Mahâ-Parinibbâna-Suttanta: The Book of the Great Decease

The expression 'of worldly mind,' here and above in V, 11, is in Pâli pathavi-saññiniyo, an ambiguous phrase which has only been found in this connection. Buddhaghosa says merely, 'because they made (mâpetvâ) an earth in heaven.' This gloss again may be taken either in a figurative or in a literal sense; but, if not impossible, it is at least unlikely that the good commentator means calmly to state that the angels created a floor in the skies--for the greater convenience of tumbling! The word seems to me also to be opposed to vitarâgâ, 'free from passion,' and I have therefore taken it in a spiritual sense. There is a third possibility, viz. that it is used in an intellectual sense, 'having the idea of the world present to their mind;' and this would be in accordance with the more usual use of saññî. But how easily, especially in Buddhism, the intellectual merges into the religious may be seen from such a phrase as marana-saññino, used at Mahâvamsa 33. Of the bhikkhus. Compare also above, III, 14.] p. 120 'But of what kind of spirits is the Lord, the venerable Anuruddha, thinking?' 21. 'There are spirits, brother Ânanda, in the sky, but of worldly mind, who dishevel their hair and weep, and stretch forth their arms and weep, fall prostrate on the ground, and roll to and fro in anguish at the thought: "Too soon has the p. 121 Blessed One died! Too soon has the Happy One passed away! Too soon has the Light gone out in the world! "'