The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha - Bhikkhu Nanamoli [583]
330 MA: This statement is made to underscore the insentient nature (acetanābhāva) of the internal earth element by yoking it to the external earth element, the insentient nature of which is much more easily discerned.
331 According to ancient Indian cosmology the cyclical destruction of the world may be due to either water, fire, or wind. See Vsm XIII, 30–65.
332 The notions “I,” “mine,” and “I am,” represent the three obsessions of identity view, craving, and conceit, respectively.
333 MA explains that this passage, referring to a bhikkhu who practises meditation on the elements, is intended to show his strength of mind in applying his comprehension of things to undesirable objects arisen at the “door” of the ear. By contemplating the experience by way of conditionality and impermanence, he transforms the potentially provocative situation of being subjected to abuse into an opportunity for insight.
334 Tassa dhātārammaṇam eva cittaṁ pakkhandati. This sentence can be construed in two alternative ways, depending on how the compound dhātārammaṇam is understood. Ven. Nyanaponika takes it as the object of the verb pakkhandati , and he understands dhātu here as “an impersonal element in general” capable of including sound, contact, feeling, etc. Thus he translates: “And his mind enters into that very object [taking it just as an impersonal] element.” Ñm reads the compound as an adjunct qualifying citta, and supplies the object of the verb in parenthesis. MA seems to support the former reading; Ṃ explicitly identifies dhātu as the earth element, thus supporting the latter reading. MA explains the phrase “acquires resolution” to mean that the meditator contemplates the situation by way of elements and thus has neither attachment nor aversion concerning it.
335 MA: This passage is intended to show the strength of the meditating bhikkhu on an occasion when he is subjected to affliction by way of the body.
336 See MN 21.20.
337 MA: The recollection of the Buddha is undertaken here by recalling that the Blessed One spoke this simile of the saw, the recollection of the Dhamma by recalling the advice given in the simile of the saw, and the recollection of the Sangha by recalling the virtues of the bhikkhu who can endure such abuse without giving rise to a mind of hate. “Equanimity supported by the wholesome” (upekkhā̄ kusalanissitā) is the equanimity of insight, the sixfold equanimity of neither attraction nor aversion towards agreeable and disagreeable objects that appear at the six sense doors. Strictly speaking, the sixfold equanimity pertains only to the arahant, but it is here ascribed to the monk in training because his insight approximates to the perfect equanimity of the arahant.
338 This is said to stress once again the egoless nature of the body. Ṃ: He shows that the four elements are only mere elements not belonging to a self; they are without a being, without a soul.
339 This section is set forth, according to MA, to introduce the material form derived from the four great elements. Derived material form, according to the Abhidhamma analysis of matter, includes the five sense faculties (pasādaūpa) and the first four kinds of sense object, the tangible object being identified with the primary elements themselves. “Corresponding (conscious) engagement” (tajjo samannāhāro) is explained by MA as attention (manasikāra) arising in dependence on the eye and forms; it is identified with the “five-door adverting consciousness” (pañcadvārāvajjanacitta), which breaks off the flow of the life continuum (bhavanga) to initiate a process of cognition. Even when forms come into range of the eye, if attention is not engaged by the form because one is occupied with something else, there is still no manifestation