The Voice of the Buddha and the Architect of the Visuddhimagga

In the early fifth century, a foreign monk arrived at the Great Monastery in Anurādhapura, Sri Lanka, and asked the elders to open their ancient Sinhalese commentaries. They gave him two verses and told him to prove himself. What he produced was the Visuddhimagga, the Path of Purification: the most influential meditation manual of the Theravāda tradition, and the book that earned him the keys to the library. A full-length documentary on Venerable Buddhaghosa: the legends of his Brahmin youth and conversion, the crisis that made his mission urgent, the structure of the Visuddhimagga (virtue, concentration, wisdom), the forty meditation subjects, the Seven Purifications and the stages of insight, his great commentaries on the Pali Canon, the stories attributed to him, and his legacy from medieval Sri Lanka to modern vipassanā. ⏱ CHAPTERS 0:00 The stranger and the two verses 7:10 What we know about his life 9:25 The legend of the young Brahmin and Revata 15:40 Why his mission was urgent 21:40 The Visuddhimagga: its seed and structure 25:30 Chapters 1-2: Virtue (sīla) 28:50 The Elder Mahātissa and sense restraint 33:55 Chapters 3-13: Concentration 36:20 The six temperaments 39:05 The earth kasiṇa practice 43:05 The five factors of the first jhāna 47:10 Mindfulness of breathing: the gatekeeper and the saw 51:00 The four sublime abidings 54:20 How to practice loving-kindness 58:10 The elements and the cow butcher 60:35 Chapters 14-23: Wisdom 61:55 The three money-changers 66:20 Dependent origination 69:35 What is reborn? Four similes 72:10 The five stages of insight 76:20 The ten corruptions of insight 78:30 The knowledges of insight: the crow and the ship 82:15 Stream-entry 84:00 The legend of the three copies 85:20 The great commentaries 87:05 The commentary on the Vinaya 90:15 The commentaries on the four Nikāyas 94:40 The commentaries on the Abhidhamma 97:15 The mango tree and the stream of mind 102:05 His art of reading 104:10 The commentaries on the Dhammapada and the Jātakas 110:00 A dialogue at the stupa (dramatization) 123:10 What happened to Buddhaghosa 124:45 The afterlife of his work 128:25 Nyanamoli and the Island Hermitage 131:05 Three gifts 133:20 Under the Bodhi tree once more 📝 A note on sources: what is known of Buddhaghosa's life before Sri Lanka comes mainly from later chronicles (the Cūḷavaṃsa), not his own writings. The Brahmin conversion, the test of the two verses, and the three copies of the manuscript are tradition, not documented history. Authorship of some commentaries (such as the Jātaka and Dhammapada commentaries) is also debated by scholars. The video marks where history ends and tradition begins. 🎙 Part of our series on the great teachers of Buddhism. Subscribe so you don't miss the next episode. 🙏 May all beings be happy. #Buddhaghosa #Visuddhimagga #Theravada