238 Spk: At this point, what has been shown? This bhikkhu’s way of arrival [Spk-pṭ: the preliminary practice (pubbabhāgapaṭipadā ) that is the cause for arrival at the noble path]. For the establishments of mindfulness are only preliminary, and in regard to clear comprehension the contemplations of impermanence, vanishing, and fading away are also only preliminary. These two—contemplation of cessation and of relinquishment—are mixed [Spk-pṭ: mundane and supramundane]. At this point, the time of the bhikkhu’s development (in meditation) is shown.
239 From here to the end also at 12:51 (but with a different simile) and also at 22:88 and 54:8 (with the same simile).
240 The simile is also at 12:62. Here, and below at 48:39, all three eds. read nānābhāvā vinikkhepā (see II, n. 159).
241 Spk: The impermanence of formations is itself the impermanence of feelings, and this impermanence is death. There is no suffering worse than death: with this intention it is said, “All feeling is suffering.”On this maxim, see too 12:32 (II 53,20–21) and MN III 208,27. Spk’s explanation is not very cogent. The real reason all feeling is suffering is because all feeling is impermanent and thus cannot provide stable happiness and security.
242 Anupubbasaṅkhārānaṃ nirodho. Spk: This is introduced to show, “I describe not only the cessation of feelings, but also the cessation of these (other) states.” Below, “subsiding” (v̄pasama) and “tranquillization” (passaddhi) are spoken of in conformity with the inclinations of those to be enlightened by the teaching.
243 In Be and Se, this verse and the next are the same as at 36:3, but Ee reads pāda b sampajāno nirūpadhi rather than sampajaññaṃ no riñcati.
244 Spk: Carnal (s̄mis̄) pleasant feeling is the feeling connected with carnal sensuality; spiritual (nir̄mis̄) pleasant feeling is the feeling arisen in the first jhāna, etc., or by way of insight, or by way of recollection (of the Buddha, etc.). Carnal painful feeling is the carnal feeling arisen through carnal sensuality [Spk-pṭ: the painful feeling of those who undergo suffering because of sensuality]; spiritual painful feeling, the feeling of displeasure (domanassa) arisen through yearning for the unsurpassed deliverances [Spkpṭ: namely, the fruit of arahantship]. Carnal neutral feeling is the carnal feeling arisen through carnal sensuality; spiritual neutral feeling, the neutral feeling arisen by way of the fourth jhāna. See too 36:31.
245 This sutta is also at MN No. 59, entitled the Bahuvedanı̄ya Sutta.
246 All are explained at 36:22.
247 Spk: From the fourth jhāna up, there is neither-painful-nor-pleasant feeling, called pleasure (or happiness) in the sense that it is peaceful and sublime.
248 Spk: Cessation is called happiness in the sense that it is unfelt happiness (avedayitasukha, the happiness of nonfeeling). Thus felt happiness (vedayitasukha) arises by way of the cords of sensual pleasure and the eight meditative attainments, while cessation is called unfelt happiness. Whether it is felt or not, it is exclusively happiness in that happiness consists in the absence of suffering (niddukkhabh̄va ).
249 I read: Yattha yattha āvuso sukhaṃ upalabbhati yamhi yamhi, taṃ taṃ tathāgato sukhasmiṃ paññāpeti. Spk: Whether felt happiness or unfelt happiness is found, the Tathāgata describes whatever is without suffering as happiness.
250 Spk: His name was Sı̄vaka, but because he had a topknot (c̣̄̄) he was called Moḷiyası̄vaka (mọi or moli being another word for topknot).
251 This view is often referred to as pubbakatahetuvāda. At MN II 214–23, where it is ascribed to the Jains, the Buddha criticizes it from one angle, and at AN I 173,27–174,15 from still another angle.
252 In the argument, vedanā is being used in the narrower sense of painful feeling. Bile (pitta), phlegm (semha), and wind (v̄ta) are the three bodily humours (dosa) of Indian Ayurveda medicine. It should be noted that the Buddha’s appeal to personal experience and common sense as the two criteria for rejecting the view that all feeling is caused by past kamma implies that the view against which he is arguing is the claim that past kamma is the sole and sufficient cause of all present feeling. However, the Buddha’s line of argument also implies that he is not denying kamma may induce the illnesses, etc., that serve as the immediate causes of the painful feelings; for this level of causality is not immediately perceptible to those who lack supernormal cognitive faculties. Thus kamma can still be an indirect cause for the painful feeling directly induced by the first seven causes. It is the sufficient cause only in the eighth case, though even then it must operate in conjunction with various other conditions.
253 I have translated sannipātikāni, visamaparihārajāni, and opakkamikāni in accordance with the explanations given by Spk. On kammavipākajāni vedayitāni, Spk says that these are produced solely (kevalạ) as a result of kamma. Feelings arisen directly from the other seven causes are not “feelings produced by kamma,” even though kamma may function as an underlying cause of the illness, etc., responsible for the painful feelings. According to the Abhidhamma, all bodily painful feeling is the result of kamma (kammavip̄ka ), but it is not necessarily produced exclusively by kamma; kamma usually operates through more tangible networks of causality to yield its result.Spk says that this sutta is spoken from the standpoint of worldly convention (lokavoh̄ra), on which Spk-pṭ comments: “Because it is generally accepted in the world that (feelings) originate from bile and so forth. Granted, feelings based on the physical body are actually produced by kamma, but this worldly convention is arrived at by way of the present condition (paccuppannapaccayavasena ). Accepting what is said, the opponent’s doctrine is refuted.”
254 Elaborated at 48:31–40.
255 See MN III 216,29–217,4. Each type becomes sixfold by arising in relation to the six sense objects—forms, sounds, etc.
256 See MN III 217–19. Again, each type becomes sixfold in relation to the six sense objects.
257 In Ee, this sutta is not counted separately but is printed as though it were a continuation of the preceding one. Be and Se, which I follow, treat it as a separate sutta.
258 In all three eds., the text of this sutta includes the words samudayañ ca atthaṅgamañ ca (“the origination and the passing away”), and the wording of the next sutta is the same. Since this would obviate the need for its separate existence, we can be sure that 36:27 originally had only the three terms assāda, ādı̄nava, nissaraṇa, and 36:28 all five. I have translated on the basis of this hypothesis, which can claim support from the parallels: 14:37–38, 22:107–8, and 22:129–34.
259 In Ee, this sutta is considered the opening paragraph of the following sutta, but in Be and Se (which I follow) it is counted separately.
260 Nirāmisā nirāmisatarā pı̄ti. Spk: More spiritual than the spiritual rapture of the jhānas.
261 Having called the rapture, etc., of the jhānas spiritual (lit. “noncarnal”) rapture, etc., it seems contradictory for the text to say that the form-sphere deliverance is carnal. Spk explains that form-sphere deliverance is called carnal because its object is a carnal form (rūpāmisavasen’eva sāmiso nāma).37. Mātugāmasaṃyutta
262 Mātugāmassa āveṇikāni dukkhāni. Spk: Particular (to women); not shared by men.
263 I follow the arrangement of Be, which includes the opening paragraph under the fifth sutta of this vagga and records 37:5–24 as addressed solely to Anuruddha. Ee places the introductory paragraph here (and in “The Bright Side”) before the first sutta of each series. In this respect Se corresponds with Be. In Se, however, only the first sutta in each series, dark and bright, is addressed to Anuruddha. Se then repeats the same sutta but addressed to the bhikkhus, and then records the following suttas in each series as addressed solely to the bhikkhus. For this reason Se winds up with two suttas more than Be and Ee, namely, the two addressed only to Anuruddha. These suttas lack yebhuyyena , “generally (reborn),” found in the preceding sutta.Anuruddha excelled in the exercise of the divine eye, which discerns the passing away and rebirth
of beings, and also seems to have had frequent encounters with women, both human and celestial (see 9:6). For a biographical sketch, see Hecker, “Anuruddha: Master of the Divine Eye,” in Nyanaponika and Hecker, Great Disciples of the Buddha, pp. 185–210.
264 In 37:7–13, the terms in square brackets successively replace “malicious” as the fourth item in the list.
265 In 37:17–23, the terms in square brackets successively replace “without malice” as the fourth item in the list.
266 Sāmikaṃ pasayha agāraṃ ajjhāvasati. Spk glosses pasayha with abhibhavitvā, and in the next sutta abhibhuyya vattati with abhibhavati ajjhottharati. In this way the two become simply verbal variants on the same idea.
267 Nāsent’ eva naṃ, kule na vāsenti. Spk gives us a glimpse of the social mores of the period: “Saying, ‘You immoral, unchaste adulteress,’ they take her by the neck and eject her; they do not accommodate her in that family.”
268 Vāsent’ eva naṃ kule, na nāsenti. Spk: “Reflecting, ‘What does beauty or wealth, etc., matter when she is virtuous and upright?’ the relatives accommodate her in that family; they do not expel her.”
269 Asapattı̄. That is, without another wife of her husband. It was not unusual at the time for affluent men to take a second wife or concubine, especially if the first wife turned out to be barren. See Singh, Life in North-Eastern India, pp. 38–41.38. Jambukhādakasaṃyutta
270 Spk: He was Sāriputta’s nephew. The name means “Rose-apple-eater.”
271 Spk argues against the idea that Nibbāna is the mere destruction of the defilements (kilesakkhayamattaṃ nibb̄nạ), holding that Nibbāna is called the destruction of lust, etc., in the sense that lust, etc., are destroyed contingent upon Nibbāna (yạ ̄gamma rāgādayo khı̄yanti, taṃ nibb̄nạ). For a fuller version of the argument, see Vism 507–9 (Ppn 16:67–74). The key point in the commentarial position is that Nibbāna is the unconditioned element apprehended with the attainment of the supramundane path. Because this experience of the unconditioned effects the destruction of the defilements, Nibbāna comes to be called the destruction of lust, hatred, and delusion, but it is not reducible to their mere destruction.
272 Cp. AN I 217–19. Sugata is usually an epithet of the Buddha but here, in the plural, it denotes all arahants.
273 Assāsapatta. The answer is a coded formula for the sekha. The next sutta, on paramassāsapatta, concerns the arahant.
274 The three types are explained at Vism 499,14–21 (Ppn 16:34–35). Briefly, suffering due to pain (dukkhadukkhatā ) is painful bodily and mental feeling; suffering due to the formations (saṅkhāradukkhatā) is all conditioned phenomena of the three planes, because they are oppressed by rise and fall; and suffering due to change (viparināmadukkhtā̄) is pleasant feeling, which brings suffering when it comes to an end.
275 Spk quotes MN II 96,19–20: “Instructed in the evening, by the morning he will attain distinction (enlightenment); instructed in the morning, by the evening he will attain distinction.”40. Moggallānasaṃyutta
276 The first nine suttas of this saṃyutta report Moggallāna’s experiences during his week-long struggle for arahantship immediately after his ordination as a bhikkhu. For another account of his development, see AN IV 85–88, and for a connected narrative, see Hecker, “Mahāmoggallāna: Master of Psychic Powers,” in Nyanaponika and Hecker, Great Disciples of the Buddha, pp. 78–83.
277 Kāmasahagatā saññā manasikārā samudācaranti. Spk glosses: accompanied by the five hindrances.
278 Mahābhiññataṃ patto. Moggallāna excelled in the supernormal powers (iddhividha); see 51:14, 51:31.
279 Cp. 21:1, where the same experience is discussed in terms of “noble silence” (ariya tụhı̄bh̄va), a technical code term for the second jhāna.
280 Animitta cetosamādhi. Spk: This refers to insight concentration (vipassanāsamādhi), which occurs when one has abandoned the sign of permanence, etc.The “signless concentration of mind” is not defined further in the Nikāyas, but its placement after the eighth formless attainment suggests it is a samādhi qualitatively different from those attained in samatha meditation. Below, it occurs in the explanation of the “signless liberation of mind” (animitt̄ cetovimutti, at 41:7; IV 297,3–6). At 43:4, the signless concentration (animitta samādhi) is called the path leading to the unconditioned. For a wide-ranging overview of the signless meditation, see Harvey, “Signless Meditation in Pāli Buddhism.” See too below nn. 312, 368.
281 Nimittānusāri viññāṇaṃ hoti. Spk: This occurred while his insight knowledge was flowing along sharply and strongly as he dwelt in insight concentration. Just as, when a man is cutting down a tree with a sharp axe, if he constantly inspects the blade he doesn’t accomplish the function of cutting down the tree, so the elder developed a liking (nikanti) for insight and thus did not accomplish its function.
282 Reading with Be and Se ası̄tiyā devatāsahassehi saddhiṃ, as against Ee ası̄tiyā devatāsatehi saddhiṃ, “eighty hundred.”
283 Buddhe aveccappasāda. This is the faith of a noble disciple at the minimal level of stream-enterer; see II, n. 120. The four qualities to be extolled here are called the four factors of stream-entry (sot̄pattiyȧga); see 12:41. Sakka is shown attaining stream-entry at DN II 288,20–23.
284 The above suttas are abridged in all three eds. Candana is at 2:5; the other devas are the reigning deities of the four sense-sphere heavens above Tāvatiṃsa.41. Cittasaṃyutta
285 At AN I 26,5 Citta is declared the chief male lay disciple among the speakers on the Dhamma (etadaggạ dhammakathikānaṃ ); see too 17:23. For a biographical sketch, see Hecker, “Shorter Lives of the Disciples,” in Nyanaponika and Hecker, Great Disciples of the Buddha, pp. 365–72. Migapathaka, according to Spk, was his own tributary village (bhogaḡma), situated just behind the Wild Mango Grove.
286 The simile and its application are also at 35:232.
287 The problem is also posed at 35:129, but the reply given below draws on 14:1.
288 Spk says that he knew the answer but was not a confident speaker. This explanation is not very convincing in view of the elder’s confession below.
289 Th 120 is ascribed to Isidatta. According to Th-a I 248, while Isidatta was still a layman, his “unseen friend” Citta (see next sutta) sent him a letter in which he praised the virtues of the Buddha, Dhamma, and Saṅgha. Isidatta gained confidence in the Triple Gem, went forth as a monk under the Venerable Mahākaccāna, and quickly attained arahantship with the six direct knowledges.
290 Onı̄tapattapāṇino. Here Spk expands: “Having removed their bowls from their hands and washed them (p̣̄ito apanı̄tapattā dhovitv̄), having deposited them into their bags, (they left) with the bowls hanging from their shoulders.” This explanation goes further than the more typical commentarial gloss, which interprets the expression to mean simply that the monk has put the bowl aside; see n. 135. On osāpeti, “to deposit,” see I, n. 223.
291 I translate the awkward idiom freely in accordance with the natural sense.
292 DN No. 1. This is translated, along with the commentary and excerpts from the sub-commentary, in Bodhi, The All-Embracing Net of Views.
293 Neither Spk nor Spk-pṭ gives an explanation for his sudden departure. He may have seen the danger in fame and honour and preferred to dwell in complete anonymity.
294 In Se and Ee the reading is kuṭṭhitaṃ, glossed kuthitaṃ by Spk (Se); Be has kuthitaṃ, glossed kudhitaṃ. SS have kikitaṃ or kikiṭaṃ, preferred by Woodward. Spk, calling this a term of unique occurrence in the Word of the Buddha preserved in the Tipiṭaka (tepiṭike buddhavacane asambhinnapadam), glosses it as “extremely sharp” (atitikhịạ), because of the hot sand underfoot and the hot sun above.
295 The passage is quoted at Vism 393–94 (Ppn 12:85).
296 At Ud 76,26–27, spoken with reference to the arahant Lakuṇṭaka Bhaddiya (see 21:6). All the terms refer literally to a chari
ot and figuratively to an arahant. The key to the riddle is given just below in the text, with fuller explanations at Ud-a 370–71; see the translation in Masefield, The Udāna Commentary, 2:959–61. The following is a summary: ela is a fault (dosa); one without faults is nela, faultless. The chariot is described as nelaṅga because its wheel (ȧga, I follow Masefield, and see MW, s.v. rath̄̇ga)—its most essential part—is faultless. In the application of the simile this represents the virtue associated with the fruit of arahantship. “Awning” is the woollen cloth spread on top of the chariot; the white awning (setapach̄da) signifies the liberation associated with the fruit of arahantship, which is by nature thoroughly and completely pure. “Trouble-free” (anı̄gha) means without the agitation (parikhobha) of the defilements, as with a vehicle in which jolting (khobha) is absent. “The stream cut” (chinnasota): an ordinary chariot has an uninterrupted stream of oil smeared on the axle-heads and nave, but this one has “the stream cut” because the thirty-six streams (of craving) have been fully abandoned. “Without bondage” (abandhana): an ordinary chariot has an abundance of bonds to prevent the platform from being shaken by the axle, etc., but in this one all the bonds—that is, the fetters—have been completely destroyed; thus it is “without bondage.”
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