In the Buddha's Words - Bhikkhu Bodhi [237]
16 Dhammavitakka. Mp takes this to refer to the ten “corruptions of insight,” but it seems more natural to understand it simply as obsessive reflections about the Dhamma.
17 This refers to the preliminary conditions for the six direct knowledges (abhiññā), to be described just below. The preliminary condition for the five mundane direct knowledges is the fourth jhāna. The preliminary condition for arahantship, the sixth direct knowledge, is insight. This direct knowledge alone is supramundane.
18 Ps says the higher mind (adhicitta) is the mind of the eight meditative attainments used as a basis for insight; it is called “higher mind” because it is higher than the ordinary (good) mind of the ten wholesome courses of action. The five “signs” (nimitta) may be understood as practical methods for removing distracting thoughts. They should be resorted to only when the distractions become persistent or obtrusive; at other times the meditator should remain with the primary subject of meditation.
19 Ps: When thoughts of sensual desire arise directed toward living beings, the “other sign” is the meditation on the unattractive nature of the body (see Text VIII,8 §10); when the thoughts are directed to inanimate things, the “other sign” is attention to impermanence. When thoughts of hate arise directed toward living beings, the “other sign” is the meditation on loving-kindness; when they are directed to inanimate things, the “other sign” is attention to the elements (see Text VIII,8 §12). The remedy for thoughts connected with delusion is living under a teacher, studying the Dhamma, inquiring into its meaning, listening to the Dhamma, and inquiring into causes.
20 Vitakka-saṅkhāra-saṇṭhānaṃ. Glossing saṅkhāra here as condition, cause, or root, Ps interprets the compound to mean “stopping the cause of the thought.” This is accomplished by inquiring, when an unwholesome thought has arisen: “What is its cause? What is the cause of its cause?” etc. Such an inquiry slows down, and eventually cuts off, the flow of unwholesome thoughts.
21 Tadārammaṇaṃ, lit. “with that (one) as the object.” Ps: First one develops loving-kindness toward the person who addresses one with any of the five courses of wrong speech, then one directs that mind of loving-kindness toward all beings, making the entire world the object.
22 Mahānāma was a close relative of the Buddha, a prominent member of the Sakyan clan.
23 The phrases “arrived at the fruit” (āgataphala) and “understood the teaching” (viññātasāsana) indicate that he is asking about the meditations of a noble disciple at the minimum level of stream-enterer. However, such meditations can also be profitably practiced by people at any level, for they temporarily cleanse the mind of the defilements and lead to concentration.
24 I abridge the text, which here enumerates the different heavenly realms.
25 The Pāli reads ekāyano ayaṃ bhikkhave maggo. Almost all translators have understood this statement to be a declaration that satipaṭṭhāna is an exclusive path. Thus Soma Thera renders it: “This is the only way, O bhikkhus,” and Nyanaponika Thera: “This is the sole way, monks.” However, at MN 12.37–42 ekāyana magga has the unambiguous meaning of “a path that goes in one way only,” and that seems the meaning that fits best here as well. The point seems to be simply that satipaṭṭhāna goes in one direction, toward “the purification of beings... the realization of Nibbāna.”
26 Ps says the repetition “contemplating the body in the body” (kāye kāyānupassī) has the purpose of precisely determining the object of contemplation and of isolating that object from others with which it might be confused. Thus, in this practice, the body should be contemplated as such, and not one’s feelings, ideas, and emotions concerning it. The phrase also means that the body should be contemplated simply as a body and not as a man, a woman, a self,