SUTTA 36

[^380]: MA: Saccaka approached with the intention of refuting the Buddha's doctrine, which he failed to do in his earlier encounter with the Buddha (in MN 35). But this time he came alone, thinking that if he were to suffer defeat no one would know about it. He intended to refute the Buddha with his question about sleeping during the day, which he does not ask until close to the end of the sutta ( §45 ).

[^381]: MA: Ānanda says this out of compassion for Saccaka, thinking that if he gets to see the Buddha and to hear the Dhamma, it will lead to his welfare and happiness for a long time.

[^382]: It will become clear from §5 that Saccaka identifies "development of body" (käyabhāvanā) with the practice of self-mortification. Because he does not see the Buddhist bhikkhus engaged in self-mortification, he maintains that they do not pursue development of the body. But the Buddha (according to MA) understands "development of body" as insight meditation, "development of mind" (cittabhāvanā) as serenity meditation.

[^383]: These are the three mentors of the Ājivakas; the last was a contemporary of the Buddha, the former two are near legendary figures whose identities remain obscure. The Bodhisatta had adopted their practices during his period of asceticism - see MN 12.45 - but subsequently rejected them as unconducive to enlightenment.

[^384]: MA explains that "development of body" here is insight, and "development of mind" concentration. When the noble disciple experiences pleasant feeling, he does not become overwhelmed by it because, through his development of insight, he understands the feeling to be impermanent, unsatisfactory, and essenceless; and when he experiences painful feeling, he does not become overwhelmed by it because, through his development of concentration, he is able to escape from it by entering into one of the meditative absorptions.

[^385]: Now the Buddha will answer Saccaka's questions by showing first the extremely painful feelings he experienced during his course of ascetic practices, and thereafter the extremely pleasant feelings he experienced during his meditative attainments preceding his enlightenment.

[^386]: The PTS ed. is certainly mistaken in reading here avūpakaṭtho, "not withdrawn." Ñm in Ms had translated this sentence from a reading which omitted cittena, "and mentally." This translation follows the BBS ed., which includes cittena. Although it may seem contradictory to say that those, recluses and brahmins live mentally withdrawn from sensual pleasures yet still have not abandoned sensual desire, if we understand kāma here as physical objects productive of sensual pleasure the contradiction will be resolved.

[^387]: In this connection MA raises the question: Why did the Bodhisatta undertake the practice of austerities if he could have attained Buddhahood without doing so? It answers: He did so, first, in order to show his own exertion to the world, because the quality of invincible energy gave him joy; and second, out of compassion for later generations, by inspiring them to strive with the same determination that he applied to the attainment of enlightenment.

[^388]: This sentence, repeated at the end of each of the following sections as well, answers the second of the two questions posed by Saccaka in §11.

[^389]: MA: During the Bodhisatta's boyhood as a prince, on one occasion his father led a ceremonial ploughing at a traditional festival of the Sakyans. The prince was brought to the festival and a place was prepared for him under a rose-apple tree. When his attendants left him to watch the ploughing ceremony, the prince, finding himself all alone, spontaneously sat up in the meditation posture and attained the first jhāna through mindfulness of breathing. When the attendants returned and found the boy seated in meditation, they reported this to the king, who came and bowed down in veneration to his son.

[^390]: This passage marks a change in the Bodhisatta's evaluation of pleasure; now it is no longer regarded as something to be feared and banished by the practice of austerities, but, when born of seclusion and detachment, is seen as a valuable accompaniment of the higher stages along the path to enlightenment. See MN 139.9 on the twofold division of pleasure.

[^391]: This sentence answers the first of the two questions posed by Saccaka in §11.

[^392]: MA explains the "sign of concentration" (samädhinimitta) here as the fruition attainment of emptiness (suññataphalasamäpatti). See also MN 122.6.

[^393]: This was the question that Saccaka originally intended to ask the Buddha. MA explains that though arahants have eliminated all sloth and torpor, they still need to sleep in order to dispel the physical tiredness intrinsic to the body.

[^394]: MA explains that even though Saccaka did not reach any attainment or even become established in the Three Refuges, the Buddha taught him two long suttas in order to deposit in him a mental impression (väsanā) coming to maturity in the future. For he foresaw that at a later time, after the Dispensation became established in Sri Lanka, Saccaka would be reborn there and would attain arahantship as the great arahant, Kāla Buddharakkhita Thera.