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sensual pleasure is the preliminary step for developing the jhānas, and the abandoning of the five hindrances (§10) the immediate antecedent to the attainment of the first jhāna. The full understanding of the five aggregates (§11) indicates the insight wisdom necessary to attain the path of stream-entry, and the sections on the thirty-seven aids to enlightenment (§§12–18) the cultivation of the factors needed to arrive at the intermediate stages of sanctity. The section on serenity and insight (§19), though applicable to all stages, can be seen as fully actualised by the non-returner striving for arahantship. Finally, the section on true knowledge and deliverance signifies the attainment of the path and fruit of arahantship.

1351 Although the arahant, who has fully realised true knowledge and deliverance, has no need for further training, he continues to cultivate serenity and insight in order to enter into the bliss of the jhānas, the fruition attainment of arahantship, and the cessation of perception and feeling.

SUTTA 152

1352 The expression “the development of the faculties” (indriyabhāvanā) properly signifies the development of the mind in responding to the objects experienced through the sense faculties. The more rudimentary aspect of this practice, the restraint of the sense faculties (indriyasaṁvara ), involves controlling the mind in such a way that one does not grasp at the “signs and features” of things, their distinctive attractive and repulsive attributes. The development of the faculties carries this process of control through to the point where, by an act of will, one can immediately set up insight even in the course of sense perception. At the highest level one acquires the ability to radically transform the subjective significance of perceptual objects themselves, making them appear in a mode that is the very opposite of the way they are normally apprehended.

1353 MA explains that when a desirable form comes into range of the eye, an agreeable state (manāpa) arises; when an undesirable form appears, a disagreeable state (amanāpa) arises; and when an indifferent form appears, a state that is both agreeable and disagreeable arises. It should be noted that though these three terms are ordinarily used to qualify the sense objects, here they also seem to signify subtle states of liking, aversion, and dull indifference that arise due to the influence of the underlying tendencies. MṬ identifies “the agreeable” with wholesome and unwholesome states of mind associated with joy, “the disagreeable” with unwholesome states of mind associated with grief (displeasure), and “the agreeable and disagreeable” with states of mind associated with equanimous feeling.

1354 MA: This equanimity is the equanimity of insight (vipassan’upekkhā ). The bhikkhu does not allow his mind to be overcome by lust, hate, or delusion, but comprehends the object and sets up insight in the neutral state. MṬ explains this to mean that he enters into equanimity regarding formations (sankhār’upekkhā), a particular stage of insight knowledge (see Vsm XXI, 61–66).

1355 MṬ: The noble development of the faculties is the suppression of lust, etc., arisen through the eye, and the establishment of the equanimity of insight.

1356 The same simile appears at MN 66.16.

1357 Although the sekha has already entered upon the way to final deliverance, he is still prone to subtle states of liking, aversion, and dull indifference in regard to sense objects. He experiences these, however, as impediments to his progress, and thus becomes repelled, humiliated, and disgusted by them.

1358 Ariya bhāvitindriya: the arahant is meant.

1359 Since the arahant has eradicated all the defilements along with their underlying tendencies, in this passage the three terms—the agreeable, etc.—must be understood simply as the feelings that arise through contact with sense objects, and not as the subtle traces of liking, aversion, and indifference relevant to the preceding passage.

1360 The Paṭisambhidāmagga calls this practice “the noble