The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha - Bhikkhu Nanamoli [589]
411 MA: The gandhabba is the being arriving there. It is not someone (i.e., a disembodied spirit) standing nearby watching the future parents having intercourse, but a being driven on by the mechanism of kamma, due to be reborn on that occasion.
The exact import of the word gandhabba in relation to the rebirth process is not explained in the Nikāyas, and the word in this sense occurs only here and at 93.18. DN 15/ii.63 speaks of consciousness as “descending into the mother’s womb,” this being a condition for rebirth to take place. Thus we might identify the gandhabba here as the stream of consciousness, conceived more animistically as coming over from the previous existence and bringing along its total accumulation of kammic tendencies and personality traits. The fullest study of the concept of the gandhabba is Wijesekera, “Vedic Gandharva and Pali Gandhabba,” in Buddhist and Vedic Studies, pp. 191–202.
412 MA explains that he delights in the painful feeling by clinging to it with thoughts of “I” and “mine.” In confirmation of the statement that a worldling may delight in painful feelings, one thinks not only of full-fledged masochism but also of the common tendency of people to put themselves into distressing situations in order to reinforce their sense of ego.
413 MA: An immeasurable mind (appamāṇacetaso) is a supramundane mind; this means that he possesses the path.
414 This statement reveals that the chain of dependent origination is broken at the link between feeling and craving. Feeling arises necessarily because the body acquired through past craving is subject to the maturation of past kamma. However, if one does not delight in feeling, craving will not have the opportunity to arise and set off reactions of like and dislike that provide further fuel for the round, and thus the round will come to an end.
SUTTA 39
415 “Brahmin” should be understood in the sense explained below, §24.
416 Shame (hiri) and fear of wrongdoing (ottappa) are two complementary qualities designated by the Buddha “the guardians of the world” (AN i.51) because they serve as the foundation for morality. Shame has the characteristic of disgust with evil, is dominated by a sense of self-respect, and manifests itself as conscience. Fear of wrongdoing has the characteristic of dread of evil, is dominated by a concern for the opinions of others, and manifests itself as fear of doing evil. See Vsm XIV, 142.
417 MA quotes SN 45:35–36/v.25: “What, bhikkhus, is recluseship (sāmañña)? The Noble Eightfold Path…—this is called recluseship. And what, bhikkhus, is the goal of recluseship (sāmaññattho)? The destruction of greed, hate, and delusion—this is called the goal of recluseship.”
418 MA gives a detailed elaboration of each of the five similes. An English translation can be found in Nyanaponika Thera, The Five Mental Hindrances, pp. 27–34.
419 Each of the explanations to follow involves a word play that cannot be reproduced in English, e.g., a bhikkhu is a recluse (saṃaṇa) because he has quieted down (samita) evil states, a brahmin because he has expelled (bāhita) evil states, etc.
420 The term “washed” (nhātaka) refers to a brahmin who, at the end of his discipleship under his teacher, has taken a ceremonial bath marking the end of his training. See Sn 521.
421 The Pali word sotthiya (Skt, śrotriya) means a brahmin well versed in the Vedas, one conversant with sacred knowledge.
SUTTA 40
422 Where the previous sutta used the phrase “things that make one a recluse” (dhamm̄ samaṇakaraṇā), the present sutta speaks of “the way proper to the recluse” (samīcipaṭipadā ).
423 The