The Connected Discourses of the Buddha

by Bhikkhu Bodhi

  262 There is a delicate irony here in Māra the Tempter, usually the suave proponent of sensual indulgence, now recommending strict asceticism. This confirms the old maxim that the extremes are actually closer to each other than either is to the mean. I read pāda d with Se and Ee1 as suddhimaggam aparaddho as against Be and Ee2 suddhimaggā aparaddho.

  263 I read with Be and Se amaraṃ tapaṃ, as against Ee1 & 2 aparaṃ tapaṃ. The expression, a split compound, occurs also at Th 219d. See CPD, s.v. amaratapa. Spk: Low austerity practised for the sake of immortality (amarabhāvatthāya kataṃ lukhatapaṃ); that is, devotion to self-mortification (attakilamathānuyogo). Spk-pṭ: For the most part one is devoted to the practice of bodily mortification for the sake of immortality, and when that is pursued by those who accept kamma it may be for the sake of becoming a deva (believed to be immortal). See too Sn 249d.

  264 Piyārittaṃ va dhammani. Spk: Araññe thale piyārittaṃ viya; “like oars and rudder on high forest ground.” Spk-pṭ: Dhammaṃ vuccati vaṇṇu; so idha dhamman ti vuttaṃ. Dhammani vaṇṇupadese ti attho; “It is sand that is called ‘dhammaṃ’; that is what is meant here by ‘dhammaṃ.’ The meaning is: in a sandy place.” PED lists dhammani but does not explain the derivation; but see MW, s.v. dhanvan, where the meanings given include dry soil, shore, desert.Spk: “This is meant: If a ship were placed on high ground, and were loaded with merchandise, and the crew would board it, take hold of the oars and rudder, and pull and push with all their might, for all their effort they would not be able to advance the ship even one or two inches; the effort would be useless, futile. So, having known austerities thus, I rejected them as futile.”

  265 Virtue, concentration, and wisdom are the three divisions of the Noble Eightfold Path: virtue (sīla) includes right speech, action, and livelihood; concentration (samādhi), right effort, mindfulness, and concentration; and wisdom (paññā), right view and right intention. Māra is called the End-maker (antaka) because he binds beings to death.

  266 Devo ca ekam ekaṃ phusāyati. I understand this idiom (which recurs at 6:13 and 7:22) to mean that rain was falling drop by drop, not that it was falling continuously (the meaning ascribed to it by CPD). It would hardly seem sensible for the Buddha to sit out in the open if rain was falling heavily.Spk: He was sitting there reviewing his practice of striving in order to provide a model for clansmen in the future, who would strive in emulation of the Teacher.

  267 In pāda a we should read with Be, Se, and Ee2 saṃsaraṃ rather than Ee1 saṃsāraṃ. The “long course” (dīgham addhānaṃ) is saṃsāra. Spk: It is said that there is no form that Māra had not previously assumed in order to frighten the Blessed One.

  268 Na te mārassa paddhagū. The last word is read here as in Ee2 and Sn 1095. Be and Se have baddhagū, Ee1 paccagū. PED conjectures that paddhagu may represent Skt *prādhvaga, “those who accompany one on a journey,” that is, one’s servants. Spk glosses: “They do not become your disciples, pupils, apprentices” (baddhacarā sissā antevāsikā na honti). The word baddhacara [Spk-pṭ: = paṭibaddhacariya] occurs at v. 578a.

  269 This discourse is also at Vin I 22,24-36, set soon after the Buddha’s first rains residence at the Deer Park in Isipatana. The Buddha had already sent out his first sixty arahant disciples to spread the Dhamma. The present admonition, it seems, is addressed to the newly ordained bhikkhus who had come to the Buddha in response to the missionary work of the first disciples.

  270 Spk: Careful attention (yoniso manasikāra) is attention that is the right means (upāyamanasikāra). Careful right striving (yoniso sammappadhāna) is energy that is the right means, energy that is the causal basis (upāyaviriya kāraṇaviriya). Unsurpassed liberation (anuttaravimutti) is liberation of the fruit of arahantship. On the role of careful attention, see 46:51. Right striving is the fourfold right effort; see 45:8, 49:1.

  271 Spk: Māra approached and spoke, thinking: “He won’t be satisfied that he himself put forth energy and attained arahantship. Now he is eager to get others to attain it. Let me stop him!”

  272 Spk: Māra’s snare (mārapāsa) is the snare of the defilements, that is, the celestial and human cords of sensual pleasure.

  273 This is the Buddha’s famous injunction to his first sixty arahant disciples to go forth and spread the Dhamma. The passage also occurs at Vin I 20,36-21,16, in correct temporal sequence, preceding 4:4. Vv. 476-77 follow immediately, though here they are separated and assigned to an encounter in Sāvatthı̄. A BHS parallel, including the verses, is at Mvu III 415-16; see Jones, 3:416-17.Spk explains the threefold goodness of the Dhamma in various ways pertaining both to practice and doctrine. For example, virtue is the beginning; serenity, insight, and the path are the middle; the fruits and Nibbāna are the end; or the opening of a sutta is good, and so too the middle portion and the conclusion. When the Buddha went to Uruvelā he converted the thousand jaṭila ascetics, which culminated in the Fire Sermon (35:28).

  274 Spk: Māra approached and spoke, thinking: “Like one directing a great war, the ascetic Gotama enjoins the sixty men to teach the Dhamma. I am not pleased even if one should teach, let alone sixty. Let me stop him!”

  275 I follow Spk in dividing seyyā and so and in taking seyyā to be dative in sense (Spk = seyyatthāya), and so a pronoun used in apposition to muni (Spk: so buddhamuni). I also follow Spk in taking seyyā to mean “lodging,” though both C.Rh.D and Geiger interpret it as well-being. Spk explains vossajja careyya tattha so thus: “He should live having relinquished —that is, having abandoned—desire for and attachment to his individual existence (i.e., his body and life).”

  276 Spk: Upadhi here is khandhūpadhi, “acquisitions as the aggregates”; see n. 21. In the last line the change of the subject from the singular to the plural is in the text. Spk: The enlightened do not resort to such a shelter because they have eradicated all fear.

  277 Be, Se, and Ee2 read dubbhago; Ee1 dubbhayo (which may be a misprint); SS dubbhato. Spk: Like one dead and unconscious (mato viya visaññī viya ca). Spk-pṭ: A wretch is one who is luckless, whose fortune has been broken; he is similar to the dead and the unconscious.

  278 Spk: Craving is said to be entangling (jālinī) because it spreads net-like over the three realms of existence. It is called binding (visattikā) because it latches on to sense objects such as forms. It leads anywhere [Spk-pṭ: within the three realms of existence]. The acquisitions that are all destroyed are the aggregates, defilements, volitional formations, and cords of sensual pleasure (see n. 21). Why should this concern you, Māra?: “Māra, why do you go about finding fault with this and that like small flies unable to settle on hot porridge?”This sutta might be compared with 4:13 and 9:2, which have a similar theme. I have translated Buddha here as “Awakened One” to highlight the contrast with sleep, but it is uncertain whether such a tension of ideas was intended in the original. On the description of craving as “entangling and binding,” see AN II 211-13.

  279 Spk paraphrases: “The good man should live like a baby who, after drinking milk, might lie down on a blanket and fall asleep, unconcerned whether life is long or short.”

  280 The point may be that as the felly revolves around the stable hub, so the changing forms of life revolve around the stable soul or life-principle. The verse seems to be alluding to a simile in the Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad II.5.15: “And as all spokes are contained in the axle and in the felly of a wheel, all beings, and all those selves (of the earth, water, etc.), are contained in that Self” (Muller, The Upanishads, 2:116). See too Chāndogya Upaniṣad VII.15.1 (The Upanishads, 1:120).

  281 Vicakkhukammāya, lit. “for making eyeless.” Spk: Out of a desire to destroy the wisdom-eye of the people in the assembly. He is unable to destroy the Buddha’s wisdom-eye, but he could do so for the people in the assembly by manifesting a frightening sight or noise.

  282 Spk: In the assemblies: in the eight assemblies (see MN I 72,18-20). Endowed with the powers: endow
ed with the ten powers of a Tathāgata (see MN I 69-71). At MN I 69,31-34, the Buddha says that, endowed with the ten Tathāgata powers, he roars his lion’s roar in the assemblies.

  283 See 1:38 and n. 86.

  284 Spk paraphrases kāveyyamatto in pāda a thus: “Do you lie down thinking up a poem like a poet, who lies down intoxicated with the composing of poetry?” The expression recurs at v. 753a. Sampacurā, glossed by bahuvo, is at AN II 59,12 and 61,10, also in apposition to atthā.

  285 Muhuṃ muhuṃ, in pāda b, is not in PED, and Spk and Spk-pṭ are silent, but see MW, s.v. muhur. The expression occurs at Th 125d , glossed by Th-a II 7,13-14 as abhikkhaṇaṃ, and at Th 1129b, glossed by Th-a III 158,8-9 as abhiṇhato. Both glosses mean “often,” but here it seems the more literal sense of “moment by moment” or “constantly” is implied. The dart (salla) is elsewhere identified with craving; see vv. 214c, 737c. At 35:90 (IV 64,33-34) it is said that the dart is the state of being stirred (ejā sallaṃ), ejā being a synonym for taṇhā; and the Tathāgata, who is unstirred by craving, dwells with the dart removed (vītasallo). See too MN II 260,17: Sallan ti kho Sunakkhatta taṇhāy’ etaṃ adhivacanaṃ.

  286 Spk: Attraction and repulsion (anurodha-virodha): attachment and aversion (rāga-paṭigha). For when someone gives a Dhamma talk, some people express appreciation, and towards them attachment arises; but others listen disrespectfully, and towards them aversion arises. Thus a speaker on the Dhamma becomes caught in attraction and repulsion. But because the Tathāgata is compassionate for others, he is free from attraction and repulsion.

  287 At Vin I 21 this exchange of verses is set in the Deer Park at Isipatana and immediately follows the pair of verses at 4:5. A BHS parallel is at Mvu III 416-17, but the first couplet is equivalent to v. 77ab.

  288 Antalikkhacaro pāso yo yaṃ carati mānaso. Spk states: “The snare is the snare of lust (rāgapāsa), which binds even those who move in the sky (i.e., by psychic power).” It is more likely antalikkhacaro is intended to suggest the incorporeal nature of lust, which can propel the mind across vast distances; see vv. 210b, 211b.

  289 Vedayitaṃ in pāda a and saṅkhataṃ in pāda b are merely metrical adaptations of vedanā and saṅkhārā, the second and fourth aggregates.

  290 Spk: Though they seek him everywhere—in all realms of existence, modes of origin, destinations, stations of consciousness, and abodes of beings—they do not find him, do not see him. See v. 49 (= v. 105), 4:23 (I 122,1-13), 22:87 (III 124,1-13), and MN I 140,3-7. It seems that both the living arahant and the arahant after his parinibbāna are intended.

  291 Se and Ee1 & 2: udrīyati; Be: undrīyati. PED explains as a passive form from ud + dṛṇoti. See MW, s.v. dṛī > pass. dīryate. Spk: Ayaṃ mahāpaṭhavī paṭapaṭasaddaṃ kurumānā viya ahosi; “This great earth seemed to be making a crackling sound.” Spk-pṭ: Undrīyatī ti viparivattati; “‘Is splitting open’ means: is turning over.” The word recurs at 4:22 (I 119,17 foll.). On the evolution of the word in Pāli, see von Hinüber, “Remarks on the Critical Pāli Dictionary (II),” in Selected Papers, pp. 152-55.

  292 On lokāmisa, “the bait of the world,” see n. 10. Spk explains māradheyya, “Māra’s realm,” as the round of existence with its three realms, which is the place for Māra to stand. The more usual expression is maccudheyya, “the realm of Death,” as at v. 16d; the two are effectively synonymous. See too v. 102d and n. 70.

  293 Se and Ee1 & 2 have kumārakānam as against Be kumārikānam, “of the young girls.” Spk explains that on this day—“a kind of St. Valentine’s Day” (KS 1:143, n. 1)—the young girls send presents to their sweethearts among the boys, and the boys send ornaments to the girls, even a garland of flowers if they can give nothing else.

  294 Spk: Five hundred maidens were about to offer festival cakes to the Buddha, and the Buddha would have given them a discourse at the conclusion of which they would have been established in the fruit of stream-entry; but Māra, wishing to prevent this outcome, took possession of the girls. The expression yathā dhotena pattena, “with a bowl just as cleanly washed as when he entered,” is a euphemistic way of saying that the bowl was empty.Spk: Māra made a false promise when he offered “to see to it” that the Buddha would get alms. He actually wanted the Buddha to expose himself to ridicule by the village boys (for coming for alms a second time after leaving with an empty bowl).

  295 Spk explains kiñcana, in pāda b, as “the various kinds of defilements such as the ‘something’ (called) lust, etc.” On the use of kiñcana to denote defilements, see 41:7 (IV 297,18-19). The devas of Streaming Radiance (devā ābhassarā) inhabit the highest plane corresponding to the second jhāna, located in the form realm. They are said to subsist on rapture (pītibhakkhā) because they are sustained by the nourishment of the jhāna. The verse occurs at Dhp 200, the story at Dhp-a 257-58; see BL 3:72-73. In the sequel to the verse, omitted in BL, the five hundred girls hear the Buddha’s verse and become established in the fruit of stream-entry.

  296 I follow Spk, which resolves cakkhusamphassaviññāṇāyatana thus: cakkhuviññāṇena sampayutto cakkhusamphasso pi viññāṇāyatanam pi; “eye-contact associated with eye-consciousness and also the base of consciousness.” Spk says that “eye-contact” implies all the mental phenomena associated with consciousness; “the base of consciousness,” all types of consciousness that have arisen in the eye door beginning with the adverting consciousness (āvajjanacitta). The same method applies to the ear door, etc. But in the mind door, “mind” (mano) is the bhavaṅgacitta together with adverting; “mental phenomena” are the mental objects (ārammaṇadhammā); “mind-contact,” the contact associated with bhavaṅga and adverting; and “the base of consciousness,” the javanacitta and tadārammaṇacitta, i.e., the “impulsion” and “registration” consciousness. For an account of these types of consciousness (fundamental to the Pāli Abhidhamma), see CMA 3:8.Māra’s reply, and the Buddha’s rejoinder, hinge on the practice of using Pāli words for cattle metaphorically to signify the sense faculties. See GD, pp. 141-42, n. to 26-27.

  297 Here the Buddha is obviously referring to Nibbāna. Cp. 35:117 on the cessation of the six sense bases.

  298 A slightly more elaborate version of the incident, including the verses, is recorded at Dhp-a IV 31-33; see BL 3:213-14. Spk: “The Buddha reflected thus with compassion, having seen people afflicted with punishments in realms ruled by unrighteous kings.”

  299 At 51:10 (V 259,18-20 = DN II 103,23-26) it is said that one who has mastery over the four bases for spiritual power could, if he so desired, live on for an aeon or for the remainder of an aeon. Māra has made this appeal to the Buddha, not out of respect for his leadership ability, but because he wants to tempt him with lust for power and thereby keep him under his own control. It is interesting that the sutta does not offer an answer to the question whether righteous governance is possible, and this ambiguity pervades the Pāli Canon as a whole. While some texts admit that righteous rulers do arise (the “wheel-turning monarchs”), the general consensus is that the exercise of rulership usually involves the use of violence and thus is hard to reconcile with perfect observance of the precepts. For an insightful discussion of the ambiguity, see Collins, Nirvana and Other Buddhist Felicities, pp. 419-36, 448-70.

  300 In pāda c, Be and Se read dvittāva, though the orthography in Ee1 & 2, dvittā va, is preferable. Spk: “Let alone one mountain, even as much as double (dvikkhattum pi tāva) a large golden mountain would not suffice for one person.” BHS parallels to this verse read vittam, treasure, in place of dvittā (see Concordance 1 (B)).

  301 Spk: “Suffering has its source in the five cords of sensual pleasure; that is ‘the source whence it springs’ (yatonidānam ). When a person has seen this thus, for what reason should he incline to those sensual pleasures which are the source of suffering?” Upadhi in pāda c is glossed by Spk as kāmaguṇa-upadhi; see n. 21. In place of saṅgo, tie, the BHS vers
ions read śalyam (Pāli: sallam), dart.Spk-pṭ: The source of suffering is craving, and the source of craving is the five cords of sensual pleasure. Therefore it is said that the five cords of sensual pleasure—the condition for craving—are the source of suffering. When one who has fully understood reality has seen suffering as it really is with the eye of wisdom, and seen the cords of sensual pleasure to be its source, there is no reason for him to incline to sensual pleasures.

  302 Spk: “The staff of udumbara wood, slightly crooked, was for the sake of showing that he was of few wishes (appicchabhāva , an ascetic virtue).” In the Vedic sacrifices, udumbara wood was used for all kinds of ritual purposes; the sacrificial post, ladle, and amulets were made of this wood (Macdonell and Keith, Vedic Index, s.v. udumbara).

  303 See 1:20. Here Māra appears as a proponent of the brahmanical idea that renunciation (sannyāsa) must be postponed until after one has enjoyed a full married life. On how young bhikkhus, lads “in the prime of life, who have not dallied with sensual pleasures,” can live the holy life without being overcome by sensual desire, see 35:127.