..续本文上一页directly understood to what extent it is supreme, and having understood this, he saw its origin, he saw the danger, he saw the escape, and he saw the knowledge and vision of the true path and the wrong path. Having seen all this, he understood the attainment of the goal and the peace of the heart. It is in this way, the elder concludes, that the meaning of the above verse should be understood in detail.

　　Interpreted by way of its apparent meaning, the verse seems to be extolling the bliss of secluded meditation above the pleasures of sensual and social contact — the very enjoyments with which Mara”s daughters have been trying to tempt the Enlightened One. But the Venerable Maha Kaccana gives a different twist to the meaning. For him, the contrast is not merely between sensual pleasure and meditative bliss but between two different attitudes to advanced stages of meditative absorption. The ordinary recluses and brahmans understand the jhanas and other extraordinary states of consciousness attainable through the kasina meditations to be the final goal of spiritual endeavor. By doing so, they remain caught in the trap of craving for becoming and thus fail to find the way to final deliverance. Because they become attached to the exalted bliss and quiet serenity of the jhanas, they cannot see that these states too are conditioned and transient, and thus they cannot relinquish their attachment to them. They therefore remain within Mara”s domain, vanquished by his army of "agreeable and pleasant forms," however sublime such may be. But the Buddha has seen the origin (adi)[22] of these attainments, i.e., craving as the origin of suffering; he has seen the danger (adinava), i.e., that they are impermanent, unsatisfactory, and subject to change; he has seen the escape (nissarana) from them, i.e., Nibbana; and he has obtained the knowledge and vision by which he can distinguish the true path from the false, i.e., the Noble Eightfold Path from the wrong eightfold path. By means of this fourfold knowledge, which in effect is knowledge of the Four Noble Truths, he has attained the goal, Nibbana, experienced as the peace of heart that can arise only when all defilements have been extinguished without residue.

　　Finally, towards the end of the massive Anguttara Nikaya, we find one more sutta constructed on the same pattern as the three Majjhima Nikaya suttas. This sutta (AN 10:172) opens with a short statement of the Buddha:

　　"Bhikkhus, non-dhamma should be understood, and so too dhamma

　　should be understood. Harm should be understood, and benefit

　　should be understood. Having understood all this, one should

　　practice in accordance with dhamma, in accordance with benefit."

　　Having said this, the Blessed One rose from his seat and entered his dwelling.

　　The monks then approach the Venerable Maha Kaccana to request an explanation. Following the stock formulas of protest and insistence, Maha Kaccana interprets the Buddha”s injunction by way of the ten unwholesome and ten wholesome courses of kamma: taking life is non-dhamma, abstaining from taking life is dhamma; the numerous evil unwholesome states that arise on account of taking life — this is harm; the numerous wholesome states that arise conditioned by abstinence from taking life and that go to fulfillment by development — this is benefit. The same pattern is applied to stealing, sexual misconduct, lying, slander, harsh speech, and gossip. Finally, covetousness, ill will, and wrong view are non-dhamma, and the evil states that arise from them are harm; non-covetousness, goodwill, and right view are dhamma, and the wholesome states conditioned by them that go to fulfillment by development are benefit.

　　6. Other Teachings of Maha Kaccana

　　Not all the discourses spoken by the Venerable Maha Kaccana t…

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