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569 MA: Killing and taking what is not given are to be abandoned by bodily virtue; false speech and malicious speech, by verbal virtue; rapacious greed, angry despair, and arrogance, by mental virtue. Spiteful scolding (which can include violent reprisals) is to be abandoned by both bodily and verbal virtue.

570 These similes for the dangers in sensual pleasures are alluded to at MN 22.3, though this sutta does not elaborate on the last three similes mentioned there.

571 According to MA, the “equanimity that is based on diversity” is equanimity (i.e., apathy, indifference) related to the five cords of sensual pleasure; the “equanimity that is based on unity” is the equanimity of the fourth jhāna.

572 In Ms, Ñm had followed the gloss of MA in rendering ̄j̄nı̄ya as “those who know” (taking the word as derived from ājānāti); it seems far preferable, however, to understand the word here as “thoroughbred.” See MN 65.32 for assājānı̄ya, “thoroughbred colt,” and for purisājānı̄ya, “thoroughbred man” (i.e., an arahant), see AN 9:10/v, 324.

SUTTA 55

573 Jı̄vaka was the abandoned child of a courtesan. Discovered and raised by Prince Abhaya, he studied medicine at Takkasilā and was later appointed the personal physician of the Buddha. He became a stream-enterer after hearing the Buddha teach the Dhamma.

574 This passage states clearly and explicitly the regulations on meat-eating laid down by the Buddha for the Sangha. It will be noted that the Buddha does not require the bhikkhus to observe a vegetarian diet, but permits them to consume meat when they are confident that the animal has not been slaughtered especially to provide them with food. Such meat is called tikoṭiparisuddha, “pure in three aspects,” because it is not seen, heard, or suspected to come from an animal killed specifically for the bhikkhu. The lay Buddhist’s precept of abstaining from the taking of life would prohibit him from killing for his food, but does not proscribe purchasing meat prepared from animals already dead. For more on this issue see Vin Mv Kh 6/i.237–38, and I.B. Horner, Early Buddhism and the Taking of Life, pp. 20–26.

575 Here the Buddha shows that he does not merely abide in loving-kindness by suppressing his ill will with jhāna based on loving-kindness, as the divinity Brahmā does, but has eradicated the roots of ill will through his attainment of arahantship.

576 Cruelty, discontent, and aversion (vihesā, arati, paṭigha) are the opposites of compassion, altruistic joy, and equanimity respectively.

577 It is puzzling that Jı̄vaka here declares himself a lay follower as if for the first time when he had already been established in stream-entry. Perhaps this formula was used as a means of reaffirming one’s dedication to the Triple Gem and was not restricted to an initial profession of going for refuge.

SUTTA 56

578 This means “Tall Ascetic,” a name given to him because of his height.

579 Daṇḍa, originally a stick or staff, acquires the meaning of rod as an instrument of punishment, and subsequently comes to mean punishment or infliction itself, even without reference to an instrument. Its use here suggests that the Jains regarded bodily, verbal, and mental activity as instruments by which the individual torments himself by prolonging his bondage in saṁsāra and torments others by causing them harm.

580 MA: The Niga˚ṭhas held that the first two “rods” create kamma independently of the involvement of the mind (acittaka) just as, when the wind blows, the branches sway and the leaves rustle without any initiative of mind.

581 The Buddha may have said this because in his teaching volition (cetanā), a mental factor, is the essential ingredient of kamma, and in its absence—that is, in the case of unintentional bodily or verbal activity—no kamma is created. MA, however, maintains that the Buddha said this referring to wrong view with fixed consequences (niyatā micchā diṭṭhi), and it quotes in support AN 1:18.3/i.33: