770. DN 20. This stanza poses some problems of interpretation. I have departed from the translations of both Rhys Davids and Maurice Walshe in reading the Pali as meaning one thousand mahābrahmās rather than a single mahābrahmā ruling over a thousand worlds. The text can be interpreted either way, but the commentary supports my reading.
771. Yasa—or perhaps meaning “retinue".
772. See DN-a 1, DN 33, MN-a 53, SN-a 35:196.
773. SN-ṭ 6:6 Similarly, a paccekabuddha is a fully awakened person who lives between Buddha periods. He differs from a full Buddha in that he establishes no teaching which survives beyond his own time.
774. SN 6:6, SN 6:7 & SN 6:8.
775. See AN-a 1:188 & MN-a 4. For the equivalence of jhāna and brahmā consciousness, see CMA Ch. 5.
776. This is a slight simplification. The abhidhamma uses a different system which lists five rather than four jhānas by dividing the second into two depending on the presence or absence of vicāra. See Vism Ch 3 & 4. A good discussion of jhāna and jhāna factors can be found in CMA 54–59.
777. DN 33. sukhena abhisannā parisannā paripūrā paripphu ṭā.
778. Abhidh-s 2:5. The Pali is paṇītaratanapabhāvabhāsitekatalavāsino and the same description is given for the other higher brahmā worlds.
779. But see PED which says that the etymology of the word is uncertain and offers two possibilities for its derivation: ā + *bha + *sar = “from whose bodies are emitted rays of light” or ābhā + svar = “to shine or to be bright.” Suwanda Sugunasiri offers yet another possibility: “hither-come-shining-arrow”, Dhamma Aboard Evolution, p. 48. The important point is that all of these derivations in one way or another are based on the radiant quality of these beings.
780. AN 10. 29—The cosmological role of the Ābhassara beings at the end of a cycle is very important. See § 2:3-5.
781. DN-a 15, MN-a 1, AN-a 4: 123.
782. MN-a 1. This is contradicted by later systems such as that of the Abhidharmakośa which allocates a separate plane for each class.
783. AN 4: 123. It may be objected that the Aggañña Sutta has a story about Ābhassara beings fulfilling their cosmic role at the beginning of a cycle. However, this concerns beings in the process of falling away from the Ābhassara state and not Ābhassara beings in their native realm. We have covered this topic in the section on cosmological time. See § 2:5.
784. AN 4: 125. A statement which leads to a contradiction with the developed theory of jhāna. See Bhikkhu Bodhi, NDB, note 817.
785. See ASa 5. The commentator says that the name should properly be spelled subhakiṇṇa and many modern reference books offer this as the primary spelling, but it does not seem to appear elsewhere in the texts.
786. MN 79 & commentary.
787. SN-a 16:13, AN-a 4: 156, Ita 3:5,10. This topic has been explained in § 2:8.
788. See Vibh 18:6 and also Abhidh-s 5.
789. At least in the Theravāda system. The Abhidharmakośa divides the fourth jhāna level into three grades, maintaining the pattern established in the first three levels. See AK 3:5, p. 366.
790. AN 4: 125. The other three brahmavihāras are mettā, karuṇā and muditā, “loving-kindness”, “compassion” and “sympathetic joy”.
791. See Mahasi Sayadaw, Progress of Insight. The treatment of upekkhā in this paragraph is somewhat simplified and ignores the distinction between upekkhā as a mental formation and upekkhā as a feeling.
792. Sometimes translated more literally as “non-percipient beings,” as for example by Bhikkhu Bodhi. For their sharing the same level as the Vehapphala, see MN-a 1 and AK 2:4, p. 222, which situates their dwelling in a “raised place” within the fourth jhāna plane.
793. DN 1 together with commentary and sub-commentary. AK says their next birth is necessarily in the sphere of sense desire, AK 2:4, p.222.
794. DN-a 1. This meditation is especially associated with the use of the wind kasiṇa.
795. A wa is 6 and 2/3 feet, so they are 639,360 feet high according to King Ruang. Definition of a wa is from TW p. 67.
796. Reynolds, trans., Three Worlds According to King Ruang, p. 249-50.
797. Vin Pār 4 and commentary, AN 1: 227 and Thg 2:3,3.
798. DN-a 1. Quoted text is Bhikkhu Bodhi's translation from “The All-Embracing Net of Views” p. 174.
799. For an excellent short summary of the four stages and the fetter overcome at each, see Bhikkhu Bodhi's introduction to his translation of the Majjhima Nikāya, MLDB, p. 41 f.
800. DN-a 15. For definition of khandhavāra, see PED under “khandha”.
801. The derivation of the names is according to the commentary found at DN-a 14. Like most commentarial derivations these may not be etymologically sound, being more like punning or playing with word forms. The life-spans are found at VibhVibh 18:6.
802. The commentary says this refers to the meditation object.
803. AK 6:4, p.977. This classification by predominant faculty is cited by Bhikkhu Bodhi in CMA p. 128, and by Dr. Sunthorn Na-Rangsi in Four Planes of Existence in Theravāda Buddhism, p. 28. These were following Ledi Sayadaw's new subcommentary on the Abhidhammatthasaṅgaha, called Paramatthadīpanī, p. 246. The ultimate source is probably the 12th century, “new” subcommentary on the Abhidhammāvatāra, the Abhidhammāvatāra-abhinavaṭīkā by Sumaṅgala, who might have based himself on a Sanskrit Sarvāstivāda source. Thanks to Nyanatusita Bhikkhu for pointing out these references.
804. Maurice Walshe mistranslates this line in LDB, p. 219.
805. A traditional gesture of respect, perhaps originating in pre-buddhist times as a way of demonstrating that one was not carrying a weapon.
806. A kappa in which five Buddhas are born.
807. I.e., a warrior-noble.
808. DN 14. The passages in brackets are condensed. I have changed the original from a first person account by the Buddha to a third person narrative.
809. Ap-a 1:1. See also GCB p. 278. For the eight requisites, see DN-a 2.
810. DN-a3 and Sn-a 3:7. For the thirty-two marks see MN 91 & § 3:1,9.
811. DN 14 and commentary. These biographical details are told of the former Buddha Vipassi, but they also became associated with the life of Gotama Buddha. Indeed, they are archetypal and apply to all Buddhas.
812. Kolāhala—“shouting, uproar, excitement, tumult, foreboding, warning about something, hailing.” PED.
813. Maṅgala—“auspicious, prosperous, lucky, festive”. PED.
814. For the “great uproars” see KdpA 5, for the Maṅgala Sutta, see Khp 5 and Sn 2:4. For the Moneyya Sutta see AN 3: 123. It is not clear why among all the Buddha's teachings these two are singled out for a prophecy. There are five kolāhalas altogether, the other two involve predictions made by sense-sphere devas; they announce the coming of a wheel-turning monarch and the end of a world-system.
815. Also spelled Ghatikāra.
816. MN 81 has the fullest account of Ghatīkāra's life. For the miracle of the open hut see Jāt 20 which lists the four miracles which will last for an entire kappa.
817. These were Palagaṇda, Bhaddiya, Khaṇḍadeva (or Bhaddadeva), Bāhuraggi (or Bāhudanti) and Piṅgiya (or Siṅgiya).
818. Ud-a 1:10. The other three companions became Pukkusāti, Sabhiya and Dabbamallaputta.
819. This is the same Hatthaka who, when an infant, was saved by the Buddha from being eaten by the yakkha Āḷavaka, see § 3:4,2.
820. AN 3: 127. He is identified as coming from Aviha in the concluding verse.
821. DN 20, see also SN 1:37.
822. SN-a 1:37. “empty-handed” is a literal translation, the Pali idiom is the same—tucchahattha.
823. See Dhs 1:1,3 and Bodhi, CMA, p. 61f.
824. AK 3:1, p 366 is explicit about this.
825. Kv 8:8 and commentary.
826. AN 2: 77. This seems contradictory in that the feeling tone of the formless abidings is upekkhā (“equanimity”) but sukha (“happiness”) may here be used in a m
ore figurative sense, meaning something like “well-being.”
827. The term “deva” is here used in the most generic sense, to include all beings above the human level.
828. DN-ṭ 2.See another translation of this passage by Bhikkhu Bodhi, The Discourse on the Fruits of Recluseship, p. 90.
829. VibhVibh 18:6. The Abhidharmakośa gives them as 20, 50, 60 and 80 thousand respectively. AK 3:5, p.471.
830. AN 4:190. Definition is from the commentary.
831. AK 1:1, p.59. Because space neither hinders matter nor is hindered by it.
832. Kv 6:6. Einstein would agree with the Theravāda that space is conditioned but for entirely different reasons.
833. AN 5: 170: idaṃ bhavānaṃ aggaṃ. The contraction of this phrase would be bhavāgga, and in the Sanskrit form bhavāgra is used frequently in the Abhidharmakośa as an epithet of the sphere of neither perception nor nonperception. The Pali bhavāgga seems to be strictly reserved as an epithet of arahants.
834. Vism 10.50-51. Ñāṇamoli trans. Path of Purification, p. 332.
835. MN 121. Somewhat more detailed instructions by the author may be found at www.arrowriver.ca/dhamma/formless.html. Accessed Oct 16, 2017. It should be noted that the actual sutta and commentary refer to contemplation of earth kasiṇa rather then earth element as given here.
836. See MN 66, which characterizes the entry into the formless as transcending the perception of diversity.
837. Vism 23.16 f. The quotations are from Ñāṅamoli’s translation.
838. On Quotes, http://www.quotes.net/quote/19198. Accessed Oct 16, 2017. This statement may be apocryphal. For details of this cosmology see “What is the Geocentric Model of the Universe? ”, Universe Today, http://www.universetoday.com/32607/geocentric-model. Accessed Oct 16, 2017.
839. Albert Van Helden, Measuring the Universe, p.36.
840. But some Islamic scholars did postulate multiple worlds. See . The Free Library. S.v. Fakhr al-Din al-Razi on physics and the nature of the physical world: a preliminary survey. ” Retrieved Jan 09 2017 from https://www.thefreelibrary.com/Fakhr+al-Din+al-Razi+on+physics+and+the+nature+of+the+physical+world%3a...-a0128606463.
841. “Christianity, Heaven and Hell”, Facts and Details, https://web.archive.org/web/20171022133130/http://factsanddetails.com/world/cat55/sub353/item1402.html. Galileo used Dante's description to calculate the depth of Hell at 405 1/2 miles below the surface of the earth.
842. This is especially associated with Calvinism but was held by some Christians from Patristic times onward. See Britannica Library, s.v. “Predestination,” accessed January 9, 2017, http://library.eb.com/levels/referencecenter/article/61239.
843. Stellar Parallax, s.v. http://www.universetoday.com/47182/stellar-parallax/. Accessed Oct 16, 2017.
844. Britannica Library, s.v. “Galaxy,” accessed January 5, 2017, http://library.eb.com/levels/referencecenter/article/110642#68104.toc
845. The word zero is the French or Italian translation of Medieval Latin zephirum from Arabic sifr “cipher,” which is the translation of Sanskrit śūnya “empty, naught”. Ṣee “Zero”, Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com/word/zero. Accessed 27.1.2018.
846. Big Bang Theory: Evolution of Our Universe, http://www.universetoday.com/54756/what-is-the-big-bang-theory/ Accessed Oct 16, 2017.
847. “And the room provided by large extra space dimensions might allow for something even more remarkable: other nearby worlds—not nearby in ordinary space, but nearby in the extra dimensions—of which we've been so far completely unaware.” Greene, Fabric of the Cosmos, 2004. The author is referring to the extra spatial dimensions required by string theory.
848. See Lopez 2010 chapter 1
849. See Lusthaus 2001: 101. .
850. MN 100: ṭhānaso metaṃ…viditaṃ yadidaṃ -- atthi devā. The word ṭhānaso ("with cause or reason") implies the certainty of personal experience.
851. “Smelly too”. See Dhp-a 15:8.
852. Bhikkhu Bodhi, CMA, p. 188.
853. Vism 14.139. The Pali is avisārala.
854. Dōgen, Mountains and Water Sutra, Kotler and Tanahashi trans.
855. Robert D. Romanyshyn, “On Once Encountering an Angel” in The Angels ed. Robert Sardello.
856. DN 9, SN 33:1, MN 63.
857. At least this is so in the Copenhagen interpretation.
858. Shakespeare, Macbeth, 5:5.
859. Thanissaro, Buddhist Monastic Code, vol. 1, glossary.
860. PED for “yojana”.
861. Monier-Williams, Sanskrit-English Dictionary.
862. Both PED and Monier-Williams cite this derivation.
863. T. W. Rhys Davids, On the Ancient Coins and Measures of Ceylon, p. 17.
864. The Vimativinodanī, a 12th century work composed in Sri Lanka. Cited by Thanissaro Bhikkhu in The Buddhist Monastic Code, vol. 1, p. 61.
865. This figure is ".029 grams” s.v. http://www.bluebulbprojects.com/measureofthings/faq.php#q10, accessed Feb 27, 2018.
. If we were to use the standard unit of a grain as a unit of measurement we should about double the value. However, a grain (7000 to a troy oz.) is a European measurement based originally on a grain of weight. There is no reason to consider it applicable to ancient India.
866. Coin Week: http://www.coinweek.com/education/worth-purchasing-power-ancient-coins/. Accessed Oct 16, 2017.
867. OMICS International, http://researChomicsgroup.org/index.php/Indian_numbering_system#Vedic_numbering_systems.
868. See obo.genaud.net/backmatter/appendixes/weights_and_measures/weights_and_measures.htm and Monier-Williams Sanskrit-English Dictionary.
869. AK 3:6. p. 480. The text goes on to state that a bodhisattva requires three of these “incalculables” to attain Buddhahood!
870. Although late Pali sources do occasionally use it in the same sense as in the Abhidharmakośa, as 1/20 of one of the four phases of a mahākappa.
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