清淨道論 義疏通講 · 冊5Visuddhimagga · Exposition Throughout · Vol. 5

The Earth-Kasiṇa Method Is Carried Over in Full; Only the Object Changes: Water Is Taken in Its Clarity, Fire at the Heart of the Flame, and Air in Movement—“From Here Onward, Only the Distinctions”

The Big Picture — The Same Method, Different Objects (I)

The chapter on the earth kasiṇa (Chapter 4) established the complete method for a meditation subject as a template: acquiring the sign, avoiding faults in the kasiṇa, the two signs, access and absorption, and the fourfold and fivefold systems. The opening sentence of this chapter establishes its method of exposition: “All this should be explained in detail as with the earth kasiṇa; from this point onward, not even this much will be stated again—only the distinctions will be described” (Vernacular §1). Thus each of the other nine kasiṇas occupies only one section. This is not omission, but method: the same method with different objects. This unit covers the three kasiṇas of the great elements: water, fire, and air. The reading can be held through three questions: how is this object acquired (the method of preparation), what flaw does its learning sign retain (the fault made visible), and what does its counterpart sign look like (the purified form distinctive to each kasiṇa)? 〔What Is Seen〕

§01 The General Rule for the Remaining Kasiṇas and the Water Kasiṇa—Acquiring the Sign, Four Names, and Two Signs → Vernacular §1

The general rule comes first—everything is to be explained as with the earth kasiṇa, while what follows states only the distinctions—and then the water kasiṇa begins. For a meritorious person who performed the preliminary practice in a former life, the sign arises in unprepared water: a lotus pond, a pond, a saltwater pool, or the sea. Thus the Elder Cūḷasiva looked over the ocean while crossing it and the kasiṇa sign appeared before him. One without that preliminary practice avoids the four faults of a kasiṇa, taking no water mixed with blue, yellow, red, or white. He uses water caught in a clean cloth while still in the air before it reaches the ground, or water that is clear and unclouded, fills a bowl or water pot level with the rim, and places it in a concealed spot. He does not examine the color or attend to its characteristic, but treats it as one color with its support, establishes the mind on the conceptual phenomenon by force of prominence, and, among names for water such as ambu, uses the clearest one to develop “water, water.” The two signs arise in sequence: the learning sign appears to move, and froth or bubbles in the water disclose the fault in the kasiṇa; the counterpart sign is unwavering, like a jeweled fan set in space or a mirror disk made of jewels. With the arising of the counterpart sign, access jhāna is gained, followed by the absorptions of the fourfold and fivefold systems (Vernacular §1). 〔Reading〕 “Do not examine color; do not attend to the characteristic” is the formula repeated throughout this chapter: the object is the conceptual “water,” not wetness, cold, or any particular color. The movement of the learning sign and the stillness of the counterpart sign trace the mind’s passage from the impurities of a material support toward the purity of a concept.

§02 The Fire Kasiṇa—Method of Preparation, Four Names, and Three Similes for the Counterpart Sign → Vernacular §2

For the meritorious person, the sign arises when he looks at a flame—a lamp flame, hearth, bowl-firing place, or forest fire—as it did for the Elder Cittagutta, who entered the uposatha hall and acquired the sign on first seeing a lamp flame. Others prepare one: split and dry heartwood, cut and stack it, then light it; pierce an opening one span plus four fingers across in a mat, hide, or cloth and place it in front. Without attending to the grass and wood below or the plume of smoke above, acquire the sign in the dense flame at the center. Do not examine its color as “blue” or “yellow,” and do not attend to its characteristic as heat; among names for fire such as pāvaka, take the clearest and develop “fire, fire.” The learning sign appears like flame repeatedly breaking off and falling. In unprepared fire, the fault becomes visible as burning wood, a mass of embers, ash, or smoke. The counterpart sign is still, like a piece of red blanket set in space, a golden fan, or a golden pillar (Vernacular §2). 〔Reading〕 The words “dense flame at the center” show the precision with which the object is taken: smoke above and fuel below are not fire—the practitioner takes the purest portion of the flame. Read beside the jeweled fan and mirror disk of the water kasiṇa, the three similes for the counterpart sign—blanket, golden fan, and golden pillar—show that although each counterpart sign follows its object, all share the single quality of being purified and settled.

§03 The Air Kasiṇa—The Two Doors of Seeing and Touch, and Three Names → Vernacular §3

The air kasiṇa has two doors: through what is seen or through what is touched. The commentaries say to observe the tips of sugarcane, bamboo, trees, or hair being moved and thoroughly moved, or to observe air touching the body. Thus when dense-leaved sugarcane, bamboo, or a tree, or a head with hair four fingers long, is struck by the wind, establish mindfulness: “This air is striking at this place.” Or when air enters through a window gap or wall opening and touches a part of the body, establish mindfulness there. Among names for air such as vāta, use the clearest and develop “air, air.” The learning sign appears in motion like a swirl of steam rising from milk-rice just taken down from the fire; the counterpart sign has settled and is motionless (Vernacular §3). 〔Reading〕 Air cannot be seen, so the way its sign is acquired is the most distinctive of these kasiṇas: it is taken by the visible movement of a tip or by the touch of air on the body. The milk-rice steam simile is precise even in temperature—that swirl on the verge of dispersing is the “movement” of the learning sign. Read together, all three learning signs move—water ripples, flame falls, vapor swirls—and all three counterpart signs come to rest. Between movement and stillness lies the boundary between the learning and counterpart signs. 〔What Is Seen〕

For the General Reader

The easiest way to read this unit is first to make sure you have read the earth kasiṇa (Chapter 4), where the complete method appears. Here each kasiṇa answers only three questions: what serves as the object, what its flaw looks like, and what it looks like once purified. Water is a jeweled fan or mirror disk; fire is a golden fan or pillar; air is a settled swirl. If you practice, remember two lines: do not examine color and do not attend to the characteristic—the object is the concept “water,” not the pool of water. The counterpart sign arises together with access jhāna: the general rule of Chapter 4 applies uniformly to all nine remaining kasiṇas. The four color kasiṇas follow in the next unit.

To read this unit in full: Vernacular §1–§3 is the complete passage-by-passage translation of the general rule for the remaining kasiṇas and of the methods of acquiring, naming, and distinguishing the signs of the water, fire, and air kasiṇas.

One Pattern Governs Four Colors: Acquire the Sign in a Flower, Cloth, or Color Element; the Blue Kasiṇa Establishes the Form and Yellow, Red, and White Follow “This Same Method”—A Teaching Technique in Which Each Section Grows Shorter

The Big Picture — The Same Method, Different Objects (II)

After the three great-element kasiṇas, this unit takes up the four color kasiṇas: blue, yellow, red, and white. All four sections share one citation formula: “One who acquires the [color] kasiṇa acquires a sign in [that color]: in a flower, in a cloth, or in the color element.” These three places for acquiring the sign—flower, cloth, and pigment—run through all four colors. As the first of the group, the blue kasiṇa establishes the full method: fill a container with petals, bundle cloth, or use color-element material to make a maṇḍala. The following three sections then diminish in length. The yellow section says, “The same method applies to the yellow kasiṇa,” and red and white follow the same pattern, each adding only its distinctive objects and account. This unit is the treatise’s most thorough demonstration of the method of “stating only the distinctions”: each section is shorter than the one before, yet nothing in the method is diminished. 〔What Is Seen〕

§01 The Blue Kasiṇa—Flowers, Cloth, the Color Element, and the Method of Preparation → Vernacular §1

For a meritorious person, the sign arises as soon as he sees a cluster of blue flowers, flowers spread at a place of offering, or blue cloth or a blue jewel. Others prepare a kasiṇa in three ways: use blue lotuses, girikaṇṇikā, or similar flowers, concealing stamens and stalks and filling a casket or basket level to the rim with petals; fill it with blue cloth tied into a bundle, or stretch the cloth across its rim like a drumhead; or use any of the color-element materials copper blue, leaf blue, or collyrium blue to make a portable or wall-mounted kasiṇa maṇḍala according to the earth-kasiṇa method, bounding the edge with a contrasting color. He then sets in motion the attention “blue, blue” according to the earth-kasiṇa method. Faults in the kasiṇa appear in the learning sign as the stalks of stamens or gaps between leaves; the counterpart sign breaks free of the maṇḍala and appears in space like a jeweled fan (Vernacular §1). 〔Reading〕 “Make the stamens and stalks invisible” and “bound the edge with a contrasting color” serve one purpose: the object must be a single pure color with a distinct boundary. Anything that makes the color impure—stamens, stalks, or gaps—becomes a source of faults. The counterpart sign’s “breaking free of the maṇḍala” is the moment when the mind separates color from the thing that bears it.

§02 The Yellow Kasiṇa—The Seat Offering Seen by the Elder Cittagutta → Vernacular §2

“The same method applies to the yellow kasiṇa.” For a meritorious person, the sign arises as soon as he sees a cluster or spreading of yellow flowers, yellow cloth, or yellow color element—as it did for the Elder Cittagutta on Mount Cittalapabbata. He saw a seat offering made with pattaṅga flowers, and on first seeing it, a sign the same size as the seat arose. Others use such things as kaṇikāra flowers, yellow cloth, or yellow color element, prepare the kasiṇa according to the blue-kasiṇa method, and set in motion the attention “yellow, yellow” (Vernacular §2). 〔Reading〕 The elder’s account makes the point that “the measure of the sign follows its support”: a seat of a certain size gives rise to a sign of that size. The sign’s enlargement has its own method, established in the chapter on the earth kasiṇa, but the object determines the starting measure.

§03 The Red Kasiṇa—Bandhujīvaka and Other Red Flowers → Vernacular §3

The same pattern applies. For a meritorious person, the sign arises as soon as he sees a cluster of bandhujīvaka or similar flowers, a spreading of flowers, or red cloth, a red jewel, or red color element. Others prepare one with flowers such as jayasumana, bandhujīvaka, and rattakoraṇḍaka, red cloth, or red color element, following the blue-kasiṇa method and setting in motion the attention “red, red” (Vernacular §3). 〔Reading〕 This section has no account and establishes no new method; that is precisely the literal fulfillment of the words “this same method.” This edition follows the Pāli forms of the flower names and does not equate them with Chinese species (as recorded in the apparatus), so readers need not seek one-to-one botanical matches.

§04 The White Kasiṇa—Flowers and the Three Disks of Tin, Silver, and the Moon → Vernacular §4

The same method applies, but with one addition. For a meritorious person, the sign arises as soon as he sees a cluster of white flowers, a spreading of flowers such as vassikasumana, a mass of white and red lotuses, or white cloth or white color element. The sign will certainly arise on a tin disk, a silver disk, or the disk of the moon as well. Others use white flowers, white cloth, or white color element and prepare the kasiṇa according to the blue-kasiṇa method, setting in motion the attention “white, white” (Vernacular §4). 〔Reading〕 The three disks of tin, silver, and moon are distinctive to the white kasiṇa. White, as a color, is nearest to light; its places for acquiring the sign therefore naturally extend beyond flowers, cloth, and the color element. This detail quietly anticipates the light kasiṇa in the next unit. 〔What Is Seen〕

For the General Reader

The four color kasiṇas can be read as a single page: three places for acquiring the sign—flower, cloth, and pigment—one method established by the blue kasiṇa, and four recitation formulas: “blue, blue,” “yellow, yellow,” “red, red,” and “white, white.” The single point is this: the color must be pure and the boundary distinct. Stamens, stalks, and gaps are impurities; an edging in a different color makes the boundary clear. The white kasiṇa adds one detail: a sign will also arise on the disks of tin, silver, and the moon. Together with the three great-element kasiṇas of the preceding unit, seven of the nine remaining kasiṇas are now complete. Light and limited space conclude the set, and the next unit then states what each of all ten kasiṇas can accomplish.

To read this unit in full: Vernacular §1–§4 is the complete passage-by-passage translation of the blue kasiṇa’s three methods and its faults and counterpart sign, the yellow kasiṇa and the elder’s account, the flowers of the red kasiṇa, and the three disks of the white kasiṇa.

Completing the Ten Kasiṇas: Light Takes the Disk, Space Takes the Opening; the Miscellany Sets Out Each Kasiṇa’s Supernormal Capacities, the Meaning of Measurelessness in Every Direction, and the Admonition Concerning the Three Obstructions

The Big Picture — The Same Method with Different Objects (Concluded), and the Final Conspectus of the Ten Kasiṇas

The last two kasiṇas complete the set of ten: the light kasiṇa takes the disk of light cast through a hole in a wall, a keyhole, or a gap in a window, while the limited-space kasiṇa takes the opening itself. A concluding verse then turns to the chapter’s Miscellany Discussion: what supernormal accomplishments each of the ten kasiṇas can produce (§3); the explanation of the five terms “above, below, across, nondual, and measureless” (§4); and the admonition that those obstructed in three ways cannot develop them, together with the chapter’s closing exhortation (§5). The first two sections still “state the distinctions,” while the last three draw the camera back—the ten kasiṇas are no longer ten separate methods of practice but a map of capacities and a threshold for entry. 〔Observation〕

§01 The Light Kasiṇa—The Light of the Sun and Moon and a Lamp in a Pot → Vernacular §1

For a meritorious person, when the light of the sun or moon enters through a hole in a wall, a keyhole, or a gap in a window and makes a round disk appear on a wall or the ground—or filters between the branches of a densely leaved tree or through a pavilion and makes a disk—the sign arises as soon as it is seen. Another person develops “illumination, illumination” or “light, light” upon that disk. If he cannot, he lights a lamp in a pot, covers the mouth, makes a hole, and turns the perforated side toward a wall: the lamplight emerging through the hole makes a disk on the wall, and he develops “light, light” upon it. This method lasts longer than the others. The learning sign is like the disk on the wall or ground; the counterpart sign is like a dense, limpid mass of light (Vernacular §1). 〔Reading〕The pot-lamp method is a rare “engineering detail” in this chapter: the sun and moon move, shadows of trees shift, but a lamp in a pot does not—the author constructs a stable light source for the beginner. The learning sign is that disk; the counterpart sign is a mass of pure light: once again the movement is from “formed light” to “light itself.”

§02 The Limited-Space Kasiṇa and the Concluding Verses on the Ten Kasiṇas → Vernacular §2

For a meritorious person, the sign arises as soon as he sees a hole in a wall, a keyhole, or a gap in a window. Another person makes a hole one span plus four fingers across in a well-covered pavilion, a hide, a mat, or the like, or develops “space, space” upon a hole in a wall or another opening. The distinction between the two signs is unique: the learning sign includes the boundary of the wall and is like the opening; when enlarged, it does not enlarge. The counterpart sign becomes a disk of space; when enlarged, it enlarges (Vernacular §2). The concluding verses gather the ten kasiṇas: the ten kasiṇas spoken of by the Possessor of the Ten Powers are causes of the absorptions of the fourfold and fivefold systems in the form sphere; after understanding their method of development, one should further understand the Miscellany Discussion. 〔Reading〕The limited-space kasiṇa’s distinction between the two signs is especially elegant—whether it enlarges becomes the criterion: the hole that still carries the edge of the wall is an object; only the space that can enlarge with the mind is a sign. At this point, all ten kasiṇas share a graduation test: “Can it leave its support?”

§03 Miscellany Discussion—The Supernormal Accomplishments Produced by Each of the Ten Kasiṇas → Vernacular §3

The ten kasiṇas each produce their own accomplishments: earth—becoming many although one, creating earth in air or water and walking, standing, or sitting there, and attaining bases of mastery through the limited and measureless; water—emerging from and submerging into the earth, causing rain, creating rivers and seas, and shaking the earth, mountains, and mansions; fire—emitting smoke, blazing, causing a rain of embers, overcoming fire with fire, burning whatever is wished, producing light for the divine eye, and burning the body with the fire element at parinibbāna; air—traveling with the speed of wind and causing a windstorm; blue—creating blue, making darkness, attaining bases of mastery by way of beautiful and ugly color, and attaining pure liberation; yellow—creating yellow and resolving as gold; red—creating red; white—creating white, dispelling sloth and torpor, driving away darkness, and producing light for the divine eye; light—creating luminous forms, with the remaining accomplishments the same as for white; space—uncovering what is covered, creating space within earth or mountains and assuming postures there, and passing unobstructed beyond walls (Vernacular §3). 〔Reading〕This table is a preview and index of the supernormal powers in Chapter 12: each kasiṇa is a specialized key—develop white and light to dispel darkness; earth and the three colors to attain bases of mastery; water to make the world shake. The weightiest sentence in the table is hidden at the end of the fire kasiṇa: “at the time of parinibbāna, burning the body with the fire element”—even the funeral cremation is an act of concentration.

§04 Explanation of the Five Aspects: Above, Below, Across, Nondual, and Measureless → Vernacular §4

The scriptural phrase “above, below, across, nondual, measureless” is explained term by term. Above is toward the sky overhead; below is toward the ground beneath; across is delimited all around like the disk of a field—the practitioner enlarges the kasiṇa upward, downward, or all around, as one wishing to see visible forms with the divine eye extends light. Nondual: one kasiṇa does not pass into the nature of another—just as one who has entered water has only water in every direction, the earth kasiṇa is only the earth kasiṇa, unmixed with another kasiṇa. Measureless: it is measureless in pervasion—the mind pervades it in its entirety and takes no limit such as “this is the beginning; this is the middle” (Vernacular §4). 〔Reading〕These five terms are the “geometry” of a kasiṇa: three directions, one purity (nondual), and one boundlessness (measureless). The phrase “not taking a beginning or middle” is especially suggestive: a mind that pervades has no progress bar—so long as one is still counting “how far have I gone?” it is not yet measureless.

§05 Those Obstructed in Three Ways Cannot Develop the Kasiṇas, and the Chapter’s Closing Exhortation → Vernacular §5

Those obstructed in three ways cannot succeed in developing even one kasiṇa: obstruction of kamma means possessing kamma with immediate result; obstruction of defilements means being fixed in wrong view, having both sexual characteristics, or being a paṇḍaka; obstruction of result means having rebirth-linking with no roots or with two roots. The same is true of those without faith (devoid of faith in the Buddha and so forth), without desire (devoid of desire for a non-opposing course of practice), of bad wisdom (devoid of mundane and supramundane right view), or incapable of entering certainty and rightness (incapable of entering the noble path)—and this applies not only to the kasiṇas but also to the other meditation subjects. The closing exhortation: a son of good family free from the obstruction of result should keep far from the obstructions of kamma and defilements, increase faith, desire, and wisdom by hearing the true Dhamma and associating with good people, and apply himself diligently to meditation subjects. The chapter-end title is “Exposition of the Remaining Kasiṇas” (Vernacular §5). 〔Reading〕The admonition concerning the three obstructions states the threshold plainly—but notice where the exhortation lands: some obstructions are inherited from past lives and cannot be altered (result), while others can be avoided in this life (kamma and defilements). The author’s conclusion is not a sorting of who is unqualified; it calls those who still have a path to set out upon it: hear the Dhamma, approach teachers, and increase faith, desire, and wisdom. The ten kasiṇas close the concentration section here. 〔Observation〕

For the General Reader

The first half of this unit completes the final two kasiṇas: the light kasiṇa records the “pot-lamp method” (constructing a stable light source), while the space kasiṇa records the “test of enlargement” (only what can enlarge with the mind is the sign). The final three sections reward slow reading: preserve the table of supernormal accomplishments as an index (and preview of Chapter 12); read “nondual and measureless” as the geometry of a pervading mind—only pervasion without a progress bar is measureless; and hear the admonition concerning the three obstructions close the chapter with one exhortation: those who still have a path, hear the Dhamma, approach good people, and set out. The ten kasiṇas are complete; the ten kinds of foulness follow (next chapter).

To read this unit in full: Vernacular §§1–5 give the complete paragraph-by-paragraph translation of the light kasiṇa and pot-lamp method, the limited-space kasiṇa and test of enlargement, the concluding verses, the table of the ten kasiṇas’ supernormal accomplishments, the five-term explanation, the admonition concerning the three obstructions, and the chapter’s closing exhortation.