Dhammapada

SR No.: 007674
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Max Muller
Publisher: Oxford
Publication Year: 1881
Total Pages: 2540
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 45 MB

Page 673

216
IF HE SHOULD DESIRE —
three, four, five, ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, a hundred or a thousand, or a hundred thousand births" ; his births in many an æon of destruction, in many an æon of renovation, in many an æon of both destruction and renovation; (so as to be able to say), “ In that place such was my name, such my family, such my caste 3, such my subsistence, such my experience of comfort or of pain, and such the limit of my life; and when I passed from thence, I took form again in that other place where my name was so and so, such my family, such my caste, such my subsistence, such my experience of comfort or of joy, and such my term of life; and when I fell from thence, I took form in such and such a place 4;"—should he desire thus to call to mind his temporary states in days gone by in all their modes and all their details let him then fulfil all righteousness, let him be devoted to that quietude of heart which springs from within, let him not drive back the ecstasy of contemplation, let him look through things, let him be much alone!'
18.5 'If a Bhikkhu should desire, Brethren, to see with pure and heavenly vision, surpassing that of
1 The Lalita Vistara (p. 442) characteristically carries this enumeration further up into innumerable koris and niyutas of births.
This is based on the Buddhist theory of the periodical destruction and renovation of the universe, each of which takes countless years to be accomplished.
s Vanna, colour.
• The text of this clause recurs nearly word for word in the Brahma-gala Sutta, pp. 17-21; and in the Lalita Vistara, Chap. XXII, p. 442; and exactly in the Sâmañña Phala Sutta, p. 148.
5 This paragraph recurs in the Sâmañña Phala Sutta, p. 150, and in nearly the same words in the Lalita Vistara, Chap. XXII.
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