The “One with Vision” (cakkhumā) is the Buddha, so called because he possesses the “five eyes” (see n. 370).
85 Spk: This verse refers to those who have gone for refuge by the definitive going for refuge (nibbematikasaraṇagamana ). Spk-pṭ: By this the supramundane going for refuge is meant (i.e., by the minimal attainment of stream-entry). But those who go for refuge to the Buddha by the mundane going for refuge (i.e., without a noble attainment) will not go to the plane of misery; and if there are other suitable conditions, on leaving the human body they will fill up the hosts of devas.
86 The Buddha’s foot had been injured when his evil cousin Devadatta tried to murder him by hurling a boulder at him on Mount Vulture Peak. The boulder was deflected, but a splinter that broke off from it cut the Buddha’s foot and drew blood. The full story of Devadatta’s evil schemes is related at Vin II 184-203; see too Ñāṇamoli, Life of the Buddha, chap. 13. This same incident forms the background to 4:13 below. According to Spk, the seven hundred devas who came to see the Blessed One included all the devas of the Satullapa host.
87 Spk: He is called a nāga on account of his strength (see n. 84); a lion (sīha) on account of his fearlessness; a thoroughbred (ājānīya) on account of his familiarity with what he has learned (?byattaparicayaṭṭhena),or because he knows what is the right means and the wrong means; a chief bull (nisabha) because he is without a rival; a beast of burden (dhorayha) because of bearing the burden; tamed (danta) because he is free from deviant conduct.Spk glosses nāgavatā as nāgabhāvena . Geiger takes nāgavatā as the instrumental of the adjective nāgavant used adverbially in the sense of a comparison (GermTr, p. 93). However, I follow Norman’s suggestion (in a personal communication) that -vata here may be the Pāli equivalent of Skt -vrata, in the sense of “sphere of action, function, mode or manner of life, vow” (MW). Ee2, based on a Lanna commentary, emends the text to read nāgo va tā ca pan’ uppannā sārīrikā vedanā (and similarly in the parallel passages that follow); see Ee2, p. xviii. But I am doubtful that the text would switch so suddenly from metaphor (in the previous sentence) to simile, and then back to metaphor below.
88 I read with Se: Passa samādhiṃ subhāvitaṃ cittañ ca suvimuttaṃ na cābhinataṃ na cāpanataṃ na ca sasaṅkhāraniggayhavāritavataṃ . Be is identical except that the final word in the compound is read as -gataṃ;; Ee1 -cāritavataṃ is clearly an error, rectified in PED, s.v. vāritavata. Ee2 reads as in Se, but with niggayha taken as uncompounded, which leaves sasaṅkhāra dangling. The same expression occurs elsewhere: at AN IV 428,9-10 the full formula is used to describe a samādhi called aññāphala, the fruit of final knowledge (or perhaps, “having final knowledge as its fruit”); sasaṅkhāraniggayhavāritavata, at AN I 254,34, describes a samādhi developed as the basis for the six abhiññā (probably the fourth jhāna); and at AN III 24,9, DN III 279,4, and Vibh 334,15, it characterizes a “right concentration of fivefold knowledge” (pañcañāṇika sammā samādhi). In the present context, it seems, the expression qualifies cittaṃ, mind, though the mind has these qualities by virtue of the samādhi in which it is absorbed. At AN IV 428,9-10 and elsewhere the phrase clearly qualifies the samādhi.Spk (Se): The concentration is that of the fruit of arahantship (arahattaphalasamādhi). The mind is said to be well liberated (suvimuttaṃ) because it is liberated by the fruit. Not bent forward and not bent back: the mind accompanied by lust is said to be “bent forward” (abhinataṃ), that accompanied by hate to be ʺbent backʺ (apanataṃ) . Rejecting both, he speaks thus. Not blocked and checked by forceful suppression: It is not blocked and checked, having suppressed the defilements forcefully, with effort; rather, it is checked because the defilements have been cut off. The meaning is that it is concentrated by the concentration of fruition (na ca sasaṅkhāraniggayhavāritavatan ti na sasaṅkhārena sappayogena kilese niggahetvā vāritavataṃ; kilesānaṃ pana chinnattā vataṃ, phalasamādhinā samāhitan ti attho). (N.B. While Spk (Be) reads -gataṃ in the lemma, it reads -vataṃ twice in the explanation.)
Spk-pṭ: This is not achieved, not fixed, forcefully, with effort, by way of abandoning in a particular respect or by way of abandoning through suppression as is the mundane-jhāna mind or insight; but rather (it is achieved) because the defilements have been completely cut off (lokiyajjhānacittaṃviya vipassanā viya ca sasaṅkhārena sappayogena tadaṅgappahāna-vikkhambhanappahānavasena ca vikkhambhetvā na adhigataṃ na ṭhapitaṃ, kiñcarahi kilesānaṃ sabbaso chinnatāya).
The Pāli phrase is extremely difficult and the exact reading uncertain. Indeed, in the Central Asian Skt ms corresponding to DN III 279,4 (Waldschmidt, Sanskrittexte aus den Turfanfunden IV, p. 70, V.8 (3)), it is conspicuously absent. A Skt version in Śrāv-bh (p. 444,19-21) reads vārivad dhṛtaṃ, “maintained like water,” which seems to me unlikely to correspond to the original reading.
Ee1 puts a hiatus after niggayha, and Ee2 separates it off entirely; the other eds. integrate niggayha into the long compound. There is no way to determine, on the basis of grammar alone, which is correct. Each attempt to resolve the expression into its elements gives rise to its own special problems, and even the aṭṭhakathās and ṭīkās offer conflicting explanations, e.g., Sv III 1060,11-13 and Vibh-a 421,13-15 take niggayha to be absolutive (as does Spk) and turn vārita into the absolutive vāretvā; their respective ṭīkās, Sv-pṭ III 284,24-27 (Be) and Vibh-mṭ 205,16-18 (Be), take niggayha as the gerundive niggahetabba and vārita as the gerundive vāretabba. Since niggayha occurs elsewhere unambiguously as an absolutive (e.g., at MN III 118,4, interestingly, as here, without a direct object), while there seem to be no instances in canonical Pāli of the word occurring as a gerundive, the aṭṭhakathās are more likely to be right. Norman questions this interpretation on the ground that there is no other known instance in Pāli of an absolutive occurring as the second member of a compound (personal communication), but perhaps we should not rule out the possibility that we have such a construction here. I translate, however, in compliance with natural English idiom rather than in strict conformity with the syntax of the Pāli.
Readings of the last part of the compound vary among the different traditions: in general vāritavata prevails in the Sinhalese tradition, vāritagata in the Burmese,with Burmese vv.ll. vārivāvata and vārivāvaṭa also recorded. Vārita here is a past participle of the causative vāreti, to block, to restrain. The terminal member of the compound could then be either vata or gata. Gata is clearly a past participle. Vata is more problematic. At KS 1:39, vāritavataṃ is rendered “having the habit of self-denial.” Apparently C.Rh.D understands vata as equivalent to Skt vrata . However, Spk’s gloss, chinnattā vataṃ phalasamādhinā samāhitaṃ, suggests that we have a past participle here, and I would propose that vata represents Skt vṛta, which according to MW can mean “stopped, checked, held back.” I cannot cite other occurrences of the simple participle vata in Pāli, but prefixed forms are common enough: saṃvuta, nibbuta, vivaṭa, āvaṭa, etc. Thus we would have here two past participles from the same root, one causative, the other simple, so that the compound vāritavata would mean “blocked and checked” (unfortunately two distinct English verbs are needed to capture the nuances). Although this construction is certainly unusual, it need not be rejected out of hand, as it may have been used for special emphasis. If the reading gata is accepted, vāritagata could mean “gone to (attained to) control,” with varita taken as a noun of state. This certainly sounds more natural than vāritavata, but the prevalence of vata in the textual tradition lends strong support to its authenticity.
89 It is not clear who is speaking these stanzas, and the verses themselves have no evident connection to the preceding prose portion of the sutta. It is possible they were annexed to the prose text by the redactors of the canon.I read pāda a as in Be, Se, and Ee2 thus: pañcavedā sataṃ samaṃ. The mention of five Vedas is strange but Spk explains: itihāsapañcamāna
ṃ vedānaṃ, “the Vedas with the histories as a fifth.” Spk glosses sataṃ samaṃ as vassasataṃ; Geiger is certainly wrong in rejecting this explanation (GermTr, p. 41, n. 3). Spk also glosses hīnattarūpā as hīnattasabhāvā and mentions a variant, hīnattharūpā, glossed by Spk-pṭ as hīnatthajātikā parihnatthā, ʺthose of low goals, those who have fallen away from the goal.”
90 Pajjunna (Skt Parjanya) is the deva-king of rain clouds; originally a Vedic deity, Spk assigns him to the heaven of the Four Great Kings. He is mentioned at DN III 205,6. Nothing else is known about his two daughters, named after the red lotus (see v. 401a).
91 These four verses, in the old Āryā metre, have been reconstructed by Alsdorf, Die Āryā-Strophen des Pali-Kanons, p. 321.
92 Neither Spk nor Spk-pṭ offers help with the singular sattassa in pāda a, but I take this simply as a metrical adaptation of sattānaṃ. The line then expresses the same idea as 45:139 (V 41,23-42,2).
93 Spk: There are two Roruva hells: the Smokey Roruva (dhūmaroruva )and the Flaming Roruva (jālaroruva) . The Smokey Roruva is a separate hell, but the Flaming Roruva is a name for the great hell Avı̄ci, called Roruva because when beings are roasted there they cry out again and again (punappunaṃ ravaṃ ravanti). At 3:20 the Flaming Roruva is spoken of as the Great Roruva (mahāroruva).
94 Spk-pṭ glosses khantiyā in pāda b as ñāṇakhantiyā, which implies that here the word does not bear its usual meaning of patience, but the special sense of “acquiescence” (in the Teaching). See the expression dhammanijjhānakkhanti at MN II 173,21-22.
95 The Dhamma is of such a nature (tādiso dhammo). Spk: “For such is the nature of the Dhamma, O Blessed One, it has such a structure, such divisions, that it lends itself to analysis in many ways.” Spk-pṭ: “It is such that one who has penetrated the truths as they are, skilled in the meaning and the doctrine, might explain, teach, proclaim, establish, disclose, analyse, and elucidate it, bringing forth examples, reasons, and conclusions.”
96 Ee2, again on the testimony of the Lanna mss, precedes this verse with another one (v. 138) on the unpredictability of death, found also at Ja II 58. But if the verse were originally part of the text, Spk would surely have incorporated here the commentary on it found, with the verse itself, at Vism 236-37 (Ppn 8:29-34). Since there are strong reasons against the inclusion of the verse, I have passed over it in this translation.
97 Yakkha in pāda c is glossed by Spk-pṭ as satta. Although ko is an interrogative, it seems that the sentence is declarative in force. The verse may be echoing the Taittirı̄yaka Upaniṣad, II.2, III.2, 7-10.
98 Spk explains the riddle thus: The ocean (samudda) or abyss (pātāla) is craving, called an ocean because it is unfillable and an abyss because it gives no foothold. Its one root (ekamūla) is ignorance; the two whirlpools (dvirāvaṭṭa) are the views of eternalism and annihilationism. [Spk-pṭ: Craving for existence revolves by way of the eternalist view; craving for extermination by way of the annihilationist view.] The three stains (timala) are lust, hatred, and delusion; the five extensions (pañcapatthara), the five cords of sensual pleasure; and the twelve eddies (dvādasāvaṭṭa), the six internal and external sense bases.Ñāṇananda proposes an alternative interpretation of some of these terms: with reference to 36:4, he takes the abyss to be painful feeling, and with reference to 35:228, the ocean to be the six sense faculties. The two whirlpools are pleasant and painful feeling; the one root, contact. For details see SN-Anth 2:63-66.
99 Spk: Of perfect name (anomanāma): of undefective name, of complete name, because he (the Buddha) possesses all excellent qualities (see too v. 927c and n. 653). The seer of the subtle goal (or “meanings”: nipuṇatthadassiṃ): because he sees the fine, recondite meanings such as the diversity of aggregates, etc. He is the giver of wisdom (paññādadaṃ) by teaching the path of practice for the achievement of wisdom. Treading the noble path (ariye pathe kamamānaṃ): the present tense is used with reference to the past, for the Blessed One had gone along the noble path on the site of the great enlightenment; he is not going along it now.I question Spk’s explanation of nipuṇattha, which seems to refer to attha in the sense of the goal, i.e., Nibbāna.
100 Spk relates the background story: In his previous life this deva had been an overzealous bhikkhu who had neglected sleep and food in order to attend to his meditation subject. Because of his excessive zeal, he died of a wind ailment and was immediately reborn in the Tāvatiṃsa heaven amidst a retinue of celestial nymphs (accharā). The change occurred so quickly that he did not even know he had expired and thought he was still a bhikkhu. The nymphs tried to seduce him,but he rejected their amorous advances and tried to resume his meditation practice. Finally, when the nymphs brought him a mirror, he realized he had been reborn as a deva, but he thought: “I did not practise the work of an ascetic in order to take rebirth here, but to attain the supreme goal of arahantship.” Then, with his virtue still intact, surrounded by the retinue of nymphs, he went to the Buddha and spoke the first verse.The verse revolves around a word play between Nandana, the garden of delight, and Mohana, the garden of delusion. The garden was “resounding with a host of nymphs” because the nymphs were singing and playing musical instruments. Spk paraphrases the question by way of its intent: “Teach me insight meditation, which is the basis for arahantship.”
101 Spk: The eightfold path is called the straight way (ujuko maggo) because it is devoid of crookedness of bodily conduct, etc. The destination, Nibbāna, is said to be fearless (abhaya) because there is nothing to fear in that and because there is no fear for one who has attained it. Unlike an actual chariot, which rattles or whines when its axle is not lubricated or when it is mounted by too many people, the eightfold path does not rattle or whine (na kūjati na viravati) even when mounted simultaneously by 84,000 beings. The chariot itself is also the eightfold path, and its wheels of wholesome states (dhammacakka) are bodily and mental energy. The “Dhamma” that is called the charioteer is the supramundane path, with the right view of insight (vipassanā-sammādiṭṭhi) running out in front (purejava). For just as the king’s servants first clear the path before the king comes out, so the right view of insight clears the way by contemplating the aggregates, etc., as impermanent, etc., and then the right view of the path (magga-sammādiṭṭhi ) arises fully understanding the round of existence.In v. 150c I read akūjano with Be and Ee2, as against akujano in Se and Ee1. Geiger derives akujano from kujati, “to be crooked” (GermTr, p. 51, n. 3), but see Ja VI 252,20, where the ʺchariot of the body” is described as vācāsaññamakūjano, “not rattling by restraint of speech,” which supports the reading and rendering adopted here. The extended simile should be compared with that of the brahmayāna, the divine vehicle, at 45:4; see too the extended chariot simile at Ja VI 252-53.
102 Spk: Having completed the discourse (the verse), the Buddha taught the Four Noble Truths, and at the end of that discourse the deva was established in the fruit of stream-entry; the other beings present attained the fruits that accorded with their own supporting conditions.
103 Spk explains all these as gifts to the Saṅgha. Parks (ārāma) are distinguished by planted flowering trees and fruit trees, while groves (vana) are clusters of wild trees. Papa is glossed as a shed for giving drinking water.
104 These verses were spoken by Anāthapiṇḍika, chief patron of the Buddha, after he was reborn in the Tusita heaven. They recur below, with prose text, at 2:20.
105 Anāthapiṇḍika had been especially devoted to Sāriputta, who delivered a moving sermon to him while he was on his deathbed: see MN No. 143, which also includes the same account of the great patron’s posthumous visit to Jeta’s Grove.Spk: At best can only equal him (etāvaparamo siyā): There is no bhikkhu, not even one who has attained Nibbāna, who surpasses the Elder Sāriputta (na therena uttaritaro nāma atthi).
106 “Yama’s world” (yamaloka) here evidently refers to the pettivisaya , the domain of ghosts.
Yama is the Lord of Death; see MN III 179-86, AN I 138-42.
107 I read with Se and Ee1 ete sagge pakāsenti, as against Be ete saggā pakāsanti, “these heavens shine,” and Ee2 ete sagge pakāsanti, “these shine in heaven.” I take sagge as accusative plural rather than locative singular, which is also plausible.
108 Spk-pṭ: Because they are endowed with happiness they are like the devas who exercise control over the goods created by others. The comparison is with the devas of the paranimmitavasavattī realm, the sixth sense-sphere heaven.
109 The deva Ghaṭı̄kāra had been a potter during the dispensation of the Buddha Kassapa, who had a monastic seat at Vehaliṅga, the potter’s home town. At that time the future Buddha Gotama was his closest friend, the brahmin youth Jotipāla. Although Jotipāla went forth as a bhikkhu under the Buddha Kassapa, Ghaṭı̄kāra had to remain in the household life to support his blind, aged parents. He was the Buddha’s chief supporter and had attained the stage of nonreturner. Highlights from the story, related in MN No. 81, appear in the verses to follow here.Avihā is one of the Pure Abodes (see n. 83). Spk says that the seven bhikkhus were liberated by the liberation of the fruit of arahantship, which they attained immediately after taking rebirth into the Avihā brahmā world.
The Connected Discourses of the Buddha Page 38