Visuddhimagga (the pah of purification)
by Ñāṇamoli Bhikkhu | 1956 | 388,207 words | ISBN-10: 9552400236 | ISBN-13: 9789552400236
This page describes The Limited-Space Kasina of the section The Remaining Kasiṇas (Sesa-kasiṇa-niddesa) of Part 2 Concentration (Samādhi) 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 Limited-Space Kasiṇa
24. Of the limited-space kasiṇa it is said: “One who is learning the space kasiṇa apprehends the sign in a hole in a wall, or in a keyhole, or in a window opening.” So firstly, when someone has merit, having had previous practice, the sign arises in him when he sees any [such gap as a] hole in a wall.
25. Anyone else should make a hole a span and four fingers broad in a wellthatched hut, or in a piece of leather, or in a rush mat, and so on. He should develop one of these, or a hole such as a hole in a wall, as “space, space.”
26. Here the learning sign resembles the hole together with the wall, etc., that surrounds it. Attempts to extend it fail. The counterpart sign appears only as a circle of space. Attempts to extend it succeed. The rest should be understood as described under the earth kasiṇa.[1]
Footnotes and references:
[1]:
In the Suttas the first eight kasiṇas are the same as those given here, and they are the only ones mentioned in the Dhammasaṅgaṇī (§160–203) and Paṭisambhidā (Paṭis I 6). The Suttas give space and consciousness as ninth and tenth respectively (M II 14–15; D III 268; Netti 89, etc.). But these last two appear to coincide with the first two immaterial states, that is, boundless space and boundless consciousness. The light kasiṇa given here as ninth does not appear in the Suttas. It is perhaps a development from the “perception of light” (āloka-saññā) (A II 45). The limited-space kasiṇa given here as tenth has perhaps been made “limited’ in order to differentiate it from the first immaterial state. The commentary on the consciousness kasiṇa (M-a III 261) says nothing on this aspect. As to space, Vism-mhṭ (p. 373) says: “The attainment of the immaterial states is not produced by means of the space kasiṇa, and with the words ‘ending with the white kasiṇa’ (XXI.2) the light kasiṇa is included in the white kasiṇa.” For description of space (ākāsa) see Dhs-a 325, Netti 29. Also Vism-mhṭ (p. 393) defines space thus: “Wherever there is no obstruction, that is called space.” Again the Majjhima Nikāya Ṭīkā (commenting on MN 106) remarks: “[Sense desires] are not called empty (ritta) in the sense that space, which is entirely devoid of individual essence, is called empty.”