SUTTA 12

[^177]: The Sunakkhatta Sutta (MN 105) had been expounded to him by the Buddha, apparently before he joined the Sangha; the account of his defection is given in the Pätika Sutta (DN 24). He became dissatisfied and left the Order because the Buddha would not perform any miracles for him or explain to him the beginning of things.

[^178]: Superhuman states (uttari manussadhammā) are states, virtues, or attainments higher than the ordinary human virtues comprised in the ten wholesome courses of action (see MN 9.6); they include the jhānas, the kinds of direct knowledge, and the paths and fruits. "Distinction in knowledge and vision worthy of the noble ones" (alamariyañanadassanavisesa), a frequently occurring expression in the suttas, signifies all higher degrees of meditative knowledge characteristic of the noble individual. Here, according to MA, it means specifically the supramundane path, which Sunakkhatta is denying of the Buddha.

[^179]: The gist of his criticism is that the Buddha teaches a doctrine that he has merely worked out in thought rather than one he has realised through transcendental wisdom. Apparently he believes that being led to the complete destruction of suffering is, as a goal, inferior to the acqui- sition of miraculous powers.

[^180]: All the sections to follow are set forth as a rebuttal of Sunakkhatta's criticism of the Buddha. §§6-8 cover the first three of the six direct knowledges (abhin $\bar{n} \bar{a}$ ), the last three appearing as the last of the ten powers of the Tathāgata. The latter, according to MA, are to be understood as powers of knowledge ( $\bar{n} \bar{a} n a b a l a$ ) that are attained by all Buddhas as the fruit of their accumulation of merit. The Vibhanga ( $\S \S 809-31 / 440-51$ ) of the Abhidhamma Pitaka provides an elaborate analysis of them.

[^181]: On the Buddha's sounding of his lion's roar, see SN 22:78/iii.84-86. The Wheel of Brahmā is the supreme, best, most excellent wheel, the Wheel of the Dhamma (dhammacakka) in its twofold meaning: the knowledge penetrating the truth and the knowledge of how to expound the teaching (MA).

[^182]: Vbh §809 explicates this knowledge by quoting at length MN 115.12-17. MA, however, explains it differently as the knowledge of the correlations between causes and their results.

[^183]: This knowledge can be exemplified by the Buddha's analysis of kamma in MN 57, MN 135 and MN 136.

[^184]: This knowledge will be elucidated in §§35-42 below.

[^185]: The Tathāgata's understanding of the many elements constituting the world will be found in MN 115.4-9.

[^186]: Vbh §813 explains that the Tathāgata understands that beings are of inferior inclinations and superior inclinations, and that they gravitate towards those who share their own inclinations.

[^187]: Vbh §§814-27 gives a detailed analysis. MA states the meaning more concisely as the Tathāgata's knowledge of the superiority and inferiority of beings' faculties of faith, energy, mindfulness, concentration, and wisdom.

[^188]: Vbh §828 : The "defilement" (sankilesa) is a state causing deterioration, "cleansing" (vodāna) a state causing excellence, "emergence" (vutṭhāna) is both cleansing and the rising out of an attainment. The eight liberations (vimokkhaā) are enumerated in MN 77.22 and MN 137.26; the nine attainments (samäpatti) are the four jhānas, four immaterial attainments, and the cessation of perception and feeling as in MN 25.12-20.

[^189]: The idiom yathäbhatam̉ nikkhitto evam̉ niraye is knotty; the rendering here follows the commentary: "He will be put in hell as if carried off and put there by the wardens of hell."

[^190]: In later Buddhist tradition the asuras, titans or "anti-gods," are added as a separate realm to make six destinations.

[^191]: Ekanta: may also mean "exclusively" or "incessantly."

[^192]: MA: Even though the description is the same as that of the bliss of the heavenly world, the meaning is different. For the bliss of the heavenly world is not really extremely pleasant because the fevers of lust, etc., are still present there. But the bliss of Nibbāna is extremely pleasant in every way through the subsiding of all fevers.

[^193]: At this juncture, MA informs us, the Buddha related this account of his past ascetic practices because Sunakkhatta was a great admirer of extreme asceticism (as the Pätika Sutta shows) and the Buddha wanted to make it known that there was no one who could equal him in the practice of austerities. The passages to follow should be collated with MN 4.20 and MN 36.20-30 for a fuller picture of the Bodhisatta's experiment with the extreme of self-mortification.

[^194]: The "eight-days interval of frost" refers to a regular cold spell that occurs in northern India in late December or early January.

[^195]: That is, they hold the view that beings are purified by reducing their intake of food.

[^196]: Rebirth into the Pure Abodes (suddhāvāsa) is possible only for non-returners.

[^197]: The Pali for the four terms is: sati, gati, dhiti, paññāveyyattiya. MA explains sati as the ability to grasp in mind a hundred or a thousand phrases as they are being spoken; gati as the ability to bind them and retain them in the mind; dhiti as the ability to recite back what has been grasped and retained; and paññāveyyattiya as the ability to discern the meaning and logic of those phrases.

[^198]: Ven. Nāgasamāla had been a personal attendant of the Buddha during the first twenty years of his ministry.

[^199]: Lomahamsanapariyaya. The sutta is referred to by that name at Miln 398 and in the commentary to the Dīgha Nikāya.