179 Mā vo amataṃ panassa. Spk offers no help, but I take panassa to be an aorist of panassati. Woodward has apparently understood it as pan’ assa and translates, “But let not that be to you the Deathless” (KS 5:161). But pana here would be syntactically out of place.
180 Here satipaṭṭhāna obviously refers to the four objects of mindfulness.
181 In this passage citta is taken to be synonymous with viññāṇā; nāmarūpa, being the condition for the latter, is the condition for the former as well. For citta always arises based on the physical organism (rūpa) and in conjunction with contact, feeling, perception, volition, and attention, the constituents of nāma.
182 Manasikārasamudayā dhammānaṃ samudayo. Spk: The phenomena of the enlightenment factors originate through careful attention; the phenomena of the hindrances through careless attention. Cp. AN V 107,6-7: Manasikārasambhavā sabbe dhammā, phassasamudayā sabbe dhammā; “All phenomena come into being through attention; all phenomena originate from contact.”
183 This sutta differs from 47:18 only in being a reminiscence of the events narrated there.
184 Ee wrongly reads here “73-82 (1-10),” though there are twelve suttas. Also, in the Searches Chapter (Esanavagga, IX), Ee reads “83-93 (1-11)” instead of “85-94 (1-10).” Apparently Ee counts the “craving” suttas as two, though in the previous chapters it reckoned the two together.
185 The verse varies between the different eds. I translate from Be.
186 Be puts the summary verse after the note, but I follow Ee, whose arrangement is more logical.48. Indriyasaṃyutta
187 As I point out in the Introduction to Part V (pp. 1508-9), while the other saṃyuttas of this Vagga each deal with a single closed group made up of a fixed number of items, the Indriyasaṃyutta deals with a variety of sets collected under the general rubric of indriya. The most important is the group called the five spiritual faculties, which probably formed the original core of the saṃyutta. With the expanding interest in classification, the compilers of the canon probably felt obliged to include in this saṃyutta the other sets of faculties, thus imparting to it a heterogeneous character. The complete list of twenty-two faculties is at Vibh 122, commented on at Vibh-a 125-28; see too Vism 491-93 (Ppn 16:1-12). Interestingly, this list belongs to the Abhidhamma analysis; the Indriya-vibhaṅga does not include a Suttanta analysis, which suggests that the idea of indriya as a general category belongs to the Abhidhamma proper rather than to the suttas.
188 The faculties alone, among the various “aids to enlightenment,” are treated in terms of the “gratification triad” (here), the “origin pentad,” and “the noble-truth tetrad” (just below). The explanation for this probably lies in the fact that the five faculties are included in the wider list of twenty-two faculties intended as a “catalogue of phenomenal reality,” and thus had to be expounded in terms of the wider categories used to analyse the constituents of reality. Gethin discusses this point more fully in The Buddhist Path to Awakening, pp. 123-25.
189 The difference drawn here between the arahant and the stream-enterer parallels that mentioned at 22:109-10; see III, n. 221. Be and Ee read ariyasāvaka in the definition of the arahant too, but I follow Se, which reads bhikkhu.
190 Spk: They do not understand them by way of the Four Noble Truths. The faith faculty originates from adverting by way of resolution (adhimokkha); the energy faculty, from adverting by way of application (paggaha); the mindfulness faculty, from adverting by way of establishing (upaṭṭhāna); the concentration faculty, from adverting by way of nondistraction (avikkhepa); the wisdom faculty, from adverting by way of seeing (dassana). So too, all the faculties originate from adverting by way of desire (chanda; Spkpṭ: wholesome desire to act, occurring in the mode of wanting to arouse the faculties) and from adverting by way of attention (manasikāra; Spk-pṭ: careful attention productive of adverting when it occurs weakly by way of the faculties).
191 See 55:2, etc. A parallel treatment of the five powers (pañca bala) is at AN III 11-12.
192 See 48:10 just below. Parallel definitions of the five powers are at AN III 10-11, but with the samādhibala defined solely by the jhāna formula.
193 Here the satindriya is explained with sati meaning memory rather than mindful awareness; see n. 63. Spk: Discretion (nepakkha) is a term for wisdom. But why is wisdom mentioned in the explanation of mindfulness? To show the strength of mindfulness; for here strong mindfulness is intended, and that is strong only when associated with wisdom, not when dissociated from it. Thus that is said to show mindfulness associated with wisdom.
194 Vossaggārammaṇaṃ karitvā. It is not clear whether the absolutive should be taken in apposition to the noble disciple or the concentration, but I understand it in the latter sense. Spk glosses: “having made Nibbāna the object.”At AN I 36,20-24 it is said that few beings gain the concentration that makes release its object, compared to the greater number who do not gain it. Not much else is said in the Nikāyas about vossaggārammaṇa samādhi, but the expression occurs in Paṭis, and this text and its commentary shed light on how the Pāli exegetical tradition interprets it. Paṭis II 96-97 uses the expression in explicating the phrase, “[one] develops serenity preceded by insight” (vipassanāpubbaṅgamaṃ samathaṃ bhāveti; AN II 157,10-11): “Insight has the sense of contemplation as impermanent, as suffering, as nonself. Concentration is nondistraction, one-pointedness of mind having as object release of the phenomena produced therein (tattha jātānaṃ dhammānañ ca vossaggārammaṇatā cittassa ekaggatā avikkhepo samādhi). Thus first comes insight, afterwards serenity.”
On this Paṭis-a III 586-87 comments: “The phenomena produced therein: the phenomena of mind and mental factors produced by that insight. Having as object release: here release is Nibbāna, for Nibbāna is called release because it is the releasing of the conditioned, its relinquishment. Insight and the phenomena associated with it have Nibbāna as object, Nibbāna as support, because they are established on Nibbāna as their support in the sense of slanting towards it by way of inclination.… Concentration is nondistraction distinguished into access and absorption (upacārappanābhedo avikkhepo), consisting in the one-pointedness of mind aroused by being established on Nibbāna, with that as cause by taking as object release of the phenomena produced therein. Concentration partaking of penetration (nibbedhabhāgiyo samādhi), aroused subsequent to insight, is described.”
195 Spk resolves udayatthagāmiyā as udayañ ca atthañ ca gacchantiyā and glosses it with udayabbayapariggahikāya (“discerning rise and fall”). This is clearly identical with the wisdom that observes the origination (samudaya) and passing away (atthagama) of the five aggregates, as described in the stock formula at 12:21, 22:5, etc.
196 Spk: In this sutta the faculties of faith, mindfulness, and wisdom are preliminary (pubbabhāga, i.e., forerunners of the supramundane path); the faculty of energy is mixed (preliminary and supramundane); the faculty of concentration is exclusively supramundane.
197 Sammappadhāne ārabbha. Spk: Sammappadhāne paṭicca, sammappadhāne bhāvento ti attho; “in dependence on the right strivings; the meaning is, ‘by developing the right strivings.’”
198 For the distinction between the dhammānusārī and the saddhānusārī, see 25:1. Spk: The path of the dhammānusārī is sharp, his knowledge occurs valiantly. He cuts off the defilements effortlessly, like one cutting a plantain trunk with a sharp knife. The path of the saddhānusārī is not so sharp, nor does his knowledge occur so valiantly. He cuts off the defilements with effort, like one cutting a plantain trunk with a dull knife.
199 Ee has passed over the correct reading, phalavemattatā, in favour of the faulty balavemattatā. Spk glosses this as an instrumental, phalanānattena.
200 Spk: One who “activates them fully” (paripūrakārī), who practises fully the path of arahantship, “succeeds fully” (paripūraṃ ārādheti), i.e., achieves the fruit of arahantship. One who “activates them partly” (padesakārī), who practise
s the lower three paths, “succeeds partly” (padesaṃ ārādheti), i.e., achieves only the lower three fruits. Cp. AN I 232,30-32, 235,11-13.
201 On the five types of nonreturner, see n. 65.
202 Spk: In this sutta the faculties are exclusively supramundane. Despite the statement here restricting the faculties to those at the minimum level of path-attainer, the Pāli tradition, beginning with the Abhidhamma, regards the faculties as general wholesome capacities also possessed by worldlings. Some of the other early Buddhist schools were more stringent. See the discussion in Gethin, The Buddhist Path to Awakening, pp. 126-38.
203 See 35:154 and IV, n. 152.
204 The title should be Punabbhava Sutta, as in Be and Se. The assimilation of the five faculties here to the elements, aggregates, and sense bases should be understood by way of the explanation in n. 188 above.
205 The femininity faculty (itthindriya) and the masculinity faculty (purisindriya) are rarely mentioned in the Nikāyas, but play an important role in a sutta at AN IV 57-59. The two are included among the types of derivative form (upādā rūpa) in the Abhidhamma; they are defined at Dhs §§633-34 and Vibh 122-23, and commented on at As 321-23 and Vism 447 (Ppn 14:58). Spk says the femininity faculty exercises control over femininity (i.e., determines the distinctive feminine features of a female); the masculinity faculty exercises control over masculinity. The life faculty (jīvitindriya) is another type of derivative form, responsible for maintaining conascent physical phenomena. It is defined at Dhs §635 and Vibh 123 and commented on at As 323 and Vism 447 (Ppn 14:59).
206 This sutta is also at It 53, with the addition of verses that partly help to clarify the meaning. The three faculties are formally defined at Vibh 124, but more concisely than in Spk, which explains: The faculty “I shall know the as-yetunknown” (anaññātaññassāmītindriya) is the faculty arising at the moment of the path of stream-entry in one practising with the thought, “I will know the Dhamma I have not known before in beginningless saṃsāra.” The faculty of final knowledge (aññindriya) is the faculty arisen on the six occasions from the fruit of stream-entry on (through the path of arahantship); it occurs in the mode of knowing more deeply those same things known (by the first path). The faculty of one endowed with final knowledge (aññātāvindriya) is the faculty arisen in regard to those things fully known at the fruit of arahantship.
207 This sutta, reverting to the five spiritual faculties, seems out of place here. On the five kinds of nonreturner, see above n. 65. Spk: A one-seeder (ekabījī) is a stream-enterer who attains arahantship after only one more existence; a clan-toclanner (kolaṅkola), one who fares on in saṃsāra for two or three existences and then makes an end to suffering; a seven-lives-at-moster (sattakhattuparama), one who is reborn seven times at most, without taking an eighth existence. The three are defined at Pp 15-16, with elaboration at Pp-a 195-97.
208 Spk: It is the eye and a faculty in the sense of controlling or dominating the phenomena arisen in the eye door, thus the “eye faculty.” The same method in regard to the ear, etc.
209 Here Be also reads bhikkhu in the definition, and so too below at 48:33, in contrast to ariyasāvaka in the parallel texts 48:4-5.
210 The distinctions among these faculties will be explained just below at 48:36. Spk: It is pleasure and a faculty in the sense of controlling or dominating the conascent states: thus the “pleasure faculty,” etc. Here, the pleasure, pain, and displeasure faculties are of the sense sphere only; the joy faculty is of three planes, excluding the formless sphere; the equanimity faculty is of four planes.The allocation by way of planes is made on the basis of the Abhidhamma system, according to which physical pleasure and pain occur only in body-consciousness, a sense-sphere citta; displeasure, only in the cittas accompanied by aversion, likewise sense-sphere cittas; joy, in sense-sphere cittas, cittas of the lower three jhānas, and certain supramundane cittas; equanimity, in sense-sphere cittas, the fourth-jhāna citta of the form sphere, all formless-sphere cittas, and certain supramundane cittas. See CMA 3:2-4.
211 Kāyikaṃ sātaṃ. Spk: “Bodily” means based on bodily sensitivity (kāyappasādavatthuka); “comfort” is synonymous with pleasure and means sweet (madhura).
212 According to the Abhidhamma, all bodily feeling, that is, feeling arisen through bodily sensitivity (kāyappasāda), is either pleasant or painful; there is no neutral feeling based on bodily sensitivity. Hence Spk explains the bodily equanimity as feeling arisen based on the other four senses, the eye, etc. The word upekkhā, translated as equanimity, has two main denotations. In relation to feeling it denotes neutral feeling, adukkhamasukhā vedanā, feeling which is neither painful nor pleasant. As a mental quality, however, it denotes mental neutrality, impartiality, or balance of mind (called tatramajjhattatā in the Abhidhamma, which assigns it to the saṅkhārakkhandha). In this sense it occurs as the fourth divine abode (impartiality towards beings), as the seventh factor of enlightenment (mental equipoise), and as a quality of the meditative mind mentioned in the formulas for the third and fourth jhānas. For a fuller discussion of the different types of upekkhā, see Vism 160-62 (Ppn 4:156-70).
213 Cp. 12:62 and 36:10, which both include the simile of the fire-sticks.
214 Uppaṭipātika. Spk: Though taught in the order that accords with the taste of the Dhamma (following Be: yathādhammarasena ; Se has yathādhammārammaṇavasena), it is named “Irregular Order” because it is not taught like the other suttas in this Analysis of Faculties. Spk-pṭ: What is meant is that it is taught in the sequence of things to be abandoned, not like the other suttas which proceed in the regular sequence beginning with the pleasure faculty.
215 Sanimittaṃ sanidānaṃ sasaṅkhāraṃ sappaccayaṃ. All these terms are synonymous.
216 From this point on the sutta is quoted extensively at Vism 165-66. Spk’s explanations correspond to Vism 166 (Ppn 4:186-89). In the following notes I select only the chief points.
217 Spk: The pain faculty actually ceases and is abandoned at the moment of the access to the first jhāna; displeasure, etc., (at the access) to the second jhāna, etc. Nevertheless, their cessation is said to take place in the jhānas themselves because their reinforced cessation (atisayanirodha) occurs there. Simple cessation occurs at the access, reinforced cessation in the jhānas. Thus, for instance, though the pain faculty has ceased in the access to the first jhāna, it may arise again through contact with flies and mosquitoes or because of an uncomfortable seat; but not in absorption. (Within the absorption), when his whole body is suffused with rapture and engulfed in happiness, the pain faculty has thoroughly ceased because it is beaten away by opposition.
218 I read with Se and Ee tathatthāya cittaṃ upasaṃharati; Be has tadatthāya. Spk: The nonattainer directs his mind for the purpose of arousing it; the attainer, for the purpose of entering it.
219 This seems difficult to square with the usual jhāna formula, which indicates that the first jhāna is already free from all unwholesome states, including domanassa. Spk: The faculty of displeasure is abandoned in the access to the second jhāna but arises again when there is bodily fatigue and mental strain on account of thought and examination. But in the second jhāna, which is devoid of thought and examination, it does not arise at all.
220 The pleasure faculty (sukhindriya) here is bodily pleasant feeling, not the happiness (also called sukha) the meditator is said to “experience with the body” in the third jhāna. The latter sukha is actually mental happiness, identical with somanassa. Spk: The pleasure faculty is abandoned already in the access to the third jhāna, but it may arise when the body is touched by the sublime physical phenomena originating from rapture; but it does not arise in the third jhāna itself, for there the rapture that is a condition for bodily pleasure has entirely ceased.
221 Here the explanation in the sutta corresponds perfectly with the usual jhāna formula. Spk: Though the joy faculty has been abandoned even in the access to the fourth jhāna, because it is still close by it may arise again,
for in the absence of equanimity that has reached the level of absorption (such joy) has not been fully overcome. But it does not arise in the fourth jhāna.
222 Spk seems reluctant to admit that the Buddha’s body can show real signs of aging and repeatedly remarks that all these changes were not evident to others but only to Ānanda, who constantly dwelt in the Master’s presence. Spk adds that the sense faculties themselves, being invisible, cannot be seen to have undergone deterioration, but Ānanda inferred this on the basis of the visible changes he had observed in the Blessed One.
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