81. Denigration is denigrating someone by saying that he is not a giver, or by censuring him. All-round denigration is continual denigration. Tale-bearing is bearing tales from house to house, from village to village, from district to district, [thinking] “So they will give to me out of fear of my bearing tales.” Backbiting is speaking censoriously behind another’s back after speaking kindly to his face; for this is like biting the
flesh of another’s back, when he is not looking, on the part of one who is unable to , look him in the face; therefore, it is called backbiting. This is called belittling (nippesikatá) because it scrapes off (nippeseti), wipes off, the virtuous qualities of others as a bamboo scraper (velupesiká) does unguent, or because it is a pursuit of
gain by grinding (nippinsitvá) and pulverizing others’ virtuous qualities, like the pursuit of perfume by grinding perfumed substances; that is why it is called belittling.
82. `In the description of pursuing gain with gain: pursuing is hunting after. Got from here is got from this house. There is into that house. Seeking is wanting. Seeking for is hunting after. Seeking out is hunting after again and again. The story of the bhikkhu who went round giving away the alms he had got at first to children
of families here and there and in the end got milk and gruel should be told here. Searching, etc., are synonyms for “seeking,” etc., and so the construction here should be understood thus: going in search of is seeking; searching for is seeking for; searching out is seeking out. This is the meaning of scheming, and so on.
83. Now, [as regards the words] The evil states beginning with : here the words beginning with should be understood to include the many evil states given in the Brahmajála Sutta in the way beginning, “Or just as some worthy ascetics, while eating the food given by the faithful, make a living by wrong livelihood, by such
low arts as these, that is to say, by palmistry, by fortune-telling, by divining omens, by interpreting dreams, marks on the body, holes gnawed by mice; by fire sacrifice, by spoon oblation …” (D I 9).
84. So, this wrong livelihood entails the transgression of these six training precepts announced on account of livelihood, and it entails the evil states beginning with ,“Scheming, talking, hinting, belittling, pursuing gain with gain.” And so it is the abstinence from all sorts of wrong livelihood that is virtue of livelihood purification,
the word-meaning of which is this: on account of it they live, thus it is livelihood. What is that? It is the effort consisting in the search for requisites. “Purification” is purifiedness. “Livelihood purification” is purification of livelihood.
85. As regards the next kind called virtue concerning requisites, [here is the text: “Reflecting wisely, he uses the robe only for protection from cold, for protection from heat, for protection from contact with gadflies, flies, wind, burning and creeping things, and only for the purpose of concealing the private parts. Reflecting
wisely, he uses alms food neither for amusement nor for intoxication nor for smartening nor for embellishment, but only for the endurance and continuance of this body, for the ending of discomfort, and for assisting the life of purity: ‘Thus I shall put a stop to old feelings and shall not arouse new feelings, and I shall be healthy and blameless and live in comfort.’ Reflecting wisely, he uses the resting place only for the purpose of protection from cold, for protection from heat, for protection from contact with gadflies, flies, wind, burning and creeping things, and only for the purpose of warding off the perils of climate and enjoying retreat.
Reflecting wisely, he uses the requisite of medicine as cure for the sick only for protection from arisen hurtful feelings and for complete immunity from affliction” (M I 10). Herein, reflecting wisely is reflecting as the means and as the way; by knowing, by reviewing, is the meaning. And here it is the reviewing stated in the way beginning, “For protection from cold” that should be understood as “reflecting wisely.”
By Bhikkhu Ñānamoli