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Visuddhimagga · Chapter 4

The Earth Kasina

Pathavīkasiṇaniddesa — Part II: Samādhi (Concentration)

Setting
No narrative setting; the chapter moves directly from Chapter 3's overview into the first of the forty meditation subjects treated in full
Speaker
Buddhaghosa, now giving sustained practical instruction rather than a preview list
Form
The most detailed method chapter so far: physical preparation of a device, a staged account of the mental images that arise from working with it, the obstacles to be set aside, and the depths of concentration that result
Length
one of the longest chapters in the whole work; it functions as a template the following chapters refer back to rather than repeat
Northern parallel
Object-based calm-abiding methods using a fixed visual support appear across many contemplative traditions; this guide does not assert a specific matching passage
Difficulty
★★★☆☆ — introduces several technical terms (the three signs, the five hindrances, the five jhāna factors) that recur through the rest of Part II

Why this chapter

Chapter 3 previewed forty meditation subjects at a distance. Chapter 4 is where the method becomes concrete for the first time, treating the earth kasina — a simple prepared disk used as a visual support for attention — in full detail: how the device itself is prepared, what happens to the mind's image of it as concentration develops, which obstacles have to recede, and how deep that concentration can go. Because so much of this account applies equally to many of the other thirty-nine subjects, this chapter earns its length by becoming the reference point the rest of Part II leans on.

Reading guide

Preparing the physical disk

The chapter opens with practical instructions for making an earth kasina: a patch of a suitable, evenly colored clay smoothed onto a portable disk or a prepared patch of ground, set up where it can be viewed steadily and without strain. The emphasis throughout is practical — an uneven surface or an inconsistent color is treated as a real obstacle to the stages that follow, not a minor detail.

From the object itself to a preliminary sign

Sitting before the disk with eyes alternately open and closed, a practitioner works until the image can be recalled with the eyes shut just as clearly as with them open. Buddhaghosa calls this recalled image the preliminary sign, the first of three progressively refined mental images the chapter tracks.

The learning sign and the counterpart sign

With further practice, the preliminary sign gives way to a learning sign — a mental image reproducible without looking at the disk at all, though it still carries the physical object's particular flaws and features. Beyond that lies a third image, the counterpart sign: a purified, idealized version of the disk, free of its physical irregularities, and it is this third sign that concentration proper is built on.

Suppressing the five hindrances

As the counterpart sign stabilizes, the chapter describes five obstacles receding in tandem: sensual desire, ill will, dullness and drowsiness, restlessness and worry, and doubt. Their withdrawal is treated as both a sign of progress and a condition for it — concentration and the hindrances are described as mutually exclusive in the mind at any given moment.

Five factors of absorption

In their place, the chapter identifies five qualities that come to characterize the deepening state: applied thought directed at the sign, sustained thought that stays with it, a rapture that accompanies success, a settled happiness, and a one-pointedness of mind. Each is treated as opposing one or more of the five hindrances, so that their presence and the hindrances' absence are two descriptions of the same shift.

The absorption the earth kasina can reach

Worked through fully, the chapter treats the earth kasina as capable of producing full absorption (jhāna), with the five factors dropping away in stages as concentration deepens further — a progression the chapter describes here for the first time and assumes as known background from this point on.

A template for the rest of Part II

Because the sequence of signs, the role of the five hindrances, and the five jhāna factors apply well beyond this one device, later chapters on the remaining kasinas and many further subjects refer back to this chapter's account rather than restating it in full.

What follows

Chapter 5 covers the nine remaining kasinas — water, fire, air, and several colors, among others — more briefly, as variations on the method this chapter has already laid out in detail.

Key terms

parikammanimitta, uggahanimitta, paṭibhāganimitta — the preliminary sign, the learning sign, and the counterpart sign — three progressively refined mental images this chapter tracks as concentration on the kasina deepens.
nīvaraṇa — the five hindrances — sensual desire, ill will, dullness and drowsiness, restlessness and worry, and doubt — described here as receding as the counterpart sign stabilizes.
jhānaṅga — the jhāna factors — applied thought, sustained thought, rapture, happiness, and one-pointedness — the five qualities said to characterize deepening absorption.
jhāna — absorption — the depth of concentration the chapter describes the earth kasina as capable of producing when worked through fully.
kasiṇa — “kasina” — the class of ten visual-object meditation devices this chapter's earth disk belongs to, the first of the forty subjects previewed in Chapter 3.

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 is the earth kasina, in general terms?
Correct: D. The first of the ten kasinas among the forty meditation subjects previewed in Chapter 3.
Question 2 of 10
What sequence of mental images does this chapter track as concentration on the disk deepens?
Correct: B. Each image is more refined than the last, with the counterpart sign purified of the object's physical flaws.
Question 3 of 10
What must recede for concentration on the kasina to strengthen, according to this chapter?
Correct: A. Concentration and the hindrances are described as mutually exclusive in the mind at any given moment.
Question 4 of 10
Which five obstacles make up the hindrances this chapter names?
Correct: B. Their withdrawal is treated as both a sign of progress and a condition for it.
Question 5 of 10
What five qualities does the chapter identify as characterizing deepening absorption?
Correct: D. Each factor is treated as opposing one or more of the five hindrances.
Question 6 of 10
What can the earth kasina, worked through fully, be used to produce?
Correct: D. The jhāna factors are described as dropping away in further stages as concentration deepens still further.
Question 7 of 10
Why does this chapter function as a template for later chapters in Part II?
Correct: D. Later chapters on the remaining kasinas and other subjects refer back to this account rather than repeating it.
Question 8 of 10
What does Chapter 5 cover next?
Correct: B. Water, fire, air, several colors, and others, building on the detailed method Chapter 4 establishes.
Question 9 of 10
What does this chapter say matters about the kasina disk's physical preparation?
Correct: D. Practical care in preparing the device is treated as directly relevant to the stages that follow.
Question 10 of 10
Where can a reader go for Chapter 4's full translated text?
Correct: B. 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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