SUTTA 128

[^1186]: The opening of this sutta is the same as that of MN 48.

[^1187]: This verse and the next two appear at Dhp 3, 5-6. The last three verses appear at Dhp 328-30.

[^1188]: The passage at §§8-15 is nearly identical with MN 31.3-10. From the sequel, however, it is clear that the present sutta is set at an earlier time, for in MN 31 all three bhikkhus have reached arahantship while here they are still striving for the goal.

[^1189]: It is here that the present sutta continues differently from MN 31. MA explains light (obhāsa) as the preliminary light, which MT glosses as the light-produced by the access to jhāna. MT adds that one who gains the fourth jhāna develops the light-kasina as the preliminary to arousing the divine eye. The "vision of forms" (dassanam rüpänam) is the seeing of forms with the divine eye. Ven. Anuruddha was later declared by the Buddha to be the foremost disciple in the exercise of the divine eye.

[^1190]: Nimittam pativijjhitabbam. Lit. "You should penetrate that sign."

[^1191]: See MN 52.15.

[^1192]: MA paraphrases: "While I was attending to a single type of form, longing arose. Thinking 'I will attend to different kinds of forms,' sometimes I directed my attention towards the heavenly world, sometimes towards the human world. As I attended to different kinds of forms, perception of diversity arose in me."

[^1193]: Atinijjhāyitattam rūpānam. MA: "When perception of diversity arose, I thought I would attend to one type of form, whether agreeable or disagreeable. As I did so, excessive meditation upon forms arose in me."

[^1194]: Cittassa upakkileso. The same term is used at MN 7.3, though here it means not so much defilements of the mind as imperfections in the development of concentration. Hence the expression has been rendered slightly differently in the two cases.

[^1195]: The "three ways" seem to be the first three types of concentration mentioned in the next paragraph, also spoken of as a triad at DN 33.1.10/iii.219. Of these, the first is the first jhāna and the third covers the three higher jhānas of the usual fourfold scheme. The second type of concentration has no place in the fourfold scheme, but appears as the second jhāna in a fivefold division of jhānas expounded in the Abhidhamma Pitaka. This second jhāna of the fivefold scheme is attained by those who cannot overcome applied thought and sustained thought simultaneously but must eliminate them successively.

[^1196]: MA: The concentration with rapture is the two lower jhānas; without rapture, the two higher jhānas; accompanied by enjoyment (sāta), the three lower jhānas; accompanied by equanimity, the fourth jhāna.

[^1197]: MA says that the Buddha developed these concentrations in the last watch of the night on the night of his enlightenment while sitting at the foot of the Bodhi tree.