SUTTA 140

[^1264]: According to MA, Pukkusāti had been the king of Takkasilā and had entered into a friendship with King Bimbisāra of Magadha through merchants who travelled between the two countries for purposes of trade. In an exchange of gifts Bimbisāra sent Pukkusāti a golden plate on which he had inscribed descriptions of the Three Jewels and various aspects of the Dhamma. When Pukkusāti read the inscription, he was filled with joy and decided to renounce the world. Without taking formal ordination, he shaved his head, put on yellow robes, and left the palace. He went to Rājagaha intending to meet the Buddha, who was then in Sāvatthī, about 300 miles away. The Buddha saw Pukkusāti with his clairvoyant knowledge, and recognising his capacity to attain the paths and fruits, he journeyed alone on foot to Rājagaha to meet him. To avoid being recognised, by an act of will the Buddha caused his special physical attributes such as the marks of a Great Man to be concealed, and he appeared just like an ordinary wandering monk. He arrived at the potter's shed shortly after Pukkusāti had arrived there intending to leave for Sāvatthī the next day in order to meet the Buddha.

[^1265]: Pukkusāti, unaware that the new arrival is the Buddha, addresses him by the familiar appellation "āvuso."

[^1266]: MA: The Buddha asked these questions merely as a way to start a conversation, as he already knew that Pukkusāti had gone forth on account of himself.

[^1267]: MA: Since Pukkusāti had already purified the preliminary practice of the path and was able to attain the fourth jhāna through mindfulness of breathing, the Buddha began directly with a talk on insight meditation, expounding the ultimate voidness that is the foundation for arahantship.

[^1268]: MA: Here the Buddha expounds the non-truly existent by way of the truly existent; for the elements are truly existent but the person is not truly existent. This is meant: "That which you perceive as a person consists of six elements. Ultimately there is no person here. 'Person' is a mere concept."

[^1269]: As at MN 137.8.

[^1270]: Paññādhiṭthāna, saccādhiṭthāna, cāgādhiṭthāna, upasamādhiṭthāna. N̄m, in Ms, had first rendered adhiṭthāna as "resolve," and then replaced it with "mode of expression," neither of which seems suitable for this context. MA glosses the word with patiṭthā, which clearly means foundation, and explains the sense of the statement thus: "This person who consists of the six elements, the six bases of contact, and the eighteen kinds of mental approach - when he turns away from these and attains arahantship, the supreme accomplishment, he does so established upon these four bases." The four foundations will be individually elucidated by the sequel, §§12-29.

[^1271]: MA: From the start one should not neglect the wisdom born of concentration and insight in order to penetrate through to the wisdom of the fruit of arahantship. One should preserve truthful speech in order to realise Nibbāna, the ultimate truth. One should cultivate the relinquishment of defilements in order to accomplish the relinquishing of all defilements by the path of ara- hantship. From the start one should train in the pacification of defilements in order to pacify all defilements by the path of arahantship. Thus the wisdom, etc., born of serenity and insight are spoken of as the preliminary foundations for achieving the foundations of wisdom, etc. (distinctive of arahantship).

[^1272]: MA: The non-neglecting of wisdom is explained by way of the meditation on the elements. The analysis of the elements here is identical with that of MN 28.6, 11, 16, 21 and MN 62.8-12.

[^1273]: MA: This is the sixth element, which "remains" in that it has yet to be expounded by the Buddha and penetrated by Pukkusāti. Here it is explained as the consciousness that accomplishes the work of insight contemplation on the elements. Under the heading of consciousness, the contemplation of feeling is also introduced.

[^1274]: This passage shows the conditionality of feeling and its impermanence through the cessation of its condition.

[^1275]: MA identifies this as the equanimity of the fourth jhāna. According to MA, Pukkusāti had already achieved the fourth jhāna and had a strong attachment to it. The Buddha first praises this equanimity to inspire Pukkusāti's confidence, then he gradually leads him to the immaterial jhānas and the attainment of the paths and fruits.

[^1276]: The sense is: If he attains the base of infinite space and should pass away while still attached to it, he would be reborn in the plane of infinite space and would live there for the full lifespan of 20,000 aeons specified for that plane. In the higher three immaterial planes the lifespan is respectively 40,000 aeons, 60,000 aeons, and 84,000 aeons.

[^1277]: MA: This is said in order to show the danger in the immaterial jhānas. By the one phrase, "This would be conditioned," he shows: "Even though the lifespan there is 20,000 aeons, that is conditioned, fashioned, built up. It is thus impermanent, unstable, not lasting, transient. It is subject to perishing, breaking up, and dissolution; it is involved with birth, ageing, and death, grounded upon suffering. It is not a shelter, a place of safety, a refuge. Having passed away there as a worldling, one can still be reborn in the four states of deprivation."

[^1278]: So n'eva abhisankharoti nābhisañcetayati bhavāya vā vibhavāya. The two verbs suggest the notion of volition as a constructive power that builds up the continuation of conditioned existence. Ceasing to will for either being or non-being shows the extinction of craving for eternal existence and annihilation, culminating in the attainment of arahantship.

[^1279]: MA says that at this point Pukkusāti penetrated three paths and fruits, becoming a non-returner. He realised that his teacher was the Buddha himself, but he could not express his realisation since the Buddha still continued with his discourse.

[^1280]: This passage shows the arahant's abiding in the Nibbāna element with a residue remaining (of the factors of conditioned existence, sa-upādisesa nibbānadhātu). Though he continues to experience feelings, he is free from lust towards pleasant feeling, from aversion towards painful feeling, and from ignorance about neutral feeling.

[^1281]: That is, he continues to experience feeling only as long as the body with its life faculty continues, but not beyond that.

[^1282]: This refers to his attainment of the Nibbāna-element with no residue remaining (anupādisesa nibbānadhātu) the cessation of all conditioned existence with his final passing away.

[^1283]: This completes the exposition of the first foundation, which began at §13. MA says that the knowledge of the destruction of all suffering is the wisdom pertaining to the fruit of arahantship.

[^1284]: MA mentions four kinds of attachment (upadhi) here: see n. 674.

[^1285]: The "tides of conceiving" (mañinussavā), as the following paragraph will show, are thoughts and notions originating from the three roots of conceiving - craving, conceit, and views. For a fuller explanation, see n.6. The "sage at peace" (muni santo) is the arahant.

[^1286]: That which is not present in him is craving for being, which leads those who have not eradicated it back to a new birth following death.

[^1287]: MA says that he was reborn in the Pure Abode called Avihā and attained arahantship as soon as he took rebirth there. It quotes a verse from the Samyutta Nikāya (SN 1:50/i.35) mentioning Pukkusāti as one of seven bhikkhus who were reborn in Avihā and attained deliverance by transcending the celestial bonds.