SUTTA 106

[^1007]: See n.1000. Here, too, the term "imperturbable" seems to cover only the fourth jhāna and the two lower immaterial attainments.

[^1008]: MA says both objective sensual pleasures and sensual defilements are intended.

[^1009]: MA glosses: "having transcended the sense-sphere world and having resolved with a mind that has jhāna as its objective."

[^1010]: MA explains the phrase "his mind acquires confidence in this base" to mean that he attains either insight aimed at reaching arahantship or the access to the fourth jhāna. If he gains access to the fourth jhāna, this becomes his basis for attaining "the imperturbable," i.e., the fourth jhāna itself. But if he gains insight, then he decides upon perfecting wisdom by deepening his insight in order to reach arahantship. The decision "to perfect wisdom" may explain why so many of the following sections of this sutta, though culminating in attainments along the scale of concentration, are expressed in phrasing appro- priate to the development of insight.

[^1011]: MA explains that this passage describes the rebirth process of one who could not realise arahantship after reaching the fourth jhāna. The "consciousness leading [to rebirth]" (samivattanikam viñ̃̃anam) is the resultant consciousness by which this person is reborn, and this has the same imperturbable nature as the kammically formative consciousness that attained to the fourth jhāna. Since it is the fourth-jhāna consciousness that determines rebirth, this person will be reborn in one of the celestial realms corresponding to the fourth jhāna.

[^1012]: MA says that this is the reflection of one who has attained the fourth jhāna. Since he includes material form among the things to be transcended, if he attains to the imperturbable he reaches the base of infinite space, and if he does not attain arahantship he is reborn in the plane of infinite space.

[^1013]: MA says that this is the reflection of one who has attained the base of infinite space. If he attains to the imperturbable, he reaches the base of infinite consciousness and is reborn in that plane if he does not reach arahantship.

[^1014]: This is the reflection of one who has attained the base of infinite consciousness and aims at attaining the base of nothingness.

[^1015]: MA calls this two-pointed voidness - the absence of "I" and "mine" - and says that this teaching of the base of nothingness is expounded by way of insight rather than concentration, the approach taken in the previous section. At MN 43.33, this contemplation is said to lead to the deliverance of mind through voidness.

[^1016]: MA calls this four-pointed voidness and explains thus: (i) he does not see his self anywhere; (ii) he does not see a self of his own that can be treated as something belonging to another, e.g., as a brother, friend, assistant, etc.; (iii) he does not see the self of another; (iv) he does not see the self of another that can be treated as something belonging to him. Ms has a note by Ñm : "These expressions [in this paragraph and the next] seem to have been stereotyped slogans or descriptions of the attainments of nothingness and neither-perception-nor-non-perception, primarily non-Buddhist, and sometimes used as a basis for the existing-body [=personality] view." See Nm's note 19 to Vsm XXI, 53 for further discussion and other references.

[^1017]: MA glosses: "If the round of kamma had not been accumulated by me, now there would not be for me the round of results; if the round of kamma is not accumulated by me now, in the future there will not be the round of results." "What exists, what has come to be" are the five aggregates. The first part of the formula again seems to be a condensed formulation of a view held by non-Buddhists. Several suttas identify it as an expression for the annihilationist view, adapted by the Buddha with new meanings assigned to it. For other occurrences of this formula, see SN iii.55-56, 99, 183, 206; AN iv.69-72, v. 63.

[^1018]: MA says that he obtains the equanimity of insight, but from §11 it seems that the equanimity of the base of nei-ther-perception-nor-non-perception is also intended.

[^1019]: MA: This is said with reference to the rebirth of one who attains the base of neither-perception-nor-non-perception. The meaning is that he takes rebirth in the best, the highest, plane of existence.

[^1020]: Nissaya nissaya oghassa nittharana. MA: The Buddha has explained the crossing of the flood for a bhikkhu who uses as the basis (for reaching arahantship) any of the attainments from the third jhāna up to the fourth immaterial attainment.

[^1021]: MA: Ananda's question is intended to elicit from the Buddha an account of the practice of the dry-insight meditator (sukkhavipassaka), who attains arahantship without depending on a jhānic attainment.

[^1022]: Esa sakkāyo yāvatā sakkāyo. MA: This is the personality in its entirety - the round of the three realms of existence; there is no personality outside of this.

[^1023]: MA says that the arahantship of the dry-insight meditator is intended. MT adds that arahantship is called "the Deathless" because it has the flavour of the Deathless, being attained on the basis of Nibbāna the Deathless.