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

1 See preceding Suttanta, p. 39 of the text.

III.

xv. mahA-nidAna-suttanta.

(the great discourse on causation.)

i. [55] Thus have I heard. The Exalted One was once dwelling among the Kurus1. Now a township of that country is named Kammassadamma. And the venerable Ananda came to where the Exalted One was, bowed in salutation before him, and took a seat on one side. And so seated he said to the Exalted One : — ' Wonderful, lord, and marvellous it is, that whereas this doctrine of events as arising from causes is so deep and looks so deep 2, to me it seems as clear as clear can be ! '

' Say not so, Ananda, say not so ! Deep is this doctrine of events as arising from causes, and it looks deep too. It is through not understanding this doctrine, through not penetrating it, that this generation 3 has become a tangled skein, a matted ball of thread4, like

1 The Kurus occupied the country of which Indraprastha, close to the modern Delhi, was the capital. See Rh. D. ' Buddhist India,' p. 27.

- Water, muses the Cy., may be shallow and look deep like a pool black with the rotten leaves beneath the surface ; it may be deep and look shallow, like the jewel-like translucence of Ganges water ; it may be and look shallow, like the contents of a basin ; it may be and look deep, like the ocean at the foot of Mount Sineru. But this doctrine is ever and only deep both in substance and appearance.

3 The Greek yeVvr/^a of the Gospels has much the same vague meaning as paja- — offspring, here rendered 'generation.'

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to munja-grass and rushes \ unable to overpass the doom of the Waste 2, the Woeful Way, the Downfall, the Constant Round [of transmigration] :i.

4 A more literal rendering than Warren's picturesque ( entangled warp . . . ensnarled web.' The similes are drawn from weaving cloth and making nets. The tangle is due to bad workmanship or the teeth of mice; the matting, to grease (kafijiyasuttarh), the ball resembling a bird's nest. Both similes are to illustrate the confused state of the popular mind, lost in fallacies of opinion, prejudice and superstition e.g. among the sixty-two heresies of the first Suttanta (Vol. I). Cy.

2. ' If you, Ananda, were asked : — " Is old age and death due to a particular cause ? " you should say : — " It is." And to the question : — " From what cause is old age and death ? " you should say : — " Birth is the cause of old a^e and death."

' If you, Ananda, were asked : — " Is birth due to a particular cause ? " [56] you should say : — " It is." And to the question: — "From what cause is birth?" you should say :; — " Becoming 4 is the cause of birth."

' If you, Ananda, were asked : — " Is becoming due to a particular cause" ? you should say : — " It is." And to the question : — " From what cause is becoming ? " you should say : " Grasping is the cause of becoming."

1 If you, Ananda, were asked : — " Is grasping due to a particular cause ?" you should say : — " It is." And to the question : — " From what cause is grasping ? " you should say : — " Craving is the cause of grasping?"

' If you, Ananda, were asked : " Is craving due to a particular cause ?" you should say : — " It is." And to the question : — " From what cause is craving ? " you should say :— " Sensation is the cause of craving."

' If you, Ananda, were asked : — " Is sensation due to a particular cause ? " you should say : — " It is." And to the question: — "From what cause is sensation?" you should say : — " Contact is the cause of sensation."

1 When these are withering and cut in autumn, if gathered up in sheaves wherever they fall, it becomes difficult to extricate stalk from stalk and lay them in parallel order. (Cy.)

2 Apaya. For the concrete meaning see above, Vol. f , p. 125. In the secondary sense the word is often — quite wrongly, rendered 'hell.' There is no hell, i. e. no existence of unending torment, in Indian thought.

3 These four terms all refer to a change for the worse in rebirth, i.e. to one or other of the four infra-human grades of existence — purgatory, animal kingdom, shades or ghosts, and asuras or fallen angels.

4 The Cy. is at no pains to explain here the staple terms in the chain of causation, the author having expounded them after his fashion i'i the Visuddhi Magga.

E 2

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