[^166]: The phrase "only here" means only in the Buddha's Dispensation. The four recluses (samana) referred to are the four grades of noble disciples - the stream-enterer, once-returner, non-returner, and arahant. A "lion's roar" (sthanäda), according to MA, is a roar of supremacy and fearlessness, a roar that cannot be confuted. In connection with the Buddha's proclamation, see also his discussion with Subhadda in the Mahāparinibbāna Sutta (DN 16:5.27/ii.151-52).

[^167]: MA: Even though the adherents of other sects all declare arahantship - understood in a general way as spiritual perfection - to be the goal, they point out other attainments as the goal in accordance with their views. Thus the brahmins declare the Brahma-world to be the goal, the ascetics declare the gods of Streaming Radiance, the wanderers the gods of Refulgent Glory, and the Ājivakas the non-percipient state, which they imagine to be "infinite mind."

[^168]: "Favouring and opposing" (anurodhapativirodha) means reacting with attraction through lust and with aversion through hate.

[^169]: Proliferation (papañca), according to MA, is here mental activity governed by craving and views. For more on this important term, see n. 229.

[^170]: The view of being (bhavaditthi) is eternalism, the belief in an eternal self; the view of non-being (vibhavaditthi) is annihilationism, the denial of any principle of continuity as a basis for rebirth and kammic retribution. The adoption of one view entailing opposition to the other ties up with the earlier statement that the goal is for one who does not favour and oppose.

[^171]: As the origin (samudaya) of these views, MA mentions eight conditions: the five aggregates, ignorance, contact, perception, thought, unwise attention, bad friends, and the voice of another. Their disappearance (atthangama) is the path of stream-entry, which eradicates all wrong views. Their gratification (assäda) may be understood as the satisfaction of psychological need that they provide; their danger (ädīnava) is the continual bondage that they entail; the escape (nissarana) from them is Nibbāna.

[^172]: MA glosses full understanding (pariññā) here as overcoming, transcending (samatikkama), with reference to the commentarial notion of pahānapariñña, "full understanding as abandonment." See n. 7 .

[^173]: This passage clearly states that the critical factor differentiating the Buddha's teaching from all other religious and philosophical creeds is its "full understanding of clinging to a doctrine of self." This means, in effect, that the Buddha alone is able to show how to overcome all views of self by developing penetration of the truth of non-self. Since the other spiritual teachers lack this understanding of non-self, their claims to fully understand the three other kinds of clinging are also suspect.

[^174]: MA: That is, the Buddha teaches how clinging to sense pleasures (understood as comprising all forms of greed, MT) is abandoned by the path of arahantship, the other three clingings by the path of stream-entry.

[^175]: This passage is stated to show how clinging is to be aban- doned. Clinging is traced back to its root-cause in ignorance, and then the destruction of ignorance is shown to be the means to eradicate clinging.

[^176]: The Pali idiom, n'eva kämupädānam upadiyati, would have to be rendered literally as "he does not cling to the clinging to sense pleasures," which may obscure the sense rather than convey it. Upädana in Pali is the object of its own verb form, while "clinging" in English is not. At one stage in his translation Nim tried to circumvent this problem by borrowing the word upädana's other meaning of "fuel" and translating: "he no longer clings to sensual desires [as fuel for] clinging." This, however, also borders on obscurity, and I have therefore attempted to cut through the difficulty by translating directly in accordance with the sense rather than in conformity with the literal idiom.