Passages from The Path of Purification (Visuddhi Magga), by Bhadantacariya Buddhaghosa¹

The first tetrad is set forth as a meditation subject for a beginner; but the other three tetrads are [respectively] set forth, as the contemplations of feeling, of [the manner of] consciousness, and of mental objects, for one who has already attained jhana in this tetrad. So if a clansman who is beginner wants to develop this meditation subject, and, through insight based on the fourth jhana produced in breathing, to reach Arahantship together with the discriminations, he should first do all the work connected with the purification of virtue, etc., in the way already described, after which he should learn the meditation subject in five stages from a teacher of the kind already described.

Here are the five stages: learning, questioning, establishing, absorption, characteristic.

Herein, learning, is learning the meditation subject. Questioning is questioning about the meditation subject. Establishing is establishing the meditation subject. Absorption [278] is the absorption of the meditation subject. Characteristic is the characteristic of the meditation subject; what is meant is that it is the ascertaining of the mediation subject's individual essense thus 'This meditation subject has such a characteristic.' Learning the meditation subject in the five stages in this way, he neither tires himself nor worries the teacher.

So in giving this meditation subject consisting in mindfulness of breathing attention he can live either with the teacher or elsewhere in an abode of the kind already described, learning the meditation subject in the five stages thus, getting a little expounded at a time and taking a long time over reciting it. He should sever the minor impediments. After finishing the work connected with the meal and getting rid of any dizziness due to the meal he should seat himself comfortably. Then making sure he is not confused about even a single word of what he has learned from the teacher, he should cheer his mind by recollecting the special qualities of the Three Jewels.

Here are the stages in giving attention to it: (1) counting, (2) connexion, (3) touching, (4) fixing, (5) observing, (6) turning away, (7) purification, and (8) looking back on these.

Herein, counting is just counting, connexion is carrying on, touching is the place touched [by the breaths], fixing is absorption, observing is insight, turning away is the path, purification is fruition, looking back on these is reviewing.

1. Herein, this clansman who is a beginner should first give attention to this meditation subject by counting. And when counting, he should not stop short of five or go beyond ten or make any break in the series. By stopping short of five his thoughts get excited in the cramped space, like a herd of cattle shut in a cramped pen. By going beyond ten his thoughts take the number [rather than the breaths] for their support. By making a break in the series he wonders if the meditation subject has reached completion or not. So he should do his counting without those faults.

When counting, he should at first do it slowly, [that is, late,] as a grain measurer does. For a grain measurer having filled his measure, says, 'One', and empties it, and then refilling it, he goes on saying 'One, one' while removing any rubbish he may have noticed. And the same with 'Two, two', and so on. So taking the in-breath or the out-breath, whichever appears [most plainly], he should begin with 'One, one' [279] and count up to 'Ten, ten', noting each as it occurs.

As he does his counting in this way, the in-breaths and out-breaths become evident to him as they enter in and issue out. Then he can leave off counting slowly (late), like a grain measurer, and he can count quickly, [that is, early,] as a cowherd does. For a skilled cowherd takes pebbles in his pocket and goes to the cow pen in the morning, whip in hand; sitting on the bar of the gate, prodding the cows in the back, he counts each one as it reaches the gate, saying 'One, two', dropping a pebble for each. And the cows of the herd, which have been spending the three watches of the night uncomfortably in the cramped sapce, come out quickly in parties, jostling each other as they escape. So he counts quickly (early) 'Three, four, five' and so up to ten. In this way the in-breaths, and out-breaths, which had already become evident to him while he counted them in the former way, now keep moving along quickly.

Then knowing that they keep moving along quickly, not apprehending them either inside or outside [the body], but apprehending them just as they reach the [nostril] door, he can do his counting quickly (early): 'One, two, three, four, five; one two three four, five, six; ... seven; ... eight; ... nine; ... ten'. For as long as the meditation subject is connected with counting it is with the help of that very counting that the mind becomes unified, just as a boat in a swift current is steadied with the help of a rudder.

When he counts quickly, the meditation subject becomes apparent to him as an uninterrupted process. Then, knowning that it is proceeding uninterruptedly, he can count quickly (early) in the way just described, not discerning the wind either inside or outside [the body]. For by bringing his consciousness inside along with the incoming breath it seems as if it were buffetted by the wind inside or filled with fat. [[sic]] By taking his consciousness outside along with the outgoing breath it gets distracted by the multiplicity of objects outside. However, his development is successful when he fixes his mindfulness on the place touched [by the breaths]. That is why it was said above 'He can count quickly (early) in the way just described, not discerning the wind either inside or outside.'

But how long is he to go on counting? Until, without counting [280] mindfulness remains settled on the in-breaths and out-breaths as its object. For counting is simply a device for settling mindfulness on the in-breaths and out-breaths as object by cutting off the external dissipation of applied thoughts.

2. Having given attention to it in this way by counting, he should now do so by connexion.

Connexion is the uninterrupted following of the in-breaths and out-breaths with mindfulness after counting has been given up. And that is not by following after the beginning, middle, and end.

The navel is the beginning of the wind issuing out, the heart is its middle and the nose-tip is its end. The nose-tip is the beignning of the wind entering in, the heart is its middle, and the navel is its end. And if he follows after that, his mind is distracted by disquiet and perturbation, according as it is said: 'When he goes in with mindfulness after the beginning, middle, and end of the in-breath, his mind being distracted internally, both his body and his mind are disquited and perturbed and shaky. When he goes out with mindfulness after the beginning, middle and end of the out-breath, his mind being distracted externally, both his body and his mind are disquieted and perturbed and shaky. (Ps.i,165)

3-4. So when he gives his attention to it by connextion, he should do so not by the beginning, middle and end, but rather by touching and by fixing.

There is no attention to be given to it by touching separate from fixing as there is by counting separate from connexion. But when he is counting the breaths in the place touched by each, he is giving attention to them by counting and touching. When he has given up counting and is connecting them by means of mindfulness in that same place and fixing consciousness by means of absorption, then he is said to be giving his attention to them by connexion, touching and fixing. And the meaning of this may be understtood through the similes of the Man Who Cannot Walk and the Gate-keeper given in the commentaries, and though the simile of the Saw given in the Patisambhida.

Here is the simile of the man who cannot walk: just as a man unable to walk, who is rocking a swing for the amusement of his children and their mother, sits at the foot of the swing post and sees both ends and the middle of the swing plank successively coming and going [281] yet does not move from his place in order to see both ends and the middle, so too, when a bhikkhu places himself with mindfulness, as it were, at the foot of the post for anchoring [mindfulness] and rocks the swing of the in-breaths and out-breaths; he sits down with mindfulness on the sign at that same place, and follows with mindfuness the beginning, middle and end of the in-breaths and out-breaths at the place touched by them as they come and go; keeping his mind fixed there, he then sees them without moving from his place in order to see them. This is the simile of the man who cannot walk.

This is the simile of the gate-keeper: just as a gate-keeper does not examine people inside and outside the town, asking 'Who are you? Where have you come from? Where are you going? What have you got in your hand?' -- for those people are not his concern --, but does examine each man as he arrives at the gate, so too, the incoming breaths that have gone inside and the outgoing breaths that have gone outside are not this bhikkhu's concern, but they are his concern each time them arrive at the [nostril] gate itself.

Then the simile of the aw should be understood from its beginning. For this is said:

   Sign, in-breath, out-breath, are not object
   Of a single consciousness;
   By one who knows not these three things
   Development is not obtained.
   Sign, in-breath, out-breath, are not object
   Of a single consciousness;
   By one who does know these three things
   Development can be obtained.

   Whose mindfulness of breathing in
   And out is perfect, well developed,
   And gradually brought to growth
   According as the Buddha taught,
   'Tis thus he illuminates the world
   Just like the full moon free from cloud' 

This is the simile of the saw. But here it is precisely his not giving attention [to the breaths] as [yet to] come and [already] gone that should be understood as the purpose.

When someone gives his attention to this meditation subject, sometimes it is not long before the sign arises in him, and then the fixing, in other words, absorption adorned with the rest of the jhana factors, is achieved.

After someone has given his attention to counting, then just as when a body that is disturbed sits down on a bed or chair, the bed or chair sags down and creaks and the cover gets rumpled, but when a body that is not disturbed sits down, the bed or chair neither sags nor creaks, the cover does not get rumpled, and it is as though filled with cotton-wool, why? because a body that is not disturbed is light, so too, after he has given his attention to counting, when the bodily disturbance has been stilled by the gradual cessation of gross in-breaths and out-breaths, then both the body and the mind become light: the physical body is as though it were ready to leap up into the air. [283]

When his gross in-breaths and out-breaths have ceased, his consciousness occurs with the sign of the subtle in-breaths and out-breaths as its object. And when that has ceased, it goes on occurring with the successively subtler signs as its object. How?

Suppose a man struck a bronze bell with a big iron bar and at once a loud sound arose, his consciousness would occur with the gross sound as its object; then, when the gross sound had ceased, it would occur afterwards with the sign of the subtle sound as its object; and when that had ceased, it would go on occurring with the sign of the successively subtler sound as its object. This how it should be understood. And this is given in detail in the passage beginning 'Just as when a metal gong is struck'

For while other meditation subjects become clearer at each higher stage, this one does not: in fact, as he goes on developing it, it becomes more subtle for him at each higher stage and it even comes to the point at which it is no longer manifest.

However, when it becomes unmanifest in this way, the bhikkhu should not get up from his seat, shake out his leather mat, and go away. What should be done? He should not get up with the idea 'Shall I ask the teacher?' or 'Is my meditation subject lost?'; for by going away, and so disturbing his posture, the meditation subject has to be started anew. So he should go on sitting as he was and [temporarily] substitute the place [normally touched for the actual breaths as the object of contemplation]. [Translator's note: The point made here is that if the breaths themselves get temporarily too faint to be observed, he should carry on by observing the tip of the nose where they normally touch till they become apparent again. He brings the meditation back to mind for the moment, 'as the place (desato)' where they were last noticed, instead of 'as breaths', which have temporarily vanished.]

These are the means for doing it. The bhikkhu should recognize the unmanifest state of the meditation subject and consider thus: 'Where do these in-breaths and out-breaths exist? Where do they not? In whom do they exist? In whom not?'. Then as he considers thus, he finds that they do not exist in one inside the mother's womb, or in those drowned in water, or likewise in unconscious beings, or in the dead, or in those attained to the fourth jhana, or in those born into a fine-material or immaterial existence, or in those attained to the cessation [of perception and feeling]. So he should apostrophize himself thus: 'You with all your wisdom are certainly not inside a mother's womb or drowned in water or in the unconscious existence or dead or attained to the fourth jhana or born into the fine-material or immaterial existence or attained to cessation. Those in-breaths and out-breaths are actually existent in you, only you are not able to discern them because your understanding is dull'. Then, fixing his mind on the place normally touched [by the breaths], he should proceed to give his attention to that.

These in-breaths and out-breaths occur striking the tip of the nose in a long-nosed man [284] and the upper lip in a short-nosed man. So he should fix the sign thus: 'This is the place where they strike'. This was why the Blessed One said; 'Bhikkhus, I do not say of one who is forgetful, who is not fully aware, [that he practises] development of mindfulness of breathing'. (M.iii,84)

Although any meditation subject, no matter what, is successful only in one who is mindful and fully aware, yet any meditation subject other than this one gets more evident as he goes on giving it his attention. But this mindfulness of breathing is difficult, difficult to develop, a field in which only the minds of Buddhas, Pacceka Buddhas, and Buddhas' sons are at home. It is no trivial matter, nor can it be cultivated by trivial persons. In proportion as continued attention is given to it it becomes more peaceful and more subtle. So strong mindfulness and understanding are necessary here.

Just as when doing needlework on a piece of fine cloth a find needle is needed, and a still finer instrument for boring the needle's eye, so too, when developing this meditation subject, which resembles fine cloth, both the mindfulness, which is the counterpart of the needle, and the understanding associated with it, which is the couterpart of the instrument for boring the needle's eye, need to be strong. A bhikkhu must have the necessary mindfulness and understanding and must look for the in-breaths and out-breaths nowhere else than the place normally touched by them.

Suppose a ploughman, after doing some ploughing, sent his oxen free to graze and sat down to rest in the shade, then his oxen would soon go into the forest. Now a skilled ploughman who wants to catch them and yoke them again does not wander through the forest following their trackes, but rather he takes his rope and goad and goes straight to the drinking place where they meet, and he sits or lies there. Then after the oxen have wandered about for a part of the day, they come to the drinking place where they meet, and they bathe and drink and when he sees that they have come out and are standing about, he secures them with the rope, and prodding them with the goad, he brings them back, yokes them, and goes on with his ploughing. So too, the bhikkhu should not look for the in-breaths and out-breaths anywhere else than the place normally touched by them. And he should take the rope of mindfulness and the goad of understanding, and fixing his mind on the place normally touched by them he should go on giving his attention to that. [285] For as he gives his attention in this way they reappear after no long time, as the oxen did at the drinking place where they met. So he can secure them with the rope of mindfulness, and yoking them in that same place and prodding them with the goad of understanding, he can keep on applying himself to the meditation subject.

When he does so in this way, the sign soon appears to him. [Note: "The sign is the learning sign and the counterpart sign, for both are stated here together. Herein, the three similes beginning with cotton are properly the learning sign, the rest are both. Some are certain teachers. The similes beginning with the cluster of gems are properly the counterpart sign" (Pm. 273)] But it is not the same for all; on the contrary, some say that when it appears it does so to certain people producing a light touch like cotton or silk-cotton or a draught. But this is the exposition given in the commentaries: it appears to some like a star or a cluster of gems or a cluster of pearls, to others with a rough touch like that of silk-cotton seeds or a peg made of heartwood, to others like a long braid string or a wreath of flowers or a puff of smoke, to others like a stretched-out cobweb or a film of cloud or a lotus flower or a chariot wheel or the moon's disk or the sun's disk.

In fact this resembles an occasion when a number of bhikkhus are sitting together reciting a suttanta. When a bhikkhu asks 'What does this sutta appear like to you?', one says 'It appears to me like a great mountain torrent,' another 'To me it is like a line of forest trees', another 'To me it is like a spreading fruit tree giving cool shade'. For the one sutta appears to them differently because of the difference in their perception. Similarly this single meditation subject appears differently because of difference in perception. It is born of perception, its source is perception, it is produced by perception. Therefore it should be undersood that when it appears differently it is because of difference in perception.

And here, the consciousness that has in-breath as its object is one, the consciousness that has out-breath as its object is another, and the consciousness that has the sign as its object is another. For the meditation subject reaches neither absorption nor even access in one who has got these three things [clear]. But it reaches access and also absorption in one who has got these things [clear]. For this is said:

   Sign, in-breath, out-breath, are not object 
   Of a single consciousness;
   By one who knows not these three things
   Development is not obtained.
   Sign, in-breath, out-breath are not object
   Of a single consciousness;
   By one who does know these three things
   Development can be obtained. (Ps.i.170). [286]

And when the sign has appeared in this way, the bhikkhu should go to the teacher and tell him 'Venerable sir, such and such has appeared to me'. But [say the Digha Reciters] the teacher should say neither 'This is the sign' nor 'This is not the sign'; after saying 'It happens like this, friend,' he should tell him 'Go on giving it attention again and again'; for if he were told 'It is the sign', he might [become complacent and] stop short at that (see M.i.193f.), and if he were told 'It is not the sign', he might get discouraged and give up; so he should encourage him to keep giving it his attention without saying either. So the Digha Reciters say, firstly. But the Majjhima Reciters say that he should be told 'This is the sign, friend. Well done. Keep giving attention to it again and again'.

Then he should fix his mind on that same sign; and so from now on, his development proceeds by way of fixing. For this is said by the Ancients:

   'Fixing his mind upon the sign
   'And putting away extraneous aspects 
   'The clever man anchors his mind
   'Upon the breathings in and out.'   

So as soon as the sign appears, his hindrances are suppressed, his defilements subside, his mindfulness is established, and his consciousness is concentrated in access concentration.

Then he should not give attention to the sign as to its colour, or review it as to its [specific] characteristic. He should guard it as carefully as a king's chief queen guards the child in her womb due to become a Wheel-turning Monarch, or as a farmer guards the ripening crops; and he should avoid the seven unsuitable things beginning with the unsuitable abode and cultivate the seven suitable things. Then, guarding it thus, he should make it grow and improve with repeated attention, and he should practise the tenfold skill in absorption (Ch.IV,42) and bring about evenness of energy (Ch.IV,66). As he strives thus, fourfold and fivefold jhana is achieved by him on that same sign in the same way as described under the earth kasina.

5-8. (See 189) However, when a bhikkhu has achieved the fourfold and fivefold jhana and wants to reach purity by developing the meditation subject through observing and through turning away, he should make that jhana familiar by attaining mastery in it in the five ways (Ch.IV, 131), and then embark upon insight by defining mentality-materiality. How?

On emerging from attainment, [287] he sees that the in-breaths and out-breaths have the physical body and the mind as their origin; and that just as when a blacksmith's bellows are being blown, the wind moves owing to the bag and to the man's appropriate effort, so to, in-breaths and out-breaths are due to the body and the mind.

Having defined mentality-materiality in this way, he seeks its condition. With search he finds it, and so overcomes his doubts about the way of mentality-materiality's occurrence in the three divisions of time (Ch. XIX).

His doubts being overcome, he attributes the three characteristics [beginning with that of suffering to mentality and materiality], comprehending [them] by groups (Ch.XX,2f.); he abandons the ten imperfections of insight beginning with illumination, which arise in the first stages of the Contemplation of Rise and Fall (Ch.XX,105f.), and he defines as 'the path' the knowledge of the way that is free from these imperfections (Ch.XX,126f.).

He reaches Contemplation of Dissolution by abandoning [attention to] arising. When all formations have appeared as terror owing to the contemplation of their incessant dissolution, he becomes dispassionate towards them (Ch.XXI), his greed for them fades away, and he is liberated from them (Ch.XXII).

After he has [thus] reached the four nobles paths in due succession and has become established in the fruition of Arahantship, he at last attains to the nineteen kinds of Reviewing Knowledge (Ch.XXII,18f.), and he becomes fit to receive the highest gifts from the world with its deities.

At this point his development of concentration through mindfulness of breathing, beginning with counting and ending with looking back (189) is completed. this is the commentary on the first tetrad in all aspects.

¹ Bhadantacariya Buddhaghosa. The Path of Purification (Visuddhi Magga). Translated from the Pali by Bhikkhu Nanamoli. Singapore Buddhist Meditation Centre.

² Chapter VIII, "Description of Concentration".