There is only one instance in the Visuddhimagga where he openly advances an opinion of his own, with the words “our preference here is this” (XIII.123). He does so once in the Majjhima Nikáya Commentary, too, saying “the point is not dealt with by the Ancients, but this is my opinion” (M-a I 28). The rarity of such instances and the caution expressed in them imply that he himself was disinclined to speculate and felt the need to point the fact out when he did. He actually says “one’s own opinion is the weakest authority of all and should only be accepted if it accords with the Suttas” (D-a 567–68). So, it is likely that he regarded what we should call original thinking as the province of the Buddha, and his own task as the fortification of that thought by coordinating the explanations of it. However, not every detail that he edited can claim direct support in the Suttas.
The following considerations lend some support to the assumptions just made. It has been pointed out that in describing in the Vinaya Commentary how the tradition had been “maintained up to the present day by the chain of teachers and pupils” (Vin-a 61–62) the list of teachers’ names that follows contains names only traceable down to about the middle of the 2nd century CE, but not later. Again, there appear in his works numbers of illustrative stories, all of which are set either in India or Sri Lanka. However, no single one of them can be pointed to as contemporary. Stories about India in every case where a date can be assigned are not later than Asoka (3rd cent. BCE). Many stories about Sri Lanka cannot be dated, but of those that can none seems later than the 2nd century CE. This suggests that the material which he had before him to edit and translate had been already completed and fixed more than two centuries earlier in Sri Lanka, and that the words “present day” were not used by him to refer to his own time, but were already in the material he was coordinating. This final fixing, if it is a fact, might have been the aftermath of the decision taken in Sri Lanka in the first century BCE to commit the Pali Tipitaka to writing.
Something now needs to be said about the relation of the Visuddhimagga to the other books. This author’s work is characterized by relentless accuracy, consistency, and fluency of erudition, and much dominated by formalism. Not only is this formalism evident in the elaborate pattern of the Visuddhimagga but also that work’s relationship to the others is governed by it. The Visuddhimagga itself extracts from the Tipitaka all the central doctrines that pivot upon the Four Noble Truths, presenting them as a coherent systematic whole by way of quotation and explanation interspersed with treatises on subjects of more or less relative importance, all being welded into an intricate edifice. The work can thus stand alone. But the aim of the commentaries to the four main Nikáyas or Collections of Suttas is to explain the subject matter of individual discourses and, as well, certain topics and special doctrines not dealt with in the Visuddhimagga (many passages commenting on identical material in the Suttas in different Nikáyas are reproduced verbatim in each commentary, and elsewhere, e.g., MN 10, cf. DN 22, Satipaþþhána Vibhaṅga, etc., etc., and respective commentaries). But these commentaries always refer the reader to the Visuddhimagga for explanations of the central doctrines. And though the Vinaya and Abhidhamma (commentaries are less closely bound to the Visuddhimagga, still they too either refer the reader to it or reproduce large blocks of it. The author himself says: “The treatises on virtue and on the ascetic’s rules, all the meditation subjects, the details of the attainments of the jhánas, together with the directions for each temperament, all the various kinds of direct-knowledge, the exposition of the definition of understanding, the aggregates, elements, bases, and faculties, the Four Noble Truths, the explanation of the structure of conditions (dependent origination), and lastly the development of insight, by methods that are purified and sure and not divergent from Scripture—since these things have already been quite clearly stated in the Visuddhimagga I shall no more dwell upon them here; for the Visuddhimagga stands between and in the midst of all four Collections (Nikáyas) and will clarify the meaning of such things stated therein. It was made in that way: take it therefore, along with this same commentary and know the meaning of the Long Collection (Dìgha Nikáya)” (prologue to the four Nikáyas).
This is all that can, without unsafe inferences, be gleaned of Bhadantácariya Buddhaghosa himself from his own works (but see below). Now, there is the Mahávaṁsa account. The composition of the second part (often called Cúlavaṁsa) of that historical poem is attributed to an Elder Dhammakitti, who lived in or about the thirteenth century. Here is a translation of the relevant passage: “There was a Brahman student who was born near the site of the Enlightenment Tree. He was acquainted with the arts and accomplishments of the sciences and was qualified in the Vedas. He was well versed in what he knew and unhesitant over any phrase. Being interested in doctrines, he wandered over Jambudìpa (India) engaging in disputation. “He came to a certain monastery, and there in the night he recited Pátañjali’s system with each phrase complete and well rounded. The senior elder there, Revata by name, recognized, ‘This is a being of great understanding who ought to be tamed.’ He said, ‘Who is that braying the ass’s bray?’ The other asked, ‘What, then, do you know the meaning of the ass’s bray?’ The elder answered, ‘I know it,’ and he then not only expounded it himself, but explained each statement in the proper way and also pointed out contradictions. The other then urged him, ‘Now expound your own doctrine,’ and the elder repeated a text from the Abhidhamma, but the visitor could not solve its meaning. He asked, ‘Whose system is this?’ and the elder replied, ‘It is the Enlightened One’s system.’ ‘Give it to me,’ he said, but the elder answered, ‘You will have to take the going forth into homelessness.’ So he took the going forth, since he was interested in the system, and he learned the three Pitakas, after which he believed, ‘This is the only way’ (M I 55). Because his speech (ghosa) was profound (voice was deep) like that of the Enlightened One (Buddha) they called him Buddhaghosa, so that like the Enlightened One he might be voiced over the surface of the earth.
He prepared a treatise there called Ñáṇodaya, and then the Atthasálinì, a commentary on the Dhammasaògaóì. Next, he began work on a commentary to the Paritta.11 When the Elder Revata saw that, he said, ‘Here only the text has been preserved. There is no commentary here, and likewise no Teachers’ Doctrine; for that has been allowed to go to pieces and is no longer known. However, a Sinhalese commentary still exists, which is pure. It was rendered into the Sinhalese tongue by the learned Mahinda with proper regard for the way of commenting that was handed down by the three Councils as taught by the Enlightened One and inculcated by Sáriputta and others. Go there, and after you have learnt it translate it into the language of the Magadhans. That will bring benefit to the whole world.’ As soon as this was said, he made up his mind to set out.
He came from there to this island in the reign of this king (Mahánáma). He came to the (Great Monastery, the monastery of all true men. There he stayed in a large workroom, and he learnt the whole Sinhalese Commentary of the Elders’ Doctrine (theraváda) under Saòghapála. He decided, ‘This alone is the intention of the Dhamma’s Lord.’ So, he assembled the Community there and asked, ‘Give me all the books to make a commentary.’ Then in order to test him the Community gave him two stanzas, saying ‘Show your ability with these; when we have seen that you have it, we will give you all the books.’ On that text alone, he summarized the three Pitakas together with the Commentary as an epitome, which was named the Path of Purification (Visuddhimagga). Then, in the precincts of the (sapling of the) Enlightenment Tree (in Anurádhapura), he assembled the Community expert in the Fully Enlightened One’s system, and he began to read it out. In order to demonstrate his skill to the multitude deities hid the book, and he was obliged to prepare it a second time, and again a third time. When the book was brought for the third time to be read out, the gods replaced the other two copies with it. Then the bhikkhus read out the three copies together, and it was found that there was no difference between the three in either the chapters or the meaning or the order of the material or the phrases and syllables of the Theraváda texts. With that the Community applauded in high delight and again and again it was said, ‘Surely this is (the Bodhisatta) Metteyya.’ “They gave him the books of the three Pitakas together with the Commentary. Then, while staying undisturbed in the Library Monastery, he translated the Sinhalese Commentary into the Magadhan language, the root-speech of all, by which he brought benefit to beings of all tongues. The teachers of the Elders’ Tradition accepted it as equal in authority with the texts themselves. Then, when the tasks to be done were finished, he went back to Jambudìpa to pay homage to the Great Enlightenment Tree.
By Bhikkhu Ñānamoli