The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha - Bhikkhu Nanamoli [601]
582 As at MN 35.5.
583 The parenthetical additions in the previous paragraph, inserted by Ñm, are supplied from MA. Ñm, in Ms, sums up the argument thus: The Niga˚ṭhas are not allowed to use cold water (because they regard it as containing living beings). By his bodily and verbal refusal of cold water he has kept his bodily and verbal conduct pure, but if he longs in his mind for cold water his mental conduct is impure, and thus he is reborn among the “mind-bound gods” (manosattā devā).
584 At §15 Upāli admits that at this point he had already acquired confidence in the Buddha. However, he continued to oppose him because he wished to hear the Buddha’s varied solutions to the problem.
585 This statement, at DN 2.29/i.57, is ascribed to the Niga˚ṭha Nātaputta himself as a formulation of the Jain doctrine. Ñm points out in Ms that it may involve a pun on the word vāri, which can mean both “water” and “curb” (from vāreti, to ward off). In my translation of the Sāmaññaphala Sutta, The Discourse on the Fruits of Recluseship , p. 24, I render it based on the Dı̄gha commentary as follows: “A Niga˚ṭha is restrained with regard to all water; he is endowed with the avoidance of all evil; he is cleansed by the avoidance of all evil; he is suffused with the avoidance of all evil.” Though the statement conveys a concern for moral purity, the tone is decidedly different from that of the Buddha’s teachings.
586 The Buddha points to a contradiction between the Jain thesis that, even in the absence of volition, the “bodily rod” is the most reprehensible of all, and their assertion that the presence of volition significantly alters the moral character of an action.
587 See Jāt iii.463, v.133ff., 267; v.144; vi.389, v.267; v.114, 267; Miln 130.
588 MA: Vision of the Dhamma (dhammacakkhu) is the path of stream-entry. The phrase “All that is subject to arising is subject to cessation” shows the mode in which the path arises. The path takes cessation (Nibbāna) as its object, but its function is to penetrate all conditioned states as subject to arising and cessation.
589 The “Dhamma” referred to here is the Four Noble Truths. Having seen these truths for himself, he has cut off the fetter of doubt and now possesses the “view that is noble and emancipating and (which) leads the one who practises in accordance with it to the complete destruction of suffering” (MN 48.7).
590 MA: Upāli says this referring to the path of stream-entry he had penetrated earlier.
591 See MN 16.3–7.
592 PTS and SBJ read vessantarassa; the BBS ed. of text and MA read vesamantarassa; Ṃ supports the former reading. MA explains: “He has transcended the unrighteous state (visama) of lust, etc.”
593 Monapattassa. The “silence” is wisdom, related to muni, silent sage.
594 The “banner” is the conceit “I am.” See MN 22.35.
595 Nippapañcassa. See n.229.
596 Isisattamassa. MA interprets this to mean “the seventh seer”—in line with the brahmanic conception of the seven rishis—and takes it as referring to Gotama’s status as the seventh Buddha since Vipassı̄ (see DN 14.1.4/ii.2). It is more probable, however, that sattama here is the superlative of sad, and thus that the compound means “the best of seers.” The expression isisattama occurs at Sn 356, and the commentary to that verse allows both interpretations, offering uttama as a gloss on sattama.
597 This refers to the absence of attachment and repulsion.
598 Ñm translates from a Siamese v.l. appabhı̄tassa, pointing out that PTS’s appahı̄nassa does not make good sense here.
599 MA: A heavy sorrow arose in him because of the loss of his lay supporter, and this produced a bodily disorder that resulted in his vomiting hot blood. After vomiting hot blood, few beings can survive. Thus they brought him to Pāvā on a litter, and shortly thereafter he passed away.
SUTTA 57
600 MA: Pu˚˚a wore horns on his