The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha - Bhikkhu Nanamoli [642]
Apart from this series of suttas, the expression bhaddekaratta does not occcur elsewhere in the Pali Canon. MA merely says: “‘A single-excellent-nighter’ is one with a single night who is excellent because of possessing application to insight” (bhaddekarattassā ti vipassanāyogasamannāgatattā bhaddekassa ekarattassa). Ṃ simply gives word resolutions (ek̄ ratti ekaratto; bhaddo ekaratto etassā ti bhaddekarattaṁ) and says this refers to a person cultivating insight. As the verse emphasises the urgent need to conquer death by developing insight, the title probably describes a meditator who has had a single excellent night (and day) devoted to practising insight meditation “invincibly, unshakeably.” Ñm says in Ms: “It might be supposed that the expression ‘bhaddekaratta’ was a popular phrase taken over by the Buddha and given a special sense by him, as was not infrequently done, but there seems to be no reason to do so and there is no evidence for it in this case. It is more likely to be a term coined by the Buddha himself to describe a certain aspect of development.”
1211 More literally the first two lines would be translated: “Let not a person run back to the past or live in expectation of the future.” The meaning will be elucidated in the expository passage of the sutta.
1212 MA: He should contemplate each presently arisen state, just where it has arisen, by way of the seven contemplations of insight (insight into impermanence, suffering, non-self, disenchantment, dispassion, cessation, relinquishment).
1213 Asaṁhı̄raṁ asankuppaṁ. MA explains that this is said for the purpose of showing insight and counter-insight (see n.1143); for insight is “invincible, unshakeable” because it is not vanquished or shaken by lust and other defilements. Elsewhere the expression “the invincible, the unshakeable” is used as a description of Nibbāna (e.g., Sn v.1149) or of the liberated mind (e.g., Thag v.649), but here it seems to refer to a stage in the development of insight. The recurrence of the verb form saṁhı̄rati in §8 and §9 suggests that the intended meaning is contemplation of the present moment without being misled into the adoption of a view of self.
1214 The “Peaceful Sage” (santo muni) is the Buddha.
1215 MA: One “finds delight” by bringing to bear upon the past either craving or a view associated with craving. It should be noted that it is not the mere recollection of the past through memory that causes bondage, but the reliving of past experiences with thoughts of craving. In this respect the Buddha’s teaching differs significantly from that of Krishnamurti, who seems to regard memory itself as the villain behind the scene.
1216 The syntax of the Pali allows this sentence to be inter-preted in two ways, as stating either that one thinks, “I had such form in the past,” yet does not find delight in that thought; or that one does not find delight in the past by thinking such a thought. Horner, Ñā˚ananda (in Ideal Solitude), and Ñm (in Ms) construe the sentence in the former way; I had preserved Ñm’s rendering in the first edition. On reconsideration, I now believe that the second interpretation is more true to the intention of the text. This also ties in better with the stanzas themselves, which enjoin the disciple not to dwell in the past and the future but to contemplate “each presently arisen state” just as it presents itself.
1217 In the first edition, this sentence was rendered: “Thinking, ‘I may have such material form in the future,’ one finds delight in that.” In retrospect, it now seems to me more likely that the sentence expresses an exclamatory wish for the future.
1218 The verb here and in the next paragraph, saṁhı̄rati, refers back to the line in the verse, “invincibly, unshakeably.” MA glosses: “One is dragged along by craving and views because of the lack of insight.”