Questions of King Milinda Part 01

SR No.: 007681
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: T W Rhys Davids
Publisher: Oxford
Publication Year: 1890
Total Pages: 2695
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 47 MB

Page 246

IV, 1, 63.
'He had burnt out all evil. There was none left.' 'But how, Sir? Did not the Tathagata get hurt in his body?'
'Yes, O king. At Râgagaha a splinter of rock pierced his foot', and once he suffered from dysentery 2, and once when the humours of his body were disturbed a purge was administered to him3, and once when he was troubled with wind the Elder who waited
on him (that is Ânanda) gave him hot water"?
'Then, Sir, if the Tathagata, on his becoming a Buddha, has destroyed all evil in himself—this other statement that his foot was pierced by a splinter, that he had dysentery, and so on, must be false. But if they are true, then he cannot have been free from evil, for there is no pain without Karma. All pain has its root in Karma, it is on account of Karma that suffering arises". This double-headed dilemma is put to you, and you have to solve it.'
"
63. No, O king. It is not all suffering that has its root in Karma. There are eight causes by which sufferings arise, by which many beings suffer pain. And what are the eight? Superabundance of wind, [135] and of bile, and of phlegm, the union of these humours, variations in temperature, the avoiding of
KARMA.
191
1 See Kullavagga VII, 3, 9.
2 See Mahâparinibbâna Sutta IV, 21. Mahâvagga VIII, 1, 30-33.
This is, no doubt, the occurrence recounted in the Mahâvagga VI, 17, 1-4. Childers translates vâtâbâdha by rheumatism,' but I adhere here to the translation adopted there. It is said in the Mahâvagga that Ânanda gave him, not hot water, but gruel. But the two are very similar, and in the Theri Gâthâ 185, referring to the same event, it is hot water that is mentioned.
That is, there can be no suffering without sin. Compare the discussion in St. John's Gospel, ch. ix.
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