3.

The Third Fifty

1.

The Chapter on an Ascetic’s Perceptions

1.

Commentary on the Ascetic's Perception Sutta

101. "Perceptions of an ascetic" in the first of the third means perceptions that arise in ascetics. "One who acts continuously" means one who acts without interruption. "Without affliction" means free from suffering. "He regards the requisites of life as having this purpose" means "this is the purpose, these are the requisites" - thus it is for him regarding the requisites of life; he uses them with reviewed consumption - this is the meaning. The second is of clear meaning.

3.

Commentary on the Wrong Course Sutta

103. In the third, "there is failure" means there is missing out on heaven and the path. "Not accomplishment" means there is no achievement, no fulfilment. "Is able to arise" means it proceeds.

4-5.

Commentary on the Seed Sutta and so on

104-105. In the fourth, "complete and taken upon oneself according to that view" means completely taken upon oneself in conformity with the view, wholly grasped. "Volition" means volition produced in the three doors is what is taken. "Longing" means longing thus: "May I be of such form." "Aspiration" means the establishing of consciousness thus: "I shall become a god or an inferior deity." "Activities" means associated activities. In the fifth, "forerunner" is in the sense of going before. "Follow right behind" means following right behind that.

6.

Commentary on the Wearing Away Sutta

106. In the sixth, "bases for wearing away" means causes for wearing away. "Wrong view has been worn away" - this has already been worn away, abandoned even by insight below. Why then is it taken up again? Because it has not been utterly cut off. For although worn away by insight, it is not utterly cut off. But the path, having arisen, utterly cuts it off and does not allow it to emerge again. Therefore it is taken up again. Thus it should be applied in all terms. And here, with right liberation as condition, sixty-four mental states go to fulfilment through development. Which sixty-four? At the moment of the path of stream-entry, the faith faculty is fulfilled in the meaning of decision, the energy faculty in the meaning of exertion, the mindfulness faculty in the meaning of establishing, the concentration faculty in the meaning of non-distraction, the wisdom faculty is fulfilled in the meaning of seeing, the mind faculty in the meaning of cognition, the pleasure faculty in the meaning of delight, the life faculty is fulfilled in the meaning of authority over the continuity of occurrence, etc. At the moment of the fruition of arahantship, the faith faculty in the meaning of decision, etc. The life faculty is fulfilled in the meaning of authority over the continuity of occurrence - thus in the four paths and in the four fruitions, being eight each, sixty-four mental states go to fulfilment.

7.

Commentary on the Washing Sutta

107. In the seventh, "washing" means bone-washing. For in that country, people do not cremate their dead relatives, but having dug a pit, they bury them in the ground. Then, having taken out their bones when they have become putrid, having washed them, having raised them up in order, having venerated them with garlands of fragrance, they place them. When the festival has arrived, having taken those bones, they cry and lament, then they celebrate the festival.

8-10.

Commentary on the Physician Sutta and so on

108-110. In the eighth, "purgative" means a medicine for removing disorders. "Is purged" means is removed, dispelled. In the ninth, "emetic" means a medicine for causing vomiting. In the tenth, "should be expelled" means should be ejected. "Expelled" means ejected.

11.

Commentary on the First One Beyond Training Sutta

111. In the eleventh, right view itself is stated as right knowledge for the purpose of completing the factors. Thus all these states of the fruition of arahantship are also beyond training, and because they occur for one beyond training, reviewing knowledge too is said to be beyond training.

12.

Commentary on the Second One Beyond Training Sutta

112. In the twelfth, "qualities of one beyond training" means just of one beyond training, or belonging to one beyond training. By this discourse, only one who has eliminated the mental corruptions is spoken of.

The Chapter on Perception of an Ascetic is the first.

2.

The Chapter on Paccorohaṇī Festival

1-2.

Commentary on the Two Discourses on Not the Teaching

113-114. In the first of the second, the question and the answer were made separately. In the second, together only.

3.

Commentary on the Third Discourse on What is Not the Teaching

115. In the third, "having recited a synopsis" means having laid down the matrix. "Praised by the Teacher" means praised by the Teacher who established him in the foremost position in five respects. "Esteemed" means esteemed through esteem for his virtues. "Is able" means is capable. "Atisitvā" means having passed over. "One who knows, knows" means he knows what is to be known. "One who sees, sees" means he sees what is to be seen. "Become vision" means become, arisen, appeared as if vision. "Become knowledge" means one whose intrinsic nature is knowledge. "Become the Teaching" means one whose intrinsic nature is the Teaching. "Become the supreme" means one whose intrinsic nature is the foremost. "The speaker" means one who is able to speak. "The proclaimer" means one who is able to proclaim. "The one who leads to the meaning" means one who shows by having drawn out the meaning. "As the Blessed One for us" means as our Blessed One would answer.

4.

Commentary on the Ajita Discourse

116. In the fourth, "Ajita" means one named thus. "Hundreds of mental states" means hundreds of arisings of consciousness. "By which" means by which hundreds of mental states being questioned. "They know they have been defeated" means those who have failed, who have been restrained, know thus: "We have failed, we have been restrained, fault has been imputed to us." "Cases of the wise person" means reasons for the purpose of becoming wise.

5-6.

Commentary on the Saṅgārava Discourse and So On

117-118. In the fifth, "the near shore" means the mundane near shore. "The far shore" means the supramundane far shore. "Going to the far shore" means those going to Nibbāna. "Runs along the shore" means runs along the shore of identity view itself. "Those who practise in accordance with the Teaching in the Teaching" means those who practise in conformity with the Teaching in the ninefold supramundane Teaching that is rightly proclaimed, proceeding by way of the preliminary practice together with morality that is befitting that Teaching. "The realm of Death so hard to cross" means having crossed the round of rebirths in the three planes, which constitutes the state of Death, so hard to cross. "Will go beyond" means they will attain Nibbāna.

"Having come from home to homelessness" means having come from the round of rebirths to the end of the round of rebirths. "In seclusion where delight is hard" means in whichever seclusion of body, mind, and clinging it is difficult to delight, there one should wish for delight. "Having abandoned sensual pleasures" means having given up sensual pleasures of both kinds. "One who owns nothing" means one free from impediments. "In the relinquishment of grasping" means in Nibbāna, which is reckoned as the relinquishment of taking up. "Who delight by non-clinging" means those who, without clinging to anything through the four kinds of clinging, are delighted. "Quenched" means it should be understood that they are called quenched by the final Nibbāna without condition. The sixth was taught to monks.

7-8.

Commentary on the Two Discourses on the Paccorohaṇī

119-120. In the seventh, "Descent Day" means the descent from evil. "Having spread" means having spread out. "Between the sand heap and the fire room" means in between the heap of sand and the fire room. The eighth was taught to the community of monks. The remainder is of manifest meaning everywhere.

The Chapter on Descending is the second.

3.

Commentary on the Pure Chapter

123. In the first of the third, "pure" means stainless. "Bright" means luminous. The second and so on are of manifest meaning.

The Chapter on Purity is the third.

4.

Commentary on the Good Chapter

134. In the first discourse of the fourth, "good" means lucky, smooth. The second and so on are of manifest meaning. The Noble Path Chapter is of manifest meaning.

The Chapter on Good is the fourth.

The third fifty is finished.

4.

The Fourth Fifty

155. In the fourth, the first and so on are of manifest meaning only.

8.

Commentary on the Discourse on Action as Source

174. In the eighth, "rooted in greed" means greed is the cause of killing living beings by way of decisive support, even when associated with hate and delusion. By this method the meaning should be understood everywhere.

9.

Commentary on the Discourse on Avoidance

175. In the ninth, "is avoidance" means is the avoiding of.

10.

Commentary on the Cunda Discourse

176. In the tenth, "the smith's son" (kammāraputtassa) means the goldsmith's son. "Whose do you" (kassa no tvaṃ) means "whose indeed do you." "Of the western lands" (pacchābhūmakā) means dwellers of the western region. "Carrying water-pots" (kamaṇḍalukā) means bearers of water-pitchers. "Wearing garlands of moss" (sevālamālikā) means they wear them like garlands of moss. "Clothed in garments of moss" (sevālapaṭanivāsitā) is also just what has been said. "Descending into water" (udakorohakā) means those devoted to the practice of descending into water for the third time in the evening. "You should touch" (āmaseyyāsi) means you should stroke with the hand.

11.

Commentary on the Jāṇussoṇi Discourse

177. In the eleventh, "may it benefit" means may it reach. "State" means in a suitable occasion. "Not in an unsuitable state" means not in an unsuitable occasion. The nutriment of those doomed to Niraya Hell is indeed the very action that produced rebirth there. For it is precisely by that they sustain themselves there. But the nutriment of those in the animal realm should be understood by way of grass, leaves, and so on. For human beings by way of cooked rice, food made with flour, and so on; for gods by way of ambrosia food and so on; for those in the sphere of ghosts by way of spittle, mucus, and so on. "Or whatever they give from here" means whatever his friends and so on, giving from here, cause to enter. For only those in the sphere of ghosts are living on what is given by others; what is given by others does not benefit others. "The donor too is not without fruit" means whether or not it benefits the one with reference to whom that gift was given, it is not possible for the donor to be without fruit; the donor indeed obtains the result of that gift.

"Does Master Gotama speak of a supposition even for the impossible" - he asks whether, even when that relative has arisen in an unsuitable occasion, Master Gotama still supposes and declares the fruit of giving. For the brahmin's view is that "the donor does not obtain the fruit of a gift given in this way." Then the Blessed One, having acknowledged his question, in order to show that "a donor, wherever he is reborn in a state where one lives on the fruit of merit, indeed obtains the fruit of giving," said beginning with "here, brahmin." "He there is an obtainer" means he, even though reborn there in the elephant womb, having attained the position of a state elephant, is an obtainer. In the case of horses and so on too, the same method applies. The Sādhu Chapter is of clear meaning.

The Chapter on Jāṇussoṇi is the second.

The fourth fifty is finished.

1.

The Chapter on the Physical Body

211. In the fifth, the first and so on are of manifest meaning only.

6.

Commentary on the Saṃsappanīya Discourse

216. In the sixth, "an exposition of the Teaching on creeping, monks" means the teaching of the Teaching, which is reckoned as an exposition of the cause of creeping. "Creeps along" means one performing that action struggles about, crawls about, and writhes. "Crooked destination" means whatever destination one will go to by that action, that is crooked. "Crooked rebirth" means whatever destination one will be reborn in, that too is just as crooked. "Of the creeping kind" means of the nature of creeping. "Rebirth of a being comes from what has come to be" means the arising of a being comes from existing action according to its intrinsic nature. "Contacts touch" means resultant contacts touch.

7-8.

Commentary on the Two Discourses on the Intentional

217-218. In the seventh, "intentional" means done having intended and having designed. "Accumulated" means heaped up and increased. "Without experiencing" means without having experienced the result of those actions. "Destruction" means the state of the end having gone, the making of a definite conclusion of those actions. "And that indeed in this very life" means and that result indeed, to be experienced in the present life, in this very life. "Upon rebirth" means to be experienced in the next life, in the immediately following individual existence. "Or in some other subsequent existence" means to be experienced from one life to another, even in a thousandth individual existence when there is continuation of the round of rebirths. By this he shows this: "When there is continuation of the round of rebirths, regarding actions deserving of obtained results, there is no spot on earth found, where standing one could be freed from evil deeds." "Threefold" means of three kinds. "Failure of bodily action through corruption" means the failure reckoned as bodily action. By this method all the terms should be understood. In the eighth, "unmistakable die" means a die that is quadrangular on all sides.

9.

Commentary on the Discourse on the Body Born of Impurity

219. In the ninth, "of suffering" means of resultant suffering, or of the very suffering of the round of rebirths. In this discourse there is no simile of the gem. "Thus free from covetousness" - "thus" is merely a particle. Or just as those developing friendliness become free from covetousness, thus free from covetousness. Having thus shown the suppression of the mental hindrances by the disappearance of covetousness and so on, now teaching the escapes from the unwholesome, he said beginning with "with a mind accompanied by friendliness." "Limitless" means limitless because of having limitless beings as its object, or because of practised mastery. Action done within limits is sensual-sphere action. "It does not persist there" means that, like a small body of water before a great flood, it is not able to stand having taken its own place; rather, just as a great flood overwhelms a small body of water, this very limitless action, having submerged it, produces its own result. "From his youth" means beginning from the time of childhood.

"This body cannot be taken and go" - the meaning is that it is not possible to take this body and go to the world beyond. "One whose core is mind" means one for whom mind is the cause; or alternatively, one whose inner nature is mind itself. For immediately after the death consciousness of just one existence, at the second consciousness of conception, one becomes a god, one becomes a being doomed to Niraya Hell, one becomes an animal. According to the former method too, by mind as the cause, one becomes a god or one doomed to Niraya Hell - this is the meaning. "All that is to be experienced here" - this is said by way of the portion to be experienced in the present life. "It will not follow me" means because the state of being experienced in the next life has been cut off through friendliness, it will not follow by way of being experienced in the next life. This should be understood as the reviewing of the noble persons who are stream-enterers and once-returners. "To non-returning" means to non-returning through meditative absorption. "For one with wisdom here" means wisdom in this Dispensation is called "wisdom here"; the meaning is of a noble disciple who is established in noble wisdom through the practice of the Dispensation. "A further liberation" means arahantship. The tenth is of manifest meaning only.

The Chapter on the Body Born of Impurity is the first.

2.

Commentary on the Chapter on Asceticism

221. Making the first of the second as the beginning, all the abbreviated passages are of clear meaning.

In the Manorathapūraṇī, the commentary on the Aṅguttara Nikāya,

the exposition of the Book of Tens is completed.