- Lived:
- fl. early 400s CE · born in India (traditionally near Bodh Gaya; more likely South India) · worked in Anurādhapura, Sri Lanka
- Tradition:
- Theravāda Buddhism — the conservative southern school; the great age of the commentators
- The Big Idea:
- The entire Buddhist path can be organized into one systematic, step-by-step manual — virtue, then concentration, then wisdom — with instructions precise enough that a stranger could follow the map.
- In their words:
- "There is suffering, but no one who suffers; there is action, but no one who acts; there is peace, but no one who attains it; there is a path, but no one who walks it."
- If you remember one thing:
- The meditation app on your phone descends, station by station, from a 700-page instruction manual written by a monk in Sri Lanka 1,600 years ago.