In the Buddha's Words - Bhikkhu Bodhi [225]
4 Yama is the legendary god of the underworld, who passes judgment on the dead and assigns them to their future destiny. According to some accounts, he does so merely by holding before the dead spirits a mirror which reflects back their good and bad deeds.
5 The underlying tendencies (anusaya) are dispositions toward the defilements that lie dormant in the mind and become active when provoked. Some texts, such as the present one, mention three underlying tendencies: the tendency to lust (rāgānusaya) for pleasant feeling; to aversion (paṭighānusaya) for painful feeling; and to ignorance (avijjānusaya) in regard to neither-painful-nor-pleasant feeling. Other texts mention seven underlying tendencies: to sensual lust, aversion, views, doubt, conceit, attachment to existence, and ignorance.
6 Spk: The escape is concentration, the path, and the fruit. He does not know this; the only escape he knows is sensual pleasure.
7 These five terms constitute a major pattern for contemplation. “The origin and the passing away” (samudaya, atthaṅgama) point to the characteristic of impermanence. On the triad of gratification, danger, and escape (assāda, ādīnava, nissaraṇa ), see pp. 186–87.
8 The sequel will make it clear that “the instructed noble disciple” being described here is the arahant, who alone is entirely free from the tendencies to aversion, lust, and ignorance. However, while the arahant alone may be capable of maintaining perfect equanimity toward physical pain, an ordinary practitioner can still emulate the arahant by attempting to overcome dejection and despondency when experiencing painful bodily feelings. Everyone with a body, including the Buddha, is subject to bodily pain. A mark of spiritual maturity is the ability to endure pain without being overwhelmed by it.
9 The noun paritassanā is derived from the verb paritassati, which represents Skt paritṛṣyati, “to crave, to thirst for”; it is connected etymologically with taṇhā, craving. However, in Pāli the verbal stem has become conflated with tasati = to fear, to tremble, and thus its noun derivatives such as paritassanā and paritasita also acquire meanings derived from tasati. This convergence of meanings, already evident in the Nikāyas, is made explicit in the commentaries. I have tried to capture both nuances by rendering the verb paritassati “to be agitated” and the noun paritassanā “agitation.” Though Spk understands paritassanā here in the sense of craving, the text seems to be emphasizing bhaya-paritassanā, “agitation as fear.”
10 The uninstructed worldling is one who lacks both doctrinal knowledge of the Dhamma (underscored by the word akovida, “unskilled”) and practical training in the Dhamma (underscored by avinīta, “undisciplined”). The worldling is not a “seer of the noble ones,” that is, of the Buddha and the noble disciples, because he or she lacks the eye of wisdom that discerns the truth they have seen. “Noble ones” (ariya) and “superior persons” (sappurisa) are synonyms.
The text here enumerates the twenty types of identity view (sakkāyadiṭṭhi), obtained by positing a self in four ways in relation to the five aggregates that constitute personal identity (sakkāya). Identity view is one of the three fetters to be eradicated at stream-entry, the first of the four stages of realization.
Spk: He regards form as self (rūpaṃ attato samanupassati), by regarding form and the self as indistinguishable, just as the flame of an oil lamp and its color are indistinguishable. He regards self as possessing form (rūpavantaṃ attānaṃ), when he takes the formless (i.e., the mind or mental factors) as a self that possesses form, in the way a tree possesses a shadow; form as in self (attani rūpaṃ), when he takes the formless (mind) as a self within which form is situated, as the scent is in a flower; self as in form (rūpasmiṃ attānaṃ), when he takes the formless (mind) as a self situated in form, as a jewel is in a casket.
11 This noble disciple is presumably at minimum a stream-enterer.
12 Mahākaccāna was