Page Text
________________
INTRODUCTION
TO THE KETOKHILA SUTTA.
THE following translation has been made from a text, based on the Turnour and Phayre MSS. in the India Office, of which Dr. Morris was kind enough to allow me the use. The Suttas in the Magghima Nikâya are usually distinguished by the way in which a single thought or one or two allied thoughts are stated shortly at the commencement, and are then elaborated and repeated through a number of consecutive and carefully-balanced paragraphs arranged in a literary form that would now be considered monotonous and tiresome in the extreme. The repetitions in the Suttas of the Digha Nikaya are no doubt equally artificial, but the train of reasoning being longer and more varied, there is always the hope of a change in the form, or of a new departure in the thought, to sustain the reader's flagging interest.
The argument of this Sutta may be shortly stated thus. The means by which freedom from barrenness and bondage of heart can be reached are zeal and determined effort. But that zeal will be crippled in its struggle against barrenness by want of confidence in the teacher, his doctrine, his order, or his system of self-culture, and by want of concord with the brethren. And that zeal will be crippled in its struggle against bondage by sensuality, by sloth, or by a craving after a future life in any of its various forms. If the disciple be strenuously diligent in the struggle against these things he need not fear or doubt, he will never fail, but will assuredly reach even to the supreme security of Arahatship.
When I first read this Sutta I was irresistibly reminded of that passage in the New Testament where the exhortation to the disciple, 'giving all diligence' to add to his faith
Digitized by Google
.
| SR No. | 007674 |
| Book Title | Dhammapada |
| 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 |