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　　And the future has not been reached.

　　Instead with insight let him see

　　Each presently arisen state;

　　Let him know that and be sure of it,

　　Invincibly, unshakeably.

　　Today the effort must be made;

　　Tomorrow Death may come, who knows

　　No bargain with Mortality

　　Can keep him and his hoards away.

　　But one who dwells thus ardently,

　　Relentlessly, by day, by night —

　　It is he, the Peaceful Sage has said,

　　Who has one fortunate attachment."

　　Then the Blessed One rose from his seat and entered his dwelling.

　　Samiddhi, and the other monks present at the time, went to the Venerable Maha Kaccana in search of an explanation. As in the prelude to the Madhupindika Sutta, Maha Kaccana at first remonstrates with them, but then agrees to share his understanding of the poem. Taking up the first two lines as the theme of his exposition, he explicates each by way of the six sense bases.

　　One "revives the past" when one recollects the eye and forms seen in the past, dwelling upon them with desire and lust; so too with the other five sense faculties and their objects. One "builds up hope upon the future" when one sets one”s heart on experiencing in the future sense objects one has not yet encountered. One who does not bind himself by desire and lust to memories of past sensory experience and yearnings for future sensory experience is one who "does not revive the past or build up hope upon the future." Similarly, one whose mind is shackled by lust to the present sense faculties and their objects is called "one vanquished in regard to presently arisen states," while one whose mind is not bound to them by lust is called "one invincible in regard to presently arisen states."

　　Again, the monks return to the Buddha, who says "if you had asked me the meaning of this, I would have explained it to you in the same way that Maha Kaccana has explained it."

　　The third Majjhima sutta, the Uddesavibhanga Sutta (MN 138), opens with the Buddha announcing to the monks that he will teach them a summary (uddesa) and an exposition (vibhanga). He recites the summary thus:

　　"Bhikkhus, a bhikkhu should examine things in such a way that while he is examining them, his consciousness is not distracted and scattered externally nor stuck internally, and by not clinging he does not become agitated. If his consciousness is not distracted and scattered externally nor stuck internally, and if by not clinging he does not become agitated, then for him there is no origination of suffering — of birth, aging, and death in the future."

　　Then, as on prior occasions, he rises from his seat and retires, without giving the exposition — a strange omission, as he had announced that he would teach the exposition! But the monks do not feel lost, for the Venerable Maha Kaccana is in their midst, and after his usual protest, he begins his analysis.

　　He proceeds by taking up each phrase in the Buddha”s summary and dissecting it in minute detail. How is consciousness "distracted and scattered externally"

　　 When a monk has seen a form with the eye (or has experienced some other sense object with its corresponding faculty), "if his consciousness follows after the sign of form, is tied and shackled by gratification in the sign of form, is fettered by the fetter of gratification in the sign of form, then his consciousness is called ”distracted and scattered externally.” " But if, on seeing a form with the eye, etc., the monk does not follow after the sign of form, does not become tied and shackled to the sign of form, then his consciousness is called ”not distracted and scattered externally.” "

　　His mind is "stuck internally" if he attains any of the four jhanas, the meditative absorptions, and his mind becomes "tied and shackled" by gratification in the superior rapture, bliss, peace, and …

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