The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha

by Bhikkhu Nanamoli

  107 The forty-four “modes of effacement” to be expounded fall, by and large, into several fixed sets of doctrinal categories as follows. Those not mentioned here do not fit into any fixed set.(2)–(11) are the ten courses of unwholesome and wholesome action (kammapatha)—see MN 9.4, 9.6;

  (12)–(18) are the last seven factors of the eightfold path—wrong and right—the first factor being identical with (11);

  (19)–(20) are sometimes added to the two eightfold paths—see MN 117.34–36;

  (21)–(23) are the last three of the five hindrances—see MN 10.36—the first two being identical with (9) and (10);

  (24)–(33) are ten of the sixteen imperfections that defile the mind, mentioned in MN 7.3;

  (37)–(43) are the seven bad qualities and the seven good qualities (saddhamm̄) mentioned in MN 53.11–17.

  108 Ṃ: Non-cruelty (avihiṁsā), which is a synonym for compassion, is mentioned at the beginning because it is the root of all virtues, especially the root-cause of morality.

  109 MA: This is a description of those who hold firmly to a view that has occurred to them, believing “This alone is the truth”; they do not relinquish it even if spoken to by the Buddha with reasoned arguments.

  110 MA: The inclination of mind is of great benefit because it entails exclusively welfare and happiness, and because it is the cause of the subsequent actions that conform to it.

  111 The Pali term rendered by “extinguished” is parinibbuto, which can also mean “attained to Nibbāna”; and the Pali term rendered by “help extinguish” is parinibbāpessati, which can also mean “help attain Nibbāna” or “bring to Nibbāna.” The Pali original for the expression to follow, “by which to extinguish it,” parinibbānaya, might have been rendered “for attaining Nibbāna.” Though in all three cases the alternative rendering would be too strong to insist on literally, its implications contribute to the suggestiveness of the original in a way that cannot be captured in translation.

  112 MA points out that this statement can be understood in two ways: (1) one who is himself free from cruelty can use his non-cruelty to help extinguish the cruelty of another person; and (2) one who is himself cruel can develop non-cruelty to extinguish his own cruel disposition. All the following cases should be similarly understood in this twofold way.

  113 MA: The compassionate teacher’s task is the correct teaching of the Dhamma; beyond that is the practice, which is the work of the disciples.

  SUTTA 9

  114 MA: Right view is twofold: mundane and supramundane. Mundane right view is again twofold: the view that kamma produces its fruits, which may be held both by Buddhists and outsiders, and the view that accords with the Four Noble Truths, which is exclusive to the Buddha’s Dispensation. Supramundane right view is the understanding of the Four Noble Truths attained by penetrating to the four paths and fruits of sanctity. The question posed by the Ven. Sāriputta concerns the sekha, the disciple in higher training, who possesses supramundane right view leading irreversibly to emancipation. This is implied by the phrase “unwavering confidence” and “arrived at this true Dhamma.”

  115 Here the unwholesome (akusala) is explained by the ten unwholesome courses of action. The first three of these pertain to bodily action, the middle four to verbal action, the last three to mental action. The ten are explained at greater length at MN 41.8–10.

  116 These three are called the roots of the unwholesome because they motivate all unwholesome actions. For a thorough and informative textual study of these factors and their opposites, see Nyanaponika Thera, The Roots of Good and Evil.

  117 These ten wholesome courses of action are elaborated upon in MN 41.12–14.

  118 MA explains the disciple’s understanding of these four terms by way of the Four Noble Truths thus: all the courses of action are the truth of suffering; the wholesome and unwholesome roots are the truth of the origin; the non-occurrence of both actions and their roots is the truth of cessation; and the noble path that realises cessation is the truth of the path. To this extent a noble disciple at one of the first three stages has been described—one who has arrived at supramundane right view but has not yet eliminated all defilements.

  119 The passage from “he entirely abandons the underlying tendency to lust” until “he makes an end of suffering” shows the work accomplished by the paths of the non-returner and of arahantship—the elimination of the most subtle and obstinate defilements and the achievement of final knowledge. Here, the underlying tendencies to sensual lust and aversion are eliminated by the path of the non-returner, the underlying tendency to the view and conceit “I am” and ignorance by the path of arahantship. MA explains that the expression “underlying tendency to the view and conceit ‘I am’” (asmı̄ ti diṭṭhimānānusaya) should be interpreted to mean the underlying tendency to conceit that is similar to a view because, like the view of self, it occurs apprehending the notion “I am.”

  120 Here I take sambhavesı̄nam to be an instance of the (rare) future active participle in -esin. (See Norman, Elders’ Verses I : Theragāthā, n.527, and Gelger, A Pāli Grammar, 193A.) The commentators, whom I have followed in the first edition of this work, take -esin as an adjectival formation from esati, to seek, and thus explain the phrase as meaning “those who are seeking a new existence.” See too n. 514 below. Nutriment āhāra) is to be understood here in a broad sense as a prominent condition for the individual life-continuity. Physical food (kabalinkāra āhāra) is an important condition for the physical body, contact for feeling, mental volition for consciousness, and consciousness for mentality-materiality, the psychophysical organism in its totality. Craving is called the origin of nutriment in that the craving of the previous existence is the source of the present individuality with its dependence upon and continual consumption of the four nutriments in this existence. For an annotated compilation of the canonical and commentarial texts on the nutriments, see Nyanaponika Thera, The Four Nutriments of Life.

  121 The next twelve sections present, in reverse order, a factor-by-factor examination of dependent origination. The principal terms of the formula are explained briefly in the Introduction, pp. 30–31. The detailed exegesis is in Vsm XVII. Here each factor is patterned after the Four Noble Truths.

  122 This refers to the five aggregates. See MN 10.38 and MN 44.2.

  123 The six bases for contact are enumerated at §50 below.

  124 The three kinds of being are explained in the Introduction, pp. 46–48, in the discussion of Buddhist cosmology. Here, by “being” should be understood both the actual planes of rebirth and the types of kamma that generate rebirth into those planes.

  125 Clinging to rules and observances is the adherence to the view that purification can be achieved by adopting certain external rules or following certain observances, particularly of ascetic self-discipline; clinging to a doctrine of self is synonymous with identity view in one or another of its twenty forms (see MN 44.7); clinging to views is the clinging to all other types of views except the two mentioned separately. Clinging in any of its varieties represents a strengthening of craving, its condition.

  126 Craving for mind-objects (dhammataṇhā) is the craving for all objects of consciousness except the objects of the five kinds of sense consciousness. Examples would be the craving for fantasies and mental imagery, for abstract ideas and intellectual systems, for feelings and emotional states, etc.

  127 Contact (phassa) is explained at MN 18.16 as the meeting of sense faculty, its object, and consciousness.

  128 Mind-base (manāyatana) is a collective term for all classes of consciousness. One part of this base—the “life continum” (bhavanga) or subliminal consciousness—is the “door” for the arising of mind-consciousness. See n.130.

  129 Mentality-materiality (nāmarūpa) is an umbrella term for the psychophysical organism exclusive of consciousness. The five mental factors mentioned under nāma are indispensable to consciousness and thus pertain to all conscious experience. The fo
ur great elements concretely represent matter’s essential properties of solidity, cohesion, heat, and distension. The material form derived from the elements includes, according to the Abhidhamma analysis, the sensitive substance of the five sense faculties; four sense objects—colour, sound, smell, and taste (tangibles being the three elements of earth, fire, and air); the physical life faculty, nutritive essence, sex determination, and other types of material phenomena. See also the Introduction, p. 56.

  130 Mind-consciousness (manoviññāṇa) comprises all consciousness except the five types of sense consciousness just mentioned. It includes consciousness of mental images, abstract ideas, and internal states of mind, as well as the consciousness in reflection upon sense objects.

  131 In the context of the doctrine of dependent origination, formations (sankhārā) are wholesome and unwholesome volitions, or, in short, kamma. The bodily formation is volition that is expressed through the body, the verbal formation volition that is expressed by speech, and the mental formation volition that remains internal without coming to bodily or verbal expression.

  132 It should be noted that while ignorance is a condition for the taints, the taints—which include the taint of ignorance—are in turn a condition for ignorance. MA says that this conditioning of ignorance by ignorance should be understood to mean that the ignorance in any one existence is conditioned by the ignorance in the preceding existence. Since this is so, the conclusion follows that no first point can be discovered for ignorance, and thus that saṁsāra is without discernible beginning.

  SUTTA 10

  133 This is one of the most important suttas in the Pali Canon, containing the most comprehensive statement of the most direct way to the attainment of the Buddhist goal. Virtually the identical sutta is found as well at DN 22, though with an expanded analysis of the Four Noble Truths attached, which accounts for its greater length. The sutta, its commentary, and copious extracts from its difficult but illuminating subcommentary have been presented together in translation by Soma Thera in The Way of Mindfulness. A very readable translation of the sutta, with a modern commentary excelling in clarity and depth, will be found in Nyanaponika Thera, The Heart of Buddhist Meditation.

  134 This town is said by some scholars to have been in the vicinity of modern Delhi.

  135 The Pali reads ekāyano ayaṁ bhikkhave maggo, and virtually all translators understand this as a statement upholding satipatṭ̣hāna as an exclusive path. Thus Ven. Soma renders it: “This is the only way, O bhikkhus,” and Ven. Nyanaponika: “This is the sole way, monks.” Ñm, however, points out that ekāyana magga at MN 12.37–42 has the unambiguous contextual meaning of “a path that goes in one way only,” and so he rendered the phrase in this passage, too. The expression used here, “the direct path,” is an attempt to preserve this meaning in a more streamlined phrasing. MA explains ekāyana magga as a single path, not a divided path; as a way that has to be walked by oneself alone, without a companion; and as a way that goes to one goal, Nibbāna. Though there is neither canonical nor commentarial basis for this view, it might be maintained that satipaṭṭhāna is called ekāyana magga, the direct path, to distinguish it from the approach to meditative attainment that proceeds through the jhānas or brahmavihāras. While the latter can lead to Nibbāna, they do not do so necessarily but can lead to sidetracks, whereas satipaṭṭhāna leads invariably to the final goal.

  136 The word satipaṭṭhāna is a compound term. The first part, sati, originally meant “memory,” but in Pali Buddhist usage it far more frequently bears the meaning of attentiveness directed to the present—hence the makeshift rendering “mindfulness.” The second part is explained in two ways: either as a shortened form of upaṭṭhāna, meaning “setting up” or “establishing”—here, of mindfulness; or as paṭṭhāna, meaning “domain” or “foundation”—again, of mindfulness. Thus the four satipaṭṭhānas may be understood as either the four ways of setting up mindfulness or as the four objective domains of mindfulness, to be amplified in the rest of the sutta. The former seems to be the etymologically correct derivation (confirmed by the Sanskrit smṛtyupasthāna), but the Pali commentators, while admitting both explanations, have a predilection for the latter.

  137 MA says that in this context, “bhikkhu” is a term indicating a person who earnestly endeavours to accomplish the practice of the teaching: “Whoever undertakes that practice…is here comprised under the term ‘bhikkhu.’”

  138 The repetition in the phrase “contemplating the body as a body” (kāye kāyānupassı̄), according to MA, has the purpose of precisely determining the object of contemplation and of isolating that object from others with which it might be confused. Thus, in this practice, the body should be contemplated as such, and not one’s feelings, ideas, and emotions concerning it. The phrase also means that the body should be contemplated simply as a body and not as a man, a woman, a self, or a living being. Similar considerations apply to the repetitions in the case of each of the other three foundations of mindfulness. “Covetousness and grief,” MA says, stands for sensual desire and ill will, the principal hindrances that must be overcome for the practice to succeed, enumerated separately below in §36.

  139 The structure of this sutta is fairly simple. Following the preamble, the body of the discourse falls into four parts by way of the four foundations of mindfulness:I. Contemplation of the body, which comprises fourteen exercises: mindfulness of breathing; contemplation of the four postures; full awareness; attention to foulness; attention to the elements; and nine “charnel ground contemplations”—reflection on corpses in different stages of decomposition.

  II. Contemplation of feeling, considered one exercise.

  III. Contemplation of mind, also one exercise.

  IV. Contemplation of mind-objects, which has five subdivisions—the five hindrances; the five aggregates; the six sense bases; the seven enlightenment factors; and the Four Noble Truths.

  Thus the sutta expounds altogether twenty-one exercises in contemplation. Each exercise in turn has two aspects: the basic exercise, explained first, and a supplementary section on insight (essentially the same for all the exercises), which indicates how the contemplation is to be developed to deepen understanding of the phenomenon under investigation.

  Finally the sutta concludes with a statement of assurance in which the Buddha personally vouches for the effectiveness of the method by declaring the fruits of continuous practice to be either arahantship or non-returning.

  140 The practice of mindfulness of breathing (ānāpānasati) involves no deliberate attempt to regulate the breath, as in hatha yoga, but a sustained effort to fix awareness on the breath as it moves in and out in its natural rhythm. Mindfulness is set up at the nostrils or the upper lip, wherever the impact of the breath is felt most distinctly; the length of the breath is noted but not consciously controlled. The complete development of this meditation method is expounded in MN 118. For a collection of texts on this subject, see Bhikkhu Ñā˚amoli, Mindfulness of Breathing. See too Vsm VIII, 145–244.

  141 MA explains “experiencing the whole body” (sabbakāyapaṭisaṁvedı̄ ) as signifying that the meditator becomes aware of each in-breath and out-breath through its three phases of beginning, middle, and end. In the first edition I followed this explanation and added in brackets “of breath” after “the whole body.” In retrospect, however, this interpretation seems forced, and I now prefer to take the phrase quite literally. It is also difficult to see how paṭisamivedi could mean “is aware of,” as it is based on a verb meaning “to experience.”

  142 The “bodily formation” (kāyasankhāra) is defined at MN 44.13 as in-and-out breathing itself. Thus, as MA explains, with the successful development of the practice, the meditator’s breathing becomes increasingly quiet, tranquil, and peaceful.

  143 MA: “Internally”: contemplating the breathing in his own body. “Externally”: contemplating the breathing occurring in the body of another. “Internally a
nd externally”: contemplating the breathing in his own body and in the body of another alternately, with uninterrupted attention. A similar explanation applies to the refrain that follows each of the other sections, except that under the contemplation of feeling, mind, and mind-objects, the contemplation externally, apart from those possessing telepathic powers, must be inferential.

  144 The expression samudayadhammānupassı̄ kāyasmiṁ viharati is usually translated “he abides contemplating in the body its arising factors” (as was done in the first edition), on the assumption that the compound contains a plural, samudayadhammā. A plural sense, however, is not mandatory, and it is more consistent with the use of the suffix -dhamma elsewhere to take it to mean “subject to” or “having the nature of” here as well. The commentarial explanation of the conditioning factors for each of the four foundations does not imply that the commentary understands -dhamma to mean the actual conditioning factors.MA explains that the arising nature (samudayadhamma) of the body can be observed in its conditioned origination through ignorance, craving, kamma, and food, as well as in the moment-by-moment origination of material phenomena in the body. In the case of mindfulness of breathing, an additional condition is the physiological apparatus of respiration. The “vanishing nature” (vayadhamma ) of the body is seen in the cessation of bodily phenomena through the cessation of their conditions as well as in the momentary dissolution of bodily phenomena.