The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha - Bhikkhu Nanamoli [580]
289 MA glosses anupādā parinibbāna as appaccayaparinibbāna, “final Nibbāna that has no condition,” explaining that upādāna has two meanings: grasping (gahṇa), as in the usual passage on the four types of clinging; and condition (paccaya), as illustrated by this passage. The commentators explain “final Nibbāna without clinging” either as the fruit of arahantship, because it cannot be grasped by any of the four types of clinging; or as Nibbāna the unconditioned, because it has not arisen through any condition.
290 MA explains that the first six stages are “accompanied by clinging” in the sense both of being conditioned and of existing in one who still has grasping; the seventh stage, being supramundane, only in the sense of being conditioned.
291 MA says that Sāriputta asked this only as a way of greeting Pu˚˚a Mantā˚iputta since he already knew his name. Pu˚˚a, however, had never seen Sāriputta before and so must have been genuinely surprised to meet the great disciple.
292 Satthukappa. MA says that this is the highest praise that can be spoken of a disciple.
SUTTA 25
293 Cetovimutti: MA explains that they simply abandoned their resolution to live in the wilds, though it could well be that these ascetics had attained—and lost—the eight meditative attainments that are usually implied by the term cetovimutti.
294 These are the ten speculative views debated by the ascetic philosophers of the Buddha’s age. All were rejected by the Buddha as being unconnected with the fundamentals of the holy life and unconducive to liberation from suffering. See MN 63, MN 72.
295 The eight meditative attainments here must be understood, as MA explains, as bases for insight. When a bhikkhu has entered such a jhāna, Māra cannot see how his mind is proceeding. This immunity from Māra’s influence, however, is as yet only temporary.
296 This last bhikkhu, by destroying the taints, has become not only temporarily invisible to Māra but permanently inaccessible to him. On the cessation of perception and feeling, see Introduction, p. 41.
SUTTA 26
297 This title follows the PTS and SBJ eds. of MN. The BBS ed. of MN, and both the PTS and BBS eds. of MA, refer to this discourse as the Pāsarāsi Sutta, The Heap of Snares, with reference to the simile in §§32–33.
298 MA points out that the second jhāna and one’s basic meditation subject are both called “noble silence” (ariyo tuṇhībhāvo). Those who cannot attain the second jhāna are advised to maintain noble silence by attending to their basic meditation subject.
299 Upadhi: The root meaning is foundation, basis, ground (PED). In the commentaries various kinds of upadhi are enumerated, among them the five aggregates, objects of sensual pleasure, defilements, and kamma. Ñm renders the term consistently throughout as “essentials of existence,” which often obscures its clear contextual meaning. I have tried to capture the several connotations of the word by rendering it “acquisitions” where its objective meaning is prominent (as it is here) and as “acquisition” where its subjective meaning is prominent. At MN 26.19 Nibbāna is called “the relinquishing of all acquisitions” (sabb’̄ūpadhipaṭinissagga), with both meanings intended.
300 Gold and silver are excluded from the things subject to sickness, death, and sorrow, but they are subject to defilement, according to MA, because they can be alloyed with metals of lesser worth.
301 MA: He taught him the seven attainments (of serenity meditation) ending in the base of nothingness, the third of the four immaterial attainments. Though these attainments are spiritually exalted, they are still mundane and not in themselves directly conducive to Nibbāna.
302 That is, it leads to rebirth in the plane of existence called the base of nothingness, the objective counterpart