In the Buddha's Words - Bhikkhu Bodhi [240]
51 The Pāli commentaries give detailed information about the conditions that lead to the maturation of the enlightenment factors. See Soma Thera, The Way of Mindfulness, pp. 134–149.
52 The longer Mahāsatipaṭṭhāna Sutta in DN defines and elaborates on each of the Four Noble Truths. See too MN 141.
53 Final knowledge (aññā) is the arahant’s knowledge of liberation. Nonreturning (anāgāmitā) is the attainment of the state of a nonreturner.
54 From this point on, the sutta closely corresponds with the second part of the Ānāpānasati Sutta (MN 118), the first part of which is a prelude to the instructions on mindfulness of breathing. The first tetrad is identical with the passage on mindfulness of breathing in the “contemplation of the body” section of the Satipaṭṭhāna Sutta just above.
55 The “mental formation” (cittasaṅkhāra) is perception and feeling; see MN 44 (I 301) = SN 41:6 (IV 293).
56 Vism 289; Ppn 8:233: “Liberating the mind” from the hindrances by the first jhāna, and from the grosser jhāna factors by attaining successively higher jhānas; and liberating it from the cognitive distortions by means of insight knowledge.
57 Vism 290–291; Ppn 8:234–37: “Contemplating impermanence” (aniccānupassī) is contemplating the five aggregates as impermanent because they undergo rise and fall and change, or because they undergo momentary dissolution. This tetrad deals entirely with insight, unlike the other three, which can be interpreted by way of both serenity and insight.
“Contemplating fading away” (virāgānupassī) and “contemplating cessation” (nirodhānupassī) can be understood both as the insight into the momentary destruction and cessation of phenomena and as the supramundane path, which realizes Nibbāna as the fading away of lust (virāga, dispassion) and the cessation of formations. “Contemplating relinquishment” (paṭinissaggānupassī ) is giving up (pariccāga) or abandoning (pahāna) defilements through insight and entering into (pakkhandana) Nibbāna by attainment of the path.
58 Spk: Attention is not actually feeling, but this is a heading of the teaching. In this tetrad, in the first phrase feeling is spoken of indirectly under the heading of rapture (which is not a feeling), in the second phrase it is referred to directly as happiness (= pleasant feeling). In the third and fourth phrases, feeling is included in the mental formation.
59 Spk: Having seen with wisdom, etc. Here, “longing” is just the hindrance of sensual desire; by “dejection” the hindrance of ill will is shown. This tetrad is stated by way of insight only. These two hindrances are the first among the five hindrances, the first section in the contemplation of mental phenomena. Thus he says this to show the beginning of the contemplation of mental phenomena. By “abandoning” is meant the knowledge that effects abandoning, e.g., one abandons the perception of permanence by contemplation of impermanence. By the words “having seen with wisdom” he shows the succession of insights thus: “With one insight knowledge (he sees) the knowledge of abandonment consisting in the knowledges of impermanence, dispassion, cessation, and relinquishment; and that too (he sees) by still another.” He is one who looks on closely with equanimity: one is said to look on with equanimity (at the mind) that has fared along the path [Spk-pṭ: by neither exerting nor restraining the mind of meditative development that has properly fared along the middle way], and by the presentation as a unity [Spk-pṭ: since there is nothing further to be done in that respect when the mind has reached one-pointedness]. One “looks on with equanimity” at the object.
60 Satisambojjhaṅga. Bojjhaṅga is compounded from bodhi + aṅga. At SN 46:5, they are explained as the factors that lead to enlightenment. The three phrases used to describe the cultivation of each enlightenment factor can be understood to depict three successive stages of development. “He arouses” is its initial arousal; “he develops” is its gradual maturation;