Zend Avesta Part 03

SR No.: 007673
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: L H Mills
Publisher: Oxford
Publication Year: 1887
Total Pages: 2618
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 49 MB

Page 2293

52
THE QUESTIONS OF KING MILINDA.
II, 1, 9.
Good conduct, great king, and faith, and perseverance, and mindfulness, and meditation
And what is the characteristic mark of good conduct?'
'It has as its characteristic that it is the basis of all good qualities. The five moral powers faith, perseverance, mindfulness, meditation, and wisdom-; the seven conditions of Arahatship-self-possession, investigation of the Dhamma, perseverance, joy, calm, meditation, and equanimity—; the Path ; readiness of memory (unbroken self-possession) *; the four kinds of right exertion”; the four constituent bases of extraordinary powers 8; the four stages of ecstasy?; the eight forms of spiritual emancipation 8 ; the four modes of self-concentration o; and the eight states of intense contemplation 10 have each and all of them good conduct (the observance of outward morality) as their basis. And to him who builds upon that foundation, O king, all these good conditions will not decrease 11. "Give me an illustration.'
Just, О king, as all those forms of animal and vegetable life which grow, develope, and mature, do so with the earth as their basis ; just so does the recluse, who is devoted in effort, develope in himself the five moral powers, and so on, by means of virtue, on the basis of virtue.'
"Give me a further illustration.'
1 Sîlam, saddhâ, viriyam, sati, samadhi. 3 Indriya- balani. * Bogghang.. • Satipatthana. : Sammappadhâna. Iddhipâda. Ghana. 8 Vimokha. Samadhi.
10 Samâ patti. 11 The above-mentioned meritorious conditions are those the sum of which make Arahatship.
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