Dialogues of the Buddha, Part II — trans. T. W. and C. A. F. Rhys Davids (1910)

1 7. ' Now there arose, brethren, in the mind of Vipassi the Bodhisat, when he was meditating in seclusion, the following consideration : — " That indeed is not suitable for me that I should live beset. 'Twere better were I to dwell alone, far from the crowd ! "

' So after a time he dwelt alone, away from the crowd. These eighty-four thousand Wanderers went one way, and Vipassi the Bodhisat went another way.

18. 'Now there arose, brethren, in the mind of Vipassi the Bodhisat, when he had gone to his place 2, and was meditating in seclusion, the following consideration:— "Verily this world has fallen upon trouble ; one is born, and grows old, and dies, and falls from one state, and springs up in another."

1 Pa«a, 'living creatures.' The number is the usual idiom for a multitude, no more pretending to accuracy than our ' a thousand thanks.'

2 Vasupagato. The commentary explains this as meaning ' when seated under his Wisdom-Tree.' But the word in the text is quite vague ; and it is only the later tradition which thought it edifying to limit all such deep questions as the one discussed in the following sections to one time and place.

p. 24

[31] ' " And from this suffering, moreover, no one knows of any way of escape, even from decay and death. O when shall a way of escape from this suffering be made known, from decay and from death ! "

1 Then to Vipassi the Bodhisat, brethren, this thought occurred : — " What now being present, is decay and dying also present ; what conditions decay and dying ?" Then, brethren, from attention to the cause1 arose the conviction through reason : — " Where birth is, there is decay and dying ; birth is the condition of decay and dying."

' Then to Vipassi the Bodhisat, brethren, this occurred : — " What now being present, is birth also present ; what conditions birth ? " Then, brethren, from attention to the cause arose the conviction through reason : — " When becoming is, birth also is present; becoming is the condition of birth."

' Then to Vipassi the Bodhisat, brethren, this occurred : — " What now being present, is becoming also present ; what conditions becoming ? " Then, brethren, from attention to the cause arose the conviction through reason : — " Where grasping 2 is, there is becoming ; grasping is the condition of becoming."

1 Yoniso manasikara. The Cy. paraphrases thus that interesting idiom: 'i.e. from attention to expedients (upaya, that is, expedients in analysis, comp. S. II, 17; III, 135; III, 53; III, 161 ; A. V, iii): from attention to the course [of things] (patha); the attention of one who is attending to impermanence and the rest [dukkha, anatta] as such ; the attention of one who is observing the continuity, that is to say the rising and passing away, of the phenomena in question under either their positive or negative aspect.' There is here no attempt to substitute, as an equivalent for yoni, a term for origin or basis — nidana, e.g. or inula. The observation that is yoniso appears to Buddhaghosa to be of causation viewed as phenomenal only, as process of invariable antecedent and consequent, with application of the methods of induction known since J. S. Mill as the Methods of Agreement and Difference.

2 The translating of upadanaw must always be inadequate; we having no word to fill its dual sense of something-to-hand, Staff, fuel, and a laying hold of something. If ' data,' which is etymological!)' akin, had chanced to be dan da, there would have been an approximation in implication. That the term, in the commentarial tradition,

p. 25