[^451]: Lying some 60 kilometers north of Pāṭaliputra (Patna), Vesālī was the largest city in the Vajji Federation, a republican league in the region north of the Ganges.

[^452]: In the earlier suttas of this chapter, we have seen how news of the Buddha spread, evidently following Pokkharasāti's conversion. Here we see an example of the kind of meeting at which such news would be discussed. | The phrase "brahmin emissaries" (brāhmaṇadūtā) does not seem to occur elsewhere and is not explained in the commentary. Perhaps they were emissaries of the kings, meeting in a neutral location. Or perhaps they were emissaries of their respective communities of brahmins.

[^453]: This monastery features prominently as the Buddha's usual place of residence near Vesālī.

[^454]: At some times the Buddha would go on retreat and ask that no-one visit him except to bring food; this sometimes happened at the Great Wood (SN 54.9:2.1). He also had the habit of withdrawing into the wood itself for meditation (AN 5.58:1.3). At this time, however, he was simply staying in a nearby hut, so it seems Nāgita is being over-zealous.

[^455]: Oṭṭhaddha mean "hare-lip" and is evidently a nickname or epithet. Throughout, the Buddha refers to him by his personal name, Mahāli. And it is under that name we meet him again in SN 11.13 and SN 22.60. | The Licchavis, whose name is derived from "bear", dominated the Vajji Federation. Note that the Mahāsaṅgīti edition here spells the masculine singular as licchavī, whereas normally it is licchavi.

[^456]: This Sīha is unknown elsewhere.

[^457]: Kassapa is Nāgita's clan name; either he was a brahmin or a khattiya whose family chaplain (purohita) was a Kassapa.

[^458]: In trying to protect the Buddha, Nāgita was inflexible and lacking compassion. When given good advice by Sīha, he responded gracelessly, fobbing off responsibility to a junior. No wonder he was replaced by Ānanda.

[^459]: This is still a common place for forest monks to receive guests.

[^460]: This is the last we hear of these emissaries.

[^461]: Sunakkhatta features in several suttas, through which his journey may be traced. In MN 105 he meets the Buddha and gains faith; here in DN 6 he is becoming dissatisfied; in DN 24 he rejects the Buddha; and in MN 12 he attacks the Buddha after disrobing.

[^462]: This refers to "clairvoyance" and "clairaudience", sometimes translated as the "divine eye" and "divine ear". Despite being included in the Gradual Training, they are not a goal of Buddhist practice. Rather, they are unnecessary but potentially useful, as they reveal dimensions of being inaccessible to ordinary consciousness. Sunakkhatta, however, was evidently just interested in having pleasant supersensory experiences.

[^463]: This must have wounded his pride.

[^464]: This description of meditation is unique in the Pali canon. The Buddha answers Mahāli's question directly, even though the premise betrays Sunakkhatta's limited understanding. When a questioner is sincere, answering directly shows respect and builds trust.

[^465]: Having directly answered the original question, the Buddha reframed the issue on request.

[^466]: This is the first description of the four stages of awakening which are featured throughout the Pali canon. The three fetters are identity view, doubt, and misapprehension of precepts and observances (MN 2:11.3).

[^467]: The five lower fetters are the three mentioned above, plus sensual desire and ill will (AN 10.13:1.5). This is the non-returner, who spends their last life in an exalted Brahmā realm. | A "spontaneous" rebirth is one that occurs without gestation in the womb, like most devas, or for that matter, Boltzmann brains.

[^468]: This is the arahant, the "worthy" or "perfected" one. Elsewhere it is said they abandon the five higher fetters: desire for rebirth in the realm of luminous form, desire for rebirth in the formless realm, conceit, restlessness, and ignorance (AN 10.13:2.2).

[^469]: This is the most fundamental of the Buddha's teachings on the path, declared in his first sermon (SN 56.11). It reappears in DN 8:13.5, DN 19:61.7, and DN 22:21.2.

[^470]: The eight factors map roughly on to the Gradual Training thus: hearing the Dhamma gives rise to right view; the choice to renounce is right thought; ethics includes right speech, action, and livelihood; undertaking seclusion and sense restraint is right effort; developing meditation is right mindfulness; and gaining the four jhānas is right immersion. Realization of the Dhamma completes the circle by deepening conceptual right view to liberating insight. Sometimes this is expressed by adding two further factors, right knowledge and right liberation.

[^471]: The Buddha retells the events recorded in the next sutta, DN 7.

[^472]: Muṇḍiya means "shaven one"; his name is spelled Mandissa in some manuscripts. He appears only in this passage. Jāliya returns in DN 24:2.4.1, which recounts the farcical events following Sunakkhatta's disrobal. There he takes the Buddha's part against the delusional Pāṭikaputta favored by Sunakkhatta.

[^473]: The term "soul" (jīva) was favored by the samaṇas, as opposed to the "self" (attā) of the brahmins. Both are rejected by the Buddha as forms of "metaphysical" self: they postulate the absolute, eternal existence of entities that cannot be established empirically. The repeated demonstrative pronouns (taṁ jīvaṁ taṁ sarīraṁ) assert an emphatic identity.

[^474]: They evidently believed that the experience of jhāna would grant insight into this dilemma. But it is a loaded question: it assumes that the soul is real and that what needs determining is its relation to the body.

[^475]: Until this point, none of the experiences described are fundamentally incompatible with the notion of an eternal metaphysical self. Buddhists believe that non-Buddhists, before and after the Buddha, are quite capable of realizing such states. However, they would tend to interpret them in line with their previous beliefs, thus reinforcing their theories of self. Faced with the end of all rebirth, however, no theory of eternal self can stand.