In the Buddha's Words - Bhikkhu Bodhi [248]
14 Paññāvimutta. Ps says this includes those who attain any of the four jhānas as well as the dry-insight arahant. A dry-insight arahant is not explicitly recognized in the Nikāyas.
15 Kāyasakkhī. This includes all those from persons on the path to arahantship down to stream-enterers who attain the formless attainments.
16 Diṭṭhippatta. This includes the same classes who do not attain the formless attainments and in whom wisdom is the dominant faculty.
17 Saddhāvimutta. This includes the same classes in whom faith is the dominant faculty.
18 Dhammānusārī. This type and the next, the saddhānusārī, are the two kinds of persons practicing for realization of the fruit of stream-entry. See p. 375 and Text X,2(2).
19 Sammattaniyāma: the supramundane Noble Eightfold Path.
20 Contrary to the commentaries, which hold that the path-attainer realizes the fruit immediately after attaining the path, the Nikāyas say merely that one who reaches the stage of Dhamma-follower or faith-follower (corresponding to the commentarial notion of path-attainer) will realize the fruit within this same life—but not necessarily in the next mind-moment. The two positions might be reconciled if we see the path of the Dhamma-follower and faith-follower as extended in time but reaching its climax in an instantaneous breakthrough that is immediately followed by realization of the fruit.
21 This statement makes it clear how the stream-enterer differs from those on the path to stream-entry. The faith-follower accepts the teaching on trust (with a limited degree of understanding), the Dhamma-follower accepts it through investigation (with a greater degree of understanding); but the stream-enterer has directly known and seen the teaching.
22 The breakthrough to the Dhamma (dhammābhisamaya) and the gaining of the vision of the Dhamma (dhammacakkhupaṭilābha) are synonyms signifying the attainment of stream-entry.
23 Aveccappasāda. Spk explains this as unshakable confidence gained through what has been attained, namely, stream-entry.
24 The hells, the animal realm, and the sphere of afflicted spirits are themselves the plane of misery, the bad destinations, and the lower world.
25 Identity (sakkāya) is the composite of the five aggregates that we identify as our “self.” The cessation of identity is Nibbāna.
26 Upadhi. In the present context, this word seems to mean material possessions.
27 Of these eleven attributes, “impermanent” and “disintegrating” illustrate the characteristic of impermanence; “alien,” “empty,” and “nonself,” the characteristic of nonself; the other six, the characteristic of suffering.
28 Ps: He turns his mind away from the five aggregates included within the jhāna, which he has seen to be marked with the three characteristics. The “deathless element” (amatadhātu) is Nibbāna. First, he “directs his mind to it” with the insight consciousness, having heard it praised as “peaceful and sublime,” and so forth. Then, with the supramundane path, he “directs his mind to it” by making it an object and penetrating it as “peaceful and sublime,” and so forth.
29 Dhammarāgena dhammanandiyā. It seems that this desire for the Dhamma and delight in the Dhamma do two things simultaneously: (1) because they are directed toward the Dhamma, they propel the disciple to the destruction of the five lower fetters; (2) because they are still desire and delight, they prevent the attainment of arahantship.
30 Here, in the formless attainments, the sutta mentions only the four mental aggregates. The aggregate of form is excluded.
31 These are meditation subjects that lead to disenchantment and dispassion. The unattractiveness of the body is at Text VIII,8 §10; the reflection on the repulsiveness of food is explained at Vism 341–47 (Ppn 11:1–26); the perception of death, at Vism 229–39 (Ppn 8:1–41); and the perception