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340 This section is set forth to show the Four Noble Truths by way of the sense doors. “What has thus come to be” (tathābhūta) is the entire complex of factors arisen by way of eye-consciousness. By analysing this complex into the five aggregates, Ven. Sāriputta shows that any occasion of sense experience is comprised within the truth of suffering.

341 This statement has not been traced directly to the Buddha in any of the existing suttas in the Pali Canon. MA glosses, perhaps with too little sensitivity to the statement’s profounder implications: “One who sees dependent origination sees dependently arisen states (paṭicca samuppanne dhamme); one who sees dependently arisen states sees dependent origination.”

342 The four terms—chanda, ālaya, anunaya, ajjhosāna—are synonyms for craving (taṇhā).

343 Though only three of the Four Noble Truths are explicitly shown in the text, the fourth truth is implied. According to MA, it is the penetration of these three truths by the development of the eight factors of the path.

344 MA identifies “mind” (mano) in this passage with the life-continuum consciousness (bhavangacitta).

345 MA illustrates this case by the mind’s preoccupation with a familiar object when it does not notice the familiar details of that object. The “corresponding class of consciousness” here is mind-consciousness (manoviññāṇa), which takes non-sensuous objects as its sphere of cognition.

SUTTA 29

346 After Devadatta had unsuccessfully attempted to kill the Buddha and usurp control of the Sangha, he broke away from the Buddha and tried to establish his own sect with himself at the head. See Ñā˚amoli, The Life of the Buddha, pp. 266–69.

347 “Knowledge and vision” (ñāṇdassana) here refers to the divine eye (MA), the ability to see subtle forms invisible to normal vision.

348 This translation follows BBS and SBJ, which read asamayavimokkhaṁ in the preceding sentence and asamayavimuttiyā in this sentence. The PTS ed., on which both Horner and Ñm based their translations, is evidently mistaken in reading samaya in the two compounds andṭhānaṁ instead of āṭṭhānaṁ. MA cites thePaṭisambhidāmagga (ii.40) for a definition of asamayavimokkha (lit., non-temporary or “perpetual” liberation) as the four paths, four fruits, and Nibbāna, and of samayavimokkha (temporary liberation) as the four jhānas and four formless attainments. See also MN 122.4.

349 “Unshakeable deliverance of mind” is the fruit of arahantship (MA). Thus “perpetual liberation”—as including all four paths and fruits—has a wider range of meaning than “unshakeable deliverance of mind,” which alone is declared to be the goal of the holy life.

SUTTA 30

350 These six teachers, the Buddha’s senior contemporaries, all stood outside the fold of orthodox Brahmanism, and their doctrines are indicative of the speculative audacity of the Buddha’s age. The six are often mentioned together in the Canon. Their teachings, as understood by the Buddhist community, are stated at DN 2.17–32/ii.52–59.

351 Precisely the same question is posed to the Buddha on the eve of his Parinibbāna by the wanderer Subhadda at DN 16.5.26–27/ii.150–52.

352 It is this sentence, used in place of the sentence beginning “He becomes intoxicated…,” that distinguishes these passages of this sutta from the corresponding passages of the preceding sutta.

353 Although the jhānas may also have been included in the attainment of concentration set forth in §10, and knowledge and vision was described as higher than the attainment of concentration, the jhānas now become higher than knowledge and vision because they are being treated as the basis for the attainment of cessation and the destruction of the taints (in §21).

SUTTA 31

354 Ven. Anuruddha was the Buddha’s cousin; Vens. Nandiya and Kimbila were Anuruddha’s friends and constant companions.

355 These are three of the “six principles of cordiality” explained at MN 48.6.

356 MA identifies this yakkha as a celestial