259 Spk: The “volitional formations of striving” (padhānasaṅkhārā ) is a designation for energy which accomplishes the fourfold function of right striving.
260 Vibh 218,29-31 defines citta only with the stock register of terms but does not specify how it becomes a basis for power.
261 Vibh 219,23-25 defines vīmaṃsā with the register of terms for paññā.Spk says that the elder Raṭṭhapāla (MN No. 82) produced the supramundane state (lokuttara dhamma) by putting emphasis on desire; the elder Soṇa (AN III 374-79; Vin I 179-85), by putting emphasis on energy; the elder Sambhūta (Th 291-94), by putting emphasis on mind; and the elder Mogharāja (Sn 1116-19), by putting emphasis on investigation. Spk illustrates these with the case of four royal ministers aspiring to high appointment. One who gains his position by waiting upon the king day and night, seeking to satisfy his wishes and preferences, is comparable to one who produces a supramundane state by emphasizing desire. One who gains the position by his valour, as in crushing a border rebellion, is like one who produces a supramundane state by emphasizing energy. One who gains the position by offering the king counsel in statecraft is like one who produces a supramundane state by emphasizing mind. And one who gains the position solely by reason of his birth (or class, jāti) is like one who produces a supramundane state by emphasizing investigation.
The same explanation is at Sv II 642-43, but a variant at Vibh-a 305-6 inverts the illustrations for mind and investigation, with birth representing mind and counsel representing investigation. This seems more cogent, since investigation (vīmaṃsā) and counsel (manta) are both from the root man, to think, and mind is often classified according to its class (jāti) as wholesome, unwholesome, or indeterminate. Gethin discusses the two versions of the simile, The Buddhist Path to Awakening, pp. 90-91.
262 As at 2:5, 9:13.
263 Spk: He entered into meditation on the water-kasiṇa, emerged, and determined that the ground on which the mansion stood should become water. Then he rose up into the air and struck it with his toe.
264 Be puts a pe here, implying that the other four mundane abhiññās should be filled in. This seems confirmed too by Spk’s comment on 51:31; see n. 279 below.
265 A brahmin of this name appears at 48:42. It is uncertain whether the two are the same person.
266 All three eds. read here santakaṃ hoti no asantakaṃ. This, however, is exactly the wording we find at the end of the sutta, when the brahmin has been won over by Ānanda’s argument. Spk offers no help, but as Woodward realized, the reading required is found in SS: anantakaṃ hoti no santakaṃ , “it is without an end (i.e., an infinite regress), not with an end.” Santaka is sa + antaka.
267 The Pāli has citta, but “mind” would not work here.
268 Cp. AN II 145,35-146,21, where Ānanda shows how craving is abandoned in reliance upon craving, conceit in reliance upon conceit.
269 Here again all three eds. read santakaṃ hoti no asantakaṃ. And again, the most intelligible reading is buried in SS: santakaṃ hoti no anantakaṃ.
270 Spk: The fourth jhāna used as a basis for abhiññā.
271 Kosajjasahagata. I usually translate kosajja as laziness, but that seems too strong here. What is intended is a slight dullness or feebleness in the force of desire.
272 Yathā pure tathā pacchā, yathā pacchā tathā pure. Spk: This should be understood: (i) by way of the meditation subject; and (ii) by way of the teaching. (i) The interpretation (abhinivesa, or “introduction”) of the meditation subject is “before” and arahantship is “after.” A bhikkhu who, after interpreting the root meditation subject, does not allow the mind to fall into the four undesirable conditions (overly lax, etc.) goes on to attain arahantship; he is called one who dwells “as before, so after.” (ii) By way of teaching, the head-hairs are “before” and the brain is “after” (among the solid parts in the contemplation of the body). A bhikkhu who develops his meditation from beginning to end without sliding into the four undesirable conditions is called one who dwells “as before, so after.”The explanation sounds strained. The phrase refers simply to maintaining consistency in attending to the meditation subject in all its aspects throughout the session, from start to finish. See too the use of the phrase in the sentence pacchāpure saññī caṅkamaṃ adhiṭṭheyyāsi (AN IV 87,2-3), where it seems to have a spatial meaning: “Percipient of what is behind and in front, you should determine on walking back and forth.”
273 Spk: A bhikkhu sits on the terrace attending to the perception of light, sometimes shutting his eyes, sometimes opening them. When (the light) appears to him the same whether his eyes are open or shut, then the perception of light has arisen. Whether it be day or night, if one dispels sloth and torpor with light and attends to one’s meditation subject, the perception arisen in regard to the light has been well grasped.
274 The mind-made body (manomayakāya) is a subtle body created from the physical body by a meditator who has mastered the fourth jhāna. It is described as “consisting of form, mind-made, complete in all its parts, not lacking faculties (rūpiṃ manomayaṃ sabbaṅgapaccaṅgiṃ ahīndriyaṃ).” See DN I 77,6-26; MN II 17,23-18,7; Paṭis II 210-11, quoted and expanded upon at Vism 406 (Ppn 12:139). For a contemporary discussion, see Hamilton, Identity and Experience, pp. 155-64.On upasaṅkamitā as a misconstrued absolutive, not a true agent noun, see von Hinüber, “Pāli as an Artificial Language,” pp. 135-37.
275 This is the natural physical body.
276 Be: Yañ ca kho omāti bhante; Se: Opātiha bhante; Ee: Yaṃ ca kho opapāti ha bhante. The verb is not encountered elsewhere. Spk (Be) glosses, omātī ti pahoti sakkoti, and remarks: “This is a term of unique occurrence in the Word of the Buddha preserved in the Tipiṭaka (idaṃ tepiṭake buddhavacane asambhinnapadaṃ ).” Spk (Se) omits “omātī ti,” or anything corresponding to it, and highlights pahoti as if it were the lemma.
277 In both cases I read the verb with Be as samodahati, over samādahati in Se and Ee. Both Be and Se of Spk have samodahati , which is strongly supported by the explanation: “(He) immerses the body in the mind: having taken the body, he mounts it on the mind; he makes it dependent on the mind; he sends it along the course of the mind. The mind is an exalted mind. Movement along the course of the mind is buoyant (quick). (He) immerses the mind in the body: having taken the mind, he mounts it on the body; he makes it dependent on the body; he sends it along the course of the body. The body is the coarse physical body. Movement along the course of the body is sluggish (slow). A blissful perception, a buoyant perception (sukhasaññañ ca lahusaññañ ca): this is the perception associated with the mind of direct knowledge; for it is a blissful perception because it accompanies the peaceful bliss (of this mind), and a buoyant perception because there is no inhibition by the defilements.”A more detailed account of this supernormal power is at Paṭis II 209, quoted and expanded on at Vism 401-5 (Ppn 12:119-36).
278 Spk: In this sutta and the next, iddhi is discussed as a basis for the ending of the round.
279 Spk: In this sutta and the next, the six direct knowledges are discussed.52. Anuruddhasaṃyutta
280 The Venerable Anuruddha already appears as a proponent of satipaṭṭhāna at 47:26-28. The present saṃyutta is virtually an appendix to the Satipaṭṭhānasaṃyutta.
281 This paragraph and the two that follow merge the two supplementary sections to each exercise in the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta; in the latter they follow in sequence but are kept distinct. I explain my reason for translating samudayadhamma, etc., as “the nature of origination,” etc., in n. 178.
282 What follows is at 46:54 (V 119,6-16); see n. 110.
283 On the three levels, Spk quotes Dhs §§1025-27, which defines inferior phenomena (hīnā dhammā) as the twelve unwholesome classes of consciousness; middling phenomena (majjhimā dhammā) as mundane wholesome states, resultants, functionals (kiriya), and form; and sublime phenomena (paṇītā dhammā) as the four paths, their fruits, and Nibbāna. See, however, AN I 223-24,
where the three terms are correlated with the three realms of rebirth—the sensuous realm, the form realm, and the formless realm.
284 This sutta and the next closely correspond to 47:26-27.
285 See 47:28 and n. 174.
286 As at 35:244 (IV 190-91) and 45:160.
287 The ten kinds of knowledge to follow are usually called the ten powers of a Tathāgata (dasa tathāgatabala); see MN I 69-71, elaborated at Vibh 335-44. Spk says that a disciple may possess them in part (ekadesena), but in their fullness they are possessed in all modes only by omniscient Buddhas.53. Jhānasaṃyutta
288 The formula for the four jhānas is analysed at Vibh 244-61 and in Vism chap. 4.54. Ānāpānasaṃyutta
289 What follows are the sixteen steps or aspects in the practice of mindfulness of breathing, which form the core of the Ānāpānasati Sutta (MN No. 118). The sixteen steps are explained in detail at Vism 267-91 (Ppn 8:146-237), to which Spk refers the reader. A collection of important texts on this meditation subject, translated by Ñāṇamoli and entitled Mindfulness of Breathing, includes the Ānāpānasati Sutta, the passage from Vism, a treatise from Paṭis, and selected suttas. As will be shown at 54:10, the sixteen aspects fall into four tetrads, which are correlated with the four establishments of mindfulness. Thus, while mindfulness of breathing begins in the domain of “contemplation of the body” (kāyānupassanā), it eventually comprehends all four contemplations.
On the phrase “having set up mindfulness in front of him” (parimukhaṃ satiṃ upaṭṭhapetvā), Vibh 252,14-16 says: “This mindfulness is set up, well set up at the tip of the nose or at the centre of the upper lip.”
290 Vism 273-74 (Ppn 8:171-73) explains the third step of this tetrad to mean “making known, making plain, the beginning, middle, and end of the entire in-breath body … of the entire out-breath body.” The “bodily formation” (kāyasaṅkhāra ), in the fourth step, is the in-and-out breathing itself, which becomes progressively calmer and more subtle as mindfulness of the breath develops. See SN IV 293,16: Assāsapassāsā kho gahapati kāyasaṅkhāro, “In-breathing and out-breathing, householder, are the bodily formation.”
291 This note and the two to follow are based on Vism 287-91 (Ppn 8:226-37).Rapture (pīti) is experienced when he has entered upon the lower two jhānas and when, after entering upon and emerging from one of those jhānas, he comprehends with insight the rapture associated with the jhāna as subject to destruction and vanishing. Happiness (sukha) is experienced when he has entered upon the lower three jhānas and when, after entering upon and emerging from one of those jhānas, he comprehends with insight the happiness associated with the jhāna as subject to destruction and vanishing. The mental formation (cittasaṅkhāra) is feeling and perception, which are experienced in all four jhānas.
292 “Experiencing the mind” is to be understood by way of the four jhānas. The mind is “gladdened” by the attainment of the two jhānas accompanied by rapture or by the penetration of these with insight as subject to destruction and vanishing. “Concentrating the mind” refers either to the concentration of the jhāna or to the momentary concentration that arises along with insight. “Liberating the mind” means liberating it from the hindrances and grosser jhāna factors by attaining successively higher levels of concentration, and from the distortions of cognition by way of insight knowledge.
293 “Contemplating impermanence” (aniccānupassī) is contemplation of the five aggregates as impermanent because they undergo rise and fall and change, or because they undergo momentary dissolution. This tetrad deals entirely with insight, unlike the other three, which can be interpreted by way of both serenity and insight. “Contemplating fading away” (virāgānupassī) and “contemplating cessation” (nirodhānupassī) can be understood both as the insight into the momentary destruction and cessation of phenomena and as the supramundane path, which realizes Nibbāna as the fading away of lust (virāga, dispassion) and the cessation of formations. “Contemplating relinquishment” (paṭinissaggānupassī) is the giving up (pariccāga) or abandoning (pahāna) of defilements through insight and the entering into (pakkhandana) Nibbāna by attainment of the path. See n. 7.
294 Spk: Ariṭṭha had explained his own (attainment of) the nonreturner’s path [Spk-pṭ: because he spoke obliquely of the eradication of the five lower fetters], but the Buddha explained the insight practice to gain the path of arahantship.
295 At this point a shift is introduced in the text from simple ānāpānasati to ānāpānasatisamādhi. This change continues through the following suttas.
296 Spk: When one works on other meditation subjects the body becomes fatigued and the eyes are strained. For example, when one works on the meditation subject of the (four) elements, the body becomes fatigued and reaches a stage of oppression such that one feels as if one has been thrown into a mill. When one works on a kasiṇa, the eyes throb and become fatigued and when one emerges one feels as if one is tumbling. But when one works on this meditation subject the body is not fatigued and the eyes do not become strained.
297 See n. 110. Spk: This passage on the “noble one’s spiritual power” (ariyiddhi) is included to show the advantage (in developing mindfulness of breathing). For if a bhikkhu wishes for the noble one’s spiritual power, or the four jhānas, or the four formless attainments, or the attainment of cessation, he should attend closely to this concentration by mindfulness of breathing. Just as, when a city is captured, all the merchandise in the four quarters that enters the city through the four gates and the country is captured as well—this being the advantage of a city—so all the attainments listed in the text are achieved by a meditator when this concentration by mindfulness of breathing has been fully developed.
298 From here down as at 12:51, 22:88, and 36:7.
299 A more elaborate version of the strange background story to this sutta is at Vin III 68-70. I summarize the commentarial version just below at n. 301. The problems raised by the story are discussed in Mills, “The Case of the Murdered Monks.”
300 That is, he was explaining the meditation on the thirty-one parts of the body (increased to thirty-two in the commentaries) and the stages of decomposition of a corpse.
301 Spk: Why did he speak thus? In the past, it is said, five hundred men earned their living together as hunters. They were reborn in hell, but later, through some good kamma, they took rebirth as human beings and went forth as monks under the Blessed One. However, a portion of their original bad kamma had gained the opportunity to ripen during this fortnight and was due to bring on their deaths both by suicide and homicide. The Blessed One foresaw this and realized he could do nothing about it. Among those monks, some were worldlings, some stream-enterers, some once-returners, some nonreturners, some arahants. The arahants would not take rebirth, the other noble disciples were bound for a happy rebirth, but the worldlings were of uncertain destiny. The Buddha spoke of foulness to remove their attachment to the body so that they would lose their fear of death and could thus be reborn in heaven. Therefore he spoke on foulness in order to help them, not with the intention of extolling death. Realizing he could not turn back the course of events, he went into seclusion to avoid being present when destiny took its toll.So the commentary, but the idea of a kammically predetermined suicide seems difficult to reconcile with the conception of suicide as a volitionally induced act.
302 In the Vinaya account (repeated by Spk) they take their own lives, and deprive one another of life, and request the “sham ascetic” Migalaṇḍika to kill them. Spk adds that the noble ones did not kill anyone, or enjoin others to kill, or consent to killing; it was only the worldlings who did so.
303 Spk’s paraphrase is poignant: “Earlier, Ānanda, many bhikkhus gathered in the assembly, and the park seemed ablaze with them. But now, after only half a month, the Saṅgha has become diminished, thin, scanty, like sparse foliage. What is the cause? Where have the bhikkhus gone?”
304 Bracketed phrase is not in Be.
305 Commented on at Vi
sm 267-68 (Ppn 8:146-50). On asecanaka , see I, n. 591.
306 The simile is also at 45:156.
307 What follows is also in the Ānāpānasati Sutta (at MN III 83,20-85,6), brought in to show how mindfulness of breathing fulfils the four foundations of mindfulness (see 54:13 below). The commentary on this passage is translated in Ñāṇamoli, Mindfulness of Breathing, pp. 49-52.
308 Spk: “I call it the wind body (vāyokāya) among the ‘bodies’ of the four elements. Or else it is ‘a certain kind of body’ because it is included in the tactile base among the various components of the form body.”
309 Spk: Attention is not actually pleasant feeling, but this is a heading of the teaching. In this tetrad, in the first portion feeling is spoken of (obliquely) under the heading of rapture, in the second portion directly as happiness. In the third and fourth portions feeling is included in the mental formation (saññā ca vedanā ca cittasaṅkhāro, SN IV 293,17).
310 Spk: Having seen with wisdom, etc. Here, “covetousness” is just the hindrance of sensual desire; by “displeasure” the hindrance of ill will is shown. This tetrad is stated by way of insight only. These two hindrances are the first among the five hindrances, the first section in the contemplation of mental phenomena. Thus he says this to show the beginning of the contemplation of mental phenomena. By “abandoning” is meant the knowledge which effects abandoning, e.g., one abandons the perception of permanence by contemplation of impermanence. By the words “having seen with wisdom” he shows the succession of insights thus: “With one insight knowledge (he sees) the knowledge of abandonment consisting in the knowledges of impermanence, dispassion, cessation, and relinquishment; and that too (he sees) by still another.” He is one who looks on closely with equanimity: one is said to look on with equanimity (at the mind) that has fared along the path [Spk-pṭ: by neither exerting nor restraining the mind of meditative development that has properly fared along the middle way], and by the presentation as a unity [since there is nothing further to be done in that respect when the mind has reached one-pointedness]. “Looking on with equanimity” can apply either to the conascent mental states (in the meditative mind) or to the object; here the looking on at the object is intended.
The Connected Discourses of the Buddha Page 214