The completion of a town hall was celebrated by a talk for the Sakyans at SN 35.243:1.2 and the Mallas at DN 33:1.2.1. Such halls were community meeting places that played a central role in civic society and communal decision-making in democratic republics such as the Mallas and the Sakyans. The Buddha’s participation is a sign of his support for their civic and democratic process.

By convention, speech is addressed to the most senior member of the group.

This is a version of the Gradual Training. It is generally oriented towards monastics, as the Gradual Training usually is, but the inclusion of the “seven good qualities” appears to be a nod towards adapting it for a lay audience.

These are illustrated with a simile of a citadel at AN 7.67. They partly overlap with other factors of the Gradual Training; but then, these things are not meant to be exclusive.

This agrees with the pre-Buddhist sense of sati (Sanskrit smṛti, smara), “to remember, keep in mind” (Rig Veda 7.104.07, 10.61.4, 10.106.9; Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa 13.8.1.2; Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad 5.15.1; Chāndogya Upaniṣad 7.13–14, 8.12.3; Kena Upaniṣad 4.5). Śatapatha Brāhmaṇa 2.3.2.3–4 speaks of one who performs the fire ritual while understanding, “In me those gods reside” and thereby wins and traverses all the worlds (since the gods and their worlds = heavens exist inside them; see SN 2.26:5.2 and note there). When such a one leaves the ritual ground they continue to “attend” (upasthāna = Pali upaṭṭhāna) the sacred fire through remembering it (smara), and thus staying near it in their mind. “Memory” is critical to the practice of “remembering” scripture (Chāndogya Upaniṣad 6.7). A skilled reciter enters an uninterrupted flow state where the text is vividly present. In this sense, mindfulness can be understood as the element of continuity that knits consciousness together in a coherent stream. Thus when practicing “mindfulness of breathing” one pays continuous attention to the breaths, not “forgetting” what one is doing.

The fourth jhāna.

Sanaṅkumāra (“Everyoung”) became a Hindu deity closely associated with the worship of Krishna. He first appears in the seventh chapter of the Chāndogya Upaniṣad. The occasion he spoke this verse is recorded at SN 6.11, and it is repeated several times in the suttas, for example at DN 3:1.28.2, where it has a better contextual justification.