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… reasons why. A simpler explanation would be that the text is abbreviated. ↩

Here, cessation starts with the six senses (as at SN 12.24:21.9). ↩

Each item in dependent origination is treated according to the four noble truths . ↩

The terms “ascetics and brahmins” is often used as a generic catch-all for ‘religious practitioners” (SN 3.1:2.1). | “Ascetics” (samaṇa) include the renunciate practitioners of the non-Vedic religions such …

… non-being.” Nāgārjuna’s text, an important Buddhist philosophical treatise, is studied extensively to this day. ↩

Called Sandha Kātyāyana in Sanskrit. ↩

Right view is normally defined as understanding the four noble truths (DN 22:21.4, MN 141:24.1, SN 45.8:3.1). ↩

The Buddha is referring to a widely held belief, which can be traced to the saying: “This is twofold, there is no third: truth and falsehood. The gods are truth, humans …

… the rareness of opportune rebirth at SN 20.2, SN 56.61, and SN 56.62; and for the absence of even a tiny bit of form that is permanent at SN 22.97. ↩

The diṭṭhisampanna is the stream-enterer. They are “accomplished in view” because they have directly seen the four noble truths and need no longer rely on faith in another. ↩

For a stream-enterer, countless future lives of suffering have ceased, and only seven rebirths at most remain. ↩

… at Iti 78:6.1. ↩

Also called the “principle states” (mahābhūta). Discussed in detail at MN 28:4.1. ↩

The properties of matter that dominate in solids, liquids, plasma, and gases. ↩

This echoes SN 12.10:1.1 and SN 12.65:1.2. ↩

The four noble truths were similarly extolled in the first discourse (SN 56.11), and this was subsequently said of several major teaching frameworks. Seeing one part of the Dhamma implies seeing them all. ↩

… finally it becomes an inherent part of you. See SN 12.15:2.4 and note. ↩

Mendicants are similarly enjoined to develop immersion (samādhi) in order to understand the six senses (SN 35.99, SN 35.160) and the four noble truths (SN 56.1). ↩

“Relishing” (nandī) is a synonym of “craving” (taṇhā). Here it serves to show how the five aggregates participate in the process of generating one life after the next as depicted in dependent …

… about spiritual responsibility, not the nature of personal identity. ↩

Pali bhāra, like English “burden”, has the dual senses of “load” and “responsibility”. The opening phrase clearly indicates three of the four noble truths (the burden = suffering, picking up = origin, putting down = cessation), leaving the status of the “bearer of the burden” unclear. I propose that the sequence of the truths has been altered for rhetorical …

… aggregates, but someone who has full accepted the responsibility of spiritual practice in regard to the aggregates. ↩

To sum up, I argue that the “bearer of the burden” is the one who “undertakes responsibility” for practicing the path on four grounds: (1) the pattern of the teaching ( four noble truths ); (2) idiomatic meaning; (3) similarity to AN 2.98–99; and (4) the fact that the “venerable” phrase elsewhere refers to an arahant. ↩

… and systematic, but the role of this aggregate in the Suttas is not to be inclusive, but rather to highlight the significance of intention, will, or volition in creating and maintaining our sense of self. ↩

For the phrase “no cycle of rebirths to be found” (vaṭṭaṁ tesaṁ natthi paññāpanāya), compare DN 15:22.6. ↩

The “seven” are the four noble truths from the previous discourse, plus the “gratification” triad from SN 22.26. ↩

… meaning of which is not entirely clear. The commentary says anta here means “portion”, but this is poorly attested. In philosophical contexts, anta means “extreme”, but this could not be used for the four noble truths . Perhaps the obvious meaning is the correct one: anta means “end”, which in the case of suffering and its origin means death, and in the case of the path and the end of suffering means Nibbāna. The teaching …

… MN 70:18.1). ↩

This makes explicit a distinction that is consistently upheld throughout the Suttas. To “know and see” or to “truly understand” is, in this context, a distinct apperception of the four noble truths with intuitive wisdom that severs certain fetters forever. Those on the path to stream entry have not yet had such a realization, hence they must follow by faith, or by reflecting on the teachings. Though the …

… (“as alien”), it is a term for not-self. | “All signs” are the features of experience that the mind hooks on to as desirable, as permanent, or as Self. ↩

The “complete understanding” of suffering is part of the complex relating to the full realization of the four noble truths , the others being giving up the cause; realizing the cessation; and developing the path. Thus by mentioning “complete understanding”, all four are implied. ↩

The discourse links “negligence” with the process of mental uplifting that leads to samādhi (see SN 12.23:3.11). ↩

“Principles” (dhammā) such as the four noble truths , dependent origination, etc. ↩

For parallels see SN 22.5:1.4 and note. This discourse connects with the previous, which also emphasized the role of immersion in seeing the truth. ↩

See SN 22.6:1.2 and note. ↩

Uddaka was the second Brahmanical sage under whom the …

… and especially AN 5.180:3.6). Thus ignorance, itself an unskillful quality, leads the way for other unskillful qualities to arise. ↩

Ignorance is the lack of understanding of how the world is, namely the four noble truths . Wrong view crystallizes ignorance in a specific and persistent set of beliefs and ideas. ↩

This discourse stresses the linear dependence of each factor on the previous. Of course, causality is not so clear …

One of the four functions regarding the four noble truths (SN 56.12:1.2, SN 56.29:1.5. ↩

Of the two “elements of extinguishment”, this is the one “with residue” (Iti 44:3.1). ↩

See note on SN 12.2:1.2 for a discussion of “analysis” discourses. | The same definitions are found at DN 22:21.1 and MN 141:24.1. ↩

“View” (diṭṭhi, Sanskrit dṛṣṭi) is “seeing” and hence a term for “understanding” (Aitareya Upaniṣad 3.2). In Buddhism, it means …

… in the sense of” I fully embody these things'. Anyway, I translate literally. ↩

Mānadinna is mentioned only here. ↩

Here the Buddha frames his awakening in terms of the four satipaṭṭhānas instead of the four noble truths (SN 56.12:1.1). ↩

This is the closest thing in the Suttas to the modern meditative practices known as “bare awareness”. Here, this meditative practice is said to be the “awareness” part of “mindfulness and …

… of faculties required. This is not a contradiction, because each faculty depends on the prior development of the previous ones. ↩

This can apply to wisdom generally, but specifically the realization of the four noble truths at stream-entry, after which it is not possible to completely lose the faculties. ↩

Aṅga was the country to that controlled the Ganges to the east of both Magadha and Vesālī. The market town of Āpaṇa was …

… lead out of suffering (SN 51.15:4.1). Second, rebirth is not a tangential part of the Buddha’s teachings, uncritically inherited from cultural suppositions; it is baked into the fundamental meaning of the four noble truths . | The idiom tatratatra (literally “there, there”) is not selective (“here and there”) but distributive (“each and every place”, “everywhere”). By taking pleasure in sense experience, the mind binds itself to …

By treating the feelings according to the four noble truths , the Buddha is implicitly situating all feelings as suffering. ↩

Mosadhamma means “deceptive”; the commentary’s “perishable” is untenable. ↩

The feelings themselves are inherent to the functioning of the mind, so they remain so long as the mind remains. But how we respond to feelings is conditioned by underlying tendencies, which can be abandoned. ↩

While the Buddha …