The Foundation of Virtue (Chapter 1)

What this chapter covers: This opening chapter establishes the entire framework of the Path of Purification. It explains that spiritual development rests on three pillars — virtue, concentration, and understanding — and then provides an exhaustive guide to virtue: what it is, why it matters, how many kinds there are, what corrupts it, and what keeps it pure. Virtue is the ground on which all higher attainments are built.

The Tangle and How to Untangle It

A deity once came to the Buddha at Savatthi and asked:

“The inner tangle and the outer tangle — This generation is entangled in a tangle. And so I ask of Gotama this question: Who succeeds in disentangling this tangle?”

“Tangle” is a name for the network of craving. Like the interlocking branches in a bamboo thicket, craving keeps arising again and again across everything we experience — sights, sounds, smells, tastes, touch, and mental objects. It is called “inner” when it arises for our own person and possessions, and “outer” when it arises for others and their things. This entire generation of living beings is entangled by it.

The Buddha replied:

“When a wise man, established well in virtue, Develops consciousness and understanding, Then as a monk ardent and sagacious He succeeds in disentangling this tangle.”

Here is what this verse means:

“Established well in virtue” means standing firmly on a foundation of moral conduct.
“Wise” means possessing natural understanding — the kind born from wholesome actions in previous lives, through a rebirth with the full three root causes (non-greed, non-hatred, non-delusion).
“Develops consciousness and understanding” means developing both concentration and insight. “Consciousness” here refers to concentration; “understanding” refers to insight.
“Ardent” means possessing energy — the kind that burns up and consumes mental defilements.
“Sagacious” means possessing protective understanding — the wisdom that guides all affairs.
“A monk” (bhikkhu) literally means “one who sees fear in the round of rebirths.”

Understanding is mentioned three times in this verse: first as natural wisdom, second as insight, and third as protective wisdom that oversees everything.

The author Buddhaghosa then declares his own purpose:

My task is now to set out the true sense, Divided into virtue and the rest, Of this same verse composed by the Great Sage. There are seekers gone forth from home to homelessness Who, though desiring purity, Have no right knowledge of the sure straight way Comprising virtue and the other two — Who, though they strive, gain no purity. To them I shall expound the comforting Path of Purification, pure in expositions, Relying on the teaching of the dwellers In the Great Monastery. Let all those good people who desire purity Listen intently to my exposition.

Background Note: The “Great Monastery” (Mahavihara) was the principal monastery at Anuradhapura in Sri Lanka, the authoritative centre of Theravada orthodoxy. Buddhaghosa is declaring that his exposition follows this lineage.

The image is this: just as a man standing on solid ground takes up a well-sharpened knife and cuts through a great tangle of bamboos, so this monk — standing on the ground of virtue, taking up the knife of insight sharpened on the stone of concentration, guided by protective understanding powered by energy — cuts through all the craving that has overgrown his life. At the moment of the path, he is disentangling the tangle. At the moment of its fruit, he has disentangled it.

The Three Pillars: Virtue, Concentration, and Understanding

The verse shows us the entire path of purification under three headings:

Virtue (sila) — the moral foundation
Concentration (samadhi) — the development of focused, unified mind
Understanding (panna) — insight into the true nature of things

Purification means the final goal: liberation (nibbana), which is utterly pure, devoid of all stains. The “path of purification” is the means of reaching it.

Different teachings emphasize different aspects of this path:

Some teach purification through insight alone — “Formations are all impermanent: when he sees thus with understanding and turns away from what is ill, that is the path to purity.”
Some through deep absorption and understanding together — “He is near to liberation in whom are deep absorption and understanding.”
Some through deeds, vision, righteousness, and virtue
Some through the foundations of mindfulness, the right efforts, and so on

But in the Buddha’s answer to the deity’s question, it is taught under all three: virtue, concentration, and understanding.

Background Note: When the text says purification comes through “insight alone,” this does not mean no concentration is needed at all. There is no insight without at least momentary concentration. “Alone” here excludes only the formal deep absorptions (jhana), not concentration itself.

How the Three Pillars Map to Everything

These three — virtue, concentration, understanding — are not arbitrary categories. They correspond to a remarkable number of triads in the teaching:

The three trainings: Virtue is the training of higher virtue. Concentration is the training of higher consciousness. Understanding is the training of higher understanding.

The teaching that is good in three ways:

Virtue is the beginning — “The not doing of any evil.” It is good because it brings freedom from remorse.
Concentration is the middle — “Entering upon the profitable.” It is good because it brings special powers.
Understanding is the end — “The purifying of one’s own mind.” It is good because it brings equipoise in the face of praise and blame.

Prerequisites for higher attainments:

Perfected virtue leads to the three kinds of clear vision (recollection of past lives, the divine eye, destruction of mental impurities).
Perfected concentration leads to the six kinds of direct knowledge (supernormal power, divine ear, mind-reading, past life recall, divine eye, destruction of impurities).
Perfected understanding leads to the four discriminations (of meaning, of teaching, of language, and of intelligence).

The two extremes and the middle way:

Virtue avoids the extreme of indulging in sense pleasures.
Concentration avoids the extreme of self-mortification.
Understanding cultivates the middle way.

Overcoming levels of existence:

Virtue overcomes the states of loss (hell, animal, ghost, and demon realms).
Concentration overcomes the entire realm of sense desire.
Understanding overcomes all becoming whatsoever.

Abandoning defilements in three ways:

Virtue abandons defilements by substituting their opposites.
Concentration abandons them by suppression.
Understanding abandons them by cutting them off at the root.

Preventing defilements at three levels:

Virtue prevents their expression through body and speech (transgression).
Concentration prevents their obsessive hold on the mind.
Understanding prevents the deep underlying tendencies from which they spring.

Purification from three kinds of corruption:

Virtue purifies from the corruption of misconduct.
Concentration purifies from the corruption of craving.
Understanding purifies from the corruption of false views.

The four stages of awakening:

The stream-enterer and the once-returner are called “perfected in virtue.”
The non-returner is called “perfected in concentration.”
The fully awakened one (arahant) is called “perfected in understanding.”

What Is Virtue?

Virtue is the states beginning with the intention present in someone who abstains from killing living things and so on, or who fulfils the practice of duties. It has four aspects:

Virtue as intention — the wholesome intention in one who refrains from killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying, malicious speech, harsh speech, and gossip, and who maintains right livelihood
Virtue as mental quality — the abstinence itself that arises when one refrains
Virtue as restraint — which operates in five ways:
- Restraint by the rules of the community (patimokkha)
- Restraint by mindfulness
- Restraint by knowledge
- Restraint by patience
- Restraint by energy
Virtue as non-transgression — simply not breaking, by body or speech, the precepts one has undertaken

The Essential Nature of Virtue

Virtue (sila) means “composing” — it coordinates bodily action and speech into harmony, and it upholds and provides the foundation for all wholesome states.

Its characteristic is composing — coordinating body, speech, and mind into harmony, and serving as the foundation for what is wholesome
Its function is twofold: it stops misconduct (as an action), and it produces blamelessness (as an achievement)
It is recognized as purity — of body, speech, and mind
Its proximate cause is conscience (moral sensitivity) and shame (respect for the good) — when these two are present, virtue arises and persists; when absent, it neither arises nor persists

The Benefits of Virtue

The first benefit is freedom from remorse. When you are virtuous, you have nothing to regret.

The Buddha listed five specific benefits:

Wealth — the virtuous person obtains great fortune as a consequence of diligence
Good reputation — a fair name is spread abroad
Confidence — the virtuous person enters any assembly without fear or hesitation, whether among warriors, priests, householders, or ascetics
Clear death — the virtuous person dies unconfused
Good rebirth — after death, rebirth in a happy destination

Beyond these five, the suttas describe many more benefits: being dear and loved by companions in the spiritual life, being held in respect and honour, and progressing all the way to the complete destruction of mental impurities.

Dare anyone a limit place On benefits that virtue brings? No river can wash out the stain in living things — Only virtue’s water can. No breeze, no sandalwood, no gems, no moonbeams Can cool and soothe men’s fevers — But noble, supremely cool, well-guarded virtue quells the flame. No perfume is borne against the wind As virtue’s perfume is. No other stair climbs to heaven as virtue does, No other door opens onto the city of liberation.

How Many Kinds of Virtue Are There?

Virtue can be classified in many ways, from one-fold up to five-fold. Here are the most important:

One-fold

Virtue is one thing: the quality of composing — coordinating body, speech, and mind into harmony.

Two-fold Classifications

Keeping and avoiding: Fulfilling what should be done (“This should be done”) is keeping. Not doing what is prohibited (“This should not be done”) is avoiding. Keeping is accomplished by faith and energy; avoiding, by faith and mindfulness.

Good behaviour and the beginning of the life of purity: The “lesser and minor” training rules — proper conduct and deportment — constitute good behaviour. The rules included in the Double Code (the Patimokkha for monks and nuns) constitute the beginning of the life of purity. Without perfecting good behaviour, the life of purity cannot be perfected. Or alternatively: what is included in the duties of the Khandhakas (the Vinaya chapters on conduct) is good behaviour, and what is included in the Patimokkha itself is the beginning of the life of purity.

Abstinence and non-abstinence: Virtue as abstinence is the simple refraining from killing, stealing, and so on. Virtue as non-abstinence is the remaining kinds — the wholesome intentions, restraint, and non-transgression that accompany and surround that abstinence.

Dependent and independent: Virtue undertaken hoping for a fortunate rebirth (“Through this conduct I shall become a great deity”) is dependent through craving. Virtue undertaken through the false view that “purification comes through ritual conduct alone” is dependent through wrong view. Virtue that serves as a genuine prerequisite for the noble path is independent.

Temporary and lifelong: Virtue with a set time limit versus virtue undertaken for as long as one lives.

Limited and unlimited: Virtue that can be broken for the sake of gain, fame, relatives, limbs, or life is limited. Virtue where one would not even think of transgressing for any of these reasons is unlimited.

Mundane and supramundane: Mundane virtue improves future existence and serves as a prerequisite for liberation. It leads from restraint to freedom from remorse, to gladness, to happiness, to tranquillity, to bliss, to concentration, to correct knowledge, to dispassion, to liberation. Supramundane virtue is that associated with the noble paths — it directly brings about escape from all becoming.

Three-fold Classifications

Inferior, medium, and superior:

Virtue defiled by self-praise and disparagement of others is inferior
Undefiled mundane virtue is medium
Supramundane virtue is superior
Or: virtue motivated by craving for continued existence is inferior; virtue practiced for one’s own liberation is medium; virtue of the perfections practiced for the liberation of all beings is superior

Giving precedence to self, world, or the teaching:

Practiced out of self-regard, wanting to avoid what is unbecoming to oneself
Practiced out of regard for the world, wanting to avoid censure
Practiced out of regard for the teaching (dhamma), wanting to honour its majesty

Adhered-to, not-adhered-to, and tranquillized: Virtue that was called “dependent” above — clung to through craving or wrong view — is adhered-to. Virtue practiced by the great-hearted ordinary person as a prerequisite for the path, and virtue associated with the path in trainees, is not-adhered-to. Virtue associated with the fruition attainment of trainees and fully awakened ones is tranquillized.

Pure, impure, and doubtful: Virtue fulfilled without offence (or with offences properly amended) is pure. Virtue with unamended offences is impure. Virtue where one is unsure whether an offence occurred is doubtful — in this case, one should avoid doubtful situations and get the doubt cleared up, so the mind stays at rest.

Trainer, non-trainer, and neither-trainer-nor-non-trainer: Virtue associated with the four paths and the first three fruitions belongs to the trainer. Virtue associated with the fruition of full awakening (arahantship) belongs to the non-trainer. All remaining virtue belongs to the neither-trainer-nor-non-trainer.

Four-fold Classifications

Partaking of diminution, stagnation, distinction, or penetration:

A monk who finds mere virtue sufficient and doesn’t aspire higher — his virtue partakes of stagnation
A monk whose virtue fuels aspiration for concentration — his virtue partakes of distinction
A monk whose virtue supports the goal of complete dispassion — his virtue partakes of penetration
A monk whose virtue crumbles under temptation — his virtue partakes of diminution

The four kinds of virtue for different practitioners:

For fully ordained monks (bhikkhus)
For fully ordained nuns (bhikkhunis)
For novices (the ten precepts)
For laypeople (five precepts permanently, eight on observance days, ten when possible)

Natural, customary, necessary, and due to previous causes:

Natural virtue: the innate non-transgression of beings in certain realms
Customary virtue: the rules of conduct particular to a clan, locality, or sect
Necessary virtue: such as the virtue of the future Buddha’s mother during pregnancy
Virtue due to previous causes: the innate purity of beings like Maha Kassapa, arising from past life practice

The four purifications — the core practical system:

Purification by the teaching (patimokkha restraint): Following the training rules laid down by the Buddha — the full code of conduct for monks and nuns. This is undertaken through faith.
Purification by restraint (sense faculty restraint): Guarding the senses. When seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, touching, or thinking, one does not grasp at the general appearance or the details of the object. One stops at what is merely seen, merely heard. This is undertaken through mindfulness.
Purification by search (livelihood purification): Making one’s living only through proper means — abandoning all forms of wrong livelihood such as scheming, flattery, hinting, belittling, and pursuing gain with gain. This is undertaken through energy.
Purification by reviewing (virtue concerning requisites): Using the four requisites — robes, food, shelter, and medicine — only after wise reflection on their true purpose. This is undertaken through understanding.

Protecting Virtue Even at the Cost of Life

The story of the elders bound by robbers illustrates this. In the Mahavattani Forest, robbers bound an elder with black creepers and left him lying on the ground. For seven days he lay there, never breaking his restraint. He developed his insight and attained the stage of non-return, dying there and being reborn in the Brahma world. Similarly, in Sri Lanka, robbers bound another elder with string creepers. When a forest fire came and the creepers could not be cut, he established insight and attained full liberation (nibbana) simultaneously with his death.

Therefore let other seekers also Maintain the rules of conduct pure, Renouncing life if there be need, Rather than break virtue’s restraint By the World’s Saviour decreed.

Sense Faculty Restraint in Practice

When an object comes into any sense door, the key moment is the moment of “impulsion” — the phase of the mental process where the mind actively responds. There is neither restraint nor non-restraint during the earlier automatic phases (the life-continuum, adverting, seeing, receiving, investigating, determining). It is only at the moment of impulsion that unwholesome states can arise.

When unwholesome states arise at impulsion — lack of virtue, forgetfulness, ignorance, impatience, or laziness — the entire door is left unguarded. Like a city with open gates: even if everything inside is locked, robbers can enter freely and do as they please.

But when wholesome states arise at impulsion — virtue, mindfulness, knowledge, patience, energy — the door is guarded. Like a city with secured gates: even if nothing inside is locked, no robbers can enter.

Proper Conduct and Resort

Sense restraint involves not just guarding the senses but maintaining proper conduct and proper resort in all one’s affairs.

Proper conduct means respectful, mindful bodily and verbal behaviour: wearing robes properly, moving with eyes downcast seeing a plough-yoke’s length ahead, being deferential to seniors, knowing the right measure in eating, being devoted to wakefulness, wanting little, and being contented.

Proper resort is of three kinds:

Resort as support — a good spiritual friend under whose guidance one grows in faith, virtue, learning, generosity, and understanding
Resort as guarding — going about with downcast eyes, restrained, not staring this way and that
Resort as anchoring — the four foundations of mindfulness, on which the mind is anchored. As the Buddha said: “What is a monk’s resort, his own native place? It is these four foundations of mindfulness.”

The Elder Vangisa: Overcoming Lust

The Elder Vangisa, soon after going forth, was wandering for alms when lust arose in him on seeing a woman. He asked the venerable Ananda for help:

“I am afire with sensual lust, And burning flames consume my mind; In pity tell me, Gotama, How to extinguish it for good.”

Ananda replied:

“You do perceive mistakenly, That burning flames consume your mind. Look for no sign of beauty there, For that it is which leads to lust. See foulness there and keep your mind Harmoniously concentrated.”

The elder expelled his lust and then went on with his alms round.

The Elder Cittagutta: Sixty Years Without Looking Up

In the Great Cave at Kurandaka there was a lovely painting of the Renunciation of the Seven Buddhas. When visiting monks admired it, the Elder Cittagutta said: “For more than sixty years I have lived in this cave, and I did not know there was any painting. Today I know it through those who have eyes.” He had never once raised his eyes to look. At the door of his cave stood a great ironwood tree — he had never looked up at it either. He only knew it flowered each year when he saw petals on the ground.

When the king summoned him, the elder would not go. The king had the breasts of all nursing mothers sealed, saying: “As long as the elder does not come, the children go without milk.” Out of compassion, the elder went. For seven days the king and queen took turns paying homage. Each time — whether it was the king or the queen — the elder said only “May the king be happy.” Monks asked why he didn’t distinguish between them. He replied: “I do not notice whether it is the king or the queen.”

After seven days, finding he was not content in the city, the king dismissed him. He returned to his cave. That night, a tree-deity stood by with a torch, and his meditation became perfectly clear. Before dawn, he reached full awakening, making the whole rock resound.

The Elder Maha Tissa: Seeing Only Bones

The Elder Maha Tissa was walking from Cetiyapabbata to Anuradhapura for alms. A young woman, dressed up beautifully after quarrelling with her husband, saw him on the road and laughed loudly. He looked up, and seeing in her teeth the perception of bones — of foulness — he attained full awakening right there on the spot.

“He saw the bones that were her teeth, And kept in mind his first perception; And standing on that very spot The elder became an Arahant.”

Her husband came along and asked: “Did you see a woman?” The elder replied:

“Whether it was a man or woman That went by I noticed not, But only that on this high road There goes a group of bones.”

The Elder Maha Mitta: A Declaration of Truth

The Elder Maha Mitta’s mother was ill with a poisoned tumour. His sister, a nun, came to ask for medicine. The elder said: “I do not know how to make medicine. But I will tell you a remedy: since I went forth, I have never broken my restraint of the sense faculties by looking at the opposite sex with a lustful mind. By this declaration of truth, may my mother get well.” His sister went and rubbed the mother’s body. At that very moment the tumour vanished, shrinking away like a lump of froth.

Livelihood Purification in Practice

Livelihood purification means energy applied to earning one’s living only through proper means. A monk should abandon all unfitting search and rely only on going on alms rounds and other proper methods, avoiding what is of impure origin as though it were a poisonous snake, and using only requisites of pure origin.

The five forms of wrong livelihood to abandon:

Scheming — hypocrisy in three forms:
- Rejection of requisites: Refusing offerings to create an impression of few wishes, then accepting when impressed donors bring even more
- Indirect talk: Dropping hints about one’s spiritual attainments to inspire awe and generosity
- Deportment: Walking, sitting, and standing in a deliberately composed manner to look concentrated and holy
Talking — flattering, persuading, and endlessly praising potential donors to extract gifts
Hinting — making signs, giving indications, or talking in roundabout ways to prompt offerings without directly asking. (Like the monk who, finding food hidden in a house, told a story about a “snake that looked like sugarcane” and “saliva like ghee in a pot” until the housewife gave him everything.)
Belittling — disparaging others to make oneself look better and attract their supporters
Pursuing gain with gain — trading goods received from one family to get better goods from another

The Elder Sariputta: “Even If My Bowels Come Out”

The Elder Sariputta was ill with colic. The Elder Maha Moggallana asked what used to help, and Sariputta mentioned a particular rice gruel from his lay life. A tree-deity overheard and arranged for supporters to prepare it. When Moggallana brought it, Sariputta saw how it had been obtained — through the deity’s manipulation — and said: “The food cannot be used.”

Moggallana immediately turned the bowl over, with no resentment. As the gruel hit the ground, Sariputta’s illness vanished and never returned for forty-five years.

Sariputta declared:

“Even if my bowels come out and trail on the ground, It is not fitting to eat gruel got by verbal intimation. Never will I undertake the search the Buddhas have condemned.”

Virtue Concerning Requisites: Wise Use

The fourth purification is using the four requisites — robes, food, shelter, and medicine — only after reflecting on their true purpose.

Robes are used only for protection from cold, heat, insects, wind, sun, and creeping things, and for modesty — not for fashion or display.

Food is used neither for amusement, nor for intoxication with strength, nor for making the body attractive, nor for embellishment — but only for the body’s endurance and continuance, for ending the discomfort of hunger, and for supporting the spiritual life. The reflection is:

“I shall put a stop to old feelings of hunger and shall not arouse new feelings through overeating. I shall be healthy, blameless, and live in comfort.”

Food should be treated like medicine applied to a wound, like axle grease on a wheel, like the flesh of one’s own child eaten only to survive crossing a desert — used for sustenance, not for pleasure.

A practical guideline:

With four or five lumps still to eat Let him then end by drinking water; For energetic monks’ needs This should suffice to live in comfort.

Background Note: “Child’s flesh” alludes to a story in the Samyutta Nikaya where a couple set out to cross a desert with insufficient food, but survived by eating the flesh of their child who died on the way. Food should be used with that same reluctant necessity — never for enjoyment.

Shelter is used for protection from weather and dangerous creatures, and for the pleasure of solitude.

Medicine is used only for protection from illness and for recovery — as equipment and accessory for maintaining life.

Four Kinds of Use

Use as theft — using requisites while unvirtuous. Even sitting in the midst of the community, such use is stolen.
Use as a debt — using requisites without having reflected wisely on their purpose. A virtuous person who forgets to reflect incurs a “debt.” Ideally, robes should be reviewed each time they are worn, and food should be reviewed lump by lump. At minimum, review before meals, after meals, and during each of the three watches of the night.
Use as an inheritance — use by the seven kinds of trainees (those on the path but not yet fully awakened). They are the Buddha’s spiritual children and use requisites as heirs of their father.
Use as a master — use by those whose mental impurities are completely destroyed. They use requisites as masters, free from the slavery of craving.

Use as a master and use as an inheritance are proper. Use as a debt is not proper, let alone use as theft. Every practitioner should aspire to use as a master — using requisites after wise reflection.

“So like a drop of water Lying on leaves of lotus, A monk is unsullied By any of these matters — By food, by dwelling, By resting place, By water for washing robes.”

The Five-fold Classifications

Five Levels of Purification

Limited purification — the virtue of those not yet fully ordained (novices and laypeople), limited by the number of precepts (five, eight, or ten)
Unlimited purification — the virtue of fully ordained monks and nuns, undertaken without reserve and with no obvious limit — not even life itself. Like the Elder Maha Tissa the Mango-eater, who never abandoned this reflection:

“Wealth for a sound limb’s sake should be renounced, And one who guards his life gives up his limbs; And wealth and limbs and life, each one of these, A man gives up who practices the teaching.”

He never transgressed a training precept even when his life was at stake, and reached full awakening while being carried on a lay devotee’s back.

“Now, if a man has little learning And he is careless of his virtue, They censure him on both accounts. But if he is of little learning Yet he is careful of his virtue, They praise him for his virtue, So it is as though he too had learning. And if he is of ample learning Yet he is careless of his virtue, They blame him for his virtue, So it is as though he had no learning. But if he is of ample learning And he is careful of his virtue, They give him praise on both accounts. The Buddha’s pupil of much learning Who keeps the Law with understanding — A jewel of Jambu River gold — Who is here fit to censure him? Deities praise him constantly; By Brahma also is he praised.”

Fulfilled purification — the virtue of those great-hearted ordinary people whose virtue is so pure from the moment of ordination that it is like a gem of purest water, like well-refined gold. It becomes the direct cause for full awakening. Like the Elder Sangharakkhita the Great, who at age sixty on his deathbed was told it would disappoint many if he died as an ordinary man. He asked to be helped upright, immediately attained full awakening, and snapped his fingers as a sign. When praised for achieving this in the hour of death, he said: “That was not difficult. But since the time I went forth, I have done nothing without mindfulness.”
Purification not adhered to — the virtue of trainees (those who have entered the path), which is free from the grip of wrong views and craving. Like the Elder Tissa the Landowner’s Son, who told his enemies:

“I broke the bones of both my legs To give the pledge you asked from me. I am revolted and ashamed At death accompanied by greed.”

After reflecting on this, he wisely applied insight, and when the sun rose, he had become fully awakened.

Also illustrative is a certain senior elder, very ill and unable to eat, lying covered in his own urine and excrement. A young monk said: “What a painful process life is!” The elder replied: “If I die now, I shall obtain the bliss of heaven — I have no doubt. But the bliss obtained by breaking this virtue would be like the lay state obtained by disavowing the training.” He declared: “I shall die together with my virtue.” Lying there, he developed insight into that very illness and reached full awakening. He then spoke these verses:

“I am victim of a sickening disease That racks me with its burden of cruel pain; As flowers in the dust burnt by the sun, So this my corpse will soon have withered up. Unbeautiful called beautiful, Unclean while reckoned as if clean, Though full of ordure seeming fair To him that cannot see it clear.”

Purification that is tranquillized — the virtue of the fully awakened (arahants), where all disturbance has been stilled

Five Aspects of Abandoning

For each unwholesome state (killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, lying, etc.), virtue operates in five ways: as abandoning, as abstention, as intention, as restraint, and as non-transgression. These same five aspects extend through the entire path — from abandoning the hindrances through concentration, to abandoning distorted perceptions through insight, to the final abandoning of all defilements through the four noble paths.

The complete list runs from:

Abandoning killing (the most basic virtue)
Through abandoning the hindrances via the four levels of deep absorption
Through the eighteen principal insights (contemplation of impermanence, suffering, not-self, dispassion, cessation, and more)
To the four paths that destroy progressively subtler defilements
Culminating in the path of full awakening that destroys all defilements whatsoever

All of these virtues lead to freedom from remorse, gladness, happiness, tranquillity, joy, and ultimately to complete dispassion, cessation, peace, direct knowledge, awakening, and liberation.

What Corrupts Virtue and What Keeps It Pure

The Corruptions

Virtue can be corrupted — “torn, rent, blotched, or mottled”:

Torn — like cloth cut at the edge: when one breaks the training at the beginning or end of any class of offences
Rent — like cloth torn in the middle: when one breaks it in the middle
Blotched — like a cow with patches of wrong colour on back or belly: when one breaks it two or three times in succession
Mottled — like a cow speckled all over: when one breaks it repeatedly at intervals

These corruptions come from two sources:

1. Breach motivated by gain, fame, relatives, limbs, or life — breaking training rules under pressure of worldly concerns.

2. The seven bonds of sexuality — even without actual sexual intercourse, virtue is corrupted by:

Agreeing to massage, manipulation, and bathing by the opposite sex
Joking, playing, and amusing oneself with them
Gazing eye to eye
Listening through walls to their laughing, talking, singing, or weeping
Recalling past interactions with them
Seeing others enjoying sense pleasures and envying them
Leading the spiritual life while aspiring to be reborn as a deity to enjoy pleasures

Each of these the Buddha called “torn, rent, blotched, and mottled” and said: “Bound by the bond of sexuality, he will not be released from suffering.”

The Cleansing

Virtue is cleansed — made “untorn, unrent, unblotched, and unmottled” — through:

Complete non-breaking of training precepts
Making amends for those broken
Absence of the seven bonds of sexuality
Non-arising of such mental poisons as anger, enmity, contempt, domineering, envy, deceit, fraud, obduracy, presumption, pride, haughtiness, vanity, and negligence
Arising of such qualities as fewness of wishes, contentment, and effacement

Virtue that is thus purified is:

Liberating — it brings about the state of a free person
Praised by the wise — recognized and honoured by those who know
Not adhered to — free from the grip of craving and wrong views
Conducive to concentration — leading naturally to access concentration or full absorption

This cleansing comes about in two ways: by seeing the danger of broken virtue, and by seeing the benefit of perfected virtue.

The Danger of Broken Virtue

The Buddha used a series of vivid comparisons to show the suffering that awaits the unvirtuous who accept offerings from the faithful:

It is better to embrace a blazing mass of fire than to embrace someone while unvirtuous — the fire may bring death, but it won’t bring rebirth in hell
It is better to have both legs crushed by horse-hair rope than to accept homage while unvirtuous
It is better to be stabbed in the chest with a sharp spear than to accept salutations while unvirtuous
It is better to be wrapped in red-hot iron than to wear robes given in faith while unvirtuous
It is better to swallow a red-hot iron ball than to eat food given in faith while unvirtuous
It is better to be seated on a red-hot iron chair than to use a seat given in faith while unvirtuous
It is better to be plunged into a boiling iron cauldron than to use a dwelling given in faith while unvirtuous

What pleasure has a man of broken virtue Who has not forsaken sense pleasures, Which bear fruit of pain more violent even Than embracing a mass of fire?

The Benefit of Perfected Virtue

His virtue is immaculate, His wearing of the bowl and robes Gives pleasure and inspires trust. A monk in his virtue pure Has never fear that self-reproach will enter in his heart: Indeed, there is no darkness in the sun. A monk in his virtue bright Shines forth as the moon lights up the firmament.

The perfume of virtue is borne in all directions, unlike any physical perfume. Deeds done for a virtuous person, though few, bear much fruit. There are no mental impurities to plague the virtuous now, and the virtuous person digs out the root of suffering in lives to come. Perfection among human beings and even among deities is not hard to gain for one whose virtue is perfected.

Such is the blessed fruit of virtue, Showing full many a varied form. So let the wise know well This root of all perfection’s branches.

The mind of one who understands this shudders at failure in virtue and reaches out towards its perfection. So virtue should be cleansed with all care.

This is the first chapter, “The Description of Virtue,” in the Path of Purification, composed for the purpose of gladdening good people.