The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha

by Bhikkhu Nanamoli

  483 Bodily actions are “states cognizable through the eye.” Words are “states cognizable through the ear.” MA: Just as one infers the presence of fish from the rippling and bubbling of water, so from a defiled action or utterance one infers that the mind originating it is defiled.

  484 Ṃ: “Mixed states” (vı̄timissā dhammā) refers to the conduct of one who is engaged in purifying his conduct but is unable to keep to it consistently. Sometimes his conduct is pure or bright, sometimes impure or dark.

  485 MA: The dangers are conceit, arrogance, etc. For some bhikkhus, as long as they have not become well known or acquired a following, these dangers are not found, and they are very calm and quiet; but when they have become famous and have acquired a following, they go about behaving improperly, attacking other bhikkhus like a leopard pouncing on a herd of deer.

  486 MA: The opposite of those who teach a group—those who dwell detached from a group—though not mentioned, should be understood.

  487 MA: This passage shows the Buddha’s impartiality (tādibhāva) towards beings: he does not extol some and disparage others.

  488 No ca tena tammayo. MA glosses: “I do not identify with that purified virtue, I am without craving for it.”

  489 So tasmiṁ dhamme abhiññāya idh’ekaccaṁ dhammaṁ dhammesu niṭṭ̣haṁ gacchati. In order to convey the intended meaning I have rendered the second occurrence of dhamma here as “teaching,” i.e., the particular doctrine taught to him, the plural dhammesu as “teachings,” and tasmiṁ dhamme as “that Dhamma,” in the sense of the total teaching. MA and Ṃ together explicate the meaning thus: When the Dhamma has been taught by the Teacher, by directly knowing the Dhamma through penetration of the path, fruit, and Nibbāna, the bhikkhu comes to a conclusion about the preliminary teaching of the Dhamma on the aids to enlightenment (bodhipakkhiȳ dhammā).

  490 Ākāravatı̄ saddhā dassanamūlikā daḷhā. This phrase refers to the faith of a stream-enterer who has seen the Dhamma through the supramundane path and can never point to any other teacher than the Buddha.

  SUTTA 48

  491 The background to this sutta is the quarrel at Kosambı̄, which is related at Vin Mv Kh 10 (Vin i.337 ff.) and in Ñā˚amoli, The Life of the Buddha, pp. 109–19. The quarrel, which began with a casual misunderstanding of a minor disciplinary rule, quickly flared up and divided a large part of the Sangha and laity resident at Kosambı̄ into two hostile factions.

  492 Cha dhammā sārāṇı̄yā. Ñm had rendered this expression “six memorable qualities,” which was adopted in the first edition. In this he follows the commentaries, which gloss the phrase, “fit to be remembered; not to be forgotten even with the passage of time” (saritabbayutt̄ addhāne atikkante pi na pamusitabbā). The correct derivation, however, as PED notes, is from Skt saṁran̄janı̄ya, “causing delight.”

  493 MA: This is the right view belonging to the noble path.

  494 The Four Noble Truths.

  495 Dhammatā.

  496 This is a breach of the code of monastic discipline from which a bhikkhu can be rehabilitated either by a formal act of the Sangha or by confession to another bhikkhu. Even though a noble disciple may commit such an offence unintentionally or through lack of knowledge, he makes no attempt to conceal it but immediately discloses it and seeks the means of rehabilitation.

  497 See n.91.

  498 MA calls those seven factors the “great reviewing knowledges” (mahāpaccavekkaṇāṇa) of a stream-enterer. On the reviewing knowledges see Vsm XXII, 19–21.

  SUTTA 49

  499 The Mūlapariyāya Sutta (MN 1) was also delivered by the Buddha while he was living in the Subhaga Grove at Ukkaṭṭhā, and the similarity in formulation and theme between these two suttas—perhaps the only two recorded as originating at Ukkaṭṭhā—is striking. It is even possible to see the present sutta as a dramatic representation of the same ideas set forth by the Mūlapariyāya in abstract philosophical terms. Thus Baka the Brahmā may be taken to represent being (bhava) or personality (sakkāya) in its most eminent form, blindly engaged in the activity of conceiving (maññanā), sustaining itself with its delusions of permanence, pleasure, and selfhood. Underlying being is craving, symbolised by Māra—seemingly inconspicuous in the assembly, yet the real author of all the outpourings of conceiving, the one who holds the entire universe in his grip. The alliance of Brahmā and Māra, God and Satan, an incomprehensible union from the perspective of Western theism, points to the thirst for continued being as the hidden root of all world affirmation, whether theistic or non-theistic. In the sutta the superficial theoretical contest between Baka and the Buddha soon gives way to a gripping deep-level confrontation between Māra and the Buddha—M̄ra as craving demanding the affirmation of being, the Enlightened One pointing to the cessation of being through the uprooting of delight.

  500 A similar encounter between the Buddha and Baka is recorded at SN 6:4/i.142–44, though without the dramatic trappings of this meeting and with an extended exchange in verse. According to MA and Ṃ, he held this eternalist view with regard to both his own individual personality and the world over which he presided. His denial of an “escape beyond” is a rejection of the higher jhāna planes, the paths and fruits, and Nibbāna, none of which he even knows exist.

  501 MA: When Māra discovered that the Buddha had gone to the Brahma-world, he became anxious that the Brahmās might be won over to the Dhamma and escape from his control; thus he went there to discourage the Buddha from teaching the Dhamma.

  502 MA: Because they considered it to be impermanent, suffering, and not self.

  503 MA: In the four states of deprivation. Here, and at §10 and §29, the word “body” (kāya) is used to mean plane of existence.

  504 MA: They lauded it by speaking praise of it as permanent, everlasting, eternal, etc., and delighted in it by way of craving and views.

  505 MA: In the Brahma-world.

  506 MA: Māra’s intention is to show: “If you do as Brahmā says without overstepping his word, you too will shine with the same splendour and glory as that with which the Brahmā’s Assembly shines.”

  507 MA says that by the first two terms he tries to cajole the Buddha, by the remaining two terms he threatens him. To “hold to earth” is to grasp it by way of craving, conceit, and views. The list of categories here, though condensed, is reminiscent of MN 1.

  508 MA: Baka Brahmā was a Brahmā exercising sovereignty over a thousand world-systems, but above him there are Brahmās exercising sovereignty over two, three, four, five, ten thousand, and a hundred thousand world-systems.

  509 The body of Streaming Radiance is a realm of rebirth pertaining to the second jhāna, while Baka Brahmā’s realm pertains only to the first jhāna. The body of Refulgent Glory and the body of Great Fruit in the next paragraph pertain to the third and fourth jhānas.

  510 In the Brahmajāla Sutta (DN 1.2.2–6/ii.17–19) the Buddha shows how Mahā Brahmā gives rise to the delusion that he is the supreme creator God. When the world begins to form again after a period of dissolution, a being of great merit is the first to be reborn in the newly formed Brahma-world. Subsequently, other beings take rebirth in the Brahma-world and this causes Mahā Brahmā to imagine that he is their creator and master. See Bodhi, The Discourse on the All-Embracing Net of Views, pp. 69–70, 159–166.

  511 This passage, parallel in structure to the corresponding passage of MN 1, is a difficult one. The negative verb differs among the three editions I consulted. PTS has nāhosi, BBS nāpahosiṁ, SBJ nāhosiṁ. Ñm preferred nāpahosiṁ, which he took to be an aorist of pabhavati, meaning “to produce, to give being to.” It is much more likely, however, that nāpahosiṁ should be resolved simply as na + api + ahosiṁ. Thus the meaning does not differ significantly between BBS and SBJ. MA glosses: “I did not grasp earth through the obsessions of craving, conceit, and views.” Ñm had rendered ananubhūtaṁ as “not co-essential with.” This has been replac
ed by “not partaken of by,” following MA’s gloss, “not reached by earth” and Ṃ: “Its nature is not shared with earth.” MA says that what is “not partaken of by the earthness of earth” is Nibbāna, which is detached from all that is conditioned.

  512 PTS is surely mistaken in omitting here the ti ending a direct quotation; this misleads Horner into ascribing the following passage to Baka rather than to the Buddha (MLS 1:392). BBS and SBJ supply ti. Baka seems to be suggesting that since the object of the Buddha’s knowledge “is not partaken of by the allness of all,” it might be merely an empty concept.

  513 In the first edition, I retained Ñm’s own translation of these lines, which read:The consciousness that makes no showing,

  Nor has to do with finiteness,

  Not claiming being with respect to all.

  In retrospect, I find this rendering far from satisfactory and thus here offer my own. These lines (which also appear as part of a full verse at DN 11.85/i.223) have been a perennial challenge to Buddhist scholarship, and even Ācariya Buddhaghosa seems to founder over them. MA takes the subject of the sentence to be Nibbāna, called “consciousness” (viññāṇṁ) in the sense that “it can be cognized” (vijānitabbaṁ). This derivation is hardly credible, since nowhere in the Nik̄yas is Nibb̄na described as consciousness, nor is it possible to derive an active noun from the gerundive. MA explains anidassanaṁ as meaning invisible, “because it (Nibbāna) does not come within range of eye-consciousness,” but again this is a trite explanation. The word anidassana occurs at MN 21.14 in the description of empty space as an unsuitable medium for painting pictures; thus the idea seems to be that of not making manifest.

  MA offers three explanations of sabbato pabhaṁ: (1) completely possessed of luminosity (pabhā); (2) possessing being (pabhū̇taṃ) everywhere; and (3) a ford (pabhaṁ) accessible from all sides, i.e., through any of the thirty-eight meditation objects. Only the first of these seems to have any linguistic legitimacy. Ñm, in Ms, explains that he takes pabhaṁ to be a negative present participle of pabhavati—apabhaṁ—the negative-prefix a dropping off in conjunction with sabbato: “The sense can be paraphrased freely by ‘not predicating being in relation to “all,”’ or ‘not assuming of “all” that it is or is not in an absolute sense.’” But if we take pabhaṁ as “luminous,” which seems better justified, the verse links up with the idea of the mind as intrinsically luminous (pabhassaram idaṁ cittaṁ , AN i.10) and also suggests the light of wisdom (pa), called the best of lights (AN ii.139). I understand this consciousness to be, not Nibbāna itself, but the arahant’s consciousness during the meditative experience of Nibb̄na. See in this connection AN v.7–10, 318–26. Note that this meditative experience does not make manifest any conditioned phenomena of the world, and thus may be truly described as “non-manifesting.”

  514 The Buddha’s disappearance seems to be a “visible” demonstration of his verse. Having extirpated delight in being, he is able to vanish from the sight of Baka, the supreme representative of being and world affirmation. But Baka, bound to being by clinging, cannot transcend the range of the Buddha’s knowledge, which encompasses both being and non-being at the same time that it transcends them.

  515 This is the same inclination that arose in the Buddha’s mind in the period immediately after his enlightenment—see MN 26.19. Compare also DN 16.3.34/ii.112 where Māra attempts to persuade the newly enlightened Buddha to pass away peacefully at once.

  516 Tādiso: that is, whether he teaches or not he remains the Tathāgata.

  SUTTA 50

  517 The name means “the Corrupter” or “the Corrupted One.” In the Buddhist conception of the universe the position of Māra, like that of Mahā Brahmā, is a fixed one that is assumed by different individuals in accordance with their kamma.

  518 Kakusandha was the first Buddha to arise in this present cosmological cycle called the “Auspicious Age.” He was followed by the Buddhas Konāgama˚a and Kassapa, after whom the present Buddha Gotama arose.

  519 The name means “the Unrivalled.”

  520 One who has attained to cessation, it seems, is not subject to injury or death within the attainment itself. At Vsm XXIII, 37 it is said that the attainment protects even his belongings such as his robes and seat from destruction.

  521 The name means “the Survivor.”

  522 That is, by causing defilements to arise in their minds, he will prevent them from escaping from saṁsāra.

  523 MA takes pains to point out that Māra did not exercise control over their actions, in which case he alone would have been responsible and the brahmins could not have generated bad kamma by their deeds. Rather, Māra caused the brahmins to imagine scenes of the bhikkhus engaged in improper conduct, and this aroused their antagonism and induced them to harass the bhikkhus. Māra’s intent in doing so was to make the bhikkhus give rise to anger and dejection.

  524 “The Kinsman” (bandhu) is Brahmā, who was called thus by the brahmins because they regarded him as their primal ancestor. MA explains that it was a belief among the brahmins that they themselves were the offspring of Brahmā’s mouth, the khattiyas of his breast, the vessas of his belly, the suddas of his legs, and samaṇas of the soles of his feet.

  525 Jhāyanti pajjhāyanti nijjhāyanti apajjhāyanti. Though the verbs individually do not have an established pejorative sense, the string is obviously intended as a denigration. At MN 108.26 the four verbs are used to describe the meditation of one whose mind is obsessed by the five hindrances.

  526 The four brahmavihāras are the appropriate antidote for the hostility of others, as well as for the tendencies to anger and dejection in one’s own mind.

  527 This time Māra’s intent was to cause the bhikkhus to fall victim to pride, complacency, and negligence.

  528 MA quotes a sutta (AN 7:46/iv.46–53) stating that these four meditations are the antidotes, respectively, for sexual desire, craving for tastes, attraction to the world, and infatuation with gain, honour, and praise.

  529 MA: The elephant look (n̄gapalokita) means that without twisting his neck, he turns his whole body in order to look. The Māra Dūsı̄ did not die because of the Buddha’s elephant look, but because the evil kamma he generated in wronging a great disciple cut off his life right on the spot.

  530 The Great Hell, also called Avı̄ci, is described in greater detail in MN 130.16–19.

  531 MA: This feeling, experienced in the auxiliary (ussada) of the Great Hell, is said to be more painful than the feelings experienced in the Great Hell itself.

  532 The Buddha Kakusandha is called a brahmin in the sense of MN 39.24.

  533 The reference is to SN 51:14/v.269–70.

  534 See MN 37.11.

  535 See MN 37.12.

  536 The reference is to SN 6:5/i.145.

  537 This verse refers to Ven. Moggallāna’s mastery over the supernormal power of travelling in space like a bird.

  SUTTA 51

  538 From this difference in their manner of greeting the Buddha it is evident that Pessa is a follower of the Buddha, whereas Kandaraka—despite his respect and admiration—belongs to a different religious community.

  539 MA: Out of respect for the Buddha and because of their training, the bhikkhus did not converse with one another, nor did they even clear their throats. Unmoving in body, undistracted in mind, they sat surrounding the Blessed One like ruddy clouds surrounding the peak of Mount Sineru. Kandaraka must have been privately comparing this assembly of the bhikkhus with the assemblies of wanderers as described in MN 76.4.

  540 MA explains that Kandaraka did not have direct knowledge of the Buddhas of the past and future. He made this statement as a way of expressing his admiration for the well-trained, disciplined, and calm Sangha of bhikkhus. The Buddha, however, confirms this on the basis of direct knowledge.

  541 MA: The four foundations of mindfulness are brought in to show the cause for the calm and tranquil deportment of the Sangha. On the foundations of mindful
ness, see MN 10.

  542 MA glosses: “We too, when we get an opportunity, from time to time attend to this; we are also practitioners; we do not completely neglect meditation.”

  543 The point of this statement is that an animal’s guile and trickery is very limited, while that of human beings is inexhaustible.

  544 MA explains that this passage is introduced as a sequel to Pessa’s statement that the Blessed One knows the welfare and harm of beings; for the Buddha shows that the first three kinds of persons are practising in harmful ways, while the fourth is practising in a beneficial way. The passage can also be connected with Kandaraka’s praise of the Sangha; for the Buddha will show three ways in which he does not train the Sangha and the one way in which all the Buddhas of the past, present, and future train their Sanghas.