SUTTA 24

[^285]: The parenthetical specification is supplied from MA. The Buddha's native land is Kapilavatthu, at the foot of the Himalayas.

[^286]: The last five items form a set called the five aggregates of Dhamma (dhammakkhandhā). "Deliverance" is identified with the noble fruits, "the knowledge and vision of deliverance" with reviewing knowledge.

[^287]: Ven. Puṇṇa Mantāṇiputta belonged to a brahmin family and was ordained by Ven. Añña Kondañña at Kapilavatthu, where he continued to reside until he decided to visit the Buddha at Sāvatthī. He was later declared by the Buddha the most eminent bhikkhu among the preachers of the Dhamma.

[^288]: Although these seven purifications (satta visualdhi) are mentioned elsewhere in the Pali Canon (at DN iii.288, with two added: purification by wisdom and purification by deliverance), it is curious that they are not analysed as a set anywhere in the Nikāyas; and this becomes even more puzzling when both these great disciples seem to recognise them as a fixed group of doctrinal categories. The sevenfold scheme forms, however, the scaffolding for the entire Visuddhimagga, which defines the different stages by means of the fully developed commentarial traditions on concentration and insight meditation. In brief, "purification of virtue" (stlavisuddhi) is the unbroken adherence to the moral precepts one has undertaken, explained by Vsm with reference to the moral training of a bhikkhu as the "fourfold purification of virtue." "Purification of mind" (cittavisuddhi) is the overcoming of the five hindrances through the attainment of access concentration and the jhānas. "Purification of view" (ditthivisuddhi) is the understanding that defines the nature of the five aggregates constituting a living being. "Purification by overcoming doubt" (kankhāvitaranavisuddhi) is the understanding of conditionality. "Purification by knowledge and vision of what is the path and what is not the path" (maggämaggañānadassanavisuddhi) is the correct discrimination between the false path of the ecstatic, exhilarating experiences and the true path of insight into impermanence, suffering, and not self. "Purification by knowledge and vision of the way" (patipadā̄anadassanavisuddhi) comprises the ascending series of insight knowledges up to the supramundane paths. And "purification by knowledge and vision" (ñānadassanavisuddhi) is the supramundane paths.

[^289]: MA glosses anupädānaparinibbāna as appaccayaparinibbāna, "final Nibbāna that has no condition," explaining that upädāna has two meanings: grasping (gahana), as in the usual passage on the four types of clinging; and condition (paccaya), as illustrated by this passage. The commentators explain "final Nibbāna without clinging" either as the fruit of arahantship, because it cannot be grasped by any of the four types of clinging; or as Nibbāna the unconditioned, because it has not arisen through any condition.

[^290]: MA explains that the first six stages are "accompanied by clinging" in the sense both of being conditioned and of existing in one who still has grasping; the seventh stage, being supramundane, only in the sense of being conditioned.

[^291]: MA says that Sāriputta asked this only as a way of greeting Punnna Mantāniputta since he already knew his name. Punna, however, had never seen Sāriputta before and so must have been genuinely surprised to meet the great disciple.

[^292]: Satthukappa. MA says that this is the highest praise that can be spoken of a disciple.