The Path to Freedom

The Vimuttimagga (Volume 1 of two volumes), the "Path to Freedom" is a Theravada Buddhist manual on the path leading to nibbana, the ultimate freedom from all mental bondage, that is reached through the practice of virtue, concentration and wisdom. The emphasis of the manual is on concentration or meditation and it contains detailed explanations of all of the traditional Buddhist meditation topics. The manual was composed by the Buddhist monk Upatissa as a guide for those who wish to practise this path. Along with its successor, the larger and more scholastic Visuddhimagga, it is the only known ancient Buddhist manual that is solely dedicated to the cultivation of the path and that gives such detailed, systematic and sometimes unique instructions.

The original Pali text of the Vimuttimagga, probably composed in Sri Lanka in the 3rd or 4th century CE, is lost and the treatise now only survives as a 6th century Chinese translation and partially in Tibetan translations. Besides the first complete English translation of the Chinese text of this important work, as well as a translation of the Tibetan quotations from it, this book also contains an extensive introduction discussing the contents, history and other aspects of the Vimuttimagga.

Bhikkhu N. Nyanatusita (P.D.H. Prins) is a Buddhist monk ordained in Sri Lanka, where he studied Pali and Theravada Buddhism. Since 2005 he hasbeen the editor of the Buddhist Publication Society. He has authored a book on the Bhikkhupatimokkha and has also written articles about Pali texts and manuscripts, Chinese translations of Vinaya texts, and the Pratimok?asutra.