Visuddhimagga (the pah of purification)
by Ñāṇamoli Bhikkhu | 1956 | 388,207 words | ISBN-10: 9552400236 | ISBN-13: 9789552400236
This page describes The Truth of the Cessation of Suffering (nirodha) of the section The Faculties and Truths (indriya-sacca-niddesa) of Part 3 Understanding (Paññā) of the English translation of the Visuddhimagga (‘the path of purification’) which represents a detailled Buddhist meditation manual, covering all the essential teachings of Buddha as taught in the Pali Tipitaka. It was compiled Buddhaghosa around the 5th Century.
The Truth of the Cessation of Suffering (nirodha)
62. In the description of the cessation of suffering it is the cessation of the origin that is stated by the words that which is … of that same craving, and so on. Why is that? Because the cessation of suffering comes about with the cessation of its origin. For it is with the cessation of its origin that suffering ceases, not otherwise.
Hence it is said: [507]
“Just as a tree cut down grows up again
While yet its root remains unharmed and sound,
So with the tendency to crave intact
This suffering is ever reproduced” (Dhp 338).
63. So it is because suffering ceases only through the cessation of its origin that, when teaching the cessation of suffering, the Blessed One therefore taught the cessation of the origin. For the Perfect Ones behave like lions.[1] When they make suffering cease and when they teach the cessation of suffering, they deal with the cause, not the fruit. But the sectarians behave like dogs. When they make suffering cease and when they teach the cessation of suffering, by teaching devotion to self-mortification, etc., they deal with the fruit, not the cause. This, in the first place, is how the motive for teaching the cessation of suffering by means of the cessation of its origin should be understood.
64. This is the meaning. Of that same craving: of that craving which, it was said, “produces further becoming,” and which was classed as “craving for sense desires” and so on. It is the path that is called fading away; for “With the fading away [of greed] he is liberated” (M I 139) is said. Fading away and cessation is cessation through fading away. Remainderless fading away and cessation is cessation through fading away that is remainderless because of eradication of inherent tendencies. Or alternatively, it is abandoning that is called fading away;and so the construction here can be regarded as “remainderless fading away, remainderless cessation.”
65. But as to meaning, all of them are synonyms for Nibbāna. For in the ultimate sense it is Nibbāna that is called “the noble truth of the cessation of suffering.” But because craving fades away and ceases on coming to that,[2] it is therefore called “fading away” and “cessation.” And because there comes to be the giving up, etc., of that [craving] on coming to that [Nibbāna], and since there is not even one kind of reliance here [to be depended upon] from among the reliances consisting in the cords of sense desires, etc., it is therefore called giving it up, relinquishing it, letting it go, not relying on it.
66. It has peace as its characteristic. Its function is not to die;or its function is to comfort. It is manifested as the signless; or it is manifested as nondiversification.[3]
This is the section of the definition dealing with the description of the cessation of suffering.
Footnotes and references:
[1]:
“Just as a lion directs his strength against the man who shot the arrow at him, not against the arrow, so the Buddhas deal with the cause, not with the fruit. But just as dogs, when struck with a clod, snarl and bite the clod and do not attack the striker, so the sectarians who want to make suffering cease devote themselves to mutilating the body, not to causing cessation of defilements” (Vism-mhṭ 533).
[2]:
16. “‘On coming to that (taṃ āgamma)’: on reaching that Nibbāna by making it the object” (Vism-mhṭ 533). Āgamma (ger. of āgacchati—to come) is commonly used as an adverb in the sense of “owing to” (e.g. at M I 119). Here, however, it is taken literally by the Commentaries and forms an essential part of the ontological proof of the positive existence of Nibbāna. The Sammohavinodanī (commentary on the Āyatana-Vibhaṅga Abhidhamma-bhājaniya) refutes the suggestion of a disputant (vitaṇḍavādin) who asserts that Nibbāna is “mere destruction” (khayamatta). The arguments used are merely supplementary to those in §69 here, and so are not quoted. The conclusion of the argument is worth noting, however, because of the emphasis on the words “taṃ āgamma.” It is this: “It is on coming to Nibbāna that greed, etc., are destroyed. It is the same Nibbāna that is called ‘destruction of greed, destruction of hate, destruction of delusion.’ These are just three terms for Nibbāna—When this was said, he asked: You say ‘On coming to’ (āgamma); from where have you got this ‘on coming to’?—It is got from the Suttas—Quote the sutta—‘Thus ignorance and craving, on coming to that, are destroyed in that, are abolished in that, nor does anything anywhere … (evaṃ avijjā ca taṇhā ca taṃ āgamma tamhi khīṇaṃ tamhi bhaggaṃ na ca kiñci kadāci …).’ When this was said, the other was silent.” The quotation has not been traced.
[3]:
Nippapañca (non-diversification) is one of the synonyms for Nibbāna. The word papañca is commonly used in the Commentaries in the sense (a) of an impediment or obstacle (Dhp-a I 18), and (b) as a delay, or diffuseness (XVII.73). The sense in which the word is used in the Suttas is that of diversifying and is best exemplified at M I 111: “Friends, due to eye and to a visible object eye-consciousness arises. The coincidence of the three is contact. With contact as condition there is feeling. What a man feels that he perceives. What he perceives he thinks about. What he thinks about he diversifies (papañceti). Owing to his having diversified, the evaluation of diversifying perceptions besets a man with respect to past, future, and present visible objects,” and so on. This kind of papañca is explained by the Commentaries as “due to craving, pride and views” (M-a I 25; II 10; II 75, etc.), and it may be taken as the diversifying action, the choosing and rejecting, the approval and disapproval (M I 65), exercised by craving, etc., on the bare material supplied by perception and thought. Consequently, though it is bound up with craving, etc., a false emphasis is given in rendering papañca in these contexts by “obsession” as is done in PED. Nippapañca as a term for Nibbāna emphasizes the absence of that.