The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha - Bhikkhu Nanamoli [640]
SUTTA 127
1180 Appamāṇā cetovimutti, mahaggatā cetovimutti. At MN 43.31, as here, the immeasurable deliverance of mind is explained as the four brahmavihāras. Since the formula for each brahmavihāra includes the word “exalted,” Pañcakanga was apparently misled into supposing that the two deliverances were the same in meaning.
1181 MA: He covers an area the size of one tree root with his kasi˚a sign, and he abides resolved upon that kasi˚a sign, pervading it with the exalted jhāna. The same method of explanation applies to the following cases.
1182 MA: This teaching is undertaken to show the kinds of rebirth that result from the attainment of the exalted deliverance.
1183 MA explains that there are no separate realms of gods called those of “Defiled Radiance” and those of “Pure Radiance.” Both are subdivisions within the two realms—the gods of Limited Radiance and the gods of Immeasurable Radiance. Rebirth among the gods of Limited Radiance is determined by the attainment of the (second) jhāna with a limited kasi˚asign, rebirth among the gods of Immeasurable Radiance by the attainment of the same jhāna with an extended kasi˚a sign. Rebirth with defiled radiance is for those who have not mastered the jhāna and purified it of obstructive states; rebirth with pure radiance is for those who have acquired this mastery and purification.
1184 A pun is involved here. In Pali the verb jhāyati means both to burn and to meditate, though the two meanings are derived from different Sanskrit verbs: kshāyati is to burn, dhyāyati to meditate.
1185 Abhiya’s words, it seems, are discourteous because they inquire very bluntly into the personal experience of Ven. Anuruddha. MA says that while fulfilling the perfections (pāramı̄s) in past lives, Anuruddha had gone forth as a recluse, reached the meditative attainments, and passed three hundred existences without interruption in the Brahma-world. Hence his reply.
SUTTA 128
1186 The opening of this sutta is the same as that of MN 48.
1187 This verse and the three to follow are also at Dhp 3–6. The last three verses are at Dhp 328–30.
1188 The passage at §§8–15 is nearly identical with MN 31.3–10. From the sequel, however, it is clear that the present sutta is set at an earlier time, for in MN 31 all three bhikkhus have reached arahantship while here they are still striving for the goal.
1189 It is here that the present sutta continues differently from MN 31. MA explains light (obh̄sa) as the preliminary light, which Ṃ glosses as the light produced by the access to jhāna. Ṃ adds that one who gains the fourth jhāna develops the light-kasi˚a as the preliminary to arousing the divine eye. The “vision of forms” (dassanȧ rūpānaṁ) is the seeing of forms with the divine eye. Ven. Anuruddha was later declared by the Buddha to be the foremost disciple in the exercise of the divine eye.
1190 Nimittaṁ paṭivijjhitabbaāṁ Lit. “You should penetrate that sign.”
1191 See MN 52.15.
1192 MA paraphrases: “While I was attending to a single type of form, longing arose. Thinking ‘I will attend to different kinds of forms,’ sometimes I directed my attention towards the heavenly world, sometimes towards the human world. As I attended to different kinds of forms, perception of diversity arose in me.”
1193 Atinijjhāyitattaṁ rūpānaṁ. MA: “When perception of diversity arose, I thought I would attend to one type of form, whether agreeable or disagreeable. As I did so, excessive meditation upon forms arose in me.”
1194 Cittassa upakkileso. The same term is used at MN 7.3, though here it means imperfections in the development of concentration. Hence the expression has been rendered slightly differently in the two cases.
1195 The “three ways” seem to be the first three types of concentration mentioned in the next paragraph, also spoken of as a triad at DN 33.1.10/iii.219. Of these,