SUTTA 152

[^1352]: The expression "the development of the faculties" (indriyabhävanā) properly signifies the development of the mind in responding to the objects experienced through the sense faculties. The more rudimentary aspect of this practice, the restraint of the sense faculties (indriyasanivara), involves controlling the mind in such a way that one does not grasp at the "signs and features" of things, their distinctive attractive and repulsive attributes. The development of the faculties carries this process of control through to the point where, by an act of will, one can immediately set up insight even in the course of sense perception. At the highest level one acquires the ability to radically transform the subjective significance of perceptual objects themselves, making them appear in a mode that is the very opposite of the way they are normally apprehended.

[^1353]: MA explains that when a desirable form comes into range of the eye, an agreeable state (manäpa) arises; when an undesirable form appears, a disagreeable state (amanäpa) arises; and when an indifferent form appears, a state that is both agreeable and disagreeable arises. It should be noted'that though these three terms are ordinarily used to qualify the sense objects, here they also seem to signify subtle states of liking, aversion, and dull indifference that arise due to the influence of the underlying tendencies. MT identifies "the agreeable" with wholesome and unwholesome states of mind associated with joy, "the disagreeable" with unwholesome states of mind associated with grief (displeasure), and "the agreeable and disagreeable" with states of mind associated with equanimous feeling.

[^1354]: MA: This equanimity is the equanimity of insight (vipassan'upekkhā). The bhikkhu does not allow his mind to be overcome by lust, hate, or delusion, but comprehends the object and sets up insight in the neutral state. MT explains this to mean that he enters into equanimity regarding formations (sankhār'upekkhā), a particular stage of insight knowledge (see Vsm XXI, 61-66).

[^1355]: MT: The noble development of the faculties is the suppression of lust, etc., arisen through the eye, and the establishment of the equanimity of insight.

[^1356]: The same simile appears at MN 66.16.

[^1357]: Although the sekha has already entered upon the way to final deliverance, he is still prone to subtle states of liking, aversion, and dull indifference in regard to sense objects. He experiences these, however, as impediments to his progress, and thus becomes ashamed, humiliated, and disgusted by them.

[^1358]: Ariya bhāvitindriya: the arahant is meant.

[^1359]: Since the arahant has eradicated all the defilements along with their underlying tendencies, in this passage the three terms - the agreeable, etc. - must be understood simply as the feelings that arise through contact with sense objects, and not as the subtle traces of liking, aversion, and indifference relevant to the preceding passage.

[^1360]: The Paṭisambhidāmagga calls this practice "the noble supernormal power" (ariya iddhi) and explains it thus (ii.212): To abide perceiving the unrepulsive in the repulsive, one pervades a repulsive being with lovingkindness, or one attends to a repulsive object (either animate or inanimate) as a mere assemblage of impersonal elements. To abide perceiving the repulsive in the unrepulsive, one pervades a (sensually) attractive person with the idea of the foulness of the body, or one attends to an attractive object (either animate or inanimate) as impermanent. The third and fourth methods involve the application of the first and second contemplations to both repulsive and unrepulsive objects, without discrimination. The fifth method involves the avoidance of joy and sorrow in response to the six sense objects, thus enabling one to abide in equanimity, mindful and fully aware. Although this fivefold contemplation is ascribed to the arahant as a power perfectly under his control, elsewhere the Buddha teaches it to bhikkhus still in training as a way to overcome the three unwholesome roots. See AN 5:144/iii.169-70; and for a thoughtful commentary on that sutta, see Nyanaponika Thera, The Roots of Good and Evil, pp. 73-78.