SUTTA 71

[^712]: This sutta and the following two seem to present a chronological account of Vacchagotta's spiritual evolution. The Samyutta Nikāya contains a whole section of short discussions between the Buddha and Vacchagotta, SN 33/iii.257-62. See also SN 44:7-11/iv.391-402.

[^713]: This is the type of omniscience that the Jain teacher the Niganṭha Nātaputta claims at MN 14.17.

[^714]: MA explains that even though part of the statement is valid, the Buddha rejects the entire statement because of the portion that is invalid. The part of the statement that is valid is the assertion that the Buddha is omniscient and all-seeing; the part that is excessive is the assertion that knowledge and vision are continuously present to him. According to the Theravāda tradition the Buddha is omniscient in the sense that all knowable things are potentially accessible to him. He cannot, however, know everything simultaneously and must advert to whatever he wishes to know. At MN 90.8 the Buddha says that it is possible to know and see all, though not simultaneously, and at AN 4:24/ii. 24 he claims to know all that can be seen, heard, sensed, and cognized, which is understood by the Theravāda tradition as an assertion of omniscience in the qualified sense. See too in this connection Miln 102-7.

[^715]: MA explains "the fetter of householdership" (gihisam yojana) as attachment to the requisites of a householder, which MT details as land, ornaments, wealth, grain, etc. MA says that even though the texts mention some individuals who attained arahantship as laymen, by the path of arahantship they destroyed all attachment to worldly things and thus either went forth as monks or passed away immediately after their attainment. The question of lay arahants is discussed at Miln 264.

[^716]: On the Ājivakas see MN 5.5.

[^717]: Since this Ājīvaka believed in the moral efficacy of action, he could not have subscribed to the orthodox philosophical fatalism of the $\bar{A} j \bar{i} v a k a s$, which denied the effective role of kamma and volitional deeds in modifying human destiny. MA identifies this Ājīvaka with the Bodhisatta in a previous birth.