The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha - Bhikkhu Nanamoli [578]
264 The notion “what belongs to self” or “self’s property” (attaniya) is ascribed to whichever among the five aggregates are not identified as self, as well as to all the individual’s external possessions. This passage shows the mutual dependence, and thus the equal untenability, of the twin notions “I” and “mine.”
265 According to the commentaries, disenchantment (nibbid̄ā, also rendered “revulsion” or “disgust”) signifies the culminating stages of insight, dispassion (virāga) the attainment of the supramundane path, and liberation (vimutti) the fruit. The arahant’s reviewing knowledge (paccavekkhaṇañāṇa ) is shown by the phrase “there comes the knowledge” and “he understands: ‘Birth is destroyed…’.”
266 “Thus gone” is, in Pali, tathāgata, the usual epithet of the Buddha, but here applied more broadly to the arahant. MA interprets this passage in two alternative ways thus: (1) The arahant even while alive is here and now untraceable as a being or individual (in the sense of an abiding self) because in the ultimate sense there is no being (as self). (2) The arahant is untraceable here and now because it is impossible for the gods, etc., to find the support for his insight-mind, path-mind, or fruition-mind (vipassanācitta, maggacitta, phalacitta); that is, the object being Nibbāna, his mind cannot be known by the worldling.
267 This refers back to §20, where the eternalist misunderstands the Buddha’s teaching on Nibbāna, the cessation of being, to involve the annihilation of an existing being considered as self.
268 The import of this statement is deeper than appears on the surface. In the context of the false accusations of §37, the Buddha is stating that he teaches that a living being is not a self but a mere conglomeration of factors, material and mental events, linked together in a process that is inherently dukkha, and that Nibbāna, the cessation of suffering, is not the annihilation of a being but the termination of that same unsatisfactory process. This statement should be read in conjunction with SN 12:15/ii.17, where the Buddha says that one with right view, who has discarded all doctrines of a self, sees that whatever arises is only dukkha arising, and whatever ceases is only dukkha ceasing.
269 “What earlier was fully understood” (pubbe pariññātaṁ) are the five aggregates. Since it is only these to which honour and abuse are shown, not an “I” or self, there is no reason for elation or dejection.
270 MA points out that it is the attachment to the five aggregates that should be abandoned; the aggregates themselves cannot be torn apart or pulled out.
271 MA: “Chinna-pilotika: pilotikā is a torn and worn-out rag stitched and knotted here and there; there is nothing (in the Dhamma) like this—torn, worn-out, stitched and knotted by way of hypocrisy and other deceptions.”
272 That is, as the arahants have achieved deliverance from the entire round of existence, it is impossible to point to any plane within the round where they might be reborn.
273 These are two classes of individuals standing on the path of stream-entry. “Dhamma-followers” (dhammānusārin) are disciples in whom the faculty of wisdom (paññindriya) is predominant and who develop the noble path with wisdom in the lead; when they attain the fruit they are called “attained-to-view” (diṭṭ). “Faith-followers” (saddh̄nus̄rin) are disciples in whom the faculty of faith (saddhindriya) is predominant and who develop the noble path with faith in the lead; when they attain the fruit they are called “liberated-by-faith” (saddhāvimutta). See MN 70.20, 21; also Pug 1:35–36/15 and Vsm XXI, 75.
274 MA says that this refers to persons devoted to the practice of insight meditation who have not reached any supramundane attainment. Note that they are headed only for heaven, not for enlightenment, though if their practice matures they can attain the path of stream-entry and thus gain assurance of enlightenment. The expression saddhāmattaṁ pemamattaṁ might be rendered “simply faith, simply