What is "kammatthana"

In Buddhism, is a Pali word (Sanskrit: karmasthana) which literally means the place of work. Its original meaning was someone's occupation (farming, trading, cattle-tending, etc.). It has several distinct but related usages, all having to do with Buddhist meditation.

Its most basic meaning is as a word for meditation. In Burma senior meditation practitioners are known as "kammatthanacariyas" (meditation masters). Buddhaghosa uses "kammatthana" to refer to each of his forty meditation objects listed in the third chapter of the Visuddhimagga, which are partially derived from the Pāli Canon.Buddhaghosa & Nanamoli (1999), pp. 90-91 (II, 27-28, "Development in Brief"), 110ff. (starting with III, 104, "enumeration"). It can also be found sprinkled earlier in this text as on p. 18 (I, 39, v. 2) and p. 39 (I, 107). Throughout Nanamoli translates this term as "meditation subject."

In the Pali literature, prior to the post-canonical Pali commentaries, the term comes up in only a handful of discourses and then in the context of "work" or "trade." For instance, in the first three nikayas, the term is found only in the Subha Sutta ( MN 99), although there it is found 22 times. In this discourse, it is contextualized, for instance, in this question to the Buddha by the Brahmin Subha:

"Master Gotama, the brahmins say this: 'Since the work of the household life [Pali: ] involves a great deal of activity, great functions, great engagements, and great undertakings, it is of great fruit. Since the work of those gone forth [Pali: ] involves a small amount of activity, small functions, small engagements, and small undertakings, it is of small fruit.' What does Master Gotama say about this?" ( & Bodhi, 2001, p. 809; the square-bracketed Pali is from Bodhgaya News' searchable Tipitaka database at http://bodhgayanews.net/tipitaka.php?title=&record=3693.)

Similarly, in the famed Dighajanu Sutta ( AN 8.54):

"And what does it mean to be consummate in initiative? There is the case where a lay person, by whatever occupation he makes his living [Pali: ] — whether by farming or trading or cattle tending or archery or as a king's man or by any other craft — is clever and untiring at it, endowed with discrimination in its techniques, enough to arrange and carry it out. This is called being consummate in initiative." (Thanissaro, 1995; the square-bracketed Pali is from Bodhgaya News' searchable Tipitaka database at http://bodhgayanews.net/tipitaka.php?title=sutta%20pitaka&action=next&record=6649.)

An identical phrasing can be found in the very next discourse, the Ujjaya Sutta (AN 8.55) (see http://bodhgayanews.net/tipitaka.php?title=sutta%20pitaka&action=next&record=6653), and in the Dutiya Sampadā Sutta (AN 8.76) (see http://bodhgayanews.net/tipitaka.php?title=&record=6689). A last canonical use of this term can be found in the Sakya Sutta (AN 10.46):

"What do you think, Sakyans. Suppose a man, by some profession or other [Pali: yena kenaci kammaṭṭhānena], without encountering an unskillful day, were to earn a half-kahapana. Would he deserve to be called a capable man, full of initiative?" (Thanissaro, 2000; the square-bracketed Pali is from Bodhgaya News' searchable Tipitaka database starting at http://bodhgayanews.net/tipitaka.php?title=&record=6888.)