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MAHẬ-PARINIBBÂNA-SUTTA.
II
exist among the brethren, so long as they are instructed in these six conditions, so long may the brethren be expected not to decline, but to prosper.'
12. And whilst the Blessed One stayed there at Râgagaha on the Vulture's Peak he held that comprehensive religious talk with the brethren on the nature of upright conduct, and of earnest contemplation, and of intelligence. Great is the fruit, great the advantage of earnest contemplation when set round with upright conduct. Great is the fruit, great the advantage of intellect when set round with earnest contemplation. The mind set round with intelligence is freed from the great evils, that is to say, from sensuality, from individuality, from delusion, and from ignorance?'
1 This paragraph is spoken of as if it were a well-known summary, and it is constantly repeated below. The word I have rendered 'earnest contemplation' is samadhi, which occupies in the Pali Pitakas very much the same position as faith does in the New Testament; and this section shows that the relative importance of samadhi, paññâ, and sîla played a part in early Buddhism just as the distinction between faith, reason, and works did afterwards in Western theology. It would be difficult to find a passage in which the Buddhist view of the relation of these conflicting ideas is stated with greater beauty of thought, or equal succintness of form.
The expression 'set round with 'is in Pali paribhavita, which Dr. Morris holds to be etymologically exactly parallel to our phrase 'perfected by,' on the ground that facio is a causal of the Latin representative of the Sanskrit root bhû. In the Ketokhila Sutta of the Magghima Nikaya eggs are said to be paribhavitâni by a brooding hen. Buddhaghosa says simply sîla-paribhavito ti âdesu yamhi sîle thatva magga-samadhim nibbattenti so tena sîlena paribhavito. The samadhi belonging to the (Noble Eightfold) Path is said to be paribhâvito by that virtue, in which they (that is, the converted) are steadfast whilst they practice the samadhi.'
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