The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha - Bhikkhu Nanamoli [590]
424 MA: Because he has quieted down (samita) all defilements, he is a recluse in the highest sense (paramatthasamaṇa ).
SUTTA 41
425 This is a morally nihilistic materialist view that denies an afterlife and kammic retribution. “There is nothing given” means that there is no fruit of giving; “no this world, no other world” that there is no rebirth into either this world or a world beyond; “no mother, no father” that there is no fruit of good conduct and bad conduct towards mother and father. The statement about recluses and brahmins denies the existence of Buddhas and arahants.
426 MA explains that “the gods of Radiance” is not a separate class of gods but a collective name for the three classes that follow; the same applies to “the gods of Glory.” This celestial hierarchy is explained in the Introduction, pp. 46–48.
427 It should be noted that while “conduct in accordance with the Dhamma” as described in the sutta is a necessary condition for rebirth in the higher heavenly worlds and for the destruction of the taints, it is by no means a sufficient condition. Rebirth into the realms beginning with the gods of Brahmā’s retinue requires the attainment of jhāna, rebirth into the Pure Abodes (the five beginning with the Avihā gods) the attainment of the stage of non-returner, rebirth into the immaterial planes the corresponding immaterial attainments, and the destruction of the taints requires the full practice of the Noble Eightfold Path up to the path of arahantship.
SUTTA 43
428 Ven. Mahā Koṭṭhita was declared by the Buddha the foremost disciple of those who have attained the analytical knowledges (paṭisambhidā
429 According to MA, the understanding of the Four Noble Truths being discussed here is penetration by the supramundane path. Thus the lowest type of person to be described as “one who is wise” (paññavā) is the person on the path of stream-entry. The rendering of paññā as “wisdom” (which I substituted for Ñm’s “understanding”) has the disadvantage of severing the tie, evident in the Pali, with the verb pajānāti. To preserve the connection, here and in the preceding paragraph, the verb has been rendered “wisely understand.”
430 The Pali phrase defining consciousness uses only the verb, vijānāti vijānāti, and this could as well be understood to mean “One cognizes, one cognizes.” Although Ñm had translated this phrase without any pronoun, the pronoun has been inserted for greater intelligibility. The renderings of the verb definitions of feeling and perception at §7 and §8 have been similarly augmented by the addition of the pronoun.
431 MA: The question concerns the consciousness with which the person described as “one who is wise” examines formations; that is, the consciousness of insight by which that person arrived (at his attainment), the mind which does the work of meditation. Ven. S̄riputta answers by explaining the meditation subject of feeling, in the way it has come down in the Discourse on the Foundations of Mindfulness (MN 10.32). The Pali construction, sukhan ti pi vijānāti, indicates that the feeling is being treated as a direct object of consciousness rather than as an affective tone of the experience; to show this the words “this is” have been supplied in brackets and the entire phrase set in quotation marks.
432 MA: This statement refers to the wisdom and consciousness on the occasions of both insight and the supramundane path. The two are conjoined in that they arise and cease simultaneously and share a single sense base and object. However, the two are not inseparably conjoined since, while wisdom always requires consciousness, consciousness can occur without wisdom.
433 Wisdom, being the path factor of right view, is to be developed as a factor of the path. Consciousness, being included among the five aggregates that pertain to the noble truth of suffering, is to be fully understood—as impermanent, suffering, and not self.