What is "feature of beauty" in MN 5?

Question

Questions:

1. What is "feature of beauty" in MN 5?
2. Why does the type of person mentioned ("the person who doesn’t have a blemish but does not understand it"), focus on it?
3. And why does that cause them to become infected by lust?
4. Does beauty here refer to physical beauty or something else?
5. Is this subhanimitta the same as the nimitta for entering jhana?

Take the case of the person who doesn’t have a blemish but does not understand it. You can expect that they will focus on the feature of beauty, and because of that, lust will infect their mind. And they will die with greed, hate, and delusion, blemished, with a corrupted mind.
MN 5

With footnote from Ven. Sujato:

“Feature of beauty” is subhanimitta. In early Pali, nimitta is used for a feature or quality of the mind that, when focused on, promotes the growth of similar or related qualities. Thus focusing on beauty fosters the desire for that beauty.

Answer 1

The suttas don't talk about jhāna nimitta, but they do talk about samādhi nimittas. In MN 44 https://lucid24.org/mn/main/mn044/index.html#44.4

cattāro sati-’paṭṭhānā samādhi-nimittā; four remembrance-establishings (are) undistractable-lucidity-themes.

Any topic for satipatthana "mindfulness", can be a topic for samādhi nimitta, or a subject for jhāna meditation to investigate with dhamma-vicaya, vitakka and vicāra, upekkha, sati and sampajāno in the higher jhānas. The nimitta of samādhi can be visual, or conceptual, and both, just as it can be in guarding the sense doors. In AN 4.14 https://lucid24.org/an/main/an04/index.html#4.14 samādhi nimitta suggested one develps are the corpse in various stages.

Idha, bhikkhave, bhikkhu uppannaṃ bhaddakaṃ samādhinimittaṃ anurakkhati aṭṭhikasaññaṃ puḷavakasaññaṃ vinīlakasaññaṃ vicchiddakasaññaṃ uddhumātakasaññaṃ. It’s when a monk preserves a meditation subject that’s a fine basis of undistractible-lucidity: the perception of a skeleton, a worm-infested corpse, a livid corpse, a split open corpse, or a bloated corpse.

you asked

Is this subhanimitta the same as the nimitta for entering jhana?

If the nimitta is subha (beauty), if one is deluded by the sign of subha then it leads to wrong sati, wrong samādhi, wrong jhāna. If the nimitta is asubha (non beauty) such as a corpse, 31 body parts, or the conceptual signs such as aging, impermanence of body, etc., it's a suitable samādhi nimitta for 4 jhānas.

you asked

Why does the type of person mentioned ("the person who doesn’t have a blemish but does not understand it"), focus on it?

It just means they still have the underlying defilement, but at times when the defilement is not manifested as a noticable blemish, they don't understand and realize the cause of the blemish, so when a suitable opportunity arises for the defilement to work on their mind, the blemish then appears.

Answer 2

Feature of beauty means all things which are beautiful like girls ,boys , babies,flowers , scenery, delicious and tasty food , fragrance etc etc …

Those who not have blemish and do not understand it, will be enticed by beauty of the world and because he doesn’t have knowledge of why it looks so beautiful..He will fall into the trap and die with a corrupted mind because beauty will make him think that the beauty is permanent, which is not the case.

Therefore it is important to know that because you are unblemished ,things are appearing beautiful to you but that is not the case, and such an attitude of innocence leads to more craving and more ignorance.

Answer 3

The feature (sign; theme; nimitta) of beauty (subhanimitta) is the food/nutriment (ahara) for the arising of sensual desire (SN 46.51). The term 'sensual' refers to what is 'agreeable, pleasing, charming, endearing, fostering desire, enticing' (MN 13). Therefore, subhanimitta is obviously not the nimitta of jhana. The Buddha never refers to the jhana nimitta therefore sutta students should never refer to it when doing sutta studies.

When meditation on the feature of ugliness/loathsomeness is pursued, revulsion at the feature of beauty becomes stabilized (AN 5.30).

MN 43 says: "Greed, hate and delusion the karaṇa of signs. Rāgo kho, āvuso, nimittakaraṇo, doso nimittakaraṇo, moho nimittakaraṇo.". What karaṇa means here appears subject to question. It appears karaṇa here can mean 'making of' or 'makers of' signs/features or possibly otherwise means 'enacting upon' signs/features.

Therefore, it appears the nimitta of beauty refers to both external appearances & internal views about those external appearances.

AN 5.30 appears to say there is an external nimitta of beauty; however the loathsomeness of an object marked with beauty can override the mark of beauty. For example, the tastes & joys of drinking alcohol is a feature of beauty. However, the loathsomeness/ugliness features of drinking alcohol can easily override the feature of beauty; resulting in revulsion towards alcohol.

The type of person who doesn’t have a blemish but does not understand it appears to refer to a temporary unblemishedness in a mind that still has ignorance regarding sensuality. For example, a once-returner abides in jhana, believes their mind is pure, but when they later go on alms round, lust infects their mind when a sexy lady gives them alms food.