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 2431

190
THE QUESTIONS OF KING MILINDA.
IV, 1,61.
61. Venerable Nâgasena, when you speak of the disappearance of the good law, what do you mean by its disappearance ?'
'There are three modes of the disappearance, O king, of a system of doctrine. And what are the three? The decline of attainment to an intellectual grasp of it, the decline of conduct in accordance with it, and the decline of its outward form!. [134] When the attainment of it ceases, then even the man who conducts himself aright in it has no clear understanding of it. By the decline of conduct the promulgation of the rules of discipline ceases, only the outward form of the religion remains. When the outward form has ceased, the succession of the tradition is cut off. These are the three forms of the disappearance of a system of doctrine.'
You have well explained, venerable Nâgasena, this dilemma so profound, and have made it plain. You have loosed the knot; you have destroyed the arguments of the adversary, broken them in pieces, proved them wrong—you, O best of the leaders of schools ! [Here ends the dilemma as to the duration of
the faith.]
(THE BUDDHA'S SINLESSNESS.] 62. Venerable Nâgasena, had the Blessed One, when he became a Buddha, burnt out all evil in himself, or was there still some evil remaining in him?'
1 Linga, possibly uniform. Either the Order or the yellow robe, for instance, if the system were Buddhism. See below, IV, 3, 2.
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