The Petakopadesa ( peṭakopadesa ) is a Buddhist scripture, sometimes included in the Khuddaka Nikaya of the Pali Canon of Theravada Buddhism.
57-463: The nature of this book is a matter of some disagreement among scholars. The translator, supported by Professor George Bond of Northwestern University, holds it is a guide to those who understand the teaching in presenting it to others. However, A. K. Warder , Professor Emeritus of Sanskrit in the University of Toronto, maintains that it covers all aspects of interpretation, not just that. The text
114-621: A Buddhist monk named Revata was Buddhaghosa bested in debate, first being defeated in a dispute over the meaning of a Vedic doctrine and then being confounded by the presentation of a teaching from the Abhidhamma . Impressed, Buddhaghosa became a bhikkhu (Buddhist monk) and undertook the study of the Tipiṭaka and its commentaries. On finding a text for which the commentary had been lost in India, Buddhaghosa determined to travel to Sri Lanka to study
171-573: A Sinhala commentary that was believed to have been preserved. In Sri Lanka, Buddhaghosa began to study what was apparently a very large volume of Sinhala commentarial texts that had been assembled and preserved by the monks of the Anuradhapura Maha Viharaya . Buddhaghosa sought permission to synthesize the assembled Sinhala-language commentaries into a comprehensive single commentary composed in Pali . Traditional accounts hold that
228-564: A legal case. It also explains the eventual loss of the Sinhala originals that Buddhaghosa worked from in creating his Pali commentaries by claiming that Buddhaghosa collected and burnt the original manuscripts once his work was completed. Buddhaghosa was reputedly responsible for an extensive project of synthesizing and translating a large body of ancient Sinhala commentaries on the Pāli Canon . His Visuddhimagga (Pāli: Path of Purification)
285-681: A systematization of the Buddha's teachings. It is regarded as canonical by the Burmese Theravada tradition, but isn't included in other Theravada canons. The nature of the Nettipakarana was a matter of some disagreement among scholars. Initially, Western scholars classified it as a commentary, rather than as a canonical text. Further study and comparison with a closely related text, the Petakopadesa eventually revealed that it
342-770: Is "characterized by relentless accuracy, consistency, and fluency of erudition, and much dominated by formalism." According to Richard Shankman, the Visuddhimagga is "meticulous and specific," in contrast to the Pali suttas, which "can be vague at times, without a lot of explanatory detail and open to various interpretations." According to Maria Heim, Buddhaghosa is explicitly clear and systematic regarding his hermeneutical principles and exegetical strategies in his commentaries. He writes and theorizes on texts, genre , registers of discourse, reader response , Buddhist knowledge and pedagogy . Buddhaghosa considers each Pitaka of
399-399: Is a comprehensive manual of Theravada Buddhism that is still read and studied today. Maria Heim notes that, while Buddhaghosa worked by using older Sinhala commentarial tradition, he is also "the crafter of a new version of it that rendered the original version obsolete, for his work supplanted the Sinhala versions that are now lost to us". Ñāṇamoli Bhikkhu writes that Buddhaghosa's work
456-515: Is a listing of the fourteen commentaries ( Aṭṭhakathā ) on the Pāli Canon traditionally ascribed to Buddhaghosa While traditional accounts list Buddhaghosa as the author of all of these works, some scholars hold that only the Visuddhimagga and the commentaries on the first four Nikayas as Buddhaghosa's work. Meanwhile, Maria Heim holds that Buddhaghosa is the author of the commentaries on
513-622: Is a phenomenon of attention is one he develops with greater sophistication than has been done elsewhere. Ganeri sees Buddhaghosa's work as being free from a mediational picture of the mind and also free of the Myth of the Given , two views he sees as having been introduced by the Indian philosopher Dignāga . The Visuddhimagga ' s doctrine reflects Theravada Abhidhamma scholasticism, which includes several innovations and interpretations not found in
570-510: Is an abridged version of an originally larger text. It describes a few of the methods of the Peṭaka and gives examples which roughly correspond to passages in the Peṭaka . Thus it appears that the Peṭakopadesa was circulating in different schools and in different versions. There are 8 sections as follows: However, the translator says this last title is a mistake for "moulding of the guidelines",
627-560: Is assumed to be generally accurate. While the Mahavamsa claims that Buddhaghosa was born in northern India near Bodh Gaya, the epilogues to his commentaries make reference to only one location in India as being a place of at least temporary residence: Kanci in southern India. Some scholars thus conclude (among them Oskar von Hinüber and Polwatte Buddhadatta Thera ) that Buddhaghosa was actually born in Amaravati , Andhra Pradesh and
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#1732772995744684-511: Is not the same as what the Visuddhimagga says [...] they are actually different," leading to a divergence between a [traditional] scholarly understanding and a practical understanding based on meditative experience. Gunaratana further notes that Buddhaghosa invented several key meditation terms which are not to be found in the suttas, such as " parikamma samadhi (preparatory concentration), upacara samadhi (access concentration), appanasamadhi (absorption concentration)." Gunaratana also notes that
741-518: Is often connected to another para-canonical text, the Nettipakaraṇa . Oskar von Hinüber suggests that both of these texts originated from outside the Theravada tradition as handbooks on the interpretation of the sutras. According to the chapter colophons, the book was composed by the Buddha's disciple Kaccana (or Kaccayana). Scholars do not take this literally, though the translator mentions that
798-620: Is that it was primarily intended as a guide to interpreting and providing explanation of canonical texts, similar to the Petakopadesa , whose content it resembles. Verses in the Nettipakarana composed in a poetic meter unknown in Sri Lanka suggest a northern Indian origin for the text that predates the Christian era. It is one of the few post-canonical texts composed in Pāli that predates
855-542: Is unlikely that the meditative tradition could have survived in such a healthy way, if at all, without his detailed lists and exhaustive guidance." Yet, according to Buswell, by the 10th century vipassana was no longer practiced in the Theravada tradition, due to the belief that Buddhism had degenerated, and that liberation was no longer attainable until the coming of Maitreya . It was re-introduced in Myanmar (Burma) in
912-413: Is with the immediate and transformative impact of the Buddha's words on his audiences, as attested in the suttas Regarding his systematic thought, Maria Heim and Chakravarthi Ram-Prasad see Buddhaghosa's use of Abhidhamma as part of a phenomenological "contemplative structuring" which is expressed in his writings on Buddhist praxis. They argue that "Buddhaghosa’s use of nāma-rūpa should be seen as
969-540: The Mahavamsa a composition of the second part(often called Culavamsa) of that historical poem is attributed to Dhammakitti, who lived in or about the thirteenth century records that Buddhaghosa was born into a Brahmin family in the kingdom of Magadha . He is said to have been born near Bodh Gaya , and to have been a master of the Vedas , traveling through India engaging in philosophical debates. Only upon encountering
1026-517: The Mahayana ) were emerging, many of them making use of classical Sanskrit both as a scriptural language and as a language of philosophical discourse. The monks of the Mahavihara may have attempted to counter the growth of such schools by re-emphasizing the study and composition in Pali, along with the study of previously disused secondary sources that may have vanished in India, as evidenced by
1083-540: The Pali Text Society . A Pali Text Society edition of the Pali text, together with extracts from Dhammapala's commentary, was published in 1902 by Edmund Hardy. Buddhaghosa Buddhaghosa was a 5th-century Indian Theravada Buddhist commentator, translator and philosopher . He worked in the Great Monastery ( Mahāvihāra ) at Anurādhapura , Sri Lanka and saw himself as being part of
1140-636: The Peṭakopadesa … Thus both schools had a recension of this work, but differing in such details as this. …”. The passage in the Gaṇṭhipada is Suttante piṭakatthāya kataṭṭhakathā peṭakaṃ mahiṃsakānaṃ gantho. This book was regarded as canonical by the head of the Burmese sangha about two centuries ago. It is included in the inscriptions of the Canon approved by the Burmese Fifth Council and in
1197-466: The Sutta Pitaka . In some cases, terms are dealt with in a different order or using different terminology from that presented in previous chapters. A colophon at the end of the text again attributes it to Mahākaccāna. The Sri Lankan scholar Dhammapala wrote a commentary on this text in the fifth century. An English translation titled The Guide by Bhikkhu Nanamoli was published in 1962 by
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#17327729957441254-465: The Tipiṭaka and match in every respect, the monks acceded to his request and provided Buddhaghosa with the full body of their commentaries. Buddhaghosa went on to write commentaries on most of the other major books of the Pali Canon, with his works becoming the definitive Theravadin interpretation of the scriptures. Having synthesized or translated the whole of the Sinhala commentary preserved at
1311-608: The Vibhajjavāda school and in the lineage of the Sinhalese Mahāvihāra. His best-known work is the Visuddhimagga ("Path of Purification"), a comprehensive summary of older Sinhala commentaries on Theravada teachings and practices. According to Sarah Shaw, in Theravada this systematic work is "the principal text on the subject of meditation ." The interpretations provided by Buddhaghosa have generally constituted
1368-421: The dhamma to be "well-spoken [...] visible here and now, timeless," visible meaning that the fruits of the path can be seen in the behavior of the noble ones, and that comprehending the dhamma is a transformative way of seeing, which has immediate impact. According to Heim, this idea of the transformative and immediate impact of the scriptures is "vital to Buddhaghosa's interpretative practice," concerned as he
1425-412: The hāras and nayas of the previous section along with 12 padas ('terms'), of which six refer to linguistic forms and six to meaning and describes their relations. The Patiniddesavāra forms the main body of the text and is itself divided into three parts. Each section illustrates technical terms from previous sections by quoting the verses that contain them and illustrating them with quotations from
1482-823: The 13th century; and a later biographical work called the Buddhaghosuppatti . A few other sources discuss the life of Buddhaghosa, but do not appear to add any reliable material. The biographical excerpts attached to works attributed to Buddhaghosa reveal relatively few details of his life, but were presumably added at the time of his actual composition. Largely identical in form, these short excerpts describe Buddhaghosa as having come to Sri Lanka from India and settled in Anuradhapura . Besides this information, they provide only short lists of teachers, supporters, and associates of Buddhaghosa, whose names are not generally to be found elsewhere for comparison. In
1539-610: The 18th century by Medawi (1728–1816), leading to the rise of the Vipassana movement in the 20th century, re-inventing vipassana -meditation and developing simplified meditation techniques, based on the Satipatthana sutta , the Visuddhimagga , and other previous texts, emphasizing satipatthana and bare insight. The Mahavamsa ascribes a great many books to Buddhaghosa, some of which are believed not to have been his work, but composed later and attributed to him. Below
1596-555: The Anuradhapura Maha Viharaya, Buddhaghosa reportedly returned to India, making a pilgrimage to Bodh Gaya to pay his respects to the Bodhi Tree . The details of the Mahavamsa account cannot readily be verified; while it is generally regarded by Western scholars as having been embellished with legendary events (such as the hiding of Buddhaghosa's text by the gods), in the absence of contradictory evidence it
1653-610: The Buddhaghosa's emphasis on kasina -meditation is not to be found in the suttas, where dhyana is always combined with mindfulness. Bhikkhu Sujato has argued that certain views regarding Buddhist meditation expounded in the Visuddhimagga are a "distortion of the Suttas" since it denies the necessity of jhana . The Australian monk Shravasti Dhammika is also critical of contemporary practice based on this work. He concludes that Buddhaghosa did not believe that following
1710-529: The Buddhist canon a kind of method ( naya ) that requires different skills to interpret. One of his most important ideas about exegesis of the buddha's words ( buddhavacana ) is that these words are immeasurable, that is to say, there are innumerable ways and modes to teach and explain the Dhamma and likewise there are innumerable ways in which to receive these teachings. According to Heim, Buddhaghosa considered
1767-545: The Mahavamsa. Early indications of this resurgence in the use of Pali as a literary language may be visible in the composition of the Dipavamsa and the Vimuttimagga , both dating to shortly before Buddhaghosa's arrival in Sri Lanka. The addition of Buddhaghosa's works — which combined the pedigree of the oldest Sinhala commentaries with the use of Pali, a language shared by all of the Theravada learning centers of
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1824-758: The Mon records refer to another figure, but whose name and personal history are much in the mold of the Indian Buddhaghosa. Finally, Buddhaghosa's works likely played a significant role in the revival and preservation of the Pali language as the scriptural language of the Theravada, and as a lingua franca in the exchange of ideas, texts, and scholars between Sri Lanka and the Theravada countries of mainland Southeast Asia. The development of new analyses of Theravada doctrine, both in Pali and Sinhala, seems to have dried up prior to Buddhaghosa's emergence in Sri Lanka. In India, new schools of Buddhist philosophy (such as
1881-547: The Nettipakarana is not a continuation of the Petakopadesa, but a rewritten version that eliminates unimportant content and provides improved and clarified versions of material shared by both sources. Dhammapala composed a commentary on the Nettipakarana, the Nettipakarana-atthakatha, but not the Petakopadesa, a fact that K.R. Norman attributes to the Nettipakarana superseding the older text. Both
1938-529: The Nettipakarana is unusual for being a text drawn from beyond the Theravada tradition that influenced the composition of the definitive commentaries composed by Buddhaghosa . The Nettipakarana was regarded as canonical by the head of the Burmese sangha around two centuries ago, and included in the Khuddaka Nikaya . It is included in the Burmese Phayre manuscript of the Canon, dated 1841/2,
1995-580: The Theravada following the reunification of the Sri Lankan (Sinhala) monastic community by King Parakramabahu I . Sariputta incorporated many of the works of Buddhaghosa into his own interpretations. In subsequent years, many monks from Theravada traditions in Southeast Asia sought ordination or re-ordination in Sri Lanka because of the reputation of the Sri Lankan (Sinhala) Mahavihara lineage for doctrinal purity and scholarship. The result
2052-408: The analytic by which he understands how experience is undergone, and not his account of how some reality is structured." Some scholars have argued that Buddhaghosa's writing evinces a strong but unacknowledged Yogācāra Buddhist influence, which subsequently came to characterize Theravada thought in the wake of his profound influence on the Theravada tradition. According to Kalupahana , Buddhaghosa
2109-468: The earliest discourses ( suttas ) of the Buddha. Buddhaghosa's Visuddhimagga includes non-canonical instructions on Theravada meditation , such as "ways of guarding the mental image (nimitta)," which point to later developments in Theravada meditation. According to Thanissaro Bhikkhu , "the Visuddhimagga uses a very different paradigm for concentration from what you find in the Canon." Bhante Henepola Gunaratana also notes that what "the suttas say
2166-408: The elder monks sought to first test Buddhaghosa's knowledge by assigning him the task of elaborating the doctrine regarding two verses of the suttas ; Buddhaghosa replied by composing the Visuddhimagga . His abilities were further tested when deities intervened and hid the text of his book, twice forcing him to recreate it from scratch. When the three texts were found to completely summarize all of
2223-600: The first four Nikayas, the Samantapasadika , the Paramatthajotika, the Visuddhimagga and the three commentaries on the books of the Abhidhamma. Maria Heim also notes that some scholars hold that Buddhaghosa was the head of a team of scholars and translators, and that this is not an unlikely scenario. In the 12th century, the Sri Lankan (Sinhalese) monk Sāriputta Thera became the leading scholar of
2280-792: The inscriptions of the Canon approved by the Burmese Fifth Council , the 1956 printed edition of the Sixth Council , the new transcript of the Council text being produced under the patronage of the Supreme Patriarch of Thailand and the Sinhalese Buddha Jayanti edition of the Canon. A recent Burmese teacher has not regarded it as canonical. The Nettipakarana is divided into two divisions (vāra): The Uddesavāra enumerates three separate categories (Pali terms with Nanamoli's translations): The Niddesavāra repeats
2337-693: The methods may go back to him. Warder, in his examination of the Paṭisambhidāmagga Gaṇṭhipada in the Introduction to the Path of Discrimination , notes: “The Gaṇṭhipada (p. 106), however, provides the positive information that this Peṭaka is a book of the Mahiṃsāsakas, an aṭṭhakathā ("commentary") made for the purpose of the Suttantapiṭaka . This implies that it was a work similar to
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2394-478: The name would be spelled Buddhaghoṣa (Devanagari बुद्धघोष), but there is no retroflex ṣ sound in Pali, and the name is not found in Sanskrit works. Limited reliable information is available about the life of Buddhaghosa. Three primary sources of information exist: short prologues and epilogues attached to Buddhaghosa's works; details of his life recorded in the Mahavamsa , a Sri Lankan chronicle written in about
2451-414: The nature of consciousness and attention. Ganeri calls Buddhaghosa's approach a kind of "attentionalism", which places primacy on the faculty of attention in explaining activities of thought and mind and is against representationalism . Ganeri also states that Buddhaghosa's treatment of cognition "anticipates the concept of working memory , the idea of mind as a global workplace, subliminal orienting, and
2508-438: The orthodox understanding of Theravada scriptures since at least the 12th century CE. He is generally recognized by both Western scholars and Theravadins as the most important philosopher and commentator of the Theravada, but is also criticised for his departures from the canonical texts . The name Buddhaghosa means "Voice of the Buddha" ( Buddha + ghosa ) in Pali , the language in which Buddhaghosa composed. In Sanskrit,
2565-466: The practice set forth in the Visuddhimagga will really lead him to Nirvana, basing himself on the postscript ( colophon ) to the text which states the author hopes to be reborn in heaven and wait until Metteyya ( Maitreya ) appears to teach the Dharma. However, according to the Burmese scholar Venerable Pandita, the colophon to the Visuddhimagga is not by Buddhaghosa. According to Sarah Shaw, "it
2622-649: The printed edition of the Sixth Council text. Stefano Zacchetti revealed that in the Chinese Canon there is a text called Yin chi rujing , translated in the 3d century, which corresponds to most of the sixth chapter of the Pali Peṭakopadesa . Then there is another Chinese text, the Da zhidu lun , which mentions the Peṭaka as a text circulating in South India (presumably Kāñcipura and Sri Lanka) and that it
2679-545: The text's colophon, introductory verses, and the commentary attributed to Dhammapala . The text's colophon says he composed the book, that it was approved by the Buddha and that it was recited at the First Council . Scholars do not take this literally, but the translator admits the methods may go back to him. The translator holds that the book is a revised edition of the Petakopadesa , though this has been questioned by Professor von Hinüber. K.R. Norman concludes that
2736-413: The thesis that visual processing occurs at three levels." Ganeri also states: Buddhaghosa is unlike nearly every other Buddhist philosopher in that he discusses episodic memory and knows it as a reliving of experience from one’s personal past; but he blocks any reduction of the phenomenology of temporal experience to the representation of oneself as in the past. The alternative claim that episodic memory
2793-435: The time — provided a significant boost to the revitalization of the Pali language and the Theravada intellectual tradition, possibly aiding the Theravada school in surviving the challenge to its position posed by emerging Buddhist schools of mainland India. According to Maria Heim, he is "one of the greatest minds in the history of Buddhism" and British philosopher Jonardon Ganeri considers Buddhaghosa "a true innovator,
2850-402: The title given at the end. Pitaka-Disclosure , tr. Nanamoli Bhikkhu , 1964, Pali Text Society [1] , Bristol Nettipakara%E1%B9%87a The Nettipakaraṇa ( Pali , also called Nettippakarana , abbreviated Netti ) is a Buddhist scripture, sometimes included in the Khuddaka Nikaya of Theravada Buddhism's Pali Canon . The main theme of this text is Buddhist Hermeneutics through
2907-523: The use of āryā meter and summary verses suggest a North Indian origin for the text, possibly Ujjain , where Buddhist tradition connects the name Mahākaccāna to Avanti , the region suggested as the origin of the Pāli texts brought to Sri Lanka . The text contains quotations from sources outside the Theravada canon, some of which have been traced to texts from the Mulasarvastivada canon. Other quotations are as yet unidentified, but suggest that
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#17327729957442964-426: The work of Buddhaghosa , who quotes from it and uses its methods and technical terms in his own commentaries. The structure of the text- where the later verses are constructed as commentaries on a summary verse- became popular in the first centuries CE, while the āryā meter used for its verses was already being used for such verses around 150 BCE. The Nettipakarana is ascribed to the Buddha's disciple Kaccana by
3021-403: Was a guide to interpretation and the composition of definitive commentaries. Its translator, supported by Professor George Bond of Northwestern University, described it is a guide to help those who already understand the teaching present it to others. However, A. K. Warder disagreed, maintaining that it covers all aspects of interpretation, not just this. Consensus among contemporary scholars
3078-540: Was influenced by Mahayana-thought, which were subtly mixed with Theravada orthodoxy to introduce new ideas. According to Kalupahana, this eventually led to the flowering of metaphysical tendencies, in contrast to the original stress on anattā in early Buddhism. According to Jonardon Ganeri, though Buddhaghosa may have been influenced by Yogacara Vijñānavāda, "the influence consists not in endorsement but in creative engagement and refutation." The philosopher Jonardon Ganeri has called attention to Buddhaghosa's theory of
3135-502: Was recorded, in an expanded and likely exaggerated form, in a Pali chronicle known as the Buddhaghosuppatti , or "The Development of the Career of Buddhaghosa". Despite the general belief that he was Indian by birth, he later may have been claimed by the Mon people of Burma as an attempt to assert primacy over Sri Lanka in the development of Theravada tradition. Other scholars believe that
3192-452: Was relocated in later biographies to give him closer ties to the region of the Buddha. The Buddhaghosuppatti , a later biographical text, is generally regarded by Western scholars as being legend rather than history. It adds to the Mahavamsa tale certain details, such as the identity of Buddhaghosa's parents and his village, as well as several dramatic episodes, such as the conversion of Buddhaghosa's father and Buddhaghosa's role in deciding
3249-474: Was the spread of the teachings of the Mahavihara tradition — and thus Buddhaghosa — throughout the Theravada world. Buddhaghosa's commentaries thereby became the standard method by which the Theravada scriptures were understood, establishing Buddhaghosa as the definitive interpreter of Theravada doctrine. In later years, Buddhaghosa's fame and influence inspired various accolades. His life story
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