The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha - Bhikkhu Nanamoli [622]
SUTTA 97
898 Sati uttarakaraṇı̄ye. Ven. Sāriputta had left without giving him a teaching that would have enabled him to arrive at the supramundane path and become fixed in destination for enlightenment. Compared to this even rebirth in the Brahma-world is described as “inferior” (hı̄na).
899 This remark has the force of a gentle reproach. The Buddha must have seen that Dhānañjāni had the potential to attain the supramundane path, since elsewhere (e.g., MN 99.24–27) he himself teaches only the way to the Brahma-world when that potential is lacking in his listener.
SUTTA 98
900 The text of this sutta has not been included in the PTS ed. of the Majjhima Nikāya, for the same reason given in n.867. The bracketed page numbers refer to the Anderson-Smith ed. of Sn.
901 Here the word “kamma” has to be understood as present action or deed, and not past action producing its present consequences.
902 Sāmaññā. MA: Among animals the diversity in the shape of their bodily parts is determined by their species (yoni), but that (species differentiation) is not found in the individual bodies of brahmins and other classes of humans. Such being the case, the distinction between brahmins, khattiyas, etc., is purely a verbal designation; it is spoken of as mere conventional expression.
903 MA: Up to this point the Buddha has criticised the assertion of Bhāradvāja that birth makes one a brahmin. Now he will uphold the assertion of Vāseṭṭha that action makes one a brahmin. For the ancient brahmins and other wise ones in the world would not recognise the brahminhood of one defective in livelihood, virtue, and conduct.
904 Bhovādi. Bho, “sir,” was a mode of address used among the brahmins. From this point on the Buddha will identify the true brahmin with the arahant. Verses 27–54 here are identical with Dhp 396–423, except for an additional couplet in Dhp 423.
905 MA: By the present volitional action which accomplishes the work of farming, etc.
906 With this verse the word “kamma” undergoes a shift in meaning signalled by the term “dependent origination.” “Kamma” here no longer means simply present action determining one’s social status, but action in the special sense of a force binding beings to the round of existence. This same line of thought becomes even clearer in the next verse.
907 This verse and the following one again refer to the arahant. Here, however, the contrast is not between the arahant as the one made holy by his actions and the born brahmin unworthy of his designation, but between the arahant as the one liberated from the bondage of action and result and all other beings who remain tied by their actions to the wheel of birth and death.
SUTTA 99
908 Todeyya was a wealthy brahmin, the overlord of Tudigāma, a village near Sāvatthı̄. MN 135 was also spoken to this same Subha.
909 Vibhajjavādo kho aham ettha. Such statements account for the later designation of Buddhism as vibhajjavāda, “the doctrine of analysis.” As the context makes clear, the Buddha calls himself a vibhajjavādin, not because he analyses things into their constituents (as is popularly believed), but because he distinguishes the different implications of a question without answering one-sidedly.
910 Obviously at the time trade was still in an early stage of development. The same statement could hardly be made today!
911 As at MN 95.13.
912 This statement must have been made before Pokkharasāti became a follower of the Buddha, as is mentioned at MN 95.9.
913 Anukampājātika.
914 This knowledge pertains to the third of the Tathāgata’s powers, knowing the ways to all destinations. See MN 12.12.
915 MA explains limiting action (pam̄ṇakataṁ kammaṁ) as kamma pertaining to the sense sphere (kāmāvacara). It is contrasted with a limitless or immeasurable action, namely, the jhānas pertaining to the fine-material sphere or the immaterial sphere. In this case the brahmavihāras developed to the jhānic level are intended. When a jhāna pertaining