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54 The evil qualities mentioned here, and in the sections that follow, are introduced to show the states referred to above (§6) by the statement: “They do not abandon what the Teacher tells them to abandon.” They are also the factors that induce a bhikkhu to become an heir of material things rather than an heir of Dhamma. In MN 7.3 the same sixteen qualities, with “ill will” substituted for “hate,” are referred to as “the imperfections that defile the mind” (cittas’ upakkilesā). See n. 87 below.

55 The Noble Eightfold Path is introduced here to show the practice that makes one an “heir in Dhamma.”The antithesis between the defilements and the path restates, from a new angle, the contrast between “heirs in material things” and “heirs in Dhamma” with which the Buddha had opened the sutta.

SUTTA 4

56 MA says that Jā˚usso˚i was not a given name but an honorific title meaning “ royal chaplain”(purohita) bestowed on him by the king. MN 27 is also addressed to bestowed on him by the king. MN 27 is also addressed to the brahmin Jā˚usso˚i.

57 Bhoto Gotamassa sā janatā diṭṭhānugatiṁ āpajjati. Ñm renders: “Do these people follow the implications of Master Gotama’s view?” And Horner: “These people emulate the views of the honoured Gotama” (MLS 1:22). MA, too, glosses: “These people have the same view, opinion, outlook as Master Gotama.” However, it makes much better sense in this context to read diṭṭha not as a sandhi form of diṭṭhi, but as the past participle, and to take this phrase as meaning “following what they have seen of him,” i.e., his example. This meaning is clearly required by the phrase in its appearances at SN ii.203, AN i.126, AN iii.108, 251, 422.

58 Ñm originally had rendered this phrase as “perfect in understanding,” and the corresponding phrase in the preceding section as “perfect in concentration.” However, since it seems inappropriate to ascribe perfection in samādhi and paññā to the Bodhisatta prior to his enlightenment, I have chosen to render the suffix sampanna throughout as “possessed of.” MA explains that this is neither the wisdom of insight nor of the path, but the wisdom that defines the nature of its object (ārammaṇavavatthānapañña).

59 The Indian year, according to the ancient system inherited by Buddhism, is divided into three seasons—the cold season, the hot season, and the rainy season—each lasting for four months. The four months are subdivided into eight fortnights (pakkha), the third and the seventh containing fourteen days and the others fifteen days. Within each fortnight, the nights of the full moon and the new moon (either the fourteenth or fifteenth) and the night of the half-moon (the eighth) are regarded as especially auspicious. Within Buddhism these days become the Uposatha, the days of religious observance. On the full moon and new moon days the bhikkhus recite their code of precepts and lay people visit the monasteries to listen to sermons and to practise meditation.

60 The four postures (iriyāpatha) often mentioned in the Buddhist texts are walking, standing, sitting, and lying down.

61 Beginning with this section, the Buddha shows the course of practice that led him to the peak of non-delusion.

62 MA says that the Bodhisatta developed the four jhānas using mindfulness of breathing as his meditation subject.

63 Explained in detail at Vsm XIII, 13–71.

64 Explained in detail at Vsm XIII, 72–101.

65 MA: Having shown the Four Noble Truths in their own nature (that is, in terms of suffering), the passage on the taints is stated to show them indirectly by way of the defilements.

66 According to MA, the phrase “When I knew and saw thus” refers to insight and the path, which reaches its climax in the path of arahantship; the phrase “my mind was liberated” shows the moment of the fruit; and the phrase “there came the knowledge: ‘It is liberated’” shows reviewing knowledge (see Vsm XXII, 20–21), as does the next sentence beginning “I directly knew.”

67 This is the stock canonical announcement of final knowledge or