Fetching
One moment.
Fetching
One moment.
Romanised transliteration as printed by the translator, not the original script. This is what we hold.
1been set rolling by the Blessed One — that wheel which not by any Samara or Brihman, not by any god, 1 It is the perception of this fact which is the Dhamma^akkhu, the Eye of Truth, or the Eye for Qualities as it might be rendered with reference to the meaning of D ham ma in the words that follow. They are in Pali yaw kiftki samudaya-dhammara, sabbaw taw nirodha-dhammaw, literally, 'whatever has the quality of beginning, that has the quality of ceasing.' I 54 FOUNDATION OF KINGDOM OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. not by any Brahma or M£ra, not by any one in the universe, can ever be turned back ! ' 26. And when they heard the shout of the gods of the earth, the attendant gods of the four great kings 1 (the guardian angels of the four quarters of the globe) gave forth a shout, saying : * In Benares, at the hermitage of the MigadAya, the supreme wheel of the empire of Truth has been set rolling by the Blessed One — that wheel which not by any Samara or Brahman, not by any god, not by any Brahma or MAra, not by any one in the universe, can ever be turned back ! ' 27. [And thus as the gods in each of the heavens heard the shout of the inhabitants of the heaven beneath, they took up the cry until the gods in the highest heaven of heavens] gave forth the shout, saying : * In Bendres, at the hermitage of the Migad&ya, the supreme wheel of the empire of Truth has been set rolling by the Blessed One — that wheel which not by any Samara or Brahman, not by any god, not by any Brahma or M£ra, not by any one in the universe, can ever be turned back 2 ! ' 1 Their names are given in the Mahi Samaya Sutta in Grim- blot's ' Sept Suttas Palis/ 2 The text repeats § 26 for each of the heavens; and the gods thus enumerated are as follows, beginning with Bhummi Devi in § 25 : 1. Bhummi Devi. 2. Aatumahiri^ika Devi. 3. Yimi Devi. 4. Tusiti Devi. 5. Nimminaratf Devi. 6. Paranimmitavasavattf Devi. 7. Brahmakiyiki Devi. See the Mahi Samaya Sutia in Grimblot's ' Sept Suttas Palis/ and DHAMMA-KAKKA-PPAVATTANA-SUTTA. 155 28. And thus, in an instant, a second, a moment, the sound went up even to the world of BrahrM : and this great ten-thousand-world-system quaked and trembled and was shaken violently, and an immeasurable bright light appeared in the universe, beyond even the power of the gods ! 29. Then did the Blessed One give utterance to this exclamatioii of joy : * Konda##a hath realised it. Konda#/za hath realised it ! ' And so the vener- able Konda##a acquired the name of A##ata- Konda/ma (' the Konda##a who realised ') \ End of the Dhamma-^akka-ppavattana-sutta. compare Professor Max Miiller's note in 'Buddhaghosha's Parables/ p. xxxiii, and Hardy in the * Manual of Buddhism/ p. 25.
2#/za hath realised it ! ' And so the vener- able Konda##a acquired the name of A##ata- Konda/ma (' the Konda##a who realised ') \ End of the Dhamma-^akka-ppavattana-sutta. compare Professor Max Miiller's note in 'Buddhaghosha's Parables/ p. xxxiii, and Hardy in the * Manual of Buddhism/ p. 25. 1 The Mah& Vagga completes the narrative as follows: 'And then the venerable A##ata-Kondo«#a having seen the truth, having arrived at the truth, having known the truth, having penetrated the truth, having past beyond doubt, having laid aside uncertainty, having attained to confidence, and being dependent on no one beside himself for knowledge of the religion of the teacher, spake thus to the Blessed One : ' " May I become, O my Lord, a novice under the Blessed One, may I receive full ordination!" 4 " Welcome, O brother ! " said the Blessed One, " the truth has been well laid down. Practice holiness to the complete suppression of sorrow ! " ' And that was the ordination of the Venerable One.' The other four, Vappa, Bhaddiya, Mahdndma, and Assail, were converted on the following days, according to the 1 Buddhist Birth Stories/ p. 113. It is there also said that ' myriads of the angels (devas) had been converted simultaneously with Kondanya/ 6> TEVIGGA-SUTTANTA. INTRODUCTION TO THE TEVIGGA SUTTA. THIS is the twelfth and last Sutta in the first division of the Digha Nikiya, which is called the Silakkhandha Vaggo, because the whole of its twelve Dialogues deal, from one point of view or another, with Si la, or Right Conduct. There is another Sutta sometimes called by the same name, No. 21 in the Middle Fifty of the Ma^^ima Nikiya : but it has nothing, except the name, in common with the present It is called Tevi^a Sutta merely because Gotama is there described by the complimentary title of Tevi^a, 'Wise in the Vedas;' and its full name is the Tevigga-va&fc^agotta-sutta 1 . I have made the present translation from a text con- stituted from three MSS., — my own MS. of the Digha Nikdya, referred to as D ; the Turnour MS. of the same in the Indian Office, referred to as T ; both in Sinhalese characters: and the Phayre MS. in the same place, in Burmese characters, referred to as P. In this book we have Right Conduct used as a sort of argumentum ad hominem for the conversion of two earnest young Brihmans. They ask which is the true path to a state of union (in the next birth) with God. After arguing, in a kind of Socratic dialogue, that on their own showing, on the 1 It may be noted, in passing, that the substance of it recurs as the Va£Ma- gotta Sa#?yutta in the Sa#?yutta Nikaya. i6o TEVIGGA SUTTA. basis of facts they themselves admitted, the Br&hmans could have no real knowledge of their God, Gotama maintains that union with a God whom they admitted to be pure and holy must be unattainable by men impure and sinful and self-righteous, however great their know- ledge of the Vedas.
3GGA SUTTA. basis of facts they themselves admitted, the Br&hmans could have no real knowledge of their God, Gotama maintains that union with a God whom they admitted to be pure and holy must be unattainable by men impure and sinful and self-righteous, however great their know- ledge of the Vedas. And he then lays down, not without occasional beauty of language, that system of Right Conduct, which must be the only direct way to a real union with God. One would think perhaps that such a Sutta might be adapted, without very great difficulty, for use as a mis- sionary tract, so closely does it remind us of the argument of many a sermon on the text, ' Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no wise enter the kingdom of heaven ! ' And it is true that the Tevi^gd, — the men of special knowledge in the three Vedas — correspond exactly in most essential particulars with the Scribes and Pharisees of the New Testament. They were the official preservers by repeating, as the Scribes were by copying, the sacred books ; and they were the recognised interpreters, and the sole cus- todians of the traditional interpretation — which too often explained away the real meaning — of those books. It follows that as the law in both cases was included in the sacred books, it was they who, in both cases, were the real lawgivers, and practically the only lawyers. And as almost all learning was confined to, or in close con- nection with the sacred books, the Teviggk were the chief Pandits, as the Scribes were the ' Doctors of the Law.' Like the Pharisees, too, the Brdhmans laid claim to peculiar sanctity ; and many of them in the pride of their education, their birth, and their wealth, looked down with self-righteous scorn on the masses of the people. And while, on the other hand, the Brdhmans further resem- bled the Scribes and Pharisees in that many of them were justly deserving of the respect in which they were held ; it is only the undeserving who, in both cases, arc intended to be condemned. But whatever interpretation of the ' kingdom of heaven 9 INTRODUCTION. 161 the reader may adopt, it must be very different from any- thing the Sutta can mean by 'a state of union with BrahmA.' It is not easy to say what opinion is really imputed to the young Brihmans before their conversion. It is probably meant that they were seeking a way by which their Self should become identified, after death, with Brahman ; a way by which they could escape from the immortality of transmigration, from existence alto- gether as separate individuals 1 . And in holding out a hope of union with BrahmS as a result of the practice of universal love 2 , the Buddha is most probably intended to mean * a union with Brahmi ' in the Buddhist sense — that is to say, a temporary companionship as a separate being with the Buddhist Brahm&, to be enjoyed by a new individual not consciously identical with its pre- decessor.
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.
Romanised transliteration as printed by the translator, not the original script. This is what we hold.
1been set rolling by the Blessed One — that wheel which not by any Samara or Brihman, not by any god, 1 It is the perception of this fact which is the Dhamma^akkhu, the Eye of Truth, or the Eye for Qualities as it might be rendered with reference to the meaning of D ham ma in the words that follow. They are in Pali yaw kiftki samudaya-dhammara, sabbaw taw nirodha-dhammaw, literally, 'whatever has the quality of beginning, that has the quality of ceasing.' I 54 FOUNDATION OF KINGDOM OF RIGHTEOUSNESS. not by any Brahma or M£ra, not by any one in the universe, can ever be turned back ! ' 26. And when they heard the shout of the gods of the earth, the attendant gods of the four great kings 1 (the guardian angels of the four quarters of the globe) gave forth a shout, saying : * In Benares, at the hermitage of the MigadAya, the supreme wheel of the empire of Truth has been set rolling by the Blessed One — that wheel which not by any Samara or Brahman, not by any god, not by any Brahma or MAra, not by any one in the universe, can ever be turned back ! ' 27. [And thus as the gods in each of the heavens heard the shout of the inhabitants of the heaven beneath, they took up the cry until the gods in the highest heaven of heavens] gave forth the shout, saying : * In Bendres, at the hermitage of the Migad&ya, the supreme wheel of the empire of Truth has been set rolling by the Blessed One — that wheel which not by any Samara or Brahman, not by any god, not by any Brahma or M£ra, not by any one in the universe, can ever be turned back 2 ! ' 1 Their names are given in the Mahi Samaya Sutta in Grim- blot's ' Sept Suttas Palis/ 2 The text repeats § 26 for each of the heavens; and the gods thus enumerated are as follows, beginning with Bhummi Devi in § 25 : 1. Bhummi Devi. 2. Aatumahiri^ika Devi. 3. Yimi Devi. 4. Tusiti Devi. 5. Nimminaratf Devi. 6. Paranimmitavasavattf Devi. 7. Brahmakiyiki Devi. See the Mahi Samaya Sutia in Grimblot's ' Sept Suttas Palis/ and DHAMMA-KAKKA-PPAVATTANA-SUTTA. 155 28. And thus, in an instant, a second, a moment, the sound went up even to the world of BrahrM : and this great ten-thousand-world-system quaked and trembled and was shaken violently, and an immeasurable bright light appeared in the universe, beyond even the power of the gods ! 29. Then did the Blessed One give utterance to this exclamatioii of joy : * Konda##a hath realised it. Konda#/za hath realised it ! ' And so the vener- able Konda##a acquired the name of A##ata- Konda/ma (' the Konda##a who realised ') \ End of the Dhamma-^akka-ppavattana-sutta. compare Professor Max Miiller's note in 'Buddhaghosha's Parables/ p. xxxiii, and Hardy in the * Manual of Buddhism/ p. 25.
2#/za hath realised it ! ' And so the vener- able Konda##a acquired the name of A##ata- Konda/ma (' the Konda##a who realised ') \ End of the Dhamma-^akka-ppavattana-sutta. compare Professor Max Miiller's note in 'Buddhaghosha's Parables/ p. xxxiii, and Hardy in the * Manual of Buddhism/ p. 25. 1 The Mah& Vagga completes the narrative as follows: 'And then the venerable A##ata-Kondo«#a having seen the truth, having arrived at the truth, having known the truth, having penetrated the truth, having past beyond doubt, having laid aside uncertainty, having attained to confidence, and being dependent on no one beside himself for knowledge of the religion of the teacher, spake thus to the Blessed One : ' " May I become, O my Lord, a novice under the Blessed One, may I receive full ordination!" 4 " Welcome, O brother ! " said the Blessed One, " the truth has been well laid down. Practice holiness to the complete suppression of sorrow ! " ' And that was the ordination of the Venerable One.' The other four, Vappa, Bhaddiya, Mahdndma, and Assail, were converted on the following days, according to the 1 Buddhist Birth Stories/ p. 113. It is there also said that ' myriads of the angels (devas) had been converted simultaneously with Kondanya/ 6> TEVIGGA-SUTTANTA. INTRODUCTION TO THE TEVIGGA SUTTA. THIS is the twelfth and last Sutta in the first division of the Digha Nikiya, which is called the Silakkhandha Vaggo, because the whole of its twelve Dialogues deal, from one point of view or another, with Si la, or Right Conduct. There is another Sutta sometimes called by the same name, No. 21 in the Middle Fifty of the Ma^^ima Nikiya : but it has nothing, except the name, in common with the present It is called Tevi^a Sutta merely because Gotama is there described by the complimentary title of Tevi^a, 'Wise in the Vedas;' and its full name is the Tevigga-va&fc^agotta-sutta 1 . I have made the present translation from a text con- stituted from three MSS., — my own MS. of the Digha Nikdya, referred to as D ; the Turnour MS. of the same in the Indian Office, referred to as T ; both in Sinhalese characters: and the Phayre MS. in the same place, in Burmese characters, referred to as P. In this book we have Right Conduct used as a sort of argumentum ad hominem for the conversion of two earnest young Brihmans. They ask which is the true path to a state of union (in the next birth) with God. After arguing, in a kind of Socratic dialogue, that on their own showing, on the 1 It may be noted, in passing, that the substance of it recurs as the Va£Ma- gotta Sa#?yutta in the Sa#?yutta Nikaya. i6o TEVIGGA SUTTA. basis of facts they themselves admitted, the Br&hmans could have no real knowledge of their God, Gotama maintains that union with a God whom they admitted to be pure and holy must be unattainable by men impure and sinful and self-righteous, however great their know- ledge of the Vedas.
3GGA SUTTA. basis of facts they themselves admitted, the Br&hmans could have no real knowledge of their God, Gotama maintains that union with a God whom they admitted to be pure and holy must be unattainable by men impure and sinful and self-righteous, however great their know- ledge of the Vedas. And he then lays down, not without occasional beauty of language, that system of Right Conduct, which must be the only direct way to a real union with God. One would think perhaps that such a Sutta might be adapted, without very great difficulty, for use as a mis- sionary tract, so closely does it remind us of the argument of many a sermon on the text, ' Except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no wise enter the kingdom of heaven ! ' And it is true that the Tevi^gd, — the men of special knowledge in the three Vedas — correspond exactly in most essential particulars with the Scribes and Pharisees of the New Testament. They were the official preservers by repeating, as the Scribes were by copying, the sacred books ; and they were the recognised interpreters, and the sole cus- todians of the traditional interpretation — which too often explained away the real meaning — of those books. It follows that as the law in both cases was included in the sacred books, it was they who, in both cases, were the real lawgivers, and practically the only lawyers. And as almost all learning was confined to, or in close con- nection with the sacred books, the Teviggk were the chief Pandits, as the Scribes were the ' Doctors of the Law.' Like the Pharisees, too, the Brdhmans laid claim to peculiar sanctity ; and many of them in the pride of their education, their birth, and their wealth, looked down with self-righteous scorn on the masses of the people. And while, on the other hand, the Brdhmans further resem- bled the Scribes and Pharisees in that many of them were justly deserving of the respect in which they were held ; it is only the undeserving who, in both cases, arc intended to be condemned. But whatever interpretation of the ' kingdom of heaven 9 INTRODUCTION. 161 the reader may adopt, it must be very different from any- thing the Sutta can mean by 'a state of union with BrahmA.' It is not easy to say what opinion is really imputed to the young Brihmans before their conversion. It is probably meant that they were seeking a way by which their Self should become identified, after death, with Brahman ; a way by which they could escape from the immortality of transmigration, from existence alto- gether as separate individuals 1 . And in holding out a hope of union with BrahmS as a result of the practice of universal love 2 , the Buddha is most probably intended to mean * a union with Brahmi ' in the Buddhist sense — that is to say, a temporary companionship as a separate being with the Buddhist Brahm&, to be enjoyed by a new individual not consciously identical with its pre- decessor.
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.
No commentary for this page.