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For me it functions mainly as a reference or guide for meditations and attitudes to take to meditation. It certainly looks nice on my bookshelf and is a nice book to have just for browsing random chapters when you need a refreshing lift, also as a route for more advanced meditators.
This book is, indeed, "The Classic Manual of Buddhist Doctrine and Meditation". Written by Buddhaghosa in the Fifth Century in Sri Lanka, and known by its Pali title, Visuddhimagga, it is the fundamental manual for the Theravadin school of Buddhism, upon which the popular Vipassana meditation is based. But it is ever so much more than merely a Vipassana manual. Divided into three main sections covering the three "baskets" of Buddha's teaching, it first addresses Virtue (Sila) and a brief chapter on acceptable ascetic practices. Next there follows a large and wonderful section on training in Concentration (Samadhi) based on the forty traditional meditation subjects. Finally, it concludes with a large section on Understanding (Panna), the wisdom teachings of the Abhidhamma. If anyone has ever tried to learn and understand the Abhidhamma merely through study of the original texts (available in English through the Pali Text Society), then you will clearly appreciate the need for a commentary, and Buddhaghosa's commentary in the Visuddhimagga is one of the best. In general the book is comprehensive and profoundly helpful to one's practice, and to one's appreciation of the roots of Buddhist tradition as well.
This translation by Bhikkhu Nanamoli is wonderful. For years I had loved a translation by Pe Maung Tin, put out by the Pali Text Society. The language in that translation was more poetic, but I gradually grew to appreciate Bhikkhu Nanamoli's more approachable and practical language, and now I seldom refer to the other. There is for me, a Mahayana practitioner, something very beautiful and attractive in the bare, almost dry purity of Theravadin writings and practices, and this translation captures that quiet beauty very well. It is interesting to note that Bhikkhu Nanamoli, an Englishman who ordained in Sri Lanka at age 43 in 1949, and who then spent most of the rest of his remaining years in study and retreat, wrote this translation solely for his own use, because there were no available copies of the only other extant translation: only later did someone request him to publish it. We are fortunate that he did. I cannot recommend it highly enough to the serious practitioner or student.
Everyday, after I get off my meditation cushion, I chew my way though a few pages... It's good to be alive in a time when excellent English translations of this and other great Buddhist works are readily available.
All in all a wonderful but very demanding book.
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