The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha - Bhikkhu Nanamoli [586]
376 The text between the asterisks is absent from the PTS ed. but is supplied from BBS and SBJ. The five aggregates are here called suffering because they are impermanent and not susceptible to the exercise of mastery.
377 These are the characteristics of a sekha. The arahant, in contrast, not only possesses the right view of non-self, but has used it to eradicate all clinging, as the Buddha will explain in §25.
378 MA gives several alternative explanations of these three terms. They are mundane and supramundane wisdom, practice, and deliverance. Or they are entirely supramundane: the first is the right view of the path of arahantship, the second the remaining seven path factors, the third the supreme fruit (of arahantship). Or the first is the vision of Nibb̄na, the second the path factors, the third the supreme fruit.
379 Though Saccaka admitted defeat in debate, he must have still considered himself a saint, and thus did not feel impelled to go for refuge to the Triple Gem. Also, because he continued to regard himself as a saint, he must have felt that it was not proper for him to dedicate the merit of the alms offering to himself, and thus he wished to dedicate the merit to the Licchavis. But the Buddha replies that the Licchavis will gain the merit of providing Saccaka with food to offer to the Buddha, while Saccaka himself will gain the merit of offering the food to the Buddha. The merit of giving alms differs in quality according to the purity of the recipient, as explained at MN 142.6.
SUTTA 36
380 MA: Saccaka approached with the intention of refuting the Buddha’s doctrine, which he failed to do in his earlier encounter with the Buddha (in MN 35). But this time he came alone, thinking that if he were to suffer defeat no one would know about it. He intended to refute the Buddha with his question about sleeping during the day, which he does not ask until close to the end of the sutta (§45).
381 MA: Ānanda says this out of compassion for Saccaka, thinking that if he gets to see the Buddha and to hear the Dhamma, it will lead to his welfare and happiness for a long time.
382 It will become clear from §5 that Saccaka identifies “development of body” (kāyabhāvanā) with the practice of self-mortification. Because he does not see the Buddhist bhikkhus engaged in self-mortification, he maintains that they do not pursue development of the body. But the Buddha (according to MA) understands “development of body” as insight meditation, “development of mind” (cittabhāvanā ) as serenity meditation.
383 These are the three mentors of the Ājı̄vakas; the last was a contemporary of the Buddha, the former two are near legendary figures whose identities remain obscure. The Bodhisatta had adopted their practices during his period of asceticism—see MN 12.45—but subsequently rejected them as unconducive to enlightenment.
384 MA explains that “development of body” here is insight, and “development of mind” concentration. When the noble disciple experiences pleasant feeling, he does not become overwhelmed by it because, through his development of insight, he understands the feeling to be impermanent, unsatisfactory, and not self; and when he experiences painful feeling, he does not become overwhelmed by it because, through his development of concentration, he is able to escape from it by entering into one of the meditative absorptions.
385 Now the Buddha will answer Saccaka’s questions by showing first the extremely painful feelings he experienced during his course of ascetic practices, and thereafter the extremely pleasant feelings he experienced during his meditative attainments preceding his enlightenment.
386 PTS is certainly mistaken in reading here avūpakaṭṭho, “not withdrawn.” In the first edition I translated this passage on the basis of BBS, which has kāyena c’eva cittena ca. But PTS and SBJ omit cittena, and it seems difficult to understand how these ascetics can be described as “mentally withdrawn” from sensual pleasures when they have not stilled sensual desire within themselves.