17. ' And further, O Bhikkhus, when a brother
tfETOKHILA SUTTA.
does not doubt in the Brotherhood (Sangha), is not
uncertain about it, has confidence in it, and has faith
in it; then his mind does incline to zeal, exertion,
perseverance, and struggle.
' But whosesoever mind inclineth towards zeal,
exertion, perseverance, and struggle, he has become
free from this third spiritual barrenness.
18. 'And further, O Bhikkhus, when a brother
does not doubt in the System of Self-culture (Sik-
khi), is not uncertain about it, has confidence in it,
and has faith in it; then his mind does incline to
zeal, exertion, perseverance, and struggle.
' But whosesoever mind inclineth towards zeal,
exertion, perseverance, and struggle, he has become
free from this fourth spiritual barrenness.
19. 'And further, O Bhikkhus, when a brother
is not angry with his fellow-disciples, is not discon-
tented with them, is not excited against them, is not
barren towards them, the mind of the brother, O
Bhikkhus, who is thus not angry with his fellow-
disciples, not discontented with them, not excited
against them, not barren towards them, does incline
toward zeal, exertion, perseverance, and struggle.
' But whosesoever mind inclineth towards zeal,
exertion, perseverance, and struggle, he has become
free from this fifth spiritual barrenness/
20. ' And who has broken through the five kinds of spiritual bondage?'
' In the first place, O Bhikkhus, when a brother
has got rid of the passion after lusts (kime), has
got rid of the desire after lusts, has got rid of
the attraction to lusts, has got rid of the thirst for
23O BARRENNESS AND BONDAGE.
lusts, has got rid of the fever of lust, has got rid o^K the craving after lusts. —
* Whatsoever brother, O Bhikkhus, has got ridH
of the passion after lusts, has got rid of the desire=
after lusts, has got rid of the attraction to lusts, has—
got rid of the thirst for lusts, has got rid of the
fever of lust, has got rid of the craving after lusts,
his mind does incline to zeal, exertion, perseverance,
and struggle.
' But whosesoever mind inclineth towards zeal,
exertion, perseverance, and struggle, he has become
free from this first spiritual bondage.
21. 'And further, O Bhikkhus, when a brother
has got rid of the passion after a body (k&ye), has
got rid of the desire after a body, has got rid of the
attraction to a body, has got rid of the thirst for a
body, has got rid of the fever of a body, has got rid
of the craving after a body. —
'Whatsoever brother, O Bhikkhus, has got rid
of the passion after a body, has got rid of the desire
after a body, has got rid of the attraction to a body,
has got rid of the thirst for a body, has got rid of
the fever of a body, has got rid of the craving after
a body, his mind does incline to zeal, exertion, per-
severance, and struggle.
' But whosesoever mind inclineth towards zeal,
exertion, perseverance, and struggle, he has become
free from this second spiritual bondage.
22. 'And further, O Bhikkhus, when a brother
has got rid of the passion for a form (rtipe), has
got rid of the desire after a form, has got rid of the
attraction to a form, has got rid of the thirst for a
form, has got rid of the fever of a form, has got
rid of the craving after a form. —
tfETOKHILA SUTTA.
* Whatsoever brother, O Bhikkhus, has got rid
of the passion for a form, has got rid of the desire
after a form, has got rid of the attraction to a form,
has got rid of the thirst for a form, has got rid
of the fever of a form, has got rid of the craving
after a form, his mind does incline to zeal, exertion,
perseverance, and struggle.
' But whosesoever mind inclineth towards zeal,
exertion, perseverance, and struggle, he has become
free from this third spiritual bondage.
23. 'And further, O Bhikkhus, when a brother
does not, having eaten enough and to satiety, begin
to follow after the ease of sleep, the ease of softness,
the ease of sloth.
'Whatsoever brother, O Bhikkhus, does not,
having eaten enough and to satiety, begin to follow
after the ease of sleep, the ease of softness, the ease
of sloth, his mind does incline to zeal, exertion,
perseverance, and struggle.
' But whosesoever mind inclineth towards zeal,
exertion, perseverance, and struggle, he has become
free from this fourth spiritual bondage *.
24. 'And further, O Bhikkhus, when a brother
has not adopted the religious life in the aspiration
of belonging to some one or other of the angel
hosts, thinking to himself : " By this morality, or
by this observance, or by this austerity, or by this
religious life, I shall become an angel, or one of the
angels ! " —
'Whatsoever brother, O Bhikkhus, has not
1 In this section, and in section n, I have rendered sukha by ease, and not by happiness, as I think the former is always its more exact meaning in such passages.
adopted the religious life in the aspiration of be-
longing to some one or other of the angel hosts,
thinking to himself : " By this morality, or by this
observance, or by this austerity, or by this religious
life, I shall become an angel, or one of the angels ! "
his mind does incline to zeal, exertion, perseverance,
and struggle.
' But whosesoever mind inclineth towards zeal,
exertion, perseverance, and struggle, he has become
free from this fifth spiritual bondage.
' It is such a one, O Bhikkhus, who has broken through the five kinds of spiritual bondage.
25. 4 Whatsoever brother, O Bhikkhus, has be-
come quite free from the five kinds of mental
barrenness, has altogether broken through the five
kinds of spiritual bondage — that such a one should
reach up to the full advantage of, should attain to
full growth in, to full breadth in, this doctrine and
discipline — that can well be !
26. 'He practises the (first) road to saintship 1 ,
which is accompanied by the union of the will to
acquire it with earnest contemplation, and with the
struggle against sin. He practises the (second) road
to saintship, which is accompanied by the union
of exertion with earnest contemplation, and with
the struggle against sin. He practises the (third)
road to saintship, which is accompanied by the
union of thought with earnest contemplation, and
with the struggle against sin. He practises the
(fourth) road to saintship, which is accompanied
by the union of investigation with earnest con-
1 lddhip£daw. Here Iddhi must be (spiritual) welfare.
JSTETOKHILA SUTTA.
templation and the struggle against sin 1 , — and strong determination too as a fifth.
27. 'The brother, O Bhikkhus, thus endowed
with fifteenfold determination 2 becomes destined
to come forth into the light, capable of the higher
wisdom, sure of attaining to the supreme security 3 .
28. 'Just, O Bhikkhus, as when a hen has
eight or ten or twelve eggs, and the hen has pro-
perly brooded over them, properly sat upon them,
properly sat herself round them, however much such
a wish may arise on her heart as this, " O would
that my little chickens should break open the egg-
shell with the points of their claws, or with their
beaks, and come forth into the light in safety ! " yet
all the while those little chickens are sure to break the
egg-shell with the points of their claws, or with their
beaks, and to come forth into the light in safety.
29. 'Just even so, a brother thus endowed with
fifteenfold determination is sure to come forth into
the light, sure to reach up to the higher wisdom,
sure to attain to the supreme security 4 ! '
1 The text of this section, so far, will be found in Childers's dictionary, sub voce Iddhip&do.
2 That is, the four Iddhipadas, and Usso/^i, each multiplied by three.
3 Anuttarassa Yogakkhemassa ; that is, Nirvawa. Com- pare Dhammapada, ver. 23 and p. 180.
4 The tertium quid of the parable is the absolute certainty of the event which will follow on the hen having duly and diligently followed the law of her instinct, even though she, meanwhile, in her ignorance, be full of doubt and desire. The certainty of the delivery of a woman with child is not unfrequently used as a symbol of what can be absolutely depended upon. So of 'the word of the glorious Buddhas/ which endureth for ever, in ' Bud- dhist Birth Stories/ p. 18. I have attempted to imitate the play in the text upon the two words for the c coming forth into the light/
234 BARRENNESS AND BONDAGE.
30. Thus spake the Blessed One. And those
Brethren, delighted in heart, exalted the word of
the Blessed One.
End of the Sutta, the sixth, on barrenness and bondage.
figuratively and literally, of the disciple and of the little chicken. The first is in Pali bhabbo abhinibbidaya (from vid), the latter is aho vata . . . sotthini abhinibbhi^eyyan (from bhid). On sammi-paribhavitdni, here applied to the a»</ani, see above, Mahdparinibbana Sutta, Chap. I, § 12, note.
Maha-Sudassana-
SUTTA.
MAHA-SUDASSANA sutta.
The following translation is made from a text based on
three MSS. from the same sources as those referred to at
the commencement of the Tevi^gga Sutta, and referred to in
my notes by the same letters.
This Sutta follows in the Digha NikAya immediately
after the Book of the Great Decease, and is based on the
same legend as the Mahd-Sudassana 6&taka, No. 95 in
Mr. Fausboll's edition. As the latter differs in several
important particulars from our Sutta, it is probably not
taken directly from it, but is merely derived from the
same source. To facilitate comparison between the two
I add here a translation of the (7£taka, which has not been
reached as yet in my * Buddhist Birth Stories/ and which
is very short.
The part enclosed in brackets [ ] is the comment, which was probably written in Ceylon in the fifth century of our era, and I have included that part of the comment which is explanatory of the words in the verse, as it is of more than usual interest. There is every reason to believe, for the reasons given in the Introduction to the * Buddhist Birth Stories,' that the stories themselves belong to a very early period in the history of Buddhism ; and we may be sure that if this particular story had been abstracted by the author of the commentary from our Sutta, he would not have ventured to introduce such serious changes into what he regarded as sacred writ.
MAHA-SUDASSANA GATAKA.
['How transient are all component things/
This the Master told when lying on his death-couch, con-
cerning that word of Ananda the Thera, when he said, ' Do
not, O Blessed One, die in this little town/ and so on.
When the Tathdgata was at the <7etavana 1 he thought ' the Thera Sdriputta, who was born at NAlagima, has died, on the day of the full moon in the month of Kattika, in that very village 2 ; and Mahd Moggall&na in the latter, the dark half of that same month. As my two chief disciples are thus dead, I too will pass away at Kusin&rA/ There- upon he proceeded straight on to that place, and lay down on the Uttara-sisaka couch, between the twin SAla trees, never to rise again.
Then the venerable Ananda besought him, saying, * Let
1 It is not easy with cur present materials to reconcile the apparently con- flicting statements with regard to the Buddha's last journey. According to the Malalankara-vatthu this refers here to a residence at the Gfetavana, which took place between the end of § 30 in Chap. II, in the Book of the Great Decease, and the beginning of § 31. It will be noticed that § 31 speaks of * the monastery/ which is apparently an undesigned confirmation of this tra- dition. (Such undesigned circumstances, however really undesigned, are very far, of course, from proving the actual truth of the tradition. They would only show that it was older than the time when the works in which they occur were put into their present shape.)
Mr. Fausboll, by his punctuation, includes these words in the following thought ascribed to the Blessed One, but I think they only describe the time at which the thought is supposed to have arisen.