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Buddhaghosa
Sign in to saveAlso known as Buddhaghosa Bhikkhu
Buddhaghosa was a 5th-century Sinhalese Theravādin Buddhist commentator, translator, and philosopher. He worked in the great monastery (mahāvihāra) at Anurādhapura, Sri Lanka and saw himself as being part of the Vibhajyavāda school and in the lineage of the Sinhalese mahāvihāra.
OverviewAI-generated
Buddhaghosa was a male Buddhist monk, writer, and academic who lived from 401 to 500. Born in Bodh Gaya, he died in Sri Lanka. His field of work was Buddhism, and he wrote in the Pali language. He is described in the 11th edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica.
His literary output includes works such as *The path of purification*, *仏教心理学の研究*, *Nithānakathā Phraphutthaprawat tō̜n ton*, *Sumangkhalawilāsiniyā nāma Thīkhanikāyatthakathāya*, and *Manōrathapūraniyā nāma ʻAngkhuttaranikāyatthakathāya*. Various sources list his work count as 4, 148, or 2. He is referenced by 2,482 other encyclopedia articles.
Synthesized by Vinony from 21 facts across 6 sources: Wikidata, Crossref, Open Library, Europeana Sparql, Wikiquote, Vinony graph. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.
Person · Open Library
- Works
- 148
Top works
- The path of purification
- 仏教心理学の研究
- Nithānakathā Phraphutthaprawat tō̜n ton
- Sumangkhalawilāsiniyā nāma Thīkhanikāyatthakathāya
- Manōrathapūraniyā nāma ʻAngkhuttaranikāyatthakathāya
via Open Library + Wikidata
Recent publications · Crossref
5 total works indexed
- Path of Purifcation
· 2011 · cited 1x
- How to Truly Love
· 2026
- Path of Purification
· 2011
- The Expositor (Atthasalini) : Buddhaghasa's commentary on the Dhammasangani, the first book of the Abhidhamma Pitaka
· 1920
- The path of purity : being a translation of Buddhaghosa's Visuddhimagga
· 1923
via Crossref · CC0
Quotes
- “Only virtue's water canwash out the stain in living things.”
- “Shine as they may, there are no kingsAdorned with jewelry and pearlsThat shine as does a man restrainedAdorned with virtue's ornament.”
- “He whose mind is satisfiedwith virtue that has been achieved,Who never thinks to stir himselfAnd take a meditation subject up,Contented with mere virtuousness,Nor striving for a higher state—His virtue bears the appellationOf that partaking of stagnation.”
- “Hate seeks out only unreal faults, while understanding seeks out only real faults.”
via Wikiquote · CC BY-SA
Key facts
- Religious biography.name
- Buddhaghosa
- Religious biography.caption
- Buddhaghosa with three copies of Visuddhimagga, Kelaniya Raja Maha Vihara
- Religious biography.birth_date
- c. 370 CE
- Religious biography.birth_place
- Bodh Gaya
- Religious biography.death_date
- c. 450 CE
- Religious biography.death_place
- Anuradhapura Kingdom
- Religious biography.religion
- Buddhism
- Religious biography.school
- Theravāda
via Wikipedia infobox
Works in European collections
2 objects attributed to Buddhaghosa, held across European museums, libraries & archives · via Europeana
~20 min read
Encyclopedic overview
15 sectionsContents
- Name
- Biography
- Commentarial style
- Writing style
- Method
- Yogacara influences
- Theory of consciousness
- Meditation
- Attributed works
- Influence and legacy
- Notes
- References
- Sources
- Further reading
- External links
Buddhaghosa was a 5th-century Sinhalese Theravādin Buddhist commentator, translator, and philosopher. He worked in the great monastery (mahāvihāra) at Anurādhapura, Sri Lanka and saw himself as being part of the Vibhajyavāda school and in the lineage of the Sinhalese mahāvihāra.
His best-known work is the Visuddhimagga ("Path of Purification"), a comprehensive summary of older Sinhala commentaries on the scriptural canon of the Theravāda school. According to Sarah Shaw, in Theravāda Buddhism this systematic work is "the principal text on the subject of meditation." The interpretations provided by Buddhaghosa have generally constituted the orthodox understanding of Theravādin scriptures since at least the 12th century CE.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Buddhaghosa” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.