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arahantship. MA explains that the statement “Birth is destroyed” means that any type of birth that might have arisen if the path had not been developed has been rendered incapable of arising by the development of the path. The “holy life” that has been lived is the holy life of the path (maggabrahmacariya). The phrase “what had to be done has been done” (katȧ karaṇı̄yaṁ) indicates that the four tasks of the noble path—fully understanding suffering, abandoning its origin, realising its cessation, and developing the path—have now all been completed for each of the four supramundane paths. The fourth phrase, nāparaṁ itthattāya, is glossed by MA thus: “Now there is no need for me to develop the path again for ‘such a state,’ i.e., for the sixteenfold function (of the path) or for the destruction of the defilements. Or alternatively: after ‘such a state,’ i.e., the continuum of aggregates now occurring, there is no further continuum of aggregates for me. These five aggregates, having been fully understood, stand like trees that are cut at the root. With the cessation of the last consciousness, they will be extinguished like a fire without fuel.” I have opted for the second of these interpretations, but take itthattāya as a dative. The word, which literally means “the state of this” or “the state of thus,” implies manifestation in a concrete state of existence. Ñm had rendered: “There is no more of this beyond.”

68 MA: He has “compassion for future generations” insofar as later generations of monks, seeing that the Buddha resorted to forest dwellings, will follow his example and thus hasten their progress towards making an end of suffering.

SUTTA 5

69 MA, picking up on the venerable Sāriputta’s use of the word “person” (puggala), explains that the Buddha has a twofold teaching—a conventional teaching (sammutidesanā ) expressed in terms of persons, beings, women, and men, etc.; and an ultimate teaching (paramatthadesanā) expressed solely in terms that possess ultimate ontological validity, such as aggregates, elements, sense bases, impermanent, suffering, not self, etc. The Buddha expounds his teaching through whichever approach is best suited to enable the hearer to penetrate the meaning, dispel delusion, and achieve distinction. The use of the word “person,” therefore, does not imply a misconception of the person as a self.

70 Subhanimitta: an attractive object that is the basis for lust. The Buddha says that unwise attention to the sign of the beautiful is the nutriment (āhāra) for the arising of unarisen sensual desire and for the growth and increase of arisen sensual desire (SN 46:2/v.64).

71 These are strict ascetic practices. The forest dweller, almsfood eater, house-to-house seeker and refuse-rag wearer are explained in Vsm II.

72 These are “softer” practices than those referred to in §29, generally regarded as signs of a less earnest commitment to exertion for the sake of the goal.

73 The Ājı̄vakas, or Ājı̄vikas, were a rival sect whose teaching emphasised severe austerities based on a philosophy bordering on fatalism. See Basham, History and Doctrines of the Ājı̄vikas.

74 The possessive pronouns qualifying heart are not in the Pali, but the sense of the phrase has to be understood by consideration of the simile. Just as Samı̄ti planed the faults out of the felloe as if he knew Pa˚ḍuputta’s heart with his own heart, so does Sāriputta plane out the faults of the bhikkhus as if he knew Moggallāna’s wish to have them removed. MLS (1:40) misses the point by translating: “because he knows their hearts with his heart,” taking the first reference to be to the monks rather than to Ven. Moggallāna.

75 Mahānāga. The nāgas are a class of dragonlike beings in Indian mythology believed to inhabit the nether regions of the earth and to be the guardians of hidden treasures. The word comes to represent any gigantic or powerful creature, such as a tusker elephant or a cobra and, by extension, an arahant bhikkhu. See Dhp, ch. 23, Nāgavagga.

SUTTA 6

76 MA says that the expression sampannas