SUTTA 64

[^649]: The five lower fetters (orambhägiyāni samyojanāni) are so called because they lead to rebirth in the sense-sphere planes. They are eradicated in their entirety only by the non-returner.

[^650]: MA: The question may be raised: "When the Buddha had asked about the fetters and the Elder replied in terms of the fetters, why does the Buddha criticise his reply?" The reason is that Mälunkyäputta held the view that a person is fettered by the defilements only at times when they assail him, while at other times he is not fettered by them. The Buddha spoke as he did to show the error in this view.

[^651]: Anuseti tvev'assa sakkāyaditthānusayo. On the anusayas or underlying tendencies, see n.473. In the commentaries the defilements are distinguished as occurring at three levels: the anusaya level, where they remain as mere latent dispositions in the mind; the pariyutthāna level, where they rise up to obsess and enslave the mind (referred to in §5 of this discourse); and the vītikkama level, where they motivate unwholesome bodily and verbal action. The point of the Buddha's criticism is that the fetters, even when they do not come to active manifestation, continue to exist at the anusaya level so long as they have not been eradicated by the supramundane path.

[^652]: Dhammā. This could also have been rendered "things."

[^653]: MA: The fetter and the underlying tendency are in principle not distinct things; rather, it is the same defilement that is called a fetter in the sense of binding, and an underlying tendency in the sense of being unabandoned.

[^654]: Upadhivivekā. MA glosses upadhi here as the five cords of sensual pleasure. Though the first three clauses of this statement seem to express the same ideas as the two more usual clauses that follow, MT indicates that they are intended to show the means for becoming "quite secluded from sensual pleasures, secluded from unwholesome states."

[^655]: This passage shows the development of insight (vipassana) upon a basis of serenity (samatha), using the jhāna on which the practice of insight is based as the object of insight contemplation. See MN 52.4 and n.552. Here two terms - impermanent and disintegrating - show the characteristic of impermanence; three terms - alien, void, and not self - show the characteristic of non-self; the remaining six terms show the characteristic of suffering.

[^656]: MA: He "turns his mind away" from the five aggregates included within the jhāna, which he has seen to be stamped with the three characteristics. The "deathless element" (amatā dhātu) is Nibbāna. First "he directs his mind to it" with the insight consciousness, having heard it praised and described as "the peaceful and sublime," etc. Then, with the supramundane path, "he directs his mind to it" by making it an object and penetrating it as the peaceful and sublime, etc.

[^657]: See n. 553.

[^658]: It should be noted that, when the immaterial attainments are made the basis for insight contemplation, the aggregate of material form is not included among the objects of insight. Thus only the four immaterial aggregates are mentioned here.

[^659]: MA: Among those who proceed by way of serenity, one bhikkhu emphasises unification of mind - he is said to gain deliverance of mind; another emphasises wisdom he is said to gain deliverance by wisdom. Among those who proceed by way of insight, one emphasises wisdom - he is said to gain deliverance by wisdom; another emphasises unification of mind - he is said to gain deliverance of mind. The two chief disciples attained arahantship by emphasising both serenity and insight, but Ven. Sāriputta became one who gained deliverance by wisdom and Ven. Mahā Moggallāna became one who gained deliverance of mind. Thus the reason (for the different designations) is the difference in their faculties, i.e., between the predominance of the concentration faculty and of the wisdom faculty.