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

36. ' Now when once a brother, Ananda, has mastered these eight stages of Deliverance in order, and has also mastered them in reverse order, and again, in both orders consecutively, so that he is able to lose himself in, as well as to emerge from, any one of them, whenever he chooses, wherever he chooses, and for as long as he chooses — when too, by rooting out the Taints, he enters into and abides in that emancipation of heart, that emancipation of the intellect which he by himself, here in this present world, has come to know and realize — then such a brother, Ananda, is called

A

" Free-in-both-ways V And, Ananda, any other Freedom-in-both-ways higher and loftier than this Freedom-in-both-ways there is not ! '

Thus spake the Exalted One. Glad at heart the
Venerable Ananda delighted in his words.

Here endeth the Maiia-Nidana-Suttanta.

1 Ubhato-bhaga-vimutto, i.e. freed both by Reason and also by the intellectual discipline of the Eight Stages. According to a scholastic elaboration of the term, emanating from the Giri-vihara of the great Loha-pasada (or Brazen Palace), ' both ways ' meant the Four Jhanas and the Aruppa-jhanas. How this can be reconciled with this paragraph — confirmed by PP. 14 and 73 and by M. I, 477-8 — is not stated. ' Taints ' are the Four Asavas, rendered ' Intoxicants ' above, p. 28, ;/. 2.

INTRODUCTION

TO THE

BOOK OF THE GREAT DECEASE.

THE general conclusions we have to draw as to the gradual growth of the various books in the Buddhist canon have been stated in Chapter X of ' Buddhist India.' To work out the details of it will be greatly facilitated by tabular statements of the differences and resemblances found in the various books, whether in matters of form or of ideas. The following table gives a list of all such passages in this book as have, so far, been traced elsewhere. Others will, no doubt, be discovered ; but those here given will throw some light on the method of construction followed in the book. Only parallel passages are given, passages in which some other book has at least a paragraph or more couched in identical, or almost identical, words.

A glance at column three, giving the pages of the text, shows a remarkable result. There are ninety-six pages of Pali text, beginning on p. 72. With a few gaps — pp. 92, 3; 1 13-15; 1 17-21; 13C-3; 137-40; 148-50; 153; 15s~6°l 164-7 (nine in number) — the whole text is found, in nearly identical words, elsewhere. The gaps, filled with matter found only in the Book of the Great Decease, amount altogether to about 32 or ^ pages, that is to about one-third of the whole. That proportion would be reduced if we were to include passages of similar tendency, or passages of shorter length.

Secondly ; the parallel passages are found, without exception, in those books which belong to the oldest portion of the canon. In ' Buddhist India,' p. 188, there is a table showing, in groups, the probable relative order in time of the Buddhist literature down to the time of Asoka.

All these passages belong to the two earliest groups ; all are found in books included in groups 4-6 ; not one occurs in any of the books included in the later groups — groups 7, 8, 9, and 10. So far as it goes, therefore, the present table is in harmony with the order suggested in the table referred to. Thirdly ; the slight differences, the more important of which

Book of the Great Decease. Other Old Pali Books.

i Chap. I §§ i-io pp. 72-80 A. IV, 16-24

2 16, 17 81-83 D. XXVIII and S. V, 159-161

3 20-34 84-89 Ud. VIII, 6 and Vin. I, 226 tt (s- v» 43i; Vin. I, 231 and

4 II 2>3 90,9i { Nettii66

5 i2> x3 94>95 s- IV- 2I1

6 14-19 95-98 Vin. I, 231-233 x

7 22-26 98-101 S. V, 152-154, §26, ib. 164, 5

p. 313

9 1-10 102-107 S. V, 259-263 and Ud. VI, 1 10 21-23 109, no A. IV, 30 (nearly = M. I, 72) n 24-32 110,111 A.IV,3o5and348;M.II, 13,14

(D. II, 70, 71 : A. IV, 306 and

12 33 in, 112 1 ' ' ' ' ' ' °
65 ' I 349

13 43 II6 Quoted KV. 559

T^ TV a q 122 12* 1 A. II, i, 2 and A. IV, 105 (quoted

M IV 2, 3 122,123 \ Kv. n5)2

p. 170

16 I3-25 126-129 Ud. VIII, 5