Ru-Yi Meditation Center
Visuddhimagga · Chapter 3

Taking a Meditation Subject

Kammaṭṭhānaggahananiddesa — Part II: Samādhi (Concentration)

Setting
No narrative setting; the chapter opens Part II with practical groundwork rather than a framing story
Speaker
Buddhaghosa, continuing the same systematic voice, now turned toward concentration practice
Form
Procedural rather than purely definitional: dwelling selection, a list of impediments to clear away, the role of a teacher, a sixfold typing of temperament, and a preview list of forty meditation subjects
Length
moderate; mostly enumerable lists rather than sustained argument
Northern parallel
Temperament-matched meditation-subject schemes and lists of obstacles to retreat appear in other Buddhist meditation manuals; this guide does not assert a specific matching passage
Difficulty
★★☆☆☆ — several lists to hold in mind (impediments, temperaments, the forty subjects), but each item is straightforward on its own

Why this chapter

Part I established virtue as the ground the whole path stands on. Chapter 3 makes the turn from that ground to actual practice: before concentration can be developed, a practitioner needs a workable place to live, freedom from the entanglements that would pull attention away, and a qualified teacher who can match a meditation subject to that particular person. Only once these practical conditions are in place does the chapter step back and preview the forty meditation subjects the rest of Part II will work through one at a time.

Reading guide

Where a meditator should live

The chapter opens by weighing what makes a dwelling workable for serious practice: near enough to a village for alms but not so near that noise and traffic intrude, with access to water and suitable company, free of the kind of disturbances that make sustained attention difficult. This is treated as a real practical question, not a formality, since the wrong setting can undermine training before it starts.

Cutting off the impediments

Before taking up a meditation subject in earnest, the chapter lists ten kinds of worldly entanglement a serious student is expected to set aside: a troublesome dwelling, family concerns, gain and reputation, an unfinished building project, travel obligations, demanding relatives, illness, formal study, and even supernormal powers already gained elsewhere, when any of these still occupies the mind. Not every impediment applies to every person; the point is to recognize which of the ten are still live concerns and resolve or set them down first.

Approaching a good friend

Rather than choosing a meditation subject on one's own, the chapter presents this as something learned from a qualified teacher, called a ‘good friend’ (kalyāṇamitta), who can read a student's temperament and assign a subject genuinely suited to them, rather than one the student happens to find appealing.

Six temperaments

The chapter sets out six personality types — the greedy, the hating, the deluded, the faithful, the intelligent, and the speculative (prone to restless thinking) — and treats matching a person's temperament to a compatible meditation subject as central to a teacher's role, since a subject well suited to one temperament can sit poorly with another.

Forty subjects, previewed

Having covered the practical setup, the chapter closes with an overview list of forty meditation subjects (kammaṭṭhāna), grouped into categories: ten kasinas (devices such as a colored disk or an earth surface used as a visual focus), ten kinds of foulness (corpse contemplations), ten recollections, four divine abidings, four immaterial states, one perception of food's unattractiveness, and one analytical defining of the four elements. This list is a map for what Chapters 4 through 11 will each take up in turn, not a treatment of any one subject in detail.

Access and absorption

The chapter also distinguishes two depths of concentration that practice with these subjects can reach: a preliminary steadiness called access concentration, and the fuller absorption that some — but not all — of the forty subjects are capable of producing. Which depth a given subject can reach becomes relevant again as each one is treated individually in the following chapters.

What follows

Chapter 4 begins the detailed treatment with the first and most extensively discussed of the forty subjects: the earth kasina, taken as the template for how the other kasinas will later be handled more briefly.

Key terms

kammaṭṭhāna — “meditation subject” — any of the forty objects of concentration this chapter previews and Chapters 4–11 treat in turn.
kalyāṇamitta — “good friend” — the qualified teacher a student approaches to be assigned a meditation subject, rather than choosing one unaided.
palibodha — “impediment” — any of ten kinds of worldly entanglement the chapter says should be cleared away before serious training begins.
carita — “temperament” — the sixfold typing (greedy, hating, deluded, faithful, intelligent, speculative) used to match a person to a suitable subject.
upacāra, appanā — access (concentration) and absorption — the two depths of concentration the forty subjects lead to in differing measure.

Self-check quiz

Ten questions. Click an answer to see immediate feedback. No score is recorded — this is for your own checking.

Question 1 of 10
What does Part II of the Visuddhimagga, opened by this chapter, cover?
Correct: D. Chapter 3 opens the concentration section that runs through Chapter 13.
Question 2 of 10
What two practical concerns does the chapter address before any meditation subject is taken up?
Correct: D. Setting and entanglements are cleared away before training begins in earnest.
Question 3 of 10
What are the ten palibodha the chapter lists?
Correct: A. Not every impediment applies to every person; the point is to recognize and resolve the live ones.
Question 4 of 10
What role does the kalyāṇamitta play in this chapter?
Correct: B. Choosing a subject is presented as something learned from a teacher, not self-taught.
Question 5 of 10
How many temperaments does the chapter describe, and what is their purpose?
Correct: C. Greedy, hating, deluded, faithful, intelligent, and speculative.
Question 6 of 10
How many meditation subjects does the chapter preview in total?
Correct: C. Grouped into kasinas, kinds of foulness, recollections, divine abidings, immaterial states, and two further single subjects.
Question 7 of 10
Which categories make up the forty meditation subjects previewed here?
Correct: A. This list is the map Chapters 4 through 11 will work through one at a time.
Question 8 of 10
What two depths of concentration does the chapter distinguish?
Correct: A. Not all forty subjects are capable of producing full absorption.
Question 9 of 10
Which meditation subject does Chapter 4 take up first?
Correct: C. The most extensively discussed of the forty subjects, treated first and most fully.
Question 10 of 10
Where can a reader go for Chapter 3's full translated text?
Correct: D. As with every page in this series, since none reproduces the translation itself.
Answered 0 of 10 · Correct 0

Further reading

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