The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha - Bhikkhu Nanamoli [641]
1196 MA: The concentration with rapture is the two lower jhānas; without rapture, the two higher jhānas; accompanied by enjoyment (s̄ta), the three lower jh̄nas; accompanied by equanimity, the fourth jhāna. PTS omits sātasahagato pi samādhi bhāvito ahosi, found in the other eds.
1197 MA says that the Buddha developed these concentrations in the last watch of the night on the night of his enlightenment while sitting at the foot of the Bodhi tree.
SUTTA 129
1198 As at MN 13.14.
1199 The following simile is employed at SN 12:63/ii.100 to illustrate the nutriment of consciousness (viññāṇāhāra).
1200 And he will—at MN 130.17–27.
1201 MA: That is, the fool engages in the three types of misconduct, because of which he is reborn in hell. By the residue of that kamma, when he comes back to the human state he is reborn in a low family. Having again engaged in the three types of misconduct, he is again reborn in hell.
1202 Although the Pali does not contain the negative particle na, it seems to be required here to yield the intended meaning, and it does appear in the parallel clauses of the following paragraph.
1203 See MN 91.5. The legend of the Wheel-turning Monarch is treated more extensively in DN 17 and DN 26.
1204 See n.809.
1205 MA: That is, the wise man engages in the three types of good conduct, because of which he is reborn in heaven. Returning to the human world, he is reborn in a good family with wealth and beauty. He engages in the three types of good conduct and is again reborn in heaven. It should be noted that the “complete perfection of the wise man’s grade” is entirely mundane and takes no account of the more excellent stages along the path to liberation.
SUTTA 130
1206 Yama is the god of death. MA says that he is a king of spirits possessing a celestial mansion. Sometimes he lives in his celestial mansion enjoying celestial pleasures, sometimes he experiences the result of kamma; he is a righteous king. MA adds that there are in fact four Yamas, one at each of four gates (of hell?).
1207 According to Buddhist legend, three of the divine messengers—the old man, the sick man, and the dead man—appeared to the Bodhisatta while he was living in the palace, destroying his enchantment with the worldly life and awakening in him a desire to seek the way to deliverance. See AN 3:38/i.145–46 for the psychological nucleus out of which the legend must have developed.
1208 The following description of hell, down to §16, is also found at MN 129.10–16.
SUTTA 131
1209 This discourse with a lengthy introduction and notes is available separately in a translation by Bhikkhu Ñā˚ananda under the title Ideal Solitude.
1210 In the first edition I followed Ñm in rendering bhaddekaratta as “one fortunate attachment.” At the suggestion of Ven. Thānissaro Bhikkhu, however, I have changed it to “a single excellent night,” which seems more likely to be correct. Ratta and ratti could be taken to represent respectively either Skt rātra and rātri (= night) or Skt rakta and rakti (= attachment). Ñm had taken the words in the latter sense, but the fact that neither MA nor Ṃ glosses ratta implies that “night” is intended; for if the word were used to mean attachment, an unwholesome state in typical Buddhist discourse, some commentarial clarification would surely have been offered. The Central Asian Skt version, the Skt title at the head of the Tibetan version, and the Tibetan translation itself all use bhadrakarātri . This confirms the identification of ratta with “night”; the change from -e- to -a- can be understood as an attempt to convert