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

1 In these four stanzas we seem to have the way in which the death of the Buddha would be regarded, as the early Buddhist thought, by four representative persons — the exalted God of the theologians ; the Jupiter of the multitude (allowing in the case of each of these for the change in character resulting from their conversion to Buddhism); the holy, thoughtful Arahant; and the loving, childlike disciple.

2 Nearly = V, § 6 ; and below, VI, 19.

III. Np. 178 condition can exist ! Even the spirits, brethren, will reproach us V

' But of what kind of spirits, Sir, is the venerable
Anuruddha thinking ? '

' There are spirits, brother Ananda, in the sky, but of worldly mind, who dishevel their hair and weep, and stretch forth their arms and weep, fall prostrate on the ground, and roll to and fro in anguish at the thought : — " Too soon has the Exalted One died ! Too soon has the Light gone out in the world !"

' There are spirits, too, Ananda, on the earth, and of worldly mind, who tear their hair and weep, and stretch forth their arms and weep, fall prostrate on the

1 U^Myanti. I have followed the reading of my own MS., which is confirmed by the Sumangala Vilasini and the Malalahkaravatthu. Vi^Myanti, which Childers reads, would be questionable Buddhism. The spirits do not become extinct ; that is, not as a general rule, as would be implied by the absolute statement : — ' Even the spirits, brethren, become extinct.' It is no doubt true that all spirits, from the lowest to the highest, from the most insignificant fairy to the God of theological speculation, are regarded as temporary. But when they cease to exist as gods or spirits (devata), they do not go out, they are not extinguished (vi^Myanti); they continue to exist in some other form. And though that other form would, from the European point of view, be a different being, as there would be no continuity of consciousness, no passage of a ' soul ' from the one to the other; it would, from the Buddhist point of view, be the same being, as it would be the resultant effect of the same Karma. There would follow on the death of a devata, not extinction, but a transmutation of force, a transmigration of character, a passing on, an inheritance of Karma. Only in the exceedingly rare case of an anagamin, of which an instance will be found above Chap. II, § 7, could it be said that a spirit becomes extinct.

The expression ' of worldly mind,' here and above in V, 6, is in Pali paMavi-safifiiniyo, an ambiguous phrase which has only as yet been found in this connexion. The word is here opposed to vitaraga, 'free from passion,' and I have therefore taken it in a spiritual sense. There is another possibility, viz. that it is used in an intellectual sense, ' making the idea of earth present to their mind' ; and this would be in accordance with the use of sanfii in the Kasiwa meditations, in which spirits, like men, were supposed to indulge; see Digha II, 108. But how easily, especially in Buddhism, the intellectual merges into the religious may be seen from such a Kasina phrase as mara/ia-safifiino, used at Mahavawsa V, 159, of good men.

1). ii. 159. THE BOOK OF THE GREAT DECEASE. I 79

ground, and roll to and fro in anguish at the thought :— " Too soon has the Blessed One died ! Too soon has the Happy One passed away ! Too soon has the Light gone out in the world ! "

' But the spirits who are free from passion bear it, calm and self-possessed, mindful of the saying which begins :— " Impermanent indeed are all component things. How then is it possible [. . . that such a being should not be dissolved] ? ] '

1 2. Now the venerable Anuruddha and the venerable Ananda spent the rest of that night in religious discourse. Then the venerable Anuruddha said to the

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