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SUTTA 14

205 Mahānāma the Sakyan was a cousin of the Buddha and the brother of the monks Anuruddha and Ānanda. He chose to remain a householder and let Anuruddha become a monk. The story is told in Ñā˚amoli, The Life of the Buddha, pp. 80–81.

206 According to MA, Mahānāma had long ago attained the fruit of the once-returner, which only weakens greed, hate, and delusion but does not eradicate them. MA says that he had the mistaken notion that greed, hate, and delusion are eradicated by the path of the once-returner. Thus, when he saw that they still arose in his mind, he realised that they were not abandoned and inquired from the Buddha the cause for their arising. Noble disciples can be mistaken about which defilements are abandoned by which path.

207 From the ensuing discussion on the danger in sensual pleasures, it seems that the “state” (dhamma) unabandoned by Mahānāma was sensual desire, which kept him tied to the home life and the enjoyment of sensual pleasures.

208 The “rapture and pleasure that are apart from sensual pleasures” are the rapture and pleasure pertaining to the first and second jhānas; the states “more peaceful than that” are the higher jhānas. From this passage it seems that a disciple may attain even to the second path and fruit without possessing mundane jhāna.

209 The Niga˚ṭhas or Jains, followers of the teacher Niga˚ṭha Nātaputta (also known as Mahāvı̄ra), stressed the practice of austerities to wear off the accumulations of past evil kamma. The purpose of this passage, according to MA, is to show the escape, which was not shown earlier along with the gratification and the danger in sensual pleasures. The Buddha brings in the Jain practice of asceticism to demonstrate that his own teaching is a “middle way” free from the two extremes of sensual indulgence and self-mortification.

210 The Jains held the view that whatever a person experiences is caused by past kamma. If that were so, the Buddha argues, the severe pains to which they subjected themselves as part of their ascetic discipline would have to be rooted in grave actions of their previous lives.

211 MA: This refers to his own experience of the pleasure of fruition attainment, i.e., the attainment of the fruit of arahantship (arahattaphalasamāpatti).

SUTTA 15

212 Vadantu, meaning literally “let them speak to me,” has the implied sense: “Let them speak to me by way of instruction and exhortation” (MA).

213 See MN 5.10–29.

214 See MN 8.44 and n.109.

215 It is from this passage that the sutta acquires its name.

216 MA: The ancients called this sutta the “Bhikkhupātimokkha.” A bhikkhu should review himself three times daily in the way described in the sutta. If he cannot do so three times, then he should do so twice, or, at the minimum, once.

SUTTA 16

217 MA explains cetokhila, translated “wilderness in the heart,” as rigidity, rubbish, or a stump in the mind. It explains cetaso vinibandha as something that binds the mind, clenching it like a fist; hence “shackle in the heart.” The former, as will be seen, consists of four cases of doubt, one of hate; the latter of five varieties of greed.

218 MA explains “Dhamma” here as the scriptural teaching and penetration to the paths, fruits, and Nibbāna. The Dhamma as practice is mentioned separately just below as the training (sikkhā)—that is, the threefold training in virtue, concentration, and wisdom.

219 “Body” here is his own body, while “form” just below is outer forms, the bodies of others.

220 The four bases for spiritual power (iddhipāda) are included among the thirty-seven aids to enlightenment; they are the special foundation for the five mundane kinds of direct knowledge (abhiññā). According to MA, enthusiasm (ussoḷhi) is energy, which is to be applied everywhere.

221 The fifteen factors are the abandoning of the five wildernesses of the heart, the abandoning of the five shackles, and the five just mentioned. “Supreme security from bondage” (anuttara yogakkhema) is arahantship, as at MN 1.27.

222 This simile appears