In the Buddha's Words - Bhikkhu Bodhi [230]
6. Here the Buddha introduces the four divine abodes (brahmavihāra): boundless loving-kindness, compassion, altruistic joy, and equanimity.
7. Mp: Because he does no evil and because no evil (i.e., suffering) will come to him.
8. This is a stock passage. “Going for refuge” is the act by which a new convert acknowledges the Buddha, the Dhamma, and the Saṅgha as guiding ideals. In Buddhist tradition, it has become the procedure by which one formally declares oneself a Buddhist.
9. Gāmaṇi. The word suggests that he is a person of some prominence in the town.
10. Note that the headman here ascribes to the Buddha, as a direct quotation, a general statement of the causal relationship between desire and suffering not found in the Buddha’s words above. The statement is, however, clearly needed as the referent of “this principle” (iminā dhammena). It is thus possible that the statement was in the original text but had dropped out in the course of its oral transmission. Just below the Buddha does make the generalization himself.
11. Read, with Be and Ce, ajānantena, as against Ee’s ājānantena. The negative is clearly required here, since the monk who cannot directly know the Buddha’s mind must infer from his bodily and verbal behavior that he is fully purified.
12. “States cognizable through the eye” are bodily actions; “states cognizable through the ear” are words.
13. “Mixed states” would mean the conduct of one who is trying to purify his behavior but is unable to do so consistently. Sometimes his conduct is pure, sometimes impure.
14. Ps: The dangers are conceit, arrogance, etc. For some monks are calm and humble as long as they have not become well known and popular; but when they become famous and popular, they go about acting improperly, attacking other monks like a leopard pouncing on a herd of deer.
15. Ps: This statement shows the Buddha’s impartiality. He does not extol some and disparage others.
16. So tasmiṃ dhamme abhiññāya idh’ekaccaṃ dhammaṃ dhammesu niṭṭhaṃ gacchati. In order to convey the intended meaning I have rendered the second occurrence of dhamma here as “teaching,” i.e., the particular doctrine taught to him, the plural dhammesu as “teachings,” and tasmiṃ dhamme as “that Dhamma,” in the sense of the total teaching. Ps and Ps-pṭ together explain the meaning thus: “When the Dhamma has been taught by the Master, the monk, by directly knowing the Dhamma through penetration of the path, fruit, and Nibbāna, comes to a conclusion regarding the preliminary teaching of the Dhamma about the aids to enlightenment (bodhipakkhiyā dhammā).”
17. This refers to the faith of a noble person (ariyapuggala), who has seen the Dhamma and thus can never acknowledge any teacher other than the Buddha.
18. He was a prominent brahmin who ruled over Opasāda, a crown property in the state of Kosala that had been granted to him by King Pasenadi.
19. Apparently this is Kāpaṭhika’s clan name.
20. These are the ancient rishis whom the brahmins regarded as the divinely inspired authors of the Vedic hymns.
21. In Pāli: saddhā, ruci, anussava, ākāraparivitakka, diṭṭhinijjhānakkhanti. Of these five grounds for arriving at a conviction, the first two seem to be based primarily on emotion, the third to be an unquestioning acceptance of tradition, and the last two primarily rational or cognitive. The last three are included among the ten unacceptable grounds for a belief in Text III,2. The “two different ways” that each may turn out are true or false.
22. It is not proper for him to come to this conclusion because he has not personally ascertained the truth of his conviction but only accepts it on a ground that is not capable of yielding certainty.
23. Saccānurakkhana: or, the safeguarding of truth, the protection of truth.
24. Saccānubodha: or, the awakening to truth.
25. In this series, “he scrutinizes” (tūleti), according to