[Tobias G]

Buddhaghosa’s Visuddhimagga – A Focused Analysis

Please see #11:
… Bhikkhu Nyanamoli CORRECTLY translates this passage to English as follows (p. 265 of Ref. 2): “Herein, breathing in long (assasanto) is producing a long in-breath. ‘assāsa is the wind issuing out; passāsa is the wind entering in’ is said in the Vinaya Commentary. But in the Suttanta Commentaries, it is given in the opposite sense. Herein, when an infant comes out from the mother’s womb, first the wind from within goes out, and subsequently, the wind from without enters in with fine dust strikes the palate and is extinguished [with the infant’s sneezing]. This, firstly, is how assāsa and passāsa should be understood”.

Why is assasa “the wind issuing out” and passasa “the wind entering in”? Is it a mistake?

[Lal]

“Assāsa passāsa” has TWO meanings:

1. “Breathing in and out”
– That applies to “assāsa passāsā kāya saṅkhārā“, i.e., that is how the mind moves the body in the simplest way.
– That is in the “Cūḷavedalla Sutta (MN 44)“: “Assāsapassāsā kho, āvuso visākha, kāyasaṅkhāro”

2. “Assāsa” is to “take in the Noble Path” and “passāsa” is to dispel/reject the “wrong paths” with “wrong views”.

See, for example, “Assāsappatta Sutta (SN 38.5)” , “Paramas­s­āsa­p­patta Suttta (SN 38.6)”

Those translations are not that good.

– Basically, “Assāsappatto” is someone who has become a Sotapanna Anugami and thus has started “taking in” the Noble Path (First sutta)

– “Paramassāsappatto” is an Arahant who has completed the Path OR “completed taking in” (Second sutta)

P.S. : “patto” is “someone who got to that stage/level” AND “parama” is “ultimate”
– Assāsappatto = Assāsa + patto
– Paramassāsappatto = parama + assāsa + patto

P.P.S. Of course, it is the second meaning that pertains to Ānāpānasati meditation.

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