In the Buddha's Words - Bhikkhu Bodhi [226]
13 Sakka, the ruler of the devas in the Tāvatiṃsa heaven, was a follower of the Buddha. See SN chapter 11.
14 Papañcasaññāsaṅkhā. The meaning of this obscure compound is not elucidated in the Nikāyas. The term seems to refer to perceptions and ideas that have become “infected” by subjective biases, “elaborated” by the tendencies to craving, conceit, and distorted views. According to the commentaries, craving, conceit, and views are the three factors responsible for conceptual elaboration (papañca). A detailed study of the expression is Ñāṇananda, Concept and Reality in Early Buddhist Thought.
15 Sv: Pursuit (pariyesanā) is the pursuit of objects such as visible forms, etc., and gain (lābha) is the gaining of such objects. Decision-making (vinicchaya) is deciding how much to keep for oneself and how much to give to others; how much to use and how much to store, etc.
16 Greed, hatred, and delusion (lobha, dosa, moha) are the three “unwholesome roots”—the root causes of all mental defilements and unwholesome actions; see p. 146.
17 Anamataggo ’yaṃ bhikkhave saṃsāro. The original meaning of anamatagga is uncertain. Spk glosses it as “having an unfindable beginning,” explaining: “Even if it should be pursued by knowledge for a hundred or a thousand years, it would be with unfindable beginning, with unknown beginning. It wouldn’t be possible to know its beginning from here or from there; the meaning is that it is without a delimiting first or last point. Saṃsāra is the uninterruptedly occurring succession of the aggregates.”
18 Jambudīpa. “The rose-apple land,” the Indian subcontinent.
19 Kappa. Apparently a mahākappa, a “great eon,” is intended, the length of time it takes for a world system to arise, develop, and perish. Each mahākappa consists of four asaṅkheyyakappas, individual periods of expansion, stabilization, contraction, and dissolution. For a discussion of early Buddhist cosmology, see Gethin, The Foundations of Buddhism, pp. 112–15.
20 A yojana is approximately seven miles.
CHAPTER II: THE BRINGER OF LIGHT
1 Suttanipāta v. 335.
2 Although the bodhisattva ideal is usually understood to be distinctive of Mahāyāna Buddhism, all the schools of Sectarian Buddhism in the period preceding the emergence of the Mahāyāna shared the belief that the Buddha pursued the course of a bodhisattva over many eons, fulfilling the requirements for Buddhahood. Mahāyāna’s contribution was to advocate the bodhisattva career as a prescriptive model for all Buddhist followers to pursue.
3 The “six things unsurpassed” (cha anuttariyā) are explained at AN 6:130: the unsurpassed sight (i.e., the sight of a Buddha or his disciple); the unsurpassed hearing (i.e., hearing the Dhamma from a Buddha or his disciple); the unsurpassed gain (i.e., the gain of faith in a Buddha or his disciple); the unsurpassed training (i.e., training in the higher morality, higher mind, higher wisdom as taught by a Buddha or his disciple); the unsurpassed service (i.e., service to a Buddha or his disciple); the unsurpassed recollection (i.e., the recollection of a Buddha or his disciple). The “four analytical knowledges” (catasso paṭisambhidā ) are the analytical knowledges of meaning, doctrine, language, and ingenuity. The fruits of stream-entry, etc., are explained in chapter X.
4 As the Buddha’s personal attendant, Ānanda was known for his personal dedication to his master. In the main portion of the sutta, where he articulates the traditional beliefs about the wonders accompanying the Buddha’s conception and birth, he seems to represent the voice of faithful devotion.
5 This refers to the Bodhisatta’s rebirth in the Tusita heaven, which preceded his birth in the human world as Gotama the future Buddha.
6 Ps: Between every three world systems there is an interstice measuring 8,000 yojanas; it is like the space between three