SUTTA 23

[^275]: Ven. Kumāra Kassapa was an adopted son of King Pasenadi of Kosala, born of a woman who, not knowing she was pregnant, had gone forth as a bhikkhuni after having conceived him. At the time this sutta was delivered he was still a sekha; he attained arahantship using this sutta as his subject of meditation.

[^276]: According to MA, this deity was a non-returner living in the Pure Abodes. He and Kumāra Kassapa had been members of a group of five fellow monks who, in the Dispensation of the previous Buddha Kassapa, had practised meditation together on a mountain-top. It was this same deity who spurred Bāhiya Dāruciriya, another former member of the group, to visit the Buddha (see Ud §1: 10 / 7$ ).

[^277]: The meaning of the deities' imagery will be explained later on in the sutta itself.

[^278]: Kummāsa: The Vinaya and commentaries explain it as something made of yava, barley. Nim had translated the word as bread, but from MN 82.18 it is clear that kummāsa is viscous and spoils overnight. PED defines it as junket; Horner translates as "sour milk."

[^279]: MA: Just as a bar across the entrance to a city prevents people from entering it, so ignorance prevents people from attaining Nibbāna.

[^280]: Dvedhāpatha might also have been rendered "a forked path," an obvious symbol for doubt.

[^281]: MA states that the four feet and head of a tortoise are similar to the five aggregates.

[^282]: MA: the axe and block (asisūna, at MN 22.3 rendered "slaughterhouse") are used for chopping meat. Similarly, beings desiring sensual enjoyments are chopped up by the axe of sensual desires upon the block of sense objects.

[^283]: The symbolism is explicated at MN 54.16.

[^284]: This is an arahant. For the symbolism, see n. 75.