SUTTA 56

[^578]: This means "Tall Ascetic," a name given to him because of his height.

[^579]: Danda, originally a stick or staff, acquires the meaning of rod as an instrument of punishment, and subsequently comes to mean punishment or infliction itself, even without reference to an instrument. Here the idea seems to be suggested that the Jains regarded bodily, verbal, and mental activity as instruments by which the individual torments himself by prolonging his bondage in samsāra and torments others by causing them harm.

[^580]: MA: The Niganthas held that the first two "rods" create kamma independently of the involvement of the mind (acittaka) just as, when the wind blows, the branches sway and the leaves rustle without any initiative of mind.

[^581]: The Buddha may have said this because in his teaching volition (cetana), a mental factor, is the essential ingredient of kamma, and in its absence - that is, in the case of unintentional bodily or verbal activity - no kamma is created. MA, however, maintains that the Buddha said this referring to wrong view with fixed consequences (niyata miccha ditthi), and it quotes in support AN 1:18.3/i.33: "Bhikkhus, I see nothing so blameworthy as wrong view. Wrong view is the most blameworthy of all things." These types of wrong view are described at MN 60.5, 13 and 21.

[^582]: As at MN 35.5.

[^583]: The parenthetical additions in the previous paragraph, inserted by Nm, are supplied from MA. Nm, in Ms, sums up the argument thus: The Niganthas are not allowed to use cold water (because they regard it as containing living beings). By his bodily and verbal refusal of cold water he has kept his bodily and verbal conduct pure, but if he longs in his mind for cold water his mental conduct is impure, and thus he is reborn among the "mind-bound gods" (manosattā devā).

[^584]: At §15 Upāli admits that at this point he had already acquired confidence in the Buddha. However, he continued to oppose him because he wished to hear the Buddha's varied solutions to the problem.

[^585]: This statement, at DN 2.29/i.57, is ascribed to the Nigantha Nātaputta himself as a formulation of the Jain doctrine. Nim points out in Ms that it may involve a pun on the word vāri, which can mean both "water" and "curb" (from vāreti, to ward off). In my translation of the Sāmañāaphala Sutta, The Discourse on the Fruits of Recluseship, p. 24, I render it based on the Digha commentary as follows: "A Nigantha is restrained with regard to all water; he is endowed with the avoidance of all evil; he is cleansed by the avoidance of all evil; he is suffused with the avoidance of all evil." Though the statement conveys a concern for moral purity, the tone is decidedly different from that of the Buddha's teachings.

[^586]: The Buddha points to a contradiction between the Jain thesis that, even in the absence of volition, the "bodily rod" is the most reprehensible of all, and their assertion that the presence of volition significantly alters the moral character of an action.

[^587]: See Jāt iii.463, v.133ff., 267; v.144; vi.389, v.267; v.114, 267; Miln 130.

[^588]: MA: Vision of the Dhamma (dhammacakkhu) is the path of stream-entry. The phrase "All that is subject to arising is subject to cessation" shows the mode in which the path arises. The path takes cessation (Nibbāna) as its object, but its function is to penetrate all conditioned states as subject to arising and cessation.

[^589]: The "Dhamma" referred to here is the Four Noble Truths. Having seen these truths for himself, he has cut off the fetter of doubt and now possesses the "view that is noble and emancipating and (which) leads the one who practises in accordance with it to the complete destruction of suffering" (MN 48.7).

[^590]: MA: Upāli says this referring to the path of stream-entry he had penetrated earlier.

[^591]: See MN 16.3-7.

[^592]: The PTS and SBJ eds. read vessantarassa; the BBS ed. of text and MA read vesamantarassa; MT supports the former reading. MA explains: "He has transcended the unrighteous state (visama) of lust, etc."

[^593]: Monapattassa. The "silence" is wisdom, related to muni, silent sage.

[^594]: The "banner" is the conceit "I am." See MN 22.35.

[^595]: Nippapañcassa. See n. 229.

[^596]: Isisattamassa. MA interprets this to mean "the seventh seer" - in line with the brahmanic conception of the seven rishis - and takes it as referring to Gotama's status as the seventh Buddha since Vipassi (see DN 14.1.4/ii.2). It is more probable, however, that sattama here is the superlative of sad, and thus that the compound means "the best of seers." The expression isisattama occurs at Sn 356, and the commentary to that verse allows both interpretations, offering uttama as a gloss on sattama.

[^597]: This refers to the absence of attachment and repulsion.

[^598]: Nm translates from a Siamese alternative reading given in the BBS ed., appabhītassa, pointing out that the PTS ed.'s appahinassa does not make sense here.

[^599]: MA: A heavy sorrow arose in him because of the loss of his lay supporter, and this produced a bodily disorder that resulted in his vomiting hot blood. After vomiting hot blood, few beings can continue to live. Thus they brought him to Pāvā on a litter, and shortly thereafter he passed away.