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776 MA: As far as the path of arahantship he is said to be practising for their cessation; when he has attained the fruit of arahantship they are said to have ceased.

777 MA: This refers to the first jhāna pertaining to the fruit of non-returning. The path of non-returning eradicates sensual desire and ill will, and thus prevents any future arising of the three unwholesome intentions—those of sensual desire, ill will, and cruelty.

778 MA: As far as the path of non-returning he is said to be practising for their cessation; when he has attained the fruit of non-returning they are said to have ceased.

779 MA: This refers to the second jhāna pertaining to the fruit of arahantship.

780 MA: As far as the path of arahantship he is said to be practising for their cessation; when he has obtained the fruit of arahantship they are said to have ceased. The virtuous intentions of the arahant are not described as “wholesome.”

781 See MN 65.34.

SUTTA 79

782 See n.408.

783 Evaṁvaṇṇo attā hoti arogo param maraṇā. The word arogo, normally meaning healthy, here should be understood to mean permanent. MA says that he speaks with reference to rebirth in the heavenly world of Refulgent Glory, the objective counterpart of the third jhāna, of which he has heard without actually attaining it. His view would seem to fall into the class described at MN 102.3.

784 Previous translators seem to have been perplexed by the verb anassāma. Thus Ñm in Ms renders the line: “We don’t renounce our teachers’ doctrines for this reason.” And Horner: “We have heard to here from our own teachers.” But anassāma is a first-person plural aorist of nassati, “to perish, to be lost.” The same form occurs at MN 27.7. MA explains that they knew that in the past meditators would do the preparatory work on the kasi˚a, attain the third jhāna, and be reborn in the world of Refulgent Glory. But as time went on, the preparatory work on the kasi˚a was no longer understood and meditators were not able to attain the third jhāna. The wanderers only learned that “an entirely pleasant world” exists and that the five qualities mentioned at §21 were the “practical way” to it. They knew of no entirely pleasant world higher than the third jhāna, and of no practical way higher than the five qualities.

785 MA: Having attained the fourth jhāna, by supernormal power he goes to the world of Refulgent Glory and converses with the deities there.

786 MA explains that in a previous life, as a monk during the time of the Buddha Kassapa, he had persuaded another monk to return to lay life in order to gain his robes and bowl, and this obstructive kamma prevented him from going forth under the Buddha in this life. But the Buddha taught him two long suttas to provide him with a condition for future attainment. During the reign of King Asoka he attained arahantship as the Elder Assagutta, who excelled in the practice of loving-kindness.

SUTTA 80

787 MA identifies Vekhanassa as Sakuludāyin’s teacher.

788 MA: Even though he was a wanderer, he was keenly intent on sensual pleasures. The Buddha undertook this teaching in order to make him recognise his strong concern with sensual pleasures, and thus the discourse would be beneficial to him.

789 In the Pali this sentence takes the form of a riddle, and the translation here is conjectural. MA explains that the “pleasure at the peak of the sensual” (or “the highest sensual pleasure,” kāmaggasukhaṁ) is Nibbāna.

SUTTA 81

790 At the end of this sutta the Buddha will state that at that time he himself was Jotipāla. At SN 1:50/i,35–36 the deity Ghaṭı̄kāra visits the Buddha Gotama and recalls their ancient friendship.

791 This seems to have been a common pejorative expression used by the brahmin householders with reference to those who led a full-time renunciate life, contrary to their own ideal of maintaining the family lineage.

792 In the East it is considered, under normal circumstances, a serious breach of etiquette for one of lower