Dialogues of the Buddha, Part II — trans. T. W. and C. A. F. Rhys Davids (1910)
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The translator’s English as printed (T. W. and C. A. F. Rhys Davids). The original-language text is not held; names are romanised as the translator printed them.
22. ; Thereafter, brethren, Vipassi the Bodhisat dwelt in the discernment of the rising and passing away of the five groups [of individual life] depending on grasping x : — " Such is form, such is the coming to be of form, such is its passing away ; such is feeling, such is the coming to be of feeling, such is its passing away ; such is perception, such is its coming to be, such is its passing away ; such are the syntheses, such is their coming to be, such is their passing away ; such is cognition, such is its coming to be, such is its passing away."
' And for him, abiding in the discernment of the rising and passing away of the five groups depending on grasping, not long was it before his heart, void of grasping, was set free from the " Intoxicants2."
Here endeth the Second Portion for recitation.
1 That is, the new individual, divisible into five constituent parts, called into being by the grasping attitude maintained during the previous life. K hand ho, group, is rendered by 'body' in § 19 — • whole body of 111 ' — and, in both connexions, is always paraphrased by rasi, or heap. Buddhist Pluralism turned away from unifying concepts, and chose to picture organic processes under aggregates. The concept is not so atomistic as we might think, the ' heap ' referring to past and potential repetition of process.
2 This is the standing phrase for the attainment, not of Buddhahood, but of Arahantship. Nevertheless Vipassi is henceforth called a Buddha. Compare what is said above, p. 2. On the Asavas, here rendered Intoxicants, see above, Vol. I, pp. 92, 93. The Jain use of the term is referred to by Bhandarkar, 'Report, &c.,' p. 100. Other Pali references are J. IV, 222, 3 and A. I, 124, 7, which confirm the suggested connotation of a poisonous, intoxicating drug.
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III.
i. ' Then to Vipassi the Exalted One, Arahant, Buddha Supreme, brethren, this occurred l : — " What if I were now to teach the Truth 2."
'Then to him, brethren, this occurred3: — [36] "I have penetrated this Truth, deep, hard to perceive, hard to understand, calm, sublime, no mere dialectic 4, subtle, intelligible only to the wise. But this is a race devoting itself to the things to which it clings, devoted thereto, deliehtin^ therein. And for a race devoting itself to the things to which it clings, devoted thereto, delighting therein, this were a matter hard to perceive, to wit, that this is conditioned by that, and all that happens is by way of cause 5. This too were a matter hard to discern : — The tranquillization of all the
1 The following episode occurs also in Vinaya I, 4 (translated in
Vin. Texts, I, 84-8), and M. I, 167-9 (translated by Dr. Neumann,
« Reden G. Buddho's, Mittlere Sammlung,' I, pp. 268 ff.), and S. I,
137-4*-
2 Dhamma, more literally the Norm. On this difficult but all-pervading term see Rh. D. 'American Lectures/ pp. 2, 38, and 'Buddhist India,' 292-4.
8 In the eighth week, says the Cy., after his attainment of Buddhahood, the intervening weeks having been spent in places corresponding to those where Gotama Buddha is alleged, in the Nidanakatha, to have spent them. Rh. D. 'Buddhist Birth Stories,' pp. 105-9. But there is nothing in the text to confirm this.
4 See 'Dialogues,' I, 26 : — 'not to be grasped by mere logic' — atakkavacaro. ' Only by fiawani ' — knowledge, insight — adds the Cy. Takka, meaning fundamentally thinking, is perhaps too much honoured, in the meaning it had come to bear, by being rendered 'logic' In the Takka-jataka, e.g. where the soubriquet 'takkap a n d'\t a,' date-sage, is considered by Mr. Chalmers to imply a wordplay on date and logic, the pundit's occupation is said to be foretelling ' what were lucky and unlucky seasons ' to villagers for pay. Such low crafts, however, are not classed as takka in the 'Moralities' list of Dialogues, I, pp. 16 ff. And it is very possible that 'takka' conveyed, to the religious mind of that day, much the same that so-called ' mere logic ' or ' sophistry ' does at the present time.
5 Idapaccayata pa/iccasamuppado : — more literally, that conditionedness, genesis by way of cause. The second term implies the universal law, the first is its application to any given case.
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