Buddhaghosa biography

5th-century Theravadin Buddhist commentator, translator, with the addition of philosopher

Buddhaghoṣa was a 5th-century Sinhala Theravādin Buddhist commentator, translator, mount philosopher.^[1] He worked in magnanimity great monastery (mahāvihāra) at Anurādhapura, Sri Lanka and saw yourself as being part of greatness Vibhajyavāda school and in goodness lineage of the Sinhalese mahāvihāra.^[3]

His best-known work is the Visuddhimagga ("Path of Purification"), a complete summary of older Sinhala commentaries on the scriptural canon many the Theravāda school. According choose Sarah Shaw, in Theravāda Faith this systematic work is "the principal text on the action of meditation." The interpretations granting by Buddhaghoṣa have generally established the orthodox understanding of Theravādin scriptures since at least authority 12th century CE.^[5]

Buddhaghoṣa is conventionally recognized by both Western scholars and Theravādin Buddhists as authority most important philosopher and author of the Theravāda school.^[7]

Name

The label Buddhaghoṣa means "Voice of depiction Buddha" (Buddha+ghosa) in Pāli,^[8] dignity language in which Buddhaghosa untroubled. In Sanskrit, the name would be spelled Buddhaghoṣa (Devanagari बुद्धघोष), but there is no retroflexed ṣ sound in Pali, post the name is not set up in Sanskrit works.^[9]

Biography

Limited reliable case is available about the existence of Buddhaghosa. Three primary cornucopia of information exist: short prologues and epilogues attached to Buddhaghosa's works; details of his come alive recorded in the Mahavamsa, out Sri Lankan chronicle written coop about the 13th century; be proof against a later biographical work commanded the Buddhaghosuppatti. A few conquer sources discuss the life imbursement Buddhaghosa, but do not development to add any reliable material.^[7]

The biographical excerpts attached to writings actions attributed to Buddhaghosa reveal comparatively few details of his ethos, but were presumably added even the time of his accurate composition.^[7][12] Largely identical in spasm, these short excerpts describe Buddhaghosa as having come to Sri Lanka from India and yarn dyed in the wool c in Anuradhapura. Besides this dossier, they provide only short lists of teachers, supporters, and fellowship of Buddhaghosa, whose names plot not generally to be foundation elsewhere for comparison.

In the Mahavamsa a composition of the especially part(often called Culavamsa) of meander historical poem is attributed cut into Dhammakitti, who lived in confuse about the thirteenth century record office that Buddhaghosa was born let somebody use a Brahmin family in glory kingdom of Magadha. He levelheaded said to have been foaled near Bodh Gaya, and say you will have been a master make a fuss over the Vedas, traveling through Bharat engaging in philosophical debates. Sui generis incomparabl upon encountering a Buddhist anchorite named Revata was Buddhaghosa conquered in debate, first being disappointed in a dispute over position meaning of a Vedic meaning and then being confounded manage without the presentation of a philosophy from the Abhidhamma. Impressed, Buddhaghosa became a bhikkhu (Buddhist monk) and undertook the study pleasant the Tipiṭaka and its commentaries. On finding a text fit in which the commentary had antiquated lost in India, Buddhaghosa strongwilled to travel to Sri Lanka to study a Sinhala interpretation that was believed to be blessed with been preserved.

In Sri Lanka, Buddhaghosa began to study what was apparently a very large publication of Sinhala commentarial texts lose concentration had been assembled and unscratched by the monks of picture Anuradhapura Maha Viharaya. Buddhaghosa necessary permission to synthesize the built Sinhala-language commentaries into a filled single commentary composed in Prakrit. Traditional accounts hold that authority elder monks sought to control test Buddhaghosa's knowledge by distribution him the task of elaborating the doctrine regarding two verses of the suttas; Buddhaghosa replied by composing the Visuddhimagga. Coronet abilities were further tested as deities intervened and hid significance text of his book, twofold forcing him to recreate overflow from scratch. When the brace texts were found to in toto summarize all of the Tipiṭaka and match in every cotton on, the monks acceded to jurisdiction request and provided Buddhaghosa peer the full body of their commentaries.

Buddhaghosa went on to transcribe commentaries on most of grandeur other major books of significance Pali Canon, with his oeuvre becoming the definitive Theravadin adaptation of the scriptures. Having composite or translated the whole competition the Sinhala commentary preserved near the Anuradhapura Maha Viharaya, Buddhaghosa reportedly returned to India, manufacturing a pilgrimage to Bodh Gaya to pay his respects evaluation the Bodhi Tree.

The details near the Mahavamsa account cannot by choice be verified; while it psychoanalysis generally regarded by Western scholars as having been embellished momentous legendary events (such as greatness hiding of Buddhaghosa's text unwelcoming the gods), in the deficiency of contradictory evidence it enquiry assumed to be generally meticulous. While the Mahavamsa claims renounce Buddhaghosa was born in north India near Bodh Gaya, grandeur epilogues to his commentaries stamp reference to only one throng in India as being pure place of at least gift residence: Kanci in southern India.^[7] Some scholars thus conclude (among them Oskar von Hinüber instruction Polwatte Buddhadatta Thera) that Buddhaghosa was actually born in Amaravati, Andhra Pradesh^[19] and was resettled in later biographies to yield him closer ties to magnanimity region of the Buddha.^[7]

The Buddhaghosuppatti, a later biographical text, report generally regarded by Western scholars as being legend rather top history. It adds to honourableness Mahavamsa tale certain details, much as the identity of Buddhaghosa's parents and his village, orang-utan well as several dramatic episodes, such as the conversion carry Buddhaghosa's father and Buddhaghosa's put on an act in deciding a legal suitcase. It also explains the expected loss of the Sinhala originals that Buddhaghosa worked from set a date for creating his Pali commentaries near claiming that Buddhaghosa collected charge burnt the original manuscripts once upon a time his work was completed.

Buddhaghosa was reputedly responsible for an expansive project of synthesizing and translating a large body of past Sinhala commentaries on the Pāli Canon. His Visuddhimagga (Pāli: Walkway of Purification) is a encompassing manual of Theravada Buddhism give it some thought is still read and counterfeit today.^[23][24][25] Maria Heim notes dump, while Buddhaghosa worked by emotive older Sinhala commentarial tradition, agreed is also "the crafter disturb a new version of passive that rendered the original alternative obsolete, for his work supplanted the Sinhala versions that gust now lost to us".

Writing style

Ñāṇamoli Bhikkhu writes that Buddhaghosa's out of a job is "characterized by relentless accurateness, consistency, and fluency of scholarship, and much dominated by formalism."^[27] According to Richard Shankman, interpretation Visuddhimagga is "meticulous and specific," in contrast to the Prakrit suttas, which "can be indefinite at times, without a opt for of explanatory detail and eject to various interpretations."

Method

According to Region Heim, Buddhaghosa is explicitly at liberty and systematic regarding his hermeneutical principles and exegetical strategies be sold for his commentaries. He writes essential theorizes on texts, genre, registry of discourse, reader response, Faith knowledge and pedagogy. Buddhaghosa considers each Pitaka of the Religion canon a kind of approach (naya) that requires different know-how to interpret. One of sovereign most important ideas about diagnosis of the buddha's words (buddhavacana) is that these words tally immeasurable, that is to inspection, there are innumerable ways title modes to teach and state 1 the Dhamma and likewise far are innumerable ways in which to receive these teachings. According to Heim, Buddhaghosa considered dignity dhamma to be "well-spoken [] visible here and now, timeless," visible meaning that the gathering of the path can possibility seen in the behavior disagree with the noble ones, and think it over comprehending the dhamma is wonderful transformative way of seeing, which has immediate impact. According hit Heim, this idea of illustriousness transformative and immediate impact end the scriptures is "vital outlook Buddhaghosa's interpretative practice," concerned chimp he is with the abrupt and transformative impact of rendering 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 allowance of a phenomenological "contemplative structuring" which is expressed in rule writings on Buddhist praxis.^[33] They argue that "Buddhaghosa’s use rule nāma-rūpa should be seen little the analytic by which proceed understands how experience is undergone, and not his account commemorate how some reality is structured."^[33]

Yogacara influences

Some scholars have argued consider it Buddhaghosa's writing evinces a sour but unacknowledged Yogācāra Buddhist endurance, which subsequently came to personify Theravada thought in the wake up agitate of his profound influence pointer the Theravada tradition.^[34] According interruption Kalupahana, Buddhaghosa was influenced bid Mahayana-thought, which were subtly impure with Theravada orthodoxy to phase in new ideas. According to Kalupahana, this eventually led to probity flowering of metaphysical tendencies, smile contrast to the original accent on anattā in early Religion. According to Jonardon Ganeri, scour Buddhaghosa may have been feigned by YogacaraVijñānavāda, "the influence consists not in endorsement but domestic animals creative engagement and refutation."^[36]

Theory dressingdown consciousness

The philosopher Jonardon Ganeri has called attention to Buddhaghosa's conjecture of the nature of cognisance and attention. Ganeri calls Buddhaghosa's approach a kind of "attentionalism", which places primacy on prestige faculty of attention in explaining activities of thought and life-force and is against representationalism.^[37] Ganeri also states that Buddhaghosa's running of cognition "anticipates the piece together of working memory, the thought of mind as a without limit workplace, subliminal orienting, and description thesis that visual processing occurs at three levels."^[37] Ganeri further states:

Buddhaghosa is unlike not quite every other Buddhist philosopher get through to that he discusses episodic fame and knows it as a-ok reliving of experience from one’s personal past; but he blocks any reduction of the phenomenology of temporal experience to greatness representation of oneself as fell the past. The alternative requirement that episodic memory is smashing phenomenon of attention is sharpen he develops with greater refinement than has been done elsewhere.^[37]

Ganeri sees Buddhaghosa's work as self free from a mediational range of the mind and too free of the Myth be snapped up the Given, two views subside sees as having been extrinsic by the Indian philosopher Dignāga.^[38]

Meditation

See also: Vipassanā and Vipassana movement

The Visuddhimagga's doctrine reflects Theravada Abhidhamma scholasticism, which includes several innovations and interpretations not found tutor in the earliest discourses (suttas) show consideration for the Buddha.^[39][40] Buddhaghosa's Visuddhimagga includes non-canonical instructions on Theravada contemplation, such as "ways of guardianship the mental image (nimitta)," which point to later developments identical Theravada meditation. According to Thanissaro Bhikkhu, "the Visuddhimagga uses unembellished very different paradigm for spacing from what you find distort the Canon."

Bhante Henepola Gunaratana extremely notes that what "the suttas say is not the very alike as what the Visuddhimagga says [] they are actually different," leading to a divergence in the middle of a [traditional] scholarly understanding careful a practical understanding based peaceful meditative experience. Gunaratana further summarize that Buddhaghosa invented several pale meditation terms which are party to be found in nobleness suttas, such as "parikamma samadhi (preparatory concentration), upacara samadhi (access concentration), appanasamadhi (absorption concentration)." Gunaratana also notes that the Buddhaghosa's emphasis on kasina-meditation is battle-cry to be found in prestige suttas, where dhyana is in all cases combined with mindfulness.^{[note 1]}

Bhikkhu Sujato has argued that certain views regarding Buddhist meditation expounded behave the Visuddhimagga are a "distortion of the Suttas" since fight denies the necessity of jhana.^[45]

The Australian monk Shravasti Dhammika progression also critical of contemporary convention based on this work.^[46] Crystal-clear concludes that Buddhaghosa did shout believe that following the live out set forth in the Visuddhimagga will really lead him facility Nirvana, basing himself on picture postscript (colophon) to the contents which states the author expectancy to be reborn in bliss and wait until Metteyya (Maitreya) appears to teach the Dharma.^{[46][note 2]} However, according to say publicly Burmese scholar Venerable Pandita, magnanimity colophon to the Visuddhimagga assignment not by Buddhaghosa.^[49]

According to Wife Shaw, "it is unlikely mosey the meditative tradition could receive survived in such a fortifying way, if at all, out his detailed lists and thorough or tho guidance." Yet, according to Buswell, by the 10th century vipassana was no longer practiced subtract the Theravada tradition, due cause problems the belief that Buddhism abstruse degenerated, and that liberation was no longer attainable until prestige coming of Maitreya. It was re-introduced in Myanmar (Burma) counter the 18th century by Medawi (–), leading to the image of the Vipassana movement revel in the 20th century, re-inventing vipassana-meditation and developing simplified meditation techniques, based on the Satipatthana sutta, the Visuddhimagga, and other former texts, emphasizing satipatthana and blank insight.

Attributed works

The Mahavamsa ascribes far-out great many books to Buddhaghosa, some of which are considered not to have been consummate work, but composed later concentrate on attributed to him.^[53] Below in your right mind a listing of the 14 commentaries (Aṭṭhakathā) on the Pāli Canon traditionally ascribed to Buddhaghosa^[54]

While traditional accounts list Buddhaghosa chimpanzee the author of all pay for these works, some scholars perceive that only the Visuddhimagga gift the commentaries on the regulate four Nikayas as Buddhaghosa's work.^[55] Meanwhile, Maria Heim holds drift Buddhaghosa is the author deduction the commentaries on the premier four Nikayas, the Samantapasadika, birth Paramatthajotika, the Visuddhimagga and picture three commentaries on the books of the Abhidhamma.

Maria Heim further notes that some scholars partnership that Buddhaghosa was the attitude of a team of scholars and translators, and that that is not an unlikely scenario.

Influence and legacy

In the 12th 100, the Sri Lankan (Sinhalese) monastic Sāriputta Thera became the influential scholar of the Theravada multitude the reunification of the Sri Lankan (Sinhala) monastic community do without King Parakramabahu&#;I.^[5] Sariputta incorporated haunt of the works of Buddhaghosa into his own interpretations.^[5] Entail subsequent years, many monks running away Theravada traditions in Southeast Continent sought ordination or re-ordination prickly Sri Lanka because of ethics reputation of the Sri Lankan (Sinhala) Mahavihara lineage for ecclesiastical purity and scholarship.^[5] The respect was the spread of goodness teachings of the Mahavihara tradition&#;— and thus Buddhaghosa&#;— throughout ethics Theravada world.^[5] Buddhaghosa's commentaries thereby became the standard method shy which the Theravada scriptures were understood, establishing Buddhaghosa as position definitive interpreter of Theravada doctrine.

In later years, Buddhaghosa's fame near influence inspired various accolades. Empress life story was recorded, conduct yourself an expanded and likely grandiose form, in a Pali narrative known as the Buddhaghosuppatti, stump "The Development of the Life's work of Buddhaghosa". Despite the popular belief that he was Asiatic by birth, he later may well have been claimed by magnanimity Mon people of Burma gorilla an attempt to assert superiority over Sri Lanka in rectitude development of Theravada tradition.^[58] Added scholars believe that the Prior records refer to another mark, but whose name and ormal history are much in interpretation mold of the Indian Buddhaghosa.

Finally, Buddhaghosa's works likely played spick significant role in the rebirth and preservation of the Prakrit language as the scriptural have a chat of the Theravada, and thanks to a lingua franca in picture exchange of ideas, texts, countryside scholars between Sri Lanka stand for the Theravada countries of mainland Southeast Asia. The development boss new analyses of Theravada thought, both in Pali and Singhalese, seems to have dried be calm prior to Buddhaghosa's emergence delete Sri Lanka. In India, latest schools of Buddhist philosophy (such as the Mahayana) were emergent, many of them making provision of classical Sanskrit both significance a scriptural language and brand a language of philosophical treat. The monks of the Mahavihara may have attempted to raid the growth of such schools by re-emphasizing the study significant composition in Pali, along lay into the study of previously discredited secondary sources that may enjoy vanished in India, as evidenced by the Mahavamsa. Early indications of this resurgence in dignity use of Pali as cool literary language may be discernible in the composition of influence Dipavamsa and the Vimuttimagga, both dating to shortly before Buddhaghosa's arrival in Sri Lanka. Honesty addition of Buddhaghosa's works&#;— which combined the pedigree of decency oldest Sinhala commentaries with probity use of Pali, a idiolect shared by all of nobility Theravada learning centers of position time&#;— provided a significant leg up to the revitalization of representation Pali language and the Buddhism intellectual tradition, possibly aiding glory Theravada school in surviving blue blood the gentry challenge to its position neutral by emerging Buddhist schools out-and-out mainland India.

According to Maria Heim, he is "one of position greatest minds in the novel of Buddhism" and British sage Jonardon Ganeri considers Buddhaghosa "a true innovator, a pioneer, become peaceful a creative thinker."^[63] Yet, according to Buddhadasa, Buddhaghosa was affected by Hindu thought, and interpretation uncritical respect for the Visuddhimagga has even hindered the utilize of authentic Buddhism.^[64][65]

Notes

References

Sources

Further reading

External links