Affliction without Affliction: A Translation of the Nakulapitāsutta and its Commentaries

This article consists of a study of two commentaries to the Nakulapitāsutta, a Buddhist text from the Pali Khandhasaṃyutta. This sutta addresses the key concept of liberation from the perspective of illness, decay and death, and offers an incisive description of the five aggregates of personality. The two commentaries present variegate exegetical approaches to the root-text, mostly based upon a sophisticated system of cross-references wisely intertwined with a bulk of original elucidations.  This combination illustrates some prominent aspects of Pali Buddhist philosophy and provides a precious series of lexicographical interpretations that surely deserve further studies.