§04–06 back from physiognomy into a seasoned clinician’s practical observations. 〔What Is Seen〕

§07 What Is Suitable for a Greed-Tempered Person → Vernacular §7

“What is suitable for a person of each temperament” (Vernacular §7)—for the greed-tempered person: suitable lodging is an unwashed, ground-level grass or leaf hut with an unprepared rock overhang, strewn with dust and full of bats, broken and collapsing, too high or too low, barren and alarming, with an unclean, uneven path and beds and chairs full of bedbugs, ugly in shape and displeasing in color, arousing disgust at a glance. Suitable robes have torn edges and tangled hanging threads like a net-cake, feel rough like hemp cloth, and are dirty, heavy, and hard to manage. A suitable bowl is an ugly clay bowl or a rivet-scarred iron bowl, heavy and misshapen, repulsive like a skull. The alms route should be disagreeable, uneven, and lead to a village not nearby. In a suitable alms village, people walk past as if they have not seen the bhikkhu; when the bhikkhu has received nothing from any house and is about to leave, someone says, “Come,” leads him into a hall, gives rice gruel and food, and walks away as though driving a cow into a pen. Suitable servers are unattractive, unpleasant, dirty-clothed, foul-smelling slaves or laborers who serve as disrespectfully as though throwing the food away. Suitable food is rough and badly colored—barnyard millet, inferior grain, broken rice, rancid buttermilk, sour gruel, and old vegetable curry—anything merely sufficient to fill the stomach. Standing or walking is suitable. The object should be any impure color among the color kasiṇas such as blue. 〔Reading〕 The prescription for the greed-tempered person runs entirely in the opposite direction: whatever the person likes, give its opposite. This is not punishment but refusing to feed that greed, letting greed subside where nothing is available to desire.

§08 What Is Suitable for the Aversion-, Delusion-, Faith-, Discerning-, and Discursive-Thought-Tempered Persons → Vernacular §8

For the aversion-tempered person (Vernacular §8): suitable lodging is neither too high nor too low, has shade and water, well-arranged walls, pillars, and stairs, radiant garlands, creepers, and paintings, a level, unctuous, soft floor like a Brahmā palace, clean and agreeable beds and chairs, and flowers and fragrance everywhere, arousing joy at a glance. The road is free of danger, clean and level. The requisites are only one bed and one chair, eliminating shelters for insects, snakes, and mice. Robes are one or two layers of China cloth, Somāra cloth, silk, cotton, or fine linen, light, well dyed, and pure in color. The bowl is well shaped like a water bubble and polished spotless like a jewel. The alms route is free of danger, level and agreeable, with the village neither too far nor too near. In the alms village, people think, “The venerable is coming,” sprinkle and sweep a place, prepare a seat, go out to meet him, take his bowl, invite him in, and serve him with their own hands. The servers are good-looking and inspiring, bathed and perfumed, cleanly and attractively clothed and adorned, and respectful in service. Food possesses color, aroma, and taste, is nourishing, agreeable, refined in every respect, and available at will. Lying or sitting is suitable. The object is any thoroughly pure color among the color kasiṇas. For the delusion-tempered person: the lodging faces the directions and is unconfined, with an open view; walking is suitable; the object should not be small, such as the size of a winnowing basket or dish, because confinement confuses the mind further—an expansive great kasiṇa is suitable. The rest is as for the aversion-tempered person. For the faith-tempered person: everything prescribed for the aversion-tempered person is suitable, and a basis for recollection is also a suitable object. For the discerning person: no lodging or the like is specifically unsuitable. For the discursive-thought-tempered person: lodging should not be open to the directions or reveal parks, woods, lotus ponds, sequences of villages and towns, or blue mountains; those scatter discursive thought. Suitable lodging lies at the mouth of a deep cavern, screened by forest, like Elephant’s-Belly Rock or the Great Indra Cave. An expansive object is unsuitable because it sets discursive thought racing; a small object is suitable. The rest is as for the greed-tempered person. This completes the explanation of “what accords with one’s temperament” through classification, cause, discernment, and suitability. The meditation subjects matched to temperaments will become clear in the detailed explanation of the next item in the matrix. 〔Reading〕 After eight sections, the author’s prescription reduces to two principles: the greed-tempered person needs the opposite, the aversion-tempered person the agreeable; the delusion-tempered person needs something large, the discursive-thought-tempered person something small. Everything given to the aversion-tempered person is beautiful, harmonious, and agreeable, because aversion’s root illness is being crossed; first cease crossing the person, and the mind can soften. The prescription for the discursive-thought-tempered person is “close it in and make it smaller”—a person with many thoughts does not need scenery. This chart is already preparing the allocation of the forty meditation subjects in the next unit.

Alignment — The Chinese Buddhist “Five Meditations for Stilling the Mind” Are Really the Same Prescription Chart 〔Alignment · a Chinese Buddhist Account, in Expectation of Those to Come〕

Readers arriving from the Mahāyāna shelves will meet a delightful recognition here. Chinese Buddhism, drawing from the Sarvāstivāda meditation tradition, has a famous group of preliminary practices called the Five Meditations for Stilling the Mind—five contemplations used to “still” afflicted mind: contemplation of foulness treats greed, contemplation of compassion treats aversion, contemplation of dependent arising treats delusion, breath counting (ānāpāna) treats distraction and excessive discursive thought, and recollection of the Buddha—or, in another tradition, analysis of the elements—treats karmic obstruction. Set this beside Buddhaghosa’s prescription chart in 03-05 Vernacular §4, and the overlap is striking. Yet the fit is almost one-to-one, not exact, and the gap is precisely what is interesting. Three mappings are clean: foulness for greed, compassion for aversion, and breath counting for distraction—with dependent arising for delusion making four. The misalignment is structural: the Chinese group has five contemplations, while Buddhaghosa has six temperaments. The gap falls exactly at the fifth contemplation, for which there are two traditional versions—recollection of the Buddha or analysis of the elements—and these correspond respectively to Buddhaghosa’s two “non-afflictive” temperaments: recollection of the Buddha is the method he gives to the faith-tempered person, while analysis of the elements is given to the discerning person. In other words, the fifth method divides into two to cover the sixth slot. This is not an accident but two traditions crystallizing their own diagnostic prescriptions from the same ancient practical wisdom. For a Chinese-reading audience, it is a useful bridge: if you know the Five Meditations for Stilling the Mind, Buddhaghosa’s six-temperament prescription is no longer foreign. It is the same principle stated more finely and completely. 〔What Is Seen〕

For the General Reader

First use §§04–06 as a tentative way to recognize yourself: whether you walk quickly, sweep carefully, choose food, how you first react to something disagreeable, and how many thoughts fill the mind. Do not rush to a verdict. The author himself says this method “should not be accepted as essential”; it is a mirror, not a sentence. Once you recognize a general tendency, remember two points: your affliction and strength have the same texture—strong greed can turn quickly to faith, fault-finding can become sharp discernment, and many thoughts may simply be delusion in motion; and prescriptions have two basic directions—the opposite for greed temperament, the agreeable for aversion temperament. The next unit connects this diagnostic chart to the forty meditation subjects and tells you what to select.

To read this unit in full: Vernacular §§1–8 give the complete section-by-section translation of the establishment, causes, discernment, and suitable conditions of the six temperaments.

The forty are not forty things to learn, but forty fillings of a single structure

The Big Picture — Spreading the Entire Concentration Division into a Single Table

The eleven chapters of the concentration division all turn around a famous list: the forty meditation subjects (kammaṭṭhāna, literally, “the place where the mind works”), from which a practitioner selects one subject as the main cultivation. The complete list in this table—ten kasiṇas, ten kinds of foulness, ten recollections, four divine abodes, four immaterial states, one perception, and one defining, totaling forty—appears in Vernacular §1. The table itself is what makes the middle division look like an “encyclopedia,” but the underlying structure is actually simple. What must be carried away is not the list but the unified template of questions beneath it. In this unit the author discriminates the forty meditation subjects through ten modes (Vernacular §§1–4): numerical exposition, whether they bring access or absorption, division of jhāna, transcendence, extension or non-extension, object, plane, taking, condition, and suitability for temperament—every meditation subject must pass through these ten questions. This template of questions runs through Chapters 4 to 11; it is the key that keeps the middle division systematic rather than loose. It is also why this exegesis chooses Chapter 4, the Earth Kasiṇa, as the first model: once the structure of questions applied to a single meditation subject is understood, the rest can be inferred by analogy. The forty are not forty things to learn; they are forty fillings of a single structure. The latter half of the unit (Vernacular §§5–7) returns to the words “take up”: entrusting oneself to the Buddha and to the teacher, six inclinations and two resolutions, how the teacher knows temperament and teaches accordingly, and how the pupil listens by taking note. This closes the chapter and brings its lesson—“first recognize yourself, then choose the right medicine”—to completion. 〔Observation〕

§01 General Statement of the Ten Modes and the First Four Modes → Vernacular §1

“Take up one among the forty meditation subjects” (Vernacular §1)—first understand the discrimination of meditation subjects according to ten modes. According to numerical exposition: forty means ten kasiṇas (earth, water, fire, air; blue, yellow, red, white; light; and limited space), ten kinds of foulness (bloated, livid, festering, cut-up, gnawed, scattered, hacked-and-scattered, blood-smeared, worm-infested, and skeleton), ten recollections (Buddha, Dhamma, Saṅgha, virtue, generosity, deities, death, body, breathing, and peace), four divine abodes (loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity), four immaterial states (the bases of infinite space, infinite consciousness, nothingness, and neither perception nor non-perception), one perception (perception of repulsiveness in food), and one defining (defining of the four elements). According to whether they bring access or absorption: the eight recollections apart from mindfulness of the body and mindfulness of breathing, together with perception of repulsiveness in food and defining of the four elements—these ten bring access only; the rest bring absorption. According to the division of jhāna: the ten kasiṇas together with mindfulness of breathing pertain to four jhānas; the ten kinds of foulness together with mindfulness of the body pertain to the first jhāna; the first three divine abodes pertain to three jhānas; the fourth divine abode and four immaterial states pertain to the fourth jhāna. According to transcendence: transcendence is twofold—transcendence of factors (the meditation subjects pertaining to three or four jhānas, in which applied thought, sustained thought, and so forth are transcended on the same object to attain the higher jhānas; the fourth divine abode also transcends gladness on the same objects as loving-kindness and the rest) and transcendence of the object (the four immaterial states: the base of infinite space is attained by transcending one of the first nine kasiṇas, and the base of infinite consciousness and the rest by transcending space and so forth); the remaining meditation subjects have no transcendence. 〔Reading〕The first of the ten modes, “number,” looks the plainest, but it is actually the coordinate system for the other nine—the other nine each classify these forty coordinates anew: which reach only access, which reach which jhāna, and which can be transcended upward. Readers need not memorize the table. It is enough to remember that “every meditation subject can be located by these ten questions”; then the opening of every subject from Chapter 4 onward becomes intelligible.

§02 The Mode of Extension and Non-extension → Vernacular §2

“According to extension and non-extension” (Vernacular §2): among the forty, only the ten kasiṇas should be extended—within whatever range a kasiṇa is made to pervade, the practitioner can hear sounds with the divine ear, see visible forms with the divine eye, and know other minds with the mind. Mindfulness of the body and the kinds of foulness should not be extended: they are confined to a location and bring no benefit—extending them merely extends a mass of corpses. The answer to Sopāka’s question, “perception of visible form is clear; perception of skeletons is unclear,” is precisely about the extension and non-extension of the sign. The statement, “He pervaded this great earth with nothing but perception of skeletons,” concerns the manifestation of the sign in a practitioner who has acquired it—as in the time of Dhammāsoka, when the karavīka bird saw its own reflection in mirrored walls on four sides and conceived that birds of its kind were everywhere. 〔Reading〕Why, then, are the jhānas of foulness also said to have a “measureless object”?—Some take the sign on a large corpse and some on a small corpse; or a practitioner, not seeing the danger, extends it. There is no contradiction, but because extension brings no benefit, it still should not be done. Extending the sign of breathing only extends a mass of air; extending a divine abode only extends a mass of beings. The statement “dwells pervading one direction with a mind accompanied by loving-kindness” concerns comprehensive taking (taking the beings of one dwelling place, then two dwelling places, in sequence, until a direction is comprehensively taken), not extension of a sign—there is no counterpart sign here at all, and thus nothing to extend. The objects of the immaterial states are either space left by removing a kasiṇa, consciousness as an intrinsic state, the absence of consciousness, or the base of neither perception nor non-perception as an intrinsic state; none should be extended. The remaining subjects have no sign and therefore should not be extended—what can be extended is a counterpart sign. 〔Reading〕This mode is really answering a craving that easily arises in a practitioner: “Can the sign be made bigger?” The author’s answer is unflinchingly sober: only a kasiṇa sign is worth extending, because it yields a basis for supernormal knowledges. In every other case, making it bigger merely means more corpses, more air, or more people—extension without benefit is unnecessary fabrication. Read today, this is a bucket of cold water over the imagination that “bigger is better” in cultivation.

§03 The Four Modes of Object, Plane, Taking, and Condition → Vernacular §3

“According to object” (Vernacular §3): the ten kasiṇas, ten kinds of foulness, mindfulness of breathing, and mindfulness of the body—twenty-two in all—have a counterpart sign as their object; the eight recollections apart from breathing and body, together with perception of repulsiveness in food, defining of the four elements, the base of infinite consciousness, and the base of neither perception nor non-perception—twelve in all—have an intrinsic state as their object. The same twenty-two have a sign as their object, while the other six have an object that cannot be stated. The festering, blood-smeared, worm-infested, mindfulness of breathing, the water, fire, and air kasiṇas, and a light kasiṇa based on the disk of the sun or the like—eight in all—have a moving object, but only in the former part; the counterpart sign is still. According to plane: the ten kinds of foulness, mindfulness of the body, and perception of repulsiveness in food—twelve in all—do not occur among deities; adding mindfulness of breathing makes thirteen that do not occur in the Brahmā world; in immaterial existence only the four immaterial states occur; among humans all forty occur. According to taking: taking by seeing, touching, or hearing—the nine kasiṇas apart from air plus ten kinds of foulness, nineteen in all, are taken by seeing (in the former part their sign is taken by looking with the eye); in mindfulness of the body, the skin pentad is taken by seeing and the rest by hearing; mindfulness of breathing is taken by touch; the air kasiṇa by seeing and touch; and the remaining eighteen by hearing. The divine abode of equanimity and the four immaterial states should not be taken by beginners; the other thirty-five can be taken. According to condition: the nine kasiṇas apart from space are conditions for the immaterial states; the ten kasiṇas for supernormal knowledges; the first three divine abodes for the fourth; each lower immaterial state for the next higher; the base of neither perception nor non-perception for the attainment of cessation; and every meditation subject for pleasant abiding, insight, and the accomplishment of existence. 〔Reading〕Taken together, these four modes resemble four specification fields in a user’s manual: object (what it faces), plane (in which realm it can be cultivated), taking (whether it is first acquired through eye, body, or ear), and condition (where accomplishment leads). The statement “the divine abode of equanimity and the four immaterial states should not be taken by beginners” is worth retaining—this table not only classifies; it also marks the starting boundary for a beginner.

§04 The Mode of Suitability for Temperament → Vernacular §4

“According to suitability for temperament” (Vernacular §4): for the greed-tempered, the ten kinds of foulness and mindfulness of the body—eleven subjects; for the aversion-tempered, the four divine abodes and four color kasiṇas—eight; for the delusion-tempered and discursive-thought-tempered, mindfulness of breathing alone; for the faith-tempered, the first six recollections; for the discerning, mindfulness of death, recollection of peace, defining of the four elements, and perception of repulsiveness in food—four. The remaining kasiṇas and the four immaterial states are suitable for every temperament; among the kasiṇas, a limited kasiṇa suits a discursive-thought-tempered person and a measureless kasiṇa suits a delusion-tempered person. The author immediately imposes a limit on his own statement: all this is said according to direct opposition and extreme suitability—there is no wholesome cultivation that cannot suppress greed and the rest or support faith and the rest. He cites the Meghiya Sutta—“cultivate foulness to abandon greed, loving-kindness to abandon aversion, mindfulness of breathing to abandon discursive thought, and perception of impermanence to uproot conceit”—and the Rāhula Sutta, in which seven meditation subjects are taught to a single person. Therefore, “the surface of the words should not be grasped; their intention should be sought everywhere.” 〔Reading〕This mode is the other half of the diagnostic table in 03-04: that unit recognizes the person; this unit matches the medicine. The author’s own sentence at the end of the prescription—“do not grasp the surface of the words”—is the sentence readers most need to hear in the entire chapter: the pairings express principled opposition and affinity, not exclusive prescriptions. That a greed-tempered person principally cultivates foulness does not mean that person cannot cultivate loving-kindness; the six temperaments help a practitioner begin, not nail the practitioner in place.

§05 Explanation of “Taking”—Entrusting Oneself to the Buddha and to the Teacher → Vernacular §5

The meaning of “take up” (Vernacular §5): approach a good friend who gives a meditation subject (for the signs of such a person, see 03-03), entrust oneself to the Buddha, the Blessed One, or to the teacher, become endowed with inclination and resolution, and then request the meditation subject. Entrusting oneself to the Buddha: “Blessed One, I relinquish this personhood to you.” A practitioner who lives in a remote lodging without entrusting himself cannot hold firm when a fearful object appears; he retreats to the edge of a village, mingles with householders, falls into improper seeking, and meets with disaster. A practitioner who has entrusted himself does not fear a fearful object; reflecting, “Did you not long ago entrust yourself to the Buddhas?” he instead feels gladness. It is like a fine Kāsi cloth: when mice or insects gnaw it, the owner is distressed; after giving it to a bhikkhu without a robe, the donor is glad even on seeing it cut into pieces. Entrusting oneself to the teacher: “Venerable sir, I relinquish this personhood to you.” A practitioner who does not entrust himself becomes impervious to rebuke, difficult to teach, or disposed to act as he pleases; the teacher does not support him materially or with the Dhamma and does not teach profound texts, and before long he falls into immorality or returns to lay life. A practitioner who has entrusted himself receives instruction well, conducts himself in dependence on the teacher, receives both kinds of support, and grows, increases, and reaches fulfillment in the Dispensation—like the three resident pupils of Cūḷapiṇḍapātika Tissa Thera: at the words “for your sake,” the first was able to leap from a precipice a hundred persons deep, the second to grind away his body, and the third to stop his breathing and die. Knowing their capacity, the elder taught them meditation subjects; all three attained arahant fruition. 〔Reading〕Modern readers can easily mistake “entrusting” for submission. The author’s simile actually says something else: after you hand something over, it can no longer be used to threaten you—after giving away the cloth, seeing it cut up no longer hurts; after handing over the body, a fearful sign no longer frightens. Entrusting does not mean abandoning yourself; it first releases the grasping that says, “This is mine.” That step is itself a small breach in attachment before the cultivation of concentration begins. 〔Observation〕

§06 Six Inclinations and Two Resolutions → Vernacular §6

“Endowed with inclination and resolution” (Vernacular §6): become endowed with inclination through six modes, beginning with non-greed—inclined to non-greed, see danger in greed; inclined to non-aversion, see danger in aversion; inclined to non-delusion, see danger in delusion; inclined to renunciation, see danger in household life; inclined to seclusion, see danger in company; inclined to escape, see danger in every kind of existence and destination. A person so inclined can attain one of the three kinds of awakening—the stream-enterers, once-returners, non-returners, destroyers of the influxes, paccekabuddhas, and Rightly and Fully Enlightened Ones of past, future, and present all attained their respective attainments through these six modes. Two resolutions: resolve upon concentration, esteem concentration, and incline toward concentration; resolve upon nibbāna, esteem nibbāna, and incline toward nibbāna. 〔Reading〕Each of the six inclinations has the form “inclined to this, see the danger in that”—first establish the positive direction, then look back from it and see the fault in its opposite. These are not six precepts but six directions of the mind; the two resolutions gather those directions into two words: concentration and nibbāna. Before a meditation subject is requested, the author asks not for qualifications but for direction.

§07 How the Teacher Knows Temperament, the Three Ways of Teaching, Taking Note While Listening, and the Chapter’s End → Vernacular §7

A teacher with mind-reading knowledge observes the course of the pupil’s mind and thereby knows the pupil’s temperament; other teachers know by asking: What is your temperament? What states occur frequently in you? To what do you feel at ease attending? Toward which meditation subject does your mind incline? Having learned this, the teacher teaches a meditation subject suitable for that temperament (Vernacular §7). Three ways of teaching: for a person already trained in taking up a meditation subject, have it recited in one or two sittings and then give it; for a person living nearby, teach each time the person comes; for a person who intends to leave after learning it, teach neither too briefly nor too expansively. Using the earth kasiṇa as an example, the teacher should explain nine aspects—the four defects of a kasiṇa, making a kasiṇa, the method of cultivating what has been made, the two signs, the two concentrations, the seven kinds of suitability and unsuitability, tenfold absorption-skill, balancing energy, and the method of absorption (the details appear in Chapter 4). Taking note while listening: fasten each individual aspect—this is the lower phrase; this is the upper phrase; this is its meaning; this is its intention; this is its simile. Only when the pupil listens respectfully in this way is the meditation subject well received, and on this basis a distinguished attainment is accomplished. At this point, “approach a good friend and take up one among the forty meditation subjects suited to the practitioner’s own temperament” has been explained in full. The chapter closes with the verse: in the Visuddhimagga, composed to bring joy to good people, in the division on the cultivation of concentration, this is the third chapter, entitled “The Exposition of Taking Up a Meditation Subject.” 〔Reading〕The four questions at the chapter’s end—what is your temperament, what states occur frequently, what attention feels at ease, and toward which meditation subject the mind inclines—are the mnemonic version of the entire diagnostic method of 03-04. And the five items in “taking note while listening” turn listening to the Dhamma itself into a meditation subject—the listener is not a passive container.

For the General Reader — How to Use This Map

This chapter is not for “practicing” but for locating. Three practical suggestions for general readers:

1. You do not need forty subjects; you need to recognize yourself and choose one. The forty meditation subjects are a complete menu, not a to-do list. The purpose of reading this chapter is first to use 03-04 as a mirror: Which temperament do I most resemble? Then follow it to choose one or two practices for deep cultivation; a broad acquaintance with the rest is enough.
2. A starting recommendation for modern householders. Most modern people lean strongly toward the discursive-thought temperament—their thoughts do not stop—with some aversion temperament as well, becoming easily restless and irritated. This map would direct them to two places: Chapter 9, the Divine Abodes—loving-kindness, which softens a restless mind—and Chapter 8, Mindfulness of Breathing—the breath, which gathers a scattered mind. The six recollections in Chapter 7 also fit readily into any rhythm of life. These are the three chapters this exegesis recommends general readers begin with.
3. Do not be superstitious about a “highest Dharma gate.” This chapter’s deepest lesson is that it establishes no universally highest practice at all. The question is not “Which practice is most powerful?” but “Which practice best fits my present illness?” This sobriety is itself part of cultivation.

To read this unit in full: Vernacular §§1–7 gives the complete paragraph-by-paragraph rendering of the ten-mode discrimination and the explanation of “taking up.”

In a single sentence: Chapter 3 does not tell you what to cultivate; it teaches you first to recognize yourself and then choose the right medicine—because choosing wrongly at the start blocks the entire work at the gate.