The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha - Bhikkhu Nanamoli [632]
1066 MA explains “non-identification” (atammayat̄, lit. “not consisting of that”) as the absence of craving. However, the context suggests that the absence of conceit may be the meaning. The statement “for in whatever way they conceive, the fact is ever other than that” (yena yena hi maññanti tato taṁ hoti aññathā) is a philosophical riddle appearing also at Sn 588, Sn 757, and Ud 3:10. Though MA is silent, the Ud̄na commentary (to Ud 3:10) explains it to mean that in whatever way worldly people conceive any of the five aggregates—as self or self’s belonging, etc.—the thing conceived turns out to be other than the aspect ascribed to it: it is not self or self’s belonging, not “I” or “mine.”
1067 It should be noted that there is no passage on the untrue man entering the cessation of perception and feeling. Unlike the jhānas and immaterial attainments, which can be attained by worldlings, cessation is the domain exclusively of non-returners and arahants.
1068 Na kiñci maññati, na kuhiñci maññati, na kenaci maññati. This is a brief statement of the same situation described in full at MN 1.51–146. On “conceiving” see n.6
SUTTA 114
1069 This first paragraph offers merely a “table of contents,” to be elaborated in the body of the sutta.
1070 Aññamaññaṁ. MA: The two are mutually exclusive, and there is no way by which the one can be regarded as the other.
1071 Although wrong view and right view are usually included under mental conduct, in this sutta they are shown separately in §10 as “the acquisition of view.”
1072 Whereas the covetousness and ill will described in §7 possess the strength of a full course of action (kamma-patha ), in this section on inclination of mind (cittuppāda) they are shown in their nascent stage as mere dispositions that have not yet erupted into obsessive volitions.
1073 “Acquisition of individuality” (attabh̄vapaṭil̄bha) here refers to mode of rebirth.
1074 Apariniṭṭ̣hitabhāvāya. The expression may be unique to this sutta. MA glosses it with bhavānaṁ Apariniṭṭ̣hitabhāvāya and explains: There are four modes of individual existence “subject to affliction” (sabyājjhattabhāvā). The first is the worldling who is unable to reach the consummation of existence in that particular life; for him, from the time of rebirth on, unwholesome states increase and wholesome states diminish, and he generates an individuality accompanied by suffering. So too the stream-enterer, once-returner, and non-returner. Even non-returners still have not abandoned craving for being, and thus have not reached consummation. The individuals [mentioned just below in the text] who acquire individual existence “free from affliction” (sabyājjhattabhāvā) are the same four when they enter the final existence in which they are to attain arahantship. Even the worldling in his last existence is able to consummate existence, like the serial killer Angulimāla. Their existence is said to be free from affliction, and they are said to reach consummation.
1075 MA points out that the clause “Forms are either the one or the other” is not used here because the distinction does not lie in the object but in the approach to it. For one person lust and other defilements arise towards a particular form, but another person develops dispassion and detachment in regard to the same form.
1076 MA says that those who study the text and commentary to this sutta without practising in accordance with it cannot be said to “understand the detailed meaning.” Only those who practise accordingly can be so described.
SUTTA 115
1077 The eighteen elements are defined at Vbh §§183–84/ 87–90 and are explained in detail at Vsm XV, 17–43. Briefly, the mind element (manodhātu), according to the Abhidhamma, includes the consciousness that adverts to the five sense objects impinging on the five sense faculties (pañcadvārāvajjana-citta) and the consciousness