The Madhyama Āgama (Middle-Length Discourses) Volume II

Back Matters

Notes

Division 7

1 The Pāli parallel is the Upakkilesa-sutta, MN 128 at MN III 152 (see also Mv 10.2 at Vin I 342); for a comparative study see Bhikkhu Anālayo, A Comparative Study of the Majjhima-nikāya (Taipei: Dharma Drum Publishing Corporation, 2011), pp. 731-741. Here and elsewhere, further information on previously published comparative studies can be found in this source.

2 In the Pāli parallels a monk informs the Buddha of what is happening. The ensuing tale of the king of Kosala is found only in the Vinaya, not in the Upakkilesa-sutta. 3 In the Pāli Vinaya version King Dīghīti of Kosala immediately flees when King Brahma datta of Kāsi attacks for the first time, as he feels unable to resist the attack. 4 The Pāli Vinaya version does not report that King Dīghīti of Kosala took to performing music and in this way came to live with the brahmin chaplain. 5 In the Pāli Vinaya version Dīghīti directly approaches the brahmin chaplain and relates his wife's request.

6 The Pāli Vinaya version does not describe the prince's training but reports that he was sent to live outside the town, out of caution regarding King Brahmadatta. 7 According to the Pāli Vinaya version, the barber of King Dīghīti had happened to see his former master and then told King Brahmadatta.

8 In the Pāli Vinaya version King Brahmadatta immediately orders the execution of Dīghīti and his wife. Their son happens to visit the town just at that time and sees them being paraded through the streets.

9 According to the Pāli Vinaya version, King Dīghīti and his wife had been executed, and it was their son who took care of their bodily remains.

10 In the Pāli Vinaya version, the son has found work in an elephant stable. He is overheard by King Brahmadatta singing and playing a lute in the stable, and the king subsequently sends for him.

11 In the Pāli Vinaya version at this point Prince Long Life again draws his sword, holds it to King Brahmadatta's throat, and recounts the harm done by the king to his parents. 12 In the Pāli Vinaya version they grant each other their lives. 417

Notes

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 In the Upakkilesa-sutta only one monk tells the Buddha three times to stay out of their dispute.

A stanza in the Upakkilesa-sutta instead has, before the line about living alone like an elephant, a line that describes a king who leaves behind a realm he has conquered. This fits the context better and suggests that the idea of "governing sternly" could be the result of some error in transmission or translation.

In the Upakkilesa-sutta the Buddha instead departs by walking away. The Upakkilesa-sutta does not describe Bhagu's practice.

In the Upakkilesa-sutta Bhagu reports only that he has no trouble getting food. The Buddha's sojourn in the Rakkhitavana Grove in the company of an elephant is also recorded at Vin I 352, according to which this took place after he had visited Anuruddha and his companions.

A comparable description is found in the Upakkilesa-sutta, but later, as part of a report given by Anuruddha to the Buddha.

The corresponding description in the Upakkilesa-sutta does not refer to their practice of meditation, and in relation to their regular meetings every five days mentions only that they discuss the Dharma, not that they might alternatively sit together in silence. The Upakkilesa-sutta does not report any reply by the Buddha to the warden; here Anuruddha intervenes right away.

Adopting the variant 是, in accordance with the reading of this passage found in the Abhidharmakośabhāṣya; see Prahlad Pradhan, Abhidharmakośabhāṣya of Vasubandhu (Patna: K. P. Jayaswal Research Institute, 1967), p. 300: yat tat loka nāsti. This specification, not found in the Upakkilesa-sutta, helps explain why doubt can arise, namely because of unfamiliarity with the mental experience of an inner light (as the result of deepening concentration).

身病, literally "bodily disease," which might render an Indic original comparable to the Pāli kāyaduṭṭhulla, hence the rendering "bodily inertia." The Upakkilesa-sutta illustrates excessive energy, the seventh upakkilesa in its listing, with the example of grasping a quail so tightly that it will die; the same simile, but with grasping the quail too loosely, then illustrates lack of energy. The corresponding simile in the Upakkilesa-sutta describes searching for one entrance to a treasure and finding five entrances.

Conceit is not mentioned in the Upakkilesa-sutta.

The Upakkilesa-sutta instead speaks of excessive meditation on forms. Whereas the rest of the list, in spite of some variations in sequence, appears to be on the whole similar, in the case of this last item in both lists the two versions stand in direct contrast 418

Notes

28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 to each other. The instruction in MĀ 72 makes it appear recommendable to contemplate forms, but MN 128 warns against excessively contemplating forms. These three types of concentration occur only at the end of the Upakkilesa-sutta as part of a summary statement in which the Buddha describes his practice of concentration with vitakka and vicāra, without vitakka but still with vicāra, and without either. Here and below, the translation is based on an emendation, given in brackets. The text speaks rather of "knowledge" of forms. Since otherwise the passage is about "vision" of forms and "knowledge" of light, it seems probable that the formulation here is the result of a textual error.

Instead of exclusive, diversified, limited, and vast concentrations, the Upakkilesasutta mentions concentration with and without rapture, with enjoyment, and with equanimity.

The Pāli parallel is the Gayā-sutta, AN 8.64 at AN IV 302, which has Gayāsīsa at Gayā as its location.

According to the Gayā-sutta, the Buddha did perceive light, but did not see forms. In the Gayā-sutta the item that follows being able to converse with the devas is knowing which order (nikāya) of devas they belong to.

In the Gayā-sutta knowing the karma that led the devas to their rebirths precedes knowing their pleasure or pain and knowing their life spans. Recognition of individual devas is not mentioned in the Gayā-sutta. The Pāli parallel is the Anuruddha-sutta, AN 8.30 at AN IV 228. Instead of the ability to wander freely in the four directions, the Anuruddha-sutta compares the medicine made out of fermented cow's urine to various medications made of ghee, butter, oil, honey, and molasses. The Anuruddha-sutta also does not report any prediction about increasing in wholesome states or attaining one of two fruits; it instead directly continues with the Buddha's advice that Anruddha should spend the rainy season in the same place.

In the Anuruddha-sutta the Buddha addresses the monks immediately on his return, without asking Ānanda to gather them.

The Anuruddha-sutta additionally mentions contentment with lodgings and medicine. Instead of bodily and mental seclusion, the Anuruddha-sutta describes a detached attitude toward visitors.

Instead of the four satipaṭṭhānas, the Anuruddha-sutta just mentions mindfulness of the type that enables recalling what was said and done long ago. The Anuruddha-sutta only mentions inclining the mind toward the extinction of proliferation. 419

Notes

43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 The Anuruddha-sutta specifies that the Buddha had come through his mind-made body (manomayena kāyena).

The next two stanzas in MĀ 74 are not found in the Anuruddha-sutta; the last has a counterpart in Th 919.

The Pāli parallel is the Āneñjasappāya-sutta, MN 106 at MN II 261; for comparative studies see Anālayo, A Comparative Study of the Majjhima-nikāya, pp. 613-623; Madhyama-āgama Studies, (Taipei: Dharma Drum Publishing Corporation, 2012), pp. 195-222.

Instead of sensual pleasures and material forms, the Āneñjasappāya-sutta takes up sensual pleasures and sensual perceptions.

In addition to material forms, the Āneñjasappāya-sutta mentions sensual pleasures and sensual perceptions.

In addition to the corresponding perceptions, the Āneñjasappāya-sutta also mentions sensual pleasures and material forms; and it commends that the cessation of all these is to be viewed as peaceful.

The translation is based on an emendation of the text. For the words given in angle brackets (< >) the text instead has, in each case, "imperturbability." The context shows that these must be textual errors.

The second approach to nothingness in the Āneñjasappāya-sutta is just about being empty of a self and of what belongs to a self, without an explicit mention of being empty of permanence.

In the Āneñjasappāya-sutta the third approach to nothingness is to contemplate: "I am not anything belonging to anyone anywhere," etc.

According to the Āneñjasappāya-sutta, the cessation of all these perceptions is to be viewed as peaceful.

In the Āneñjasappāya-sutta Ānanda highlights that the Buddha taught the crossing of the flood in dependence on one support after another.

The Pāli parallels are the Bhikkhu-sutta, SN 47.3 at SN V 142, which has Jeta's Grove at Sāvatthī as its location, and the Saṅkhitta-sutta, AN 8.63 at AN IV 299, which does not specify the location.

In the two Pāli versions, the Buddha first rebuffs the monk before giving an instruction. The injunction to settle the mind within has a counterpart in the Saṅkhitta-sutta (where this is followed by instructions on the brahmavihāras); practice of the four satipaṭṭhānas internally and externally is described in the Bhikkhu-sutta (where it is preceded by the need to purify morality and have straight view).

The implication of this expression is unclear; to judge from the Pāli parallels, it could be a textual error.

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Notes

58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 The Saṅkhitta-sutta recommends cultivating concentration with vitakka and vicāra, without vitakka but with a remainder of vicāra, without vitakka or vicāra, with rapture, without rapture, with enjoyment, and with equanimity.

The Saṅkhitta-sutta takes up the brahmavihāras first and only afterward the four satipaṭṭhānas (which are not explicitly shown to require internal and external practice), and in relation to both it enjoins that such concentration should be with vitakka and vicāra, without vitakka but with a remainder of vicāra, without vitakka or vicāra, with rapture, without rapture, with enjoyment, and with equanimity. Only in relation to the four satipaṭṭhānas does the Saṅkhitta-sutta mention being at ease in any bodily posture.

Such a prediction of attainment is not found in the two Pāli parallels, although both report that the monk who received the respective instructions, after practice in seclusion, became an arahant.

The Pāli parallel is the Naḷakapāna-sutta, MN 68 at MN I 462, which has Naḷakapāna in the Kosalan country as its location; for a comparative study, see Anālayo, A Comparative Study of the Majjhima-nikāya, pp. 370-373. In the Naḷakapāna-sutta the Buddha instead asks if they thought he practiced restraint because he had not yet eradicated the taints.

According to the Naḷakapāna-sutta, it is because the Buddha has eradicated the taints that he practices restraint.

The Buddha's secluded lifestyle is not taken up in the Naḷakapāna-sutta. The Pāli parallel is the Brahmanimantaṇika-sutta, MN 49 at MN I 326; for a comparative study see Anālayo, A Comparative Study of the Majjhima-nikāya, pp. 294-299. According to the Brahmanimantaṇika-sutta, Māra had actually taken possession of a member of the assembly.

The Brahmanimantaṇika-sutta does not report that Māra disappeared. In the Brahmanimantaṇika-sutta the Buddha adds that Brahmā had previously passed away from the Ābhassarā heavenly realm and in the meantime had forgotten about it.

In the Brahmanimantaṇika-sutta the Buddha also refers to the nonmanifestative or invisible consciousness, anidassana viññāṇa.

The text gives the impression that Brahmā is still the speaker. The Pāli editions differ and only some mark the corresponding part as spoken by the Buddha; for a discussion see Anālayo, "The Luminous Mind in Theravāda and Dharmaguptaka Discourses", Journal of the Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies 13 (2017): 10-50. According to the Brahmanimantaṇika-sutta, the Buddha spoke the stanza on seeing fear in becoming while he had made himself invisible.

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Notes

72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 The reference to joining the assembly "up to three times" is not clear. According to the earlier narration he had departed once, so for him to come back now would constitute only a second joining of the assembly. Instead of telling Māra to keep away from the topic of the Buddha's teaching activities, in the Brahmanimantaṇika-sutta the Buddha affirms his eradication of the taints, comparing it to a palm tree that has been cut down.

The Pāli parallel is the Anuruddha-sutta, MN 127 at MN III 144; for a comparative study see Anālayo, A Comparative Study of the Majjhima-nikāya, pp. 726-731. The protagonist in the Anuruddha-sutta is instead the householder Pañcakaṅga. Adopting the variant 料 instead of 斷.

In the Anuruddha-sutta those who have taught him are instead elder monks, therā bhikkhū. Similarly later in Anuruddha's description, those who practice these liberations are monks, not renunciants and brahmins.

The Anuruddha-sutta does not report a question-and-answer exchange at this juncture. Another difference is that in the preceding part it first takes up the immeasurable and then the exalted liberation of the mind.

Instead of these three, the Anuruddha-sutta distinguishes four types: devas of limited radiance, immeasurable radiance, defiled radiance, and pure radiance. The fly simile in the Anuruddha-sutta, where the fly is on a carrying pole or basket, illustrates that the devas do not consider themselves to be permanent. In the Anuruddha-sutta Kaccāna instead asks if the devas are all of limited radiance or if some are rather of immeasurable radiance, and later on he asks the same question for those of defiled and pure radiance.

The Anuruddha-sutta does not have a reference to the Buddha's position on this matter. The lotus simile is not found in the Anuruddha-sutta.

In the Anuruddha-sutta the simile of the impure oil lamp illustrates devas of defiled radiance.

In the Anuruddha-sutta Kaccāna instead addresses Anuruddha, and apparently in a discourteous way.

The Anuruddha-sutta reports neither the meal offering nor the delight of the audience. 87 Adopting the variant 墩 instead of 塹.

88 The Pāli parallel is the Kāyagatāsati-sutta, MN 119 at MN III 88, which has Jeta's Grove at Sāvatthī as its location; for a comparative study see Anālayo, A Comparative Study of the Majjhima-nikāya, pp. 673-678.

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Notes

89 The sequence of body contemplation in the Kāyagatāsati-sutta differs, proceeding from mindfulness of breathing to bodily postures, bodily activities, anatomical parts, elements, cemetery contemplations, and the four absorptions.

90 The Kāyagatāsati-sutta does not mention falling asleep or waking up as part of the contemplation of bodily postures.

91 The Kāyagatāsati-sutta states that memories and intentions related to the household life are abandoned and the mind becomes concentrated.

92 The Kāyagatāsati-sutta also mentions eating, drinking, consuming food, tasting, defecating, and urinating. 93 This and the following exercise are not mentioned in the Kāyagatāsati-sutta. 94 Adopting the variant 絣 instead of 拼.

95 The translation is based on emending what in the original is a reference to "verbal activities" when exhaling, clearly a textual error.

96 In the case of each of the four absorptions, the Kāyagatāsati-sutta also describes the actual attainment of the corresponding absorption before depicting how it affects the body.

97 The Kāyagatāsati-sutta does not give the size of the cloth, which it qualifies as being white.

98 This and the following exercise are not mentioned in the Kāyagatāsati-sutta. 99 Guanxiang 觀相, which perhaps is equivalent to the paccavekkhaṇanimitta. 100 This list of seeds differs from the seeds in the same simile in MĀ 98, the parallel to the Satipaṭṭhāna-sutta.

101 The Kāyagatāsati-sutta lists only the four elements of earth, water, fire, and wind. 102 Cremation or burial are not mentioned in the Kāyagatāsati-sutta. 103 In the Kāyagatāsati-sutta this and the following descriptions are rather about monks who have or have not established mindfulness of the body. The Pāli version also has a different sequence: it first has the three similes of throwing a ball, fire sticks, and the water pot that illustrate lack of being established in mindfulness of the body, and then their three counterparts that illustrate the presence of mindfulness of the body. 104 Adopting the variant 搏 instead of 闡.

105 The Kāyagatāsati-sutta has three more similes, which describe tilting a full water jug, loosening the embankment of a pond full of water, and driving a chariot wherever one wishes.

106 The Kāyagatāsati-sutta announces and lists ten benefits. It does not refer to not getting 423

Notes

stuck in the three unwholesome thoughts, nor to attaining stream-entry, once-returning, nonreturning, and the four immaterial attainments.

107 Adopting a variant that does not have a reference to this being also "the fifth, sixth and seventh benefit," 五六七. Since overcoming three types of unwholesome thought cannot result in four benefits, the reference to the fifth, sixth, and seventh benefits must be misplaced, probably belonging with the next item in the list. 108 Adopting a variant that adds 第五至.

109 Adopting a variant that speaks of "seven" instead of "one" existence. 110 Adopting a variant that only mentions the twelfth benefit at this point and accordingly deleting a redundant passage on the eradication of the taints. 111 The Pāli parallel is the Hatthisāriputta-sutta, AN 6.60 at AN III 392, which has the Isipatana at Vārāṇasī as its location.

112 The Hatthisāriputta-sutta mentions not just association with laypeople but associating with other monastics, lay disciples, kings, and ministers, as well as non-Buddhist practitioners and their disciples.

113 In the Hatthisāriputta-sutta the simile of no longer seeing animals in a lake illustrates the effect of having attained the second absorption, whereas the simile of the dust at a crossroads becoming mud after rain illustrates the effect of the first absorption. 114 Adopting a variant that reads 咸 instead of 滅.

115 In the Hatthisāriputta-sutta the simile of the lake without waves illustrates the effect of having attained the fourth absorption, whereas the simile related to food illustrates the third absorption.

116 The simile in the Hatthisāriputta-sutta depicts a person who has just finished a delicious meal and is offered leftover food from the day before. 117 In the Hatthisāriputta-sutta Mahākoṭṭhita affirms that he knew the mind of Citta and had also been informed about it by devas. The Pāli discourse continues by reporting that Citta's friends also informed the Buddha of Citta's disrobing, who then predicted that Citta would soon go forth again. This indeed happened, Citta went forth again and eventually became an arahant.

118 The Pāli parallel is the Pacalāyamāna-sutta, which is the first part of AN 7.58 at AN IV 85; the second part of this discourse in the PTS edition, beginning at AN IV 88, is a different discourse which is rather a parallel to MĀ 138. 119 Instead of these three means related to the teachings—recitation, teaching others, and reflection—the Pacalāyamāna-sutta only recommends two, reflection and recitation. 120 The Pacalāyamāna-sutta combines this and the preceding one into a single remedy of washing the eyes with water and looking at the constellations. The next recommendation 424

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in the Pacalāyamāna-sutta is to cultivate ālokasaññā, "perception of light" (or "clarity of perception"?), a method not mentioned in MĀ 83.

121 The Pacalāyamāna-sutta does not recommend resuming sitting meditation after having done walking meditation. According to its presentation, if after doing walking meditation one still feels tired, it is time to lie down and take a rest. 122 In total the Pacalāyamāna-sutta lists only eight recommendations: to avoid the perception that has led to the drowsiness, to reflect on the teachings, to recite the teachings, to pull on the earlobes, to rinse the eyes with water and look at the constellations, to develop perception of light, to practice walking meditation, and to lie down. 123 After its list of methods to overcome drowsiness, the Pacalāyamāna-sutta warns against pride when begging alms, engaging in contentious talk, and being bound to monastics or laypeople.

124 In the Pacalāyamāna-sutta the Buddha introduces this instruction with the dictum that "nothing in the world is worth adhering to."

125 The Pāli parallel is the Kaṇṭaka-sutta, AN 10.72 at AN V 133, which has as its location the Gabled Hall in the Great Wood at the same location, Vesālī. 126 The reconstruction of the last four of these six names is only tentative. 127 The Kaṇṭaka-sutta does not report the actual visit by the Licchavis. 128 The Kaṇṭaka-sutta announces and then describes ten thorns: socializing as a thorn for seclusion, pursuit of (physical) beauty as a thorn for cultivation of asubha, entertainments as a thorn for sense restraint, female company as a thorn for celibacy (for males), sound as a thorn for the first absorption, vitakka-vicāra as a thorn for the second absorption, rapture as a thorn for the third absorption, inhalation and exhalation as a thorn for the fourth absorption, perception and feeling as a thorn for the attainment of cessation, and finally lust (sensual passion), hatred (anger), and delusion (ignorance) as thorns in general.

129 The Pāli parallel is the Sappurisa-sutta, MN 113 at MN III 37; for a comparative study see Anālayo, A Comparative Study of the Majjhima-nikāya, pp. 639-643. 130 The Sappurisa-sutta takes up several types of distinguished families, which in its presentation become four different grounds for pride.

131 The Sappurisa-sutta does not mention being handsome and agreeable as a potential ground for pride.

132 A related quality in the Sappurisa-sutta is being a preacher of the Dharma (dhamma kathika). 133 In addition to fame, similarly highlighted in the Sappurisa-sutta, another related ground for pride in its presentation is the gain of requisites, not mentioned in MĀ 85. 425

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134 The Sappurisa-sutta reckons being learned and being versed in the Vinaya as two separate potential grounds for pride; it also does not refer to the Abhidharma. 135 The Sappurisa-sutta only mentions wearing rag robes as a potential ground for pride. 136 The Sappurisa-sutta reckons begging alms and taking only one meal as two potential grounds for pride.

137 The corresponding grounds for pride in the Sappurisa-sutta are dwelling in a forest, at the base of a tree, in a cemetery, and out in the open; additional grounds for pride, not mentioned in MĀ 85, are the practices of never lying down to rest and accepting any bed.

138 Adopting the variant 受 instead of 愛. In the Sappurisa-sutta the true person reflects that the Buddha had recommended nonidentification (atammayatā) with the first absorption; the same holds for the other absorptions and immaterial attainments. 139 The Sappurisa-sutta additionally takes up the attainment of cessation, which it implicitly shows to be no longer within reach of the untrue person.

140 This discourse is not a parallel to the Chachakka-sutta, MN 148 at MN III 280; cf. Anālayo, A Comparative Study of the Majjhima-nikāya, p. 838, n. 96. Division 8

141 Adopting a variant that adds 穢 before 經. The Pāli parallel is the Anaṅgaṇa-sutta, MN 5 at MN I 24, which has Jeta's Grove at Sāvatthī as its location; for a comparative study see Anālayo, A Comparative Study of the Majjhima-nikāya, pp. 42-45. 142 In the Anaṅgaṇa-sutta the one who asks this question is Mahāmoggallāna. 143 Here and below, the Anaṅgaṇa-sutta has no statement about the realm of one's rebirth. 144 The Anaṅgaṇa-sutta has this as four distinct topics, namely the wish to be the one who gives teachings to each of the four assemblies.

145 This wish has no counterpart in the Anaṅgaṇa-sutta.

146 The Anaṅgaṇa-sutta has being respected by each of the four assemblies as four distinct wishes.

147 In the Anaṅgaṇa-sutta the corresponding four wishes are for excellent robes, excellent food, excellent resting places, and excellent medicine. The wish for others not to get the same is therefore only for such excellent requisites, not for others not to get any requisites at all. Since it seems implausible that a monastic would wish for his companions not to receive any requisites, the qualification "[excellent]" has been added to the translation of MĀ 87.

148 The Anaṅgaṇa-sutta notes that others will not respect such a monk even if he engages in various types of ascetic practice; conversely a monk without defilements will be respected even if he does not adopt an ascetic living style.

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149 Instead of feces, in the Anaṅgaṇa-sutta the carcass of a dead animal or a human is put into the dish.

150 Such a warning is not found in the Anaṅgaṇa-sutta.

151 In the Anaṅgaṇa-sutta the onlookers are just curious to know what is inside, without expecting it to contain something repulsive.

152 The Anaṅgaṇa-sutta speaks of the ājīvika Paṇḍuputta who observes Samīti, the son of a cartwright, at work; it does not refer to a house of Paṇḍuputta. 153 The original here refers to a "renunciant," presumably a mistake caused by the recurrent reference to the same term in a preceding passage.

154 The simile of receiving a flower garland in the Anaṅgaṇa-sutta concerns a woman or a man.

155 The Pāli parallel is the Dhammadāyāda-sutta, MN 3 at MN I 12, which has Jeta's Grove at Sāvatthī as its location; for a comparative study see Anālayo, A Comparative Study of the Majjhima-nikāya, pp. 34-37.

156 The Dhammadāyāda-sutta does not list by name the monks present on this occasion. 157 In the Dhammadāyāda-sutta being heirs in the Dharma is contrasted with being heirs in material things in general, not just in food and drink.

158 A comparable exposition in the Dhammadāyāda-sutta has Sāriputta as its speaker. 159 In the Dhammadāyāda-sutta the Buddha had already withdrawn earlier, without any reference to having a backache and without asking Sāriputta to continue the teaching. 160 In the Dhammadāyāda-sutta Sāriputta expounds the matter himself, without asking the monks to express their understanding of it.

161 Here and below, the translation is based on emending 捨離 to read 遠離, in line with the expression used elsewhere in the discourse.

162 The Dhammadāyāda-sutta concludes with the monks rejoicing in what Sāriputta had said, without any further reference to the Buddha.

163 The Pāli parallel is the Anumāna-sutta, MN 15 at MN I 95, which has Bhesakalā Grove in Bhagga country as its location; for a comparative study see Anālayo, A Comparative Study of the Majjhima-nikāya, pp. 124-127.

164 The Anumāna-sutta does not refer to the rains retreat.

165 The list of qualities in the Anumāna-sutta shows several differences, see the survey in Anālayo, A Comparative Study of the Majjhima-nikāya, p. 126, table 2.8. 166 The Anumāna-sutta takes up the case of someone who is easy to admonish before turning to a comparable reflection regarding one's own qualities that make one difficult to admonish.

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167 The Anumāna-sutta does not have a reflection regarding one's own qualities that make one easy to admonish.

168 The Anumāna-sutta does not have a counterpart to the ensuing description of how delight leads on to other awakening factors, to dispassion, and to liberation. 169 The Pāli parallel is the Mahācunda-sutta, AN 10.24 at AN V 41, which has Sahajāti among the Cetis as its location.

170 The Mahācunda-sutta cites three related proclamations. The first is a proclamation of one's knowledge, ñāṇavāda, namely a claim to know and see the Dharma. The second is a proclamation of one's cultivation, bhāvanāvāda, namely a claim to have cultivated the body, virtue, the mind, and wisdom. The third combines the previous two into a single claim.

171 Here and below, the translation is based on emending 無惡欲 to 惡欲. The latter is the version found immediately afterward in the same sentence. 172 The Mahācunda-sutta does not mention uncommunicativeness, deceit, flattery, and lack of shame and scruples. Qualities mentioned only in the Mahācunda-sutta are delusion, denigration, and insolence.

173 A statement by the relatives and friends is not reported in the Mahācunda-sutta, which concludes its description of the poor person by saying that he will be known for being poor despite his claims.

174 The Pāli parallel is the Sallekha-sutta, MN 8 at MN I 40, which has Jeta's Grove at Sāvatthī as its location; for a comparative study see Anālayo, A Comparative Study of the Majjhima-nikāya, pp. 59-66.

175 This and several other qualities mentioned in MĀ 91 are not in the list in the Sallekhasutta; for a comparison of the two lists see Anālayo, A Comparative Study of the Majjhima-nikāya, p. 62, table 1.9.

176 As in the Pāli version, the present reference to "extinction" involves the term pari nirvāṇa, 般涅槃; see the discussion in Bhikkhu Ñāṇamoli, The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha, A Translation of the Majjhima Nikāya (Boston: Wisdom Publications, 1995, reprint 2005), p. 1184, n. 111. 177 The Pāli parallel is the Vatthūpama-sutta, MN 7 at MN I 36, which has Jeta's Grove at Sāvatthī as its location; for a comparative study see Anālayo, A Comparative Study of the Majjhima-nikāya, pp. 49-59.

178 The Vatthūpama-sutta does not associate this discourse with the time soon after the Buddha's awakening.

179 The Vatthūpama-sutta does not introduce the brahmin at this point and does not mention that the Buddha's exposition of defilements was related to him. 180 The Vatthūpama-sutta lists sixteen defilements; for a comparison of the lists of defilements see Anālayo, A Comparative Study of the Majjhima-nikāya, p. 51, table 1.7. 428

Notes

181 The simile in the Vatthūpama-sutta describes a dirty cloth that does not take dye properly. In the Vatthūpama-sutta this simile and the next one together precede the exposition of defilements.

182 The simile in the Vatthūpama-sutta describes a clean cloth that takes dye properly. 183 Before turning to the brahmavihāras, the Vatthūpama-sutta mentions confidence in the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, and detachment in regard to food. It continues from the brahmavihāras to the topic of liberation, which in its presentation corresponds to the inner bathing.

184 In the Vatthūpama-sutta the brahmin goes forth and eventually becomes an arahant. 185 The Pāli parallel is the Adhikaraṇa-sutta, AN 10.87 at AN V 164. 186 The Adhikaraṇa-sutta does not report that the monk, on account of whom the Buddha delivers the discourse, had approached the Buddha.

187 The Adhikaraṇa-sutta lists ten such bad qualities: being a maker of disciplinary issues, not being desirous of training, having evil wishes, being angry, denigrating others, being crafty, being deceitful, not paying attention to the teachings, not being secluded, and not showing kindness towards other monastics. In the Pāli discourse the list of unbeneficial results does not refer to the attainment of nirvana. 188 The Pāli parallel is the Ṭhiti-sutta, AN 10.53 at AN V 96.

189 In the Ṭhiti-sutta the Buddha instead proclaims that he praises only growth in wholesome states, not their mere maintenance, much less their decline. 190 The qualities listed in the Ṭhiti-sutta are faith, virtue, learning, generosity, wisdom, and eloquence.

191 The Ṭhiti-sutta introduces its list of mental states with the simile of a young woman or man who looks in a mirror; the actual list then comprises ten mental states, which are the five hindrances (the fourth is just restlessness), as well as irritation, defiled mental states, bodily agitation, laziness, and lack of concentration. 192 According to the Ṭhiti-sutta, one who is free of those states should make an effort to progress to nirvana. The Ṭhiti-sutta does not employ the simile of the burning head or clothes to illustrate this case, which it only has to illustrate the case of one under the influence of defiled mental states.

193 The Pāli parallel is the Parihāna-sutta, AN 10.55 at AN V 102. 194 In the Parihāna-sutta Sāriputta first announces the topic of "a person subject to decline" and then, at the request of the other monks, expounds it. 195 The Parihāna-sutta introduces its list of mental states with the simile of a young woman or man who looks in a mirror; the actual list then comprises ten mental states, which are being free of the five hindrances (the fourth is just being without restlessness), as well as not being irritable, not having defiled mental states, delighting in the 429

Notes

Dharma, gaining internal tranquility of the mind, and gaining higher wisdom and insight into phenomena.

196 According to the Parihāna-sutta, one who is free of these states should make an effort to progress to nirvana. The Parihāna-sutta does not employ the simile of the burning head or clothes to illustrate this case, which it only has to illustrate the case of one under the influence of defiled mental states.

Division 9

197 The Pāli parallel is the Mahānidāna-sutta, DN 15 at DN II 55. 198 Adopting the variant 令 instead of 念.

199 The Mahānidāna-sutta continues further, via feeling, contact, and name-and-form, up to consciousness.

200 Adopting the variant reading 蛟 instead of 蚊.

201 The Mahānidāna-sutta also mentions the birth of quadrupeds. 202 The Mahānidāna-sutta instead lists the three types of becoming: sense sphere, material, and immaterial.

203 The Mahānidāna-sutta mentions the four types of clinging to sensuality, to views, to rules and observances, and to doctrines of a self.

204 The Mahānidāna-sutta lists the six types of craving, according to the six sense objects. 205 The Mahānidāna-sutta proceeds further to the topic of feeling. 206 The translation here and below is based on an emendation. MĀ 97 links contact with the name group by way of "resistance" 對, and with the form group by way of "designation" 增語. The Mahānidāna-sutta instead links contact with the name group by way of "designation," adhivacana, and with the form group by way of "resistance," paṭigha. The presentation in the Mahānidāna-sutta is clearly the more appropriate one, whereas the present passage in MĀ 97 seems to have resulted from an erroneous exchange of the two terms.

207 The Mahānidāna-sutta also reckons being born, growing old, dying, etc., as results of the reciprocal conditionality between consciousness and name-and-form. 208 In the Mahānidāna-sutta the Buddha first examines different notions of a self as being material or immaterial, limited or unlimited, before discussing the three ways of relating views of a self to feeling.

209 In the Mahānidāna-sutta the holder of the view of self concludes that the self has departed once the particular type of feeling identified as the self ceases. 210 Adopting the variant reading 雜 instead of 離.

430

Notes

211 The Mahānidāna-sutta, where this is the second of the three types of view of self in relation to feeling, instead argues that the notion "I am this" would no longer exist. 212 The reason given in the Mahānidāna-sutta is more detailed, pointing out that a liberated one is freed from the pathways of designation and conceptualization, yet it would be inappropriate to view such a liberated monk as one who does not know and does not see.

213 Since the Mahānidāna-sutta has the corresponding exposition earlier, before the examination of the three types of view of a self in relation to feeling, at this point it instead continues by listing the seven stations of consciousness, the two spheres, and the eight liberations, also found later in MĀ 97.

214 In the Mahānidāna-sutta one who upholds a certain type of self instead expects to realize that type of self after death.

215 The Pāli parallel is the Satipaṭṭhāna-sutta, MN 10 at MN I 55; for a comparative study see Anālayo, A Comparative Study of the Majjhima-nikāya, pp. 73-97, and Perspectives on Satipaṭṭhāna (Cambridge: Windhorse, 2013).

216 A statement on past, future, or present tathāgatas is not found in the Satipaṭṭhāna-sutta. 217 The Satipaṭṭhāna-sutta additionally mentions that such contemplation is undertaken diligently, clearly knowing, and free from desire or discontent toward the world. 218 The sequence of the body contemplations in the Satipaṭṭhāna-sutta differs, proceeding from mindfulness of breathing to bodily postures, bodily activities, anatomical parts, elements, and the cemetery contemplations.

219 The Satipaṭṭhāna-sutta does not mention falling asleep or waking up as part of the contemplation of bodily postures.

220 The Satipaṭṭhāna-sutta also mentions the contemplation of impermanence and refers to dwelling independently, without clinging to anything.

221 The Satipaṭṭhāna-sutta also mentions eating, drinking, consuming food, tasting, defecating, and urinating. 222 This and the following exercise are not mentioned in the Satipaṭṭhāna-sutta. 223 Adopting the variant 絣 instead of 拼.

224 The translation is based on emending what in the original is a reference to "verbal activities" when breathing out, clearly a textual error. The Satipaṭṭhāna-sutta has a simile of a turner at work at a lathe to illustrate mindfulness of breathing. 225 Whereas the Satipaṭṭhāna-sutta does not mention this and the subsequent three exercises, the Kāyagatāsati-sutta, MN 119 at MN III 92, does reckon the bodily experience of each of the four absorptions as modes of body contemplation. 226 This and the following exercise are not mentioned in the Satipaṭṭhāna-sutta. 431

Notes

227 觀相, which perhaps is an equivalent to the paccavekkhaṇanimitta. 228 This list of seeds differs from the one given in the same simile in MĀ 81, the parallel to the Kāyagatāsati-sutta.

229 The Satipaṭṭhāna-sutta only lists the four elements of earth, water, fire, and wind. 230 Cremation or burial are not mentioned in the Satipaṭṭhāna-sutta. 231 Nuns are not explicitly mentioned in the Satipaṭṭhāna-sutta, although the same would be implicit, in as much as the term "monk" can represent monastics of either gender; see Alice Collett and Bhikkhu Anālayo, "Bhikkhave and Bhikkhu as Gender-inclusive Terminology in Early Buddhist Texts," Journal of Buddhist Ethics 21 (2014): 760-797. 232 The Satipaṭṭhāna-sutta does not mention a distinction between bodily and mental feelings, or between feelings related or not related to sensuality. 233 The Satipaṭṭhāna-sutta does not mention mental states that are defiled or undefiled, inferior or superior, or developed or undeveloped.

234 Contemplation of dharmas in the Satipaṭṭhāna-sutta also covers contemplating the five aggregates of clinging and the Four Noble Truths, which are the second and fifth exercises in its version of the fourth satipaṭṭhāna.

235 In the Satipaṭṭhāna-sutta, where contemplation of the six sense spheres is the third exercise under contemplation of dharmas, the task is also to know the senses and their objects as such, in addition to knowing the fetter that arises in dependence on both. 236 Adopting a variant reading that adds 擇.

237 The Satipaṭṭhāna-sutta proceeds from a period of seven years of practice step by step down to seven days, but no further than that.

238 The Pāli parallel is the Mahādukkhakkhandha-sutta, MN 13 at MN I 83; for a comparative study see Anālayo, A Comparative Study of the Majjhima-nikāya, pp. 117-121. 239 In the Mahādukkhakkhandha-sutta the monks themselves, on their way into town to collect alms, had approached the heterodox wanderers.

240 The Mahādukkhakkhandha-sutta treats what has been mentioned so far as three distinct cases illustrating the danger of sensual pleasures, namely the suffering experienced when working, when such work does not succeed, and when what has been gained is lost again.

241 According to the Mahādukkhakkhandha-sutta, family members may even go so far as to take up weapons and harm one another.

242 男女, "men and women," which in the present context presumably means "people." 243 The regret experienced by an evildoer is not mentioned in the Mahādukkhakkhandhasutta, which therefore does not have the simile of a mountain's shadow. A version of this simile can be found in the Bālapaṇḍita-sutta, MN 129 at MN III 164. 432

Notes

244 The Pāli parallel is the Cūḷadukkhakkhandha-sutta, MN 14 at MN I 91; for a comparative study see Anālayo, A Comparative Study of the Majjhima-nikāya, pp. 121-124. 245 This request, which has no counterpart in the Cūḷadukkhakkhandha-sutta, implies that Mahānāma was still a worldling at the time of this discourse. According to the commentary on the Cūḷadukkhakkhandha-sutta, Ps II 61, however, he was a oncereturner at that time. 246 In the Cūḷadukkhakkhandha-sutta the Buddha first relates how he overcame sensuality in the period before his awakening. The ensuing exposition of sensual pleasures is the same as in the Mahādukkhakkhandha-sutta.

247 The Cūḷadukkhakkhandha-sutta treats what has been mentioned so far as three distinct cases illustrating the danger in sensual pleasures, namely the suffering experienced when working, when such work does not succeed, and when what has been gained is lost through theft, etc.

248 According to the Cūḷadukkhakkhandha-sutta, family members may even go so far as to take up weapons and harm one another.

249 See note 242.

250 The regret experienced by an evildoer is not mentioned in the Cūḷadukkhakkhandhasutta, which therefore does not have the simile of a mountain's shadow. A version of this simile can be found in the Bālapaṇḍita-sutta, MN 129 at MN III 164. 251 In the Cūḷadukkhakkhandha-sutta the Buddha relates his insight into sensual pleasures to the time before his awakening, explaining that despite this insight he transcended the attraction of sensual pleasures only after he had experienced superior forms of happiness, such as those available through absorption attainment. 252 The location in the Cūḷadukkhakkhandha-sutta is Mount Vulture Peak. 253 According to the Cūḷadukkhakkhandha-sutta, the Nigaṇṭhas attributed omniscience to their teacher.

254 In the Cūḷadukkhakkhandha-sutta the Buddha instead inquires if the Nigaṇṭhas had knowledge of former evil deeds done by them and if they were aware of the degree to which these deeds were now being eradicated.

255 The Cūḷadukkhakkhandha-sutta specifies that such deeds were acts of murder. 256 The Buddha's rebuke in the Cūḷadukkhakkhandha-sutta is less strongly worded; he simply points out that they spoke rashly and should have asked him about it. 257 In the Cūḷadukkhakkhandha-sutta the Buddha's ability to remain motionless in joy and happiness for up to seven days takes the form of an affirmation instead of being a question.

258 The Cūḷadukkhakkhandha-sutta concludes at this point.

433

Notes

259 The Pāli parallel is the Vitakkasaṇṭhāna-sutta, MN 20 at MN I 118; for a comparative study see Anālayo, A Comparative Study of the Majjhima-nikāya, pp. 140-143. 260 Adopting the variant 絣 instead of 拼.

261 The Vitakkasaṇṭhāna-sutta instead describes a carpenter who removes a coarse peg with the help of a finer peg.

262 Adopting the variant 正 instead of 政.

263 The Vitakkasaṇṭhāna-sutta continues with a description of the attainment of liberation. 264 The Pāli parallel is the Dvedhāvitakka-sutta, MN 19 at MN I 114; for a comparative study see Anālayo, A Comparative Study of the Majjhima-nikāya, pp. 138-140. 265 The Dvedhāvitakka-sutta does not follow the description of frequent thinking leading to a tendency of the mind to delight in such thoughts with a statement about freedom from dukkha. Instead, in the Pāli version the simile of the cowherd comes at this point. 266 The expected description of the first absorption is lacking here, but is present in the Dvedhāvitakka-sutta. It could be restored as follows: "Secluded from sensual desires, secluded from evil and unwholesome states, he dwells having attained the first absorption, which is with directed awareness and sustained contemplation, with rapture and happiness born of separation."

267 The Dvedhāvitakka-sutta mentions recollection of past lives and the divine eye before turning to the destruction of the taints. Another difference in the Pāli version is that the one who attains the absorptions and the three higher knowledges is the Buddha himself. 268 Here and below, the Dvedhāvitakka-sutta only identifies the path with the eightfold wrong or right path, not with the three unwholesome or wholesome thoughts. 269 The simile in the Dvedhāvitakka-sutta contains no watchman; hence its explanation of the simile also has no reference to the retinue of Māra.

270 The Pāli parallel is the Cūḷasīhanāda-sutta, MN 11 at MN I 63, which has Jeta's Grove at Sāvatthī as its location; for a comparative study see Anālayo, A Comparative Study of the Majjhima-nikāya, pp. 99-105.

271 This would refer to the four levels of awakening; see AN 4.239 at AN II 238. 272 The Cūḷasīhanāda-sutta has craving and clinging as two separate topics. The next topics it discusses are being without vision, favoring and opposing, and enjoying conceptual proliferation, papañca. It does not sum up all the qualifications of the final goal thus covered.

273 In the Cūḷasīhanāda-sutta the fourth type is clinging to "a doctrine of self" rather than to "a self."

274 The Cūḷasīhanāda-sutta relates the four types of clinging to ignorance via the intervening seven links of dependent arising, paṭicca samuppāda. 434

Notes

275 The Cūḷasīhanāda-sutta does not repeat the reference to the lion's roar. 276 The Pāli parallel is the Udumbarika-sutta, DN 25 at DN III 36 (following the Asian editions for the title; in the PTS edition the title is Udumbarika-sīhanāda-sutta). 277 In the Udumbarika-sutta the householder's name is Sandhāna. 278 無恚, literally, "no anger," apparently mistaking nigrodha for ni + krodha. 279 鳥論, literally "bird talk"; elsewhere the Madhyama-āgama employs the expression 畜生之論 as its counterpart to tiracchānakathā.

280 The Udumbarika-sutta does not report Nigrodha making any statement about how the Buddha should be offered a seat.

281 In the Udumbarika-sutta Nigrodha and his followers had indeed been intending to ask the Buddha this question if he should join them. Consequently, the Pāli version does not report a reflection by the householder Sandhāna that Nigrodha is speaking a falsehood.

282 One of several differences is that the Udumbarika-sutta does not mention shaving off the hair and beard (a practice that is in fact followed by Buddhist monastics themselves). 283 The partly different list of defilements of self-mortification in the Udumbarika-sutta does not mention absorbing the energy of the sun, a reference whose implications are not clear.

284 Adopting a variant that adds another 子.

285 "Views" is another topic that is not included in the Udumbarika-sutta's list of defilements of self-mortification. 286 The four restraints in the Udumbarika-sutta are not killing, not stealing, not speaking falsehoods, and not yearning for sensual pleasures (following the commentarial explanation for the last). The Pāli version goes on to describe withdrawal into seclusion and overcoming the five hindrances.

287 Here and below, according to the Udumbarika-sutta, Nigrodha thinks that by now the practice of self-mortification has reached the essence.

288 In the Udumbarika-sutta they instead exclaim that they are lost, as they do not know this higher attainment. Right after that the householder Sandhāna intervenes, reminding Nigrodha of his earlier dismissive remarks about the Buddha and of his boast that he would defeat the Buddha with a single question.

289 The Udumbarika-sutta does not contain the account of the gradual path to awakening. 290 In the Udumbarika-sutta Nigrodha formally confesses his transgression of speaking like this about the Buddha.

291 The Udumbarika-sutta lists various time periods from seven years down to seven days within which a disciple may reach the goal.

435

Notes

292 In the Udumbarika-sutta the Buddha also points out that he does not require heterodox practitioners to abandon their rules and way of life, to do what they consider unwholesome, or to abstain from doing what they consider wholesome. The Pāli version does not mention the suspicion that the Buddha might be interested in capturing and destroying them or in obtaining offerings or fame. 293 The Udumbarika-sutta records no comment or teaching given by the Buddha to the householder, who returns to Rājagaha on his own.

294 The Pāli parallel is the Ākhaṅkheyya-sutta, MN 6 at MN I 33; for a comparative study see Anālayo, A Comparative Study of the Majjhima-nikāya, pp. 45-49. 295 Adopting the variant 住 instead of 任.

296 The Ākhaṅkheyya-sutta does not have an introductory narration recording the monk's reflection. It begins with the Buddha addressing the monks, emphasizing the need to maintain virtuous conduct, seeing danger in the slightest fault. 297 In the Ākhaṅkheyya-sutta the wish to be taught by the Buddha is not in the list of wishes, which includes the following: to be dear to other monks, to receive requisites, to be a source of merit for supporters, to be a source of merit for relatives, to bear discontent, to bear fear, and to attain the four absorptions, the immaterial attainments, stream-entry, once-returning, nonreturning, and each of the six higher knowledges. 298 The Ākhaṅkheyya-sutta does not report that the monks put the Buddha's instruction into practice.

299 Chizen Akanuma, The Comparative Catalogue of Chinese Āgamas & Pāli Nikāyas (Delhi: Sri Satguru, 1990, reprint), p. 15, lists as a parallel for MĀ 106 the Mūlapariyāya-sutta, MN 1 at MN I 1. However, these two discourses differ considerably and do not seem to be "parallels," properly speaking; see the discussion in Anālayo, A Comparative Study of the Majjhima-nikāya, p. 23.

Division 10

300 The Pāli parallel is the Vanapattha-sutta, MN 17 at MN I 104; for a comparative study see Anālayo, A Comparative Study of the Majjhima-nikāya, pp. 132-134. 301 The Vanapattha-sutta first examines the case of a monk who has no improvement in his practice and scarce requisites; then the cases of no improvement and ample requisites, improvement and scarce requisites, and improvement and ample requisites. 302 As in the case of the preceding discourse, MĀ 107, the Pāli parallel to the present MĀ 108 is the Vanapattha-sutta, MN 17 at MN I 104; for a comparative study see Anālayo, A Comparative Study of the Majjhima-nikāya, pp. 132-134. 303 This reflection differs from the one in MĀ 107, which is closer to the Vanapatthasutta, both of which refer to cultivating mindfulness and concentration, as well as achieving the destruction of the taints.

436

Notes

304 The Vanapattha-sutta first examines the case of a monk who has no improvement of his practice and scarce requisites; then the cases of no improvement and ample requisites, improvement and scarce requisites, and improvement and ample requisites. 305 The Pāli parallel is the Samatha-sutta, AN 10.54 at AN V 98. 306 The Samatha-sutta likens this to a young woman or a young man examining her or his face in a mirror.

307 The Samatha-sutta concludes after the case of the person, having no counterpart for the general statement that follows in MĀ 109.

308 Adopting a variant that adds 法, in accordance with earlier instances of the same phrase. 309 The Pāli parallel is the Sacitta-sutta, AN 10.51 at AN V 92. 310 The Sacitta-sutta likens this to a young woman or a young man examining her or his face in a mirror.

311 The Sacitta-sutta does not mention faith, mindfulness, and wisdom. As already noted by Bhikkhu Bodhi, The Numerical Discourses of the Buddha, p. 1844, n. 2061, these, together with energy and concentration (mentioned in both versions), would constitute the five faculties.

312 The Sacitta-sutta concludes at this point, having no counterpart for the discussion of robes, etc.

313 The Pāli parallel is the Nibbedhika-sutta, AN 6.63 at AN III 410. 314 The Nibbedhika-sutta has two minor differences in sequence: (1) it begins with sensual pleasures, discussing the taints only later at the point where MĀ 111 refers to sensual pleasures; (2) in each case it discusses the diversity before the results. 315 In the Nibbedhika-sutta the result of feelings is rather the coming to an individual existence partaking of merit or demerit.

316 The present description corresponds to the instruction on contemplation of feeling in the parallel to the Satipaṭṭhāna-sutta, MĀ 98. Like the Satipaṭṭhāna-sutta, the Nibbedhika-sutta does not mention bodily and mental feelings, and feelings related or not related to sensual pleasures.

317 The Nibbedhika-sutta lists six types of perception according to the six sense objects. 318 The Nibbedhika-sutta presents a threefold distinction of karma according to it being experienced in this life, the next, or later.

319 Instead of association with what is disliked and dissociation from what is liked, the Nibbedhika-sutta mentions sorrow, lamentation, pain, grief, and despair. 320 Adopting the variant reading 集 instead of 習.

437

Notes

321 The Nibbedhika-sutta locates the search for help from outsiders under the "result of dukkha," and the fourfold distinction into minor or intense dukkha that passes away quickly or slowly under the "diversity of dukkha."

322 The Pāli parallel is the Purisindriyañāṇa-sutta (or Udaka-sutta), AN 6.62 at AN III 402, which has Daṇḍakappa in Kosala as its location.

323 The Purisindriyañāṇa-sutta reports that Ānanda had gone with a group of monks to bathe and one monk had asked the question about Devadatta, which Ānanda then reported to the Buddha.

324 No such reaction by Ānanda is reported in the Purisindriyañāṇa-sutta. 325 The Purisindriyañāṇa-sutta only illustrates this case with the example of good seeds placed in fertile soil (which in MĀ 112 appears a little later); it has the simile of the sunrise in relation to one who manifests wholesomeness and whose unwholesome roots will soon become extinct.

326 The second case in the Purisindriyañāṇa-sutta is rather someone whose unwholesome qualities have disappeared but who still has the roots of unwholesomeness, comparable to seeds deposited on a rock.

327 The fourth case in the Purisindriyañāṇa-sutta is rather someone whose wholesome qualities have disappeared and whose roots of wholesomeness will also disappear, likened to burning coals deposited on a rock or the onset of darkness at sunset. 328 At this point the Purisindriyañāṇa-sutta ends, with no counterpart for the final injunction in MĀ 112. 329 The Pāli parallels are the Mūlaka-suttas, AN 8.83 at AN IV 338 and AN 10.58 at AN V 106. These differ in having eight and ten topics respectively; MĀ 113 has nine. 330 These practices are not mentioned in the Mūlaka-suttas themselves, but a comparable description can be found in the discourse after the second Mūlaka-sutta, AN 10.59 at AN V 106.

331 The Pāli parallel is the Uddaka-sutta, SN 35.103 at SN IV 83. 332 In the Uddaka-sutta his proclamation takes the form of a stanza worded differently. 333 Instead of omniscience, the claim in the Uddaka-sutta is to have conquered everything. 334 The translation of 狸 follows the indication in Hirakawa, Buddhist Chinese-Sanskrit Dictionary, p. 814, that this can render jambuka. This entire paragraph with the description of Uddaka's attainment and rebirth has no counterpart in the Uddaka-sutta. 335 The three feelings are not discussed in the Uddaka-sutta. 336 The three cravings are not discussed in the Uddaka-sutta; nor are the six taints related to the senses.

438

Notes

337 Instead of an exhortation to practice, the Uddaka-sutta repeats the earlier quoted stanza, attributed to Uddaka, together with the Buddha's comment on it. 338 The Pāli parallel is the Madhupiṇḍika-sutta, MN 18 at MN I 108; for a comparative study see Anālayo, A Comparative Study of the Majjhima-nikāya, pp. 134-138. 339 Adopting the variant 行 instead of 志.

340 The Madhupiṇḍika-sutta speaks of not delighting in the source of perceptions and notions (related to) conceptual proliferation, papañca.

341 分別, whereas the Madhupiṇḍika-sutta speaks of conceptual proliferation, papañca. 342 The Madhupiṇḍika-sutta adopts the opposite sequence, discussing first the presence of the sense organs and then their absence.

343 In the Madhupiṇḍika-sutta it is Ānanda who delivers the simile of the honeyball, which involves a hungry person.

344 Adopting the variant 道 instead of 通.

345 The Pāli parallel is the Gotamī-sutta, AN 8.51 at AN IV 274; for a comparative study see Anālayo, Madhyama-āgama Studies, pp. 449-488, 2016a.

346 Gotamī's request in the Pāli discourse does not refer to the four fruits of a renunciant, which represent the four levels of awakening; she also makes three requests one right after the other.

347 According to the Gotamī-sutta, they had shaved off their hair and put on yellow robes. 348 The Gotamī-sutta has a comparable set of similes at its end, after Ānanda has told the Buddha that Gotamī has become a nun. The similes describe robbers easily assailing a house with many females and few males, and two types of disease afflicting a rice field or a sugar field, respectively. These are followed by a version of the simile of the dike, which in MĀ 116 introduces the eight garudhammas.

349 In the Gotamī-sutta Ānanda inquires about women's ability to awaken and reminds the Buddha of his debt of gratitude to his foster mother Mahāpajāpatī Gotamī. The Buddha affirms the first and does not reply to the second, but next promulgates the eight garudhammas. A clarification by the Buddha that he has already settled his debt of gratitude to his foster mother can be found in the Dakkhiṇāvibhaṅga-sutta, MN 142 at MN III 254.

350 The eight garudhammas in the Gotamī-sutta come in a different sequence. The garu dhamma on higher ordination refers to the probationary training and stipulates that ordination is to be given by both communities.

351 The corresponding garudhamma in the Gotamī-sutta does not mention questions about the discourses, Vinaya, or Abhidharma.

439

Notes

352 The remainder of MĀ 116 has no counterpart in the Gotamī-sutta; Gotamī's request for the garudhamma on respect to be abolished can be found at Vin II 257. 353 This refers to becoming a buddha, not to becoming an arahant. Division 11

354 The Pāli parallel is the Sukhumāla-sutta, AN 3.38 at AN I 145. 355 The identification of some flower names is tentative.

356 The Sukhumāla-sutta does not report the young prince's attainment of the first absorption.

357 MĀ 117 refers not only to old age and illness, but also to death in the stanzas that follow. This makes it safe to conclude that the prose section in MĀ 117 has lost an exposition on the topic of death; in fact the same topic is found also in the Sukhumālasutta. The apparently lost text could be supplemented as follows: "Again, I thought, 'Unlearned ignorant worldlings are themselves subject to death, not exempt from death. On seeing other people die, they feel disgust and slight them as undesirable and unpleasant, not observing their own condition.' Again I thought, 'I am myself subject to death, not exempt from death. If on seeing other people die I were to feel disgust and were to slight them as undesirable and unpleasant, then that would not be appropriate for me, since I too am subject to this condition.' On my having contemplated in this way, the pride caused by life naturally vanished." 358 The Pāli parallel is the Nāga-sutta, AN 6.43 at AN III 344, which has Jeta's Grove, also in Sāvatthī, as its location.

359 In the Nāga-sutta the Buddha goes to bathe with Ānanda, after both have spent the day meditating in the Hall of Migāra's Mother.

360 念. In the Nāga-sutta the elephant is called Seta.

361 Bhikkhu Bodhi, The Numerical Discourses of the Buddha, p. 1756, n. 1317, explains that the corresponding statement in the Pāli version (on not doing evil by body, speech, and mind) involves a pun based on a playful etymology of nāga as na āguṃ, "no evil." That the Tathāgata is such a nāga is not explicitly stated in the Nāga-sutta. 362 On this stanza see Bhikkhu Bodhi, The Numerical Discourses of the Buddha, p. 1756, n. 1319.

363 In the Nāga-sutta the elephant's tusks represent equanimity and its tail represents seclusion.

364 The Pāli parallel is the Kathāvatthu-sutta, AN 3.67 at AN I 197. 365 The Kathāvatthu-sutta proceeds directly from the initial statement of three grounds for talk to the analysis of past, present, and future.

366 The Kathāvatthu-sutta does not at this juncture describe arrival at liberation. 440

Notes

367 The Kathāvatthu-sutta discusses questions to be answered in four ways: categorically, by making a distinction, by asking a counter-question, and by setting the question aside. 368 The Kathāvatthu-sutta continues by further analyzing types of talk. 369 The Pāli parallel is the Arahanta-sutta, SN 22.76 at SN III 82. 370 Adopting a variant that adds 三十. The Arahanta-sutta instead describes how insight into the three characteristics in relation to the five aggregates leads to disenchantment and dispassion toward them, resulting in liberation.

371 七善法, with its counterpart in the seven saddhammas in the Arahanta-sutta; these seven wholesome states are listed in the Saṅgīti-sutta, DN 33 at DN III 252, as faith, shame, fear of wrongdoing, learning, energy, mindfulness, and wisdom. 372 The Pāli parallel is the Pavāraṇā-sutta, SN 8.7 at SN I 190, which has the Hall of Migāra's Mother at Sāvatthī as its location.

373 In the Pavāraṇā-sutta the Buddha makes no statement about his own attainments and instead invites the monks to point out any censurable deeds of his. 374 The Pavāraṇā-sutta makes no reference to one monk who has yet to attain the final goal. 375 In the Pavāraṇā-sutta the Buddha, without being asked to do so, lists sixty monks who have the three higher knowledges, sixty who have the six direct knowledges, and sixty who are liberated both ways; the remainder of the five hundred monks are liberated by wisdom. The Pavāraṇā-sutta does not report a statement by the Buddha comparing the assembled monks to heartwood.

376 The three stanzas beginning with "shining with pure light" up to the present one have no counterpart in the Pavāraṇā-sutta.

377 In the final stanza of the Pavāraṇā-sutta Vaṅgīsa pays homage to the Kinsman of the Sun (i.e., the Buddha), who has destroyed the arrow of craving. 378 The Pāli parallel to the first part of MĀ 122 is the Uposatha-sutta, AN 8.20 at AN IV 204, which has the Hall of Migāra's Mother at Sāvatthī as its location. The second part of MĀ 122 has a parallel in the Kāraṇḍava-sutta, AN 8.10 at AN IV 168. 379 The Uposatha-sutta reports that the Buddha sat in silence, without stating that he had entered concentration and observed the minds of the monks in the assembly. Only the commentary, Mp IV 112, states that the Buddha had observed the minds of the monks and discerned one without virtue.

380 According to the Uposatha-sutta, the one who asked the Buddha to recite the pātimokkha (code of rules) was Ānanda.

381 In the Uposatha-sutta Mahāmoggallāna first tells the monk three times to leave, and only when the monk keeps sitting silently does he take him by the arm and lead him outside.

441

Notes

382 The Uposatha-sutta does not refer to the head of the monk possibly splitting into seven pieces, a danger mentioned only in the commentary, Mp IV 112. 383 The Uposatha-sutta continues with the eight extraordinary qualities of the ocean comparable to eight extraordinary qualities of the Buddha's teaching. The exposition in the remainder of MĀ 122 on a monk who pretends to be genuine by acting with right comprehension has a parallel in the Kāraṇḍava-sutta, AN 8.10 at AN IV 168. 384 The Pāli parallel is the Soṇa-sutta, AN 6.55 at AN III 374, which has Mount Vulture Peak at Rājagaha as its location.

385 The Soṇa-sutta says that Soṇa Kolivīsa stayed in the Sītavana at Rājagaha. It reports only that he was living in seclusion and gives no further details about his practice. 386 In the Soṇa-sutta the Buddha instead uses supernormal means to disappear from Mount Vulture Peak and reappear before Soṇa in the Sītavana. 387 The Soṇa-sutta does not report Soṇa's embarrassment or his realization that the Buddha knew his thoughts.

388 In the Soṇa-sutta the six experiences are being determined on renunciation, seclusion, nonaffliction, the destruction of craving, the destruction of clinging, and nonconfusion. 389 The Soṇa-sutta does not discuss the topic of one in training and thus has no counterpart to the simile of a young boy's faculties and habits.

390 The Soṇa-sutta concludes with this last stanza and has no counterpart to the remainder of MĀ 124.

391 The Pāli parallel is the Akkhaṇa-sutta, AN 8.29 at AN IV 225. 392 The Akkhaṇa-sutta has the last two in the opposite sequence, first the problem of holding wrong views and then the problem of being unable to understand. 393 The Pāli parallel is the Iṇa-sutta, AN 6.45 at AN III 351. 394 The Iṇa-sutta lists lack of faith, of shame, of fear of wrongdoing, of energy, and of wisdom, all in relation to wholesome states. It does not mention that such a person might possess gold and precious stones.

395 The Iṇa-sutta does not refer to the arahant at this juncture. 396 Adopting the variant 安 instead of 棄.

397 The comparison to a lamp is not found in the Iṇa-sutta.

398 The Pāli parallel is the Kāmabhogī-sutta, AN 10.91 at AN V 176. 399 The Kāmabhogī-sutta takes up all of the ten types introduced earlier and points out in each case on how many grounds these are to be criticized or praised. 400 One who seeks wealth by partially improper means could hardly qualify as being superior to one who does so by entirely proper means. The added part in brackets is 442

Notes

therefore intended to clarify that this refers only to those who similarly seek wealth through mixed means. Judging from the ensuing verse, this passage seems to be the result of a textual error and would originally have been about one who seeks wealth by proper means but is attached to it.

401 The Kāmabhogī-sutta contains no verses.

402 The Pāli parallel is the Dakkhiṇeyyā-sutta, AN 2.4.4 at AN I 62. 403 A distinction of the two types of persons into eighteen and nine kinds is not found in the Dakkhiṇeyyā-sutta, which instead continues after the twofold distinction with verses spoken by the Buddha.

404 "One-seeder" refers to a stream-enterer who will experience only one more life. 405 Whereas the previous list of those in training represents material common to the early discourses in different reciter traditions, the present list of those beyond training reflects later ideas held in the Sarvāstivāda reciter tradition, which transmitted the Madhyama-āgama. A similar list can be found in the Abhidharmakośavyākhyā; see Wogihara, Sphuṭārthā Abhidharmakośavyākhyā by Yaśomitra, Part II, p. 566. 406 The Pāli parallel is the Gihī-sutta, AN 5.179 at AN III 211. 407 The Gihī-sutta does not report a meeting between Sāriputta and the group headed by Anāthapiṇḍika. Instead it begins with the arrival of the group in the Buddha's presence. 408 In the Gihī-sutta such a declaration is to be made by the noble disciple him- or herself. 409 The Gihī-sutta merely lists the five precepts, without going into details. 410 The Gihī-sutta highlights that the Dharma is directly visible, not involving time, inviting one to come and see, leading onward, and to be experienced personally by the wise. Here and in relation to the other three pleasant mental abidings, the Gihī-sutta mentions only that they serve to purify the impure mind and cleanse the unclean mind. 411 The Gihī-sutta only refers to the four pairs (of noble ones), the eight persons, without listing them individually and without noting that they are accomplished in morality, concentration, wisdom, liberation, and the knowledge and vision of liberation. 412 The Gihī-sutta does not have the comparison to the earth. 413 The Gihī-sutta describes such a person in more detail, qualifying him in various ways as a liberated one.

414 In the Gihī-sutta those who give to outsiders are considered fools. 415 The Pāli parallel is the Kodhana-sutta, AN 7.60 at AN IV 94. 416 In the Kodhana-sutta, where loss of wealth is the fourth in the list, such loss comes about through confiscation in the king's name.

417 Adopting the variant 盛 instead of 止.

443

Notes

418 Besides parents, the Kodhana-sutta also mentions killing a brahmin (which according to the commentary means an arahant) or a worldling.

419 Adopting the variant 業 instead of 逆.

420 The Pāli parallel is the Dhammika-sutta, AN 6.54 at AN III 366, which has Mount Vulture Peak at Rājagaha as its location.

421 In the Dhammika-sutta Dhammika several times leaves one monastery and goes to another one, where the same events happen, until eventually the lay disciples tell him to leave all seven monasteries of the region.

422 The discussion in the Dhammika-sutta proceeds differently. On seeing Dhammika, the Buddha asks him where he is coming from, in reply to which Dhammika explains that he has been banished. In response to that, the Buddha delivers the simile of the bird and right away continues with the story of King Koravya's banyan tree. 423 The Dhammika-sutta does not describe the general conditions at the time of King Koravya, nor does it speak of him as a wheel-turning monarch. 424 The Dhammika-sutta does not report how King Koravya came to know that the banyan tree no longer bore fruit; this information is found only in the commentary, Mp III 386. It also merely reports that King Koravya approached Sakka, without explicitly stating that he did so by supernormal means or that both returned to Jambudīpa by the same means.

425 In relation to Sunetta and the other teachers, the Dhammika-sutta only mentions that those who had no confidence in their teaching were reborn in a lower realm. A description of Sunetta's disciples being reborn in different heavenly realms and his own superior practice and rebirth can be found in AN 7.62 at AN IV 103, and its parallel MĀ 8 at T I 429b.

426 The Dhammika-sutta does not mention Jotipāla's father, Govinda, and therefore speaks of only six teachers, although it does refer to Govinda and Jotipāla in its verse part. The Mahāgovinda-sutta, DN 19 at DN II 230, reports that Govinda had been chaplain to King Disampatī, and Govinda's son Jotipāla served as chaplain to the son of Disampatī, King Reṇu (and of his companions). Unlike Jotipāla, Govinda did not go forth to cultivate the brahmavihāras and thus did not become a "teacher" of this practice to others. Therefore, the reference to seven brahmin chaplains but rather six teachers in the Dhammika-sutta correctly reflects the description in DN 19. 427 Adopting the variant 微 instead of 妙.

428 The Pāli parallel is the Māratajjanīya-sutta, MN 50 at MN I 332; for a comparative study see Anālayo, A Comparative Study of the Majjhima-nikāya, pp. 300-307. 429 The Māratajjanīya-sutta does not mention supervision of the construction of a hut or that Māra made himself smaller.

444

Notes

430 According to the Māratajjanīya-sutta, the corresponding monk Vidhura had acquired his name for being without equal in teaching the Dharma (vidhura can mean "unequaled").

431 想; in the Māratajjanīya-sutta the corresponding monk Sañjīva is so-called because he has been "revived," patisañjīvita.

432 Māra's reflection in the Māratajjanīya-sutta has no reference to the lineage being severed due to the renunciants' lack of sons. Instead it describes his plans to get the householders to abuse the monks in order to upset their minds. The denigration about musing, etc., appears in the Pāli version only as part of the actual abuse of the householders. This abuse begins with the simile of an owl wanting to catch a mouse, followed by a jackal wanting to catch a fish, a cat wanting to catch a mouse, and an unburdened donkey. 433 In the Māratajjanīya-sutta the householders abuse them only verbally; they do not attack them physically. On being reborn in hell, they are not shown to realize that this happened in retribution for abusing the monks.

434 The Māratajjanīya-sutta gives no information about the size of the crowd taught by Kakusandha.

435 The Māratajjanīya-sutta merely reports that the householders behaved respectfully and reverentially, without detailing in what way they did so. On being reborn in heaven, they are not shown to realize that this happened as a reward for their respectful behavior toward the monks.

436 The advice in the Māratajjanīya-sutta is to contemplate the lack of beauty of the body, to perceive the repulsiveness of food, to perceive the whole world as without delight, and to contemplate the impermanence of all formations. 437 The Māratajjanīya-sutta does not report Māra's plan; the actual attack was achieved by way of taking possession of a boy.

438 The Māratajjanīya-sutta gives three names for hell; the period for stake to meet stake is a thousand years; and the form of rebirth taken by the past māra was a human body with the head of a fish.

439 The verses in the Māratajjanīya-sutta show several differences and tend to be less detailed.

440 Adopting the variant 諸 instead of 謂.

445