Fetching
One moment.
Fetching
One moment.
Romanised transliteration as printed by the translator, not the original script. This is what we hold.
1For it was said, O king, by Mogha- ra^a, the Elder : 1 Uttariw visesaw udhiga/£/£^issami. Hina/i-kumbure, p. 614, renders this, 'shall I arrive at the advantage of the attain- ment of the fruits of the path/ And he may be right, as the word uttariw is used. But the context seems to imply the rendering I have ventured to give, which preserves the usual connotation in this connection of the other two words of the phrase. A Bhikshu, for instance, on seeing a faded flower, will try to realise, to conjure up before his mind, the real fact of the transitoriness of all earthly (and of all heavenly) things. That is the specific idea of which he is in search, the deer he has to catch. No doubt it is only an intermediate step to the realisation of the fruits of the path. But as visesaw adhigai/£^ati is the technical term for success in such meditation, I cannot but think that the mind of our author was directed to the intermediate, rather than to the later stage of the Bhikshu's endeavour. The Sinhalese has, perhaps, been guided by the verse, but there the word visesazrc is omitted. 360 THE QUESTIONS AND PUZZLES VII, 6, 24. " The recluse who, with mind on Nirvana bent, Has acquired an object his thoughts to guide, Should be filled with exceeding joy at the hope : ' By this my uttermost aim shall I gain V " ' 59. The Fisherman. 24. ' Venerable Nagasena, those two qualities of the fisherman you say he ought to take, which are they ? ' 'Just, O king, as the fisherman draws up the fish on his hook ; just so, O king, should the strenuous Bhikshu, earnest in effort, draw up by his knowledge, and that to the uttermost, the fruits of Sama/zaship. This, O king, is the first quality of the fisherman he ought to have. 25. 'And again, O king, just as the fisherman by the sacrifice of a very little comes to great gain 2 ; just so, O king, [413] should the strenuous Bhikshu, earnest in effort, renounce the mean baits of worldly things ; then by that renunciation will he gain the mighty fruits of Sama^aship. This, O king, is the second quality of the fisherman he ought to have. For it was said, O king, by Rahula, the Elder : " Renouncing the baits of the world he shall gain The state that is void of lust, anger, and sin, — Those conditions of sentient life — and be free, Free from the cravings that mortals feel, And the fruits of the stages of th' Excellent Way And the six modes of Insight shall all be his 3." ' 1 Not traced as yet. There are stanzas of Mogha-ra^-a's both in the Sutta Nipata and the Thera Gatha, but this is not one of them. 2 By putting a small fish on his hook catches a big one. 3 Not traced as yet. VII, 6, 27. OF MILINDA THE KING. 36 1 60. The Carpenter. 26. ' Venerable Nagasena, those two qualities of the carpenter he ought to take, which are they ? '
22 By putting a small fish on his hook catches a big one. 3 Not traced as yet. VII, 6, 27. OF MILINDA THE KING. 36 1 60. The Carpenter. 26. ' Venerable Nagasena, those two qualities of the carpenter he ought to take, which are they ? ' ' Just, O king, as the carpenter saws off the wood along the line of the blackened string (he has put round it to guide him) 1 ; just so, O king, should the strenuous Bhikshu, earnest in effort, standing on righteousness as a basis, and holding in the hand of faith the saw of knowledge, cut off his evil disposi- tions according to the doctrine laid down by the Conquerors. This, O king, is the first quality of the carpenter he ought to have. 27. 'And again, O king, just as the carpenter, discarding the soft parts of the wood 2, takes the hard parts ; just so, O king, should the strenuous Bhikshu, earnest in effort, forsaking the path of the discussion of useless theses, to wit : — the everlasting life theory — the let-us-eat-and-drink-for-tomorrow- we-die theory3 — the theory that the soul and the body are one and the same — that the soul is one thing, the body another — that all teachings are alike 1 Ka/a-suttaw. See Dr. Morris's note in the 'Journal of the Pali Text Society/ 1884, pp. 76-78, where he compares Maha Vastu, p. 17, and other passages. 2 Vheggum. See above, p. 267 (of the Pali), and Maggvfcima Nikaya I, 198, 434, 488, from which it is clear that pheggu is a technical term applied to the softer portions of every tree, no doubt the outside portions. Sara, on the other hand, means not pith, but heart of a tree. The Sinhalese words are sambulu and ara/uwa. Compare the ebony tree, the outside of which is as soft and white as deal, whereas the inside is black and hard. 8 Sassata/rc and \Jkkheda.m. See * Buddhist Sutras,' p. 149. Hina/i-kumbur6, p. 615, omits these two, and is very confused in his version of the others. 362 THE QUESTIONS AND PUZZLES VII, 6, 27. excellent1 — that what is not done is of no avail — that mens actions are of no importance — that holi- ness of life does not matter — that on the destruction of beings nine new sorts of beings appear — that the constituent elements of being are eternal 2 — that he who commits an act experiences the result thereof — that one acts and another experiences the result of this action — and other such theories of Karma or wrong views on the result of actions — forsaking, I say, all such theses, paths which lead to heresy, he should learn what is the real nature of those constituent elements of which each individuality is, for the short term of its individuality, put together, and so reach forward to that state which is void of lusts, of malice, and of dullness, in which the excite- ments of individuality are known no more, and which is therefore designated the Void Supreme 3. 1 Tad uttama/ft a##ad uttamaw. The Sinhalese omits the second uttamazfl. 2 The Sinhalese takes all the four previous phrases as qualifying this last one.
31 Tad uttama/ft a##ad uttamaw. The Sinhalese omits the second uttamazfl. 2 The Sinhalese takes all the four previous phrases as qualifying this last one. 3 This passage will be found of the greatest importance for the history of the development of early Buddhist belief. In the present state of our knowledge — or rather of our ignorance — of that subject, its obscure allusions are no doubt unintelligible. But they will not always remain so. And, when rightly understood, they will be expressly valuable inasmuch as they refer to that department of Buddhist belief of which we know, from other sources, the least. The development — or degeneration, if the expression be preferred — of Buddhist doctrine took place along three principal lines. Firstly, in the doctrine as to the person of the Buddha; secondly, in the pushing of Arahatship into the background and the elevation, in its place, of Bodisatship into the ideal ; and thirdly, in the doctrine of the relation of man to the universe. We know a good deal of the growth of the legend of the Buddha, and of the change in the ethical standpoint. Of the evolution of the philosophic conceptions we know at present but little. It is on this last point that our author here lets us somewhat behind the scenes. The theses he VII, 6, 27. OF MILINDA THE KING. 363 This, O king, is the second quality of the carpenter he ought to have. For it was said, O king, by the Blessed One, the god over all gods, in the Sutta Nipata : " Get rid of filth * ! Put aside rubbish from you ! Winnow away the chaff2, the men who hold Those who are not so, as true Samaras ! Get rid of those who harbour evil thoughts, Who follow after evil modes of life ! Thoughtful yourselves, and pure, with those resort, With those associate, who are pure themselves 3 ! " ' Here ends the Sixth Chapter. condemns are to some extent the same as those the discussion of which is condemned in the well-known passages in the Pi/akas, where similar lists occur. In other respects they are evidence of a different and later stage of thought than appears in those parts of the Pi/akas at present accessible. And on the positive side, in the closing words, though the author has evidently enough the old Arahatship in view, yet he chooses expressions which became the germ of the much later nihilism of the Madhyamika school, which has had so much influence in the more corrupt Buddhisms, more especially in China. As these later views never penetrated into Ceylon (or at least never had any vogue there, and were for- gotten when Hina/i-kumbur6 wrote), it is not surprising that the Sinhalese scholar should be at fault in his interpretation of this difficult passage. Sanskrit Buddhist texts will be here the best commentary. 1 Karafl^ava/rc. In Childers, ' a sort of duck/ in the Sinhalese, ' excrement/
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.
1For it was said, O king, by Mogha- ra^a, the Elder : 1 Uttariw visesaw udhiga/£/£^issami. Hina/i-kumbure, p. 614, renders this, 'shall I arrive at the advantage of the attain- ment of the fruits of the path/ And he may be right, as the word uttariw is used. But the context seems to imply the rendering I have ventured to give, which preserves the usual connotation in this connection of the other two words of the phrase. A Bhikshu, for instance, on seeing a faded flower, will try to realise, to conjure up before his mind, the real fact of the transitoriness of all earthly (and of all heavenly) things. That is the specific idea of which he is in search, the deer he has to catch. No doubt it is only an intermediate step to the realisation of the fruits of the path. But as visesaw adhigai/£^ati is the technical term for success in such meditation, I cannot but think that the mind of our author was directed to the intermediate, rather than to the later stage of the Bhikshu's endeavour. The Sinhalese has, perhaps, been guided by the verse, but there the word visesazrc is omitted. 360 THE QUESTIONS AND PUZZLES VII, 6, 24. " The recluse who, with mind on Nirvana bent, Has acquired an object his thoughts to guide, Should be filled with exceeding joy at the hope : ' By this my uttermost aim shall I gain V " ' 59. The Fisherman. 24. ' Venerable Nagasena, those two qualities of the fisherman you say he ought to take, which are they ? ' 'Just, O king, as the fisherman draws up the fish on his hook ; just so, O king, should the strenuous Bhikshu, earnest in effort, draw up by his knowledge, and that to the uttermost, the fruits of Sama/zaship. This, O king, is the first quality of the fisherman he ought to have. 25. 'And again, O king, just as the fisherman by the sacrifice of a very little comes to great gain 2 ; just so, O king, [413] should the strenuous Bhikshu, earnest in effort, renounce the mean baits of worldly things ; then by that renunciation will he gain the mighty fruits of Sama^aship. This, O king, is the second quality of the fisherman he ought to have. For it was said, O king, by Rahula, the Elder : " Renouncing the baits of the world he shall gain The state that is void of lust, anger, and sin, — Those conditions of sentient life — and be free, Free from the cravings that mortals feel, And the fruits of the stages of th' Excellent Way And the six modes of Insight shall all be his 3." ' 1 Not traced as yet. There are stanzas of Mogha-ra^-a's both in the Sutta Nipata and the Thera Gatha, but this is not one of them. 2 By putting a small fish on his hook catches a big one. 3 Not traced as yet. VII, 6, 27. OF MILINDA THE KING. 36 1 60. The Carpenter. 26. ' Venerable Nagasena, those two qualities of the carpenter he ought to take, which are they ? '
22 By putting a small fish on his hook catches a big one. 3 Not traced as yet. VII, 6, 27. OF MILINDA THE KING. 36 1 60. The Carpenter. 26. ' Venerable Nagasena, those two qualities of the carpenter he ought to take, which are they ? ' ' Just, O king, as the carpenter saws off the wood along the line of the blackened string (he has put round it to guide him) 1 ; just so, O king, should the strenuous Bhikshu, earnest in effort, standing on righteousness as a basis, and holding in the hand of faith the saw of knowledge, cut off his evil disposi- tions according to the doctrine laid down by the Conquerors. This, O king, is the first quality of the carpenter he ought to have. 27. 'And again, O king, just as the carpenter, discarding the soft parts of the wood 2, takes the hard parts ; just so, O king, should the strenuous Bhikshu, earnest in effort, forsaking the path of the discussion of useless theses, to wit : — the everlasting life theory — the let-us-eat-and-drink-for-tomorrow- we-die theory3 — the theory that the soul and the body are one and the same — that the soul is one thing, the body another — that all teachings are alike 1 Ka/a-suttaw. See Dr. Morris's note in the 'Journal of the Pali Text Society/ 1884, pp. 76-78, where he compares Maha Vastu, p. 17, and other passages. 2 Vheggum. See above, p. 267 (of the Pali), and Maggvfcima Nikaya I, 198, 434, 488, from which it is clear that pheggu is a technical term applied to the softer portions of every tree, no doubt the outside portions. Sara, on the other hand, means not pith, but heart of a tree. The Sinhalese words are sambulu and ara/uwa. Compare the ebony tree, the outside of which is as soft and white as deal, whereas the inside is black and hard. 8 Sassata/rc and \Jkkheda.m. See * Buddhist Sutras,' p. 149. Hina/i-kumbur6, p. 615, omits these two, and is very confused in his version of the others. 362 THE QUESTIONS AND PUZZLES VII, 6, 27. excellent1 — that what is not done is of no avail — that mens actions are of no importance — that holi- ness of life does not matter — that on the destruction of beings nine new sorts of beings appear — that the constituent elements of being are eternal 2 — that he who commits an act experiences the result thereof — that one acts and another experiences the result of this action — and other such theories of Karma or wrong views on the result of actions — forsaking, I say, all such theses, paths which lead to heresy, he should learn what is the real nature of those constituent elements of which each individuality is, for the short term of its individuality, put together, and so reach forward to that state which is void of lusts, of malice, and of dullness, in which the excite- ments of individuality are known no more, and which is therefore designated the Void Supreme 3. 1 Tad uttama/ft a##ad uttamaw. The Sinhalese omits the second uttamazfl. 2 The Sinhalese takes all the four previous phrases as qualifying this last one.
31 Tad uttama/ft a##ad uttamaw. The Sinhalese omits the second uttamazfl. 2 The Sinhalese takes all the four previous phrases as qualifying this last one. 3 This passage will be found of the greatest importance for the history of the development of early Buddhist belief. In the present state of our knowledge — or rather of our ignorance — of that subject, its obscure allusions are no doubt unintelligible. But they will not always remain so. And, when rightly understood, they will be expressly valuable inasmuch as they refer to that department of Buddhist belief of which we know, from other sources, the least. The development — or degeneration, if the expression be preferred — of Buddhist doctrine took place along three principal lines. Firstly, in the doctrine as to the person of the Buddha; secondly, in the pushing of Arahatship into the background and the elevation, in its place, of Bodisatship into the ideal ; and thirdly, in the doctrine of the relation of man to the universe. We know a good deal of the growth of the legend of the Buddha, and of the change in the ethical standpoint. Of the evolution of the philosophic conceptions we know at present but little. It is on this last point that our author here lets us somewhat behind the scenes. The theses he VII, 6, 27. OF MILINDA THE KING. 363 This, O king, is the second quality of the carpenter he ought to have. For it was said, O king, by the Blessed One, the god over all gods, in the Sutta Nipata : " Get rid of filth * ! Put aside rubbish from you ! Winnow away the chaff2, the men who hold Those who are not so, as true Samaras ! Get rid of those who harbour evil thoughts, Who follow after evil modes of life ! Thoughtful yourselves, and pure, with those resort, With those associate, who are pure themselves 3 ! " ' Here ends the Sixth Chapter. condemns are to some extent the same as those the discussion of which is condemned in the well-known passages in the Pi/akas, where similar lists occur. In other respects they are evidence of a different and later stage of thought than appears in those parts of the Pi/akas at present accessible. And on the positive side, in the closing words, though the author has evidently enough the old Arahatship in view, yet he chooses expressions which became the germ of the much later nihilism of the Madhyamika school, which has had so much influence in the more corrupt Buddhisms, more especially in China. As these later views never penetrated into Ceylon (or at least never had any vogue there, and were for- gotten when Hina/i-kumbur6 wrote), it is not surprising that the Sinhalese scholar should be at fault in his interpretation of this difficult passage. Sanskrit Buddhist texts will be here the best commentary. 1 Karafl^ava/rc. In Childers, ' a sort of duck/ in the Sinhalese, ' excrement/
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.
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