The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha - Bhikkhu Nanamoli [649]
1296 This is a non-Buddhist contemplative who attains the jhānas and the mundane kinds of direct knowledge.
1297 MA: In a hundred existences it gives long life, beauty, happiness, strength, and intelligence, and it makes one free of agitation. The following attainments should be understood accordingly.
1298 MA says that although the results of giving in each of these cases is incalculable, there is still an ascending gradation in their incalculability, similar to the ascending incalculability of the waters in a great river, etc., up to that of the waters in the ocean. Perhaps the “incalculable, immeasurable” value of these gifts consists in their becoming a supporting condition for attainment of the paths, fruits, and Nibbāna.
1299 MA: There is no gift equal in measure to this gift. This is the kind of gift Mahāpajāpatı̄ would be giving by offering the pair of cloths to the Sangha.
1300 MA: “Members of the clan” (gotrabhuno) are those who are monks merely in name. They will go about with a piece of yellow cloth tied around their necks or arms, and will support their wives and children by engaging in trade and farming, etc.
1301 The gift is incalculable and immeasurable in value because it is offered, by way of the intention of the donor, not to the “ yellow - necks ” as individuals but to the Sangha as a corporate whole. Thus the recipient body includes all the virtuous bhikkhus of the past, even those who have long passed away.
1302 MA states that a gift offered to an immoral bhikkhu taken to represent the entire Sangha is more fruitful than a gift offered on a personal basis to an arahant. But for the gift to be properly presented to the Sangha, the donor must take no account of the personal qualities of the recipient but must see him solely as representing the Sangha as a whole.
1303 MA: Here the word “purified” has the meaning “made fruitful.”
1304 MA: This last verse refers to the gift one arahant gives to another arahant. Although the arahant believes in the fruit of kamma, because he is without desire and lust for existence his own act of giving is not productive of any fruits. It is a mere functional action (kiriya) that leaves no traces behind.
SUTTA 143
1305 MA says that clinging to the eye takes place by way of desire and lust; consciousness is dependent on the eye by way of craving and views. However, since Anā tha - pi˚ḍika was already a stream-enterer, dependence for him would have involved only craving, views having been eradicated by the path of stream-entry.
1306 This statement does not imply that there is any inherent exclusiveness or arbitrary discrimination in the Buddha’s way of presenting his teaching. But as those who remain in lay life must look after their families, possessions, and occupations, such talk leading to complete detachment would not have been appropriate for them.
SUTTA 144
1307 This is an elliptical expression for committing suicide.
1308 By making this statement he is implicitly claiming arahantship, as will be made clear at §13. Whether his claim at this point was valid or not is uncertain, the commentary regarding it as a case of self-overestimation.
1309 MA says that Ven. Mahā Cunda gave him this instruction thinking that he must still be an ordinary person, since he could not endure the deadly pains and wanted to commit suicide.
1310 The sense of this instruction might be explained with the help of MA thus: One is dependent because of craving and views and becomes independent by abandoning them with the attainment of arahantship. Bias (nati, lit. bending) comes about through craving, and its absence means there is no inclination or desire for existence. There is no coming and going by the ending of rebirth and death, no here nor beyond nor in between by the transcendence of this world, the world beyond, and the passage between one and the other. This is the end of the suffering of defilements